Chapter 256: Half a Head
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Gu Shenwei had been tailing Blademaster Xiang Kai for three days in a row, and every time he mingled with the crowd or crouched on a roof, he would somehow think of his previous partner.
Chu Nanping, his present partner, was a good swordsman. Gu Shenwei had taught him the first five chapters of Wayless Book and some sword skills from Death Scripture to help him improve his kung fu. Now, Chu Nanping was a good servant and guard, but he was still not a killer. Gu Shenwei felt that the boy had no tacit understanding with him when they were required to make on-the-spot decisions.
“Maybe it’s not Chu Nanping’s fault but mine. Now that I’m unable to fully trust anyone, I shouldn’t expect others to trust me completely,” thought Gu Shenwei.
In the next moment, he banished those unwanted thoughts and focused on the current task. He and Chu Nanping would assassinate Blademaster Xiang Kai today.
A few days ago, when Shangguan Tian had arrived in Shu-lik City, Xiang Kai had moved into the Prime Minister’s mansion together with the Second Young Master. As the actual controller of Golden Roc Security Agency, he had to go to a teahouse located directly opposite the security agency every day to hear reports from his subordinates. After meeting with his men, Xiang Kai would have some rest in a room on the second storey of the teahouse before going down to have lunch at noon. After lunch, he would return to the Prime Minister’s mansion. He usually would not change his daily routine unless there was an emergency.
Gu Shenwei planned to assassinate Xiang Kai when the blademaster rested inside his room on the second floor. Its door was facing the Golden Roc Security Agency and it had a semi-open corridor at the front, thus Xiang Kai’s room was always under the watchful eyes of the security agency during daytime. Given that, Gu Shenwei and Chu Nanping chose to sneak to this room before dawn.
Gu Shenwei had learned from his observation that Xiang Kai habitually stopped for a moment at the door every time before entering the room, so he did not directly push the door open. Instead, he gently traced the edges of the door with his fingers until he felt a small piece of paper stuck in the crack between the door and its frame, which would fall off once the door was opened.
He drew out his dagger and pressed its tip onto the paper to prevent it from moving away, and then he asked Chu Nanping to unlock the door with a key, which was bought from an elderly locksmith. This key cost Xu Xiaoyi lots of money, since the locksmith contended that it could open roughly half of the locks used in the neighborhood of the security agency. He boasted that nearly all the locks used in this region were made by him.
After a “Clack”, the door was opened. “It looks like that elderly locksmith didn’t brag to us. This key is indeed worthy of 100 taels of silver,” thought Gu Shenwei.
After that, he slipped into the room while having Chu Nanping hold the dagger for him, and then they closed the door, making sure that the piece of paper was in its original place. The next thing that they had to do was to wait, which was a common step in all assassination tasks.
During an assassination mission, a professional killer would spend at least half of his time monitoring the target and collecting intelligence. The rest of his time would be spent on waiting for the best opportunity to launch an attack, and when it came, he would usually kill his target with one blow. No matter how superb the target’s kung fu was, the killer would always stand a good chance to kill him, since it was the killer who launched the preemptive first strike.
Gu Shenwei leapt up to grab onto a beam, which held the roof of the room. He gently moved his hand on its upper surface to ensure that there were no booby traps before he lifted his whole body up to lie on it. He would have to hide in here for about one or two hours before he could strike.
Recently, Xiang Kai had been very busy since he had gotten a strange intelligence report, which said that Yang Huan, leader of the bandits in the Great Snowmountain had sneaked into Shu-lik City. He was skeptical about this piece of information, for now the Great Snowmountain was at war with Shu-lik. In his eyes, as “Chief of the Dragons”, Yang Huan should not leave his army at such a critical moment.
As soon as Xiang Kai arrived at the teahouse this morning, one of his subordinates came to him with a verified intelligence report: the Great Snowmountain had sent a messenger to Shu-lik City to make peace with Shu-lik, and Prime Minister Shi had already promised to meet the messenger. He also told Xiang Kai that it was a merchant named Xu Yi who had helped arrange this meeting between the Great Snowmountain’s messenger and the Prime Minister.
“It’s such a pity that this isn’t Jade City. Back in the city, such minor problems could easily be solved,” Xiang Kai secretly sighed. He was a seasoned killer and a first-rate saber user, but his kung fu and killer tactics could not be used here in Shu-lik.
