WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 146: Kang Yu 3
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Tang Yu-shin’s face showed neither mockery nor deception. That mad bastard had spoken those words with complete sincerity.
That absurd bullshit was supposedly a duty.
Haryeong thought about what the Dang Family had given her.
Life. A body. Had the Dang Family really given her those things?
If her father, the Poison King, had said such a thing, she might have considered it for a moment.
If her mother, who had always kept her distance, had said it, Haryeong might at least have whined in protest.
This was a world that killed Transmigrators on sight.
Haryeong did not know why her mother had married into the Dang Family.
Whether she had some purpose befitting a Transmigrator, or whether it had simply been because of a bond between people.
If she had kept it hidden all her life, it might have been different, but her mother had been unable to keep the secret for long. The cause of death had been suicide, but she likely had no other choice.
Her father might not have been able to execute her mother himself, but even as the head of the family, he could not have completely ignored the eyes within the clan.
If her mother had not killed herself, she would have slowly withered away in a prison cell without a single ray of light.
Haryeong had not been imprisoned in a Thunder Prison. The punishment handed to a daughter born between the family head and a Transmigrator had amounted to little more than being fed bugs and treated like she did not exist. At fourteen, she had effectively been disowned and cast out, ending her connection to the Dang Family.
It seemed Haryeong had been the only one who thought it was over.
That was true of it all.
Haryeong believed she had received nothing from the Dang Family, but the Dang Family believed it had bestowed life upon her.
Haryeong believed she had severed her ties with the Dang Family, but the Dang Family believed it could call her back whenever it needed her.
The Dang Family had not killed Haryeong twenty years ago.
That was why her paternal half-brother claimed to have shown her mercy.
“...”
Haryeong swallowed the nausea rising in her throat. Inherit her father’s poison? She could not even imagine what that meant or how it would be done.
She remembered the last time she had seen her father.
Deep beneath the main estate was the underground cultivation chamber where her father had trained in seclusion.
The door was plastered with talismans densely inscribed with spells. She had cracked open that door, which had countless safeguards beyond magical seals, and seen her father through the gap.
A mass of Poison Qi that could not possibly be considered human. That was how Haryeong remembered her father.
After that, she had gone down to the underground cultivation chamber several times at the Dark King’s summons and called for her “father,” but she had never received an answer.
That was no longer her father. Qi Deviation, brought on by his failure to control his Inner Demon, had driven every poison within him into a rampage. In the process, her father’s sense of self had collapsed.
Worthy of the title Poison King, he had been the strongest Poison Human, controlling the Dang Family’s Hundred Poisons and carrying unknown poisons that no one else in the family could control.
What was now sealed in the Dang Family’s underground cultivation chamber was the end of something that had once been the Poison King, the worst kind of poison creature, formed from every poison he had carried becoming entangled.
Because the blood of the Poison King from those days ran through her body, she was to inherit those poisons?
“It... it is a glorious honor.”
Haryeong forced out those words. After inheriting that poison, could she still exist as Haryeong? Or would she become what her father had become, the end of something that had once been Haryeong?
She did not ask. It was not a question she could ask now. For the moment, Haryeong wanted only to end this unpleasant meeting.
She would part safely from Yuri and Estor, then go to the Dang Family first.
“...!”
As Haryeong took a step forward, a chilling sensation from behind made her shoulders jerk. Goosebumps rose all over her body.
She had seen him release hostility and killing intent at enemies several times before, but it had never been as intense as it was now.
‘No.’
Yuri felt as if he had swallowed an entire blaze.
Heat flooded his body. His stomach boiled, his chest burned, and his mouth held a bitter, smoky taste.
He understood the Dark King, Tang Yu-shin’s words in the most direct way possible.
Twenty years ago, the family had mercifully spared her, so now, in return, they would fill her body with poison and squeeze it out of her whenever the Dang Family needed it.
What kind of fucking duty was that?
Yuri was not the only one enraged. Ghostfire burned in Estor’s blue eyes as he glared at Tang Yu-shin. His hand was already gripping his sword hilt.
[You cannot.]
Haryeong hurriedly sent a Voice Transmission.
[That man is the Dark King, a Martial Apex Venerable, and Tang Seo-baek beside him is an expert above the sixth tier. And as Yuri has likely sensed, Salmun assassins are already positioned around us.]
The Dark King alone meant certain defeat. No matter how strong Yuri and Estor were, a Martial Apex Venerable of at least the seventh tier was an opponent on an entirely different level. On top of that, there were allies to support the Dark King.
[I do not wish to become a poison creature locked away in the Dang Family for the rest of my life either, but please suppress your anger here and withdraw. Then later, I...]
