Chapter 14: Day 14

“Damn it, what the hell is the boss trying to find?”

“I know, right?”

A dozen or so grim-looking men grumbled as they wandered the mountain range.

Just a few hours ago, a feast was held to commemorate the raid of a village.

But they were complaining about having to wander the mountain range and look for ‘something’ under the ‘boss’s’ orders.

By the way.

“Was the Central Mountain Range always this gloomy?”

A dozen bandits, pushing through the bushes.

One of them muttered with a frown at the unusually gloomy atmosphere around him.

Although they had only recently joined the bandit gang, they had traveled for quite some time, raiding numerous villages and robbing travelers who unknowingly entered the mountain range.

However, the mountain range felt more unfamiliar now than ever.

It was somewhat gloomy.
And somewhat eerie.

Just as some of the bandits were unknowingly shivering.

Rustle-

Flinch!

“Wh-Who’s there!”

A faint sound coming from somewhere.

Startled by the sound of something rustling through the bushes, the bandits quickly raised their weapons and shouted.

The eyes of the bandits looking in the direction of the sound showed obvious caution, along with a subtle fear.

Squeak!

A beast that emerged from the bushes where the bandits’ gazes were directed tilted its head with a rather cute sound.

Then, startled by the gazes of the bandits looking at it, it quickly ran away.

“Phew, f*ck.
It was a deer.”

One of the bandits, after confirming its identity, muttered with a deep sigh.

“Move….”

The leader.

A head taller than the other bandits, with a more rugged build.

Even the greatsword on his back looked heavier, harder, and mightier than the others.
He was about to speak but stopped.

Something was strange.

He felt an indescribable sense of incongruity.

So.

“One, two, three, four….”

“Hmm?
Boss, is something wrong?”

One of his subordinates asked with a puzzled look as the bandit suddenly started counting their numbers.
However, the bandit just continued to count, paying no attention to his subordinate’s question.

“…Nine.”

Including himself, a total of nine.

No matter how many times he counted again, the number nine neither decreased nor increased.

“F*ck.”

“Wh-What is it?”

“Run away immediately.”

The bandit who answered like that ran.

Behind him, the bandit’s subordinates followed with puzzled expressions.

Just why was he reacting so oversensitively?

Just what was so scary?

With those questions in mind, how many minutes had passed as they followed the bandit who was running ahead?

“Haa!
Haa!
B-Boss!
Wait a minute!
Stop for a moment!”

“What the hell is going on?”

“At least tell us the reason before we run!”

The shouts of his subordinates coming from behind.

At that, the bandit who was called boss.
The one running at the very front, stopped in his tracks.

“What the hell is going on?”

One of the subordinates asked, facing the stopped bandit.

To answer that subordinate’s question, the bandit turned around, frowned, and muttered.

“You’ve got to be f*cking kidding me.”

There were supposed to be nine, including himself, but in that short time, two more had disappeared.

And so stealthily that even the subordinates chasing from behind didn’t notice.

Whether it was bandits, a village.

Or someone else’s fight.

The girl, who had given up on that and turned back, was still wandering the mountain range.

However, after wandering around for several hours and not finding a single trace of a person, just as the girl was gradually getting tired, they appeared.

A dozen or so grim-looking men.

They were carrying weapons such as swords, sabers, or axes on their backs or waists.

Like the girl, they were wandering the mountain range, looking for ‘something’.

What were they looking for?

More importantly, where did they come from?

Were they people who originally lived somewhere in the mountain range?

Or did they come from outside?

No, no.

That wasn’t what was important right now.

What was important was.

‘It’s people!’

The girl shouted inwardly and her eyes lit up.

People.
It was people.

And they weren’t wandering wild beasts.
Nor were they proper cultivators belonging to some sect.

They looked a bit grim.

They were a bit big.
And they had good quality weapons.

But they were ordinary people.

They were clearly ordinary people.

But.

‘The smell of blood.’

The girl, who had approached them with stealthy movements, muttered.

A strong smell of blood wafted from them.

And it wasn’t an old smell, but a very fresh smell of blood.

Could it be?

‘Were those guys the ones in that fight earlier?’

The girl muttered.

“It’s a shame.”

If those guys were the protagonists of that fight.

