Chapter 212
The situation had reversed in an instant.
This was not the situation they had expected.
Wild dogs did not scare easily.
But when they truly felt fear, they quickly tucked their tails between their legs—that was also characteristic of wild dogs.
Shuffle. Shuffle.
Without realizing it, the soldiers of Black Darkness began backing away.
The aura radiating from the Four Guardians was far too immense and overwhelming for them to handle.
“Don’t move.”
At those words, their retreating movements stopped as if by magic.
They simply could not disobey that command.
“There are mongrels that think they’re lions. Just like you.”
“There’s nowhere for you to run.”
“U, urgh.”
Like prey that had lost its escape route before a hunter, the soldiers of Black Darkness trembled in fear.
It was then.
“What are you all doing!”
Crimson Yaksha shouted at his subordinates, who were making such a pathetic spectacle of themselves.
“You fools.”
Of course, it was surprising.
To think they were hiding such power.
Even so, there was no way those men were experts who surpassed him.
If they had been, he, who had kept a close eye on the entire martial world, including the lands beyond the borders, would never have failed to know of them.
By now, most of the captains of the Heavenly Ghost Corps also knew the distinguishing features of those figures.
But these men were not any of them.
The conclusion, then, was that they were not opponents he needed to fear.
Yet his idiotic subordinates had failed to realize even that and were showing this ugly spectacle.
Even though he was standing behind them!
It was no different from insulting him.
“From this moment on, every one of you who doesn’t immediately charge those men will die by my hand. You understand what that means, don’t you?”
Only then, at Crimson Yaksha’s threat, did his subordinates’ eyes gleam again as they glared at the Four Guardians.
They knew better than anyone how horrifying a death at Crimson Yaksha’s hands was.
“Raaaaah!”
Soon, his subordinates, soldiers who had received Black Darkness’s accursed power, began charging the Four Guardians, all of them radiating savage auras.
“Yes. If we’re going to die anyway, that choice might be the better one.”
“We never leave alive anyone who bares their teeth at our lord, anyway.”
“No, perhaps even saying that is meaningless now.”
Xuanwu flicked the blood from the edge of his raised hand.
“Hmm……?”
The soldiers of Black Darkness who had charged forward looked puzzled.
Where had that blood come from……?
At that moment,
Tap. Tap.
Their heads dropped to the ground one after another.
“Well, then. Are you next, leader of the mongrels?”
In an instant, the surroundings fell silent.
Those who had been making noise were no longer standing, while the one who had been driving them on could only stare wide-eyed.
Crimson Yaksha involuntarily gulped, his face filled with shock.
He hadn’t seen a thing.
He hadn’t seen them cut down his subordinates.
“Ha, hahahahaha!”
After mouthing something, Crimson Yaksha soon burst out laughing.
It was absurd.
He had never imagined things would turn out like this.
He had come merely to enjoy a little entertainment, only to end up in this situation.
And yet,
‘They’re not my match.’
A massive aura began flowing from his entire body.
Ruuuuumble.
A murky crimson aura seeped out and overflowed, coating his body and the ground.
At the same time, all the trees and weeds around them began to wither.
Soon, his entire body except for his face was covered in something resembling black armor.
“Oh-ho.”
The Four Guardians looked mildly surprised.
“You have an interesting trick.”
“Indeed. Not bad.”
It seemed he was not quite the small fry they had expected.
At that moment, Zhuque stepped forward.
“No one else step in. I’ll handle this one.”
“Do as you please.”
“Anyone can take him. He’s nothing special.”
They all shrugged as if it made no difference to them.
“Y-you insane bastards!”
Crimson Yaksha ground his teeth at the sight.
Those rotten bastards were talking as if they could dispose of him at any time.
“How dare you treat me, Crimson Yaksha, one of the Sixteen Demon Generals, like a small fry?”
“Sixteen Demon Generals? What’s that supposed to be? Why are you bragging about it?”
“Huh. What?”
What?
They looked as though they genuinely did not know what the Sixteen Demon Generals were.
“Then you’re not from the Heavenly Ghost Corps……”
“Enough with the pointless talk.”
Zhuque cut off Crimson Yaksha.
“It doesn’t matter who you are. What matters is that you dared bare your teeth at our lord. That alone makes you deserving of death.”
Her gaze, cold enough to send a chill down the spine, turned toward Crimson Yaksha.
What was with that look in her eyes?
It was as if she could kill someone with a single glance.
But,
‘…Hmph! She’s bluffing.’
Crimson Yaksha could feel it.
Of the four, the woman who had stepped forward had the weakest aura.
And from the moment she had stepped before him, that aura had been dwindling even faster.
Unlike her chilly gaze.
She was certainly the weakest among them.
Yet she dared to do this without even knowing her place.
‘Fine. I’ll grant your wish. I’ll make you feel it in your bones whom you picked a fight with.’
Suddenly, Crimson Yaksha thought this had worked out well.
Whoever they were, absorbing their aura might actually be a good opportunity for him.
‘I’ll devour every last one of you, one by one. You fools. Heh heh.’
His eyes were already gleaming with greed.
Before he knew it, Zhuque was standing face-to-face with Crimson Yaksha.
Looking down at her, Crimson Yaksha grinned.
“Starting with you, everyone here is going to die. And it will be as horrible as possible.”
Zhuque let out a small laugh at Crimson Yaksha’s growling words.
“You’re laughing?”
“Ah. Sorry. I just thought something sounded awfully familiar.”
“Familiar?”
“The weak always bark like you do. Adorably, too.”
