The distance between Nanman and Azure Forest was absurdly far..

They knew that Yu Jeong-shin and his party were headed for Nanman, but there was no way to know exactly when and from where they would arrive.

Even so, Jin Ri-yeon was the first to sense the Azure Forest disciples approaching.

She volunteered to go out and meet them.

It was all too easy to lose one’s way in Nanman’s jungles.

If it were only a matter of finding the road, that would be one thing, but the absolute formation called the Eight Poisons Locking Formation had been set up around this area.

Should they be discovered by the Evil Cultists, this formation had been laid as their final line of resistance.

If fellow Azure Forest disciples accidentally stepped into the formation, there would certainly be casualties.

Dagak, Dagagak!

The small wooden box in Jin Ri-yeon’s left hand shook noisily.

Its paired box was in none other than Yu Jeong-shin’s possession.

“They’re approaching… from the northwest.”

That was Jin Ri-yeon’s judgment.

This box was the very means by which the Azure Forest disciples’ approach was revealed.

Beside her was a woman who answered in a languid voice.

Tang Eun-seol, precious jewel of the Tang Clan and granddaughter of the Five Poisons Demon Lord.

She who had once attempted to become an ultimate poison master was now here in Nanman.

It was Tang Eun-seol herself who had created the Eight Poisons Locking Formation together with her maternal grandfather.

When Tang Eun-seol rested her chin on her hand, her ornate earrings jingled softly.

She, too, had achieved much in that time.

It was said that troubled times create heroes, and the waves that swept over the world had washed over the Tang Clan as well.

Those who survive the storm grow stronger.

Tang Eun-seol’s expression remained indifferent, yet there was an indescribable pressure about her.

Between her bejeweled fingers, a bright-red thread snake slithered.

It was a venomous snake whose single drop of poison could kill five cows.

“If the formation is triggered by mistake, it’ll be serious trouble, so we have to bring them in properly.”

She spoke in her slow, unhurried voice.

Jin Ri-yeon nodded.

If they slipped up, the Azure Forest disciples could get hurt, so she was tense to the utmost.

In truth, what worried Tang Eun-seol more than the Azure Forest disciples were the venomous creatures of the Eight Poisons Locking Formation.

The most precious and lethal venomous creatures in the world were hidden in this vicinity.

They were no different from treasures of the Five Poisons Valley and the Tang Clan.

When the time came, they would be unleashed upon the Evil Cult’s main altar, for the sake of revenge.

Jin Ri-yeon’s wooden box vibrated once more.

“They’re close now.”

Jin Ri-yeon said.

This place was the Scene Gate of the Eight Poisons Locking Formation.

From the inside, one could see out, but from the outside, nothing within could be seen.

Once the Azure Forest disciples appeared, it was the two women’s job to quickly guide them to the Life Gate.

Jin Ri-yeon and Tang Eun-seol waited.

Dagak, Dagagak!

The box vibrated once again.

It was clear the Azure Forest disciples had arrived right nearby, yet there was nothing to be seen before their eyes.

Jin Ri-yeon and Tang Eun-seol were flustered.

They focused their inner sight and scanned their surroundings.

The two of them had already reached the Transcendent realm. There was no way they could fail to sense the approach of not one or two, but a hundred people.

“…What…”

Yet still, nothing at all could be seen.

The Eight Poisons Locking Formation itself activated faster than they could locate the approaching party.

A tree that had been standing solidly toppled over.

It was not a living tree, but a rotten old trunk, hollow on the inside.

And within that trunk, countless horrific venomous creatures had been living.

“It’s a trap!”

Something happened that was hard to believe even while they watched with their own eyes.

There had clearly been nothing there, yet over a hundred people appeared all at once.

It was like some ghostly magic.

And quite a few among them had already triggered mechanisms of the Eight Poisons Locking Formation.

The dead tree toppled, and venomous creatures poured out.

They should have dodged immediately, but the Eight Poisons Locking Formation was not so forgiving.

The seemingly solid ground suddenly sank.

Five Azure Forest disciples nearby were swept down with it.

Venomous creatures were pouring down into the pit.

“No!”

Jin Ri-yeon and Tang Eun-seol sprinted forward at the same time.

It was to save the Azure Forest disciples, and the venomous creatures as well.

But no matter how fast their feet were, there was still distance between them.

The speed at which the venomous creatures would bite the disciples would be faster.

Fortunately, Yi-gang and Dam Hyun were right at hand.

