Tangmunjeon - Chapter 336



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Chapter 336 of Tangmunjeon: Extremely Poisonous Dangmujin wakes up in Mokwan-ah’s quarters.

Since this wasn’t the first time that something had happened in Mok Wan-ah’s quarters, Dang Mu-jin didn’t feel any particular discomfort. The only thing that was different from usual was that Mok Wan-ah wasn’t there.

However, instead of Mokwan-ah, the faint scent of Mokwan-ah’s body and sweat lingered and filled the room, so it wasn’t that empty.

Dang Mu-jin opened his eyes half-heartedly and sat lost in thought.

‘How did I fall asleep here?’

Nothing really came to mind.

But Dang Mu-jin thought that nothing special had happened and left Mok Wan-ah’s quarters. Perhaps because he had overslept for the first time in a long while, the sun had already risen a hand’s length above the eastern mountain ridge.

And as soon as Dang Mu-jin came out, he discovered Hong Geol-gae.

Hong Geol-gae was sitting cross-legged as if meditating, but as soon as he spotted Dang Mu-jin, he stood up with a meaningful smile.

Hong Geol-gae said, shaking off the dirt from his butt.

“Oh my, our lord. It looks like you had a very peaceful sleep.”

“···?”

Dang Mu-jin felt a strong sense of discomfort.

When close men talk, they usually don’t exchange greetings like “Did you sleep well last night?”

Dang Mu-jin asked with a voice full of doubt.

“Of course I slept well. There’s no reason for me to lose sleep.”

“Well, how comfortable must the bed have been for me to have slept for two full days!”

“Two days?”

Dang Mu-jin turned a deaf ear to Hong Geol-gae’s story, thinking that he was just talking nonsense.

But soon two more people appeared. Jang Il-nam and Dan Seol-yeong, with worried expressions on their faces.

No, upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just the two of them. He could see people glancing at him from quite a distance away. Something was strange.

Hong Geol-gae said to Jang Il-nam.

“Elder Jang. Did you hear? That guy Dang Mu-jin doesn’t even seem to know that he’s been unconscious for two days.”

Dang Mu-jin interrupted Hong Geol-gae’s story.

“Wait. I fainted?”

Dang Mu-jin thought back on what had happened before falling asleep.

However, Hong Geol-gae’s story was not a lie, and the process of going to bed did not remain in Dang Mu-jin’s mind.

Jang Il-nam spoke to Dang Mu-jin in a worried voice.

“They say you bravely took the poison and then passed out. There is no one in the Tang family who doesn’t know that story. Everyone sincerely hopes for your speedy recovery.”

I thought to myself, “How could someone faint from poison?” But then a short, clear memory came to mind.

I remember putting the poison sac up my nose even though Mokwan-ah tried to stop me.

I have no memory of what happened after that. I must have just fainted.

What was even more shameful was that everyone in the party knew about this fact.

As Dang Mu-jin’s face turned red with shame, Hong Geol-gae laughed loudly. It seemed that he was excited to have the chance to tease him after a long time.

Looking at Hong Geol-gae’s reaction, I began to suspect that it was Hong Geol-gae who spread the rumor in Dangga-jang.

Danseolyeong approached Dangmujin and asked.

“Are you feeling okay?”

There was no numbness or pain. The sensation in my limbs was normal, and I didn’t feel any particular discomfort. Dang Mu-jin nodded.

“It seems like there’s no problem.”

Only then did Danseolyeong breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh… Okay. Don’t do anything weird today. I’ll see you later tonight. Okay?”

“okay.”

When Dang Mu-jin approached Dan Seol-yeong and gave her a small hug, Dan Seol-yeong smiled faintly and left for work.

Now that he was relieved, Jang Il-nam headed to the doctor’s office with a brighter expression on his face. Most likely, he was going to take care of the children.

Dang Mu-jin thought deeply. There was something suspicious about it.

