Chapter 758: Venomous Snake (2)

{How foolish......!}

With my eyes closed.

Ignoring even the voice I could hear.

I abandoned rational judgment toward every energy flying at me.

'The only thing I can trust is my own senses.'

Reason does not always precede instinct.

It had sensed Mirinae’s crisis, which even I had not known about.

It had guided me here.

No, not only that.

It had saved me countless times throughout this ruin.

An ability that had grown endlessly without me even realizing it as I went through this ruin.

I simply followed my intuition alone.

Slide.

At the sharp, tingling taste I felt on the tip of my tongue.

I simply swung my knife as my body moved on its own.

Then.

CLANG!

An attack even I had not perceived.

Was deflected from the edge of my knife.

{......!}

At the sensation felt on the tip of my tongue once again.

I slightly twisted my body.

FWAAAAASH!

I felt a massive cloud of mist vanish without touching my body.

The daggers that had been deflected activated another poison.

And beyond the cloud of mist I had dodged, there was another trap.

However.

Slice—!

As I simply relied on instinct and swung my knife.

The complex, intertwined mechanisms I had been completely unable to handle when breaking through them rationally began to be dismantled one by one.

{What!}

Sarin panicked and swung both hands.

However.

Every attack she threw only missed without surpassing my intuition.

'Done......!'

And.

When I finally thought I had reached her.

“As expected, you truly are our benefactor.”

She was looking at me with a shocked expression.

However.

The moment I saw that face, my intuition began sending a sudden warning.

“You are the first person besides Master to break through every poison formation I made myself.”

I recalled what I had thought earlier.

When that woman deliberately made her voice heard and exposed her own location.

I had thought perhaps she was deliberately telling me where she was in order to guide me into a trap.

“......However, there is one thing I must apologize for.”

But after that.

She said she had combined the poison inside me through her voice.

Thanks to that, I had been able to realize that her goal had not been to reveal her own location.

No...... rather than realize it.

'I was mistaken.'

She was an expert of that caliber.

There was no way a single action would have only one meaning.

With those words, she had made me mistake the meaning contained in her actions as only one thing.

“In the truly unlikely chance that my own ability alone would not be enough to stop you.”

Her real goal had been what I had first thought.

'A trap!'

However.

By the time I realized that fact, it was already too late.

“I hope you will forgive the discourtesy of borrowing Master’s poison.”

When I reached right in front of Sarin.

“Cough.......”

My body would not move.

And I felt the blood inside my body flowing backward.

***

As I vomited blood onto the floor.

I could not help but be horrified inwardly.

'I didn’t see it.'

I had not seen any poison.

No, that was not all.

'There was no scent, and no taste either.'

A power that allowed me to sense even the aura of mighty beings as taste.

Even [Taste Bud Enhancement] had detected no threat at all.

'My intuition...... caught nothing.'

The one method I had thought could resolve this doubt.

Even to my intuition.

Nothing at all had been sensed.

As I stood horrified by that fact.

“It is called Formless Ultimate Poison.”

Looking down at me as I collapsed.

Sarin quietly opened her mouth.

“It has no form, so it cannot be seen; no scent, so it cannot be smelled; no taste, so it cannot be tasted...... and because it does not exist, it cannot be perceived.”

“.......”

“The ultimate poison all poison masters dream of...... one that cannot be perceived by any sharp sense or intuition.”

I had entrusted my body to my senses.

But even that choice.

Had been part of her intended poisoning.

“Even I cannot make this, nor can I handle it properly. That is why, like this.”

Sarin spoke without moving from that spot.

“All I can do is scatter it clumsily and lure the enemy in.”

Right.

She had deliberately told me her location and not moved.

It had been unavoidable.

Because even she could only handle the Formless Ultimate Poison that way.

'So this is a poison master.'

When I thought back to myself, who had believed I was strong against poison, all I could do was laugh hollowly.

Strong against poison?

It was an absurd delusion.

It was true that my resistance to poison was excellent.

But I simply had not yet met a true poison master capable of breaking through even that resistance.

And at the same time.

'So this is a martial artist of the martial hall......!'

Cheonsan Martial Hall.

I simply had not properly realized yet.

How threatening the combat power possessed by the martial artists of this place truly was.

“This...... I have no choice but to acknowledge.”

As the nervous system throughout my entire body broke down.

I felt my mind growing distant.

“Will you admit defeat?”

“......No, not that.”

However.

Even in that state.

With the last of my strength, I pulled one dish up from inside my shadow.

“I won’t be able to win if I keep holding back.”

{......!}

In the end.

I had no choice but to acknowledge that I could not defeat her in this state.

That was why.

[You have consumed cooking!]

[Calm Rational Rage Yetil Skewer Infused with the Demigod-Class Chef’s Care]

I consumed another dish.

A dish that boasted one of the most powerful effects among the many dishes I had.

[Temporarily, you acquire Trait - Berserk!]

[Due to the effect of the chef’s special sauce, your mind remains calm!]

“......I wondered what you were doing now.”

The blood flow inside my body began rotating rapidly.

Berserk was a trait that rapidly accelerated the metabolism of the entire body to obtain powerful strength.

Perhaps she recognized the effect of that Berserk.

“To accelerate your blood flow against a poison master. You have made a foolish judgment.”

I heard Sarin’s sneer.

Just as she said.

'Ghk.......'

The poison mixed into my blood coursed through my entire body, and pain instantly assaulted me.

A dizzying shock that nearly made me lose consciousness.

As much as her poison had dissolved into my blood, accelerating my blood flow was no different from strengthening the effect of that poison as well.

Right, just as she said.

Originally, using Berserk against a poison master would have been nothing but suicide.

