211. A Plan in the midst of No Plan
“What kind of memorandum?”
The Poison King guessed my intentions.
“Instead of you writing a memorandum, I have to teach you one reading a day? A memorandum like this?”
“no.”
“Then, a letter of agreement stating that I won’t hold you responsible if you steal my poison or learn poison techniques from here?”
“Your Majesty, I am afraid of your poison and poisonous attacks. I want to stay as far away from you as possible.”
“Then what kind of memorandum is it?”
The memorandum I was about to write contained content that the King could never have anticipated.
“If I lose this bet, I will leave the world of the Poison King.”
The Poison King was startled. His expression changed strangely.
“What kind of world is my world?”
“Studying alone, mixing alone, thinking alone, laughing alone. Digging alone. That’s the world.”
He pushed his face right up to mine. His impossibly young face came right up to my nose.
But at that moment, I could feel it. The body was approaching, but the Poison King was stepping back from me. He, who stood on the border between his world and the outside world, stepped back and hid.
“You just take me and get permission from the leader, and that’s it?”
“That’s right. That’s why I came.”
“Then it doesn’t matter to you whether I exist in that world or not?”
“It matters.”
“What does it matter?”
“Because I am the one who will become the Heavenly Horse. I hope that the next Heavenly Horse will not be a lonely King of our religion, but a King who travels the world.”
“!”
“Okay, would you like to write a memorandum?”
The Poison King did not answer for a moment. He must be curious about my true intentions. What are my intentions in making this condition?
But he would never know. He would never know that you were planning to prevent some terrible event from happening in the future.
“Why are you hesitating? Anyway, it will be after you become a dog. Doesn’t it matter?”
Because I even gave a clue that the bet was lost.
Even though he thought he couldn’t lose the bet, he still hesitated. It seemed that leaving this place was a burden to him.
I stopped pushing him and picked up the brush.
“Anyway, good. I will write it. I have so much to learn from the Poison King, so I should write a memorandum.”
I wrote a memorandum stating that if I get poisoned by any kind of poison here in Cheondokrim, it is not the Poison King’s fault, but my fault for volunteering to come here. I even signed it.
The Poison King was really surprised when I wrote the memorandum. When I brought up the memorandum, it seemed like he didn’t know I could actually write one.
“Are you an idiot? Now I can poison you and kill you painfully without taking responsibility.”
“That won’t happen.”
“What kind of confidence is that?”
“Because only the smart ones can learn the poison technique. The Poison King is the smartest among the Demon Lords, so he wouldn’t do something so reckless.”
I said, looking around.
“I can see it now that I’ve come here. The people who have mastered the art of poisoning are the smartest. You have to memorize all these poisonous plants and poisons, and to make poison, you have to combine and mix hundreds and thousands of different things. And you have to make antidotes on top of that. And that’s not all? You have to learn the art of poisoning in earnest. How can someone who stands at the pinnacle of intelligence do something like that? There’s no way. You can laugh while digging the ground, but you wouldn’t do something so stupid.”
The Poison King’s eyes grew wide. His reaction was as cute as his appearance. His big eyes blinked a few times and he spoke as if he was surprised.
“You talk a lot and are good at talking.”
At this moment, the Poison King was truly amazed.
Poison King, it hasn’t even started yet.
“You won’t be bored with me. Okay, I’ll get back to what I was doing.”
After handing him the memorandum, I continued my work. I brought the poison sack and unwrapped it. The Poison King, who was watching me sort out the poison, suddenly said to me.
“What should I write? You write, and I don’t. Then I’ll be the only one being narrow-minded.”
Finally, I decided to write a memorandum.
“Oh, there’s nothing special about it. I just go to Cheondomun once every ten days. That’s enough.”
“Is that okay?”
“yes.”
“Can I stand in front of the entrance to Cheondomun and then come in?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just get out of here.”
“What does that mean?”
“The view from here and the view from the front gate will be different.”
The Poison King looked at me without saying a word. What is this? If you are crazy, then I am also a person who is called crazy. Let’s try it, Poison King. Let’s see who is crazier.
The King wrote the memorandum and signed it.
“Lee Gong-ja, you have lost. I will never be persuaded, so this memorandum is nothing more than a piece of paper. How can you break my will when it is like this?”
