Chapter 163

“Guest? What’s going on?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Qing gently set the book aside.

It wasn’t just any color that suddenly popped up; it was a gold-colored martial arts technique, and that was suspicious as heck.

The secret technique merchant, Shintu, squinted his eyes.

But since his eyes were naturally narrow, squinting even more didn’t really communicate any significant change.

It was odd that the girl, who usually tossed around titles without a care, was now carefully placing the book down.

“Um? Why the hesitation? Ah, Chunpung Muyoung. You’re familiar with this? Your taste is impressive!”

“It’s not that I recognize it, I haven’t even opened it.”

“Did you notice something? This is the legendary Chunhwa collection by Master Geum! You’re definitely onto something. Now, take a look here. What do you think? Steamy, right?”

Shintu shoved the book open, revealing pages filled with *very* graphic illustrations of tangled lovers.

What he expected was either someone diving into serious study of the technique or blushing in embarrassment.

But Qing’s reaction was neither.

“This style is so old and Eastern. Honestly, you’d need a wild imagination to get worked up over this.”

Well, considering this was an ancient Eastern setting, that was more than understandable.

“What do you think, Uncle?”

“How do you get both of them in that position? For that, one would need to be a bit twisted… and besides, that’d wreck the knees. Not gonna work.”

“Hey, guest, don’t you feel anything?”

“Not really?”

Shintu drooped his shoulders in apparent disappointment.

He murmured something under his breath, and Qing, keeping an eye on the suspicious martial artist, caught his words.

Strange. Thought he recognized it. Maybe not. Damn, searching for a successor might just age me before I kick the bucket, she thought.

Ah. I really shouldn’t be here any longer.

Qing fiddled with the book, buying time.

There were definitely things not meant to be found in this place, and she was hoping for any other martial arts techniques to check out.

Sadly, it looked like there were no decent secrets here.

Meanwhile, thanks to Qing’s advertising, the merchant upsold a few more volumes, raking in quite a bit of gold.

Seeing that, maybe the successor wasn’t too bad.

If he weren’t a master, would he have gone for the successor role?

But if he’s a successor, what does that mean?

Is he the successor of some shady merchant?

Seems like he’s not bad, considering his energy, and while the pressure sales had indeed reduced the number of books from when she first saw him by two, it wasn’t too shabby.

“Has an hour passed? Can we leave now?”

“How about just one more hour? I’ll make it worth double.”

“And that’s just four coins…”

“How about ten times that?”

“That’ll only be twenty, and well. Twenty coins for an hour isn’t bad, but I really do have something to do. If I finish early, I might stop by again.”

“Alright then. Thanks to you, I made a bit of a sale, so here—feeling generous, here’s a bonus.”

Shintu flipped a coin towards her.

“Ah, even a beggar wouldn’t take just one coin. If you’re gonna spend it, spend it generously. You don’t want to just waste a precious coin and end up with nothing but complaints.”

“Hey, don’t you know coins are valuable? You’ll find riches soon enough. Take care!”

Shintu waved them off with a feigned gesture of farewell.

Only after the three faded into the crowd did he mutter under his breath.

“A woman with unmatched beauty and a magic flute. Was that guy behind her a servant?”

The coin Shintu had given carried a special Follow Fragrance, a mark allowing for tracking from a distance once held.

In Black City, where prices were steep and standard fare was to discard coins, unless one tossed it away, it wouldn’t find its way elsewhere.

From their conversation, she didn’t seem the type to toss coins away.

“But a magic flute… that’s a treasure no Shintu has ever had.”

Shintu smirked.

Unbeknownst to him, he was just robbed of his own martial arts.

—-

They had agreed to meet up at a certain point, but for some reason, the other two got sidetracked looking at antiques.

In truth, Qing had only spent time caught by a bizarre merchant selling strange techniques.

The other two must still be busy choosing among the odd items.

Not needing to wait any longer, she wandered off, realizing that Namyeon had earned his keep by treating her to a meal.

“That’s him. The old man’s grandson, the one who sold out.”

Qing gave Namyeon a light smack on the back of the head.

“Let’s use proper words, alright? It wasn’t sold out, you were the one who did the selling. You weren’t just standing there waiting, were you?”

“Y-yeah…”

Qing approached the man Namyeon pointed at.

A scary-looking dude with half his face burned.

Maybe if this were before entering the Martial World, she might be sweating bullets, but at this stage, Qing was too skilled to be intimidated just by someone’s cheekbone.

For someone known to traffic humans, he really was one of the worst of the worst.

Why on earth would you sell to such a scumbag?

“Yo, Scarred Wang. Human trafficker.”

“Are you calling me? Young girls these days have no fear? Hm, what’s up? Here to sell your body? If you do, I could easily toss a gold coin your way.”

“Let’s see, I’d need to stack about ten gold coins for that. Enough already. I’m here to get back a young man you purchased.”

Hearing he was old Ban’s grandson, Qing imagined a little kid; instead, she found a strong-looking nineteen-year-old.

He wasn’t a child, just on the threshold of adulthood.

In the Martial World, marriages happen a bit late, so for common folks, having a grandson at nineteen isn’t out of the ordinary.

