Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 5: Mok Sword Manor (2)

‘what the …. is this bastard…?’

Not only was his breath being cut off, but a chill ran down his spine.

The gaze in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes, as he was grinning from ear to ear, was strangely spine-chilling.

Now he understood why Guard Gam, the captain, had said those words.

[I mean he’s not someone who can be easily controlled.]

He thought it was just something he said.

But actually experiencing it, the boy was clearly different from ordinary people.

Even without having learned martial arts, his immense strength and the ominous pressure in his eyes were crushing his mind like pulp.

Squeeze!

“Ugh…”

The force squeezing his throat intensified.

He endured it with his internal energy, but he couldn’t hold on any longer.

Seeing his eyes burning, it seemed he would soon lose consciousness.

At that moment,

Swish!

The hand gripping his neck loosened.

“Cough, cough!”

As his blocked airway opened, he coughed as if choking.

Amidst that, he was puzzled.

‘Why?’

Mok Gyeong-un, who had been enjoying it with a grin up to his ears, stopped smiling.

Then, he spoke as if he were disappointed,

“I almost killed you.”

“Cough, cough… Wh- what?”

“If I kill you like this, becoming Mok Gyeong-un would be meaningless, wouldn’t it?”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Go Chan’s eyes wavered.

It felt like the boy was toying with him.

Just what was this bastard?

Go Chan, his anger surging, opened his mouth with trembling lips.

“…Do you have the confidence to handle the consequences of doing this?”

“Consequences?”

“Without the antidote, you will die. And it will be a very painful death.”

Go Chan mentioned the poison Mok Gyeong-un had ingested.

He thought this fake fellow would also know that and stop midway.

But it was too late.

He had already seen this fellow’s unsettling side.

As the captain said, this fellow was someone who could never be controlled.

Although he didn’t know what would happen after five days, if he were to switch sides, it would be better to kill him in any way possible.

‘If I leave him be, he will surely stab me in the back.’

However, at the moment, the one holding the knife was this fellow, so he had to make him realize his position.

Go Chan spoke in a low voice,

“If Guard Gam finds out, he won’t let you off easy.”

“That’s probably true.”

“…But I’ll consider this incident as an impulsive act.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’ll consider it as something you did out of frustration from being confined, so go back to your room now.”

“Go back to my room?”

“Yes. If you obediently go back on your own, I’ll pretend what just happened never occurred.”

At those words, Mok Gyeong-un smiled brightly and said,

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have bothered coming out.”

Go Chan frowned.

Did this fellow really not understand the situation?

Why was a bastard who had even taken a poison pill and had his life at stake acting so arbitrarily?

“If the captain, no, Guard Gam finds out…”

“Yes, yes. He won’t just let it slide.”

“But now, if you resist here…”

“If Guard Go keeps his mouth shut, nothing will happen. What’s the problem?”

“What?”

Go Chan was dumbfounded by Mok Gyeong-un’s brazen words.

As his senior said, he really seemed uncontrollable.

Go Chan spoke, trying to suppress his anger.

“They must have told you that if you don’t take the antidote or neutralizer within the hour, your life will also end, but you can’t come to your senses…”

Before he could finish his words,

“Monkshood, aconite, hemlock, pinellia…”

‘!?’

At the medicinal herbs, no, poisonous herbs coming out of Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth, Go Chan’s expression instantly hardened.

They were all plants that went into the poison pill.

“Woodbine[1], magic mushroom, dutchman’s pipe. Is that about it?”

‘…Impossible.’

Go Chan was dumbstruck.

Even if he got one or two wrong, it would have been understandable, but he was accurate.

He correctly identified all the toxic ingredients that went into the poison pill.

The reason he was so shocked wasn’t simply because the boy guessed the ingredients.

The poison pill was made by combining these ingredients, boiling them, and drying them to make the pill, so it couldn’t be identified just by tasting it.

“Wh- what the …. are you?”

Even the Poison Emperor Cho Ak-gyeong or the Medicine Immortal Mun-no, would they be capable of this?

‘Didn’t they say he was an ordinary death row inmate?’

He was curious about this fellow’s true identity.

As he was astounded, Mok Gyeong-un said,

“Since I was young, I ate all sorts of medicinal and poisonous herbs. I tried boiling them and drying them.”

“What? You ate poisonous herbs?”

“An herbalist must know their effects, they said.”

‘…It’s not just for that reason, though.’

He knew there were other reasons, but it didn’t matter now.

Anyway, Mok Gyeong-un could distinguish medicinal herbs with sensitive precision.

No, if it was something he had personally tasted or even slightly smelled, he remembered it.

Even his grandfather would stick out his tongue in amazement at that.

“A herbalist, you say?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? I originally lived by gathering medicinal herbs.”

“Nonsense! How can a mere herbalist identify the ingredients in a poison pill just by tasting it?”

It was something that couldn’t be possible.

“Judging by your surprise, I guess I was right.”

Mok Gyeong-un approached him as he was startled.

As he suddenly closed the distance, Go Chan unknowingly took a step back.

Go Chan hurriedly said,

“E- even if you know that, what do you think you can do? Making the antidote is even more difficult than the poison pill.”

He gathered internal energy in his Yongcheon acupoint[2] to use lightness skill if necessary.

This fellow was extremely unsettling.

He had to be prepared because he didn’t know what he would do.

