The Previous Generation's Demon Head
The moment the ominous screams and thunderous crashes reached us, we hurled ourselves toward the source of the noise.
We arrived panting for breath, and the sight that greeted us was the escort convoy turned into a slaughterhouse. Torn banners flapped in tatters, smashed wagons lay scattered, and the escorts and vagabonds who had tried to defend them had been swept aside like debris. The ground was soaked with crimson blood, and right in the middle of that carnage stood a shriveled old man covered in liver spots, spine straight, expression utterly unconcerned.
Apparently the culprit behind this mess was that unimpressive-looking geezer. The old Murim saying about watching out for certain types of people floated back into my mind once more.
"Anyway, it's always the old geezers and the brats that cause the problems."
The Tang Clan woman raised her eyebrows at my muttered complaint.
"Huh? Wanna die?"
"I wasn't talking about you."
"Oh, really? Then why'd you get so defensive?"
Truth be told, I had been including her. The ragged old man had turned out to be the Dragon Head Sect Leader, and the foul-mouthed brat was actually a rising talent of the Tang Clan. Damn Murim—every last corner of it was a minefield.
"What in the world… Who are you, and why are you committing such an atrocity?"
Chief Escort Na Maengdal asked the question everyone wanted answered. His voice carried boiling fury held tightly in check by cold calculation. Cursing the man to his face would have been more than justified, but the situation felt off. The moment our main force chased after the Langya Peak freak and vanished, another master casually appeared? This reeked of a planned diversion. If Hwang Geolgae's return was delayed any longer, we might suffer catastrophic losses. So Na Maengdal's question might well have been a desperate bid to buy time.
"How laughable. What use is knowing this seat's name when you are about to die?"
With that sneering remark the liver-spotted old man unleashed the aura he had been restraining. The air around us suddenly grew heavy, and a bottomless killing intent clamped down on every heart. People froze stiff, like herbivores caught in a predator's gaze.
"Ah, shit. Not again."
Meanwhile I was too busy wrestling the Heavenly Killing Star that had started thrashing like a fish thrown into water. The pure red energy was barely held down by my internal force, which was densely packed with demon-suppressing and demon-breaking power. White haze from the Cloud Star Heart Method rose over my entire body.
"Kh…!"
Unlike me, Dang Yeohye and Ilhong were straining just to resist the crushing killing intent pressing down on them.
"Do not even think of fleeing. Your heads will burst the instant you try."
The old man spoke in a sinister tone. His frame was skinny and wretched, yet the aura he radiated was like a howling winter gale.
"Eek!"
The moment the liver-spotted elder made that declaration, a distant vagabond who had abandoned the job and tried to run had his head explode with a wet pop. The cause of death was a tiny shard of stone flicked from the old man's bent finger.
"This seat already told you not to act rashly."
Everyone froze solid at the sight. Flicking a finger to burst a man's skull was a skill even Peak Realm martial artists would struggle to imitate.
"…Is it the cargo you want? If so, we will surrender it all. Just let us leave alive."
Na Maengdal, deciding we had no chance of victory as things stood, tried another deal. If this old man was in league with the Langya Peak freak, then he too must have been after the goods being transported. The escort agency's reputation would be dragged through the mud after this, but as long as they lived they could always seize another chance later. Swallowing his pride, the chief escort offered a proposal he truly hated making.
To the old man, however, the offer meant nothing from the start.
"I cannot let you go. This seat intends to take your wealth today, then absorb your internal energy and essence blood for my own nourishment."
As if circulating a cultivation method, the liver-spotted elder began to pour black, ominous energy from his entire body. When the pitch-black mist touched the ground, the surrounding grass withered as if its life force had been drained dry.
At that ominous spectacle Dang Yeohye's dark-green eyes flew wide and she cried out the old man's identity like a scream.
"He carries demonic qi and takes internal energy and essence blood… Don't tell me you're the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord?!"
The demonic qi that supposedly leaked naturally from those who practiced wicked demonic arts. An evil villain who had abandoned the natural order of accumulating the energy of heaven and earth and instead walked the reverse path had appeared here. The crowd erupted in agitation.
