Chapter 42
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Kill Valley
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I wiped the smile from my face and asked right away.
"Who sent you?"
"……."
"Well, I didn't expect you'd spill it easily."
"……."
"Then should we start with the tendon-splitting bone-dislocating technique?"
"……!!"
Her eyes shook violently at the mention of the tendon-splitting bone-dislocating technique.
Tendon-Splitting Bone-Dislocation (分筋錯骨).
As the name implied, she knew all too well the agony of muscles tearing and bones fracturing—she'd experienced it firsthand during her training.
It had lasted less than half a ke (seven minutes), but she remembered throwing a fit at her father, who had inflicted it on her, sobbing and wailing about how he could do such a thing to his own daughter.
The memory flooded back, and her body began to tremble involuntarily.
"Speak now, and I'll spare you the pain."
"……."
"Hmm, you've got some real backbone. Well, if you're so eager for the rod, then take it you shall."
My hand slowly pressed on several of her acupoints, activating the technique. She immediately let out a scream, writhing in agony.
Crunch! Cruuunch!
"Gaaahhhh!!"
The tendon-splitting bone-dislocating technique twisted muscles arbitrarily and was an incredibly convenient torture method that anyone with a handful of internal energy and knowledge of acupoints could use.
Still, leaving it on too long would turn her into a cripple, so I applied it for exactly one ke before releasing it.
She was foaming at the mouth, on the verge of passing out.
It might have been just one ke for me, but to her, it probably felt like an eternity.
"Now then, can we learn who sent you?"
"Th-that……."
"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."
"It……."
"Shall we go again?"
"……."
"This time, double the fun……."
The word "double" finally made the client's name spill from her lips.
"Pleasure Palace……."
It was as faint as a mosquito's buzz, but I heard it clear as day.
"You're saying the Pleasure Palace put out the contract?"
She nodded cautiously.
"How much did they pay you?"
She held up five fingers.
"Fifty nyang of silver? That's it?"
She shook her head.
"Five nyang of silver……."
"What? Just five nyang?"
No matter how shady this business was, five nyang for a human life?
"Hang on, are you serious? You took a hit on someone's life for that pittance?"
"Our family's situation is……."
"Tell me the details."
From what she explained, her friends had pooled together what little they had—ten spoons, one bowl of rice—to place the assassination contract.
Snot-nosed kids like them weren't pulling out big money, so when they shopped around for someone to take the job, she was the cheapest bidder and got it.
"Even so, taking an assassination gig for pocket change like that ruins the whole industry! What are the other killers supposed to live on?"
I ranted about business ethics, getting worked up, and she started looking at me like I was from another planet.
Her eyes practically said, 'You actually work in this field?'
"And you— are you really an assassin?"
"I am……."
"What kind of assassin can't even control their killing intent, gulps down dry saliva right in front of their target?"
"Th-that's……."
She laboriously lifted a hand, pointing at my bare torso, then dropped her gaze to the floor.
"Damn it."
An assassin's emotions getting rattled just from seeing a man's naked body? Disqualified.
"How old are you?"
"Eighteen……."
"What? Eighteen? Why the hell are you out here on jobs at that age? Doesn't your family have any adults?"
The quiet girl slowly nodded.
'Well, now. Looks like we've got ourselves a little lady of the house.'
"What's your assassin clan's name?"
She hesitated for a moment before revealing it.
"Kill Valley."
"Kill Valley? Didn't they get wiped out years ago?"
"……."
Her face twisted in a mix of near-tears, anger, and everything in between at the mention of annihilation.
"No! We didn't fall!"
"Really? I could've sworn they did. During the Great Demonic War, right?"
Her eyes went wide at "Great Demonic War."
Only Demonic Cultists called the Righteous-Demonic War by that name.
But she kept it to herself—no need to give me another reason to kill her.
"Sure, Kill Valley came this close to total destruction, but we're rebuilding."
"Oh yeah? I heard every last expert got wiped out. You still have that much manpower left?"
"S-sob……."
Suddenly, tears like chicken droppings streamed from her eyes.
Black streaks ran down from her charcoal-disguised eyes, looking just like smeared mascara.
