Chapter 35
Baek Cheon-myeong was a demon.
That was Kang Ha-min's conclusion.
After ten hours of nonstop training,
Kang Ha-min had completely collapsed.
He slept for a long time.
When he finally opened his eyes,
it was already the next day.
"Master, you're awake."
They had trained together.
So why was Baek Cheon-myeong perfectly fine?
Was it because he was a corpse?
Terrifying.
Truly terrifying.
"The Tower."
"Yes."
But Kang Ha-min immediately woke up.
They needed to update the 161st Floor within six months.
They couldn't waste even a single day.
"Starting today, it's the Second Floor Realm."
The First Realm had been the tutorial.
The Second Realm was where the real Tower truly began.
That made Kang Ha-min a little nervous.
"Don't worry."
Baek Cheon-myeong calmly placed his wooden sword at his waist.
"The fact that we're climbing the Tower hasn't changed."
He was right.
The floor was simply higher.
The goal remained the same.
"Yes. Hunter Kang Ha-min will climb the Tower."
The Tower door appeared.
Baek Cheon-myeong opened it and stepped inside.
[Welcome to the Eleventh Floor of the Tower, Hunter Kang Ha-min.]
[Hunter Kang Ha-min's entry has been confirmed.]
[The difficulty of the Eleventh Floor has been set to Hell.]
[Rewards will increase according to the increase in difficulty.]
Once again,
Hell difficulty.
A massive canyon appeared ahead.
Between cliffs rising high enough to split the sky,
strangely twisted ancient trees covered the heavens.
Purple and blue vines tangled across them like snakes.
A clear drop of dew formed at the tip of a leaf
and fell to the ground.
Hiss.
The moment it touched the ground,
a patch of grass turned black and burned away.
Ugh. That.
Kang Ha-min panicked.
Baek Cheon-myeong nodded.
"Poison."
Is that okay? If it's that strong, isn't the air probably poisoned too?
"It is."
Why was he saying that so casually?
"Something at this level isn't a problem."
Poison had almost no effect on Baek Cheon-myeong.
Rustle.
But the plants weren't the only poisonous creatures.
A giant centipede crawled from between the rocks.
[Blood-Armored Poison Centipede (血甲毒蜈)]
A poisonous centipede covered in blood-red armor.
Then a swarm of poisonous moths rose into the sky.
[Seven-Colored Poison Moth (七彩毒蛾)]
Moths that scattered poisonous powder in seven colors.
The place was filled with all kinds of poisonous insects.
This was the Eleventh Floor,
the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons (萬毒谷).
A land of death where an ordinary human would melt the moment they entered.
Kang Ha-min finally understood why the Tower had called it Hell difficulty.
[Luna, Daughter of the Moon, finds it disgusting.]
[Kyle, Ruler of the Sky, shows discomfort.]
[Vasira, One Who Feeds on Poison, smiles wickedly.]
While the other gods showed disgust,
the god of poison was clearly enjoying himself.
Was it because this was his kind of battlefield?
This time, do we just kill the boss of the floor again?
"No. Starting from the Eleventh Floor, it won't always be that simple."
Baek Cheon-myeong drew his wooden sword
and began walking.
The poisonous insects immediately rushed toward him.
They scattered poison strong enough to melt humans.
Even Kang Ha-min felt terrified watching through Baek Cheon-myeong's eyes.
Slash! Slash!
As always,
the insects were cut apart by Baek Cheon-myeong's sword.
[Vasira, One Who Feeds on Poison, expresses disappointment.]
The god of poison didn't seem sane.
"Let's head into the canyon."
Baek Cheon-myeong didn't stop.
He continued straight into the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons.
The canyon was filled entirely with poisonous insects and poisonous plants.
They blocked Baek Cheon-myeong's path again and again.
But it was useless.
There was no insignificant creature under heaven capable of stopping Baek Cheon-myeong.
Every poison in existence seemed to have gathered here.
At the center of the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons,
which contained countless forms of death,
Baek Cheon-myeong stopped.
A black stone gate stood there,
almost as though someone had deliberately built it.
"Only this area is clean."
Not even a single blade of grass grew around the gate.
There was something unsettling about it.
It looked like a dead land where no poisonous plant grew
and no insect even crawled.
"It's inside."
Baek Cheon-myeong spoke from instinct.
The key to clearing this floor was inside.
Just as he prepared to cut through the stone gate,
"W, wait! Who are you?!"
A sudden voice rang out.
There's a person here?
Could someone really be inside a place filled entirely with poison?
Baek Cheon-myeong narrowed his eyes.
"Hmm?"
A man in terrible condition appeared.
His clothes were torn into rags.
His hair looked as though it hadn't been washed in days.
His eyes were hollow from exhaustion.
Anyone could tell he looked like someone who had been stranded.
The moment he saw Baek Cheon-myeong,
his eyes widened and he ran forward.
"A person! Are you really a person?!"
"Don't come closer."
Baek Cheon-myeong pointed his wooden sword at him.
Kang Ha-min wondered if the man was an enemy.
Then Baek Cheon-myeong spoke.
"You're filthy."
He was simply being picky about cleanliness.
Come to think of it,
Baek Cheon-myeong was always clean.
He secretly cared a lot about that kind of thing.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I've been trapped here for quite a long time."
"Do you know about this place?"
"Of course!"
"This entire place is a giant Gu Poison created by the Poison Venerable!"
Gu Poison (蠱毒), also called Gu Sorcery (巫蠱).
It was an Eastern curse.
A cruel and extremely dangerous form of sorcery.
Poisonous insects or animals were placed together in a sealed container.
Driven by hunger,
they devoured one another.
The final creature that remained,
carrying all the poison,
became the Gu.
Normally,
this was done inside a jar.
But the being called the Poison Venerable had turned the entire Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons into one giant Gu Poison.
"I accidentally entered the Gu Poison created by the Poison Venerable while passing through this place."
The man's face was filled with exhaustion.
To him,
this place was a land of death.
"Once someone enters a Gu Poison, they can never leave until they die."
"I thought I would die here."
"You're lying."
"W, what?"
The man's eyes widened.
He looked genuinely wronged.
Baek Cheon-myeong didn't care.
He pointed toward the stone gate.
"There is obviously a way to escape through there."
"Ah."
The man's face went pale.
"...There is technically one way."
But his expression made it clear that he barely considered it possible.
"Inside that stone gate is the Poison Venerable, the one controlling this Gu Poison."
"If you kill her, the Gu Poison will disappear."
BOOM!
By the time he finished speaking,
the stone gate had already split apart.
The man stared in horror.
So did Kang Ha-min.
But Baek Cheon-myeong had already turned
and walked through.
"W, wait! Great Hero! It's dangerous!"
"The Poison Venerable is one of the Nine Venerables Under Heaven!"
"She's one of the nine strongest beings in the world!"
"You talk too much."
The moment Baek Cheon-myeong passed through the stone gate,
an entirely different world appeared.
