Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Wildhorse flew into an uncontrollable rage. The inner corners of his widely-parted eyes titled toward the nose, making his eyes two very slanted lines. He never trusted Slave Huan. It was just that he had never expected that Slave Huan dared to play tricks right under his nose.
Liman was upset as well, but he thought of another possibility. “It’s not necessarily the Dragon King. The Golden Roc Fort is more likely to replace the girl with another one. The Dragon King didn’t have a chance to do so, since we’ve been monitoring the whole process all this while,” said Liman.
Wildhorse rapidly made a number of hand signals and Liman could only get a general idea of them. “You believe that it must be the Dragon King, don’t you? But we have no proof. Don’t forget that our task is to assist the Dragon King. This assassination task is just the beginning, and in the future, we’ll have more important things to do together. I suggest you’d better not make a fuss about this incident.”
Upon hearing that, Wildhorse could only forcibly suppress his anger. For him, Liman’s suggestions were pretty much commands, as this man was a son of Zhe Su, the most trusted general of King Rizhu.
Liman decided to downplay this incident, but he still had a few questions that he wanted to ask the Dragon King. As such, he and Wildhorse returned to the camp of the Dragon army and waited for the Dragon King in his tent.
After about 15 minutes, Maid Lotus came to the tent alone to receive them.
“Where’s the Dragon King?” Liman asked, somewhat grumpily. As son of a Norland general, he always found deception and betrayal intolerable. After dissuading Wildhorse from making a fuss about this incident, he himself had somehow felt less calm than before. He felt more irritated as the Dragon King seemed to deliberately avoid and belittle him now.
“He’s not here.” Maid Lotus said flatly and gave no explanation for the current situation.
“This woman is as evasive as the Dragon King. It looks like that I can only ask her more specific questions,” thought Liman. “That woman is not the Supreme King’s granddaughter.”
“Really?” Maid Lotus replied calmly, as if she had expected this to happen.
“Did the Dragon King know it beforehand?” asked Liman.
“How could he know? The Golden Roc Fort deceived all of us,” replied Maid Lotus.
“Where’s your assistant? That woman is an expert at changing a person’s looks with make-up. She was in the same carriage with that woman. Don’t tell me that your assistant is unable to discover her disguise,” said Liman.
“My assistant is well-versed in using makeup, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s able to discover what a person really looks like under his or her make-up. Besides, she’s never met the Supreme King’s granddaughter before,” retorted Maid Lotus.
Liman still refused to believe Maid Lotus and thought, “Even Wildhorse noticed that the woman had disguised her looks. How come a disciple of the New Moon Hall failed to notice it?” “You’d better go invite the Dragon King to join us,” said Liman.
“He’s not here.” Maid Lotus slightly lifted up her chin and gave the same answer.
Wildhorse stepped forward and said to Maid Lotus in sign language, “You had the Supreme King’s granddaughter replaced by another woman during the trip.”
Maid Lotus remained silent for a moment and then said, “Well, it’s easy to say so, but how could I find such a sacrificial lamb in this place at such short notice? After all, it’s neither the Dragon King’s nor my territory.”
“The sacrificial lamb, yes. That woman clearly didn’t know that she was going to be killed. Alas, Wildhorse moved too fast to kill her. Otherwise, we could’ve interrogated her to find out the truth,” Liman thought ruefully
“Maybe the real Shangguan Shaomin never came to Norland. The Golden Roc Fort is planning to use a fake Shangguan Shaomin to deceive the Khan. Now that we’ve killed her, the Supreme King’s secret plan is undermined.” Maid Lotus finally offered the two men an explanation.
“Maybe?” Liman retorted, while pacing back and forth restlessly. “You can’t fob me off with a ‘maybe’. This thing is of great importance to the plan of my lord.”
“Our enemies aren’t some dumbasses. They would set up traps for us, and we would be fooled by them once in a while. That’s not a big deal. Now we just need to find out the truth. Shangguan Shaomin will appear on a public occasion sooner or later, no matter who she’s going to marry. An invisible girl can never become a consort of a lord,” said Maid Lotus.
“Is the Dragon King still able to assassinate her at that time?” asked Liman.
“Yes, otherwise why did King Rizhu choose to make an alliance with the Dragon King?” replied Maid Lotus.