Actually, there was no special plan to persuade him. As Hyeolcheondoma said, I was just going to treat him the way I had been doing so far.
“I have to do my best.”
“Do I really look like the kind of person who would bark at a martial arts gym?”
“Once in a lifetime.”
“How did the other demons fall for such a sloppy you? I don’t understand.”
The Poison King’s eyes were filled with confidence and determination. He was a different person from the Poison King who used to dig the ground with dirt all over his face.
“Be careful. From now on, I won’t be responsible if you die.”
* * *
The next day I worked hard as if nothing had happened.
The Poison King thought that everything I did was intentional. He habitually said this whenever I spoke.
“I know that it’s just a trick to look good to me. It’s a waste of effort!”
But I didn’t care what he thought.
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If there was a plan in the absence of a plan, this was it.
Let’s focus on the work, not on people.
I learned the work with sincerity. It wasn’t because I learned poison and wanted to use it somewhere. It was my first experience working here. There is always something to be learned from first experiences.
“When will I ever live the life of carrying a sack of poisonous weeds and sorting them? It is a valuable experience for me.”
I was living in a different way than before. It was something I had never experienced before, even before the regression.
Think differently, act differently.
I hope this has a positive effect on my life and martial arts. Sometimes, no matter how hard I try to concentrate on a certain thought, it just doesn’t work. But sometimes, when I’m taking a bath, or walking down the street, it just comes to me.
It’s the same. I hope that this unfamiliar experience in Cheondokrim will have a fresh influence on my life and martial arts. I hope that by classifying poisonous plants, the Fengshen Sabo will become the Twelve Stars. I hope that by mixing poisons, I will realize a new aspect of life.
When I thought about it that way, everything here was less stressful and more fun.
I thought that if I kept going like this, there would definitely be an opportunity to move the Poison King’s heart. That opportunity would come when I truly became absorbed in poison.
“Careful! This time, pour exactly half!”
When in my life will I ever have the chance to mix all fifteen ingredients of Danhonsan?
“Okay! Okay!”
I followed exactly what he told me to do. With my martial arts skills, how could I not do things accurately? Perhaps I could do things that would please him more than anyone else in Cheondomun.
“But do you usually do all this work by yourself?”
“okay.”
“It must be hard.”
I also knew why they didn’t let Germans in here so easily.
There is so much deadly poison in his dwelling, and if he brings in the wrong disciples and they cause an accident, it could be a big problem.
In fact, Cheondokrim was the place that was under the strict surveillance and investigation of Tongcheon-gak. If poison was used, it had to be reported without fail, and the stockpile was always checked.
After finishing the single-person household, I honestly expressed my feelings with a pleasant expression.
“Interesting! What poison combination will you make next?”
Of course, he didn’t believe me.
“Don’t you think you’d be better off as a street actor than as a horse?”
“Next time you go to Jungwon with me, how about joining the drama troupe? With your looks, you could probably aim for a leading role.”
The Poison King frowned. His expression said just this. I don’t want to leave here, so what? You want me to play the lead role in a play?
“Just now, in the Poison King’s imagination, the actors on stage and the people watching were all poisoned to death.”
“I wonder if you, Lee Gongja, survived?”
I shouted at him as he suddenly turned around.
“The show is cancelled!”
He left without even pretending to hear.
* * *
The Poison King was not very interested in other people’s business.
If he is showing this much interest in me, who came to him for such an important matter, I can only imagine how other people would view him. To him, people exist beneath the poisonous weeds.
Of course, there were times when I asked questions impulsively. Just like now. The Poison King asked abruptly while grinding the poisonous plant.
“Hey, Lee Gong-ja, be honest. Are you trying to steal the poison technique here and learn it to poison your brother?”
I answered while pouring water into a large container.
“I know full well that you have come to the Poison King like this, but if my brother is poisoned to death, who would you suspect first? I am the one who should be worried about my brother being poisoned to death.”
Knock knock! Instead of rebutting, the sound of the Poison King grinding poisonous herbs became louder.
“I have no interest in poisoning. If I could learn one thing from the Poison King, I would like to learn something else.”
“something?”
Still, he was focused on grinding the poisonous plant without looking at me. I don’t know when he’ll go back to his own world, but my answer right now was the one that definitely drew him over here.
