ตอน 11: Letter

In a dimly lit room somewhere within the Tang Clan...

The window was quietly blown open as the afternoon air flew inside a room, flickering a few candles along the way.

Almost every part of the wooden wall around the room is covered in tall bookshelves that contain many different thick books. If one looked closer, all of them seemed to contain information about all sorts of Tang Clan's affairs within the Sichuan region. If not for the large desk at the back of the room, one would think this place was a library.

A low voice suddenly echoes deeply through the surroundings,

"So my daughter, Soso, has finally woken up..."

Behind the large desk sat a tall, slender man who wore a long, luxurious dark attire that emanated the aura of authority. His pale complexion and long raven hair further complement his menacing aura. Along with a slightly crooked nose, anyone who had graced his presence would see the image of a sly and vicious man.

But when one took a closer look, one could see that his cold eyes resembled that of Tang Soso, albeit shining with a deep green color. Both of those eyes were set on a small letter in his hand that displayed complex handwriting that described Tang Soso's condition before and after waking up. The low voice from earlier clearly came from this menacing figure.

It is Tang Hwi, the patriarch of the great Tang Clan, as well as the father of Tang Soso.

'I found it quite unbelievable at first, but from the words of the old physician, it seems to be true. The poison that even my Tang Clan couldn't find a cure for seemed to have suddenly dissipated on its own... Thus resulting in my daughter waking up from her long slumber.'

His eyes formed into a slit as his mood started to worsen, 'How embarrassing... The fact that my great clan that specializes in poison could be easily played around by poison itself is a stain to our reputation not just within the justice faction, but even in all of Murim.'

'Whoever is the culprit behind this is rather brave... but this bravery shall be the one to spell their doom. Even if the forces behind them are the justice clan or the demonic cult themselves, all shall suffer the wrath of the Tang Clan.'

A dark light could be seen within his sharp green eyes and the air around trembled from the pressure emitted by the amount of internal energy he had alone. The ground shook heavily as a subtle image of a black serpent materializes behind him briefly, before dissipating once again. The anger quelled within his heart was sealed away as Tang Hwi regained his composure.

The letter in his hands had been corroded away by his Qi alone and got decimated during that short moment...

"Sigh... but for now, I shall wait and stay patient. These rats will run away and hide the instant I start to show any suspicion. I must quietly play ignorant and slowly lead them deep into my clan, then the moment the mastermind shows up, I can eliminate them in an instant."

'As for Soso...' his eyes slowly went up and gazed through the open window within the room.

This room was his study and it stood far up within the third floor. From here, the beautiful evening sky could be seen as well as the whole Tang Clan below it. Tang Hwi ignored the beautiful view and simply stared in a specific direction, a direction where Tang Soso was staying.

Though all an ordinary person could see was a faint silhouette in the background, he could perfectly perceive a small worn-down residence surrounded by layers upon layers of willow trees. A small girl could be seen training alone in the field with her all attires stained in dirt and dust, along with her blindfold.

Upon landing his eyes on the residence, his cold eyes showed a small tinge of warmth before closing once again. There was a hint of worry on his face that could not be explained with words, but only briefly before it was replaced with a stoic expression.

"Shadows!"

After hearing his command, two dark figures immediately appeared from the dark corners. "Yes, my Lord!"

"Tell the old servant within Tang Soso's residence to bring her to me secretly. Not a single eye shall catch sight of her, not even my other sons and daughters or even the elders. It doesn't matter if you do it with consent or not, but do not harm her,"

The dark figures simply bowed with absolute loyalty to his commands. "It shall be done!"

"And one more thing... sneak to the city and the main clan, then spread some rumors. Rumors that Tang Soso, the eighth daughter of Tang Hwi, has succumbed to the poison and died in her bed."

"Yes, Lord!"

After the command has ensued, the two dark figures immediately disappear like smoke, as if they were never there before...

...

Phew... phew...

Tang Soso stood within the large field in front of her house covered in sweat all over. In her hand was a small blade that seemed to fit her size, though rather blunt and worn out from a long series of training earlier just like the rest of her attire. She managed to get her hands on this dagger shortly after finishing physical training a few hours ago when she stumbled upon it in the middle of the room.

Since in the past, Tang Soso was most proficient in blade techniques, she thought a dagger was a great alternative in her current situation. And since it was sitting right in front of her, why not use it right away?

She definitely needs to find something better after this. But for now, this will do...

"HAAAP!"

With one last faint cry, she lunged from her position toward a thick straw dummy in the middle of the field. Her dainty body glided with the wind like a hawk as white Qi traveled from her body all the way to her dagger with a slight 'shing!'.

Tang Soso could still feel and recall the movements that she did in her past life and she has been trying to mimick them as hard as she could this afternoon. To her surprise, it was a great success!