That fight would have been just a fight between ordinary people.

If a cultivator.
No, even if a wandering wild beast was involved in that fight, those guys wouldn’t be able to swagger through the mountain range like this.

While the girl was thinking about them.

The men, who looked like bandits, were constantly wandering around the mountains.

It looked like they were looking for something.

The girl, who was secretly following and watching them from behind.

‘There’s no danger.’

She had been just watching, thinking that maybe those bandits were bait to lure her out.

But now she knew.

Those guys were not bait or a trap to lure her out.

They were really just a group of a dozen or so ordinary people, looking for something.

Then.

‘There’s no need to hold back anymore.’

She had been feeling extremely hungry since a while ago.

It was somewhat weaker than the terrible time she had felt in solitude, but it was still enough hunger to trigger her PTSD.

The girl moved to relieve this hunger.
And to accumulate Demonic Qi.

With the body of a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, she could take a step of several meters.

However, there was not a single sound in the girl’s movements.

The girl, moving stealthily like a snake.

Eventually, the girl appeared behind a man who was the farthest from the group.

Whoosh!

The girl’s hand, like a snake snatching its prey, stretched out quickly, tenaciously, and cruelly, cutting through the air.

Crunch!

The girl’s hand, which had been stretched out in an instant, instantly grabbed the man’s neck.

And she crushed his neck before he could even scream.

The man, caught in the girl’s hand, died without even making a sound, his tongue lolling out.

The girl dragged the corpse of the man she had just killed and melted into the darkness of the forest.

Ugh.

She ate the heart, freshly dug out from the still-fresh corpse, without hesitation.

There was no sign of disgust on the girl’s face at eating the heart of a fellow human being raw.

No, it didn’t exist.

In the first place, if she had such disgust, the girl wouldn’t have survived for three years in solitude.

“Haa..”

After eating the heart for a while to relieve her hunger.

And drinking the still-fresh blood to quench her thirst, the girl smiled in satisfaction.

It had been almost four years since she had eaten anything other than Byeokgokdan, so maybe that was why.

It was a rather satisfying meal.

Then now.

“I have to get the Demonic Qi back.”

So muttered the girl, looking down at the corpse with a hollow hole in its chest.

Faint in the girl’s eyes.
And a thread of darkness that felt somewhat gloomy was flowing out.

It was one of the powers belonging to the Ninefold Nether Body Explosion Art that she had obtained, the Ninefold Nether Demonic Eyes.

Although she had lost all her Demonic Qi and couldn’t fully utilize its power.

Still, the girl could see the soul of the ordinary person lingering on the corpse from which she had eaten the heart.

The soul reflected in the girl’s eyes had a hollow hole in its chest, just like the corpse lying on the ground.

In addition, blood tears were constantly flowing from its eyes, but there was one more noticeable feature.

It was fear.

The soul lingering on the corpse.

The whole and rightful owner of the corpse from which the girl had eaten the heart was terrified and struggled to get away from the girl somehow.

The girl chuckled at the soul’s reaction and reached out her hand.

Ninefold Nether Body Explosion Art Soul Eating Demonic Hand.

Whoosh.

A faint suction force was generated from the outstretched hand of the girl, and eventually, the soul, trembling in fear and struggling to escape somehow, was sucked in.

Kyaaaaaa-!

A scream that a living human could not hear.

However, the girl frowned slightly as if she could hear the scream of that soul and muttered.

“Noisy.”

However, after enduring some noise and devouring the soul of the ordinary person, the girl eventually smiled.

The soul eaten through the Soul Eating Demonic Hand.

The soul that flowed in through her hand melted here and there within her.
And eventually, the melted soul headed for her danjeon.
And so, the soul that headed there eventually became Demonic Qi and settled down.

Although the amount was smaller than a grain of millet.

It was so meager that it was embarrassing to even compare it to the vast and mighty Demonic Qi that she had wielded within the White Snake Gate.

Still, a satisfactory smile bloomed on the girl’s lips.

At least, she realized that her worry that she might not be able to accumulate Demonic Qi at all was in vain.

Then now.

“It’s time to devour them all.”

So muttered the girl, looking at the bandits running far away with eyes full of a gloomy light.