Chapter 23: Taking Out

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Why is it that, despite the campaigns launched by court after court throughout the ages, the inheritance of witchcraft and gu poison arts has never truly been severed?

There are two reasons.

First, wherever there is demand, there will be a market.

How could such a convenient tool for political intrigue and murder simply be allowed to vanish?

Someone would preserve a few seeds of the tradition. Once the campaigns weakened, its inheritance would naturally continue.

Second, there were the Miao people.

The arts of witchcraft and gu poison were not something every Miao could practice. Only the direct descendants of the twelve principal Miao lineages were qualified to inherit them. In theory, then, to eradicate those arts, one needed only to eliminate the direct descendants of those twelve lineages.

Yet the moment the imperial forces arrived, they would find themselves facing the resistance of every Miao.

The Miao borderlands were a place of towering mountains and deep waters, with poisonous insects and miasma lurking throughout the forests. The Miao were accustomed to such conditions, but the imperial army could not advance through them.

After sweeping the outer regions and conquering a few villages, the campaign would inevitably grind to a halt. Once the Miao vanished into the forests, no one could do anything about it.

For these two reasons, Li Miao’s plan was to “find an excuse that would not make the Miao unite against him, and find a group of people whom the Miao would not unite to defend.”

As luck would have it, the great southern martial sects being manipulated by the Miao were perfect for the task.

For now, however, he needed to add one more spark to the fire.

“Master Lao, don’t just stand there. Go fight for your share as well,” Li Miao said.

“Just make sure as few people die as possible. For the rest, act according to my signals. Once this matter is settled, your Beggars’ Sect will receive ample rewards.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Lao Qifeng slipped into his role with astonishing ease.

To be fair, the younger martial artists of the jianghu—people like Mei Qinghe and that young disciple from Mount Hua—would all stiffen their necks the moment they saw Li Miao, putting on an air of preferring death to submission.

The old hands of the jianghu, such as Liu Baiyun and Lao Qifeng, along with the masters of Mount Heng, Mount Hengshan, and Mount Song, were far more sensible.

They agreed at once and immediately began to act.

Lao Qifeng darted forward and struck the master of the Kongtong Sect with a move called “The Dragon Regrets.”

“Master Lao, you—!”

“Before a divine technique, each man must rely on his own ability!” Lao Qifeng declared, summing things up in a single sentence.

Then, with “The Divine Dragon Sweeps Its Tail,” he slashed horizontally behind him and drew the Emei elder into the fray as well. Fighting two opponents at once, he showed not the slightest sign of falling behind.

Just as the battle was reaching its peak, the master of Qingcheng seized an opening and secretly gave one of his disciples a signal.

The disciple understood. He stealthily drew a small packet from his sleeve and opened it. A wisp of powder drifted into the air—colorless, odorless, and unnoticed by anyone.

The master of Qingcheng glanced around. Seeing that no one had discovered anything, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he looked toward the only two people who had not joined the battle: Li Miao and Yin Minjun.

His pupils contracted sharply.

Li Miao was leaning against the stone wall, watching him with a faint, knowing smile.

Their eyes met. Li Miao even extended a hand and made an inviting gesture.

“What do you mean?” the master of Qingcheng asked, bewildered.

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Apart from Li Miao and Yongjie, there was no other candidate for the person who had left the sword wound on the disciple who had tried to step onto the platform.

Yet he could not understand.

If that person had been bought off by the Miao, he should not have tried to stop the disciple from stepping onto the platform.

And if he had acted out of malice, why conceal the matter and shift suspicion onto someone else?

His thoughts raced, but the master of Qingcheng abandoned the question.

In any case, victory was already assured.

At that moment, rustling sounds came from all around the cavern.

In the midst of the fierce battle, many of the people present failed to notice them.

The master of Qingcheng, however, brightened at once and withdrew from the fray with his disciple.

His retreat left a vast opening. Yongjie roared, punched two Emei disciples into the air, and burst free of the encirclement.

Seeing his disciples injured and lying motionless after landing, the Emei elder was both shocked and furious. He was about to rush forward and continue fighting Yongjie when—

“Stop!”

Lao Qifeng’s shout rang out.

“Listen!”

Everyone focused their attention. In an instant, their faces turned pale.

Lao Qifeng turned toward the master of Qingcheng.

“Why did you stop fighting ahead of time?”

No one else had withdrawn. The master of Qingcheng alone had led his disciple out of the fray, making his actions particularly conspicuous.

But the master of Qingcheng merely laughed.

“It is a long story. I fear none of you will live long enough to hear the end of it.”

He had abandoned all pretense.

The rustling grew louder and louder, drawing ever closer. It had already reached the mouth of the cavern.

Then countless gu insects crawled out, blanketing the ground as they surged toward the assembled martial artists like a rising tide.

“Heh. From this day onward, apart from Shaolin, my Qingcheng Sect shall reign supreme over the southern martial world!”

The master of Qingcheng let out a cold laugh. He circulated his inner force and activated the gu insects the Miao had given him, supposedly capable of dispersing the swarm.

A sickly sweetness rose into his throat.

“Ptooey!”

He suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the front of his robe.

“This—this—this…”

His face filled with terror.

“Master!”

A scream rang out beside him. He turned his head and immediately went pale.

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One of his trusted disciples stood there with blood filling his mouth, while gu insects had already gathered around his feet in a mound.

The insects abruptly drove their mouthparts into the disciple’s skin and burrowed into his flesh.

The master of Qingcheng watched helplessly as several swellings appeared beneath the disciple’s skin, traveling upward along his limbs until feelers emerged from his features.

The disciple did not even have time to scream a second time before he crashed to the ground and was swallowed by the swarm.

“It’s over. I’m the sacrificial pawn…”

That was the last thought to cross the master of Qingcheng’s mind before the gu insects, surging forward like a tidal wave, knocked him down. After a few feeble struggles, he fell silent.

Boom!

Bang!

The experts who had been fighting to the death only moments earlier now gathered together with perfect understanding, constantly unleashing their inner force to drive back the advancing gu insects.

But they were no Sumeru. Their inner force was limited, and the chaotic battle just now had consumed much of it. At most, they could hold out for the time it took an incense stick to burn. After that, they would likely be unable to continue.

Just then, a cry of alarm rose from within the crowd.

“Hero Li!”

Everyone turned toward the sound.

In a corner of the cavern, Yin Minjun’s face had also gone pale. Forgetting all propriety between men and women, she pressed herself tightly against Li Miao’s side.

Li Miao remained as composed as ever, standing with his arms folded as he watched them. Yet when the gu insects reached within three feet of his feet, they scattered of their own accord, like waves parting around a reef.

Since he had come to the Miao borderlands, Li Miao naturally would not have arrived without something to protect himself.

Before setting out, Little Four had given him a queen gu.

The queen gu had been cultivated from a human gu. As long as Li Miao kept it close to his chest, he could activate it and make the insects dare not approach.

The gu insects the Miao had promised to give the Qingcheng Sect existed only in Li Miao’s possession.

Of course, if he wished, Li Miao could have achieved the same effect with his inner force. He simply had no desire to reveal his martial prowess yet.

This performance still had to continue a while longer.

It had to continue until the great sects willingly followed him into the Miao borderlands.

With that thought, Li Miao called out in a clear voice:

“Everyone, do not panic. I brought something capable of dispersing gu insects.”

“Wait a moment. I will take you all out of here.”

End of chapter.