Chapter 161: Slave Yuan
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The story that Sword Sacrificer Ye Silang was ambushed in Rouge Forest gave rise to two completely different responses from Jade City’s residents.
Some people stood on Horned Dragon Society’s side and claimed that Kun Society used an underhand tactic to double up on Ye Silang, thereby causing a fair duel to degenerate into a dirty and ugly plot.
But Kun Society had no lack of supporters itself. These people believed that this was a classic tale of killer versus swordsman, where the latter became haughty and eventually succumbed to the former’s plot, and it was insignificant whether or not it was two-versus-one. A killer was unscrupulous by nature, and surely Ye Silang, who lived in Jade City, should have known this would be the case.
Only a handful of people cared about the truth.
The plot was enacted at the very instant Ye Silang noticed the trail of his enemy. Gu Shenwei knew he had no way to escape and that his Lightness Skill was no match for the former’s, and his only choice was to fight face-to-face. This meant that the advantage he waited painstakingly for had been for naught. Ye Silang did not look overeager at all – his patience was much better than what Gu Shenwei thought.
Clutching his sword, Ye Silang initiated an attack on his enemy hiding under a tree. He believed that victory was close at hand and a matter of time.
However, he never imagined there would be another person hiding in the forest. This person hid on a tree, and his patience was even better than the two duelists below him. He sprang into action just as Ye Silang placed his full attention on his opponent’s body.
The person was also a sword user.
He was unbelievably quick, just like the black-masked assassin of Golden Roc Fort. By the time he appeared from the air, his sword had already struck his target.
If the sword was aimed at him, Gu Shenwei had no confidence he would be able to avoid it. In fact, he was completely stunned at the moment it happened.
Ye Silang, however, was able to prevent his vital parts from being struck, and even managed to retaliate with a strike.
The assassination attempt was over in a split second. The assassin, draped in a white cape, did not even land on the ground. With a thrust of his sword, he was able to generate momentum to leap back on to the trees, and quickly disappeared in a few leaps. His Lightness Skill seemed even better than Ye Silang’s.
The latter, having suffered a sword blow to the chest, laid down on the snow. He would probably be dead by now if his counterblow did not manage to impale the assassin’s arm.
Gu Shenwei ran forth to Ye Silang. Pulling out his knife, he peered at the swordsman who laid face up.
“You’ve won.” Ye Silang was still clutching his sword, but knew he was powerless and no longer a match for the youth.
Gu Shenwei was indeed the winner, and if only he sank his knife into the opponent and walked out of Rouge Forest with his sliced head, nobody would have suspected that the victory was undeserved. “I didn’t win.”
He carried the latter out of the forest, to the surprise of everyone.
The first person who could not understand the situation was Shangguan Ru. “Why didn’t you kill him? How can you even think about saving him?”
“I want to find out who the assassin is. Having fought against him, Ye Silang will be of use in the future.”
Shangguan Ru was even more mystified. “Who cares who he is? He was helping us anyway.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.” Gu Shenwei’s oversuspicious mind was growing. He did not believe that someone would help him without reason, and thus he needed to find out the truth. “We are the killers. The ones who should be hiding in the dark are you and me. This assassin…”
“Could he be sent from the castle?” Shangguan Ru frowned. The thing she hated most was her parents secretly sending people to aid her – she wanted to make it entirely on her own.
Gu Shenwei shook his head assertively. If it was someone from Stone Castle, it would be Tenth Young Master who was protected. The assassin would certainly not have interfered in the duel between a killer and a swordsman.
There was another reason why he did not kill Ye Silang, which he only revealed to Maid Lotus. “It would have been a waste to kill an exceptional master like him.”
Maid Lotus was the only person who could understand the meaning of this sentence anyway. Death Scripture relied on successive battles to be advanced to a higher level – a master like Ye Silang was of the greatest use to the killer’s sword practice.
Above all, because he was still alive, the duel was postponed for an indefinite period.
