by A Sick Frog
She quickly dropped into a half-kneel, “Master.”
Her head was lowered. She only heard his voice a moment later. “Raise your head.”
She looked up obediently, her calm gaze meeting Du Bu’s. This was the man that dictated their life and death! The imposing aura that wafted off of him enveloped An Ye. An Ye circulated her qi with difficulty so as to defend herself from collapsing from the heavy pressure.
Du Bu bent down, raising her chin with a finger to have her raise her head a little higher. He turned her head left and right before saying: “Enh, not too bad. Serve me at my chambers tonight.” Afterwhich, he disregarded An Ye who was still kneeling and left, flanked by maidservants.
An Ye was too floored she didn’t dare believe her ears. She asked the maidservant beside her woodenly: “What… what did master mean just now?”
The maidservant burst out laughing before teasing her coquettishly: “Maiden you must be too ecstatic, your performance is tonight! If you don’t satisfy master well, you may lose your life!”
An Ye stood. She shook uncontrollably. This wasn’t real! Why would master suddenly do this?! She suddenly recalled the multiple gazes of disdain by those whom she’d never seen eye to eye with along the way when the custodian was sending her in. It definitely must be the blasted works of theirs!
It was already very hard for her to maintain her status quo, yet they still want to drag her down into another hell! She won’t forgive them! Even if she became a ghost, she’d drag them down to hell and make their lives a living hell!
What she needed to do at the moment was to escape such a predicament. She produced a hair clasp and a few pearls before stuffing them into the maid servant’s hand. “Mei mei, can you help me send the hair clasp over to You Ming?”
The maidservant was reluctant. “But I need to bring you to freshen up before sending you over to master’s place. If I’m found out slacking, I’d be beaten to death alive.”
“I can bathe on my own, and the master said to go over tonight, no? That’s still a long time away. It won’t take long for you to help me send my things over to You Ming.” An Ye slipped a gold leaf into the maidservant’s hand. The maidservant’s eyes lit up before nodding her head: “Alright then. When you reach the Cloud Pavilion, simply shout for anyone and tell them you are serving the master tonight, there will definitely be someone who can take things from there. Do you have any words you’d like me to bring to You Ming?”
“No, thank you mei mei.”
An Ye sat in the wooden bucket bathing, contemplating how she should escape from this heavily guarded location. You Ming would definitely follow up from the outside after he received her hair clasp. He was the one that gave it to her. He’d told her that if she were to meet with any danger, send it back to him and he would find a way to help her out.
Ever since they’d clawed their way out of the training arena together, they had been going for missions together. The two of them were just children then; both of them had no one to depend on in the killer organisation as they tried to eke out a living. During one of their missions when An Ye’s pursuers dealt a critical hit to one of her vital parts and she was rendered unable to continue on, it was You Ming who gave her a hand and pulled her to jump into the river to escape. Her life would have ended if it hadn’t been him. After that, An Ye saved him once in one of their subsequent missions after that to requite the favour. After which, the two of them helped each other out in their following missions, and with time, their feelings for each other grew with time as they fought for their survival together.
And so, the one and only person An Ye trusted in Realm, was You Ming.
Chapter 66 - Untitled (1)
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An Ye changed into the same black clothes she wore all year round and donned on the azure dress the maidservant had placed beside. The usual hairdo she pulled her hair into was also let down and done up into a complicated one instead.
As the maidservant dressed her up, she exclaimed: “I didn’t expect our number one killer to be such a beauty, lass you ought to dress up more, look at how beautiful you are now, how wasteful it would be otherwise.”
An Ye sat silently, snorting mentally. Was she supposed to dress up and have her victim admire her when she killed them? She’d always dressed like a male for convenience’s sake. If it weren’t for the fact that she was being framed, she’d probably never get the chance to dress up in proper female clothes till she died.
After she was properly dressed up, the maidservant brought An Ye—who was attempting to drag the time all these while—out of Cloud Pavilion. As she did so, An Ye finally saw the maidservant who went to deliver her hairpin returning. The maidservant smiled at her from afar, indicating that she’d already delivered the hairpin into his hands.