“Now, then.”
Tang Yu-shin spoke.
“If you have any last words, I will hear them.”
“Father?”
Even Tang Seo-baek looked at his father in surprise at the abrupt declaration.
Only days ago, when they had departed the city, Tang Yu-shin’s intentions had been different.
Had he not said the two young talents were too valuable to kill over a Dang Family matter, and that he would make them understand through conversation before sending them away?
“Now that I have met you in person, I understand.”
Tang Yu-shin had thought rumours could not be trusted entirely.
He had thought his two foolish children had failed repeatedly simply because they were insignificant and lacking.
That was what he had thought before meeting the Three Heroes in person.
“If left alone, you will become future trouble.”
Tang Yu-shin’s expression did not change. His face remained calm, without the slightest emotion.
“Even if you understand and withdraw now, you will one day remember today and recall the anger you suppressed in your weaker days. Then you will reveal your hostility and become troublesome enemies to kill.”
Not every senior looked after and guided their juniors.
There were plenty who guarded against talented juniors rising too quickly, wondering whether they might one day become enemies who stood in their way, and crushed the shoots before they could grow.
Not every martial artist shared what they had learned.
Martial arts were ultimately techniques for competing over how well one could kill people and destroy things. Experts were naturally gifted killers and destroyers, and Martial Apex Venerable was the name given to those gathered at the very top.
Tang Yu-shin was the Dark King among Martial Apex Venerables. The king of concealed weapons and the king of assassins.
The Dang Family and Salmun had built their glory atop countless corpses, and every past head of the Dang Family had been a genius at killing. It was not a position one could attain otherwise.
Having eliminated countless enemies and crushed future troubles until this day, Tang Yu-shin was certain that the two would one day become enemies, and that the time to kill them was now.
“Your talent has strangled you.”
If he had not sensed potential beyond that point, he might not have felt any need to kill them. Tang Yu-shin held a gray disc in his hand and nodded.
“B-Brother.”
Haryeong hurriedly spoke. She had never once called him that in front of him before, but now she called that snake of a man brother.
Whatever lay in his heart, he had come here himself because he needed his younger sister. It was a plea for him to consider that younger sister’s feelings.
“I have received much help from them.”
“What help you have received is none of my concern.”
“Cloud Dragon is a junior whom the Calamity Star cherishes. And the Sword Dragon is the Sword Emperor’s grandson and the heir of the Orsia Family...! If you harm them...”
“Tang Yu-ryeon.”
A black gleam flashed deep in Tang Yu-shin’s gray eyes. His gaze pierced Haryeong’s chest like a blade.
“You are insulting Cloud Dragon and Sword Dragon. Those two have already grown up, entered the world, acted as they wished, and made their names and titles known.”
“...!”
“Then they should naturally be prepared to take responsibility for themselves. Tang Yu-ryeon, do Cloud Dragon and Sword Dragon look like pathetic weaklings to you, unable even to look after themselves and hoping danger will be easily overcome by relying only on the names of the Calamity Star and the Sword Emperor behind them?”
When Haryeong hesitated, unable to answer, Tang Yu-shin strode one step forward.
“Furthermore, your words insult me as well. What kind of sect leader, family head, or Martial Apex Venerable fears old people who are not even here and shrinks back without acting on their will?”
If he considered every sect, family, and personal relationship involved, who in the world would he ever be able to kill? They had already become entangled like this, and the two held hostility toward him.
If they had been insignificant enough that killing them was unnecessary, that would have been one thing. But Cloud Dragon and Sword Dragon were far from insignificant. They were too extraordinary.
Then killing them here, inside this Rift, was right.
“Lady Haryeong.”
Yuri spoke. He understood Haryeong’s intentions. He knew that breaking through their current situation head-on would mean certain defeat.
So he had planned to withdraw for now. He had planned to ignore the emotions boiling inside him, the flames raging within, escape the immediate danger, and make plans for later.
If they could just part ways with Tang Yu-shin, they could somehow find a way.
But things in this world rarely went so smoothly. This place, the Rift, seemed poorly suited to Yuri. Once he ended up here, something unexpected always happened.
So Yuri prepared himself.
Bright red flames surged from beneath his feet and wrapped around his body. Crackling currents ran through the flames. He readied the Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil and the Art of the Violet Lightning Flash.
“Come over here.”
Estor grinned at those words. Golden light covered his smoothly drawn blade.
He had no desire to fight simply because he wanted to vent his frustration.
A friend he had grown close to was about to be dragged back to her family and treated like that against her will. How could he not draw his sword?
“Brother, please...!”