The people who thought the duel would end the war between the two societies would quickly be disappointed. Because of the ceaseless quarrels regarding who won, who lost, who played fair, and who played dirty, the war resumed on the morrow of the duel. The machetemen fought brazenly on the streets in broad daylight, and when evening arrived, both sides dispatched assassins to assassinate each other’s members.
Shangguan Ru remained dissatisfied that Gu Shenwei did not take the opportunity to kill Ye Silang. To appease her and regain her trust, he made plans for an important assassination.
The target was the Machete God, known as the team’s treasure, who Horned Dragon Society had spent half a month to handpick.
His real name was Huang Shi’an, and he was part of the bright young generation which emerged from Soldiers Camp. After more than half a year in Jade City, he remained a nobody and could not even find someone who appreciated him. All this changed when he made his mark in the Machete God Contest.
His machete technique was unconventional but not particularly aesthetic. Defense was his specialty; at the start of a contest, he often concealed his strength and took backward steps until he figured out his opponent, at which time he would deliver a single winning blow.
Gu Shenwei had seen this Machete God’s performance in a tournament and felt that his reputation was certainly deserved. However, Tuo Nengya, who watched the performance beside him, had a different opinion. “There’s no problem with his machete skills, but something’s wrong with his personality.”
Huang Shi’an’s weakness was that his heart was not ruthless enough. Throughout the competition to become the Machete God, he did not kill a single person, and would stop fighting upon making contact with the opponent. Several times, he merely knocked off his opponent’s weapon.
He was a handsome-looking and good-natured young man, and his amiable and cheerful personality made him more popular than Sword Sacrificer Ye Silang. Prior to entering Stone Castle, Gu Shenwei would have, like the majority of people, regarded Huang Shi’an as an idol. However, the latter was only an assassination target to him at present.
Huang Shi’an was considered a team’s treasure and rarely participated in fights between the two societies. Initially, he was kept safe in North City, but after Marquis Gao’s assassination, Horned Dragon Society assigned him to South City, where he carried out garrison activities at the society’s machetemen stronghold.
As he was the symbol of Horned Dragon Society, killing him would naturally be a heavy blow to the society.
Horned Dragon Society’s stronghold in South City was located in the east, close to the river which flowed through Jade City. From its rooftop, one could see North City, with its neat and clean streets, across the river. More than a hundred machetemen were stationed here, while many more of them resided in the surrounding streets and lanes. The guard was watertight; nobody from Kun Society had ever been able to step foot inside alive.
As this was an assassination rather than an open fight, Gu Shenwei selected only five killers to be part of the squad. These people were Maid Lotus, Liuhua, two other people, and himself. Liuhua was a reluctant choice – he was the most proficient at crossbows, and the squad happened to need someone like that.
This was a quintessential assassination campaign by Golden Roc Fort. Before everything else, Tuo Nengya first sent a macheteman to tap on his hometown connections to bribe a macheteman from Horned Dragon Society for information regarding the layout of the residence, the situation of the guards, and Huang Shi’an’s daily routine.
Next, the bribed macheteman was assigned a further task – he would attempt to bribe the chef and make the latter add poison to the target’s food.
There were too many variables involved in a poisoning attempt, and that was why it was not Stone Castle’s preferred means for an assassination. Gu Shenwei’s rationale for this move was to confuse the opponent. If Horned Dragon Society discovered the presence of a mole, it would falsely believe that the assassination was still being prepared.
Two days after the abortion of the duel, in the evening of the eleventh day of the first lunar month, the poisoning plan was carried out. The five killers set off in their full outfits and gear, unbeknownst to anyone else.
Their journey began slightly past 9:30 p.m., and it would be nearly five hours later when they entered Horned Dragon Society’s stronghold. They did not attract attention from a single person along the way. The two anonymous killers would keep watch while Maid Lotus performed the main task, Liuhua made up for any slight errors, and Gu Shenwei coordinated the overall situation.
Dark clouds covered the sky and obscured the moonlight. This was a killer’s favorite sort of night. There was not the slightest hint of failure in the cold air.
Maid Lotus was about to jump off the roof and sneak her way into Huang Shi’an’s room when Gu Shenwei, almost deliberately, had a bad feeling at this time.
