Chapter 123: Chapter 115: Accidental Killing
When Tang Mo saw the Wind Blade formed from spiritual power, she couldn’t decide if she was more shocked or pleasantly surprised.
Fortunately, the Sect Leader was now injured. The spiritual power he had condensed wasn’t very solid, nor was it very fast. The resulting Wind Blade lacked force, so Tang Mo managed to dodge it just in time after spotting it.
If this had been a strike from the Sect Leader in his prime, it would have been difficult for Tang Mo to dodge if she hadn’t noticed it.
A sharpened Wind Blade like this was no different from a physical one in terms of damage. A strike to a vital point would be just as fatal.
"You’re also a Spiritual Ability User?"
While Tang Mo was dodging, in her haste, she had naturally used her spiritual power to enhance her body and vision.
As soon as her spiritual power fluctuated, the Sect Leader—also a Spiritual Ability User—naturally sensed it.
’No wonder. No wonder this frail-looking girl dared to lure me out here alone. It was all a setup.’ Despair washed over the Sect Leader.
"Cut the crap. How do you use this spiritual power shaping? Did you figure it out yourself or learn it from somewhere?"
Delays could bring unexpected trouble, and Tang Mo never liked to waste time on the defeated.
"Do you take me for a fool? Even if I told you, would you let me go today?"
After all, the Sect Leader had lived for several decades; he wouldn’t have been able to orchestrate a scam as massive as Wuxi Village’s Medicinal Insects without being clever.
He knew all too well that his only value now was this secret.
Tang Mo thought he had a point. She didn’t argue; instead, she simply nodded.
She grabbed the Poisoned Dagger still embedded in the Sect Leader’s shoulder, pulled it out with a slight effort, and then, with a flick of her wrist, plunged it into his right shoulder.
"You’re right. Don’t even think about leaving here alive. But you can choose between a quick death and a painful one."
Tang Mo had heard many things about this Sect Leader from Xiao Tao.
If he had only used his spiritual power to save people in exchange for their support, from Tang Mo’s perspective, there would have been nothing wrong with that.
But his mistake was being too greedy.
He gathered all the village’s wealth for himself, only giving the villagers enough food to barely survive.
He deliberately starved the old, weak, sick, and disabled in the village, leaving only the useful laborers for him to command and enslave.
Tang Mo had seen it in the Sect Leader’s courtyard. He didn’t treat the villagers as equals at all, but as his servants.
The most disgusting part was that, to keep his Medicinal Insect scam going, he used the excuse of needing absolute piety to prevent those he couldn’t cure from seeking medical help elsewhere.
This caused people who could have been cured to lose their chance to live.
Xiao Tao’s younger brother died this way, which was why Xiao Tao was so determined to expose the Sect Leader’s Medicinal Insect scam.
For a person like this, Tang Mo really had no reason to show any mercy.
The Sect Leader grunted twice in pain. He never expected this young-looking girl to be so decisive, so ruthless.
"You can dream on... This dagger of yours, it’s poisoned?"
The Sect Leader wanted to say more, but a sudden, strange pain coursing through his body became unbearable.
’Something’s wrong. There’s something wrong with this dagger.’
"Why don’t you hurry up and talk, and suffer a little less?"
Tang Mo pulled the dagger out and plunged it back in.
"You..."
The pain spread rapidly. The Sect Leader could even feel every part of his body gradually stiffening and going numb.
Soon, the numbness spread from his extremities to his head. Unable to even utter a final, complete sentence, the Sect Leader slowly closed his eyes, which were filled with resentment.
"Huh?"
Now it was Tang Mo’s turn to be confused.
’A superpower user... dying so quickly from just a few non-fatal stab wounds? That can’t be right.’
’I haven’t even gotten the secret out of him yet!’
Tang Mo really hadn’t intended to kill the Sect Leader so quickly. She thought she had a good grasp of the situation. The last time she’d used the Poisoned Dagger on Wang Er, she had specifically observed his physical condition.
The Sect Leader’s Spirit Attribute was clearly much higher than Wang Er’s. A few mere stabs shouldn’t have been immediately fatal.
In reality, Tang Mo had overlooked one thing.
While Wang Er’s attribute values were low, his Life Force was exceptionally high. He was always active outdoors and had a good physique.
But the Sect Leader only had high spiritual power; his Life Force was extremely low.
The self-healing function of spiritual power was completely incapable of clearing the poison from the Poisoned Dagger in just a few short minutes.
Coupled with his pampered lifestyle and extremely poor physical condition, the poison from just a few stabs took effect quickly and finished him off.
Refusing to give up, Tang Mo kicked him forcefully a few times, but there was still no reaction.
Jingjing also jumped off Tang Mo and stomped hard on the Sect Leader’s still-warm corpse.
But the result was the same: the Sect Leader had taken his secret to the grave.
"Why don’t you normally exercise? Ugh, seriously."
Tang Mo was incredibly frustrated. If she had known this would be the outcome, why would she have gone to all this trouble?
’What am I supposed to do now?’
She searched the Sect Leader’s entire body but found nothing except for the five Crystal Cores Tang Mo had given him earlier and the petal from the Spiritual Flower.
’This was a total loss. I really lost out this time.’
The cost in time, and all the brain cells wasted on devising this plan, had all gone down the drain.
Unwilling to accept this, Tang Mo decided that after she got back, she would have to find time to pay the Sect Leader’s home a visit and recoup her losses.
After wiping the dagger clean and putting it back into her Space, Tang Mo left the scene.
By the time she returned, two hours had already passed.
By now, everyone had discovered that the Sect Leader had been killed. They all crowded around his body, their faces filled with grief.
"Who was it?! Who killed the Sect Leader!"
A cry of grief and indignation erupted from the crowd.
Even a fool could tell that the knife wounds on the Sect Leader’s body were inflicted by a person, not from a mutant beast attack.
"Who did this?" Xiao Hu had the strongest reaction in the crowd. He had been clinging to the hope of curing his sister, but now it was all over. He couldn’t even protect his last remaining sister.
’They had been in this place for half a day and hadn’t seen any outsiders. It was highly likely that one of the people here did it.’
"Even if the Sect Leader was unreasonable most of the time, he still had the Medicinal Insects! Why couldn’t you all just endure it a little longer? If you had just held on, my sister could have been saved!"
Xiao Hu roared, tears streaming down his face.
Tang Mo glanced around. The few people near her had almost the exact same expression as Xiao Hu.
’So, they all knew.’
’So everyone knew about the unfair treatment they had been suffering all along. So all that respect was just an act, a compromise they made to get by.’
’It was only because the Medicinal Insects in the Sect Leader’s hands could save their lives. Everyone was just trying to survive.’
No one suspected Tang Mo.
