The atmosphere in the hall, which had felt like a funeral home, turned awkward for a moment before slowly beginning to shift into something closer to a celebration.
After all, most of the retainers who had nearly died or suffered grave injuries were now completely fine.
Unfortunately, however, I had to become the tactless mood-killer once again.
I spoke to the Dang father and daughter, who were covering their faces.
“Sorry, but this isn’t over yet.”
“Ahem! You should’ve said that sooner… anyway, what is it?”
“There’s still one Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi left.”
“……!”
As I lifted the Immortal Pot, the Clan Head’s expression immediately turned serious.
The Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi had swollen grotesquely after absorbing an enormous amount of poison.
Since it was clearly the Blood Cult’s final trump card, I had sealed it inside [Severed Space] the moment I joined the battlefield.
But this couldn’t continue forever.
Even now, my mana was draining away in real time, so I wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer.
Once my mana ran out, the Severed Space would be undone as well.
And there was no telling how the released Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi would behave.
It might launch indiscriminate attacks, or it could simply explode outright, so we needed a countermeasure before that happened.
The Clan Head let out a low groan.
“Hmm… Ideally, we should deal with it somewhere the aftermath won’t reach, but no suitable place comes to mind.”
Assuming the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi exploded, the mixed poison contained within it would spread over a considerable area.
We would need a space vast enough that no damage would reach anything nearby, and even considering all of Sichuan, there probably weren’t many such places.
And even if we found one, my mana would likely run out before we got there.
The Head of the Council of Elders and the Dang Twin Heroes also appeared unable to think of any good solution.
Of course, I had already considered an answer from the moment I used the pot.
Looking around at everyone gathered, I spoke.
“As far as I know, the Dang Clan possesses formations capable of gathering and compressing poison.”
“That would only be a temporary measure. Unless the mixed poison itself is neutralized, it’s meaningless.”
“If you gather it for us, we can handle the rest.”
“……How?”
With a glance, I pointed toward Dang Gyu-young and Seo Ye-in, who was still asleep on my back.
“You’ve probably all been wondering for a while now. How we could consume so much poison and still remain unharmed, and how we managed to defeat masters so easily in sparring matches.”
“……?”
“The truth is… we possess poison immunity.”
“……!”
Shock spread throughout the hall.
Despite the gravity of the situation, everyone immediately began whispering among themselves.
– Are you saying they achieved complete poison immunity? At their age?
– And not just one of them, but three?
– I already thought they were extraordinary, but this surpasses even my expectations.
There was probably not a single person within the Dang Clan who possessed complete immunity to all poisons.
Even partial poison immunity was something only those deeply versed in toxins or elderly clan elders would typically possess.
And yet we, still practically kids, had achieved complete poison immunity.
Some among them clearly wanted to doubt or deny it, but the evidence was already far too obvious.
The Dang twins each spoke with a laugh.
“Hahaha, I figured you were suspiciously confident.”
“Now that I see this, it makes sense.”
Even the Head of the Council of Elders was staring at us intensely, while Dang Eun-bi, the greatest victim here, looked as though her heart had completely shattered.
Judging from her expression, her thoughts probably went something like this:
– Why would a bastard like him have complete poison immunity…?
Soon, the Clan Head spoke in a low voice.
“Silence yourselves. There will be plenty of time for chatter later.”
After calming the commotion, he looked back at me.
“I’ll ask once more. Are you certain it is complete immunity to all poisons?”
“Do you think I’d lie about something like this in a situation like this?”
People’s lives could literally hang in the balance here.
The Clan Head seemed to agree, nodding readily.
“Then I can roughly guess how you intend to deal with the mixed poison.”
“Yes. We’ll absorb it.”
If it was the culmination of all the poisons the Dang Clan martial artists had poured out through the entire night, the energy contained within it would be immense.
From our perspective, since we would suffer no harm from it, it was essentially a gigantic elixir.
And if we could receive cooperation in absorbing it, then revealing our poison immunity was more than worth it.
The Clan Head nodded and issued his orders.
“For now, this method seems worth betting on. Make the preparations.”
The Dang Clan martial artists moved in perfect coordination, beginning to construct a massive formation.
At the very center, the Hye-seong Group marksmen installed traps intended to restrict the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi’s movements.
While the preparations steadily progressed, I spoke to Dang Gyu-young.
“Should we refresh the slots now?”
“Yeah, that’d be best.”
▷Shadow Extraction [4/4]
1. Lab Director (A)
2. Shadow Commander (A)
3. Blood Sword Commander (A+)
4. Blood Sword Unit Member (B+)
One slot had only been filled temporarily for the time being.
