Chapter 112. The Reason for Delivering the Record

The meeting was guided not to the Blood Demon's bedchamber, but to the reception room.

The Blood Demon, seated in a chair, lifted his hand.

"Come closer."

So-hwa took a step after staring at him. At that, the Blood Demon's expression turned strange.

"Every time I see you, it's fascinating. I wonder if Cheong-il made your face like Jin Su's just to tease me."

Whenever he saw So-hwa, the Blood Demon would bring up a woman named Jin Su. Though she was said to be her mother, she had never seen her, so she felt nothing. Rather, the affection this man had seemed deeper.

But So-hwa erased that thought at what the Blood Demon said next.

"If I had known Jin Su was born with such talent, I would have taken her myself. What a pity."

So-hwa, seated, covered her mouth with her hand.

The Blood Demon gave a dry laugh.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sorry. I don't have a strong stomach, so I can't tolerate disgusting words well."

"Haha, what's so disgusting about that?"

The Blood Demon claimed So-hwa carried his blood.

Since it was impossible for Tang Ji-ha to be the Blood Demon's descendant, Jin Su must carry his bloodline. Saying he would take his own family—how could that not be revolting?

"I don't care about the laws of the Blood Sect, but in Central Plains, union between parent and child is not tolerated."

The Blood Demon smirked.

"Jin Su is not my child."

So-hwa believed he was lying.

"I read the records you wrote in the texts. It said you created vessels and even directly took some in to create new ones."

"It's true that I once took someone from way up Jin Su's line, so my blood is indeed in her. But can someone far down the line, like Jin Su, be called my child? If I had to link her and me, I'd say we're of the same bloodline."

Tilting his lips, he asked.

"I've heard there are also many marriages within bloodlines in Central Plains—is that not so?"

The Blood Demon seemed quite familiar with Central Plains culture.

"Are you my maternal grandfather? Or great-grandfather?"

"Well, I don't recall."

The Blood Demon said it was hard to remember since he had taken in more than a few. Hearing that, So-hwa again pressed her lips shut.

"Why are you doing that again?"

"As I said, I don't tolerate disgusting things well."

"Jin Su was a well-mannered child, yet even with that fine blood, your speech is rough."

The Blood Demon clicked his tongue once and asked.

"So, did you find an answer in the texts?"

"It's hard to say for sure."

"You said you created a Blood Prison in a past life—was that a lie?"

"The records you sent haven't been translated into Central Plains language yet. And now that I say it, what I completed was a lethal poison."

So-hwa smiled and asked:

"Do you want me to feed you that, at least?"

"A lethal poison, is it."

The Blood Demon smiled.

It wasn't a face of someone who felt deceived—rather, he looked intrigued.

"What record did you read?"

"There were many, but what stuck with me the most was the record on survivors of a plague in the Western Regions."

As if he recognized it, the Blood Demon ran his hand across his dark red lips.

He remained silent, as if demanding proof.

So-hwa met his gaze and opened her mouth.

"The medical texts you sent me were strange. Normally, they describe symptoms and detail methods of treatment. But this one recorded in detail how the disease manifested. The one who wrote it did not treat the patient at all. They merely observed the suffering and documented the process of the patient healing on their own."

It was hard to call the one who wrote it a physician.

He was more like a madman with a monstrous curiosity about the human body.

"He seemed to believe that there was an organ in the human body that detects plagues, and in response to its signal, bugs that devour disease would appear. He speculated that the survivors overcame the plague thanks to an overproduction of those disease-eating things."

He observed the patients, comparing those who lived and those who died.

The only common trait among the survivors was that they had a family member who had died from the plague.

He believed that the survivors had something in their bodies that consumed the disease, allowing them to survive infection, and that they would also survive future infections.

He thought it was due to a difference in the body from the start.

That man went to a village untouched by the plague, claiming it was medicine, and gave each villager a drop of blood from a deceased patient.

Most of the villagers who drank the blood caught the plague and died.

That was natural.

But some fell ill for a few days, then recovered on their own.

And when the plague finally reached that village, none of the survivors contracted the disease.

"The physician referred to that something, which arises in response to the plague, as plague-eating insects—myeonyeok (免疫, immunity). And to check if one possessed many of them, he said all you had to do was drink the blood of someone who died from the disease. You'd be risking your life, of course. He probably continued experimenting afterward, but unfortunately, the one book I read in my past life is all I know."

The Blood Demon rubbed his chin with an intrigued look.

"The Head of the Intelligence Hall probably hasn't yet translated that record into Central Plains language... but seeing you know its contents, I can believe it—Jin Su."

Ignoring the Blood Demon's repulsive voice, So-hwa spoke.

