Martial King's Retired Life-Chapter 112Book 15:

Finale (Part 13)

Tang Clan had a head-turning tradition. They granted the young generation the best of sustenance and passed on all their knowledge alongside strict accountability for the course of a decade to produce elites of their age bracket. Then, they spent the next year breaking down the kids they built up. The ones who stood out were given another decade of the best development. Those kids assumed they would be able to burst onto the pugilistic world’s scene and become superstars, never expecting to be sent to Dark Prison – an expansive underground palace constructed ages ago.

Nobody was certain when Dark Prison was built, but it was already there when Tang Clan’s patriarch discovered it. Dangerous species and innumerable contraptions were found in the dark palace that brought ruin to the candidates.

The candidates sent into the underground palace for one year had but one task to fulfil – kill everyone else. In the event that there was no last man standing, all the candidates would be executed. The last man standing was the true talent that Tang Clan desired.

The martial world believed that nature selected the best talent, while Tang Clan believed that talent was nurtured. Tang Clan did not subscribe to the idea that anything was born great, similar to how they viewed their arms creation process. As long as they were able to draw a perfect blueprint and forge it accordingly, the end product would be admirable. They believed that only those forged in darkness and bloodshed were the real deal. At the end of the day, humans were made of flesh, so they needed to develop resolves sturdier than any metal.

From the perspective of ordinary folks, someone who was able to survive in that stressful environment for an entire year and thrive was more than sufficiently talented, but that was nowhere near Tang Clan’s criteria. Tang Clan required their chosen one to demonstrate the ability to deceive, extort, betray, ally, break down, lose their minds… By the time they were done, the marks imprinted on the survivor were evident at a glance. The candidates who trusted each other had to remould themselves to deceive their friends and survive.

Dark Prison was a place where one had to either become top dog or beat top dog’s stepping stone. All survivors were unable to ever clean the stench of blood out of their minds, but they became a part of Tang Clan’s top assassination group – Ancient Wine. Once there were seven members, a leader would be selected using the same old method – last man standing.

The erstwhile generation’s leader was Tang Feiling. The current generation’s leader was Tang Ni.

Night Sparrow vigilantly put distance between her and Tang Ni after stealthily giving her subordinates the order to back off without losing their encirclement formation. Since she and Ghost Cart had dozens of metres between themselves and Tang Ni, she was confident she had enough time to see, decide and deal with any attack he could’ve launched.

Tang Ni laughed heartily at their tense expressions and then plucked a strand of hair. “You know, this is a sword.”

Tang Ni created the impression a coloured string flitted across with a casual of his hand.

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Someone dropped. He dropped without telegraphing it, resisting or groaning.

Sneering, Tang Ni scattered a bundle of black hair in his hands. Nobody knew who he targeted or who the next victim would be. In order to protect their members, Ghost Cart and Night Sparrow had to act. Initially, they needed distance between themselves and Tang Ni, but that distance was now a concern.

Trusting his gut instinct as a former bandit, Ghost Cart kept his gaze on the corpse as he advanced, allowing him to see the corpse suddenly spit gas. “It’s a trap!”

By the time Night Sparrow realised a drug had been released, it was already too late.

The youth who had closed the distance between them wore on a look of confusion. “Why would you believe me?”

As soon as the duo saw Tang Ni prepare a finger flick for one of them each, they went to position themselves to guard, only to find they could not muster their strength.

“This is the real attack.”

Following Tang Ni’s finger switches and flicks that blasted two black streaks at them, the both of them felt their fingers sting. Night Sparrow knew better than to act rashly; she focused energy to her hands to expel the strands of hair prior to retreating. Ghost Cart, on the other hand, was not so lucky. His hasty retreat resulted in the pursuing strands of hair slicing his fingers deeper, nearly leaving him without fingers for life.

“I should be the one to cripple your hands first,” remarked Tang Ni, gaze focused on Night Sparrow’s fingers on her spear. He focused only 30% of his power on her and saved the rest for Ghost Cart in the last exchange, or she might have been unable to hold her spear properly. Accompanying a shrug, he added, “Nothing I can do about it. He’s more ruthless than you. There’s no regret on my part.”

If their vigilance was at a seven out of ten before, it was now ten out of ten.

Tang Ni never used any sophisticated strategy. All he did was take one person down whilst conversing, then pretended to launch an attack to rouse fear and vigilance. Back in Dark Prison, he learnt that he just needed to sprinkle in some extra flavouring to fool someone who was afraid. As for his switch and flick, it was as plain as could be. From the very beginning, his plan was to inflict damage using hair strands. The moment they switched their guard, they had to change where their energy was focused, giving him a window to use a finger that people typically would not use. Until now, none of them would have thought that such a seemingly ridiculous technique could have disabled one of Ghost Cart’s hands effortlessly.

“We still have a chance at victory,” asserted Night Sparrow, advancing with light steps. “You are trying to not use your true qi, aren’t you?”

Tang Ni did not bite back as he usually would have.

“Nirvana’s blood marrow has cost you, after all.”