Chapter 133

Jin Ja-gang returned to Lan Family Village.

Limp, limp.

Every time he walked, he felt gazes upon him. These gazes would continue to follow Jin Ja-gang for some time now. To prevent Jin Ja-gang from running away or doing anything foolish.

Jin Ja-gang accepted the gazes nonchalantly. While gazes might be bothersome, they weren’t threatening.

The day after tomorrow… or perhaps in a few days.

Preparing for a fight that could happen at any time was more important.

For Jin Ja-gang, the longer he could delay while preparing, the higher his chances of survival would be.

However, Jin Ja-gang didn’t fret anxiously.

He didn’t rush himself or move hastily.

Instead, he secured lodging and rested fully for a day, then came out to the streets and toured the market.

He wandered the streets looking at curious things and buying street food. He also changed his clothing and outfit appropriately, so that to anyone watching, he appeared to be leisurely enjoying himself and just passing time.

Jin Ja-gang stopped by all sorts of shops he saw while passing by. He even went to shops selling women’s accessories and ornaments.

He bought many things and carried them around. When he entered the inn in the evening, he was carrying armfuls of bundles in both hands.

No matter how you looked at it, he didn’t seem like someone who had received a Death-Urging Talisman from the Zhuge family.

* * *

Whiiiing!

Cold wind began blowing, stirring up dust.

Before long, the weather was becoming chilly.

Autumn was passing and winter was approaching with great strides.

Yunnan’s winter was windy and harsh. Once the wind started blowing, strong winds would blow almost daily until the spring festival.

* * *

On the ridge of Chae Ridge Mountain overlooking Lan Family Village.

A place where dense undergrowth and thick pine trees grew, with humid air and mist rising.

There in the valley of Chae Ridge Mountain, an enormous number of martial artists had gathered.

Zhuge Ming, dressed as a scholar, stood in the center holding a fan made of white feathers and looked around at the martial artists.

Fifty martial artists mobilized from the Zhuge family.

Plus one hundred warriors to assist them.

A total of one hundred and fifty people had been mobilized for this task.

It was enough force to completely annihilate a decent small or medium sect in half a day.

Zhuge Ming looked down at Lan Family Village while revealing his anger.

“The crime of daring to touch the Zhuge family. Even death cannot repay it. I’ll make you die regretting it while burning in hellfire.”

This was both a vow to himself and the appearance he needed to show to the martial world sects watching this situation.

Zhuge Yan was the niece Zhuge Ming cherished most. She was one of the Three Dragons and Four Phoenix that the entire martial world was watching, and a precious treasure bestowed like a blessing upon the Zhuge family, which had rare martial talent. In ten or twenty years, she could have become a martial artist representing the Zhuge family.

No, even aside from such personal reasons, in any case, a blood relative of the Zhuge family had died. If they failed to catch that b*st*rd this time, the Zhuge family’s honor would be greatly damaged. Everyone in the martial world would mock the Zhuge family. They would surely look down on them and think them insignificant.

A sect that couldn’t take revenge even when one of their members died was bound to be evaluated as weak in the martial world. The weak became prey and would only end up being devoured in an instant.

They had to clearly show others what would happen if you touched the Zhuge family.

* * *

The room at the inn where Jin Ja-gang was staying had become filled with miscellaneous items. There were clothes and fabrics, books, dishes and snack foods.

However, among these, what Jin Ja-gang had actually purchased out of necessity were only things like acupuncture needles from the pharmacy, a sickle from the blacksmith, and a small silver ornamental knife from a shop selling women’s accessories. The rest were things he had roughly picked up to blur the watchers’ eyes.

Jin Ja-gang prepared a whetstone and a basin filled with water, then laid out the needles in a row.

A bitter smile naturally formed.

Originally, needles used to heal patients’ illnesses come in nine different types, each with different uses and shapes.

