Father is here?
The Poison King, the one who plays the most crucial role in my father's unification of the Martial World.
Father had come one step ahead to meet him.
Even so, I felt a pleasant tension rather than worry.
The feeling was different from before.
If he had been testing me until now, this time I could feel his intention to have a true contest with me.
It must mean he acknowledged me that much.
In that case, I should enjoy this contest with my father.
This entire process is a memory with my father, and it's my life.
I always promise myself this, but I won't live a life solely for revenge.
One such life is enough.
In this life, I will enjoy things.
Even a contest like this with my father.
I spoke in a loud voice so I could be heard inside the building.
"Father, your son is here! Please allow me to enter."
Sangseon looked flustered.
I was likely the only person in the world who would shout at the Heavenly Demon like this. 'The Young Cult Master is truly incorrigible,' Sangseon seemed to be thinking.
As I looked at his expression, my father's voice came from inside.
“Come in.”
It was a puzzling situation.
Normally, the Poison King should have been the one to speak.
It was a situation where he should have conveyed my father's will, saying something like, 'Escort the Young Cult Master inside.' But my father himself was telling me to come in?
When I opened the door and went inside, an unexpected scene unfolded before me.
From that sight, I could understand why my father had answered instead of the Poison King.
The Poison King was concocting a poison, and my father was helping him.
It was a scene I could never have imagined, so I just stood there blankly, watching them.
In front of the Poison King was the container he used for making poisons.
And floating around it were a dozen or so bottles.
The person keeping those bottles afloat in the air was none other than my father.
From a place far away from the poison's influence, he was helping with the poison-making by manipulating the objects from afar.
He was as far away as the entrance where I stood.
"Black, a little more, please!"
Liquid poured out.
"Green, please stop!"
As he commanded, liquid poured from the bottle with a black paper label, and the bottle with a green paper label stopped pouring its contents.
"This time, please pour blue, red, and purple all at once."
At that, the blue, red, and purple bottles floating in the air tilted simultaneously, pouring out the liquids inside.
Ssss.
Smoke rose from the mixed poisons.
Even as he spoke, the Poison King's hands moved busily.
Amidst the rising poisonous fumes, he was stirring the mixture with a wooden stick and adding other toxins.
It was truly a spectacle.
It might not look like much at a glance, but both my father and the Poison King were displaying their highest level of skill and concentration.
"Blue, stop for a moment! Brown instead."
Again, as the Poison King ordered, the blue bottle stopped, and the brown bottle moved.
Father’s mastery of manipulating objects from afar was truly delicate and precise.
It felt as though he had bestowed life and will upon the bottles.
The Poison King was watching the falling liquid intently, mixing in powders to match its flow.
The only person who could withstand the poison generated in this process was the Poison King himself.
That was why he usually did this work alone.
Pouring this, mixing that.
Just as this truly dangerous and complex process was underway...
"Stop everything!"
At the Poison King's shout, all the bottles floating in the air stopped at once.
A single drop that shouldn't have entered had splashed and was falling inward.
The next moment.
That single drop stopped in mid-air.
My father had stopped that one drop by manipulating it from afar.
Silence fell.
With a single drop of liquid floating in the air, it was as if time had stopped.
It flew back through the air and returned to its original bottle.
That was the moment the Poison King's poison-making was finally complete.
The Poison King’s face was flushed with excitement.
He didn't even know I had come in.
He was focused solely on the poison.
More than the fact that he was making poison with my father, his desire to complete the poison was paramount.
I knew very well that he never had thoughts like 'showing courtesy to the Cult Master.'
The Poison King took out the concocted poison, smelled it, and ran a few tests.
Is the Poison King in his own world right now, or is he in reality?
I could always guess where the Poison King stood, but right now, I felt I didn't know for sure.
After finishing a few checks, the Poison King's expression brightened, and he spoke with a face full of joy.
“It’s a success.”
The Poison King was genuinely happy.
"It was mixed properly this time. I kept failing on my own, but thanks to the Cult Master's help, I succeeded."
This, I believe, is the Poison King's greatest strength.
For the sake of poison, he willingly accepts help from others.
Asking the Demon Buddha to dig up poisonous herbs, and receiving help from my father today, were both examples of this.
A person who easily gets lost in his own world might have displayed pointless pride and stubbornness.
But he surprisingly has no such obstinacy.
