Chapter Ninety-Six: A New Mission

A tender update from July 16, 2013.

Yu Wen Lingxi gently wiped Lian Yue’s body clean and applied medicine to her wounds, then dressed her again. Looking at the flush that still had not faded from her pretty face, his own heart was filled with unease and fear.

His slender fingers softly traced her brows, her eyes, and her red lips. Unable to restrain himself, he kissed her cherry lips once more, tasting only the briefest sweetness before finally striking the acupoint that kept her in a deep sleep.

He picked up the mask that had been thrown to the ground and crouched there, the tightly furrowed brows and his star-like eyes flickering with light and shadow revealing his struggle and hesitation.

He knew exactly what innocence meant to a girl. It was not hard to imagine what state Lian Yue would fall into if she awoke and truly recalled what had just happened between them.

Damn it. Why had he not believed that he could win her heart? Why had he driven them both to such a point?

What, in the end, was he supposed to do?

The veins on Yu Wen Lingxi’s hand bulged as he gripped the mask, and for the first time in his life, a rebellious impulse rose in his heart.

He could not allow such a thing to happen a second time. He would not permit anyone to trample upon his happiness like this.

In that silent moment, Yu Wen Lingxi made the single act he would regret most in his life, and yet also be most thankful for.

He gently turned a hidden mechanism at the edge of the mask, and from within sprang three black needles, each about an inch long. They looked so slender, as if a mere touch would snap them.

Perhaps the master of the Hall of Asura, Dark Abyss, could use them only to kill. Yet in Yu Wen Lingxi’s hands, the same things held miraculous healing power.

Everyone knew that the Young Master of the Yu Wen Clan was the final disciple of the old physician of Cloud Peak, trained from childhood in the study of medicine, and especially unmatched in the art of acupuncture.

Yu Wen Lingxi took from his robe a bamboo tube about the thickness of a fingertip and soaked the three fine needles in the liquid inside.

When the needles gradually began to gleam, he carefully withdrew them one by one, lifted Lian Yue slightly, and in a swift motion inserted them in a triangular pattern at the back of her head, leaving no trace to be seen.

He gently laid Lian Yue down, added some branches to the fire nearby, and walked to the other side of the tree.

Lifting his index finger to his lips, he gave a sharp whistle. Not long after, Thirteen, Forty-Seven, and Sixty-Nine appeared one after another.

Thirteen glanced casually at the base of the tree where Lian Yue lay in a drugged sleep, and his heart eased. The mission had finally been completed.

The three of them said in unison, “We greet the Young Master.”

“No matter what means you use, and no matter how many of your men die, keep the Yue family blocked here for five days. If the Yue family reaches this place within those five days, then there will be no need for you to continue existing.”

Yu Wen Lingxi’s icy voice sent all three plunging into a frozen abyss. They knew very well that they had thoroughly offended this young master. If they failed to complete the mission this time, they would likely not see the sun the day after five days had passed.

“Yes!”

Yu Wen Lingxi regarded the three of them without expression, his gaze dangerous. “Also, leave behind every medicine on your persons.”

Sixty-Nine and Forty-Seven both turned to look at Thirteen.

Thirteen gave a bitter smile and began to act, taking out every bottle, jar, packet, and paper-wrapped bundle on him one by one. Seeing this, Sixty-Nine and Forty-Seven also began emptying their own stores.

An assassin lived with a blade always at his throat, his life hanging by a thread. Especially now, when the Hall of Asura, apart from a few rare pills and potions, never skimped in this regard, they each carried a surprising amount.

“Get out.”

The word had barely been forced through Yu Wen Lingxi’s teeth when the three of them obeyed with immediate action.

Yu Wen Lingxi roughly sorted through the pile of items at his feet, selected three porcelain bottles from among them, then rounded the banyan tree and returned to Lian Yue.

As for the bottles, jars, packets, and bundles that had been the lifeline of Thirteen, Sixty-Nine, and Forty-Seven, they remained in a heap where Yu Wen Lingxi had left them.

“Thirteen, are we doomed this time?” Sixty-Nine said, forcing his inner energy to carry him swiftly through the woods, his voice trembling.

“That medicine... it really was the Clan Head’s order? Thirteen, don’t tell me you acted on your own and got us killed,” Forty-Seven added. His tone was no better.

Thirteen gave another bitter twist of the lips, trying to form a smile, but in the end failing. “Do you think I’m as mindless as Seventy-One? Is this the sort of thing that can be guessed at casually? That porcelain bottle came together with the Clan Head’s order. What we should be worried about now are the other two bottles.”