"…What? The Soul-Seizing Demon Lord?"
"That monster who lives by sucking the vitality out of people with the Star-Absorbing Great Method?"
"It's a Demon Head! A Demon Head from the previous generation has shown up!"
"Damn it, how the hell are we supposed to fight an old monster like that?!"
Not just any Demon Head—one from the previous generation, no less. In this barren Jianghu where the average lifespan barely reached forty, surviving this long simply meant he was strong.
Negotiations had collapsed. The situation in a single phrase:
"We're fucked. Shit."
Yes, just as Dang Yeohye had said, things had gone completely sideways. If it had come to this, facing the Langya Peak freak who only smashed the cargo and ran would have been better. Now we had to stake our lives against a genuine Demon Head who sucked out people's vitality and internal energy. How many of the people here would make it home alive was anyone's guess.
"Senior Soul-Seizing Demon Lord! Would you reconsider the proposal from a moment ago?!"
Dang Yeohye layered water energy over her fingertips and took a raptor-like stance as she asked. The Soul-Seizing Demon Lord narrowed his wrinkled eyes with interest at that unique claw technique.
"Looking at the poison-laden aura and that stunted height, you must be the Poison Claw Mountain Blood of the Sichuan Tang Clan."
Her physical traits were so distinctive that he identified her at once.
"As Senior well knows, the Tang Clan settles every debt thoroughly. If you would be satisfied with the cargo today, the Tang Clan will offer a corresponding reward later."
In short: think about the powerful backers and future repercussions, and just let this one slide.
"…Hmm. I shall save your vitality for last. Internal energy tempered by poison arts is rough and unpleasant—tastes terrible."
But conversation and negotiation only work between people who still possess reason. They were impossible from the start with a madman obsessed with slaughter and energy absorption.
"Damn it."
Dang Yeohye bit her lip hard as she swore. The surrounding escorts and vagabonds likewise failed to hide their expressions of pure despair. There was clearly no way to avoid a fight. We would have to pour everything we had into holding out until Hwang Geolgae returned.
"All of you look so old and withered. This seat prefers sucking the vitality of young, pretty ones… but I suppose if I keep killing, one or two will turn up."
The Soul-Seizing Demon Lord swept his gaze across the crowd, declaring he would drain the vitality of anyone he found to his liking on the spot. The instant I heard that, I slapped the human-skin mask from my robes onto my face. Handsomeness vanished; only ordinary features remained. Ilhong, standing right beside me, stared fixedly at that lightning-fast movement.
"What. Why."
I just have a history of terrible luck in life. Might as well cut even that tiny chance. Still, even with her face covered, that kid still looked pretty. When you think about it, looks are just fate.
"…All hands, prepare for battle! Even if you retreat you die! Steel yourselves!"
Na Maengdal thrust forward a sword he had borrowed from a nearby martial artist and ordered them to fight. The Silver Star escorts moved in perfect unison at their chief's command. Since ancient times the Jianghu had been a place where famous masters were scattered like grains of sand—and these escorts had sweated every day in the training grounds precisely to pool their strength against such masters.
"Form the Eight Walls Formation—!"
Chachachang—!
Blades rang free as the escorts clustered together, occupying the eight directions and weaving a forest of steel.
"Fuck it! We're joining too! All of us together, we've got two hundred heads!"
A Rank-Eul vagabond shouted on everyone's behalf. The other freelancers had all seen the guy whose head exploded while running earlier, so they quietly drew their swords and fell into formation as well. Thus the people banded tightly together to face the previous generation's Demon Head.
I swallowed hard inside the ranks and kept my eyes locked on the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord. Looking at our will to resist, the bastard gave a contemptuous little smirk.
"Interesting. Very well—try to stop this seat!"
The Demon Head densely wrapped both hands in terrifying demonic qi. Just looking at it made my skin prickle with destructive force. The moment it touched anything, the body would shatter into pieces just like those wagons earlier.
"Fucking hell."
