Chapter 93: Using Poison to Control Poison. -04
Step. Step.
Tang Woo-hyeok, who had replied curtly, walked over to the man lying side by side with his youngest son.
Oh Jung-geon had told him about it, but he could not make a judgment based on that alone.
Since his decision concerned the future of the entire Sichuan Tang Family, caution was necessary.
“It’s the poison arts of the Nine Heavens Gate. They must have deliberately sent someone without identifying marks.”
Because Ban Hojin had already stripped the man’s clothes, there was nothing Tang Woo-hyeok needed to do in that regard.
Instead, he smelled him and felt various parts of his body.
He also checked the personal items the man had been carrying.
True to his reputation as the Poison King, Tang Woo-hyeok opened the lids of the bottles without hesitation and examined their contents.
“The poisons he’s carrying are also made from toxic substances originating in Miaojiang.”
“If the Family Head judges it so, then it must be certain.”
“Didn’t the Junior Beggar also seem convinced?”
“When it comes to poison arts, I’m a complete layman, aren’t I? Haha.”
Oh Jung-geon said this with an awkward laugh in response to the suffocating pressure radiating from Tang Woo-hyeok.
He was trying, even a little, to lighten the mood.
However, despite his efforts, Tang Woo-hyeok’s expression showed no sign of easing.
“Young Master Ban.”
“Yes.”
“How much did you hear?”
“I heard everything.”
“So it was as expected.”
At Ban Hojin’s reply, given without the slightest hesitation, Tang Woo-hyeok closed his eyes.
In a way, it was as if the family’s shame had been exposed.
But from another perspective, he was also a benefactor who had prevented the family’s crisis.
And the Sichuan Tang Family was a family that never forgot either grudges or debts of gratitude.
“I have no intention of telling others what I heard here. I can’t forget it, but I can refrain from speaking about it.”
“Thank you.”
“Think nothing of it.”
“For now, let’s return to the main house.”
The Sichuan Tang Family did not forget grudges, but likewise never forgot favors.
However, since all matters had priorities, Tang Woo-hyeok slapped the cheek of his youngest son, who was unconscious.
Smack!
With a crisp impact sound, Tang Seogon sprang upright.
Then, upon seeing Tang Woo-hyeok before him, he was terrified.
“F, Father?”
“Shut your mouth. You’ll hear the explanation in the dungeon.”
“W-What?!”
Tang Seogon’s pupils shook violently.
The mention of a prison—neither the Family Head’s Hall nor his own quarters—had startled him.
But Tang Woo-hyeok said nothing further to him.
Instead, he lightly waved his left hand.
Sluuush.
At Tang Woo-hyeok’s gesture, the bodies of the four subordinates who had been hidden nearby on guard duty turned into a handful of bloody water.
They were completely melted away by poison, like bone-melting powder.
Their human forms vanished without a trace, and the four, reduced to blood, seeped into the ground, leaving only stains behind.
Hic!
At the sight, Tang Seogon began to hiccup.
It was because the sight of those middle-aged men felt like a glimpse of his own future.
Whooong!
Regardless of whether Tang Seogon was frightened or not, Tang Woo-hyeok waved his hand once more.
He lifted the unconscious man with the Void-Grasping Technique, pulled him over, and slung him over his shoulder.
Because the man was a poison practitioner who had mastered poison arts, he could not entrust him to Ban Hojin or Oh Jung-geon, so he carried him himself.
“Come along.”
“Yes.”
Since it would be even more absurd to entrust the man to Tang Seogon, Tang Woo-hyeok hoisted him and kicked off the ground.
Ban Hojin and Oh Jung-geon followed after him.
“If you’re thinking of running, then do it.”
“I-I’ll go!”
Hearing Tang Woo-hyeok’s voice clearly even from afar, Tang Seogon, who had been standing dazed with a vacant expression, jolted in shock and hurriedly threw himself forward.
But his steps were heavy.
With clear evidence present, it was impossible to deny it outright.
And even if he did deny it, there was little chance Tang Woo-hyeok would believe him so easily.
