Chapter 307: The Fire in Chang’an (9)

Qing didn’t know so many assassination request offices existed in the city.

Of course, since Qing doesn’t know anything in general, it’s not surprising that she didn’t know.

But this time, even anyone who wasn’t in the industry wouldn’t have known well, because this market suddenly grew and offices increased.

Originally there were only two or three assassination request offices in a city, and they were originally set up in black spots.

But because the black spots suddenly went underwater, the assassination industry struggling to receive customers started opening several civilian offices in the city to take requests.

So since the system wasn’t properly established yet, although Qing didn’t intend it, it was an optimal time to stab those assassin bastards.

But Qing’s share in the black spots going underwater was 100%, entirely Qing’s achievement.

So in the end, Qing herself created this good timing.

The saying that heaven helps those who help themselves isn’t for nothing.

Past a poorly located teahouse with bad business in a bad commercial area, through a smelly area leading to the backyard toilet, there was a shabby attached basement door.

Opening that door and going down, surprisingly well-maintained facilities appeared along with burly guys with swords at their waists and uniformly dirty expressions standing guard here and there.

Hmm. Small fry.

Qing thought to herself.

In the Central Plains, burly men with dirty expressions are evaluated as the weakest among martial artists.

Because it’s usually a characteristic of thugs who can only swing swords without proper studies or proper martial techniques, called third-rate.

So while they may be great for intimidating civilians coming to make requests, to the Transcendent Qing, an ultra-master who has reached the Transcendent Realm, they’re just pathetic bastards, equally incompetent guys.

If I had to say, about as pathetic as Seol Yiri…

“Aiyoo.”

Qing sighed deeply.

She’s in no position to criticize assassin bastards for acting arrogant while keeping pathetic guys around.

Right next to Qing was only the Seol woman who was incompetence itself.

Seol Ganom said he had work to do for Seol Family Company today.

Of course, they didn’t just come alone recklessly, and Grandpa was waiting outside.

He said he’d set up a perimeter with company guard warriors outside in case Qing missed anything.

Company guard warriors. What a nice facade.

Grandpa is like that too, they’re just Demonic Cult guys, North Korean defectors since they came down from the north, he could just say it plainly and they probably wouldn’t harm them.

Qing was thinking various things as she walked click-clack through the basement.

When she reached a door roughly painted silver, the Seol Yiris, no, incompetent small fry guarding the door on both sides lowered their voices.

“Take off your veil and write your name.”

“Hmm. You’ll return it later, right?”

“Hurry up.”

This was something Seol Ganom had told her in advance.

What’s the best way for assassin bastards to ensure their safety?

By having the customer’s personal information, saying “If you betray us, you won’t be safe either.”

Of course, they don’t dare ask the identity of truly powerful people, because originally these back alley underworld bastards have the habit of being weak to the strong and strong to the weak.

So when Qing and Seol Yiri took off their veils, it gave the impression that the dim basement suddenly brightened.

It was the radiance emitted by two of the Six Flowers of Murim.

“……”

As if entranced, no, actually entranced, the two Seol Yiris, no, incompetent small fry just gaped stupidly and stared.

“Hey, aren’t you going to give me the register?”

“Yes, here it i- no, it is.”

At this, Qing obediently wrote her name in the register.

It was that handwriting that shocked the Hanlin Academy lecturer and impressed the world’s greatest calligrapher.

A-Qing. Seol Gunyoung.

There was no need to make up aliases.

Third-rate thug bastards don’t have the ability to recognize handwriting, because they’re illiterate. They just know white is paper and black is writing.

So when they opened the door and entered, there was a guy wearing a bamboo hat pulled low over his face sitting at a table trying to create an atmosphere.

In the not-so-large room, one guy each was trying to look imposing on the left, right, and back.

“Whew. How did such beauties come to such a rough place? I suppose the bastard who needs to die must have committed a truly great sin. Well, which bastard should we kill for you?”

The guy in the bamboo hat blew a whistle once and spoke in a lowered voice.

Because men think lowering their voice sounds cool, and the guy in the bamboo hat was also a man.

