“Bandits?”
Paejon’s words, saying that I looked like a bandit, sent all sorts of thoughts flashing through my mind.
Right after the Demon Realm had opened in the past.
The bandits and water bandits who had lived in the mountains and by the sea had all been unable to withstand the monsters. They descended into the cities and joined the unorthodox factions.
As for those who remained, most of them had already lost their lives under the Edict for the Extermination of Villains issued by the Murim Alliance, which had been carried out until fifteen years ago.
Ah, though I say they had lost their lives, they had not been completely wiped out.
Even now, reports of people encountering water bandits at sea or bandits in the mountains occasionally surfaced.
Of course, the Murim Alliance would send out the Sword Units and hunt them down like rats whenever they heard such news, so there were plenty of rumors that even those remnants were nearing their end.
And yet, bandits.
‘And in an area that just happens to be entering Sichuan?’
This was—
‘That bastard’s group.’
I was certain the instant I heard it.
The bandits Paejon had mentioned had to be the tail of the bastard I had intended to visit as soon as I arrived in Sichuan.
There was no room for doubt.
Since we were approaching Sichuan, any bandits active around this time would all be under that bastard.
I recalled the situation while drawing in ragged breaths.
‘Even if that’s the case, it’s strange.’
I had my doubts. This was not the time when that bastard had first begun to distinguish himself.
Judging by the timeline, there should still have been a year or two before then.
Until that point, he should have been holed up in the mountains, gathering strength and forces.
But now there were signs of movement…. It was somewhat strange.
‘Nokwang….’
I recalled the giant who had been called the king of bandits in my previous life.
A demonic man specialized in external martial arts to such an extent that one could say he had reached the state of indestructible diamond.
Even the authority Nokwang received from Cheonma had been called monstrous strength—a name that suited him perfectly.
How much suffering had I endured in our battle just to pierce that formidable body?
‘Should I say this worked out for the best?’
While planning this journey to Sichuan, the priority I had placed directly behind Baekmaseok was that bastard.
In my previous life, he had been an evil man and a demonic man, a master powerful enough to serve as the captain of a unit directly under Cheonma.
If I formed a force, I had intended to corrupt him with demonic qi and bring him along.
‘Since he’s showing me his tail of his own accord, I suppose it is a good thing.’
However, there was one thing that worried me.
I glanced sideways.
I turned my gaze toward where the people of the Tang Clan were.
‘The problem is that this is happening just when I’m with the Tang Clan Head….’
That was the issue.
Around the time Nokwang began to distinguish himself, the first alias he acquired was—
‘The Tang Clan Massacrer.’
They had called him that because he sought out and killed only members of the Tang Clan in Sichuan.
In my previous life, Nokwang would fly into a fit whenever he saw anyone bearing the Tang surname.
The reason he had disliked me, too, was ultimately related to the Tang Clan.
‘He said he didn’t like the fact that I was the one who killed Dokbi, didn’t he?’
Since I, rather than he, had killed Dokbi, he had said that he disliked me for it.
When I heard that, I had wondered what kind of utterly fucked-up reason it was.
What kind of reason was that supposed to be?
Even so, I could vaguely understand why Nokwang had harbored such rage toward the Tang Clan and committed so many murders.
Nokwang’s real name was Tang Deok.
As one could tell from his name, Nokwang had originally been born into the Tang Clan.
As I recall, I had heard that he was either Dokwang’s distant half-brother or his cousin, but I was not particularly interested in that much.
What mattered was that he was called the Tang Clan’s failure.
‘That is a painful name.’
The Tang Clan’s failure.
Perhaps because I had once been called the Gu Clan’s failure, the words struck an oddly familiar chord.
I knew a little about why he had been called that.
As a member of the Tang Clan, Nokwang possessed none of the traits one could have expected.
Aside from his dark green hair, he had nothing that could be called characteristic of the Tang Clan.
He had no resistance to poison whatsoever, and unlike a proper member of the Tang Clan, he could not even cultivate poison arts.
Moreover, given that the Tang Clan’s martial arts were specialized in assassination, they did not suit Nokwang’s massive frame.
According to the common rumor—
Because of those traits, the Tang Clan had cast him aside, and he had expressed his fury as a result.
The problem was that the Tang Clan had never denied the rumor, thereby lending it credibility.
In any case, looking at all this, he was a monster who harbored rage toward the Tang Clan.
That was what it meant for the king of bandits to be Nokwang Tang Deok.
I had no interest in why he had been driven out of the Tang Clan, gone to the mountains, and become a bandit.
What mattered to me was whether he was moving now or not. That was all.
‘In any case, I’ll either kill him or turn him into a demonic man. It’s one or the other.’
There had been countless demonic men in my previous life, but among them, I had already decided in advance which ones I would personally corrupt in this life.
