WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
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◈ Martial Arts Survival Guide ◈
Chapter 25: Instead of Doing That
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Innate Martial Genius was a blessing that granted incredible talent for learning martial arts, but unfortunately, it offered no resistance to poison. Of course, if Baek Hyun had wanted to learn poison arts, his talent would have allowed him to make brilliant progress in those, too. But he hadn’t learned poison arts. The only martial art he had learned was the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art.
‘At times like this, the Yin-Yang Incarnation actually seems better.’
He suddenly thought of Sara, who would be training in the Peach Blossom Realm. The Yin-Yang Incarnation held both extreme yin and extreme yang energy within the body from birth. When Baek Hyun had been poisoned by the Tang Clan’s poisons during training, bleeding from all seven openings in his head and barely clinging to life, his master, Ju Han-o, had told him something.
Most poisons had no effect on the Yin-Yang Incarnation.
Apparently, the moment poison entered the body, its extreme yin and extreme yang energies would drive the poison out on their own. An enormous amount of internal energy from birth, and a perk like that on top of it. It didn’t come with a talent for martial arts, but when he compared their various extra perks, the Yin-Yang Incarnation seemed better. They said the grass was always greener on the other side, and that was exactly how Baek Hyun felt right now.
‘I wonder how she’s doing.’
Time flowed differently in the Peach Blossom Realm and the real world. Only five years had passed here, but Baek Hyun had spent twenty years in the Peach Blossom Realm. One year here meant four years there. Baek Hyun smacked his lips. He had grown fond of her after everything they had been through, and he missed Sara.
‘Will she really come?’
She might change her mind during training and return to her homeland, but remembering her tearful face as she promised to come see him made him feel a little choked up.
“What are you thinking about?”
“The old days.”
Jeong Su-a glanced at Baek Hyun as she asked. He answered her and looked ahead. She was managing her pace, running without slowing down. Poison, huh. Looking at Jeong Su-a, whose whole body was covered in tight black clothing, Baek Hyun remembered the hell he had gone through after being poisoned.
People often called poison arts cowardly, dismissing them as underhanded tricks, but his master, Ju Han-o, hadn’t taught him to think that way. Whether someone used a sword or their fists ultimately came down to that person’s intentions and choices. Poison was also a perfectly valid weapon and means of fighting, chosen by the person using it. For that reason, Baek Hyun didn’t consider hidden weapons or stealth techniques cowardly, either.
That aside, poison arts were certainly difficult to deal with. To fight them properly, one first needed to understand poison. What poison did the opponent use? What effects did it have? A person had to know those things and prepare an antidote... Of course, the best answer was to avoid being poisoned in the first place, but things rarely went exactly as planned.
So the next best option was to build resistance to poison. Ju Han-o hadn’t learned poison arts, either, so all the poison masters Baek Hyun had fought in the Peach Blossom Realm had been people from his master’s memories.
His master had made plenty of enemies. There was the head of the Tang Clan, Dark Edict Tang Gi-cheol, and the Seven-Headed Viper, a group of seven chosen from the very best of the Tang Clan’s elites. There was the Lord of Poison Valley in the Southern Wilds. And there was the Poison King, Seo U, one of the world’s twenty greatest martial masters, who had looked down on even those experts. Ju Han-o had fought all those poison masters, and thanks to him, Baek Hyun had fought them all, too.
In truth, he didn’t know what sort of people they had been. He had spoken with them, but the people he had encountered were creations of the Peach Blossom Realm’s mysterious power, based on Ju Han-o’s memories. He knew nothing about their personal lives. They had shown him nothing but unconditional hostility, without any reason or context. Their attacks had been merciless. He could only marvel at how his master had survived against such people.
Their poisons had been terrible enough to make him think that. Twenty years in the Peach Blossom Realm. He had experienced all sorts of pain and defeat, but... the worst pain had naturally come from poison. Those people weren’t younger versions of his master, nor were they friendly helpers. They were enemies, plain and simple, so they hadn’t taught him how to handle poison or given him any useful advice. Ju Han-o hadn’t been able to teach him how to make antidotes, either.
