Chapter 39: Dark Thoughts
It took less than an hour for one man to show up from behind the boulders. The system operating the boulder was pretty similar to my old cultivation cave back at the Purple Cloud Sect. The boulder moved to reveal a dark dug tunnel and when the man walked out, he didn't seem to be too cautious, he looked around and blew a whistle using his mouth.
This was probably a signal for the other bandits that were stationed outside, and if he didn't receive the signal back, he would definitely be suspicious and could call for an alert. However, I wasn't going to let him.
I had already moved past the man, without him even sensing me. Thanks to the darkness of the night, and my improved physical condition, I was able to sneak past him and send one single strike to the back of his neck with Creeping Demise.
The sword bore through his spine and neck, protruding out of his throat. A single twist and the man fell down, paralyzed and choking, unable to move nor call for help.
I then spat a bit of my poison Qi on my sword, coating it with poison. Once I made sure the sword was fully immersed in poison, I walked down the tunnel.
There was light at the end of the tunnel, a torch where many of the bandits were staying inside. And once I was at the bottom area of the dug-in tunnel, I saw a group of bandits laying on the ground. Half of them were drunk and naked. To the side, I heard the sniffles of women. And sounds of muffled pained moans.
Some bandits were taking their frustration on poor defenseless women.
The sight of women being raped and tortured made my heart feel as if it was being twisted from its place. A revolting action against a defenseless person. Some of the girls were younger than flowers and they too didn't escape the greedy lustful cravings of these men, no, men is far too much of a compliment for these things, and not even beasts would impose themselves upon their mates with ruthless force.
These things were far below beasts, they were the scum of the scum, the lowest of the low, and even lower. A revolting disgusting existence that is nothing but a waste of breath upon this beautiful land. And they deserve punishment far outweighing what sins they have committed.
I slowly walked towards the nearest man, he was half awake, and I needed to remove him from the equation if I wanted to fully dispose of this group of scumbags.
The man was sitting against a rock, and in his hand was a gourd of wine. He never noticed me walking to his side as I stabbed him through the neck and ripped my sword as fast as I could, causing a spray of blood to spread around him in an arc.
The first kill was instant, and thanks to the poison I coated my sword with, the man had died without being able to move a muscle.
This was the first, and looking around, there were others that were still awake, but they were far too occupied with raping girls to take note of the massacre happening to them.
The group of bandits sleeping on the ground never saw their deaths. Though I wanted them to suffer, it would be problematic to have to fight all of them without using my poison breath, sadly, I'm not proficient enough to control my poison and have it avoid harming the girls.
So I kept on stabbing the men on the ground, on strike to the neck, and another immediately afterward to the heart. They never moved or uttered a single sound as I went past them, one by one.
Once I stabbed the last man on the floor, I looked forward, there was a girl in cuffs that was looking at me directly. She had bruises far too many to count, her lips were cracked, and one of her eyes was black and blue. Most of her hair was wrinkled and she had burn marks on her, yet, her eyes, her blue clear eyes were locked tight on mine. She didn't utter a single word, not a word. And I was sure she wasn't in shock, she knew what I was doing, and knew that if she would call for help, it would make the other bandits pay attention to what they were doing.
She nodded at me and gestured with her head towards the men that were assaulting the other girls in a separate room.
I nodded at the girl and slowly walked behind one man who had a girl pinned under him. The girl saw me and I gestured to her with one finger against my lips to be quiet.
The man's head flew and fell down before he could even realize what happened to him. There were two guys a few feet next to him, and the moment they heard the sound of the man's head falling, they turned, unarmed and naked, only death awaited them. But, I had been patient for far too long.
I stabbed one of them to the shoulder before he could even move and the second one received the tip on my sword right through his groin area.
The moment he tried to shout I sent a jab to his throat shutting him up. The first man who I had stabbed in the shoulder tried to stand up, but a single kick to the knee popped it, breaking it backward and he fell with his leg in an awkward position.
They began screaming, and in their scream, more bandits showed up, these, I didn't see, but they weren't numerous, just three of them, and one of the three was one of the archers that escaped from me this morning.
The moment the archer saw me, he threw a smoke bomb, he didn't even dare fight and ran towards the cave's entrance. The other two, however, came at me with swords, yet they never stood a chance. Mortals against cultivators, you have better odds betting at an ant killing an elephant than this.
The two died before they knew what happened to them and only the two wounded rapists had remained.
I walked towards the girls, I didn't offer any solace, because there were no words that could be said to comfort them, yet there was one thing that they could do and it would definitely release some of their pent-up frustration.
I walked toward every girl and removed their bindings, their cuffs, or the ropes around them, I rounded the girls up then dragged the two men to the center of the cave where the dead bodies of their comrades laid.
I handed the girl with the blue eyes a sword and said three words in her ears, "Make it painful."
I then headed out of the cave.
Soon after, gruesome sounds of pained screams echoed as the girls took their own revenge with their hands, it will not be enough, it will not satisfy their revenge, but at least it would lessen the damage. Some of them will probably end their lives after this. But some, who can withstand this event will definitely turn out to become stronger women.
This world is cruel, far crueler than I believed it to be, but so was the world I was in before. At least these girls have gotten some semblance of peace, a small token of revenge, but in the world, I lived before, these fiends who wear the skin of man, they had escaped the chase of law far too many times and had gone under the radar, unnoticed by the flawed eye of the justice system.
Once I was outside, I pulled out the jade that Fen Zei had given me. I placed it against my head and I was able to immediately understand how it works. I could print memory of mine on it, and I printed the memory of the slaughter and clearing of the cave.
Once I was done, I threw the jade in the air, and it immediately took off on its own, breaking the sound barrier and disappearing in the distance.
I swung my sword to the side, removing all the blood from it, and placed it behind my back. I was done here. And I needed to get back to the city. This much killing, though I thought would make me feel disgusted, did not. It was simple, it was easy, and frighteningly, I felt pleasure doing it. I didn't believe these men, to be men, they were less than that, even less than malicious insects, so stomping them was not heavy on my conscious, no, it was the complete opposite. I felt that what I did was just, and they deserved it.
Law? Justice, you can preach to me all you want about that, but once you see some of these fiends do what they do, law is irrelevant. For what law can return to these girls their chastity, for what law can return to these girls their lives. Even the death of these men had done nothing. Justice, It's flawed. Only power, absolutely complete, and dominating power has right. And if you're weak, you'd be as helpless as these girls. Then what justice would do you right?
I kept thinking about this as I rode on my sword, I didn't want to hurry to the city as I slowly went through the night's cover and breeze.
I thought hard and clear about what just happened. This world has no justice, and one day, I could be in the hands of someone who is far stronger than me. The last thing I want is to feel as helpless as I felt that day in that cave. I'll never be in that position, never, ever again. And to do that, I need strength, a strength far surpassing everyone, I'll need to be strong enough to grab the reigns of my own fate, and steer it wherever I want.
'I need power, unlimited power, even if I have to go to the dark side.' I thought as I tightly pressed at my chest, where the poison God's book resided.
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