Chapter 226 Burning The Poison Away

Chapter 226 Burning The Poison Away
The moment he spoke the words, the heavy, suffocating silence in the warehouse completely shattered.

It didn't come from the outside. It came from inside my own mind.

The violently flashing red interface of the system suddenly froze. The digital siren shrieking in my skull abruptly cut off, replaced by a deep, resonant chime that vibrated directly against my spine.

The blood-red text shattered into thousands of tiny, glowing golden fragments.

\[Confession Registered and Acknowledged.\]
\[Karmic Weight: Assessed.\]
\[Ally Verdict: Acceptance without Absolution.\]

A wave of pure, unadulterated warmth washed over the digital screen. The interface rapidly rebuilt itself, the text glowing a brilliant, serene blue.

\[Karmic Debt Overload: Lifted.\]
\[Healing Restrictions: Removed.\]
\[Karma Exchange unlocked.\]

My heart gave a weak, pathetic flutter. It was the last beat my physical body could manage on its own.

System, I commanded, throwing every single remaining drop of my willpower into the mental link. Purchase Absolute Meridian Cleansing. Now.

\[Processing Transaction...\]
\[Cost: 600 Karma deducted.\]
\[Current Balance: 150 Karma.\]
\[Initiating Absolute Purge.\]

It didn't happen slowly.

It hit me like a bolt of raw lightning striking directly into my chest.

A blinding, white-hot explosion of pure energy detonated inside the hollow cavern of my Foundation Establishment core. It wasn't the calm, soothing flow of normal Qi. It was a violent, aggressively cleansing fire.

My spine arched completely off the damp canvas tarps. My mouth flew open in a silent, agonizing scream.

The pure white energy surged outward from my heart, flooding into my dying meridians. It slammed into the freezing, necrotic sludge of the Abyssal Blood-Venom and immediately began to incinerate it. The reaction was instantaneous and brutal. My veins visibly bulged against my skin, glowing with a faint, pulsing blue light as the system aggressively pushed the poison out of my cells.

"Mu-Kang!" Jin-Woo yelled, dropping his sword and falling to his knees beside me, completely unsure of what was happening.

I rolled onto my side, burying my good right hand into the dirt floor. My lungs violently unlocked. I sucked in a massive, ragged breath of the stale warehouse air, and immediately retched.

A massive torrent of boiling, pitch-black liquid erupted from my mouth. It hit the dirt floor and violently hissed, thick white smoke curling into the air as the corrupted Demonic Qi was entirely purged from my physical body.

I coughed, my chest heaving with deep, greedy breaths.

The cold was gone. The heavy, paralyzing weight of the venom had completely vanished.

I lay on the dirt, trembling, feeling the steady, rhythmic thump of my heart returning to normal. My Foundation Establishment core was empty, completely drained of Qi, but the physical walls of my meridians were entirely healed. Even the grinding pain in my shattered left collarbone had dulled into a faint, manageable ache, the bone fragments forcefully realigned and fused by the system's absolute intervention.

I slowly pushed myself up off the dirt.

My left arm, bound against my chest, still hung uselessly, but my right arm held my weight. I looked at my right hand, flexing my fingers. The strength was there. The baseline vitality of my body had been completely restored.

I looked up at Jin-Woo.

He was staring at me, his dark eyes wide with sheer, unfiltered disbelief. He looked at the smoking puddle of black venom on the floor, and then back at my face. The bruised, pale, dying corpse he had been talking to seconds ago was gone.

"It's gone," I rasped, my voice sounding rough, but entirely human again. I wiped a streak of clean saliva from my chin. "The poison is gone."

Jin-Woo let out a breath he had been holding for an eternity. He slumped back on his heels, a short, manic laugh escaping his lips. He ran a blood-stained hand through his wet hair.

"You stubborn, impossible bastard," Jin-Woo breathed, a weary, genuine smile breaking through the dirt and exhaustion on his face.

Before I could answer, a massive, deafening sound shook the entire warehouse.

The splintered remains of the heavy double doors completely exploded inward, raining massive shards of broken pine across the dirt floor.

The harsh, flickering orange light of a dozen oil torches flooded the dark room, casting long, monstrous shadows against the tin walls. The mob of bounty hunters hadn't just regrouped. They had brought fire.

A massive, scarred mercenary stepped over the broken barricade, holding a burning torch in one hand and a heavy iron mace in the other. Behind him, fifty armed men poured into the breach, their eyes completely consumed by the promise of the lords' gold.

They looked at Jin-Woo, kneeling on the floor, bleeding and exhausted.

Then, they looked at me.

They expected to see a dying man. They expected easy prey.

I slowly stood up, my boots planting firmly in the dirt. I grabbed the heavy iron chain wrapped around my right wrist, letting the links uncoil and hit the floor.

I looked at Jin-Woo. He met my gaze, reaching down to pick up his straight sword. The hesitation, the disgust, and the horror of the confession were completely gone, replaced by the absolute trust of a comrade.

"Can you stand?" I asked him, my voice cold and entirely steady.

Jin-Woo smiled grimly, the deep blue Qi flickering back to life around his blade.

"I can fight," he answered.

I turned my single working eye toward the screaming mob of killers filling the doorway.

"Then let's break this town apart," I said.