Chapter 236: Wanderers Have Their Own Code of Honor

(T/N: Warning — very dark chapter. Torture, manipulation, and emotional breakdowns ahead. Not easy reading, so please proceed carefully.)

“Oh my. Young Lady. Are you alright?”

“Why, why did you take so long!?”

Murong Juhui shrieked and threw herself into Qing’s arms.

A foul stench hit Qing, hinting at the ordeal Juhui had suffered. Qing winced momentarily, then sighed deeply and gently stroked her back.

“Why, why did you take so long? I, I wanted to die, I wanted to die, but I was scared. It hurt so much, and I hate pain. Why were you so, so late…”

In truth, Qing had only just learned of Murong Juhui’s capture through some simple amusement a moment ago.

But she couldn't exactly say, I didn't even know you were caught, and it seems like nobody up there knows either.

Fortunately, Qing wasn't from the Central Plains. While barbarity wasn't that different between the Central Plains and the modern world, Qing possessed a wide array of miscellaneous, useless knowledge.

Qing held Murong Juhui tightly and whispered in her ear.

“I’m sorry I was late. It must have been so hard, right? But you held on so well until now. Thank you. You did well. That’s truly remarkable. I was very late, wasn’t I? It’s all my fault. Young Lady Murong did nothing wrong. I’m sorry…”

Empathize, agree, and console the client, then offer alternatives. Offer? Or don’t offer?

The psychology class she’d taken after messing up her course registration was so long ago, it was hazy.

“Sob…!”

Murong Juhui finally burst into tears.

Yet, the way she choked back her sobs, unable to cry out loud, was truly pitiful.

Qing held her tightly for a short while, waiting for her to calm down.

“...You. Ximen Qing?”

“Young Lady Murong? Have you calmed down a bit?”

Only then did Qing release her tight grip. Murong Juhui leaned back, looked at Qing’s face, and her expression went blank.

Then, like a Bian Lian performer changing masks, her face instantly filled with vivid hatred.

“You, what are you? Why are you so pretty? Why do you, why do you have everything, everything, and yet you do this to me, how could you do this to me!? Because of you, because of you I, it’s all your fault…!”

Suddenly, Murong Juhui spewed forth streams of resentment. Her voice was distorted by tears, a whining noise that was hard to understand, but listening closely, it seemed there was indeed a story.

After her utter humiliation at the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly, she thought the only way to restore her honor was to crush Qing at the Hidden Dragon Tournament.

After thinking that, she was defeated by a wanderer, becoming a complete laughingstock. She even overheard her own clique gossiping about her on the stairs of the Phoenix Association hall.

She even overheard her own clique gossiping about her on the stairs of the Phoenix Association hall: "Thinks she’s so great, that Sword Flower, looking down on the White Lily[^Jin Seol, one of the Five Flowers of Murim], then loses to some nobody wanderer. Honestly, seeing her makes me feel better about myself—that's why I bother playing handmaiden..."

Eventually, filled with hatred for everyone, Murong Juhui left a letter saying she was returning home first and fled in the middle of the night.

Qing was quite dumbfounded.

How is that my fault? No matter how fearless a young lady from the Five Great Clans (and a decent martial artist) might be in the world, sneaking off alone at night in this dangerous world? The Blood Cult guys watching must have thought, what a stroke of luck, a rice cake just rolled right in.

Besides, if she left a letter saying she was returning home first, would the Murong Clan members even think she was kidnapped?

“Young Lady, please calm down a little. You look like half a person. That bastard should have some food too…”

Their shifts were twelve shichen long, so they brought twelve shichen worth of food with them. That was the secret of the six rice balls.

As Qing said this and started to get up.

Murong Juhui, who had been pouring out her resentment, suddenly crawled on her knees, grabbed Qing’s legs, and clung to her.

“Hut, don’t go! No, don’t abandon me, I’m sorry, I apologize. I didn’t mean it, thank you for coming to save me. Don’t leave me, you can’t leave me. Take me with you.”

“I’m not trying to abandon you, Young Lady. I was just going to deal with that rotten, dog, no. Filthy, um. Disgusting bastard.”

