WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 153: Dark King 1
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Yuri thought about Tang Yu-shin’s martial arts. Of course, this was not the first time he had reflected on them. He had thought about Tang Yu-shin’s martial arts hundreds, thousands of times before today.
He had experienced them firsthand in this body. Unfortunately, recalling the skills he had encountered in the game was not much help.
In the game, the head of the Dang Family had been Poison King Tang Ji-hoo. The bastard had possessed concealed weapon techniques among his attack skills, but Tang Ji-hoo’s attacks had focused heavily on poison arts.
‘Tang Yu-shin isn’t a Poison Human.’
Of that, Yuri was certain.
A Poison Human’s body differed from that of an ordinary person, a martial artist, or a mage. With poison flowing through their meridians, Poison Humans could fairly be called monsters wearing human skin.
But Tang Yu-shin was not that extreme. If anything, that was better for Yuri.
He could endure the Poison Qi delivered through concealed weapons, but he was not confident he could withstand the poison arts a master like Tang Yu-shin had cultivated throughout his life.
‘Compared to a Poison Human who can poison me to death with a graze, it’s easier for me to fight Tang Yu-shin, who went all in on concealed weapon techniques.’
Thanks to Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death and Transcendent Sight, Yuri could respond to Tang Yu-shin’s sneak attacks to some degree. He could not evade or deflect them cleanly, but he could avoid fatal wounds.
The ultimate state of concealed weapon arts lay in ensuring the opponent could not see the attack coming.
Secure the initiative, then kill the enemy in one strike before the battle became a direct confrontation. But that did not work on Yuri, which was why a fight with Tang Yu-shin was even possible.
‘Tang Yu-shin’s attacks aren’t overwhelmingly heavy.’
If his attacks had matched those of the other Martial Apex Venerables as well, Tang Yu-shin would be the strongest under heaven.
When one aspect of martial arts was exceptionally superior, another was bound to fall short. In Tang Yu-shin’s case, it was his attack power.
Myriad Heavenly Flower Rain made up for that lacking attack power by relentlessly driving home thousands, tens of thousands of strikes. To defeat Tang Yu-shin, they first had to find a way to deal with Myriad Heavenly Flower Rain.
No matter how long they fought head on, if Tang Yu-shin refused a direct fight and unleashed Myriad Heavenly Flower Rain, the outcome at Gangyu would repeat itself.
They had each considered their countermeasures. Surviving Myriad Heavenly Flower Rain firsthand gave Yuri and Estor the chance to think deeply about how they would fight next time.
Both were geniuses acknowledged by all.
Getting hit without knowing what was coming left no room for a response, but being hit once already forced them to wring out a solution.
They had survived after being struck head on by genuine killing intent and reaching the brink of death. That alone let them seize a small clue leading to enlightenment.
The White Snow Trading Company in Jeonjung.
Yuri, Estor, Yeonri Sangah, and the Faceless Killer had arrived there at dawn that day.
If Yuri had his way, he would have stormed Bi-gok Forest immediately. But he was not certain their current strength could handle the entire Dang Family and Salmun.
It would be one thing elsewhere, but they were invading the Dang Family and Salmun’s stronghold.
Even a mutt had an advantage in its own yard. How much more would Tang Yu-shin? The Dang Family and Salmun had accumulated many misdeeds, so their stronghold was surely packed with traps.
On top of that, they held a numerical advantage. If they counted the Dang Family’s collateral branches and Salmun’s lower-ranked assassins, there would easily be several hundred. Here, they only had four.
Of course, one of those four was the Silver Empress of War, one of the strongest Martial Apex Venerables. Still, since they had asked for help, Yuri wanted to finish this decisively.
That was why they waited. He had received word that the Sword Emperor and Cruel Mayhem would arrive within two days at the latest.
Yuri had not expected Cruel Mayhem to come, but there was no reason to complain when their strength had increased.
“Do not be impatient.”
Yuri had been sitting cross-legged and glaring outside without a word for hours. The Faceless Killer, who had been meditating in the corner, finally spoke.
“Ten days have passed since Gangyu. Considering the travel time, they must have reached the Dang Family five days ago. But it is impossible to inherit the Poison King’s poison in only five days.”
The Faceless Killer’s eyes also churned with emotion, just like Yuri’s. The only difference between them was that Yuri glared outside while the Faceless Killer meditated.
“It is not as though the Poison King is on his deathbed. He still has time left, so the Dark King likely took Haryeong only as a last resort. There will not be a second chance, so he will not rush the inheritance of the poison. He will proceed slowly...”
As if repeating the words to himself, the Faceless Killer let out a short sigh.
“The Dark King has no reason to hurry. If he believes you young masters dead, he has even less reason to hurry. There are no rumors at all that the Dark King went to Gangyu.”