Tang Yu-shin frowned at Haryeong’s repeated pleas. First of all, he disliked being called brother. So he did not bother trying to continue the conversation.
Tang Yu-shin’s empty left hand rose. Black bubbles boiled from the center of his upturned palm, becoming a pitch-black droplet that floated in the air.
No one watching understood what Tang Yu-shin was doing. But Yuri’s eyes saw a grotesque insect writhing inside the fist-sized droplet.
“Wait...”
Haryeong’s face turned deathly pale when she finally understood what the droplet was. She rushed forward, but Tang Yu-shin clenched his fist before she could reach him.
The droplet crushed inward, and so did the insect inside.
“AAAAAAAAAH!”
With a tearing scream, Haryeong’s body rolled across the ground.
It was such horrific pain that even a sixth-tier fighter could not perform a landing technique and instead rolled violently across the ground. It could not be compared to any pain she had suffered during the year Lorelia tormented her.
Pain as if her entire body were being shattered. Pain as if her brain were being sliced into thousands, tens of thousands of pieces.
No human should be able to endure such pain. It was the kind of pain that should make someone immediately faint or die, yet she could not faint.
Haryeong clutched her head as her entire body shook violently, like someone in the throes of a seizure.
Something was inside her head. No, was it really her head? It felt as though it was clinging somewhere along her spine, inside her heart, or somewhere in her blood vessels. She did not know. This pain was roaming through her body as though it were alive.
As though it were alive? No. The source of this pain truly was alive.
“Wouldn’t it be better if you listened when I spoke?”
Tang Yu-shin clicked his tongue and pressed the insect in the droplet a little harder.
Bzzzzzt!
Pain spread through her entire body. Haryeong screamed again and convulsed on the ground before she could no longer endure it and lost consciousness.
When Haryeong screamed and rolled across the ground, something snapped inside Yuri’s head.
When he came to his senses, Yuri had already become a streak of lightning, arriving directly before Tang Yu-shin. He drove his fist at the man’s formerly placid face, now twisted in disgust.
Crack!
Tang Yu-shin’s sleeve billowed. The repelling force sent Yuri soaring into the air, while Tang Yu-shin was pushed back slightly. He furrowed his brow as his feet scraped along the ground.
“Hmm.”
He drew the Yang Gu he had brought out in his left hand back into his body. He had fired concealed weapons while pushing Yuri away, yet none had hit.
In that instant, Cloud Dragon had avoided the concealed weapons while leaping upward so that he would not be swept away by the force.
The judgment was correct. Cloud Dragon had to die here. Naturally, he would kill Sword Dragon beside him too.
If Sword Dragon had withdrawn quietly, Tang Yu-shin might have considered overlooking him out of regard for their elders’ relationship. But instead, the man was gripping his sword and charging at him.
The Light Sword arrived. Tang Yu-shin stepped backward rather than meeting it head-on.
Whoosh!
Estor swung the Light Sword, but alarm rose in his eyes.
Tang Yu-shin, who had been right before him, had disappeared.
He had not merely vanished from sight. Even his presence was gone. There was no shadow or obstacle. Where had he gone, and how?
Boom!
A blow powerful enough to make his mind go blank sent Estor’s body flying backward. Before he could even realize it, a barrage of concealed weapons struck him. Even with Intent infused into his protective force aura, the concealed weapons pierced his skin.
‘I could not sense them until just before they pierced through my protective force aura...!’
They were not merely stealthy. The attacks themselves were heavy.
Estor ground his teeth and tensed his entire body. Every needle embedded in him popped out, but blood did not spray. Fortunately, the wounds were shallow. This much was not a problem.
“...!”
He had misjudged them. They were not ordinary concealed weapons. Estor immediately circulated Mana when an unfamiliar sensation spread through his body.
The concealed weapons fired by the head of the Dang Family after declaring his intent to kill could not possibly be free of poison.
Despite being struck by needles coated in lethal poisons from the Dang Family’s Hundred Poisons, Estor did not collapse.
Fwoosh!
Blood sprayed like a fountain from the shallow wounds that had not bled before. He expelled the Poison Qi together with blood before it could spread further.
[Poison on the concealed weapons!]
Yuri’s body descended. Red vortices from the Blood Wheel Soul-Locking Palm were already spinning around both his arms.
Unlike Estor, Yuri’s Transcendent Sight was tracking Tang Yu-shin’s movements. But he could not see them clearly.
The man moved in a dizzying manner, flickering like a ghost without substance, disappearing and reappearing. He also stayed just outside the range of Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death.
Haryeong’s scream and the sight of her sprawled on the ground clung to Yuri’s mind.
‘I’ll kill him.’
Killing intent made the flames roar.
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