Chapter 61: Aftermath

Slash!

The mercenary leader, who was already bleeding profusely from several areas, suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left arm and collapsed on the ground while grimacing in pain.

His left arm had been chopped off in half.

"Kahahaha, where were you looking, you bastard? This is what you get for being distracted."

The head of bandits laughed maniacally and lifted his sword on top of his head.

He wanted to end it all with his next move.

’...looks like I won’t be alive to see my grandchild, huh?’ The mercenary leader’s eyes blanked out as he saw the glimmering blade falling towards his neck.

THUD!

A bloodied head slammed down on the muddy ground. An expression of confusion was apparent on its face.

It was soon followed by the slamming of the headless body.

’This...’

Seeing the bandit’s lifeless body, the mercenary leader’s eyes widened in surprise, and the next moment, his eyes fell upon Yi Chen’s figure standing in front of him.

Blood was splattered across his face, and his eyes didn’t pay any attention to the mercenary leader but instead started looking around for the next bandit to slay.

However, there was none.

Out of the remaining 11 bandits, Yi Chen had slain eight of them.

Including the two he had dealt with earlier, his hands had taken ten lives today.

With no one left to fight, Yi Chen’s eyes regained their clarity, and the next moment, he fell on his knees.

"Hey brat! You alright?!" Seeing this, the mercenary leader exclaimed with worry.

The remaining people alive also had the same expression on their faces and called out in worry.

As for Yi Chen, he couldn’t hear any of them.

His gaze was directed at his bloodied sword, and he immediately let go of it in fear and disgust.

The next moment, it was his blood-soaked hands that filled him with disgust and self-loathing.

’T-This can’t be...’

He immediately tried to wipe his hand off, but the blood won’t go away...as if a testament of the fact that he would have to live with these memories forever.

’No!...No!..No!’

Not willing to accept it, he kept rubbing his hand on the mud, hoping for everything to disappear...the blood...his memories...everything.

’I-It can’t be...I-I...’

Tears began to well in his eyes as he continued on with this pointless act, only to stop when a hand firmly landed on his shoulder.

"Hey! Wake up! What the hell are you doing?!" The mercenary leader shouted right in Yi Chen’s face.

When Yi Chen looked up towards the man, the tears that had been collecting in his eyes finally trickled down his face, and sensing it as a signal, words burst out of Yi Chen’s mouth.

"I-I killed them...I killed them...all"

The next moment, his eyes lost their light, and he fell down unconscious.

"This brat..."

The mercenary leader grabbed Yi Chen before he could fall down and started ordering the people around for help.

Several hours later.

With a subtle groan, Yi Chen opened his eyes as his hazy vision began to recover little by little.

He was inside a tent and was currently lying on a blanket spread on the ground.

"You’re finally awake, huh?" a voice entered Yi Chen’s ears the next moment.

Turning to his side, Yi Chen’s gaze fell upon the mercenary leader who was sitting with his legs crossed right next to him.

"Leader Han?" Yi Chen called out in confusion as he pushed his upper body off the ground.

It was at this moment that his gaze shifted towards Leader Han’s left hand.

A white cloth was tightly wrapped around what remained of his left arm.

"Y-Your arm..." Yi Chen said in confusion, and the very next moment, memories of last night bombarded his head.

"Ugh!"

He groaned while leaning forward, his hands tightly gripping his head.

The agonising memories of stabbing, slashing, and beheading people flooded his mind and fully overwhelmed him

At that moment, Leader Han’s hands gently rested on his shoulder as his words entered Yi Chen’s ears.

"I knew this would happen when you woke up, so I stayed with you last night," Leader Han said in a low tone.

Hearing him, Yi Chen couldn’t help but look towards him with a face that was filled with abhorrence for oneself.

Seeing this, Leader Han sighed deeply and said, while his grip on Yi Chen’s shoulder tightened a little.

"Don’t blame yourself. It wasn’t your fault."

The moment Yi Chen heard those words, tears started streaming down his face as he said, while choking on his tears, "b-but I killed them...."

"Yes, you did," Leader Han said with a firm gaze and continued, "It’s something that you will never be able to forget. However, you are focusing on the wrong thing here."

"W-wrong thing?" Yi Chen asked in confusion.

"Yes, yesterday you didn’t kill people but saved them. Your act of killing those bandits saved everyone else’s life."

Glancing towards his left arm, he continued," If not for you, it would not just be this arm which I would have lost. It would be my life, and I won’t be able to spend my retirement life with my son as I had hoped.

It’s the same with everyone else. Your decisive action saved them and gave them a new chance to live.

Moreover, your act of killing those bandits had inadvertently saved all the lives that would have been slain by their hands in the future as well.

You’re not a killer kid, you’re a saviour. It might not make sense to you right now since you’ve just experienced killing for the first time, but it eventually will.

At that time, everything will make sense," Leader Han patted his shoulder a few times and stood up the next moment.

Seeing that Yi Chen was lost in his thoughts, a subtle smile formed on his face.

"Think over what I said just now. I’ll go and inform others that you’ve woken up," Leader Han said and soon left the tent.

’Saviour...me?’

Scenes of yesterday’s bloody night flashed in Yi Chen’s eyes, and he couldn’t bear to accept this proposal.

’Aren’t I just a mass murderer? I would have been hanged to death if I were on earth for such a crime...’

Even after a few minutes had passed, he was still struggling with his thoughts and gritting his teeth in self-loathing.

It was at that time that someone arrived in the tent. Someone whom Yi Chen’s earlier actions had given a new hope for life.

"Brother Chen, can I come in?"