When we set out I had believed Hwang Geolgae would handle everything, yet the moment I came to my senses I was the one fighting a master. A bottom-tier vagabond earning a single silver tael, ordered to face a Demon Head from the previous generation. I would thrash as hard as I could and somehow stay alive.
"He's coming!"
Explosive demonic qi surged forward. Someone's scream-like shout. On a lonely mountain road deep in the ranges, a life-or-death bloodbath was about to begin.
What exactly is a master in the Murim?
I had never really thought deeply about it before, having only fought middling opponents so far. But today, facing this previous-generation Demon Head, I learned the meaning with my entire body.
Kwaang!
A single blow that shook the ground. Demonic qi erupted, and once again one side of the Eight Walls Formation collapsed. Forest of blades or not, when the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord swept his hand, swords snapped like dry reeds and escorts vomited blood as they tumbled. Any lowly fighter he judged unworthy of absorption was slaughtered without mercy. It was like a multi-ton tank descending among infantry.
"Aaaagh!"
"What kind of monster is this…!"
The battle that had begun with such spirit was now flowing completely one-sidedly. We had expected some losses, of course. Our goal was ultimately just to buy time until Hwang Geolgae arrived. But we were crumbling far faster than anyone had imagined.
"Guh!"
As defeat loomed, one vagabond tried to flee only to have the back of his neck seized and be lifted into the air. It was the Rank-Eul freelancers who had so boldly shouted for everyone to fight earlier.
Crunch.
Every scrap of true energy and vitality was drained from him until he shriveled like a mummy and died. The Soul-Seizing Demon Lord recovered a modest amount of power and smirked. That was the terror of the Star-Absorbing Great Method.
"Oh-ho."
While searching for another meal, the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord's eyes lit up at the sight of a young, vigorous freelancers. A boy whose delicate features could almost be mistaken for a girl's at a glance.
"Ilhong, run!"
Ilhong had learned martial arts but had never properly faced a true master. The moment the terrifying Soul-Seizing Demon Lord approached, the kid froze solid. If he had learned by getting beaten like me, he would have bolted long ago.
"Kyaa!"
I body-checked Ilhong out of the way and instinctively slapped aside the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord's suddenly thrusting claw. The moment our hands met, I understood. This bastard's realm was lower than Hwang Geolgae's. That still didn't change the fact that we were in mortal danger.
"…Hmm? What are you? How did you just deflect that?"
A line I had heard once before. His hand and foot techniques were so saturated with killing intent that their trajectories were easier to read than most people's. The problem was that my body simply could not keep up with his speed.
Papapat!
The Soul-Seizing Demon Lord's hands sliced through the air in rapid succession. I twisted to dodge the cascading red trajectories, yet the murderous attacks still tore across my skin. A razor-sharp hand-blade grazed my neck; tiny capillaries burst. Had it gone even a hair deeper, blood would have gushed out.
"An interesting one. Your eyes read the attacks, yet your body cannot follow."
Because I had been thrashing about covered in blood, the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord had already forgotten Ilhong and taken an interest in me instead. I was dying because of it. He kept reaching out as if to say, Can you dodge this one too? Just as a casually thrown stone can kill a frog, every single move that brushed past me was a killing technique.
"Kh!"
In the end a palm slammed into my shoulder. Something broke and split; the sensation raced up my spine. Red energy immediately seeped in to begin repairs, but it would take time before I could move freely again. So of course the thought I'm screwed was rising in my mind when—
"Hey, kid! Get down!"
A whisper dug straight into my ear. I flung my body sideways at once.
Shwiik—!
A barrage of poison-coated needles tore through the air with sharp whistles, sweeping across the space where my waist had been. The Soul-Seizing Demon Lord kicked off the ground and soared upward in a flash. The needles merely grazed beneath his feet; not a single one struck home.
As if she had expected exactly that much, Dang Yeohye pulled poison pellets from her sleeve and hurled them at his landing point.
Puff-puff!
Dense toxic powder blanketed the space. Extreme poison that would melt the lungs the moment it was inhaled filled the air, and Dang Yeohye—having achieved immunity to a hundred poisons—dove straight into it, unleashing her razor-sharp claw techniques.
"Die, you bastard!"