Episode 133: The Demonic Cult

The next day, as soon as Dang Mujin stepped out of his house, he found himself lost in thought.

Lately, his mind had been a tangled mess, likely due to the myriad of trivial matters he had been entangled with.

He walked slowly, trying to sort through his thoughts. The main question on his mind was simple: What should he do next?

The first task that came to mind was the one assigned by the Demonic Cult: to drive away the creature known as Jimsae.

“I think I can handle that somehow.”

Recently, Dang Mujin had been building a resistance to Jimsae’s poison, and he had also found a crucial clue in Mok Wana.

However, something had been bothering him ever since he saw a figure leaving the Cult Leader’s Hall.

“What was that guy in the straw hat trying to do in the Cult Leader’s Hall?”

“And what was that orb he was holding?”

Once he started thinking, his mind wandered in different directions. Things he had previously dismissed as trivial now felt like grains of sand irritating his thoughts.

“Why did Jimsae choose to settle above the Cult Leader’s Hall?”

“It’s been a year since Jimsae appeared. What has it been surviving on?”

No matter how much he pondered, he couldn’t find the answers. With a deep sigh, Dang Mujin headed into the Poisonous Cavern.

As Dang Mujin entered the Poisonous Cavern, Mok Wana turned to look at him.

She didn’t seem particularly bothered by the events of the previous day. In fact, there was a faint sense of anticipation in her eyes. It wasn’t hard to guess what she was expecting.

The moment she spotted the snacks, including sweets, in Dang Mujin’s hands, her expression noticeably brightened.

It was amusing to think that mere snacks could bring such joy. But it was clear that the value of these treats was worlds apart for Dang Mujin and Mok Wana.

As Mok Wana nibbled on the snacks, Dang Mujin spoke up.

“I have a lot of questions today.”

“Like what?”

“First, explain how your internal energy got mixed with poison.”

“Sure. Where should I start?”

Mok Wana pondered for a moment before beginning her explanation.

“I’m not entirely sure. The research was led by the Demonic Cult, but I have a rough idea of the principle.”

“How does it work?”

“You know you can use your internal energy to push out poison, right?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you think that’s possible?”

Dang Mujin thought deeply. It was such a vague question that nothing came to mind immediately.

Eventually, Mok Wana provided the answer.

“The reason is that internal energy and poison don’t mix.”

“Explain more. What does that mean?”

“It’s not complicated. If internal energy could easily mix with poison, you wouldn’t be able to push it out. The moment they touch, they’d blend together.”

It was a concept Dang Mujin was familiar with, something he had always taken for granted and never questioned deeply.

But why was Mok Wana bringing this up now?

“Like water and oil, internal energy doesn’t mix with poison. But Mok Wana’s internal energy is mixed with poison. How did that happen?”

Dang Mujin thought of lye, made by soaking ashes from burned straw or bean pods in water.

Lye can mix water and oil. That must be the point Mok Wana was trying to make.

“So, you’re saying to use Jimsae’s poison to mix the internal energy and poison?”

Unlike ordinary poisons that affect the body, Jimsae’s poison can penetrate internal energy, disrupting its flow and scattering it.

Though there wasn’t a specific term for this property, Dang Mujin thought of it as “Scattering Energy,” as it scattered internal energy.

When Dang Mujin jumped to the conclusion, skipping several steps, Mok Wana’s eyes widened in surprise.

“How did you figure that out?”

Pleased with her reaction, Dang Mujin feigned modesty.

“It’s an obvious answer if you think about it. It’s not a big deal for me, so don’t be too impressed.”

“Not a big deal? I was really surprised!”

“Don’t make a fuss over nothing. Anyway, tell me about your experience.”

Mok Wana bit into the sugar coating the candy, letting the sweetness roll over her tongue. She needed the sweet taste to suppress the bitter and painful memories.

“The first step is to introduce the poison. Sometimes I drank it, other times I made cuts on my skin to apply snake venom.”

“Uh-huh. And then?”

“You deplete your internal energy.”

Dang Mujin raised an eyebrow. Depleting internal energy when poison is in the body means reducing the power to expel the poison, effectively exposing the body to it.

