Chapter 33. Talent (4)

At the startled question from the Yangui Sect Leader, I shook my head.

“I’m not certain.”

There was no rule saying that the Dark Mark Fourteen Palms was the only martial art that left black marks.

The Central Plains were vast, and a variety of martial arts existed in the world.

Moreover, the fact that the practitioner of the Dark Mark Fourteen Palms was active now was also somewhat strange.

Black Lust Ghost

He was a lecher who had learned a martial art called the Dark Mark Fourteen Palms. He was a piece of trash who gained notoriety about thirty years later, and I had killed him with my own hands.

It wasn't a death in a fair life-or-death battle.

Although he couldn't compare to the Lust Disaster who was notorious throughout the Jianghu, he was certainly a master of a higher caliber than me, thanks to the considerable internal energy he had gathered through the Absorption Art.

I had pursued the rumors of his appearances, found his hideout, and sprinkled the poison I had received from the Poison Immortal.

Only after poisoning him was I barely able to kill him.

But that Black Lust Ghost bastard had appeared now?

It didn't make sense in many ways.

Suddenly, a possibility came to mind.

It could be his master.

Or perhaps he was completely unrelated, and it might not be the Dark Mark Fourteen Palms.

Whatever it was, the truth would be revealed once I caught that lecher.

Nam Geon and I immediately set off, resuming our pursuit of the man’s tracks.

We didn't go deep into the back mountain.

Instead, we circled around the outskirts.

“That lecher bastard has probably already left the back mountain anyway.”

I briefly explained to Nam Geon as we continued the chase.

“Two girls were kidnapped two evenings ago. The girls' bodies were found yesterday morning. And the Yangui Sect disciples were killed last night. If the Yangui Sect has been searching the mountain since then and couldn't find him, it’s one of two things: either he's hiding in some strange place, or he's already left.”

I wondered if he would understand everything I said, but it didn't matter.

“However, a lecher who has learned the Absorption Art wouldn't be able to hide in one place for long. The demonic art would drive him mad, and he'd constantly seek out women.”

I had no intention of looking down on him for being a slow learner. I had been the same.

If I kept teaching him consistently, a day would come when he would understand.

As we circled the outskirts of the mountain, we finally found a trace.

A trampled blade of grass and a pressed mark in the dirt. The trace led out of the mountain and headed north.

“Nam Geon, remember this. Lechers are broadly divided into two types.”

After leaving the back mountain, we used our movement arts to follow the trail north.

In the distance, a low mountain came into view.

“One type is like this bastard, who has learned the Absorption Art. The other type is just perverted sexual deviants.”

We headed toward that mountain.

“The latter often includes meticulous individuals. So it's difficult to find evidence and to track them. On the other hand, the former is easy to track. Do you know why?”

“I-I don’t know, Big Brother.”

“The Absorption Art allows for a rapid increase in internal energy, but because different energies mix, one must live with qi deviation and inner demons. They are bastards whose minds are in and out, driven mad by lust and possessed by inner demons, so they tend to leave traces like this.”

This was also the reason I was certain that the man we were chasing was not the Black Lust Ghost.

To avoid being branded a public enemy of the martial world, he had been secretly kidnapping girls for thirty years?

Those who learned the Absorption Art couldn't do such a thing because of qi deviation.

Except for one person. The Lust Disaster.

Despite learning the Absorption Art, despite accumulating a dirty internal energy mixed with countless energies, the Lust Disaster did not fall into qi deviation. With his immense insight and talent, he had complete control over that energy.

The Lust Disaster wasn't mad because of qi deviation or inner demons; he was simply a madman to begin with.

I didn't know if he understood my explanation, but Nam Geon nodded his head.

“However, just because they are easy to chase doesn't mean they are easy to catch. Many of them have high internal energy because of the Absorption Art.”

As we moved, teaching Nam Geon about the characteristics of trashy lechers and how to deal with them, we finally arrived at that low mountain.

The sky had completely darkened by now, and we relied on the faint moonlight to find the tracks and ascend the mountain.

The lecher's tracks were intermittent.

It seemed he had tried to erase his tracks but had made mistakes and left them behind whenever his inner demon and lust flared up.

We followed his tracks up the mountain for a short while.

We finally arrived in front of a secretly hidden cave.

The tracks in front of the cave were chaotic.

“Damn it all.”

A curse escaped my lips without me realizing it.

“Wh-what’s wrong, Big Brother?”

“The bastard has already left the cave.”

I moved forward as I was.

The chaotic tracks in front of the cave were a mix of tracks from entering and leaving.

He must have left to kidnap a woman from another nearby village.

Please.

I had to find him before he could rape another woman.

