The Azure Lock Divine Demon stared at Jeok Wigang in shock.
“I’m going to leave a document bearing your seal at the site. What do you think the Demon-Brain Divine Demon will do when they find it? Let you live? Or turn you into material for a demonic beast?”
Gulp.
There was no question about it. The Demon-Brain Divine Demon would turn him into material for a demonic beast.
Creating demonic beasts was the project the Demon-Brain Divine Demon had devoted the most effort to since arriving in the Central Plains.
Wasn't that why they had seized control of the Herb Merchants’ Alliance in the first place? To obtain the medicinal ingredients needed for their experiments.
And while they were at it, they had bought up and hoarded medicinal herbs to throw the Central Plains into chaos.
Whatever else happened, the Demon-Brain Divine Demon would never let him get away with this.
“P-please spare me.”
Jeok Wigang grinned.
“And her too?”
The Azure Lock Divine Demon glanced at Hongmong, who stood respectfully nearby, her face swollen beyond recognition, then nodded.
“Fine. But there's something I need to do first. Come closer.”
At Wigang's instruction, the Azure Lock Divine Demon and Hongmong hesitated, fear written across their faces.
“I'm not going to kill you. Come here.”
The two cautiously approached.
Wigang placed a hand on each of their heads and muttered something under his breath.
For a moment, their heads felt wonderfully clear. Then a slight dizziness washed over them.
What did he just do?
“I removed the restrictions the Demon-Brain Divine Demon placed on you and replaced them with my own.”
The Demon-Brain Divine Demon placed restrictions on us?
Neither of them appeared to have known.
“Don't worry. My restrictions won't kill you. They'll just hurt a little, that's all.”
“J-just how much will they hurt?”
“About ten times worse than when I beat you earlier?”
Dying sounded preferable.
“Now, here's what I want you to do.”
Both listened intently.
“Release every medicinal herb you've been hoarding.”
“Understood.”
“Then go to Heavenly Martial Castle. Tell them my name and say you've come from White Horse Heaven. They'll know where to take you. You've got plenty of your comrades there already, so you won't be lonely.”
Strangely enough, learning that they weren't the only ones who had been captured brought both of them a measure of relief.
“Do a good job. I'm sure you wouldn't dream of it, but if you try to run away or get any funny ideas, the restrictions will activate immediately. I'd recommend not trying anything. Of course, if you're really curious, you're welcome to find out for yourselves.”
“N-no, thank you!”
Neither had the slightest intention of testing that warning.
“If any herb merchants refuse to cooperate, you have my permission to use a little force. Just don't kill them.”
At the words a little force, twisted smiles spread across the faces of the Azure Lock Divine Demon and Hongmong.
At last, they had been given a legitimate opportunity to vent some of their foul mood on someone else.
“Understood. We'll be sure to use only a little force.”
“Good. And leave the ones who cooperate alone.”
“Yes!”
“Do you know anything about the demonic beasts?”
“Not much. I only know that humans are being modified and turned into demonic-beast soldiers.”
“Do demonic beasts exist naturally?”
“There are plenty in our original world. But those beasts existed naturally. None of them were artificially created.”
“Then the beasts being made here will be the first of their kind?”
“As far as I remember, yes.”
They knew considerably less than Wigang had hoped.
Apparently, the project was being conducted under extraordinary secrecy.
“I'll find out for myself when I get there. I'm leaving. Make sure you do what I told you.”
“Yes!”
Jeok Wigang followed the route marked on the map.
The terrain was treacherous, and the site lay in a place that was exceedingly difficult to reach.
After traveling for quite some time, he arrived at a stretch of land where the earth was dark red in every direction.
The stench was so overpowering that he covered his nose.
“Corpse incense.”
Wigang scraped away a little of the soil.
Rotting flesh and part of a human corpse immediately came into view.
Now he understood why the ground was dark red.
The entire area was an enormous burial ground, packed with corpses.
“Everything beneath this ground... they're all bodies.”
Wigang's expression turned cold.
He immediately quickened his pace toward his destination.
As he approached the entrance, a vicious-looking man stepped into his path.
“You should have something to show me.”
“This?”
Wigang produced the authorization document.
The man read it, then glanced around.
“What the hell? Where are the medicinal herbs?”
Without answering, Wigang looked toward the entrance.
“I asked you where the herbs—”
Thud!
The demon collapsed to the ground, his upper body blown away.
Wigang walked past what remained of him.
Rrrrrumble.
He forced the entrance doors open and stepped inside.
A vast cavern stretched before him.
“SKREEEE!”
“S-save me!”
“Kill me...”
“AAAAARGH!”
Screams that belonged in the depths of hell echoed throughout the cavern.
Wigang slowly advanced.
Then he saw what lay inside.
Was this what hell on earth looked like?
A spectacle more horrifying than anything he could have imagined spread before his eyes.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Something fell onto Wigang's body.
They were inside a cave. It couldn't possibly be raining.
He tilted his head back.
Countless black shapes covered the cavern ceiling.
At first, he thought they were a colony of bats.
They weren't.
The shapes covering the ceiling weren't bats at all.
They were people.
Hundreds of human beings hung upside down, their ankles pierced by iron hooks.
The rows stretched so far into the cavern that he couldn't see where they ended. Blood dripped from their bodies as though they were carcasses hanging in a butcher's shop.
But there was something grotesquely wrong with them.
From a distance, they looked human.
Up close, they barely resembled people at all.
Their bodies looked as though someone had assembled them from mismatched pieces.
Some had tentacles sprouting from ruptured skulls. Others had three arms or three legs attached to their bodies.
Every one of them had been mutilated into a different nightmare.