Nokwang, whom I intended to deal with while I was in Sichuan, was one of them.
So was the Sword Demon, the Heavenly Killing Star, who should be sharpening his blade around now.
Those who would become problems in the future would either be killed or absorbed as discarded pieces.
That was the method I intended to choose.
“…Elder.”
“Hmm?”
“Then what did the Dark King say he would do?”
It was the Dark King who had discovered the bandits, if I remembered correctly.
I did not know what their purpose was, but they probably did not know either—that this group was filled with monsters.
Among them, the Dark King held an absolute position concerning matters of this sort.
‘It would be troublesome if he said he would clean them up.’
It would be troublesome if the Dark King found the nearby bandits irritating and killed them all.
An opportunity like this was rare, and I needed them for my own purposes.
Just as I was worrying about that, Paejon chuckled and spoke to me.
“What is there to decide?”
His voice was filled with incredulity.
“We’ll just leave them alone. What else would we do?”
“The Dark King will?”
At my question, Paejon’s expression grew somewhat peculiar.
“What, are we supposed to seek them out and kill them all?”
I had assumed that was what he would do…?
That was the impression I had of the Dark King.
“Tsk. Judging by your expression, I can tell without hearing your answer.”
“…”
“I don’t know what the common perception is, but he isn’t the sort who particularly enjoys killing.”
“Is that so…?”
That was quite surprising. The king of assassins did not enjoy killing?
“He only kills when necessary.”
“…Oh.”
“Ah, of course, if things go awry, he does kill everyone…. But as long as things don’t go awry, there’s no problem.”
“…”
He really didn’t enjoy it, did he? As I listened to him, I found myself looking around without realizing it.
I was wondering if the Dark King might be listening.
‘…Damn.’
I had always flinched somewhat whenever I saw the Dark King, but—
After a month of repeated training, that feeling seemed to have grown more intense.
Try being killed dozens of times a day for over a month by the same human being…. Anyone would reach the point of having seizures just at the sight of him.
‘There’s no answer to this either….’
Every night, I tried all sorts of things, but I still could not reach the Dark King in the slightest.
At this point, no matter how much of an idiot I was, I had come to realize one thing.
I needed another method if I wanted to overcome this training.
The problem was that I had no idea what that method was, which was why I continued dying every night.
‘For now, I’ll put that aside…. Bandits.’
Since they were merely somewhere nearby, I could not yet be certain that they were connected to us.
The Dark King seemed to be the only one who had detected them.
The fact that neither I nor the other clan heads had noticed meant that they were quite far away.
Since I could not rashly assume that they were watching us and plotting something, I needed time to investigate, but—
The moment Paejon told me about them, an uneasy feeling had already settled in my chest.
At that moment, Paejon looked at me and asked,
“Child.”
“Yes.”
“Judging by your expression, it seems you have some scheme in mind.”
“…”
How did he know? He had only been sitting there with his eyes closed, yet he had noticed.
That old man had a surprisingly keen side to him.
When I narrowed my eyes as if I had been caught, Paejon grinned.
“Whatever it is, do it in moderation. Just enough that it won’t show.”
“…Yes.”
What did he think I was going to do that he was telling me to be moderate?
Paejon could not know that I had regressed. And yet, there was an inexplicable sharpness to him in moments like this.
Even if he had noticed something, he did not seem to care much about it.
Paejon did not care what I did as long as it did not interfere with my training.
Of course, if it interfered with my training, he would be different….
“Are you planning to do it today?”
“Do what…?”
“Whatever it is.”
“…”
“You look interested. If you keep sitting around like that, it’ll interfere with your training, so deal with it quickly.”
As I heard that, I swallowed a silent sigh.
Just how far could this man see?
As if he had noticed what I was thinking, he smiled and spoke again.
“Shall I ask that bat bastard? Ask him where he saw them.”
“…”
This was ridiculous….
It was becoming frightening.
Ah, of course—
“Yes…. Please do.”
That did not mean I refused.
******************
A forest at the edge of Sichuan’s territory.
On the intermediate road a little before it, the moon was beginning to rise. It was the hour when moonlight started to seep across the leaves.
Deep within that forest—
Several men moved through the undergrowth behind a thick accumulation of bushes, holding their breath.
A faint something had been spread around the moving men.
Martial artists called it a qi barrier.
It was a technique used to kill the sound of one’s movements, conceal one’s presence, and move stealthily.
As the men headed somewhere with the qi barrier spread around them—
“Damn it….”
One of the men in the group quietly spat out a curse.
Immediately afterward, the man at the very front looked back in surprise.
“You crazy bastard, can’t you shut your mouth? Have you lost your mind?”
“Ah, come on, Elder Brother. Do we really have to go this far?….”