However...... this blood was not ordinary blood.

[The influence of the blood race inside your body increases!]

A race that placed their souls into their blood.

The blood of the blood race.

“......That is.”

Under the influence of the rapid metabolism, my hair grew longer.

My skin turned pale, and my facial features became slightly sharper.

Rather than a soldier of the Legion...... I looked closer to a noble’s knight.

“That queen’s......?”

Before long.

My eyes glowed red, and my pupils split vertically.

With those eyes, I looked at the flustered woman.

Strangely enough.

The shape of the pupils formed that way resembled Sarin’s eyes, shining beyond the mist.

[The blood of the blood race removes foreign substances inside your blood!]

As if the blood of the blood race would not tolerate an enemy that harmed its own purity.

It burned away the poison energy mixed into my blood without leaving any behind.

Most of the poison energy that had accumulated until now was instantly removed by the blood of the blood race.

However.

'The Formless Ultimate Poison...... doesn’t work, huh.'

The poison energy of [Formless Ultimate Poison] was far too vicious.

Even the blood of the blood race could not perceive its existence.

CRRRRKKKKK.......

The poison that did not exist continued to melt my entire body with poison energy.

FWAAAAASH!

“Regeneration......?”

The blood of the blood race.

Instantly regenerated the body that had melted like that.

Sarin was certainly a powerful poison master.

However.

Her world was a world of beastkin who had learned martial arts.

“What is that......!”

No matter how much her world had also experienced ruin.

It could only be rare for her to have fought an enemy who regenerated endlessly.

I offset the influence of the poison energy with my regenerative ability.

I charged toward Sarin with physical abilities that had left humanity behind.

And.

Slice—!

The blade I swung.

Cut into her body.

***

Slice—!

The sensation at the tip of my knife.

Sarin’s poison arts were certainly outstanding, but her physical abilities did not match them.

That was not all.

'Even she cannot properly handle the Formless Ultimate Poison.'

The reason Sarin had simply stood still in place was not because she had let her guard down.

A poison scattered around her that had no form, no taste, no scent, and no existence.

Because even she would have had difficulty avoiding that poison, she simply had been unable to move even a single step from the safe area.

That was why.

“Keugh......!”

She could not dodge my knife.

“......I never imagined it. That you would even break through the Formless Ultimate Poison.......”

That was why.

When I cut her body.

I finally thought I had defeated her.

“However...... did I not tell you?”

However.

As she collapsed from the wound I had dealt her.

Blood flowing from the corner of her mouth, she murmured.

“Poison-making is also part of poison arts...... but the true charm of poison arts lies in poisoning.......”

Right, from the beginning.

Her specialty had not been poison-making, the creation of poison.

It had been poisoning, the injection of poison.

“I cannot make the Formless Ultimate Poison, so I had no choice but to handle something Master had created.”

And.

The Formless Ultimate Poison was not a poison she had made.

“In that case.

There was no way the final measure she had prepared.

Would rely on a 'powerful poison.'

“But...... there was something Master always said to me.”

My knife tore through Sarin’s clothes and cut into her flesh.

Her flesh was sliced open, ripping through her blood vessels.

“When it comes to poison-making, I am still lacking compared to Master.”

From the torn blood vessels.

The blood flowing inside them spilled out.

[Sarin’s Blood]

“Sarin, you are the one.”

[The world of Asura where powerful martial artists gather and compete in martial arts, the Beast World.]

[This is the blood of the strongest poison master who reigned at the summit of that Beast World.]

“Who is the greatest poison master of all ages......!”

Compared to the Formless Ultimate Poison, that was a pathetic poison.

It was far too visible.

Its scent was also acrid.

I could tell the taste without tasting it.

It would probably have a vicious metallic taste.

For poison, where injecting it secretly was the most important part, it was something that did not consider stealth at all.

However.

The moment I saw that blood, I could sense it intuitively.

'I lost.'

I could not avoid that poison.

And that poison had form, had scent, had taste, and its existence was also certain.

But as far as its poison energy went, it far surpassed even the Formless Ultimate Poison.

Even my physical abilities, which had become close to a noble’s, would not be able to withstand that poison.

'......Even if there is another way.'

The moment I used it here, it would be my defeat.

From the moment I allowed that poison to burst out.

I had been fated to lose......

That was what I thought.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

At that moment.

A mighty energy stormed from deep inside the building.

***

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A massive energy storming from inside the building.

That energy was the same energy I had felt when I entered Dragon Heaven Pavilion.

“......!”

But it was far too enormous.

Right, so enormous that.

'Even the surrounding air and wind, even the flow of nature.'

Were dominated by that massive energy.

And.

I had felt an energy of a similar rank before.

That, too, only a short while ago.

'The demon......!'

The being who had turned the north into its own world.

The golden energy wielded by that being.

This energy contained power equal in rank to that energy.

BOOM......!

An energy that placed the surrounding environment under its own law.

That energy forcibly shook my body and flung me away.

Having been affected by Sarin’s poison, I was unable to resist that energy and was sent flying.

FWOOSH.

The blood that had burst from Sarin’s body.

The unavoidable poison trained by the greatest poison master of all ages and created through the finest poisoning technique.

......Tap.

Was sprayed into empty air where no one was.

And soon flowed down to the floor.

“.......”

Flung away by that massive energy.

I collapsed against the wall and stared blankly at that sight.

And.

“......Ah.”

The person who had defeated me when I had gone all out.

The greatest poison master of all ages.

“Master.......”

Sarin.

Collapsed, wounded, and murmured in a small voice.

“Why did you.......”

Her fallen head.

Was facing the inside of the mansion.