Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
There were many dangers hidden in the dark, and even the newcomers could feel the heavy killing aura emanating off of the pitch-black tents.
Gu Shenwei didn’t want to advance anymore. He didn’t want to take any more risks no matter how precise Wild Horse’s plan was. Besides, the most important figure for tonight was not King Kuari at all.
“You and I are going to assassinate the Khan.”
When Gu Shenwei said this, the two were about a quarter of a mile from King Kuari’s Office. As experienced killers, they all knew that this was the boundary between safety and danger.
Wild Horse’s pupils constricted slowly, and his wide apart eyes seemed to miraculously move together to meet in the middle. He knew that the Dragon King could play tricks so he gripped his saber hilt with his only remaining hand.
Without any gestures, he had communicated his stance that he did not agree.
“That’s what King Rizhu meant,” said Gu Shenwei calmly, his hands away from the weapon by his waist.
If Wild Horse could speak, he would tell Servant Huan that he didn’t believe a word of it, but for now he just held onto his saber hilt.
“Call out your helpers and skip the meaningless ‘test.’ This’ll save us a lot of time.”
Wild Horse remained silent but his hand slowly moved away from the hilt. He bent his fingers and knocked three times on the scabbard, causing one long and two short sounds to ring out. This was his original plan that had been bluntly pointed out by the Dragon King in advance.
One of the tent’s curtain was lifted but it was dark inside and nobody came out.
Wild Horse took the lead, and Gu Shenwei followed behind. The two walked into the prearranged stronghold.
It was a small adventure for Gu Shenwei, but he gave off quite the casual air after entering the tent. He even stayed within two steps of Wild Horse, at the center of the tent, and said, “Relax, we’re all in this together.”
There were five other people hidden in the tent who were sitting in a circle and apart from each other. After a moment of silence, one of them lit up the lamp and adjusted the light to the minimum which only illuminated a very small area.
This was enough for Gu Shenwei to immediately recognize that the man opposite him was Shangguan Nu, who had also been sent out by King Rizhu to help and supervise the Dragon King.
The other three were sabermen that Gu Shenwei did not know, and the last person was one of King Kuari’s close followers, whom he had some impression of. The man’s name was Wei Chun and he had once accepted Fang Wenshi’s bribe and revealed some unimportant information. When Shangguan Nu took Luo Ningcha away, he was the one punished by his lord.
Amongst the five men, Wei Chun appeared to be the most nervous as his body was trembling. King Kuari had always been cruel to his own men, and what Wei Chun had done was enough to cause him to be hacked into pieces.
The three sabermen, like Wild Horse, all had their hands on the hilt of their saber and guarded against the Dragon King. Only Shangguan Nu’s hands were on his knees. Obviously, he was the leader of this small group.
“It’s time to reveal King Rizhu’s real order.” Gu Shenwei held his hands in front of his chest to demonstrate that he was keeping them away from his saber and sword.
Shangguan Nu seemed to have turned into a mute. Not long ago, he was the one who was waiting to be sliced up by the Dragon King, and now he had the power to decide the life and death of the other side. ‘Life really is unpredictable,’ he thought, and he suddenly felt that he had become the eighth young master of Golden Roc Castle again and the Dragon King was the panicked Servant Huan.
This wonderful feeling vanished in a blink of the eye. He had very limited power in his hand and couldn’t even make decisions of his own. Besides, the Dragon King showed no signs of panic.
“You know the lord’s real order?” Shangguan Nu kept his composure. He had lost his face twice in front of the Dragon King and hoped that he could regain some dignity by showing seriousness and indifference.
Gu Shenwei did not know King Rizhu’s ideas. He was just guessing and saying so based on what he saw. Since he already knew the skeleton and veins of the Royal Court, it became quite easy for him to add flesh and blood.
“We can act according to King Rizhu’s plan by proving my loyalty first and then changing the assassination target, but not only is that a waste of time, it is also very risky. We all clearly know this Wei Chun is using the Battered-Body Trick and that he will lead us into a trap.”
“No, I’m not…” Wei Chun bounced up and tried to defend himself. A saberman on the left leaned over and pulled him back to his seat, and scolded in a low voice, “Shut up.”
Shangguan Nu glanced at Wild Horse who was also a former killer of Golden Roc Castle and hated the Dragon King even more than he did.
Wild Horse was just a killer, and he didn’t know whether King Rizhu had secret orders or not but he agreed with the Dragon King that Wei Chun was not reliable, so he stiffly nodded.
Shangguan Nu’s carefully designed scene had been ruined. The Dragon King had disclosed the secret one step before him which made him feel embarrassed. After vacillating between saving his face and completing the task for a while, Shangguan Nu chose the latter. “Kill him.”
Wei Chun looked up at the Dragon King, feeling both excited and nervous. When he realized that there were sabers stabbing into his abdomen from each side, he actually did not feel the slightest pain. He wanted to beg for mercy and confess everything but when he opened his mouth, what poured out was only blood.
“King Kuari thought he was clever, but his tricks had long been discovered by our lord.” Shangguan Nu pushed off his knees and stood up. He paused a bit when saying ‘our lord,’ so he sounded a bit stiff. Obviously, he hadn’t gotten used to it yet. What he said next, however, sounded more natural. “Let’s do it.”
Three sabers were drawn at the same time, and the three sabermen fell sideways before they realized what had happened, two of them still holding sabers stained with Wei Chun’s blood.
