The Path of the Martial Arts BOSS
Chapter 154 - 148: Captive

Chapter 154: Chapter 148: Captive

Late at night, the moon in the sky was merely a shallow crescent.

By the end of the month, the majority of the moon inevitably found itself obscured, leaving only a dim glow to spill over the world.

Outside a mansion in Linchuan Prefecture, a black-clad figure quietly surveyed the residence, which still, even deep into the night, was all lit up.

"Sigh, a face mask again..." Qing Yu helplessly scratched his face through the black mask.

To this day, Qing Yu had still not escaped the poor breathability and lack of style that the mask entailed, a sad story indeed.

Ahem, back to the main topic.

The mansion was heavily guarded, but that was about it; to Qing Yu, it looked somewhat intimidating, nothing more.

Under the "Colorless Transformation," one of the nine variations of "Dragon Escape," Qing Yu moved as if entering a land without people, effortlessly infiltrating the mansion. Those guards, merely at the Postnatal Realm, couldn’t even touch Qing Yu’s shadow. He whipped past them so quickly that all they could feel was a brief gust of wind.

"Where to next?" Qing Yu pondered, crouched on a rooftop within the courtyard, surveying his surroundings.

Having spent days in seclusion to enhance his eyesight, Qing Yu’s "Void Eye" now allowed him to see in very faint light. Despite the moon’s dimness, he could still make use of the scant moonlight to scrutinize the movements throughout the mansion.

If he wanted to find Tian Pingzhi, Young Master of the East Sea Commerce, he would head to the largest courtyard at the center. However, Tian Pingzhi would undoubtedly be guarded by an Innate Expert. With the strict security of the mansion, Qing Yu wouldn’t be surprised to find several of his own calibers at the Innate Realm stationed outside Tian Pingzhi’s door.

Therefore, he needed to find someone with not too low a status, whose defense wasn’t as stringent.

There it was—the garden had a unique landscape, and those who lived near the garden would naturally hold some status and perhaps knew something worth Qing Yu’s attention.

With that in mind, Qing Yu once again moved silently and swiftly across several buildings, heading towards the wing room at the far end of the garden.

However, as he passed through the garden, an unforeseen change occurred.

Just as Qing Yu quietly hopped off the top of a rockery in the garden and was about to leap again, a large spray of water suddenly burst forth from the lake in front of the rockery. Countless droplets, glittering under the moonlight with a dim water-light, went flying, and among them, a similarly dim short dagger.

"..."

Qing Yu had an expletive at the tip of his tongue, unsure if he should utter it or not. Was this some kind of joke? Hiding in a lake in the dead of night, even if you were a guard, was such torture really necessary?

From that dagger, identical to the ones used by the six Death Soldiers he encountered that day, Qing Yu could confirm that those Death Soldiers had been sent by Tian Pingzhi.

At that moment, Qing Yu had just leaped off the rockery and was in midair with no support; logically, he would not have been able to avoid the blade that had been prepared for such an ambush.

However, logic didn’t always translate to reality.

Qing Yu, with a blast of Qi Force from his left palm, forcefully stopped his forward momentum and, wrapping his right foot, which was enveloped in "Innate Gang Qi," against the rapidly thrusting blade of the dagger, borrowed its force to lightly and effortlessly retreat to the top of the small pavilion next to the rockery.

Only then did Qing Yu carefully observe this dutiful guard, or rather, Death Soldier.

He was dressed the same as the six from that day, cloaked entirely in black, but his face was not covered—for after all, hiding underwater with such a suffocating mask could very likely have strangled even an Innate Realm expert. In his hand, the standard-issue dagger for Death Soldiers, of which Qing Yu already had six.

"This hidden method, as well as the hidden weapons and armaments, I think I know who they are..."

Qing Yu looked at the black-clad man’s wet clothes, the dagger, and the Meteor Dart, igniting memories long sealed away.

It seems there’s no need to look for anyone else. This person should be sufficient...

At that moment, the commotion here also alerted others. Standing atop a small pavilion, Qing Yu could see dozens of torches swiftly moving towards the dark garden.

So little noise and already it has drawn attention; truly vigilant. Qing Yu shifted his gaze to the black-clad man who was intently watching him. To be able to resist attacking despite such a large opening in his defense, he must be planning to hold him back until the others arrive, to capture Qing Yu together.

Such wishful thinking, but Qing Yu, who was very familiar with his plans, wouldn’t give him that chance.

"Qi Dual Flow·Bright Transformation."

His True Qi burst forth, and Qing Yu exploded with his maximum speed. In the dim light, he created seven afterimages, thoroughly surrounding the black-clad man.

Unable to discern Qing Yu’s real body, the black-clad man chose to strike at the position most likely to be attacked, behind him, swinging his dagger.

Unfortunately, he guessed wrong. This time, Qing Yu, who normally favored backstabbing, chose to strike his opponent head-on.

The price of guessing wrong was having the meridians in both arms severed by Qing Yu, leaving them limp at his sides. At the same time, he pressed a point on the forehead at the temple, causing unconsciousness.

Qing Yu grabbed the black-clad man, who had become as limp as a dead dog, and made a swift retreat. His speed, unrivaled in the Innate Realm, left those who arrived later with no choice but to watch helplessly as he took their captive and strode away.

After a quick escape from the residence of the East Sea Commerce, Qing Yu concealed his presence and weaved through several streets before bringing his captive back to the secret chamber in a house in the western part of the city.

"Pharmacist, go remove the poisonous teeth from his mouth."

Back in the secret chamber, Qing Yu dropped the captive and instructed the pharmacist what to do, then took out a silver needle and several elixirs.

The pharmacist hurriedly pried open the black-clad man’s mouth and carefully began to remove his poison-laden teeth.

"My lord, are you intending to interrogate him? If I may speak frankly, these Death Soldiers have undergone specialized training. Even if they cannot commit suicide, they can endure any sort of torture and will not reveal their master’s secrets."

After the pharmacist had removed the teeth, Qing Yu pierced the man’s head with silver needles at various crucial acupoints and then fed him several suspicious-looking purple elixirs.

"Pharmacist, you should know that death is the best way to keep a secret in this world. Beyond that, everything else is unreliable. Severe torture is just the most basic form of interrogation. I don’t need to consider how strong his will might be. If I destroy his consciousness itself, what use is will, which is merely an accessory to consciousness?"

In this marvelous world of martial arts, countless methods exist that can make a person reveal the truth. Torture is time-consuming and inefficient.

As Qing Yu spoke, he struck the black-clad man’s Dantian with his palm, crippling his power.

A familiar scene, once inflicted upon the Daqian philosophy student Lu Yi, was now being used by Qing Yu.

"I’m not disappointed that he is a Death Soldier; on the contrary, it makes me all the more eager. As a Death Soldier, he is his master’s most trusted weapon. To his master, he is not a person but a weapon, and who would be wary of a weapon? The information he knows is likely more than that of a typical confidant."

Feeling that it was about time, Qing Yu inserted a needle into the black-clad man’s Baihui acupoint, awakening him, while setting the stage for his own mental-destroying technique.

"Now, tell me your secrets..."

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