"Indeed. If we just tell Seon-tae to not take the drug anymore, it's very unlikely that he'll actually listen to us."
"True, true. The rotting powder is also extremely addictive."
"Then again, it's a problem even if we inform the teachers, it'll damage Seon-tae's reputation."
"Hmm. That is an issue."
A big fuss was likely to be raised if the school authorities became aware that there was rotting powder present within the grounds of the academy.
'And on top of that, Seon-tae could even be expelled!'
They felt as though they couldn't risk Seon-tae's expulsion, knowing very well how an expelled student would be treated.
"With that, let's just infiltrate the trading scene."
Baek Mun-ji's true intentions behind this suggestion was so that Dang So-mun could be positively acknowledged by the other students.
If word spread amongst the students that Dang So-mun intervened for his fellow peer, regardless of whether the matter ended in success or failure, he would definitely receive recognition.
He noticed that Dang So-mun had been wandering around alone as of recent and that he seemed to be in a sort of depression.
Unaware of Baek Mun-ji's intentions, Dang So-mun was lost in concern for Seon-tae.
'Even so, letting Seon-tae take the drug for two more weeks doesn't seem right.'
He was worried for his well-being despite Seon-tae publicly embarra.s.sing him.
'B-but still…he's a fellow student.'
And so, Dang So-mun came up with an alternative plan.
"How about this?"
"...?"
"Let's steal the drug! If we do that…won't the drug dealing happen earlier than two weeks?"
Baek Mun-ji grinned in response.
"That's a good idea!"
Not long after, they immediately got to work.
***
That evening.
Kang-hyuk sat on the roof of his residence, lost in thought.
The brain-melting snake was a symbol of the Blood King Valley, and this time, an exploding snake had been used.
'Ah, and there was that venom spewing snake that I encountered while eliminating the head of the Black Snake Sect.'
There were snakes here and there.
He knew that snakes were said to be healthy and tasty, but still, he didn't like them.
He stood up and stretched his body.
"I guess I became unnecessarily depressed. I've probably been sitting down in silence for too long.'
Kang-hyuk suddenly felt like exercising his body a little.
But his destination wasn't the academy's training ground.
Instead, he began to leap from rooftop to rooftop.
*Tak!* *Tak!*
His movements between the rooftops of the academy went by completely unnoticed.
As he ran between roofs, something suddenly caught his eye.
It was the sight of some students hanging from a wall that surrounded one of the student accommodation buildings- the bamboo building.
Since the scene seemed suspicious, he looked at the students a bit more closely, then realized who they were.
'Ah! Its's Dang So-mun and Baek Mun-ji!'
He knew that those two weren't the type to engage in strange activity without a good reason.
With that in mind, he decided to watch over them for a little longer.
He observed them opening a window of the bamboo dormitory, and Baek Mun-ji entering the dormitory through it.
A little while later, Baek Mun-ji came out grinning as they both rushed into the forest, far away from the dormitory.
After they had buried something there, they returned to the dormitory.
When they left, Kang-hyuk entered the forest and went to the exact location where he observed them bury the object.
"Will they look for whatever they've buried here again?"
The location where they buried the object wasn't a location that was easy to find. It was deep into the forests that were behind the site the students used for camping.
Kang-hyuk began to dig after that.
A few minutes later, Kang-hyuk found something wrapped in white cloth. It was a white powder.
Kang-hyuk could feel the energy of the powder.
"...!"
His forehead began to furrow.
'White Tiger Spirit Powder…..no, rotting powder!'
Questions arose within Kang-hyuk's mind. Firstly, how this dangerous powder got in the academy, and secondly, why Baek Mun-ji and Dang So-mun buried the powder.
He knew he would have to look over their activities from now onwards.
***
The morning of the next day had arrived.
Su Seon-tae returned to his room after completing his morning Qigong practice. He closed the door afterwards.
He knew that his roommates would return in around fifteen minutes.
He had something he needed to do while he was alone.
Taking off his shoes, he looked at his feet.