Dam Hyun always carried the Red Armillary Sash he had received from Nezha.

He grabbed the end of the Red Armillary Sash and swung it.

Pareureuk!

The heavenly treasure showed an effectiveness worthy of its reputation.

The Red Armillary Sash stretched out as if alive and wrapped around two Azure Forest disciples.

The two who had been about to fall were bound and yanked out.

But the remaining three were not.

Among those who had come all the way here, there was not a single incompetent person.

Every one of them was at least at the peak in martial arts and possessed knowledge of spellcraft as well.

But there were simply too many venomous creatures pouring out.

Even as they cut them away with swords and kicked them aside, the venomous creatures did not stop advancing.

If they were bitten even once, the poison would spread through their whole body at once.

“Hold on for just a bit!”

Yi-gang leapt in without hesitation.

To jump into that place where venomous creatures were flooding about, armed with nothing but a single sword, seemed at first glance like madness.

But Yi-gang was no ordinary swordsman.

He had a way to deal with such small, countless targets.

Blue sparks leapt around Yi-gang’s body.

Tang Eun-seol, who had been running that way, suddenly felt a chill crawl up her spine.

And then, it happened.

In Nanman’s humid air, the lightning spread faster and more easily.

The inside of the pit filled with blue light.

The flying insects acted as lightning rods.

The electric current spread like a spiderweb.

The insects burned and broke apart, scattering through the air like ash.

Snakes, rats, and small creatures like toads twitched violently, giving off an acrid stench.

Unfortunately, the lightning did not distinguish between friend and foe.

The three Azure Forest disciples, all except Yi-gang, were electrocuted as well.

Their muscles contracted and spasmed, but not to the point of endangering their lives.

The venomous creatures climbing up their bodies all fell off at once, so the disciples would surely be grateful to Yi-gang for saving their lives.

Yi-gang caught the disciples as they were about to collapse.

When he lifted his head, the disciples who had gathered before he knew it were jumping down, lowering ropes.

The electrocuted ones used their fellow disciples’ help to climb out of the pit.

Only after confirming that did Yi-gang kick off from the pit and leap up.

“Yi-gang…!”

Waiting in front of Yi-gang were familiar faces.

One was Jin Ri-yeon, who had come to Nanman in advance.

And the other was Tang Eun-seol, whom he had not expected.

“You…”

In that moment, Yi-gang realized who had created this venomous-creature trap.

As if to prove his suspicion, Tang Eun-seol came to his side and looked down into the pit.

An acrid yet oddly savory smell wafted up from the pit.

Venomous creatures roasted by lightning lay piled on the bottom.

“Ugh…”

Tang Eun-seol covered her face with both hands.

The cry she let out was almost tragic.

The trap the Azure Forest disciples had stepped on and fallen into was the very place where she and the Five Poisons Demon Lord had gathered the most exceptional of their venomous creatures.

“No way, don’t tell me that one too…”

Snapping back to her senses and scanning the pit again, she confirmed that the bright-red Seven-Spot Fire-Scale Snake had become a charred snake roast as well.

“Kyaaaaaaaaah!”

Once more, a scream that made one’s hair stand on end rang out.

Through the flustered crowd, two old men rushed in.

“Seol! What’s wrong?”

“What happened?”

They were the Five Poisons Demon Lord and Taoist Cheok-gol.

Seeing Tang Eun-seol bowing her head and crying, they were taken aback.

“…Why is this girl crying?”

Even at the Five Poisons Demon Lord’s question, no one immediately stepped forward to explain.

In the end, Yi-gang had no choice but to answer.

“There was a brief accident. It’s fortunate that no one died.”

“I… see.”

Yi-gang quickly led the two old men away.

Jin Ri-yeon lightly patted Tang Eun-seol’s shoulder as she sniffled out tears.

The venomous creatures were like the accumulated legacy of the Tang Clan and the Five Poisons Valley.

Losing them was surely painful for both Tang Eun-seol and the Five Poisons Demon Lord.

There was no reason for Tang Eun-seol to have cried otherwise.

Even after they returned to their hideout, Tang Eun-seol’s face remained gloomy.

To her, the Five Poisons Demon Lord spoke sternly.

“Do not cling to them. You and I have already reached the realm of Poison Master. Those venomous creatures are no longer what matters.”

At that astonishing statement, the Azure Forest Taoists started in surprise.

The Poison Master Realm was like a dream realm to those who walked the path of poison arts.

