Chapter 162. Not Going Mad Like Darkness

I kicked Chief Hwang from atop my horse.

“This bastard asked me to curse at him, and now he’s the one doing it.”

Chief Hwang got up, clutching his face, and said,

“Ah, you seemed a little too worked up, so I did it on purpose.”

While I looked over the sprawled corpses of the horse bandits, Chief Hwang pointed in one direction.

“An unusual number of them fled that way. There must be a base.”

“It didn’t look like all of them were running to the base.”

“True. I don’t know why.”

After checking Chief Hwang’s condition, I said,

“There’s no need to chase them right away, so rest for a bit.”

“Yes.”

I dismounted, then slapped the horse on the rump and sent it off into the wilderness. Chief Hwang said with a puzzled expression,

“Sect Leader, why are you sending it away? You said it was sturdy.”

“If I’m not confident I can keep it alive, I should let it go.”

I pulled a leather waterskin from one of the horse bandits’ corpses, poured some onto the ground, then drank.

This time, because I felt thirsty, the water tasted sweet.

If I had lost my senses for a moment, it meant my madness had relapsed, so I sat cross-legged for a while and calmed my mind.

The conditions for triggering my madness were likely, for the most part, memories.

I had fought horse bandits in my previous life as well. As those memories returned, I seemed to have briefly taken on the mindset of the Mad Demon.

In my previous life, around the time I earned the moniker Mad Demon, I had deliberately avoided recalling bad memories.

Because if I went mad, things would become troublesome for me too.

This kind of madness could be settled relatively calmly while cultivating the Wood Phase of the Golden Turtle Carefree Art, but to think I would be swept up in it at a moment like this.

Perhaps it was because the period in my previous life when I dealt with horse bandits was before I learned the Golden Turtle Carefree Art.

I am a man who has been through many twists and turns.

There are many things I tried hard to forget, and there are times, like now, when they surface unexpectedly. The problem was that the Mad Demon of my previous life often went mad with an atmosphere far too dark, so I was now trying my best to go mad brightly.

What difference is there between the two?

I do not know.

My instincts were simply telling me so.

Go mad brightly...

I must not go mad like darkness, but like light.

Thinking back slowly over the fight just now, it seemed that in that fleeting instant, I had failed to recognize even Chief Hwang.

It used to happen all the time, so it was not surprising.

I suddenly gazed out at the wilderness and comforted the pitiful Mad Demon of my previous life, the me who had gone mad like darkness.

‘Crazy bastard... pitiful bastard.’

Because the me of that time and the me of now were different, though it was a strange thing to say, I comforted my past self.

Jaha, let’s not go mad.

Let’s not be seized by madness.

The me of now is different.

I tried hard to draw a line between the Mad Demon of my previous life and the current I Jaha.

After a while, as I took deep breaths, I could look at Chief Hwang, and at the corpses of the horse bandits I had beaten to death with my own hands, without any particular emotion.

Peace like a river within me, composure like a snow-capped mountain within me.

Thinking that the man who had sent me back to the past at Manjang Cliff was the Martial God, I offered him a prayer.

‘Brother Martial God, please watch over me. Lead me into trials, but deliver me from madness. If I am struck on the left cheek, allow me to strike both cheeks of my opponent. Keep the Three Calamities away from me until I become strong. As repayment for my regression, I shall beat the Five Evils to death and offer them up to you. May qi deviation visit only my enemies... Asura balbalta.’

After offering the prayer, once I thought of coming back to my senses as a skill in itself, my mind soon calmed. After a while, I opened my eyes and looked at Chief Hwang, and before I knew it, a deep sigh escaped me on its own.

“...The qi deviation has passed.”

Chief Hwang nodded.

“Congratulations.”

“It’s not something to congratulate me for.”

“Sect Leader, it suddenly looked like you were fighting after meeting sworn enemies, so I was startled too.”

I nodded.

“Horse bandits are enemies, then. What, would they be friends?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Shut up.”

“Yes.”

“When fighting numerous enemies, this happens from time to time, but I have no problem.”

“Understood.”

After a moment, Chief Hwang asked as though he were curious.

“Ah, then were you like this when you fought alongside the Murim Alliance too?”

“No.”

“You must have fought calmly back then.”

“Not that either.”

“Then how did you fight?”

“I just killed them all in one blow.”

Suddenly, Chief Hwang looked at me with an aggrieved expression.

“...”

“What?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Chief Hwang, killing an innocent horse weighs more on my mind than these horse bandits. Am I strange?”

“Well, that can happen. It is strange, though.”

“Pick one.”

Chief Hwang burst into laughter.

“Ha ha ha...”

I got up and dusted off my backside.

