Episode 237: The Trial of Endurance
The serpent lay coiled, a massive creature that anyone would call a mystical beast.
Its coils rose higher than the average person’s height. Was this what a dragon looked like just before it ascended to the heavens?
Mok Wana hated snakes. But then again, who in their right mind would like them?
Despite his aversion, Mok Wana hesitated only briefly before approaching the enormous snake.
There was a single reason for this: being devoured by a snake seemed less painful than being torn apart by the fangs and claws of wild beasts.
Yet, getting too close to the snake was daunting.
Mok Wana stopped at a point equidistant between the snake and the pack of wolves that had been pursuing him.
The wolves halted as well, perhaps out of fear of the snake, or maybe because of the toxic aura emanating from it.
“Probably both,” he thought.
The snake’s venomous aura was intense, even for Mok Wana, who was accustomed to poison.
It was no wonder the wolves dared not approach.
Mok Wana studied the snake. He was close enough to see it clearly, yet it remained motionless.
The wolves continued to hesitate, unable to advance.
Mok Wana found himself in a peculiar safe zone between the snake and the wolves.
His only concern was if the snake decided to move.
He examined the snake carefully and soon realized that its tail was rotting, a strange stench mingling with the venomous aura.
“Could it be… is this snake dead?”
Closing his eyes, Mok Wana focused on the aura seeping from the snake. He sensed the unmistakable presence of death.
“Good,” he thought.
He approached the snake, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.
As the tension eased, the hunger and thirst he’d been ignoring came rushing back. He was parched, having bled and run for his life all night.
But there was no immediate solution.
Mok Wana closed his eyes, hoping that when he awoke, the wolves would be gone.
When Mok Wana awoke, the number of wolves had not decreased; in fact, it had grown.
His hunger and thirst were even more acute.
He hadn’t found a safe place; he had merely chosen a slower death over a quick one.
“What should I do?”
After much deliberation, an idea struck him.
If the wild beasts were afraid of the snake’s venom, perhaps he could use it to escape.
“Where did they say the snake’s venom sac was located?”
With effort, Mok Wana pried open the dead snake’s mouth.
As the two large fangs were revealed, the venomous aura intensified.
Covering his nose and mouth with his arm, he coughed and thought, “The venom sac should be connected to the fangs.”
Behind the snake’s fangs, he noticed a slightly eroded wound on the roof of its mouth. Whether it was from decay or something the snake had eaten, he couldn’t tell.
Mok Wana reached into the wound and began to tear at the snake’s flesh. It was unpleasantly tough, but since it was the inner flesh and not the outer skin, he managed to pull some away.
Near the top of the snake’s mouth, where its head began, he found a pouch the size of a man’s fist.
It was the venom sac. The aura was so potent that it made him dizzy just being near it.
Carefully, Mok Wana extracted the sac. It was more than half full of a clear, toxic liquid.
“The smell and the aura are overwhelming,” he thought.
But the effect was immediate. As soon as he secured the venom sac, the wolves retreated.
He had found a way to survive.
Mok Wana felt a surge of confidence. It seemed like he could solve all his problems.
But as the immediate threat to his life receded, thoughts of Tang Mujin flooded back.
His chest tightened with anxiety.
With the snake’s venom sac, he could fend off the wild beasts and escape the mountain. But he wasn’t sure if that was the right answer.
“There’s no other way. I have to find the villagers and ask for help…”
No, Mok Wana knew the truth.
If he wandered around looking for villagers, at least ten days would pass. In that time, who knew what might happen to Tang Mujin?
Even if the villagers banded together, he doubted they could defeat the likes of Gyo Bu-hwa and Jin Ram.
Going to the villagers would change nothing.
At best, Tang Mujin would be taken to Namman; at worst, he would die.
Ultimately, Mok Wana was the only one who could solve this problem.
He looked at the venom sac.
“Can I withstand this poison?”
A faint solution seemed to appear, but it was also the clearest wrong answer.
It was the only slim chance to save Tang Mujin, but it was also the quickest and most certain path to Mok Wana’s own death.
Mok Wana was afraid.
Since childhood, he had struggled to survive, enduring the experiments of the dark arts and clinging to life by sheer luck. He couldn’t easily let go of the life he had fought so hard to hold onto.
He suddenly thought of Hyeol U-gak.
When people subtly mocked Hyeol U-gak for being a coward, Mok Wana had deeply empathized with his story.
Surviving to the end.
