Night of the Broken Gliph

Szzzz. 

Black coloured liquid gushed out of the fish in an endless stream, painting the entire kitchen pitch black in no time. 

“Black serpent blossom poison!” Sit Ting let out a shriek. 

Hearing her, Lam Ming shouted from outside, “Mummy, what’s wrong?”

“Don’t come in! Siu Ming! Don’t enter!” 

She looked at her body that had come in contact with the black liquid to see a black colour gas being emitted. Colour drained from her face as she turned to Lam Ming, who was about to run in. “Siu Ming! Don’t come in!” 

In the ten years of his life, Sit Ting had never once shouted at Lam Ming. This left Lam Ming dumbstruck as he stood rooted to the ground. 

Despair fell over Sit Ting’s face as she remembered the man who came to visit her a few days ago and how she was poisoned today. She turned to look at Lam Ming. Such a poor kid…

“Siu Ming, listen to mummy,” Sit Ting said, trying to sound as calm as she could. “Leave all your belongings here and run back to the school. Ask young brother Chui to take care of you, alright? Mummy… Mummy can no longer grow up with you. I’m sorry.” 

Unable to contain her feelings, tears rolled down her cheeks. 

“Mummy… what’s wrong…” Sensing something was off, Lam Ming wanted to get close to Sit Ting but was immediately shouted at.

“Don’t come over! This liquid is highly toxic. Once you come in contact with it, you’ll die immediately.” 

Lam Ming stared at her in a daze. As a ten-year-old kid, death was a stranger to him. And when it actually happened, it left him at a loss. 

“Hurry and leave! I believe someone will come over to check on me soon. Remember, ask Chui Yim to look after you, or I’ll haunt him after I die! Hurry!” 

Feeling the numbness in her body, Sit Ting knew that the poison had taken effect. It made her even more anxious as she stared at Lam Ming fiercely. “Don’t you want me to rest in peace?” 

“Mummy…” Lam Ming burst into tears but dared not disobey his mother as he ran out crying. 

Sit Ting was currently on the floor, covered in black gas. She wore a bitter smile on her face. Black serpent blossom was a high grade gliphic plant. Be it used for tattooing a gliph, forging a weapon, made into g-food or as medicine, it was a high-class plant. And as a result, the blossom poison was priceless. Looking at the amount of poison… Indeed generous. 

It was obvious who was behind this. Sit Ting had been hiding from her the past decade, but who would have guessed that she’d still be discovered in the end. Sit Ting’s life flashed past her eyes. 

Spring came to the Tranquil Palace in the form of blossoms and breeze. 

A breeze named fate blew a thin paper into the imperial kitchen of the Tranquil Palace, and the teenager searching for it bumped into a young woman working there, and that was the start of an ill-fated relationship. 

Sit Ting raised her hand subconsciously, trying to catch the illusory petal falling gently. And just like ten years ago, everything was just a dream. 

Thud. 

Her lifeless hand fell to the ground with black liquid dripping down. Now entirely pitch black, Sit Ting shut her eyes tight and allowed the strong toxin to devour all the vitality in her. 

“Hmm?”

Far away in the valley, the shadow-like man stood up abruptly and looked over. He watched a little boy skip into Sit Ting’s home seriously. As the emperor’s shadow, they grew up together and were like blood brothers despite Kan Hang actually being a servant of the king. He knew everything about the emperor and Sit Ting, and he had always helped them keep a lookout while they were secretly dating. 

Thus, Kan Hang knew how strongly Sit Ting felt for the emperor, and he was sure that she wouldn’t fall for any other man in her life. So, who was this boy? 

Could it be the Emperor’s… Kan Hang was thrown off his feet. Suddenly, the boy could be seen running out of the house in tears. Colour drained from his face, and with a whoosh, he turned into a black shadow and vanished. 

Almost immediately, Kan Hang appeared in Sit Ting’s house. He watched her reach out for the imaginary petal and with a thud, her hand fell to the ground, signifying the end of her life. 

