Chapter 39: The First Law of the Hunt (2)

First young lady Mineh subconsciously opened her mouth.

"Hunters-"

It was at that moment.

Crack.

They heard something break.

The man with the character for blood on his chest… Eruhaben's golden mana rope binding him broke.

Cale's eyes observed the red aura coming out of the man.

The Fire of Purification. This was a red aura mixed with a bit of black, slightly different from the red aura used by the people of the Church of the Fire of Purification.

Anybody would be able to tell that this aura looked ominous.

That red aura had ripped the gold mana rope.

– Cale!

The Super Rock called out in shock.

Cale and the Blood Cultist…

The moment the two of their eyes met… The now free Blood Cultist's hand was heading toward Cale's neck.

The Hunters.

The man's aura had changed the moment he said that word.

It had changed from a regular person to that of a martial artist. His aura had changed so much that it was noticeable.

'Mm!'

In those short few seconds…

Cale had not expected Eruhaben's mana rope to break so easily.

'Shield!'

Cale immediately tried to cast the Indestructible Shield. Although he had not had any break, he still had about fifty percent of his strength left despite causing 2,500 percent damage.

'!'

However, Cale stopped his movement despite his eyes being wide open.

Baaaaang!

The now white sand shot up into the air.

– As expected of Choi Han!

The cheapskate commented in admiration while Cale blankly watched for a moment.

Choi Han, who had approached at some point, had grabbed the Blood Cultist by the back of his neck and slammed him into the ground.

Crunch.

He then grabbed the hand that had been aiming for Cale's neck and twisted it back. It twisted in a direction it should not twist in.

Basically, the arm was broken.

'H, how swift?'

Choi Han's reaction had been much faster than Cale had expected. It was as if he had been warily waiting for this to happen.

Cale and Choi Han made eye contact.

Cale slightly nodded his head to tell Choi Han that he did a good job. Choi Han smiled innocently, almost as if he was embarrassed, to show that it was nothing.

"…Scary bastards..."

The Fourth Imperial Prince mumbled but Cale didn't even care about that at all.

'How surprising.'

It was because there was something else that was catching his attention.

"You didn't even groan."

The Blood Cultist… He had not screamed or groaned even once while his head was shoved into the sand and his arm was twisted.

"Let's look at his face."

"Yes sir."

Choi Han immediately pulled the head out at Cale's order and Cale could see the Blood Cultist again.

"So this is your real face."

The face that was covered in white sand had no expression on it at all.

The Blood Cultist's mouth opened.

The moment it opened a bit…

"Kno-"

Knock him out.

That was what Cale was about to say. He thought that this man would try to kill himself now that he could not take down his enemy.

That is what a Blood Cultist would normally do.

Pow!

However, Choi Han's hand had struck the Blood Cultist in the back of the neck the moment Cale said the first syllable.

The Blood Cultist was already unconscious.

"Mm."

Cale was shocked once again at Choi Han's swift response but chose to accept it.

'It makes sense since Choi Han has seen how I do things a lot just like Raon.'

It made sense that they worked well together.

'It's nice.'

He was very satisfied. He was very satisfied that Choi Han took care of things properly even without being told.

"Good job."

Cale gave a short praise and Choi Han smiled innocently again.

This time, Fourth Imperial Prince Noi just closed his mouth without saying anything. However, his gaze was saying quite a lot of things.

"Tie him up. Make it so that he can't kill himself. Oh, check to see if he has any poison in his mouth too."

"Yes sir."

"And knock him out again if he wakes up. Don't even give him the chance to try anything."

"Yes sir."

This Blood Cultist might try to kill himself, get away from Cale, or attack Cale's group as soon as he wakes back up.

It was best to be thoroughly prepared.

'Yes, it is highly likely that he will be persistent since he is a Blood Cultist.'

The Blood Cult that Cale had read about quite a bit in wuxia novels as Kim Rok Soo was full of crazed believers.

'The team leader said that the wuxiaworld that I read about in novels and this Central Plains might be different, but…'

It was still best to use the information he knew to be as careful as possible.

It would be a problem if he let his guard down, but it shouldn't be bad to be cautious.

'It's not the Demon Cult but the Blood Cult after all.

Cale recalled the typical wuxia settings that he remembered.

'Most wuxia novels have a good faction and an evil faction.'

