How Did You Become Such a Monster?

"Dear...!"

A woman rushed towards Tang Jinwoo as he opened the door and entered.

"Is it true what you said, that if capture is impossible, it's alright to kill him?"

She was a middle-aged woman with a sickly complexion.

Her eyes were already brimming with tears as she asked in a voice choked with sobs.

This was the Tang Clan. It was the room of Hwang Ah-kyung, the wife of Family Head Tang Jinwoo.

Naturally weak in constitution, she had been battling a long illness.

Thus, when Tang Jinwoo heard that his bedridden wife was desperately looking for him, he rushed over in one breath.

Looking at his wife gazing up at him, Tang Jinwoo nodded with an expressionless face.

"That's right."

"Ah, aah..."

Upon finally hearing the confirmation from her husband's own lips, Hwang Ah-kyung staggered.

Tang Jinwoo quickly supported her.

Helped by her husband to sit back down on the bed, she exhaled a labored breath.

Her pale lips trembled as she struggled to speak a word.

"Truly... Truly, is there no other way?"

"That monster brutally slaughtered innocent members of the Tang Clan. Moreover, he said he would destroy the Tang Clan with his own hands before he left."

There was no wavering in Tang Jinwoo's voice.

"Sob... hic."

At last, tears began to fall from Hwang Ah-kyung's eyes.

Grasping her husband's sleeve, she lowered her head.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault because I, I raised him wrong... hic."

"Don't say such things. How could this ever be your fault?"

"Hic..."

A low, mournful cry filled with sorrow and self-reproach echoed in the room.

"Can't you... reconsider just once more...?"

Tang Jinwoo did not answer.

He was usually a doting husband who tried to grant his wife's every wish.

But this time was different.

Tang Guhwi was now an enemy of the Tang Clan.

No matter that he was the son of the current Family Head, Tang Jinwoo, if this matter wasn't dealt with decisively, it could shake the very foundations of the Tang Clan.

that could be overlooked by parents.

Hwang Ah-kyung understood his silence and bit her lip hard.

She felt that no matter what, she could not change her husband's mind.

Of course, she knew too.

How great and terrible a crime her eldest son had committed.

And how devastated her husband must feel to have issued the Assassination Order, and how selfish she must look trying to stop him.

The situation had already reached a point of no return, and she had to accept that now.

Hwang Ah-kyung recalled the look in Tang Guhwi's eyes, full of resentment and indignation, when she visited that place every night with her ailing body.

'My son, what on earth made you like this?'

No, perhaps it was a hell he had brought upon himself.

She knew well the evil deeds Tang Guhwi had committed since childhood, no matter how much she had admonished and pleaded with him to stop.

She had to accept it now.

The strength drained from her hand that had been grasping Tang Jinwoo's sleeve.

"Aah..."

Tang Jinwoo, who had been quietly watching his wife sob with her head bowed low, rose from his seat.

"...Rest."

As soon as he left the room, Tang Jinwoo's tightly clenched fist trembled.

He, too, was more tormented than anyone.

He had certainly known there were problems with his son's conduct.

But he thought that somehow, with teaching, giving chances, and care from those around him, it would improve.

However, that was his delusion.

His eldest son, Tang Guhwi, was far more evil than he had thought.

Where had it gone wrong?

'No, in the end, it must all be because I taught him wrong.'

Like Hwang Ah-kyung-kyung, Tang Jinwoo blamed himself.

It was then.

"Father."

Tang Mujun appeared before him.

Tang Jinwoo struggled to compose himself and asked in a calm voice.

"What is it?"

"We've... found my brother."

Tang Jinwoo's brow furrowed.

Tang Mujun quickly continued.

"We've pinpointed his current location, and the pursuit team is approaching, engaging in battle."

"I'll say it again, there's no need to keep him alive."

"...I understand."

"And yet they haven't finished it?"

"Yes. That's what they say."

"It seems that a demonic martial art is quite formidable."

The power Tang Guhwi possesses now is nothing like what he had when he was healthy.

He had never been particularly skilled in martial arts compared to Tang Mujun.

Surely, he should have been no match for even one pursuit team alone.

Yet Tang Guhwi had already annihilated two of the Tang Clan's pursuit teams.

So this time, they had sent a pursuit team four times the usual size.

But even that seemed to be struggling.

"I'll go myself."

"I'll go too."

Tang Jinwoo shook his head at Tang Mujun's words.

"No, you stay here."

"Father."

"I ordered you to stay."

"I'm sorry, but... I can't do that."

For the first time, Tang Mujun did not simply nod to his father's command.

He couldn't let his father go there alone.

There must be something he could do.

And he didn't want his father to return alone and lonely after his brother's life was taken.

Though it would be painful, he needed to be there with him.

That's why he said he would go too.

Otherwise, why would he want to go to a place where he might have to kill his brother?

Sensing his son's feelings from his eyes, Tang Jinwoo let out a deep sigh and then nodded.

Soon, they set off towards where Tang Guhwi was.

Surprisingly, he was not far away.

Puwook!

Tang Guhwi's hand pierced straight through the bodies of two Tang Clan pursuers charging at him.

