Volume 1 Chapter 25 – Madness

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Yeon So-hyeon took a deep breath.

The stench unique to the back alleys—the smell of excrement, the smell of rotting things, the smell of mold, the smell rising from the sewers, and the smell of melted intestines and boiling blood—was refreshing.

Every time his heart beat cheerfully, the demonic qi of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens coursed through the blood vessels and acupoints of his entire body.

The demonic qi that distorted and eroded reality stirred his upper dantian and surged into his mind.

Everything around him came into his view, and it felt as if everything was within his grasp.

It felt as if nothing was impossible.

It was a sense of omnipotence, and at the same time, madness.

Without realizing it, a rough beastly sound growled from deep within his throat.

Yeon So-hyeon, the demon of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, looked at the prey lined up along the hallway.

“……The banquet has begun.”

A voice consisting of a rough metallic tone resounded in the hallway.

“K-Kill him!”

With someone’s shout, the Black Bone Gang members spasmodically raised their weapons and began to rush forward.

“Come!”

Yeon So-hyeon bared his teeth and smiled.

The face of the guy rushing in at the very front was terrified and filled with despair.

The saber he swung was a shabby, cheap thing that could barely be called a saber.

Even the fluttering of the strands of the dirty tassel hung at the end of the saber hilt for show was clearly visible.

However, there was no need or reason to evade it.

Yeon So-hyeon stood still and received that blow with his head.

Along with a sharp metallic sound of metal clashing against metal, sparks flew.

The saber, filled with impurities and not even tempered properly, shattered and flew away just like that.

The broken blade was embedded in the ceiling.

It did not even itch.

Before the hilt that the guy had dropped from the impact could even hit the floor, Yeon So-hyeon struck down the guy’s head with his palm.

With a deafening explosion, the guy’s head exploded in the direction of the blow.

Like a heavily struck whip, the guy’s brain matter, blood, and bone fragments spilled onto the floor.

Only then did the hilt, which had lost its blade, hit the floor.

The torso that had lost its head reeled sideways, spun half a turn, and fell as if leaning against the hallway wall.

At that sight, Yeon So-hyeon clapped his hands.

Indeed, was dancing not an indispensable element of a banquet?

“Aaaaah!”

The next guy rushed forward holding an axe.

Yeon So-hyeon reached out with both hands and tore out the guy’s arms.

While the guy screamed loudly, Yeon So-hyeon discarded the arms he was holding onto the floor.

“My aaaaarms……!”

After admiring that bizarre dance for a moment, Yeon So-hyeon slowly tore open the guy’s mouth.

In the meantime, two guys rushed in, but their waists were torn open and flew away at the same time.

A guy who had no choice but to be pushed forward by the press from behind was caught by Yeon So-hyeon, who had his mouth wide open, and had his head bitten off just like that.

After all, food should not be missing from a banquet.

Even while Yeon So-hyeon spoke leisurely like that, blades flew and blunt weapons were struck down.

However, none of them could inflict any damage, and every time Yeon So-hyeon moved his body once, the number of corpses missing parts of their bodies only increased in the hallway.

That smelly, dirty hallway was being reborn as the best banquet hall, filled with song, dance, and food.

* * *

With a pleasant smile, Yeon So-hyeon pierced another torso with his hand blade .

Thus, another life vanished.

However, the Black Bone Gang did not just stand by and take it.

At the same time that Yeon So-hyeon pierced the torso, a cold blade popped out from the opposite side.

That blade rushed toward Yeon So-hyeon at a formidable speed.

“Hup……!”

With a low snort, Yeon So-hyeon tilted his body backward and evaded the blade.

That long saber , which did not have a single drop of blood on it even after piercing a torso, gleamed coldly on its smooth surface.

And that blade was violently vibrating with an overflowing force.

It was also the reason why Yeon So-hyeon evaded that single flash .

Speed, technique, and a long saber that was clearly of high quality; finally, a skilled expert who had learned martial arts had appeared.

The attack did not end with a fierce stab.

“Puppet .”

Along with a low chant, as if ignoring the laws of physics, that stab was converted into a slash.

Splitting the corpse as if cutting tofu, the cold blade struck down like lightning toward Yeon So-hyeon.

‘Got him!’

The owner of the long saber was convinced that his attack would succeed.

This monster had succeeded in evading his first single flash, which entered from a blind spot, with beast-like senses.

However, evading by tilting his body backward was a clear mistake.

With his center of gravity completely ruined like that, it was impossible to evade the consecutive strikes through his signature technique , Puppet.

“……?!”

However, his strike that sliced through the corpse only cut empty air in vain, leaving a deep scar on the innocent floor.

“It was an interesting technique.”

The cold breath of the opponent touched his ear.

If he had been a greenhorn who had seen less of the sword, he would not have known what to do at that moment.

He did not think or judge.

His body, tempered by countless real battles, reflexively performed another technique.

Revolving Wheel .

Another signature technique that integrated retrieval and attack into one body .

Toward the direction where the breath had touched, the blade bounced up as if launched, and he did not stop there, pouring dozens of consecutive strikes in a single breath.

“Hraaaap……!”

As if the blades had multiplied into dozens, they tore the space to shreds.

The monster did not evade the attacks this time, but began to intercept those dozens of consecutive strikes.