“Do you know a carpenter called Zhang Yi? He’s famous as a great carpenter.”

“Great Carpenter Zhang Yi. Good. Originally this would be a request that costs one gold tael, but since I’ve thoroughly feasted my eyes on your beauty today, I’ll do it for six silver taels, exactly half price.”

At this, Qing frowned.

“How can you kill someone who’s already dead? What, are you trying to pocket six silver taels for free by saying you’ll kill a dead person and then keeping your mouth shut?”

“Ahem. Originally in this business, if you don’t know you get taken advantage of. So if you’re not asking to kill someone who’s already dead, what business do you have?”

“I want to know who the assassin is that killed Carpenter Zhang. How much to bring him to me alive?”

“Oh my, oh my.”

The bamboo hat drawled annoyingly.

“Look here, miss. No matter how much we’re the scum of the earth, we at least have one true loyalty. Would we sell out our own people for money?”

“Ah. You’re family?”

“Well, if you put out about twenty gold taels, the higher-ups might consider it.”

“Twenty taels? You’re no different from robbers.”

“Do you have anything else to say? Well. The consultation fee will be three silver taels.”

And he pushed forward the silver tray in front of him.

Qing asked again.

“Forget the gold. How about paying with my body?”

At this, the bamboo hat hesitated.

“With your body, you say? Hoho. Well, with looks like yours…”

Then there was a finger poking Qing’s side.

When Qing turned her head, Seol Yiri was looking at her with a serious frown.

“You can’t do that.”

“Why? Do you have another way?”

Seol Yiri’s pupils shook anxiously.

Then suddenly, she grasped Qing’s hand tightly and spoke in a resolute voice.

“Then, I’ll do it instead.”

“Huh? Why would Guryeong do that?”

“I’ll protect you.”

“Well well, isn’t this a truly beautiful friendship. Then why don’t you both split it? Are you virgins by any chance? If so, I can give you a higher pri- oomph.”

The bamboo hat guy who was needlessly leering suddenly had his jaw firmly grasped by the world’s most beautiful and vicious hand, the White Hand of the White Hand Demonic Arts.

“Really, people only see what they want to see. Who said we’d provide it? You only have vulgar things in your head, so when I say pay with my body you spout that kind of nonsense.”

“Mmph. Mmph.”

At this, the bamboo hat’s eyes trembled.

And so did Seol Yiri’s eyes looking at Qing.

“Ah. I’m not cursing at Guryeong. Hmm. Honestly, I’m touched? I’m really grateful for the thought.”

Qing said this while feeling the bamboo hat guy’s hand clinging to her wrist.

And then she lightly plucked off his pinky finger.

It was a very light gesture, like plucking a single pine needle.

Thud.

The severed finger rolled onto the silver tray.

“There. I said I’d pay with my body, right? First an advance payment of one finger. Is it not enough? Well, just one finger is probably not enough. Wait, here, sting.”

And she plucked off one more.

Two fingers on the silver tray.

“Two fingers. Ah. Didn’t you say earlier that loyalty was the one true thing? Right. Well then, let’s start with three. Here. Sting.”

Three fingers on the silver tray.

But the bamboo hat was a seasoned assassin. He immediately drew a dagger from his bosom and thrust it towards Qing’s eyeball, wuduk.

“Damn. You startled me. I accidentally cut off your wrist without meaning to. Don’t worry. It broke cleanly so you can reattach it later. But.”

Qing smiled chillingly.

“Three is far from enough, right? Then you should say so, why start with the knife right away? Was it that insufficient?”

Four fingers on the silver tray. Five fingers.

The bamboo hat swung his fingerless palm, sending blood droplets flying in all directions.

“Now. You two over there. Stop moving. What’s this? The answer is sword force. It’s sparkling, isn’t it? Then since you didn’t get the right answer, punishment. Why don’t you drop your swords and kneel down?”

The thugs on the left and right had drawn their swords, but were at a loss what to do seeing the horrific sight of the physical transaction right before their eyes.

Seeing the faintly glowing white palm dripping with blood, the thugs obediently put down their swords and knelt.

