Chapter 158: Splitting the Ground
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
After more than two years as a professional killer, Gu Shenwei had developed a highly mistrusting heart. In particular, he did not believe that good things would be delivered on a golden plate, and thus did not think much of the slip of paper.
“This is a trap.”
“Why don’t we have a look? How if someone really wants to divulge the secret?”
“If so, he’ll come to us.”
Gu Shenwei recalled the time when he accepted an invitation to a prostitute’s house, only to discover a corpse when he got there.
“We’ll just have a peek without showing our faces, and then act according to circumstances.”
Shangguan Ru, who loved risky adventures, was intrigued by the mysterious slip of paper, and Gu Shenwei was forced to relent. Fortunately, Blacksmith Village was part of Kun Society’s territory, and hence there were machetemen stationed there who could offer assistance in case of an emergency.
Riceflour Alley was not far from Blacksmith Village, but between them was a desolate abandoned village which had become the home of many otherwise homeless people and stray cats and dogs. Gu Shenwei maintained his vigilance while passing through it, and indeed, the trap which he had thought would be set within Blacksmith Village would actually take place here in the form of a surprise attack that came from above a courtyard wall.
The wall was quite high, and his first impression told him that it belonged to the house of a rich and influential family.
The assailants fired three arrows at them, two of which were aimed at Gu Shenwei and one at Shangguan Ru.
The latter two drew their sabers at the same time and deflected the arrows. Gu Shenwei predicted, from experience, that the enemies would shoot two or three rounds of arrows, but he was wrong this time. The assailants on top of the wall shot only one round of arrows before leaping off the wall on the side away from the duo.
“Hold it there!”, Shangguan Ru shouted and leaped off the ground. Her toes only needed to touch the wall once before she was already on top of the wall. Her Lightness Skill, which had all along been great, was even more outstanding at this time.
“Don’t give chase!” Gu Shenwei could not hold her back in time nor dissuade her. He calculated that he would not be able to jump high enough to get on the wall, and thus could only run forward as fast as he possibly could in hopes that there would be a lower wall for him to jump across.
He found a break in the wall a few dozen steps ahead. Crossing through the break, he found nothing.
There was virtually nothing – no Shangguan Ru, no assailants, no trees, and no buildings.
The place, covered in a thick layer of snow, was apparently a garden which was abandoned during winter. A few dilapidated huts could be seen in the distance, and there was no sign of human life at all.
He wondered if Shangguan Ru had leaped on to the wall again and exited the place, but immediately disproved this idea. Although the sky was dark, it was not yet completely black, and he had not run very far. If Shangguan Ru had changed her route, she would have called out and informed him.
The garden appeared to be rather well-frequented, judging from the footprints of differing depths that were nearly everywhere. He found, at the foot of the wall, two shallow footprints which appeared to be left behind by Shangguan Ru. She, or the rightful owner of these footprints, subsequently leaped forward and landed in another person’s footprints, and thus could not be tracked any further.
There were, in actual fact, no swordsmen nor traps in Blacksmith Village. This place was where the enemy had set up a nice trap.
Gu Shenwei was getting tricked by a simple gimmick. “If it wasn’t for Tenth Young Master…”, he began to think somewhat involuntarily, “No matter how strong Shang Guanru’s kung fu or how forthright her personality is, she has experienced too few things and thus lacks a killer’s instincts.”
If the ambushers were from Horned Dragon Society, they would not dare to kill Shangguan Ru. But he would not be able to bear the responsibility if she was even slightly injured or went missing for one or two days.
Relying on the last ray of sunlight, he searched the snow carefully until he was brought into a jumbled maze by the mess of footprints and was forced to give up.
“She couldn’t have disappeared into thin air,” Gu Shenwei thought. “Either she has been abducted by a few quick hands… or she’s hiding underground.”
He began to stomp in circles around the spot where Shangguan Ru had left footprints to test if it was hollow beneath. However, the garden was simply too big. The sun had set, and his legs had turned numb. Though he was able to detect a small hollow space, he did not find any clues.
He ran into the small huts in the garden but found nothing except spider webs and cotton fragments, proof that nobody had lived there for a long time.
He thought about enlisting the help of a few machetemen to investigate, but was afraid that if he left for a while and came back, Shangguan Ru would have been brought far away by then.
There were infinite possibilities. Gu Shenwei could only wait while stomping aimlessly on the ground. What frightened him most was if Shangguan Ru was not actually underground or in some secret underground tunnel; perhaps she had already been brought out of the garden, and what he was currently doing was not only foolish but wasting precious time which he could use to command his subordinates to seek out information in South City.
The sky became ever blacker. Shangguan Ru had already been missing for two hours. Gu Shenwei jumped up and down like a madman before he finally stopped. Kneeling on one leg, he sheathed his dagger and pulled out his sword. He then closed his eyes to allow himself to enter combat mode.
He was trying to seek out whether there was “living energy” nearby.
Death Scripture was a type of kung fu which could not be practiced. Gu Shenwei had to imagine that there were enemies in front of him for it to work.
“There’s a super-powerful enemy standing tall right in front of me. It casts a long shadow and is holding a sword…”
After half an hour, Gu Shenwei could finally detect a vague bundle of scents. The scents were as weak as the twilight musk, probably because they had crossed through a thick barrier. They were transient and unclear in shape, and were coalesced into a ball such that they were impossible to differentiate.
Gu Shenwei was about to take an uncalculated risk, but having already entered a state of killing in which there was neither thought nor mercy, he had no secondary consideration. He caught hold of one of the scents and discovered its weak points. Subsequently, he focused his mind and energy entirely upon his sword, such that he did not even notice the barrier in between him and the source of the scent.
He thrust his sword forward to hit his target without any apprehension or hesitation.
