The Legend of the Northern Blade

TL: FoodieMonster007; ED: TheGreatT20

“KUHUHU!” The crazed man roared with laughter as he repeatedly slammed his head against the metal bars of his cell despite his already cracked and bleeding skull. His eyes were bloodshot, and drool dripped down from his mouth.

Baffled, Tang Gi-Mun exclaimed, “What the hell…?”

Tang Mi-Ryeo, who was next to him, wore a similarly befuddled expression as she mumbled, “This is the murderous lunatic?”

“Yes, and it took several of our sect’s experts working together just to capture him alive.” Im Soo-kwang replied. In fact, out of the five Tyrant Fist Sect masters mobilized to capture the madman, two were injured.

Right now, the madman was still desperately trying to escape from his cell by slamming his broken body against the metal bars, and every time he struck it, they heard an ominous cracking sound.

Tang Gi-Mun observed the madman closely, saying, “This is not a normal type of lunacy. He might have caught rabies from being bitten by a dog…”

Tang Gi-Mun paused and shook his head. Rabies wasn’t a disease that could increase the strength of normal humans severalfold.

“Regardless, I’ll need to give him a physical examination. Can you put him to sleep?”

“We tried draining his blood to knock him unconscious, but it didn’t work.”

“Hmm! If even draining his blood doesn’t calm him down, then that can only mean that there is a problem with his circulatory system. Is it caused by poison, after all?”

Since every other option had been eliminated, the only cause of the insanity left was poison.

Tang Gi-Mun took a small ceramic bottle out from his chest pocket and tossed it into the madman’s cell.

CRACK!

The bottle smashed to pieces, releasing white smoke from within.

“What’s that?”

“It’s the poison of the Blood-Forgetting Grass, a plant that only grows in South Africa. It’s not particularly lethal, but it’s highly effective in reducing brain activity, hence inducing sleep.”

As Im Soo-Kwang started wondering if Tang Gi-Mun was familiar with every kind of poison in existence. Tang Gi-Mun observed the madman closely to see if his poison had worked.

At first, there was no change in the madman’s behavior, but suddenly, just as everyone began to think that the poison hadn’t worked after all, the madman stumbled like a drunkard and collapsed to the ground.

Tang Gi-Mun and Tang Mi-Ryeo quickly opened the cell door and examined the unconscious madman. Tang Gi-Mun pulled out a wooden box from his chest pocket and opened it, revealing dozens of silver needles. He took out the longest, thickest needle and stabbed it three inches into the madman’s chest, causing him to convulse.

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Tang Gi-Mun and Tang Mi-Ryeo immediately tensed up, but thankfully, the madman did not wake up.

Tang Gi-Mun pulled out the silver needle and looked at it, saying, “Hmm, this is not a normal type of poison.”

Most poisons would cause a silver needle to turn black, but there were some that would not, so Tang Gi-Mun decided to try some other methods of detection. He took out a folded piece of paper filled with white powder, unfolded it, then placed the paper underneath the madman’s nose so that he would breathe in the powder.

Off to the side, Im Soo-Kwang looked on with interest, wondering how exactly Tang Gi-Mun, the Tang Clan’s Poison Pavilion Head, was diagnosing the madman’s condition. He was quite unfamiliar with poisons, as like many other martial artists, he mostly shunned people who used poisons, thinking of them as underhanded. However, the Tang Clan was an exception.

Although the Tang Clan was famous for their violent forms of justice, he rarely heard of them using poison against their enemies. That was because the usage of poison was highly regulated within the Tang Clan, such that it would not be abused.

Unfortunately, inhaling the white powder did not cause a reaction in the madman.

“No response, huh? Looks like this is not an animal-derived poison.”

“How did you know that?”

“This powder is used to detect only animal poisons.”

“Does that mean that different techniques are used to detect different kinds of poisons?”

“Of course. There are three main types of poison: animal poison, plant poison, and mineral poison. Each type of poison can then be further divided into subcategories, for example, animal poisons include insect venom, snake venom etc. This white powder in particular takes advantage of a common characteristic within all animal poisons to distinguish them from other types of poison.”

“Wow!” Im Soo-Kwang exclaimed, awed by Tang Gi-Mun’s explanation.

Tang Gi-Mun took out yet another powder packet, but this time, the powder was red. He similarly let the madman inhale the powder, but again, there was no response.

“Now for the final test.”

The last type of powder that Tang Gi-Mun made the madman inhale was silver. For a while, there was no change in the madman, but just as a disappointed expression appeared on Im Soo-Kwang’s face, the madman opened his eyes and began to convulse.

Im Soo-Kwang’s eyes lit up as he asked, “There’s a response! Does this mean that mineral poison is the cause of his madness?”

“No, something’s off…” Tang Gi-Mun shook his head. In the case of mineral poisoning, the normal reaction to the silver powder was rashes, not convulsions.

“KEUAAAACK!”

Suddenly, the madman scrambled to his feet and charged at Tang Gi-Mun. Everything happened so quickly that even Im Soo-Kwang, who was standing right next to Tang Gi-Mun, had no time to react.

The madman grabbed onto Tang Gi-Mun’s shoulders with such force that he felt his muscles being painfully torn apart.

