168 – Naughty Girl # 4

168 – Naughty Girl # 4

Dangdalgi’s martial arts suit was a creation that compiled all the techniques of the continent.

Its worth surpassed that of a national treasure, you could even say.

The culmination of preserving old knowledge to create new, imbued with four thousand years of Chinese history, information, and wisdom.

The big data, deeply learned through deep learning, had reached the realm of prescience, capable of reading an opponent’s attack patterns like a glimpse into the future.

“Pattern Analysis”

“Right Fist 27.5%”

“Left Hand Strike 22.2%”

“Left Foot Roundhouse 27%”

….

Predicting techniques derived from the opponent’s stance, responding accordingly, and achieving absolute defense.

That was the true worth of the martial arts suit Tang Dalgi wore.

And when combined with the Gu Poison (蠱毒), a secret art of the Tang Clan that Dalgi had prepared for a long time, it completed a truly devastating, one-hit-kill fist.

A perfect unity of offense and defense.

Before such Tang Dalgi, Baek Yeoul adopted a four-limbed posture, like a beast. A stance rarely found in the data inputted into the martial arts suit.

“Baek Yeoul Fist!”

Literally meaning the Baek Yeoul Fist technique.

Tang Dalgi scoffed.

“You small-country bumpkins wouldn’t understand how wide and deep the Yellow River truly is, would you? Do you really think some green girl’s improvised fist technique can stem the tide of four thousand years of Zhonghua history?”

“We’ll just have to see, won’t we!”

Baek Yeoul tensed every muscle in her body.

Baek Yeoul was now like a loaded bullet.

The unique destructive power of her demonic lineage began to seethe intensely beneath her skin, and finally, Baek Yeoul, wings grown from her back, flapped them mightily, kicking up a cloud of dust as she charged.

“Pattern Analysis”

“Right Fist 99.5%”

So fast-!

A speed that surpassed Tang Dalgi’s perception.

But the martial arts suit, created through Dalgi’s own concepts, was a machine that transcended awareness, and his arms moved on their own, assuming a defensive posture.

The moment his arms, crossed in an X before his chest, completed the defense, Baek Yeoul shouted.

“Yeoul Punch!”

Baek Yeoul swung her tightly clenched right fist at Tang Dalgi.

KWAANG-!

A sound like a meteor of wrought iron striking a planet echoed.

The reed fields shook violently, and Tang Dalgi’s body skipped across the ground like a flat stone on water.

“Warning─!”

“Suit camera damaged.”

“Automatic recovery system initiating.”

No matter how perfectly crafted, even machines are prone to failure from external shocks.

Dang Dal-gi was greatly taken aback that Baek Yeo-ul’s punches had disabled several of the suit’s functions.

“I was certain it reacted perfectly, blocked it all.”

“Baek Yeo-ul’s Fist… you can’t just block it. Because it’s tremendously strong! Though the stance is unsightly and laughable, that’s the problem! But it’s alright since it’s just us here.”

Baek Yeo-ul’s Fist had the disadvantage of requiring a four-legged animal-like posture, which could look incredibly strange and bizarre in certain situations, thus it was a technique he couldn’t show to Ha Nam-jin.

Baek Yeo-ul always wanted to show his partner, Ha Nam-jin, only the cute and pretty side of himself.

Thwack, thwack, thwack-!

Baek Yeo-ul scrambled through the reeds like a four-legged beast.

Amidst the tall reeds, the low posture, clinging to the ground as if trying to become one with it, made predicting his movements nearly impossible.

“Yeo-ul Punch!”

Kwaaang-!

It was impossible to evade every fist that erupted from all directions in the reed field.

And attempting to defend only caused cumulative damage to the suit.

“Warning─!”

“Remaining power at 15%.”

Whether from expending energy on defense, the suit’s power was dwindling precariously.

The most sensible course of action would be to flee and await a more opportune moment─.

But Dang Dal-gi, driven by a personal vendetta against Baek Yeo-ul, could not bring himself to turn back.

“Your mother, Dang Hwa-yeon, she’s trash! Trash who abandoned the Dang Clan, her family, and even her country for a man! She attacked her own sister, crippling her, and escaped to live happily… she shouldn’t be allowed to!”

Dang Dal-gi’s mother was the younger sister of Baek Yeo-ul’s mother, Dang Hwa-yeon.

