Chapter 206
“Impossible. How could we possibly… Gurgle.”
A massive cave with the name Shura Cave (修羅窟) engraved in large characters at its entrance.
Inside, it took the form of a vast palace that preserved all the beauty of nature.
Yet now, it was filled with the smell of blood.
A middle-aged man had just collapsed, spewing blood.
“H-How could this happen……”
Another middle-aged man trembled all over at the sight.
He too was in such a ghastly state that, though he had not yet died, he was no different from the man whose life had already ended.
His entire body was covered in wounds, and his once-expensive clothes were already little better than rags.
It was something he had never experienced even once in his life.
But above all, what he could not believe was the horrifying reality unfolding before his eyes.
No wonder.
“Is this a dream…? How could this happen to us, who are called the Absolute Great Evils……”
“Absolute Great Evils?”
The man with a red mark running vertically down his forehead raised an eyebrow slightly.
His eyes were highly unusual.
Crimson pupils gleaming eerily against black sclera sent a chill down anyone who looked at them.
One of the men who appeared to be his subordinates behind him opened his mouth.
“I hear that several of these men, including those two, are called the Absolute Great Evils in the martial world.”
“What? Huh, hahahahaha!”
The man with the crimson eyes burst out laughing as though he could not contain himself.
At his scornful laughter, the Red-Haired Yama, one of the Absolute Great Evils, ground his teeth.
“What’s so funny!”
“Isn’t it obvious? Trash like you are called the Absolute Great Evils? Even a passing dog would laugh at that. Heh heh.”
“Y-You bastard! How dare you insult me!”
The Red-Haired Yama trembled with humiliation.
Had the name Absolute Great Evil ever been made such a laughingstock before?
It was an utterly bewildering moment.
He had always been the one who inflicted insults and pain, never the one who suffered them.
Naturally, swallowing the anger boiling inside him was also an unfamiliar experience.
He wanted nothing more than to rush over immediately and tear apart every one of those unidentified people who were insulting him, but he could not simply keep attacking recklessly.
By now, he knew all too well that he could not win.
‘What an unexpected disaster. Where on earth did these bastards come from?’
The Red-Haired Yama rolled his eyes around as he observed them.
But no matter how closely he examined them, he could not figure out who they were.
If they possessed power of this caliber, he should have heard of them several times over by now.
Yet they were complete strangers.
As though they had dropped straight down from the heavens.
Unable to determine their identity no matter how much he racked his brains, the Red-Haired Yama grew increasingly irritated.
‘Damn it! What terrible luck!’
A little earlier, the unidentified group had suddenly stormed into the cave where they were staying and told them to vacate the place immediately.
At first, he had wondered what kind of lunatics they were.
How dare they come to the place where two of the Absolute Great Evils were staying and tell them to get lost simply because they liked the place?
So he had planned to tear the limbs off and kill the fools who were acting without knowing their place.
But then,
‘What? They attacked so confidently that I thought they had something up their sleeves, but is this all they’ve got?’
Unbelievably, they were overwhelmingly strong.
The man with the crimson eyes, who appeared to be their leader, was particularly so.
Even when the two Absolute Great Evils joined forces to attack, they were sent flying in an instant.
And one of them, the Blood-Seeking Fiend, had met a gruesome death.
So for now, the only answer was to flee.
If the two of them together could not withstand these people, attacking alone would be suicide.
‘I have to get back somehow and tell ‘him’ about this.’
The one known as the most fearsome of the Absolute Great Evils.
If it was him, he should be able to wipe out these bastards.
He would not help with other matters, but if he were told that a group targeting all the Absolute Great Evils had appeared, he would surely step in.
He would realize that he might be next in line.
If that happened, given his personality, there was no way he would not get involved.
Having made up his mind, the Red-Haired Yama watched for a chance to escape.
He had always been supremely confident when it came to qinggong, so he was sure no one could catch him.
And at the perfect moment,
Taat!
The Red-Haired Yama leaped backward and hurled every curse he knew at his enemies.
“I’ll remember what happened today! And in the not-too-distant future, every last one of you……”
“Heh. What are you babbling about?”
When the man with the crimson eyes raised a hand, the Red-Haired Asura’s body was sucked toward him.
“Graaagh! L-Let go! You bastard!”
The Red-Haired Yama had never imagined he would be caught so easily when he tried to make a run for it.
With an extremely flustered expression, he struggled desperately to escape the grasp of the man clutching his neck.
But it was utterly useless.
“The thing I hate most in this world is a person who doesn’t know his place. A worthless wretch like you is called an Absolute Great Evil? Could anything be more laughable? Tsk.”
“W-Wait!”
The Red-Haired Yama hurriedly opened his mouth, but it was already too late.
When the man with the crimson eyes casually moved a finger,
“Kugh, gaaaargh!”
The Red-Haired Yama’s entire body shriveled up.
Soon, he was reduced to nothing but bones in an instant, and even all the hair fell from his body.
He met his death just like that.
Two of the Absolute Great Evils, who had stained the world with blood wherever they went, had met such pitiful deaths in an unknown cave, so pointlessly that no one even knew.
“Hmph. They’re not even enough to whet my appetite. The Central Plains martial world is afraid of trash like this? It’s almost absurd. At this rate, aren’t we the ones who look ridiculous for preparing our grand undertaking as cautiously as possible? They taste awful too. Kack! Ptooey!”
