CLS-Chapter 484

Chapter 484:

Just because a decision has been made doesn’t mean everything gets done right away.

All things in the world require preparation. Though they had decided how to treat the patients, there were still many things they needed to consider.

The most important among them was what poison to use.

And Tang Cheon-gun took on that task. Though the Tang Family was called the masters of poison manipulation, even within the Tang Family, no one dared claim they knew more about poison than Tang Cheon-gun.

If that weren’t the case, he wouldn’t have dared to earn the alias Poison King.

But as with all things in the world, even in matters that seemed obviously possible, there were some problems.

“This one is called Crane Essence Red.”

Tang Cheon-gun placed the white porcelain bottle in his hand onto the table.

“It’s a poison extracted from the head of a crane that lived for a thousand years. Just one drop can kill a thousand water buffalo. When poisoned by Crane Essence Red, the entire body turns red starting from the poisoned area. There’s no way to prevent the poisoning by any method. If an arm is poisoned, it starts from the arm; if a leg is poisoned, it starts from the leg. It slowly turns red until finally the entire body becomes completely red. Then you die.”

As Wei Yan-ho looked at the bottle with a listless expression, the Poison King this time took out a blue pouch and placed it on the table.

“This one is called Seven-Step Soul-Chasing Sand. As the name suggests, it’s sand that makes your soul fly away before you can even take seven steps from the moment of poisoning. Among all the poisons that exist in the Tang Family, this one spreads the fastest. If Crane Essence Red is like water slowly flooding and surging in, this one is like a crashing wave? If you need speed, this would be the right choice.”

“No, wait a moment.”

“If this doesn’t suit your taste either, I recommend this one.”

Tang Cheon-gun this time took out a black jar and placed it on the table.

“This one is called Beauty’s Tears…”

“Uncle!”

“…”

Wei Yan-ho got irritated.

“What are you doing, acting like some medicine peddler right now?”

“…What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m just introducing poisons.”

“What good does it do me to hear all that? You should just pick an appropriate poison and give it to me!”

“That’s what I can’t do, which is why I’m doing this, you blockhead!”

Wei Yan-ho and Tang Cheon-gun started pointing fingers at each other.

“Why can’t you! You’re supposedly the Poison King! How can you call yourself the Poison King if you can’t even do that?”

“I’m the Poison King! Not the Poison Medicine King!”

Tang Cheon-gun had his own points to make.

The very idea of using poison as medicine was insane to begin with, and now they wanted him to choose the poison to use for it—did that even make sense?

To ask him, who had spent his entire life researching poison techniques to kill people as efficiently as possible, to create poison techniques to save people—what kind of nonsense was this?

“How am I supposed to do this!”

“Why can’t the Poison King do it! You’re the Poison King!”

“I quit being the Poison King, damn it!”

As Wei Yan-ho and Tang Cheon-gun fought while pointing fingers at each other, those watching rushed over and separated the two.

“Please calm down!”

“What good will come from fighting with a child!”

“You know very well that nothing good comes from fighting, Family Head!”

What those holding Wei Yan-ho said was a bit different.

“Hey, you punk! What are you doing starting a fight with someone you need to have a good conversation with!”

“Ill-mannered brat!”

“You’re wrong, damn it! You are!”

So Wei Yan-ho felt a bit wronged.

“No, we both fought, so why am I the only one getting scolded!”

“It’s okay for you to get scolded!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. You’re fine.”

The responses were somewhat strange.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about such things.

“Stop wasting time and just pick one.”

“Damn it!”

Tang Cheon-gun was foaming at the mouth.

“A poison that spreads neither slowly nor quickly, with toxicity that’s neither strong nor weak… and yet it shouldn’t be too harmful to the human body, but not too harmless either! What kind of nonsense is that, damn it! How am I supposed to find a poison with those conditions! Even if I were called not the Poison King but the Poison Emperor or the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Poisons, I couldn’t do that, damn it!”

“Why can’t the Poison King do it!”

“Damn it!”

As the Poison King grabbed the poisons on the table, his retainers clung to his arms.

“Oh my! Family Head, please calm down!”

“Put them down first and then speak! Everyone will die. No, everyone except that bastard will die!”

“Grrrr!”

Tang Cheon-gun took deep breaths to calm his mind.

But Wei Yan-ho was still looking at Tang Cheon-gun with dissatisfied eyes.

“How can you be the Poison King when you can’t even do that?”

“I won’t do it! I won’t do it! Damn it, I won’t! You be the Poison King!”

“Do you think that works just because you tell someone to do it? Then don’t call yourself the Poison King in the first place!”

“Aaaahhhhh!”

Tang Cheon-gun couldn’t help but realize one thing desperately. Though this wouldn’t be all the hardships he would face in his remaining life, the choice to bring Wei Yan-ho to the Tang Family would be one of the most terrible choices of his entire lifetime.

It wasn’t a joke—right now, if someone could just let him smack Wei Yan-ho’s jaw once, he felt like he could sell his soul to the Demonic Cult.

“Where would such a poison exist, where!”

“You might find it if you look!”

“Hey, you punk! Who would use a poison that’s neither fast nor slow, neither strong nor weak in toxicity, and doesn’t greatly harm the human body!”

“So there are no unused poisons?”

“Of course there aren’t! This is the Tang Family! Any poison that can’t kill a hundred water buffalo with one drop gets completely discarded!”

“Huh?”

Wei Yan-ho tilted his head.

“But.”

“What? What, what? What again? What!”

“How do a hundred water buffalo share one drop of poison? If they each just lick it once, it would be gone, right?”

