Chapter 554: Finding a Sacrifice is a Chore
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 554: Finding a Sacrifice is a Chore
Monkeys are masters of climbing trees. Though not beastkin, the Hanuman tribe, who long ago made a pact with the Monkey King to share his power, could run through the treetops as if on flat ground.
Moving through the jungle at unparalleled speeds, they put their talents to good use. They typically lived in the trees, snatching whatever they needed before scurrying away.
This raid on Piu Village was no different. The Undying might be strong, but the Eartheners were dull and slow. They were confident that the Hanuman tribe could easily shake them off. They were also certain that as long as they kidnapped a child from Piu Village and not one of the Undying's, there would be no trouble.
“Ukkya! You said there wouldn't be any trouble!” the monkey-mask shrieked, flying into a rage.
“It's a wind spirit! The wind spirit is enraged! We're all going to suffer a terrible fate!”
“We came prepared to get on the bad side of those persistent Eartheners, but I never thought there'd be a spirit too!”
“If I’d known this would happen, we never should have attacked Piu Village!”
In truth, it wasn't a wind spirit but the Regressor wielding Chun-aeng. To them, however, distinguishing between the two was meaningless. An enraged Regressor would bring about the same terrible fate.
Perhaps even worse than a wind spirit.
“Forget the sacrifice! We have to run, now!”
“What about this one? We barely managed to get this sacrifice, and it cost us five of our own.”
A monkey-mask pointed to the child in the wicker basket. The one who appeared to be the leader, wearing a mask with a lion-like mane, yelled back.
“What a stupid question! Kill it and hang it somewhere!”
“B-But what if the wind spirit gets really angry?”
“Our best bet is to wash our hands of this and run! Ukkiki! If we leave for somewhere else, who cares about some wind spirit!”
The leader of the monkey-masks roughly threw down the basket. The child, who had been holding their breath in terror inside, let out a pained whimper.
“Oww, oww...”
“If we just leave it out, a leopard will probably come and eat it!”
The leader reached for the child’s neck, intending to snap it with his powerful hands.
But the monkey-mask should have been more concerned about the “wind spirit.” No matter how cold the Regressor might be, she wouldn't stand by and watch a kidnapped child be murdered.
Not that she's particularly cold, anyway.
“Kieeeek!”
With a spray of blood, the leader's arm was violently flung back. An invisible blade of wind had struck it. As he reeled in pain, the Regressor shot up like a bolt of lightning and kicked away the monkey-mask standing over the child.
The Regressor glared at the leader and said, “Looks like the chase is over. Hughes, any complaints?”
“Of course not. Isn't this also the guidance of the Saintess's blessing?”
As the monkey-masks faltered and backed away, the Regressor conjured a light breeze. The basket holding the child rode the wind, descending slowly.
Rasch leaped up in a single bound and caught the child. Stroking the terrified child, Rasch wore a look of deep regret.
“You are Piu, yet you treat the life of a fellow Piu so carelessly? Has the Hanuman tribe lost all its pride and compassion?”
“Ukkit! What would a mere Earthener who got lucky with some power know...!” the leader shouted, clutching his bleeding arm. “You Undying wouldn't understand! We have to offer sacrifices to survive! We must offer them to the great spirits and the beautiful Muhu to gain power and live!”
“There are many ways to live without sacrificing other children. I have seen it for myself beyond the Great Plains.”
“Beyond the Great Plains? That's only possible because it's beyond the Great Plains! Not here!” the leader retorted, wiggling his fingers. “This land is the domain of witches, beasts, spirits, and Muhu! Without power, without a patron to lean on, you're just abandoned and wretchedly devoured! You, who were lucky enough to trade your bodies for immortality... you can't understand us, who are just struggling to survive!”
Then, in a flash, the leader pulled out a leather pouch he had hidden in his clothes. It was a sac of venom collected from insects. Crushing the pouch in his hand, he hurled it toward us.
“Kikiki! It's ant venom! Be smothered in poison and die!”
But the leader's trump card achieved nothing.
Click. The Regressor drew back Chun-aeng. In that instant, dozens of tree branches were severed and fell all at once. Among the countless falling leaves was the monkey-mask's blood-soaked hand.
A beat later, a gust of wind raged, and the monkey-masks clinging to the trees flailed and fell to the ground.
Even the venom sac, his trump card, was caught in Chun-aeng's whirlwind and fell silently to the ground.
“Poison? So outdated. Who even falls for that these days?”
Since the advent of Qi Arts, asymmetrical methods of attack like poison and curses have become all but obsolete. Not only can they barely penetrate a Qi practitioner's body, but even if they do, it's difficult to wrest away control. A poison that stops the heart? You can just use Gam Qi Art to manually pump your own heart. In the age of Qi Arts, poison had lost its place.
But in this savage land, where Qi Arts were not well known, poison was still in use.
“Ukkiki...”
“The spirit is angry...”
