To block hidden weapons, a martial artist had to circulate inner qi.
And to circulate inner qi, a martial artist had to breathe.
Only experts at the Transformation Realm or higher could draw upon their inner qi without breathing.
Could they possibly have a Transformation Realm expert among them?
Even if they had one, it wouldn’t matter.
Tang Sang, who had led the Tang Family elites here, was also a Transformation Realm martial artist.
Besides, the Tang Family had poisons specially prepared for Transformation Realm experts.
By now, the masked men would either have been struck down by the hidden weapons or collapsed from the poison.
Whichever it was, they should have been writhing on the ground in agony.
All Tang Sang had to do was capture them and find out who had ordered this attack.
WHOOOOOM—
The wind swept the green smoke away, clearing the obscured view.
“What?”
The men who should have been lying on the ground were standing there perfectly unharmed.
They were holding the hidden weapons that had just been thrown at them.
“You blocked them?”
Tang Sang muttered in disbelief.
One of the masked men heard him and snorted.
“What? Those were supposed to be hidden weapons? I thought you were handing them over for us to use.”
“They’re pretty good, too. Already coated in poison, so they save us some trouble.”
Then the man casually licked one of the poisoned weapons.
They were insane.
“Seven-Kill Poison. That’s an expensive one.”
He identified it just by tasting it?
More importantly, he swallowed Seven-Kill Poison and didn’t even react?
Is he immune to poison?
Impossible.
Just what are these people?
There was nothing more frightening than an enemy whose identity and abilities were completely unknown.
Tang Sang’s expression hardened.
“These men are no ordinary opponents. It appears we’ll have to fight with everything we have. Prepare yourselves.”
“Yes.”
The Tang Family martial artists stared grimly at the masked men.
“Poison smoke followed by poisoned hidden weapons. They really are doing their best to live up to the Tang Family name.”
“Look at how solemn they got after that failed.”
“Poor bastards. Maybe we should have pretended it worked.”
Every remark scraped at the Tang Family’s pride.
“How much longer do we have to listen to this damned nonsense?”
The Tang Family martial artists glared furiously at the masked men as they waited for Tang Sang’s order.
Tang Sang gave it.
“Kill them all.”
The instant the order fell, the Tang Family martial artists charged at the masked men with rage twisting their faces.
The masked men grinned with delight as they watched their opponents approach, brimming with killing intent.
“Heh heh. Think we’ll finally get a thrilling fight for once?”
“Let’s go!”
As the two forces collided, another masked man who had been quietly watching from the rear moved toward Tang Sang.
Tang Sang instinctively knew that this man was the leader of the group.
He was the opponent Tang Sang would inevitably have to face.
Tang Sang immediately pulled the iron fan from his back.
SHRRRRR—
He snapped the fan open and swung it at the approaching masked man.
SHAAAAANG—
Hidden weapons shot from the ends of the iron fan.
SWIIIIISH—
The masked man shifted sideways to evade them.
Tang Sang had been waiting for exactly that.
He swung the iron fan toward the direction the man had moved.
The fan’s sharpened edge flashed like a blade as it swept in an arc toward the masked man’s torso.
There was nowhere left to dodge.
Or so Tang Sang thought.
From that compromised position, the masked man shifted his body a second time and narrowly avoided the iron fan.
Tang Sang had anticipated that as well.
He immediately swept the fan sideways.
Yet his opponent narrowly avoided that strike too.
Just a little more.
Tang Sang gritted his teeth and pressed the masked man relentlessly.
Just a little more.
Just a tiny bit farther, and I’ll hit him.
Yet each time, the man slipped away by the narrowest possible margin.
In that case, Tang Sang would simply leave him nowhere to escape.
While swinging the iron fan with his right hand, he used his left to launch something into the direction the masked man was moving.
PIPIPING—
THUD—
What?
This time, the masked man stopped the iron fan instead of dodging it.
Because he had blocked the fan, the object Tang Sang had thrown with his left hand cut harmlessly through empty air and embedded itself in the ground.
The masked man’s eyes curved with amusement.
“Myriad Shadow Blood Threads? You must hold a fairly high position in the Tang Family.”
He even knows the Myriad Shadow Blood Threads.
Just who is this masked man?
Tang Sang wore a red glove on his left hand.
The Myriad Shadow Blood Threads reacted the instant they touched bare skin.
They could not be blocked. They could only be dodged.
Even members of the poison-wielding Tang Family needed special gloves merely to handle such a dangerous hidden weapon.
His opponent had known that.
That was why he had deliberately blocked the iron fan instead of dodging.
Tang Sang finally saw the masked man’s weapon.
It was an ordinary dagger.
Daggers were not commonly used as primary weapons.
And yet this man wielded one with exceptional skill.
“So you were an assassin after all?”
The masked man did not answer.
“You don’t seem to be from Black Blood Gate. Who are you people?”
“Would I be wearing a mask if I intended to tell you? Don’t you agree?”
He had a point.
“Then I’ll have to find out for myself.”
“Sorry, but I don’t think you’ll have the time.”
“What?”
“We have to leave now. It was fun.”
“What the hell are you—”
WHUMP—
“URK!”
Agonizing pain erupted through Tang Sang’s abdomen, and his consciousness rapidly began to fade.
I have to catch him.
Tang Sang tried to force himself to remain conscious.
It was useless.
*****
JOLT—
Tang Sang sprang upright in alarm.
He hurriedly looked around.
Tang Family martial artists lay unconscious everywhere.
The goods that had been loaded for the trading run were gone.
So were the wagon hands who had been managing them.
Everything had vanished.
Tang Sang rose to his feet and unleashed a furious roar.
“AAAAH!”
The fallen Tang Family martial artists jolted awake at the sound and leaped to their feet.
