Chapter 313: Luring the Enemy
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
By the first night of the 12th lunar month, the pile of taels of silver in the front yard of the Residence of Dragon King was still not cleared yet. The thick snow accumulated had frozen into a hard shell around the taels, and the Red Raven Flag drooped from where it hung beside it.
On this day, the Wildhorse gang launched a major attack.
Over the past 10 days or so, both parties had suffered heavy losses. The Wildhorse gang had around 50 casualties, Tianshan Sect lost around 30 men, and about 10 swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain were killed.
There was little left for the Dragon King to use.
The Tianshan Sect became fearful. They were originally a secret organization, hoping to unite most machetemen in South City to one day, win by sheer quantity. To fight head to head with the enemy, and oppose them with equal harshness, did not align with the founder’s strategy. Moreover, rumors of the deterioration of Dragon King’s machete skills also caused several Sect members to lose faith.
“I am very sorry, Dragon King.” The blacksmith, Mr. Hong, had specially made a trip to the Residence of the Dragon King to explain the difficult situation in Tianshan Sect. “We cannot continue like this. We decided to withdraw our men and hide among the machetemen. It’s okay for me since my identity has been exposed, but the other members cannot publicly help the Dragon King anymore.”
Gu Shenwei could not blame Mr. Hong. He should be the one apologizing instead, as he had never told Tianshan Sect that the last few days of killings were just a ploy to lure out the enemy.
Only fewer than 50 machetemen’s identities in Tianshan Sect had been exposed. Most of them chose to remain in Blacksmith Village in the east and did not station themselves at the Residence of Dragon King in the west.
Only Lin Xiaoshan and the few other machetemen that he led remained voluntarily, “We are willing to live and die together with the the Dragon King.”
Mr. Hong was unable to change Lin Xiaoshan’s decision. He sighed, wanting to say something, but he was aware that the current situation was beyond his control. He could only leave Lin Xiaoshan with a short sword that he made, saying, “It’s not a precious saber, but it has never been used before. Let it be stained with blood.”
The Great Snowmountain camp sent another 40 swordsmen over, as they could not afford more. Anything more than this would raise objections from the Golden Roc Fort. As a result, the fighting force in the Residence of Dragon King was only about 50 people or so.
Gu Shenwei then summoned the people in the residence who were not skilled at kung fu: the slaves were sent away; Fang Wenshi and Xu Xiaoyi took Jiang and the rest to stay in North City. With the protection from the Special Emissary from the Central Plains, they would be relatively safe.
Xu Xiaoyi trusted the Dragon King but Fang Wenshi was nervous and uneasy. His fate was tied firmly together with the Dragon King, they were bound together for better or for worse. He asked, “You know what to do, right, Dragon King?”
Gu Shenwei nodded. Fang Wenshi was able to talk eloquently in imperial courts and argue for the interests of the Great Snowmountain, but he was not suited to be involved in close combat battles like these. Gu Shenwei was very aware of this point and did not tell Fang Wenshi about his plan of luring the enemy.
The last person he dealt with was Xu Yanwei, “It’s either you go back to the Golden Roc Fort, or leave together with your brother. No matter where you go, you are not allowed to enter the Residence of Dragon King ever again.”
“You want to banish me? Why?” Xu Yanwei asked in surprise. She felt that she did not deserve this treatment.
“No reason why. This is my order.” Gu Shenwei was hesitant all along but he finally made up his mind to sever all ties with the Golden Roc Fort.
Seeing the Dragon King expressionless, Xu Yanwei felt nervous. It was under this gaze, years ago, that she made a blood oath to the youth. “No, I won’t go back to the Golden Roc Fort. That woman is too difficult to handle. I won’t go to North City either.”
A killing intent flashed through Gu Shenwei’s eyes. Xu Yanwei shrank involuntarily and hurriedly said, “I think I will go to Pleasure Alley instead. You mentioned that you will give me a few thousand taels of silver. I shall continue to collect intelligence for you there.”
“Whatever, go take it from the front yard.” Gu Shenwei thought that perhaps Xu Yanwei would still be useful in a way.
Xu Yanwei cheerfully went to the front yard. Knowing that she was not strong enough, she quickly chose two slaves who had been dismissed to pry away the snow and break apart the taels.
Xu Xiaoyi followed his sister and urged her quietly, hoping to change her mind. The siblings trusted the Dragon King fully with their hearts and did not think that there were any risks in this final battle.
But Gu Shenwei was not entirely sure.
The Wildhorse gang was more powerful than what Gu Shenwei had initially estimated. There were still a lot of them left. Among them were about 20 to 30 experts in Joy Pavilion, and people in the Residence of Dragon King were definitely not their match.
After sacrificing dozens of lives, Gu Shenwei placed all his hopes of defeating the Wildhorse gang on New Moon Hall.
Because of the betrayal of the black-masked assassin, Guan Shang, there was a possibility that Golden Roc Fort had discovered the existence of New Moon Hall. This piece of news would naturally reach Wildhorse as well. But Maid Lotus and her men had an advantage; they were in possession of Wayless Book and had practiced it for three years, naturally, a group of experts that the world had not yet seen were cultivated.
Not even Gu Shenwei had seen their skills.
The greater hidden danger was Maid Lotus. Gu Shenwei felt a pang of sorrow every time he saw her, but the chilliness in his Dantian reminded him not to believe this woman again.
The New Moon Hall’s ambition would not stop at just taking over the Golden Roc Fort. Deliberately planting their men within every force only meant that there was bound to be a bigger scheme.
Gu Shenwei agreed to cooperate with New Moon Hall for the moment but continued deliberating about it over the next few days. In the end, he concluded that it was better to keep Maid Lotus close rather than letting her hide in the shadows.
