Something occurred to me, so I recalled the circumstances under which I first discovered Zimjo.

"Uh, what was his name again? Hm... Ah! Right, I remember now. Blood-Handed Rakshasa, Tak Wonyang, wasn’t it? Such an extra that I couldn’t even remember his name. Cho, Hyang, and Bini took him down in three seconds, didn’t they?"

Back then he was someone with formidable martial arts, but now he was such a scumbag I could barely remember his name.

He’d said he was cultivating a martial art called Blood-Water Venom Claw that had leaked out of the Blood Cult.

To refine this Blood-Water Venom Claw, human blood and bone marrow were absolutely necessary, so after slaughtering the people of the Yuezu village, the bastard had been honing his art with their blood and marrow.

That produced a large number of corpses, and from those dead bodies, corpse-miasma arose.

Corpse-miasma is a toxic miasma generated as corpses rot; it’s a bit different in character from gas or viruses.

I hadn’t understood it back then, but after my martial realm rose I came to know—this is a kind of qi.

Yin qi.

As dark, cold, decaying things arise, a kind of yin qi emanates from them.

Flies were drawn in, and maggots bred on those flies.

Because of that, poison frogs and venomous insects gathered, and snakes swarmed in as well.

Zimjo was eating the heads of those snakes.

I also remembered what Father-in-law said.

"Zimjo in Hainan... Since it’s known to eat only the heads of venomous snakes, it must have flown here drawn by snakes imbued with corpse-miasma."

The snakes over here look just like the snakes in the world where I lived, but they have slightly different habits.

They gather in places like serpent pits where yin qi seeps out, or when bodies accumulate and rot and toxic qi leaks out, forming corpse-miasma, they gather there as well.

Like that serpent pit we found when the Blood Cult bastards attacked the Tang Clan.

They gather in places like that.

It was a phenomenon I hadn’t seen in my past life, but Mandok Shingun Grandfather and Father-in-law explained that it’s behavior aimed at becoming a spirit creature.

"To become a spirit creature."

"A spirit creature?"

Some are born spirit creatures, but among ordinary creatures, there are those that absorb qi from corpse-miasma or serpent pits and become spirit creatures.

Because venomous creatures and venomous insects are fond of yin qi, they explained.

Do they absorb the qi that suits them best?

Whether that’s really true, I don’t know.

In any case, the fact that Zimjo eats snake heads is fairly well-known, and since it came seeking a place where corpse-miasma had arisen, I could form this hypothesis.

"Can this Zimjo sense places where the miasma is strong?"

Rather than coming to find snakes, maybe it can sense places where the toxic qi is strong—like corpse-miasma—where snakes would be likely to gather.

Unless it had opened the Door of Snakes like I did, there’s no way it came because it could sense the snakes’ locations; it was more reasonable to suppose it could sense places where strong toxic qi like corpse-miasma pooled.

Sensing the qi of each individual snake made less sense than that.

If it can sense places where the miasma is strong, or recognize where yin qi is intense, it won’t be searching in vain.

I shouted to Cheong-yu Sojeo that I was stepping out and dashed outside.

"Cheong-yu Sojeo, I’ll be back!"

"Sia. "Hm? Yes—go and come back safely.""

I shot off and headed for the mountain where I’d found Zimjo.

If it reacts to toxic qi or yin qi, then just as Cheong-yu Sojeo said, there was a way to call it in.

A short while later, I arrived at the place where I’d found Zimjo.

I moved toward the spot where the bodies had been piled.

"A little creepy, but if I can find Zimjo, I’ll put up with it."

Honestly, sleeping in a place where lots of people died?

Back in my previous life, I couldn’t have done it.

Goosebumps—how could I sleep in a place like that?

But maybe because I’ve become a martial artist too, or maybe my senses are dulled, I slept just fine in a cave.

So this should be fine as well.

I sat cross-legged in the pit where the corpses had been piled.

The flower of poison-arts.

I was going ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) to try it.

"When someone trained in poison-arts reaches about the Profound Realm, they can create various poisons themselves."

"People create poison?"

"Yes, and if you’re good, even Heart-Poison."

"Heart-Poison?"

"A poison that can intoxicate an opponent if you merely will it. It’s similar to the Heart-Sword. You’d need to reach the Life-and-Death Stage to perfect it, but even in the Profound Realm it’s plenty doable."

Hwa-eun and the Tang Clan people said that when a master of poison-arts reaches about the Profound Realm, they can create various poisons.

Embedding that miasma in their own martial arts and poisoning people—that’s the stage of a poison-arts master.

They manufacture various poisons inside the body that can’t be detoxified and intoxicate the opponent, or so they say.

If this deepens, it becomes what’s called Heart-Poison; I heard it’s something where you can poison anyone just by willing it.

Right now I intend to create a pre-stage poison on the way to that Heart-Poison.

Because Hwa-eun said with poison-arts you can create unusual poisons.

She said you can imbue the traits you want.

"You can make it so that someone dies the moment they smell it, or so that their body melts."

Sitting cross-legged, I raised the energy of the Five Poisons Returning to the Origin Art.

"A poison that belches a vicious yin qi without harming venomous creatures themselves—that would be good. So venomous creatures will flock in."

Then, contemplating the poisons flowing in my body, I conceived a new poison.

I don’t know the complicated stuff, but Hwa-eun said that once you’re around the Profound Realm, you can accomplish things like this just by thinking of them.

While I was circulating my energy through a great heavenly cycle, thinking what poison to make—

I felt my body sink with a shooop, and when I opened my eyes in surprise, I had arrived in my mindscape.

"Huh, the mindscape."

I opened my eyes not in nature but in a stone chamber, and realized the floor was gleaming.

When I touched it, all sorts of things rose in my head.

