novelraw Chapter 161 : Chapter 161
Chapter 161 : Chapter 161
Chapter 161. Flower (7)
Choyeon’s sword did not pierce the Moon Lord’s heart.
It wasn't that the Moon Lord dodged it.
“Keep him alive!”
At Jin Yuseong’s shout, Choyeon urgently twisted her sword path, and the blade dug into the shaman’s abdomen instead of his heart.
Jin Yuseong spoke to Choyeon.
“Wait a moment. Junior Sister. There are many things I need to ask this guy, and the price he has to pay for his sins is not small.”
Jin Yuseong turned his head to look at the shaman.
“Keuk…….”
The shaman groaned while clutching his pierced abdomen.
This was the reason Jin Yuseong had kept him alive.
Usually, interrogating assassins yielded little result.
That had been his experience so far.
But this guy was different.
The pain-filled scream he let out immediately after being cut in the side by Choyeon. And the anger-filled shout he directed at Choyeon.
He was completely different from other assassins.
So Jin Yuseong asked the shaman.
“Are you the Moon Lord?”
The shaman did not answer Jin Yuseong’s question.
Jin Yuseong stomped on the guy’s toes with his left foot.
The sound of joints shattering burst out.
Crunch.
At the same time, the shaman let out a stifled groan.
“Kueaaaaak!!”
Jin Yuseong asked again.
“Are you the Moon Lord?”
His mind was hazy, as if he would collapse at any moment. His whole body felt heavy as a thousand pounds. But Jin Yuseong bit his tongue to hold onto his consciousness.
After breaking a few more of the guy’s finger and toe bones, the shaman answered fluently whenever asked.
“Ye, yes. I, I am the master of Red Moon Falling Flowers.”
The guy rolled his eyes even while answering. As if looking for a gap to escape.
Jin Yuseong swung his arm and removed the cloth covering the Moon Lord’s face.
A wrinkled face was revealed.
His hair must have been dyed black by some method, as it was clearly the face of an old man.
Jin Yuseong broke one of the guy’s remaining intact fingers.
Crack.
And then continued the questioning.
“Where are the rest of them?”
The ones he had killed were the First Moon, Fourth Moon, and the Moon Lord.
He had no news about the Second Moon, Third Moon, or the Vice-Moon Lord.
After spitting out information about the hideouts of the Second and Third Moons, the Moon Lord rolled his eyes again.
Jin Yuseong cut off one of the guy’s fingers with the Master’s Blade.
Slice!
“Aaaaaaahk!”
Only after screaming did the Moon Lord confess the truth.
“I, I left them at the Emerald Crossing River.”
“Emerald Crossing River?”
Jin Yuseong felt inexplicably anxious. Come to think of it, Nam Geon and Baek Hyang, who had been sent to the Emerald Crossing River, had not returned yet.
He had destroyed the things related to the sorcery, but what if they had been killed by that Vice-Moon Lord?
While such ominous imaginations floated in his mind, a presence was felt from the side.
Turning his head with a whoosh, he saw a familiar figure.
Nam Geon, covered in blood, was approaching. With Baek Hyang carried on one shoulder.
Jin Yuseong let out a sigh of relief and turned his head.
The Moon Lord was also looking in that direction. With his teeth clenched tight.
It seemed he had been waiting for the Vice-Moon Lord who was supposed to be at the Emerald Crossing River.
Even after that, Jin Yuseong’s interrogation continued.
He broke parts of the Moon Lord’s body.
Crunch.
He also sliced off bits of the guy’s body with the Master’s Blade.
Slice.
There was no guilt, nor was there any sense of gratification. It just felt like doing work that had to be done.
After roughly grasping the remnants of Red Moon Falling Flowers, he asked the Moon Lord, whose face was turning pale.
“The Unwavering Heart Divine Art and the Hundred Blood Vessel Technique. Are these things you created yourself?”
From the moment he first learned that Choyeon practiced these, an ominous thought had arisen in Jin Yuseong’s mind.
The Lust Demon he had dealt with in the past with Nam Geon.
The Choi Clan Head who tormented the beggars in Chimju.
The Hundred Blood Vessel Technique practiced by the Red Moon Falling Flowers assassins.
All of them were methods of stealing blood or energy from others.
Even the future Lust Disaster had learned such a method, and since the Killing Demon was also an assassin of Red Moon Falling Flowers, he must have learned the Hundred Blood Vessel Technique.
