Chapter 16: Day 16

“Hmmm…!”

The girl, who had devoured the soul, trembled with pleasure that coursed through her spine.

The soul, melting away with a scream filled with despair and pain, was converted into Demonic Qi.

The Demonic Qi that wrapped around her entire body eventually settled in her danjeon, and the Demonic Qi she possessed increased explosively.

Well, even so.

“It’s still not enough.”

Compared to the enormous amount of Demonic Qi she had handled at the White Snake Gate, it was still far from enough.

Nevertheless, it was at a somewhat satisfactory level.

This should be similar to the magic power of an average cultivator.

Also, the benefits the girl obtained from killing the young man were not limited to the Demonic Qi she obtained by devouring his soul.

“A treasure….”

The girl’s eyes turned to the young man’s right arm, which she had torn off.

The young man’s right arm, brutally torn off and rolling on the ground. More precisely, a steel fan was held in the hand attached to that arm.

That steel fan was one of the treasures.

When swung once, a black wind blew.

And that black wind decayed everything it touched.

At first glance, it looked like a fairly powerful treasure, but the reality was that it was only effective against ordinary people or cultivators at the Qi Condensation stage.

Still.

“It’s the second treasure.”

The girl, crushing the hardened hand and picking up the steel fan, muttered, stroking her face with her empty hand.

Obtained from the White Snake Gate.

The mask that allowed her to escape from the White Snake Gate. And even at this moment, it was on her face.

Ninefold Demonic Mask.

It was completely integrated with her skin, and she couldn’t take it off even if she wanted to. But it usually felt like nothing, so the girl often forgot that she was wearing the Ninefold Demonic Mask.

The girl took everything she could from the dead, no, killed young man’s body, including the steel fan, and moved slowly.

There were still things she couldn’t take from the young man’s body yet.

Hopefully.

“I hope it’s satisfactory.”

“Damn it. Damn it, damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

The Central Mountain Range.

A vast, magnificent mountain range that runs through the center of the continent.

At the entrance of the mountain range, there was a small bandit camp formed by bandits. A man, who was the leader of the bandits gathered in the camp, could not hide his anxiety.

The bandit leader, locked in his room, constantly muttering curses with an anxious expression.

The reason he was restless and cursing was simple.

“The contract is broken!”

The leader shouted.

The contract.

The contract he made with a frail-looking young man who suddenly appeared one day.

Although it was very unfair and very unreasonable, the leader had no choice but to accept it.

Because the young man who forced the contract was a cultivator, often mentioned in legends.

But, it wasn’t like the contract didn’t help the leader.

At least, the leader who made the contract could become the leader of the bandits who settled in the Central Mountain Range, albeit at the entrance.

But.

But!

The contract that made the current leader possible disappeared without a trace just a few hours ago.

The first time he realized it was simple.

The pattern that should have been engraved on the back of his hand.

The proof of the contract disappeared as if melting into the air.

When he found the pattern gradually fading and disappearing without a trace, the leader almost fainted in surprise.

The pattern disappeared.

The contract was terminated.

There’s no way that monster would terminate the contract on its own, so there’s only one way for that to be possible.

The monster’s death.

Who on earth could kill that monster?

Even the most powerful martial artists on the continent wouldn’t last a second against that monster.

Could it be?

“Another monster like that monster appeared…?”

The anxious leader muttered.

The only thing that could kill a monster was, no matter how much he thought about it, another monster.

Then, was that monster killed by a monster like himself, a cultivator who only appeared in legends?

“Damn it!”

The bandit leader, who had been deep in thought, shouted and ran out of the room.

Really.

If the reason that monster died was really because another monster appeared, this place was not safe either.

Because.

‘The thing that monster was looking for must have been another monster!’

Come to think of it, it was strange.

Suddenly, he dispatched his subordinates to this vast mountain range to find something that wasn’t even specified.

Literally, to find ‘something’.