“Let’s go. This is a dangerous situation where even we might become horse bandits at this rate. We should hurry up, kill them, and leave the wilderness.”

“Understood.”

I examined the ground as I began tracking them. Here and there were traces of blood, ornaments that had fallen, and even weapons they had abandoned. I spoke to Chief Hwang, who was prowling about like a man searching for food.

“If you find something like a spear, pick it up and give it to me.”

“I don’t see one. Do you use spears as well?”

“I can use every weapon except the ones I can’t handle.”

Chief Hwang looked at me with a serious expression.

“Sect Leader.”

“What?”

“You’re all right, aren’t you?”

I gave an awkward smile, then nodded. Chief Hwang, who had been walking while looking around, said,

“I feel a bit more at ease now.”

“Don’t. If we can’t find the leader like this, it means Jamun Honggui is frightened. But if he gets furious after seeing his routed subordinates and appears, that means he has a certain level of skill. He should be more capable than the dead ones.”

* * *

After a while, Chief Hwang and I had no choice but to stare blankly at the wilderness. We had found some of the fleeing horse bandits, but absurdly enough, they were being killed by other horse bandits.

Their attire and demeanor were similar. It did not look like rival mounted bandits fighting each other, but like commanders killing routed soldiers for disobeying orders.

Even the routed men swung their blades in resistance, but most of them died after a few strikes, their heads cut off, or else fled.

Strangely, these bastards were singing in unison as they brutally killed their own subordinates.

Laughter was mixed in between the song.

Some threw hidden weapons and struck the horses of fleeing bandits before chasing them down. Others leapt onto their opponents’ horses, killing the rider and seizing the mount at the same time. In short, among the mounted bandits, a few fairly capable fighters had appeared.

Gang Leader Hwang said,

“The one watching and laughing over there seems to be the Purple-Marked Red Ghost.”

No sooner had Gang Leader Hwang finished speaking than the man presumed to be the Purple-Marked Red Ghost looked at us and said something. Then the commanders who had been killing the fleeing bandits gathered around the Purple-Marked Red Ghost, chattering noisily and bursting into laughter from time to time.

I let out a hollow laugh myself and looked at the mounted bandits’ leaders with a smile.

“Laughing, are you?”

Soon, six or seven mounted bandits began charging toward us, and Gang Leader Hwang asked me,

“Sect Leader, how many should I take?”

“Just don’t get yourself killed.”

“Yes.”

The mounted bandits spread out to the left and right, widening their formation as they charged. As the distance closed, I could see their expressions. They were all still laughing.

This time, the mounted bandits accelerated fiercely and rode in a circle around us.

I sighed.

“Good grief, you idiots.”

I had been holding the wooden sword in my left hand, but the moment I saw one bastard trying to throw a hidden weapon at Gang Leader Hwang, I drew the sword and swept it through the air. An arm flew into the air, and a scream burst out.

When I laughed, the Purple-Marked Red Ghost halted his horse. Then the mounted bandits who had formed the circular encirclement stopped their horses as well. The man whose arm had been cut off kept screaming.

The Purple-Marked Red Ghost said,

“Noisy.”

Then three or four hidden weapons flew out and struck the one-armed man, knocking him from his horse.

The Purple-Marked Red Ghost said to me,

“A troubleshooter? Did the escort agency hire you?”

I picked my nose while examining the Purple-Marked Red Ghost’s aura.

‘He’s stronger than Gang Leader Hwang.’

Looking around, I saw some among them whose features were slightly different from those of the Central Plains. They were bastards I had no particular need to exchange words with. In the next instant, the leaders spurred their horses and sprang up, attacking us all at once.

Chains flew through the air, and ring-pommeled sabers were drawn.

I knocked aside a chain with my scabbard, and parried a saber that came flying in along a bizarre trajectory with my sword.

Their weapons were varied.

Two of the leaders charged at Gang Leader Hwang.

Four mounted bandits, including the Purple-Marked Red Ghost, charged at me. This time, I could not kill one with each stroke. I opened my eyes wide and dealt with the mounted bandits’ coordinated assault. Needles flew through the air, and hidden weapons suddenly shot out at close range. One kicked the ground to scatter dirt into my face, while another persistently aimed only for my legs, swinging a chain.

In the meantime, the Red Ghost, who had drawn twin sabers, struck and withdrew at just the right moments, clashing weapons with me.

As I spun my body, I checked on Gang Leader Hwang and found him swinging his sword fiercely against two opponents, which made a smile come to my face on its own.

Rather than live like an idiot and die……

It was better to have a fight like this once and then die.

I had no intention of helping Gang Leader Hwang, so I focused again on the bastards surrounding me.

