Madness

Yuan Zhaoxian took a deep breath.

The back alley's characteristic stench - the smell of excrement, something rotting, mold, sewage rising up, and the smell of melted organs and boiling blood was refreshing.

Each time his heart beat cheerfully, the Dark Scripture's demon energy raced through all the blood vessels and meridians in his body.

The demon energy that distorted and eroded reality stirred his lower dantian and surged up to his mind.

Everything around came into his view, and everything felt within reach.

Nothing felt impossible.

It was a feeling of omnipotence, and simultaneously madness.

Without realizing it, a rough beast-like growl emerged from deep in his throat.

Yuan Zhaoxian, the demon person of the Dark Scripture, looked at the prey lined up long in the corridor.

"...Let the feast begin."

A voice made of rough metal echoed through the corridor.

"Ki-kill him!"

With someone's shout, the Black Bone Faction members began convulsively raising their weapons and rushing in.

"Come!"

Yuan Zhaoxian showed his teeth in a smile.

The face of the one charging at the front was terrified and desperate.

The blade he swung was such shabby junk it was hard to even call it a blade.

He could clearly see every strand of the dirty tassel swaying at the end of the handle, added for style.

But there was no need or reason to dodge.

Yuan Zhaoxian stood still and took the strike with his head.

Along with a sharp metallic sound of metal striking metal, sparks flew.

The blade, full of impurities and not even properly tempered, broke and flew away.

The broken blade stuck in the ceiling.

It didn't even itch.

Before the sword handle that slipped from his grip in shock could hit the floor, Yuan Zhaoxian struck the man's head with his palm.

With a deafening boom, the man's head exploded in the direction it was struck.

Like from a strongly cracked whip, the man's brains, blood, and bone fragments spilled onto the floor.

Only then did the bladeless handle fall to the floor.

The headless body staggered sideways half a turn, then collapsed against the corridor wall.

At that sight, Yuan Zhaoxian raised his hands and clapped.

Indeed, dance is an essential element of a feast.

"Uwaah!"

The next one rushed in wielding an axe.

Yuan Zhaoxian stretched out both hands and ripped off the man's arms.

While the man screamed loudly, Yuan Zhaoxian dropped the arms he was holding to the floor.

"My aaaarms...!"

After briefly appreciating that bizarre dance, Yuan Zhaoxian slowly tore apart the man's mouth.

Two men rushed in during that time, but simultaneously had their waists torn apart and sent flying.

One who was pushed forward unavoidably by those behind was grabbed by Yuan Zhaoxian, who opened his mouth wide and had his head bitten off.

A feast must not lack food either.

While Yuan Zhaoxian leisurely spoke like this, blades flew in and clubs were swung down.

But none of them caused any harm, and each time Yuan Zhaoxian moved his body, the corridor gained another corpse missing body parts.

That corridor that had been smelly and dirty was being reborn as the finest banquet hall filled with song, dance, and food.

***

Yuan Zhaoxian pierced another torso with his hand blade, wearing a joyful smile.

Thus another life disappeared.

But the Black Bone Faction wasn't just being one-sidedly slaughtered.

Just as Yuan Zhaoxian pierced the torso, a blue blade shot out from the opposite side.

That blade rushed toward Yuan Zhaoxian at a terrifying speed.

"Hm...!"

With a low snort, Yuan Zhaoxian bent his body backward to avoid that blade.

That long blade which hadn't gotten a single drop of blood on it despite piercing through a torso reflected blue light off its smooth surface.

And violent energy surged overwhelmingly in that blade.

This was also why Yuan Zhaoxian had dodged that flash.

Speed, technique, and clearly a high-quality long blade - finally an expert who had learned martial arts had appeared.

The attack didn't end with the fierce thrust.

"Puppet."

Along with that low murmur, as if ignoring the laws of physics, that thrust transformed into a slash.

The blue blade struck down like lightning toward Yuan Zhaoxian while splitting the corpse like cutting tofu.

'Got him!'

The owner of the long blade was certain his attack would succeed.

This monster had managed to dodge his first flash that went for the blind spot with beast-like senses.

But bending backward to dodge was clearly a mistake.

In that state with his center of gravity completely broken, there was no way he could dodge the continuous attacks through his unique skill 'Puppet.'

"...?!"

However, his strike that cut through the corpse futilely crossed empty air and only left a deep scar on the innocent floor.

"That was an interesting technique."

His opponent's ice-cold breath touched his ear.

If he had been a novice less experienced in combat, he would have been at a loss in that moment.

Without going through thought or judgment.

His body, tempered through countless real battles, reflexively displayed another technique.

Spinning Wheel.

Another unique skill that unified recovery and attack.

Toward the direction the breath had touched, the blade body sprang up like it was fired, and he didn't stop there, unleashing dozens of continuous attacks in one breath.

"Huaaah...!"

He tore apart the space as if the blade had multiplied into dozens.

This time the monster didn't dodge the attacks, but began intercepting the dozens of continuous strikes.

