Night fell as it always did, and the fine rain pattered tirelessly.
In the cold night, deep within the woods.
A young man stood with a sword in hand, a corpse still hanging from its blade.
Across two lifetimes, this was the first time Chu Qing had ever killed someone.
But perhaps because he had absorbed the original owner's memories, Chu Qing felt no discomfort at all.
He was simply a little confused.
"Why is there nothing above this person's head?
"Why hasn't the system reacted at all?"
He opened the interface, but nothing else seemed to trigger.
"Maybe I got it wrong."
With a flick of his hand, he sent the corpse tumbling off the blade.
When the system had activated just moments ago, he'd seen something above Blood Spear's head. He'd assumed that something would appear above anyone he killed.
Now it seemed that wasn't the case.
Could the thing above Blood Spear's head have just been the system's way of making its entrance?
It had nothing to do with Chu Qing killing him.
As for the treasure chest... the beginner's gift pack?
He didn't dwell on the matter for long. It bothered him that he couldn't figure it out, but it wasn't important.
"Still, if that's how it is, there doesn't seem to be any need to run.
"Swift Flying Sword... the fastest sword in the world!"
A smile played at the corner of Chu Qing's mouth.
Of the five assassins, he'd killed one when they first met.
Two of the remaining four were right there.
One hung from a tree, the other lay in the mud.
That left two more.
Rather than flee in a sorry state, he might as well stay here and wait a while.
Ever since the original owner had been ambushed by the Sin Mirror Platform, Chu Qing had known this was a fight to the death.
The Sin Mirror Platform allowed no betrayal. One side or the other would inevitably have to die.
Without this cheat, even after transmigrating, he would likely have had no chance of surviving their pursuit.
But now... things were different.
If he could wipe out these two assassins, he'd buy himself a little more time.
With that thought, Chu Qing returned to the tree and sat cross-legged.
His injuries hadn't improved just because he'd acquired Swift Flying Sword, so he still needed to regulate his breathing.
The Chu Family's ancestral Ultimate Skill was called the Void Scripture, and it belonged to the Daoist tradition.
One of Chu Qing's ancestors had once joined the Void Embrace Sect and become one of its true disciples.
For the past three hundred years, the martial world had been battered by bloodshed and turmoil. The Void Embrace Sect had failed to withstand the storm; the sect had fallen, and its members had either died or scattered. Chu Qing's ancestor had been among them.
Relying on the Void Scripture and the Void Embrace Sect's Ultimate Skills he'd mastered, he had established the Chu Family's foundation in Heavenly Dance City.
The Void Scripture had naturally become the Chu Family's ancestral Ultimate Skill.
Daoist martial arts were easy to learn but hard to master. They prized balance and moderation, and favored slow accumulation followed by explosive release.
Their greatest advantage was that they rarely carried the risk of qi deviation.
Chu Qing had begun practicing this Internal Energy Technique at the age of five. Fourteen years had passed, and he had only reached the third level.
His Internal Energy wasn't especially profound, but when he used it, his inner breath flowed as lightly as smoke, unbroken and persistent, with strength to spare.
That was the Void Scripture's defining trait. It might lack explosive power, but it excelled in prolonged battles.
Chu Qing had endured the assault of these five Sin Mirror Platform assassins, escaped their encirclement, and even killed an expert whose martial arts surpassed his own. It was all thanks to this Ultimate Skill.
Now, his inner breath rose from his dantian, which burned like a furnace, wisps of smoke winding through his meridians and into his chest to ease his injuries.
Time passed. No one knew how long it had been before two figures suddenly appeared on either side of Chu Qing.
They were both dressed in black and wore opera-mask faces.
They said nothing. The man on the left whipped out a hand, and three humming darts shot through the air toward Chu Qing's cheek.
Right behind the darts, he concealed a short dagger and thrust it toward Chu Qing's throat.
The other man flung a Rope Dart.
The Rope Dart was a soft weapon: a length of rope with a sharp, pointed dart head at one end.
Using it required building momentum, swinging the rope with the body's movements before finally hurling it out. Its power was formidable, and its trajectory was strange and hard to predict.
But this man's technique was exceptional. With one swing, he seemed to summon wind and thunder, striking with the speed of a bolt from the blue.
Both men struck with killing moves. If Chu Qing took even one of them, he would die on the spot.
At that instant, Chu Qing opened his eyes and sprang into the air. His sword flicked up, knocking the three darts away in a flash. Then the blade thrust forward, and a sharp hiss rang out.
His sword passed the dagger in the left-hand assassin's grip. The weapons clashed, sparks flying.
The sword and dagger crossed. One pierced a throat; the other stopped just short of Chu Qing's chest.
At the same time, the Rope Dart shot toward Chu Qing's back.
Chu Qing slapped away the dagger at his chest and pushed off with his foot, using his sword to drive the assassin in front of him forward.
One step, two steps, three!
After the third step, he planted his foot and slashed back. A sharp clang rang out.
His sword sent the Rope Dart's head flying.
By then, the rope had reached its limit... it could no longer reach him.
The assassin behind him had spent years mastering the weapon and didn't care that its head had been knocked away.
With a simple tug, he pulled the rope back under control.
He was about to attack again when, from the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of silver-white... He looked down, and found a sword at his throat.
When?
The assassin's eyes went wide. He tried to speak, but all that came from his mouth was a hoarse "k-kh." Not a single word came out clearly.
Chu Qing yanked his sword free, and the assassin's corpse fell, sending a few splashes of water into the air.
Chu Qing himself swayed unsteadily. He took a deep breath before managing to steady his feet.
"It worked... If the Sin Mirror Platform hasn't sent anyone else after them, then I've managed to shake them off for now."
He was still badly wounded. The fight had looked easy, but it had taken a tremendous amount of effort.
His inner breath was running low, too. If there had been even a few more people, he might really have been done for.
Even so, he remained methodical. He searched the bodies one by one.
In the end, he found a few taels of loose silver and several Silver Notes, but he had no intention of using the notes.
Many Silver Notes had to be exchanged at specific Money Houses. If the original owner had ties to the Money House and had left a mark on the note, using it without knowing could attract trouble.
Besides those, he found some medicines of unknown purpose and a letter sealed with Sealing Wax.
There was no recipient's name on the letter, so he didn't know who it was for. But the fact that it was sealed with wax suggested it wasn't ordinary.
"I'm safe for the moment, but these five men won't return to report tonight. The Sin Mirror Platform will surely send more assassins after me...
"This is already an unsolvable situation. One more offense won't make a difference."
Chu Qing gave a slight shake of his head and opened the letter.
But its contents were jumbled and nonsensical. It was a secret message.
To uncover the real message, he needed to read it in a specific way.
Chu Qing had spent nearly a year among the Sin Mirror Platform's ranks, so he knew how to decipher their messages. He followed the method at once and uncovered a short line.
[Iron Palm Crossing Calamity Chu Yunfei, five thousand taels!]
Chu Qing's brows rose. Chu Yunfei... wasn't that the original owner's father?
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