‘There’s no sign of the unique symptoms of the poison user.’
Tang Geoh was looking at Lady Tang, who was staring back at him with confidence.
Even a body developed over ten years to withstand extreme poison would find it hard to cope with the poison of the thousand-year centipedes.
All test subjects that reached Lady Tang’s level experienced side effects. But this time, no matter how he looked, there were no signs of side effects.
‘She’s completely controlling the poison.’
There were no visible signs of fever from her body. Her skin wasn’t being crushed by the poison either. It was evidence that she had created a poisonous substance in her body and was controlling it perfectly.
‘It can’t be a failure. A more perfect poison user has been created than I expected.’
Tang Geoh was engulfed in ecstasy.
He might have called it a failure to provoke his temper. Lady Tang held animosity toward them, but he couldn’t let a battle break out like this.
He needed to take the perfect poison user in a perfect state. Neither he nor the group aiding him wanted any more damage.
“Come with me.”
Tang Geoh said to Lady Tang once again, in a gentle voice.
“Aren’t you tired of saying the same thing over and over?”
Lady Tang replied in an irritating voice.
“I traveled back and forth from Hubei Province to Sichuan Province just to see you. What’s so tiring about saying a few words?”
“Such audacity. Yes, I used to come here often since I was little. Do you remember what you said back then?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Was it nostalgia that connected them from childhood? Tang Geoh asked her with a questioning expression.
“That you shouldn’t associate with or trust the Demonic Cult.”
Contrary to his expectations, nostalgia didn’t resonate. Lady Tang looked at Tang Geoh, her expression one of disgust.
“That’s just a cooperative relationship.”
“Bullsh*t. I seem to recall that traitors are worse.”
“What’s important about that? The important thing is that when the sect appears in the world, the Tang Family of Sichuan will become the strongest family! And when that day comes, I will become the head of the strongest family in the world.”
Tang Geoh, realizing that his tricks weren’t working, revealed his true colors.
“Shut up. Dreaming is for bedtime.”
“When that day comes, I’ll give you all the riches and glory. What do you need? Money? Power? I’ll give you everything. You will be the second-in-command of the strongest family in the world.”
“I don’t need it.”
Lady Tang rejected him without a hint of hesitation, as if she had no interest in such things.
“Haha. Right. Now that I think about it, you wanted something different. Do you need friends? The children of the clan will come to you, wanting to look good. Do you want a man? With just a gesture from you, I can make any man join you in your chambers.”
“I don’t need any of that.”
“Every human has desires. Just tell me what you want. I’ll give you whatever it is!”
“What I want is something you can’t give.”
Lady Tang shook her head slowly, laughing at the angry Tang Geoh.
“What?”
No matter what he offered, it wouldn’t reach her heart. Because what Lady Tang wanted was something Tang Geoh could never give.
Feeling the energy radiating from the poisonous substance in her body, she spoke to Tang Geoh.
“There’s only one person who can give me what I want.”
Because what she needed was only one person.
There were no words left to share with an enemy.
Lady Tang began to manipulate her internal energy and poison.
If she had been Yoon Ho, she would have brought tears to allies with just a few words, or at the very least, taken her opponent’s soul, but she didn’t know how to do such things.
She glanced at a black-clad man who was relaxed from a distance and took off.
“What’s going on?”
In the blink of an eye, Lady Tang arrived in front of him as he blinked his eyelids.
Thunder Chase Technique.
Poison functions best when delivered at close range and from a distance. A technique developed to support the greatest principle of Sichuan Tang Family’s martial arts.
As the name implies, chasing lightning, this technique spread from Lady Tang’s feet—one of the fastest in the martial arts world.
“Cough!”
When Lady Tang grabbed the relaxed black-clad man’s wrist and infused him with poison, he screamed as he gave up his life.
“You b*tch!”
Another black-clad man rushed in and swung his sword, but the blade couldn’t catch the woman chasing lightning.
“Why call me?”
“Gaaah!”
A failed opportunity was fated to meet the same end as the previous one.
‘I can do this.’
Though she knew the technique, she hadn’t been able to use Thunder Chase due to heavy energy consumption. However, as she absorbed the poison, her power increased, allowing her to use it effortlessly.
As long as she could poison them, she didn’t need an extraordinary martial art. Just continuing to approach and retreat would be enough to deal with all of them.
“Get out!”
“Uwaaaah!”
“Run away!”
Lady Tang easily dispatched the black-clad men one by one with the Thunder Chase Technique.
——————-
“You wretched girl!”
Tang Geoh used the Thunder Chase Technique in return. As the casualties piled up, he threw himself at Lady Tang, preparing his special technique.
Lady Tang held onto Tang Geoh’s wrist and infused him with poison, but it didn’t affect him.
As expected. The Poison Dragon Hold was a martial art executed with hands steeped in various poisons. Even grazing him would turn into a handful of poisonous water.
Even if she couldn’t poison him, she could suppress a poison user if it was her own martial art.
Tang Geoh miscalculated.
“No way?”
Lady Tang once again grabbed Tang Geoh’s wrist, but this time she controlled the poison in Tang Geoh’s hand, directing it toward his heart.
