Chapter 202 – My Benevolent Master

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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Ju-seong stood drenched in blood, smiling, and suddenly felt as if he’d returned to the Black Dragon Gang’s courtyard at eighteen.

The Night Guests before him.

Their faces and bodies distorted, transforming into pitch-black, terrifying demon shapes.

Since Ju-seong had just killed two, that left four.

Ju-seong snarled, crimson light streaming from his eyes.

“The Cradle of the Demonic Path’s Four Venerables have finally revealed themselves before me!”

The demon at the front spoke as if bewildered.

“You’ve completely lost your mind. Have you become a madman?”

Ju-seong burst into wild laughter.

“The madmen are you lot who squeeze living people to make pills and cook and eat them!”

-KWANG.

Ju-seong stamped the ground fiercely, and the wooden floor exploded outward.

Sword Aura coiled around his sharp Myriad-Year Cold Iron claws, extending straight toward the straw-hatted demon.

“S-Sword Aura!”

The straw-hatted martial artist widened his eyes and threw himself aside.

The air where he’d just stood was torn apart. Ju-seong didn’t pursue the man who’d fled to the first floor; instead, he immediately began tearing apart the martial artists around him.

The axe-wielding martial artist raised the flat of his axe blade to block Ju-seong’s attack.

-TUKANG!

The great axe shattered blade and all, and Ju-seong grabbed the face of the man hiding behind it.

“Mmph, mmph!”

When the man shouted something, the two behind him thrust their weapons forward.

Ju-seong kicked off the ground and leaped up, flipping to brace his feet against the ceiling as if performing acrobatics.

“Gurk!”

Even during this movement, he still gripped the axe martial artist’s face.

-UJIJEOK.

No… not his face anymore, but his face’s skin.

“In this bright world, it’s an eyesore seeing bastards like you walking around with your faces on… I’ve graciously peeled it off for you.”

Ju-seong tossed aside the torn face, then kicked hard at the side of the screaming, faceless demon.

-PUEONG!

The remaining two men charging at Ju-seong split apart to dodge their comrade’s body suddenly flying at them.

The body smashed into the inn wall and exploded into fragments.

Ju-seong cried out with a blood-soaked smile.

“Ah, I don’t care anymore! Killing evildoers brutally feels so good!”

Ju-seong stretched out his hand and caught the spear blade of the martial artist lunging from his left.

Then he absorbed the flail being swung from his right by catching it with his shoulder and letting it glide off.

-TAANG!

When Ju-seong flicked his wrist sharply, the spear shaft vibrated violently, the fierce recoil crushing the hands of the man gripping it.

The flail man swung his weapon again aiming for Ju-seong’s temple, but…

-TTEO-EONG!

An upward palm strike flipped the flail up and back.

Naturally, the upper body of the man holding it was thrown wide open.

-PUGEOK!

Ju-seong’s viper-like toe kick viciously pierced the man’s solar plexus.

Having finished off the spearman with his mangled hands as well, Ju-seong left the inn to find the straw-hatted martial artist who had fled.

-TATATAK…

The straw-hatted martial artist was fleeing at full qinggong output.

“Damn it… what kind of creature is that one? I have to report that he’s reached super-peak.”

At minimum, one would need to be of Venerable disciple caliber, or the head of a subordinate group like the Night Guests or Battle Maniacs, to stand a chance.

Someone of his level… merely a higher-ranked Night Guest… couldn’t face that monster.

A broad plain.

Yellow spring flowers bloomed profusely while the straw-hatted martial artist cut across the field with ethereal movements… it would have made a picture, but…

In reality, he was running for his life with fear-shrunken pupils.

And behind him, another figure flying in pursuit.

-TADADADAK…

Despite eyes gleaming like a madman’s, the footsteps were weightless, the sound barely audible.

Literally flying, the yellow spring flowers merely shed a few petals beneath him, never crushed underfoot.

And ringing through the flower field, the madman’s cry echoed.

“HALT… !”

“Damn, damn it…”

The man fled desperately, then… alarmed by the closing distance… ripped off his straw hat and flung it at his pursuer.

-HWIRIRI-RIK.

Tiny blades were set all around the hat’s rim.

A master at the late peak level infused qi and threw it, emanating such killing intent that all flowers within a four-to-five chi radius lost their heads.

