Chapter 221. Nine in the Fifth Place (17)

The bumpkin shouted once more, “I have a wife and young children! But because the corrupt officials kept exploiting us, I had no choice but to become a bandit so I could make a living! I'm also a victim here!”

“No, you

were

a victim. But then, through your actions, you became exactly like those corrupt officials. I just follow my own path and draw my line where I stand.”

The bumpkin fell to the ground like the others.

Watching his death with cold eyes, Woo-Moon spoke up once more in a flat tone.

“Also... If you were going to say something like that, you should have first picked up your trousers from where you took them off....”

Woo-Moon scanned twenty of the bandits simultaneously.

“Do you all have anything you want to say?”

“I... I!”

They desperately tried to think of something to say, but nothing that could help them survive came to mind.

“Y-you're the same as us! Who are you to decide our deaths? In the end, aren't we the same?”

Woo-Moon laughed again.

“That’s right. I’m just like you.”

Woo-Moon slowly clenched his open palm into a fist.

Crack! Crack, crack!!!

The twenty men suddenly folded at the waist, crumpling into balls. A massive, irresistible force did not just twist them, but also compress them, as if they were squashed in a mortar.

“Ahhhh!”

“Please, spare me!”

Then their bones shattered.

Pfft!

Then their flesh was torn apart, and blood spurted out like fountains in all directions.

Crack.

These twenty people... No, there were no people there anymore. There were nothing more than twenty balls of flesh, and Woo-Moon let them drop to the ground.

Then he looked at the others and... he thought that was enough. Not that he didn’t want to inflict even greater fear, frustration, and despair onto them, there was no time. He had to get rid of them now and be on his way. There were more important things to do.

When he was about to crush the remaining bandits as well, Si-Hyeon flew into the sky and stood next to him.

“Just a minute, senior brother.”

“Why?”

“After we finish them off, we have to leave, no?”

“... Right.”

The village had already been plundered, and many of its men had been slaughtered. Thus, there was a not insignificant chance that they would suffer even more tragedies in the future. It would be difficult for the villagers to make a living, and once they recovered somewhat, nothing stopped other bandits from trampling on the village again.

“Leave it to me. Our Heavenly Demon Cult has many soul arts.”

Soul arts.

Among the famous—or rather infamous—ones were the Soul Assimilation Art and the Soul Bewitching Art. They were techniques that could control the thoughts and feelings of others at will.

As Woo-Moon withdrew his Paragon Qi, which had been dominating the area, Si-Hyeon's Paragon Qi took over the space instead.

“Look into my eyes.”

It was like a voice from the depths of hell.

All of the bandits obeyed that absolute command and looked into Si-Hyeon's eyes.

Then, their terrified faces relaxed and their gazes turned blank.

“You will serve the villagers in the village below as your masters and live in absolute obedience for the rest of your lives.”

Their souls had wholly surrendered to Si-Hyeon. As there was no particular need for them to think, Si-Hyeon severed their souls properly, turning the remaining ninety or so bandits into little more than walking dead.

From now on, they would be the faithful servants of the villagers and do whatever they were told.

This way, the villagers could use them for farming, and if other bandits invaded, they could be ordered to defend them.

Woo-Moon nodded, thinking that this was a very appropriate solution. He and Si-Hyeon went down with the bandits—or rather, the faithful servants of this village, the Yoo Family Village.

Ma Ra's subordinates were treating an old man with a wound on his abdomen. It was the village chief.

With the excellent Golden Sore Ointment of the Dark Soul Squadron combined with the assassins' decent medical skills, the village chief was able to survive this critical situation.

The other villagers were also being treated in a similar manner. In cases where there were too many wounds and injuries, or it seemed as though they would need long and extensive care, Yeo-Seol and the Ten Swords of the North Sea, who had by now reached the village as well, came forward and used the Thousand Year Ice Preservation Art.

It was a technique unique to the North Sea Ice Palace that instantly froze the target, preventing them from dying and allowing them to survive for a long time in a frozen state without suffering from frostbite.

With the three forces combining their strength to help the villagers, there were many more survivors than there would’ve been otherwise, and they were all in a much better state.

Woo-Moon came forward and offered the village chief words of comfort while also explaining what had happened with the bandits.

“I-is that really true?”

The village chief seemed to have a hard time believing Woo-Moon’s words. It made sense, of course. Since they didn't cultivate, how could they ever have heard of soul arts?

“It's true. No matter what orders you give them now, they'll follow them without question. Even after we leave, even in a hundred years if they live that long.”

The village chief, looking suspicious of Woo-Moon's claims, gestured to the leader of the bandits.

“Yes, Master.”

The man, who had learned martial arts, ran with a speed that the villagers found surprising.

“W-will you really obey my commands?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Then lie down, bark like a dog, and eat the dog poop that has fallen over there.”

“Understood!”

The man laid down without the slightest hesitation, barked passionately and wholeheartedly like the dog he was, then picked up the piece of dog poop the village chief had pointed at and proceeded to eat it with gusto, as if it were a truffle.

The village chief who saw this felt a sense of relief and, at the same time, shed tears. He thought about his son, who had been stabbed to death, and his daughter-in-law, who had bitten off her tongue and committed suicide while being raped.

This time, the village chief pointed to another bandit.

“Yes, Master.”