The good faction emphasizes harmony. The evil faction emphasizes benefits and power.

'But that is only on the surface.'

Based on the novel, the good faction might be completely rotten and filled with hypocrites while the evil faction might be full of people with romanticized views.

Most wuxia novels had these two factions opposing each other, but even they felt quite the sense of crisis when this major force appeared.

'The Demon Cult.'

This cult that served their leader, the Heavenly Demon, as basically a god, revered power.

The main character of the novel being from the Demon Cult happened quite frequently too.

'And the Blood Cult usually comes out as a cult that is even worse than the Demon Cult.'

The final dark shadow of all incidents… That was usually how the Blood Cult was revealed in the novels.

'They are frequently described as a place with even more crazed believers than the Demon Cult.'

Crazed believers…

Cale felt a chilly and cold aura that made it feel as if his back was on ice.

"Mm."

Cale reached his arm over and patted his back with his hand.

However, this unexplainable cold aura did not disappear.

'…The Central Plains...

That place should be okay, right?

Yes, it should be okay.

Choi Jung Soo is supposed to be there.

It should be easier to adjust to that world than this one if that punk is there.

Or maybe not?

…That punk is pretty good at causing incidents too.'

Cale, who was deep in thought, frowned while looking at the sand.

"Umm, Purifier-nim?"

He snapped out of his thoughts after hearing a voice.

Choi Han had called him Purifier-nim while tying up the Blood Cultist.

"Ah."

He had called Cale Purifier-nim because he could not call him by name.

'Choi Han showing such a sense?' Cale was shocked but smiled in satisfaction.

He could feel Choi Han growing in many aspects and not just in his sword arts.

'Yes, I'm going to go to the Central Plains with guys like him. It should be fine.'

Cale chose to ignore this iffy feeling.

– I don't think you should ignore this feeling.

He ignored the Super Rock's comment as well. That was not the issue right now.

Cale made eye contact with the person who had a smile on her face despite being tied up and kneeling on the ground.

"Why are you pretending not to know the Hunters when you clearly know about them?"

The House of Huayans. The Black Bloods household. The leader of the Hunters here in Xiaolen…

Cale smiled as he looked at First young lady Mineh, the future matriarch of the Black Bloods household.

"You Hunters were the ones who turned this world like this."

Mineh's pupils, that had started shaking the moment she first heard Cale mention the Hunters, were calm again. They had calmed down while the Blood Cultist was knocked out.

"I have no idea what you are talking about! Why am I a Hunter? I don't know what you could mean!"

"Really?"

Cale thought about it for a moment.

It was a very short moment.

'It's not like I'm going to kill the people here.'

Forget killing them… This black tree attack team was mainly made up of Emperor candidates who were skilled in their abilities or in their mindsets.

There were people like the First Imperial Prince, who were pulled in because they were very skilled and there were others who had voluntarily joined this potential deathtrap in order to protect the western part of the Empire.

'They are the people who will support the Empire in the future.'

Cale had no reason to kill such people.

He would rather use them.

'The problem is… what I just did.'

Cale had no idea what it would be like to use fifty percent of his power to launch an attack with 2,500 percent power.

Of course, he had imagined what it would be like. He knew it would be big.

However, it had gone beyond what he had expected.

It was so big that it was even shocking to Cale.

'I think I should use this to my advantage since they already know me as the purifier…

And I probably need to inform the people here at least a bit about the truth.'

Cale decided to be honest with a portion of what was going on.

"I came here after being called by the world."

'Yes, Xiaolen personally sent me a message through the divine item.

I was told that I would get a magic stone if I fulfilled its request.'

This world seemed like one Cale would have an easy time communicating with.

"The world asked me to take down the Hunters, the Black Blood household."

It was basically that kind of request.

"The world still loves and cherishes this land."

According to the first message sent by Xiaolen, it was full of love for its world.

"That is why it is quite angry at how the world has changed like this."

That was also true.

Cale recalled a portion of the message that Xiaolen had sent him.

< Xiaolen was originally a treasure trove from heaven, filled with fertile land and numerous mines with endless value. However, because of that rotten Black Blood that is so rotten that ripping them to shreds wouldn't be enough, crushing them into pieces wouldn't be enough, and even stomping their bones into tiny little pieces wouldn't be enough... >

In addition…

"The world also asked me to purify things."

