The Tang Sect Crisis

Chapter 9

A Load of Worthless Goods

(1)

The dispute between Tang Yu and Tang Zhi had gradually expanded and had become a great crisis for the Tang Sect of Shu.

Tang Yu and the old patriarch of Hangzhou, Old Tang, were not very close, but they were aligned on the same side.

As for Old Tang, Tang Zhi naturally had a deep hatred for him.

In order to expand his power base, over the last few years Tang Zhi had recruited many masterhands of the dark path to join his Evil Sect.

His main goal was to strike at Tang Yu and Tang Baixiao.

Old Tang was also one of his targets.

But this matter also involved Healer Valley’s Valleylord Xu Qiaozhi.

Actually Xu Qiaozhi didn’t have much interest in the Tang Sect of Shu’s dispute.

He was the master of Healer Valley, so he was busy enough as it was.

But Tang Zhi had his sights set on Healer Valley.

Even though Healer Valley and the Evil Sect minded their own business, in recent years Healer Valley’s miracle doctors had saved the lives of many people who had been wounded by Evil Sect members.

If it had been some other gang, Healer Vally might not have been blamed.

Healer Valley was a sacred place.

Healer Valley’s doctors were a great benefit to the martial world and had long ago won the support of the martial world.

Not just the righteous among the martial world, even dark pathers held Healer Valley in great esteem and had more words of praise for it than slander.

Healer Valley was a peaceful place.

The people of Healer Valley rarely got involved in jianghu disputes and rarely roamed the jianghu.

Really it was only Xu Qiaozhi would had any activity in the jianghu.

Xu Qiaozhi after all was a young man, and he had two friends who were constantly getting in trouble.

These two “trouble making” friends of course were Long Chengbi and Wei Kongkong.

Sometimes even though Xu Qiaozhi hadn’t offended anyone, there would still be people who came for no reason to seek revenge against him.

This was blowback from trouble Long Chengbi and Wei Kongkong had made on the outside now falling on Xu Qiaozhi.

These people had been driven a bit mad by Long Chengbi or Wei Kongkong and later when looking for them to get revenge, but some of them didn’t have the guts to find them, and some simply couldn’t find them, so they just went to Healer Valley to find Xu Qiaozhi instead and put Long Chengbi’s and Wei Kongkong’s debt on his head.

This all seemed pretty absurd and ridiculous.

However, jianghu grudges were often tangled like this. Not everyone clearly distinguished their grudges.

In the jianghu everyone stressed clearly distinguishing ones grudges, there were even more who confounded right from wrong and often acted on impulse, making a complete mess of things, and so the enmities and disputes incurred grew bigger and bigger.

This was quite unjust.

But jianghu people often liked to make trouble for themselves and thus ended up giving themselves an unjust outcome.

Jianghu people.

Ah!

Weren’t they just a bit too pitiful?

× × ×

Jianghu people had their pitiful side.

But jianghu people also had their times worth being proud of.

Especially the miracle doctors of Healer Valley. They were not just profoundly skilled doctors, they were also master martial arts adepts.

Healer Valley’s number one miracle doctor, Shi Jiugong was one of these outstanding talents.

His medical sill was boasted to be number one in the martial world of the Central Plains.

But his irritable temper and eccentricity also made him one of the ones who “walked alone in the jianghu”.

There was a time when he wouldn’t treat anyone’s ailment.

But right now, the Shi Jiugong who refused to treat anyone had changed.

He’d become very enthusiastic.

As long as the person was worth treating, he would not give it a second thought bu treat the patient’s ailment right away.

Claiming his medical skill as number one in the world was no exaggeration.

Forget the others, just using the Great Head Stealing Xia Wei Kongkong as an example, he had once been seriously wounded, and if not for Shi Jiugong’s sublime medical skill, Wei Kongkong would have “departed” long ago.

But Wei Kongkong hadn’t died.

He didn’t want to die, and Shi Jiugong was not about to let him die.

Shi Jiugong hoped that Wei Kongkong could do his best to live longer, at best till he was 800.

He hoped that Wei Kongkong’s sword would chop off more jianghu scum’s heads, the more the better!

It wasn’t because Shi Jiugong was ruthless and just wanted more and more murders to just keep taking place, it was because in the past century the martial world of the Central Plains had become much too “fucking ridiculous”!

How had the martial world of the Central Plains become so pestilent, such a hot mess?

The main reason could be summed up in twelve words:

“A demonic aura far and wide, dholes and wolves hold the power!”