Full of murderous intent, Kan Hang turned to the kitchen. The black liquid was still flowing out of the unifish slowly. Such an evil trick to hide the poison inside the fish! 

Kan Hang watched this furiously.

That person must know Sit Ting well. 

Back then, Sit Ting was the best g-chef in the south. She might be an imperial chef, but many from both the North and South had offered vast sums of money to invite Sit Ting to cook for their banquets. Despite this, Sit Ting didn’t leave the imperial kitchen and continued being an imperial chef. Nobody understood her actions except for Kan Hang. Because only staying in the Tranquil Palace would allow her to be with his majesty.  

“One and Only Fish Head” was one of Sit Ting’s most famous dishes. The culprit used a unifish as bait; such an ingredient was irresistible to a g-chef like how a powerful weapon would be irresistible to a glipher. 

He could hear footsteps coming from afar. Along with the fierce expression on his face and his killing aura, Kan Hang disappeared. 

In no time, two men came to Sit Ting’s house. They heaved a sigh of relief on seeing the dead body. “Chop her head off, we need to bring it back to report.”

“Mhmm.” 

Immediately, one of them took out a shiny knife. Gorgeous rays of colourful light shone brightly on the blade, and it had a dangerous aura. If Chui Yim or Chan Lai Faat were here, they would immediately be able to tell that this was a grade three weapon. 

“Hold on,” the other man spoke abruptly and looked into the house. 

This house consisted of two rooms. One was smaller in size and another bigger. Children’s clothes and toys could be seen in the smaller room tidily. “Why is there a child’s room here?”

“Could it be…” 

Both men exchanged glances. They stared at each other in disbelief as they felt that they had discovered a huge secret. 

“Report?” A cold voice rang across the house, making both men look up in shock. Subconsciously, they rushed out of the house only to realise that their surroundings had turned pitch black as if night had fallen. 

“Imperial Guard Nightwalker!” The men shrieked simultaneously. 

“I see that you recognise me. You must be someone decently powerful, huh? Hmm, I see that it’s the famous Light of Cycle Knife. You must be the Light of Cycle’s Assassin, Tam Kwong, right?” 

Fear washed over their faces when they realised that it was Kan Hang. However, after exchanging a glance, determination took over fear. 

Tam Kwong, who was holding onto the fancy knife, let out a growl. Both of his hands and stomach lit up despite being covered in black cloth to hide the gliphs. He activated the energliph in all three of his chambers to insert into the knife, making the Light of Cycle Knife lit up brightly with colourful rays.

“There’s no point.” The cold voice rang out again. “I see that you still dare to resist after knowing who I am, huh? Daring indeed.” 

It was as if the night had descended on them suffocatingly. However, Tam Kwong’s shout was heard again. “Three Cycle Knife!” 

“First cycle: Life!” 

“Second cycle: Death!” 

“Third cycle: Rebirth!” 

Tam Kwong screamed as blood flowed out of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The knife lit up brightly once again, lighting the dark sky up. 

“Slash!” Immediately, Tam Kwong vomited blood. 

The colourful lights that lit up the sky shrunk together, turning into a short ray of knife-shaped light that headed towards a certain direction. 

Boom! 

The night screen was hard to break, but he still managed to cut a hole big enough to fit half a body. “Go!” After that attack, Tam Kwong was exhausted as he shouted. 

Next to him, the man’s foot lit up. This light belonged to his gliph, symbolising that he was a glipher who had successfully broken through his feet chambers. He was already in the three-chambered state. It looked like he was standing still, but he had already left by activating his gliph. He was already gone, leaving behind afterimages. 

When Kan Hang realised it, the man had already left through the hole that only lasted for half a second. 

“Do you think you can flee?” The night screen fell, revealing Kan Hang. He tried to chase after the shadow but was attacked. Kan Hang dodged the attack subconsciously and cancelled his gliphility. 

Now it was too late for him to go after him. 

