Only Sensing a Presence After Hearing a Song
Although the hunting family was a famous family, they weren’t actually a single family but a big group of hunters. Furthermore, rather than earning a living as hunters, they actually operated a hunting facility. The facility was incredibly profitable in the capital, where the imperial family, nobles and the wealthy gathered.
The imperial family naturally selected their own forest as their hunting ground, but aside from Li Clan’s last Emperor, none of them were fans of extravagance, and Emperor Yuansheng took it to a new extreme. The erstwhile Emperor expanded their hunting grounds to segregate into smaller grounds to sell, resulting in the size of their hunting grounds shrinking. They only used their hunting grounds a few times annually, but it cost them an exorbitant amount to maintain the enormous grounds, yet nobody was even allowed to lay their eyes on it, so it was a waste of money. For the reason that he disliked wasting resources in that manner, Emperor Yuansheng hosted six hunting events each year and waited until it was time to hunt to have the grounds prepared. While they used the same grounds as before, the grounds were sold, so they just rented it instead.
Since the imperial family no longer owned the hunting grounds, the grounds eventually ended up in the hands of the people. Skilled hunters from various places around the world and tamers formed a union of sorts to purchase the hunting grounds, and they successfully built it into a highly profitable business over the last two decades. As the majority of them were originally folks of the pugilistic world, accepting others from the pugilistic world into their clan was part of their job. Panshan Valley was one such hunting facility.
Strictly speaking, Panshan Valley wasn’t classified as an orthodox sect, so it wasn’t a place orthodox sects would’ve chosen a sojourning spot. Thus, seeing Bai Yumo there unnerved Ling Jialan. As a swordswoman, training her recognition abilities was necessary, so she could’ve identified Bai Yumo even if she only saw Bai Yumo’s skeleton. Howbeit, Ling Jialan sensed an atypical vibe from Bai Yumo; besides having a familiar appearance, it wouldn’t have been far fetched to say that Bai Yumo’s interior had been swapped out. Nobody could’ve changed so much no matter what they experienced. It was Ling Jialan’s first time questioning her own judgement.
“Who is she? She’s pretty?” mumbled Bu, watching Bai Yumo.
“How do you know each other?” Li Zizi flapped his eyelids. “How did you know she’s a girl without seeing her face?”
Ling Jialan’s father praised her for having an aptitude for swordplay that rivalled her brother’s. Her honed senses from swordplay training were part of the reason she recognised Bai Yumo, but it was her friendship with Bai Yumo that was the primary reason she recognised Bai Yumo. On the other hand, Bu wasn’t supposed to have known Bai Yumo, yet he managed to identify her as a girl.
Bu answered his friend’s query with just a smile. Ling Jialan was going to inquire further until the sound of a fight interrupted her. Regardless of the reason for Bai Yumo’s transformation, she was still Ling Jialan’s friend. Therefore, Ling Jialan dove down into the valley.
Li Zizi and Bu followed after Ling Jialan, but they were careful. After all, they could’ve walked into traps without realising it when they were in the turf of hunters. Plus, if Ling Jialan was caught, then they needed to be available to rescue her, right? However, before they could enter, someone zipped out so fast that Li Zizi only saw a silhouette. Still, they hurried in as the fight inside was still ongoing.
The young man fighting Ling Jialan wasn’t disadvantaged despite fighting her bare handed. Similarly to Bu’s style, except more power-focused than technique-focused, he used a diverse range of techniques. “Move!” he shouted as he uncorked a blazing palm strike.
Ling Jialan thrust at the scorching hand aimed towards her.
“… Flying Thrust?“
“Stop! Stop! You’re on the same side!” Li Zizi yelled from behind.
Bu raised an eyebrow as he muttered, “Why is everyone related to this guy? Is the girl who just ran out someone he knows, too?”
Li Zizi bolted into the middle of the fight. “Brother Tang, Miss Lan, stop, stop. We are all on the same side!”
