Chapter 112
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: Jade-Faced Young Noble (1)
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Since the establishment of the Killing Sect...
The greatest crisis it had ever faced was undoubtedly right now.
Even though the Killing Sect had halted acceptance of all other assassination requests and concentrated its full forces in Sichuan...
The current situation was far from ideal.
Not only had the Ghost Killers Squad, who must have some deep grudge, relentlessly followed them all the way to Sichuan territory and continued their interference...
Now, even warriors from the Emei Sect and Qingcheng Sect had begun appearing in various places.
"Damn it, I should have quit being an assassin long ago..."
He hadn't even dared to dream of washing his hands in a golden basin, but times like these called for playing it safe.
Of course, even if Four Kills himself tried to back out, One Kill probably wouldn't let him go that easily, but he still grumbled softly with a sense of futility.
The mission assigned to him and his subordinates was to monitor whether the target was approaching from the Yunnan side.
Of course, there were multiple routes from Sichuan to Yunnan, so they couldn't cover them all.
Four Kills had taken position at one of those border points, near a small city called Banzhihua.
He never imagined the target would come this way, and even if they did, it wasn't like they were going to fight head-on.
One Kill had been growling about tearing him apart with his own hands, after all.
And the Fifth Kill, whom he inwardly considered superior to himself, had been taken down instead.
Thin and long...
Considering the karma of assassinations he'd accumulated so far, it was a target far beyond his station.
Half a gak later.
"Coo-coo, coo-coo-coo──"
Four Kills mimicked the call of a mountain dove with a bored expression.
It was a code word used for communication when carrying out missions in groups.
Soon enough.
From the woods where Four Kills was hiding, echoes of mountain dove calls so precise that even an ornithologist would struggle to distinguish them rang out here and there.
One, two, three, four, five.
"...?"
Why only two responses?
The moment Four Kills raised his head in doubt...
"Gasp."
A formless burst of energy targeted precisely at his brow shot toward him at blinding speed. Four Kills rolled sideways in panic.
His thoughts accelerated in that instant.
A Finger Bullet had been fired at close range, as if the shooter's position was pinpointed exactly.
Which meant...
A peerless master whose presence he hadn't even sensed had approached nearby──
"Gah."
Unfortunately, his thoughts couldn't continue.
The energy burst he thought he'd dodged curved mid-air like a snake and plummeted vertically.
His lungs were thoroughly pierced from the back.
Four Kills convulsed on the ground, foaming at the mouth without even a scream.
Even in his dying moments.
Right up until his eyelids fully closed.
Four Kills never figured out who or how he had been attacked.
Today...
I opened a new horizon in the ADC world.
Are you watching, Wesley Allen Gibson...?
Of course, overcoming wind with a bow might make respecting Namie more appropriate.
But the thrill of curving projectiles? Wanted got there first.
"Kid, what the hell are you doing in mid-air all of a sudden?"
Unfortunately...
Even after receiving the miracle of the Ryu Danjeon Revival Technique, the elder's martial prowess had regressed to merely first-rate at best.
A realm so meager it was embarrassing to call him a master.
No way he could appreciate this body's super peak-level artistry.
Moreover, the energy arrow I fired was no longer a simple arrow flying on bow-and-arrow power alone.
It was the essence of my martial arts, weaving insights from the Small Nothingness Art, infusing the stealth of the Peaceful Greeting Arrow Method and the redirection ability of the White Rainbow Palm Force directly into archery.
I name it: Guide Arrow!
"Hm, but it's a martial art. English feels a bit off."
"Quit the nonsense."
"My bow-sword has no strings, indeed. Anyway, let's make a quick detour to that forest over there."
The elder grumbled but followed along readily, saying he wanted to check for self-growing herbs.
Soon, with my Guide Arrow—hm, Tracking Arrow—hm..., Homing Arrow—hm...
We confirmed corpses pierced clean through by the Peaceful Greeting Arrow Method, dead in one shot, scattered everywhere.
"..."
Leaving the elder's gaze, which now appraised me anew as he looked back, I naturally rifled through the corpses' pockets.
Unfortunately, I found no significant clues on these lowlifes who hadn't even achieved Body-Mind Unification.
"This is..."
"Disguise technique. Should've lived a nicer life."
"Hearing that from you feels weird—ow."
The elder immediately smacked the back of my head at my joke.
If he weren't my future father-in-law, it'd be old-man-assault o'clock, but I'm an upright, kind, and diligent young man.
Anyway.
It wasn't exactly pleasant pulling out wanted posters crudely depicting my handsome face from these assassin punks' pockets.
To avoid enjoying the triple-assassin event everywhere I go, I needed special measures.
Come to think of it.
I had the Hahoe mask.
I rummaged through the luggage on Wolfy's back and pulled out the Hahoe mask I'd shoved in a pocket corner and completely forgotten about.
Slipping it right onto my face...
"Kyuu? Kyau?"
Wolfy suddenly tilted his head and sniffed at my clothes.
"...What kind of spirit item is that? That sword that turns into a bow too— you carry around the strangest things."
"What's up?"
"Seems like it has an ability to conceal presence. If I hadn't seen you put it on, it'd be hard to think you're the same person."
"Ooh."
I acknowledge the triple luck encounter.
Worth coming all the way to Yunnan!
Now I can become a righteous Hahoe mask fighting injustice without damaging Geum Sihyeon or Ten Thousand Gold Treasury Fortress's image.
While at it, I changed into a full set of travel robes.
"Arrr...!"
"Hey now, you little shitpuppy, can't even recognize your master."
"Kyau!"
With my scent gone, Wolfy briefly failed friend-or-foe identification.
But I knew his secret weakness—
Massaging the admae between his chin and armpit quickly got his tongue lolling out in loyalty again.
