Return of the Heavenly Sword

Chapter 22. Poison Human (3)

Was it said that the most entertaining things in the world are watching a fire and watching a fight?

I wanted to add one more thing to that list.

In the dead of night, where only the faint moonlight illuminated the world.

“Hahahaha.”

“I said stop, you bastaaaard~!!!”

The game of tag, being chased by a madman with bloodshot eyes, was truly an exciting game.

“Ah. This is also a form of playing with fire.”

Come to think of it, since I was throwing burning branches, this was also playing with fire.

When I threw the burning branches again, the bastard screamed again and ran off somewhere.

“Noooo~!!”

Perhaps all the water prepared in the mountain villa had run out, he began to fetch water from the stream flowing near the villa.

As his name, Green Valley Worm, suggested, he had built his villa near a valley, so fetching water was quick.

“Is this why the Poison Immortal also lived near a valley?”

Thus, I could gain another insight into poison users.

Just then, the Green Valley Worm, having extinguished the fire, rushed towards me again to chase me.

“Dieeee!!”

When I tried to run away again, the bastard surprisingly pulled out needles from his sleeve and threw them.

After making my body light with a lightness technique and soaring into the air with ease, I quickly changed my path by stepping on a branch I had spotted earlier.

Th-th-th-thunk!

A series of noises echoed as the poison needles embedded themselves in the tree I had stepped on.

“Hahahaha!”

Laughter burst out uncontrollably because this situation, where I could be hit by a poison needle at the slightest misstep, was all too familiar.

“My diligent training has paid off!”

My internal energy had increased dramatically, but the enlightenment I gained while climbing the cliffs of Wondrous Ridge Mountain was significant. In addition to that, during the few days it took to get here, I was able to assimilate that enlightenment, even if just a little.

My internal and external energy were still lacking compared to before my regression, so my speed itself was slower than back then, but my fine movements and sharp changes in direction felt even better now.

Thanks to that, I was able to continue my fun game of playing with fire without getting caught by the madman who had lost his mind.

At some point, the Green Valley Worm gave up chasing me and began to focus on diligently fetching water.

“If you don't want to die, stop right now~!!”

He shouted, and it was unclear whether it was a scream, a threat, or a plea.

After that, I diligently transferred the fire to places where water had not yet been poured several more times.

Despite my efforts, the flames that had been burning in the mountain villa eventually all died out.

Thanks to the Green Valley Worm's desperate efforts to continuously pour water all over the villa, there was no place left for the fire to catch.

But it didn't really matter.

The pavilions, which had been repeatedly burned and soaked in water, had all collapsed.

Creeeeak.

Thud.

The ground of the mountain villa was littered with the wreckage of mechanisms and formations that had been randomly activated by the fire and water.

Since the poisons and the mechanisms and formations were all rendered useless, I had already achieved my minimum objective.

I gladly applauded the man who had enjoyed the game of playing with fire and tag with me.

Clap, clap, clap.

“Your fire-extinguishing skills are excellent.”

The Green Valley Worm, who had been staring blankly at the collapsed mountain villa with a dazed expression, turned his head bizarrely and looked at me.

Until a moment ago, he had been glaring at me like a madman with his ass on fire, but now he was wearing a very cold expression.

“Right. It was you. You were the one who did this.”

“I don't know why someone with such excellent skills would hole up in a place like this like a worm and conduct poison experiments.”

Well, his eyes were still just as bloodshot.

“I will not kill you simply. I will continue my burnt research with your body, and I will skin you to write a new journal.”

“Why didn't you just make a living putting out fires in the city? Huh? If you had, you wouldn't have had to die at my hands.”

“Dieeee~!!!”

At the sight of the Green Valley Worm rushing at me while shouting, a sigh naturally escaped my lips.

“He's a madman, so a conversation is impossible.”

Soon after, I surprisingly swung my sword towards the face of the rapidly approaching Green Valley Worm.

Swish!