Tang Ye looked to Li Zizi, thought to himself, then looked back at Ling Jialan before identifying her. “You are Miss Ling?”
Aside from Tang Ye’s martial prowess being exceptionally surprising, Ling Jialan was surprised that Li Zizi knew him, as well. Recognising her was nothing new as she was famous already.
“You are…”
Tang Ye held his hands up in a palm-fist salute. “Liu Shan Men’s Tang Ye.”
“So you are the renowned Heaven Shocker.”
Ling Jialan had already heard of Tang Ye’s exploits before entering the capital, but she didn’t expect him to be so young. As Tang Ye was acquainted with Li Zizi and Ming Feizhen, it was logical for her to figuratively shake hands with him. Additionally, he was qualified to give her a challenge. Once she added his name to the list of people she wanted to have a duel with, she asked, “May I ask why you attacked Sister Yumo? No matter how she offended you, you should not have attacked so violently. She has had a weak constitution from childhood. How could you attack a girl so viciously?”
“Miss Ling, have you not heard about what happened a few months ago?”
“What happened? I have been busy with a competitor recently, so I have not had time to visit my friend. Did something happen to Yumo?”
Tang Ye filled Ling Jialan in on the events and current situation. “… She is not Bai Yumo but Six Blades’ Bronze Mask, a cold-blooded killer. I lost her in the ring. I must arrest her.”
Ling Jialan wasn’t totally unaware of Bai Yumo’s condition, but she had never seen it, and she never would’ve imagined her friend was part of Six Blades. “Where… has she gone?”
“Nobody knows unless she is brought in.”
Bu, who had been eyeing Tang Ye for a while, asked, “You’re a Tang, too?”
“Too?”
“Just asking.” Bu played with his chin whilst keeping his gaze on Tang Ye as though he found something interesting, sporadically grinning to himself.
Spotting his friend’s prankster grin, Li Zizi pulled Bu aside to warn him against trying anything funny.
Once she recollected herself, Ling Jialan explained to Tang Ye the events that brought her to Panshan Valley and why she jumped him. “… We were unaware you were here. We would have saw you if you were chasing Bronze Mask.”
“You have no fault. I have staked out here for a day. I did not pursue her; I was waiting for her.”
“A day? You knew Bronze Mask would come here?” Ling Jialan used “Bronze Mask” as the name because she didn’t want to consider Bai Yumo and Bronze Mask as one and the same person.
“Indeed. I picked up a lead and deduced she would come somewhere here, which was why I staked out here. Regrettably…”
“I apologise.”
“Pay it no mind. What brings you three here?”
Li Zizi didn’t want to reveal what his brother had been up to, so he answered, “We discovered someone is trying to harm Shifu, and this is one of their bases, so we have been scoping out base by base.”
“Harm Big Bro?”
The three of them thought they heard Tang Ye chuckle mockingly.
“The three of you have terrible luck,” continued Tang Ye.
“What do you mean?”
Tang Ye took a few steps further in and then pointed outside. “See?”
The three of them followed Tang Ye further in to see that they were virtually at a ghost town in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Not only were the walls torn apart, but there were plenty of bloodstains on the ground.
“Is this… someone’s work?” Ling Jialan questioned with a stupefied look.
“This is not the only place in this shape,” stated Tang Ye. “In the list I received, Bronze Mask’s seven goal destinations are all in this shape. I’ve been late every time.”
“The gang we are looking into also has seven bases!” informed Li Zizi.
“That’s odd. I’ve been on this case for days, yet I haven’t seen any signs of assassins. Are you sure there are people among them trying to harm Big Bro?”
“Yes. What happened to the people here after?”
Tang Ye shrugged. “Since they were rendered homeless and had no one to turn to, they reported their woes to Liu Shan Men.”
The sight of criminals sulking to Liu Shan Men might’ve been comical, but Ling Jialan couldn’t find it in her to laugh. She recognised the immense beast-like power that must’ve ravaged the base. She did see and experience it not too long ago at Nine Heavens, after all.
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