How desperately had young Mok Wana wished for that?
He recalled the dark cave of his childhood.
Then he remembered Tang Mujin, who had led him out of that cave. Now, Tang Mujin was trapped in Gyo Bu-hwa’s cave.
“Can I pull Tang Mujin out of his cave?”
He didn’t know.
But he wondered what difference it would make if he did.
He couldn’t be a wife or a concubine.
But maybe he could be a friend, like Namgung Myung, Hong Geol-gae, or Hyun Gong.
“Would that be enough?”
Mok Wana thought honestly. It wasn’t enough.
But it was far better than letting Tang Mujin die or leave.
Once he reached that conclusion, everything became clear.
“Then I have to try.”
Leaning against the massive snake’s corpse, Mok Wana unwrapped the cloth from his left shoulder. Blood began to flow from the wound again.
He brought a small tube connected to the snake’s fang to his wound and squeezed the venom sac with his right hand. Even a slight squeeze released a few drops of the clear venom.
The time it took for those drops to reach his wound felt interminably long.
And then, in the next instant, unbearable pain overwhelmed him. Mok Wana lost consciousness almost immediately.
He vaguely remembered the sensation of suffocating and his body stiffening.
“Haah… haah, haah!”
Mok Wana gasped for air like someone who had nearly drowned. In the meantime, the venom had spread through his veins, and the pain had engulfed his entire body.
He had no idea how much time had passed while he was unconscious.
It felt like both a blink of an eye and several days of sitting in the same spot.
His body was stiff, but whether it was from the passage of time or the venom, he couldn’t tell.
“Surviving this is a miracle.”
For the first time in his life, Mok Wana felt grateful to the dark arts.
If he hadn’t built up a resistance to poison as a child, he would surely have died.
Following the teachings of Tang Mujin, Mok Wana focused on the faint inner energy within him.
The snake’s overwhelming venom had seeped into his body. It was so much that the poison he had accumulated over the years seemed insignificant in comparison.
But he wasn’t confident that this amount of venom would be enough to change the situation.
Mok Wana grasped the venom sac again.
Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.
The pain he had just experienced, the feeling of having brushed against death, was vividly fresh in his mind.
Tears welled up for some reason. But it wasn’t time to stop yet.
“If I die here, what will happen?”
Tang Mujin would think I just ran away, or maybe that Jin Ram killed me.
“Neither is acceptable.”
Mok Wana steadied his breathing and squeezed the venom sac again.
More venom flowed into his wound, and once more, he lost consciousness.
In his faint awareness, Mok Wana recalled the first time the dark arts had injected him with poison.
Seven children had been injected. Five died instantly, and only Mok Wana and one other child survived.
No, “survived” was too generous. The child next to Mok Wana only lasted two more days before succumbing.
But Mok Wana had survived. He had lingered on the brink of death for ten days, enduring excruciating pain, but he had survived.
Only then did Mok Wana realize what he was doing.
“What am I doing right now?”
He had hated the dark arts for injecting him with poison and feared death.
But now, Mok Wana was pouring a more potent poison into his own wound with his own hands.
Hoping that death would overlook him one more time, he was marching straight toward it.
Suddenly, the situation seemed absurd.
“Is this what growth looks like?”
But there was no other way.
He had never learned swordsmanship or martial arts, using his poor physical condition as an excuse, leaving him with no other options.
His faint consciousness gradually sharpened.
Mok Wana didn’t hesitate. She clutched the poison pouch tightly, knowing that if she let go even once, she might never have the courage to touch it again.
She poured the remaining poison over her wound.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp.”
Her body, rigid with tension, convulsed uncontrollably.
The beasts watching from a distance retreated. Even starving predators had no interest in meat soaked in deadly poison.
Slowly, Mok Wana regained her senses.
She was alive. At least for now.
Perhaps it was the prolonged exposure to overwhelming pain, but she no longer felt anything from the sword wound on her shoulder. She crawled through the forest, using her arms to drag herself along, then staggered to her feet.
She inhaled deeply, then exhaled.
Her breath carried the scent of poison.
Her body felt swollen, as if it were about to burst from the toxic energy she had absorbed. It felt as though she was crumbling from the inside.
“I’m going back.”
She had no idea how many days had passed. But night had fallen once more.
Mok Wana, clinging desperately to consciousness, retraced her steps along the path where she had once fled from wolves.
Jinram stood leaning against the entrance of the cave.
