Paradise for Whom? (3)
The usually cold and blunt face of Dang Gwan could not maintain its expressionless mask at this moment.
“Hak… hak…”
On the bed lay a boy with his limbs bound.
The boy’s body was drenched in blood. His abdomen had been cut open.
His eyes were hazy. It seemed he had been drugged. They had apparently administered just enough to keep him from dying immediately.
Dang Gwan turned his head to the side.
“Huk!”
In the corner of the room, a short, stocky man sat clutching a blood-stained dagger.
The white clothes he wore were soaked entirely in blood. His face, twisted with terror, was covered in pockmarks.
Dang Gwan looked back and forth between the dagger in the man’s hand and the boy’s body before speaking.
“Were you curious?”
“……?!”
“Were you that curious about what was inside this child’s stomach?”
Why had the man done this to the boy?
The reason was simple. He had simply wanted to.
What kind of life the man had lived until now was unknown. But one thing was certain: this pockmarked man had reached a state where ordinary stimulation could no longer bring him pleasure.
Since nothing else could stimulate him anymore, he had reduced a person to this state.
One could tell just by looking into his eyes.
Dang Gwan reached out his hand.
Whoosh!Crunch!
“Kuhk!”
Dang Gwan’s hand seized the pockmarked man by the throat.
“You’re full of grease. If we removed that, there wouldn’t be much difference between your insides and this child’s.”
Crack!
Dang Gwan snatched the dagger from the man’s hand. The man’s fingers were crushed in the process.
Stab!
The dagger plunged into the man’s abdomen.
“Kuhk! Kuhk!”
The man’s face turned blue. The horrifying sensation in his gut made him wet himself.
Dang Gwan dragged the dagger upward in one smooth motion.
Splurt!
The pockmarked man’s body trembled violently.
Dang Gwan tossed the man aside carelessly and spoke in an icy voice.
“I’ve sprinkled a bit of paralysis powder on you, so you won’t die from the pain. Take your time and study what’s inside your own stomach.”
“Hiiik!”
After glancing once at the man, Dang Gwan approached the boy.
Drip.
Tears flowed from the boy’s eyes.
Dang Gwan looked down at him quietly and spoke in a calm voice.
“I will avenge you.”
“……”
“That is the only promise I can make.”
Dang Gwan never spoke words he could not keep.
That was his nature. Even as the child before him was dying, he did not lie and say he could be saved, or that everything would be fine after a good night’s sleep.
That was Dang Gwan’s sense of morality. The boy himself could surely feel death approaching. To lie to such a child would have been hypocrisy in Dang Gwan’s eyes.
Therefore, he made only a promise he could definitely keep.
“You will die. However, I will drag every single bastard who did this to you down to hell with me. That much, I swear to you.”
The boy’s unfocused eyes slowly turned toward Dang Gwan.
Dang Gwan’s expression remained blunt. There was no pity or condolences in his voice for the dying boy.
Yet his eyes trembled in a way unbecoming of the Patriarch of the Sichuan Dang Family, the man known as the greatest terror in Sichuan.
Drip.
A tear clinging to the boy’s prominent cheekbone fell onto the bed.
And with that, the boy died.
Dang Gwan closed his eyes.
He did not know whether the boy had believed his words. It was questionable whether he had even heard them. Even if he had, he might have thought Dang Gwan was no different from the others.
He could not be certain of the boy’s condition or feelings, but Dang Gwan still hoped. He hoped that his words had offered even a sliver of comfort to the boy’s heart, which had been filled with nothing but fear and resentment.
Dang Gwan took out a coiled transparent thread—Single Soul Thread—from his sleeve and threaded it through a needle. Then he stitched the boy’s abdomen closed.
A short while later, he carried the boy out of the room.
His steps looked heavy.
“These insolent bastards!”
The nervous reaction of the middle-aged man was quite something to behold.
“Do you know who I am?! How dare you bring that hideous thing in here!”
Though he shouted with vigor, the middle-aged man’s face was twisted with shock and fear.
Hwang Seok-tae swung his fist.
Thud!
“Gek!”
With a bizarre groan, the middle-aged man slammed into the wall.
Hwang Seok-tae had nearly killed him by misjudging his strength for a moment. That was how great his rage was.
“Ughhh!”
The middle-aged man, collapsed on the floor, shook violently. He was not dead, but a single punch had shattered his lower jaw. The sight of him drooling blood and saliva was truly miserable.
The terrified man desperately crawled toward the door. Even someone as slow-witted as him had finally realized it—the opponent was a man unbound by status or power.
Hwang Seok-tae drove his Red Dragon Divine Spear downward.
Crunch!
“Aaaagh!”
The red spear pierced the man’s thigh and embedded itself in the ground.
It had skillfully avoided the bone and femoral artery. He would not die from excessive bleeding or shock.
In truth, Hwang Seok-tae wanted to kill him a hundred, a thousand times over. Yet even then, he held back. These men could not be killed yet.
More precisely, they could not be granted an easy death.
Hwang Seok-tae looked toward the bed.
“Hiiik!”
“P-please spare us!”
On the large bed were three women.
One appeared to be over thirty, while the other two looked younger than twenty.
The woman over thirty could not hold her head up properly, seemingly intoxicated by drugs. The other two also had cloudy eyes.
Upon seeing the naked women, Hwang Seok-tae unfolded a blanket and covered their bodies.
“I’m sorry.”
That was what Hwang Seok-tae said.
