Chapter 122

A woman pulls something out from her bosom.

Holding a long cylindrical object, she aims it at Tang Nan-ah, with a line attached that she grips with her other hand.

Qing is unsure what it is.

But if she had come from the modern world, she would immediately recognize that pointing a long tube like that at someone is extremely dangerous.

Startled, Qing pushes Tang Nan-ah aside and reaches for the cylinder.

However, Tang Nan-ah realized what it was.

It was a type of weapon called a “crossbow.”

This weapon launches a needle that’s been pulled tight using leather or sinew, which normally wouldn’t have much killing power on its own.

The problem was that it was coated in poison.

As Tang Nan-ah rolled awkwardly from her seated position, Qing’s silhouette struck a pose as he stepped forward, and Tang Nan-ah’s hand, tinged with sunset hues, reached out to grab him.

Tang Nan-ah screamed like a banshee.

“Run…!”

But it was too late.

*Thwack!*

The sound of the strong tension hitting the leather echoed.

At the same time, thousands of small needles ricocheted off her palm, sweeping through Qing’s front like a storm.

In an instant, some needles shattered and embedded in the woman’s body, making her skin ripple as she was pushed backward and floated into the air.

When time returned to normal, the woman crashed into the door, rolling over.

Tang Nan-ah, still in her seated position, tumbled once and a half times before quickly grabbing Qing’s wrist.

“Hey! You! What are you doing? Do you even know what that is?!”

She then yanked Qing’s long hand in front of her face, fiddling with it.

“It’s fine. It bounced off.”

“Idiot! What if even one needle got stuck?!”

Tang Nan-ah was practically pressing her nose against Qing’s palm, examining it with her frantic eyes.

But the techniques of the Supreme Hand-to-Hand Combat weren’t so soft that they would get punctured by mere needles.

“What the hell? Is she trying to die?”

The woman was a swirling mess of cactus spikes densely poking out from her exposed skin and clothes.

Black, green, and purple spots spread rapidly across her skin, blood pouring from her mouth, nose, and ears, with her eyes filled with blood, turning the whites red.

“Sorry, Grand Elder, I couldn’t take revenge…”

“Is that really the time for this?!”

Tang Nan-ah completely ignored her and busied herself examining Qing’s grip.

Seeing the assassin glare at them with a look of bitter resentment, Qing waved her ungrasped hand and smiled, bidding farewell to the dying woman.

*Gulp!*

The woman widened her eyes and spat blood, her gaze going blank.

A true final moment worthy of an ambitious assassin.

In explaining the necessity of eliminating her target, she demonstrated her understanding of the teachings, even if she was an enemy.

Moreover, despite dying, she still tried to kill the interrupting party, proving her excellent professional spirit.

However, she was unaware that her glare lacked the power to kill someone, a result of the underdeveloped physics in the Central Plains.

Had she not shouted about avenging the Grand Elder, Tang Nan-ah would have been unable to avoid the poisoned needle.

But the very nature of those seeking revenge is that they can never tolerate the situation.

“If only you knew why you’re dying and regretted it!” If one could let go of that sentiment, they would never shoot a crossbow in the heart of enemy territory.

Tang Nan-ah meticulously checked Qing’s palm for even the tiniest scratch, finally exhaling a long sigh of relief.

Then, she exploded in frustration.

“That was dangerous! No matter how confident you are in your skills, who in their right mind uses their hands to block something like that?”

“Uh. Here?”

“Is that even an answer?!”

Tang Nan-ah’s tone was fierce.

So, Qing decided not to mention her aching side.

It looked like a minor scrape, after all, and she figured she probably just got a few thorns stuck.

—-

In Yunnan Province, there are two major ethnic groups.

One is the Bai people, descendants of the former Dali Kingdom.

The name Bai comes from their fanatical preference for the color white; their clothes, homes, Buddhist temples, and palaces were all white.

They’ve been labeled as simple folk who prefer white over auspicious purple, although at least they’re not treated as barbarians.

Moreover, the Bai people take pride in the “Dharma Talk” of the sort, balancing the teachings of Dao while distinctly blending with the unique sect of Bai Buddhism, which stands as a symbol of orthodox martial arts in the Central Plains.

So even if a Bai child has talent, it’s a parent’s hope to send them to “Dharma Talk,” and if they have no talent, they still send them just the same.

Because of this, “Dharma Talk” remains robust and continues to attract only the crème de la crème of the Bai community.

The other remaining ethnic group is the Miao people.

If Qing had heard the name, she might have thought, “No way?” But in reality, they closely resemble Southeast Asian people.

The Miao are one of the most despised barbarians, short and chubby with dark skin, leaning towards either black or yellow.

Surprisingly, they established their homes deep in damp jungles, and the Wudong Sect and the Nanman Yao Sect belonged to them.

Among these, the Nanman Yao Sect was made up of people indifferent to the outside world.

