Blood Curse

Sharpness alone was not enough. Wu Youren ignored the woman's words. He channeled his inner breath into the dagger. It was indeed a fine piece, holding up well under the strain. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he plunged the blade into the dead man's calf, sinking it in up to the hilt. *That will do!* Wu Youren nodded in satisfaction. A knight-grade dagger might not be a masterpiece, but it was more than adequate for the task. Seeing this, the woman was filled with terror. "I swear not to take revenge! Don't you want money anymore?" She believed every single word she had spoken struck right at what mattered. Yet it was futile; the youth simply turned and walked toward her with an expressionless face. The woman's heart sank steadily. Gritting her teeth, she demanded, "I want to know, what did I do wrong?" Wu Youren finally spoke in a measured tone. "I need comrades too, but unfortunately... you know too much!" The woman glared at him with venomous hatred. "You will be the enemy of the entire Teli Tribe!" "And what of it?" Wu Youren thrust the dagger forward, piercing the side of her throat where the carotid artery lay. He was already an enemy to all of Great Liang. What difference would one more small border tribe make? The dagger pierced inward with ease. Wu Youren wrenched it free and sprang back violently to keep the blood from splattering onto his clothes. The woman's windpipe was not severed, and her ears caught a distinct, hissing sound. It was the sound of her own blood spurting! Her face drained of color, she sneered coldly. "You're a dead man! The Teli Tribe carries a blood curse!" She was truly a barbarian woman. In that moment, she might have still clung to a sliver of hope for survival, yet she chose instead to confront death head-on. *Hmm?* Wu Youren's brow rose at her words. He extended his perception, enveloping her. Sure enough, an ethereal wisp of resentment locked onto his position. *Does your tribe have... a shaman or a priest?* Wu Youren grew vigilant. He would never underestimate anyone; doing so would be irresponsible with his own life, even if his opponent hailed from a peripheral barbarian tribe. He swayed from side to side, only to find that he could not shake it off. Her lock on him was intangible, yet he could feel it as clearly as day. Still, as the saying went, once you were covered in lice, you stopped itching. No panic showed on his face. Instead, he let out a soft sigh. "Why bother? I was already avoiding you two." The woman did not reply. She only stared at him with cold eyes filled with endless fury. Wu Youren remained unmoved by her gaze. He even managed a rare, faint smile. "You simply weren't sincere enough." "To borrow your own logic—if you were truly the chieftain's beloved daughter, why would you come out in person to hunt Guizu?" "You... don't know a damn thing!" The woman's face grew paler and paler, her voice barely a whisper. "An heir of the tribe... must... be a warrior!" "Hmph," Wu Youren scoffed softly, shaking his head as he glanced at the burly man's corpse. "His death didn't come with any curse." The woman slowly shook her head. Her body was sapped of strength, and tangled in the heavy net, the motion was barely perceptible. A mocking sneer touched the corner of her lips. "Trying to pry information from me? You won't get your wish!" "I actually considered cooperating with you," Wu Youren muttered under his breath. He truly had weighed the prospect. Gaining the trust of an outlying tribe on Liang's border offered many potential advantages. Yet he also asked himself: what made him think he could sway the will of an entire tribe? The worst thing a person could do was fall into blind arrogance and fail to recognize their own limits. Moreover, the very moment they first met, these two had tried to snatch his resentment crystals without a second thought. They were hardly the sort to listen to reason. At the very least, they would never reason with an outsider like him. If he truly threw his lot in with them, ninety-nine times out of a hundred he would only end up trapped in a cage far larger than Hostage Manor! Of course, the most critical issue remained: they had seen him use the Fireball Art! Once word reached the Liang authorities, whether he had truly awakened or not, an endless stream of trouble would follow. *If a ruler lacks discretion, he loses his ministers; if a minister lacks discretion, he loses his life; if crucial matters are not kept secret, calamity is invited.* As for the woman before him... he had an additional reason to kill her. After slaying the burly man, he had received another influx of experience points. Compared to knights from Liang, barbarian knights yielded only about half the experience points. This likely indicated that the enmity between the Teli Tribe and Jin was not as deep. Yet it was evident they could never be allies. One look at that smooth-talking, deceitful burly man was enough to know the barbarians could not be trusted. He was hardly ignorant of the historical lesson from the Battle of Talas. The light in the woman's eyes finally faded. Suddenly, an invisible surge of resentment hurtled toward him with blistering speed. It was distinct from Guizu aura, nor was it like the dark silhouette inside Er Shan. It was an... indescribable malice, swift as lightning! In that split second, Wu Youren flicked the tip of his foot upward, kicking the bound arrow beast straight into its path! At the same time, his own figure darted violently aside. The resentment struck the arrow beast dead-on, vanishing in an instant, and then... nothing followed! "Holy shit!" Wu Youren could not help but curse under his breath. There really was a trick to this! The woman had already drawn her last breath, but at this moment, her eyes snapped wide, and her lips twitched twice. Ultimately, however, her head slumped to the side, and she went entirely still. Yet within her lifeless eyes lingered a look of utter bewilderment and a touch of lingering indignation. "A blood curse for vengeance..." Wu Youren was thoroughly speechless. Such concepts had existed back on Earth before his transmigration, but he had never