Page 93: Slashing the past

After not more than ten minutes of tailing the blood gang member, they found him entering an old and small hut. At first, everyone was skeptic of what just happened. They were all expecting something like a large building where a lot of people can come and go but just now, they just can't believe what's happening.

" There might be something more than meets the eye. Let's follow."

Long Bai was leading the rest into the small hut that have a dimension of at most 5m x 5m. Ah Mu tried to take a peek in one of the gaps but what he saw inside was nothing but furnitures and empty air. It was a puzzling situation.

"Everyone, I see no one inside.",

"How's that possible? Let me have a look."

After Yue tried to verify that there's really no one inside, this gave Long Bai an idea that this small building must be a front. Since he had some experiences of underground lairs, he thinks it's the only plausible explanation for it.

After checking that there are no special traps at the entrance, Long Bai entered first making things safe from any entrapment by any arrays. Inside, they saw that things were arranged properly except that the objects were old and dusty which says that it was not tended for a long time. While the rest were looking around, Long Bai focused in the floor. If one would be observant, there's a noticeable part of the floor which had suffered from abrasion due to years of being walked on by many people. This setting could be noticed in a middle of a pathway wherein the middle would be lighter in color while the sides would have a darker shade, sometimes they'll be covered with moss.

"Guys, in here."

Long Bai followed the path sign and discovered the end point. He was now standing in front of a 1m x 1m simple wooden table.

"Brother Bai, what do you mean? There's nothing in here."

"Look at this." Long Bai was pointing at the table. "What do you notice?"

The three were looking at the table and first to notice something was Ling Tian. Like a curious detective, he approached the table and verify the amount of dust on the surface. This gave Ling Tian the idea of what Long Bai was pointing out.

"I see what you mean, brother Bai."

"Hm? Can you explain?" Ah Mu and Yue shared the same question.

"Brother Bai noticed that the whole area was covered with dust except that some area have exceptionally less of it. This just tell us that the people who enter and exit this place only bother to walk from the door to this area causing the place to have minimal dust. On this table's surface, it has the same case but only because it is not being walked on but its being moved. If you look at the bottom part of this table's leg, there's a sign of wearing since one would need to pull this up to open the secret door."

Ling Tian was pointing at one of the table's leg where the color is lighter than the rest. It must be the part that was always being held whenever a member enters the secret passage.

Ah Mu and Yue were letting out sounds of realizations (ohh-ahhs) after hearing the explanation from Ling Tian. After deliberation of what to do once they will be inside, Long Bai lifted the table and there, the underground entrance showed up. The stairs were dark but at the bottom, the floor could be seen. The place could have been implanted with moon stones to illuminate the area.

As the four descended, the smell of mold and uncirculated wafted on their faces prompting them to cover their noses for a moment. As they reached the ground level, they were greeted by a wide underground pass which had three junctions where the 3rd far end room was the widest. As the four passed by the first junction, blood members came out from that room and blocked their way back to the surface.

"Hahaha, you thought you can just barge in here and escape freely? I did not expect that you would enter our base recklessly. I don't know who you are bit to have balls to come here, I commend you. Since you are here, why not be obedient and meet the boss?"

The four were silently following the instructions from the guy and entered the widest underground room. There, a man with a long white hair, pale skin, dead black nails, and face rigged with broken skin met them. The leader of the blood gang was something that the four did not expect. Since it was a "gang", they were expecting someone like a well built man who looked strong on the outside since he needed to lead a bunch of goons.

Without wasting any moment, Long Bai scanned the leader of the gang with the system. Since they decided that Ling Tian would be dealing with the leader, he must first make sure that the opponent is within his range of capabilities.

[Ma Ru

Age: 49

Cultivation: Body tempering- bone tempering layer (2nd level)

Core grade: Average

State: Poisoned (slighly weakened). ]

If its cuktivation wise, the opponent have four levels of advantage over Ling Tian who's still at the 8th level of visceral tempering. However, there's this status "poisoned" which caused the opponent to be weakened. On the other hand, Ling Tian's advantage could be his speed. Looking at the opponent's physique, he doesn't look like he's dextrous and agile.

The only problem that Ling Tian is facing would be the opponent's fighting style. This is the first time for each party to meet that's why Ling Tian must keep his cool and face the enemy with clear mind.

"So you're were the brats who messed with my men? You don't look like someone from those big families. Hm, I don't want to waste my time. Any last words before you die?" The leader of the gang jeered at them.

A second later, Ling Tian took out a token from his pouch and threw it hard towards the leader. It was a token with his family name on it.

"Hm? What is this? Ling household?" The leader caught the metal token and saw the insignia of the Ling household. He looked back at the youth and gave him a questioning look.

"I would like to ask. Were you related to the assassination of anyone from the former existing Ling household? Ling Shan, does that sounds familiar to you?" Ling Tian was expectant that the leader would answer back. While holding the anger that may break out any moment if confirmed, he tried to be calm as possible on the outside.