They were way too busy frolicking with slightly ferocious pets like tigers and bears to pay any mind to the jungle’s periphery.

Moreover, they were often visited by animal lovers from the Central Plains.

But Wudong Sect was a different story.

Claiming to be the ancient owners of Dongjing Lake, they were burning with a mission to reclaim their ancestral land.

So just a month ago, the Wudong Sect leader, Hou Zhen, was enthusiastically living his days as he dreamed of restoring their people’s territory.

If things went well, they might not reach Dongjing Lake, but the Miao could extend their reach into Sichuan Province.

It was also an opportunity to slay numerous descendants of the hated invaders, Han people, to satiate their ancestors’ grudges.

But anyway, the Dongjing Lake is the Yangtze River.

There are four branches of it flowing through Sichuan, which should earn some brownie points with their ancestors.

Therefore, disciples set out to do something meaningful.

Then they came back all beaten up.

The first-generation disciples suffered the most.

The top disciple died, along with the second, third, fifth, sixth, and ninth.

Furthermore, the girl who rushed out upon hearing the news seemed to have vanished—

“Big trouble! Xie Ya, Xie Ya…”

“What’s Xie Ya? Where is she?!”

“Well…”

And just then, the Wudong Sect leader, Hou Zhen, learned the terrible news about his cherished daughter, a fourth-generation disciple.

She had attempted an assassination in the Tang clan’s territory but failed, and her lifeless body was publicly displayed on the main road of Sichuan.

“These, these barbarians! What wrong did Xie Ya commit to deserve this?”

It was a serious offense to attempt an assassination, yes…

But to a father who lost his daughter, such matters were minor.

Cold rage filled Hou Zhen’s eyes.

“…Tell your superior. If you let me use the heads of the Tang clan for sake, I will do anything.”

—-

Tang Family Chief Tang Tu-juk was also flipping out.

His most cherished daughter had been attacked in the middle of their clan.

Fortuitously, the Tang clan’s benefactors had been there at the time, so no one got hurt.

However, the assassin had the audacity not to hide their identity, attacking the clan under the pretense of a mutual demise, even disguising themselves as a patient to assault a physician.

Such atrocious acts were beyond what even the demon cult would do.

During a meeting of the clan elders, Tang Tu-juk raised his voice thick with bloodlust.

“I can’t take this anymore! We must eradicate the Wudong sect!”

Until now, Tang Tu-juk had been pretty lenient with those they considered competitors.

He could have crushed these village folk scraping around the depths of the jungle long ago, but he held back out of respect for their distance.

After all, he knew well how dreadful the jungle could get—most Tang clan members did from gathering dangerous herbs.

However, as the leader of a clan, he shouldn’t decide to take action based purely on personal emotions.

That’s why the clan’s greatest elder, Grand Elder Tang Jae-un, decided to speak up.

Everyone had to heed the opinion of the Grand Elder, who had been holding his tongue to maintain the current leader’s authority.

“They dared to lay a hand on a child of ours. You must crush them thoroughly so that this never happens again.”

However, the entirety of the Grand Elder’s latter years was spent admiring the charm of his lovely granddaughter.

“Indeed. Given it’s such a suspicious time, we should use all our explosives and obliterate them entirely. It isn’t a good time to be keeping them stored.”

The chief officer managing all the clan’s storages chimed in.

With ample resources available and funds for sulfonamide, Not manufacturing gunpowder?

Anyone who doesn’t make them is no man at all and should be out the door.

Gunpowder is the substance that every man dreams of.

However, since they had built up a reasonable stockpile, it had become tricky to transport.

No matter how much of a paper tiger the government may be, they simply cannot smuggle large amounts past them.

Moreover, it was the government’s responsibility to deal with the warriors, so the matter became even more complex.

Thus, they decided to blow up the Wudong sect and eliminate the evidence at the same time.

“Now that’s an excellent idea. Let’s pour down the mountain and make it so they could never rebuild.”

“Is it enough to just rot the ground? They dared to lay siege to our river’s source; we should sink their sacred bridge into the water.”

The upper echelons of the clan were essentially just a family reunion.

And since they touched the most beloved girl of the Tang clan, no one was trying to calm the situation; instead, they all pushed for an even more ruthless solution.

So the decision turned back to the idea of poisoning the entire region inhabited by the Wudong sect.

With that, the Tang clan showed their determined resolution to revive their infamous motto after a long absence from the martial world.

“Grace is paid back with double, resentment with tenfold.”

Sadly, that plan was nipped in the bud.

Because an imperial investigator, Door-sa, had come down in person to investigate the royal family’s death.

– Clear evidence has been secured that the extreme poison used to assassinate Prince Deokhyeon came from the Tang clan.

Thus, everyone affiliated with the Tang clan in Sichuan was to meet the investigation under the guise of traitors.

Furthermore, all doors to the clan would be thrown open to ensure nothing was hidden.