“No! I’m not disgusting! I really held back and endured! I didn’t do any of those disgusting things! So don’t abandon me, if you abandon me—”

Suddenly, the guard jerked awake. “Gurgle, what! What is this! Let go! What the! Fuck! What are you doing!”

“Kyaaaaaah!”

Murong Juhui let out a piercing shriek and slammed her head onto the ground.

“Pig wench! Alright! Today’s the day you die!”

“No! I was wrong, I was wrong, please, ack, aaack! Urk, heok, aaack!”

Murong Juhui flailed like a fish out of water. Her eyes rolled back, saliva and snot streamed down her face, and she was on the verge of suffocating.

Ah, I should have removed that Gu Poison first.

Qing urgently threw herself at the guard.

One hand gripped his neck, pinning him to the floor, while the other hand pierced the skin of his upper abdomen and burrowed inside.

The choked guard gasped and struggled, but it was futile; he couldn't overcome her immense strength.

Qing fumbled through his intestines, focusing on the sensation at her fingertips.

Hot blood wrapped around each knuckle and tickled the back of her hand. The man’s heartbeat throbbed against her skin, thump, thump, thump.

For a moment, goosebumps erupted all over her body, like electricity crackling, no, focus, focus…

Finally, Qing’s hand carefully withdrew.

Confirming the Gu Poison in her hand—a Two-Line Blood Gu with two black stripes—Qing tossed it onto the floor and stomped on it forcefully.

“Haah, ha, hooo, heok, heok…”

From inside the cell came the sound of Murong Juhui gasping for breath. Qing pressed down harder on the neck of the still-squirming guard, knocking him unconscious, then approached Murong Juhui again.

“I was wrong, I was wrong…”

“Young Lady Murong. It’s okay now. It’s alright.”

“I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong.”

Hmm. She’s in really, really bad shape.

Qing looked down with a troubled expression at the back of Murong Juhui’s head as she kept her head bowed, rubbing her hands together frantically, repeating only that she was wrong.

Pain makes people sick.

After being beaten by that Alleged Supreme bastard back then, Qing had completely lost her mind too.

But now, thinking back on it didn't particularly annoy or anger Qing anymore.

Qing knew why.

“Young Lady Murong. Could you come over here for a moment?”

“I was wrong, please, no more pain.”

“Now, now. Young Lady Murong will find this fun too.”

Qing picked up Murong Juhui and carried her out of the cell. The moment they crossed the threshold, Murong Juhui shrieked “No!” and started thrashing wildly.

It was a bit awkward, but when Qing stood still and held her tightly, she seemed to regain some composure.

“Is it, is it okay for me to go out? Livestock aren't allowed out. I, I, I am.”

“Young Lady Murong. It’s me, Ximen Qing.”

“But, I don’t like pain. I.”

“It’s alright. Now. See that bastard over there? He can’t hurt Young Lady Murong anymore. And, so, isn’t it Young Lady Murong’s turn for revenge?”

“Revenge.”

A venomous glint appeared in Murong Juhui’s eyes.

Thanks to that, her focus returned sharply.

“That dog-like bastard! Fucking bastard!”

Murong Juhui pushed Qing away and lunged, strangling the guard.

Qing, startled, stopped Murong Juhui.

“Young Lady Murong? You shouldn’t do that.”

“Why! Because of this bastard! Let go! I’ll kill him!”

Qing grabbed both of Murong Juhui’s wrists and pulled them apart. Juhui tried to resist, putting some strength into it, but compared to Qing, her strength was less than a child’s. How could she resist?

“Why! I have to kill this bastard. If you’re going to talk about forgiveness, tell me to get lost! I—”

“Young Lady Murong. Strangling him to death is too much of a waste. He won’t live long anyway since the poison leaked when I removed the Gu. We should torment him as much as possible.”

“Huh?”

“Now, now. Shall we wake him up first? Watch carefully what I do.”

Qing flipped the guard over, untied the clothes binding his hands, and then firmly gripped both his shoulders—

Crack.

It wasn’t a loud noise, but against the backdrop of a man’s shoulder crumpling like paper, it sounded as loud as thunder.

“Kuaaaargh!”