“Ironically, I live in the Prime Minister’s mansion now with the Second Young Master, but I’ve never heard anything about the Prime Minister’s plan to meet a messenger from the Great Snowmountain. That’s urgent business. I’d better go back as soon as possible to report to the young master.” With this thought in his mind, Xiang Kai stood up, preparing to leave. Just at this moment, his other subordinates came in here to report to him.
After hearing all their reports, Xiang Kai changed his mind and decided to have a rest in the teahouse before returning to the Prime Minister’s mansion. “Maybe this thing isn’t as urgent as I imagined. I heard nothing about the Prime Minster’s plan to meet the messenger, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the Second Young Master doesn’t know it.”
When he stood in front of his room on the second storey, he could see that the lock was intact and the piece of paper was still in its original position. His servant went into the room first to check everything for him. A moment later, the servant walked out and nodded to him to show that everything inside was alright before going downstairs.
Xiang Kai entered the room and closed the door. Only in this room could he relax a little. Sometimes, he felt that this room was too extravagant for a killer, who should always stay alert.
Strangely enough, he could not relax himself in this room today, as his sixth sense told him that there was something wrong in here. He felt as if he had stepped into a wrong room, since all furnishings inside this room seemed so strange.
He held onto the shaft of his saber, his gaze sweeping across the room.
Upon discovering that Xiang Kai sensed his presence, Gu Shenwei had to admit that after he had spents several months in the Great Snowmountain as “Chief of the Dragons and Leader of the Five Peaks”, his assassination skills were not as good as before.
Despite that, Gu Shenwei still attacked. When Xiang Kai lifted up his face toward the ceiling, he saw a saber heading straight towards him from above.
When the sharp point of the saber pierced through Xiang Kai’s clothes and skin with unstoppable momentum, Gu Shenwei reminded himself that as a killer, he should retreat the moment he killed his target to prevent himself from being wounded by the target’s counterblow.
Nevertheless, Gu Shenwei just could not help himself during this moment. He felt as if his saber had suddenly become greedy for human blood and eagerly hoped to cut the man in half. As a result, Gu Shenwei failed to retreat as fast as he wanted.
After inflicting a wound on Gu Shenwei’s ribs with his saber, Xiang Kai fell to the ground on his knees, his back arching in the process and his forehead was touching the ground, forming a weird arc.
Gu Shenwei did not care about the injury, but he was astonished that his killer skills had regressed so much in just a few months. He immediately thought of Shangguan Fa. “How does the Supreme King manage to keep a sharp sixth sense and superb killer skills while being a lord for decades?”
He engraved this matter on his mind and was determined to figure it out in the future.
He chopped Xiang Kai’s head off, put it in a bag and then sneaked out of the room to avoid being noticed by the people in Golden Roc Security Agency across the street. He swiftly walked out of the teahouse and then left together with Chu Nanping, who had been waiting for him on the street all this while. Some pedestrians on the street spotted blood stains on Gu Shenwei, but before they could express any suspicion about this man, they had already lost track of him.
News of Xiang Kai’s death had already spread to the Prime Minister’s mansion before Fang Wenshi went to visit Prime Minister Shi.
Upon hearing this news, Shangguan Tian maintained that it must have been Yang Huan who had murdered Xiang Kai and asked Prime Minister Shi to issue an arrest warrant on the Dragon King. However, the Prime Minister did not assent to Shangguan Tian’s request. He was well aware that Xiang Kai was a first-rate killer of the Golden Roc Fort and could not help but doubt its strength upon hearing that Xiang Kai was assassinated by the Dragon King. “This Yang Huan seems to be quite interesting. As for the Golden Roc Fort, it still remains to be seen whether it’s a strong ally.” With that thought in mind, Prime Minister Shi decided to do nothing about Xiang Kai’s death before he learned more about the Great Snowmountain by meeting with its messenger.
When meeting with the messenger, the Prime Minister was a little disappointed, as this scholar appeared a little pompous and pedantic. For the sake of the 10,000 taels of gold, he gave the messenger a perfunctory promise before sending him away. After the meeting, he ordered one of his men to shadow the messenger, as a way to find out where the Dragon King was.
He did this out of curiosity and never expected himself to get involved in this competition between the Golden Roc Fort and the Dragon King.
Not long after he had asked his servants to carry the gold to the back of the reception room, the eunuch-in-chief hurriedly ran back into the room in a panic, bringing back some implausibly frightening news: the boxes were indeed filled with gold, but there was half a human head in one of them.
