Jianghu Demolition Squad

Unfamiliar with the Five Tastes of Life (Part Five)

It took Qing Jiu three years to be able to spar with Jian Gui for over a hundred moves. By that time, she was thirteen and had grown significantly taller, already undertaking missions within the Ghost Sect.

Qin Gui had traveled to the great deserts for a mission and it was uncertain when she would return. True to her promise, she had been tracking down those involved in the Lin family massacre over the past few years, amassing a list of names.

Qing Jiu had secretly glimpsed this list and memorized every name on it.

After completing her latest mission, she specifically detoured to Yunmeng Marsh.

In Baiyuan City, there lived one of her enemies who enjoyed a comfortable and prosperous life, with a loving spouse and obedient children.

Perched on a rooftop, Qing Jiu watched as a maid led the way with a lantern, the mistress of the house laughing and chatting as she walked along with her child.

The dark clouds obscured the moon, shrouding her entire body in shadows.

It turned out that the man who orchestrated the slaughter of her entire family had a wife and children of his own. How could he be so heartless? Did he not think of his own family, not feel a shred of remorse, when he ordered the deaths of others’ wives and children?

The Heavens were blind. Her family had been massacred, their blood flowed like a river, yet the mastermind behind their doom lived in peace.

Qing Jiu clenched a pebble in her hand until it crumbled to dust, her fingers bleeding from the pressure.

They did not deserve such a peaceful life!

She suddenly stood, blending into the shadows, her form indiscernible.

In the expansive estate, with its lush gardens and intricate network of pavilions and walkways, was perfect for stealth and concealment.

Qing Jiu silently made her way through the eastern garden, slipped out the moon gate, and entered the garden where the shadows were as thick as ink.

As she reached the lakeside, her expression suddenly turned serious when she sensed someone attacking from the opposite side. With a swift movement, she pressed herself against the rock, using it as leverage to propel herself upwards, her body hanging upside down from the top of the formation. She drew her short sword and thrust downward in a fluid motion.

As the clouds quietly moved away, and moonlight illuminated the scene, revealing a young girl in her teens lying on the ground. Dressed in black, with sharp eyes and a low, ready stance, she resembled a panther ready to pounce.

She reversed her grip on the blade, her eyes locked on Qing Jiu’s, their positions creating a stark contrast: one high, one low.

Qing Jiu evaluated her quietly, noting her attire, and asked, “Tang Sect?”

As she hung upside down, her waist token slipped from under her robes, revealing its insignia. “Ghost Sect?” the girl countered.

Qing Jiu loosened her grip, flipping down to land in front of her, “You came here for a mission. Who’s your target?”

The girl stood up, twisting her dagger to a proper grip, and pointed it at Qing Jiu, retorting, “None of your business!”

Footsteps approached from the darkness. Two guards, making their rounds, called out, “Who’s there?”

Qing Jiu’s expression turned cold, her movements swift as the wind, she closed in on the two men, and with a swift motion of her sword, both men’s throats were slashed, and they fell dead instantly.

The girl nodded in approval, “You’re pretty good.”

Before she could finish, Qing Jiu was already attacking her.

Startled, the girl quickly drew another dagger, blocking with both hands.

The girl was agile and swift, moving like a cat, her twin daggers flashing in close combat. Qing Jiu countered with powerful, measured strikes, her swordsmanship rooted in a more traditional style.

Their contrasting approaches resulted in a stalemate, neither gaining a clear advantage.

However, the girl, cautious of attracting more attention with the noise, fought more restrainedly and gradually lost ground.

Eventually, Qing Jiu’s sword swept her off her feet, pinning her face down before she could recover. Qing Jiu knelt on her back, pressing her down with a sword at her neck and twisting her right hand back.

“Hey!” the girl protested. “Jianghu rules! We’re both here on missions. We don’t interfere with each other.”

As Qing Jiu twisted her arm, the girl, caught mid-sentence, couldn’t help but yelp in pain.

“Who are you here to kill?”

“Zhou Xuanyu, the master of this house.”

Qing Jiu responded coolly, “What a coincidence, so am I.”

“Great! We can team up then!” the girl exclaimed. “Hey, let go of me!”

“What’s your name, which generation disciple of Tang Sect are you, and who is your master?”

