Chapter 81
Chapter 81
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: 전생혈마-81화
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: 16. Fragments of Memory (2)
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A cool breeze was blowing.
As soon as he opened the door, the first thing that came into view was a crowd of people who had rushed out to see what the commotion outside was about.
They were commoners.
They handled all the chores for the Golden Fox Merchant Guild, but the odds of them being tied to the Baek Clan's affairs were slim to none. They blinked in confusion. The moment the gruesome sight of the sprawled guards outside reflected in their sluggishly blinking eyes, their faces twisted in horror as they looked skyward.
Thwack-!
He blew their heads clean off.
Not a single word.
No conversation at all.
The man decapitated them solely for being there, then kicked off the ground and began slaughtering everyone in sight.
Slash!
Spurt-!
"Kyaaak!"
"U, uwaaak!"
"Run away!"
Screams erupted from every direction.
Like unleashing a wolf into a flock of sheep, everyone who faced the man crumpled, their limbs torn apart. He showed no mercy. Old or young, man or woman, child—he butchered them indiscriminately if they seemed part of the Golden Fox Merchant Guild. The guards didn't even manage a few exchanges before their heads went flying.
"This crazy bastard."
"Block him!"
Screee!
Screeeee-!
Martial artists poured out from inside the building.
They were the guild's escorts, and true to their reputation as the finest merchant house in the region, some among them boasted impressive martial prowess. Blades gleamed under the moonlight. Centered on the blood-drenched man, a swarm of people lunged forward, leaving his position looking precarious, flickering like the flame of a torch.
Killing intent surged.
The way they saw him now—in the reflection of their eyes—must have been as a blood-soaked demon.
A ruthless devil who burst into the night unannounced, massacring the innocent and shattering the peace of daily life.
What a joke.
Did they even know?
While they slipped into comfortable beds to end their day in peace, the Golden Fox Merchant Guild's schemes had driven an entire clan to ruin. Even if they were ignorant of the truth. Even if they had no connection to the Baek Clan. It didn't matter. Their mere presence here gave the man all the justification he needed to cut down these foes.
"Blood Demon Sword Art, Third Form: Explosive Slaughter."
Spurt.
Pa-pa-pa-pat.
Blood sprayed from all directions.
He killed and killed and killed some more.
The martial artists who had gritted their teeth to protect the household servants could only watch helplessly as their own limbs were ripped away. They lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath. The man pressed onward, slaying without pause, and once the warriors fell, ordinary folk who had never even gripped a sword were left exposed. One limbless warrior mouthed desperate pleas. Please, just spare them. Not my wife, not my parents. Please let them live.
Crunch.
The man didn't hesitate for a second.
He seized the wife's nape and rammed his sword into her, then charged forward in a flash to cleave the old man's chest wide open.
He cleared the path.
He advanced, and advanced again.
And finally.
Thud.
"Wh-what in the world is this? This is the Golden Fox Merchant Guild. We're under the protection of the Nine Great Sects. Can you handle the fallout from this?"
A quivering man.
The guild master collapsed to the dirt, staring up at the man.
The man grinned.
"How convenient. I was just coming from stirring up trouble with one of the Five Great Clans."
It was a grotesque scene.
The man didn't kill the guild master.
Stab.
"Guh, guhuk, guaaaak!"
He pinned the man's leg with a dagger.
As the guild master screamed, the man slid the dagger along the muscle fibers.
Muscles tore apart, swelling the master's face until it looked ready to burst, but the man's hand never stopped.
"So, what was the reason for trying to wipe out the Baek Clan?"
"I-I told you already. I never... guaaaak!"
Squeeze.
He applied pressure.
Once the dagger reached from thigh to toe, the man pulled it out dismissively and began flaying thin strips of flesh. The guild master thrashed wildly. He went from begging for his life to cursing his very existence, his eyes burning with malice.
"Kill me! Just kill me!"
"Fair warning—I excel at torturing people without killing them, over long hours. So think carefully before you answer. Tonight, the Baek Clan was annihilated. Why?"
"Guh, guuhuk."
"What, never heard of it?"
He laughed.
At that demonic laugh, the guild master's eyes shook violently.
Flesh peeled away.
The cold, slicing sensation dug in, and the master screamed like a madman.
"Y-yes, I ordered it... guaaaak! Why keep going even after I confessed?!"
"No matter how I turn it over, something doesn't add up. The Golden Fox Merchant Guild might bask in Hubei's top fame, but wiping out a clan is no small matter. Especially now, with the Baek Clan reaching out to Wudang Sect to expose your usury racket publicly—sudden annihilation like this just paints you as the prime culprit. And yet you plunged ahead without a second thought. What gave you the nerve? Were you really unafraid of the consequences?"
"Th-that's...!"
In eyes clouded with agony.
The man saw the truth.