When Dang Hwa-yeon abandoned the clan and fled to Korea, her younger sister was the only one who stood in her way, and Dang Hwa-yeon, who had chosen love, used poison to inflict fatal damage to her sister’s organs.

In other words, Dang Dal-gi was here to avenge his mother’s resentment.

Baek Yeo-ul, unaware of this truth, couldn’t help but falter momentarily from his relentless attack.

In that brief opening, Dang Dal-gi jabbed his armpits firmly with his thumbs.

“I didn’t want to resort to this. But it’s only right that we return as much misfortune as we’ve suffered. Watch─.”

“Warning─!”

“Toxicity levels have exceeded limits!”

Sarrrrr-.

The cutting-edge suit that had so flawlessly shielded Dang Dalgi was now shriveling, crumbling into dust like the peel of an overripe banana.

It was the violet venom, virulent and potent, that poured from Dang Dalgi’s very being.

Dang Dalgi, wreathed in a miasma of venom, wearing it like a dreadful gown.

Everything around her began to dissolve in the face of the potent poison, and Baek Yeoul recoiled, aghast.

“That’s the Poison of Solitude! Don’t tell me, Dang Dalgi, you’ve become Solitude itself?”

The Curse of Solitude—it was the ritual of trapping snakes, scorpions, centipedes, poison dart frogs in a jar, forcing them to devour each other until only one remained.

The venom possessed by that final, surviving creature, glutted on carnage, was unbelievably potent, lethal, and cold.

It seemed Dang Dalgi had rendered herself into such a Solitude.

“Even for an Awakened, no human body could withstand something like that! You’ll die too! And I know, I understand ‘Death’ intimately!”

“As you say, this is the concept of ‘Solitude.’ If I stay like this, I will perish. But? I won’t be the only one. If I detonate here, everything in the vicinity will be saturated with my poison!”

What a horrific, brutal journey it must have been to become Solitude in human form.

Baek Yeoul felt a chilling dread at the depth of Dang Dalgi’s resentment, the venom in her heart, towards the Baekdang.

Dang Dalgi clearly intended to obliterate this entire area in a suicidal blast.

The department store, now a sanctuary for refugees, would be caught in the blast, resulting in countless casualties.

‘What can I do?’

If she punched Dang Dalgi’s venom-soaked body, Baek Yeoul’s fist would rot and fester first.

Thus, her ambitiously prepared “Baek Yeoul Kung Fu” was rendered useless.

In that instant, Baek Yeoul hesitated.

Should she also invoke the concept of “Death”?

‘No, that won’t do. If something happens to me, I’ll only burden Ha-nam-jjin. I don’t want to be a hindrance to Ha-nam-jjin!’

Firmly resolved, not a single cloud of hesitation remained in Baek Yeoul’s mind. She ran with lightened feet, sprinting with all her might, finally lunging at Dang Dalgi, now a creature of pure poison.

‘Punch? Kick? Spear hand? Knife hand?’

With her suit disabled, Dang Dalgi predicted Baek Yeoul’s incoming attacks. Even without the suit, she was a formidable martial artist, so anticipating Baek Yeoul’s techniques wasn’t difficult.

However, the attack Baek Yeoul unleashed was utterly unexpected.

Whoosh!

Baek Yeoul wrapped her arms around Dang Dalgi in a tight embrace.

She would become a cushion, absorbing the destructive force if Dang Dalgi exploded, minimizing the devastation with her own body.

“What! Let go of me!”

Dang Dalgi, utterly taken aback.

From her earliest years, she had been raised solely for revenge against Dang Hwa-yeon and her family.

There were no counters like this among the martial arts she had learned.

That was why she couldn’t respond.

It was too harmless and clumsy to be considered an attack.

“Let go of me!”

“Ughhh!”

_Tssshh!_

Then, Baek Yeoul’s body made a sound as if it were being seared on a hot griddle.

The poison Dang Dalgi emitted made Baek Yeoul feel as though she were embracing a raging flame, in torment and agony.

But, she absolutely would not release Dang Dalgi.

“It’s not my fault my mom and dad loved each other and I was born! I only have the sin of being born, but you hate me for that! It’s not fair!”

“What are you babbling about! You crazy b*tch! Let gooo!”

Dang Dalgi didn’t know how best to escape this situation.

From the time she was a very young child, she was born and raised to become a _godok_—a venomous creature.

─A toxic human. She stinks.