“I’m Tang Linzhi,” the girl replied, still wary, not revealing her full affiliation. “What about you? What’s your name?”

“Lin Zhi, Linzhi…” Qing Jiu stared at her, her grip involuntarily loosening.

Although Lin Zhi and Linzhi sounded the same, there was still some difference.

Hearing this name stirred something in her; the longer she was separated from her family, the more she felt the pain of loss. The loneliness of being in the world by herself only made her appreciate her family more and miss them deeply.

Taking advantage of Qing Jiu’s distraction, Tang Linzhi broke free from her hold, rubbing her back as she sat down cross-legged on the ground, “Since we share the same goal, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend…”

“You’re so skilled; if we team up, we can save half the effort. If you give me this person’s head, I’ll split the silver we receive, 40% for you and 60% for me. How about it?” She proposed, setting aside any past grievances.

Qing Jiu quietly observed her; the young girl had a spirited look and laughed heartily.

Seeing Qing Jiu’s silence, Tang Linzhi pouted, “Or how about 30% for me, 70% for you…”

Qing Jiu remained silent. Tang Linzhi continued, “20% for me and 80% for you!”

“…”

“Hey! You’re too greedy. Fine, 10% for me and 90% for you!”

Qing Jiu still didn’t respond. Tang Linzhi gritted her teeth, “Forget it, as long as you let me have the head to complete the mission, I’ll give you all the silver I receive!”

A hint of a smile appeared on Qing Jiu’s face as she asked, “Do you have a personal grudge against him? Are you so eager to get his head that you’d give up the reward?”

Tang Linzhi crossed her arms, pondering for a moment. “I don’t have a grudge against him,” she finally admitted. “I just need to prove myself.”

Her voice hardened with determination. “I have to complete this mission. I need to show everyone back at the sect that I’m not useless!”

“You’re a skilled fighter. Why would you say that?” Qing Jiu questioned.

Tang Linzhi stood up, dusting herself off, and muttered, “I don’t know the way…”

Qing Jiu heard her clearly but didn’t grasp the meaning immediately, prompting a puzzled, “What?”

Tang Linzhi blushed with embarrassment and snapped, “I said I don’t know the way, are you deaf?”

“Ah, so you have no sense of direction…” Qing Jiu realized.

“What if I do? It doesn’t make me any less capable. You think less of me, huh? Let’s fight again, I wasn’t ready before, but this time I won’t lose to you!”

Qing Jiu waved her off, her expression serene. “I’m just curious why someone with such a poor sense of direction would become an assassin,” she said. She sensed from Tang Linzhi’s tone that it was a severe case, perhaps even struggling to distinguish left from right. It was remarkable that she had managed to locate the Zhou residence, let alone infiltrate it.

Tang Linzhi’s expression darkened, “It’s not like I chose to have a bad sense of direction,” she retorted. “And I didn’t choose to become an assassin either. You’re asking me? I want to ask the heavens why!”

Her words struck a chord with Qing Jiu, reminding her of her own family’s tragedy.

“I apologize,” Qing Jiu said sincerely. “This mission is all yours. You can have the head, and I don’t need the money. I just want to see Zhou Xuanyu die by my hand.”

“Really?” With the mission back in focus, Tang Linzhi’s mood lightened. Seeing Qing Jiu nod, she asked, “Do you know where old Zhou’s bedroom is?”

“You don’t know?”

“I do,” Tang Linzhi insisted, pulling a crumpled map from her robes. She knew where it was, but she couldn’t find it. She had been wandering around the estate for an hour already.

With Qing Jiu leading the way, navigating the estate became much easier. They located Zhou Xuanyu’s bedroom in no time.

By then, the lights inside had been extinguished, and it was very dark outside. Two door guards, yawning continuously, stood watch outside.

Qing Jiu signaled to Tang Linzhi, and they split up, silently approaching the unsuspecting guards. In a coordinated move, they knocked them unconscious.

Qing Jiu then instructed Tang Linzhi to guard the window while she picked the lock and slipped inside.

Both of them were young and fearless, the kind who would readily challenge a dragon. They hadn’t considered that Zhou Xuanyu, though not a renowned martial artist, had decades of training under his belt. Their natural talent couldn’t compensate for their lack of experience. They were no match for a seasoned jianghu hero.