"I'm wondering if you have a backer powerful enough to make any fallout irrelevant."
He peeled more flesh.
Rending screams echoed on.
From that point, it was a loop of questions and answers.
No matter how much truth the guild master vomited up, no matter how he wailed that he'd given the order, the man offered no response—just kept carving. He knew the murim world well. On the surface, it looked like a lawless chaos without rules, but beneath lay its own twisted justifications and procedures.
That was why he didn't buy the guild master's words.
If the Baek Clan was annihilated.
The Golden Fox Merchant Guild—their biggest recent enemy—would naturally top the suspect list.
Yet if they'd issued the kill order anyway, some justification and procedure must back it.
In the end.
"...It was Wudang's decree. We funneled money to Wudang through our usury, but those Baek fools went crying to them about us. Idiotic move. They shoved their heads into a tiger's jaws without realizing, dared to touch Wudang's purse strings—and that's why this happened. I've spilled the truth now. Kill me. Even if I survive here, Wudang will finish me off anyway."
The truth came spilling out.
Just as expected.
Behind a mere merchant guild's boldness in drawing steel lay a secret that could never see the light of day.
That was when it happened.
The man withdrew his dagger and addressed the empty air.
"The guild master claims that's the truth. What do you make of it?"
Whoosh.
Thud.
From out of the shadows.
A line of figures emerged.
The fluttering blue uniforms marked them as members of the Nangong Clan.
The pursuit squad.
They had finally seized the tail.
Having overheard the truth at this most ironic moment, they drew their swords with hardened expressions.
"Mere drivel forced out by a demon's threats. We'll look into it later. For now, offer up your head right here."
Shing.
Shiiiing.
Swords hissed from scabbards all around.
The man clutched his face, amused.
The blood coating his hands smeared across it, forming a demon's visage streaked with bloody tears.
"Yes, that's more like it. Come at me properly."
He rose to his feet.
And then.
"Now that's the Nangong Clan I know."
Toward the roiling killing intent, the man staggered forward.
The man staggered.
His throat burned.
The world spun.
His legs gave out, and he sank to the ground, feeling something soft and yielding beneath him.
Corpses.
The Nangong Clan's pursuit squad, alive just moments ago, now lay dead and scattered everywhere.
"Haa-."
He gazed at the sky.
Pitch black.
Dizziness washed over him; part of him wanted to just black out then and there. But he knew that would mean death.
"Are you all right?"
A familiar face suddenly appeared in his vision.
Baek Hyun peered down at the man.
His wounds were so caked in gore it was impossible to tell whose blood it even was. With childlike hands, Baek Hyun pulled out a jar of salve and slathered it thickly over the man's injuries. Those hands trembled faintly for some reason. Maybe from the chill night breeze, or something deeper. Pitiful as the shaking was, he didn't stop applying the medicine.
The man spoke.
"Why bother treating me? You saw it yourself. Just like the ones who wiped out your clan, I slaughtered innocents too."
Flinch.
Baek Hyun's hands froze.
Just as the man said.
When the man cut down the guards at the main gate, the boy had sprinted over and watched the whole scene from behind the wall. It was a shocking spectacle. The man had slain guilty and innocent alike without distinction—enough to call him a true demon—then he'd heard the guild master's bombshell revelation and witnessed the Nangong pursuit squad's arrival. It was all so confusing. Rather than judge right now, the boy simply couldn't stand by and watch the man die.
Whatever the case.
The man had fulfilled his promise of revenge.
"...I don't know. I don't know what I should do."
The man laughed.
He reached out a hand.
Grab.
He clutched the boy's face.
Baek Hyun's eyes went wide in shock, and the man fixed him with a cold stare.
"Listen. From this moment on, you saw nothing. Nothing about what happened here, no conversations exchanged. The unconscious guild master won't remember you were even present. Your clan was destroyed by the 'demon' they call me, and the only way for you—the lone Baek Clan survivor—to live on is to brand me a devil. Don't forget. A boy with nothing holds no value, but a survivor of this bloodbath carries symbolic weight. That's how you'll draw the adults who need you."
"What do you—"
He couldn't comprehend.
What the man was saying.
What he was supposed to do next.
He got no reply.
The man raised a single finger and traced a line across the paralyzed boy's face.
Swipe-
"Uwaak!"
He screamed.
Excruciating pain flooded in.
Blood spurted along the line, and Baek Hyun clutched his face, head bowed.
"Hate me. And."
When he looked up again.
"Survive, no matter what."
The man had vanished without a trace.
Snap.
Kang San's eyes flew open.
The nurse who had been monitoring his condition widened her eyes and made a fuss.
"Oh my! You're awake! I'll go get the doctor right away."
Where was he?
What condition was he in?
None of that registered.
The sequence of events from his comatose state.
Those memories tangled his gaze in confusion.
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