As she closed in the wooden dummy, her hand slashed widely as the dagger made contact with the straw dummy. The powerful Qi coursing through her dagger made its blunt edges as sharp as a newly crafted blade, making it twice as powerful and rendering the defenses of the straw dummy useless!

SWOOSH!

The straw dummy stood no chance as it was cleanly cleaved in half just like butter. It slowly fell to the ground with a thud and Old Jiang stared in the background with amazement.

"That was amazing, Young Lady... I'm certainly glad that your martial arts has somewhat recovered."

Tang Soso nodded in response, [ Thank you. ]

With those words, she slowly took a long breath and plant her ass to the ground. After the sheer amount of training she did in the morning, she has continued to spend the rest of the noon and afternoon practicing many moves and getting used to her new body.

For a martial artist, the lack of senses will become a critical weakness and even if she was once a legendary martial artist, this effect also applies to her. This much was clear from the shocking amount of times that she stumbled on the ground due to her impaired vision.

But after moving her body around for a few hours, she has slowly gotten used to this. Even if there were quite a few negative perks with this body there's still something positive about it in her opinion. At least she was not as distracted with sensory overload and everything as much as before, and this might be advantageous to her... probably...

'Whatever the case, I should be able to take on stronger martial artists sometime soon. But even so, I must not reveal my power, even a little! I don't want to get found out using a strange martial art that did not originate from the Tang Clan as that will make me suspicious... I must learn some Tang Clan martial arts whether I want to or not!'

'Once again, I definitely have to access this Tang Clan's martial arts library as soon as possible, or else I don't know how I'll fare with everyone else...'

She quickly got up from the ground after a quick rest and glanced at the dim sky. The sun has been dyed with a deep orange color and is slowly descending through the west, and the surroundings have begun to turn dark.

Seeing this, Tang Soso squints as she knows that there's no more time to do anything else today. She began to sigh deeply...

'Just like that a day has passed, and my progress is still so little! I really need to step up my game plan tomorrow or else I'd eat my words sooner than I thought...' she muttered as she turned around and walked back to her room.

Her gaze was cast to the ground and her shoulder slumped... It has been a very tiring day. Old Jiang saw this behavior and smiled. The young lady has worked hard throughout the day and now she must rest.

Old Jiang swiftly approached her and bowed, "I have set up a warm bath, Young Lady."

[ Ah, thank you. I hope that bath hasn't been around for too long... ]

"Rest assured, I had set it up just a few minutes ago," he replied with confidence. He had already heated the water for a while now and the bath had also been set up. Now he could leave the rest for the Young Lady to handle by herself...

Seeing the confident look on his face, Tang Soso quickly nodded with a smile and went to her room, 'Oh well, let's just enjoy some hot bath for now~'

...

As the door to her room closed shut and Tang Soso's delicate figure disappeared, Old Jiang was now left by himself in the residence's yard. The day has gone by and the sun has almost fully set to the west, casting behind an orange-purple afterglow throughout the Tang Clan and everything within the region of Sichuan.

Old Jiang smiled lightly as it was about time that he got some rest. However, he must set up some things beforehand before he can go ahead and do so.

'Now that the Young Miss has gone to rest, there's no need to wait around. I'll cook up some dinner right away an-'

"Greetings..."

A quiet voice suddenly reached Old Jiang's ears and he immediately turned around with an alert expression on his face.

In front of him stood a dark figure covered in a dark robe, looking at him silently from the gate of the residence. Every feature of this figure is completely concealed by their robe, thus Old Jiang couldn't tell whether this figure is a man or a woman, someone with malicious intentions or not. But one thing that he could tell is that this figure... is incredibly powerful, far beyond his level.

'Who in the world...? What a fishy overall for someone who came for a visit, especially during the evening. My instincts are telling me that this figure is dangerous... but even so, he wouldn't have tried to greet me if he came with evil intentions...' he thought with suspicion.

Despite the clear danger emanating from the figure, he wasn't afraid. The public still didn't know this, but ever since he was first assigned to serve Tang Soso, he was instructed by the patriarch to not only be a servant but also her bodyguard.

Old Jiang was someone who was deemed powerful even amongst first-rate martial artists. Even if his martial prowess has rotted from the long years of being a servant, his fighting experience is still quite sharp and cannot be underestimated!

His old gray hair fluttered with the evening wind as he approached the figure and blocked the way in.

"Who are you? State your intentions!"

...

The figure didn't say anything in response but instead rummaged through his dark robe before taking out a small letter. They quickly handed it to Old Jiang as if they were unthreatened by his attitude. Although skeptical, Old Jiang quietly took the letter from the figure's hand.

'Hmm, very suspicious. Why would someone come just after the sun had set... even if this was out of good intentions, this was such horrible timing. Whatever, let's what this man had to say...Hmm!?'

