CLS-Chapter 242

Chapter 242

“Yan-ho!”

Wei San-ho rushed toward Wei Yan-ho like a man possessed as he raised his head, grabbing both of his shoulders.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah. But…”

“Your body is fine, right? You’re not feeling weak or anything? What about your internal energy? Is your internal energy alright?”

“…If you shake me a little more, I might actually die?”

Wei San-ho cleared his throat and removed his hands from Wei Yan-ho’s shoulders.

Then Wei Yan-ho looked at Jang-il with sharp eyes.

“Hey, beggar.”

“Hm?”

“You said it was the Tang Family?”

“That’s right.”

“Are you certain?”

Jang-il scratched his cheek as if pondering, then let out a sigh.

“If you ask whether I’m certain, my answer becomes a bit awkward. If you had shown signs of poisoning there, I would have captured that bastard by any means necessary and ripped off his mask, but you were so perfectly fine that there was no way to confirm it. Even if I’m convinced, if they don’t acknowledge it, there’s nothing I can do.”

“I’m asking for your opinion right now. Are you certain?”

“I am convinced. But this is my conviction as Jang-il the beggar, not as a Little Beggar.”

Jang-il spoke in a serious tone.

“So you’re saying yes?”

Wei Yan-ho slowly got to his feet.

“Wait a moment.”

As he showed signs of getting up, Jin Ye-ran grabbed Wei Yan-ho’s wrist. After quietly checking Wei Yan-ho’s pulse and complexion, she nodded.

“You should be fine. But it would be good to be careful for about two days.”

“Yes.”

Wei Yan-ho knew very well that it was best to listen to physicians at times like this. When it came to matters he didn’t know well, he had to respect the opinions of experts.

Just like when he first started begging, he had consulted the opinions of beggars.

“…Why are you looking at people with those eyes?”

“No, I was just thinking that there are humans who aren’t helpful even in their own field.”

“I was living pretty well until I met you, you know?”

“If living as a beggar counts as living well, then where in the world are there people who live poorly?”

“Grrrr.”

Can’t win with words, can’t win with words.

Regardless of what Jang-il thought, Wei Yan-ho didn’t hide his sulky expression.

“So… it’s the Tang Family?”

“I said I’m not certain.”

“Right, it’s the Tang Family.”

“Grrrrrr.”

When people speak, shouldn’t you understand what they’re saying?

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Hm?”

“I won’t let them have any certainty either.”

“Oho?”

Jang-il looked at Wei Yan-ho with eyes that showed some anticipation. Based on Wei Yan-ho’s track record so far, Wei Yan-ho was by no means stupid. Rather, Wei Yan-ho was someone whose mind worked extraordinarily well, especially when it came to bad things.

“What kind of mischief are you planning now?”

“Mischief!”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it.”

Wei San-ho, who had been watching the situation, asked.

“What do you plan to do?”

“I have no intention of doing anything right now.”

“You’re going to endure it?”

“Me?”

Wei Yan-ho snorted.

“Master said that while people may forget kindness, they must never forget grudges. He said to repay kindness by half, and grudges by ten times.”

“…Your master said that?”

“Yeah.”

Though Wei Yan-ho answered nonchalantly, Wei San-ho was troubled about how much of this he should believe. Usually, masters try their best to guide their disciples down the right path, but this was simply…

“Anyway!”

Wei Yan-ho cut off his words cleanly.

“Hey, beggar.”

“It’s Jang-il! Jang-il!”

“Right, beggar.”

“…Why?”

“Those Tang Family bastards also entered this tournament, didn’t they?”

“That’s right?”

“When do I face them?”

Jang-il’s eyes trembled slightly.

‘Anyway, when it comes to bad things, his mind works brilliantly.’

Jang-il rolled the tournament bracket around in his head and grinned wickedly.

“There are two people from the Tang Family remaining now.”

“Two?”

“One is Tang Jong-ui. The Young Master of the Tang Family.”

“Oho?”

“And the other is called Tang Jong-min, Tang Jong-ui’s younger brother.”

“What about that Tang Jong-gyeok guy or whatever?”

“He’s from a branch family.”

Jang-il said flatly.

“In terms of importance, he can’t dare compare to Tang Jong-ui or Tang Jong-min. Though he played a key role in this incident, if you beat him up, the Tang Family wouldn’t bother to care.”

“They entrust poisoning to such a guy?”

“It’s not that they entrust poisoning to such a guy, but because he’s such a guy, they entrust poisoning to him. If they had Tang Jong-ui or Tang Jong-min do it and something went wrong, they couldn’t cut off the tail. Tang Jong-gyeok also knows he’s being used, but if he does his job quietly, he can gain the trust of his superiors, so he puts up with it.”

“Hmm…”

Wei Yan-ho scratched his head roughly.

“Anyway, Tang Jong-ui and Tang Jong-gyeok are currently in the tournament?”

“Tang Jong-ui and Tang Jong-min! I just said that.”

“Why are all their names so similar?”

“Because they’re brothers!”

Jang-il clutched his chest and took a deep breath. He kept feeling like he wouldn’t die a natural death if he got entangled with Wei Yan-ho.

‘I need to get out of here quickly.’

If he kept dragging this out, his lifespan would decrease by a year each day. He was actually cuter when he was collapsed from being poisoned.

‘Huh?’

Jang-il tilted his head and opened his mouth.

“But you… are you alright?”

“What?”

“You were poisoned by the Tang Family’s poison. But how can you be so fine?”

“Fine! I had a stomachache for the first time in ten years, and you call that fine!”

Jang-il looked at Wei Yan-ho with a face that said ‘What kind of person is this?’