These methods were secretly spreading throughout the Gangho.
‘Perhaps there is something I do not know.’
The trash running wild in the current era.
The Seven Evils that would throw the world into chaos in the future.
While these existences committed heinous acts on the surface, could there be guys operating in secret behind the scenes?
However, the Moon Lord’s answer was different from Jin Yuseong’s expectation.
“T, that is right. I, I created them.”
At the Moon Lord’s answer, Jin Yuseong continued the torture.
It wasn’t because he was certain it was a lie.
He was trash who deserved to die anyway.
No, just killing him would actually be a luxury for this guy.
The residents this guy killed here. Those who had died at the hands of Red Moon Falling Flowers until now.
Furthermore, the pain suffered by the children dragged or kidnapped to Red Moon Falling Flowers in the process of becoming assassins.
Compared to those things, the pain this guy was suffering was nothing.
After slicing the Moon Lord’s body for a while as if testing how much torture a human could withstand.
The Moon Lord changed his words with a scream.
“I, I didn’t make them! P, please. P, please spare me. N, no. P, please just kill me.”
“Then where did you get them?”
Asking back, Jin Yuseong swung his sword again.
Jin Yuseong continued the torture every time the Moon Lord stammered, and the Moon Lord’s scream-filled answers followed.
Decades ago. When the Moon Lord was in the midst of studying sorcery. He said a young man came to find him.
He said the guy easily broke the Moon Lord’s sorcery despite his young age and left after giving him a single book.
That book contained methods to gain power through blood.
But the Moon Lord did not trust that young man or the book.
So he kidnapped people and researched the methods in that book.
The Unwavering Heart Divine Art and the Hundred Blood Vessel Technique were what he created by improving the methods written in the book after such human experimentation.
Not only that, but he said most of the blood sorcery he used were things created by applying what was written in that book.
After the guy’s story ended. Jin Yuseong asked the Moon Lord, whose face had turned pale.
“What is that young bastard’s name?”
Jin Yuseong’s fist was trembling.
Perhaps the reason the world was so chaotic, and why the great evils called the Seven Evils ran wild in the future, might be because of those guys.
Jin Yuseong continued to ask while hacking at the Moon Lord’s body, but there wasn't much the Moon Lord knew.
He described the young man’s appearance, but since decades had passed, it didn't mean much. He would be at least middle-aged by now.
“I, I also mobilized assassins to look for him, but I c, couldn’t find him.”
This was also the same.
There was only one piece of useful information.
“C, come to think of it, he spouted some strange nonsense. It was a story about Cicadas.”
“Cicadas?”
“T, that is correct. He asked what I thought about cicadas. And he said such things while handing me the book.”
The guy continued speaking while forcing himself to fumble through hazy memories from decades ago.
“He said cicadas hide underground for several years to over a decade before undergoing eclosion. But he said that among humans, those born with lowly talent live their whole lives stuck in the mud without ever undergoing eclosion, and then end their lives.”
“He added these words. That they are those who help the lowly larvae that will be trampled on their whole lives without even becoming cicadas.”
Jin Yuseong felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
He clenched his teeth and held onto his consciousness.
Perhaps because of the accumulated fatigue and internal injuries, his mind was becoming hazy.
Nam Geon, who had approached while he was torturing the Moon Lord. And Baek Hyang, who was being carried by Nam Geon, asked urgently.
“A, are you okay? Brother?”
“S, Senior Brother, are you alright?”
Dang Sopyeong had also approached at some point and was waving his fingers in front of his eyes.
“Look here. How many do you see?”
Jin Yuseong swung his hand to slap Dang Sopyeong’s hand away and focused his mind.
He ruminated on the memories of his past life related to cicadas.
Perhaps because it was an old memory, or because of fatigue, hazy memories brushed past.
Then at some moment. One memory abruptly surfaced.
***
That day was a summer day with the scorching sun beating down.
In a corner of Heavenly Sun Village, Jin Yuseong was swinging his sword that day as well.
About two years ago. The Daoist named Yeongcheon who had saved him said. That he should quit because he had no talent.
But Jin Yuseong could not stop.
He believed he could overcome talent with effort.
After swinging his sword like a madman for a while. A man’s figure appeared in Jin Yuseong’s eyes.
Age around early to mid-thirties. He was a man with a pretty-boy face who looked like he would have made quite a few women cry in his youth.
When Jin Yuseong put down his sword and stared at the man, the man turned his head.