If the thing the monster told him to find was really another monster,

and not only his subordinates but also the monster in the guise of a young man were killed by that monster, where would the monster that killed them all go next?

That’s right.

It would be his own, the source of it all, and this small bandit camp.

Having thought that far, the leader decided to take everything valuable and leave the camp immediately.

But the leader, who was running with the determination to escape, stiffened after taking only a few steps.

The remaining subordinates in the camp were lying on the ground without even screaming.

Subordinates whose arms and legs were completely smashed, only able to squirm like bugs.

And in the center, a girl was looking at him.

A young. And very small girl.

A girl with skin as pale as a corpse, looking at him with inorganic black eyes that showed no emotion.

A girl who seemed to have come out of a terrible nightmare was looking at him.

Looking. Looking. Looking. Looking. Looking. Looking.

The girl’s inorganic, deep black eyes with the abyss were looking at him.

The leader’s mind was eventually filled with the word ‘looking’, and then…

“Ahhhhhhh-!”

He screamed and collapsed.

The girl muttered, looking at the leader who suddenly screamed and collapsed without doing anything.

“What the hell is this?”

The girl, riding the black wind created by swinging the steel fan through the Central Mountain Range, eventually found a small bandit camp.

A small bandit camp full of traces of the Demonic Beast she had devoured.

When the girl landed in the center of the camp without hesitation.

“Huh? What’s this?”

“Sh*t, kid. Where did you come from?”

“I’m busy as hell, and this insignificant thing really.”

Where were they hiding in this small camp?

The girl thought, looking at the bandits who appeared one by one and surrounded her.

She had already killed over a dozen bandits.

Yet there were still nearly twenty bandits, twice that number, remaining in this small camp.

A total of thirty bandits.

And considering that there was once a Demonic Beast, although it was dead now.

‘It would have been quite a threatening force.’

With that thought, the girl examined the bandits one by one.

And then she thought.

“Why did that idiot have these?”

She couldn’t see any bandits with spiritual roots.

Nor did she see any bandits with special constitutions.

In the girl’s eyes, the bandits surrounding her were just old, fat.

Useless bugs.

Nothing more, nothing less.

That made her even more curious.

What the hell did that idiot want to do with these bugs?

Did he just keep them to feel like he was ruling over them?

If so.

“There probably isn’t anything that useful.”

The moment the girl muttered with a click of her tongue.

“What the f*ck is this b*tch muttering about!”

A bandit, unable to take it anymore, shouted and rushed in.

He quickly covered several meters in one step and swung a crude broadsword at the girl.

As a bandit active in the Central Mountain Range, the broadsword swung at the girl had a powerful momentum that seemed to be able to split even a large rock.

But.

Boom-!

“Ugh!”

The moment the swung broadsword touched the girl’s body, a powerful explosion occurred.

The bandit swept away by the explosion coughed up a handful of red blood and was thrown back.

The girl didn’t do anything, but the colleague who swung the broadsword coughed up blood and was thrown back, causing the surrounding bandits to widen their eyes.

The girl scanned the bandits once again.

“Still, they must be useful somewhere.”

That idiot, no matter how idiotic he was, wouldn’t have left these bugs without any thought.

If so, they must be useful somewhere.

At least, it wouldn’t be too late to dispose of these bugs after she collected all the things that idiot left somewhere here.

Having made that decision, the girl moved.

Boom!

With small explosions in both feet, the girl moved through the bandits.

Crack!

Argh!

S, save me!

Every time the girl passed by, a terrible sound of bones breaking, crack!, and the screams of bandits echoed.

It took less than a minute for the twenty bandits to be lying on the ground with their limbs smashed, squirming.

Just as the girl thought she had dealt with all the remaining bandits, she looked at another bandit who appeared late.

“Ahhhhhhh-!”

That bandit screamed and fainted.

The girl muttered, looking at the bandit who suddenly appeared, suddenly screamed, and suddenly fainted on his own.

“What the hell is this?”