Every time the long fingernails made of dark energy clashed with his blade, a deafening roar resounded and sparks flew in all directions.

“Haah, haah!”

Soon, as the consecutive strikes ended, he roughly inhaled his held breath.

The internal energy that had been considerably depleted in just a few moves was a problem, but the bigger problem was that the flow of his internal energy had been ruined due to his rough breathing caused by the continuous connection of forced techniques.

‘……Damn monster.’

However, the biggest problem was elsewhere.

“Is it already over?”

While he was bathed in his own blood because his entire body had been mangled by the opponent’s fingernails, the white-masked monster did not have a single cut on his clothes.

“I was just starting to have fun, what a pity.”

The monster’s rough voice scraped his ear.

“……Fuck you!”

He staked everything on his current blow.

He poured in all his remaining internal energy and focus.

Of course, looking at the monster’s abilities shown so far, his last blow was bound to be blocked in vain.

‘But……!’

At the same time, the hallways on both sides of the monster shattered, and the other two martial artists who had been waiting poured in their attacks.

It was a perfect surprise attack aiming for the moment when the opponent was most off guard.

‘It worked……?!’

However, what he saw in the next moment was completely different from his expectation.

His blade was caught in the monster’s teeth and shattered just like that, and at the same time, the coordinated surprise attack was blocked in vain by the monster’s hands.

The monster spat out the blade fragments.

“Is this the best you can do?”

At that moment, he realized.

No matter what they did, the probability of hunting the monster did not exist from the very beginning.

The monster was merely playing with them before eating them.

“Aaaaah!”

In his vision, he saw the two who had abandoned their weapons caught by the monster’s strength, rushing in with side arms and bare hands.

Immediately after, something flashed, and a roar followed.

Only then did he realize that all his internal energy was depleted.

A spray of blood mist, a rising fountain of blood, and noise followed for a moment.

He also mobilized his remaining physical strength to rush at the monster again, but it was absolutely not an opponent to be rushed without internal energy.

Having briefly lost consciousness from the monster’s light gesture, he woke up because of a terrible scream.

“Kuaaaaak!”

With his back turned to him, the monster was eating one of the martial artists alive.

The hallway was filled with the sounds of tearing flesh, snapping bones, and screams.

He had no choice but to wait for his turn, seized by powerlessness and fear.

He cried, and he begged.

But his destiny was already decided.

* * *

“Crazy monster!”

Yeon So-hyeon, who had retracted his demonic qi, asked the last remaining boss of the den.

“You say I am a crazy monster?”

The boss, whose knees on both legs were completely shattered, screamed at Yeon So-hyeon in rage.

“Bullshit. Then you are a crazy monster, do you think you are some grand expert?!”

Yeon So-hyeon slowly looked around.

The place he finally reached was a slaughterhouse prepared in the underground space.

The gathered intestines were boiling in a large pot, and even more intestines were piled up, waiting for their turn.

On the opposite side, bones and meat were scattered as if deboning had been in full swing, and in the corner, an immense pile of bones was stacked like a mountain.

And beyond that, large pieces of meat waiting were hanging on hooks, lining up in a long row.

And finally, the place where Yeon So-hyeon was standing was where the draining of blood from the meat was being carried out.

The floor formed a large puddle of red blood, which was escaping into the sewer along the gutter.

And that blood was flowing from the ‘human corpses’ hanging upside down.

Yeon So-hyeon looked at the corpse closest to him.

It was a woman whom it would not be an exaggeration to say had nothing left but bones.

The only unusual thing was that for some reason, the woman’s stomach was split open.

Yeon So-hyeon closed the eyes of the corpse that were still wide open, and asked the boss.

“……I am crazy, you say?”

The manager of the underground human flesh factory held his shattered lower body and groaned, countering Yeon So-hyeon’s words.

“You stupid bastard! This is all just business!”

“……”

Yeon So-hyeon, who had lost his words for a moment, picked up the bowl on the manager’s desk.

Whether he had been in the middle of a meal before the trouble started, the bowl and its contents were still warm.

Yeon So-hyeon scooped up a piece of meat from inside.

Steam rose from the wrist, which was clearly that of a fetus judging by its size.

It was a detail that showed why the woman’s stomach was split open.

“Just business, you say?”

The manager shouted spasmodically.

“You lunatic! What is business?! Why do we do business?! It is all to feed ourselves and live……”

In an instant, Yeon So-hyeon, who had practically disappeared, grabbed the manager’s head and slammed it against the wall.

“Kuaaa……”

Yeon So-hyeon let out a hollow laugh as he slowly rubbed the manager’s head against the wall.

To them, his killing and eating of people was madness, but their killing, selling, and eating of people was said to be business.

These people were living their hard reality diligently, taking the killing, slaughtering, selling, and eating of humans as their occupation!

Yeon So-hyeon hung the manager’s corpse, whose head was half-ground to death, upside down on an empty hook.

From that ground head, blood poured down and splattered on the floor.

It seemed like too quick a death, but Yeon So-hyeon also had his reasons.

Somewhere in the basement, there was bound to be a cage where they locked up the living for fresh meat.

He had to find them.

Moving his steps, he asked himself.

Is it I who am crazy,

Or is it this world.