39 Village #1023 (2/2)

Villages. An uncountable number of villages scattered around these green and lush plains, where simple forest interspersed in some corners and mountain in others. The villages had simple wooden houses, nothing fancy.

”Hm... A village might have some information.”

Rubbing his chin, Su Min looked down, seeing the ground that stretched out like an unreachable target. Anyone with a fear of heights would tremble at such a sight, but Su Min didn't really care as he had already jumped up the wall.

”Though, where are the reinforcements?”

Pausing, Su Min glanced ahead as he thought back to what those two said. All he saw was villages, so where was the mighty sect that runs this place and the wall that stretched over the horizon?

”Eh, whatever. Maybe the sect is too far away for me to see, I'll see them eventually anyway if needed.”

Jumping onto the wall's erected ledge, Su Min closed his eyes and just... Fell off.

*wwwooooOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHHH*

Like he was about to commit suicide, a wind that blasted his ears at an ever-increasing magnitude rushed by him...

...

...

”Village #1023?”

A man, draped in black, spoke a dull sentence as he stared at a wooden sign in front of him. It was mouldy and smelled a bit.

”Hahaha! Come back here!”

He was standing on a dirt pathway, where a couple of meters behind such an old sign stood numerous wooden huts. A couple kids, running around, rushed right towards him. Their skin was covered in tattoos, although it was a lot fainter and unfinished.

”Ah! Who's that?!”

The kids, gasping, halted to a stop as they stared at the random man who was staring at their village sign. His hair dazzled them, gleaming with a colour that they had never seen in their lives.

”Why doesn't he look like us?”

The kid's eyes sparkled as they stared at the man's face and body frame. His body was strange, it had no tattoos... His face was ordinary, etched with plainness.

His everything exuded a simplicity, even his golden hair was simple, although dazzling. It was at the level that would make anyone ignore him; as if he could just blend into the background. He no longer held the strange nobless of his old self, no, he had reverted way back and become someone who exuded nothing but bareness.

”Kids?”

Su Min, glancing at the two kids, mumbled as he gazed ahead of him. He didn't care if people saw that he wasn't like them, as he had long lost any emotion to care. If he had to kill half the village to get answers then he would do such a thing.

'I guess I really did lose empathy...'

Realising this, Su Min felt a feeling of loss encompass him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't feel. No matter what, even if someone were to go up to him and torture a random helpless child with strewn screams, he wouldn't care.

He couldn't care; so he wouldn't care. He will only care if caring brings him what he wants. His heart is frozen, frozen with a placid ice that will never be shaken. Never, and ever...

*BANG*

Stomping the ground, Su Min grabbed the sign and with a grip of pure strength; the sign shattered into dust. A shockwave scattered out from him, alerting everyone.

”What was that?!”

A startled shout erupted out from the closest hut as a tattooed man ran outside. His forehead shone with a single circle, and his gaze carried an inhuman glare that surpassed humanity.

”Single circle...”

Su Min gazed at him without caution, waiting.

”Our sign?!”

The man's expression turned fierce as he stared at the dust that sprinkled out of Su Min's rough hands. However, just as he was about to become enraged, Su Min spoke with a smile.

”I don't recommend doing that.”

Su Min turned his head as his eyes stared intently at the man. Though, whether it was intentional or not, the man felt the whole world become Su Min's gaze, a gaze of gold. His eyes shifted to that of hysteria as he stammered out one word.

”W-...”

As if the world had clasped him down with a brutal palm, the man's body froze with a petrified shiver. His head dripped with sweat, and his breathing was dull and ragged.

”Good...”

Removing his gaze, Su Min nodded as that faint law dispersed around the man. In Su Min's eyes, numerous golden strands that had stuck onto the man's body disbanded.

”W-what do you want...”

The man's eyes were full of despair as he caught his breath. It was because this being wasn't from his race! The only way for this to happen is that he broke past the wall, and the strength needed for that... Well. He could only guess.

”Get all your villagers out here.”

Su Min spoke as he rubbed the remnants of the sign off his hands.