-TUTATATAK.

The severed flowers shot upward.

Ju-seong watched the straw hat fly at him, then leaped slightly diagonally, snatched the hat from the air, and…

-PARARAK!

Spinning once in the air, a great vortex formed over the flower field, laying the flowers and grass in a yin-yang pattern.

-SSWA-AAK!

He threw the hat back, and it burst into scarlet flames from his Flame Crow Six Stage Art internal energy, returning to its owner.

“What the f… …”

The Night Guest saw his own hat flying back aflame and belatedly reached for his sword hilt, but…

-SEOGEOK.

It was already too late.

A headless corpse of a swordsman with a splendid drawing stance stood alone in the middle of the bright yellow field.

Ju-seong walked over and nudged the body with a gentle push, and the headless corpse flopped down.

“Whew…”

Ju-seong looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh.

Now that he’d killed them all, he saw they weren’t the Cradle of the Demonic Path’s Venerables but just ordinary Night Guest rabble.

Of course, a year ago, if such a force had come at him, he’d have been killed without leaving a bone behind.

‘They’re targeting me more openly than I expected.’

They’d tracked his movements in Hunan and immediately attempted assassination.

Trudging back to the inn, he noticed the signboard bearing “Zhanguo Chang” was particularly clean.

“Ugh… tsk.”

Reaching up after stretching his arm, he detached and flipped it… originally, it had been an ordinary name: Yifeng Inn.

After killing the original owner, the Night Guest had apparently indulged his wicked taste by flipping the signboard to write “Zhanguo Chang.”

Ju-seong opened the inn door and surveyed the carnage he’d created.

Blood was dripping down in multiple streams from the second floor, and tables and everything else were in total chaos.

Ju-seong let out a small sigh, then flicked his finger to drop a spark on the dry floor.

Not an ordinary spark, but a spark carrying the Samadhi True Fire of Flame Crow Six Stage Art.

Ju-seong left the burning inn behind and set out on the road once more.

* * *

Jiangxi was evil path territory. If Ju-seong entered populated areas, especially bustling cities, nine times out of ten, surveillance would follow.

Having killed five peak-level Night Guests at the Zhanguo Chang Inn, those who came after him next would be stronger.

Ju-seong considered whether to just head north and join the Martial Alliance, but somehow his feet wouldn’t go that way.

He avoided populated areas as much as possible, and when he did stop by, it was only small villages to buy supplies before immediately leaving.

-TANG, TANG!

Ju-seong found himself pounding his own chest hard increasingly often, as if something was stifling him.

White Pig startled and fluttered up, circled above Ju-seong’s head a couple of times, then disappeared somewhere.

Watching White Pig fly away, Ju-seong murmured vacantly.

“The inner demon runs deep.”

No matter how much he vowed not to abandon the path of saving lives, Ju-seong was neither sage nor saint, neither immortal nor Buddha.

There was no way to shake off his boiling desire for revenge through solitary cultivation alone.

Jiangxi was a land of many mountains and plains.

Ju-seong climbed a high ridge and gazed at the distant horizon. The sun was melting, turning burnt-orange.

Evil path, demons, evildoers… all were surely swarming beyond that horizon.

Ju-seong raised his index finger and traced along the horizon, murmuring.

“…My benevolent master has died, yet how can you all still be alive?”

He crossed the ridge and began descending the slope. Twilight fell, and dusk settled.

“Only by killing you all will this inner demon leave me.”

Ju-seong’s form sank into the darkness.

* * *

Hundred Mountains Alliance, the confederation of Jiangxi evil path leaders.

Jiangxi originally bordered the orthodox sects of the north, so it tended to quietly admire their erudition and deep history.

Hence the alliance’s name sounded as though it were a union of mountain-based monastic sects… Hundred Mountains Alliance.

In truth, there were many mountains in Jiangxi, and more than half the evil sects were based in mountainous regions.

Furthermore, quite a few among them claimed to be Taoist temples while squeezing the surrounding populace.

The eldest and de facto leader, Taoist Xiangyun, stroked his long grey beard and spoke.

“The Crazed Poison Demon’s movements are so unpredictable that Jiangxi sects can’t focus on the front lines.”