He himself did not know what he was sorry for. The words had simply slipped out.
Looking at their terror-stricken faces, Hwang Seok-tae suddenly recalled a conversation he had shared with Yeon Hojeong while watching the Iron Cavalry’s training.
Be human.
What did it mean to be human? Was this world, where the strong could treat the weak however they pleased, truly the world of humans?
Hwang Seok-tae felt it—the power he possessed.
No, he felt the power of the murim. While they struggled to reach higher realms and stronger martial arts, even a slight twist in the direction of that power could become a disaster for civilians.
He had known it in his head. But this was the first time he truly felt it.
And that realization filled Hwang Seok-tae with intense doubt and an inexplicable rage.
That was why Hwang Seok-tae could only say this.
“I’m sorry.”
It took quite a long time to bring out all the people imprisoned in the basement.
It could not be helped. The women and boys whose bodies had been ruined could at least walk on their own, but many others had been forcibly drugged or were on the verge of death.
Moving each one of them carefully and providing emergency treatment took a considerable amount of time.
Half a shichen later.
They cleared out a space in the building—now completely purged of Elysium Fragrance poison—for the victims, and forced all the self-proclaimed “members” to kneel in the courtyard.
What was surprising was that even now, some still dared to act arrogantly.
“You sons of bitches! Who the hell are you? Martial artists? How dare you do this to government officials who enforce the law! Do you truly wish to die?!”
The man shouting at the top of his lungs was a high-ranking official from the Judicial Inspectorate.
“Reveal your identities! I will report this to my superiors and have every last one of you martial artists rounded up and executed…!”
Crack!
“Kuaaaaagh!”
The man rolled across the ground with a savage scream. Kang Liang had crushed his right shoulder.
Kang Liang tilted his head.
“Maybe he’s left-handed?”
“Kuaak! Aaaaagh!”
“Well, it’s possible.”
Kang Liang’s foot pressed down on the man’s left shoulder.
Crunch!
The man’s mouth gaped open. The pain was so severe that no scream even emerged.
Kang Liang turned around.
“Superiors? Don’t worry. We plan to capture and kill every single person connected to this, regardless of rank. There’s no need for you to make any reports.”
A calm voice laced with terrifying fury.
The killing intent that flared in response to that anger was horrifying. Most of those kneeling with ropes binding them swallowed dryly.
It was then.
“Have you forgotten the Non-Aggression Treaty between the Court and the Murim?!”
An old man who appeared to be over sixty shouted furiously.
His wrinkled face showed his advanced age, yet he looked remarkably vigorous. It would have been better if he had devoted that vigor to serving the nation, but instead he was a degenerate who enjoyed violating boys and girls.
“The court and the murim are not to infringe upon each other’s domains! If you are truly martial artists, release us at once! Otherwise, war will break out!”
At that moment, Yeon Hojeong, who had been standing silently, spoke.
“The war has already begun.”
“What?!”
“The court and martial artists colluded to kidnap civilians and trample their lives. From that moment on, you already started this war.”
“You madman! Are you incapable of understanding what I’m saying?! If you touch us, the court will never…!”
Flash!
Before anyone realized, Yeon Hojeong was standing before the old man.
Startled, the old man fell backward.
With an indifferent expression, Yeon Hojeong drew the White Dragon Axe.
Thwack!
The White Dragon Axe split the old man’s collarbone and ribs.
“Kuaaaagh!”
The old man screamed.
Yeon Hojeong coldly continued bringing the axe down.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
He did not infuse it with internal energy. He did not apply too much force.
He simply hacked at the old man’s body as if chopping firewood.
Splurt! Splurt!
Blood sprayed in all directions, soaking Yeon Hojeong’s face and upper body.
Only then did true terror appear on the old man’s trembling face.
Even his lofty position could not stop the axe blows falling on his own body. There was no room for negotiation. A few shouts had reduced his body to ruin.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Yeon Hojeong’s axe strikes were steady.
The old man’s life had already ended. Yet he did not stop chopping.
He moved from the upper body to the lower body, then back up again, mincing the corpse all the way to the head.
Sring.
Yeon Hojeong wiped the blood from the axe blade and turned around.
“……!!”
The members who witnessed that gruesome scene were completely overcome with fear and trembled uncontrollably.
There were degrees even to killing or torturing a person.
That bastard had chopped a man to pieces while he was still alive. Even after he was dead, he continued until the entire body was crushed. It was not a metaphor—he had literally turned him into minced meat.
It would have been better to have his head cleanly severed. Dying like that, it seemed he wouldn’t even become a proper ghost.
Yeon Hojeong wiped the blood splattered on his face and asked.
“Where is the Tang Family Head?”
“He is inside the building, checking on the victims’ conditions. The Iron Cavalry Commander and Songha Sinni are assisting him.”
“I see.”
Yeon Hojeong closed his eyes.
“Liang.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“I was planning to destroy just one branch and leave, but at this rate, that won’t be enough.”
“I agree.”
Dealing with the Tang Family was also urgent. But destroying a single branch of Nakwonso did not seem like it would diminish the madness of these lunatics.
“Contact Branch Leader Gi Chung. Tell him to spread word of Nakwonso’s existence across all of Sichuan. Have him come quickly and preserve this site as evidence.”
“Understood.”
Yeon Hojeong looked up at the sky.
Damn it all—the sky was clear. Yet his eyes, gazing at it, somehow looked exhausted.