imagined this world would have something so similar. Then again, considering that he himself was emulating a national destiny balancer, there was nothing truly unbelievable about it. Different worlds could certainly share similar tropes! His brow then furrowed slightly as his hand touched his waist. Why did it feel as though... the biguijue had twitched just now? That had been his prepared backup plan. He took out the jade piece and examined it, finding no visible changes. The faint disturbance in the surrounding Guizu aura instantly settled back into stillness. Staring at the jade pendant, he fell into deep contemplation. What had just happened? The biguijue had come from his nominal grandfather. Initially, it had appeared to be nothing more than a relatively fine piece of carved stone. The transformations that followed had likely been influenced by him, rather than him gaining power from the stone! What came to mind now was how the black shadow inside Er Shan had been blocked by the biguijue back then. It seemed to have even digested the shadow, slightly improving its own quality. Did that mean this jade pendant could actually devour the tracing mark of a blood curse? He did not understand the underlying mechanism yet, nor did he know whether he had just missed out on an opportunity. Even if he were to do it all over again, though, he would never test the biguijue first. If it failed, the consequences would be catastrophic. Even if the jade piece was merely damaged, he would regret it bitterly. Last time, he had been forced to block the attack because he had no other choice. If an arrow beast had been nearby then, he would have done the exact same thing. "Next time I run into a blood curse, should I... never mind, what am I thinking? Bah, caution comes first." Over the next ten minutes, Wu Youren kept watch, confirming the woman was thoroughly dead. Her cultivation had not been particularly high, yet the experience points she yielded were significantly greater than the burly man's. He presumed there was a bonus for a "cruel death." Although he had not intentionally tortured her, her level of resentment had clearly been pushed to the absolute limit. Now, he needed to properly clean up the aftermath. First came looting the corpses. Male or female, they were treated equally; in the face of death, enemies had no gender. Yet the spoils left him utterly astonished. The pair's equipment was remarkably fine. Poor though the barbarians might be, a chieftain's daughter and her personal guard could hardly be destitute. Wu Youren had already decided to leave their weapons behind, including the dagger used to finish off the woman. He would even abandon the earth dragon meat. All he wanted was some gold coins—specifically, the kind officially minted by Great Liang. Yet, as he looked at the seven resentment crystals and four other objects clearly identified as Guizu relics in his hands, he found himself conflicted. "What the hell... how many Guizu did these two kill?" Setting the thought aside for now, he cast the Fireball Art to incinerate both corpses, dousing them in oil to burn them a second time. While the fire blazed, he cut through the vines binding the arrow beast. "You're free!" Its meat tasted mediocre and offered little energy anyway. Now that it bore the blood curse, it could run as far as it pleased. Next, he dismantled all the traps in the surrounding area, restoring the ground as best as he could, and backfilled the excavated cave shelter. After burying the ashes of the two barbarians, he carried their weapons deep into the mountains and discarded them in scattered locations. In short, he eradicated every trace he could think of. Following that, he had to abandon this temporary shelter, restoring it until it appeared as though no one had ever set foot there. Transporting the supplies from the shelter was no trouble at all. Everything he had brought into the mountains had been carried on his back to begin with, and having consumed a fair amount of it, he could haul away the remainder in a single trip. All told, these assorted tasks took Wu Youren a full day and night. Back at his primary shelter, he began to ponder his next move. This time, the trouble he had stirred up was genuinely serious! Then again, those two had been far too greedy. Carrying eleven Guizu relics between them, they had still relentlessly tried to rob others. Complaining served no purpose; he needed to carefully analyze the situation before him. Wu Youren deduced that the eleven Guizu relics could not have all been gathered by just the two of them. The barbarians had not been in the vicinity for very long. Even if they had arrived ahead of schedule, they could not have hunted down that many. These relics had likely been collected from other members of the tribe and entrusted to the chieftain's daughter for safekeeping. After all, they had mentioned that the Teli Tribe practiced centralized collection and redistribution of relics, and there was no reason for them to lie about such customs. Wu Youren arrived at a rather exasperating conclusion: if all of that was true, the woman must have held a prominent status within the Teli Tribe! A chieftain's daughter coming out to hunt Guizu was very likely meant as a rite of passage! Should he make a decisive retreat now, or act as if nothing had happened and continue his routine hunting? It was a difficult dilemma. Fleeing might look like a guilty conscience trying to cover its tracks, while pretending nothing was amiss risked exposing him to interrogation and torture if captured. The people of Liang were already unreasonable enough, but beyond a shadow of a doubt, the barbarians were even worse! After deliberating for half the night, Wu Youren resolved to withdraw as soon as possible. Outside the mountains, he would at least have more room to maneuver. If the barbarians cornered him inside the mountains, he would be truly finished. Counting the days, he had already spent twelve days inside. With decent luck, bringing back two resentment crystals would be entirely plausible. Even so, he delayed for another three days before finally stepping out of the white fog and onto the mountain ridge.