That the Five Poisons Demon Lord, one of the world’s Ten Great Masters, had reached it was one thing, but did this mean Tang Eun-seol had entered that realm as well?

“Yes, I’m all right now. It’s a relief that no one died.”

Fortunately, Tang Eun-seol seemed to have overcome her bitterness.

As she said, it was lucky that not a single Azure Forest disciple had died.

“Anyway, the effectiveness of that Eight Trigrams Diagram is truly astounding.”

Taoist Cheok-gol voiced his admiration.

The Eight Trigrams Diagram had concealed the forms of over a hundred disciples. Even considering it was a power bestowed by one of the Three Sovereigns, it was an incredible feat.

“If we could use that, storming their main altar would be an easy task!”

Taoist Cheok-gol’s eyes burned like fire.

As an outer-sect disciple of the Azure Forest, he had spent his whole life operating in Yunnan and Nanman, tracking the traces of the Evil Cult.

“I would like that as well, but…”

Yu Jeong-shin gave a bitter smile.

Taihao Fuxi’s Eight Trigrams Diagram had shown a potency that astonished Yu Jeong-shin himself.

“When we first performed the offering ritual, the condition we asked for was to hide our forms and let us reach Nanman, so I don’t know if it will be possible.”

It would be wonderful if they could truly infiltrate with the forms of a hundred people all concealed, but to hope for that was vague optimism.

“We never expected things to go so easily in the first place, did we?”

The Five Poisons Divine Lord pointed that out.

Everyone present seemed in agreement.

Yu Jeong-shin nodded as well.

“In the past month, disturbances have broken out across the Central Plains. Yokai are rampaging, and strange things are killing people.”

“It is the same here in Nanman. I’ve heard the corpses of dead tribesmen have risen from their graves.”

“So even corpse demons have spread.”

“In Yunnan, there are even stories that soldiers made of clay have burst out of the ground.”

“Ho…”

Ancient rulers like Qin Shi Huang had sculpted clay soldiers in that way and placed them by their tombs.

Could there be terracotta warriors hidden in Yunnan as well?

“…It is the end of days.”

Yu Jeong-shin collected himself and said so.

“There is no time. We must stop those Evil Cult bastards at once.”

These bizarre events were the Evil Cult’s doing.

To open the sealed Sealing Box, to supply the needed causality, they were narrowing the boundary between reality and illusion.

When at last this lower world was ruined to the point humans could no longer live in it, then the Sealing Box would open.

“Right. We’ve been studying infiltration routes from here.”

Taoist Cheok-gol said this and brought out a large leather scroll.

He rolled it open across a broad stone table.

What was drawn on the scroll was a map.

It contained a complete record of the jungle here and the Evil Cult’s main altar, and its level of completion was impressive.

Yu Jeong-shin let out a word of admiration.

“Did you make all of this yourself, Sahyung?”

“Not all of it. Jin Mu and that girl Ri-yeon helped as well. I borrowed the eyes of the birds and monkeys that live here quite a bit.”

Taoist Cheok-gol said this and then coughed violently.

To create a map of this caliber in just a few months, he had burned through a considerable portion of his remaining lifespan.

Yu Jeong-shin noticed this, but did not show it.

Instead, he carefully examined the map that had been made.

At the center was a gigantic cliff, and within the canyon carved into that cliff lay the Evil Cult’s main altar.

“There are two ways to infiltrate this place. Entering the canyon from above the cliff, or breaking through from below head-on.”

Taoist Cheok-gol said this and placed several red pebbles at various points.

“These are all their outposts. Every one of them includes men who can use Power Borrowing.”

“Is there any way to handle them quietly…?”

“No. Each outpost has a centipede jar inside.”

There were more than just one or two outposts.

It meant they would be caught no matter which direction they took.

Yu Jeong-shin’s gaze stopped at one point on the map.

“There’s no outpost here.”

There was a mountain connected to the cliff.

It was a mountain labeled Gonggu Mountain.

“Yes. That’s the best infiltration route I can see. Cough!”

Yu Jeong-shin immediately put away the brief smile that had crossed his face.

“Why is there no outpost there?”

There had to be a reason the Evil Cult had deliberately left that spot empty.

Taoist Cheok-gol was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth.

“They say a dragon lives on this mountain.”

“A dragon?”

Yi-gang’s face twisted as he listened from the side.

Somehow, the way this story was going felt familiar.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep