Blood Whisker.
Among the poisons crafted by the Sichuan Tang Family, Blood Whisker is the most rapidly effective extreme poison. For this reason, the Tang Family uses it with utmost caution, and only direct bloodline members are permitted to handle it, barring other experts entirely.
“Is this the infamous Blood Whisker?” Bu Eunseol said, gazing at the transparent glass vial in his hand.
Inside the vial was a liquid redder than blood—the Tang Family’s extreme poison, Blood Whisker.
“Ugh, ugh!” At Bu Eunseol’s feet, a gagged man knelt, trembling. His name was Tang Pungho, a member of the Huapung Clan in the Outer Court, a master skilled in covert poisoning.
“Who sent you?” Bu Eunseol asked, slowly uncorking the vial. “If I remove your gag and don’t hear the answer I want… this Blood Whisker will go down your throat.”
“Ugh, ugh!” Tang Pungho’s body shook as he met Bu Eunseol’s icy, piercing gaze.
“Black Leopard, remove the gag,” Bu Eunseol ordered.
“Yes,” Black Leopard replied, swiftly pulling the gag from Tang Pungho’s mouth.
“Tang Bi! It’s Second Young Master Tang Bi!” Tang Pungho blurted out immediately.
“As expected,” Bu Eunseol said, nodding calmly. Blood Whisker was a poison only accessible to the direct bloodline of the Tang Family.
Puzzled, Black Leopard asked, “Why would the second young master target you, Young Master?”
“Because Tang Gon isn’t here,” Bu Eunseol replied.
Tang Gon had entered the secret vault the previous day and wouldn’t emerge for four days. These four days were the perfect opportunity for Tang Bi to eliminate Bu Eunseol and Black Leopard.
“Even so, to attempt an assassination within the family? If such a thing happened, wouldn’t the martial world mock the Tang Family’s lax security?” Black Leopard asked.
Bu Eunseol shook his head. “We’re outsiders. No one would mourn our deaths…” He smiled faintly at the terrified Tang Pungho. “And the dead don’t speak.” Tang Pungho couldn’t meet Bu Eunseol’s gaze, his head bowed in fear.
“Even if it’s revealed we were poisoned by the family’s toxin, the blame would fall on Tang Gon. We’re his guests, and this is just the Outer Court.”
Shudder.
Tang Pungho trembled again at Bu Eunseol’s words and actions, which seemed to see through everything.
“I-I…” Tang Pungho stammered, looking up at Bu Eunseol with a quivering voice. “May I… go?”
“Fine,” Bu Eunseol said, nodding and lightly tapping Tang Pungho’s pressure point to release him. “Leave the Tang Family now.”
“What?”
“Return in a month. If I find you here before then, I’ll cut your throat without fail.”
After a moment’s thought, Tang Pungho seemed to realize something and bowed deeply to Bu Eunseol. “I’m truly grateful for your mercy.” He sprang up and fled the guest quarters like the wind.
“You said that to save him, didn’t you, Young Master?” Black Leopard said warmly, watching him go.
“With Second Young Master’s—no, that cruel Tang Bi’s nature, he’d have killed him to silence him if we let him go as is.” Black Leopard smiled brightly. “But in a month, everything will be settled. Whoever becomes the successor will let him live.”
Bu Eunseol shook his head. “You know one thing but miss two.”
“What?”
“Killing him is also what Tang Bi wants. Killing someone with the Tang surname inside the family is a challenge to the Sichuan Tang Family itself.”
“Even if it was in self-defense against an assassin?”
“They’d find an excuse, whatever the reason,” Bu Eunseol said, pausing briefly. “More importantly, I let him live for another reason.”
“What’s that?” Black Leopard asked.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Bu Eunseol said, flashing an uncharacteristically bright smile.
That smile sent a chill down Black Leopard’s spine. It was clear that Tang Bi would either die or be left half-dead by Bu Eunseol’s hand.
***
The Next Day, Suyun Pavilion’s Study, Inner Court
Tang Bi, standing by the window with his lips tightly pursed, finally shouted at Tang Sa-un, who stood respectfully before him.
“The one sent with Blood Whisker last night—why haven’t we heard from him? Why is that Bu fellow still alive?!”
Tang Sa-un bowed his head. “I don’t know, sir.”
If the plan had succeeded, Bu Eunseol would be dead. If it failed, Tang Pungho should be dead—or at least, he should be. But Bu Eunseol was alive, and Tang Pungho had vanished. Tang Sa-un couldn’t comprehend the situation.
“Could it be…” Tang Sa-un said cautiously after some thought, “that Bu Eunseol saw through our plan and sent Tang Pungho out of the family?”
“Does that make sense?” Tang Bi roared. “How could he send out a healthy, able-bodied family expert?”
“Well…” Tang Sa-un started to speak but stopped himself.
Second Young Master, with your volatile temper, he might have accepted the deal. In a month, the successor will be decided. He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Call Youngpung Master. Entrust him with the task,” Tang Bi ordered.
“Youngpung Master?” Tang Sa-un asked.
Youngpung Master, Tang Saheon, was one of the top experts under Tang Bi, a master who had surpassed the peak level. But he was over fifty, with strong pride, and unlikely to accept assassinating a young man like Bu Eunseol.
“Youngpung Master likely won’t take this job. He’s over fifty and too proud…”
“Tell him it’s my order!” Tang Bi snapped, baring his teeth with a cruel smile. “No matter how skilled Bu Eunseol is, he can’t exceed peak level. Youngpung Master can handle him.”
***
Youngpung Master Tang Saheon, a branch family expert at fifty-three, had mastered the Ten Thousand Poison Sword and Lightning Flash Sword—among the finest branch family techniques—to the level of great completion.
This is distasteful, Tang Saheon thought, sighing inwardly as he stood on the roof of Cheongyang Pavilion, clad in dark stealth attire. Having surpassed the peak level in his fifties, he was a proud man destined to become a master of the Inner Court.
To think he, of all people, was tasked with assassinating a youth barely in his twenties?
But the second young master will be the next patriarch. Having sworn loyalty to Tang Bi, he had no choice but to eliminate anyone obstructing his path.
Let’s see. Carefully descending, he scanned the vicinity of Cheongyang Pavilion’s annex.
An opportunity granted by the heavens. In the annex’s bedroom, a man in gray martial attire sat meditating. Even the greatest masters were defenseless during meditation, their focus turned inward, slowing their reactions.
Only that boy as a guard?
At a table, Black Leopard leaned against the wall, crouching and reading a book.
With no Outer Court warriors stationed at Cheongyang Pavilion aside from servants, neutralizing these two would end the matter.
Hup.
Taking a quiet breath, Tang Saheon began scattering paralyzing powder in the annex with deft, stealthy movements—so subtle that even a keen-eyed master would struggle to notice.
Now!
As the moonlight dimmed, Tang Saheon prepared to unleash his movement technique.
“Really,” Black Leopard sighed, looking up from his book. “As the young master predicted, another one’s here.”
He sensed me? Black Leopard appeared to be only fourteen or fifteen. How could he detect the stealth of someone who had surpassed peak level?
“Black Leopard has mastered a movement technique that includes stealth, making him highly sensitive to presence and sound,” Bu Eunseol said, slowly rising from his seat, as if answering Tang Saheon’s unspoken question.
“Not bad this time,” Bu Eunseol said, smirking as he looked into the darkness where Tang Saheon hid. “Besides Tang Gon, there is another sword-wielder in the family?”
I’ve been found.
With no choice, Tang Saheon boldly opened the annex door and stepped inside.
“Are you Bu Eunseol?” he asked, exuding killing intent.
Bu Eunseol nodded with a delighted expression. “Since it’s been a while, let’s skip the talk.”
“Skip?”
“Don’t disappoint me,” Bu Eunseol said, drawing his ink-black sword, a powerful aura emanating from him.
It was a mountainous force, overwhelming even for Tang Saheon, who had reached the threshold of transcendence.
His inner strength is immense. Did he consume an elixir?
“What are you staring at?” Bu Eunseol’s voice came from behind as his sword sliced toward Tang Saheon’s neck.
Argh!
Tang Saheon twisted his body, narrowly dodging the strike.
“Huff, huff,” he panted, sweat beading on his forehead from evading a single blow by a hair’s breadth.
“Not bad speed,” Bu Eunseol said, baring his white teeth in a grin. “But a bit disappointing.”
“Disappointing? Don’t act so smug!” Tang Saheon roared, enraged by Bu Eunseol’s attitude, and unleashed his full sword technique.
Lightning Flash Sword.
The fastest sword art of the Tang Family, it unleashed a barrage of cross-shaped afterimages from his fingertips.
“Hm,” Bu Eunseol murmured, already stepping aside to the left.
“Don’t run!” Tang Saheon shouted, frustrated as Bu Eunseol effortlessly dodged his relentless attacks. “If you’re a man, face me head-on!”
Bu Eunseol stopped abruptly, crossing his arms and staring at Tang Saheon. “You think you can win if I face you directly?”
“You can’t even sense that my skill has surpassed peak level,” Tang Saheon scoffed.
“Peak?” Bu Eunseol smirked. “Realms are just boundaries to describe martial arts. In a life-and-death battle, victory isn’t decided by realms.”
“All talk! Face me head-on, then!”
“I refuse,” Bu Eunseol said with a faint smile. “Your swordsmanship is too pathetic to be worth my time.”
Tang Saheon, a revered Tang Family expert, had always been admired by younger martial artists. But Bu Eunseol’s constant mockery pushed him to the edge, and he unleashed the Lightning Flash Sword with abandon.
“You arrogant brat!” The Lightning Flash Sword consisted of seventy-two forms, each imbued with the essence of lightning-fast strikes, requiring little time to execute fully.
In countless battles, Tang Saheon had never needed to use all seventy-two forms, as his opponents fell before he could.
This guy! Yet now, he was repeating the seventy-two forms twice over.
The problem was that he couldn’t even graze Bu Eunseol’s sleeve.
Naive fool. A smile crept onto Bu Eunseol’s lips as he employed his Swift Beyond Shadow technique, arms still crossed. Knowing Tang Saheon was a formidable expert, Bu Eunseol had deliberately provoked him, and like a child, Tang Saheon had lost his composure to rage.
“Stop dodging like a rat and fight!” Tang Saheon bellowed, his pride wounded. “Aren’t you a martial artist? All you’ve practiced is running like a coward?”
At that moment—
Whoosh. Bu Eunseol’s face suddenly appeared inches from Tang Saheon’s as he continued his sword forms.
“You’ll regret this.”
“Argh!” Tang Saheon let out a scream-like yelp, trying to unleash another strike.
But Bu Eunseol’s fist was faster.
Boom!
With a sound like a bursting leather sack, Tang Saheon was struck in the solar plexus and slammed into the wall.
“Ugh!” Clutching his stomach, he vomited blood.
A single, light punch from Bu Eunseol had inflicted severe internal injuries.
“How… how could this…” Tang Saheon stammered.
Getting struck in the stomach during combat was something that happened in fights between third-rate martial artists.
Tang Saheon, a supreme master on the cusp of transcendence, had been brought to his knees by a single blow, clutching his stomach in agony.
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