Shangguan Nu had to admit that only by working with his own killers could it be so perfect. The Dragon King and Wild Horse all understood what he meant and had acted without hesitation, not killing the wrong targets either.
“The people of Norland can’t participate in the rest of the mission.” Shangguan Nu gave the simplest explanation.
The three sabermen were all from the Norland and their task was to supervise the Dragon King. If anything unusual appeared, they would kill him. If they couldn’t kill him, then they would sound an alarm so that the Dragon King would be exposed to the enemy.
What they didn’t know was that if the Dragon King was trustworthy and committed, they all had to die.
The assassination of the Khan could never be mentioned in front of the ordinary people of Norland.
The three killers who had betrayed Golden Roc Castle looked at each other, and their sabers did not yet sheath. This was a delicate moment when there were killers but no leader. It was like three strange wolves had accidentally met on the prairie and they had to quickly determine their place in the pecking order through some sort of magical intuition.
Shangguan Nu had a built-in advantage. He was the eighth young master and he had a secret order from King Rizhu, so he took it for granted that he would be the one in charge. But as soon as they killed the three sabermen, he knew that he was wrong. Not only did the Dragon King refused to acknowledge him as the lord, but even Wild Horse showed signs of eagerness to be the leader.
“Well…” Shangguan Nu coughed and cleared his throat but was once again overtaken by the Dragon King.
“I’ll strike the last blow. You two okay with that?” said Gu Shenwei who sheathed his saber first.
Shangguan Nu found that if he did not fight for it, he would most likely become a follower than the leader, so he stressed, “I have not yet revealed the secret order of King Rizhu.”
“Maybe King Rizhu didn’t want you to say it at all.” Gu Shenwei stared at Shangguan Nu and said in a matter-of-factly tone, revealing a trace of accusation.
Shangguan Nu’s suppressed resentment was suddenly stirred up. The contempt at the Heaven’s Pass and the humiliation of Luo Ningcha all crowded into his mind. “Do not think that you know everything.”
“This is why King Rizhu didn’t give the task to you alone.” Gu Shenwei had overcome the psychological barrier of his old lord long time ago. In his eyes, the person standing in front of him was just a juvenile loser. “You are not like a killer at all when you are impulsive.”
Shangguan Nu slashed with the narrow saber he had yet to put away even though he knew that it was a hopeless move; he just couldn’t help it.
The one who blocked the saber was Wild Horse. As soon as the two opened their mouths, he had decided to withdraw from the fight for leadership. And he finally chose the commander of the assassination when Shangguan Nu angrily brandished his saber. Although he hated the Dragon King, following the other side was the only reasonable choice in the face of a risky mission.
The eighth young master of Golden Roc Castle was indeed not like a real killer when he lost his cool.
Gu Shenwei didn’t draw his saber and instead firmly gripped Shangguan Nu’s right wrist. The ugly iron hook was right in front of his eyes but couldn’t move forward at all.
Shangguan Nu had hidden his ability to use the iron hook as a weapon. He had practiced for many days but still couldn’t change the situation. The Dragon King’s palm seemed harder and even colder than the iron hook. The frosty Qi entered his body and he began uncontrollably shivering, which made him feel extremely ashamed of himself.
After struggling for a while in a futile attempt to shake off the Dragon King’s grip, the last thing Shangguan Nu wanted to see happened, and the chill stoked his fear towards the Dragon King again. “Let me go.”
Gu Shenwei waited for a while before he let go, knowing that everything was fine. “I have a plan, and I need both of you to cooperate.”
The chill inside Shangguan Nu slowly subsided, but his body shook more and more violently. When he finally managed to regain control over himself, he had lost all his chances and could only listen with his head bowed.
Wild Horse had not yet fully accepted the Dragon King’s position as a leader and he still had a knot in his mind that he couldn’t entrust his trust to the other side until he was free of it.
“You’re worried I’ll rat you out at the last minute?” Gu Shenwei guessed his thoughts.
Wild Horse stiffly nodded.
“If that assassination had been successful, would you have kept the secret and never betrayed me?”
The plan at that time had been to kill the twins and place the blame on another young master. Both Servant Huan and Wild Horse had secrets that they could use against each other but the animosity and hatred between them had never abated. It was only a matter of time before betrayal occurred.
Wild Horse had never asked himself that question but he knew the answer and he was sure that if Servant Huan hadn’t gotten a head start, he would also have found a way to get rid of all the insiders afterward.
“You don’t have to believe me. I’ll always strike first to gain the initiative. You should trust your saber.”
Wild Horse cast his eyes down. Right. Even if the Dragon King was loyal and reliable, he still had to be on alert as it was one of the most basic rules of the killer. After all, he had been driven out of the castle because he had acted too late. The so-called ‘betrayal’ was just another means of killing.
“Everybody’s head is the same, let’s go kill someone.”
The three of them left the tent with Gu Shenwei leading the way, Wild Horse following in the left rear and Shangguan Nu in the right rear. They temporarily put down the intrigue against each other, ready to carry out an assassination that was about to shock the whole world.
With the crescent moon hanging over the western sky, the horsemen of King Kuari and King Rizhu started a decisive battle in the noble district of the Royal Court. Their cries spread far away, especially during the quiet midnight hours.
Gu Shenwei pointed at the Flower Camp not far away and explained to his two temporary partners his plan in a low voice. “The person hiding here is very important in the eyes of the Khan, and she’s also our only chance to sneak into the palace.”