The man with the crimson eyes spat on the Red-Haired Yama’s corpse sprawled across the floor.
Disgusting.
Those who pretended to be strong despite being weak.
“By the way, what happened to that woman?”
When the man with the crimson eyes shifted his gaze slightly, one of his subordinates behind him bowed and replied.
“The Poison-Heart Five Ghosts went personally, so they’ll be bringing her back soon.”
“Good. Excellent. I hope they bring her back quickly. At least those Heavenly Ghost Unit bastards are fun to deal with—you can enjoy sucking out the vitality they possess. Unlike these worthless pieces of trash. Or else.”
The crimson-eyed man stared at a woman standing with an unfocused gaze and grinned.
“It might be fun to make her like that one over there too. Heh heh.”
In the cave whose master had now changed, a man’s low laughter echoed eerily.
***
At the same time.
“Did you hear what he just said?”
At the words spoken by the man who had suddenly appeared, the Poison-Heart Five Ghosts tilted their heads, wondering if they had heard correctly.
Everyone, stop moving?
He had definitely said that.
“Is he crazy?”
“No. His way of walking and his eyes…”
“He looks perfectly normal, if anything.”
“Then he must be someone who wants to die as soon as possible.”
“Then we should grant his wish.”
The Poison-Heart Five Ghosts’ eyes gleamed fiercely as they radiated a savage aura.
Before long, their scythes would tear the uninvited guest to pieces.
But then,
“Huh?”
The uninvited guest had disappeared?
“B-Behind us!”
One of the Poison-Heart Five Ghosts, who had earlier been struck by the woman’s Demon-Slaying Palm and knocked back some distance away, shouted.
“……”
Everyone’s heads turned sharply backward.
The uninvited guest was already supporting the woman and helping her sit against a tree.
They had missed his movement? In that brief instant?
The eyes of all five Ghosts widened.
But the man in question paid them no attention, instead gazing at the woman, who was nearly losing consciousness, and muttering to himself.
“It’s extremely faint, but there’s no mistaking it. What happened here? Hmm.”
Yeo Un-hwi soon sent a little energy into the woman.
“Hey. Are you all right?”
“Mmm.”
The woman, whose consciousness had been cutting in and out because of her severe injuries, barely came to her senses.
“Who are you?”
“You’ve been through quite a beating.”
He wanted to ask something immediately, but the woman’s condition did not look good enough for that.
“For now, just stay still……”
“R-Run!”
Only then did the woman fully regain consciousness. Her eyes widened, and she cried out in alarm.
Then she struggled to get to her feet.
Yeo Un-hwi stopped her.
“Hey. You can’t push yourself like that in your condition.”
“I don’t know who you are, but this is none of your concern, and not something you should know about. Don’t even look back—just run. I’ll hold them off somehow, so hurry!”
“No……”
She really was exceptionally bad at listening to other people.
But the young woman was trying to uphold the words of her master and group leader: ordinary people who had nothing to do with this must not be sacrificed.
The Poison-Heart Five Ghosts snorted at the woman’s words.
“What nonsense. Do you think we’ll let you get away?”
“Now that we’ve seen you, we’ll kill you all.”
“Our scythes never fail.”
Then the four of them who were still uninjured charged forward, scythes in hand, at tremendous speed.
“Go! Hurry!”
Since there was no more time to waste, the woman shouted urgently at Yeo Un-hwi.
Then she bit down hard on her lip and charged toward her enemies.
‘I can do this, I can do this! No, I have to stop them!’
This time as well, the woman chose one of the four enemies and quickly closed in on him.
Then,
[Demon-Slaying Palm]
Her palm technique once again drove toward the abdomen of one of the Poison-Heart Five Ghosts.
But,
Pwaaaak!
As though he had expected it, one of the Five Ghosts struck the woman’s abdomen first with the handle of his scythe.
It was the area where she had already suffered a serious injury.
“Graaagh!”
The woman collapsed to the ground from the terrible pain.
Surrounding her, the Poison-Heart Five Ghosts jeered at her mockingly.
“It’s over.”
“You fool. Do you really think the same attack will work on us?”
“Now, then, as payment for tiring us out,”
“we’ll start by cutting off one of your arms. Heh heh.”
Their scythes began to turn toward the woman.
‘Ah, ah. Is this as far as I go?’
She had no strength left to shake them off.
Thinking that everything was over, the woman squeezed her eyes shut.
But then,
Kuuuuung.
Yeo Un-hwi casually raised one foot and stamped it down.
At that, an enormous shock wave spread in every direction, and it felt as if the entire ground were shaking.
The Five Ghosts, as well as the young woman, stared at Yeo Un-hwi in surprise.
“Hmm, so. From what I can tell…”
Yeo Un-hwi pointed back and forth between the Poison-Heart Five Ghosts and the woman with his finger.
“Black Darkness, and those fighting against it. Am I understanding this correctly?”
The woman’s and the Five Ghosts’ eyes widened at his words.
They had never expected the word ‘Black Darkness’ to come from the mouth of a strange man who had just appeared.
“Ah. You don’t have to answer. I can roughly tell just by looking at your expressions. And…”
Kuuuuung.
The tremendous energy surging out from Yeo Un-hwi began to engulf the space.
Soon, a deep smile spread across his face.
“At least, I know who to get rid of first.”