Kan Hang took a deep breath to calm himself down. He was too careless, as Sit Ting’s death caused him to lose focus. Tam Kwong was an arrow at the end of its flight. He should have taken down the attack forcefully instead and not stopped his gliphility. But he had judged wrongly. 

One step slower was equivalent to being slower for the rest of the chase. He wouldn’t be able to catch up with the man anymore. 

Kan Hang turned around to Tam Kwong. “Indeed the unwanted disciple of the Four Season Heaven. It’s such a pity that you ended up as someone’s lackey.”

Hearing him, Tam Kwong burst into laughter. The sight of blood flowing out of his seven apertures was hard to look at. “Kan Hang, the famous Powerful Nightwalker is also just the Emperor’s watchdog. Stop acting like you’re so noble.” 

However, Kan Hang wasn’t angered by him. He continued to stare at him silently as if he wanted to decipher something from Tam Kwong’s face. “Since you know my name, you should know my style too.”

“Of course, but I won’t give you a chance.” 

Sensing something, Kan Hang dashed up towards Tam Kwong, who wore a smile on his face while his hands and belly lit up. 

“Damn it!” Kan Hang cursed and turned into a shadow. The next second, he appeared next to Sit Ting. Ignoring the poison, he hugged Sit Ting’s body and vanished once more. 

Boom! A noise could be heard coming a hundred metres away from the house. Kan Hang immediately put Sit Ting’s body down gently, ignoring his hands that had turned black. He stared at the house sadly. 

Black serpent blossom poison might be deadly, but it had its limit too. One below the two-chamber state would definitely die, but you would have enough energliph to deal with it if you were above the three-chambered state. As a four-chambered glipher, the poison only slightly affected Kan Hang, but it wouldn’t kill him. 

With Kan Hang’s strength, it should have been a piece of cake for him to kill Tam Kwong and his companion. But due to Sit Ting’s death, he lost focus and turned both gliphers into his punching bag. Adding on some skills that Tam Kwong stole from the Four Season Heaven and sacrificing his life, Tam Kwong managed to forcefully create a hole in his gliphility. 

Just as he was about to capture Tam Kwong alive to question him, Tam Kwong chose to commit suicide by bursting his chambers instead of letting him. He remembered the large amount of poison on Sit Ting and the extremely fast glipher that worked with Tam Kwong. From their teamwork, it was evident that it had been discussed and planned beforehand. As soon as he appeared, the both of them decided to escape immediately. 

Tam Kwong’s forceful skills allowed the speed-type glipher to escape. Their decisiveness and chemistry… 

Fishmonger, Black serpent blossom poison, Tam Kwong, speed-type glipher…

Kan Hang saw the connection between them. There was an invisible hand behind all this, and it was way more powerful than he had thought. This meant that whatever he could think of, they could too. 

Since I guessed that the boy must be his highness’s illegitimate child, the person behind all this will also think of it as soon as that glipher reports this. If they are here for Sit Ting, they won’t let the child off either. This means that the most important thing now is to get the child and protect him. 

No! 

He had to bring him back to the South Imperial City, Tranquil Palace; nowhere in the South was safer! 

Kan Hang took a glance at Sit Ting’s body, not knowing what to feel. He admired this woman who was willing to give up everything for Emperor Lam, and more than once he wanted to convince the emperor to take her in, but alas, he didn’t due to his status. 

This is why he had always felt guilty towards Sit Ting. And thus despite being seemingly annoyed when the emperor ordered him to protect Sit Ting, he did all he could as he wanted to make it up to her. Now that she was gone, Kan Hang felt even guiltier. 

I must do anything it takes! Even if it means exchanging my life to protect the child! 

He took out a palm-sized sachet pouch from his pocket and dug tons of items up from it. It was hard to imagine how much he could fit inside this pouch. Kan Hang then stuffed Sit Ting’s body in. 

“Huff…” After keeping Sit Ting’s body, he let out a sigh of relief and turned into a ball of black shadow, vanishing once more.