Each time the long black energy claws collided with his blade body, sparks flew in all directions with ear-splitting booms.

"Huh, huh!"

Finally when the continuous attacks ended, he roughly drew in the breath he had been holding.

The considerably depleted inner power from just a few moves was a problem, but the bigger issue was that his energy flow had collapsed due to rough breathing from the forced chain of techniques.

'...Damn monster bastard.'

But the biggest problem was something else.

"Is it over already?"

While he was shredded all over by the opponent's claws and bathing in his own blood, the white-masked monster didn't have even one cut on his clothes.

"Just when the excitement was building, how disappointing."

The monster's rough voice scratched at his ear.

"...Fuck!"

He put everything into this strike.

All his remaining inner power, concentration, everything was poured out.

Of course, seeing the monster's abilities shown so far, his final strike would undoubtedly be blocked futilely.

'But...!'

Simultaneously, the corridor walls on both sides of the monster broke as the remaining two martial artists unleashed their attacks.

It was a perfect surprise attack aimed at when the opponent was most off guard.

'Did it work...?!'

However, what he saw the next moment was completely different from his expectations.

His blade body was caught in the monster's teeth and shattered, while simultaneously the surprise pincer attack was futilely blocked by the monster's hands.

The monster spat out the blade fragments.

"Is this your best?"

That's when he realized.

No matter what they did, there was never any chance of hunting the monster from the start.

The monster was just playing with them before devouring them.

"Uwaah!"

In his view, he saw the two who had abandoned their weapons caught in the monster's strength charging in with martial arts and bare hands.

Then something flashed, followed by a thunderous sound.

Only then did he realize all his inner power had run out.

There was a moment of spraying blood mist, spurting blood fountains, and noise.

He too tried charging at the monster again with his remaining strength, but it was absolutely not an opponent to face without inner power.

When he regained consciousness after briefly losing it to the monster's light gesture, it was because of terrible screams.

"Kuaaah!"

The monster had his back to him, in the middle of eating one martial artist alive.

The corridor was filled with the sound of flesh being torn, bones breaking, and screams.

He could only wait for his turn, gripped by powerlessness and terror.

He tried crying, tried begging.

But his fate was already decided.

***

"Crazy monster bastard!"

Yuan Zhaoxian, who had withdrawn his demon energy, asked the den's boss who remained last.

"You say I'm a crazy monster?"

The boss whose knees were completely shattered screamed at Yuan Zhaoxian, overcome with rage.

"Damn it. Then what are you if not a crazy monster bastard, you think you're some great master?!"

Yuan Zhaoxian slowly looked around.

The place he had finally reached was a slaughterhouse set up in an underground space.

Gathered internal organs were being boiled in a large pot, and even more organs were piled up waiting their turn.

On the opposite side bones and meat were scattered as if bone removal work had been in progress, and in the corner bones were piled up like a mountain.

And beyond that, large pieces of meat waiting their turn hung from hooks in long lines.

And finally, where Yuan Zhaoxian stood was where the work of draining blood from meat had been in progress.

The floor formed a large pool of red blood, which was draining along channels into the sewers.

And that blood was flowing down from 'human corpses' hanging upside down.

Yuan Zhaoxian looked at the corpse closest to him.

It was a woman who could be said to have nothing left but bones.

The only peculiar point was that somehow the woman's stomach was split open.

While closing the eyes of the corpse that still had both eyes wide open, Yuan Zhaoxian asked the boss.

"...You say I'm crazy?"

The underground human flesh factory's manager clutched his shattered lower body and groaned as he shot back at Yuan Zhaoxian.

"You stupid bastard! This is all just business!"

"..."

Yuan Zhaoxian who had briefly lost words picked up a bowl from the manager's desk.

As if he had been in the middle of eating when things broke out, the bowl and its contents were still warm.

Yuan Zhaoxian picked up a piece of meat from inside.

Steam rose from a wrist that was clearly from a fetus judging by its size.

It showed why the woman's stomach had been split open.

"Just business, you say?"

The manager screamed as if having a fit.

"You crazy bastard! What's business?! Why do we do business?! It's all just to make a living...!"

Yuan Zhaoxian who had vanished in an instant grabbed the manager's head and smashed it against the wall.

"Kuaah...!"

Yuan Zhaoxian smiled hollowly while slowly grinding the manager's head against the wall.

They say when he kills and eats people it's madness, but when they kill, sell, and eat people, it's business.

They were earnestly living through hard reality by making their livelihood from killing, butchering, selling, and eating people!

Yuan Zhaoxian impaled the manager's corpse upside down on an empty hook, his head half split.

Blood poured down from that split head and splattered on the floor.

Though it seemed too quick a death, Yuan Zhaoxian had his reasons.

Somewhere in the underground level there must be cages keeping people alive for fresh meat.

He needed to find them.

As he moved his steps, he questioned himself.

Is it I who am mad,

Or is it this world?