Chapter 170. Even If I Have to Paint Myself with Lacquer or Swallow Charcoal (16)

Woo-Moon placed Yu Yu on top of Eun-Ah and, in spite of his sheer disgust, grabbed the village chief and picked him up.

“Huh? W-wait a moment, please!”

Du So-Heung hurriedly chased after Woo-Moon, while the other Kunlun Sect disciples followed swiftly behind, carrying the unconscious Ki Yeon-Oh behind them.

***

It was the middle of a dark night.

On this night, Ma-Ra had attacked and absorbed the last struggling assassins, achieving a complete unification of all assassin forces.

Ma-Ra sat alone on the roof of a massive palace she now owned, looking up at the night sky.

With her right leg dangling and her arms hugging her left knee, at this very moment, she looked as if she was just a normal pretty teenager.

Of course, from up close, it was clear that her face was still as emotionless as a doll’s, and she was now wearing a tight black uniform, as befitting of an assassin, rather than her white floral gown.

Thwip!

The air next to her rippled as a black shadow emerged and knelt next to her.

“Have you still not found them?”

Black Assassin lowered his head with an expression of regret.

“No. We’re mobilizing all of our intelligence organizations to search beyond Gansu Province and the other surrounding provinces, but at least for now, we haven’t been able to find anything.

“I see...”

A hint of sadness glimmered in Ma-Ra’s eyes.

Every time Black Assassin saw her like this, it felt like his heart was breaking.

It wasn’t from any affection between a man and a woman. Instead, from the moment he discovered the unexpected weakness of his goddess, he had begun to treat her as if she were his younger sister or even his daughter. Thus, her pain was like his own.

Trying to change the mood, he drew a bottle from his sleeve and politely handed it to her, smiling sheepishly.

“Hehe, this is something I worked really hard to get: a bottle of Daughter’s Red.”[1]

In her tight black uniform, Ma-Ra held out her pure white hand and took the Daughter’s Red, putting the bottle to her mouth and gulping it down.

The deep purple wine that seemed almost crimson under the moonlight flowed down her delicate neck and soaked into her uniform.

‘Ha... that was really expensive...’

Although Black Assassin sighed to himself, he didn’t dare express it openly.

Ma-Ra almost finished the entire bottle in one sitting—it wasn’t that potent an alcohol, after all. Suddenly, just as she was about to drink the last drop, she opened her eyes sharply and threw the bottle away.

Boom!

Just as Black Assassin was taken aback by Ma-Ra’s sudden action, the bottle of wine hit something in the air and exploded.

“Hahaha! Are you trying to show that you’re that bitch they call the Death God or something? To think you could see me so quickly.”

Red aura spread out like a flood, filling the space around them. And it was followed by the strong scent of blood!

A young man who seemed more beautiful than any woman suddenly appeared in the space dotted with red.

Black Assassin was so shocked that he stood up and shouted, “Blood Cloud Devil Emperor!”

Since the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor had such a notorious reputation, it was impossible not to recognize him, even more so after seeing his token cloud of blood.

Eight assassins simultaneously revealed themselves around the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor, surrounding him. As Ma-Ra’s personal escorts, each of them was a Special Rank Assassin.

Ma-Ra had never met the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor. After all, Woo-Moon had met her only after his encounters with the man. Still, he had told Ma-Ra plenty of stories during their time together, and she naturally knew about his connection with the evil Absolute Master. Even though she didn’t know him personally, she recognized him right away.

“What do you want?” she asked in a cold tone.

The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor let out a chuckle as he walked toward her.

“Stop right there!” Black Assassin shouted, and he was the first of the assassins to get himself together and throw a hidden weapon. Quickly after, Ma-Ra’s other guards also threw various hidden weapons.

“You gnats, piss off! You’re interrupting our conversation!”

As the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor snapped, a bloody film formed around him, and everything around him seemed to move at the pace of a snail.