"You must've sent the medical texts knowing I resembled you. So I'd experiment on my own body and find the answer."

That's probably why you separated me from the Tang Clan before destroying Sichuan.

After a pause, she asked,

"Did you think that both you and I had many of those insects called immunity in our bodies?"

The Blood Demon did not deny it.

With a crooked smile on his dark red lips, he asked,

"So, did you find the answer?"

So-hwa nodded.

"For a while, I did as you wanted—I went around drinking the blood of patients. I was curious whether, once I could control those insects called immunity, my body would fully accept poison."

The Blood Demon's voice changed.

"You succeeded?"

So-hwa's lips curved sideways.

"I did."

A heavy silence settled.

When the Blood Demon spoke again, his voice had risen.

"You mean you figured out how to eliminate immunity?"

So-hwa shook her head.

"No, I couldn't remove it."

She added slowly,

"I could only paralyze it, for a very short time."

"How long? One gak?"

The Blood Demon asked urgently.

So-hwa recalled the day she took the poison she made.

"Not even half a gak—just enough to say a few words."

"Hmm, that short? It needs to last at least a full gak."

Disappointment passed over the Blood Demon's face.

"That's how mine turned out. But after reading the records you left, I could see what I did wrong. Next time, I should be able to extend the paralysis. If I read more of the records, I might even find a precise way to control the duration."

The man who had been leaning back in his chair now leaned sharply forward over the table.

"So how much time do you need to make it?"

Unlike the impatient Blood Demon, So-hwa answered calmly.

"There's no distiller here, nor the tools to prepare medicinal ingredients. I'll need a proper setup before I can estimate the time."

"Don't worry about that."

The Blood Demon grinned and asked:

"Would three days be enough?"

So-hwa looked into his eyes and replied.

"I noticed you have rare herbs in the garden."

"Haha, so you saw that too."

"Most of the needed ingredients are in your garden, so there isn't much I need to fetch. That'll save time. If you let me use the garden, I could make a new version in two days instead of three."

The Blood Demon laughed, apparently pleased with the answer.

And then, as if granting her a great favor, he said—

"I was going to punish you for taking the sacred item, but I like your answer. Use the garden as you wish. And if you complete the Blood Prison, I will give you the sacred item as well."

So-hwa's gaze dropped to her wrist.

"Treasure it. It's a precious sacred item that carries my blood."

She had already seen in the texts how the Blood Sect treated their sacred items. Even so, So-hwa gave a faint sneer, as if treating it like nothing special.

"It doesn't look all that valuable."

It was to provoke the Blood Demon.

"Child of Jin Su, you would do well to learn how to watch your tongue."

So-hwa lifted her head.

And stared straight at the Blood Demon.

Only after reading the Blood Sect's history did she understand why the Blood Demon referred to medicine that neutralized his regenerative abilities—not those that nourished energy—as elixirs.

And also, why he sent Namgung Hyun to her in her past life and showed her the records of the Blood Sect.

It was because the Blood Demon's body was similar to hers.

Just as So-hwa's body reacted to poison, it was also sensitive to foreign energies.

No matter how good the elixir, no matter how much time she spent circulating her energy, her energy would not be absorbed. Even if she forcefully pushed it to open her meridians, her internal energy flow would close again before even completing one cycle.

So-hwa, in the end, could not accumulate nae-gi in her lower abdomen.

Without internal energy, her martial skill remained stagnant. As time passed, her martial prowess fell far behind her peers, and she eventually gave up on learning martial arts altogether.

Tang So-hwa was certain—the Blood Demon, too, had failed to form his meridians like her. That's why he was so obsessed with martial artists.

Because he had no path to grow except by stealing the internal energy others had cultivated.

But there seemed to be a problem in using that stolen energy.

Since So-hwa herself had never found a way to store energy, she didn't know how the Blood Demon absorbed and used the stolen internal energy.

So she had to see it for herself.

So-hwa pulled the sacred item from her sleeve.

"They call this the 'Will of the Blood Demon,' but calling a mere trinket your will is just laughable."

Confident in her mockery, So-hwa began ridiculing the Blood Demon.

"Just because you have a strange body, you think of yourself as a god? Isn't that shameful? I too was born with a body like yours, but not once have I considered myself a god. You say you were going to punish me for taking a divine item, but..."

Tang So-hwa's lips curled in a mocking smirk.

"You're not a god, are you?"

Tang So-hwa dropped the bracelet to the floor right in front of the Blood Demon's eyes.

"So a mere human's item has no power at all."

Tang So-hwa stepped on the bead.

"What use is the 'Will of the Blood Demon' if you're dead? It's nothing more than a stagnant, rotting pouch of disgusting blood."

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