Translator: Henyee Editor: Henyee
The crowd turned rowdy. What was the Dragon King’s warrior doing? Why did he grab the referee and keep asking questions without going near his opponent?
The referee was also very angry. He had tried his best but still couldn’t get rid of Shangguan Fei who was pulling at him. “Whatever, do whatever you want. You can knock him out, or make him fall down. The one who can’t get up will be the loser.”
“He’s taller than me and has a long saber. It’s a bit unfair. Can you tell him to put down his saber and only fight with his fists?” Shangguan Fei racked his brain to come up with strange questions while looking at the viewing area of the nobles.
The two people he cared about the most were talking to each other in a low voice. King Kuari’s expression seemed to have changed. Shangguan Fei was overjoyed. It turned out that the Dragon King was pulling firewood out of Bie Yan’s stove by directly blackmailing his lord and forcing him to hold back when fighting.
Shangguan Fei turned a deaf ear to the referee and still didn’t let go, wholeheartedly waiting for the Dragon King’s signal.
Finally, some of the audience could no longer bear his blatant behavior and took action to vent their anger.
Something fell close to Shangguan Fei, which startled both him and the referee.
It was a dirty old boot.
“Well, as you can see, someone just threw out a hidden weapon. It’s unfair, I demand …”
Before he finished, another ‘hidden weapon’ hurtled at him. This time it was a horsewhip. Shangguan Fei deftly dodged, but the referee was unlucky. He was hit and cried out in pain. Meanwhile, he took this chance to run to the edge of the field, glad that he had gotten free of the entanglement.
Once it started, the impatient spectators followed suit. Various ‘hidden weapons’ flew down into the field like raindrops. Shangguan Fei dodged from place to place and even though he wasn’t hit by anything except for some drinks splashing out from nowhere, he was still retreating step by step. When he looked back, he happened to see Bie Yan lift his five-feet-long saber and coldly stare at him.
Shangguan Fei’s feet softened, and it was then that he finally saw the Dragon King’s signal. A guard standing behind the Dragon King was waving to him.
At the same time, King Kuari made an ambiguous gesture to Bie Yan, and the look on his face showed that he was very reluctant to make such a decision.
It was time to act. Shangguan Fei waved his narrow saber and rushed at Bie Yan like he was reuniting with his lover after a short absence.
After three moves, the audience immediately stopped throwing things. After seven strokes, the crowd nodded. The spectators cheered loudly after the two exchanged ten bouts, and a few of the cheers were even surprisingly rooting for Shangguan Fei.
Since it was all acting, Shangguan Fei, of course, didn’t want to screw up. With the intention of showing off his kung fu, he brandished his saber quickly and moved even swifter as if he were a badger fighting a viper, circling around his prey and looking for a flaw from the back and the side.
Shangguan Fei had undergone a complete and rigorous training as a killer, and it was the first time he was showing it outside of the castle.
As a warrior doomed to lose, Bie Yan’s performance was pretty good. He spun his long saber like a windmill, his steps firm and steady. For each step he took, he would roar with great momentum, showing not even the slightest sign of holding back.
Only Shangguan Fei knew that the warrior of King Kuari had not tried his best and had deliberately revealed a flaw. Although it was fleeting and even the experienced audience couldn’t notice, it gave him many opportunities to take advantage of it.
Shangguan Fei liked this kind of close fight without any danger. It was like the kung fu competition he had organized with his sister when he was little. No matter how the servants tried their best, used all their unique or ferocious moves, and panted, the winner was always the twins in the end.
Bie Yan was a servant of King Kuari and had no choice but to accept his lord’s order.
With victory in hand, Shangguan Fei was as cheerful as a bird.
King Kuari always thought he was shrewd and resourceful and could be at ease in the face of accidents, but this time, he could hardly contain his anger. The Dragon King had chosen the last possible moment before the start of the warrior contest to threaten him as if his authority were a castle floating in the air that could be pushed down at will.
If Kuo Zhen was still alive, King Kuari admitted that it was not a small hidden danger. But who would believe a Golden Roc killer, even if he knew the overall plan? The key was who would dare to believe it.
The Dragon King hadn’t realized that more than half of the Royal Court had fallen into his hands, and what he needed was just to create a reputation that he had nothing to do with the death of the Khan.
King Kuari had decided to teach the Dragon King a lesson, so he signaled for Bie Yan to kill Shangguan Fei.
Next, he would send someone to cut off a palm of that woman and give it to the Dragon King.
He must be tough towards the Dragon King. Since he couldn’t trick him into leaving the Royal Court, then he would scare him away.
Gu Shenwei felt that Shangguan Fei could win. Even if he had no amazing fist techniques, he still had an eighty percent chance of winning just by virtue of years of practice of the Daoless Divine Power and his dozens of years of training as a killer.
Timidity was his only obstacle, and this was the limiting factor that often suppressed Shangguan Fei to around fifty percent of his real power.
Gu Shenwei had played a little trick but he wasn’t sure if it worked because Bie Yan was also a kung fu expert. Once Shangguan Fei discovered that something was wrong, his panic would kill him.
Behind over a dozen nobles, Shangguan Yun was trying to figure out how to solve the current dilemma.
One of his killers had been kidnapped by the Dragon King’s men, but he could not accuse the Dragon King of breaking the agreement because the Dragon King was sitting nearby and the kidnappers were also a bit special.
