Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Killing Two with Rusted Nails!
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I was being tailed.
I'd checked several times on the street and in the tavern—there was no doubt.
It had been six hours since I left the Martial Alliance headquarters, and I had only traveled about thirty li to the east.
My caution is ten times greater than others, so there was no way I was mistaken.
I needed to figure out if they were just confirming my route to Qingxiang County or if they had another purpose.
***
I was in a tavern in the center of Yanshi County.
The men tailing me were sitting three tables to my left.
There were two of them. They had finished their meal but were lingering over water and tea, showing no signs of leaving.
I observed them keenly, trying not to look directly at them.
Both men wore common brown clothes and carried swords.
Low-ranking warriors of the Martial Alliance uniformly wear yellow, mid-ranking warriors wear blue, and high-ranking warriors wear green.
Masters above them wear indigo or white, and the highest ranks wear single-layered robes, long robes, or grand robes, in that order.
Therefore, the fact that they were Martial Alliance warriors wearing brown clothes instead of the official uniform meant they were on a covert mission.
They occasionally glanced my way, their eyes sharp and fierce.
I could sense the killing intent in their gazes.
Besides, the tavern was half-full; there was no reason for them to single me out with such intense stares.
‘This isn't just simple surveillance.’
A thought struck me like a bolt of lightning.
‘Those bastards are tailing me to kill me!’
They hadn't spared me because they believed I was innocent.
They had let me live temporarily because there were too many eyes within the Martial Alliance to kill me when I hadn't confessed to any crime.
The Disciplinary Hall had failed to prove my guilt and released me, but it seemed the higher-ups had other ideas.
They must have decided it was simpler to silence me by killing me than to live with the lingering unease of my existence.
My suspicion had to be right.
I quietly clenched my teeth.
‘Sons of bitches!’
Swallowing my rage, I began to scheme for a way to kill them first.
Running or hiding never crossed my mind. My resolve was firm: anyone who tried to kill me would be killed by me.
***
*Scrape, scrape…*
Squatting in the tavern's outhouse, I was shaping a wooden chopstick I'd swiped into a small dart.
Since I had no weapon, I had broken a chopstick in half and was sharpening it on the foundation stone beneath a pillar in the outhouse.
Among the one hundred and eighty-nine martial arts manuals I had memorized in the armory, there was one called the *Manual of Ten Thousand Secrets*.
It was a secret tome left by a figure known as the Emperor of Myriad Wonders six hundred years ago, and it detailed all sorts of ingenious techniques for using hidden weapons, excluding conventional arms and armaments.
I was currently unarmed, and since I didn't know when or where my pursuers might attack, I needed to fashion a hidden weapon from whatever was readily available.
That's why the wooden chopstick had caught my eye as a temporary solution.
The *Manual of Ten Thousand Secrets* also described in detail how to make hidden weapons. I was trying to create a Wooden Flying Arrow, and chopsticks were the easiest material to find in the tavern.
My pursuers weren't going to announce when and where they'd try to kill me, so I had to be fully prepared.
*Snap!*
But just as it was nearly finished, the chopstick—no, the Wooden Flying Arrow—broke.
‘Is it too weak?’
Even as I was grinding it on the stone, I'd thought it might break if I applied too much force.
This was a problem. I might be attacked the moment I left the outhouse, and I could be caught completely defenseless.
I glanced around the outhouse.
Damn it! Of course there's nothing useful as a weapon in here.
Then, something caught my eye.
It was a rusted nail, protruding halfway from the corner of the warped wooden door that served as an entrance.
After half an hour crouched in the outhouse, I emerged, my legs so numb I nearly collapsed.
"Ugh..."
Three people had been queueing in front of the outhouse, and they erupted in protest.
"Damn it! We thought you'd moved in!"
"Aargh! I'm about to burst! Couldn't you have been any quicker?"
As I staggered across the courtyard, a sound like a thunderclap erupted behind me.
*Crack! Crash! Splinter! Splash!*
"Aaaargh!"
The outhouse had completely collapsed.
It was only natural, since I'd pulled out all the nails.
The pitiful scream of someone who had fallen into the cesspit echoed.
"Aaaargh! H... Help me!"
***
I figured it was best to get this over with quickly.
So, I deliberately left the crowded county streets and entered the main road.
With two rusted nails wedged between the fingers of each hand, sixteen in total, I hid my hands in my sleeves and prepared for their attack.
In my mind, I continuously recited the incantation for the Divine Throwing Art from the *Manual of Ten Thousand Secrets* and visualized the movements.
The *Manual of Ten Thousand Secrets* contained methods for making hundreds of hidden weapons and eighteen techniques for throwing them.
The Divine Throwing Art was one of them. I drew it out from my memory and practiced it countless times in my mind without moving my body.
As a result, my body twitched slightly as I walked.
Since leaving the tavern in Yanshi County, I hadn't looked back once.
But I was certain the two pursuers—no, assassins—were still following me.