However, Jin Ja-gang had bought needles not for the purpose of treatment, but for the purpose of killing people. It was a part that made his circumstances clear.

The needles were all different in length, thickness, and shape.

Hair-thin needles one inch long that he had purchased to hide in grass or places his hands could reach.

For use by embedding in the ground. Thick and sturdy four-inch long skin needles that could tear through leather shoe soles and penetrate.

One and a half inch long pointed needles that could be hidden in the palm and thrown or stabbed at close range.

Seven-inch long needles that were long and straight so they could be thrown accurately even from far distances.

All were things he had selected by purpose to harm people.

Though he was a successor of the Medicine Sect and carrying out revenge as a member of the Medicine Sect, the contradictory act of using needles to kill people – the exact opposite of what the Medicine Sect should do.

This kept bringing bitterness to Jin Ja-gang’s mind.

But now it was too late to stop.

Jin Ja-gang began sharpening the needles one by one on the whetstone.

Scrape, scrape.

Depending on their purpose, he needed to shorten the length further or sharpen the tips.

For the skin needles to be embedded in the ground, if the tips were too pointed they risked breaking when stepped on, so he sharpened the tips diagonally like a blade so they could tear through leather and penetrate.

He made the hair needles even thinner for secretly hiding and stabbing, and he made grooves in the middle of the pointed needles so they wouldn’t slip in his hand.

Jin Ja-gang, who had spent a long time carefully sharpening the needles, held up a needle to check it.

The well-sharpened needle tip sparkled as it reflected the lamplight.

But something didn’t feel right.

Jin Ja-gang turned the needles around again. The needles glittered every time they moved.

Only then did Jin Ja-gang realize what didn’t feel right.

Jin Ja-gang immediately went outside and obtained black ink made from glue at a painting shop.

Then he mixed it well and applied it to the needles.

After spreading out the needles painted with ink to dry, he held them up to the lamplight.

The ink absorbed the light so they didn’t sparkle and were pitch black. He didn’t know whether the fight would happen during the day or at night, but at least if it became night, these needles would be very useful.

The well-dried dark-colored ink needles were properly inserted into a leather belt and hidden under the bed.

If he wore leather belts on his arms and legs, he could draw and use them at any time.

He also took out the silver ornamental knife.

A silver ornamental knife is a small blade used by women. It’s small enough to put in a pocket or sleeve, or secretly slip between clothing ties.

What Jin Ja-gang had bought was an inexpensive item, so it wasn’t actually made of silver, but since it was used by women, it still had tassels attached and various decorations elaborately carved on it.

Jin Ja-gang removed all the gold-leafed decorations. If shiny metal was attached, it would reflect moonlight at night.

After removing the decorations, he also twisted out the handle. He wrapped the handle with dark-colored leather or black cloth.

He sharpened the blade on the whetstone to make it much sharper, but painted the sides of the blade with ink made from glue to make it even darker.

* * *

After preparing hidden weapons for several days, Jin Ja-gang was now laying out medicinal herbs in his room.

The herbs he had obtained from the medicine shop were ones that hadn’t been processed and still retained their toxicity.

Jin Ja-gang was lost in thought while selecting various types of herbs.

‘What poison should I use?’

He hadn’t yet decided which poison to use in the upcoming fight.

Eating poisonous food to accumulate toxicity in his dantian was Jin Ja-gang’s most representative method. However, this also had disadvantages.

All plants and trees had both medicinal and toxic properties coexisting.

If the medicinal properties were stronger than the toxic properties, it became an herb, and if the toxic properties were stronger than the medicinal properties, it became a poisonous plant.

However, to obtain poison powerful enough to kill martial artists, considerable toxicity was needed. So using poisonous plants was much easier than herbs.

Of course, securing that much material was also key. To secure even one drop, he would need to chew dozens of poisonous plants.

If judged purely by efficiency, it would be better to use deadly poisonous plants like aconite. However, while aconite had strong toxicity, it was such a famous poison that detoxification methods were relatively well known.

