Hei Dan feared the men in front of her. She was only at Muscle tempering realm at the moment, so even if it was the trash son of the town lord, he could easily overpower her.
"Young lord, why are you here?" she asked with a serious face.
The lord's son looked at her mask and could see the eyes behind them, making him elate at the prospect that he was likely going to take her as his wife today.
He put on the most amiable smile he could, which still made him look like a creep, and said, "I came here for you, of course. I still haven't gotten your answer."
Hei Dan was starting to get angry just seeing his face. This was the man who got her family to where they were now, the person who hurt her father, the reason why her father couldn't seek medical treatment.
Feeling emerged deep inside of her that she herself didn't know she had. The anger, the rage, all of it was telling her to just kill the man standing in front of her.
However, when she saw the two guards behind him in bulky armor with spears on their hands and a wildly stronger cultivation base, she lost all courage to do so.
"Young lord, I told you. I am ugly behind this mask. You do not want me," Hei Dan said. Her voice was particularly loud in the hope to gather the people in the town so that the lord's son couldn't do something publically.
People quickly gathered around, wanting to see what the commotion was about. Hei Dan got happy when she saw them.
"Young lord, please… my facial scars have distorted my face. You really don't want me," Hei Dan insisted.
"No, I don't believe you," the young lord said. "If it is as ugly as you say, then just take it off and prove it."
"What?" she got anxious. There was no way she could open her mask, especially given how much of a problem it gave caused to everyone around her.
It would've been fine if it was the headache that happened when she spoke as a child. But lately, especially after starting cultivation, it was like her constitution had awakened, and it started making things more problematic.
The lord's son got a little irritated. "Will you die if you just show me your face? Are you trying to defy me?" he asked.
"What, no young lor—"
"That's right, girl. Just take off your mask."
"Show us your ugly face then."
"The young lord is right. If your face is just ugly then you have nothing to hide."
The townsfolk started speaking against her. The people she had gathered for her safety were now speaking up against her.
"Enough!" the town lord's son shouted. "Guards, take her mask off."
"What? No, please no!" she cried out. Even as she did, the two guards went into her shop and started manhandling her.
She tried to run away, but they were too strong. "Please, no! Father, help me," she cried out with tears flowing down her eyes.
One of the guards grabbed the side of her mask and tried to take it off. Just then, a sickle appeared out of nowhere, chopping off his arm in half.
When the other guard looked up to see what was happening, another sickle entered his head through the opening in his helmet.
"Young lord, run away," the guard with his arm cut off ran out of the store. Hei Dan's father walked out of the store too, with two bloody sickles in his hands.
"I will kill you today," he said.
The lord's son was scared, so he let the remaining guard delay her father while he ran away.
Hei Dan's father was already weak from the illness. Exerting so much strength to fight the guard only made him weaker.
Hei Dan walked out, trembling from what she had just gone through. "Father, don't leave me," she cried out, but her father wasn't there anymore. He had run after the lord's son to kill him.
She struggled to keep herself standing with how much she was trembling. The other townsfolk that were watching everything had already run after her father to see what he would do.
Hei Dan prayed that her father was safe and slowly made her way forward, following the path her father took.
It didn't take her long to reach the location where her father was, but when she did, she saw a big crowd of people, surrounding a smaller crowd of guards, all of whom were fighting her weak father who was all alone.
The lord's son was protected behind some guard with nothing but a mere cut in his cheeks. He demanded death, shouting at the guards who were fighting.
"Don't hurt my father, please. I beg you. I will go with you, stop!" she shouted, but the sounds of the clashes were just too loud for her voice to make any impact.
The lord's son saw her amongst the crowd. With her black mask, it was pretty easy to spot her in a crowd.
The lord's son made the other guards go grab her and bring her to him. Hei Dan didn't resist.
"Please, young lord. Forgive my father. He… he was just trying to protect me," she said.
"No, there is no saving your father now. He cut my beautiful face. All you can do now is say goodbye to your old man and be my wife," the young lord said.