‘If it was enough to make me faint, it must have been extremely poisonous. How did the poison disappear in just two days?’

There are two main ways to remove toxins from the body: neutralization or excretion.

Since the body’s ability to neutralize the poison on its own is limited while unconscious, it is clear that the poison was expelled somehow.

‘Is it exhaled through breathing?’

It felt a bit strange that such a high level of poison was almost completely expelled through the breath in two days, but Dang Mujin did not particularly suspect it. Since he had been unconscious, he could not think of any other way to expel the poison. In fact, since it was poison inhaled through the breath, it would not be so strange if it was easily expelled through the breath.

‘It is a powerful poison, but its properties do not seem to be very strong.’

After reaching that conclusion, Dang Mu-jin headed to the storage room attached to Mok Wan-ah’s separate room, thinking that he should take another look at the spider’s venom sac.

Hong Geol-gae still looked like he wanted to tease Dang Mu-jin, but Dang Mu-jin ignored him and entered the warehouse.

As Dang Mu-jin entered the dark warehouse, Mok Wan-ah greeted him.

“Are you awake?”

“I just woke up.”

“Are you feeling okay?”

“It’s okay. There’s almost no venom left. It seems to be a poison that can be easily expelled through breathing.”

“Ah, that’s···.”

Mokwan-ah started to say something but stopped.

“Why? What happened?”

“No. It’s nothing.”

Mokwan-ah smiled bashfully, watching Dangmujin’s expression. Her expression was as cute as a small animal.

Dang Mu-jin looked around the inside of the warehouse again.

Although the other poisons in the warehouse were all interesting, the one that caught Dang Mu-jin’s attention the most was the spider’s venom sac.

Seeing that the giant spider had patterns that resembled a human face, I think it must have been a spirit, a human-faced spider.

As Dang Mu-jin strode towards the poison sac of the Inmyeonjiju, Mok Wan-ah warned him.

“It’s okay to smell something, but anything more than that is dangerous.”

It wasn’t a very proactive warning. Rather, it was a voice that gave off a sense of inexplicable anticipation.

Dang Mu-jin answered calmly.

“I’ll be careful this time, so don’t worry.”

“Ugh···.”

The party leader acted cautiously.

He untied the string that tied the entrance to the venom sac, and instead of putting his nose to it like last time, he lightly fanned it with his hand to spread the venom around, then took a deep breath.

Contrary to expectations, the nature of the poison was extremely sticky. It was also so toxic that it immediately made my nose and lungs tingle.

‘After inhaling this stuff, it’s only natural that you’d lose consciousness.’

If the smell alone is this dangerous, how dangerous would the venom itself be?

Since Dang Mu-jin is accustomed to poison, he might be able to survive somehow. However, even a skilled swordsman would die in an instant if exposed to this poison.

A poison so dangerous that it would make any other person retreat in horror.

But the risk made Dang Mu-jin’s heart flutter.

The meaning of a sword to an ordinary warrior is not much different from the meaning of poison to a Dangmujin.

Just as no swordsman would run away in fear after seeing the sharpest sword in the world, Dang Mu-jin had no intention of retreating after seeing such extreme poison.

‘I want to deal with this poison somehow.’

However, Dang Mu-jin also had no proper way to deal with this poison.

If there is a method that can be used immediately, it would be to carry this poison bag around and pour it on the opponent.

But that was the most inefficient and low-level way to use poison.

Mokwan-ah asked Dangmujin.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I was wondering if there was a way to deal with this poison. It’s definitely something formidable, but the venom is so strong that I don’t think I can withstand it.”

The moment he spoke like that, a thought occurred to Dang Mu-jin.

In the past, it is said that the magician experimented with numerous poisons on children.

And the only child who survived all the poisons was Mok Wan-ah.

Was it simply a matter of luck and constitution that Mokwan-ah was the only one to survive among so many children?

Is that possible just by luck or physical constitution?

