Chapter 233

경담간 thinks the ultimate beauty is despair. That look in the eyes, hardened by disappointment and frustration with humanity, having fallen into an endless abyss, is the very reason for human existence.

But beauty is always precious.

For the weak, even a bit of torment is just a brief amusement; enduring through artistic experience has dulled the senses to the point there’s hardly any thrill left.

Right. Just like it is now.

Had it not been for this plan, I’d have tossed away this pathetic, low-grade material long ago. But when you mix hobbies with work, eventually, the hobby has to compromise, so I let it slide.

In the meantime, a special material, no, an exceptional one, has come in; now the question is how to carve it to unveil a more splendid despair.

That thought consumed Gyeongdamgan’s mind.

First off, I decided how to finish it.

The moment a woman crumbles is usually in the face of brutal violence that ravages her chastity.

How would that young fool react if I paraded in front of the ronin guys I wanted to protect all day long?

When a person collapses, their appearance varies; will the Disciple of Divine Maiden Sect cry, or will she let out a desperate scream? Or perhaps, she might just give up like a lifeless corpse with vacant eyes.

“Kuhuh.”

Just thinking about it sent Gyeongdamgan into a fit of strange laughter.

Then how do I torment her?

This resilient type can endure the poison of solitude that disrupts every nerve, meaning she isn’t bent by physical pain.

So how does one gradually break the spirit? How to lower the thin string of hope so as not to let her give up, while slowly sickening her soul…

Just then, as Gyeongdamgan tossed his pants aside, reveling in his delightful imaginations,

The door suddenly flung open, and a subordinate burst in.

“Deputy Leader! You need to come out now, ugh!”

Faced with a cosmic horror induced by visual stimulation, the subordinate couldn’t complete his report.

“…You fool!”

In that moment, Gyeongdamgan flew at him and grabbed his neck. The crime of disrupting his most enjoyable time, and the crime of his comrade’s outrageous behavior, naturally warranted execution.

“Guh…”

As the subordinate began to lose consciousness, he thought, damn, with that hand choking me, damn, damn, couldn’t this pathetic freak use a sword instead…

After tossing aside the now limp corpse that used to be his subordinate, Gyeongdamgan locked the door.

It was the fault of the fool who didn’t lock the door in the first place, but,

Thanks to that, only the Blood Sect warriors found themselves in a predicament.

“When will the Deputy Leader come back?”

“I sent the youngest, so he should be back any minute.”

“When did the youngest leave and hasn’t come back yet!”

The youngest who went to summon the Deputy hadn’t returned, nor was there news from the Deputy.

“Ahh!”

The Blood Sect warriors were anxiously pacing, utterly confused watching the unfolding situation.

It all began with breakfast.

“Girl, wake up!”

“Ugh. My body aches all over from sleeping on this cold floor. Ugh, I barely slept at all. What’s going on?”

Qing, who had slept soundly without waking up even once through the night, groaned. The Guard Warrior, who had to endure her peaceful snores and occasional adorable snores all night long, was dumbfounded.

“Alright. It’s breakfast.”

“Oh. Breakfast as soon as I open my eyes. Now that’s something I like. So, what is it? Something delicious?”

Qing was polite to the one serving breakfast.

Because if you were rude to the person serving your food, you never knew what kind of tricks might be played on your meal after that.

“The peace of the universe is of no concern to us, is it? Here. It’s rice balls. Take it.”

“Rice balls…”

Qing inspected the Guard Warrior.

The size of the hefty rice ball in the Guard’s hand was certainly generous, but other than that, he didn’t have anything else on hand.

No soup for breakfast, huh…

But still, getting breakfast was something.

“Thank you for the meal.”

Qing politely extended her hand through the bars, just as her beautiful, slender fingers were about to touch the rice ball.

Thud.

Clearly, the rice ball fell intentionally, plummeting to the ground. The roundly shaped rice ball splattered on the cold underground floor.

“Huh?”

“Ha, did you think you walked into a restaurant? Here. Look. This is your future.”

The Guard Warrior stomped down on the rice ball with glee.

The poor rice ball was left a crushed mess of food waste on the floor.

“This is all you can have. Kuh, seeing this really puts the title of ‘The Most Beautiful in the World’ to shame. I wonder when it’ll be my turn, kuh-hah, to eat that?”

As Qing reached for the rice ball, the Guard Warrior countered with a smirk.

Just as Qing’s hand slowly reached toward the rice ball, it suddenly jerked back, leaving an afterimage as he snagged the Warrior’s ankle.

“Huh? What?”

While the Guard Warrior was bewildered, Qing used her other hand to grab the opposite ankle.

“This brat is messing around first thing in the morning. The one thing I can’t stand is someone playing with food.”

“Let go! What kind of strength is this…!”

The flustered Guard struggled to shake her off, but his firmly grabbed ankles felt as if they were nailed to the ground.

After all, Qing’s strength was unrivaled; what could he do?

“Hey? What do you think is going to happen if I pull this off?”

Qing, sitting on the ground, leaned forward, arms outstretched while holding onto the Guard’s feet. Between her arms, a solid steel bar stood firm.

As the Guard’s face drained of color, he drew his sword from his waist—

Qing bent backward, dodging seamlessly.

The Guard’s legs shot forward like cannonballs into the bars, and finally, his legs got caught between the steel bars with a loud bang! as the bones and metal collided.

The Guard’s eyes rolled back as he began to foam at the mouth.

But this was just the beginning.

Qing climbed up while massaging the Guard’s feet, and as she did, crunch, crunch echoed as the bones shattered and dangled like soft, tender squid legs.

“Guaah!”