That's why I think the Poison King is a frightening person.
Because he is someone who cannot be defined.
"Oh? When did you get here?"
The Poison King finally noticed me.
It wasn't that he was pretending not to know.
He had been so frighteningly focused on making the poison.
"I arrived a while ago."
"I succeeded in making the Ten-Thousand Death Poison."
"Congratulations."
The Ten-Thousand Death Poison was a new poison created by the Poison King, one he had failed to produce dozens of times before.
Sangseon had helped him, but as seen earlier, the process of mixing the poisons was incredibly tricky and difficult, making it hard to produce.
But he had succeeded with my father's help.
"What a shame! I should have been the one to help you succeed."
"Then you would have failed again today."
This was the Poison King's way of thanking my father.
I belatedly greeted my father.
"It seemed you were in the middle of something important, so my greeting is late."
I must not forget.
The one who allowed me to enter this place was my father.
He had intended to show me the scene of him mixing poison with the Poison King.
"I didn't know you were here."
"I was just passing by."
Father, do you know that every time you 'pass by,' everyone's destiny changes drastically? Please don't ever say you feel like dropping by the Martial Alliance!
I imagined a scene where my father and I were standing on a giant Go board.
In this match with the Poison King, the move my father played this time was the move of poison-making.
What conversation did my father and the Poison King have before I arrived? Did he ask him to look after me again? Or was he trying to firmly nail down the Poison King as his man?
"I have returned safely from the Northern Sea."
"Is that so?"
Even to my greeting, the Poison King responded distractedly.
He was looking at the poison he had completed in awe.
He was engrossed in the poison.
He was only responding and asking questions because my father was present.
"Did you manage to get the poisonous herbs that only grow in the Northern Sea?"
"Well, I tried, but..."
I had actually looked for poisonous herbs from time to time on my way back.
But I couldn't find any worthy of bringing as a gift.
"It seems the poisonous herbs get shy and hide whenever they see me. It's all because of you, Father. I'm too handsome, just like you."
A smirk formed on my father's lips.
Seeing that smirk after a long time made me feel good.
Father, please smile like that often.
For now, please give me tests rather than a real contest.
"Father, let's go collect poisonous herbs with the Poison King next time. Surely he won't be able to use even you as a collector."
I said it as a lead-in to a joke about how he used a bet to make the Demon Buddha his collector, but my father asked the Poison King an unexpected question.
"When was it?"
At the sudden question, the Poison King thought for a moment.
"Four years and seven months ago."
"Has it been that long already?"
With a feeling of 'surely not,' I looked back and forth between the two and asked.
"Surely that day four years and seven months ago wasn't the day you two went to collect poisonous herbs together, was it?"
I could tell from the way they looked at each other.
That 'surely not' was the truth.
Although my father often surprised me, this time I was truly shocked.
No matter how I tried to picture it, the image of my father and the Poison King collecting poisonous herbs together didn't quite form in my mind.
Moreover, the Poison King remembered the exact date of that last time.
It meant that it was a precious moment for him as well.
It was also a moment where I felt that winning the Poison King over to my side would not be easy at all.
Suddenly, the words of the Evil Heart Laughing Demon came to mind.
—Even the Cult Master would find him difficult to persuade.
Somehow, I think it will be more difficult for me.
Just then, my father bid his farewell.
"I will be going now."
The Poison King then bowed politely and respectfully.
He didn't say thank you again for helping with the poison mixing.
But I had a feeling that if my father were to one day ask, "When was that?" the Poison King would remember this moment today and answer precisely.
Before leaving, my father looked at me.
His gaze seemed to say:
My move is over.
Now it's your turn.
I could feel my father's confidence.
In his own way, without restraint or coercion, I realized once again that his composure came from his strength.
As soon as my father left the residence, I immediately asked the Poison King.
"Did you ask him to help you with the poison-making first? Is that why my father came?"
"I would not dare. I was about to make the poison when the Cult Master arrived without notice. I was going to postpone it, but he offered to help."
He wouldn't have shown that level of concentration from the very beginning.
They must have had some conversation during the preparation process.
"May I ask what you and my father talked about today?"
Then, a surprising answer came out.
"He didn't say anything."
"Surely you don't mean he didn't say a single word?"
The Poison King nodded.
He had come, only helped with the poison-making, and left just like that.
I could feel that this was a more powerful blow than persuading the Poison King with all sorts of words.
