activa-t Chapter 10 Night Talk
Chapter 10 Night Talk
The corpses of the Blood Fiend Sect assassins were collected before dawn.
Ling Chen neither reported it to the authorities nor made a fuss. In a place like Qingzhou City, the death of a few unidentified men in black wouldn't even warrant a question from the city patrol. Especially since the dead were members of the Blood Fiend Sect—an assassin organization that had dominated Qingzhou's underworld for years, feared even by the three major sects.
He stayed in a small inn in the east of the city, keeping Ling Xue company for the entire day.
He taught her about meridians and acupoints, explained the basics of the cultivation world to her, and even bought her a string of candied hawthorns from a street corner in the evening. The little girl's mouth was full of candy crumbs, and her eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled. Looking at his sister's smiling face, Ling Chen's murderous rage gradually subsided.
Until night fell again.
After Ling Xue fell asleep, Ling Chen sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, repeatedly recalling the battle of the previous night in his mind.
His fight with the three Blood Fiend Sect assassins lasted only a short time, but it helped him understand many things.
He killed two people. One stab through the chest, the other through the heart. The third committed suicide by poison; his resolute act of biting down on poison before dying is still vivid in my memory.
That wasn't an ordinary assassin. Ordinary assassins value their lives; if they can't win, they'll run, beg for mercy, or try to bargain. Only a suicide squad would end their own life without hesitation the moment they're captured.
But not everyone can afford to support suicide soldiers.
"What are you thinking about?" Old Master Mo's voice rang out leisurely.
"I was thinking about those assassins." Ling Chen opened his eyes. "With their Qi Gathering Realm cultivation, they'd at least be managers in the Ling family. But in the Blood Fiend Sect, they're just pawns they can discard at any time. How many people in the entire Qingzhou City can afford to support such pawns?"
"You already have the answer in your heart?"
"No," Ling Chen shook his head, "but there are a few suspects. Meng Hu, Wen Ruyu, Zhong Lingxiu... even Han Tie."
"Han Tie?" Old Mo chuckled. "Do you think that stubborn sword cultivator would do something like this?"
"Doesn't seem like it." Ling Chen smiled, but the smile quickly faded. "But it's precisely because he seems so unlike anyone else that I dare not rule him out. My father once taught me—in the world of martial arts, the most dangerous people are not those who look like bad guys at first glance, but those who don't look like bad guys at all."
Old Master Mo was silent for a moment, then his tone became unusually serious: "Your father is right. But in my experience of living all these years, Han Tie is fine. That kid is too naive; he can't scheme against anyone."
"That leaves three," Ling Chen said, counting on his fingers. "Wen Ruyu, Zhong Lingxiu, and Meng Hu. Among them, Meng Hu is the most suspicious."
"Because you knocked him out of the ring during the second round?"
"It's not just that," Ling Chen said thoughtfully. "Today in the contestants' section, he struck up a conversation with me, asking if I slept well last night. I replied with something like, 'The city isn't safe; a few rats are biting people in the middle of the night.' His reaction was very unnatural."
"What makes it seem unnatural?"
"His cheek twitched. The reaction wasn't anger, nor was it being offended; it was... guilt." Ling Chen recalled the details of the moment. "The anger of being wronged and the guilt of being exposed are different. I was a useless person for five years and was wronged countless times; I can tell the difference."
After a long silence, Elder Mo slowly spoke: "Young man, I suddenly feel that those five years you were a good-for-nothing might not have been a bad thing."
"Um?"
"You've learned to read people's expressions, to be patient, and to remain calm in dire situations. These are things that even a cultivation genius can't learn in a lifetime. And you learned them before you were fifteen."
Ling Chen didn't speak. He looked down at his hands—a thin layer of calluses on his palms, the result of five years of chopping wood, carrying water, and doing odd jobs. The hands of the young master of the Ling family should have been holding a pen, a sword, and power, but his hands were more like those of a servant.
But it was these very hands that gripped the Broken Army Blade last night and slew two Qi Gathering Realm cultivators.
"Elder Mo, are you saying that those assassins' target is really me?"
Old Master Mo's voice tightened slightly: "What do you mean?"
"If they really wanted to kill me, they should have done so after I finished fighting Han Tie during the day and my spiritual energy was depleted. But they waited until late at night. By then, my spiritual energy had recovered to about 70-80%." Ling Chen's gaze grew sharper. "They didn't seem to be here to kill me—they seemed more like they were here to die."
"Or rather, they've come to probe my weaknesses."
The room fell silent. The candlelight flickered gently in the night breeze, casting Ling Chen's shadow on the wall, sometimes long, sometimes short.
"Continue," Old Master Mo said, his tone turning serious.
"Three early-stage Qi Gathering assassins against one who has just finished a fight in the arena and is exhausted. This setup is enough to kill me. But to say that it can definitely kill me is not enough. Especially if the people behind them are well-informed, they should know that I can defeat Han Tie despite being a higher level. Knowing that I can defeat higher-level opponents, and still only sending three early-stage Qi Gathering assassins—either they are stupid, or they are doing it on purpose."
