Chapter 23: Day 23

A deserted building located in the back alley of Zuhang.

Even among the beggars who lived in the back alley, it was like an abandoned house, but people were secretly gathering there.

Their clothes were all different, but they all had one thing in common: they looked tough.

Among them, a man.

He had a red snake tattoo on his back, and he was the first to speak.

“The tyranny of the Black Mountain Sect is getting worse day by day.”

At the words of the man with the red snake tattoo, the other people around him nodded in agreement.

The people gathered here were all members of the dark sects in Zuhang, and they had been having a headache because of the Black Mountain Sect, which had suddenly started rampaging a week ago.

Originally, the Black Mountain Sect was not even worth their attention.

Although they were a dark sect like them, they had been established in Zuhang for at least ten years, and at most thirty years.

The Black Mountain Sect was less than five years old.

Moreover, only Tyrant Blade had barely reached the level of a second-rate martial artist, and the rest were nothing more than punks.

But now the situation had changed.

They didn’t know what they had done, but the skills of the Black Mountain Sect had noticeably changed.

In addition, they began to capture people indiscriminately, and it would have been fine if they only captured beggars or vagrants in the back alley.

But they dared to kidnap people outside the back alley.

As a result, even the back alley, which was a kind of extra-legal zone, was now patrolled by many guards.

Because of this, the other dark sects in Zuhang had to be cautious, and that was why they could no longer just watch the tyranny of the Black Mountain Sect and had prepared this meeting.

Really.

“What happened to them?”

The man with the red snake tattoo, who had spoken first.

He stomped his feet roughly and spoke again.

An unmistakable anger was seeping out of his frowning eyes, and it wasn’t just the man with the red snake tattoo who was expressing such anger.

“According to rumors, the owner of the Black Mountain Sect has changed.”

“The owner has changed?”

“Yes. The original owner of the Black Mountain Sect, Tyrant Blade, has disappeared, and instead, a little kid that no one has ever heard of has become the new owner of the Black Mountain Sect.”

At the words of the monster, who was completely covered in a black suit like an assassin, the man with the red snake tattoo fell silent.

The owner of the Black Mountain Sect had changed?

That in itself was nothing special.

The owner of the Black Mountain Sect, Tyrant Blade, was just a bug who had barely reached the level of a second-rate martial artist.

But to think that a little kid had become the new owner in place of such a Tyrant Blade.

Could it be…

“Was there any outside intervention?”

This time, it was an old man who seemed to be the oldest among the people gathered in the abandoned house.

He had a long spear on his back, and a sharp energy flowed from his whole body.

At the old man’s words, some people nodded silently as if they agreed.

An outside force infiltrated Zuhang.

They killed Tyrant Blade and swallowed the Black Mountain Sect.

And they put an ignorant kid in front to make them let their guard down. Then they moved to swallow Zuhang.

Certainly, it was a possible hypothesis.

But.

If that was really the case.

Then why. And for what reason.

“Why are they indiscriminately capturing vagrants, beggars, and residents of Zuhang?”

The man with the red snake tattoo muttered as if he couldn’t understand.

Even if they moved secretly and quietly, they wouldn’t be able to completely deceive the eyes of those around them.

If an outside force was really using the Black Mountain Sect to cause a riot. Why were they moving so conspicuously?

The people gathered here couldn’t understand that.

If you looked at what the Black Mountain Sect was doing now, it was as if they wanted to make enemies of all organizations in Zuhang, regardless of whether they were in the underworld or the light.

It was as if they wanted to make enemies of the city of Zuhang itself.

“That’s not it.”

A low voice from the ceiling.

At that, all the people gathered in the abandoned house drew their weapons.

Someone drew a sword.

Someone gripped a spear.

Someone grabbed a hammer beside them.

And someone else took out two daggers from their bosom.

So, as their eyes, each of whom had drawn their weapons, turned to the ceiling of the abandoned house, where the mysterious voice had come from.

“Where are you looking?”

Chuckle-.

This time, the same voice came from under the floor.

At that, everyone who had looked up at the ceiling froze.

There wasn’t even a rat on the ceiling they were looking at.

Instead, the moment the mysterious voice echoed from under the old, rotten wooden floor. A monster emerged through the gap.

At first, they didn’t even think it was a human.

They just thought that a huge snake had emerged from the gap in the floor.

But the snake they thought so, in the blink of an eye, with a strange sound of creaking! It turned into a monster.

The monster’s appearance was ordinary.

Too ordinary.

The kind of appearance you might encounter once while walking on the street.

No matter how closely you looked, it was such an ordinary appearance that you would forget what he looked like as soon as you turned around.

That’s why it felt so strange, a ‘monster’ with such an ordinary appearance.

He chuckled and said.

“The Black Mountain Sect… was it? The one that’s causing trouble in the back alley of this city right now.”

“Who are you?”

“Do you know that? Although they seem to be capturing people indiscriminately, they are following a certain rule.”

“I asked who you are-!”

Whoosh!

At the monster who kept talking to himself, they aimed their weapons.

The weapons in their hands, which exuded the aura of real martial artists, unlike Tyrant Blade, were ready to be swung at any moment.

If the monster did anything suspicious, they would kill him without hesitation.

Even though he knew that fact, the monster didn’t show any sign of tension.

No, it wasn’t just a lack of tension.

From the monster they were looking at, they felt a sense of incongruity that went beyond just his ‘ordinary appearance’.

How should they put it?

What words should they use to describe it?

Yes.

The sense of incongruity they felt from the monster, beyond his ordinary appearance.

It was as if…

‘As if he perceives us not as humans, but as mere insects…’

“Chuckle-.”

At the sudden sound of the monster’s laughter, their bodies, which had been continuing to think, flinched.

At the same time, all of them gathered in the abandoned house unknowingly took a step back.

But they looked as if they didn’t understand why they had retreated from the monster.

The monster scanned the martial artists of the dark sects and continued.

“There’s no need to be so serious. I just want to do my job.”

“Your job?”

“Yes. You guys are thinking that the Black Mountain Sect is being used as a tool by a force that has entered from outside, right? That’s not exactly wrong. It’s just.”

The more the monster spoke, the wider everyone’s eyes became.

That was because the words of the monster in front of them were words that they could not even imagine.

The monster grinned at them, who were unable to properly recover from the shock of his words.

“So, you guys just need to follow my orders. The rest…”

He would take care of it himself.

The monster, who said that, turned into a snake, just like when he first appeared, and disappeared.

“Damn it, this is quite difficult.”

A basement where not a single ray of light entered.

Cheon Seo Ah, who was trying to make a new Thousand Spirit Corpse Poison Pill using the ingredients that were constantly supplied through the Black Mountain Sect, which she had swallowed, muttered.

In the Central Mountain Range, all the processes were finished, and only the finishing touches were left, so.

She didn’t think it was that difficult, or annoying.

Or that it was somewhat complicated.

But when she tried to do everything from start to finish by herself, it was quite annoying and complicated.

Especially the most important thing was preparing the cauldron for the elixir.

An ordinary one could not handle the corpse poison, let alone the souls used as ingredients.

But if she tried to prepare a proper one, her current status, which was not much different from that of the wandering vagrants she looked down on, held her back.

For now, she had somehow managed to imitate it based on the information in the books she had read in the White Snake Gate.

“I need to find it as soon as possible.”

Among the corpses constantly emitting corpse poison, Cheon Seo Ah muttered with eyes gleaming with madness.