Anyone watching from the side would have been astonished. The youth suddenly sprang high into the air, flipped his body upside down, then sank his sword with one hand into the snow. He was like a puppet tethered to his sword – as if the sword was initiating the movements while he had no choice but to follow.
Stab the target.
“Someone’s attacking me.” He jabbed his sword twice more without thinking and ended the battle. He then raised his head and peered out in bewilderment at the night sky.
He had, to his own surprise, punctured a half foot wide round hole in the snow several meters away from the spot where he knelt, and entered an underground cave. The ceiling of the cave was nearly a foot thick, and its floor was piled with a similar density of snow. Though he had mastered the sped-up Yin and Yang Strength, it was still impossible to perforate a hole like this under normal circumstances.
He used to think that the weakness of Death Scripture ‘s sword technique was that it could not pierce through neck armor. He only now realized that this was a completely unnecessary concern. The sword technique itself was all-powerful; the condition was that one had to have full faith in the sword one wielded and entrust oneself wholeheartedly to it. This was called the state of “self-deconstruction”.
If Maid Lotus was by his side, he would have immediately and excitedly explained to her that his interpretation of the scripture was the correct one.
Next to him lay three corpses which were carrying knives. Their necks had been slit by a sword and their eyes were wide open. Evidently, they had died unappeasedly. They were constantly guarding in the direction of the tunnel, and did not expect to be attacked from overhead. Nor was there any form of warning, and so they were killed in a single strike.
Beside the corpses, Shangguan Ru sat against the wall. She was in a comatose state with her head tilted to one side.
They were in a crypt that was several square meters big. Its height was slightly taller than an average adult male, while there was a narrow horizontal tunnel barely wide enough for one person. Shangguan Ru had fallen into a trap on the other side of the tunnel and was dragged over by the ambushers, thereby explaining the dirt all over her body.
Gu Shenwei did not understand how he was able to pass through the hole and land standing up. It now seemed to him like something beyond comprehension. Not only was the hole too small for him to pass through, but the cave itself seemed a little too short.
“This sword technique has a certain evil about it,” Gu Shenwei thought from the perspective of a normal human. But he had no misgivings that he would be most willing should Death Scripture really want to transform him into a living dead or an evil demon.
He kept his sword and took out his dagger to deform the sword wounds on the corpses. He then did what he could to enlarge the hole in the ceiling. However, because the frozen soil was extremely rigid, he was only able to enlarge the hole by a few inches before his dagger broke.
He raised his head to take a look outside before he lifted Shangguan Ru and carefully pushed her up on to the ground above, making sure he did not hit her head on to anything during the process. When he was done, he climbed out through the hole himself.
Although she remained unconscious, her breathing was stable, and there was not much of an issue.
Back above ground, Gu Shenwei followed in the direction of the underground tunnel and searched carefully. Eventually, he found a mechanism several meters ahead. It was a movable wooden door which was frozen in thick ice on both sides. It was concealed by snow and was parallel to the ground, and was thus imperceptible.
The trap was probably set up belatedly and hence a further tunnel for escaping could not be dug in time. The designers likely counted on Gu Shenwei leaving the scene to seek reinforcements, thereby allowing the ambushers to bring their hostage away.
Gu Shenwei carried Shangguan Ru and hastily left the garden. It was highly probable that enemies remained in the vicinity – this was certainly not the time to search for them.
Halfway on the road, Shangguan Ru woke up. She had been sedated by a common knockout powder which effectiveness subsided naturally, and thus no antidote was needed. She was, however, livid to say the least; the knockout powder was one of Golden Roc Fort’s Ultimate Arts, and it was accordingly an embarrassment to fall so easily to it.
She remained laid upon Slave Huan’s back, disgruntedly vowing that she would take revenge on Horned Dragon Society and Meng Mingshi. She was certain that the person who set the trap was the Fifth Young Master.
It was already 9:30 p.m. by the time they returned to the residence in the Outer Hall of South City, where Shangguan Yushi had been waiting anxiously for a long time. The instant she saw Tenth Young Master, covered in dirt, being carried by Slave Huan, she became overexcited and wanted to take hold of her. However, Shangguan Ru got to her feet while stretching her legs, and proclaimed that she was completely alright.
The attack was discussed by the family deep into the night. Everyone eventually agreed that it was a plot by Horned Dragon Society, and thereupon the discussion turned to how and against whom the revenge should be enacted.
The stickiest problem was that Meng Mingshi holed himself up in North City. If not for everyone persuading her against it, Shangguan Ru would have made up her mind to bring the flames of war there.
Gu Shenwei spoke very little so as to quietly observe who could be a hidden traitor.
The trap was a very well thought out one. Its designer seemed to know that Shangguan Ru’s Lightness Skill was terrific whereas Slave Huan’s was merely average. Had Gu Shenwei not persisted and remained in the area, the enemies’ plans would have succeeded – Kun Society’s leader would have become their hostage.
This type of information was not what just any person could divulge.
Gu Shenwei had no clue who it could be but simply trusted nobody.
In the end, the discussion produced several schemes for revenge. Each of them required a lot of time and thus had to be delegated downwards to be carried out.
Gu Shenwei secretly ordered Tuo Nengya to step up guard, while he personally kept watch outside Shangguan Ru’s room. He presumed that he would escort her back to North City once day broke.
However, an unexpected guest showed up past midnight.
Xu Xiaoyi came running while gasping his breath. He banged as loudly as he could on the door, not only alerting Brother Huan but also waking Tenth Young Master up.
He brought a piece of news which he personally felt was very important. “Shopkeeper Mi’s about to escape! I knew this fella had a problem.”
A big Protector, who had only recently taken over the job, was on the run the same night that Tenth Young Master was attacked… anyone who heard the news would have quickly put two and two together.
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