My Disciples Became Scoundrels - Chapter 74

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Dein stood motionless. As the sun descended, shadow fell across his face as well. The distant chirping of insects drifted through the air.
“I’m grateful you helped me escape, truly. It was only standard Paralysis Poison, so couldn’t you just let me go?”
“No.”
“Should I fall to my knees and beg? Would you let me go if you beat me senseless?”
“No.”
Hayden exhaled sharply. His gaze, arms crossed, was piercingly cold.
“Listen, Master. You’re not here to scold me, are you? You’re determined to drag me away no matter what I’ve done.”
……
“What—cling to grown men’s sides forever? Master, do you honestly call that affection?”
His voice carried mockery.
“It’s obsession. Possessiveness. It’s repulsive.”
Dein remained in shadow. A calm wind swept through the Cemetery’s grass, and then he spoke.
“Is that all you have to say?”
“What? I thought you’d be hurt, but maybe you’re not.”
“If I’d been wounded by every little thing like this, I never would have raised the five of you.”
Dein took a step forward out of the shadow. His eyes held not the slightest fracture.
“It’s nothing compared to the headaches you gave me when you were young.”
Hayden’s eyes narrowed. A hollow laugh escaped him.
“How generous of you. Forgiving my crude words. Buying me time.”
In that instant, Gai’s fingers, which had been forming Hand Seals beneath his concealed sleeve, went still.
—Snap!
A dozen Mana Spheres tore through the darkness and descended. The Cemetery’s earth scattered upward from the impact.
—Snap! Crack! Crack!
But Dein’s blade pierced through each one. The shattered Mana Spheres scattered, coating the tombstones in pale dust.
The ambush had failed. Hayden’s expression hardened for the first time. His fingers wove Hand Seals frantically. But Dein was already moving.
Grass was trampled. Black earth sprayed at his feet. Fragments of Mana Spheres scattered like bone shards.
Only one Mana Sphere remained. The final spear cut through the night air and descended. In the moment Dein raised his blade—
Hayden threw himself into the blade’s trajectory.
—!
Dein twisted his wrist in alarm. The blade cleaved empty air. A laugh came with the sound of wind being split.
“You should have just cut me down, Master.”
—Thunk!
Something hot drove into his right arm. He wrenched out the Dagger Hayden had buried there. Blood sprayed across the grass in heavy drops.
“Still am I your weakness, Master. How flattering.”
He had already stepped back several paces. Blood streamed from his arm, but that was not the problem.
Poison crept outward. His fingertips began to stiffen. Pain followed in its wake.
Pain and numbness came together. Despite being pierced by a cold blade, a burning heat rose through him. Dein pressed hard on the wound.
“……Just how far have you changed?”
Hayden flicked the blood from the Dagger and laughed. His other hand, hidden from view, was doing something unseen.
“I’ve always been this kind of man.”
“No. When you were young, you weren’t. You were a child, nestled in my arms, chattering away.”
“Well, that may have happened once. But surely I don’t still look like a child to you……”
The sound of insects abruptly ceased.
The air of the Cemetery changed. The Blood Qi flowing from Dein seemed to possess gravity itself. A sharp, steely voice cut through.
“Who are you?”
Dein shifted his blade to his left hand. His golden eyes blazed so fiercely they seemed to burn white-hot.
“Who am I? I’m Hayden.”
“Hayden never once sought my arms.”
The blade’s point aimed at the man. The Cemetery’s grass bowed in the wind, and the smell of earth hung thick.
“Because I killed that child’s parents.”
Silence fell. The man, Dein, the Cemetery itself—all held their breath.
Hayden’s voice emerged.
“I didn’t know that.”
Dein lunged forward. As the grass was trampled, something erupted into his path.
—Crunch-crack!
Empty eye sockets stared at Dein. A corpse, decayed, its sockets hollow and vacant.
The blade split the corpse in half. In that moment, something twisted around his ankle.
Hands thrust up from beneath the earth. Skeletal fingers, bone exposed, dug into Dein’s ankle.
—Grrrrgh……!
Corpses clawed their way out from beneath the gravestones. Not one or two—there were dozens of grave markers scattered in every direction. A man’s voice cut through the dark.
“I’ll make sure your epitaph reads nicely. ‘Hayden Balanus was the cause.'”
The corpses shrieked in unison. Veins stood out on the back of Dein’s left hand. He swung his blade with ferocious speed.
It was a sword wielded by his non-dominant hand, yet it did not waver. He was a man who had wandered through countless battlefields, who had crawled through infinite hells.
It was merely that his right arm would not move. Because these were corpses, not demons, there were no restrictions on killing them.
—Screech!
One of the corpses’ teeth sank into Dein’s shoulder. Fingernails raked across his ribs. Wounds accumulated, one after another.
Dein’s speed was gradually slowing. The man standing at a distance spoke.
“The poison must be taking effect by now. If you run now, I might let you go.”
“I’m taking you with me.”
“But I’m not Hayden.”
