Chapter 232: Wanderers Have Their Own Code of Honor

The moniker Reviled Mad Demon implied a madman obsessed with lamentation. A crazy, perverted bastard who got off on the despair and grief of others.

This was precisely why the Blood Cult was dangerous.

The reason the Blood Cult disrupted the world wasn't driven by any justifiable (?) cause like conquering the martial arts world or seeking revenge, but merely by individual motivations.

Anyway, what the Reviled Mad Demon craved most, his very reason for existence, was the ecstatic pleasure of pushing others into complete despair and watching their expressions crumble.

And among them, there were the finest materials.

Those who were fundamentally good and just, yet unyielding, never losing their will—possessing that radiant emotion called nobility.

And now, the Reviled Mad Demon felt a thrill surging through him at the thought of having obtained one of the best materials of his life.

“Kheheheuk! Heheheheuk! Yes, incredible, truly incredible. Loyalty? To think a child would pledge her life for loyalty! Isn't she a masterpiece!”

Gyeongdamgan burst into mad laughter.

Yes, what should I, what should I do with this child? How can I make it even better?

If he could take this dazzlingly bright, beautiful child and finally shove her into the pitch-black pit of despair, making her curse the world and howl, thoroughly breaking her—how delightful, how unparalleled in all the world—Heok, truly, he needed to calm down.

Gyeongdamgan, his face contorted, barely managed to speak through his suppressed laughter.

“Alright, a promise is a promise. You wanderers can piss off now. If you foolishly try to remove it, you’ll die in agony. From now on, if you quietly follow my orders, you’ll be able to preserve your miserable lives. Of course, you’ll have to obey my orders for the rest of your lives.”

How thrilling it was to hold someone’s life in your hands, threatening them into forced obedience.

The decaying expressions of the wanderers who sensed their fate sent Gyeongdamgan into ecstasy.

And amidst it all, the disciple of the Divine Maiden Sect, glaring at him with an unwavering expression, pleased him even more.

Yes, she must be strong.

Be firm, like a radiant, hard diamond.

“Aargh!”

Another scream erupted in the room.

The Divine Maiden Sect disciple also buckled at the knees, bent at the waist, and collapsed to the floor; the Gu Poisons had released their venom all at once.

“Did I not tell you to listen to my orders? When this old man tells you to withdraw, you withdraw. When I tell you to come, you come. Like a well-behaved dog,” Gyeongdamgan said.

Just then, the Divine Maiden Sect disciple stammered.

“I—I’m fine, so everyone, please leave now. I’ll figure something out somehow…”

“Keuk, Young Lady…” one of the wanderers choked out.

At that, the wanderers, with bloodshot eyes, perhaps too ashamed to say anything else, simply left.

What a magnificent sight!

Gyeongdamgan felt a faint stirring in a part of him that had been numb and unresponsive his entire life.

Meanwhile, Qing had roughly grasped the situation.

Hmm. When this thing spits poison, there's a burning sensation.

Looks like having the bug inside me won't kill me.

The poison it spits is harmful, but the bug itself doesn't seem particularly damaging just by being inside.

If this Gu Poison thing, whatever it is, got digested like a piece of fried chicken, or if I felt nothing when it spat poison, I wouldn't know when to pretend it hurts.

Thankfully, just when I felt my solar plexus flare up, didn't the wanderers suddenly scream in unison?

Qing played along, pretending to be in pain, and the Demonic Adept looked quite satisfied.

“Kheheheuk! Child. Yes. I suppose I need to explain your situation. First, yes,” the old man chuckled and then said. “Try taking off your clothes. Let me see that body of yours.”

Qing frowned deeply.

He was a crazy perverted old bastard. Getting old doesn't mean you have to be disgusting, especially at his age. Hmm?

A thought suddenly struck Qing. Wasn't the wanted poster description of a middle-aged man with a prominent nose? Why is he old?

Regardless, with no hostages present, Qing had no reason to obey him.

“Dream on. I'll strip if you cough up about fifty thousand gwan of gold. Payment upfront, customer.”

“Kheheheuk! Good! There has to be some resistance at first! It’s no fun if you just tremble and obey meekly. However, a child who doesn't listen must be punished, right?” Gyeongdamgan retorted.

Then, her solar plexus grew hot as if she’d downed strong liquor—the Gu Poison was spewing its venom.

Qing immediately collapsed to the floor, mimicking pained gasps, “Ha-euk, ha-euk.”