“P-please... kill... me.”
Something that could no longer properly be called human whispered from above.
And every voice pleaded for the same thing.
Death.
Wigang looked ready to explode.
Yet he held something back, forcing it down as he slowly walked forward.
Splash. Splash.
The floor was so thick with blood that his footsteps sounded as though he were wading through water.
Soon, he entered an even larger cavern.
“Gahahaha! More! Scream louder!”
Scrape. Scrape.
Demons were using saws to sever people's arms and legs, taking their time as though savoring every cut.
“AAAAAAARGH!”
Their victims writhed in agony.
Elsewhere stood an enormous vat filled with a boiling black liquid.
People thrashed desperately inside it.
Whenever someone's head broke the surface, demons standing above the vat rushed forward and forced them back under.
The people inside had skin that had fused together.
Not just two bodies, but sometimes three had melded into a single grotesquely deformed mass.
Things that could scarcely be called human struggled to crawl out of the vat, only for the demons to press them down and force them back into the boiling liquid.
In another area, victims were having their joints forcibly rearranged.
Spines were bent backward, arms twisted into unnatural positions, and some kind of liquid was smeared over the contorted limbs.
Every application drew another bloodcurdling scream.
Wigang surveyed the cavern.
There appeared to be around fifteen demons, all seemingly of Calamity Demon or Demon-Slayer class.
As he slowly walked toward the center, one of them noticed him and cocked his head.
“What the hell? Why's this one still in such good shape? Are we getting fresh materials today?”
“What are you talking about? We're already drowning in work with the ones we've got. Why would they bring us more?”
“Then who the hell is that?”
The demons turned their attention to Wigang.
“Hey, you! What are—”
CRACK!
A terrible pain shot through the demon's arm before he could finish his question.
He turned his head.
The place where his arm should have been was empty.
When he looked back, he saw the severed limb in the hand of the man standing before him.
“What the hell? When did you...? Hey, give that back.”
The demon spoke as casually as if someone had borrowed something without permission.
Wigang regarded him coldly.
“If I give it back, will those people over there return to normal?”
“Nah, that'd be difficult. You can hardly even call those things human anymore.”
“Is that so? Then I can't give it back either.”
Thud.
CRUNCH!
Wigang tossed the arm onto the floor and crushed it beneath his foot, grinding it to pieces.
Enraged, the demon lunged at him.
KRAK-KRAK!
He couldn't withstand even a single blow.
His body shattered so completely that nothing recognizable remained.
“What the hell? Where'd he go?”
While the other demons stared in confusion, Wigang charged into their midst.
The demon standing farthest away managed to follow his movements.
There was nothing particularly remarkable about them.
He was simply throwing punches.
Yet every time he swung his fist, another of his comrades disappeared.
Where were they going?
The demon watched more closely.
Then he realized.
They weren't disappearing.
“Th-they're being pulveriz—”
He vanished before he could finish the word.
Wigang wiped out every demon in that hellish chamber.
Then he began searching for survivors.
He eventually discovered another group of demons resting farther inside.
This really must have been an important facility.
An extraordinary number of demons had been stationed here.
“What the hell? What's an untouched human doing in here?”
Every demon gathered in the chamber was of Calamity Demon class.
And above them, occupying the seat of honor as though presiding over the others, sat someone who appeared to be of Fell Demon class.
“What are those idiots outside doing, letting this bastard get all the way in here?”
“Probably too busy making demonic beasts. Let's have some fun with him ourselves.”
“Kekeke. Fresh human flesh. Makes my mouth water.”
Wigang clenched his fist.
“Oh! He's making a fist!”
“Looks like he's going to show us something!”
“You'd better make it good. We're expecting a proper show.”
The demons watched his clenched fist with eager anticipation.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“What?”
“Does anyone here know where the Demon-Brain Divine Demon is?”
The demons' expressions instantly turned cold.
“Unbelievable. Did that bastard just dare speak the Demon-Brain Divine Demon's name?”
“Looks like he doesn't want a quick death.”
“Kekeke. Since when does anyone die quickly in this place?”
“Hey, I've got an idea. Let's put that bastard through every modification we can perform here.”
“Now there's a good idea.”
Wigang gave a faint, humorless chuckle.
“What makes you think you're the only ones who can inflict pain?”
“What?”
Wigang muttered something under his breath.
The space around the assembled demons began to ripple.
“From this moment on, none of you will leave this place. Until I get the answer I want, you'll suffer without end.”
“Sounds entertaining. Go ahead and try.”
One of the demons charged at Wigang.
SPLAT!
Blood sprayed through the air.
The demon vanished without leaving so much as a recognizable fragment behind.
Wigang's cold voice broke the silence.
“Damn. Lost control of my strength again.”
He paused and took a slow breath.
“Whew. Calm down.”
As Wigang stood there breathing deeply, the remaining demons stared in shock at what had become of their companion.
“Wh-what the hell? That human...”
“The Black Void Divine Demon... He was obliterated by a single punch from that human...”
“Impossible! He's put us all under some kind of illusion! Snap out of it!”
With that, one of the demons gathered his energy, preparing to unleash it at Wigang.
Thump.
Before he could strike, Wigang closed the distance in an instant and seized his face.
“Ghhhk!”
The demon groaned in pain.
Desperate to break free, he launched a powerful attack at Wigang.
CLANG!
It had no effect.
Instead, the demon felt his body slowly being crushed.
“AAAAARGH!”
It was as though an enormous mountain had descended upon him.
Crack. Crack-crack.
Every joint in his body began bending at impossible angles.
His body slowly folded in on itself.
“H-help... me.”
At the demon's desperate plea, the others rushed forward.

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