The damage from Ming Suwen’s slash was akin to a spiked ball that Black Feathers Shuyu couldn’t expel from its body. Every time it tried to churn true qi, a new wound would open. Given the same affect beset Wazi, crippling it until its death, Black Feathers Shuyu had it even worse. Thanks to Ming Suwen’s Enlightenment enhancement, Black Feathers Shuyu couldn’t contain its bleeding, leaving a clear trace for League of Assassins to easily trace it.
Owing to its paranoid and cowardly personality, Black Feathers Shuyu did laps outside its lair for two hours, ensuring there was nobody camping it or tailing it, prior to entering. Even its lair consisted of iron items placed together as “armour” for the tall tree that it called “home”.
Right when Black Feathers Shuyu stopped flapping its wings, feeling it was out of harm’s way and could focus on healing, Master Ku appeared before it to say something it didn’t understand, then severely wounded it. When it spread its wings to flee, Master Ku stalked it metre for metre across Nieyao.
Aware of Black Feathers Shuyu’s flying ability, the first thing Master Ku did was pierce its left wing’s nerves and bones, effectively shackling it so that it couldn’t fly high. Instead of fighting it face to face, Master Ku chose to use Black Feathers Shuyu’s favourite tactic – waiting for an opportunity to present itself.
A beast was most dangerous when it was cornered. Black Feathers Shuyu was a coward, true, but it was still Pangu’s son. Therefore, instead of cornering it, Master Ku essentially gave it an escape option, which would be its preferred choice over combat. Like any other beast, it only had so much mental and physical stamina. Plus, it hadn’t staunched its bleeding. Running whilst bleeding out was just another way of exhausting itself. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Black Feathers Shuyu feigned exhaustion four times, prostrating on the ground, but Master Ku didn’t take the bait once. In the end, Black Feathers Shuyu would cede the patience contest. By the fifth time it played possum, it was genuinely feeling tired. Luckily, Master Ku finally sprung. Everything was going according to plan until he picked up on the presence of innumerable hostiles encroaching.
Master Ku’s first attack was two hundred assassins synergistically activating Dragon-Slaying Formation. It took them two nights to arrange a formation that could be deployed to slay Black Feathers Shuyu. They were the blades, while Master Ku was the one who wore him down and lured him to the specific location. They only wound up with thirty-plus injured and lost less than ten members.
Prior to departing, they noticed a watchful pair of eyes, one brimming with the ferocity of beasts and the greed of man, on them. Perhaps the owner was manipulating their eyes with some skill, but it was indescribable, as if they were trying to discern if they could kill the ones they laid their eyes on or not.
While the assassins started debating whether or not to drag out the one spying on them, their target appeared totally ignorant to their vulnerability.
“Take cover. Someone has arrived,” instructed Master Ku.
Master Ku wasn’t referring to the same person prowling around. The assassins were immediately intrigued as to who was this person so far ahead of them that only Master Ku could sense them.
The young man attired in white with his hair splayed behind him didn’t appear hostile, but he compelled them to be vigilant for nobody knew which side he was on, where he came from and what his intentions were. He was seen dozens of metres away, yet he was already where Master Ku hid within what appeared to be a single step.
“Excuse me, may I ask for some directions? Do you know where this Ming Feizhen is? I have business with him?” He then cracked a smile and added, “By the way, you people are members of League of Assassins, right? Could you give me a few heads to take back as evidence I worked? Let’s make this easy for all of us, hey?”
Although none of the assassins budged, they all readied themselves to strike down the youth as soon as Master Ku gave the order. Master Ku raised his hand, then shook his head. “Nobody is to attack. He is only asking for directions. Why are you all acting as if an enemy has come?”
The young man patted Master Ku on the shoulder as a friend would. “They say Master Ku is cold on the exterior but affable deep down, bitter on the outside but as passionate as a fire inside. They are not wrong at all. That being said, do not take my joke to heart. No matter how I look, the only person worth my while killing here is the one who assassinated Dark Robe Brotherhood’s elder, Windless Monster – Tan Ying. His head is worth thirty thousand taels… There are only around eight worth something. Killing all of you just to collect a few peanuts is not worth it. I am not interested in businesses without a positive ROI.”
Master Ku was no fool who would think the young man was a weakling when he knew nobody from the unorthodox sects would belittle him in the last five years. “… Why are you here?”
The young man wagged his hand. “Just a business trip. I was going to go hunting in Nanjiang; I even went to borrow Baima’s spear from the northern border. That guy is a miser, so I had to steal. It took me three days to take it from him, so I am running late.” He pointed to the bronze spear on his back. “By the time I arrived, everything had been settled. I heard some guy called Ming Feizhen planned this all out. Look, I can let you all off if you tell me where he is. I want to have some fun with him.”
