Chapter 354. The Ruffian Had His Fun and Takes His Leave.

The Lecherous Demon said as he drew the Mo Family dagger from his robes.

“Is it only the two of you?”

The Yin-Yang Family Heads laughed.

The moment the twins stepped forward at the same time, the Lecherous Demon retreated by the exact same distance and said,

“You two came to Dong Lake too, didn’t you?”

“…….”

“So your targets were Third Brother and me from the start. Because of the ice art…….”

The Lecherous Demon openly hid his right hand behind his back, then infused the Mo Family dagger with ice art. A long sword of white cold energy slowly rose from the Mo Family dagger and froze solid.

Having unleashed Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile with ice art, the Lecherous Demon smiled like an Ice God.

As the twin Yin-Yang Family Heads charged at him simultaneously…….

The Lecherous Demon pushed off the ground with his left foot and released palm force from his left palm as though scattering it through the air. Cold energy in the form of a spray—not quite palm wind, nor quite palm force—blocked the twins’ vision.

The twins’ response was identical.

While the two old men swung their sleeves to blow away the cold energy, the Lecherous Demon advanced as if closing the distance, thrusting out the Mo Family dagger while simultaneously deflecting the palm force pressing in from the left.

Thud!

The Yin-Yang Family Heads were pushed back at the same time.

The one who had exchanged palm force clenched his fist and shattered the cold energy coiling around it.

The one whose hand had been pierced by the Mo Family dagger, which had suddenly lengthened, was staring at his own palm.

He had succeeded in a surprise attack in a single exchange.

The Yin-Yang Family Heads looked at the Lecherous Demon with bewildered expressions. When they had competed in palm force, it had felt as though their internal energy was almost on the same level, so they had no choice but to be shocked after suffering such an absurdly severe wound.

The Lecherous Demon muttered to himself.

“It would be nice to torture you before killing you…….”

While one of them shot into the air, the other kicked off the ground and rushed in.

The Lecherous Demon swung the Mo Family dagger while conserving his internal energy, and the Yin-Yang Family Heads moved while pouring out palm force in a formation meant to surround him.

The Lecherous Demon realized that they were moving with the intention of capturing him. They had come to seize his extreme yin internal energy. Though only a brief exchange had passed between them, the blood shed by the one whose hand had been pierced had soaked the Lecherous Demon’s clothes.

The Lecherous Demon wondered why the Yin-Yang Family Heads, who belonged to the scholar’s faction, possessed a method of the demonic and unorthodox path that could steal internal energy. But since they were called the Yin-Yang Family Heads to begin with, it was not especially strange either.

The Lecherous Demon focused on evasion while conserving his internal energy, responding only when in danger by releasing palm force or using the Mo Family dagger to cut off the enemy’s attacks.

He was studying the characteristics of their palm techniques, the habits in their movements, and the perfection of their combined assault.

In no time, the alley walls were smashed by palm force, and the ground was gouged by the footwork of the Yin-Yang Family Heads as their attacks grew fiercer, yet the Lecherous Demon responded calmly from beginning to end.

He could have called his master and Second Brother, who were some distance away, with a whistle or a voice infused with internal energy, but as he fought, the desire to call for reinforcements vanished.

The Lecherous Demon himself did not know why.

Ever since he had learned martial arts as a child, the Lecherous Demon had never once thought he would lose to anyone, so he simply fought.

Suddenly, there was a faint click, and extremely thin steel cords gleaming silver shot out from the twins’ sleeves. When the two men swung the steel cords, the ends of the Lecherous Demon’s clothes were quickly sliced away.

The steel cords reflected the moonlight, and because of that, their trajectories were even harder to see.

They seemed like weapons meant to seize an opponent by surprise and wrap around their throat.

Or, at certain moments, they could be thrown to bind the ankles or wrists.

The Lecherous Demon occasionally formed his cold energy into a spray and scattered it, but even that was dispersed whenever the steel cords moved.

At one moment, a steel cord rapidly wound around the Mo Family dagger. Before the steel cord pulled by the Yin-Yang Family Head could grow taut, the Lecherous Demon tossed the Mo Family dagger into the air and struck the dagger’s handle with palm force.

Thud!

Whoosh!

As one of them hurriedly tilted his head back, the Mo Family dagger embedded itself in the wall.

In the meantime, now empty-handed, the Lecherous Demon thrust both palms forward. When his hands turned white, the Yin-Yang Family Heads both took defensive stances at the same time, becoming extremely tense.

But this was a feint.

Without releasing any palm force, the Lecherous Demon let both hands hang down as he looked at the Yin-Yang Family Heads, then smiled.

“…….”

Through the exchange, he was already certain he could pierce one man’s chest with cold energy, but what came after was the problem, so he pondered his method for a moment. It was a pity that if he killed them like this, he would not be able to torture them.