“You bastard, now you’re talking back to me? Did I tell you to do this? The bandit chief did!”
As the man snarled in anger, the one who had cursed clamped his mouth shut.
He was dissatisfied that they, who were bandits, had to move around as silently as a dead mouse.
But when he recalled that the one who had issued the order was none other than their chief, he had nothing more to say.
‘Damn it.’
He could only hold it in, cursing inwardly.
“…Elder Brother, how much farther do we have to go?”
“At this pace? Another day or two.”
If they used internal energy and ran, it would take less than an hour.
But they were practically crawling along, so it would take that long.
The man who heard that sighed and cursed.
“Ha, damn it.”
Perhaps that was what bothered him, because the man in front once again had to frown.
“Quit grumbling and just keep up. We only have to watch them from a distance and figure out their route anyway. It’s not dangerous.”
The chief had merely ordered them to observe their movements and determine their route.
He had not demanded infiltration or an ambush, so it had little to do with combat.
“But what if we get caught? How is that not dangerous?”
“It’s not completely safe, no.”
The man who appeared to be the leader of the group eventually pulled something from inside his clothes and showed it to him.
“You really are pissing me off. Why do you keep saying things that get on my nerves?”
“As long as we have this, there’s no chance we’ll be discovered.”
The object in his hand was a dark green, round bead.
Other than being about the size of an ordinary man’s fist, it did not appear to have any special characteristics.
But astonishingly, the bead was an evil artifact.
An evil artifact that erased the presence of anything within a certain distance of its wielder.
The chief had said that as long as they possessed it, even a martial artist who had reached the Transformation Realm would not easily detect them. With the qi barrier spread as well, there was no way they could be discovered.
That is, unless the Tang Clan’s transport convoy—their target—contained a monster commonly known throughout the Central Plains as the Transcendent Heavens.
“I heard that at most, there are only the Tang Clan Head and the Pae Family Head. What are you so scared of?”
“Even so….”
“Ha, for heaven’s sake. If you’re scared, just go back to the mountains. But then the chief will kill you. You okay with that?”
“…”
“We only have to do what we were told. As long as you don’t try anything else, everything will be fine. So understand this: if you say even one more word, I’ll bury you here and leave you behind.”
The leader turned his head away with an irritated snort.
Only then did the man stop speaking. What else could he do when he had been told he would be buried if he said another word?
‘…I have a bad feeling about this.’
The man was uneasy.
No matter how powerful the evil artifact was, this was not just anywhere—it was the transport convoy of Dokwang, said to be the most dangerous among those in the Central Plains who bore the title of King.
If they made even one mistake, they might rot to death.
How could he not be worried?
He had not entered this bandit den because he wanted to die.
After agonizing over it for some time, the man finally steeled himself to be scolded and was about to speak to the leader again when—
“Elder Brother…. Something’s wrong.”
Fwoosh—
He saw sparks fly before his eyes.
They had not even brought torches because they needed to move carefully. Then what were those sparks just now?
Confused by the unexpected anomaly, the man was startled.
At that moment—
Crack!
A sound like something breaking came from behind them.
He hurriedly turned around.
“…!”
The scene unfolding there made his eyes widen.
The others who had been following behind had already collapsed dead, their necks twisted.
One man was kneeling, his mouth covered by the hand of some unknown person.
And the man could clearly see the appearance of their attacker.
The attacker was not even concealing his face. Moreover, flames clung faintly to his body, making him impossible to miss.
The man’s brow furrowed when he saw the young man’s face.
‘…A child?’
He looked extremely young.
The leader had noticed the same thing.
“Wh—what are you?!”
The leader drew his sword from his waist and raised his fighting spirit, but—
The young man merely swept his gaze over them, as if he had no interest in any of it.
Then he spoke.
“There are three.”
“…What?”
“Yes. Three should be enough. Once I burn two of you, the last one will talk.”
After uttering those incomprehensible words, the young man—
Crack!
“Urrghh—mmph!”
He stomped down on the leg of the man he had been holding and crushed it.
There was not the slightest hesitation in the brutal act.
“You bastard…!”
The leader charged at the young man.
The young man’s gaze remained fixed on the man he had been holding. It did not move.
“Elder Brother…! Wait…!”
The man tried desperately to stop the leader, but—
It was already too late.
The leader had already rushed at him.
The young man continued speaking in the same calm voice.
“I have to be back by the Hour of the Ox at the latest, even if I can’t manage it sooner. So I don’t have much time. Let’s finish this quickly.”
At the same time, they heard the leader scream.
Something had gone wrong. That was the thought that instantly occurred to the man.
But that was not the only problem.
Before long, the man realized—
The one he should have been afraid of was not Dokwang, but someone else.