Chapter 93: The Suspension Bridge Effect

Pak!

Since I didn’t have a machete, I poured Qi into the Dog-Beating Staff and swung it.

Each time the tip struck, dense bushes and thick vegetation burst apart with a bang.

Dozens of leaves shot off toward the short woman.

“……Are you doing this on purpose?”

Tang Yeo-hye narrowed her eyes and glared at me.

“Did it show?”

Feigning innocence, I grinned and kept swinging my staff.

With overwhelming inner force, a path was being blown wide open.

“Hoo, normally I’d just smack you upside the head…….”

“You can’t, because you’d feel guilty, right?”

“Ughhh……”

She must have known she was in the wrong, because her usual bravado was nowhere to be seen. The infamous Wild Dog avoided my gaze, scratching her cheek awkwardly.

“Young Master, I’ve never seen a lady like this before.”

Neung Sam and Ilhong, standing beside me, both looked on with great interest.

“Exactly. She should have been upfront about our destination from the start.”

She suddenly insisted on heading south, so we just followed along. After all, she was the only one who knew the location of the Human-Faced Spider.

But halfway through, when turning back had become difficult, she revealed our true destination.

“The Outer Murim? And Nanman of all places?”

I was dumbfounded.

I jabbed my finger into Tang Yeo-hye’s back as she led the way.

“But.”

“But?”

“If I had told you from the start, you would’ve just gone back to Beijing.”

“That’s true.”

Now that I thought about it, she had a point.

Since she needed to bring me no matter what, lying was her only option.

“But isn’t that just your perspective, Noona?”

“People always speak from their own perspective.”

That was true as well.

For some reason, her words struck me as strangely convincing.

“Boss, ever since you ate that weird bug earlier, you seem a bit out of it.”

Ilhong, seeing my dazed expression, remarked.

“Weird bug? It was just a few grasshoppers.”

It was an old habit. Whenever something plump flickered by, my hand would automatically shoot out.

Besides, with the long journey, our food supply had started to run low.

At times like these, I had to supplement with high protein just in case.

“Hey, that wasn’t a grasshopper. It was a poisonous insect.”

“…What?”

Tang Yeo-hye then informed me that what I’d eaten wasn’t protein but poison.

No wonder it had left a tingling bitterness on my tongue.

“Why didn’t you tell me before I ate it?”

“Well… it’s fascinating to watch every time.”

“Ah, this Noona, really.”

She said it was amazing that I wasn’t affected, even though I hadn’t trained in poison arts.

Clearly, she still carried a strange curiosity about my abnormal body.

“Just assume everything here—bugs, snakes, even frogs and ants—is poisonous.”

She belatedly warned me not to eat anything recklessly.

“What the hell kind of place is this?”

This bizarre jungle could only be found deep within Nanman’s southern outskirts.

It was like an otherworldly demonic realm, utterly devoid of human traces.

“Ilhong, do people actually live around here?”

Smashing through the suffocating greenery, I asked.

“Of course. The Palace of Southern Beasts, the Five Poison Sect, and Poison Valley are all well-known here.”

“…Ah, so there are people.”

Human—no, martial artists’—adaptability surpassed imagination.

To think that there were those who chose to nest and live in a place like this.

No doubt they were as vicious as the Tang Clan.

“This place has creatures and poisons found nowhere else. That’s why.”

Ilhong explained that the Yin-Yang Parasite she carried had also originated here in Nanman.

The demand was high, and the profit considerable.

“This world really is insane.”

I shuddered at the tale relayed by this former Hao Sect lady.

A place that supplied lethal poisons across the Central Plains. No wonder the likes of the Tang Clan of Sichuan flocked here.

“For reference, Young Master Mujin, it’s best not to encounter the locals.”

“Why’s that?”

“They’re a violent lot who swing fists before words. Especially Poison Valley—they say outsiders caught there are almost always used as test subjects for poison.”

Test subjects for poison.