< PS 2. If you accept the invitation you will get 1 mine. If you severely damage those Black Blood bastards, you will get an extra mine. If you help with the purification as well, I will give you either another mine or a treasure. >

'While putting up a mine as a reward.'

Of course, Cale wondered if he would really be able to receive a mine as a reward in such a world, but he was planning on getting his reward no matter what it took to make it happen.

"H, how, s, such n, nonsense-"

Mineh's pupils started to shake again.

It was as if she heard something completely unbelievable.

Cale found this reaction to be odd.

Either way, Cale continued with what he had to say.

"I happily responded to that request and came to this world with my friends."

"U, unbelievable."

Mineh's mind became even more chaotic while looking at Cal who looked completely calm as if he was not lying at all. She shook her head over and over.

"You were called here by the world? There is no way something like that is possible! I, it makes no sense!"

Cale tilted his head to the side.

"Why does it make no sense? If that didn't happen, what reason would I have had to come to this world?"

Of course, he had mainly accepted Xiaolen's request because those Hunter bastards had messed with the Roan Kingdom.

However, there was no need to share that detail.

'Furthermore, this young lady Mineh doesn't know who I am yet.'

It was better not to mention the Roan Kingdom or anything about his world.

Cale continued to speak.

"You asked me who I was. I don't see a need to explain who I am."

There was no need to explain that he was the eldest son of Henituse County, no, Duchy, and the Supreme Commander of the Roan Kingdom… That he was Cale Henituse, the man who dreamt of being a slacker once he captured these Hunter bastards…

There was no need to explain all of that.

"Instead, I told you why I came here."

He could have just knocked her out but he chose to tell her.

Of course, the main reason for doing so was because he was using this opportunity to explain the situation in order to have the other people here cooperate with him.

"Aren't I already being quite nice to do so?"

"S, such-"

Young lady Mineh was trying to say something but Cale motioned to Choi Han with his eyes.

What this member of the House of Huayans, who seemed to not understand the situation yet, needed right now…

"Knock her out."

"Yes sir."

"Ugh!"

Might be some rest.

Cale shook his head while looking at the now unconscious Mineh.

'I thought she was quite fast at understanding the situation but she's pretty slow. Young lady Mineh is not an enemy I need to pay as much attention to.'

Although she needed to assess the situation calmly and coldly, young lady Mineh had been unable to hide her shock.

'Young lady Mineh's position in the Black Bloods might not be that high.'

Cale recorded that hypothesis in his mind as he quietly looked at the unconscious Mineh and the Blood Cultist.

Eruhaben, who had been watching Cale, looked around.

Everybody was looking at Cale in astonishment. Some of the Dark Elves and black mages were already kneeling as they looked at Cale.

It was as if they were looking at an unbelievable existence.

'Aigoo.'

Eruhaben let out a sigh.

He became frustrated while looking at Cale who was acting as if he found it odd that Mineh couldn't believe what he had said.

The ancient Dragon recalled what Cale had said.

'Why does it make no sense?'

'It does make sense! But the reason this Hunter is shocked is because you are calling yourself an existence that came at the request of the world!

It makes you seem like an extremely great and mighty existence!'

'I don't see a need to explain who I am.'

'That line sounds like you are saying that you have no need to explain your existence to these humans! It sounds like you are telling them to figure it out on their own! That's what it sounds like!'

'Aren't I already being quite nice to do so?'

It was quite nice for someone like Eruhaben who knew everything, but the others probably just felt as if they were hearing a myth.

'…Of course, everything Cale said was technically true.'

Cale had only told the truth.

That was the problem.

Cale looked around while the ancient Dragon was suffering internally.

"Alright, all of you heard clearly, right?"

Cale put on as warm of a smile as possible.

He wanted to use such a smile to earn a more intimate cooperation from these people.

"I presume that you all understand the situation."

Cale's eyes looked at the First Imperial Prince, Chief Eaen, Zero, and all of the important people.

They had different emotions visible on their faces but Cale did not focus on that.

"We are returning to Precinct 9."

It was because it was time to head back now.

"We can discuss the details when we get back."

It was time for Cale to hear their stories now.

The First Imperial Prince and Zero…

Cale's eyes clouded over while looking at the two of them.

—
Translator's Comments

Well there's that.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]