However, whereas Qing’s real pain involved choking sounds like “Keok, eok, keok,” rasping breaths, and throat-scraping noises, her feigned moans sounded more like, “Aheuk, ha-eut, aheuk,” strangely close to seductive cries.

Of course, Qing, as an actress with no way to film and review her performance, prided herself on her perceived perfection.

As Qing put on this lewd-looking display of agony, she thought:

When this bug spits poison, it feels hot like drinking booze, which is pretty convincing, right? Feeling drunk without drinking… isn't that a sweet deal? It's like an endless supply of free liquor.

The thought of her favorite beverage sharpened Qing’s reasoning for a moment.

Endless supply? No way it's infinite.

How much poison can a tiny creature like that produce? There must be a limit, right?

Besides, it's a parasite, so it has to eat something to make poison. It can't possibly convert everything it eats into poison instantly, so there must be a limit to its reserves.

This wasn't particularly useful reasoning for Qing, since poison didn't affect her anyway.

But apart from that, she figured, if this Gu Poison thing was so useful, everyone would be raising and using them. The fact that I've never heard of it probably means its drawbacks are significant.

Because Qing’s thoughts had wandered a bit long, she didn’t notice that the Gu Poison had stopped spewing venom to catch its breath.

Gyeongdamgan snickered.

“How long are you going to fake it? For someone who talked back so boldly, you're squirming like a worm. Keukkeuk.”

“Ah. It's over already. Hoo. Is that all? Not a big deal. If you want me to take off my clothes, you'll have to try harder. Just when I thought it was starting to hurt… Ha-eut,” Qing replied, only to be interrupted.

Aish, I'm talking here.

The booze-like heat rising within her pulled Qing back into her performance.

“Over? Aish. Aheuk.”

“You expect me to strip like this? Don’t they say sunshine works better than the wind? You gotta treat me warmly… Heuaaat.”

“Enough! Enough! I get it! Hah, tricked you! This Gu Poison isn't much after all. Aheuk!”

“Really, really stop! I get it! Ah. But what am I supposed to get? Heuaat.”

Qing gently provoked him, inducing the Gu Poison to spew more venom.

This was completely different from the scene Gyeongdamgan had wanted to see. He had desired the sight of her trembling in fear, stripping herself, and bowing her head. Instead, while she writhed in apparent agony, the moment it stopped, she provoked him to do more.

The biggest victim—no, victim-bug—in this moment was the baby Gu Poison inside Qing’s body.

Damn humans! Let a Gu Poison rest!

In the end, its poison sac completely empty, the exhausted baby Gu Poison went limp and began ignoring the queen Gu Poison's signals.

“Hmm. Looks like the Gu Poison ran out of venom. Is that it for today? Too bad, a little more and you might have gotten me to strip. Try harder tomorrow,” Qing said coolly.

“…For someone who rolled around so much, you sure have a sharp tongue.”

Gyeongdamgan’s voice held a strange tremor.

Although Qing was the one who had been writhing on the floor claiming to be in pain, oddly enough, it was Gyeongdamgan who felt worse.

No, wait, is that really the attitude of a wench who swallowed a Gu Poison? It seems different from unwavering determination… more like… nonchalance? How dare she?

As Gyeongdamgan ground his teeth, Qing continued to spew whatever nonsense came to mind. Since not everything that comes out of the mouth makes sense, "spewing nonsense" was probably the most accurate description.

“So, can I go now? I just come back when you call later, right? Trying any other weird stuff won't work anyway.”

“Go? Where do you think you’re going?” Gyeongdamgan demanded.

“Huh? You let my wanderer friends go, didn’t you?” Qing asked back as if she didn’t understand.

Didn't he plant this Gu Poison to hold my life hostage and force me to do all sorts of bad things?

“Aw, come on, let me go. I have the round of 8 match to fight, and if I don't go back, my Master will worry. I'll keep my mouth shut and come running when you call later, so let's call it a day. How about it? What's the opinion of the age-addled pervert bastard?”

“Insolent wench. You surely intend to go out and remove the Gu Poison. As if I'd let that happen,” Gyeongdamgan growled.

Aish, why won't he let me go?

Didn't he plant this lonely bug, or whatever it is, so he could say, 'From now on, you are a spy for the Blood Cult!' and send me off to force me into some dirty work? That was his plan, right?

But.

Remove the Gu Poison?

Letting me go means I'll remove the Gu Poison.

He let the wanderers go because they can't.