I glanced at the petite beauty beside me, silently gathering poisonous herbs.

“Sounds just like Yeo-hye Noona.”

“Exactly.”

Neung Sam nodded in agreement.

“…What the fuck?”

Tang Yeo-hye clenched her fist in fury, then bit her lip, realizing her position.

She couldn’t bring herself to hit the very people who had come this far to help her.

Watching her close her eyes tight and take deep breaths was quite amusing.

“That’s why I recommend avoiding contact with others. We should capture the Human-Faced Spider quickly and leave.”

“That sounds best, Uncle Neung Sam.”

I really clicked with this man.

Especially the part where, even at the risk of getting beaten, he still spoke his mind. That was just like me.

“Then let’s go.”

Having finished collecting poisonous herbs, Tang Yeo-hye shoved them into her pouch, rose, and led the way again.

Shhhik!

Her Qi-wreathed hand cleaved diagonally.

With razor-sharp precision, foliage shredded apart, and waves of Qi scattered more plants in its wake.

Pak!

I too swung the Dog-Beating Staff beside her, cutting a path through this primeval jungle.

Pak pak! Slash!

After about half an hour of this,

we had already been reduced to a sweaty mess by Nanman’s stifling humidity and heat.

Even seasoned masters would stick out their tongues at this violence of nature.

Even if I tried to dry my sweat with inner energy, it was meaningless—the air around us was so thick with humidity.

“Huff, huff…… You swing a bit more.”

Tang Yeo-hye stopped slashing with her hand and stepped back behind me.

Naturally, in terms of inner energy and stamina, the Heaven-Slaying Star was far more overwhelming, so she was the one to tire first.

“This place is truly merciless.”

Even what looked like an ordinary puddle of water carried residual poison, and even brushing against the leaves left faint toxins, so Ilhong and Uncle Neung Sam’s skin had already flushed red.

“Ironically, it’s only in a place like this that a Human-Faced Spider could survive for hundreds, even thousands of years.”

Tang Yeo-hye muttered that as she gulped down water.

Well, when I thought about it, it made sense.

“Whew.”

Realizing I’d be the one clearing the path for a while, I stripped off my sweat-soaked outer robe.

I rolled it up and tied it around my waist—when suddenly, the surroundings grew oddly quiet.

“……”

As my trained shoulders and biceps showed through my undershirt, Tang Yeo-hye and Ilhong glanced at me wordlessly.

“Why did you suddenly stop talking? You’re making the mood weird.”

“No, well…… I mean, it’s not exactly unpleasant…… yeah.”

Not unpleasant, my ass.

It was because of the sweat, not for them to ogle.

“Noona, look away. This is a crime.”

“What nonsense…… How is it a crime?”

Because Tang Yeo-hye was nineteen this year, and I was only fifteen.

“You shameless woman.”

“What the hell…… Ha, seriously.”

Tang Yeo-hye scoffed in disbelief.

Of course, by Central Plains standards, we were both considered adults.

I shrugged and went back to the front, clearing the path once again.

Pak! Pak!

After hacking away for about a ildagyeong, Nanman revealed yet another new terrain.

“So, where to now?”

I pointed at the mountains encircling us like a folding screen and asked.

Tang Yeo-hye unfurled an old family map with a chwararak and checked.

“There. We have to climb Mount Evil Spirit (餓鬼山).”

“Geez, what a name……”

What kind of place had names like this? It really killed my desire to climb.

“What’s wrong with it? It sounds cool. Anyway, let’s go!”

As expected of people who casually consumed poison—the ominous name didn’t faze her at all.

“Fine, fine, let’s go.”

She yanked my arm forcefully, as if the summit was already in sight.

“From here on, we should take antidote pills before continuing.”

Neung Sam said this after spotting red frogs (赤蛙) and blood poison insects (血毒蟲), things rarely seen in the Central Plains but common here.

The higher we climbed, the more rare poisonous creatures revealed themselves.

