Chapter 469: At the Martial Alliance (3)

The father and daughter stood silently, facing one another.

More precisely, the father watched his daughter with his physical eyes, while the daughter regarded her father with her mind's eye.

How long did they remain like that?

Tang Sang-a stepped forward with her eyes still closed.

A pale mist rose from beneath her foot.

Astonishingly, it was poison. With a single step, she had neutralized the poison energy that had seeped into the ground.

A faint trace of approval surfaced on Tang Gwan's expressionless face.

She's doing it properly.

What Tang Sang-a had just vaporized was an extraordinarily lethal poison known as Ghost Immortal's Breath.

The name meant exactly what it suggested—a poison breathed forth by an immortal possessed by a ghost.

Highly volatile, it lost its toxicity the moment it dispersed, so it was ordinarily driven into the target using Inner Qi refined from poison essence.

It was exceedingly difficult to handle, and correspondingly powerful. Though little known outside the clan, even the Tang Clan ranked it among its most formidable poisons.

Yet Tang Sang-a had dispersed it with a single step without being poisoned herself. One slight mistake in disturbing it, and her leg could have rotted away in moments.

And that was not all.

At a gesture from Tang Sang-a, the hot midsummer breeze smoothly changed direction.

It blew toward Tang Gwan.

Riding on that breeze was Seven-Step Soul-Severing Powder, though there had been no telling when she had administered it.

Tang Gwan's eyes gleamed.

He inhaled every trace of the Seven-Step Soul-Severing Powder carried on the wind.

His face flushed crimson for an instant.

Then, just as quickly, his complexion returned to normal.

Seven-Step Soul-Severing Powder was one of the Tang Clan's more infamous lethal poisons. Even an accomplished poison practitioner would have struggled to survive inhaling that much at once.

It was proof of just how far Tang Gwan had advanced in transforming his own body into a vessel capable of enduring poison.

Tang Sang-a's hands moved smoothly once more.

The air grew heavy and stale in an instant.

Once again, there had been no sign of when she had released the poison. Even a capable master would have found it difficult to notice.

That was how subtle and natural her technique had become.

Good.

Five different poisons.

She had administered each in precisely measured quantities, allowing them to interlock with one another. None was especially potent on its own, but once combined, they produced a lethal toxicity capable of paralyzing an opponent.

For the first time, Tang Gwan swept out his hand.

A fierce gust erupted, hurling the invisible mass of poison straight back at Tang Sang-a.

The poison she had released was returning to its owner.

At that moment, a faint green haze rose from Tang Sang-a's body.

It was a beautiful shade of green.

The instant the cloud of poison touched it, white smoke hissed into the air and the poison dissolved away.

Tang Gwan finally spoke.

"That's enough."

The silent poison duel came to an end.

Tang Sang-a opened her eyes. A flash of green light flickered through her beautiful pupils, then vanished.

Tang Gwan nodded.

"You have finally reached the Peak-Shattering Imperial Ascension stage."

Open delight appeared on Tang Sang-a's face.

"It's thanks to you, Father."

"Of course it is. Without my passing down the Emperor Poison Scripture to you, you couldn't even have dreamed of reaching your current level."

Tang Gwan was a proud man, but this was more than simple self-congratulation.

"That said, Peak-Shattering Imperial Ascension is not a stage one can reach merely because someone lends a hand. It requires repeated ordeals bordering on self-torture, followed by endless recovery and reconstruction. You have every right to take pride in what you've achieved."

"......"

"You worked hard."

Tang Sang-a's eyes trembled.

An emotion she could not quite name surged up inside her.

His usual blunt tone had not changed, but she could hear the pride beneath it.

Her father—and the Clan Lord of the Tang Clan of Sichuan—had sincerely acknowledged her.

For Tang Sang-a, it was a moment she would never forget.

"Peak-Shattering Imperial Ascension reaches the boundary that the martial world calls the Wall of Martial Arts. You have only just set foot at its threshold, but depending on how hard you work, you may be able to break through the Wall of Martial Arts sooner than expected."

"Yes."

"Your poison arts seem sufficient for now."

Tang Gwan drew a dagger from inside his robe.

Its blade was about the length of an adult man's forearm. Even at a glance, it was clearly no ordinary dagger.

Tang Gwan pulled away its sheath.

A dazzling blade was revealed.

A faint reddish aura seemed to flow along its edge. It looked sharp enough to split stone even without Inner Qi.

Tang Sang-a's eyes lit up.

The Yama Dagger.

It was one of the treasures of the Tang Clan, a weapon fully deserving to be called a divine armament.

"Take it."

Tang Gwan tossed the Yama Dagger to her.

The exposed blade was lethally sharp, but Tang Sang-a caught it with effortless ease.

Tang Gwan then drew another dagger from his waist. Slightly shorter than the Yama Dagger, it looked remarkably plain.

He reversed his grip on it.

At the same time, Tang Sang-a took the Yama Dagger in a reverse grip and lowered her stance.

"A true member of the Tang Clan must know how to handle both poison and hidden weapons. But knowing how to use them and truly mastering them are entirely different matters."

Tang Gwan's eyes sharpened.

"I intend to train both to their ultimate limits. A Clan Lord should do no less. But until one reaches that level, one must inevitably place greater weight on one or the other. Chase two rabbits too soon, and you may lose both."

The martial world was merciless. A single lapse could cost a person their life.

Training meant nothing if one did not survive long enough to continue it. First came strengthening whatever one did best in order to stay alive.

"I was always more skilled with hidden weapons than poison. I expect that will remain true. That is precisely why I now devote more attention to poison. I've reached the stage where correcting my weaknesses matters more than further magnifying my strengths."

"......"

"You seem to be much the same as I am. But you have not yet reached my level. Before you worry about erasing your weaknesses, your priority should be pushing your strengths as far as they can go."

