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Chapter 4
“What’s all this commotion!”
Dang Jinhyeon rushed out of the room and shouted.
The servants were so terrified that they couldn’t even think of answering the young master and only screamed in panic.
Dang Jinhyeon grabbed the shoulder of the oldest among them and turned him around.
“Elder Sim, what’s going on? Why all the uproar?”
Elder Sim, his face pale with fear, stammered as he replied.
“Y-young master, the poisonous creature kept in the Eighth Poison Vault has escaped!”
At those words, Dang Jinhyeon’s eyes widened.
The Eighth Poison Vault? Something escaped from there?
The Tang family had a total of eight poison vaults, numbered from the First Poison Vault to the Eighth Poison Vault.
The higher the number, the more dangerous the poisons stored inside. From the Fifth Vault onward, only Tang family members who had reached a certain level of martial skill were allowed entry.
Needless to say, the Eighth and final vault was the most dangerous.
Currently, the only person in the Tang family permitted to enter that vault was the clan head himself—Tang Cheongi, the Poison Sovereign!
And now something from that vault had escaped?
No wonder the household was in chaos. Dang Jinhyeon tightened his grip on Elder Sim’s shoulder.
“What escaped?”
“A venomous serpent… the Ten Thousand Blood Snake!”
Dang Jinhyeon’s face turned deathly pale.
This is bad!
The Ten Thousand Blood Snake was a spiritual creature said to be capable of killing ten thousand people with just a single drop of its venom.
It was the most powerful poisonous beast in the Tang family’s collection.
It had originally been captured and sealed in the Eighth Poison Vault by Tang Cheongi’s great-grandfather. Since his grandfather’s generation, it had lain dormant in hibernation for nearly fifty years.
And now, of all times, it had escaped while the clan head was away!
“Where is my father?”
“He is absent! Young master, you are the only one in Tang Manor right now!”
But even with his skill, Dang Jinhyeon could not subdue the Ten Thousand Blood Snake.
After so long in hibernation, it might even be more ferocious than before.
The longer a poisonous creature stores its venom, the stronger it becomes. It may be far more dangerous now than what the records say.
Still, he couldn’t allow it to run rampant through Tang Manor.
Dang Jinhyeon released Elder Sim’s shoulder.
“I’ll try to stop it. Did you see where it went?”
“The guards are blocking the gates to keep it from leaving the compound.”
At that moment, a maid screamed, her face ashen.
“Kyahhh! The Ten Thousand Blood Snake is heading toward Lady Dang Bi’s quarters…!”
“What!?”
The Tang family’s guards rushed en masse toward Dang Bi’s residence.
Dang Jinhyeon, pale as well, followed right behind them.
Dang Bi!
Of course, Dang Bi wouldn’t die—she was born with a body immune to all poisons.
But the opponent was the most venomous serpent under heaven, awakened after fifty years of slumber!
“Father must have denied it because of Uncle…”
Lying on my side, I mulled over the conversation I’d had with Father.
He had strongly denied that I had a poison-immune body.
But Father is a terrible liar.
Who would believe someone sweating buckets while making excuses?
Even a four-year-old child wouldn’t buy it.
“Mmm…”
I got up, closed my eyes, and paced around the room, organizing my thoughts.
If I wanted to face Uncle and protect Father, the first step was to know my own condition precisely.
And that meant confirming whether Uncle was right—that I truly was “a body immune to all poisons.”
At that moment—
Squish.
Hisssss!
“…Huh?”
Something soft squirmed under my foot.
I slowly lowered my gaze.
“!”
A small snake with a white tail and a purplish body was squashed under my foot, hissing furiously.
Snap!
Startled and hurt, it bit down hard on my ankle.
“Ahhh!”
Crying out, I instinctively pulled my foot back and fell to the floor, my legs giving way.
Looking down, I saw three puncture marks on my ankle.
W-what’s this?
Three fangs?
And besides…
Why is there a snake in my room?
Clutching the wound, I looked blankly at the snake.
It, too, looked bewildered.
Crushed out of nowhere, it writhed in obvious pain.
Seeing that, I felt a little sorry… but—
Wait, this is my room. It’s the snake’s fault for barging in uninvited.
“Anyway… what kind of venomous snake is this?”
In the Tang family, there were no non-poisonous snakes, so this one had to be venomous too.
But—
“I’ve never seen one like this.”
A snake with three fangs—I had neither seen nor heard of such a thing.
Regardless, I gritted my teeth and clutched the bite wound tightly.
Well, this works out.
I’d wanted to test something anyway.
If I thought of this as killing two birds with one stone, it wasn’t such a bad thing.
But…
…What if Uncle was wrong?
If he’d been mistaken, then I’d die here, barely a day after coming back to life—without even saving Father.
Just then, the snake slithered toward me and coiled around my leg.
But it didn’t seem like it wanted to attack.
If anything, it almost looked apologetic for biting me. Though of course, a snake couldn’t really feel that way.
And in that instant—
Bang!
“Eek! You scared me!”
The door burst open with a crash.
I jumped and spun around.
“Dang Bi!”
“Huh? Oh… Father?”
The one who had stormed in so loudly was none other than Father.
Behind him, countless Tang guards and maids crowded into the room, all staring at me.
…Why so many people?
Then they noticed the snake coiled around my leg, and Father and the guards all turned pale.
“Good heavens…”
“What do we do!?”
Elder Sim, upon meeting my eyes, fainted on the spot.
I broke out into a cold sweat as I glanced between him and the maids who looked like they’d follow any second.
Ah… this is bad.
I was flustered enough, but their shock was surely worse.
I looked at Father.
He seemed surprised, but he was also the calmest of them all.
At that moment, I remembered Uncle’s words.
“It’s best to remove future trouble. A poison-immune body, you say…”
Perhaps he’d been right after all.
Otherwise, Father wouldn’t stay this calm seeing a venomous snake coiled around my leg.
While the guards and maids muttered anxiously, Father spoke firmly.
“Stand back, all of you! I’ll handle this.”
“But young master! That’s the Ten Thousand Blood Snake—”
His voice was resolute.
“Withdraw.”
At his command, the guards and maids hesitated, then stepped back.
Father turned to me.
“Bi, don’t worry. Father will save you.”
In the next moment, he took a heavy iron chest from one of the guards and strode forward.
It was the kind used to contain poisonous creatures.
At that moment—
Hisssss!
The snake around my leg bared its fangs, radiating hostility.
Father pressed on, undeterred.
He’s sweating…
I noticed beads of cold sweat on his brow.
Was this snake really so dangerous that even Father—renowned as one of the Tang family’s strongest martial artists—was nervous?
Still, he didn’t retreat.
He strode toward the snake.
“Hisss-keeek!”
The serpent reared back, flashing its three fangs, ready to strike.
Just then, a chilling thought shot through me—
Father is already poisoned.
If his poisoned body were struck again by venom this strong…
No, that mustn’t happen!
I screamed inwardly.
Being poisoned by two different venoms would make detoxification nearly impossible!
At that moment, Father advanced another step.
The snake coiled, preparing to lunge.
“Hisss!”
Just as it sprang forward, I reflexively grabbed it by the neck.
“Don’t!”
The guards gasped in shock.
Even Father’s eyes widened in disbelief.
But then something even more astonishing happened.
“Hisss…”
The snake drooped its head, almost dejectedly, as if sulking in my grip.
“……”
“…?”
A stunned silence filled the room.
Clutching the snake’s soft body, I blinked at Father.
“…Huh?”