By any chance, does Mokwan-ah know how to withstand strong poison?

But one thing bothered me. It didn’t seem like Mokwan-ah would remember those days fondly.

That’s why Dang Mu-jin asked carefully.

“Wan-ah. Can I ask you something?”

“Huh? What are you curious about?”

“Have you been resistant to poison since you were young?”

Mokwan-ah was quick-witted, so she immediately figured out what Dangmujin was curious about.

“No. When I first encountered poison, I had a hard time and suffered just like other children.”

“Then how did you come to be able to withstand the poison like this?”

Mokwan-ah took a moment to collect her thoughts and answered.

“I think it was possible because I was more scared than other kids.”

“What’s that story?”

“Ma-ui was a poison researcher. He didn’t care if children died, but he wasn’t the type of person who used poison to kill children. The children who had to receive the poison didn’t know this well, but Ma-ui didn’t use poison that was too strong for them to withstand from the start. Even children who couldn’t withstand poison well withstood it at least once or twice before dying.”

Dang Mu-jin listened to Mok Wan-ah’s story without rushing it, and Mok Wan-ah continued her story slowly.

“It was the same for me. The poison the magician used became stronger and stronger, and the pain became more severe. The pain was so unfamiliar and scary to me that I came up with one thought.”

“What do you think?”

“I think that if you get used to the pain, you’ll at least be able to feel the next pain as if it were a stranger. Do you remember when I told you that the magician taught the children a simple internal energy technique?”

Dang Mu-jin nodded. It seemed like he had heard something like that before leaving the Demonic Cult.

“Other children tried to escape the pain by expelling the poison with their internal energy method. The demon told me to use the internal energy method to expel the poison. But I was a little different. Instead of expelling the poison with the internal energy method, I tried to hold on to the poison for a long time by using the internal energy method.”

“···That’s a peculiar idea. Why did you do that?”

“People say that people eventually become numb. If you get used to the pain you feel right away, you’ll be able to endure the next pain more easily. And it actually helped. I was the only one who survived.”

Dang Mu-jin looked at Mok Wan-ah’s expression. It was because he thought that maybe he had brought up painful memories for no reason.

But even as she talked about those painful times, Mok Wan-ah didn’t seem that distressed.

“Then I realized something peculiar. Do you know what happens if you hold on to the poison and use the poison to activate your internal energy technique?”

“···well.”

I’ve never done anything like that.

Although Dang Mujin’s internal energy contains poison, poison is poison and internal energy is internal energy.

When Dang Mu-jin used the Naegongsim method, he would drive out the poison from his internal energy and move only the pure energy.

Mokwan-ah told the answer.

“The poison condenses and becomes thicker. Just as salt water becomes saltier as the water decreases, the poison becomes thicker. Sometimes, the amount of poison remaining after condensation is greater than the poison you initially took in. If you practice the Naegongsim method in that state, you will feel as if your blood vessels are being torn apart. It will be more painful than when you first took in the poison.”

“···.”

It was a dangerous story to even think about.

For an ordinary martial artist, the practice of Yunkijoshik is like wiping the blood vessels with a soft, fine, silky cloth.

It is to carefully wash away the waste accumulated in the blood vessels with internal energy, making the internal energy flow smoothly, and gradually expanding the blood vessels, allowing more internal energy to be used.

The process had to be as stable and careful as possible.

That is why martial artists would only practice their internal energy techniques in the most stable position, sitting cross-legged, where no one could disturb them. Sometimes, there were even people who would set up a guarding method to improve their energy.

On the other hand, Mokwan-ah’s method is to intentionally cause pain and get used to that pain.

It was not a method that emphasized stability like other martial artists, but rather a method that involved rubbing and tearing the blood vessels with rough pebbles instead of using a cloth, leaving wounds.

As far as Tang Mujin knew, no martial artist had ever used the internal energy method in such a way. Even Tang Mujin’s master, Goei, had never spoken of such a method.