Given that the old man was pure white-haired, he must’ve been waiting a long while, maybe even entertaining seeing his grandchildren.

Anyway, Scarred Wang smirked at Qing’s words.

“Well, if the money’s right, I don’t see a problem.”

“About the young lad, he’s not much taller than myself, heavy brows, dark face, and covered in freckles.”

“Where’d you sell him?”

Scarred Wang waggled a finger.

“I can’t disclose client info. It’s illegal to trade slaves under national law—who would admit to buying them?”

“Hmm. How much to buy him back? Ten gold coins?”

This was Qing’s negotiation tactic.

Shouting ten coins would likely yield a ‘twenty’ as a counter.

Ban had given her enough gold; if not now, when?

But Qing’s plan went bust in an instant.

“Did you not hear me? If my buddy here is sold, it’ll be the end of this trade for me. Who would trade their life for just a bit of pocket change?”

“What do you mean pocket change? That’s ten coins!”

“Even for ten gold bars? Doesn’t matter. As I said, they’ll lose their lives. We have rules you know.”

“Oh, please. You guys aren’t in a position to uphold rules. A passing dog would laugh to death at your lot.”

“Oi, watch your words!”

“Enough with the baby talk. What’s the life value I’d need to get my guy back?”

Scarred Wang’s eyes changed at that question.

“Value of life, huh? Now that I look at it, you’re quite the valuable person! You should treat me nicely since I’m a pretty big deal in this business.”

“Oh really? How much?”

Scarred Wang should’ve focused on Qing’s expression.

Her eyes seemed to shrink, with an ominous gleam threatening mischief.

And the grin on her face just radiated menace.

“First of all, I need to make sure I can leave this place, ouch!”

As he babbled cowardly, Qing suddenly kicked him right between the legs.

A kick like that typically causes anyone to scream, but this would get you frozen in a blend of shock and pain.

It was the dreaded quieting kick feared by soldiers in Sichuan; those who have witnessed it still have sleepless nights from the trauma.

With Scarred Wang shot upward into the air, he plummeted back to earth in a basic science manner.

Qing caught his ankle and twisted hard, crumbling it with a satisfying crunch.

“Ahh!!!”

“Quit the drama. You’re acting like such a wuss, it’s just a little nut-crunching and an ankle strain. Is that how a man behaves? C’mon, come on, right? Or are we not, now?”

“Cough, cough.”

“Still not with it? I almost felt charitable and was gonna leave you a foot, but going lame sounds better than being all broken up, right?”

As Qing held her own ankles, she began giving Scarred Wang’s back a good kicking.

But he was so lost in agony from his crunched ankle, good luck focusing on several kicks giving him reality checks.

That’s when it happened.

Loud footsteps combined with rustling clothes filled the air as black-clad warriors surrounded Qing.

“What on earth is going on? How dare you cause a disturbance in Black City!”

“Dare? You think you’re royalty or something? Just a couple of market fools thinking they’re important.”

These guys were about as scary as a kitten. Even mixing in a couple of top-tier fighters wouldn’t intimidate her.

“I heard there’s a bounty on you, huh? Step forward. I’m Yeon Yeonjeong, and leave him be.”

“Uh, Uncle, but…”

“I’m fine. I have plans. These are fine folks just watching, right? So, Sun-young, please keep back for a sec. Pass me the flute. Namyeon, you’ve done your part, you’re free to head out.”

Gyeon Pohee hesitated, then shrugged and walked away.

Surprisingly, the Black City guards parted like the Red Sea, perhaps due to apprehension over the bounty or simply adhering to their own rules.

If they’d refused, the disciple of the Best Female Martial Artist would have kicked butt, but it looked like they didn’t want to go that far.

“Alright, since you’re done, clear out. I’ve gotta talk to her. Yo, you starting to come to?”

“Crazy… crazy b*tch, taking on a Blackspot…”

“So true, Yeon Yeonjeong isn’t just a bit unhinged, she plans to take on the Blackspot all alone! Isn’t that just wild? So passionate! You really should’ve just pocketed ten gold coins instead of letting things come to this.”

“Now you’re a dead man, gaaah!!”

Qing stomped on Scarred Wang’s hand.

With the skills of a Heavenly Demon bolstered by the sheer satisfaction of watching the bones beneath her foot crunch to sand, it felt inexplicably pleasurable.

The Black City guards lost it at that.

“Stop! What are you doing?!”

“I’d rather not. Knowing there’s a bounty on me, why would I stop? Does this mean you’ll cancel the bounty if I do?”

“You really think you can take on the Blackspot?”

“Yep, Yeon Yeonjeong’s got this all figured out. Why should I be scared of a bunch of lowly merchants? Compared to the likes of me, you lot are nothing but street-level traders running market stalls and operating under fancy titles.”

“How dare you!!!”

“If you’re mad, come and get me.”

The Black City mercenaries hesitated.

They didn’t want to jump into a fight where she was openly taunting them. It was the reverse, fear creeping in.

“Or you can just stand there watching.”

As Qing casually waved her hand, she gave one last stomp on the now-whimpering Scarred Wang’s back.

“So, who’d you sell that young man to?”

“I’ll tell you! Just spare my life…”

Qing finally smiled.

“See? I told you I’d value your life.”

---