"They're not here to kill you," Elder Mo slowly continued, "but to force you to act. To force you to reveal your true strength, to force you to expose more of your trump cards. The assassins are merely pebbles used to probe the path; their deaths are the purpose in themselves. The person behind the scenes wants to use these three lives to confirm one thing."
"Make sure I have the Myriad Paths Returning to Nothingness Diagram on me." Ling Chen slowly clenched his fist.
He suddenly felt very cold.
Three lives, three Qi Gathering Realm cultivators—in the eyes of the person behind the scenes, they were merely three pebbles used for scouting. Dead, dead, no need even to collect their bodies—someone would naturally come and clean them up before dawn, like emptying three bags of trash.
"Are you scared now?" Old Mo asked.
"It's not fear." Ling Chen raised his head, his eyes reflecting the flickering candlelight. "It's anger."
"anger?"
"They treated three living, breathing people like pawns, using them and then discarding them. In their eyes, what is a human life? A pawn? A stone? Or just a string of numbers?" His voice was low, but it carried an barely suppressed rage. "For the past five years, I've been trampled underfoot, and at least one thing I've always understood—even the weakest person is still a human being."
Old Master Mo remained silent for a long time. When he spoke again, his tone carried an emotion that Ling Chen had never heard before. It wasn't sarcasm, nor indifference, but rather a kind of gratified approval.
"The Celestial Venerable said something similar back then."
"What?"
"He said—the greatest enemy of cultivators is never demons, but those who see themselves as gods. All things have spirits, and all beings are equal. This is the original intention behind his creation of the Myriad Paths Celestial Venerable Technique." Old Mo sighed softly, "Young man, just for what you just said, I am willing to accompany you a little longer."
Ling Chen was silent for a moment, then said earnestly, "Thank you, Elder Mo."
"Don't give me that." Old Master Mo's tone returned to its usual sternness. "Hurry up and cultivate. The final selection is tomorrow. With your current skills, you might be able to deal with Meng Hu, but you're far from being able to deal with the people behind him. Besides, I have a feeling that that girl surnamed Su won't just sit quietly on the stage and watch you compete."
"Su Qingyuan?" Ling Chen was taken aback.
"She publicly announced today that she wanted to steal you away. Do you think she's helping you or hurting you?"
Ling Chen thought for a moment: "Both. Her public naming of me did make the three major sects hesitant to make a move against me. But it also put me in the spotlight—who wouldn't be curious about someone even the Central Continent Immortal Sect is vying for? Those assassins last night might have been drawn there by her words."
"You're not confused at all," Elder Mo sneered. "That little girl is no simpleton. A Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, an Ice-type Heavenly Spiritual Root, and a Holy Maiden of the Central Continent Immortal Sect—any one of these identities would be enough to make her look up to others. Yet she's paying extra attention to you, a mere Qi Gathering early-stage cultivator. Why do you think that is?"
"Because I have what she wants inside me."
"Anything else?"
Ling Chen remained silent. He recalled the look in Su Qingyuan's eyes when she looked at him on the stage earlier that day—a look that contained inquiry, curiosity, but also something else he couldn't decipher. It wasn't hostility, nor was it goodwill, but rather a kind of... scrutiny.
"She seems to be confirming something," Ling Chen said slowly. "Every time she sees me make a move, her eyes change. Especially after my fight with Han Tie today, her gaze towards me was even more complicated than before."
"What do you think she's confirming?"
"I don't know. But I have a gut feeling—she might know me. Not the useless young master of the Ling family, but... 'me'."
Mr. Mo did not respond.
Ling Chen keenly sensed the silence: "Elder Mo?"
"...I can't be sure yet. But you're right, there's definitely something wrong with how she looks at you. It's not just about coveting the divine artifact; there's something deeper. However, without solid evidence, I shouldn't say more. Once you join one of the three major sects, you'll have plenty of opportunities to get to know her."
Ling Chen nodded silently and didn't ask any more questions.
He closed his eyes and focused his mind on his dantian. A vortex of chaotic spiritual energy slowly rotated in the darkness, with the Myriad Dao Returning to Nothingness Diagram suspended above it. Ancient aura continuously emanated from the gaps in the second seal. He guided this aura to flow along his meridians, tempering his physical body and refining his spiritual energy bit by bit.
Tomorrow is the final election.
Meng Hu, Wen Ruyu, Han Tie, Luo Lie—each one is a formidable opponent. But what he is most wary of are not his opponents in the ring.
Instead, it was the woman sitting on the high platform, dressed in white, cold as ice.
Who is she?
What does she really want?
These questions have no answers. At least not now.
Moonlight streamed through the window paper, casting dappled shadows on his face. The long night passed quietly as he cultivated himself and pondered.
When he opened his eyes again, the east was already turning a pale white.
The day of the final election has arrived.