The middle section of his foot had turned black. It had already started to rot.
He was relieved that at the very least, the rotting wasn't painful, and it seemed to be progressing slowly.
He wrapped his foot with cloth, and applied perfume oil to his body.
The aroma of the oil soon filled the entire room.
"Hah."
Su Seon-tae took a deep breath in.
He then took out a bamboo container that he kept underneath his bed.
A white powder was inside the small container.
'How is there only this much left….'
He was aware of what this white powder was. From the very beginning, he already knew.
The school employee that approached him told him that it was White Tiger Spirit Powder, also known as rotting powder.
Even though he was aware of its infamous reputation, he couldn't help but use it.
He recalled the words his father had said to him when he first entered the academy;
"There will be nowhere for you to return to if you don't manage to obtain a post within the Hwacheon Clan!"
These words of his father had made Su Seon-tae quite desperate.
At first, he had been filled with confidence that he had the talent and ability to enter the Hwacheon Clan.
But as time went by, the gap between him and those who seemed more naturally endowed with talent widened.
Then, a sweet temptation had presented itself to him.
He knew that he would die either way if he left the academy unsuccessful, so he wasn't concerned by the slow death he would experience by taking the rotting powder.
Su Seon-tae touched that sweet temptation of his.
He opened the lid of the bamboo container, tipping some of the powder onto the palm of his hand before slowly ingesting it.
"Huh?"
He realized that something was weird.
He had only received the container of the drug yesterday, so he could not help but wonder how there was so little of it remaining.
'Could I have spilled some of it yesterday?'
He remembered that he had accidentally opened the lid of the container slightly, when he unexpectedly b.u.mped into Dang So-mun.
'Could he have noticed?'
Su Seon-tae shook his head.
He was aware that Dang So-mun was skilled with the Am-gi weapon, but in his mind, he was still a half-wit.
Su Seon-tae felt that there was no way he could have noticed.
'In any case…I'm going to have to contact that man again.'
He would lose some money, but nothing else could be done.
A day without the drug was unimaginable for him.
'I would be ridiculed as being a half-wit without the powder.'
Two days had gone by.
He had finally been contacted.
He found a small note under his pillow after he finished his morning Qigong practice.
Today at seven in the evening.
Next to the pavilion.
If their meeting was scheduled at seven in the evening, this would be after the evening meal.
That evening.
Su Seon-tae hurried towards the pavilion after eating the evening meal.
As the cla.s.ses of the day had finished, the area around the pavilion was quieter than usual.
An employee of the academy wearing a blue uniform approached Su Seon-tae as he was standing there, waiting.
He looked at Su Seon-tae, and held up his index finger.
It was a signal.
Su Seon-tae nodded, and made the same signal with his finger. He then took out a pouch containing money out of his sleeve.
As they walked past each other, the pouch and the bamboo container with the drug were exchanged.
After the employee disappeared, Su Seon-tae quickly vanished out of sight as well not long after.
Some time later.
Two students appeared at the same spot.
Those two students were Baek Mun-ji and Dang So-mun.
With a firm resolve, they began to follow the employee who provided the drug to Su Seon-tae.
The employee seemed quite ordinary.
Their outer appearance was quite ordinary, and they acted quite ordinarily with the people they encountered along the way.
They were in the midst of tailing the employee.
"Huh?"
Baek Mun-ji and Dang So-mun suddenly had perplexed expressions on their faces.
The employee seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
"Huh? Where did he go?"
"He was literally here just now."
"Who are you looking for? Could it be me?"
Startled at the sudden sound of an icy voice, Baek Mun-ji and Dang So-mun turned around.
"...!"
There stood the employee the two had been tailing. Next to him were two other employees.
"Ah…"
Feeling that something had gone wrong, Baek Mun-ji shouted out at Dang So-mun, "R-run!"
"Where are you two going?"
There was a glint in Baek Mun-ji and Dang So-mun's eyes. They realized that despite their opponents being adults, they were adults that weren't trained in martial arts.
There was a chance that they could defeat the employees if they utilized their martial skills.
