Return of the Heavenly Sword

Chapter 21. Poison Human (2)

“How, how did you…?”

To the startled Elder Chu’s question, I gladly provided the answer.

“A guy with a sword came to the village, but everyone is peacefully going about their business. Isn't that a bit strange? Try to think a little before you act.”

The old man, wearing a look of confusion, asked again.

“N-not that, but how did you know that we had taken poison?”

As for how I knew, I had known for a while.

The reason the leader of the Steel Sinew Sect had brought in the Green Valley Teacher—no, the Green Valley Worm—was because he used people through poison.

Unable to fully trust a subordinate who had become as strong as himself, the Steel Sinew Sect leader had recruited the Green Valley Worm into the sect to control that subordinate.

Looking at it this way, it seemed I was somehow helping that master of the Steel Sinew Sect.

If I killed the Green Valley Worm, the poison that man was destined to ingest in the future would also disappear.

But it didn't matter one way or another.

“It’ll be fine as long as I kill them all anyway.”

As soon as I uttered the words to myself, the screams of the old couple were heard.

“Hiiik.”

“P-please spare us!”

“What nonsense are you suddenly spouting? When did I say I was going to kill you?”

The two just stared at me with their mouths agape.

“Ah. So I did.”

I spoke to the two, who still wore dazed expressions.

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t talking about you. If you answer my questions honestly, I will let you live.”

“W-we will do so!”

“Good. Then where is the poison?”

“P-poison? Do you mean the antidote? T-that is with the Green Valley Teacher. A-ah, no. The Green Valley Worm has it.”

I frowned at the old man's answer.

“What nonsense is this? When did I ask for the antidote? I’m talking about the poison. The poison. The poison you fed me.”

“???”

As Elder Chu made a puzzled face, the wife next to him opened her mouth.

“It will be of no use to feed that poison to the Green Valley Worm. That was also given to us by the Green Valley Worm.”

“Haa. I don’t know why you’ve been spouting nonsense since a while ago. When did I say I was going to feed it to the Green Valley Worm? I intend to take it myself.”

Even after the Green Valley Worm, there were more than one or two poison arts masters I had to kill. Therefore, I needed to steadily build up my poison resistance in advance.

In that sense, the poison I had just ingested was quite useful. A small amount was moderately bearable.

I wasn't stupid enough to drink a lethal poison that would kill instantly with just a single drop just to build poison resistance.

For some reason, the old couple was staring at me with strange eyes, but that too was of no concern.

“B-by the hearth, there should be a yellow p-powder wrapped in a white cloth. T-that is the p-poison we fed to the y-young warrior.”

I nodded at the old woman's answer and asked again.

“Alright. Then how do I get to the Hidden Green Mountain Villa where that Green Valley Worm hides like an insect?”

“How many years has it been since he settled in this area?”

After that, I asked for more information about the Green Valley Worm several more times.

“Good. Now, I have just one last thing to ask. Do you know anything about the mechanisms and formations of the Hidden Green Mountain Villa?”

The old couple looked at me with surprised expressions.

Their faces seemed to ask how I knew about that as well.

Coming to their senses belatedly, the old couple hurriedly spoke.

“W-we don’t know the exact details either. W-we’ve only ever been to the entrance of the villa.”

“W-we are being completely honest. P-please, spare our lives.”

“Tsk. Well, I suppose a coward who holes himself up in a mountain villa wouldn't have told you lot such important information.”

I clicked my tongue lightly in disappointment.

This was a rather important issue.

Ten years later, the Steel Sinew Sect would be annihilated by a certain force from another region.

Because the Steel Sinew Sect was gone, I was able to hole up in Heavenly Sun Village for an additional ten-odd years to train.

In any case, in the process, that force had naturally eliminated the Green Valley Worm as well.

According to rumors, they had amusingly suffered greater losses at the Hidden Green Mountain Villa than when they had attacked the main base of the Steel Sinew Sect.

It was due to the mechanisms, formations, and poisons that the Green Valley Worm had steadily prepared over a long period.