Zhou Xuanyu was a cautious man. He woke up the moment he sensed Qing Jiu’s sword approaching, dodging out of the way and coming face to face with Tang Linzhi.

Haunted by the massacre he had orchestrated, Zhou Xuanyu lived in a constant state of anxiety. Even though the Lin family was gone, he still feared retribution. Startled by the assassination attempt, he panicked, losing his composure. Tang Linzhi seized the moment, launching a plum blossom dart at his thigh.

But he was a veteran of the jianghu, after all. His initial shock quickly gave way to composure, and he countered their attacks with calculated precision.

Tang Linzhi, exceptional in her lightness skills for her age, managed to exchange several dozen moves with Zhou Xuanyu. However, her lack of experience showed when Zhou feigned injury, tricking her into advancing recklessly and slicing her arm, putting her at a disadvantage and forcing her to retreat.

Qing Jiu intervened just in time, making it two against one.

Zhou Xuanyu, seeing that his opponents were merely two young girls, let down his guard somewhat.

They were skilled, he acknowledged, but inexperienced. He had just tricked the Tang Sect girl moments ago. He began to underestimate them.

Zhou Xuanyu began to slow his attacks, feigning difficulty and retreat, planning to repeat his previous trick.

As expected, they fell for it, pressing their attack. In a burst of power, Zhou Xuanyu’s internal energy surged. He swept Tang Linzhi’s arm aside with his sleeve, his sword thrusting towards her chest.

“One down!” he thought triumphantly.

But before his blade could connect, Qing Jiu delivered a powerful kick to Tang Linzhi’s backside, sending her sprawling to the ground, narrowly avoiding the fatal blow.

Zhou Xuanyu was momentarily stunned, but he reacted instantly. Without missing a beat, he redirected his attack, his sword flashing towards Qing Jiu with lightning speed.

Thinking this girl was a tougher opponent, he decided to take her out first.

Qing Jiu had just launched a kick, her body still off-balance, when Zhou Xuanyu’s sword reached her. She couldn’t dodge, nor did she intend to.

She shifted slightly, protecting her vital organs as the sword pierced her shoulder, the blade exiting beneath her shoulder blade.

Releasing her sword, she grabbed Zhou Xuanyu’s right arm, her grip like iron. “Tang Linzhi!” she yelled.

Zhou Xuanyu panicked. He tried to pull away, but a flash of cold light blinded him, followed by excruciating pain. Tang Linzhi had severed his right arm at the shoulder.

He clutched his severed limb, screaming in disbelief that he was defeated by two young girls.

His eyes wide with defiance, he shouted, “I Killed you…”

Qing Jiu pulled the sword from her shoulder, her face pale but determined. With a single, swift stroke, she silenced his scream, the blade slicing through his throat.

His eyes, filled with unresolved rage, stared blankly as he collapsed into the dusty floor, his blood spreading around him.

Qing Jiu’s eyes dimmed, devoid of satisfaction. She wondered why, with the man dead, she felt no pleasure.

She stepped forward, plunging her sword repeatedly into the body, her rage growing with each thrust.

Tang Linzhi got up and restrained her, “Stop!” she cried. “Don’t ruin his head! We can’t complete the mission if they can’t identify him.”

A miserable cry arose nearby, and they turned to see a woman collapsed at the doorstep, covering her mouth and weeping.

Qing Jiu recognized her as Zhou Xuanyu’s wife, who had been in the bedroom earlier, and Zhou Xuanyu had instructed her not to come out. Now, hearing that there was no more movement, she came out to take a look.

Seeing her, Qing Jiu suddenly remembered Qin Gui’s words – to kill a person, one must destroy their heart.

Simply killing a man allowed him only the relief of death, not the agony of enduring his own loss.

But to truly make someone suffer, to make them understand the depths of her own despair, she had to destroy their world, strip them of everything, and force them to live with the consequences.

Qing Jiu raised her sword, advancing towards the weeping woman.

Tang Linzhi noticed her murderous intent, abandoned her plan to collect Zhou Xuanyu’s head and rushed after Qing Jiu. She arrived just in time to see Qing Jiu raise her sword to strike.

Tang Linzhi hugged her from behind, holding her back and not letting her go: “Hey! Jianghu rules! We don’t harm innocent wives and children. Zhou Xuanyu is dead! There’s no need for more bloodshed!”