“Still, you’re connected to him somehow.”
This man knew something about Balanus, and he bore the same tattoo as Hayden. As long as he knew something, Dein couldn’t let him slip away.
But Dein’s entire shoulder was growing numb now. The poison spread through his blood with terrifying speed.
—A low growl rumbled from deep within.
The corpses in front of him showed no signs of diminishing. It felt as though his veins were being seared by fire.
He wanted to collapse. He wanted to scream. Instead of crying out, he tightened his grip on the sword.
—Thunk!
The man’s eye twitched. He saw Dein standing like a corpse between life and death.
Dein pierced his own right arm. As poisoned blood spilled out, the numbness receded slightly—only slightly.
It was a temporary measure, nothing more. The real solution was clear: kill the sorcerer. Yet Dein didn’t take that path.
“You’re trying to bleed to death?”
“Not dying. Not until I’ve found all my disciples.”
The stench of decay vibrated through the Cemetery. The smell of blood came from Dein. Nothing emanated from the man.
The man quietly completed his Hand Seal.
“Then you’ll live forever.”
A severed arm crawled across the ground. A truncated torso rose up. The pieces dragged toward one another, fusing together. Flesh and bone squelched as they adhered.
—A bestial shriek tore the air.
What emerged now bore the shape of a four-legged creature. The corpse beast lunged at Dein with the intent to devour him whole.
The beast howled; the sword sang. With each swing, chunks of rotting flesh were cleaved away.
But whenever a gap opened, new flesh clung to fill it. The beast would not die.
The beast lost tissue; Dein lost blood. Pain consumed his entire body. His consciousness wavered.
It was a war of attrition. Dein’s body was already at its limit. Still, the blade did not stop.
—Crash!
The corpse beast’s front paw slammed down on Dein. The impact drove blood from his mouth. The darkness of the Cemetery swam before his eyes.
The man stepped forward slowly, a dagger in hand. His footsteps echoed clearly.
“Foolish, really. Not even blood relations, yet you’d throw your life away—”
The man stepped back. Then back again.
Something was changing in Dein. The smell of blood grew thick—no, it wasn’t blood’s scent. It was something flowing through the blood itself.
Blood Force rippled outward. Blood Force was the vitality that flowed through blood—another name for strength itself.
When Blood Force boils over beyond containment, that power inscribes itself upon the bone. No one could say with certainty which moment that inscription occurs.
But one thing was certain: pain accompanies the moment of inscription.
The mark was carved into the bone of his soul.
Dein’s scream tore through the Cemetery. The gravestones wailed. Blood Force erupted from the darkness.
The beast’s front legs flew apart. The sound of the sword couldn’t be heard; no afterimage appeared. The man hastily tried to form a Hand Seal.
But he was too slow.
—Cleave!
The corpse beast split vertically in half. Dein burst through the gap. Beyond death, streaming blood, straight toward the man.
There was no time for the man to escape.
—Crack!
Dein seized the man’s left hand. Bone snapped and a scream tore loose.
The man’s fingers were bent backward at impossible angles. Dein grabbed his throat and drove him down into the ground.
“Gasp… cough…!”
The man sprawled in the dirt, gasping. Then, looking up at Dein, he laughed weakly.
“Haha! Still won’t kill me? Because you need information about Hayden?”
Dein said nothing.
“I won’t talk. Either way, you won’t last much longer from blood loss—”
Then came the sound of hurried footsteps. Blood drained from the man’s face.
Dein’s disciples stood there.
“Master!”
Disciples rushed through the darkness. Jenia hastily poured Recovery Potion over Dein’s right arm.
“Master, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. The soldiers…?”
“We subdued them. Didn’t kill them.”
The disciples were breathing heavily as well. Among them, Cesare looked the most exhausted.
Cesare’s face was deathly pale. It was clear he was still under the effects of the poison.
Even so, he forced himself to walk toward Dein. Cesare looked at the wound, then at his master’s face, and clenched his teeth.
“Hayden stabbed you too?”
“This man isn’t Hayden.”
The moment Dein released him, Cesare seized the man by the collar.
“Then what the hell is this bastard?”
“I’m not sure. But he’s definitely connected to Hayden somehow.”
At those words, the man shrugged. His face bore no sign of someone cornered.
“Well, that being the case, you can’t exactly kill me…”
Thwack!
Cesare’s fist raked across the man’s face. He coughed and spat blood.
“Damn it, you think I won’t kill you? Who the hell are you?”
“Ah, just call me Gai.”
At the casual name, Cesare’s jaw tightened. He raised his fist again.
“You know Hayden? Where is he!”
“Ah, Hayden Balanus!”
Gai chuckled softly, then lifted his hand toward his shirt.
“He made for an excellent corpse.”
Cesare grabbed him by the collar, pulling at the tattered fabric. He wrenched the shirt open.
His bare chest was exposed. Down the center ran a long scar, crudely stitched.
Gai grinned wickedly.
“I’m making quite good use of him.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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