When they spotted Tang Sang, fear filled their faces, and they stood rigidly at attention.
Tang Sang had no intention of rebuking them.
He himself had been defeated and knocked unconscious.
How could he blame the others?
He vowed that he would repay today’s humiliation tenfold.
No, a hundredfold.
First, they had to find some trace of the attackers.
They went to the end of the cliffside plank road.
There was only one route.
Unless the attackers were insane, they would not have headed toward Sichuan Province, where the Tang Family was based.
The road was also far too treacherous for them to move quickly.
“We’ll pursue them. It takes at least seven or eight days to leave this single route, so they cannot have escaped yet.”
“Can we capture them with only our current forces?”
“It will be difficult. That is why we will overtake them. Once we are ahead, we will collapse the cliffs on both sides and block the road.”
“What? B-But that would...”
“We can repair it later. Preventing them from leaving this place comes first.”
“Understood.”
“Hurry!”
“Yes!”
*****
“There’s no sign of them.”
I know.
Tang Sang could not believe it.
Where could they possibly have gone?
This was the only way out.
Did they fly into the sky?
Even if Tang Sang and the others had been unconscious, they could not have remained that way for several days.
He had not been particularly hungry upon waking, which meant that little time had passed.
The terrain was treacherous, and the attackers had carts loaded with goods.
They would have needed to move carefully to keep the cargo from falling.
There was no way they could have traveled quickly.
“Could it be?”
Did they head toward Sichuan Province?
If they really did, they’re even crazier than I thought.
Then again, anyone willing to attack the Tang Family was already clearly out of his mind.
What could they possibly be planning in Sichuan?
“Unit Leader, what should we do? Do we continue?”
“Hmm.”
Tang Sang had the feeling that continuing personally would be pointless.
“You four will keep going. If you find them, overtake them and carry out the plan I mentioned earlier. Block the road.”
“And if we don’t see them?”
“Continue to the end of the road. If there is still no sign of them, return.”
“Understood.”
“The rest of us will return as quickly as possible.”
“Yes!”
Ja Un, the caravan leader in charge of this Heavenly Flower Merchant Company trading run, had been certain it would succeed.
Unlike their previous trading runs, this one was accompanied by elite martial artists from the Tang Family.
He had assumed that no one would dare attack after seeing the Tang Family’s flags and clothing.
That assumption had been a grave mistake.
Their enemies had moved without caring whether the Tang Family was present.
It °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° had not been arrogance.
It had been confidence.
The result was the defeat of the Tang Family martial artists.
All the goods intended for the trading run had been taken, and Ja Un and the wagon hands had become hostages.
Ja Un naturally expected their attackers to flee as quickly as possible in the direction opposite Sichuan.
Instead, they were heading deeper into Sichuan.
Are these men insane?
He understood that they were strong.
But they would be gravely mistaken if they believed that the elites who had accompanied this trading run represented the full strength of the Tang Family.
The Tang Family had the Myriad Poison King, Tang Mujin, its Supreme Family Head and one of the martial world’s One Emperor and Eight Kings.
It also had its current family head, the Dark Poison Lord Tang Pae, one of the hundred greatest experts in the martial world.
Anyone who believed that the Tang Family was skilled only with poison was mistaken.
The Myriad Poison King was a nine-star Profound Realm expert.
The Dark Poison Lord was a three-star Profound Realm absolute expert.
They were powerful even without poison.
And since men that strong could also freely wield poisons that were notoriously difficult to counter, how troublesome would it be to face them?
That was why everyone avoided fighting the Tang Family.
Attacking the Heavenly Flower Merchant Company, which operated directly under the Tang Family, was already an inconceivably insane act.
Yet these men were now carrying the Heavenly Flower Merchant Company’s stolen goods directly into Sichuan.
Discovery was inevitable.
What gives them such confidence?
Just then, the man who appeared to be their leader approached.
He stretched a hand toward the cargo and murmured something.
When the murmuring ended, a black sphere appeared in midair.
In an instant, the enormous pile of cargo was sucked into it and vanished.
Ja Un repeatedly rubbed his eyes, unable to decide whether what he had witnessed was real or a dream.
The wagon hands looked equally stunned.
They merely stared blankly at the empty space where the cargo had been.
Was that the sorcery I’ve only ever heard about?
It was extraordinary.
After displaying such an incredible miracle, the mysterious man approached Ja Un.
Ja Un regarded him warily.
“You are the caravan leader responsible for this trading run?”
“That is correct. What do you intend to do with us?”
“Nothing in particular. We’ll release you once we reach Sichuan.”
“Y-You truly mean that?”
“Yes. Until then, let’s try to get along.”
Can I believe him?
Would they truly release their captives without demanding anything in return?
When Ja Un looked at him with undisguised suspicion, the man smiled.
“But will you really be all right if you simply return? Someone will have to take responsibility for what happened.”
“Was this not beyond anyone’s control? Even the Tang Family elites could do nothing. What could we possibly have done?”
“That’s true. But will your superiors see it the same way?”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone has to be blamed so the people above can protect their own positions. Who do you think that person will be?”
As the man stared calmly at him, Ja Un unconsciously swallowed.
Now that he thought about it, he had often seen former colleagues stripped of everything they owned and unjustly cast out to protect someone else.
This trading run had been the same.
Ja Un had repeatedly warned them that it was too dangerous.
Yet they had insisted and ordered him to proceed.
All Ja Un had done was obey.
“The Tang Family will place the blame on you as well.”
“What blame could they possibly place on me?”
“They’ll accuse you of joining hands with us and helping us steal the merchant company’s cargo.”
“I-I did nothing wrong!”
“Whether you did anything wrong won’t matter to them. What matters is telling the world that this happened because someone they trusted betrayed them. That way, they can claim the family was not defeated because it was weak.”