He had simply endured repeated poisoning and built up resistance. It was an incredibly crude method, but it was only possible in the Peach Blossom Realm, where he couldn’t truly die. And it had worked. The pain had nearly driven him mad, but he had overcome the poisons of the Tang Clan and the Southern Wilds.
He hadn’t overcome the Poison King’s Utterly Lethal Poison, though. He had killed the Poison King, but only by doing it before the Poison King could unleash that poison. Even Ju Han-o had said that was the answer. For Baek Hyun back then, overcoming Utterly Lethal Poison had been impossible.
‘Is immunity to all poisons just a fantasy?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Why don’t you know?’
‘Because I’ve never experienced Formless Poison.’
‘Formless Poison?’
‘Poison without form or smell. If the Mind Sword allows someone to cut an opponent without swinging a sword, then Formless Poison supposedly poisons an opponent through will alone... It is what poison practitioners call the ultimate mastery of poison arts.’
‘Isn’t that complete bullshit?’
‘The Mind Sword exists, so Formless Poison could exist, too. The Poison King came closest to it in the martial world, but I killed the Poison King before it could be perfected. So I have no way to confirm whether I’m immune to all poisons.’
Ju Han-o had sometimes said that with genuine regret. Baek Hyun still couldn’t believe that a level called Formless Poison really existed. The Poison King’s Utterly Lethal Poison had been bad enough. Wasn’t poisoning someone through will alone taking things too far?
“Over there.”
Jeong Su-a stopped after checking her map. She pointed at a towering cliff filled with large holes. The place looked so suspicious that something nasty simply had to be lurking inside those holes.
“Then which one should we...?”
As Jeong Su-a considered the many openings, Baek Hyun murmured,
“...Hm.”
He wrinkled his nose slightly. Jeong Su-a tilted her head at him.
“What’s wrong?”
“The smell.”
At his mutter, Jeong Su-a flinched and brought her arm to her nose, sniffing it.
“W-well, this is leather, so... Um... It does breathe pretty well, though...”
“No, not you. There’s a smell coming from in there.”
“What?”
“Blood.”
Baek Hyun’s face twisted. He pointed at the highest opening in the cliff.
“That one. Quite a lot of it... But I can’t sense anyone alive. Judging by the smell, they haven’t been dead for long.”
“Oh...”
Understanding what he meant, Jeong Su-a let out a small sigh.
“...Other hunters must have entered the Demon-Faced Spider’s nest. It’s not unusual for hunters to die like that, but...”
“I suppose not.”
Baek Hyun smacked his lips as he muttered. At times like this, he truly felt that he was no longer in the Peach Blossom Realm. No matter how often he died there, he never truly died. But outside, and in the Abyss, death was the end.
Come to think of it, though, this was his first encounter with corpses. At the Abyss Entry Station, he had wiped out the monsters before anyone had a chance to die. Since entering the Abyss, he had run straight here without spending much time in any monster territory.
“Oppa, are you okay?”
Seeing his expression stiffen, Jeong Su-a asked with concern. At the sound of her voice, Baek Hyun raised a hand and felt his face. It was his own skin, but touching it felt strangely unfamiliar. He gave a faint chuckle.
“I’m fine.”
After answering, he glanced at Jeong Su-a.
“If any of these holes will do, let’s go there.”
“What?”
“We came to hunt Demon-Faced Spiders anyway. We might as well choose that one.”
With that, Baek Hyun leaped up and entered the cave.
[The Serpent of Regeneration is at a loss.]
The voice sounded in Jeong Su-a’s head. She flinched, and more messages followed.
[The Serpent of Regeneration is pondering.]
[The Serpent of Regeneration wishes to test you.]
‘A test...?’
Her shoulders twitched. She immediately jumped after Baek Hyun and entered the cave he had chosen.
