Chapter 43
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Taking Over the Killing Valley
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"No matter how skilled you are or how much power you hold over our lives and deaths, do you really think our Killing Valley is that easy to take over?"
"Hm? I never said it was easy."
"Isn't that the same thing? What do you even plan to do with us when you don't know the first thing about an assassin's work? Do you even know how many people we have in our group?"
"I'm a former assassin."
"What? A former assassin? You?"
"Yeah."
"Then why did you enroll in the Imperial Palace Martial Academy?"
"Because I wanted something here, obviously."
"But even so, it still feels..."
She looked utterly unconvinced by my claim of being a former assassin.
"Are you doubting my skills right now?"
"That's not..."
Without waiting for her to finish, I concealed my presence and killing intent, vanishing from her sight like smoke.
The girl realized what it was and her eyes went wide.
"Gasp! That's...?"
What I'd used was the Shadowless Infiltration Art, a technique only the elite of elite assassins could perform.
Even in the Shadow Squad, those who could wield the Shadowless Infiltration Art were treated as top-class killers.
It was a level I couldn't have dreamed of back in my Shadow Squad days.
I owed my mastery of it entirely to my master.
After meeting him and reaching the Superhuman Realm, I could now unleash the demonic arts I'd learned back then to their utmost limits.
In my invisible state, I approached her from behind, drew a small dagger hidden at her ankle, and pressed it against her pale throat.
She froze like a statue, startled by the sudden chill of the blade at her neck.
She hadn't even sensed me circling behind her.
"So, do you believe I'm a former assassin now?"
The girl gave a slight nod.
I sheathed the dagger, and her legs gave out, sending her crumpling to the ground.
It seemed the shock of witnessing the assassins' dream technique firsthand had overwhelmed her.
"Who... who are you really?"
"Me? Just a regular student at the Imperial Palace Martial Academy, as you can see."
"No, I mean before you enrolled."
"I trained at a place called Hanbang Gym."
"Liar... Are you actually from the Demonic Cult?"
Her bold accusation caught me off guard.
"Why would you think that?"
"You mentioned the Great Demonic War just now."
She'd caught the deliberate hint I'd dropped, proving her head wasn't just for show.
"Hm, did I? Well, even if I were a demonic cultivator, would that be a problem?"
"Of course it would. The reason our Killing Valley was wiped out was because of the Demonic Cult."
The girl harbored intense hatred toward the Demonic Cult.
Even with her life hanging by a thread, she refused to bend her principles.
I knew the reason without asking.
I was one of the victims myself.
Those bastards treated even their own Shadow Squad like disposable pawns.
An outside assassin group would have fared even worse.
In my memories, Killing Valley had been a venerable assassin organization.
I was curious why it had been destroyed by the Demonic Cult.
I asked her to explain the whole story.
According to her...
In the past, during the Great Demonic War, Killing Valley had sided with the Demonic Cult and assassinated countless righteous faction masters. But the tide gradually turned in favor of the righteous side, and the war grew increasingly bleak. Then one day,
the Demonic Cult's leadership gave her father an impossible mission.
Infiltrate the Murim Alliance's elite stronghold, assassinate as many as possible, and lure the survivors to Dragon Serpent Gorge.
Her father had refused the order.
With fewer than fifty members, infiltrate the righteous faction's main base swarming with hundreds of superhuman experts, kill them, and lure them out? It was suicide.
But the Demonic Cult leaders kept pressuring him.
They promised that if he lured the enemies deep into the gorge, their own experts would handle the rest.
They even made a pact with her father, offering massive monetary rewards and top-grade elixirs upon success.
Believing them, her father carried out the mission. But the promised Demonic Cult experts never showed.
The leadership had thrown Killing Valley's assassins into the fire and used the chaos to withdraw entirely.
Trapped in the gorge, the assassins were massacred by the enraged righteous masters.
Afterward, the truth was thoroughly distorted. The story spread that the minor assassin group Killing Valley, blinded by fame, disobeyed Demonic Cult orders to assassinate righteous leaders, charging in like moths to a flame and nearly dooming the Cult itself.
'Same scum then as now.'
