#050.
Words carry nuance.
Whether it is praise, a curse, or sarcasm, you can tell just from the nuance.
“Impudent!”
It seemed these bastards had realized they were being underestimated, too.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t be charging in so agitated like this.
“Leave them to us.”
Even if they were not fully grown, they were four who held the potential of the Ten Extremes.
What’s more.
‘I even gave them whole-body strengthening.’
Yeongung and William had undergone Stage 1 whole-body strengthening.
And they would still lose even after receiving such preferential treatment?
Whether it was fate or whatever the hell else, they deserved to die here.
‘Of course, that won’t happen.’
I shook off the distracting thoughts.
Swish!
At the same time, I kicked off the ground and surged forward.
The place I closed the distance to in an instant was—
“Hup!”
The very rear of the enemies, beside Liu Yan, who was dithering.
“Hello?”
“Hiek!”
To my cheerful greeting, he answered with a punch.
“Hey now. Is that any way to treat someone who’s happy to see you?”
I avoided his fist by quite a margin, not the hair’s-breadth escape I always talk about.
‘Because even I’m scared right now.’
From the fist he thrust out, a heat-haze-like energy was spreading.
That was poison qi.
A powerful poison that could take down an elephant with a mere graze.
In the past, I had not feared poison because I possessed the Poison-Warding Pearl, but not anymore.
No matter how much whole-body strengthening I had, or even if I carried a treasure, if I were hit by this bastard’s poison, that would be the end.
Of course.
Swish, whoosh!
His attack was terribly clumsy.
‘Still the same.’
It had been the same before the regression, too.
The poison qi he possessed was enough to overturn the world, yet he was in a state where he could not utilize it properly.
That allowed me to be certain.
‘Sinin and Black Moon. They don’t know how to utilize this guy.’
Well.
No matter how much precognitive ability one had, it was not omnipotent.
They could see events and accidents in advance, but unless one was a regressor like me, it was impossible to know what talent a person held or how they would grow.
Thank goodness for that.
If Sinin had foreseen this guy’s growth, they would never have handled him so carelessly.
And I would not be meeting him like this now, either.
“….”
Just in case, I checked the reactions of the ones fighting on the front line.
Indifference.
Even though their comrade was in a pinch, not once did they give a glance.
No, their formation had been quite far removed from him to begin with.
What did that mean?
That whether before the regression or now, he was still an outcast.
‘Well, I suppose it’s only natural.’
It was all because of his trait.
Poison Demon.
A trait that accumulated powerful poison qi internally and used it to kill enemies.
In fact, aside from Poison Demon, there were many poison-related traits.
But the reason the Poison Demon trait was particularly troublesome and treated like a pariah even by allies was—
‘Because it is a bomb that could go off at any moment.’
If there was one thing most poison-related traits had in common, it was that they had to absorb poisons to strengthen their poison qi.
Poisonous herbs, venom, or beasts carrying poison, and so on.
They absorbed various poisons to increase their poison qi, then used it to emit even stronger poison.
But Poison Demon was completely different from those poison-related traits.
There was no need to absorb poison.
Because poison qi naturally accumulated to a degree that he could barely endure.
Simply by breathing, he converted it into poison qi and accumulated it internally.
Depending on how one looked at it, one might think it was an incredibly powerful trait.
But that was knowing only one side of the story.
The naturally accumulating poison qi was not something a human could endure.
“Huaaap!”
Just like right now.
Swoooosh—
Due to his excited emotions, poisonous mist enveloped the surroundings. A deadly poison where a single breath led to instant death.
Tat!
Knowing that danger, I widened the distance and retreated.
“Whew—”
That really was dangerous.
And that was not something that applied only to enemies.
If not just me, but allies had been here together?
One of this bastard’s comrades who failed to notice the poison mist would have died.
That was the reason they kept their distance from him.
Because they never knew when he would spew poison mist and kill them.
“Sorry, but your poison qi makes me a bit queasy, too.”
Without the Poison-Warding Pearl, I could not approach him.
Well, not being able to approach did not mean I could not subdue him.
I took out the concealed weapon I had kept in my pocket.
One that had completed 2-star enhancement, focused on improving accuracy.
Swish!
I threw it.
The weakness of poison was simple.
Just attack using something that was not alive and could not be poisoned.
Thwack!
A reverse-thrown dart struck the bastard’s forehead.
Thud, thwack!
It alternately struck his temple and jaw.
Due to the shock transmitted to his brain.
Thud.
The bastard collapsed.
‘Simple.’
It was an obvious result.
Right now, this bastard was in a state where he could only perform basic attacks like accumulating poison qi or emitting it.
No, if that were all, it would have been fortunate.
Unless he underwent ‘Release,’ he was nothing but a time bomb that could go off at any moment.
Of course, I knew how to defuse that bomb.
And by coincidence, the key to that Release happened to be here as well.
Well, that was a matter for later.
I turned my gaze from the collapsed bastard and looked behind.
‘Hoo?’
The first thing that caught my eye was the seven sprawled on the ground.
In that brief moment it took me to subdue Liu Yan, Yeongung and William had already taken down seven of them.
Only two remained.
“Kwaaaak!”
Yeongung’s opponent was a demonic cultist with the character for ‘Demon’ carved on his back.
But his condition was strange.
His eyes had lost their pupils, completely filled with whites, and saliva flowed between jutting fangs.
How should I put it—like a beast that had lost its reason.
