Night of the Broken Gliph

Chui Yim’s reactions were already quick, yet his reflexes were of no use when facing a glipher who was two states higher than him. To a two-chambered glipher, it was as simple as a piece of cake to take down a commoner, or the extraordinarily but stateless Chui Yim who stood no advantage against the glipher. Since he had yet to break through to his first state, his body couldn’t keep up with his fast reaction. 

The other party was no doubt a double leg-chambered glipher. Most gliphers tattooed gliphs according to their chamber’s property; like how double arm chambered gliphers usually selected offensive gliphs, speed or agility type gliphs for double leg chambered gliphers, and gliphs that boost the glipher’s physical ability for heart and wind-chambered glipher. 

Similarly, the two-chambered glipher did the same too. He moved at an astonishing speed that overwhelmed Chui Yim greatly, leaving him with no room to resist. Despite this, Chui Yim made a simple move and pulled something out from his clothes. 

Pfff! 

Chui Yim took an attack on his chest, vomiting a pool of blood immediately. 

“Eh?” The two-chambered glipher gasped. As an assasination type glipher, he was no stranger to conducting assassinations on commoners. It came as a shock to him that the boy who just took an attack of his was still alive.

He tried to catch up with Chui Yim but was blinded by a strong light that was just like a sun in the dark. The entire Tse Clan was lit up, and a miserable shriek belonging to the two-chambered glipher was heard, followed by tears flowing down his cheeks. He was blinded, literally, by the brilliant light. 

Chui Yim opened his eyes slowly. Prepared, he closed his eyes beforehand. He was beyond pale, with bright red blood stained on the corner of his mouth. However, he wore a fierce look on his face as he held a stick that was neither made of metal nor wood of half an arm’s length. Ignoring the serious injury on his chest, Chui Yim struggled to get up, putting the result of his daily training for the past years into use. 

Like a beast who was at a dead end, Chui Yim pounced onto the glipher for his last counter attack and pierced the unknown stick into his belly hard. 

“Ah!” The glipher howled in pain, sending a kick subconsciously. Chui Yim flew into the side courtyard like a sandbag from the energliph-filled attack.

Within no time, an angry growl boomed acrossed the area. “How dare you commit an act of assasination in my Tse Clan!” This was not an ordinary roar, but an attack itself. Just as the sentence came to an end, the glipher felt extremely dizzy and was unable to move a single step. 

A figure appeared in front of the glipher—it was none other than Tse Chun. His grizzled hair danced in the windless air, looking like a raging lion whose mane danced amongst the wind.

“Tse Chun Ho? It’s you!?” What made him all the more angry was that the glipher was part of the Tse Clan!  

“Clan leader! Please spare my life! That’s all…” Hearing Tse Chun, the glipher who just lost his sight, Tse Chun Ho cried out. 

Just as he was saying, another bellow was heard. “How dare you raid our noble guest? Die!” 

“Wait!” 

Tse Chun’s voice solidified immediately, and numerous strings coiled around the figure. It was the man that killed Chi Ping back at the meeting hall. “Chun, why did you stop me! Betrayers should be punished immediately!” 

“Tse Kai Shan, I’m the Tse Clan’s leader, so please address me as clan leader despite you being my father-in-law. Rules are rules,” Tse Chun spoke coldly. 

The elderly man holding a sword in his hands wore an uncertain expression on his face. “Clan leader, please release me immediately so I could take this traitor’s life!” 

“Clan leader! I plead your mercy! It's all Elder Tse Kai Shan’s orders! I’m sure that the clan leader is aware that I’m under him!” Hearing this, Tse Chun Ho cried loudly. 

“Tse Chun Ho!” Tse Kai Shan’s face fell instantly at his words. “Did I treat you badly? Why did you have to frame me?” 

Knowing that his life was on the line, Tse Chun Ho spoke rapidly, “Clan leader! I’m just an ordinarily two-chambered glipher in the clan, who only heeds an elder’s instruction. Why would I dare to raid our clan’s noble guest otherwise? Moreover, doesn’t clan leader find it weird that Elder Tse Kai Shan just took Doctor Chi’s life without hesitation the previous day when they are so close-knitted! Clan leader…” 

“Shut up!” Tse Chun yelled, making Tse Chun Ho bleed through his eyes, nose and mouth. Unable to believe what just happened, Tse Chun Ho fell backwards and breathed his last breath. 

“Hphmm! So what if it’s an order! How are you worthy of being a Tse Clan member if all you do is follow instructions blindly!” 

“Clan leader, I can explain…” Looking at Tse Chun Ho’s body, Tse Kai Shan wore an ugly expression on his face. 

“I’m very interested in your explanation too.” Tse Chun stared at Tse Kai Shan. “I’ve always held great respect for you, even taking in your daughter as a concubine and addressing you as my father-in-law. But why did you collude with Doctor Chi to do such things to Yu Bak? Why!? Why did you!” Tse Chun was truly upset at the fact. 