The Lecherous Demon stared behind the twins and asked,

“……Master?”

In that instant, only the twin on the right turned his head slightly. At the same time, the Lecherous Demon looked at the twin on the left and brought his hands together.

Clap!

With both hands clasped together, only his two index fingers jutted out like a sword. The cold energy released from each palm center extended through the two index fingers as a finger technique.

“No!”

Thunk!

This time, he had raised the cold energy to its utmost, and a ray-like cold sword shot out in an instant, piercing the right twin’s throat.

“Kkgh……!”

Even then, the right twin raised his hand to block, but both his hand and throat had been pierced at once.

The twin on the left swung his steel cord to block the cold energy, but he was a full beat too late. The Lecherous Demon advanced, thrusting out his left palm while stepping on the opponent’s foot with his left foot. Even in that situation, the old man clutching his throat with one hand attacked the Lecherous Demon like a ghost.

Even amid the sudden melee, the Lecherous Demon unleashed the Ice God Step that Third Brother had named and swung both hands.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Blade-like cold swords extended from his joined index and middle fingers. Even when that blade of cold energy struck the opponent’s body and shattered, it formed again as though his fingers were lengthening in an instant.

He evaded the desperate struggles of the Yin-Yang Family Heads, and even as he charged in and retreated, he continued swinging the cold swords, attacking their legs, arms, torsos, faces, and eyes. At first, the Yin-Yang Family Heads spurted blood only as if pricked by an awl, but gradually they began to flounder as they fought. Their movements were slowing, and they looked as though they would soon freeze solid.

The Lecherous Demon was already drenched from head to toe in the blood of the two men. Only after his entire body had turned bright red did the Lecherous Demon stop attacking, look at the two of them, and ask,

“Old men, you don’t know why you lost, do you?”

“…….”

One of them was already on his knees, and the one whose throat had been pierced lay collapsed on the ground. Perhaps because it had been such a bizarre fight, there was more bewilderment than fear on the faces of the defeated. Even if they blocked the cold sword with their hands, the cold energy spread through their entire bodies, and the instant they thought they had dodged it, it flew in like a dagger and struck them.

It felt less like they had been defeated by martial arts and more like they had been defeated by ice art.

The Lecherous Demon slowly circled around the Yin-Yang Family Heads and said,

“Who sent you? Did they tell you to kill me first because I’m the youngest? No answer. Were you threatened?”

The Yin-Yang Family Head kneeling on the ground looked at the Lecherous Demon and opened his mouth.

“……The man in red.”

The Yin-Yang Family Head, who had been about to continue speaking, seemed to freeze solid, his mouth open. The Lecherous Demon smashed his head with a palm strike, then stepped on the nape of the one who had fallen to the ground first and cut off his breath. After beating the Yin-Yang Family Heads to death, the Lecherous Demon looked around for a moment like a night cat, then muttered,

“Who’s the man in red?”

It was a mutter to himself, so there was no one to answer.

The Lust Demon looked at the corpse, then moved quietly to retrieve the Mo Clan dagger embedded in the wall before heading home.

* * *

When he arrived home for the first time in ages, everyone came pouring out. They must have been holding some sort of clan meeting, because people kept streaming out through the wide-open doors of the main hall. In the end, even the patriarch and his elder half-brother appeared, staring at the Lust Demon with dumbfounded expressions.

The Lust Demon was covered in blood, staining the white clothes the Third had bought him.

Meng Fei (蒙飛), patriarch of the Fengyun Meng Clan, stared at his second son with his mouth half open.

“……What on earth is that state you’re in?”

The Lust Demon bowed his head once before answering.

“I was attacked on the way here, so I ended up looking like this.”

The Lust Demon slowly looked around at the faces of the household, his father, and his brother, whom he had not seen in so long. Even though he had come in drenched in blood, not a single person asked if he was hurt, and laughter came to him of its own accord.

His elder half-brother, who had not a shred of brotherly affection, opened his mouth.

“You can laugh right now?”

The Lust Demon let out a sigh, then replied.

“Let me change clothes and wash first, then we can talk……”

Patriarch Meng Fei suddenly shouted.

“What in the world have you been doing outside! As if guzzling wine and harassing women wasn’t enough, are you going around killing people now?”

The Lust Demon looked at his father, his expression stiff.

“How did you know? I killed countless people. That’s what happens when you get entangled with the jianghu.”

“Because of you, I have no face to show the generals.”

The Lust Demon let out a hollow laugh and answered.

“Patriarch, in this world now, where is there a nation, and where are there generals? Wake up from your dream already. Do you still think of yourself as a general? What kind of general has never even gone to war?”

The atmosphere in the gathering turned as cold as if someone had thrown cold water over it.