“Hoo!”
Still, he couldn’t not follow either.
If he turned away now, Tang Woo-hyeok would regard him as a complete traitor and unleash poisonous attacks.
Though he was his father, Tang Woo-hyeok was someone fully capable of doing exactly that.
After returning to the Sichuan Tang Family, Ban Hojin headed straight for the lodging.
From here on, it was not a matter he should be involved in, so he and Oh Jung-geon discreetly removed themselves.
‘Not bad.’
Although the Nine Heavens Gate had moved faster than he had known, in Ban Hojin’s view it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
For one, internal division had been prevented, and considering the current strength of the Sichuan Tang Family, they might even be stronger now than they would be ten years later.
Moreover, since an unexpected situation had occurred, the Nine Heavens Gate was surely unprepared.
“You’re back, Brother?”
“Were you sparring?”
“Yes!”
When he arrived at the front courtyard, Seo Joun, drenched in sweat despite the cool weather, came running over.
It was as if he had been waiting for Ban Hojin to return.
“You’re doing very well.”
“I can’t keep chasing your back forever!”
“Right. You have to set your goals high. They say a man without ambition isn’t really a man.”
“But did something happen? Your expression doesn’t look very good.”
“It’s not that. Ah, though I might be leaving tomorrow, so make sure you’re prepared to some extent.”
Seo Joun’s eyes widened.
He hadn’t expected Ban Hojin to stay long at the Sichuan Tang Family, but he hadn’t imagined he would leave so soon.
“Tomorrow?”
“Why? Want to enjoy the popularity a bit longer?”
“Hehe! My thinking’s changed now. It was nice on the first day, but now it feels burdensome.”
“Hoh. To grasp that principle already. Coming all the way to the Sichuan Tang Family wasn’t a wasted trip after all.”
Ban Hojin spoke in an exaggeratedly impressed tone.
Anyone could see he was teasing, but Seo Joun scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
“Receiving attention isn’t always a good thing. Human relationships aren’t something you can divide so neatly into two categories.”
“Still, there must have been a woman you liked, right?”
Ban Hojin asked in a subtly lowered voice.
Seo Joun was seventeen years old.
It was an age when one’s blood ran hot, an age when puberty would not yet have fully passed.
“There is someone, but I think I’m still lacking.”
“So you’re not uninterested?”
“H-huh? How did you know?”
“Because I’ve already walked the path you’re on.”
Seo Joun flinched in surprise.
But to Ban Hojin, it was only natural.
He, too, was a man, and he, too, had gone through puberty.
Even if he had never dated a woman, he had experienced unrequited love.
“I thought you wouldn’t know, Brother.”
“Am I not a man?”
“I even heard rumors that you practiced the Child Body Technique?”
“Hah.”
Ban Hojin let out a snort.
It was absurd.
But at the same time, he could understand why such rumors spread.
After all, Shaolin really did have the Child Body Technique.
“Ah, you might be a bit surprised when you go into the room.”
“Why?”
“You’ll know when you see it.”
Seo Joun grinned.
He had heard many marriage proposals, but this would be his first time receiving a love letter.
So even Ban Hojin, renowned under heaven, would surely be surprised.
“Alright.”
Unlike Seo Joun, whose face was filled with anticipation, Ban Hojin climbed the stairs with his usual impassive expression.
A moment later, upon arriving in front of the door, Ban Hojin flung it open wide, just as he always did.
“Surprised, right?”
“It’s a love letter.”
“Huh?”
Seo Joun, who had followed behind, blinked.
It was completely different from the reaction he had expected.
Far from being surprised, Ban Hojin shook his head as if it were nothing but a nuisance, leaving Seo Joun with a hollow expression.
“Throw them all away.”
“You’re not even going to read them?”
“The contents are all the same anyway. Most of them probably aren’t even written personally. So you can just throw them away. Or burn them with Sammaejinhwa.”
“…What you say makes sense, Brother.”
After glancing at Seo Joun, who replied with a dazed face, Ban Hojin flung the window open.