The monkey-masks crawled on the ground, having lost all will to fight. The Regressor dominated the space with wind and looked down on them.
“Alright. You have one choice. Die quietly, or spill everything and then die. What were you planning to do with the child?”
“Hey, Shei-ssi. Do you really think they'll talk if you corner them and threaten them like that?”
“Ukkiki... We have to offer it at the altar of Ankra, the Demon of a Thousand Feasts...”
Wait, they're actually talking?
I guess it's unreasonable to expect a savage to have life-or-death loyalty. Still, confessing so easily even when threatened with death?
The Hanuman tribe savages kowtowed to the Regressor and confessed everything.
“We... we were asked to do it! They need a thousand souls to offer as sacrifices to Ankra, the Demon of a Thousand Feasts. They promised us an apple tree for every person we brought.”
“The Demon of a Thousand Feasts?”
“A powerful ancient demon that devours a thousand people! They said if we didn't help, they'd eat us first. Ukkiki! We only kidnapped the children to survive!”
Because they had been so completely subservient from the start, the Regressor's killing intent toward the Hanuman tribe subsided.
They called her a spirit, but showing unconditional obedience to a powerful being wielding a power they couldn't comprehend was their own strategy for survival.
“A demon with a title like that... It must be the ancient evil Mayel was talking about.”
“It sounds terrifying just hearing about it. Can you win, Shei-ssi?”
“Of course. Demons aren't that powerful. It's been nearly fifteen hundred years since the dawn of the new era; their power has faded significantly. Even if it's revived with sacrifices, it will only inherit a fraction of its original strength, nothing close to what it was back then.”
‘Besides,’ the Regressor thought, ‘a demon I don't even remember can't be that strong. Mayel wouldn't send me to fight an unbeatable foe, either. Let's wrap this up quickly. I don't have much business in the old lands of Manguo anyway. The only Divine here is the Tree of Corruption...’
“Tell me where they are,” she said. “I'll spare your lives if you do.”
His face brightening at the mention of being spared, the monkey-mask quickly spilled the beans.
“The Bone Altar! Ukkiki. They're at the Bone Altar! It's located...”
Just then, one of the monkey-masks who had been groveling on the ground shot to its feet. Radiating an ominous aura, it raised both its arms and then snapped the joints itself.
Kwadedeuk. With a sound that would make anyone shudder, the arms of all the monkey-masks twisted simultaneously. Their unusually long arms bent at grotesque angles, creating a horrific scene.
“Kiiiiiek!”
“Kieek!”
The monkey-masks screamed in unexpected agony and collapsed. Amidst the sight of limbs twisting in unison, only the monkey-mask that had broken its own arms stood there with a sinister sneer, as if it felt no pain at all.
“Monkey bastards. I knew this might happen, so I planted a poison in them beforehand.”
The Regressor was about to kill the strange monkey-mask with Chun-aeng but paused, sensing an unpleasant aura.
“This is black magic, isn't it?”
The thing most similar to a human is another human. Therefore, the easiest and most convenient way to cast magic that harms humans is to use a human body as a medium.
Black magic—body mediation magic—developed from this principle. As powerful and easy as it is, it has the drawback of harming the caster's own body...
“A puppet, huh? I guess you don't have the guts to show up in your real body.”
“Kiki. Isn't that obvious? I don't need to reveal my true self just to clean up trash like these beasts.”
The monkey-mask wore a vile smile beneath its mask.
Using one's own body as a medium allows for the easy use of powerful magic. But even a black magician treasures their own body. So, they've devised ways to protect themselves while still wielding their dark arts.
The most barbaric of these methods, and the first to be utilized, is the sacrifice. After all, the medium doesn't necessarily have to be your own body.
“A shame, a real shame. These monkeys were stupid, so they were easy limbs to control... Thanks to you, I'm about to lose a puppet I worked so hard on.”
“What a waste of effort. Instead of making one puppet, you could have just hired someone with money,” the Regressor said with contempt.
It might sound like black magic is simple and risk-free, but in reality, few powers are as wasteful.
It's easy to write with your own body, but controlling another's body to make them write is next to impossible. Especially if that 'other' resists. That's why, to properly use a sacrifice, you need poisons and drugs to strip them of their will and seize control of their body. At that point, cost-effectiveness is already out the window.
And is it easy to find someone to be a sacrifice? If you can't secure more than one person by using one sacrifice, the yield is too low. Plus, if the sacrifice resists and damages their body, their value plummets.
The common belief is that black magicians fall to corruption for easy power, but that's just ignorance. Black magicians have their own hardships. A minor black magician struggles just to survive day to day.
“That might be true for people like you from beyond the Great Plains, but over here, people are moved by fear and desire more than money. Puppets are much cheaper, you see.”
However, a black magician who overcomes all those hardships and establishes themselves becomes a monster that greedily consumes human lives. The one controlling the monkey-mask before me was one of them.
The Regressor’s voice dropped lower. “Are you planning to resurrect an evil god?”