The Lust Demon had come home after so long intending only to gather some money and belongings before leaving, but in that moment, he hardened a resolve he had carried for years.

“Patriarch, from now on, I, Meng Yan, will no longer use the Meng surname. Strike me from the family register. Since I only cause trouble outside, I am a burden to the great Fengyun Meng Clan. And be sure to inform those excellent general families that you have struck your second son from the register.”

“You’re saying you will leave the clan?”

“Wouldn’t that be best for both of us? I was a cast-off child to begin with, so leaving is only right.”

Meng Fei spoke in an icy tone.

“Even if you leave, hand over the Jade Flower Art before you go.”

In that instant, the Lust Demon’s face went deathly pale as he glared at the patriarch.

“…….”

He swallowed back the curses surging up inside him over and over again.

‘Have these bastards lost their minds?’

As he glared at his brother and the household one by one, gripped by rage, the gathering soon fell silent. Thinking that if he beat his family here as well, his master might beat him to death, the Lust Demon barely managed to restrain his anger.

“Patriarch, the Jade Flower Ice Art was given to me by my mother, so there is no reason for me to pass it to the Fengyun Meng Clan. I learned it orally, so there’s no way to hand it over anyway. Even so, if any of you covet the Jade Flower Ice Art, beat me until you kill me and take it. I’ll only take my mother’s keepsakes and leave, so let’s not say anything uglier to each other. What an astonishingly shameless clan.”

As the Lust Demon headed toward his quarters, he spoke to the household members blocking his way.

“Move. If you don’t want to die.”

The path opened to the left and right.

His own quarters were even at the farthest right end from the main hall. Naturally, the quarters of the household members stood lined up nearby. They were called household members, but they were no different from servants of the Fengyun Meng Clan. When he was young, he had wondered why life was such a damned mess, but after wandering the outside world, he had learned that this much was simply commonplace.

He had merely been a little unlucky.

Because family was not something one could choose.

But he had reached an age where he could choose the direction of his life for himself.

Entering his quarters for the first time in a long while, the Lust Demon brought out a cloth bundle and packed only the ornaments he had played with as a child, his mother’s keepsakes, gold items, and anything that could be turned into money. Even though he had made up his mind to leave home, he felt no sadness at all.

After stripping off all his bloodstained clothes and throwing them aside, he changed into clothes he had often worn when carousing with women at Baekeungji.

Only after returning home did the Lust Demon remember why he had hated the bastards of the orthodox path since childhood. But now even that hatred was futile. There were men like Im Sobaek, and there were also people like the patriarch of the Fengyun Meng Clan, so the entire orthodox path could not be the problem.

For a moment, the Lust Demon bid farewell inside the empty room.

“Mother, I’m leaving.”

With a single bundle slung over his shoulder, the Lust Demon parted with the Fengyun Meng Clan forever as well. In any case, only if he left would the clan avoid being swept up in the greater and lesser affairs of the jianghu, so for the Lust Demon, leaving was the best choice. Arriving before the main gate, the Lust Demon spoke toward the Fengyun Meng Clan in a voice mixed with internal energy.

“……Everyone of the Fengyun Meng Clan, live well.”

The Lust Demon kicked the main gate open and muttered.

“This wastrel had a fine time. Now I take my leave.”

As the Lust Demon walked down an alley that, strangely, felt narrower than it had in his childhood, he let out one deep breath.

...When the Lust Demon arrived at the Sword Demon’s residence with his bundle on his back, his master and the Second, who were out in the yard, stared silently at him.

Because the Sword Demon had smelled blood, he looked the Lust Demon up and down before asking.

“……Are you hurt anywhere?”

The Lust Demon answered.

“No.”

The Ghost Demon then asked.

“Have you eaten?”

“Not yet.”

The Ghost Demon jerked his chin toward the dais.

“Sit.”

The Lust Demon sat on the low dais and only then steadied his breathing. Though the smell of blood must certainly have been on him, no one immediately asked what had happened. When the Ghost Demon went inside to prepare food, the Sword Demon, who had been looking at the Lust Demon, spoke.

“Wash up a bit before you eat. Though I don’t know whose blood that smell belongs to.”

The Lust Demon rose as he said.

“Yes. It isn’t the clan’s. I was attacked on the way……”

The Sword Demon nodded.

“Naturally, it had better not be the clan’s.”

“Yes.”

The Lust Demon went around back and first wiped the blood from his face and various other places. Strangely, he thought that perhaps only the Four Great Villains treated him like a person. But thinking about it, he belatedly realized that if he had failed to restrain his anger and beaten the people of his clan, not only the Four Great Villains but even the orthodox path would not have treated him like a person.

The Lust Demon let out a sigh.

‘I really did hold back somehow…….’