× × ×

Over the past two years the miracle doctors of Healer Valley had treated a number of people’s injuries, and some of those had been harmed by the Evil Sect.

Healer Valley didn’t go after the Evil Sect, didn’t even say a word about their criminal acts.

They did their best not to invite trouble.

These doctors were all elderly. They didn’t go looking for trouble not because they were afraid but because their work was already very demanding.

Healer Valley’s doctors didn’t revile the Evil Sect, but Shi Jiugong was an exception.

He was an old eccentric who feared nothing and no one.

Shi Jiugong had an intense dislike for the Evil Sect, even beating two of their warriors to death with his fists.

Those two Evil Sect warriors really did have it coming.

When Shi Jiugong bombarded them in the top of the head with his fists, they weren’t even wearing any pants.

They had been engaged in debauchery, teaming up to gang rape a mentally challenged girl.

When Shi Jiugong saw that steam nearly came out of his nostrils.

His fists didn’t hold back, but bombarded their skulls like huge boulders.

His two fists went to town on them, and he did so in the utmost secrecy. The Evil Sect looked into it, but couldn’t find out who had beaten these two unlucky warriors to death.

Even though the Evil Sect couldn’t find the culprit, Tang Zhi was already becoming more and more dissatisfied with Healer Valley.

Tang Zhi investigated over and over and learned that Xu Qiaozhi and the Tang family of Hangzhou was friends, and his murderous intent rose.

He decided he had to deal with Healer Valley, had to attack Healer Valley.

× × ×

The twelve halfmasked blackclothed people were all Evil Sect slaves.

Their minds had been destroyed by a drug, rendering them idiots.

But they had not lost their martial arts.

Tang Zhi used their martial arts to do evil among the jianghu, and it had not happened overnight.

Xu Qiaozhi saw it clearly.

Tang Zhi’s martial arts was incredible, plus these twelve dimwitted masked blackclothed people, and his strength grew.

Could Han Xiang resist him?

× × ×

The goods that the Han Family Escort Agency were transporting this time you could say were completely worthless, but you could also say they were priceless.

Turns out this load of goods was a load of rare, strange herbs.

Xu Qiaozhi had hired dozens of veteran herb collectors to go deep into the mountains and remote highlands, undergoing untold hardships to pick these medicinal herbs.

These herbs were not worth a single copper to someone who didn’t know medicine.

But for the miracle doctors of Healer Valley, these herbs were priceless treasures.

Tang Zhi was actually very well-informed.

Once he learned that the Han Family Escort Agency was transporting this load of goods, he began to deploy his plan.

The plan’s goal was to rob the load of medicinal herbs.

The Han Family Escort Agency this time had received a very important job. These herbs meant life or death for a number of patients. No one other than Tang Zhi would want anything unfortunate to happen to these herbs.

As the valleylord of Healer Valley, Xu Qiaozhi was very concerned about these herbs!

So he made the arduous trip to Suzhou and followed behind, protecting the load of herbs in secret.

Sure enough, the mission ran into trouble.

Tang Zhi attacked the Han Family Escort Agency in Hangzhou’s Shady Grove.

× × ×

Liang Ping’s temper had never been good.

When he saw the twelve idiot blackclothers he felt an indignation difficult to pacify.

But he was not a person who couldn’t distinguish right from wrong.

He could see the dull expressions on these twelve people. They were obviously being controlled by Evil Sect drugs.

This kind of enemy was the most difficult to deal with.

They weren’t necessarily evil people, they might even be chivalrous people. Of course they wouldn’t willingly submit to Tang Zhi’s command, so he had to use this despicable method.

This kind of enemy was difficult to kill, but also difficult not to kill.

Fighting at close quarters, if you didn’t kill them, someone else would spear you to death.

But now the Han Family Escort Agency was faced with a problem. Could they handle the twelve blackclothers’s spear formation?

× × ×

Though there was a cool breeze blowing through Shady Grove, the temperature here seemed to be hotter than outside.

Tang Zhi had an enigmatic smile on his face as he stood their as if nailed to the ground with his hands behind his back.

He suddenly issued a strange whistle.

At the sound of the whistle, the twelve blackclothers charged at the Han Family Escort Agency people like madmen.

Though their minds weren’t clear, their formation was shipshape and tidy.

Who would dare slight such a force?

But Han Xiang’s greatsabre stopped them in their tracks.

Han Xiang’s nickname was the Boneshatter Claw King, but the hard work he’d put into his greatsabre was by no means less than what he’d put into his ten fingers.