“You don’t understand! He doesn’t deserve a wife and children! He deserves to have his lineage extinguished!”

“I don’t understand, and I don’t care! but I know that misfortune should not involve the wife and children!”

“Let go of me!”

“No!”

“You!”

Tang Linzhi was prepared for Qing Jiu to retaliate violently and possibly stab her too, but unexpectedly, Qing Jiu’s body went limp, and she fainted.

Tang Linzhi felt something wet and sticky in her hands, and looking forward, she saw that Qing Jiu was covered in blood. The wound was bleeding profusely; she had passed out from blood loss.

“Hey, hold on, don’t die on me!”

Tang Linzhi hoisted Qing Jiu onto her back, swiftly decapitated Zhou Xuanyu, and leaped over the courtyard wall.

It was then that the woman remembered to shout for help: “Someone, help! Murder!”

In her rush, Tang Linzhi became even more disoriented, using her lightness skills to leap across rooftops. She managed to escape the estate and fortuitously ran into a night watchman who she coerced into leading her to an inn.

The innkeeper, seeing the two of them covered in blood, hesitated to keep them, but Tang Linzhi, brandishing her knife, forced him to give them a room on the upper floor.

She gently laid Qing Jiu on the bed, removed her blood-soaked outer garments, and assessed the wound. Unsure whether it had pierced any vital organs, she used acupressure to staunch the bleeding, applied her own healing salve, and tore strips from the bedsheets to bandage the wound

Once she finished, she checked Qing Jiu’s pulse. It was weak, her face pale and lifeless.

Panic surged through Tang Linzhi. She slapped Qing Jiu’s cheek, “Wake up, come on, don’t you die on me!”

“Hey!”

“I don’t even know your name yet!”

Qing Jiu coughed twice, barely opening her eyes, and weakly said, “Stop hitting me; you’ll kill me with your slapping if the wound doesn’t.”

Tang Linzhi breathed a sigh of relief, sitting down on the footstool, “It’s good that you’re not dead. In the morning, when the medical hall opens, I’ll go find a healer for you.”

“You know the way?”

“I may have no sense of direction, but I’m not an idiot. Can’t I ask someone for directions?”

“That’s true.”

“Hey, I still don’t know your name, what is it?”

Qing Jiu stared at the milky white bed canopy above her, her vision blurring as she finally closed her eyes and softly responded after a long silence, “Qing Jiu.”

“We’ve been through life and death together now. I owe you for this time, Qing Jiu—I’ll remember you.”

Qing Jiu didn’t reply, and Tang Linzhi fell silent too. The room quieted for a moment before Tang Linzhi spoke again, “Qing Jiu, I heard that in your Ghost Sect, there is someone named Gui Jianchou.”

“I also heard that in your Tang Sect, there is someone named Shadow Marquis.”

Tang Linzhi snorted and said, “Just a rotten old man.”

She turned to Qing Jiu, her eyes bright with excitement. “Let me tell you something…”

The moonlight filtered through the window, waxing and waning, as Tang Linzhi spoke at length, mostly by herself. It was her first time really interacting with someone from another sect, and having shared a brush with death, she felt a surprising kinship with Qing Jiu, which made her unusually talkative.

They talked until late into the night until Qing Jiu, overcome by exhaustion, fell asleep.

The next day, Tang Linzhi went out to fetch a healer. It wasn’t long before Qing Jiu woke up.

She sat up, hearing footsteps outside, a group of three or four people approaching.

Someone said, “Senior Sister Qingchao, have you prepared a gift for Senior Brother’s birthday this time?”

Qing Jiu froze, then, without even putting on shoes, grabbed her sword and went to the door.

Standing at the doorway, she hesitated, wondering if it was just someone with the same name…

Then another voice spoke, “I’ve been so preoccupied with other matters that I completely forgot. I wonder if there’s still time to prepare a gift.”

Qing Jiu threw the door open. A group of Qixian Palace disciples were walking past, heading down the hallway. The woman in the center, dressed in a lake-green robe, her posture elegant and graceful, was unmistakably Lin Qingchao.

Qing Jiu drew her sword, the blade flashing as she executed a move from her family’s sword style, aiming for Qing Chao’s back.