“You goddamned bitch!”
Unable to hold back any longer, Crimson Yaksha slammed his fist down.
Kwaaang!
The ground split open with a loud crack.
But Zhuque had already retreated far backward.
“Hmph. You talked as if you were so impressive, but look at you running away.”
At Crimson Yaksha’s words, Zhuque merely snorted.
“Woof, woof. Don’t bark, mongrel. You’re being noisy.”
“You rotten bitch! Fine. I’ll tear that mouth of yours to pieces today!”
Irritated by the way every word she said seemed to get under his skin, Crimson Yaksha charged viciously at Zhuque like a madman.
Kwaaang! Kwaaaaang!
Every time he swung his fists, everything around him shattered.
Even so, Zhuque evaded every one of his attacks without wavering in the slightest.
Meanwhile, Zhuque’s aura continued to diminish.
Thanks to that, Crimson Yaksha had no doubt he would win and pressed his attack even more fiercely.
“It has begun.”
“Feels like it’s been a while since we’ve seen this.”
“Indeed. Another one’s taken the bait.”
In the meantime,
Whoosh.
Seeing Zhuque retreat far once again, Crimson Yaksha clicked his tongue.
“Is running all you know how to do? Then die already!”
Soon, his body shot toward Zhuque like lightning.
At the same time, Zhuque’s aura vanished completely.
“There it is.”
Bai Hu smiled at the sight.
In truth, Zhuque’s aura had not diminished or disappeared.
She had merely condensed it until it was almost nonexistent, all for the sake of a single momentary explosion.
And then,
[Blood Heaven Three Swords (血天三劍) - Single Flash (一閃)]
The condensed aura exploded in an instant.
As her eyes flashed, a sword technique of supreme speed unfolded from her hand.
Shrrrk.
For an instant, Crimson Yaksha felt a breeze blow toward him.
But he did not know
that the gentle breeze would tear every bit of his aura to shreds.
Fwoooosh!
The black aura armor surrounding his body was sliced apart completely.
Then both his feet and one hand were severed,
Slice. Slice. Slice.
He collapsed onto the ground, completely naked.
A moment later, as he stared blankly, horrific pain surged through him all at once.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
“Don’t be such a baby.”
Along with her cold voice, her sword pierced Crimson Yaksha’s shoulder.
“Guh.”
“Shh. Don’t bark. The more you do, the more it makes me want to torment you.”
Zhuque looked down at Crimson Yaksha, still seeming unable to let her anger subside.
“And after acting so high and mighty, isn’t it pathetic to howl over a wound like this? Why are you being such a baby? I know people who use clinging energy like yours don’t die from something like this.”
She smiled.
Yet the sinister killing intent mixed into that smile made Crimson Yaksha’s flesh crawl.
A savage—no, a terrifyingly vicious aura far more ferocious than anything he or his subordinates possessed streamed from her.
What in the world were these people?
Could people like this have existed? Why had he never known about them until now?
No matter how much he thought about it, he could not determine their identities.
In the meantime,
“My lord. I have brought him.”
“Good work.”
Crimson Yaksha was sprawled in a miserable heap before Yeo Un-hwi.
How could something like this happen?
Crimson Yaksha felt as if a ghost had possessed him.
He raised his head and looked at Yeo Un-hwi and the Four Guardians.
Only then did Crimson Yaksha sense that something about the auras emanating from Yeo Un-hwi and the Four Guardians was strange.
They were completely different from the distinctive aura of the Heavenly Ghost Corps.
It was a demonic aura so savage it was horrifying.
Faced with that powerful aura, comparable to that of the nine executives above the Sixteen Demon Generals, Crimson Yaksha finally regretted his arrogance.
To think such powerful figures existed.
The fact that he had failed to realize it until now was even more shocking.
“Wh-who are you? You’re not from the Heavenly Ghost Corps!”
At Crimson Yaksha’s belated question, Yeo Un-hwi gave a faint snort of laughter.
“That’s a question you should have asked at the beginning.”
“Wh-what……!”
“Now, you’d better answer the questions I ask properly. If you want to die with even a little less pain, that is.”
“D-do you think I’ll yield to pain like that!”
“Yes. You will.”
When Yeo Un-hwi lightly tapped Crimson Yaksha’s forehead with one finger,
“Kgh? Guaaagh, uaaaaaagh!”
An immense pain he had never experienced in his life engulfed Crimson Yaksha.
“Aaaaaaaaaargh!”
The agony was so intense that Crimson Yaksha’s entire body convulsed, saliva spilling from his mouth.
It felt as though a pitch-black, savage aura were gnawing away at his body.
Demonic aura? No, it was not merely that.
This—this was something immense, something even he, a Sixteen Demon General of Black Darkness, could not withstand……
Then, when Yeo Un-hwi tapped Crimson Yaksha’s forehead once more, the pain vanished as if it had been washed away.
“Khh. Uuugh… Hhk. Hhk.”
“Listen carefully. I won’t repeat myself.”
Yeo Un-hwi’s voice rang clearly in Crimson Yaksha’s ears.
That voice, chilling and cold beyond measure, made him feel as if a sharpened blade were held right before his face.
“This isn’t simply a matter of dying. If I choose to, I can make your soul remain trapped in this agony forever—even after you’re dead.”
It was impossible.
Yet as he looked into Yeo Un-hwi’s eyes, he felt that this impossible thing could truly happen.
Crimson Yaksha’s face, which had been brimming with confidence until he arrived here, had turned deathly pale.
“Now, since you seem to understand me, I’ll ask you some questions.”