"Ling household? Ling Shan? Ah, that's from a long time ago." When he stared at Ling Tian for a few second, he remembered the past and the resemblance of the kid's face with someone whom he killed from the past.

"Hahaha! What is this? Are you from that broken household? Are you trying to get revenge?

Indeed, I was the one who killed that man, however, do you know who asked me to to that? You're very own family!"

Ling Tian was already shaking in anger. Now that he was able to verify that the person in front of him was his father's killer, he let out every ounce of his anger. Ling Tian yelled with a full blast

"Still, you killed someone dear to me. I WILL KILL YOU!"

Ling Tian's reasoning was based on the fact that the person in front of him was the one who killed his father. Whatever the reason, him doing the deed makes him ultimately guilty even if he was just used by someone. This reason enough is what drove Ling Tian to have such deep resolve to deal with him.

Just before Ling Tian was able to move, a small poisonous needle was flying towards Ling Tian. Due to his anger, he was slightly distracted by his emotions causing him to have a moment of lapse in his focus towards the enemy.

Clang!

A sound of metal needle hit something hard. In front of Ling Tian's face, Long Bai's sword was still ringing lightly after blocking the needle.

"Thank you brother Long Bai, I was too emotional. I'll handle it from here."

Seeing that Ling Tian came back to his senses, Long Bai and the rest felt relieved. Ma Ru, the leader saw that his hidden weapon was not successful ordered everyone to commence the attack.

"Don't worry about us. We will deal with all of them while you focus on your only enemy. Everyone, give your best." Long Bai's signal was heard and the fight started.

While the three were preoccupied with all the gang members around, Ling Tian was busy dodging all the attacks of the gang leader. Since all the needles were poisoned, Ling Tian can't afford to receive even a scratch.

"What's wrong brat? Where's the anger you were all oozing out a while ago? Are you just going to dodge all of them? Hahaha! Fine, let me just enjoy throwing all these at you until you're tired."

In all honesty, Ling Tian was concerned about the poison but if he would consider what the old man said, he won't be able to do anything if he kept on dodging without giving something in return. Ling Tian steeled his resolve and initiated an attack. With the element of ferociousness, it could be said that he's putting his self into danger since this battle style leaves his defences open as a sacrifice for a higher attack output. To compensate such weakness, he was using his incredible speed to be at the right place at the right time in order to dodge the needles and at the same time position himself better to make a successful attack.

Ma Ru on the other hand, he noticed that his attempts were getting futile. Since it became like this, he took out 8 needles at once and equiped it on each of the spaces on his finger and threw them simultaneously at Ling Tian. His attack became a barrage of poisoned needles towards his opponent.

Trying to put the fight in a closed ranged, Ling Tian used his sword to deflect the needles. Pushing his swing speed to the limit, each of the needles were deflected one by one and after seeing that the he was just able to deflect the last needle, he used that pause his opponent made to grab more needles as a chance to get close. With a swift dash, Ling Tian managed to execute an attack.

!

With his great momentum, stooping in font of the opponent created a strong wind pressure which aided hos attack. After the opponent has taken a hit on his left shoulder, he was flung by the wind pressure and crashed on a nearby broken table. It wasn't planned but the opponent was practically impaled into the broken foot of the table causing his abdominal cavity to be punctured. Some of his organs were trying to recover but it was futile since there's something stuck in his body. Although the gang leader was in such state, he was still alive. His vitality was still present but because of the injury, he wasn't able to muster strength to pull himself out.

Ling Tian carefully approached the gang leader and pointed the tip of the sword on the face.

"Any last words? Ah, wait, why should someone like you be given such previlege? You're..."

Before he could finish his words, the gang leader released a poison needle from his mouth aimed at Ling Tian's face. Because it was too sudden, Ling Tian wasn't able to move quickly causing his right cheek to be grazed.

"ke ke ke. You failed to dodge that one little boy! My blood has quite the toxin enough to make your body go numb 8n a few minutes. Even if you killed me, you will still suffer.

Gack! (coughed up blood)

Do you know why? Because I can't even find an antidote for my own poisoned state that it. Ke ke ke. You are.."

Swish!

A head came rolling on the ground while squirting blood on the floor. The body on the other hand resembled a small blood fountain following a ryrthm of strong and weak gushes until it faded. The entire room became silent afterwards since the others were also done with their work. A moment later, Ling Tian fell on his knees trembling. He was already feeling the effect of the poison spreading on the different parts of his body causing some parts to be difficult to control.

[Ling Tian

Age: 10

Cultivation: Body tempering- visceral layer (8th level)

Core: High

State: poisoned ]

Ling Tian lost control of his body and fell on the floor. He wanted to speak but his tounge won't move. Before he could lose consciousness, the last thing he heard was Long Bai saying the words "you'll be alright".