The first thing she saw was the horribly torn corpse of a foreigner. The hunter had been wearing sturdy armor, but it hadn’t protected their body from the Demon-Faced Spider’s attacks.
“A guild...”
“One you know?”
“No... I don’t recognize it.”
Jeong Su-a answered with a bitter smile. That was understandable. Just as there were far too many hunters, there were far too many guilds. Guilds had started when the first hunters to enter the Abyss gathered with like-minded people they worked well with, hoping to improve their chances of survival. It was like playing in a party in an online MMORPG.
“They probably came here without knowing it was a Demon-Faced Spider’s nest.”
“So they were careless.”
“Yes... Sadly, a lot of hunters die like this in the Abyss.”
“What happens to hunters who die here?”
“What do you mean?”
“These people must have families, too.”
“...If someone finds a body, it’s customary to report it. You collect their bracelet and take it to the Abyss Administration Bureau, and they handle the rest. If no one finds the body... Well, their bracelet records show that they haven’t left the Abyss, so that gets reported... After some time, they’re listed as missing, then declared dead.”
“Their families don’t get any compensation, do they?”
“...No.”
Of course not. Baek Hyun smiled bitterly. Anyone could enter the Abyss, and anyone could leave as long as they found a gate. Coming here and risking their lives to hunt monsters was their own choice.
He approached the corpse and lifted the remains of an arm lying on the ground. He removed its bracelet and shoved it into his pants pocket.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Jeong Su-a felt the change in Baek Hyun’s presence. Breathing had become a little difficult. She took a deep breath and followed him as he walked ahead. The farther they went, the more bodies they found. The corpse near the entrance had apparently belonged to someone who had died just before they could escape.
The cave was long, and the darkness was deep. As they advanced, the corpses that greeted them grew so horribly mangled that it was impossible to tell their original shapes. There was no light, but neither Baek Hyun nor Jeong Su-a had much trouble seeing their surroundings.
“This is strange.”
Jeong Su-a had remained silent because of the sudden change in Baek Hyun’s mood, but now she spoke.
“Demon-Faced Spiders take bodies back to their webs and eat them slowly... But they just killed everyone here. They tore them apart and melted them with venom until there was nothing left to eat.”
“Maybe they were full.”
“Even so, it’s too strange... And we’ve come this far without seeing a single Demon-Faced Spider.”
“They’re here.”
Baek Hyun spoke before she finished. He could already sense the swarming presence of things that weren’t human deeper inside the cave.
It was a disgusting feeling. Like knowing a cockroach he had spotted and lost track of was still lurking somewhere nearby.
Something he wanted to kill the moment he saw it.
Skree!
A huge spider crawled rapidly across the ceiling. True to its name, it had the face of a ghost. In fact, rather than a spider, it looked more like a ghost lying on its back and crawling on its limbs. Messy, tangled hair hung down, and eight red eyes shone in the middle of its face. It looked like a naked woman with eight long limbs bent at grotesque angles. Baek Hyun clicked his tongue at the breasts that swung with every movement.
“I’m going to test something.”
“What?”
Jeong Su-a asked in confusion. The Demon-Faced Spider leaped from the ceiling at Baek Hyun, who had stopped at the front. Its long arms lashed out like whips and struck his body. The vicious speed, the sharp nails. Baek Hyun remembered the bodies he had seen on the way in, torn to death.
“Not that.”
Muttering, he gave a careless wave of his hand. Crack. There was a dull sound. The Demon-Faced Spider’s two attacking arms broke and tore free. Thud, thud. They struck the wall.
Skree!
“Venom.”
Baek Hyun approached the Demon-Faced Spider as it tumbled across the ground. Jeong Su-a stared blankly at him.
‘What was that?’
She wasn’t sure what he had done. Had he... waved his arm? Like he was shooing away a mosquito buzzing around him...
That was how it had looked to her. It had simply been far too fast.