When his greatsabre came out, the sunlight through Shady Grove seemed to dim.

At the same time, Liang Ping’s butcher knife began showing off its might.

These two blades, one large, one small, could put people to death all the same.

But the twelve blackclothers’ spear formation was extraordinarily tight.

These two blades were mighty, but they couldn’t break up the spear formation.

Tang Zhi’s face was expressionless.

His gaze wasn’t set on the battle, but on a copse of willow trees.

That was precisely where Xu Qiaozhi was standing.

(2)

Xu Qiaozhi didn’t like to outdo anyone, but he also didn’t like to remain half-hidden.

He had always considered himself straightforward and upright.

And he really was straightforward and upright. But though he wouldn’t just go out looking for trouble, when trouble came to him he would never shrink back.

Tang Zhi wanted to rob these herbs, so it was of course Xu Qiaozhi’s responsibility to stop him from doing that.

Xu Qiaozhi stood there naturally and easily.

Tang Zhi finally got a good look at his face behind the willow tree.

But his gaze quickly went to the gold sabre hanging from Xu Qiaozhi’s belt.

He smiled indifferently.

“Is that Valleylord Xu gracing us here with his presence?”

“That indeed is me.”

Tang Zhi’s eyes seemed to light up considerably. “This chairperson has heard that Your Excellency is the valleylord most fond in all of Healer Valley’s history of wandering about outside. It seems that rumor is true.”

Xu Qiaozhi shook his head. “My lowly self is not wandering about.”

“Oh!” Tang Zhi sneered.

Xu Qiaozhi’s eyes flashed. Slowly, he said, “People with nothing to do but loaf about all over the place can be said to be wandering about, but I don’t have nothing to do at the moment and am definitely not loafing about all over the place, so how can I be said to be wandering about?”

Tang Zhi pondered this, then after a time suddenly said, “Hangzhou is a beautiful place, but even the most beautiful place will become repulsive when it’s stained with the reek of blood.”

Xu Qiaozhi smiled coldly. “Not just repulsive, but evil.”

“Repulsive” and “evil” suddenly seemed to be the same thing, but the connotation was different.

For instance, a person could have a repulsive appearance, but that repulsiveness was not evil.

Yet evil could occur in the most good-looking, most beautiful person.

Tang Zhi was not good-looking and certainly was not beautiful.

Even if he were younger, his appearance would not be complimented.

But that wasn’t evil.

True evil wasn’t shown in the face, but resided in one’s heart.

× × ×

Evil.

Tang Zhi was a person who had an indissoluble bond with the word “evil”.

Some said that the Tang Sect of Shu was an evil family.

But that was not fair.

Without a doubt, the Tang Sect of Shu excelled in the use of poisons and was famous throughout the world, but not everyone’s heart was as venomous as their poisons.

For instance the current head of the Tang Sect, Tang Baixiao. He did not at all have a venomous heart.

Tang Jian was known as one of the Three Great Poison Kings, but his poisonings were restricted to evildoers.

As for Tang Yu, he all the more upheld righteousness. Consequently this serious conflict with Tang Zhi had unfolded.

Tang Zhi had expanded his power outside of the Tang Sect of Shu with a twofold objective in mind.

His first objective was to dominate the martial world.

His second objective was to get ready to use overwhelming force to go back to the Tang Sect of Shu and known down Tang Baixiao and rule the Tang Sect.

× × ×

The twelve blackclothers were already engaged in a bloody, hair-raising battle.

Two of the Han Family Escort Agency’s escorts also used spears.

But theirs weren’t long spears but a pair of short steel spears.

A short steel spears was small, but its killing power was not at all inferior to any long spear.

But these escorts’ short spears just could not get close to the twelve blackclothers.

Sploch!

One of the escorts was stabbed in the chest.

His blood was dark red.

His eyes also became dark red.

Xu Qiaozhi’s complexion altered slightly.

The twelve were not clearminded, but the spearplay they used was deadly.

And only people like them could use such a ferocious spearplay heedless of their own lives.

Tang Zhi suddenly eyed Xu Qiaozhi.

“You ought to be able to see now who will win this battle?”

Xu Qiaozhi said, “I can’t see, not can I hear what you are saying.”

Tang Zhi said, “This chairperson doesn’t want to kill you. So long as you leave, I guarantee you will be safe and sound.”

Xu Qiaozhi laughed coldly. “Why do you want to run me off? You think I’m the only one who will defend these herbs?”