This meant that attacking the Hidden Green Mountain Villa without any preparation was more dangerous than storming the Steel Sinew Sect's base alone.

But leaving the Green Valley Worm alone was out of the question.

Such a thought naturally came to mind.

What would the Poison Immortal have done?

No, this time, I was attacking a poison user.

Then, what should I do to kill the Poison Immortal?

As soon as the thought arose, a simple solution came to mind.

“I just have to burn it down.”

It was basic knowledge that poison was weak to fire. Therefore, all I had to do was burn down the entire estate where the Poison Immortal resided, and further, the entire mountain.

The mechanisms and formations were not poison, but it didn't matter.

The devices connected to them would melt or burn, causing them all to malfunction anyway.

I felt grateful to the Poison Immortal.

It seemed that by trying to kill the Poison Immortal, I could easily kill most other poison users.

While I was offering a silent prayer of thanks to the Poison Immortal, the old couple's voices pierced my ears.

“B-burn it down? W-what do you mean by that, young warrior?”

“D-don’t tell me you intend to burn down the entire villa?”

Their eyes were trembling violently.

The Hidden Green Mountain Villa, true to its name, was located on a lush, wooded mountainside.

If a fire were set there, it would naturally spread throughout the entire mountain.

However, the old couple was not surprised at the thought that the entire mountain might burn.

“T-then what about our antidote?”

To the old couple, their own lives were more important.

Their attitude, which did not deviate from my expectations, made me laugh uncontrollably.

“That is none of my business.”

Before they could shout in panic.

Tuk.

I quickly struck their acupoints.

I didn't kill them. I just struck their sleeping points to put them to sleep.

They would die in a few days anyway.

They would become terminally ill, waiting for their day of death, with the pain of their internal organs slowly melting away.

“It wasn't just one or two, you offered up over a hundred people. That makes you accomplices too, doesn't it?”

The force that annihilated the Steel Sinew Sect. After they executed the Green Valley Worm, they turned the Hidden Green Mountain Villa upside down. And they witnessed a horrific sight.

It was because they discovered hundreds of corpses buried throughout the Hidden Green Mountain Villa.

Since all the bodies were test subjects for poison experiments, not a single intact corpse was said to exist.

Furthermore, rumors abounded that there were over a hundred skeletons, suggesting at least a decade had passed.

In other words, it meant that even at this point in time, they had kidnapped and offered over a hundred people to the Green Valley Worm.

All while pretending to be kind and simple country folk.

“This is why I hate evil.”

Those bastards always had a way of staining their surroundings black.

Just then, I felt a presence outside the old couple's house.

“Elder! Is that young friend resting well, by any chance?”

A dry laugh escaped my lips at the voice looking for me.

“Come to think of it, the whole village was in on it.”

With a cold smile, I strode towards the entrance.

***

Starting with the man who came to the village chief's house, I went around the village and quietly subdued all the residents.

The sun had started to set around the time I went to the village chief's house, so by the time I was in the middle of attacking the residents, the sun had already completely set.

Before my regression, having dealt with villains by any means necessary, I had a certain degree of skill in stealth techniques.

My internal energy had also increased considerably, so performing stealth techniques was not that difficult.

Well, it was a level of stealth that wouldn't even work on true masters.

In any case, the residents here were not masters, so it was not difficult to sneak up and subdue them.

“Quiet is good.”

Silence descended upon the village. I gathered what I needed and practiced energy circulation to be fully prepared.

And before the break of dawn, in the darkest hour of the morning.

I left the village and walked towards the mountain. With my stealth technique active.

Following the information the old couple had kindly provided, I moved along the mountain path for about two hours.

Under the faint moonlight hidden by the clouds, a mountain villa nestled near a verdant green valley revealed itself.

It was a picturesque scene exuding a Daoist atmosphere, but a rotten stench pricked my nose.

I couldn't tell if it was the smell of the poisons the Green Valley Worm was researching or the stench of the countless corpses buried there.