“You b*tch! How dare you manipulate someone else’s poison!”
To manipulate the poison within his body was like redirecting an arrow with sheer willpower, an incredible skill. Who knew a poison user could do something like this?
Tang Geoh, startled, tried to distance himself.
“Where do you think you’re running off to?”
Lady Tang released ominous energy from her hand to catch Tang Geoh, who was attempting to escape.
“A gust of wind?”
He couldn’t dodge it. But it wasn’t too powerful. It was a force capable of cutting through. Tang Geoh, in a moment of crisis, hurriedly swung his other arm.
“Sh*t. It’s not just a gust of wind, it’s Poison Control.”
“Gaaah!”
As Tang Geoh’s arm was sliced by the Poison Control, Lady Tang seized the opportunity and pursued him.
But one of the black-clad men stepped forward with a sword imbued with immense power, blocking Lady Tang’s path.
“Stand back! You still have work for the Sect!”
“Oh, I see.”
“Tch!”
Lady Tang could only watch helplessly as Tang Geoh, with his burned arm, stumbled backward in a horrid manner.
———————
In a life-or-death game of hide and seek, the first to tire out is usually the seeker.
“How vicious you are!”
“Yeah, my poison is pretty vicious.”
Lady Tang breathed heavily, watching the encroaching black-clad men.
‘They’re starting to adapt.’
With the Thunder Chase Technique, she closed in, using the Golden Harrow technique to inject her poison. If she failed, she’d unleash Poison Control. Just grazing them would deal a lethal blow, but too many here were confident they wouldn’t be grazed.
At first, many of them suffered injuries, but they soon found ways to counter her techniques.
“Slowly close the distance. If one rushes in, another will target from behind!”
Once the black-clad men realized that Lady Tang was getting tired, they began to narrow their encirclement.
‘I need some time to catch my breath.’
Lady Tang glanced at Kang Yoon-ho, laying far off.
Was he waiting for an opportunity, or had he lost consciousness due to severe bleeding? Or was there an injury she hadn’t noticed?
No matter what situation he was in, if she fell here, she could not protect him.
Lady Tang looked at the encroaching black-clad men once again. If things continued like this, she would be at their mercy. Unfortunately, no sharp answers came to mind.
What would Yoon Ho have done in such a situation?
Yoon Ho would always find a way out. If it were Yoon Ho, would he have found a new escape even now?
Lady Tang scoffed at herself for thinking so.
Yoon Ho wasn’t even from the Tang Family. There was no way he would find a solution. Relying too much on him was a bad habit. After all, he couldn’t teach her the Tang Family’s martial arts, could he?
‘But what if it’s the Tang Family martial arts Yoon Ho taught me?’
Suddenly, a conversation from one day in the attic flashed through Lady Tang’s mind.
“What? You’re not even from the Tang Family, how can you express Sichuan Tang Family’s martial arts well?”
“I’ve been observing the Tang Family martial arts for a long time. I understand the essence of Tang Family’s martial arts. If I know that, I can use their martial arts.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think of a general martial art. You learn the simplest stop attack first. Learning the point of martial arts.”
“A point?”
“Yeah. The point, the line, the surface. And gradually as your skills grow, it becomes possible to use cutting techniques. You learn to master the lines.”
“Once you become familiar with knife techniques, the act of wielding the knife itself becomes yours. You learn how to dominate the surface. It’s the typical progression for general martial arts. But Sichuan Tang Family is different.”
“Different?”
“Starting from poison techniques all the way to a thousand flower swirling. The essence of Sichuan Tang Family’s martial arts aims to dominate space itself from the very beginning. It operates on a different level.”
“Thinking about it, that makes some sense.”
“If you grasp the essence of the Sichuan Tang Family martial arts, then whenever and wherever, you can utilize their martial arts.”
A man’s words pierced through Lady Tang’s spine.
The answer lay with Yoon Ho, after all.
Right. There was no need to learn new martial arts to suppress them.
The essence of Sichuan Tang Family exists within her, so why look for martial arts elsewhere?
As Lady Tang closed her eyes, an unusual powder began to emanate from her body.
“What the hell is this?”
“Poison, it’s poison! It’s Poison Dust! Inhale it, and you’ll be poisoned! Run away!”
A pitiful caterpillar.
Weak, suffering, and unloved by anyone.
Perhaps, it was its destiny to be trampled to death.
But a man approached that caterpillar, who had known no love.
With his words, his writing, his care, he nurtured that small creature that could have easily been overlooked.
With the attention of one man, the caterpillar endured years of trial and finally emerged from its cocoon.
“Unleash the wind blade! Clear away the poison dust!”
Despite the efforts of the black-clad men, the poison powder gathered around her once more, as if it had a will of its own.
“Step aside! You! What have you done?!”
One butterfly finally spread its beautiful wings.
She opened her eyes and gazed at the wings she had unfurled.
They were not made solely by her own power.
They were birthed from the martial arts created together by him and her.
A name both a little embarrassing and proud.
Poison Butterfly, Lady Tang introduced the name of the martial art before them.
“Come on in. Welcome to my Poison Kill Space.”