“That must have been painful.”

When Dang Mujin commented, Mok Wana made a wry face, as if hearing an unfamiliar story.

“Yeah, it was painful. I had a fever every time, but I was lucky. Some kids went deaf or blind because their fever didn’t subside in time. Many died.”

“Hmm…”

“Anyway, when the internal energy and poison are precariously balanced, you add Jimsae’s poison. Then the internal energy and poison slowly mix. After repeating this process several times, the internal energy itself becomes infused with poison.”

It was a simple yet dangerous method.

However, Dang Mujin thought it was worth trying. The potential was too great to ignore.

“By the way, do you know about the orb that blocks poison when held in the mouth?”

“Yeah, but how do you know about that?”

The answer came quickly. It seemed asking Mok Wana about the orb was the right choice.

“I saw someone with it recently. Anyway, what is that orb?”

“It’s called a Poison-Blocking Orb. They say it’s made using some kind of internal elixir, but I don’t know more than that. I’ve never used one.”

With that, Dang Mujin had learned all he could from Mok Wana. He rummaged through the Poisonous Cavern, gathering various poisons to take with him.

Then he asked Mok Wana, “You don’t like that I’m trying to drive Jimsae away, do you?”

“A little. It’s not that I don’t want Jimsae gone, but I’m scared something might go wrong and put us in danger.”

“You’re more scared than a three-year-old.”

“If you want to survive, you have to avoid even small risks.”

That was a very Mok Wana-like answer. Dang Mujin chuckled and stepped out of the cave.

Where there’s a cave, there’s usually a cliff or peak. The Poisonous Cavern was nestled against a small cliff.

Dang Mujin chose the top of the cliff as his spot for meditation.

Meditating inside the cave was out of the question, as Mok Wana’s presence was distracting. Although she hadn’t shown any hostility yet, it would be foolish to assume she would remain friendly.

The temporary house he was staying in was also unsuitable for meditation, as the festival made the surroundings too noisy.

On the other hand, the cliff top was secluded, ensuring no interruptions. Plus, if he needed anything, he could easily retrieve it from the Poisonous Cavern, making it an ideal spot.

Dang Mujin filled his energy with the poisons he had taken from the cavern and completed his meditation.

Feeling refreshed, he stood up and remembered the Poison-Blocking Orb.

“The Grand Protector said he hadn’t seen the Poison-Blocking Orb. Maybe it’s still where I passed out.”

Dang Mujin headed towards the area near the Cult Leader’s Hall, searching thoroughly.

But even after a considerable amount of time, he couldn’t find the orb.

“Did someone take it? I doubt the guy in the straw hat retrieved it. The Grand Protector wouldn’t have lied. Should I ask the Grand Protector’s subordinate who brought me back?”

Just as he was about to leave, having organized his thoughts, Dang Mujin sensed an unfamiliar presence again.

He flattened himself against the ground, scanning his surroundings.

A familiar figure appeared. The man in the straw hat. One side of the hat was slightly dented.

“That’s the guy I beat up last time.”

Although Dang Mujin had been the one to pass out in the end, he considered himself the victor of their previous encounter.

For a first-rate martial artist to hold his own against a peak master, considering potential and growth, the winner was clear.

“Got you this time.”

This time, he had his energy filled with poison, ready to launch a surprise attack.

He even knew the man’s weakness. If he could make him spit out the orb, the man wouldn’t be able to breathe.

The thought of subduing a peak master alone sent a thrill through Dang Mujin. It was time to unleash the pent-up fury of a first-rate martial artist.

However, Dang Mujin didn’t attack immediately. He decided to wait and see what the man in the straw hat was up to. This time, he was closer, allowing him to observe more.

The orb in the man’s mouth was white. Last time, it had been gray or black.

He was even carrying a bag that Dang Mujin hadn’t noticed before.

Dang Mujin watched closely as the man approached the Cult Leader’s Hall, noting that the orb’s color darkened slightly.

“Does it become a problem when it turns pitch black?”