Some areas seemed a little odd. The courtyard was too quiet – there was not a single guard on duty, and it had been very well cleaned up. Although he could not see everything clearly, he could confirm that there was hardly any junk in the courtyard.
Gu Shenwei recalled his impression of the Machete God Huang Shi’an. The teenager was accompanied by a gang of machetemen whenever he went. He was chatty and humorous, and never seemed like someone who enjoyed quietude. The owner of this courtyard, however, seemed to be a monk who had little earthly desires.
This was not the first time Gu Shenwei worked on intuition. He believed in its accuracy, and so, with a gentle shake of his head, called off the assassination.
Though Maid Lotus was surprised, she obeyed the order and retreated towards him. Liuhua remained at his spot and only followed behind when the two of them had walked past him.
The first killer on lookout was called Slave Jing. He was keeping guard on a rooftop, and also followed behind after the prior three had walked past.
The second killer on lookout was Slave Yuan, and he hid on a courtyard wall. These two killers were former members of the Tattooed Arm Gang, and were people whom Gu Shenwei trusted.
Slave Yuan was dead.
He laid on top of the wall in the same way he would if he was alive. The moment Gu Shenwei past by the body, he knew the latter was dead.
The fatal wound was at the back of his head. It was extremely small and did not bleed much. Slave Yuan did not feel any pain.
The four killers took turns to carry the body back to the stronghold. Lighting a few candles, they stood round the corpse silently, while bouts of uncertainty and fear arose in their hearts.
It was a sword wound once again.
It seemed as if, overnight, all of Jade City’s assassins had switched to learning swordcraft instead.
Slave Huan was certainly not a mediocre killer. Otherwise, he would not have survived the mutual killings during the apprentice years, and furthermore, would not be chosen by Shangguan Ru.
The person who killed him had to be an elite master adept at assassination. The scariest thing was that Slave Yuan did not know, up to his death, that someone had got close to him.
Gu Shenwei was still wearing a mask on his face, and so did the other three killers. Nobody said a word.
Someone had “helped” Yang Huan to stab Ye Silang, and yet this time, someone else had turned around and “helped” Horned Dragon Society to eliminate a killer. These matters were becoming increasingly complicated.
Slave Yuan’s death was kept private such that few people in South City knew about it. However, in the morning after the assassination campaign, a human head was displayed on the gate of Kun Society’s messuage. It belonged to the hidden traitor whom Tuo Nengya had bribed.
The image which Gu Shenwei had painstakingly built up was destroyed overnight. Within Golden Roc Fort, the life of a killer was considered cheaper than an ant’s, but outside of the stone walls, it was more valuable than that of a hundred machetemen. The campaign which Slave Huan had planned not only yielded anything, but also cost the life of a companion. This was an extremely severe offense.
Gu Shenwei went alone to North City to admit his guilt.
Shangguan Yushi intended to punish Slave Huan according to Stone Castle’s rules by chopping off one of his fingers, but was stopped by Shangguan Ru.
She was also displeased – she only had ten killers under her command, and with one dead, she was left with nine. This was two less than her brother Shangguan Fei. However, instead of blaming Slave Huan, she ejected everyone else from the room and kept him back for a one-to-one talk.
On the way out, Shangguan Yushi revealed a spiteful look, and when she reached the door even turned back and commented, “Tenth Young Master, please consider carefully. If your heart is soft now, it’ll ache in the future.”
Shangguan Ru nodded in response. When the room was left with only two people, she peered at Slave Huan with her jet black eyes. “For some time now, you’ve been speaking in half sentences. I’ll like to know what you were thinking.”
“There’s a mole among us.” Gu Shenwei had not planned to say this because he knew it sounded like he was deflecting responsibility, but Shangguan Ru had read his mind and thus he could only speak frankly. “And that person is one of Tenth Young Master’s killers.”
Subsequently, however, Gu Shenwei did not know how to prove to Shangguan Ru that he believed the mole was Shangguan Yushi.
