During the fight against the amateur assassins, Shun Jin had picked up the broken pieces of her sword. I hadn't paid much attention to it at the time, but it seemed she had attached to her sword more than I realized.
And that was what had brought her here.
Instead of buying a new sword as I had instructed, she had chosen to have her slender blade repaired.
I picked up Shun Jin's sword from beside the blacksmith's anvil. The fractured blade had already been rejoined, but it had yet to be fully reforged. The blacksmith had clearly been murdered in the middle of repairing it.
Judging from the still-fresh footprints, about three people had abducted Shun Jin in such a hurry that one of them had unknowingly dropped something from his clothing.
A single pink flower petal.
If my memory served me correctly...
It was most likely a plum blossom petal.
I had a pretty good idea who was behind this kidnapping.
"It seems they kidnapped the wrong girl. Or perhaps that amateur assassin never bothered to tell them which girl in white was actually the daughter of the great sect."
I immediately followed the trail of footprints leading away from the blacksmith's workshop. After walking briskly for several minutes, roughly a thousand to fifteen hundred paces from the village, I spotted the glow of campfires flickering among a grove of wild plum blossom trees.
"You kidnapped the wrong girl! The one we wanted was short and flat-chested! Not this tall one with the big breasts!"
"But that assassin said the girl was wearing white! She was the only girl in white I saw while scouting the village."
See? I was right.
"You idiot!"
Thud!
"Ow!"
Well... their mistake made sense.
When we entered the village, Li Jia had been wearing the black hood that belonged to her carriage driver—the one who had been killed.
"You should never have trusted that amateur assassin! Hiring those idiots was a mistake. I should've hired real professionals instead. Someone like from the famous White Ghost Sect. They would've sent someone capable of eliminating the target without any trouble."
I quietly observed from a distance.
Three campfires burned in the clearing, surrounded by several large tents. They were taking this mission seriously.
Roughly a few dozen unfamiliar cultivators dressed in dark blue robes—clearly members of an unorthodox sect—were camping there.
Only one man wore a black robe trimmed with pink. Embroidered across his back was the emblem of Mount Hua Sect—a blooming plum blossom.
Whatever they were planning, it would undoubtedly become another cheap excuse for war between the orthodox and unorthodox sects.
"What about this girl, Boss?"
One of the men in dark blue robes pointed his sword at Shun Jin's face.
Her mouth was gagged with a thick rope, while both her wrists and ankles were tightly bound.
Yet her eyes remained as fierce as a cornered beast.
Fear had never existed within that girl.
The man in the black-and-pink robe approached her.
"Remove the gag. I have a few questions for her."
The rope was pulled from Shun Jin's mouth.
The instant she was able to speak, she shouted,
"I won't let you kill that little girl—gh!"
The man seized her cheeks, silencing her mid-sentence.
"Quiet. I have no interest in your nonsense. If you don't want to die tonight, tell me where the little girl is."
Ptoo!
Shun Jin spat directly into his face.
The man chuckled before driving a hard punch into her cheek, knocking her onto her side.
Thud!
"You insolent little bitch. How dare someone as weak as you spit on me."
He spat back at her while she lay helplessly on the ground.
The blow had already left a bluish bruise blooming across her left cheek.
"Do whatever you want with this girl. Just make sure she's suffering til dawn."
With that, the man in the black-and-pink robe turned around and disappeared into his tent.
Several members of the unorthodox sect let out low chuckles.
The largest among them grabbed Shun Jin by her long hair and dragged her toward a darker corner of the plum grove, away from the firelight.
"A beauty this gorgeous and this well-built... Boss is too generous to his men."
Shun Jin was thrown onto the ground like discarded baggage.
She merely let out a quiet hiss, glaring back at them with burning fury.
One of the men grinned obscenely.
"It's been a long time since i raped a woman. I always enjoy watching beautiful girls suffer... Hearing them scream in agony is music to my ears."
He began undoing his belt.
"Heh... I'll start with that pretty little face of hers."
"Why don't you just get on with it?"
"Huh? What did you say? The night's still young. We've got plenty of time to make this beauty suffer—"
He suddenly froze.
"...Wait. Who the hell are you?"
Before a single one of them could lay a hand on Shun Jin's robe...
I was already standing among them.
Five men.
Two of them still had bloodstains on their sleeves that hadn't been washed away.
So this was the complete kidnapping team.
The five of them instantly drew their swords.
Judging by how quickly they formed an encirclement, they were clearly well-trained sect disciples.
"Crazy man...?"
Shun Jin stared at me in silence.
I casually tossed her repaired sword onto the ground.
"Use it. If I tell you to buy a new sword, then buy a new sword and come straight back next time."
She merely clicked her tongue in annoyance while cutting the ropes binding her wrists.
"Who are you?! Are you that girl's companion?"
I shrugged.
"I don't know."
One of them smirked.
"If you're not, why don't you join us instead? Wouldn't it be even more exciting if you took turns with a girl you actually know? Then we won't have to fight. We can all enjoy ourselves together."
I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.
"I wonder... has anyone actually listened to a proposal that ridiculous before? Is that why you're confident enough to offer it to a complete stranger?"
The large man burst into laughter.
"HAHAHA! Of course! Once, I was raping a girl from an orthodox sect when her male companion came to rescue her. I invited him to join us...
"He dropped his pants without a second thought and joining me violating his own companion. You know what happened afterward?
"After we were done, I chopped the girl's head off right in front of him. He cried. He screamed. He begged.
"Watching that filled me with excitement. I've been addicted to doing it ever since."
He finished his story with a broad grin.
I yawned and casually cleaned my ear with a finger.
"Oh."
"I told you. Humans are born from desire. And therefore... life itself is desire."
I fell silent.
The moment those words left his mouth, I became certain.
These men belonged to one of the Blood Church's subordinate sects.
Only followers of the Blood Church preached those exact words.
"You've got two choices, stranger.
"Join us or die while we have our fun with your companion."
The large man raised his sword.
"Finished?"
I glanced over my shoulder.
Shun Jin had already freed both her hands and feet.
"Handle the other four. I'll take the big one."
The very next instant, all five men charged together.
The large man thrust his sword straight toward my chest, while the other four rushed Shun Jin.
I didn't move.
Using only two fingers, I caught the tip of the sword aimed at my heart.
"Push harder. You're a man, aren't you? Even that girl can swing a sword better than you."
"Shut up!"
He yanked his sword free and began slashing wildly.
I merely stepped calmly to the side... then backward...
Allowing every swing to cut nothing but the branches of the surrounding plum trees.
They might have been senior disciples. But their swordsmanship was even worse than Shun Jin's.
Now I understood why they had relied on amateur assassins to kill Li Jia.
"Die!"
"Quiet."
I threw a single punch. It landed squarely on his jaw. One casual blow was enough to shatter it completely.
Blood immediately poured down his chest.
Perhaps I had used a bit little too more force than i intended.
"Khh...! Ugh...! Khhh...!"
I grabbed him by the hair and inspected the back of his neck. There, an inverted cross had been branded into his flesh.
"Oh... So I was right. Rastella sent you to kill the little girl from Mount Hua Sect.
"What a pity. You were unfortunate enough to run into me tonight."
I drove my hand into his chest and wrapped my fingers around his still-beating heart.
"Humans are born from desire. And therefore...
"Life itself is desire."
Splash!
***