“Mmph!! Ummph!!!”

“Stop blowing your breath, it tickles. Ah, is the body still not enough? Can’t be helped, I’ll be generous. Six.”

At this, the bamboo hat jerked his right hand up over his shoulder far away. It’s the hand that was cut and dangling loosely from careless knife work.

Qing’s left hand was gripping the receptionist’s jaw, so her right hand couldn’t reach the fingers still hanging from that limp wrist midway.

Qing wondered what to do now, first remove the jaw, no, removing the jaw doesn’t stop him from screaming.

First she needs to switch the jaw to her right hand, but to prevent screaming she needs to firmly grip the throat with her right hand, her left hand is hmm her right hand is.

Damn. I don’t know why people only have two hands.

However, Seol Yiri seemed to answer that.

The reason people have two hands is to help each other handle tasks.

Seol Yiri, who had suddenly stood up, firmly grasped the man’s dangling hand, and with her other hand gripped the thumb and snapped it with a wuduk.

Ah. Our Yiri here? This kind of awareness?

But, look at how she’s doing that.

She can’t even detach one finger.

She turned it up and down, left and right, twisted and shook it, but just couldn’t detach it.

Of course, you need Qing’s superhuman strength and hand technique to easily pluck them off, human fingers are surprisingly tough with bone, tendons, and flesh.

“If it won’t come off, just use a knife. Didn’t you drop one earlier?”

“Yes.”

And so six fingers on the tray.

Unlike the five with rough cut surfaces, one finger cleanly cut with a knife.

The fingers placed on the clean silver tray decorated with blood drops and liquid were impressive.

Somehow looking at it like this, modern art? The title could be something like Plucking vs Cutting.

“Hey. It’s six fingers. How many more do I need to give to find out that assassin bastard’s identity and where to catch him and so on?”

“Mmph. Mmph!”

“Ah. I told you it tickles. From now on, if you blow your breath it means the body’s not enough. Blink your eyes if it’s sufficient. Do you understand?”

At this, the bamboo hat blinked his eyes hard.

Qing finally let go of his jaw and wiped her hand on the man’s chest.

And sniff sniff, damn, it smells like saliva…

“How nice it would have been if you’d given it up when I asked nicely. Did I really need to go to all this trouble to pay with my body? How about it, aren’t six fingers worth about twenty gold taels?”

“It is! It is!”

“Well then. So where is that bastard? And the bastards who stabbed the master carpenters too.”

“Spare me, please spare my life.”

“Who said I’d kill you? Just give me their personal information.”

“That, even I don’t know that.”

“What? I’m pretty sure you said twenty gold taels. Are you overcharging while selling something you don’t have? Wow, this is quite detestable? As detestable as four fingers.”

“Please! That bastard is from Killing Curtain, which deals with Daheung! How would a low-level guy like me know the real personal information!”

“Huh? Then who knows?”

“Th-there’s a lavishly decorated golden door in the innermost part when you go out. The guy there works directly under Killing Curtain, so he’ll know, he definitely will!”

“A lavish door? You can tell right away?”

“Yes! You’ll know as soon as you see it!”

“Hmm. But doesn’t this not match the price? These six fingers here are worth twenty taels, but just the information that there’s someone who knows beyond a lavish door means I’m taking a huge loss, doesn’t it?”

If Cheon Yuhak knew, he would have clicked his tongue.

He told her to become a thief, but she became a robber.

And she’s acting like someone else’s fingers that she plucked off are her own money, so she’s a particularly vicious robber that can’t be associated with.

But even if Cheon Yuhak saw this, what could he do?

It’s Qing’s victory, as she’s already received all sorts of transmissions in the position of the next Divine Thief.

And so the world’s most vicious robber smiled with the face of the world’s most beautiful woman and said:

“Tell me everything you know. If it’s information worth about twenty gold ingots, I’ll let you live.”

Hmm. Unfortunately, the information was worthless.

And promises must be absolute.

I said I’d let him live if the information was worth twenty taels, but it’s not worth twenty taels.

Oh no. What to do? I can’t let him live?