As Qing felt the tactile horror of crushing solid bone, her body trembled with excitement.

Wow. It’s been a while since I felt this. This is, really, truly, more than I remember, wow, this is life.

Qing laughed wildly and teased, “Shh. Guest, you’ve got a lot of bone knots in your legs. If you don’t smooth them out, you’ll just keep walking or running, you know? A person should lie down or sit instead of standing around, right?”

“AHHH!”

At last, the Guard’s leg bones were ground finely like sand, and Qing twisted them around for good measure.

“Gah!”

The Guard, having lost his pair of larynxes, was still screaming.

The horrified cries quickly attracted the remaining Blood Sect warriors.

“Wh-what are you doing! Let him go! Let him go, AHH!”

A startled Blood Sect warrior tried to pry the Guard loose but got his wrist grabbed.

After bumping his head hard against the steel bars, Qing’s bone massage had softened the Guard’s arm, and in a full wraparound, it slipped out awkwardly.

And so, the other Blood Sect warriors were too intimidated to approach the Thunder Prison, and one, having just been kicked by the Deputy Leader, fled away in haste.

And now.

“Do you want to retrieve the hostage? Then I’ll deliver the girl’s requests. One plate of stir-fry loaded with meat, two bowls of freshly steamed rice. And for the soup, um, should we go with something light and clear? What does our chef excel at?”

“Shut it! Right now…”

“Hey, the customer service in this place is really lacking. How about a light broth with freshwater fish cooked nice and thoroughly? Then I’ll return the hostage. That’s all. I’ll say it again. One plate loaded with meat, two bowls of rice, and one bowl of clear fish soup.”

It almost sounded like there were two echoes in Qing’s ears.

The Blood Sect guys are unimpressed.

And the sound of frustrated distress.

“Wha-what the hell, where did they bring such a crazy woman, and what about the Deputy Leader?”

“That’s—at the door, the youngest’s corpse is…”

The second youngest, now reduced to the youngest, delivered the grim report.

“Is that the problem right now!? Why are we just sitting here!? Why can’t we get the hell out!?”

Damn it, he’s not the one calling for help.

The youngest warrior swallowed his curses and dashed back out. But he had no intention of knocking; he intended to wait and report when the door opened on its own.

So now, the second youngest was also missing.

“Hey. How long has it been since I ordered? Is the one doing the cooking out sowing seeds? I’ll grow old at this rate!”

“Shut up!”

“Ah. I’m so scared. I’m so scared my hands and feet are shaking, I feel I might throw punches. Wow, look at my trembling hands.”

As Qing said this, she pulled the hair of the bound warrior and banged his head against the bars repeatedly.

“AH! AH! AH!”

With the sound of the bangs matched by the screams, it was genuinely entertaining. Then, with a crack, Qing realized her mistake and let go.

The light from the lantern reflected off the bloodied bars.

“How do we—what about the Deputy Leader…!”

“Damn it! Give her what she wants! Bring it!”

In the end, they somehow managed to secure a satisfying breakfast.

As the platter entered the steel bar serving slot, Qing approached the two bound Blood Sect warriors within the bars.

“Thanks to you, I had fun. Do live a virtuous life in your next life, or you might end up in such painful situations.”

As Qing’s hand became stained black, she smacked! the head of the bound Blood Sect warrior like a watermelon.

The headless corpse slumped down the bars, bound by arms.

The half-broken crippled Guard Warrior gasped in horror, writhing without even screaming in pain, his mouth wide open.

“St-stop! I swear I will free the hostage!”

“Me? I only asked if you’d like to get the hostage back, that’s all.”

Qing said, squatting down, raising the Master of Dark Demon Arts’ black blood high.

The entangled Blood Sect warrior looked into Qing’s eyes and pleaded, “Please, let me go…”

“Three hundred and fifty points.”

“Wha-?”

Smack! Again, the headless corpse dropped down to the bars, shaking its upper body as it went.

As Qing wiped her face, she paused her hand, then finally used her elbow to clean the foreign substances splattered on her face.

“Ah, refreshing from the morning. Exercising really helps food go down better, but waking up to a meal is… just not it.”

And then she approached the well-kept platter and began her breakfast.

Even amidst it all, the beauty of Seomun Sulin shone brightly; apparently, the heavenly beauty quietly enjoying her meal was something to behold.

And the Blood Sect warriors could only gaze helplessly at Qing’s figure.

It was absurd, and yet they couldn’t help but find her pretty.

Gyeongdamgan appeared right as Qing was finishing her meal.

Upon reflecting his face, instead of greeting her, he displayed his solitude, causing Qing, who had been just about to extend her chopsticks toward the last piece of meat saved for last, to frown at the sudden pang of alcohol.

Tsk. Not even a dog interrupts a meal.

Qing quickly chewed and swallowed the food in her mouth, then rolled over to the other side of the tray.

“Ugh…!”

It was a somewhat unnatural scene.

Gyeongdamgan was enveloped in a bizarre discomfort, sensing something strange, but as Qing’s moans tickled his ears, he quickly lost focus.

“Stop, stop that…”

At Gyeongdamgan’s pained yelp, Qing finally ceased her torment and stopped the simmering venom.

“You caused quite a stir since breakfast, huh? Is it true the woman of the Zhengpai Sect has such a cruel heart?”

“Did you forget I was of the ronin lineage? Is grandpa starting to lose his memory? Wait! Stop the solitude! I said stop! Just a little. Ugh…”

Qing was beginning to find it bothersome to act as though she were in pain.

Since when does no voice come out when in pain, developing the thought of simply face-planting instead of screaming or flailing around.

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