What if I was a step too late?

I felt it would be hard to contain my anger.

After killing the lecher, I felt like I might even go to the Yangui Sect, who had obstructed the chase, and swing my sword.

I urgently followed the tracks of the departing bastard for a short while.

Under the faint moonlight, a shadow was cast through a gap in the bushes.

The sight of a man dressed in black, tearing the clothes off a girl laid on the ground.

Sparks flew in my eyes.

Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

I drew upon the internal energy in my dantian with all my might and kicked off the ground with an explosive force that seemed to tear the world apart.

My body felt damnably slow.

Swwwish!

As I barely reached the bastard and tried to swing my sword, a trajectory was embroidered in the air.

Only then did I realize.

My body was slow, but the flow of the world had also slowed down.

I could clearly see the startled face of the man in black.

The man's desperate movements were endlessly slow.

However, I was just as slow.

Clang!!

Unfortunately, my first strike was blocked by the man's left palm.

“How dare you!!”

The man’s voice, shouting with a furious expression, also sounded slow.

While I swung my sword at the man’s neck again.

The lecher, who had been kneeling on the ground to tear the girl’s clothes, pushed off his knees and quickly rose.

He had deflected my sword with a simple move from that unstable posture.

I thrust my sword several times towards the vital points of the man, who had not yet fully regained his posture.

Clang! Clang!

Every time the man’s palm and my sword clashed, my bones vibrated.

As expected of a lecher, his power was considerable.

Anger surged within me. It was obvious how he had obtained that power.

However, I felt the need to interrogate him before killing him.

The palm technique he was using was indeed the Dark Mark Fourteen Palms.

It was identical to the technique I had seen when I fought the poisoned Black Lust Ghost.

I didn't know what was going on, but it would be enough to cripple this bastard, subdue him, and interrogate him.

Meanwhile.

Nam Geon, who had quickly followed me, hastily took off his top and covered the girl whose clothes had been torn with his own.

Nam Geon’s clothes were large, but the girl’s frame was small to begin with. She looked to be in her early teens at most.

The girl was crying, her face pale.

Nam Geon even covered the child's face with his clothes and said.

“C-cover your ears. W-we'll protect you.”

Clang!

Right after confirming that Nam Geon was taking care of the girl, I shouted out.

“Nam Geon! If you interfere this time, I'll kill you too.”

It wasn't just because of what happened with the Yangui Sect.

Nam Geon had also tried to stop me when I was killing the evil sect bastards in the village we had previously visited.

At my warning, Nam Geon shook his head vehemently.

“I-I won't stop you. He hurt a child. Th-that guy is a bad guy.”

At Nam Geon's answer, one corner of my mouth curled up without me realizing it.

“Yes. A good thought. Trash must be killed and eliminated. By any means necessary.”

I felt not a shred of guilt about launching a joint attack.

Cowardly? That was bullshit.

The very fact that a bastard like that was alive and breathing was the problem.

“I’ll punish you!!”

Nam Geon, with a child-like tone but a completely different, air-tearing force, threw a punch at the lecher.

“To interfere with this one’s grand affair!”

The lecher bastard, while dodging that punch, simultaneously struck at Nam Geon’s wide-open chest with his right palm.

Clang!!

A metallic sound rang out as the palm and chest collided, and the lecher bastard's face contorted in surprise.

“!?”

However, it was a little different from when the Yangui Sect Leader had attacked.

“Keuk.”

Nam Geon let out a faint groan.

A red handprint remained on Nam Geon’s bare chest. A faint dark energy was also smudged on it.

However, even as he groaned, Nam Geon raised his knee to aim at the lecher who had closed in.

The lecher bastard hastily swung his left palm to block that knee.

“Heup.”

“Keuk.”

While they were in a power struggle, groaning in pain.

Swwwish!

Grazing past Nam Geon’s skin, I thrust my sword toward the man’s heart.

Slice!

Blood spurted out with a cutting sound, but unfortunately, I had only managed to slice his clothes and the skin of his chest.

“I will kill you!!”

Whether the enraged lecher shouted or not, we continued our joint attack.

“I-I’ll punish you too!”

Nam Geon straightforwardly swung his arms and legs at the lecher from the front.

Every time Nam Geon’s fist or leg clashed with the lecher’s palm, a strong metallic sound erupted.

Even so, the lecher occasionally aimed for Nam Geon’s openings and used his palm technique, striking various parts of Nam Geon’s body.

“Keeeeuk!”

Despite the intense pain, Nam Geon did not yield.

If Nam Geon was pushing the man from the front, I would swing my sword in a surprise attack every time Nam Geon and the lecher exchanged blows.

I didn't care that I might accidentally attack Nam Geon instead of the lecher.

