Ling Yue's Training (4).

Ling Yue 's eyebrows slightly knitted.

A member of the Imperial Family? She wanted to have nothing to do with politics or the Imperial Family. Concubine Li? One of the Four Great Concubines of the Emperor, not someone easy to deal with...

If this was done right, then tremendous favor would be bestowed upon the Devil's Pharmacy, but if the Devil's Hand failed to satisfy the Concubine, then it meant death or worse.

"Tell her to rest at ease, I'll come and take care of things." Ling Yue dismissively waived her hand as she got up. Her red han fu fluttered in the air, bright red against the bland grey sky, like a flickering flame, astute, seductive, yet dangerous.

Who always wore red? The Yue Clan's Imbecile.

Always dressed extravagantly, along with tons of sparkLing Yue jewelry. Her fat face was always covered with heavy makeup, her face pale as a ghost, her lips red like a demon's, hideous.

They say she made red look ugly, and she looked like a prostitute wearing her flashy han fu.

If the people of the capital saw her now, they would never recognize her. She was a flame in the great white sky, blindingly vibrant. If the red she wore was ugly, then no red was beautiful.

"Guard the door for me, Loan." Ling Yue said as she went inside her room, closing the wooden doors behind her.

Loan silently stood beside the door, eyes focused and sharp as ever. She knew not to ask much of the Lady's actions, the Lady has proven herself beyond anyone's belief.

These past few months, a line of pharmacies rose in the capital and its surrounding cities. Every illness can be cured, even the Continent's Great five diseases were curable. As long as there is gold, even a paralyzed man can stand up again. The pharmacy's name quickly became famous in the surrounding countries, even the three Great Countries knew of the Devil's Pharmacy's name.

The Lunar Empire was only a small trading empire dependent on the three Great countries, so it was an honor for a pharmacy from the Lunar empire to become so well known.

One of the reasons the pharmacy's name spread so fast was because it did not take from the poor. Its free medical sessions only opened for half a day every week, but the peasants still flowed from every corner of the cities, crowding the pharmacy to get their illness cured.

As for the rich, the pharmacy took plenty, its price higher than any other pharmacies on the market. But there was not a choice for the noblemen, since many illnesses can only be cured at the Devil's Pharmacy. As the rich poured their money into the pharmacy in the capital, other branches started growing in other cities, even spreading to other countries.

This development speed was frightening, but no one said a word. A capital nobleman once tried to use his powers to force the Devil's Pharmacy to cure his illness for free. The next day, his head was hung on the walls of the capital for all peasants to see. The government never found out the culprit, and they did not have any evidence to frame the pharmacy, but it was clear as day that it was the pharmacy's revenge on the nobleman.

They say a person called the Devil's Hand was behind this pharmacy chain. The Devil's Hand emerged out of nowhere, destroying the capital's second most powerful underground organization in just one night.

Red hot blood flowed like a river in the yards of the organization when people came, flooding to their ankles. No corpses were found; the Devil's Hand's poison ate the corpses away into the flesh, not even bone dust was found.

On the walls of the organization's main hall, words were written in blood, like a threat to all of the underworld: The Devil's Hand never forgives those who want him dead.

The organization was infamous for its assassins. Aside from normal martial arts users, many of the assassins were Medium Red Class Chi. The higher the Chi's Class, the more expensive it was to hire the assassins.

It was rumored that there was a Higher Green class Chi user working as an assassin under that organization, the main reason why the organization reached rank two in the assassin market.

The Higher Green class Chi user disappeared along with the organization, and no one has ever heard of him since the day the blood flowed out the organization's gates. No one knew how strong the Devil's Hand was, but to be able to kill a Higher Green class, he was no ordinary person.

Ling Yue 'ss plan. (4)

Loan knew that her Lady was the Devil's Hand, but she still could not believe all that had happened.

Ling Yue had no Chi. It was her poison that had eradicated the assassin organization.

Loan's still shuddered whenever she recalls the sight; wherever the black poison kissed, blood and death followed.

A healthy, standing human, down to a puddle of blood in just a few minutes.

Even when the assassins tried to evade the poison, it was of no use. The poison flowed through the air. Higher Chi users resisted, but the poison still weakened them greatly.

And there was not just one poison. The Lady had dozens of poisons. Loan had helped the Lady spread them, after all. Dozens of small ceramic bottles. One poison froze a Yellow Class Chi user in place, helpless under the Lady's sword. Another made a Chi user fall to his knees, unable to summon any strength. Another made an assassin lose vision.

Although many poisons couldn't kill the higher-class Chi users, it weakened them enough for the Lady to kill them herself. A helpless piece of meat on the cutting table, under the Lady' ruthless sushi knife...

Loan couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor assassins, they clearly didn't stand a chance... She herself had the "pleasure" of becoming the Lady's training dummy every morning, and the more weight the Lady lost, the quicker and sharper her strikes became.