But then…
*Pong!*
They frowned as they heard the sound of a small explosion. They began to feel a burning sensation in their eyes and nose.
It was poison.
Dang So-mun cried out in surprise, "Thi-this poison is the Cultivation Halting Poison!"
Even if one had a certain level of resistance against poisons, they would be helpless against the effects of the Cultivation Halting Poison unless they had full immunity against poison.
If the person was at a peak level of cultivation, they could instantaneously protect their body with an energetic forcefield, but Baek Mun-ji and Dang So-mun had not reached such a level yet.
Affected by the poison, their ability to use their cultivation was now blocked, and so, they became ordinary fifteen year old boys.
They were stuck.
"I mixed an intoxicating drug in with the Cultivation Halting Poison, why are they still conscious?"
"I guess the drug didn't work."
The ingredient that const.i.tuted the beverage the students drank during the field trip was the Ten Thousand Year Red Nectar Flower.
Since they drank a large quant.i.ty of the beverage, the intoxicant dissolving effects of it were still in their systems. Therefore, the drug the employee had attempted to use on them had been rendered ineffective.
Unaware of this, the suspicious employees blamed the drug itself, and bound Baek Mun-ji and Dang So-mun up.
Baek Mun-ji clenched his jaw and cried out at them, "Di-did you supply my fellow student with the rotting powder?"
"Rotting powder? Tsk tsk tsk. Why are you referring to it with such a vulgar name when its lovely name is the White Tiger Spirit Powder?"
"That's a dangerous drug!"
One of the employees responded to Dang So-mun's angry accusation. "Who said it wasn't dangerous? I warned him from the very beginning. I kindly informed him of the name of the drug."
"Wh-what did you just say?"
Dang So-mun was in disbelief.
He couldn't fathom how Su Seon-tae knew what the drug was from the beginning, yet still chose to take it.
'He-he's crazy!'
But on the other hand, he did understand Su Seon-tae to some extent.
He knew that Seon-tae must have been completely desperate to have willingly taken the drug, despite being aware of its side effects.
'But its effects aren't limited to the rotting of the body!'
As a child of the Dang family, he was aware of the other effects of the drug, effects that were unknown to most.
The loss of one's intellect and reasoning.
If the drug remained in one's system for an extended period of time, one would become completely insane.
'I-it can't be, is that what they were aiming for?'
Baek Mun-ji's countenance too had become white in fright, as he was also aware of this effect of the drug, due to being close to the Dang Family.
The academy would suffer greatly if word spread that one of its students had become insane.
'T-then the school's reputation…'
Baek Mun-ji spoke, gritting his teeth, "So, what are you planning to do with us?"
One of the employees laughed s.a.d.i.s.tically at his question, and responded, "Don't worry. We're just going to make it so that you can't speak about this incident, or about us."
He then took a small drug bottle out of his sleeve.
"If you ingest this drug, you'll become a fool for around a year. Also, the cause for your sudden loss of mental power will be disguised as an accident. You should be thanking us for this."
The employee opened the seal of the drug bottle, and forced Baek Mun-ji's mouth open.
"Ahhh...argghhhh…"
Baek Mun-ji desperately attempted to resist them, but he couldn't win against the strength of an adult.
Dang So-mun was heartbroken at the sight.
His own friend was in danger owing to him, and he didn't have the power to help him either.
Baek Mun-ji was the only person that cared about him.
Whilst most mocked him, Baek Mun-ji was the only person that encouraged him and consoled him when he was down.
He felt as though he couldn't forgive himself for having put his closest friend in such danger.
His eyes glinted green. Noticing this, Baek Mun-ji became pale.
'N-no!"
But then.
"Hey, you ugly brothers there."
They turned around at the sudden interruption.
Standing there was a young man wearing a blue teacher's uniform. Baek Mun-ji and Dang So-mun cried out upon seeing him. "Se-seonsaengnim?"
"Kang-hyuk Seonsaengnim!"
The young teacher was none other than Kang-hyuk.