Wealth? Skills? Background? Doesn't that mean it can be removed by something the wanderers lack but I possess?

Qing’s mind worked remarkably fast when it came to her own safety.

However, if she had just asked someone knowledgeable like Zhuge Ihyeon beforehand, she wouldn't have needed to rack her brain to figure it out.

Information about Gu Poison wasn't exactly a closely guarded secret.

This is why people need education.

“Fine. Let’s see just how long you can act so recklessly,” Gyeongdamgan said this and tapped the floor. A moment later, an ingeniously hidden lid opened, revealing a secret passage.

The lid, naturally, was manual.

Seeing the hand opening the secret passage lid on the floor, Qing’s eyes gleamed.

There are Blood Cult bastards down there! Wow! The Blood Cult! Wow! Bad guys!

“Now, get in,” Gyeongdamgan commanded.

Qing obediently descended the stairs leading underground.

As she stepped onto the dark landing, the sinister violet light lurking in Qing’s eyes finally revealed its color, gleaming.

While Qing, afflicted by the terrible Gu Poison, was being abducted to the evil Blood Cult's fearsome secret base—

Or while the wicked, fearsome, and terrible Qing, equipped with an internal Gu Poison-type liquor flask, infiltrated the Blood Cult's secret base—

During that time, Cheon Yuhak wasn't just standing around watching.

As soon as Qing, along with the wanderers, had charged in with great momentum, shattering the paper door, a figure had swiftly slipped out onto the roof and fled hastily.

“Tsk tsk. Honestly.”

My disciple is so sloppy with the finishing touches.

Cheon Yuhak clicked his tongue and leaped away. If Qing had known, she would have demanded to know who exactly was being sloppy.

How could an underground facility be so well-developed in this primitive Central Plains of some ancient era? Weren't multi-level basements a modern development?

Of course not.

Underground construction was one of the specialties mastered by all pre-modern, sub-medieval humans—even primitive cavemen somewhere between chimpanzees and monkeys were quite adept at it.

And in the Central Plains, cities situated along major rivers fundamentally had a history of repeated flooding, burial under sediment, and subsequent rebuilding on top.

Therefore, with underground layers stacked upon existing underground layers, utilizing the legacy of their ancestors made constructing subterranean bases quite convenient.

Thus, in an underground prison cell where not a speck of moonlight penetrated, illuminated only by a single fingernail-sized oil lamp casting gloomy shadows through the iron bars, Qing calmly lay down.

Wow, the prisoner treatment here sucks.

How can they not even provide a single mat? I'm not asking for a pillow, but shouldn't they at least give me one raggedy blanket?

How am I supposed to sleep when it's cold, hard, and uncomfortable like this?

Exactly half a ke later (7.5 mins).

Qing was snoring loudly.

And inside Qing, the baby Gu Poison, which had collapsed in exhaustion, finally regained consciousness.

Plants naturally produce their own toxins.

However, venomous animals, toxic creatures, must consume poisonous substances to create their own venom.

The Gu Poison was the same.

Originally, Gu Poison started as beneficial parasites living in the human body, selectively consuming harmful substances. Only after methods for handling specific species emerged did it evolve into a despicable tool for controlling others.

Meanwhile, poison didn't affect Qing due to her Blood-Toxin Body constitution. However, this didn't mean her body purified and eliminated toxins like some mythical artifact (or 'artifact' in modern terms).

Incoming poison simply failed to cause harm and lingered in her body. Over time, decomposable poisons broke down, and excretable poisons were expelled.

But the poisons that remained in the body didn't go anywhere; they stayed right there.

And so, the awakened baby Gu Poison, its stomach rumbling with hunger, wriggled about, searching for sustenance—poisonous material to refill its empty venom sac—wandering through Qing’s internal organs.

It was truly a poison-devouring parasite, the essence of Gu Poison itself.

Then, entering a certain area, it tasted a drop of bile fluid, and oh, heavens!

There resided a crystallization of ecstatic venomous fluid the likes of which it had never tasted in its entire parasitic life.

The Gu Poison wagged its tail and frantically devoured the venomous fluid.

As it slurped up the bile fluid, the Gu Poison's color deepened very slightly, becoming just a minuscule shade more crimson.

Of course, this was something Qing, unable to see her own insides, didn't know, and likewise, something the Gu Poison, also lacking eyes and unable to see color, was unaware of.

(t/n 😭🤣Qing has a portable endless supply of free liquor. my sides 😭🙏🙏)

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