The intense pain snapped the guard awake, and he screamed again, his throat raw. Despite his shattered and limp shoulder, the way he twitched, trying to exert strength, seemed like quite an effort.

Qing skillfully wrapped a piece of cloth around his mouth, gagging him.

“I enjoy hearing screams, but it’s too noisy, so I’ll block it for now. Hmm. Young Lady Murong. Shall we start by pulling out his fingernails? The standard method is to insert thorns underneath first, but well, there’s plenty to enjoy.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Now, now. Don’t pull back.”

Qing moved behind Murong Juhui, embraced her, held her hand firmly, and gave her a hands-on experience with kind instructions.

“Grab here like this, upwards, now, apply force. Force this way, slowly. The angle, a little more. There. See it lifting? Ta-da. Cleanly done.”

The guard’s body convulsed violently.

Murong Juhui, who had flinched at the horrible sensation transmitted through her own hand, stared mesmerized at the guard writhing in agony.

“See. It’s nothing special, right? That’s all this guy is. Someone who knows how to handle Gu Poison a little, but once the Gu is gone, he’s just an insect.”

“Yeah…”

“Is there any need to be afraid of something like this?”

Murong Juhui shook her head.

“Then, let’s enjoy it slowly. We can start by breaking the extremities, fingertips, toes. Here, where the nail came out, like this, now, the finger. Squeeze. Squeeeeze. See him twitching?”

Actually, Qing was getting a little excited.

Humans inherently desire to share things they enjoy.

“It’s a bit noisy, but I recommend removing the gag. You get to hear the screams, and as you go on, he’ll say all sorts of things, begging for his life. How about it, want to try it with the gag off?”

In Central Plains terms, it was the whisper of a demon itself; in Western terms, the devil incarnate.

Murong Juhui nodded, entranced.

Qing was now something of a semi-semi-expert on Gu Poison.

The senior member of the Two-Line Blood Gu Unit had imparted knowledge equivalent to that of a semi-expert.

Although the lecture was desperate (his life literally depended on it), it was inherently disorganized, so Qing’s understanding reached only the level of a semi-semi-expert.

In truth, Qing could remember things well if she properly listened and tried to memorize them.

This was because Qing’s aptitude stat also far surpassed human levels.

However, as is often the case with brain function, even with excellent specs, if the user is careless, they rarely pay close attention and input information properly in the first place.

To put it in modern terms, it was like spending a fortune on a latest-spec computer only to play Minesweeper.

In any case, according to the ecology of Gu Poison that Qing had listened to with rare fascination, they were exceedingly troublesome creatures.

Gu Poison is fundamentally not lethal.

This is because parasites, with few exceptions, do not try to kill their hosts.

However, Gu Poison simply releases toxins when threatened.

The intensity of pain varies by species, but fundamentally, it induces pain so severe that a person loses their mind and writhes on the ground—a truly critical level of agony.

The lethality of Gu Poison comes not from the toxin itself, but from a special organ called the Poison Core.

It’s a potent venom used as a last resort just before the Gu dies, or it leaks out from the Gu’s corpse after death.

According to the guard, this much was similar to the ecology of ordinary poisonous creatures. They just lived inside an animal's body, but it was the basic nature of venomous things.

The peculiar aspect of Gu Poison lay in its hierarchy and synchronization.

Gu Poison is a unique creature that establishes a hierarchy based on the potency of its Poison Core venom. Stimulating a higher-ranking Gu transmits that stimulus to all lower-ranking Gu within a certain range.

In other words, the way the guards inflicted pain with Gu Poison was by gently stimulating the Gu inside their own bodies with internal energy, threatening it.

This is why Gu practitioners are vegetarian.

They also avoid stimulating spices, fundamentally consuming no food that allows the Gu to produce toxins.

After raising a Gu like this for about two years while maintaining a vegan diet, the toxicity in the body disappears, and the Gu can no longer produce toxins.

Then, there are no toxins left to spew.

It only transmits the stimulus everywhere.

This was the principle by which the Two-Line Blood Gu Unit handled Gu Poison.

Qing thought, if you have to be a lifelong vegan and can’t even eat spices for something like that, wouldn’t it be better to just die?

Power comes with a price, but wasn’t that a bit too much?