‘The Heaven-Reversing Demonic Art.’
An ability that only those who had awakened the Demonic Cultist trait could manifest.
For a set duration, they gained physical abilities several times greater, but lost their reason, making it impossible to distinguish ally from enemy.
A last stand used at the final moment, but there were opponents it worked on, and opponents it did not.
Crack!
Yeongung’s fist plunged into the struggling demonic cultist’s embrace and smashed his face.
“Kwak!”
Despite the agony of his face caving in, he exerted monstrous strength and reached out.
He intended to grab Yeongung’s waist and break it, but.
Slam!
Yeongung’s fist was faster.
Thud, thudthudthudthud!
Fists rained down on the demonic cultist’s entire body without rest.
No matter that he had unleashed the Heaven-Reversing Demonic Art, under that brutal barrage—
“Kkeuk, kkeuk!”
Groans burst out uncontrollably.
His opponent had resorted to the Heaven-Reversing Demonic Art as a last resort, but it could not become a path to survival.
‘Because it is different from before the regression.’
The guy with the innate disposition called Late Bloomer could not stand out much in the early stages.
But now was different.
Hellish training through enhanced health supplements.
Practice that rivaled real combat.
Whole-body strengthening that achieved tremendous physical improvement.
And all sorts of equipment enhanced to transcend reason.
Only to this extent could one forcibly pull forward the characteristic of Late Bloomer—which normally only stood out in the later stages—to the early stages.
‘To the point where he could cut loose even if the apocalypse started right now.’
That was why mere martial artists of the jianghu could not hope to lay a hand on him.
The same went for William.
Clang!
A clear metallic sound.
At its source, William and the Wudang swordsman were fighting.
The Wudang sect—a renowned sword faction famous for its uniquely soft swordsmanship.
But even that Absorbing Sword was useless against William, before the Sword King’s blade.
Especially since William—
Clang!
“Keheup!”
Forcibly pushed back the Wudang sword that utilized the opponent’s strength.
‘The Sword King’s Sword is the Sword-Breaking Form that destroys all swords.’
It could not possibly work.
Because the sword manifested by the Sword King carried the special effect of the Sword-Breaking Form, which destroyed all sword techniques.
He was not called the King of Swords for nothing.
Before him, all swords could only bow their heads.
“Keoheok!”
“Kkeueuk!”
The battle was not long.
The two collapsed almost simultaneously with their death throes.
A short time, and overwhelming force.
It was a satisfactory battle in its own way.
If there was one complaint.
“Kkeuuu—”
“Uuu….”
It was that the nine excluding Liu Yan had not died.
‘So they still can’t do it right away.’
How could killing be easy for those who had lived within law and order?
However.
“I’m sure I told you….”
I spoke deliberately coldly and approached the fallen bastards.
And.
Stab!
I plunged a strangely striped sword into the writhing bastard’s left heart.
“…I said to deal decisively with anyone recognized as an enemy.”
Not just him.
Squish, stab!
I moved around the vicinity and ended the lives of those still breathing.
“….”
Yeongung and William furrowed their brows.
That was their aversion to killing.
It could not be helped.
For them, bound by the existing order, killing was a taboo act.
But now that order had changed.
“Think about it. What do you think would have happened if you were weaker than these guys?”
“…We would have died instead.”
“You know it well. They tried to kill you. And you want to spare them? Fine, let’s say you showed mercy and let them live. Then what next?”
It happened often.
Cases where people were killed because they showed mercy.
“Would they show mercy? Bullshit. Next time, they’ll try to kill you with even more enemies.”
Future trouble had to be eliminated without fail.
That was the conclusion I had reached while surviving the apocalypse.
“And don’t get it wrong. What I want is to save many people in the apocalypse, not to carry unnecessary burdens.”
Weeds that steal nutrients.
To avoid repeating the same failures as before the regression, I had to thoroughly trample the sprouts of these weeds.
Only then would the nourished fruit bear.
“…I’ll keep it in mind.”
At my words filled with sincerity, both Yeongung and William steeled their resolve.
Well, I would have to see how long that resolve lasted, but at least they seemed quite serious for now, so I would let it slide.
“Elder.”
Satisfied with the corrected attitudes of the two, I looked at Jeong Dohwan.
No, there had been no need to look at him particularly.
Srrrr—
The fog of death he had already exhaled was covering the nine corpses.
Along with it, pale off-white blurred forms—souls—were born.
‘He has definitely gotten stronger.’
The process of creating the souls and engraving the brand of domination upon them was quite fast.
It meant the souls accumulated within him, in his soul vessel, were full.
Even now, at this level.
‘Soon he’ll make a hundred and even achieve trait evolution.’
The trait evolution was not far off.
When that happened, the Death Vessel would expand, allowing him to accumulate more souls, of course.
‘Then he’ll be able to act in earnest.’
Jeong Dohwan’s personal weapon.
Once that thing became able to move, his combat power would rise so sharply it would be incomparable to now.
“Speak of your purpose for coming here.”
As the language of death that dominated souls flowed out.
“…We seek the secret of Qin Shi Huang’s tomb, hidden in the Bingmayong Pit….”
And the bastards faithfully answered Jeong Dohwan’s question.
In the soul state, they were not affected by contract traits, so it did not constitute a breach of contract.
Therefore, through them, I had been able to find out the reason they had approached the Bingmayong Pit, and Black Moon’s objective.