“Of course. Isn't that the dream of every black magician?”
“Stop this pointless charade.”
“Kikiki. Are you afraid? But what can you do? This is exactly what I've been hoping for!”
The monkey-mask spread its broken arms wide. Blood flowed and twisted bones dangled, but it cackled as if none of that mattered.
“I will resurrect the evil god and become one with him! Then I will sweep away the remnants of Muhu that still linger in this land and establish myself as a new god! Kikiki! This land will be great again!”
Despite his ambitious declaration, the Regressor's reply was indifferent.
“No. That evil god you're trying to resurrect... I don't know what it is, but it's so pathetically weak that even if you revive it, I'll just kill it. So stop.”
Was it that unexpected? The monkey-mask froze, its arms still spread wide. It might have hoped she was joking, but the Regressor was dead serious.
‘The Demon of a Thousand Feasts? I've never even heard of it in my previous timelines. I may be the one designated now, but since Mayel foresaw it, it would have been exterminated anyway. The Sanctum doesn't tolerate evil gods like that.’
The simpler the truth, the deeper it cuts. Blood streaming down, the monkey-mask clutched its face and laughed maniacally.
“Kikiki. How arrogant, you human who crossed the Great Plains. You people have always been like this... You mock, trample, and destroy everything in this land, and then you try to 'correct' us... as if we're the ones in the wrong!”
Veins bulged beneath the monkey-mask's clothes. In an instant, a tremendous energy surged from the puppet. Burning all its life force like kindling, the monkey-mask exhaled a demonic aura and charged the Regressor like a beast.
“I'll kill you and use your corpse as a sacrifice! Let's see if you're still smiling then—”
“Pathetic.”
But to be honest, the power displayed by that monkey-mask wasn't all that impressive.
Throughout my adventures so far, I've faced too many legendary opponents. Compared to them, a black magician—and not even the real one, just a single puppet... I'm sorry to say, but even I could win this.
Dozens of blades made of wind minced the monkey-mask. If it had learned Qi Arts, such a blade of wind wouldn't have worked, but it's difficult for a black magician to learn Qi Arts, and even if they did, they couldn't use it through another's body. The blades sliced through the monkey-mask's body like tofu, severing muscles and tendons.
“Kiiiiit!”
The monkey-mask let out a single scream and collapsed. Since it wasn't his own body anyway, the black magician tried to move the puppet, but with its tendons severed, it could do nothing but twitch.
The Regressor spoke, her expression showing neither joy nor satisfaction.
“Just wait with your neck clean. I'm coming to kill you.”
“Kiki... You think you can kill me?” the blood-soaked monkey-mask shouted defiantly, its voice on the verge of giving out. “This is just one of my many puppets. I may have failed to kill you, but you've failed too! You will never find me, let alone kill me!”
“Let me tell you something,” the Regressor said, cutting him off as her eyes flashed open.
“I've hunted down countless things like you!”
The third of the Seven Colored Eyes: the Golden Eyes that see the unseen.
She thrust Chun-aeng deep into the puppet. A storm ground the puppet's flesh to pieces, granting that poor body a final rest. No longer able to remain in the dead body, the black magician's consciousness departed...
And with her Golden Eyes, the Regressor clearly watched a part of that consciousness leave the body. I couldn't see it, but the Regressor could: the remnant of consciousness flying off toward the dark forest.
“Found you,” the Regressor muttered chillingly.
Now all that was left was to hunt him down and kill him. Realizing this was more serious than he'd thought, Rasch looked at the rescued child and said, “This will be a trying battle. What should we do with the child? If we take them with us, they might get caught in the crossfire and killed.”
“We should return them to Piu Village. Mr. Rasch, you should take them.”
“I cannot. The priests of this evil god are treacherous. I, being one of the Undying, would be fine, but the Teacher or a young boy could be caught off guard by their vile tricks. How about the Teacher takes them?”
“I appreciate the concern, but just as we don't know the enemy, they don't know us. They're not the only ones who can catch someone off guard.”
Besides, we have the so-called “Saintess's blessing.”
You can't waste time against a black magician. They always have sacrifices and resources stockpiled, and the moment they feel threatened, they'll start consuming everything indiscriminately. If we want to save even one more person, we have to leave right now.
“You can stay behind too, Hughes. It might be easier for me to handle this alone.”
Oh, how kind of her. Telling me to go home and rest instead of working—an offer I would have normally jumped at.
But right now, I have a slight interest in demons and evil gods. I politely declined the Regressor's offer.
“No. I'm interested in this evil god, so I'd like to try fighting it. And I can help you out while I'm at it, Shei-ssi.”
“...You are?”
‘What's this?’ she seemed to think. ‘How admirable. He's even offering to help. What's gotten into him? Is this also thanks to the Saintess's blessing?’
What does she take me for? I've helped out so much until now, was this offer really so unexpected that she'd chalk it up to the Saintess's blessing?
Well, she's about half right, I guess.