Old Jiang's eyes went wide the moment he opened the letter. Within the top right corner of the small letter, there lies a peculiar mark in the shape of a small serpent that stuck out within the thin paper. Anyone who lives within the inner circle of the Tang Clan knew what this mark meant.

This mark was something that signifies an absolute command, and no matter who it was must never disobey it. Only the patriarch and the grand elder could issue something like this since disobeying it would signify treason and the said person would be either exiled or killed at worst!

He quickly read the content of the letter as he scanned his eyes upon each word carefully out of fear of missing anything important. After a few seconds, he got the gist of what the content of the letter was about. The patriarch has summoned the Young Lady to his study and he wanted them to go there secretly.

'The patriarch... Just some time ago, he rejected my call for help and now he demanded us to go to his study? Something doesn't add up, the patriarch must be trying to do something...' he thought in his mind.

Even Old Jiang knew this much. Just what in the heavens is the patriarch planning to do?

He quietly closed the letter as this question raised in his mind. He wanted to ask the dark figure who gave him the letter, but it seems that they have already left as if they were never there. Now he was left alone once again as he glanced at the surroundings.

'That figure that delivered this letter must have been the Shadows... the patriarch's personal guards that followed him everywhere within the shadows, doing every single one of his whims without a second thought...'

His eyebrows frown as he knows that there's not much choice they can make at this point. He quietly sighed as he decided to accept reality as is, 'It's better to inform the Young Lady at this point, the patriarch is not someone we want to make enemies with...'

...

'W-What? The patriarch wants to meet me?'

Tang Soso stared at Old Jiang with a questioning gaze. She stood in the middle of her room in a loose white robe. Her long raven hair was covered in layers of towels and was still wet after the warm bath from earlier, while her beautiful dainty figure was completely displayed at the moment. Just some time earlier, she bathed as quickly as she could so she could hit the sack as soon as possible. She just had a whole day of training and was extremely tired after all.

It was kind of awkward to face Old Jiang at the moment, but seeing the serious look on his face, she knew that it was a serious matter that should not be avoided.

'T-That certainly caught me off-guard. I never thought the patriarch would want to meet me, not this soon. Why on earth did he want to see me?' Tang Soso pondered in her mind.

Old Jiang saw Tang Soso's face and nodded in understanding. He also thinks that this situation is very bewildering considering the patriarch's usual temperament toward her, it is no wonder that Tang Soso was just as shocked as him.

As an answer, Old Jiang simply took out the small letter that he gained from the dark-robed figure from earlier and read out the contents of the small letter in his hands. As he went on with the small letter reading every single bit of its contents, Tang Soso immediately understood why he had to interrupt her even when she was in this condition.

[ Alright... then I'll get ready as soon as possible and I'll head out to meet my father. Um, are you sure this matter is that grave? I mean, it's just my fathe- ] she quickly wrote on her sign before quickly being interrupted.

"IT DEFINITELY IS, Young Miss. Now please get ready to head out immediately." he immediately interrupted. "You should realize the moment I mentioned about the small serpent mark that this letter from the patriarch that concerns the livelihood of not only you, but mine as well!"

[ O-Okay... chill out. You may leave first... ]

With that, Old Jiang bowed slightly before quietly leaving the room, leaving Tang Soso alone by herself.

'My father, huh? This... might be really bad. I don't know about my relationship with my father... does he love me? Or is he a terrible father and simply called me for an ulterior motive? From Old Jiang's stories, I know that he seldom visited me throughout my life and that makes it all the more concerning... O-Or maybe he noticed something suspicious about me!?' she pondered quietly.

'But there's nothing else that I could do... I guess I should leave it all up to luck. Let's just see how things will go. Maybe he wouldn't notice that I'm not the real Tang Soso? Who knows!'

Without much thought, she continued as Old Jiang has said. She swiftly took off her long loose sleeping robe and put on a new black attire. This attire was her only formal wear in her room and it looked exactly like how a typical Young Lady of a noble clan would dress in, albeit quite dark in color.

Grabbing the blindfold from her desk and putting it on, she quickly tied her hair into a ponytail before leaving her room.

Outside, Old Jiang was waiting for her impatiently while also getting readying his attire. Although he was a mere servant, dressing as formally as possible before meeting the head of the clan was something that is engraved in not only his heart but every single person who has stepped foot within the Tang Clan.

Seeing Tang Soso fully prepared to leave, he quickly stopped what he was doing and approached her, before gently placing a pair of elegant footwear for her to use. Sensing it, Tang Soso quickly put it on in a hurry. She doesn't really care about this sort of thing and would have preferred to put it on by herself.

"Are you ready now, Young Lady?"

Tang Soso nodded slightly in response, and Old Jiang proceeded to gently guide her through the cold night road in the direction of the main clan.

Each step felt heavy not only due to the cold winds of the night but also the incessant worry of meeting the patriarch...

...