On top of that, we now had a chance to overwrite a slot with an elder-level Qyu Shadow, so it was better to act before the opportunity passed.
The problem was that there was only one slot, but two candidates.
Dang Gyu-young looked back and forth between the two fallen Blood Cult elders, deep in thought.
Then she stared at Blade Demon and spoke.
“She’s the one who did that to Father.”
If not for Retro Recovery, Qyu Father might really have died.
To Dang Gyu-young, Blade Demon was essentially an arch-enemy, so turning her into an undead servant and dragging her around would have symbolic meaning as well.
“……Still, I’m trying to stay rational right now. The future matters more.”
Rather than acting on emotion, she was choosing efficiency.
And from an efficiency standpoint, Ghost Demon was far superior to Blade Demon.
The difference in fighting power alone is huge.
Blade Demon had quickly been pushed onto the defensive and met her end against the combined assault of the Qyu duo, whereas Ghost Demon had resisted and even counterattacked against the formation deployed by the united Dang Clan experts.
And it broadens our combinations too.
Ghost Demon’s role had been to buff the Jiangshi and empower them with sorcery.
Recruiting him would effectively add a support-type unit to the Qyu Shadow army, which until now had been filled almost entirely with close-combat fighters.
Dang Gyu-young seemed to reach the same conclusion. She raised her hand toward what had once been Ghost Demon.
The shadow slowly seeped away and merged beneath her feet.
▷Shadow Extraction [4/4]
1. Lab Director (A)
2. Shadow Commander (A)
3. Blood Sword Commander (A+)
4. Ghost Demon (A)
Next, I picked up an item lying nearby.
The bell swayed, producing an eerie sound.
Jingle……
[Soul-Summoning Bell (A+)]
As expected, it was an item deeply connected to spiritual entities.
If used properly, this hidden piece would greatly help improve Dang Gyu-young’s specs.
It would probably even increase her shadow slots by another one or two.
In my head, I added several more dungeons to the list we’d enter after the semester started.
Meanwhile, the formation was nearing completion.
The top masters stood at the core points, while over a dozen martial artists spread out at fixed intervals around them.
As Dang Gyu-young and I approached, I shook Seo Ye-in awake from where she had been sleeping soundly on my back.
“Young miss.”
“…….”
“Young miss, wake up for a second.”
“I wanna sleep……”
“How about we eat a late-night snack first, then sleep?”
“……?”
At those words, Seo Ye-in slowly lifted her head.
She seemed to slowly look around at her surroundings, then quietly buried her face back into my back again.
“There’s nothing here……”
“We’re almost done. Just wake up for a little longer.”
Though Seo Ye-in looked displeased, she climbed down from my back and stood together with us at the center of the formation.
Soon, the Clan Head spoke.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes. You may begin at any time.”
“Understood.”
After sweeping his gaze across the Dang Clan martial artists one by one, he gave the order in a low voice.
“Activate the formation.”
As the formation unfolded, an increasingly intense pressure began to fill the area.
Meanwhile, I held the pot forward, releasing the Severed Space and spitting out a massive figure.
The Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi, grotesquely swollen from absorbing every poison in sight.
The moment its feet touched the ground, the traps prepared in advance activated.
Whiiiiiirl—
Craaaack—
Wooden vines tightly coiled around its entire body, while thick ice surged upward from beneath its feet to its waist.
The Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi struggled violently, but the restraints showed no sign of loosening.
Then its bloated body began swelling even further.
It seemed Ghost Demon had left behind some sort of contingency.
Urgent shouts immediately rang out from all around.
“It’s going to explode!”
“Maintain the pressure!”
“Stay calm!”
The pressure intensified even further, as though forcibly crumpling the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi inward.
The explosion was prevented, but instead, black smoke began pouring from all seven of its orifices.
Fsssssssssh……
Even at a glance, the poisonous miasma looked horrifyingly potent.
The Dang Clan martial artists began shouting orders again.
“This is the critical part!”
“Compress it exactly as it is!”
“Don’t let even a trace leak out!”
Fsssssssh……
The black smoke could no longer spread outward and instead remained confined around the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi.
As though trapped inside an invisible space.
Its form disappeared within the dense smoke, and before long, its body itself seemed to slowly collapse apart.
It had carried the poison inside itself without issue, but once exposed outside its body, even it could no longer endure.
Fsssssssssh…….
A moment later, the only thing left in that place was a horrifyingly pitch-black mass of energy.
Glancing at it briefly, I spoke to Dang Gyu-young and Seo Yerin.