“Who feeds it all to one animal? You mix it in water. You put one drop in the water they’ll drink for a day, and if they don’t all get poisoned and die after a day passes, such poison is useless…”

Tang Cheon-gun stopped mid-sentence.

And Wei Yan-ho also closed his mouth.

“…”

“…”

Peng Dao-ji, who grasped the situation a bit late, spoke in a hollow voice.

“Mixing it with water would work.”

Everyone was unable to open their mouths.

“Let’s use Crane Essence Red.”

“Why?”

“Because Crane Essence Red has one supreme advantage that other poisons don’t have.”

“What’s that?”

“The fact that the poisoned area turns red. If we can visually confirm how far the poisoning has spread, treatment will become much easier.”

“That would certainly be the case. Then what would be an appropriate concentration?”

“Hmm, that’s a bit difficult to explain in words.”

Tang Cheon-gun knew that it would be difficult to back out any further from this point. This was definitely his domain from now on. No one else had as solid an intuition and experience in this area as Tang Cheon-gun.

“I’ll have to go by feel.”

“Is that okay?”

“I don’t know either.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Hey, you punk! Nobody’s ever done this before, so what choice is there? Just trust me. I am Tang Cheon-gun. When it comes to using poison, no one in the world is more expert than me. If I fail, anyone would fail. I’m not called the Poison King for nothing!”

“Didn’t you say you quit being the Poison King?”

“…Ahem, anyway, we’ll use Crane Essence Red. Are the other preparations finished?”

“Actually, there’s nothing particular to prepare. Once the poison is decided, we’re done.”

“I don’t know if that’s fortunate or unfortunate. Let’s go!”

“Don’t we need to prepare in advance?”

“We need to use as much as the patient can withstand after seeing their condition.”

“Oh!”

Something professional-sounding was finally coming out. Wei Yan-ho looked with seemingly impressed eyes, but Tang Cheon-gun was rather irritated.

‘Damn, what use is it now?’

His dignity was already completely ruined.

He should have just held back a little. If he had just endured a little more, he wouldn’t have lost his temper and missed something so simple, causing a scene.

His stomach felt sour the entire way to the Medical Hall.

Upon arriving at the Medical Hall, Tang Cheon-gun frowned as he looked at the patients.

‘They’ve gotten worse in the meantime.’

It was good that he came to see for himself. If he had diluted the poison without seeing this condition, there would have been problems.

“Is it possible?”

At the Medical Hall Head’s words, Tang Cheon-gun sighed.

“Wasn’t it you who said it’s not a matter of possible or impossible? If it’s something that must be done, we have to make it work somehow.”

“You speak truly.”

“Who will we start with?”

“First, this fellow.”

“…Who is it?”

Tang Cheon-gun couldn’t help but ask again when he saw the person the Medical Hall Head pointed to. It was impossible not to recognize a child of the family, but his face was so damaged that he couldn’t recognize him at all.

“It’s Yun-geol.”

“Tang Yun-geol…”

Tang Cheon-gun sighed.

His heart grew heavy at the fact that the kids he knew well had become unrecognizable.

“He looks to be in the worst condition?”

“That’s right.”

“Shouldn’t we try it first on the one in the best condition?”

“If it were a matter of developing a treatment method, yes. But I have no intention of creating a treatment method here. This is merely a desperate measure to save lives. What meaning would there be in saving a few while leaving those in bad condition? If we’re going to save them, we’ll save them all.”

Seeing the Medical Hall Head’s earnest eyes, Tang Cheon-gun nodded.

“We must treat them. We must save them.”

Tang Cheon-gun closed his eyes.

He had been looking at the big picture. He thought that if this situation couldn’t be stopped, the family might collapse. But before thinking about such things, he should have taken care of the suffering family members first.

‘I wasn’t a good family head.’

As he realized this fact anew, pain like being struck in the chest with a blunt weapon surged through him. It was fortunate that he realized it now, at least.

Opening his eyes, Tang Cheon-gun minutely dropped Crane Essence Red into the clean water he had brought.

“It’s ready.”

“…That’s it?”

“It’s not like I’m manufacturing a new poison, just diluting it appropriately. It’s not something that takes time.”

“Still, for the importance of the task, it seems to be proceeding too easily.”

“I’ve done all I can do. There’s nothing more I can help with beyond this. I could help control the poisoning to some extent, but… anything beyond that would be pushing it.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Wei Yan-ho turned his head to look at the Medical Hall Head.

“Are you ready?”

“One moment.”

After taking several deep breaths to calm his heart, the Medical Hall Head took his needle case and stood in front of Tang Yun-geol.

“I’m ready.”

“Yes. Then.”

Wei Yan-ho also took a deep breath.

He tried not to be nervous, but it was impossible not to be nervous about this task. With even the slightest mistake, he would end up killing someone with his own hands.

It wasn’t his responsibility, but that didn’t mean he could be free from responsibility either. Because he was human.

Wei Yan-ho reached out and placed his hand on Tang Yun-geol’s forehead. He could feel a sticky and gloomy energy.

He wasn’t a doctor.

He didn’t know things like the weight of life.

But still…

“I’ll begin.”

As Wei Yan-ho nodded, Tang Cheon-gun carefully approached and cautiously poured the Crane Essence Red diluted in water into Tang Yun-geol’s mouth. As the Medical Hall Head’s needles quickly struck various points on Tang Yun-geol’s throat, the water that had entered his mouth instantly went down his esophagus.

“Whew.”

Now there was no turning back. Wei Yan-ho waited for changes in the patient with nervous eyes.

***