Gyobuha seemed to be trying to persuade Tang Mujin, but Jinram didn’t dare enter the cave, unsure of when Gyobuha might decide to kill Tang Mujin after extracting what he wanted.
He simply waited outside, entering the cave only when Gyobuha instructed him to apply pressure to Tang Mujin’s acupoints, then quickly retreating.
Three days passed this way, and then Jinram spotted a figure stumbling toward him from afar.
It was Mok Wana. Jinram’s expression twisted with distress.
He gripped his sword and ran toward her.
Whatever had happened, it was clear she was in bad shape. Her hair had turned completely white.
Jinram spoke in a hard voice.
“I told you I’d kill you if you came back.”
He looked at Mok Wana. Her eyes still held a faint trace of goodwill.
But she wasn’t smiling as she usually did.
Jinram pointed his sword at her.
“One more step and you’re dead.”
Only then did Mok Wana speak.
“Step aside, old man.”
They weren’t close, but Jinram could sense the potent poison in her faint breath. She had clearly done something drastic.
And she showed no intention of turning back.
“Why did you come back?”
Instead of answering, Mok Wana looked toward the cave.
Jinram sighed deeply.
Even if he killed her here, the poison she carried wouldn’t dissipate easily.
‘Gyobuha will realize he’s been deceived.’
That meant death. There was no way for a bodyguard who had betrayed his master to survive.
Whether Gyobuha killed Mok Wana or Mok Wana killed Gyobuha, Jinram was doomed. He was caught in a perfect trap.
‘The moment I failed to kill and drive her away, I was as good as dead.’
Realizing his fate had been sealed three days ago, he felt oddly at peace.
Jinram chuckled softly and stepped aside.
“Go ahead. Do as you wish.”
Mok Wana’s eyes met his.
In them, Jinram saw a clear expression of gratitude.
‘I should have explained what loneliness truly is.’
Had he done so, perhaps the soft-hearted Mok Wana wouldn’t have resorted to such measures.
But it was too late. Jinram scratched the back of his head.
Mok Wana walked toward the cave where Gyobuha and Tang Mujin were.
Suddenly, Jinram felt a desire to wander off somewhere far away.
Before becoming a bodyguard, he had been too busy training to leave.
After becoming a bodyguard, he couldn’t leave because of his duties.
For the first time in his life, Jinram walked without a destination in mind.
But he didn’t need one. He would meet his end before reaching anywhere.
Yet he found that such an end didn’t seem so bad.
For three days, Gyobuha had tried to persuade and threaten Tang Mujin.
But nothing worked.
Logically, leaving for the southern lands was the sensible choice, but Tang Mujin’s stubbornness was formidable.
‘I’ll try persuading him until today. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to resort to the final measure.’
Gyobuha carefully removed Tang Mujin’s upper garment, who was bound and had his acupoints sealed. As Gyobuha’s hand moved toward his pants, Tang Mujin asked in alarm.
“What are you doing?”
“Preparing before I use the final measure.”
”…You’re truly insane.”
Just then, Gyobuha sensed someone approaching the cave entrance.
‘Is it Jinram?’
No. The presence of poison was felt even before the figure appeared, so it couldn’t be Jinram.
The person who emerged from the other side of the cave was Mok Wana. Her hair had turned white, and her expression was filled with murderous intent.
A visible cloud of poison surrounded her, like a transparent storm cloud approaching the cave.
Gyobuha shouted.
“How are you still alive? Jinram! Where are you?”
There was no response from Jinram. Instead, Mok Wana spoke.
“He won’t come, no matter how much you call.”
Gyobuha sensed the thick poison in Mok Wana’s breath.
It was a raw, unrefined biological poison, yet it surpassed ordinary levels.
How could a human carry such poison and still be alive?
Mok Wana spoke.
“It’s one of two things.”
“What do you mean?”
“Either we both die, or only you do. You’re not leaving here alive.”
To speak of poison and death before one of the Five Great Bloodlines of the Poison Sect. Gyobuha laughed.
“You think you can defeat me? I’ve been training in poison arts since I was six. I know hundreds of poisons.”
Mok Wana laughed too.
“I’ve never trained in poison arts.”
She took a step toward Gyobuha.
“I’ve just been steeped in poison and survived until now.”
Mok Wana pressed her palms against the sharp rocks of the cave wall and pushed hard.
As her palms tore open, the poison she had been holding back burst forth, filling the air around them.
Mok Wana whispered.
“Do you think you can survive?”