CRACK!

“AHHH!” Tang Gi-Mun screamed as his shoulders were dislocated, his eyes wide open in shock.

“Fuck!” Im Soo-Kwang rushed forward to protect Tang Gi-Mun, his mind finally registering the unexpected assault.

“D-Don’t kill him…!” Tang Gi-Mun shouted.

In an instant, Im Soo-Kwang adjusted his attack to disable rather than kill, sending a palm strike right into the madman’s solar plexus.

BOOM!

Struck by Im Soo-Kwang’s pot-lid sized palm, the madman flew backward and landed on his butt.

“Phew…” Tang Gi-Mun heaved a sigh of relief. If Im Soo-Kwang had acted any later, his arms would likely have been ripped off. As it was, they were just swollen.

“Uncle! Are you okay?” Tang Mi-Ryeo asked, quickly rushing over to check on Tang Gi-Mun.

“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be a serious injury, but…” Tang Gi-Mun directed his gaze toward the madman.

“GRAAAAAAH!” The madman once again pounced at Tang Gi-Mun, but this time, Im Soo-Kwang stood in his way.

“Tsk, how dare you!” Im Soo-Kwang clicked his tongue.

The madman continued trying to attack Tang Gi-Mun, but couldn’t get past the wall that was Im Soo-Kwang. Although he was much stronger than a normal person, there was no way he could take down a martial arts master by striking randomly without any decent techniques.

Tang Gi-Mun observed the fight carefully, frowning while muttering, “Could it really be a kind of mineral poison? No, his reaction to the testing agent was far too extreme, and he’s too energetic.”

Mineral poisons tended to strip a person of their vitality and slowly drain away their life. The madman’s symptoms were the exact opposite of that, releasing his physical potential and driving him insane. Not even Tang Gi-Mun had heard of a mineral poison like that before.

Im Soo-Kwang swiftly suppressed the madman by sealing his meridians, causing his body to stiffen like a statue. He then smiled at Tang Gi-Mun and said, “You can relax now.”

““T-That…?”“ Suddenly, both Tang Gi-Mun and Tang Mi-Ryeo let out a warning cry.

Black blood spurted out of the madman’s orifices, followed by intense convulsions, then stiffening.

“What the…?” Im Soo-Kwang stared confusedly at the madman’s body. He was certain that all he had done was seal the madman’s movements, not kill him!

Tang Gi-Mun hurriedly examined the madman, then concluded, “He’s dead.”

“What now?”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think it’s your fault. He seems to have died of organ failure caused by unnatural, excessive exertion.”

“Is this what mineral poison does to a person?”

“I’m not sure either,” Tang Gi-Mun sighed. He had been quite confident that he knew everything there was to know about poisons, but the events this time had left him questioning himself.

“Please help me carry the corpse inside so I can take a closer look. I’ll find out the cause of his madness even if I have to pull an all-nighter.”

“Alright.” Im Soo-Kwang summoned several servants and instructed them to move the corpse to an examination room.

Tang Mi-Ryeo nervously wondered, “What the hell is going on here?”

“I don’t know, but whatever is going on, it’s much more serious than any of us had ever imagined.”

Jin Mu-Won sat on the roof of the inn, looking down at the city of Yuxi. No thanks to Cheong-In, he was now fully awake and unable to fall back asleep. Night in Yuxi appeared quiet and peaceful on the surface, but Jin Mu-Won could sense that this was merely the calm before a storm.

“Hoo!”

SCREECH!

Just as Jin Mu-Won started sighing, Snow Flower cried out, causing him to tighten his grip on the sword. Although he was the one who had made it, he sometimes felt that the sword was alive, but at the same time, he simply couldn’t understand why he would have such an irrational thought.

“What the hell are you, really…?”

A cursed sword that only he could touch.

Am I really okay with that?

Jin Mu-Won did not think that Cheong-In was a weak-minded person. However, even then, he’d ended up bewitched by Snow Flower into revealing things he never meant to. To make things worse, Cheong-In was an expert martial artist. Jin Mu-Won didn’t even want to think about what would happen if a normal person came into contact with Snow Flower.

Moreover, Jin Mu-Won hoped that he was just being paranoid, but Snow Flower’s cursed aura seemed to have gotten stronger ever since he’d stepped foot into Yunnan.

“Is it because you’re close to your home?”

A long time ago, Hwang Cheol had told him that the black rock was once worshipped by a tribe, but that tribe had already been annihilated by the Tyrant Fist Sect.

“After this, I’ll need to make time to visit that tribe.”

Although Jin Mu-Won could restrain Snow Flower for now, if the sword’s cursed aura kept getting stronger, he didn’t know if he would lose control and cause a terrible disaster.

SCREECH!

Snow Flower cried out again, as if telling him not to worry. Her voice was sweet and soothing, like the voice of a whispering lover.

Just then, the red-dyed eastern sky heralded the break of dawn, and on the streets below, several people started making their way to work.

“Merchants?”

Despite the sluggish Yuxi economy, the people still had to work in order to put food on the table.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, an idea popped up in Jin Mu-Won’s mind, and he leapt down from the roof.