Chapter 36: You Have Come

"You bitch! You bitch! You bitch!"

Quan Guanqing’s face was flushed crimson as he gripped Kang Min’s throat, his voice lowered to a harsh whisper.

Despite being choked to the point of gasping for air, the woman let out a soft, mocking laugh, her eyes and face filled with derision. She was, without a doubt, a lunatic.

Quan Guanqing longed to kill her on the spot, but he knew that his life in the martial arts world was effectively over. If he wanted to survive, he had to rely on this woman. Eventually, reason overcame his fury. He released her and looked down coldly at the flushed Kang Min as she lay on the floor. "We leave tomorrow. I will no longer cater to your whims."

Outsiders only knew that the Beggar Sect had been in turmoil for several days following the incident at Jingfu Temple, but they were unaware of the truly subversive events that had transpired within the sect.

First, after the four great elders returned, they released Elder of Discipline Bai Shijing and Elder of Teachings Lü Zhang to discuss how to dispose of him and Kang Min. Little did they know, the results of that meeting reached Kang Min’s ears before dinner.

Immediately afterward, Elder of Teachings Lü Zhang seemed to sense something amiss. He approached Bai Shijing, who was harboring a guilty conscience, and was ambushed and killed on the spot.

Following this, the two were spirited away from the Beggar Sect’s headquarters by the formidable Bai Shijing to a bamboo cottage by a mountain stream.

Kang Min had confessed to him directly: they were now in the same boat and had to find a way to escape to Dali. The Prince of Zhennan, Duan Zhengchun, was an old lover of hers; he could protect them, and the Beggar Sect’s influence did not reach as far as Dali.

But the prerequisite was that they had to find a way to deal with Bai Shijing. The righteous and stern Elder of Discipline was not only a lecherous old man blinded by lust but also prone to fits of jealousy. He had proposed that Kang Min seclude herself with him in the mountains, away from the affairs of the martial arts world.

How could she, a woman like her, ever agree to be a canary kept in a cage?

Quan Guanqing had refused at the time. He had prepared himself to leave alone, change his name, and flee the Central Plains. But that very night, Kang Min threatened him, saying that if he did not act, she would reveal their affair to Bai Shijing. Given the old lecher’s jealousy, he would surely use his authority to kill him.

Even though Kang Min could have done it herself, she insisted on ordering him to do the deed, and even flirted with the dying Bai Shijing to provoke him in his final moments. She was truly a depraved woman.

Yet, wanting to live, he—who had always considered himself a clever man—was forced to submit to her control. He waited until Bai Shijing had consumed the poison to finish him off, then fled the bamboo cottage with her.

By then, having lost their sect leader and two elders, the Beggar Sect had stabilized. They pinned all the blame on the two of them and cast a wide net to catch them. As the former head of the Dazhi Branch, he knew exactly how easy it was for the Beggar Sect to hunt down a target when they put their full effort into it.

He, Quan Guanqing, and Kang Min had been branded as the most heinous villains by the Beggar Sect. The rewards offered for their capture were enough to tempt even him, let alone the ordinary disciples and beggars.

In the end, it was Kang Min who stepped up. Somehow, she managed to open a path through the Salt Gang, allowing them to hide in a ship's hold and escape.

He had planned to travel by night and hide by day, evading the Beggar Sect’s pursuit while making his way to Dali as quickly as possible. That way, they might survive.

Who could have known that Kang Min would treat him like a servant, dragging him around to sightsee and flirt with other men? By the time they reached Yangzhou, he had been acting as her lackey, gathering intelligence and killing her other lovers to cover their tracks. The humiliation was unbearable.

He endured it all, waiting for the moment they were safe so he could kill the wench.

However, after spending several days in Yangzhou, Kang Min somehow learned that the "bringer of misfortune," Zhang Chengyi, was bringing Qiao Feng along. She actually insisted on staying, saying she wanted to catch a glimpse of them from afar.

He had been living in constant terror, holding on only through self-consolation. His nerves had tightened as Zhang Chengyi’s group drew closer, and when he finally received word that they had entered Yangzhou city, he could no longer hold back. He confronted Kang Min.

*[If she still refuses to leave, I will...]*

Quan Guanqing’s face twitched. If necessary, he would skip Dali and head straight for the sea to make a living overseas. With his martial arts, he could survive anywhere.

The only problem was that Kang Min was now involved with someone from the Salt Gang. If he killed her, he would first have to find a way to escape Yangzhou. The Salt Gang was powerful and had no shortage of experts; right now, several of them were guarding the courtyard, which was why he had been forced to whisper.

He didn't know if Kang Min was mentally ill—she used her body to control men more powerful than him, yet she insisted on keeping him bound to her, purely for her own amusement.

As he thought about this, his rage flared up again.

*Thump.*

The sound of footsteps landing softly echoed. His body trembled, and he bit his lip as he turned around. When he saw the "Master of Riddles" Su Xinghe, everything fell into place.

He actually managed to smile calmly.

"You've arrived."

*Damn it all to hell.*

***

"What?!"

Qiao Feng was struck by a sudden, violent rage. After a moment of hesitation, he stepped forward and grabbed Quan Guanqing by the collar. "The two of you?!"

He should have grabbed the true culprit, Kang Min. But as a man—a man of this era, burdened with a certain degree of chauvinism—he could not bring himself to lay hands on a woman. Even after hearing of the internal upheaval within the Beggar Sect, even though he wanted to tear Kang Min apart on the spot, he could not bring himself to act.

Quan Guanqing wore a Zen-like smile. "Sect Leader Qiao—no, Hero Qiao, I have told you everything I know. Kill me or flay me, do as you please."

He hadn't been a villain from the start.

In the beginning, he was perhaps even cleaner than Xu Chongxiao. Xu had been blinded by beauty and the delusion that he could control the Beggar Sect. From start to finish, aside from his affair with Kang Min, Quan had done nothing wrong. The widow of the Deputy Sect Leader had come to him, claimed the Sect Leader was a Khitan, and suggested he had killed the Deputy Sect Leader—so what was wrong with trying to overthrow him? As a subordinate, he was merely "upholding righteousness over personal ties." Aside from his own desire to climb the ranks, no one could truly fault his actions. That was why, in the stories, Qiao Feng had let him go so easily in the Apricot Forest.

But the problem was, after being dragged south by Kang Min, he had committed too many acts against his own conscience. By now, his mental state had collapsed. *Death is death,* he thought.

Qiao Feng, seeing Quan Guanqing’s state, calmed down. He turned his head and looked at the woman. "You..." He was conflicted. Should he kill a woman? He felt a murderous intent, but as a Khitan, no longer a member of the Beggar Sect, he wondered if it was appropriate for him to interfere in the sect's affairs.

"This Hero of Jinshan, could we speak in private?"

Kang Min remained calm, looking nothing like a prisoner who had been captured, nor like someone who had been hunted for days.

"It is 'Knight-Errant of Jinshan'," Zhang Chengyi corrected her with a brilliant smile. "Very well."