The bastard twisted his upper body to narrowly avoid the blow, then closed in and thrust his left palm.

It was an unpleasant palm, glistening with poison energy.

As I took a step back to retrieve the sword I had thrust and then thrust it again, the bastard took a step to the right and dodged it.

I also took a step to the right, where the bastard was headed, and thrust my sword again.

“I will kill you!!”

Shouting furiously, the Green Valley Worm ceaselessly used his footwork, and swung his two sharp-grown fingernails.

“Die! I said die~!!”

A smirk escaped my lips.

Unlike his madman-like behavior, the bastard was moving quite meticulously.

It was a ploy to circle halfway around me and switch our positions.

The most important thing when fighting those who have learned poison arts is to have the wind at your back.

There was a risk that poison, which I wouldn't even know when it was released, could ride the wind and enter my nose and mouth.

Of course, even with the wind at my back, if I fought too closely, the poison flowing from the poison user's body would inevitably enter my nose and mouth little by little.

That was why I had built up my resistance beforehand, and why I had tied a cloth with medicinal herbs on my face.

Similarly, instead of getting too close, I maintained a distance where I could just barely cut him with my sword.

For a moment, I engaged in a tedious second game of tag with the bastard.

As I looked at the greenish hue shimmering on the bastard's sharp fingernails and his palms full of sores and burn marks, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

Why did this bastard kill people to research poison?

This bastard was a poison user who had learned poison arts.

And poison arts were martial arts that used poison, not ordinary energy, held in the dantian like internal energy.

Poison users were fundamentally those who had to ingest poison to increase their internal energy, and due to their training method, they also had considerable resistance to poison.

In other words, a poison that was significant to this poison user would be a lethal poison that would melt the internal organs of an ordinary person with just a small amount.

And yet, he kidnaps people and conducts research by slowly killing them with poison over several days?

It might be understandable for a novice who has just started learning poison arts, but it was a meaningless act for this bastard.

What was the reason for performing such a meaningless act, which was of no help to his training, and killing over a hundred people to do so?

Thanks to decades of experience killing villains, I was able to find the answer without difficulty.

“I will kill you!”

“I see now, you were impotent.”

“!?”

The bastard, who had been shouting like a madman, flinched.

At that reaction, one corner of my mouth curled up.

There were such bastards.

Bastards who felt no sexual desire for the opposite sex. Perverts who could feel nothing from ordinary acts and could only feel pleasure through screams of pain and distorted faces.

“You perverted bastard. You eunuch-like bastard. No, you're a bastard more impotent than a eunuch.”

As if I had hit a nerve, the bastard's face instantly flushed red.

Just like when the pavilions had caught fire a moment ago.

Was it because he realized that acting was no longer effective? Or was it due to the anger of having his nerve struck?

“I will make you beg for your life, clinging to my trousers.”

The Green Valley Worm surprisingly swung his left hand towards the empty air.

Then, the small green poison droplets on his long fingernails flew like hidden weapons.

The dawn was just beginning to break, but in the darkness, they were small droplets that were hard to even see properly.

Whoosh.

As I narrowly dodged the poison, an ominous ‘chiiik’ sound was heard from the poison that touched the bushes or the dirt.

At that eeriness, a smile naturally formed on my lips.

“Here it comes. Here it comes. It's here.”

Whether it was due to the anger towards the trash who killed over a hundred people for a single sexual desire, or the crisis of almost dying from poison, was not important.

The eyes that had been closed opened with a thick killing intent rising from my five viscera and six bowels.

When the bastard swung his right hand this time, small green droplets once again flew towards my vitals.

However, since I could clearly see the trajectory of them flying through the air, it was not difficult to dodge them.

Furthermore, I followed the trajectory visible through the gaps between the five droplets, stepped lightly with my footwork, and thrust my sword.

As his forearm was cut and blood splattered, the bastard grimaced and let out a groan.

Slash!

“Keuk…”

“How is it? Do you feel pleasure even when you're in pain?”

“Shut up!!”