An Ye followed the two maidservants out. When they were rounding a corner into another pavilion, she suddenly struck out at the maidservants and they fainted. She dragged them into a false cavern, exchanged her attire with one of the maidservants and surveyed the hidden guards in the courtyard carefully.
After confirming their location, she lowered her head and walked out from the cavern, heading out quickly. She passed several courtyards, and just as she was exiting the perimeters of the inner courtyard, she was suddenly shouted at to stop. She gave a pause before proceeding on as though she didn’t hear the shout.
An Ye suddenly felt people dashing at her from her two sides; they weren’t normal maidservants—she was discovered! She reached for the two daggers hidden in her gown and flung them at her pursuers. At the same time, her feet tapped the ground consecutively before she leapt onto the surrounding walls with her qinggong and jumped off, flying across the rooftops, dashing off.
She ran to the organisation’s northern forest, by then, she’d already shaken off her pursuers. Just when she wanted to continue escaping, she suddenly felt her chest freezing in pain. She paused, leaning against a tree, panting. At her evident symptoms of being poisoned, her heart sank. She didn’t even realise when she was poisoned. At that, she recalled the fragrance from the azure gown; she’d thought that it was because of the incense it smelt so, it seemed like someone had added something to her attire.
When throbbing in her chest ceased, she headed further into the woods. After running for a distance, her pursuers behind gradually caught up. At that, she immediately quickened her footsteps and faked escaping off into another direction before retreating back and lurking into the bushes, hiding her existence.
The wave of people quickly neared where she was. The group of people in black paused for a moment before heading forward quickly. When An Ye saw that, her heart settled. However, she stared hard at the last person who paused before starting again; he was separated from the group.
“Xiao Ye?” The man in black revealed a beyond familiar face when he suddenly reached to remove the shielding veil.
An Ye exhaled and crawled out from the bushes, “It’s you.”
“I received your hairpin. I went to ask around and found out that you’ve landed yourself in big trouble, so I altered my appearance into one akin to your pursuers.”
“What’s the situation now?”
“They wouldn’t make a huge fuss if you were just a normal servant, but the people that were unhappy with you said that you are going to betray the organisation; they won’t believe you even if you were to deny otherwise. You will die if they catch you.” The command to pursue An Ye was to kill her by severing the tendons to her limbs and tossing her over to Aunt Hong’s brothel to serve the dirtiest of patrons; this was even crueler than being punished severely.
“Let’s hurry leave!” You Ming jumped in a direction with his qinggong. When he did not hear An Ye’s tracks behind him after travelling a certain distance, he turned in suspicion.
An Ye’s speed of travel was not slow but it ultimately could not be compared to the speed of his qinggong. When she saw You Ming looking at her, dubious, she said blandly: “I’m poisoned; I ca
n’t cycle my qi.”
You Ming grabbed her hand and pressed a finger on her pulse before frowning: “You didn’t take the antidote this month?” All killers take a type of poison which could only be relieved if they were to take a monthly dosage of antidote, else they would meet with death. The poison could immobilise one’s entire body. Once they failed to cosume their antidote, the poison would be activated and the person would die; every inch of their skin would crack and start seeping blood till the body rots and the person dies.
An Ye nodded. She’d been saving up the antidote secretly so that she would be able to escape the organisation’s control the moment she figured out the recipe. She’d never succeeded before though. The moment the poison worked, she must take her antidote. Though she would not die immediately, her skin would start cracking and other people would know she’s not consuming her antidote and start suspecting her intention for not doing so. Hence, she could only research during the short period of time between receiving her antidote and the poison’s effect acting up. As such, she wasn’t able to reap much result.
Despite so, she did learn something—if she were to take some of the herbs she’d discovered that was essential to the making of antidote on their own for a long period of time, she would be able to have her body adapt to the poison in her body, thereby delaying her need to take the antidote for two days.