“The other two bottles!”

“There are two more bottles!”

Forty-Seven and Sixty-Nine were so frightened that their inner energy roiled, nearly sending them crashing from the trees. At last, after steadying themselves, they cried in unison, “I heard nothing. It has nothing to do with me!”

Thirteen turned his head to look at the two of them, both pale with fear, and sighed. “Hurry and keep moving. We’ll talk when we get there.”

If I could, I would also like to pretend that I had never seen those three bottles, to pretend that all of this was only a dream. But reality is reality. What has happened has already happened. Thirteen understood that the Clan Head was preparing to use their generation as a whetstone, tempering the Young Master and the Second Young Master alike.

But even knowing this, he could not say it aloud. Among this group, only Nineteen and he had climbed out of heaps of corpses together with the Clan Head. No matter what decision the Clan Head made, the two of them would carry it out without the slightest hesitation. The later two batches, however, felt nothing toward the Clan Head but utter fear. If they learned of his intentions, then in order to preserve their lives, there might well be someone driven to desperation.

It seemed that after that incident, the Clan Head had changed from the inside out. Back when he was merely the Young Master, he had, strictly speaking, still been very kind and softhearted.

Thirteen sighed from time to time along the road, yet he did not say another word. Forty-Seven and Sixty-Nine were likewise burdened with their own thoughts. After pressing onward without pause, they finally met up with Forty-Three and Fifty-Four at midnight.

“Thirteen, the task you gave me, I completed it perfectly. You have no idea, last night that scene was just tragic—”

Before Forty-Three had even steadied himself, he was enthusiastically describing the previous night’s events, but after only a couple of sentences Thirteen cut him off.

“Enough, stop talking. New orders.”

The instant “new orders” left his mouth, Sixty-Nine and Forty-Seven stiffened. Two frozen, bitter smiles appeared before Forty-Three and Fifty-Four.

Thirteen ignored them entirely and asked Forty-Three, “Where is Nineteen?”

“Nineteen went after that giant snake from last night. You didn’t see it? That snake was this thick and nearly thirty feet long—” Forty-Seven seized the chance to interject, making a size with his hands, but was cut off once again by Thirteen.

“Forty-Three, go bring him back first. I’ll go check on Forty-Two’s side.”

Before Forty-Three could even object, Thirteen vanished.

He left behind two smiling statues, a Forty-Three whose face looked as if he were constipated, and a very idle Fifty-Four.

“Why is it always me?” Forty-Three complained miserably.

Fifty-Four flashed him eight teeth. “You’ve got good beast luck. Go on, hurry back.”

After Forty-Three left unwillingly, Fifty-Four still showed his eight teeth and looked at the two statues with curiosity. “Why did Thirteen leave that Seventy-One fellow behind this time? Isn’t he afraid that Seventy-One will go off on his own again and cause trouble? Even if Thirteen isn’t afraid, Sixty-Nine, aren’t you afraid of being dragged down and punished?”

The smiles on the two statues did not change. Only the lips of the Sixty-Nine statue moved a little. “From now on, I won’t be implicated, and Thirteen won’t need to worry about Seventy-One anymore.”

“Why is that? Don’t tell me Seventy-One’s dead? Heh, heh, heh...”

“He’s dead.” The lips of the Forty-Seven statue also moved.

“Don’t joke around. How could that be?” Fifty-Four waved his hand, not believing it at all. “Stop trying to fool me.”

Seeing that the two were still wearing those bitter smiles, Fifty-Four felt a jolt in his chest. “He really died?”

The two statues nodded together.

Fifty-Four instantly withdrew his eight-teeth grin. Though everyone usually disliked Seventy-One, after so many years of life and death together, it would be a lie to say they felt nothing at all. “How did he die?”

After Sixty-Nine and Forty-Seven exchanged a glance, Forty-Seven recounted the entire sequence of events. The idle expression on Fifty-Four’s face finally changed as well. On one hand, he feared the Young Master’s decisive ruthlessness; on the other, he marveled at the Clan Head’s arrangement. Especially when he heard the nature of the next mission, he felt close to tears.

After the great battle last night, the beast horde that had been surrounding the Yue family’s people vanished without a trace. Their pace sped up considerably. Now, even with the Second Young Master inside to coordinate from within and without, it would still be difficult to stop them, and there were still those two bottles.

A coldness, as though his throat had been slit, spread through Fifty-Four’s entire body. After five days, would he still be able to see the sun?