“Let’s begin.”
Then I extended my hand forward and began circulating my mana.
Whooooooosh—!
An immense torrent of energy surged in like a flood.
I calmly guided it and stored it within my core.
The moment I did, another massive wave of energy rushed in, and once again I repeated the process of storing it in my core.
How much time had passed in that trance-like state?
When I no longer felt any energy at my fingertips, I opened my eyes.
Dang Gyu-young, who had also opened her eyes, asked,
“It’s over, right?”
“Yes.”
We had absorbed every last trace of the poison without leaving behind even a speck.
As a result, an enormous amount of energy was still raging inside my body even now.
This is probably worth several S-rank elixirs.
Still, since it hadn’t been long since I absorbed it, I needed to circulate my mana a bit more to fully make it my own.
Perhaps the Clan Head had taken that into account, because he said to us,
“Our clan has once again escaped disaster thanks to you all. Go on ahead and get some rest. Don’t worry about the cleanup.”
Then he turned a warm gaze toward Dang Gyu-young.
“You should rest for now as well. We can continue our conversation tomorrow.”
“……Yes, Father.”
Dang Gyu-young replied with a gentle smile before leaving together with us.
As we walked away, I pulled up the notification message that had arrived earlier.
[Main Quest 4] (Completed)
▷Objective: Dispel the dark clouds looming over Sichuan
[Calculating rewards.]
[You made a major contribution to defeating the Blood Sword Commander.]
[Rewards greatly increased.]
The Blood Sword Commander was someone whose strength approached S-rank, so if we had fought him head-on, our chances of victory would not have been very high.
That was why I had even considered retreating at first.
However, by breaking the geas, we significantly weakened him, and in the end, we managed to bring him down.
[You rescued numerous injured individuals.]
[Rewards greatly increased.]
I busily moved around, helping the Dang Clan martial artists who were in danger and evacuating them to safe locations.
And on the final battlefield, I even used Retro Recovery to heal those who had suffered critical injuries, including the Head of the Dang Clan himself.
In other words, we had prevented an entire major faction from being utterly destroyed.
In some ways, that was probably even more important than killing a Blood Cult Elder.
[You contributed to the subjugation of the Ghost Demon.]
[Rewards increased.]
[You nullified the Ghost Demon’s contingency.]
[Rewards greatly increased.]
The “contingency” apparently referred to the final Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi.
If things had gone according to plan, the mixed poison would have caused devastating damage, but we had blocked it at the source.
That, too, had greatly helped the Dang Clan.
As the rewards were enhanced again and again—
[Please select your reward.]
1. Unique Skill Selection Ticket ×1
2. Unique Skill ×1, Monarch Unique Skill ×1
3. Unique Skill ×1, Fixed Pin, Slot Plus
▷Note: The acquired skills will be determined according to the user’s disposition.
Not just anyone could learn Unique Skills or Traits, and their performance was as overwhelming as their rarity.
Good examples included the Crow Tailor’s [Weaving], Kwak Seung-jae’s [Wooden Door], and Hong Yeon-hwa’s [Aquaflame].
That was why they were incredibly rare as rewards as well.
So I need to choose carefully.
After thinking for a moment, I decided to approach it through elimination.
First, option three.
[Fixed Pin] and [Slot Plus] are both incredibly useful.
They dramatically increased fighting power, and if used to expand Bond Slots, they could make everyone stronger together.
They were also quite difficult to obtain. Even by combining side quests with challenge objectives, you would only have a chance of getting them after clearing everything with the highest completion rating.
Still, this time, Unique Skills come first.
So I decided to eliminate option three.
That left options one and two.
Do I obtain one skill I specifically want, or two random ones?
If I got a selection ticket, there was definitely a Unique Skill I would learn without hesitation.
Its performance was absurdly overpowered, needless to say.
Still, right now, it might be better to increase the number of abilities I have.
If I chose option two, I would be learning skills at random, but they would still be Unique Skills.
At the very least, their performance was guaranteed.
On top of that, I checked the note once more.
They’re determined according to the user’s disposition.
My disposition was, of course, wind-element based.
The abilities I used most often after that were ice-type skills such as Frost Bullet, Jade Demonic Finger, and Ice Wall.
No matter which type of Unique Skill I got, I would welcome it.
Alright, this time I’ll go with option two.
The moment I made my decision, another notification message appeared.
[You have acquired ‘Diamond Freeze (F)’.]
[You have acquired ‘Invitation’.]
And I raised my eyes in confusion.
Invitation?
Because it was a skill I had never seen before.
Leave a Reply