“I want to learn the art of detoxification. Isn’t the flower of detoxification not detoxification?”
The sound of the poisonous grass being ground stopped for a moment. His eyes were fixed on me. His face was the most surprised he had ever been since he met me. Because I had said exactly what he was thinking.
“It’s only been a few days, but what I’ve felt since I came here is that it’s harder to make a perfect antidote than to make poison. So I thought about this. A person who can make a perfect antidote to the poison he or she has made. A person who can instantly detoxify the poison that the opponent has sprayed. Isn’t that person a true master of poison?”
It means that only when you are perfect in both detoxification and detoxification will you truly understand the true meaning of poison.
“Where did you hear that?”
From the next Poison King who learned poison from you.
“Just my opinion. It’s a bit of a strange analogy, but that’s how martial arts work. It’s harder to capture someone alive than to kill them.”
I threw a gamble at him. It was the most advantageous gamble for me, who was invincible.
“Choose one poison and teach me how to detoxify it. I will detoxify it, and you, the Poison King, will poison it. What do you think? Let’s have a showdown!”
You’ve been practicing solo your whole life, so wouldn’t you be able to beat that? Isn’t this a matter of pride?
I didn’t provoke him in this way. It was clear that a hasty provocation would only have the opposite effect.
Dok-King, let’s do it. Let’s have a go!
If that’s the case, then this bet was my win.
But the Poison King did not give in so easily.
“I don’t like it.”
I asked in response to the resolute refusal of the King.
“Why do you dislike it?”
“Do you think I don’t know what you’re talking about? You want me to say this. If you can cure my poison, I’ll consider the bet a loss. Right? Is that what you want to hear?”
I didn’t deny it. In fact, if it weren’t for my work, I would have applauded it.
“Why don’t you just win the bet?”
“How can I be sure that I will win? The antidote is my antidote.”
The Poison King began to grind the poisonous herbs again.
“Go and practice barking, Lee Gong-ja.”
* * *
That evening, I went to see my father.
The more I learned about the Poison King, the more frustrated I felt. At times like this, I needed someone who could give me the strength to stand up. In that regard, my father was the best person for that.
Because I happened to visit him just before he went to bed, I got to see my father’s pajamas again.
“It’s a different flower pattern than the one I saw before. This must be the best self-defense armor in the martial arts world. When the enemies see it, they’ll think, ‘Hey, there’s no way the Heavenly Demon would wear pajamas like this?’ and just pass by. Those clothes are the safest!”
My father looked at me with eyes that said, “How long are you going to keep talking nonsense?” It seemed like he knew I would come to see him someday.
“Didn’t you know, Father? That the Poison King was not the kind of person who would hand over to me.”
“Have you given up already?”
“Is that so? It’s just that I’ve never seen anyone so locked in their own world.”
A peculiar smirk formed on the corner of Father’s mouth. Yes, that’s why I came here today, to see that smile.
Seeing that smile gave me strength. It actually made me feel better.
Yes, enjoy yourself now. I will definitely bring the Poison King in front of you.
I asked a question I’ve been meaning to ask for a long time.
“Father, you don’t like the Poison King, do you?”
My father neither confirmed nor denied it. Since he was a father who truly loved martial arts, it was natural for him to dislike poison or the art of seduction.
“If you hate it, why are you keeping it alive? Just kill it.”
“Because it poses the greatest threat to enemies.”
“Wouldn’t they rebel, or go crazy and poison the people of the church?”
“If you want to use the Poison King as a weapon for your religion, you have to take that level of risk.”
“What if my brother or I die in the process?”
“I guess I have to take the risk.”
“You would only say something like that if you had ten or so children hidden away.”
“Why do you think there isn’t one?”
“There shouldn’t be any. Even just having one brother is a headache.”
A faint smile appeared on my father’s lips. If Sima Ming or Hyeolcheon Doma had said this, he might have laughed heartily.
“It was the same in the past, but whenever I stand in front of a solid wall, I think of my father first. Now that I’ve seen your face, it’s okay. Then I’ll leave. By the way, if I continue like this, I might show my unfilial piety at the Great Military Training Center soon.”
After whining like that and turning around to leave, my father suddenly asked me.
“Do you think the Poison King is trapped in his own world?”