The attack toward the Wildhorse gang was a test: If New Moon Hall was willing to go all out, their cooperation could still continue for a period of time, or even until the fall of Golden Roc Fort.
Tianshan Sect had ceased all activities and retreated from the war on their own initiative, but the Wildhorse gang did not accept it immediately. Instead, they sent people to assassinate several machetemen from Tianshan Sect before setting their sights on the Residence of Dragon King.
On the first day of the 12th lunar month, a windless chill settled on Jade City. The icy shell on the mountain of taels of silver was as hard as steel, and the hole pried by Xu Yanwei was still there, gaping like an ugly mouth.
At midnight, upon hearing the news, some wandering swordsmen and several groups of bandits came to surround the Residence of Dragon King.
What drew them was not the honor of killing Dragon King but the pile of silver taels.
After Wildhorse gang’s efforts to persuade them, many believed that the Dragon King’s machete skills had deteriorated. They even heard that the final battle would happen in the latter half of the night on the first day of the 12th lunar month. There would be no more opportunities to rob the taels if they did not go earlier.
The threat of spilled blood was not enough to overcome the temptation for money, and many people were enticed by it. In total, there were about 200 men gathered in front of the residence.
The background of the thieves was complicated but they managed to organize themselves under the intimidation of several big bosses. As midnight fell, they threw fire torches into the front yard, melting the icy shell around the mountain of silver and closed in from several directions.
The Red Raven Flag caught fire and became a pillar of flame, making the pile of taels shined even more brightly.
No one from the Residence of Dragon King came out to stop them. Truth be told, Gu Shenwei and the 50 guards were guarding the backyard. He could not afford to waste his strength on this rabble.
The bandits were extremely excited. This proved that the rumor was indeed correct, Dragon King’s machete skills had weakened and he had no strength or energy to spare to protect these two million taels of silver.
The silver mountain was soon plundered. The thieves began to fight among themselves, and not even the bosses skilled in kung fu were able to control the situation. There were a dozen corpses left on the front yard when the bandits finally left.
However, some bandits returned after hiding their taels. Encouraged by Dragon King’s weakness, they became even more ambitious. They want to kill the Dragon King and seize the two weapons that all martial arts practitioners dreamed of – the Five Peaks Saber and the Dragon Head Sword.
The bandits’ attack was cautious at first. After realizing that the guards of the Residence of Dragon King were guarding the backyard and Dragon King was reluctant to show himself, they then launched a brazen large-scale attack.
Almost immediately, the Dragon King appeared. His machete skills had deteriorated but he was still able to handle a group of arrogant bandits.
He killed three people in a row, during which the heavy swords from the swordsmen of the Great Snowmountain flew across and killed more than 10 people in an instant.
The bandits who thought they could take advantage of the situation immediately scattered like birds. Most of them went back to count their taels. Only a small group lurked nearby, hoping to catch a glimpse of the final battle between the Great Snowmountain and the Wildhorse gang.
This would definitely be a rare and exciting battle.
The Wildhorse gang was very good at keeping composed. 90 of the most elite members of Wildhorse gang only appeared in the early morning, as most bandits, unable to endure the biting cold, had retreated one after another.
Wildhorse did not come to the battlefield. Instead, the person leading the charge was the current Immortal Peng of Joy Pavilion.
The white-faced Immortal Peng held a long sword and stood on the roof of the front yard. With the weak light from the morning shining on him as his white clothes fluttered in the breeze, he looked like a real immortal. “Capture Yang Huan alive.” He ordered.
The battle began with those few words.
A scuffle was what Gu Shenwei disliked the most. He could only run atop the roofs to bait the enemy to pursue him as there was no more space on the ground and occasionally strike a blow behind him, killing those who ran too fast and got separated from the group. It was impossible for him to help the guards who were standing guard for the Residence of Dragon King.
Soon, he was targeted by Immortal Peng and realized that he could not shake him off. It was not long before he was surrounded by the disciples of Joy Pavilion.
Gu Shenwei actually wanted to wait for Wildhorse to show himself before summoning the disciples of New Moon Hall. He had no choice but to summon them after seeing the number of casualties on the ground increased as time passed.
He suddenly changed direction and leaped toward the front yard, no longer circling the roofs on the backyard.
“The Dragon King is escaping!”
“Stay!”
Immortal Peng was determined to capture the Dragon King alive and had planted a few disciples from Joy Pavilion to block his way.
This was the time for Maid Lotus to show up. Just like before, one would be responsible for luring the enemy into the trap while the other would lie in ambush to strike and kill.
Maid Lotus had only brought nine people. Nine people who were coldblooded and killed quickly without mercy.
Ever since the first day, both Maid Lotus and Gu Shenwei had practiced the Death Scripture differently. She was solely focused on “killing” blindly, so much so that even Gu Shenwei was frightened when her killing intent was unleashed.
She had been practicing diligently for these past three years, constantly striving for perfection. Her killing intent was even colder than the bone-numbing chill in the early morning.
Faced with the sudden appearance of the female killers, a disciple from Joy Pavilion even forgot to escape and was killed right where he stood.
Death Scripture had a fatal flaw. It required practitioners to improve their skills by killing an expert with skills on par with oneself. When their swordcraft reached an unrivaled level, the person could only “commit suicide”. Because of this, Gu Shenwei only used a sword to kill one person each year. He also incorporated some of the swordcraft into machete skills to delay the improvement of his swordcraft.
But Maid Lotus used a sword, and it was the “Huan” sword that she had never changed. She leaped forward and killed with a single blow, not at all worried about the swordcraft backfiring on her.
Gu Shenwei was taken aback, looking at this stance, it was clear that he was not Maid Lotus’ match even if his Internal Strength was not damaged.
He could not understand why was it so.