He took out his weapon, the Mad Devil Blood Fan, and swung it violently. The blood pushed away by the fan turned into sharp spears as it flew toward all who attacked him.

“...”

Ma-Ra, who had been watching with cold eyes, finally moved.

Woosh!

Right as her figure disappeared, two Silver Moon Discs flew through the night sky, cleaving through the blood spears created by the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor.

Riip!!

Ma-Ra’s figure suddenly flickered, appearing next to the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor in an instant. Her sword tore through the night sky, aiming for the emperor’s throat.

‘Ugh!’

The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor groaned in shock at her incredible speed and quickly retreated.

However, Ma-Ra’s sword seemed to move as if it were alive, not wanting to let the emperor’s throat get away quickly.

While she was also forced to move around the Blood Cloud Vampiric Membrane like the others, her movements didn’t slow in any way as theirs did.

The Blood Cloud Vampiric Membrane was a weapon suitable for dealing with a group of people weaker than the user. However, it was not of much use against people of equal strength, much less against stronger ones.

Thus, the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor was forced to condense the widely spread Blood Cloud Vampiric Membrane into Blood Aura and use it to block Ma-Ra’s swift sword.

Squelch!

With a tremendous sound, as if a massive amount of blood splattered against the ground, the two quickly separated.

Then, the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor smiled somewhat bitterly and shook his head.

“It seems the rumors of the Death God reappearing were true. To think an assassin actually reached the Absolute realm! Oh, by the way, I have no intention of fighting you right now.”

“Then why did you come here?”

Being apart from Woo-Moon made Ma-Ra uncomfortable in more than one way.

More than anything else, it was just too bothersome having to talk to others. Unlike Woo-Moon, who understood everything she wanted even from a single word of hers, others had to hear full explanations.

“Actually, I received orders to kill you, but I don’t know if I want to just yet. I’ve decided to just watch you for now.”

Ma-Ra thought for a moment.

She didn’t fear the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor. However, she was well aware that she would suffer if she wasn’t careful. Moreover, her subordinates would definitely get hurt or even killed.

Thus, she also decided to wait and see for now.

“What do you mean?”

“I think you resemble someone I used to know.”

Black Assassin almost burst out laughing at those words, thinking it was just too obvious of a move. He clearly thought that the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor was doing this because Ma-Ra’s beauty had seduced him.

The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor was a famous bringer of misfortune. Moreover, no matter his personal story, he was still a murderer among murderers and an evil monster among evil monsters. He was someone who killed innocent people without even blinking, so what kind of qualms would he have if he dealt with assassins like them?

Black Assassin didn’t like the idea of having someone like that around, and that held doubly true if said person was lusting after Ma-Ra, his revered Death God.

Thus, Black Assassin was about to open his mouth and advise Ma-Ra to kick him out immediately.

However, at that moment, Ma-Ra shrugged and sat back down.

“Do as you please. However, if you touch my subordinates, you’re dead.”

The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor looked over at Black Assassin.

“You heard her, right?”

“Hmph...”

Black Assassin couldn’t understand his master’s actions. All he could do was mutter to himself and retreat.

The commotion thus ended, Ma-Ra returned to savoring the lingering scent of Daughter’s Red that remained in her mouth.

Starlight sparkled in her bright and cool eyes.

The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor stood on the roof of the pavilion opposite Ma-Ra’s and watched her quietly.

As for Black Assassin and the other guards, they stayed up all night, extremely wary of the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor.

Ma-Ra didn’t care whether or not the others were around.

She looked at the softly shining moon with her indifferent gaze and muttered to herself, “Now... should I go back?”

***

Right after Woo-Moon left, the villagers gathered together with dark expressions and talked about various things.

Most of them had nothing to say but curses for the village chief, Woo-Moon, and Ki Yeon-Oh.

Two of the more good-natured villagers, who had special affection for their daughters who had been sacrificed in the past, stood aside and shed tears. Meanwhile, others were whining and clutching at their paralyzed arms.