Toxicity, range, target, and so on.

It seemed this was the place where the poison I would create would be decided.

"Nice."

It felt more intuitive to make than I expected.

I put my hand on the floor and brought to mind what I wanted.

"A poison whose miasma kills nothing, but the yin qi it emits is so potent that it looks irresistible to venomous creatures that are lured by yin."

When I imagined a poison like a pheromone, characters kept adding themselves across the floor’s stone plate.

Not hanja, but some peculiar script.

After a little time, I realized I could in some way emit the poison I’d conceived to the outside.

With a palm-wind, a fist-edge, my exhalation, sweat, and so on.

"Looks like it worked, right?"

It felt sufficiently prepared.

When I thought of the outside beyond the mindscape, my vision spun and shifted, and the place where I’d met Zimjo came back into view.

Drawing up Protective Inner Energy, I slowly began to exhale the poison I had formed inside my body.

***

"Nice. This came out really well." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Among the snakes gathering around me, I picked up a Mocquard’s beauty rat snake and stroked its head.

Together with the Bawangling Cave Gecko, this guy is a Hainan endemic.

Its body is notably flattened vertically.

Its tongue flicked lazily, looking pleased.

With a Hainan endemic snake showing up, I felt I’d made this poison quite well.

I had planned it with this sort of thing in mind, but I hadn’t expected it to be this effective.

Venomous creatures were swarming in as if I’d broadcast pheromones.

The numbers weren’t huge, but starting with that Mocquard’s beauty rat snake and including Hainan’s tarantula, the Black Earth Tiger, all sorts of venomous creatures kept approaching me.

"Don’t fight or eat each other, okay? And sorry, but everyone please hurry back. You can’t be here if Zimjo shows up."

I shooed the gathered creatures away appropriately.

If they ran into Zimjo and lost their lives, I’d be sad.

I hadn’t made this poison to summon these fellows, but to lure Zimjo.

I’d already opened four of the Five Doors, so I could converse with snakes, toads, centipedes, and lizards; among the creatures that had gathered, I quickly sent back the ones I could talk to, but there was a slight problem with this poison.

"This output seems weak, doesn’t it?"

Whether because my poison-arts level was lacking or for some other reason, the output was weak.

When naturally occurring corpse-miasma wafted before, even I—who hadn’t trained martial arts—felt how acrid it was.

You could smell the corpse-reek from a distance; even there, a faint toxic qi lingered,

And the realgar in my bosom would sizzle into vapor.

But the poison I exhaled from my body wasn’t anywhere near that.

Maybe because I was exhaling the toxin on the current flowing out from Protective Inner Energy, it just wasn’t spreading around enough.

The small number of venomous creatures that gathered was proof.

If I wanted Zimjo to sense it, I needed to spread the qi across as wide an area as possible, but the range didn’t even leave this mountain.

No—forget the mountain, it wasn’t even leaving this clearing.

"Should I try emitting it with a palm art or something else?"

I tried exhaling the poison with palm arts and by other means, but the range didn’t change much.

Just in case, I maintained the qi for about a day, and only ordinary venomous creatures gathered in bunches nearby.

I really had to find a way to expand the range somehow.

"I’ll ask Hwa-eun about this."

Since Hwa-eun knows poison-arts well, I decided to explain the situation and get help.

"“Hwa-eun, are you at your place?”

“Yes, So-ryong, what’s up?”

“What’s up, Master?”

“Ah—actually, with my poison-arts...”

“You were preparing to enter Heart-Poison. Impressive, So-ryong. Training diligently on your own.”

“Ahaha, well... b-basics, you know.”"

She seemed to have a slight misunderstanding, but I let the praise stand and asked Hwa-eun how to boost the poison’s output.

At my question, Hwa-eun pondered briefly and gave a very clever answer.

"In the case of generating poison, you’re affected a lot by the maturity of your internal energy. So how about entering the realm of Nine Poisons?

If you want to be ready to accept Zimjo, you should rise to Nine Poisons first. Prepare in advance. We were going to do that anyway."

"Ah, true."

Indeed, just as Hwa-eun said.

If the output is weak, raise the output.

And the best way for me to raise output is to advance my realm.

If I rise to Nine Poisons, the output will certainly increase.

And if I want to obtain Zimjo, it’s best to stamp Nine Poisons in advance.

I had already reached Eight Poisons and marked the Profound Realm, so unlike before, the period for my body to adapt was short—now it was fine to attempt Nine Poisons.

I decided to go straight to Hongbi.

"“I should try it right away. Thank you, Hwa-eun.”

“Yes, my lord. You’ve got this!”

“Master, Master will do well.”

“So-ryong, finish it quick!”"

Buoyed by energy from my wives, I arrived at the abandoned Daoist hall.

The hall had changed a lot since before I set out.

First, a huge tree had fallen and blocked the entrance.

On the broken wall, trees were piled up in layers.

The abandoned hall had become like a fortress.

"What on earth is all this?"

While I was looking around with a slightly flustered expression, Orange, grunting as he dragged a tree, spotted me and ran over with a delighted face.

"Skaa. “Hyungnim!”"

"Oh—yeah, Orange, what is all this?"

When I asked what the hell was going on, Orange scratched his head with the tip of his tail and answered.

"Ska. “Ahem. I put in a bit of effort to keep my wife and the children safe.”"

I had the thought that if this guy had kids twice, he might push a mountain over; he put the tree down and was coming toward me when he suddenly flinched.

Then, wearing a slightly smarmy expression, he spoke.

"Skaaa. “Hyungnim?”"

"Mm?"

"Ska? “Why do you smell strangely good, Hyungnim? May I... come a little closer?”"

At his question, goosebumps sprang up down my back and I shouted without thinking.

"St—stop!"