It wasn’t because I believed Nam Geon wouldn’t be cut by my sword.

It was because if my sword were to break out of bad luck, it would be a huge problem in many ways.

I was trusting my eyes.

In my wide-open eyes, various trajectories were visible.

The trajectory of the lecher trying to use his palm technique. The trajectory of Nam Geon trying to attack the lecher.

I could see the trajectory to attack the lecher through the gap where the two trajectories intertwined.

Crack!

When my sword finally pierced the man’s side, he coughed up blood-mixed phlegm.

“Keock……”

In the moment the man flinched while coughing up blood.

Slice!

I swung my sword again and cut off the man’s left arm.

At the same time, Nam Geon grabbed the man’s remaining right arm.

Subsequently, a thick vein popped out on Nam Geon’s forehead.

Creeak.

The man’s right arm was grotesquely twisted, and the sound of his bones shattering echoed.

“Aaargh!!!”

Whether the man screamed in agony or not, I cut off his left leg.

Then, the lecher, with three of his four limbs disabled, collapsed to the ground.

“Hoo. Hoo.”

Was it because I had squeezed my concentration to the limit with anger? As soon as the man collapsed, the trajectories that had been embroidering the air disappeared.

I looked down at the man sprawled on the ground.

“Where did you get the Dark Mark Fourteen Palms?”

The lecher just let out pained groans.

I willingly brought my sword down on his remaining leg.

“Aaaargh!!”

“Answer me. Where did you get the martial art?”

“S-someone gave it to me!!”

“Gave it to you? Who?”

I asked again, thinking it was utter nonsense, and the man added.

“He said to use it for my revenge, a guy I’d never seen before gave it to me and left!!”

“So you’re saying, you learned a martial art given to you by a complete stranger?”

“Yes!”

At the ridiculous nonsense, I was about to bring my sword down again when the man hastily shouted.

“What do you know about my situation!! I just learned it because my life wouldn’t have changed anyway if I just lived on as I was!”

The man, with a face full of rage, continued to speak at length.

To summarize, it was simple. This man was originally the son of a rural martial arts school.

And that martial arts school was annihilated by a passing unorthodox master, all except for him.

Was it because of the pain that engulfed his entire body? Or was it due to the side effects of the Absorption Art?

“Revenge! Yes! I learned it for revenge!”

The man, whose eyes were now bloodshot, shouted with rage.

“You talented bastards like you wouldn't know! For me to get revenge on that bastard with my meager talent, this was the only way!!!”

Just listening to it felt like my ears were rotting.

Did he really think that such a sob story could be a justification for raping and killing girls indiscriminately?

Crack.

I stabbed the man’s thigh again as he spouted nonsense and asked.

“What did the man who gave you the martial art look like?”

But as if he had already gone mad, the man just kept spouting his own words despite the pain of a sword in his body.

“This world is the one that's rotten!! I am not guilty!! That bastard!! I must kill that bastard!! The one who killed my parents!!”

Slice.

As torture no longer seemed to work, I beheaded the lecher who was spouting nonsense.

Thud.

I looked at the lecher’s eyes, which remained wide open even though his head was severed.

There was someone who was distributing the Absorption Art.

This was information I had no knowledge of in my life before regression.

Perhaps, that Black Lust Ghost had also received the Absorption Art from the man this bastard spoke of.

The thought that I should have tortured him back then instead of just killing him came to mind.

However, I couldn't turn back what had already passed.

I decided it was for the better.

“If I kill and torture every lecher I can find, I'll be able to find out someday.”

It was something I had to do anyway. It was just that the process of torture had been added.

Just then, I heard a loud noise along with a light from a distance.

A voice that seemed to be looking for someone.

I walked over to the girl who was covered in Nam Geon's clothes.

I gently uncovered only her face and saw that she was tightly squeezing her eyes shut and diligently covering her ears.

I gently touched the child’s arm.

The child opened her eyes, trembling in fear.

“People are looking for you. Let's go back now.”

Was it because she couldn't trust me, a stranger? The child remained stiff.

The noise grew closer, and then the darkness began to recede with some light.

They were villagers holding torches.

A middle-aged couple spotted the child and rushed over.

Only then did the child, having found her parents, burst into tears again.

“M-mommmyy!! Daddyyy!!”

The couple embraced the child, shedding endless tears.

A sigh of relief escaped me without me realizing it.

“Huu.”

“Sniffle.”

Next to me, Nam Geon’s eyes were red, and water was constantly flowing from his eyes and nose.

“I-it was good that we punished the bad guy.”

I nodded in agreement.

“Yes.”

It seemed Nam Geon was also starting to mature.

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