Tang Zhi kept a straight face and suddenly heaved a long sigh. “Since you insist on dying here, this chairperson has no choice but to grant you your wish!”

Just as he spoke those last words, a puff of thick purple smoke suddenly shot out of his left sleeve.

Xu Qiaozhi quickly stepped back.

Tang Zhi laughed coldly, “Heh! So you do fear death.”

Xu Qiaozhi didn’t open his mouth to speak, because if he opened his mouth he would immediately inhale the noxious fumes.

Xu Qiaozhi had seen this kind of noxious cloud before.

Anyone who breathed in these noxious fumes would have his head turn into a mass of pus and blood.

Because this was the Tang Sect’s most vicious poisonous gas, called “Head Melting Ten Scent Fog”.

Tang Zhi gave a thin smile and said, “Even if you step back quicker, there’s only one road you can back down.”

Xu Qiaozhi knew of course what road he was talking about.

The road to the Yellow Springs, the road to death that led straight to Fengdu City!

But Xu Qiaozhi wasn’t frightened. He remained so composed, so calm.

In Shady Grove, everything was enveloped in a murderous aura, and the pungent stench of blood began to waft about in all directions.

It was a hot summer afternoon, so everyone’s blood and sweat that flowed was scorching hot.

(3)

A li to the northeast of Hangzhou was an ancient temple.

There were no monks in the temple, no nuns, just an old husband and wife.

Though the temple wasn’t far from Hangzhou, there was not much incense burned here.

Every year there were very few pilgrims who came to this temple, and this couple led a hard life.

Why was that?

As a matter of fact, there was a coffin home1 opposite the temple.

It was a terrifying corpse inn.

The coffin home wasn’t old, rather it had been built by an old squire a few years ago.

The temple didn’t get much incensed burned there, but the leased farmstead was quickly full of “guests”.

Ever since the coffin home filled up and had “no vacancies”, the place had had a ghostly atmosphere. They said that in the middle of the night it was still haunted.

The coffin house originally had two night watchmen.

But only one night watchman was left, because the other one had died three months ago.

He had been strangled to death by one of the coffin home ghosts.

× × ×

A coffin home was originally a “residence” for the dead.

This “residence” of the dead was haunted, and this was not something that very many people would sat was preposterous.

Despite the fact that many people didn’t believe in the supernatural, the belief in ghosts was spoken on good grounds, and there were many who claimed to have personally seen ghosts.

In short, there were those who believed in hauntings, and those who didn’t.

Now, one of the two night watchmen was dead, and had been strangled to death by a ghost.

If he hadn’t been strangled to death by a ghost, then how had his neck been wrung so bad it looked like rotten tofu?”

Allegedly, only a ghost had that kind of strength, and that a person was not able to do that.

× × ×

“Allegedly” is sometimes reliable, but sometimes it was utter nonsense.

Which “allegedly” was this?

In Hangzhou, the vast majority believed that the old night watchman had really been strangled to death by a ghost.

But there were exceptions.

For instance, Old Tang. He didn’t believe for a second in the rumor that the night watchman had been strangled to death by a ghost.

× × ×

Old Tang was back.

He’d heard of this story before he returned to Hangzhou.

Old Tang was obstinate, so he didn’t believe a word about a ghost strangling someone to death.

He was called the Patriarch of Hangzhou, nearly everything in and outside of Hangzhou was under his jurisdiction.

Though he was not an official, there were not many who would dare disobey anything he said or ordered.

Why was he so anxious to get back to Hangzhou from Evil Valley?

Turns out he suddenly received a secret missive from the Beggars Gang informing him that masterhands of the Evil Sect were gathering in batches in Hangzhou.

Clearly, Tang Zhi was readying to attack the Tang family of Hangzhou.

× × ×

Hangzhou was Old Tang’s hometown and was the place he loved most.

Anyone who intentionally infringed on a single clump of dirt of piece of wood in Hangzhou would have to deal with him.

Tang Zhi was his clan relative, but a clan relative like that was worse than a stray dog.

Internal strife in the Tang Sect was a foregone conclusion. Old Tang hadn’t wanted to get drawn into it, but for the sake of Tang Yu and Tang Baixiao, he felt he really couldn’t stay out of it.

Luckily Old Tang wasn’t a spineless person. He wasn’t afraid of Tang Zhi, and he wasn’t afraid of ghosts!

And so the first thing he did when he got back to Hangzhou was go catch a ghost!