A window facing north.
And in that direction lay an underground prison known only to a handful within the Sichuan Tang Family.
‘They should be interrogating them by now.’
Ban Hojin recalled Tang Woo-hyeok as they had parted.
Neither of them would likely come out unscathed.
Before being a father of three children, Tang Woo-hyeok was the head of the enormous force known as the Sichuan Tang Family.
No matter that he was one’s own child, a traitor had to be punished as an example to all.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
In one of the stone chambers of the underground prison, where there was not a single luminous pearl, Tang Seogon sat blankly.
He had heard about it several times, but this was his first time actually coming to the underground prison.
Everything felt unfamiliar and unbelievable.
That he himself was imprisoned in the underground prison.
“Ghh…! Aaaaargh!”
On top of that, the chilling screams echoing from afar filled him with even greater terror.
Even if it were a stranger, it would make one’s knees go weak, but the one screaming in agony was someone Tang Seogon knew.
That was why his body trembled every time a desperate groan reached his ears.
Step. Step.
The one who had been screaming as if he might die suddenly stopped.
Then came the sound of footsteps.
To Tang Seogon, those steps sounded like the footsteps of the grim reaper.
“Tang Seogon.”
“F-father!”
At the sight of Tang Woo-hyeok standing alone before the iron bars without even a guard present, Tang Seogon’s complexion turned pale.
At the same time, a faint glimmer of hope flickered in his eyes.
No matter how grave his mistake, he was still the youngest son of the current family head.
And so, Tang Seogon allowed himself a sliver of hope.
“If you have something you want to say, say it.”
“I-I absolutely did not betray you! Everything is a false accusation, a trap! I only went there to investigate! I was contacted by an unidentified faction, so I went to find out what they were—!”
“Alone?”
“I-I thought I could handle it on my own!”
Tang Seogon rapidly spilled out the excuses he had prepared in advance.
After all, the only ones present at the Guandi Shrine had been himself, a member of the Nine Heavens Gate, and an unidentified individual.
Everyone else was dead, so only those three knew the truth.
The only troubling point was that when he regained consciousness, Ban Hojin and Oh Jung-geon had been there, but they were outsiders anyway.
In the end, blood was thicker than water.
Rather than believing the one who had subdued him, or a member of the Nine Heavens Gate, his father would have no choice but to believe his own son.
“That’s not what the Nine Heavens Gate said.”
“They’re slandering me! What do you think the Nine Heavens Gate wants? Isn’t it the collapse of the Sichuan Tang Family, the greatest obstacle? They’re trying to use me to cause internal division!”
Because he had thought it through dozens of times already, Tang Seogon’s words flowed smoothly, like clear water.
And he believed them.
If one did not believe a lie oneself, it would show.
That was why Tang Seogon believed the lie he had fabricated to be the truth.
Swoosh.
Yet despite Tang Seogon’s fervent display of injustice, Tang Woo-hyeok’s expression remained cold.
With utterly indifferent eyes, he tilted his head slightly.
As if he intended to see through not the surface, but the very depths.
At that sight, Tang Seogon’s heart lurched, but he barely managed to maintain his expression.
“Internal division?”
“Y-yes! By targeting me—!”
“That’s enough.”
Boom!
At Tang Woo-hyeok’s flat, emotionless voice, Tang Seogon cried out urgently.
But at that moment, along with a familiar voice, a young man in his mid-twenties, drenched in blood, was flung down beside Tang Woo-hyeok.
Someone had thrown him there.
Despite being covered in blood, his face was surprisingly intact, and when Tang Seogon saw him, his eyes widened.
“Y-you…?!”
“That’s enough. You’re being unsightly.”
“Grandfather!”
The owner of the familiar voice.
Dang Bi walked over to the side of the trembling young man, who was paralyzed with fear.
But his gaze was completely different from before.
Unlike the past, when he had treated him as a grandson, even if not warmly, now it was utterly cold.
“It seems you can still bring yourself to call me Grandfather.”
“I-I…!”
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