There was no need to look back rashly and reveal that I knew of their existence.
More than two hours had passed since I left Yanshi County and entered the main road, but the assassins still hadn't made a move.
I hadn't looked back, but I believed they were tailing me from a fixed distance.
There were too many travelers on the main road for them to kill me.
This whole situation was driving me crazy with unease.
I stepped off the main road and into the forest.
About fifty feet from the road, I fumbled with my waist sash, pretending to relieve myself.
Being in the forest, I knew I would hear the rustle of grass if the assassins approached, so I strained my ears.
But there was no sound of rustling grass.
Either they were masters skilled enough to move silently, or they were being cautious.
I decided it was the latter and began to actually urinate, acting completely off guard.
*Swoooosh!*
I'd been holding it in due to the tension, so it came out like a waterfall.
‘Ah! What a relief!’
*Rustle...*
Mixed with the sound of my stream, I heard the rustle of grass from behind.
My ears perked up. I mentally recited the Divine Throwing Art's incantation one more time and visualized the movements.
They would probably mistake the slight twitch of my body for a shiver from urinating. People often shudder when they piss, after all.
I wanted to turn around immediately, but I waited. They might have been close behind me, but I hadn't sensed any sign of an attack yet.
To kill me, they would have to draw their swords. That would be the perfect moment to counterattack.
A single misstep and my head could be lopped off, but I wanted a more certain opportunity.
If I died, it would be my fate. No one to blame but my own destiny.
*Shing!*
The sound of two swords being drawn came from right behind me.
‘Now!’
I spun around and unleashed the Divine Throwing Art with both hands.
‘Shit! They're too close!’
The two men were about ten feet away on either side. One was low to the ground, the other was five feet in the air, both thrusting and slashing with their swords.
Their two swords shot toward my neck and heart.
If my counterattack failed, I was a dead man.
But I gritted my teeth.
"Hiyah! There's no way I'll fail!"
My cupped hands spread out to the sides like unfurling wings, drew a circle, and then flung their contents at the two men.
*Swoooosh!*
*Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!*
"Gah!"
"Kagh!"
The two men screamed in agony and froze mid-motion.
The tips of their swords stopped, one a foot from my chest, the other a foot from my neck, trembling.
Not one of the sixteen rusted nails missed its mark. They were buried so deep they were invisible, two in each man's glabella, nasal bridge, throat, and heart.
"Guhhh..."
*Thud! Thud!*
The two men collapsed, their eyes wide open as their bodies convulsed violently in agony.
I snatched the sword from one man's hand and stabbed both of them in the heart.
*Stab! Stab!*
They shuddered one last time and then went limp.
"Puhahahaha! How do you like that, you sons of bitches?"
***
Two months later, at Mount Kuocang in Zhejiang Province.
It had been fifteen days since I'd entered the mountains, but I still hadn't found a suitable place.
I carried a large backpack filled with over fifteen hundred grain-abstinence pills. Eating one pill a day, I could survive for more than three years.
I had spent half of the severance and consolation money I received from the Martial Alliance on these pills.
I planned to spend three years perfecting my martial arts. Believing I had a talent for it, I estimated three years would be enough.
I was searching for the perfect place to train, but nothing had caught my eye yet.
Except for the lower northern region where the Qiantang River meets the sea, Zhejiang Province is almost entirely rugged, mountainous terrain.
I chose this place for one simple reason: being in the south, it was warm year-round.
I believed the greatest obstacle to martial arts training was the cold.
***
‘This is it! This place is perfect!’
Five days later, I found a place far better than I could have imagined.
It was a steep valley on the border between the southwestern edge of Mount Kuocang and Mount Dapen, with a cozy pool about a hundred feet in diameter at the base of a waterfall, surrounded by large boulders.
But it wasn't just the pool that made me choose this spot.
There was a cave on a slanted cliff face, fifty or sixty feet above the pool.
It was so well-concealed that it would be hard to find without getting up close.
Drinking water, a shelter, and a dense forest stretching out beside the valley—the conditions were ideal.
However, when I actually went to see it, I was disappointed. The cave entrance was so low and narrow that I had to stoop to enter.
Hoping it might be wider inside, I ventured in.
It grew darker the deeper I went until it was pitch-black, but that wasn't a problem for me.
But after about a hundred feet, the cave began to heighten and widen, allowing me to walk upright.
Finally, about one hundred fifty feet from the entrance, I reached a dead end.
"Nice."
Looking around, I saw it was flawless.
The walls were uneven, but the space was roughly circular, spacious with a diameter of fifty feet, and about twenty feet high with a flat stone floor.
Furthermore, five large, elongated rocks of varying heights were jutting out here and there, which seemed perfect for practicing fist and foot techniques or swordsmanship against.
The far end of the cave sloped down, and about ten feet below, there was a cozy, room-like space where I could spread some soft grass to sleep on.
I unpacked my belongings and went outside to fashion a wooden sword.