Assassins needed to remain secretive. The Dark King had also acted in secret. One needed approval from the administration office to enter a Rift, but there were any number of people who came and went through Rifts without following those procedures.
“Cloud Dragon.”
The Faceless Killer had been quietly watching Yuri’s back. He spoke again.
“Why do you and the Sword Dragon insist on fighting the Dark King again?”
Estor was not in the room. At the moment, Estor was alone in another room, concentrating his mind. He was trying to bring the plan he had devised to counter Myriad Heavenly Flower Rain even a little closer to completion.
“I know you young masters are extraordinary. You likely have no rivals among your peers, and even among all those of the sixth tier, one could count the masters capable of defeating you on one hand. But Martial Apex Venerables are in a category of their own. They stand on a different level.”
“I know.”
“That answer makes it harder to understand. Are you so furious over your defeat at Gangyu that you want to try again?”
“Yes.”
The Faceless Killer let out an incredulous laugh at the immediate response. Slowly shaking his head, he spoke.
“Reckless. Is it because you are young? There are other masters who can handle the Dark King in this fight. You young masters have no reason to risk your lives.”
“We asked for help because we lacked strength, but this is our problem.”
Yuri turned to face the Faceless Killer.
“I failed to protect her. I was defeated because I was weak. If I had been stronger, things would not have gone this far. We would not have needed to ask the Silver Empress of War, the Sword Emperor, Cruel Mayhem, or the Salhomun Leader for help.”
“Before a Martial Apex Venerable, everyone is weak.”
The Faceless Killer muttered with a bitter smile. Yuri quietly looked at him.
“You say that as though you are mocking yourself, but the Salhomun Leader I see does not seem weak at all.”
Yuri had felt it when he first met the Faceless Killer a year ago.
The Faceless Killer was strong. Yet he was more than simply strong. He possessed something beyond martial rank, standing, inner power, Intent, and all the strength those things brought.
But it was neither unpleasant nor alien.
If anything, it was so pure that it seemed transparent.
Yuri’s Transcendent Sight saw and sensed what could not be seen. Yuri sensed that something from the Faceless Killer, and he felt that the Faceless Killer’s vital energy differed greatly from that of ordinary people.
To put it another way, the Faceless Killer’s vital energy resembled natural qi. That was why it was difficult to see through his stealth.
It differed from Tang Yu-shin’s method of thoroughly hiding himself beneath the surface. The Faceless Killer assimilated with the world on the level of qi itself, making it difficult to sense his presence even when he stood right in front of someone.
In other words, the Faceless Killer was an assassin whose stealth techniques surpassed even the Dark King’s.
“With that much power, I cannot understand why you did not teach Haryeong martial arts. Was it because she was a Transmigrator’s daughter? If that was why you drew the line, then why are you here now, Faceless Killer? What exactly do you think of Haryeong? Did you truly mean it when you said blood ties could not be severed so easily?”
The Faceless Killer fell silent for a moment before speaking.
“Blood ties.”
A bitter smile formed on his parted lips.
“At first, as you said, young master, I drew a line between Haryeong and myself. I tried to keep my distance. Though we were blood related, I thought that child was not my sister’s daughter, but the daughter of a Transmigrator. Yet, as you said... I am here. Is it because of blood ties? Or am I here as the Salhomun Leader? Whatever the reason, I cared for that child for ten years.”
When he first heard that his older sister, Jeong Hee-so, was a Transmigrator, he rushed to the Dang Family. Yet he was unable to speak with the Transmigrator wearing his sister’s face.
By the time the Faceless Killer arrived, that Transmigrator had already killed herself in prison.
“That was the first time I went to the Dang Family. I had chances to visit several times, but never deliberately went. I knew the Transmigrator I had thought was my sister was not viewed kindly by the Dang Family... And while I was not part of Salmun, I was still an assassin. As someone busy becoming the Salhomun Leader, coming and going from the Dang Family’s main residence would have drawn attention in many ways.”
The reason he had gone to the Dang Family for the first time. What he saw upon arriving there for the first time.
Everything shattered the Faceless Killer’s heart.
When had the transmigration begun? More than anything, he wanted to confirm that. But he could no longer ask.
At that point, the Faceless Killer fell into deep despair. He forced himself not to take an interest in the young daughter the Transmigrator had left behind.
“When I returned home in despair, a letter had arrived. It was sent by the Transmigrator who had entered my sister’s body. It contained the expected things. By the time I read this letter, I would likely be dead. I am actually a Transmigrator... The letter was full of such things.”
The Faceless Killer paused and closed his eyes.
“There were many things in that letter, but at the end, she begged for forgiveness. Even if I hated her, she pleaded that I not hate her daughter, Tang Yu-ryeon. But how could I do that? You may consider it cruel, but because of that letter, I deliberately waited even longer before bringing Haryeong away.”