“Sigh… Zhejiang keeps pestering about why we lost control of the Yangtze, and Guangxi keeps berating us for the poor support…”

“Isn’t that all because of the Crazed Poison Demon, that madman?”

The biggest headache for Jiangxi’s evil path at present.

Two months ago, a madman had suddenly appeared and was annihilating Jiangxi’s large and small evil sects.

The fact that he used poison and laughed maniacally while gruesomely killing people was all the more chilling.

Yet his ability to erase his tracks and escape was terrifyingly superb, and strangely, he never touched ordinary civilians who hadn’t learned martial arts.

Hearing eyewitness accounts, he was clearly a madman, yet his actual conduct suggested otherwise.

“The Ten Thousand Ears Gang says there’s a high chance that man is the famous Mad Dragon…”

“The Mad Dragon is called that because of his somewhat eccentric behavior… he’s not actually insane.”

“This Crazed Poison Demon isn’t truly insane either. Or if he is, he’s only half-mad.”

-TAANG!

“Enough of this pointless armchair theorizing.”

Taoist Xiangyun irritably slapped the table and said.

“We need to catch him so we can coordinate with sects in other provinces and maintain the front lines. Three sects have already been destroyed, and a dozen-odd vagabond groups have died in drips and drabs.”

“Mm…”

“If this continues and Zhejiang cuts off supplies, what then? Will Jiangxi be the only one left behind in Jiangnan?”

“Tch. That would be troublesome.”

The item currently binding all of Jiangnan’s evil path in organic unity.

It was a pill that strengthened the physical body and also increased the true qi of the middle dantian… an unprecedented elixir.

Moreover, it could be mass-produced, so even elder-level figures of large sects or sect masters of mid-sized sects had a chance to take it.

And the Ten Thousand Ears Gang, which primarily distributed it, was currently operating mainly out of Zhejiang.

‘Perhaps the key figure distributing this item is based in Zhejiang… Then is it Ha Sang-mu?’

Zhejiang’s greatest, Ha Sang-mu.

Taoist Xiangyun trembled with envy.

It was galling enough that the man held the title of Ten Greats Under Heaven, but now he was poised to become the leader of all Jiangnan’s evil path?

‘His recent lack of public activity is suspicious, though.’

Ha Sang-mu, the Grand Elder of the Azure Thunder Sect, hadn’t appeared in public for the past year or two.

‘No, that’s not what’s important now.’

Taoist Xiangyun shook his head to dismiss his stray thoughts, then surveyed the assembly and spoke.

“So… how do we catch this fellow? My personal opinion is that even if we have to expend some manpower, we must spread a dragnet.”

At that moment, a woman in a red gauze dress elegantly covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.

“My lord, spreading a dragnet is what those righteous sect people up north do. How could we evil path folk cooperate like army soldiers in a dragnet?”

She fanned herself languidly, smiling at the assembly with laughing eyes.

“Our proud Jiangxi men, who’ve never obeyed the law their whole lives.”

At her captivating smile, the seated leaders’ lips twitched.

They weren’t charmed by the woman… they were exaggerating their reaction, pretending to laugh at the jest.

“Hahaha! The Fairy speaks truly! Are we Jiangxi men the type to just stand still where we’re placed?”

“Indeed, indeed. Taoist Xiangyun, if you have a method to make Jiangxi folk listen well, please share.”

Taoist Xiangyun closed his eyes as he stroked his beard.

‘…These pathetic bastards. Do you love women that much?’

Having indulged his lower half too much in his youth, by the age of forty, Taoist Xiangyun had already contracted a disease that left him impotent.

Thus he wasn’t caught in that witch’s seduction arts, but watching the pitiful reactions of those around him with a clear head was all the more torturous.

Taoist Xiangyun stared at the woman and asked.

“Then, Fairy… do you have a strategy?”

The woman smiled and propped her chin on her hand.

“Madmen are those whose mental locks have completely fallen open, aren’t they? Such people are even easier to enchant.”

Her red tongue traced her lips, and the assembly’s gazes were drawn to it.

“We shall wrap him in our skirts and bring him to you. Then, my lord, you need only dispose of him.”

The Palace Master of the Palace of Pleasure, Heavenly Splendor Fairy… one of the Twelve Evil Sects… stepped forward to capture the Poison Demon.