"Yes."

"Our clan possesses more hidden weapons than anyone could count. Yet at the root of all of them lies the dagger. And a dagger is not merely something to be thrown. Only when you truly know how to wield one does your hidden-weapon throwing gain its proper edge."

Tang Gwan lowered his stance as well.

His left hand rose into a middle guard, while the right hand holding the dagger settled just beneath it.

Neither arm was fully straight nor completely bent. Both extended before him in a posture that carried an inexplicably sinister air.

"A dagger is fast, sharp, and treacherous. In this bout, I will see whether you are making proper use of those qualities."

Tang Sang-a's stance, however, was different from his.

While keeping her body low, she stepped forward with her left foot. Her left hand guarded low, while the hand holding the dagger hovered beside her temple.

She looked ready to lunge forward and stab someone dead at any moment.

If anything, her posture was even more murderous than Tang Gwan's.

This was the Peerless Death Dagger Stance, one of the Tang Clan's highest martial arts. Passed down to her alongside the Emperor Poison Scripture, it was a vicious martial art designed not merely for destructive force, but to maximize the inherent advantages of the dagger itself.

Tang Gwan nodded.

"Come."

Unlike the silent poison duel, this began with explosive violence.

Using the Thunder-Chasing Movement Art, Tang Sang-a closed the distance in a single burst and swung the Yama Dagger at terrifying speed.

The reddish blade flashed again and again, casting a fearsome gleam.

Her speed was astonishing.

A dagger was much lighter than a sword, but her attacks seemed faster even than fist or palm arts performed with bare hands.

Tang Gwan evaded them with complete composure.

Unless it was thrown, any martial art using a dagger inevitably became close combat. The faster Tang Sang-a attacked, the more impressive Tang Gwan's evasive ability became.

She chopped downward, hooked into a sweeping slash, then thrust diagonally.

The sequence flowed as naturally as water.

Yet every movement was steeped in lethal intent.

She emitted no Killing Intent, but the art itself was a killing method refined to its extreme, making every attack dangerously lethal.

After casually avoiding dozens of strikes, Tang Gwan suddenly moved his own dagger.

CLANG!

The impact rang out with a force impossible to believe from the collision between the divine Yama Dagger and an ordinary blade.

Tang Sang-a's entire arm went numb around the dagger.

Incredible!

To load such overwhelming Inner Qi into such a thin, narrow blade!

Had she not endured every kind of agony on her way to Peak-Shattering Imperial Ascension, that single collision would have knocked the dagger from her grasp.

That was how powerful the blow had been.

Tang Sang-a's body spun smoothly, carrying her toward Tang Gwan's flank.

His eyes gleamed.

Rather than lose her dagger from the impact, she had dispersed the shock through her movement and slipped directly into his blind spot.

Excellent footwork.

Tang Sang-a struck with the Yama Dagger.

Her blade darted toward his carotid artery, between his ribs, then toward the femoral artery in his thigh.

Had Tang Gwan not smashed his forearm against her wrist to deflect the strikes, any one of them could have caused massive bleeding.

And she did not stop there.

When the Yama Dagger was knocked off course, she dropped lower to evade his counterattack and immediately tried to slash across his throat and abdomen.

It was a brutally lethal assault.

Hardly the sort of exchange one would expect from a spar between blood relatives.

Tang Gwan's dagger moved at terrifying speed.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

With that short blade, he struck the Yama Dagger's edge away with flawless precision.

His blade work had reached the pinnacle of speed and delicacy. If attacks at this speed were aimed at vital points, they would be more dangerous than almost any unarmed combat art.

CLANG!

The two did not use palm arts or fist arts.

They attacked and defended using nothing but their reversed daggers, their wrists, and their forearms.

It was a vicious exchange of dagger techniques.

In a certain sense, the brutality of it surpassed even their battle of poisons.

How much time passed?

Tang Gwan suddenly widened the distance and raised a hand.

"Enough."

Tang Sang-a, who had been about to rush in again, stopped short.

Only then did she release a long breath.

Astonishingly, throughout that entire prolonged exchange, she had not drawn a single breath.

It had been a killing method performed literally without breathing.

Her cardiopulmonary capacity was extraordinary. Even before taking Inner Qi into account, her physical conditioning had reached an extreme level. In pure stamina of heart and lungs alone, there was little lacking for her to be called a Transcendent Peak master.

Tang Gwan studied her quietly, then nodded.

"Well done."

The essence of the dagger was certain death in one strike.

That was what most people believed.

But the true essence of the dagger was not certain death in one strike.

It was death through a succession of strikes.

A dagger could produce a fatal wound with a single thrust, but killing instantly was not always easy.

Unless one manifested sword energy, a dagger could not simply sever a neck. Its blade was too short for that.

Instead, one rapidly pierced the body's vital points, progressively rendering the opponent incapable of fighting.

If a single thrust killed, so much the better.

But if it did not, one stabbed and slashed every vital point and dangerous area available, steadily driving the opponent toward death through repeated attacks rather than relying on a single decisive blow.

That was the best method available to a martial artist fighting at close range with a dagger.

And Tang Sang-a clearly understood that fundamental truth.

"From now on, place greater emphasis on the Peerless Death Dagger Stance. As your attainment in it rises, your hidden-weapon arts will naturally improve as well."

"Thank you."

Tang Gwan regarded her in silence for a moment before speaking as though it were merely an afterthought.

"I called your younger sibling here."

"What?"

"Yangseon should arrive at the Alliance before long."

"......!"

Tang Sang-a's eyes lit up.

"Yangseon...!"

"Before that, I want to ask you one thing."

For the first time, a trace of confusion appeared on Tang Gwan's face.

"Do you think Yangseon is suited to become Clan Lord?"