There was a reason why poison sects complexly mixed their sect’s poisons to make detoxification difficult.

And the biggest problem was that Jin Ja-gang couldn’t accumulate several different poisons in his dantian at once.

At most two or three types.

Unless they were legendary extreme poisons like Four Emperor Divine Water or Kunlun Sulfur Jade Poison, they would mix and influence each other, so to achieve proper effects, it was best to unify with one type as much as possible.

Jin Ja-gang tasted the herbs one by one while worrying and thinking.

The place was decided by them, but time was on Jin Ja-gang’s side.

Jin Ja-gang stayed at the inn for a tediously long time. He packed his bags and pretended to leave several times during this period, but ultimately returned multiple times.

Jin Ja-gang intended not to leave Lan Family Village for the time being. He had no intention of following whatever the Zhuge family wanted to do.

He had said he would accept the invitation, but he hadn’t promised when that would be.

* * *

Already the fifth day.

Jin Ja-gang hadn’t moved from Lan Family Village.

No, it wasn’t that he didn’t move at all – he had tried to depart and turned back several times.

Each time, the Zhuge family martial artists waiting for Jin Ja-gang at Chae Ridge Mountain had to repeatedly move to deploy the Nine Palace Eight Trigram Formation and then withdraw.

It was truly something that couldn’t help but put their nerves on edge.

Moreover, they were camping outdoors.

Not just one or two days, but camping in the same place for five days was difficult to endure even for martial artists accustomed to roughing it. From eating to sleeping arrangements to toilet issues, these were never small matters for one hundred and fifty people.

Especially the chilly weather as winter approached made the already uncomfortable camping even more difficult.

Nevertheless, the Zhuge family martial artists were holding their positions without any wavering. Though complaints and dissatisfaction might be expected, they showed no signs of it at all.

It was an aspect that showed how well-disciplined the Zhuge family martial artists were.

* * *

The barracks at the peak of Chae Ridge Mountain.

Receiving the report that Jin Ja-gang was again not leaving Lan Family Village today, Zhuge Ming made a subtle expression that was hard to read.

They said Jin Ja-gang was leisurely enjoying himself every day, wandering around the village and touring the market.

Was it good composure, or did he have other intentions?

“That b*st*rd’s intention is…”

He didn’t voice the words that he couldn’t understand the intention. Saying “I don’t know” was not fitting for someone from the Zhuge family.

Zhuge family people were supposed to gauge and predict their opponent’s thoughts as much as possible and respond accordingly.

To Zhuge Ming, who was lost in thought holding his white fan, Zhuge Son-gi, one of the Zhuge family’s veteran masters, said:

“He’s really a strange b*st*rd. Normally when someone receives a Death-Urging Talisman, don’t they either run away or go crazy and charge in? But this b*st*rd is just holding out as if nothing happened.”

Zhuge Ming recalled the look in Jin Ja-gang’s eyes when he met him.

“He’s pretending to be nonchalant. That b*st*rd is a murderer to the extent that intimidation doesn’t work on him. Even when I met him before, he didn’t look frightened. Rather, he boldly hid a move and tried to provoke me.”

“He’s a b*st*rd with deep schemes and viciousness. I heard that when dealing with poison sects too, rather than fighting head-on, he preferred to use his head to poison them.”

“Even now he’s hoping we’ll get tired and come in first. Even if he runs away, he’ll try to inflict massive damage on us before fleeing so he won’t be chased.”

“He’s probably planning to take the civilians of Lan Family Village as hostages if necessary.”

“We expected that anyway. What could we expect from evil faction vermin? However, we’ll have to let him know soon that his thinking is wrong. Until then, we can let him enjoy himself for a while. After that, it will be hell.”

Poison was something that had limits to the absolute amount that could be used.

He would never be able to withstand the wheel battle of the Nine Palace Eight Trigram Formation using large numbers.