Her current month’s worth of antidote was hidden in the bronze bangle she wore on her wrist; she could take it out and consume it any time. However she was already escaping the organisation, so keeping the antidote was vital to researching the components to the antidote. The poison acting up wouldn’t be immediately life-threatening anyway. It wouldn’t affect the cycling of her qi either. The reason why she could not do the latter was because she was poisoned by something else, and it was equally dangerous.
“You’re poisoned by another type of poison…” You Ming’s expression darkened. Wrapping an arm around An Ye, he half carried her, then lifted off with his qinggong, leaving. Being poisoned and whatnot wasn’t important, what’s important was to escape their skilled pursuers.
After hurrying on for a distance, the people donned in black quickly realised that they were tricked. And so, they immediately turned back and scoured for their tracks. After confirming the direction An Ye left in, they continued their pursuit in that direction.
An Ye and You Ming were quickly caught up. An Ye took the knife You Ming handed her and rushed up at the bunch of people without a word more, swinging at them. An Ye and You Ming were the top two killers in the organisation. Even if An Ye was poisoned and was unable to use her inner force, they coordinated well enough to finish them on while only taking some minor injuries.
After finishing the bunch of them off, An Ye had You Ming alter his appearance. If the others knew You Ming was helping her, she was afraid they wouldn’t let You Ming go so easily. He was unlike her—he must survive and remain in the organisation.
These people were only a small team out of the horde that was pursuing them. There were more skilled people advancing toward them in waves.
They were the top two ranked killers in the organisation yes, but they weren’t invincible. Their injuries gradually increased in amount and severity. After finishing off another team of them, the two of them leant against each others’ backs panting in exhaustion.
You Ming looked at the dozen dark figures rising and falling, nearing them. At that, he suddenly a good twenty feet away from her, raising his sword to point at her, “Make your move!”
An Ye was shocked by his sudden change, “What do you mean?”
“Don’t ask anything. You should know only one of us can live today; I want to live!” You Ming’s voice was loud.
An Ye’s face already pale from blood-loss fell at his words. “What a move you pulled*.” She reminded herself continuously in her head that You Ming’s choice was correct; he should draw the line before their pursuers find out he’s helping her escape. There was no reason for him to accompany her down this route. That’s one alive if one of them managed to live. Despite so, coldness still surged at her in waves, and along with the sword that pierced through her body, it swallowed the remnants of her warmth.
* original raws is “好！很好！” which translates into “Good! Very good!”; the “good” here is said in suppressed anger but doesn’t quite fit in English so I changed the phrase.
The moment the dark figures appeared before him, You Ming pierced You Ming’s abdomen. An Ye held the sword that cut into her stomach with both her hands, retreating with the force of the thrusting sword. Her steps went off the cliff, and she fell backwards, falling down the cliff.
She thought countless times about how she would die it’d not once, ever, came across her mind that she would die in You Ming’s hands. She wondered if You Ming had thought about killing her after killing countless others.
The scenes from her previous life played in her head. The memory of her abdomen being pierced by his sword was fresh as ever, she could almost even her heart throbbed in pain from the memory. An Ye, Zhuo Xiao Xuan now, could only feel the billowing hate surging from herself.
She raised her head once again to knock against the head of You Ming who was pressing down on her. You Ming dodged as usual, but he didn’t expect that she would chomp down hard on his neck. While he loosened his grip from the pain, Zhuo Xiao Xuan gripped his wrist instead, gave it a tug and twisted with force with the side of her body, flipping over to press down on him instead, her other hand reaching to choke his throat.
You Ming’s reaction was very quick as well. He immediately flipped her over to press down on her instead, and the two of them rolled in the snow fighting to suppress each other. In their moment of carelessness, the two of them rolled down the snowy hill. As they rolled and rolled, they rolled into a snowball, and the two of them became even more helpless as they rolled uncontrollably off the hill.
The ball of snow only stopped when it smashed into a tree truck by the base of the hill. Very unfortunately, Zhuo Xiao Xuan was the one who slammed into the tree trunk. The agony was as though she had broken a bone; she struggled on the snow but was unable to get up.
