WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 161: Poison King 3
──────
The barrage of punches.
The Sacred Flame Release Yuri drove in at the end destroyed Tang Yu-shin from within, just as it had before.
Yuri had won this fight, and Tang Yu-shin had lost.
That should have been the end. Even if Tang Yu-shin had not died immediately, he could no longer fight. Even given enough time, he would never recover.
Sacred Flame Release had completely ruined the life of the martial artist once called the Dark King.
That was how it should have ended.
A chilling premonition made Yuri leap upward. At the same moment, the death-infested ground surged up and swallowed Tang Yu-shin whole.
It was the Poison King’s Poison Qi. His true body was restrained by the Martial Apex Venerables, but the Poison Qi that had seeped into the ground suddenly erupted and devoured Tang Yu-shin.
“What, what is that?”
Yuri blurted out in shock. Even Transcendent Sight could not properly see through that incredibly dense Poison Qi. He felt a strange power within the dreadful poison, which would not leave even a fragment of bone behind if it swallowed someone whole.
Everyone sensed the abnormality. The Sword Emperor stopped swinging his sword and looked at the Poison King.
Squelch!
Someone rose from atop the enormous mass of Poison Qi.
“...?”
It was Tang Yu-shin. He looked different from before. Though he was not wearing the Dark Battle, Strange Night Garb, the skin over his entire body was dull and black.
No one understood the sight. Tang Yu-shin did not either. He looked down at his hands, then sharply drew in a breath.
Rumble!
The “power” circulating through his body was different. It was neither inner power nor blood.
This was poison. Poison that Tang Yu-shin had cast aside.
“Ah... Aaaah...!”
Tang Yu-shin clutched his head and screamed. Light kept bursting inside his mind. At that moment, Tang Yu-shin had merged with the Poison King, his father, whom he had stabbed with a dagger long ago.
Through that, Tang Yu-shin understood the Poison King’s martial arts.
“Hahaha! Hahahahaha!”
As Tang Yu-shin laughed like a madman, the Poison King moved again. When the giant extended a hand, deathly Poison Qi spread in every direction.
The Sword Emperor’s blade, which had frozen in surprise, flashed in answer to death.
KRAAASH!
Dozens of slashes flew through the air, shredding the Poison Qi apart.
“What the hell is that now?!”
Chuk-sin-doo jumped back and screamed. He had killed the Poison King countless times in the game, but he had never seen a pattern like that. Was that even really the Poison King?
Boom!
The Madorido he kicked pierced through the Poison Qi.
Yuri was just as flustered. He had finally thought he had killed that son of a bitch, Tang Yu-shin. So what the hell was this? Why had Tang Yu-shin, swallowed by Poison Qi, come back looking like that?
[Huh.]
His head throbbed, and then he heard a voice. Yuri flinched to a stop as the voice continued.
[Well, this is certainly strange and interesting.]
It was the God of War’s voice. The miracle dwelling within Yuri was speaking directly to him. Yuri swallowed hard.
‘What is that?’
[There is a fair bit of reverence in that question. Have you taken a liking to my miracle?]
The God of War laughed heartily and continued.
[Just as the power bestowed upon you is a miracle, that too is a miracle. Chaos has bestowed power upon that disgusting thing.]
Chaos? The Evil God? Yuri’s mouth fell half open. Why was the Evil God suddenly appearing here?
[An Evil God? Ahahaha... What does it matter what one calls a god? Foreign spirit, just as I gaze upon every place where war exists, it is only natural for the god called Chaos to gaze upon places where chaos exists. The new faith born there is so sweet and fresh.]
The God of War laughed.
[Still, the miracle bestowed upon that thing is even more special and direct. The power of Chaos dwells within that dead one. The sacrifice meant to be offered to me was caught in the miracle granted to the dead one because the dead one wanted him.]
‘You mean the Poison King wanted to save his son?’
Yuri could not help asking in disbelief. The Poison King had been consumed by his Inner Demon, and his sense of self had collapsed. The current Poison King was nothing more than a poison creature, without human will.
[Human will does not disappear so easily. Is that not the proof before your eyes?]
As the God of War continued speaking, another change came over Yuri’s body. The body that had been battered to pieces in his battle against Tang Yu-shin rapidly recovered.
[This place, where my banner has been planted, is my Sacred Domain!]
The God of War’s voice boomed through Yuri’s mind.