At the moment the bastard swung his arm while shouting furiously, I twisted my body again and swung my sword.

Slash.

“Aaaaaaaargh!!”

The bastard screamed, clutching his severed left pinky and ring fingers.

“The things in that burnt pavilion weren't research results either.”

“Shut up!!”

I broke through the opening of the shouting bastard and this time, I cut off the toes of his right foot.

Slash!

“The screams they let out as you tormented them with poison.”

“I said shut uuuup!!”

Slash!

“Aaaaaaaargh!!!”

“It must have been a journal where you drew and described their pained faces, right?”

Slash!

“For when there's no one to torture. To release your sexual desires, that is.”

Slash!

“I see now, it was a pavilion that collected porn for an impotent bastard.”

Slash!

“It was a very good thing to burn it down.”

Slash!

As I joyfully chattered away while swinging my sword, the bastard was already collapsed on the ground.

Around him, parts of his haphazardly severed body were scattered here and there with blood.

I had mostly sliced his limbs, so he was still breathing.

“P-please… s-spare me…”

Towards the bastard who was completely broken and begging for his life, I gave a willing smile. While plunging my sword into the right thigh of the bastard whose leg was gone below the knee.

Stab.

“My apologies. I'm similar to you, so I don't think that will be possible.”

“Kkeueueueueup!!”

I looked down at the sight of his eyes becoming so bloodshot that blood was flowing down from them, and said.

“Killing trash like you is my only pleasure.”

Pulling out the sword lodged in his thigh, I made a request to him.

“So, try to hold on as long as possible. I should have some fun too, shouldn't I?”

Stab!

***

How long had I been stabbing the body of the perverted murderer with my sword? The bastard's body had gone limp and showed no reaction at all.

After looking down at the corpse with an indifferent expression for a moment, I threw the sword I was holding in my hand.

Toss.

Since it was covered in the poisonous blood of a poison user, it was difficult to use it any further anyway.

I turned around and took a few steps, then let out a rough cough.

“Cough.”

Then blood splattered on the cloth covering my face.

It was the result of the poison that had been faintly flowing from the Green Valley Worm's body accumulating in mine.

If I had just killed him cleanly with a single stroke and left, this wouldn't have happened, but I was so furious that I couldn't bear it.

I sat down cross-legged and circulated my internal energy to expel the poison energy that had penetrated my body.

After expelling all the accumulated poison energy from my body and opening my eyes, I found that the dawn had completely broken, and the world was dyed in a verdant green.

Not the unpleasant green of poison arts, but a lush, verdant green.

“I feel refreshed.”

I stretched lightly and got up, then scanned my surroundings, and saw the collapsed mountain villa that didn't fit in with the lush green bushes.

I willingly performed a clasped hands greeting towards that place.

“It may not have been enough to soothe all your grievances, but I have taken a small measure of revenge, so please depart in peace.”

After bidding farewell to the poor souls buried there, I began to walk.

Towards Shaoyang, where the Steel Sinew Sect was located.

“Hmm. Come to think of it, since the Steel Sinew Sect bastards haven't contacted the Green Valley Worm yet, is this before the Vajra Dog achieved great mastery in his martial arts?”

The reason the leader of the Steel Sinew Sect had brought in the Green Valley Worm was to control the Vajra Dog, who had become too strong, with poison.

“Or, has he already achieved great mastery and the Steel Sinew Sect leader is just now making inquiries about the Green Valley Worm?”

I walked through the bushes, thinking about the Steel Sinew Sect for a while. Soon, I realized that it was pointless.

“It's not like I'm going to leave the Steel Sinew Sect alone just because he's achieved great mastery.”

It was much more efficient to train in the time I spent pondering such things.

I raised the internal energy in my dantian again and ran, performing a movement technique.

At the same time, I brought my right hand to my scabbard for sword practice, but there was nothing to grab.

“Oops.”

I remembered that I had thrown away the sword because it was soaked in poisonous blood.