"Why the waterworks all of a sudden?"
"You're right. My dad, uncles, brothers—they all died back then! That's why I'm doing everything I can to rebuild…… sob."
"With skills like that?"
Her teary eyes sharpened in an instant.
And in that moment—
Something shot out from her sleeve.
Thwip!
A tiny crossbow.
Probably her last-ditch trump card.
The bolt was no doubt coated in deadly poison.
It struck my chest dead-on.
Thinking her killer blow had landed, she looked up at me with hopeful eyes.
Too bad for her—toys like that didn't work on me.
Piercing my protective aura with a crossbow that short? Impossible from the start.
The bolt hit my chest squarely but clattered harmlessly to the ground. My skin was unscratched.
Seeing that, all color drained from her face.
I brushed off my chest and said,
"Cute trick. Moving your arms even with your pressure points sealed? You've trained in something unusual."
"N-no way……."
No matter how small, at this range, no human skin could stop it.
But my muscles were packed with internal energy right now.
I could manifest protective aura from them anytime I wanted.
Wrapping yourself in aura from your dantian versus generating it from muscle-stored energy? Big difference.
Reaction speed.
I could unleash it in the blink of an eye using the energy in my muscles.
Way faster than pulling from the dantian.
And layering dantian energy on top doubled the defense at least.
Most swords or blades couldn't pierce it.
Of course, it paled next to absolute arts like Shaolin's Diamond Invulnerability or the Demonic Cult's Ancient Wood Divine Skill.
I called this one the Bulletproof Muscle Divine Art.
I picked up the fallen bolt and examined it closely.
The tip had a faint purple sheen—definitely poisoned.
"Looks innocent, but it's got barbs. Poisoned ones, at that."
"……."
"Time to pay the piper, don't you think?"
Without pause, I infused it with internal energy and hurled the poison bolt at her face.
With her pressure points sealed, she could only watch wide-eyed as it flew toward her.
Luckily for her, it just barely missed, smashing into the rock behind her.
Then something amazing happened.
A puny poison bolt should have bounced off solid rock—but it shattered it instead.
Kaboom!
The rock exploded with a thunderous roar, fragments scattering everywhere.
Her face went sheet-white.
"Those liars…… they said you were some third-rate nobody without even internal energy……."
Realizing my skills were nothing like they'd described, she cursed the clients for the fake intel.
"That's what they told you when they hired you?"
She nodded slowly, face full of fear.
They'd said I was from the Imperial Palace Martial Academy, so she'd bought it hook, line, and sinker.
No one that strong would come from there, after all.
Moments later, with a resigned look, she said,
"Are you going to kill me?"
"Thinking about it."
As I rested my chin on my hand, staring her down, she shrank back, sensing something unsettling.
Maybe thinking I had dirty ideas.
But nothing of the sort crossed my mind—not even a speck.
Not that I'd ever think that way about a panda-faced girl anyway.
I was pondering taking over her clan.
'Hmm. Owning an assassin group wouldn't hurt.'
Assassins weren't just for killing.
Scouting, surveillance, intel gathering—they were perfect for it.
Any decent martial clan had their own intelligence network.
The righteous factions wouldn't admit to using them for assassinations, of course.
Smaller outfits paid places like the Shadowless Gate for info.
But it wasn't cheap, so you couldn't use them often. Made this tempting.
'A weakened assassin clan.'
I didn't need their strength right now. A little support, and they'd pull their weight soon enough.
Plus, Kill Valley had a solid rep despite their small size.
First, I checked if I could make them mine.
I approached slowly and peered down at her face up close.
Her panda-like mug flushed red with shame.
I lifted her chin with my fingers, and her eyelids quivered.
I asked her,
"Want to come under me?"
"I'd rather kill myself……."
She gave a weird answer, lost in some delusion.
"Not like that. I mean, become my subordinate."
"Huh?"
I released her pressure points.
Regaining freedom, she carefully stood, straightened her disheveled clothes, and pulled a handkerchief from her bosom to wipe her face.
Her panda visage turned somewhat human.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying I'll take over Kill Valley."
She looked flustered for a second.
"You think that makes any sense?"
"Why wouldn't it?"