Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Commander-in-chief Mo Chu’s request was very simple. As long as the opposing side spared him and let him preserve his dignity, he was willing to cooperate with them. But he didn’t expect that even a request as small as this would be rejected.
In the Commander-in-chief’s tent, he issued one order after another. After everything was done, two guards walked before him with sabers in their hands.
Mo Chu’s facial expression changed drastically. “I’ve been very cooperative this whole time.”
The two guards exchanged a glance, seeming hesitating about whether they should give him an explanation. In the end, they relented and said, “His Highness didn’t kill you during your last meeting and he regrets that act of mercy greatly.”
Mo Chu tried to remain calm. “If he kills me this time, he’ll be even more regretful. Go back and tell Prince Duodun that I have something important to tell him. It’s something that he will undoubtedly want to know.”
One of the guards at the doorway became very impatient. “Do it now. We’re not messengers. Why would we get ourselves into trouble for no good reason? Just cut off the head and be done with it.”
“I’m the Commander-in-chief of this army,” Mo Chu said rather excitedly. “Who else can keep more than 100,000 troops under control for Duodun if you kill me?”
“I almost forgot.” A guard put away his scimitar and produced a Golden Roc Castle’s narrow saber from behind his waist as he gravely said, “Mo Chu, your collusion with the Unique King has been exposed, so Golden Roc Castle wants to kill you. This is the evidence.”
Mo Chu’s heart lurched so hard that it nearly broke through his skinny chest. “Listen to me now… Let me talk to Duodun. The Unique King and His Highness are not enemies, so why don’t…”
The guard pointed his narrow saber against Mo Chu’s chest where his heart was just underneath the surface. “You talk too much. I won’t remember all of your words.”
As these two were talking, the other eight guards had already made their moves. Five bodies fell to the ground in the blink of an eye. And for the rest of the people, some of them were hurriedly trying to pick the weapons off of the ground, and some others were yelling. “I surrender.” The five bodyguards behind Mo Chu had already grabbed the sabers on the ground, but none of them stepped forward.
“Hurry,” the guard at the doorway urged once more.
The guard with a narrow saber exhaled deeply and then his body shook twice. He noticed his hands trembling inexplicably, and then he involuntarily collapsed onto the ground with a thud, and then so too did Mo Chu, who was standing opposite him.
The guard beside him reached out to grab him, but also fell down. And then one by one, the eight guards who had just been killing, the surviving generals, and those bodyguards who had just picked up their sabers all fell down like crops being reaped.
The two guards at the doorway were the only ones that were left standing. Upon witnessing this scene, they immediately raised their hands and held their breath before hurrying out of the tent. When they felt safe, they shouted out in a muffled voice, “Who is it? Show yourself!”
It was dead quiet in the tent. Everybody seemed to be asleep — or dead, just like the bleeding corpses.
Both guards were from the martial arts world and they wouldn’t easily fall for someone else’s tricks, so they took a few extra steps back.
All of the people outside the tent were guards sent by Duodun. They had overpowered the few followers of Mo Chu and were waiting for further orders.
“You three, go inside and take a look,” the guard ordered as he pulled at some soldiers beside him before pushing them toward the tent.
The soldiers whipped out their sabers and reinvigorated themselves before slowly moving toward the tent. They had barely taken three or five steps in when the tent flaps suddenly closed.
It was completely quiet in the huge tent. Those soldiers had been downed before they could even scream.
“It must be that crazy woman who’s working for Dragon King,” a guard shouted out as he suddenly realized the severity of the situation.
“Fuck! Isn’t that crazy woman the Dragon King’s prisoner? How come… ” The other guard turned around and looked at Mo Lin, who was standing nearby. “You, Silver Condor or whatever, come here.”
Mo Lin stood where he was without moving.
“I said, come here!” the guard yelled angrily. He was originally a bandit from the Western Regions, and his manners had always been rude and bossy. The words “the previous Khan’s wing guard” didn’t mean anything to him.
