Chapter 121 - Secrets of the Ghostbane Association

It had been a few days since their aerial escape from what was left of the Five Gods Summit, but Rao Shuang was still struggling to believe what she had seen.

Snap—

A crisp sound broke the silence, interrupting Rao Shuang’s thoughts. She turned her head and saw Tang Jinnian tapping ash from his pipe on the edge of the table, and looking at her in confusion.

Their table in the restaurant was loaded with food, the waiter had already served the dishes at some point.

"What are you daydreaming about?" Tang Jinnian asked as he set his pipe on the table and picked up his chopsticks.

"Nothing, nothing." Rao Shuang adjusted the hair by her ear, pulled out a pair of chopsticks from a holder, and tapped them against the table, ready to eat.

Tang Jinnian raised his eyebrows and glanced at Rao Shuang's left hand, which was still wrapped in gauze. He picked up some vegetables and put them in his bowl, casually asking, "Is your hand feeling any better?"

"

Hmm...

?" Rao Shuang was still chewing when she heard Tang Jinnian’s question. She hurriedly raised her head, chewed a few times in a hurry, and tried to swallow everything at once but ended up choking. She fumbled for the teapot to pour herself some water. Her teacup slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.

Crash—

Tang Jinnian frowned slightly and handed over his cup of tea. "What are you doing?"

Rao Shuang held the teacup with both hands and drank, finally catching her breath.

"Th-thank you..." Rao Shuang lowered her head. Recalling her earlier embarrassing moment, she felt a bit flustered.

Tang Jinnian put down his chopsticks, took up his pipe again. He eyed Rao Shuang and said, "You’ve been restless since we came down from the Five Gods Summit a few days ago... Now that I’m in the mood, feel free to ask me anything."

"Really?!" Rao Shuang exclaimed in surprise. She lifted her head and stared at Tang Jinnian in disbelief. She indeed had many questions burning up inside her that Tang Jinnian had ignored or that she didn't have the chance to ask.

Tang Jinnian frowned in displeasure. "Are you going to start asking or not?"

"

Uh-huh

!" Rao Shuang hurriedly nodded, then rested her chin on her hand, pondering in distress. "Let me think about where to start asking."

"Then forget about it." Tang Jinnian frowned as he brushed the ash from his pipe and said, "I don’t want to answer anymore."

"Don’t be like that!" Rao Shuang pressed down on Tang Jinnian's hand as he reached for his chopsticks. "I’ll ask! On that day on the mountain, you were surrounded by so many people, so why wouldn’t you take out a puppet to fight them? I remember seeing almost ten puppets with you that day, right?"

Tang Jinnian's mouth opened slightly, his eyes wide in surprise. "You still don’t know?"

Rao Shuang tilted her head in confusion. "How would I know? Did you ever tell me?"

"Oh my... how can there be such a stupid person in the world?" Tang Jinnian leaned back as if he were afraid of getting too close to her.

Rao Shuang's anger flared as she protested, "Hurry up and say it!"

Tang Jinnian glanced scornfully at her and said, "Where would I find puppets to fight them with? I had already controlled the puppets to climb up the mountainside, and only kept a single puppet by my side after crossing the bridge. How do you think I blew up that mountain?"

"You used your puppets to blow up the mountain?!" Rao Shuang exclaimed, covering her mouth in shock. "I was wondering when you had the chance to bury the explosives on the mountainside... I didn’t expect it to be your puppets!"

Tang Jinnian felt slightly embarrassed.

"Who could have guessed you could use your puppets as explosives?" Rao Shuang curiously looked at Tang Jinnian across the table. "But the distance from the mountainside to the top was probably hundreds of chi high. Can you still control the puppets from that far?"

Speaking up to now, Rao Shuang seemed to remember something and looked at the thin glove on Tang Jinnian's right hand, which he seemingly never took off.

"Actually, I found it strange a long time ago... back in Meizhou when you took my fan, I suspected that your method of manipulating puppets must be related to this glove. So when I found the chance to get close, I grabbed your right hand, hoping to prevent you from summoning your puppets..."

Tang Jinnian smiled at her, but his expression betrayed nothing.

Seeing that Tang Jinnian did not refute her, Rao Shuang paused and continued, "Before, I thought there must be some kind of invisible silk thread or something on your glove... but there really isn't, right?"

Rao Shuang looked up at Tang Jinnian, and although it was a question, her tone was very confident.

"After spending so much time with you, I've observed how freely you move. If there were indeed any silk threads or similar things, you definitely wouldn't be able to move around like that.

"So... what exactly is going on?" Rao Shuang stared intently at Tang Jinnian, afraid of missing a single word.

"Actually... there are threads." Tang Jinnian smiled, spreading his right hand on the table. Sunlight streamed through the window, and the glove that was woven with golden threads and silver lines gleaming softly.

"But they are not what you think they are."

Rao Shuang tilted her head and didn’t reply, waiting for Tang Jinnian to continue.

Tang Jinnian’s fingers gently waved as he gazed out the window. Suddenly, a strong wind swept outside, and cries of surprise came from the pedestrians on the street below. Rao Shuang turned to look and saw a shadow pass by.