Prime Minister Shi immediately went to check the situation, and the scene in there nearly made him throw up. At first, he had mixed feelings about this matter, but then, he flared up. He was the Prime Minister of Shu-lik and the king’s brother. No one in this country or in any other countries of Western Region dared to threaten him like this.
In the past, he had thought that people from the Great Snowmountain were simple and uncommunicative, so he decided to act kindly toward them. However, now he considered them as a group of scoundrels and was determined to teach them some lessons.
Seeing the messenger and his attendant being driven back into the reception room by the guards, Prime Minister Shi made up his mind to kill them.
He drew out a scimitar stuck in his attendant’s belt from its sheath and rushed toward the messenger while shouting, “You bast*rd! How dare you!” The servants of the minister all came forward to support him, worrying that he would accidentally hurt himself during this process.
Fang Wenshi, who had encountered countless difficulties and dangers during his wandering life, had never been so frightened before. At this moment, he could not feel where his legs were and even wetted himself. As surprise nailed him to the spot, he kept cursing the Dragon King in his heart.
After swearing at the insidious killer, Fang Wenshi felt much calmer. He plucked up his courage and decided to try his best to talk himself out of trouble. He lifted up his head while flinging a corner of his garment to cover his wet pants, and then he said, “Let’s not talk about how a leader should treat a messenger sent out by his enemy. I don’t think it would be right for you to kill me after you accepted my money.”
“Your money?” asked Prime Minister Shi, furiously. He held the scimitar to the messenger’s throat and continued, “Why is there half a head inside the box? Are you trying to threaten me or something? You unruly hooligans, do you think you can frighten me, the Prime Minister of Shu-lik, with such a low-grade trick? I’ll chop off Yang Huan’s head tonight and conquer the Great Snowmountain in a month.”
Fang Wenshi had no idea about the head thing, but he still managed to remain calm and cool. “Are the boxes all filled with gold?” he sneered and asked.
Prime Minister Shi was stunned. He had immediately turned his head away the moment he saw the head. The eunuch-in-chief, who had checked all the boxes for the Prime Minister, nodded to him to show that what the messenger said was true.
Prime Minister Shi was bewildered. “Why did the Dragon King send me real gold if he really wants to threaten me? Did he think that he can intimidate me, the Prime Minister of Shu-lik by hiding half a head among the gold?” After a moment’s thought, he said, “Anyway, I’ll still kill you and your master.”
Upon knowing that the gold was real, Fang Wenshi felt much relieved. “Prime Minister, take it easy. How about checking the head first?”
“Who is it? Tell me now.”
Fang Wenshi pretended to know everything and replied, “Prime Minister, you can find it out by yourself. Maybe it’s a person you hate, and my master just wants to send the head to you as a present.”
Fang Wenshi sincerely hoped that he guessed right, but evidently he failed to convince the Prime Minister. He did not know that except for Yang Huan, who had just offended Prime Minister Shi, all the people hated by the Prime Minister were already dead.
Besides, there was only half a head inside the box, which was a bloody mess. No one was able to recognize who it was.
“If you tell me where Yang Huan is, perhaps I’ll spare your life,” Prime Minister Shi still refused to put down his scimitar. He thought that if he did not kill Yang Huan and his messenger, he would become a subject of derision in Shu-lik.
“I’m sorry, Prime Minister. I don’t know where the Dragon King is. Plus, I advice you not to search for my master given the Golden Roc Fort’s many failed attempts to capture him during the past three years. Shu-lik is a great country, but it’s not necessarily better at hunting a killer than the Golden Roc Fort. If you want to behead me to give vent to your anger, go ahead and do it now, but I’m afraid that you’ll regret it later.”
“I only regret that I didn’t kill all the bast*rds in the Great Snowmountain earlier.”
“Hehe.” Fang Wenshi smirked to cover the fact that he was busy racking his brain for a solution to his current problem. In the meantime he could not help complaining in his heart, “Sigh, Dragon King, why did you do this without telling me beforehand?” A moment later, he said, “Bas… swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain are tough. It’s not an easy thing to eliminate them. Besides, please forgive my bluntness, Prime Minister. Your own life is in danger now. Do you still think that you can kill the swordsmen?”
Fang Wenshi just said it to win more time for himself, but Prime Minister Shi believed it and felt shocked. “What danger?”
Fang Wenshi did not know what to say, so he continued to sneer, feeling anxious and lost. At this critical moment, a guard hurriedly ran into the room.
The guard just whispered a few words beside the Prime Minister’s ear, and the latter’s face suddenly changed and his hand holding the scimitar also began to tremble.