Mo Lin shook his head as he impassively replied, “I’m executing Prince Duodun’s order.”
“What was the order?”
“To stand by.”
The guard’s face changed to the deep red of a pig’s liver — he himself was the one who had passed this “order” to Mo Lin. “Bullshit! If you still want your wife and kids to stay alive, then go into the tent and bring that crazy bitch to me right now.”
Mo Lin still remained standing where he was, his arms drooping naturally — he was the picture definition of “standing by.”
Out of anger, the two guards started walking towards Mo Lin, but stopped after only taking two steps forward. They didn’t know how good a wing guard’s kung fu was, but all the soldiers around them, including those sent by Duodun, were glaring at them even more fiercely than their own expressions.
“Are you all crazy too?” A guard slashed out at the air. “What did His Highness send you here to do? Take out your bows and arrows, and shoot the tent…”
“You’re not Norlanders.” A voice was heard among the soldiers.
“Prince Duodun hired us at a high price,” the guard said in an annoyed tone, involuntarily grabbing his saber hilt. Standing back to back with their companions, they still hadn’t figured out the reason for these soldiers’ anger.
“You’re not Norlanders!” More voices were heard in this shout.
Slightly scared, the two guards stared at the centurion in confusion. “What is this? Did Prince Duodun tell you to do this?”
Riding on the horse, the centurion had never tried to stop his soldiers throughout his whole process. He coldly answered, “Your disrespect towards lord wing guard is synonymous with disrespect to the previous Khan.”
“Lord wing guard?” The two guards repeated the words emptily before simultaneously casting their eyes at that man who was merely “standing by.”
Nobody had told them that this saberman who had no military rank to note had actually come from a noble background. After exchanging a glance, the two decided to compromise since the odds were obviously very much against them. They hurriedly started apologizing and explaining themselves, “Sorry, lord wing guard. We didn’t know… We all work for Prince Duodun. Please don’t take offence. The Dragon King’s subordinate is in that tent.”
The centurion and the soldiers all looked at the previous Khan’s wing guard.
Mo Lin was still standing where he had always been, but his opinions had changed by now. Everybody had always said that he still commanded a very high respect among the soldiers and that both the Dragon King and Duodun valued this aspect of his very much. But until now, he had never deeply felt that respect.
Some reverence was not to be displayed frequently.
Mo Lin threw out his chest and said in a deep voice, “You two should go inside and check for yourself.”
The two guards were startled. “Don’t forget that…”
“I’ll never forget.” Mo Lin’s voice became even colder, as if he had instantly turned from an obedient saberman into the wing guard who would arbitrarily kill and spare people.
Taking the wing guard’s words as orders, all the soldiers sent by Duodun nocked their loaded bows and aimed at the two panic-stricken guards.
“Are you rebelling?” a guard yelled loudly, but his voice was already quivering.
Nobody answered him. An arrow shot into the ground in front of their feet with a whooshing sound — this was just a warning.
The two guards slowly turned around and walked toward that extremely eerie tent.
It was at this time that the centurion said to the soldiers, “We’re here to execute His Highness’ orders, not to commit suicide. Lord wing guard is right. Checking the tent is originally these two people’s duty.”
After hearing the conversation behind them, the two guards became even more worried. With a flash of inspiration, one of them said, “Fire. Let’s set fire to it.”
“The people in there might still be alive.”
“Then you go inside and check.”
Glaring at each other, the two suddenly changed from friends who shared weal and woe into enemies plotting against each other. Soon, the other one compromised and said, “Let’s set fire to it.”
The tent of the Commander-in-chief was not that far away from the Middle Corps’ Commander-in-chief tent, and so, Azheba could see what was happening as long as he turned his head around. However, he couldn’t even move his fingers.
There was a narrow saber held against his neck.
Tie Linglong was one of the kung fu experts hired by Duodun’s main targets. She had barely leaped off of her horse’s back when five people pounced on her.