“...”
“But as time passed, even hatred dulled. Six years after that Transmigrator died, when Haryeong was fourteen, I had already become the Salhomun Leader and was passing through an empty stretch of time. Suddenly... I thought I should see the child at least once, so I went to the Dang Family. Then I brought her to Salhomun. It felt like something I had to do.”
The Faceless Killer opened his eyes with a long sigh.
“I brought her there, but I did not wish to treat her as a niece. As an assassin, all I could teach were an assassin’s techniques, and that child wished to become an assassin as well. So I raised her as one. Martial arts... Ha ha, you ask why I did not teach her my martial arts? That child also demanded to know why I would not teach them to her several times. But my martial arts cannot be taught.”
“What kind of martial art cannot be taught...?”
“My martial art is the Celibate Arts.”
Yuri’s mouth fell open at the answer.
“I learned the Celibate Arts from childhood. I had no great talent for learning martial arts, nor was I in any position to obtain and learn divine arts or ultimate techniques. Yet I wanted to grow stronger... In such circumstances, there was nothing better to choose than the Celibate Arts.”
The Celibate Arts were a powerful penalty technique that granted attainment in exchange for remaining a virgin for life. Naturally, it would have been impossible to teach them to Haryeong.
At the same time, Yuri understood why the Faceless Killer’s vital energy differed so greatly from ordinary people, and why his inner power was so pure it seemed transparent, scarcely different from natural qi.
The Faceless Killer’s inner power was the purest inner power a man could accumulate, built by preserving his virginity for his entire life.
“Anyway, I did not refrain from teaching Haryeong martial arts because I hated or disliked her. I simply could not teach her.”
“...I am sorry.”
“You need not apologize. ...In any case, impatience will not produce an answer.”
“You do not seem at ease yourself, Sect Leader.”
“You saw right through me. My heart is troubled by many thoughts as well.”
The Faceless Killer closed his eyes after answering that way.
It was not because of the Celibate Arts that his heart was troubled.
* * *
“Has Tang Mu-seok still not returned?”
“Yes. He went to Seodal claiming that he would subjugate bandits, and he has not returned yet.”
“That mad bastard.”
Pursuing-Kill Flying Guest Tang Mu-seok was an elite assassin so loyal to his family and sect that Tang Yu-shin remembered his name and trusted him.
Yet such a person had left the family and sect to perform Ten Good Deeds a Day, and had still not returned. Tang Yu-shin could not help being displeased.
“The Calamity Star has left for the Central Sea. Does he still need to do that damned Ten Good Deeds a Day?”
“Well... Tang Mu-seok himself says that no matter how much he does, it is not enough...”
Not enough? Tang Yu-shin’s brow twitched. It was utterly incomprehensible. He clicked his tongue softly and shook his head.
“How is Tang Yu-ryeon?”
“Though it is diluted poison blood, there is no rejection at all. Within dozens of minutes after taking it, the Primordial Unity Poison gathered in Miss Yu-ryeon’s dantian and formed a Poison Core.”
“Were there no symptoms of nausea or rashes?”
“No.”
Tang Yu-shin narrowed his eyes at the report from the Medical Hall Chief.
It had taken several days to restore Haryeong’s strength by forcing food and medicine down her throat when she refused to eat them.
Beginning yesterday, they had also made her consume small amounts of the poison’s purified blood. Whether she could accept the Primordial Unity Poison or not was decided at this first stage.
Even diluted, Primordial Unity Poison was the Dang Family’s foremost poison. Even someone resistant to poison would not last more than a few minutes if they simply swallowed diluted Primordial Unity Poison.
The Dang Family’s blood possessed strong poison resistance. The blood of Poison Humans, passed down for hundreds of years. Although Tang Yu-shin had not separately cultivated poison arts, he too possessed powerful resistance to poison.
Thus, as long as someone possessed the Dang Family’s blood, swallowing diluted Primordial Unity Poison would not kill them. But it brought terrible pain.
That had been the case with Tang Seo-jin, the second son. Despite attempting it several times with Primordial Unity Poison diluted as much as possible, Tang Seo-jin had ultimately failed to accept it.
In contrast, Tang Seo-woo, the youngest, had been highly compatible with the Primordial Unity Poison.
The first time she took it, she suffered terribly, vomiting blood and breaking out in rashes across her entire body. But after two days, the poison in her body was not expelled and instead coiled in her dantian, becoming a Poison Core.
“Even Seo-baek took a full day to contain the Primordial Unity Poison in his dantian. Tang Yu-ryeon took only dozens of minutes?”