"By the way, your face is pretty wanted too, Elder."
"Hm?"
"When we stopped by Kunming, some Jeomchang Sect folks recognized you. Asked if you were the Poison Witch. That's a problem, right?"
"Hmm... Yeah, that's a bit troublesome."
The elder stroked his beard briefly.
Then he pulled out a dagger, neatly trimmed his beard, and prodded various spots on his face with his fingers, doing something.
And then...
"Oh, you know disguise arts too?"
"A wandering doctor needs to pick up all sorts of tricks to survive."
His formerly white-haired old-man look felt a bit more youthful.
Tying his hair back completed the transformation into someone completely different.
This should suffice for disguise.
Next, we headed to where the peak-level lowlife had been rolling around.
"Ah, crap."
I'd aimed for the brow, but since even a peak lowlife tried to dodge, the arrow had pierced straight through his smartphone, leaving clear evidence.
Dead men tell no tales, but a dead man's smartphone has plenty to say.
What a shame.
"Hm? Peel off that mask."
"This?"
Pulling down the corpse's mask, the elder clicked his tongue.
"Killing Sect."
"You know it?"
"One of the groups made by Heavenly Kill, whom the Blood Lord recruited into the cult. I've treated him a few times, so the face is familiar. Check the Heart Shu acupoint on the back."
Peeling back the back, sure enough, the number four was tattooed there like a brand.
I summarized the past entanglements with assassins and the Chongqing incident.
"Hmmm..."
The elder scanned me up and down with a strange look.
"Pretty bold as a warrior, but not so much as a family man."
"I'll wipe out the Killing Sect soon enough."
"Hm..."
Killing Sect, you bastards.
Unforgivable...!
The target would definitely come to Chengdu.
Contact with the client had been cut off.
But based on the clues he'd left, One Kill wandered Chengdu's outskirts today too, disguised as a traveling merchant.
Since his low-rank assassin days...
He enjoyed blending into the streets as an ordinary person, delivering silent death when the target had no guard up at all.
The moment they felt safe from any assault.
That hollow expression when prey discovered the dagger in their own bosom was the pinnacle pleasure of his long career of kills.
He hadn't received word from his incompetent underlings about spotting the trail yet.
But with no contact from Four Kills for days, the target was surely heading north from Yunnan to Chengdu.
"Delicious tanghulu, tanghulu! Eat two and if I die you won't know!"
He'd shout to attract passersby.
"Why two coins for tanghulu?"
"Aigoo, the hawthorn berries have gotten pricey lately."
Bicker with occasional customers.
One Kill blended seamlessly into daily life.
After a brief argument, the pedestrian handed over two coins, popped a tanghulu in his mouth, and suddenly frowned.
"Huh, what kind of freaks are those?"
One Kill turned to look.
"Tell me about it."
Two men who could only be called freaks.
One middle-aged man with awkwardly shortened white hair tied back in a topknot, like he was trying to look stylish for his age.
One young man in travel robes dusted with dirt here and there, covering his eyes and upper nose with a bizarre jade-like mask.
"Kyau!"
And a beast—wolf or dog, hard to tell—playfully bounding around laden with baggage on its back.
They looked like eccentrics with extraordinary auras.
But...
One Kill quickly lost interest.
The prey—Geum Sihyeon—was clearly a strikingly handsome young man, confirmed by the sketch of his features.
But to One Kill's sharp eyes and instincts, that masked freak didn't seem the same person at all.
Unlike the first-rate old man walking beside him, he didn't sense even a speck of inner energy.
Even if he'd reached peak—no, absurdly, super peak in that short time via some encounter—he couldn't fool One Kill's eyes.
"For real?"
"Yeah, I've seen 'em passing by a few times."
"Hm... So, can we end it here?"
"Who knows."
The old man and youth, exchanging cryptic words, stopped right in front of One Kill.
"Two tanghulu, please."
"Yessir. Four coins."
One Kill bantered as he took the coins from the masked youth and handed over two skewers.
"Tch, I don't eat that crap. You eat it, kid."
"I went out of my way to get it for you."
The masked man grumbled and shoved one skewer into his mouth in a flash.
And right after...
"Hm, no taste."
"Hehe, sir, no refunds──"
Even at the typical rude customer's words, One Kill smiled obsequiously without a hint of displeasure.
No, he tried to.
In that instant...
The empty skewer leaving the man's hand...
Flew like lightning, piercing One Kill's brow precisely.
"Uh, Elder, looks like this guy's heatstroke."
"Tch, did you have to go for the sneak attack? No pride."
"Pride doesn't feed you. And I just gave the assassin the treatment he deserved. Guess my assassin cred's higher."
"A righteous sect warrior, tch."
Geum Sihyeon supported One Kill's collapsing body and sat him in a nearby stall chair.
Glancing around to confirm the previous pedestrian had left and no presence remained...
With utterly natural movements, he pulled out One Kill's smartphone, focused energy on the wide-eyed corpse.
The essence of the Imugi poison that nearly blanketed Yunnan oozed from Geum Sihyeon's palm, enveloping One Kill.
Soon.
The corpse melted away as if One Kill had never existed.
For the leader of one of the Central Plains' three great assassin groups...
It was a pathetically forgettable end no one would remember.
A week passed without anyone noticing the wandering tanghulu vendor's disappearance.
In that time, two names—or rather, aliases—rapidly gained fame on Chengdu's streets.
One was a beggar doctor who, unlike the Tang Family of Sichuan physicians, treated the poor for free without taking a single coin.
Beggar Physician.
The other, completely opposite...
A masked man who scattered money endlessly everywhere, buying up every kind of establishment in Chengdu.
The Jade-Faced Young Noble.