Hearing her story, I figured the Heavenly Demon must have been among that leadership.
Few others could devise such a vile scheme.
With peerless martial prowess, no mercy, and cunning strategies, he was the worst kind of enemy.
Still, it was good news. No reason for her and me to clash.
"Then we're in luck."
"What do you mean?"
"We share the same enemy."
"The same enemy? You hate the Demonic Cult too?"
"Hate them. With every fiber of my being."
"How can I believe that?"
"Because a Demonic Cultist hating the Demonic Cult sounds too absurd?"
"Yes."
"I like your honesty."
"I hear that a lot."
"Honesty's a virtue. Anyway, I hate the Demonic Cult because they used me up and tossed me aside, just like they did you."
"Really?"
"Remember that recent incident where the Murim Alliance raided a Demonic Cult secret sub-branch?"
"Of course. The entire martial world was in an uproar. People thought another righteous-demonic war was brewing. It was in Luoyang, right?"
"Yeah, the Luoyang secret sub-branch. I was with the Shadow Squad there at the time."
"Gasp!"
She clapped both hands over her mouth in shock.
"The Heavenly Demon bastard used our Luoyang branch as bait to lure in the righteous faction, slaughtered them, then killed off the surviving Shadow Squad members to keep secrets buried. I barely escaped his clutches by the skin of my teeth. Ever since, I've lived for revenge against him and the Demonic Cult."
"Oh my god..."
"What do you say? Want to join hands and get revenge together?"
"O-of course. But this isn't a decision I can make alone..."
"Yeah, makes sense. Go back to your group, relay my intentions, and let me know their decision."
"Yes. Um, but..."
"What?"
"The penalty fee..."
"Ah, right, the penalty for backing out mid-mission."
I pulled two banknotes from my pocket and handed them to her.
Two notes worth ten silver taels each.
"Consider this payment for hiring you in reverse."
"Gasp! This much?"
She seemed shocked again by my wealth.
"Use this to cover the penalty for now and keep Killing Valley afloat. If they agree to join me, I'll provide more support."
"Yes, got it."
She hurriedly pocketed the notes.
Looked like she needed the cash badly.
"Go on. I hope you bring good news."
"Got it. See you."
With assassin-grade lightness skill, she melted into the forest.
I stared after her, pondering how this would play out.
A month had passed since the cute assassin's visit, but no word from the girl assassin yet.
The season had fully shifted to summer.
Meanwhile, I'd become the Imperial Palace Martial Academy's unrivaled monster.
"Hoo~ Hoo~ Hoo~."
Every time the massive weight bar moved up and down, the people gathered in the training room watched me with awe.
Recently, I'd discovered the true essence of the Muscle Heart Method.
Weighted training.
It might sound brute-force, but the results were undeniable.
The heavier the weights in my training, the more internal energy accumulated in my muscles.
But you can't go from lifting 100kg to 200kg overnight.
Everything has its progression, so I focused on boosting my big three lifts first.
Normally, heavier weights lead to bigger muscles.
But after starting to store internal energy in them, my muscles stopped hypertrophying and grew denser instead.
More elastic, every fiber alive and pulsing.
My body was shedding its human weapon look and entering the realm of art.
Even so, I didn't neglect the Reverse Blood Heart Method, cultivating internal energy in my dantian during breaks.
I slipped away to the back mountain to avoid prying eyes.
No need for the internal energy training room when my art was a demonic one.
Even in this neutral ground between righteous and demonic, rumors of me practicing demonic arts wouldn't help.
The Demonic Cult might send assassins to eliminate the traitor.
Then I'd have a joyful reunion with some Shadow Squad alumni here, senior or junior who knows.
Lately, academy folks called me the External Art Maniac.
Outside of classes, I was always in the training room doing strength work.
The dorm-style academy allowed weekend outings, but I stayed glued to the training room even then.
So yeah, maniac fit.
I wasn't the only external art devotee.
Plenty believed you could reach mastery with external arts alone, sans internal energy.
Mostly third-rate dojo grads without access to heart methods young, or talented commoners who got in on physical prowess.
They dreamed of forging their own path through external arts.