‘He was hit by poison that the Tang Family used with the intention to kill, and it ended with just a stomachache.’

And he shook it off and got up in less than a few shijin.

Getting poisoned is one thing, but the way he overcame it was amazing, if you could call it amazing.

‘What could his body possibly be made of to turn out like that?’

Anyway, the more he looked, the more fascinating this guy was.

“Master said this.”

“…That master of yours sure talked a lot.”

“He was a chatterbox.”

Wei Yan-ho readily agreed. Looking back, Baek Mu-han really did talk a lot. He talked so much that even while beating up Wei Yan-ho, he never shut his mouth.

Thanks to that, Wei Yan-ho became someone who remembered everything his opponent said even while getting beaten. If he couldn’t remember what was said after getting beaten and couldn’t answer properly, he’d get beaten again.

‘Actually, I think I got beaten even when I answered properly.’

Come to think of it, it seems like he got beaten no matter what he did. If it had been a human and not a ghost, there would have been nothing to say even if he was thrown into the authorities for child abuse.

“Anyway, Master said this. There’s only one way to overcome poison.”

“What?”

“The reason a person dies when snake venom enters their body is… because humans are weaker than snake venom!”

“…What?”

It was the same “what,” but the meaning was completely different.

What kind of nonsense was this?

“So, if I become stronger than the poison, even if poison enters my body, it can’t do anything. So I just need to become stronger!”

“…’To win a fight, just don’t get hit’ – it’s the same kind of logic.”

“But the scary thing about Master is that he actually pulled it off.”

Though it was always a dilemma how much to believe of Master’s words, according to Master, he once inhaled Invisible Poison from the Tang Family while drinking tea in the past.

But since his body was so powerful, he had no idea he was poisoned by the Invisible Poison until people around him started collapsing, and only then did he realize he was poisoned.

Of course, mere Invisible Poison couldn’t trouble Master, and he heard that Master had a hard time for a while washing the poison flowing out of his body.

‘This is almost in the realm of mythology.’

After washing off all the poison, he rushed to the Tang Family in one breath, but the Tang Family’s head bowed three times and begged, saying they had lost the Invisible Poison and it wasn’t that they had poisoned him, so instead of killing him, Master beat the head all day as punishment.

‘The fact that he still beat him is very much like Master.’

Of course, there was probably some exaggeration mixed in. Master was a liar whenever he opened his mouth.

Anyway, it was very meaningful that master and disciple had similar experiences transcending history and time. So he should give the Tang Family a similar experience transcending history and time too.

“So when do I meet this Tang Jong-ui?”

“You?”

“Yeah.”

“Tomorrow.”

“…Hm?”

As Wei Yan-ho tilted his head, Jang-il smiled very wickedly.

“Your next opponent is Tang Jong-ui.”

***

Tang Jong-ui looked up at the sky with a deflated heart.

‘What’s going on here?’

Tang Jong-gyeok, who had boasted that he should leave Wei Yan-ho to him, was groaning with indigestion.

It was absurd beyond measure that a member of the Tang Family, which commanded the world, was laid up with indigestion, but seeing Tang Jong-gyeok’s belly swollen like Nashan mountain, he had no choice but to accept it.

Even in his half-conscious state, Tang Jong-gyeok had left behind words to be careful of Wei Yan-ho.

‘Be careful?’

What excellent advice.

Yes, he should be careful.

Honestly, he didn’t want to fight someone like Wei Yan-ho either. Who would want to exchange moves with someone who sends people flying to neighboring peaks?

And he was a martial artist, but he was still from the Tang Family.

If facing an opponent head-on, being helplessly defeated by even a martial artist of similar level was the fate of the Tang Family. In large-scale battles or ambushes, they could show abilities superior to anyone using poison and hidden weapons, but…

‘Not on the martial platform.’

Honestly, if they were going to attack head-on fairly and squarely, why would they use hidden weapons? And if they were weapons meant to be used that way, they wouldn’t have been given the name “hidden weapons” in the first place.

The proper way to use hidden weapons was literally to launch them from shadowy places without being noticed to take the opponent’s life, wasn’t it? Hidden weapons weren’t meant to be used in places where the sun shines brightly like this.

But who would understand that?

Tang Jong-ui slowly lowered his head. Countless people were watching him. They were probably curious about what kind of magnificent scream he would make and which peak he would fall on.

‘I’m even curious myself.’

Even in a match where defeat was clearly visible, not showing a retreating figure was what being a martial artist meant. Especially for a martial artist in his position, flight was a greater humiliation than defeat. The moment he showed such behavior, his position as Young Master would cleanly pass to his younger brother.

He couldn’t let people say that the Tang Family’s head was a coward.

“Haaaaah…”

With a deep sigh, he climbed onto the martial platform, and Wei Yan-ho was looking at him with a bright smile.

“Hello?”

Seeing Wei Yan-ho waving his hand with a bright smile, it felt like curses would burst from his mouth.

How cheerful. This side was dying right now.

‘Stupid bastard.’

If they were going to use poison to cause poisoning, they should have done it properly; they shouldn’t have let the opponent climb onto the martial platform openly.

‘Hm?’

At that moment, Tang Jong-ui felt something strange.

‘Come to think of it, Jong-gyeok definitely said he had properly administered the poison, right?’

Yin-Yang Soul Confusion wasn’t poison weak enough to be overcome with martial arts. If it could be properly administered, he was confident it could kill anyone, not just Wei Yan-ho.

Moreover, today’s Wei Yan-ho was somewhat different from usual.

Wasn’t Wei Yan-ho, who had never once climbed onto the martial platform first, already up there waiting for him?

Could it be?

Tang Jong-ui’s eyes narrowed.