“Stab yourself in the heart.”

“Yes, Master!”

If the man had been in his right mind, if he really hadn't been absolutely obedient to their every command as Woo-Moon had said, he would have hesitated even a little. However, the bandit simply raised his knife and stabbed himself in the heart without any hesitation or change in expression.

The other bandits didn't even look at the bandit who had just killed himself, maintaining a blank expression.

The village chief and the villagers who had come to their senses finally believed Woo-Moon’s words.

“Hahaha, hahaha hahaha... how refreshing!!”

Tears flowed from the village chief’s eyes as he burst into a sad and ugly laughter, and the others also laughed and cried alongside him.

The villagers, who had now realized that the bandits had become soulless slaves, ran forward and started kicking them.

“You evil bastards!”

“You demons! Because of you!”

“Bring my father back! Bring my sister back!!”

Blood began to flow from their reopened wounds. However, the villagers simply ignored their own injuries and continued to beat up the bandits. In the end, four of the bandits succumbed to the beating, and Woo-Moon raised a hand to stop them.

“Enough. I think it would be best for you to stop now.”

Then, a village youth with bloodshot eyes shouted.

“Why? Why are you stopping us, benefactor?! We're going to kill them all!”

“I could’ve done that myself if I thought that was the solution. Don't you think it would be better to make them work for you? How could you free them of this misery so quickly?”

The villagers stepped back, exclaiming to themselves as if they had been enlightened.

“Right, right, how could I not think of that?”

“They’ll work like cattle and they’ll be treated like pigs!”

The village chief shouted as well, “Right! Put them in the pigsty!”

“Yes, Chief!”

The bandit puppets followed the villagers to the pigsty.

‘You all should be grateful. I've given you a chance to atone for your sins.’

Woo-Moon turned to the village chief again.

“There is something we must do, so we will get going now. But before we go, there are two things I want you to promise me.”

The village chief grabbed Woo-Moon’s hand with tears in his eyes.

“What is it, benefactor? I'll do whatever you say. If you tell me to die, I'll die.”

Woo-Moon looked at the village chief with a warm but stern gaze.

“They will listen to anything the villagers say. I mean

anything

. This could cause conflicts among the villagers. I'm planning on making the strongest of the bandits only listen to you, Chief. Please use that to coordinate things so that the villagers don't fight among themselves.”

Any villager could give them orders and the bandits would do whatever they were told. They would be a great help in any task.

The more bandits a villager had under their command, the more money they would make. Because of that, competition and conflicts could arise among the villagers trying to have more of the bandit servants.

“Understood. I will definitely do that.”

There was no sign of greed in the village chief’s eyes. Woo-Moon thought that was fortunate—otherwise, he might have been forced to take other measures.

Smiling broadly, Woo-Moon opened his mouth again.

“The village will gain great power because of them. No matter who you order them to fight, they will follow your orders faithfully. So another thing is that you will

not

use them to pillage other villages or attack other ordinary people.”

Anyone could change.

Some of the bandits had actually been innocent farmers, their evil natures emerging only when they were pushed to their very limits.

Just because the Yoo Family Village had just endured such atrocities and couldn’t even imagine acting like this didn't mean that things would never change in the future.

“That will definitely not happen, so don’t worry, benefactor!”

As he said that, the village chief was secretly impressed by Woo-Moon’s meticulousness.

“Understood. If anything unfortunate happens, I know where to find you. Then, we'll be leaving now.”

The villagers followed Woo-Moon and his party until the end of the path, bowing and expressing their gratitude.

Si-Hyeon rode her horse next to Woo-Moon’s.

“How did things go?” Woo-Moon asked.

“Like you said, I chose the strongest few and made it so that they would only follow the village chief’s orders,” she answered.

“Did you also check where the martial artists came from?”

“Yes...”

When she trailed off, Woo-Moon smiled softly.

“It’s okay, tell me.”

“They're the remnants of the Black Bull Gang. They say that they took over a bandit den near here after the Black Bull Gang was destroyed.”

That was why Si-Hyeon had hesitated to tell Woo-Moon their true identity.

The Black Bull Gang was a force that Woo-Moon had played a big role in bringing down. Naturally, the scattered forces couldn't do large-scale damage, but precisely for that reason, they ended up causing trouble in many different places.

Woo-Moon felt his heart sink. For a moment, it seemed as if he was about to blame himself.

But then, he shook his head slightly.

“There’s nothing we can do. The Black Bull Gang shouldn’t have existed anyway. It would have been far worse for the entire world if they weren’t destroyed. Moreover, the other Black Hand bastards relied on them as backers to do whatever they wanted...”

Indeed, it wasn’t just the Black Bull Gang; many of the minor Black Hand groups had rampaged throughout the land while using the Black Bull Gang as their backing.

He looked at Ma Ra, who was riding across from Si-Hyeon. “Ma Ra, I have a favor to ask.”

“What?”

“I'm sorry about this, but can you have your men take a message to the Baek Family?”

“Yes.”

“Tell them to take our remaining troops, I want them to wipe out every single bandit throughout our territory, down to the furthest reaches of the family’s influence. In particular, make sure none of the Black Hand groups survive. Since the Black Bull Gang has long since fallen, there shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

“Understood. I'll order my other subordinates to do the same.”