I unpacked the luggage I had brought from Yuran Village and cautiously approached the vicinity of the villa's wall.

And near the wall, I spread out the things I had brought, a little at a time, in a wide area. Things like dry firewood and leaves.

Following that, I sprinkled oil used for cooking here and there. Then, I struck the flint I had prepared against a tinderbox.

Fwoosh.

Soon, the oiled paper caught fire, and when I touched that paper to the dry leaves I had spread beforehand, the fire began to spread rapidly.

Finally, I took out a cloth I had prepared in advance, wrapped it around my mouth and nose, and tied it behind my neck to secure it.

A bitter fragrance spread out, feeling as if it was slightly neutralizing the rotten smell.

It was a cloth I had prepared by grinding and applying medicinal herbs I had gathered from Wondrous Ridge Mountain.

After finishing all preparations.

I hid myself in the shadow of the bushes using my stealth technique and watched the mountain villa. With the heart of a hunter waiting for his prey.

The rapidly spreading fire engulfed the entire wall of the villa, and not stopping there, it flickered its ferocious tongue into the villa's interior.

Just then, a shout was heard from inside the wall.

“Damn it!!”

For some reason, the person who shouted did not flee outside the estate.

“Which bastard dares to set a fire!!”

An angry shout was heard repeatedly, and soon after, the sound of the fire being extinguished with a ‘chiiik’ sound was also heard.

“No!!”

As a scream as if from someone fainting was heard from inside, I cautiously approached the side of the wall where the fire had been put out, out of curiosity.

Holding my breath for a moment, I looked inside, and a strange scene was unfolding.

“My treasures!!”

A man on the cusp of transitioning from middle to old age was wailing like a child, hurriedly carrying wooden buckets. While performing a movement technique with all his might.

I realized an important fact.

It seemed that poison users lived with fire preparations in place.

As the thought that I would have died a dog's death if I had used this method on the Poison Immortal crossed my mind, the man was shouting while shuttling back and forth between two pavilions in particular.

“Th-this is what I have dedicated my entire life to researching!”

I felt I could vaguely understand the situation.

It seemed he had stored the records of his research, conducted by killing people, or the poisons he had created, in those two pavilions.

As soon as I realized that fact, a pleasant thought came to mind.

I moved away from the wall and approached a tree growing near the mountain villa.

Snap.

After breaking a few branches, I headed towards the side of the wall where the fire had not yet been extinguished.

“Catch fire. Catch fire.”

When I brought a perfectly fine branch to the flames, the fire soon transferred to the branch.

I then moved towards the pavilions where the Green Valley Worm was diligently dousing with water.

To be precise, towards the opposite wall where water was being poured.

Whoosh.

As I threw the burning branch, a fire soon started to catch on that side.

“Aaaaaaaargh!!”

Just as he was about to finish extinguishing the fire on one side, the Green Valley Worm's scream echoed as the fire caught on the opposite side.

“Damn it!!”

While the Green Valley Worm was once again hurriedly fetching water from somewhere in the estate and pouring it on the newly lit fire.

I also leaped into the air with a movement technique, broke off a suitable branch, set it on fire, and threw the branch to another spot.

While the Green Valley Worm was focused on the two pavilions, the flames in other places that had not yet been extinguished grew even larger.

As I broke another branch and was setting it on fire from there.

“Oops.”

Whether it was due to anger or the pungent smoke, my eyes met with the Green Valley Worm, who was looking around with bloodshot eyes in the moonlit night.

“You bastaaaard~!!”

The sight of him rushing at me in the middle of the night with bloodshot eyes made him look like a madman to anyone who saw him.

“Oh my, how scary.”

Holding the burning branches in both hands, I used my movement technique at full power and fled.

While being chased by the madman, I ran along the estate wall in a large circle, then threw the branches towards the two pavilions that the bastard cherished so much.

“Noooooo~!!!”

Hearing the villain's shrill scream from behind me, I felt a sense of relief, as if a long-standing burden had been lifted.