[A clash of Sacred Domains against Sacred Domains, miracles against miracles, divine powers against divine powers! War, this is war! Ahahaha! Now, what are you waiting for? Foreign spirit, mortal! Go wage war!]
“Ghk...”
It was not just his wounds healing. More power flooded into him. Yuri shuddered as he felt like his body might burst apart.
[Offer this fight to me, and make it perfectly clear who the master of war is!]
The God of War’s cry pushed Yuri forward.
Yuri did not hesitate any longer and kicked off the ground. He felt as though he had to pour out this insane power somehow.
The strength filling his palm gathered into a massive Thunder Orb.
Krrrrooom!
The Thunder Orb left his hand and reached Tang Yu-shin’s face in an instant.
“Aaaaaah!”
Tang Yu-shin roared, his face twisted, and swung his hand. The black Poison Qi filling the surroundings moved according to his will.
KRAAASH!
The Thunder Orb collided with the Poison Qi, and poisonous mist spread everywhere.
It was the poisonous mist of Primordial Unity Poison, the greatest of the Dang Family’s Hundred Poisons. He could not face it head-on.
Even knowing that, Yuri did not slow down.
Yuri’s eyes saw the flow of the poisonous mist precisely, and his outstretched hand guided it.
Whoosh!
Blazing flames cut through the mist and opened a path forward.
Boom!
Yuri collided with Tang Yu-shin. Tang Yu-shin’s arm was forced upward and bent at an angle it should never have bent, but Tang Yu-shin felt no pain from it.
Of course he did not. His body had effectively died from Sacred Flame Release earlier.
The only reason he could think and move now was because the Poison King’s poison, which filled his body, did not want his son to die.
“Yuri!”
Estor, who had retreated beyond the Poison Qi’s range with Gongsun Myeong and the Faceless Killer, shouted furiously.
He wanted to rush in and swing his sword alongside Yuri, but his earlier injuries and the rampant Poison Qi made it impossible to get close.
From a considerable distance away, Yuri and Estor’s eyes met. Yuri moved his lips.
“Son of a bitch.”
He was telling him to sit down and watch. Estor let out a hollow laugh and dropped heavily to the ground.
“What exactly is happening?”
The Sword Emperor’s voice reached Yuri as he landed. Yuri watched Tang Yu-shin force his broken arm back into place and answered.
“The Evil God has bestowed a miracle upon the Poison King.”
“What...?”
“I don’t know the exact reason either, but all of this is the Poison King’s wish made real. Him crawling out from underground and rampaging, protecting that idiot son of his from dying, all of it is the Poison King’s will.”
“...”
“I’ll go finish off that bastard Tang Yu-shin, so please stop the Poison King, Sword Emperor.”
“You are asking me not to kill him.”
Yuri thought briefly at the Sword Emperor’s question, then nodded.
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
After hearing the reply, Yuri shot back into the sky. The Sword Emperor blankly watched Yuri’s back vanish into the distance, then slowly turned his head.
Within the dense Poison Qi, he saw the Poison King, connected to the poison and looking like a ruined corpse. Haryeong and Tang Seo-woo were beside him.
Only then did the Sword Emperor understand everything.
The Poison King, who had supposedly been in the underground training chamber, had emerged to drive away the enemies invading his family.
He held those two children within the Poison Qi to protect them.
“Hah...”
Even if his sense of self had collapsed and he could not think clearly, the Poison King still possessed such a will. The Sword Emperor let out a long sigh and raised his sword.
Crack!
The Madorido rushing toward the Poison King was blocked by the Sword Emperor’s blade. Chuk-sin-doo, who had kicked the Madorido, opened his eyes wide and looked at the Sword Emperor.
“Hey, boomer, what the fuck are you doing?”
“...”
The Sword Emperor’s brow twitched. He did not know what “old fossil” meant, but judging from the way Chuk-sin-doo said it, it could not have been a compliment.
The Sword Emperor glared at Chuk-sin-doo for a moment, then sighed again.
“Everyone, step back.”
His voice carried a sigh, but there was firm resolve in his words. Yeonri Sangah, who had watched him for a moment, nodded and put away the Crescent Moon Netherwedding Blade.
“You intend to do this alone?”
Elleia asked as she put away her greatsword.
“The Poison King is my friend. If even a shred of his will remains, then this is something I must do.”
He remembered something from decades ago.