“Why?” Calming down, Tse Kai Shan wore a smirk on his face instead. “It’s because we are in a clan. Don’t you know how much a clan values bloodline? But Yu Bak inherited the talent of you and our ancestors, making him a gifted child. How many more years will we have to live under you if Yu Bak took over the clan? We are part of the clan too, and we want to rise and take over the clan! 

“Thus I placed my hands on Yu Bak. It was scripted perfectly. Yu Bak will lose his talent and after some time, his body will explode, taking his life. You’ll lose hope over it and take another concubine. The descendant my daughter gave birth to is growing well too. If everything goes well, the child would become the next Clan Leader. It’s a simple plan.” 

“Simple?” Tse Chun threw an icy glare at Tse Kai Shan. He might no longer be young, but still majestic. “Short-sighted! Why do you think clans are formidable? Because we have power. Without enough power, we are just a piece of dessert in other’s eyes. We were able to maintain our stand in the world because I’m still around. What do you think we are left with to secure the Night Lion City if I’m dead and there’s nobody to take over the clan?” 

“Well, I’d rather the Tse Clan perish if we have to live under you or Yu Bak for another hundreds years!” Tse Kai Shan said with an expressionless face. 

n till he trembled. There was nothing left for him to say. “For the fact that I’ve been calling you my father-in-law, I’ll be courteous. Take your own life.” 

Tse Kai Shan felt the energy controlling him disperse, but he wasn’t slightly relieved as he knew that he definitely wouldn’t be able to escape the South’s old yet majestic lion. 

“The one that loses will always be at fault,” Tse Kai Shan said, looking at Tse Chun. “It might all be fated that Yu Bak will meet that damn boy who destroyed my plan of ten years in a day. But clan leader, ambition is what drives us crazy, and I’m definitely not the only one with such a mindset. This is a clan… A clan!” Tse Kai Shan’s vitality seeped out of his eyes and he laid on the ground motionlessly.

“Madman. You’re the only one who has such huge wild schemes,” Tse Chun commented coldly at both bodies before ignoring them, reaching the destroyed side courtyard within no time. 

Chui Yim laid on the ground, obviously unconscious. At the same time, the Tse Clan’s residence was brightly lit up. Bak Wun and Chor Shing Chit rushed over and were worried to see Chui Yim unconscious. But since Tse Chun had taken the perpetrator’s life on the spot, there was nothing else they could say. 

But Tse Chun wore a complex look. He has yet to reach his first state, yet was able to survive a two-chambered state glipher’s attack, and even counterattack… Moreover, his superb skills in medicine and appropriate suggestion when Fourth Elder was tattooing gliph into Yu Bak… 

Tse Chun had always thought Yu Bak was a talent that was out of the world. But in comparison to this little monster…

The next day, Tse Yu Bak woke up to a piece of extremely upsetting news. Since he was still young, in the night where he was drunk, Tse Chun had already “cleansed” Tse Kai Shan’s bloodline, butchering all who were related to Tse Yu Bak’s poisoning and Chui Yim’s incident in a night. When Tse Yu Bak woke up, the storm had passed, and it was a brand new day. 

He went to visit Chui Yim right away, only to be greeted with a wave by an awakened and pale Chui Yim. “Yo.” 

Tse Yu Bak was left speechless. How can he still be so relaxed after all this?  “Brother Chui, are you alright?” 

“Just a few broken ribs, thanks to your clan’s great doctors. If not for them, I’ll really have to spend a few months here at your home.” 

“I’ve heard all about it from my father, brother Chui. How did you manage to do so?” Tse Yu Bak sat down, staring at Chui Yim weirdly. 

“Oh,” Chui Yim replied and pulled something out of his clothes with great difficulty. It was exactly the stick that he stuck in Tse Chun Ho’s abdomen. “Your clan gave me that unpleasant old Chi’s treasure. I can’t nourish nor use it, but I made some changes to it. I erased all auras connected to that old guy, only salvaging the energliph he left behind, But without continued nourishment, it’s a flower without roots. This will turn into trash one day when all energliph is used up.

“So I broke the cane into five pieces, sealing each with fire-forge to store the energliph for a longer time. However, it’s a one time thing, after yesterday, that part of the cane is useless now.” 

Bak Wun and Chor Shing Chit who were listening to Chui Yim couldn't help but exchange glances. Both of them were mysterious people with powerful backgrounds, but Chui Yim’s words made them sweat cold sweat because they had never heard of such a way to use a treasure. 

For gliphists, their treasure would turn useless if it was stolen or the owner was dead. Yet this twelve year old kid spoke about recycling; no wonder he shut himself in the forging workshop for a month. Now Bak Wun and Chor Shing Chit felt that having a single brain wasn’t enough. 

“That’s not what I’m asking.” Tse Yu Bak shook his head. “How could you remain calm under a two-chambered state glipher’s attack? If it was me, I’d be too shocked to react even given that we have the same tools. So brother Chui, how are you able to have such courage and calmness despite your age?” 

Chui Yim looked at him in a daze, but cracked into a smile when the memory of him being killed in his past life came to his mind. “Trust me, your big brother has seen worse than this.”