Liman was still dubious about what Maid Lotus had said. He had been looking forward to learning some clever moves of the Dragon King before the mission, but at this moment, he thought that the only he had learned was that he could not trust anyone.
Wildhorse lost his cool and angrily swished his hands to make quite a lot of signs. This time, even Liman could fully understand what he meant.
What Wildhorse had just said was “The granddaughter of the Supreme King must be with the Dragon King now”.
However, his guess soon proved to be wrong. Early next morning, both Liman and Wildhorse heard what the Dragon King had done yesterday night: he had accompanied Chu Nanping all the night, when the boy went around to challenge different Kung Fu masters into duels and made his name overnight.
Chu Nanping thought of another way of mastering the Emotionless Swordsmanship—practicing it alone by using two swords at the same time. He needed a large amount of practice and experiment to prove his idea and refine his skills, so he had gone on an outing with the Dragon King that night.
Early that evening, Gu Shenwei asked him, “Are you ready?”
The boy nodded and picked up two swords. One of them was recently bought from a local blacksmith shop. It was large and heavy and not easy to use, but he had no choice.
At this place, it was uneasy to find a long sword which was commonly seen in the Central Plain.
They sneaked out of their camp, through the craftsman region and into the slums. A great number of Kung Fu practioners from foreign countries lived in this region now, and some of them were perfect opponents for Chu Nanping.
Tournament of the Royal Court had many different events, and winner of these events would be awarded a certain number of cattle or sheep. These things were attractive only to the local herdsmen. People from Western Region and the Central Plain would never perceive them as a good attraction.
This year, the rules of the tournament remained the same, but all the 10 kings of Norland promised to give a large sum of money to the ones who could wIn the games for them.
As such, many people were attracted here by those juicy offers and worked for different lords. Some of them were boastful bandits, and some of them were well-known Kung Fu masters who deliberately had their names changed.
Several days ago, these people had stirred up a large-scale commotion in the slums, which caused many people to be killed before they even got a chance to join the events. It was also during this commotion that the real Kung Fu masters were exposed and recognized by everyone.
Gu Shenwei planned to ask Chu Nanping to practice his sword techniques with these Kung Fu masters.
The first person that Chu Nanping picked off was a swordsman from the Central Plain. His name was Gong Ziying, which was probably a fake name. No one had heard of his name before, and he himself claimed to be a deserted disciple of a famous sect, who could not no longer sustain himself back in his home country and thus came here to seek opportunity.
He had shot to fame during the commotion, where he had taken on 7 bandits at the same time, cutting down 6 of them and then defeated 11 challengers in a row, killing 7 of them.
He had not yet been hired by any of the kings living in noble region, He was said to have charged the lords too much.
Unlike the other machetemen, Gong Ziying was not an alcoholic. He lived in a cheap tent that he rented and never ventured out at night.
The place where he lived was quite out-of-the-way and the only lighting there was the crescent moon in the sky.
“Please come out, Mr. Gong Ziying,” said Chu Nanping. He had come here to practice his skills with this Gong Ziying not to assassinate him.
After a long time, the tent was finally flipped open. Gong Ziying walled out, and first laid his eyes on the Dragon King in the shadows instead of his young challenger tonight.
He was in his early thirties. Although he looked haggard, he had all his facial hair shaved. It seemed that he had not yet adapted to the life on the grassland. “Who is looking for me?” said Gong Ziying.
“It’s me. Chu Nanping from the Joy Pavilion of Jade City,” replied the young swordsman.
Chu Nanping had to introduce himself like this because Gu Shenwei forbad him from mentioning “the Dragon King”.
“I’ve never heard of you. Are you from the Western Region?” asked Gong Ziying. People from the Central Plain always looked down upon the sects in the Western Region. “What about you?” he asked the Dragon King, vigilantly.
“I’ve just come here to watch the fight for the fun of it,” replied Gu Shenwei.
“And to collect his dead body?” asked Gong Ziying.
Many years ago, collecting dead bodies had been one of Gu Shenwei’s routine jobs, and he had gotten tired of this job a long time ago. As such, he said, “There is no need to collect anyone’s dead body. I’ll let it stay where it is.”
Gong Ziying snorted and then began looking the young swordsman up and down, while thinking, “He seems too young to be a skilled swordsman, and his face is almost as beautiful as a girl’s. Under the moonlight, he looks more like an attractive actor than a swordsman, and the swords in his hands looked like props he uses to attract the attention of his audience.”