Towards the direction where the sound of cicadas crying could be heard.
“Did you know? Cicadas are insects that undergo eclosion after being stuck in the mud for several years. Isn’t it truly beautiful?”
The man, who spouted random words, turned his head again to look at Jin Yuseong.
“How about you? Don’t you want to escape the mud and undergo eclosion? No matter what means you use.”
At the man’s question, Jin Yuseong frowned and answered.
“If you’re going to spout nonsense, get lost.”
And then he lifted his sword again and swung it in the air.
He practiced basic martial arts learned from a rural sect, and also mimicked the sword art shown by the Daoist named Yeongcheon.
He swung his sword under the scorching sun until his whole body was soaked in sweat.
Around the time he collapsed because he didn't have the strength to lift a finger. The man who had kept his spot until then opened his mouth.
“It seems your destiny is that you cannot become a cicada no matter what means you use.”
The man, who hadn’t shed a drop of sweat despite being under the scorching sun, vanished without a trace along with those words.
***
A bitter smile was drawn on the lips of Jin Yuseong, who recalled the memory of his past life.
He had once raised such a question.
They seek out those who crave power and give them demonic arts.
Jin Yuseong in his past life was also a perfect target for them.
But why didn't they come to find him?
It turned out they had contacted Jin Yuseong as well.
Jin Yuseong just hadn't noticed it.
But he didn't let out a sneer at himself for being oblivious.
That man did not give Jin Yuseong demonic arts.
Why?
Did he look like a guy who wouldn't touch demonic arts at a glance?
Jin Yuseong asked himself.
What if someone had given him demonic arts at that time? During that period when he was angry at his own talent and angry at the world.
Would he really not have learned that demonic art?
Jin Yuseong himself couldn't be sure.
Then why didn't the guy give Jin Yuseong the demonic art?
Jin Yuseong felt he knew the answer.
Because the answer was hidden in the words the guy spat out before leaving.
- It seems your destiny is that you cannot become a cicada no matter what means you use.
Words disregarding his talent were familiar, so Jin Yuseong didn't pay attention to them back then either. That was why he had forgotten this old memory.
But with his experiences added, it sounded different.
Nam Geon and the Lecher he killed. The Choi Clan Head. The Moon Lord here. And even the future Lust Disaster.
They weren't simply ‘people who want to gain power even if they have to kill others’.
They had one more commonality.
That was talent.
Without even going as far as the Moon Lord or the future Lust Disaster, the Choi Clan Head and the Lecher were superior to Jin Yuseong in his past life.
It meant that even the guys who said they give chances to those stuck in the mud turned away. From Jin Yuseong’s talent.
So Jin Yuseong mocked them.
“They weren't just all talk; they were guys who lived with lies in their mouths.”
They talked about giving chances to those stuck in the mud, but they were nitpicking over talent.
Also, the opportunity they gave was at best demonic arts. Ugly demonic arts that gain power by killing others.
Furthermore, most people who learned those demonic arts died from going berserk or qi deviation.
As his thoughts reached that point, Jin Yuseong’s sneer deepened.
“Ah. So out of all the insects, that’s why it was a cicada.”
A cicada that has undergone eclosion cries madly during the summer and then dies just like that.
Just like the guys who learn demonic arts, run wild, and croak shortly after.
While he was continuing his thoughts. Dang Sopyeong interrupted again.
“Look here. What have you been muttering to yourself since earlier? Are you really crazy?”
Turning his head, he saw that Nam Geon and Junior Sister Baek Hyang also had faces full of worry. As expected, only Choyeon had an indifferent face.
Jin Yuseong swept a glance over them and answered.
“More people who need to be killed have appeared.”
“The guys you want to kill aren’t just one or two.”
“They are guys who go around scattering demonic arts. There are largely two traces. One is that they spout nonsense about cicadas. The second is that they are guys who look like pretty boys.”
Judging by the timing. Jin Yuseong met that guy roughly ten years later.
If it is now, ten years ago, he would have an even more pretty-boy-like face.
“……I understand the former, but what kind of insane talk is the latter? Do you have an inferiority complex about looks? Why kill handsome men?”
At Dang Sopyeong’s point, Jin Yuseong snorted and answered.
“There is a guy who spouted insane nonsense about cicadas to me too. He was a guy who looked as fair as a woman.”
If he could just find that guy, it seemed he could reveal the identity of the guys scattering demonic arts.