While the pain was a problem, they were more worried about what would happen in their future. It was possible to farm with one arm, but “possible” did not mean “easy.”

As the villagers talked about their concerns, a strange sound echoed throughout the village.

Sssss!!!

A serpent much bigger than the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent that Eun-Ah had killed appeared in front of the village, a great golden horn flashing.

“Agh!!”

All of the villagers screamed in fear as the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent looked around at the people with a venomous gaze.

The males of the species had golden horns, while the females had blood-colored horns. The species had a very skewed male-to-female ratio, with each male mating with three to five female serpents simultaneously.

However, because the female serpents were extraordinarily proud and refused to tolerate another female in her presence, the male serpent would dig a cave for each of its mates far away from each other and take turns with each mate separately.

Male Golden-Horned Poison Serpents usually changed their residence every thirty years, and it just so happened that this one was moving here.

Naturally, the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent was absolutely enraged at the sight in front of it. It had come all this way just to see its mate murdered and eviscerated horribly, and it could even smell the scent of many small beings in his mate’s cave, along with the scent of another spirit beast.

Thus, it quickly followed the scent of the largest groups of beings, which also seemed the weakest. At the end of the trail, it stumbled upon the gathering.

When the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent attacked, it grabbed a few villagers at once with its tongue and swallowed them whole.

Bang!

At the same time, its huge tail struck the houses around it like a whip, causing the walls to crack and houses to collapse. Clouds of poison came out of its mouth and even its scales, causing the villagers who breathed it in to vomit blood and collapse.

Within mere minutes, there was not one living being in the village aside from the serpent.

Hisssss!!!

Still, the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent’s anger had not subsided.

It thought to itself that there had been many other scents in its mate’s cave. It had to take revenge on that spirit beast who killed its mate and the beings that were with it.

Moreover, as it turned out, these odd beings that walked on two legs and let out weird sounds tasted delicious.

Woosh!

The Golden-Horned Poison Serpent moved, flicking his tongue and sniffing the air before heading toward the direction his targets were moving.

Then, it suddenly stopped.

A small bipedal being had appeared in front of it. The one with the most dangerous scent among all beings it had ever smelled.

Woo-Moon walked forward slowly and stood in front of the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent.

“I’m not here to kill you just because you killed some humans that were worse than beasts. Unfortunately, you’ve already developed a taste for human flesh. Moreover, your next target is us, so how can I just stand by? Sorry, but I’ll have to stop you.”

At some point on the way back, Woo-Moon had felt a strange sensation behind him. So, he had left Yu Yu in Eun-Ah’s care and turned around, running like the wind.

‘So they were ultimately punished by heaven, then. What can I say... Did I really hope for something like this to happen?’

Woo-Moon shook the gloom from his mind and looked at the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent with a cold gaze.

Woosh!

Realizing that this was a major crisis, the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent opened its mouth wide and lunged at the being in front of it, its speed absolutely tremendous.

Clang!

Woo-Moon unleashed an Impenetrable Golden Wall around himself, quickly blocking the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent's attack.

At the same time, he jumped up and stomped on the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent's head.

BANG!

Although Woo-Moon’s feet seemed minuscule next to the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent’s head, the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent’s head jolted down as if it had been struck by a massive boulder.

Then, Lightflash and Inkblade emerged from their scabbards engulfed in vivid golden light and slashed through the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent's entire body.

Screech!!!

The Golden-Horned Poison Serpent let out a horrified squeal. It had begun to smell the scent of his impending death.

Unlike the other small bipedal beings, the being before him was incredibly strong. Moreover, while his aura seemed warm and comfortable at first glance, the serpent could clearly tell that behind this warmth lay mortal danger.

Thus, the Golden-Horned Poison Serpent unleashed all the qi he had and attempted a final struggle.

1. This wine is commonly known as Nü Er Hong and it's a specialty of Shaoxing, China. ☜