─Get lost!

─You eat bugs!

No one had ever embraced her, who had been subjected to scorn and fear since childhood.

Not even her own mother—.

Dang Dalgi knew skills from wildly fantastical novels, like the “Nine Yin White Bone Claw,” and she was well-versed in secret techniques such as “Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms” or “Torrent of Heavenly Flowers,” but she didn’t know how to escape someone’s embrace.

To feel the warmth of another person for the first time in her life, and for it to come from her hateful enemy.

“Let gooo!”

And so, Dang Dalgi emitted her poison at maximum power.

A fog of poison so thick it made it impossible to open one’s eyes. At this rate, many people would die or be injured, turning this into a sorrowful event.

And so, Baek Yeoul forcefully unfurled the wings that sprouted from her waist, embracing Dang Dalgi’s body with all her might.

Hugging her even tighter, as if trying to become one.

“Ahhh—! That form is—.”

The sight of the two locked in a powerful embrace, brought forth a memory from long ago into the wide eyes of Inonoi, who was watching the fight.

It was the story of a secret art that ended the war between the forest sprites and the field sprites, long ago.

# # #

“Hieeek…! Such an awfully potent toxic fog, it is…!”

I felt a disturbance in the reed fields and, with Baonoi, headed towards the thicket behind the department store.

The place was already beyond saving, a virulent poison unleashed and dissolving everything; it brought to mind a reactor on the brink, about to blow.

A full-on meltdown, really.

*Hisss-*

Just standing nearby, the soles of my shoes felt like they were melting into a sticky goo.

And Baonoi ran right into that poisonous fog.

“We have to save Inonoi…! Inonoi is Baonoi’s friend…! We need to hurry and save Inonoi…!”

He didn’t seem to care that blood was streaming from his nose and ears. Seeing how much he cared for his friend, my own eyes started to water.

No, actually it’s blood.

Even my eyes, poisoned as they were, were weeping bloody tears.

—*Gyoouiing.*

Just then, Ingoingi slithered out from my lower regions.

And then, *Sssrrrp-* it began sucking in the poisonous fog that hung in the air, like a sponge drinking water or a hippo at a watering hole.

Ingoingi was quite the air purifier, wasn’t it.

—*Krrreung….*

Of course, sucking up all that poison was clearly taking its toll, even on Ingoingi; it seemed to weaken and droop, before finally collapsing to the ground with a *thud*.

It probably tasted awful.

Ingoingi is such a gourmet, after all; it refuses to eat anything that doesn’t suit its refined palate.

Still, thanks to Ingoingi, I could at least breathe. And see the surroundings more clearly.

As I looked around, I saw people lying on the ground.

“Inonoi…!”

*Tadadat-*

Baonoi ran towards the tiny fairy, Inonoi.

Baonoi held Inonoi in its arms, tears streaming down its face.

“Inonoi, you have to wake up…!”

“Baonoi-yah…”

Judging by the way they sound, the situation is pretty grave.

Even for a fairy as full of life as Inonoi, it might be dangerous if it doesn’t get treatment soon.

However, something even more serious was happening to Bbangdaengyi .

“Bbangdaengyi, can you even hear me?”

It was a creature of bizarre form, hardly a being one could call “Bbang-ddae.”

Four arms, four legs, two faces.

It looked as though two women were fused together, eternally locked in an embrace. From their waist sprouted black wings, ominously beautiful.

If a god, unable to bear the injustice of the earth, were to send an angel of death, would it not be something as grotesque and stunning as this?

If I were to give this entity a name, nothing would be more fitting than “Demon of Death.”

The third calamity of destruction, the one I had feared, had finally manifested before me.

“Ugh, Hanam-jjin… Run… I’ll hold it off…”

But even amidst misfortune, fortune sometimes finds its way.

It seemed that the reason of Bbang-ddae, though horribly merged and transformed, was still somewhat intact. It might not be too late.

“We can still do this. A sincere punch—the kind you used on Nambada—might be enough to force the concept of death raging inside you to be vomited out.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

I had the fastest legs of anyone, but I was always late at the crucial moment.

I can’t be late any longer.

But how could I approach this goddess of calamity, this embodiment of “Death”?

Actually, it wasn’t like I had absolutely no way.

I possessed a concept stone imbued with “Immortality.”

So, I reached into my pocket and swallowed the concept stone, which felt like a heated rock.