Shangguan Ru made her move at that exact moment.
She was also one the opposing side’s main targets. However, it was not this Instructor, but rather the multiple dozens of Land of Fragrance female soldiers that concerned everybody, including Duodun.
Shangguan Ru seldom fought in front of outsiders. The only exception was when she had joined hands with the Dragon King to fight against the kung fu experts from Qingcheng Sect and Kongtong Sect. But at that time, most of the audience were Central Plainsmen, and even in their eyes, Shangguan Ru was not a real kung fu expert but just a background character.
As a result, whenever Shangguan Ru pointed her fingers at those five people’s acupoints during their rapid blur of a fight, none of them successfully dodge her attack.
The path before Tie Linglong had been cleared. She landed behind Azheba and held her saber against his neck, landing on the horse’s back on one knee.
Azheba didn’t tried to resist at all.
Kuke spurred his horse away from the fight, backing off even as he yelled, “Kill them! Kill them all-” Then he felt a sudden pain in the back, and he had barely turned his head halfway when he fell off his horse.
Astounded, the guards launched an all-out attack.
While wearing a Land of Fragrance uniform, Qian Ying moved around between the horse’s legs like a swift civet, striking down someone with every one of her saber blows.
Seeing that there was such an excellent kung fu expert among the Land of Fragrance’s troops, the guards were startled once again. Flustered, they became even more determined to catch their target. It was not until five or six of them were downed that the light of realization dawned on the rest of them. They jumped off of their horses and retreated to the crowded tents — they outnumbered their enemies, and they might be able to gain the upper hand if they fought the enemies in an open space.
Shangguan Ru resignedly watched the killings happen. She could order Qian Ying to do almost anything, but she couldn’t request a green-faced assassin to not kill people, because they had been trained since birth to do this, and this couldn’t be changed in a short amount of time.
She joined the fight and performed both the Subtle Shadow Lightness Skills and Heart Stopping Finger, striking down the guards before they could even regain their footing.
Nobody knew that this was a competition between those intent on killing and those intent on saving.
Eventually, Shangguan Ru gained the edge over the opposing side, as the battle ended with eighteen people unconsciousness and twelve dead.
On the periphery, there were a small group of Dugu Xian’s bodyguards and the Second Consort’s 10,000 cavalrymen, all of whom had been watching this fight in horror. The shock brought on by this scene was even greater than when they had witnessed the battle on the front line battlefield for the first time.
The troops might break down and scatter with a single extra remark.
Dugu Xian was also astounded, but he managed to collect himself. He rode in front of the troops and yelled, “These are killers sent by Luoluo! Look! They’re not even Norlanders! The enemies’ conspiracies have failed! We have to continue our attack!”
His voice couldn’t spread very far, but his spirit did. Everybody was suspicious, especially those at the front of the army . They had seen with their very own eyes that one of Prince Duodun’s companions had been killed. And there was still a saber being held against Commander-in-chief Azheba’s neck.
“Let go of the general,” Shangguan Ru said.
Tie Linglong hesitated for a while before eventually putting her saber away. She jumped onto the ground, staring fixedly at Azheba.
“If you die, the 10,000-men army will scatter immediately, and the entire allied forces will fall into disorder. Duodun will get nothing. So make a choice, Azheba.”
Azheba was so embarrassed he wanted to commit suicide, as he felt that he had failed not only Prince Duodun but also this woman in front of him. “What does General Dugu want this army to do?”
“I want them to join the fight and retrieve the situation as well as our reputation. It’s not too late,” said Dugu Xian. If everything had gone smoothly, the Dragon King and his army should have blindsided the enemies by now. At the very beginning, he and the Dragon King had already decided that the battle they would fight on this day would not be just a morale-raising trial battle, but also the final showdown.
Feeling short of breath, Azheba turned his head back and looked at the Commander-in-chief’s tent which was not far away. He then saw the tent burst into flames.