“Spit out your venom. Your venom.”
Grumbling, Baek Hyun stood in front of the Demon-Faced Spider. Two of its arms had been torn off, but it still had six limbs left, whether they were arms or legs. As it staggered and tried to get up, Baek Hyun raised his index finger for it to see. Black light gathered at his fingertip.
“Instead of doing that...”
He flicked his finger. Thwack, thwack, thwack! The gathered black light shot out and severed all six of the Demon-Faced Spider’s remaining limbs. It screamed and shook its body.
“Your venom...”
He didn’t need to finish. Khak! The Demon-Faced Spider opened its mouth wide and spewed thick green fluid.
“Oppa!”
Jeong Su-a screamed. Instead of dodging, Baek Hyun walked straight toward it. He spread his arms wide without even raising his protective force aura. Splosh! The Demon-Faced Spider’s venom drenched him. His short-sleeved shirt quickly began to dissolve.
“...Hm.”
He could accept losing his shirt, but he couldn’t let his pants melt. It might have been different if he were alone, but he didn’t want to end up naked in front of Jeong Su-a. He hurriedly raised his protective force aura around his lower body. The venom that had dissolved his shirt clung to his skin. It stung a little, like he had applied a liquid pain reliever.
That was all.
Feeling slightly disappointed, Baek Hyun brushed the venom off his upper body. In truth, poison this strong would have held its own anywhere in the martial world, but he had been imagining the Poison King’s Utterly Lethal Poison. This fell far short of his expectations.
“Not much to it.”
Just in case, he put a venom-covered fingertip in his mouth and sucked on it. Jeong Su-a screamed again at the sight, but all he felt was a slight sting inside his mouth. Poison at this level didn’t even need to be driven out with internal energy.
Baek Hyun swished the remaining venom around in his mouth, then pursed his lips at the Demon-Faced Spider’s face as it coughed and wheezed.
Ptoo!
The long stream of venom-laced spit pierced straight through its face. It died without even managing a scream. Jeong Su-a stared at Baek Hyun, at a complete loss for words.
“You can handle them from here on.”
As he spoke, Baek Hyun brushed off the rest of the poison clinging to his body.
“Also, there’s something a little stronger than this one farther in. I’d like to try getting hit by its venom first, too. Is that okay?”
“Uh... um... Oppa... Are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“The... venom. The venom.”
“I’m fine.”
“You got hit... Ah... No, you swallowed it...”
“It didn’t taste very good.”
Looking at his frown, Jeong Su-a had no idea how she was supposed to respond. Then a thought suddenly struck her, making her flinch.
“There’s a stronger monster inside?”
“Yeah.”
“The queen!”
Jeong Su-a shouted.
“It’s probably... It’s probably the queen. The Demon-Faced Spider Queen!”
“The queen?”
“Yes! I was wondering why they’d left the hunters’ bodies here instead of taking them to their webs...!”
Jeong Su-a’s face was full of excitement.
“The queen’s about to give birth to her successor! When it’s time to lay eggs, she fills her stomach, then stops eating entirely when the laying is close. And the Demon-Faced Spiders serving her stop eating, too. So...”
“If she wants to starve, she should starve on her own. Why make her underlings go hungry, too?”
“...Maybe she doesn’t like seeing her underlings with full stomachs while she’s going hungry?”
“What a nasty piece of work. But is that really something to be so happy about?”
“Yes!”
Jeong Su-a nodded vigorously.
“This is when the queen’s venom is at its strongest!”
‘Ah, Serpent of Regeneration. So this is why you sent me here...!’
[The Serpent of Regeneration is at a loss.]
While Jeong Su-a praised the monarch she served, Baek Hyun looked deeper into the cave, his eyes shining.
“You don’t mind if I get hit by it before I give it to you, right?”
Baek Hyun pulled his shorts up to his belly button.
‘Which underwear did I put on today?’
Even if his shorts melted, he was determined to protect his underwear at all costs.
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