His first meeting with Tang Ji-hoo, the Poison King and head of the Dang Family at the time.
It had begun with the Rift of Ranalsa, managed by the Orsia Family. The Poison King had been developing a new poison art at the time, and he had taken an interest in the corpse poison carried by the undead swarming Ranalsa.
He wanted to stay in Ranalsa for a while and hunt undead and monsters. The Poison King came to the Orsia Family estate in person to convey his wish, and the Sword Emperor accepted him.
There was no reason to refuse. The Rift of Ranalsa, which they had managed for fifty years, was a headache for the Orsia Family.
The undead of Ranalsa were hard to handle for anyone below the fifth tier, and unless they were completely destroyed, they would revive even after being killed. And there were not only undead there. Other monsters swarmed the place as well.
The worst part was that if a perfectly healthy person died in Ranalsa, they would rise again as undead.
That was why the Sword Emperor periodically visited the Rift of Ranalsa himself to cull the undead.
Then the Poison King, a Martial Apex Venerable, had come asking to stay in such a place.
Once the Sword Emperor accepted his request, the Poison King made an unexpected proposal.
He wanted to spar once. Though it was not a life-or-death duel and he could not use his deadliest poisons, the Poison King was highly eager to spar.
The Sword Emperor could not help feeling suspicious.
‘Could everything he said earlier be an excuse? Did he come here to assassinate me?’
Why use such a troublesome method? He did not dwell on it for long. The moment he looked into the Poison King’s eyes, the Sword Emperor nodded and accepted the spar.
Naturally, the Sword Emperor won the spar. But the Poison King’s martial prowess was truly exceptional.
Even without his deadliest poisons, his palm arts were threatening. The unusual methods of battle created through poisons mixed within his body broadened the Sword Emperor’s perspective.
After the spar, they spoke for a long time.
And they became friends.
“Tang Ji-hoo.”
With a bitter expression, the Sword Emperor extended his sword.
Whoosh!
Dazzling light wrapped around the blade.
“I never thought we would spar again in this manner.”
The Sword Emperor shook his head and stepped forward.
Rumble!
A massive wave of Poison Qi crashed toward him, but it was cut apart and scattered before it could reach him.
Yuri had told him not to kill the Poison King. It must have been because he had merged with Tang Yu-shin. Did Cloud Dragon have a way to save them?
The Sword Emperor cut through all the Poison Qi surging around him and looked up at the sky.
“Ahahaha! Hahahahaha!”
Intent would not connect to the scattered Black Scales. No, to be precise, Intent itself would not rise.
It did not matter. Though he could no longer use the concealed weapon arts he had trained and honed all his life, Tang Yu-shin reveled in the Poison Qi that had invaded even his brain.
This terrifying poison had perfectly replaced his inner power and Intent. Was that all? Every martial art belonging to his father, the Poison King, was in his mind.
Heavenly Slaughter Primordial Unity Art.
The Poison Qi filling the surroundings moved freely according to Tang Yu-shin’s will. Tang Yu-shin thrust forward a hand overflowing with Poison Qi.
Primordial Unity Eternal Annihilation Palm.
When the poison-wrapped hand struck the air, the black Poison Qi became a giant hand and descended upon Yuri.
‘This bastard.’
Yuri extended a hand before the incoming Poison Hand. The Blood Wheel that had already been spinning burst the Poison Hand and opened a path.
‘Why is he grinning like that?’
Yuri could not understand the reason at all.
He had already destroyed and killed this guy head-on once. He had only come back through a stroke of luck.
His attacks had changed from concealed weapons to poison, but that was all.
Poison Qi was troublesome. Unlike concealed weapon arts, even a shallow graze from these attacks would be fatal. He could not use his earlier strategy of taking a few hits to deal a decisive one.
Did that make this difficult? Had he become disadvantaged? No.
Thanks to the God of War, his injuries had healed and his strength had increased. Yuri was the one who had become stronger, so why was that idiot grinning like that?
‘It is not like he has become stronger than before he died.’
If anything, Yuri felt he was easier to deal with now.
The martial arts he used had changed, but they were not enough to make Yuri wary.
The Tang Yu-shin from earlier had been more troublesome and stronger. Intent had overflowed from him, attacks had come from every direction in bizarre ways, and unseen concealed weapons had threatened Yuri.
But what about now?
The Poison Qi surging from every direction obeyed Tang Yu-shin’s will. The palm arts he unleashed clearly drew in Poison Qi and spread death.
