Poison Valley

"Yue, senior brother is still out there. We don't know if he's taking shelter in the poison valley. He's the only one who knows the antidote to almost all the poisons you know, so you should be careful and watch out for him."

Su Yue nodded. 

The two continued to talk… No, one continued to talk while the other either nodded or shook her head until the morning sun went down. 

When Su Yue returned sometime later, the new weapons were ready. 

She followed the storekeeper to see the weapons in the storeroom after instructing a disciple to go call over a selected few disciples.  

Inside the store room…

Inside the massive store room which was a building on its own laid different sizes of chests, boxes, safes, and bags. 

The storage materials were all neatly arranged with the smaller ones on top of the bigger ones.

The materials were arranged in categories according to what was inside them.

Some of those boxes held the rewards they got from missions, and some were taken from power-hungry ministers and royals that wanted to steal from the Kingdom… just like they did with the gold. While others were snatched from the son of heaven.

Su Yue is like a thief who steals from thieves. Although the crime is the same, still, Su Yue would say that she is a righteous thief…an upholder of justice.

She stopped in front of a row with the biggest boxes. A paper was nailed to one of the boxes that read, 'Fabrics.'

"Five boxes from those were brought in from southern Du, seven days ago." The accountant immediately stepped forward to explain. 

Su Yue only comes to the store room to check on things once in a while. She should have been here a day after they all reported on their mission, but because she was getting ready to go to war with Poison Pavilion, she couldn't find the time to come check.

After the boxes of clothes were opened. Su Yue felt the textures of the fabric with her fingers but didn't feel satisfaction as she immediately let go of the fabric.

The fabrics were mostly black silky materials which she loved back then, but after that incident, she stopped liking things that would trigger her illusion.

She walked around the boxes for fabric and finally found the materials she was looking for...black cotton.

"Those were brought in from Northern Wei a few days ago," The account explained. 

She went to the weapon section and the boxes were opened for her. 

Competently made steel swords, daggers, arrows, bows, and all the weapons for fighting lay in the boxes opened in front of her.

"These are the new weapons that were delivered by the Tie Jiàng disciples some time ago." The accountant would report the moment any box was opened. 

Su Yue picked a sword and raised it. She looked at the dragon logo imprinted on the sword for a second before she brandished the sword for testing. Feeling satisfied with the lightness and the sound effect it produced, she put the sword back and took a whip. 

The whip has a dragon imprint too. It was long and slender, however...deadly. 

She removed the bind holding the coiled whip in place and the coiled whip fell to become straight. 

She cracked the whip nonchalantly which sent a shiver down her men's spine. 

The top disciples that had all returned to the guild in preparation for the war were called upon by a fellow disciple a while back to head to the store room. They had entered when Su Yue was checking out the things in the store. 

The disciples flinched when she cracked the whip again. They would never forget the memory of her whipping an enemy until bones could be seen on his back. 

That day was hellish for them as they couldn't leave, not that they aren't wicked themselves though. 

Su Yue looked back at her disciples. Ah Yue Cheng wasn't back yet. Seeing the twenty or so Yue disciples standing erect in front of her with their heads bowed made her give a small nod. 

She gestured to the accountant to distribute the weapons to them before she walked out of the room. Her own weapons were sent to her directly, so she wasn't here to pick a weapon for herself but to examine them. 

While Su Yue and her people were getting ready to attack the poison valley, the elders of the poison valley were in a meeting. 

…

At the poison valley…

All the elders of the sect were seen in the big ceremony hall, waiting for the pavilion master to come in. 

Soon, an ugly-looking old man wearing a brown robe with a long black beard walked into the hall and sat in the leader's seat. 

"Greetings, pavilion master!" all the elders greeted and the pavilion master waved his hand.

"A declaration of war letter was sent to us fourteen days ago and the war will start by tomorrow. In our last meeting, we discussed the tactics we could defeat the sword of death Assassins with.

Now in this gathering, I want to hear all of your opinions and theories on why the sword of death Assassins choose to make trouble for us." The pavilion master said and gazed at the elders who were sitting in front of him. 

He had thought hard and long as to why the deadly Assassin group would declare war with them, but couldn't come to a conclusion.

"Pavilion master, I think that the sword of death guild is seeking trouble with us for no reason. We have never offended them, so why would they target us if not out of whim?" An elder asked.

"At first I thought so too, but on second thought, the sword of death Assassins never attack any organization or kingdom without a reason." The pavilion master frowned. The more he thought of the reason behind their declaration of war, the more confused and uncertain he became.