Tang Seo-baek, whom Tang Yu-shin had not expected much from in the first place, swallowed the Primordial Unity Poison at an advanced age and achieved even more than Tang Seo-woo.
Yet Haryeong’s attainment on the first day surpassed Tang Seo-baek’s. If Haryeong had been Tang Yu-shin’s daughter, he would have nodded in satisfaction.
Haryeong was not Tang Yu-shin’s daughter. She was the daughter of the Transmigrator whom he had never once thought of as a younger sister.
It was good that she accepted the Primordial Unity Poison without rejection. But it strayed somewhat from his wishes.
Just as the Poison King had become, Tang Yu-shin had wanted her to become a poison creature without a sense of self. At this rate, Haryeong would become a Poison Human who retained her selfhood.
‘It cannot be helped.’
Even if she became a Poison Human, Tang Yu-shin had no intention of treating Haryeong differently. They had come too far now to become family who shared the same dream.
Having killed Cloud Dragon and Sword Dragon, Tang Yu-shin knew Haryeong would never forgive him.
He did not seek forgiveness. Even if she became a Poison Human instead of a poison creature, there were plenty of ways to control her.
More than a dozen years had passed since the Poison King became what he was, so their methods for handling the Primordial Unity Poison had accumulated.
The reason the Poison King had not immediately destroyed himself with the Primordial Unity Poison and remained alive as a poison creature was because the suppressant created from his poison blood prevented him from destroying himself, and because Silent Blade had been driven into his chest.
‘It would have been better for you if your selfhood had been destroyed like Father’s.’
A life with a faint remnant of consciousness, limbs bound so there was no freedom of movement, suppressant flowing into the veins every day, and a dagger plunged into the heart to prevent rampages.
That was the life Haryeong would live from now on.
“Since a Poison Core has already formed, we may proceed to the next stage.”
Tang Yu-shin rose from his seat.
“Move Tang Yu-ryeon underground.”
* * *
The Black Rabbit Society in Gangyu.
It had been a very long time since he received a communication summons from the Society Leader, so Seo Chung hurried to the Adventurer Guild’s communications desk.
After confirming the familiar alias, Seo Chung entered a communication booth and picked up the receiver.
“Society Leader?”
[Indeed. This Lady is the Black Rabbit Society Leader.]
Seo Chung’s shoulders trembled faintly at the answer.
Even the Society members had never seen behind the mask and did not know the leader’s identity. But to people fated to be discarded as experimental subjects of the Three-Eyed Monster, the Black Rabbit Society Leader was their savior and liege, whom they had to serve for life.
“Society Leader, I have something urgent to report. Cloud Dragon and Sword Dragon, who are supposedly dead, saw through the fact that I am from the Demonic Cult and came to the Black Rabbit Society to cause trouble.”
[...What did you say?]
“Though the two supposedly died in the Rift, it is possible that they told someone else about the Black Rabbit Society...”
[Are Cloud Dragon and Sword Dragon truly dead?]
Seo Chung blinked at the urgent question.
“They say parts of their bodies were found, so... they must be dead.”
[Hmm...! Are you certain?]
“The Sect of Earth has not officially acknowledged it either, so I do not know whether it is certain. Ah, because of that, the Sect of Earth asked our Black Rabbit Society for cooperation. They said to inform them if we find any body parts in the mountains... Dark Blossom's, or an item related to the Three Heroes.”
[Is it not possible that they are alive?]
“I think so too. At least, the Three Heroes I saw were not weak enough to die in the Rift of Gangyu...”
[Hm...! Under the authority of this Society Leader, order the Society members to search the Rift with all their strength and find traces of the Three Heroes.]
“Yes, ma’am.”
The Black Rabbit Society Leader fell silent for a moment at Seo Chung’s response.
[This Society Leader asks you, a Society member, to answer honestly without a single lie.]
“Yes. Please ask.”
[What did Cloud Dragon’s personality seem like?]
“...Pardon?”
[Did he not seem like a madman? Was he not shabbily dressed, spewing curses as foul as the stench atop a Beggars’ Sect member’s head whenever he opened his mouth?]
“Uh... Well, Cloud Dragon did not curse. If anything, Sword Dragon was the one who seemed mad...”
[What...?]
“Sword Dragon was the one who suddenly stormed into the Black Rabbit Society, held a sword to my neck, and raged while demanding to know where you were. Cloud Dragon instead stepped back several paces and watched.”
[Wh... What did you say?]
The Black Rabbit Society Leader’s voice trembled faintly.
[He held a sword...?]
“Yes? Ah, yes. He held a sword. His title is Sword Dragon, after all...”
[Unbelievable... No, was he instead targeting a blind spot? As expected...]
Seo Chung could not understand those words, but the Black Rabbit Society Leader muttered on, even sounding impressed.
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