Dang Mujin guessed that Mok Wan-ah’s method might help him get used to the poison, but it wouldn’t help him increase his internal energy.

Mokwan-ah continued the story.

“You endure the pain and get used to it. Thinking that the next poison won’t be as painful and agonizing. In fact, when other children are exposed to strong poison, they pass out and never wake up, but I endured until the end. Judging by the fact that I’ve survived until now, it’s clear that my method was effective.”

Mokwan-ah’s training method was completely different from that of other martial artists, but it also had some similarities with the training methods of other martial artists.

The unmanned vehicle constantly encounters its own limitations and gradually expands its limits.

In this way, you will be able to swing your sword faster and faster, and you will be able to put more and more meaning into each move.

The same thing happened with Mokwan-ah, who also encountered limitations and expanded her limits.

‘If I expand my limits in the same way as Wan-ah, will I be able to withstand the poison of the Inmyeonjiju?’

The possibility is quite possible.

But one thing bothered me. No martial artist would die trying to swing their sword faster, but if you train like Mokwan-ah, it could become really dangerous.

But Dang Mu-jin couldn’t easily suppress his greed.

That’s the kind of people that martial artists are. People who, even if they know it’s dangerous, can’t feel better until they take another step.

Dang Mu-jin asked Mok Wan-ah.

“Wan-ya. When you told me that the poison sac was dangerous, did you also come into contact with the poison in that sac?”

“That’s right. I’ve smelled it too.”

“How was it?”

“···I didn’t faint.”

“Can I be like that too?”

Mokwan-ah thought for a moment and then nodded.

“That’s right. You’re more familiar with poisons than I am, so you’ll be able to achieve faster. But don’t start out training with strong poisons. The most important thing is to start with weak poisons and slowly increase your limits.”

“I guess so.”

The purpose of the party was twofold.

First, use the poison to practice the internal energy method and become accustomed to the poison.

Second, gradually condense the poison and see how far the poison can be condensed.

First, Dang Mu-jin decided to gradually refine and condense the weak poison and gauge its effectiveness.

The first poison that Dang Mu-jin chose was apricot seeds, which were poisons contained in peach seeds.

The degree of poison varies depending on the species, but it is not a life-threatening poison. Even for someone who has not learned martial arts, it can be considered a poison that only causes a simple stomachache, and has no effect on martial artists.

Because it was such a weak poison, it was perfect for testing how concentrated it could be.

As it turned out, Dang Mu-jin had a suitable test subject.

Dang Mu-jin asked Mok Wan-ah in a cold voice.

“Wan-ah.”

“huh?”

“I fainted after smelling the poison of the Inmyeonjiju. Who did you tell?”

“The three people I spoke to directly were Dang Elder, Seolyoung, and Honggeolgae.”

Since it is unlikely that Father or Danseolyeong would have spread such a story here and there, it must have been Honggeolgae who spread the rumor to Danggajang.

Dang Mu-jin abandoned his compassion.

*

Dang Mu-jin waited until the night grew deeper and everyone was asleep, then sat cross-legged in front of Hong Geol-gae’s room and began eating breakfast.

The internal energy that had not been cleared of poison flowed through the blood vessels of his entire body, causing a vague pain to Tang Mujin.

It was just a poison contained in a peach seed. However, as the fortune-telling continued, the pain became more intense. Eventually, it felt like the blood vessels in my body were being cut with a thin blade inside.

But Dang Mu-jin accepted the pain happily.

Soon, a thin venomous aura rose around Dang Mu-jin’s body, and a thin wind blew from somewhere and guided the venomous aura into Hong Geol-gae’s room.

For three days, Dang Mu-jin endured the pain and devoted himself to the morning meal in front of Hong Geol-gae’s room.

Dang Mu-jin confirmed the new possibility of Dok-gong, and Hong Geol-gae suffered from stomachache for ten whole days.