The man in the straw hat leaped onto the roof of the cult leader’s hall and overturned a sack in front of the birdcage. Out poured a writhing mass of centipedes, spiders, and poisonous plants. Anger surged within Dang Mujin.

“Is that bastard feeding the bird?”

At least now he understood how the bird had survived for a year. If it weren’t for that man, he could have been resting leisurely instead of coming all the way to the cult.

Dang Mujin watched the scene with simmering rage. After shaking out the sack, the man in the straw hat disappeared beneath the hall.

It was only after some time that the man emerged again. As Dang Mujin had suspected, the color of the poison in the bird’s beak had darkened to a murky hue.

Dang Mujin waited in hiding, biding his time until the man approached, then unleashed a flurry of needles. Ten in total, they twisted through the air, targeting the man’s entire body.

“If he’s breathing through his mouth to avoid the poison, it means he can’t block it from entering any other way.”

The needles, hidden by the darkness, struck the man all over. It was an attack so stealthy that even a master would have struggled to evade it.

Dang Mujin stepped out confidently and spoke. “Nice to see you. Do you know how much I’ve been looking forward to this?”

The man, still clutching the poisoned bird, mumbled defiantly, “You think you can get away with this?”

“Consider it a stay of execution. You should have died last time.”

Dang Mujin swung his sword and continued to hurl needles. The difference in their martial skills was stark, but in this suffocating situation, it hardly mattered.

With each needle that pierced his skin, the man’s face turned darker and darker. Eventually, he couldn’t withstand the assault and spat out the poisoned bird.

As he collapsed to the ground, the man shouted with clear enunciation, “You little bastard! Where did you learn such cowardly tricks?”

“The complaints of the weak don’t reach my ears.”

“You’re just a second-rate fighter…”

Dang Mujin’s sword flashed like lightning, piercing the man’s chest. There was no point in listening to the defeated man’s nonsense any longer.

The man in the straw hat fell to the ground, looking as if he were the most wronged person in the world, and stopped moving.

“As expected. So what if you’re a master?”

Dang Mujin rifled through the man’s belongings. When he had stabbed the man’s chest, he had felt something unusual at the tip of his sword. It wasn’t the sensation of piercing human flesh.

What he found was a small scroll.

The scroll was filled with strange characters, or perhaps they were drawings.

“I have no idea what this means.”

Dang Mujin carefully examined the scroll. It was damp, not just from the man’s blood, but with the peculiar texture of paper that had been soaked in something.

“Did he write these suspicious characters inside the cult leader’s hall?”

As he pondered, Dang Mujin felt a tingling sensation near his core.

“Wait. Could it be that the poison from the bird is mixing with the poison in my core?”

It didn’t seem like a problem yet, but there was no time to waste.

Dang Mujin quickly pocketed the scroll and headed in the opposite direction of the cult leader’s hall, towards the village. Specifically, towards the residence of the Great Protector.

His mission would be complete once he reported the death of the man feeding the bird and handed over the suspicious scroll. The bird would soon fly off in search of food, allowing him some time to relax.

However, as he ran, a nagging feeling crept over him.

”…Is it really right to inform the Great Protector?”

Dang Mujin stopped and gathered his thoughts.

Looking back, there were some unsettling aspects about the Great Protector.

For one, the Great Protector always seemed lukewarm whenever they tried to chase the bird away.

He would suggest taking it easy, or leaving the poisonous area to relax in the village.

Almost as if he wanted the bird to stay on the cult leader’s hall.

Just like the man who had been feeding the bird.

Dang Mujin shook his head to clear away the doubts.

“No way. It’s ungrateful to repay kindness with suspicion.”

Yet, his steps lacked conviction.

Thinking back, it was suspicious how the man in the straw hat had reappeared with the poisoned bird he had lost.

Dang Mujin’s steps halted once more.

In his experience, ignoring his instincts always led to trouble.

“Then, who should I tell about this if not the Great Protector?”

A name came to mind.

Someone who was genuinely trying to drive the bird away. The person who had brought him to the cult.

Sam Anbul.

If he had to trust someone now, it would be Sam Anbul.

Dang Mujin turned his steps away from the Great Protector’s residence and headed towards Sam Anbul’s.