A giant strange bird flapped its wings and landed on the roof across the street, its bright eyes staring this way! The exact same bird that had carried them down from the Five Gods Summit that day!

Rao Shuang's eyes widened as she looked at Tang Jinnian. Then, she turned to gaze at the giant bird across the street. She was completely speechless.

The strange bird only stayed for a moment before it flapped its wings and flew away.

It was only after the giant bird disappeared from view that Rao Shuang turned back to look at Tang Jinnian, appearing unsatisfied.

Tang Jinnian picked up the teacup in front of Rao Shuang and leisurely poured himself a cup of tea. Slowly, he began to speak, "Actually, it’s quite simple. True Qi is the thread, and internal Qi is the guide."

As he spoke, he turned his gloved palm over. "This glove is made from golden silkworm silk and the tendons of the snow dragon, which helps me condense my internal Qi into threads..."

Internal Qi condensing into threads!

Rao Shuang gasped upon hearing this. It sounded easy, but she had heard that only those who were incredibly powerful were able to release their internal Qi externally! She had never heard of anyone being able to control it so intricately.

Rao Shuang exhaled slowly. "Forsaken Phoenix ..."

"Hmm?" Tang Jinnian returned to Rao Shuang from his glove.

Rao Shuang swallowed hard and asked, "What rank are you exactly?"

Before Tang Jinnian could answer, Rao Shuang continued, "Although I have only been in the Ghostbane Association for less than two years, I am one of the Heaven-rankers.

"I have researched almost all of the powerful Heaven rankers... but I have never heard of anyone called Forsaken Phoenix... not to mention..."

Rao Shuang fell silent, staring into Tang Jinnian's eyes.

Tang Jinnian raised an eyebrow. "Not to mention being this powerful?"

Rao Shuang held onto the armrests of her chair tightly and slowly nodded.

"Most people only know that the Ghostbane Association is divided into the four ranks of Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Mortal"—Tang Jinnian picked up his pipe and lit it again—"Even among the Heaven-rankers, only a scarce few know there is yet another rank... Nihil."

"Nihil rank?" Rao Shuang looked even more puzzled. "What is that?"

"In fact, there was originally no such thing as the rank of Nihil, as the original meaning of Nihil was referring to those who could not be ranked. It’s just that the people who knew about it started calling those who could not be ranked, Nihil-rankers, which gradually became the title of those unrankables."

Tang Jinnian shook his head ruefully and chuckled.

"The so-called Nihil rank includes two types of people. One type is recognized by the Ghostbane Association as someone whose martial arts skills are much higher than those with a Heaven rank, making it impossible to categorize them as Heaven-rankers.

"These people are bestowed unique aliases by the Ghostbane Association, and those that are knowledgeable can instantly tell the aliases set them apart from the Heaven, Earth, Profound, or Mortal ranks, these special members are called Origin-Sequencers. The practice of granting a unique alias only began about seven years ago. It is said that there were no such rules within the Ghostbane Association before, but I’m not too clear on the specifics."

Rao Shuang frowned slightly; she could tell that Forsaken Phoenix definitely did not belong to this category. "Then what about the other type?"

"

Ha

..." Tang Jinnian squinted slightly and smiled arrogantly. "The other type belongs to those who are unwilling to accept the title given by the Ghostbane Association for one reason or another. For example, they might feel that the title given to them is not significant or grand enough. Or they think that the world is vast and they are the greatest, so the Ghostbane Association has no authority to decide their identities.

"There are many such reasons. Initially, there were quite a few of these people, as many were unable to accept the Ghostbane Association’s evaluation of them, feeling like it was too low. However... most of those people are now dead, and only four remain."

"All dead?" Rao Shuang fell into deep thought. "Could it be that... the Ghostbane Association killed them?"

Tang Jinnian looked at Rao Shuang with disappointment and shook his head.

"This is why talking to a fool like you is exhausting."

Just as Rao Shuang was about to get angry, Tang Jinnian preempted her outburst and said, "Think about it... does the Ghostbane Association even need to take action?"

Rao Shuang slowly widened her eyes as if she had figured out the key.

"Oh, I see..."

"Exactly. Those who refused their assigmed rankings without the ability to back it up... they all died at the hands of those who were willingly to accept their rankings."

Tang Jinnian exhaled a puff of smoke slowly.

"That’s human nature. Those rankers see these arrogant guys and think,

My martial arts are so powerful... you’re not even as good as me. Why should you be so arrogant?

"Thus, this group of Nihil-rankers became the target of everyone, and always had to be ready for other Ghostbane Association assassins to come settle the score... Gradually, they all died off. Those who remain are those whom others cannot kill even if they want to..."

"You said there are still four left..." Rao Shuang looked up at Tang Jinnian, "...You’re one of them, right? Who are the other three?"

"Ah... one of them is the Unbound Bodhisattva I mentioned to you before. As for the other two?"

Tang Jinnian turned his head to look out toward the northern direction.

"Let’s go. One of the people we need to find is another one."

"They call him the Impending Sword, and he is at the North Watching Pass."