But there was no depth to his methods.
‘He does not know how to use it.’
What was dangerous about learning a new skill if you did not know how to use it properly?
Tang Yu-shin was exactly like that now. Drunk on poison arts he had never trained or used in his life, he was simply throwing attacks around blindly.
He could not even use poison arts to invoke a Conceptual Apotheosis.
‘No, he cannot use Intent itself.’
Yuri saw the Poison Qi flowing through Tang Yu-shin’s body. Poison was all Tang Yu-shin could use now. He could not use the Black Scales or the Dark Battle, Strange Night Garb.
‘What about me?’
He expanded the overflowing Intent. He added Intent to everything he could do.
His previous battle had taught him how to fight at this level.
So now, he could go further. He could do it now. Intense certainty bound his Intent into one.
Intent gave rise to apotheosis.
Asura Shatters the Heavens.
The fiercely burning flames devoured all the Poison Qi around him. The expanding blaze showed no satisfaction, growing as though it would burn the entire world to ashes.
Within it, Yuri’s eyes flashed with red light.
Tang Yu-shin flinched at the sight and stopped laughing.
“Aaaaaah!”
With a roar, Tang Yu-shin thrust out both palms. Heavenly Slaughter Primordial Unity Art guided an endless amount of Poison Qi.
But the poison could not even advance properly before it was swallowed by the flames.
The flames only grew larger.
The Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil was a blazing fire. Within Yuri’s Mental Image, that immense flame continued to burn.
If Heavenly Demon’s Divine Art was a martial art of domination, then the Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil devoured and burned everything.
Lorelia had said that flames did not exist only to burn. They also lit up the night and brought warmth.
But the essence of flame was still to burn.
That was Yuri’s Conceptual Apotheosis, Asura Shatters the Heavens.
Why would there be any reason to bring light and warmth to someone who had to die? For this fire to become light, it first had to burn every bastard who deserved to die.
‘I am the fire that carries out Heaven’s punishment, the asura that annihilates evil, and the apostle who sets right the order of Heaven.’
At that moment, Yuri truly was the fire that carried out Heaven’s punishment, the asura that annihilated evil, and the apostle who set right the order of Heaven.
‘My hands uphold the Sacred Flame, and my feet trample demons.’
When Yuri extended his hand, the blazing Sacred Flame burned away the Poison Qi. When Yuri stepped forward, even death burned away and vanished from the land where death had run rampant.
‘I swallow the Sacred Flame and burn it within me. I advance and illuminate the Sacred Flame.’
Yuri was within the fire now.
This fire was Yuri himself.
Yuri twisted his lips into a smile as boundless Intent unfolded.
Tang Yu-shin could not laugh. Every blast of poison he fired was burned away by the flames, and fire now filled the entire area.
Yuri extended a finger and pointed at Tang Yu-shin.
That alone made Tang Yu-shin flinch and step back.
“Flame Lightning.”
Krrrrooom!
Scarlet flame became lightning and struck Tang Yu-shin’s head.
It did not end with one strike. Lightning shot out from the flames filling the surroundings as well.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
He could not escape the lightning woven together like chains. It was lightning and flame. Tang Yu-shin screamed at the heat that seemed to burn even his soul.
The Poison Qi filling his body resisted Flame Lightning, but the flames of Asura Shatters the Heavens burned the Poison Qi within Tang Yu-shin just as Sacred Flame Release had.
To resist a Conceptual Apotheosis, one had to invoke Intent in kind. Tang Yu-shin could not do that now.
All he could do was writhe and scream.
Yuri smiled as blood streamed from his nose. He had leaped far beyond his original level and invoked a Conceptual Apotheosis, placing an intense burden upon his forcibly expanded Upper Dantian.
It hurt enough to feel as though his head would split open, but Yuri smiled.
He could not help it.
He had believed he could do it. And he had done it.
Woooooo!
There was a commotion below. Beyond the blazing fire, Yuri saw the mutilated giant roaring.
The giant, all four limbs severed, was restoring his body with Poison Qi while swaying toward them.
Yuri looked down for a moment, then withdrew the flames that had continued burning Tang Yu-shin.
“Hey.”
He wiped away the blood flowing from his nose and grabbed Tang Yu-shin by the throat.
“Let’s go see your dad.”
Yuri held onto Tang Yu-shin and dropped toward the ground.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