‘Even if his strength is greater than ordinary people, he hasn’t learned martial arts. Then, if I use the lightness skill, he won’t be able to catch up.’

He thought it would be fine as long as he didn’t directly confront him.

Right at that moment,

Crunch!

As Mok Gyeong-un took a step, the wooden floor beneath his foot was dented.

It was an immense leg strength.

‘Oh no!’

As if a tiger was pouncing, Mok Gyeong-un instantly charged forward.

Jumping back was useless.

Mok Gyeong-un’s speed was too fast to secure any distance.

Thwack!

Mok Gyeong-un’s hand stretched out.

Thinking he would naturally aim for the neck or head, Go Chan tried to defend by crossing his arms.

But that wasn’t it.

Tap tap tap tap tap!

“Ugh!”

Mok Gyeong-un’s fingers struck acupuncture points on his chest.

Go Chan’s eyes widened.

He was certain this fellow didn’t know any martial arts.

In fact, there were no signs of him having cultivated internal energy, so he thought that was the case, but the acupoints he just struck were the paralysis acupoint that stiffened the body and the mute acupoint that prevented speech.

‘Could it have been a lie?’

He accurately struck the acupoints.

Once the acupoints were sealed, he shouldn’t be able to move or speak.

However, even though his chest ached and his body felt creaky, he could still move.

“What is this…?”

As he wondered what was going on, Mok Gyeong-un tilted his head and muttered,

“Was it not like this?”

“What?”

“I tried imitating what Guard Gam did, but it doesn’t seem to work. I thought doing it this way would make the body unable to move and prevent speech.”

‘!?’

Mok Gyeong-un spoke nonchalantly.

At his words, Go Chan was not only dumbfounded but also flabbergasted.

If this was true, did it mean he had imitated exactly what he had experienced himself?

‘He imitated what he saw?’

If he knew nothing, he would have thought the boy had learned it.

He might have even thought the boy had practiced it dozens of times to perform it.

Because he had struck the acupoints almost accurately.

‘Just who is this guy?’

If he had internal energy, the acupoints would have been sealed.

It ended with his body stiffening slightly because the boy had just poked them forcefully without skill.

As he was stunned and at a loss for a moment,

Grab!

“Guh!”

While he was caught off guard, Mok Gyeong-un grabbed his neck.

Since he was standing, he tried to kick the boy’s groin with his foot, but,

Crack!

His neck was slightly twisted.

If he applied a little more force here, it would snap.

As his life was in danger, Go Chan couldn’t move an inch in that state.

“…S- stop. If you don’t want the antidote…”

“Ah, about that. It’s still a secret from Guard Gam, but… actually, I don’t need it.”

“What?”

what the …. was he talking about?

He doesn’t need the antidote?

As he wondered what was going on, Mok Gyeong-un smiled and said,

“Since I ate so many poisonous herbs from a young age, I developed a resistance.”

“Re- resistance?”

“Well, my stomach would ache when I ate them, but a crude mixture like the one Guard Gam gave me doesn’t even faze me.”

‘Crude mixture?’

Go Chan was dumbfounded.

The poison pill still used by the society[3] was crude?

This was a poison pill with such potent toxicity that even a first-rate internal martial arts master, if affected, would have difficulty detoxifying it even after cultivating qi for half a month.

‘Just what is this guy?’

If anyone else had said it, he would have dismissed it as nonsense.

But strangely, it was hard to deny the boy’s words.

At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un did something strange.

Chomp!

He suddenly bit his own index finger.

Go Chan didn’t know why he was doing that, but the boy suddenly brought his bleeding finger to Go Chan’s mouth.

“Wh- what are you trying to d- mmph!”

He couldn’t refuse.

Mok Gyeong-un’s finger invaded his mouth.

Drops of blood wet his tongue and flowed down his throat.

With an uneasy feeling, he tried not to swallow, but he had no choice because his neck was being gripped.

But not long after swallowing the blood,

“Ugh!”

His chest became hot.

A burning pain suddenly engulfed his body.

Even after Mok Gyeong-un released his grip, the pain was so intense that it felt like his internal organs were twisting.

“Aaaah!”

‘Po- poison?’

No matter how he thought about it, this was poison.

Otherwise, there was no way it could cause such pain.

Go Chan hurriedly tried to circulate his qi, but as he tried to sit cross-legged, Mok Gyeong-un kicked his body.

“Oof!”

Thanks to that, he rolled on the floor.

As he was suffering, Mok Gyeong-un crouched down and said,

“There were a few things my grandfather told me not to do. One of them is this. Not only have I developed a resistance from eating many poisonous herbs, but he said my blood also carries toxicity.”

“What?”

“A dog I raised accidentally licked my blood and had a seizure. It was vomiting blood and going crazy.”

“You… you…”

The twisting pain prevented him from speaking.

Regardless, Mok Gyeong-un giggled and looked at him.

Swish!

As he was suffering, Mok Gyeong-un grabbed his chin and lifted it up.

Then, he spoke as if admonishing,

“It’s okay. Grandfather told me how to treat it, and it improved.”

“Aaaaargh!”

Go Chan clutched Mok Gyeong-un’s knees.

Unable to speak, he looked at him imploringly.

Then, Mok Gyeong-un smiled brightly and said,

“From now on, I believe you’ll help me a lot.”