"No, please," she started to beg again.
"Before that, however, let's see your face. After all, I can't take you in as my wife if you aren't beautiful," he said and moved towards her.
Hei Dan turned around and tried to run away, but two guards grabbed her. She was now directly watching her father barely manage to hold himself with so many wounds on him.
The sickle on his left hand was broken, and he was forced to use his right one only to fight.
When he saw the bastard come up to his daughter from behind and grab her mask, his rage flared as if someone poured oil on the fire.
In his rage, he put his guards down. Someone attacked him from behind.
Hei Dan couldn't hear anything anymore. The young lord's hands crept on her mask, but she couldn't feel it either.
All she could do was feel her heartbreak into a million pieces as she watched a sword getting pushed through her father's back.
Her father vomited a mouthful of blood and fell onto the ground. He shakily put his arms forth, trying to reach for his daughter, but before he could do so, another sword dug into him.
He breathed his last breath.
At the same time, the lord's son ripped off her mask.
"NO!!!!" the harshest and most painful scream she had ever screamed came out of her. She felt the clutches of the guards loosen, and she ran up to her father.
She immediately got on her knees and grabbed her father's hand, calling him to answer her. But he wasn't there anymore.
She held her father in her embrace and looked up to the sky as she cried. The loudest, most hurtful screams escaped her mouth.
As she sat there in the pool of her father's blood, crying her eyes out, everyone else in the surrounding was on the floor, smiling from one ear to another, happy, like they were seeing the best of dreams.
She cried for hours. Anyone who heard her would fall onto the ground, asleep with a smile on their face, so she was able to cry for as long as she wanted.
After a while, she finally stopped crying, and instead of tears, there was rage building up in her eyes.
She looked around her. As tragedy befell her, the people around her were smiling as if it were a comedy to them.
She grabbed her father's remaining sickle and gritted her teeth as she stood up. The first thing she did was walk up to the young lord.
Seeing him with a happy face only served to fuel her rage. In one swift motion, her sickle separated his head from his body. Once that was done, she then went on to cut off his arms and his legs.
When that was done, she then stabbed every single inch of his body with the sickle. Still, the fury in her wasn't gone in the slightest. No, it was only beginning.
She looked at the guards, the townsfolk, all of whom did nothing but only acted against her and her father. Her fury targeted them next.
Man, woman, child. She saw nothing but enemies in front of her. In a matter of minutes, every single person in the crowd was dead, in their own blood. Most of them held their smile even as they died.
Once she was done and there was no one else to divert her anger to, the anger was replaced by the horrifying realization of what she had done.
She had never ever even hurt a single soul, and yet today, she had killed so many. "No! These monsters deserved it," she told herself.
She carried her father's body back to the house, making everyone who saw her fall asleep on the ground. Every time she saw their happy face, the rage would return again.
She killed who she could to satisfy her vengeance, but she couldn't ever satisfy it.
She buried her father behind their house, along with her mother. Then, she understood that she couldn't remain in the town anymore.
She started packing stuff to leave. The items from the store were just too many and she was forced to leave those behind.
She looked for what else she could pack and as she did, she entered her father's workplace.
It was there on the table. Her father had finished making it. The amulet. His last gift for her.
Before she even knew it, Hei Dan had the amulet around her neck. As she realized that this was the final keepsake of her father, she clutched it against her chest and cried again.
She became a sobbing mess once again and cried for hours. Only around the dead of night did she finally stop.
She took her stuff and escaped the city while death created the commotion.
She moved town, went to a different city. But the rumors of a girl with a mask killing everyone in a town started floating around.
She couldn't stay there anymore and changed cities once again. However, no matter where she went, the news followed her like the ghost of the young lord she killed.
With no other choice, she was forced to go into the forest to protect herself. There, she met other bandits, who took her in and accepted her.
Slowly, she built up a reputation for herself, known primarily for her black mask, and became the well-known bandit she was today.
Black Venom