You're just going to leave like that? How am I supposed to win?
Telling the Poison King something contrary to my father's will right now would only backfire.
A hundred words of flattery from me could not possibly win against this heavy blow from my father, who helped make the poison without saying a single word.
"I'll be going for today as well. I am in the middle of a strategic retreat."
Still, I couldn't just leave, so I hinted that my reason for coming today wasn't just for a greeting.
It might have been a rather random remark, but the Poison King didn't ask what it meant.
My father came, and then I came.
He must have sensed that something was happening.
For some reason, the Poison King stopped me.
"Since you're here, help me with something before you go."
"Just say the word."
"Let's bottle this poison first."
The Poison King brought a box.
Inside were about ten bottles, and the box was structured to store them without breaking.
These specially made bottles were designed to be perfectly sealed so that no poison could leak out.
"I'll bottle it. You should rest."
The Poison King sat on a nearby desk and watched me in silence.
I divided the Ten-Thousand Death Poison into the bottles.
The poison filled exactly ten bottles.
I could tell that he had intended to make exactly this one box worth of poison from the start.
If he hadn't succeeded in making the poison, it would have been too little or too much.
How many people could this poison kill? Hundreds? Thousands?
"Take that and follow me."
I put the bottles of poison back into the box.
Carrying the box, I followed the Poison King.
The Poison King went deep into the Thousand Poison Forest.
I had searched for poisonous herbs with him here before.
But the place he took me to today was a place I had never been to before.
The Poison King made a path where there was none and went deep into the forest.
Was there such a place in the Thousand Poison Forest?
It was as if we had entered a new area within the Thousand Poison Forest.
There, all sorts of toxins, more vicious and dangerous than those outside, were present.
Moreover, the area we were walking through now was a swamp.
Not an ordinary swamp.
It was a swamp of death from which a person could never escape if they fell in.
The mist scattered like clouds over the swamp also had poison mixed in it.
This place truly needed no guards, nor did it require any formations.
A place that no one could ever enter unless they were immune to all poisons or the Poison King himself.
I crossed the swamp by stepping on the same stones and branches the Poison King stepped on.
Ch-ch-ch-chut!
Strange sounds came from all around.
As we walked, the Poison King would stop to check the condition of the toxins.
With a boyish face, he explained to me what kind of toxin it was and its current state.
That one over there is angry because it couldn't mate, or that one is sick somewhere.
He recognized things that ordinary people couldn't.
After passing through the swamp, there was a cave.
The cave was also filled with toxins.
If it weren't for the two of us, even an ordinary master would not be able to take a single step into this cave.
At the end of the cave was a heavy iron door.
When the Poison King opened the locked door and went inside, it was a large warehouse.
The moment I stepped inside, I was overwhelmed by the scene that unfolded.
The vast space was filled with bottles.
There were hundreds of shelves, and on them were bottles.
I could tell.
Everything in these bottles was poison.
The amount was enormous, numbering in the thousands.
"All of our sect's poisons are stored here."
This was a secret warehouse for storing the extreme poisons of the Thousand Poison Forest.
Poisons that would be released into the world if a war broke out.
Why did the Poison King bring me here?
"Put the poison you brought at the end over there."
I placed the bottles of Ten-Thousand Death Poison in a line where the Poison King pointed.
The Poison King wrote the name of the poison on the bottles.
The bottles placed next to them also had their own names written on them.
Death Poison, Madness Poison, Blood Poison, Intestine Severing Poison, Severing Poison, Soul-Severing Poison, Annihilation Poison, Yin-Yang Poison, Shadowless Poison, Corpse Poison, Gu Poison, Lost-Soul Poison…
There were all kinds of poisons, too many to count.
Every terrifying poison that existed in the world was here.
Strangely, the arrangement of the poisons was completely different from what I had expected.
I thought the more powerful poisons would be deeper inside, but the bottles of Formless Fatal Poisons were displayed right next to the entrance.
It was an arrangement that gave the feeling of, 'the stronger it is, the faster it should be taken out and used.'
"What will happen if all the poisons here are released into the world?"
From behind me, the Poison King answered.
"Everyone will die."
It was not just an exaggeration.
I was curious about the Poison King's thoughts.
So before asking whether he was on my father's side or my side, I asked this first.
It was the first time I had asked him this question since we met.
"Poison King, why do you make poisons?"