“You’re the fifth challengers today,” said Gong Ziying.
“Hum,” replied Chu Nanping.
“Among the four people before you, three of them were carried away by others.”
“Great.”
After telling Chu Nanping all he had to say, Gong Ziying drew his sword and was prepared to end this fight quickly.
Movements of Gong Ziying could only be described as “flowing”. While he was moving his limbs and sword to launch an attack at Chu Nanping, the corners of his clothes were also fluttering in the wind. This was not a flashy trick but a method of disguising his real attack direction and concealing his own vulnerable points.
In Gong Ziying’s eyes, it was weird enough to use two swords at the same time, not to mention that this beautiful young man dared to attack with both of his swords without doing anything to protect himself. To bystanders, it seemed that Chu Nanping had already left life and death out of consideration.
Chu Nanping had once practiced sword techniques with the Dragon King and inevitably gotten influenced by the latter’s fighting style. Besides, many ideas in the Death Scriputre did tally with the principles of the Emotionless Swordsmanship.
Usually, a person holding two weapons in hands would use one of them to attack and the other to defend, sometimes alternately. Nevertheless, Chu Nanping used both of his weapons to attack.
For an instant, Gong Ziying felt as if the boy had suddenly split into two people who used different moves to attack.
He pulled back his sword to defend himself and thus had lost his advantage in the fight since this moment. He retreated five steps and then suddenly felt his back against his tent. His heart jumped as he stopped.
His long sword was still in his hand, but he could not wield it anymore.
He looked down at a small wound on his left chest and exclaimed, “Great sword skill.”
“I’ve not yet mastered it,” said Chu Nanping. He was not trying to appear humble but just telling the truth.
“The sword in your left hand is not fit for you.”
“I’ve bought it recently.”
“Use my sword. Let it drink more blood.”
“Do you want money for it?” Chu Nanping just did not have the habit of taking someone else’s belongings without paying.
Gong Ziying shook his head, as he said, “Take my sword. If someone asks you where did you get it, you can just tell them that it’s Gong Xinghui’s sword. If someone tries to snatch it, you should kill him or her.” Gong Xinghui had come here for the money, but now he knew that he would not have a chance to use it anymore.
In jianghu, a person seldom left his or her last words to a stranger. Nor would a person easily make a promise to a stranger.
Nevertheless, Gong Xinghui left his dying words to Chu Nanping and the latter promised him by nodding and saying, “Yes, I will.”
Gong Xinghui handed his sword to Chu Nanping with its tip pointed at the young swordsman; this made him look somewhat indomitable. However, Chu Nanping did not doubt his sincerity at all and stepped directly toward him to take the sword.
After Gong Xinghui let go of the sword, his arm was somehow still lifted up in the air. A moment later, his knees gradually fell to the ground, and his blood began oozing out of his wound.
“Let’s find you another opponent and try your new sword out. Pay attention to your steps. That’s your weakness,” said Gu Shenwei, while showing no feeling for the death of Gong Xinghui. “This is just the beginning. Chu Nanping needs to kill more people to master the sword technique,” thought Gu Shenwei.
Chu Nanping threw the heavy sword away and picked up the new sword, pleased to find out that it was easy to use. He turned his gaze at the dead body on the ground and said, “He should not be dead. I failed to control my strength precisely.”
“No one should be dead,” said Gu Shenwei, taking the lead to leave for another place.
That night, Chu Nanping had challenged 7 people into duels, killed four of them and heavily wounded the rest of them. All his opponents were Kung Fu masters who had risen to fame during the recent commotion. This news about the young swordsman got around the region at a speed which was even faster than that of the spread of the commotion. When Chu Nanping started his seventh duel, there were more than 100 people standing around and watching the fight.
These people had survived the commotion and none of them had gotten cold feet during that period of chaos. However, many of them started to consider whether to participate in the contest of the brave tomorrow after they saw the young swordsman’s techniques.
When Gu Shenwei and Chu Nanping returned to their camp, it was almost dawn. It was from this day on that Chu Nanping was widely known as “The Double Sword” in this place.
For Gu Shenwei, the night that had just passed was a fruitful night, and Chu Nanping’s progress was not the only achievement. “Did you get it?” he asked Maid Lotus.
“You’d better meet with her. This thing is more complicated than we expected it to be,” Maid Lotus replied, her countenance was inscrutable.