"Kuhek!"

"Keureureurk."

As his hand pulled out with a squelch, the bodies of the two pursuers whose abdomens had been pierced through fell limply to the ground.

But their bodies were shriveled and twisted as if they had been completely wrung out.

As if all their life force had been absorbed.

Now that he looked, all the numerous corpses piled up near Tang Guhwi were in the same condition.

"You're persistent, aren't you? I told you not to follow me. Tsk tsk."

Tang Guhwi, his appearance stained red with blood, smiled grotesquely.

"How! How did you become such a monster, Eldest Young Master!"

"Hm? How touching that there's still someone who calls me Eldest Young Master. Kekeke."

Tang Guhwi slowly brought his hand, still dripping with blood, to his mouth without even bothering to shake it off.

Soon after licking the blood, he shuddered as if in ecstasy.

"Hmm... Who knew tearing humans apart could be this enjoyable? The blood is so sweet. I should have known this pleasure earlier. Kekeke."

The sole surviving Tang Clan pursuer turned pale at the horrific sight.

Though he too was undoubtedly an elite warrior of the Tang Clan who had crossed countless battlefields and was hardened to combat, even for him, what was unfolding before his eyes was a chilling scene he had never witnessed before.

Moreover, the one responsible was Tang Guhwi, who had been the Eldest Young Master of the Tang Clan.

To think that he, who had always been excessively fastidious, could change like this.

'Is he possessed by a ghost? Or how else could a human change like this?'

Though he had always been cruel by nature, it was never to this extent.

Tang Guhwi's current appearance was no longer human, but that of a monster whose humanity had been completely eradicated.

As a human faced with such a monster, it was perhaps natural for his body to instinctively shrink back.

Still, thinking that other pursuit teams would soon arrive here, he hadn't yet given up hope.

He had to hold out somehow.

That was the only thought in his mind now.

Just then,

"Keuuk? Kuaaak!"

Suddenly, Tang Guhwi writhed in pain, and then his body began to turn red.

To the point where one might wonder if human skin could even turn that red.

But that wasn't all.

As Tang Guhwi's body grew larger, his two arms elongated grotesquely.

Now with a physique like that of two average men combined, Tang Guhwi's black eyes glinted.

That appearance was terrifyingly grotesque and chilling.

"Ugh. M-monster!"

The surviving pursuer's eyes widened at the horrifying sight.

This won't do. He had to run away. There was no way he could hold out!

He tried to flee without looking back.

But the moment he inadvertently made eye contact with Tang Guhwi, his body froze like stone and wouldn't move.

"Keueueuuk!"

Tang Guhwi smiled ferociously at the sight.

"Well then, let's end this for you too."

Soon, Tang Guhwi's form sank into the ground and then reappeared right in front of him.

"Ah, n-"

*Crack.*

Before he could even finish his scream, the man's head fell to the ground with a thud.

Then, as Tang Guhwi grasped the headless body, it too shriveled and withered like the others.

"Keuk, kuhahahahaha!"

Tang Guhwi burst into maniacal laughter as he watched the pursuer's head roll on the ground.

"Are these the elite warriors the Tang Clan was so proud of? They're no better than mayflies. Kukukuk!"

He wasn't thinking at all about how he, who had been an invalid, was now able to use such tremendous power.

He was simply focused on this incredible strength he had gained and the inexplicable thirst and hunger.

As always, humans tend to become simple-minded in the face of overwhelming pleasure that makes them lose their reason.

Especially if they had been in a state of despair!

"It's not enough. More, I need more."

As he was drenched in blood with glinting eyes, there was no trace left of the former Tang Guhwi in his appearance.

There was only an unidentified monster that resembled Tang Guhwi.

As he ran through the forest like a madman, driven by terrible thirst, a small village came into view.

"Kekeke. There it is."

Tang Guhwi flicked his red tongue.

\*\*\*

"Hm? Where's the Commander?"

In the middle of training, Peng Do-hwan asked O Chae-mu with a puzzled expression.

He had wanted to ask about the Wind Dragon Primordial Art while training separately last night, but he hadn't seen him at all.

O Chae-mu wiped his sweat and replied,

"It seems he's away for a few days on some business."

"Is that so? I wonder what it could be."

"Well. There's someone who visits occasionally these days, and after that person had a brief conversation, he went somewhere."

"Oh ho, I wonder! Could he be off doing something big again?"

As Gi-su and Gi-sang suddenly chimed in with outlandish speculation, Do-gyeong smacked their heads with practiced ease.

"Do you think the Commander is like you two? Going out and causing trouble? Huh? Watch your words."

"No, we were just joking. Besides, the Commander could do that too, right? Don't you all agree?"

"Come on, let's not slack off just because the Commander isn't here. Back to training!"

"Yes!"

"Wow. They're really ignoring us, huh?"

Gi-su and Gi-sang were, as always, on the receiving end of a scolding.

But did they know?

The twin brothers' words might just be right?

In any case, the training ground was once again filled with the energetic dying—no, training shouts of the White Wolf Unit.

"Oh? Hey, another one's fainted here. Quick, pour some water!"