Even with Loan's Chi, she had to give her full attention when going against the Lady.

Ling Yue's sword fighting style was strange and dangerous, a style Loan has never seen before. Loan used to be confident that she knew almost every sword fighting style in the book, but now, seeing the Lady's techniques, she was not so sure.

Most dangerously, though, was the thick killing intent hidden behind each strike of the Lady's sword. Lose focus for a second, and rolling on the ground would be your head. Even amongst the various infamous assassins Loan had killed, she had never felt such dense killing intent. The Lady's aura felt like death itself.

Loan had brought along with her an elite squad of five shadow guards to ambush the assassin organization. The shadow guards all expected a hard fight, but in the end, all they did was barely throw the poisons around.

"No matter how you win the fight, you still win it." The Lady had said, "When your life is at stake, there is no right or wrong. Whoever comes out alive is the winner. The strong is not always victorious, the cunning is. If we go in by brute force and attack the organization, we'd all die, without a doubt. But what if I say there's another way around, by using poison..."

And they, of course, came out of the organization alive and unscathed, creating a legend as they leave.

Loan, although reluctant to use such... roundabout ways, against the martial-artist's righteous path, she couldn't help but marvel at the Lady's poison. They were vastly outnumbered, and of course, there had been the great threat of the Higher Green Class Chi user.

They had a chance of winning going against him solo, but him together with the organization's dozens of other assassins? Not a chance.

After eradicating the front lines of the organization, they indeed had met the Higher Green Class Chi user. The Lady had stared at him for a long, hard minute, and then she had stood there laughing at him like a madwoman.

Loan remembered the Lady mumbling under her breath: "Tonight's harvest is unexpectedly good; see, a strong ally joins our ranks..."

Loan had been profoundly confused, but ever since the Lady fell down the lake, every word she said had a depth to them that sometimes no one could ever understand, so she respectfully listened in on every word.

The Lady had pointed her dainty finger at the chi user, and with a smile bright as the sun, had asked him to become her people.

Loan remembered the Lady's eyes, sparkling as if storing crushed stars, lit up like a child receiving a delightful treat.

The Higher Green class chi user was speechless for a moment, but then his eyes darkened with something dangerously close to hatred.

Loan, at that moment, had thought that the chi user wanted to kill the Lady; the hatred in his eyes was bone-chilling. But as she drew her sword, the Lady had stopped her, and had said to the assassin: "If you want a life of freedom, come with me. I can give you nothing, and the road ahead of me is tough, but I for sure can get rid of the poison that is tormenting you day and night."

The Chi user, witnessing the effects of the Lady's poison on his comrades, hesitated for a moment before deciding that the woman before him was a master at poison, and that she, perhaps, really had the ability to cure him. So he had kneeled on one knee, and had begged the Lady to take him with her.

It turned out, to Loan's surprise, and to the Lady's expectation, that the assassin was working for the organization very unwillingly, without any other choices.

He was poisoned by a Lord who had killed his family when he was young; the poison slowly ate away at his heart and made him cough up black blood. The assassin organization's leader, coincidentally, had in his possession an herb that could help ease the poison's effects.

The Higher Green Class Chi user eventually became the organization's puppet, each month given a portion of the herbs to ease his heart's pain. He was used like a machine, the organization taking advantage of everything they could. They knew he couldn't continue living for long. The herb only subdued the pain after all; the poison couldn't be cured completely.

What he had craved for the most in the past ten years was freedom – freedom from the organization's control and freedom from the poison's pain.

The Lady gave him just that.

After she had brought him back to the Yard of Blossoms, she immediately started curing his poison. It took them more than two weeks of non-stop acupuncture and herb bathing for the poison to recede completely, but by then, the assassin was completely loyal to the Lady.

After all, he himself got to witness the Lady's capabilities in the two treatment weeks. The Lady's methods, although bizarre, fascinated and captivated many.

The Lady's kindness towards her followers also convinced the assassin to stay. She considered them more than just merely servants; she considered them her comrades. She respected the shadow guards; she didn't force them to do things that they didn't want to do. The guards were quickly attached to their Lady; and so was the assassin.

Ling Yue had a hidden force inside her that attracted her followers and gained their respect.

Unbeknownst to anyone in the Lunar Empire, she had changed into a new person in a few months. She was the same Ling Yue, the Imbecile, the Lady Loan was supposed to protect with her life, but she now seemed so unfamiliar.

One simply could not read through the Lady's obsidian eyes; they held so much knowledge, so much superiority; so much that no one dares to stare at those eyes for too long, because they feel intimidated, as if they were standing in front of the Empress.

The assassin, after getting his poison cured, was given a new name - Ash. With his new identity, he started a new life, free from all the chains that restrained him.

He was his old self no more, now he is Ash - the head of Lunar Empire's newest assassin organization - the Devil's Gate.