Tang Yeo-hye, an expert in poisons, deftly avoided and disposed of them, but prevention was still better.

“Now that I think about it, Uncle Neung Sam, maybe you shouldn’t have come. It’s too dangerous.”

Maybe I should have told him to wait at the base of the mountain.

Even if there were a lot of supplies, Yeo-hye and I could have carried them.

“If the young lady goes, then I go as well. That’s how it is.”

Tch. Look at this man’s loyalty.

The more I saw, the cooler he seemed.

“Ilhong, don’t you want to say something touching like that too?”

“No thanks.”

“……Fine.”

Even so, Ilhong always tried to bring me useful information whenever she could.

So, in her own way, she was loyal too… right?

I decided to think positively.

Anyway, we kept climbing the mountain, wary of possible poisoning.

But halfway up, suspicious signs began to appear.

“Boss, these look like human traces, don’t they?”

Markings for navigation, and trails where the undergrowth had been cleared.

Signs steeped in human presence.

“Well, this place is a treasure trove of poisons. Of course, various sects come and go.”

Tang Yeo-hye muttered as if it were obvious.

Was this like the territory of those beast-whatever sects Ilhong mentioned earlier?

“Five Poison Sect?”

“No, more likely Poison Valley. Those wretches have been mass-producing deadly poisons so actively that they’re almost rivaling our Tang Clan lately.”

And all of it was distributed through the Black Market, spreading into the Central Plains.

She added that the corpse-bone pills (屍骨丹) Ilhong used were probably made in Poison Valley as well.

“They’re worse than the Tang Clan of Sichuan?”

“Ha! Don’t make me laugh. Poison Valley? Don’t even compare them.”

She scoffed, saying not to compare those who kidnapped and experimented on humans with the righteous pillar that was her Tang Clan.

But all I asked was which sect was more vicious.

“Young lady, there’s a bridge up ahead.”

That was when a long wooden suspension bridge came into view, stretched between two mountains.

It swayed in the wind, looking fragile.

It reminded me of the cliché bridges in movies that always collapsed.

“……Noona, do we really have to cross this?”

“Yes, the map says we do.”

Bad premonitions are never wrong. Pointing at the bridge, she urged us to hurry across.

Ropes frayed with age, wooden planks weathered and worn.

When I set foot on it, the creaking sound only heightened my unease.

Through the gaps in the planks, I could see the raging torrent below, wild as untamed horses.

Would there even be bones left if I fell?

“What, Boss. Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights?”

Ilhong smirked, amused at my hesitation on the bridge.

“It’s not heights. It’s just… old trauma.”

The combination of cliffs and rapids was never a good match for me.

It reminded me of my first day in Murim—betrayed and abandoned by my own blood.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Anyway, I didn’t think you had a side like this. Huh.”

She said she always thought I feared nothing, since I always handled everything so easily.

Smiling with curiosity, she extended her hand toward me.

“Here, take my hand.”

“Hey, it’s not like that.”

“Yes yes, just grab it already. My arm’s getting tired.”

It would be rude to reject kindness and make things awkward.

I took her small hand. She pulled me firmly forward.

“Not so scary anymore, right?”

So this was the so-called suspension bridge effect? For some reason, I felt slightly reassured by her.

And despite the creaking, the planks were sturdier than expected.

I realized the craftsmanship of this age wasn’t to be underestimated.

“Hmm? Young lady, someone’s behind us.”

At that moment, a man in black silently appeared on the other side of the bridge.

“What do you think, Boss?”

“No idea……”

Maybe he was from one of the nearby sects, here to collect poisonous creatures. Uncle Neung Sam had said they were all bad-tempered.

But the man glared our way, then drew a sword from his waist.

“……?”

I raised my energy, expecting him to charge at us, but instead, he looked at the bridge.

Then he lifted his sword—

and began slicing through the ropes one by one.

Slash! Slash! Crack!

“You bastard…!”

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