“Xiao Ye, are you okay?!” You Ming anxiously kneeled in front of Zhuo Xiao Xuan, checking on her injuries carefully.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan slapped his hand away and got up on her own with difficulty, saying coldly: “You will regret not taking the chance to kill me.”
“I’ve long started regretting it, but what can I do though. I’d thought that I was saving you then, but when I went to search for you below the cliff, I couldn’t find you. I only found out what happened after seeing you here again. I should have jumped off the cliff with you then, you won’t hate me so if I’d done that…” They were no longer able to hold off the skilled people with their situation. If they were to wait till they reached, they’d either be killed in battle or caught alive. The moment they get caught alive, it’ll be an eternal damnation of living hell An Ye would go through! It’d be great if she didn’t die from his stab; if she did, then let it be a form of extrication for her.
“How lovely put your words are.” Zhuo Xiao Xuan laughed coldly; the gun in her hand had already found its way against his forehead while he was unaware.
You Ming looked into Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s dark eyes. Taking a deep breath, “Make your move. I saved you once, you saved me once; I killed you once, you kill me once.”
Zhuo Xiao Xuan minced her lips and she pulled the trigger with her index finger, bang!
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T/N: I’m not sure if the author forgot to put a chapter title or deliberately left it as “untitled”
Chapter 67 - Untitled (2)
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After a while, You Ming gradually opened his eyes and looked at Zhuo Xiao Xuan happily, “Xiao Ye…”
“Shut up! Don’t think I don’t dare to kill you!” Zhuo Xiao Xuan pressed the muzzle of the gun
against his forehead as she growled.
“Xiao Ye, I’ve never wanted to kill you…”
“Shut up!” Zhuo Xiao Xuan raised her hand, irascible, as she sent him a slap. She grabbed You Ming’s collar, her eyes glaringly red, “Shut up! Shut up!”
You Ming licked the strand of blood by the tip of his mouth. His lips slanting into a bitter smile, he continued: “You were terribly poisoned and we were in no position to retaliate. Du Bu’s dozen of guards were in our pursuit; if you were captured, they’d sever your tendons and sent you to Aunt Hong’s, that’s why I stabbed you. If you died, you wouldn’t need to endure being taken advantage of by them, if you didn’t die, you would be able to find a chance to escape… even if you hate me for the rest of your life, I would do the same thing again if I was given another chance.” After saying that, he gently hugged Zhuo Xiao Xuan, “Xiao Ye, sorry, I’m too useless; I wasn’t able to protect you.”
Zhuo Xiao Xuan was rigid. At hearing him apologise again and again, her eyes reddened. From the moment she was caught and thrown into the training arena, to slowly becoming the top weapon of death, she didn’t cry when her jie jie died, nor did she cry when taking the heavy blow just before she died; crying would only make someone weak. What she needed to do was to become strong, you can only become strong in order to survive.
You Ming felt the chilliness by his neck. Releasing his grip around Zhuo Xiao Xuan, he gently pushed her away. He looked at her, she were still cold and indifferent, yet two streams of tears flowed down her eyes. Very quickly, they froze into ice in the low temperature.
You Ming raised his hand to wipe away her tear, “Xiao Ye…”
“You’re right, you did the best you could, I have no reason to hate you, nor to blame you…” Zhuo Xiao Xuan muttered. How would she not know that all this was just an excuse she found for herself to explain the fact that she wanted to stay alive. She hated the organisation Realm, hated that it ruined everything for her, and she hated You Ming, hated that she trusted him so much but ended up being stabbed to death by him… Other than hate, she could not find another reason to live. She fell of that cliff for no rhyme nor reason and came into this world. If she didn’t use “hate” as a reason, what’s there for her to hold out till now for? After being so many years as a killer, she had never thought about giving up her own live; she wanted to live, but she couldn’t find a reason for herself to live, and so this dilemma loaned her “hate” as her reconciliation.