When I poured out sword qi at close range and released palm force……

The bastard who blocked the sword qi with a huge greatsaber was sent flying backward, and the one who blocked the palm force also rolled away across the ground. Still, in any case, all of them had cultivated inner force. It seemed they had learned martial arts in the jianghu before becoming mounted bandits.

In that opening, the Red Ghost charged in as if he intended to face me directly……

For a moment, it became a one-on-one fight.

Seen up close, unlike the others, the Red Ghost looked like a man of the Central Plains. There was a brand on his forehead, with tattoos added around it. Judging by how old the brand on his forehead was, he looked like he came from a family of traitors or had escaped from an official prison. In particular, the way he wielded his twin sabers did not seem to rely on experience alone, but resembled a saber art he had formally learned.

In any case, he had the skill to slaughter fifty or sixty mounted bandits on his own without difficulty.

Because the thin wooden sword was at risk of breaking, I fought while constantly infusing it with wood-element qi. But the one surprised because of this wooden sword was none other than myself. The twin sabers the Red Ghost swung struck the wooden sword almost simultaneously and with perfect accuracy, only to be cut apart……

The utterly shocked Red Ghost looked at me.

Of course, I was just as shocked.

‘It’s a treasured sword.’

As the Red Ghost retreated while holding his broken twin sabers, the other mounted bandits, taking over the attack, rushed in at the same time.

In that instant, I stamped my foot with a seismic step.

When the ground sank slightly and dust rose from all directions,

I scattered the wooden sword, wreathed in the Dark Moon Ice Art, forward in the Plum Blossom Form. Dust mixed with the sword wind spread out in every direction, and the energy of the Dark Moon Ice Art mingled within it turned the dust into an All-Heaven Flower Rain.

Amid the blurred field of vision……

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—sounds and screams erupted together. I swung my left palm to blow away the dust, then looked at the fleeing Red Ghost.

When I turned my head, Gang Leader Hwang was still some distance away, locked in a fierce fight against two mounted bandits.

Would it be right to chase after the Red Ghost and kill him?

Or should I save Gang Leader Hwang first?

Which choice would be the more brilliantly insane one?

‘I should live a little busier, a little more diligently.’

I giggled and joined Gang Leader Hwang. The moment I appeared with the wooden sword raised, I could see the men he was fighting grow frightened.

“Gang Leader Hwang, I’m here.”

Gang Leader Hwang answered urgently.

“Sect Leader, please just…… help…… me!”

I sent a straight line of sword qi flying to knock away one mounted bandit’s hand, and used the Great Art of Absorbing Stars with my left palm to pull in another mounted bandit’s leg. In the meantime, Gang Leader Hwang’s sword flashed in an X shape, striking and sending the mounted bandits’ heads flying one after another.

Gang Leader Hwang’s chest heaved.

“Haa……”

I grabbed Gang Leader Hwang, who was bent over in exhaustion, by the nape of his neck.

“Let’s go.”

“Just a moment.”

“Let’s go, you bastard. There’s only the Red Ghost left.”

I kicked Gang Leader Hwang in the backside and said,

“Let’s go. Run.”

“Yes.”

* * *

A little while later, I was running across the wilderness. Ahead, the Red Ghost was fleeing. Behind me, Gang Leader Hwang was panting as he chased after us.

Toward the horizon of the wilderness……

Gang Leader Hwang, I, and the Red Ghost had been running for two shichen now.

“Gang Leader Hwang, hurry up.”

By now, Chief Hwang could do nothing but gasp for breath. I glanced up at the sky and saw that the sun was slowly setting. A short while later, Red Ghost, staggering as if he could not run another step, bent at the waist and panted.

But I was still perfectly fine.

Rather than kill Red Ghost right away, I had been running on purpose to train Chief Hwang. I approached Red Ghost, who looked as if he might collapse from exhaustion, and called to Chief Hwang.

“Aren’t you coming?”

Red Ghost suddenly dropped to his knees, raised both hands toward me, and said,

“Spare me.”

I looked down at Red Ghost and replied,

“……Why should I?”

“I’ll become your subordinate.”

I answered in an even tone.

“I don’t take men who kill their own subordinates as mine. Just die.”

“Haa…….”

I barked at Chief Hwang.

“Aren’t you coming!”

In that instant, Chief Hwang, cursing viciously, hurled his sword with all his strength. The blade flew with a sharp whistling sound and lodged itself in Red Ghost’s neck, and at the same moment, Chief Hwang, who had managed to run close by, pitched forward.

Chief Hwang lay with his face buried in the ground, panting for breath.

Standing alone in the wilderness, I looked at the dead man and the gasping man, then applauded. Laughter came out on its own.

“That was good.”