Dead Dragon's Combat Manual

Chapter 6: Change

"If you kill the Fang Clan's Fang Yun, I will reward you with resources so that you can make another breakthrough into Core Formation." These were the words that tempted the old woman they called Old Qing into betraying her kind and benevolent young master.

She had given up her family, her friends, her comrades, all to have the chance to rise and become stronger.

She was prideful at a young age due to her strong Spiritual Channels which allowed her to topple over her peers at the small village she lived in, but all that changed after she experienced the world of cultivation and felt just how insignificant her life was when compared to true geniuses.

When she joined a Sect, she could only be disdained as an Outer Disciple due to her age and lack of true talent.

When she left that Sect and joined the Mercenary Union, she found that there was nowhere safe on the Azure Sky Continent since only the strong could be in charge of their own fate.

Eventually she grew old and could only give up, becoming a servant at one of the Fang Clan's residences. Hiding her ambitions as she slowly rotted away due to her lack of spiritual medicines.

As her hair gradually turned white, she became less talkative and started a hobby of knitting in solitude. She ran away from all her problems as her life grew more stable than it was before.

It was only when she was given some Marrow Cleansing Pills did she finally feel that she could maybe she could control her own fate. After breaking through to the peak level of the Internal Root stage, she accepted the mission to kill her benevolent young master without a trace of hesitation.

Although he helped her find a job when she was in need, a Cultivator had to be more open-minded and calculative if they wanted to survive to see another day. The hidden enemy that wanted to kill her young master wasn't someone she could offend, so it was only natural that she would choose herself over him.

She hadn't watched her young master grow from a young age but the information she acquired over the few months she worked at the Grand Elder's residence was enough for her to feel admiration for him. Fang Yun was a Mortal born without Spiritual Channels, and in a Clan that thrives off nurturing Cultivators, his existence was akin to insect among human beings.

Although most Rogue Cultivators like her didn't have disdain towards Mortals due to their origins being closely linked to mortal society, the word Cultivators raised by Clans would use to describe those who couldn't cultivate their Qi is 'incompetence'.

With that being said, she could imagine her young master's harsh childhood clearly. Most in his situation would become timid and cowardly over time due to their lack of courage to fight back against bullies who are stronger than them, yet surprisingly, Fang Yun was able to move forward in life despite his hardships in order to do whatever productive things he could do in life.

Since the Alchemy Dao and the Martial Dao were unsuitable for him, he decided to embark on the Medical Dao.

With his grandfather's connections, it wasn't that hard for him to find people who were willing to impart their teaching to him. Even though he hadn't become a disciple of a renowned Medical Expert, he still found ways to increase his knowledge and experience through reading books or helping others. When she decided to attack him, she made use of his thirst for knowledge and feigned an injury.

She pretended she had injured her ankle and obtained Fang Yun's sympathy through deception. Although her plan was quite rushed, it was enough to trick the sheltered Young Master Fang into helping her recover.

If she hadn't been truly injured by the young servant that was suspicious of her actions since the beginning, she wouldn't be in such a rush to leave.