Shangguan Yun then also received the news that just now more than three hundred female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance had suddenly stormed into Golden Roc Castle’s camp, claiming to look for their instructor, and turned all the tents inside out.
Zhang Ji was full of schemes but the only thing he didn’t know how to deal with was women, especially a large group of women.
The female soldiers went and left without even an apology. Afterward, they discovered that nothing was missing except a man.
This killer had been identified by Han Fen, the disciple of Waning Moon Hall, on a secret mission, which resulted in his failure.
Shangguan Yun wasn’t concerned that the killer would say something he shouldn’t, but rather that King Kuari would be displeased.
Just as Shangguan Yun carefully observed King Kuari’s expression, more news came that the killer had been released, who swore that he had been drugged but said nothing, and that the female soldiers had not mistreated him.
But this made Shangguan Yun feel even more uneasy.
The kung fu competition in the field had been going on for more than thirty moves but was still dead even. King Kuari grew more and more discontent as time passed because he had heard that Shangguan Fei was a little rat that could be easily dealt with and should have been killed within ten moves.
“I hope that the Dragon King doesn’t get spooked by the rumors here.” King Kuari controlled his anger and smiled. “The winds howl around the highest peaks, so a person in a high position like a member of the royal family is liable to have false rumors abound. All I can do is ignore it.”
“It’s a good idea to observe but not pay attention, which can solve many problems. By the way, that Golden Roc killer looked like he was talking nonsense, so my people just kicked him out.”
“Heh, the Dragon King changes and acts so fast.”
“Things are changing all the time. When I first came to the Royal Court, Golden Roc Castle was still our common enemy. In a blink of an eye, everything has changed, hasn’t it?”
“That’s because the Dragon King is too narrow-minded. Nothing has changed for the Norland. We’ve always been defending our own interests. If the Dragon King can’t accept this, the road ahead will only become more and more narrow.”
“I’m already at a dead end. Should I not be thankful that now I will be able to walk down a narrow road?”
King Kuari glanced coldly at Shangguan Yun from a distance. The nobles around them were cheering for the warriors on the field, and as such, either consciously or unintentionally forming a barrier for their conversation. Occasionally a few words were heard, and even if they were meaningless words, the listeners would immediately warn themselves in their minds to forget them quickly.
“The road is unchanging, but man adapts. Dead ends, narrow roads, or paved roads, it’s just an idea. It depends on whom and how closely you follow them.”
“Somebody has to hit a dead end.”
“Right, anything is possible before the last moment. I only know one thing; those who follow me will stay far away from the dead end.”
Gu Shenwei stayed silent in the face of King Kuari’s hint. When he spoke again, he avoided the topic about the road. “Which two swords does King Kuari dislike most? I’m going to start choosing.”
King Kuari was stunned. Bie Yan obviously held the upper hand and seemed to only be a few moves away from winning. How could the Dragon King think he was going to pick from his swords?
Shangguan Yun happened to walk over, and said, “The Dragon King is really capable and can turn my unworthy brother into a kung fu expert. Golden Roc Castle feels ashamed.”
The anger King Kuari took great effort to suppress rose again. He didn’t specify who would enter the ‘dead end’ when talking about it, but Golden Roc Castle’s bad luck and trouble as well as Shangguan Yun’s misjudgment about his brother made him seriously consider for the first time who would take the ‘dead-end road’.
Shangguan Fei began to wonder if this Bie Yan was acting too much. It had been forty or fifty moves, yet why was he still not showing any signs of defeat?
Soon, the chance came. In Shangguan Fei’s eyes, Bie Yan created a clever loophole. Instead of pretending to be flustered, he attacked faster and more ruthlessly, but his defense was lowered. Although his sabersmanship was still fierce and swift, it had lost its airtight defense.
If it were during normal times, even if Shangguan Fei saw the flaw in his opponent’s defense, he would not dare to take advantage of it. But today he felt no fear because he knew he was safe, so there was no ‘risk’ that he dare not take.
Even the frightening roar of Bie Yan was like a bluff to deceive the audience. The real meaning was actually to urge Shangguan Fei to do it quickly.
Shangguan Fei decided to not wait any longer and to finish the act impeccably.
He passed his narrow saber to his left hand and held it against the back of his arm before he rushed at Bie Yan while making a complete turn in the air, perfectly blocking Bie Yan’s long saber with his narrow saber.
To the audience, Shangguan Fei seemed to have blocked the saber with his arm, so they exclaimed in unison. The boy who dawdled before the game had won the approval of many people with his strength.
Shangguan Fei had deliberately played a dangerous trick by continuously spinning his body. When he was face to face with Bie Yan again, he entered the inner circle for the first time and punched at the chest without hesitation.
The huge body slowly collapsed. Shangguan Fei returned the narrow saber to his right hand and held it high to solemnly greet the Dragon King on the noble seat, thinking that he could carry out such a good mission a few more times.
Rarely had his hopes been fulfilled so quickly, when another saberman entered the field before the excited cries of the audience ceased.
Shangguan Fei looked around to search for the referee and asked him as soon as he saw him coming, “What’s going on? I won, didn’t I?”
The referee’s attitude was a lot respectful, “Yes, you’ve won one game, and you have to win two more games to qualify for the next round.”
Shangguan Fei was dumbfounded. He had just won the bet of the Dragon King and King Kuari but was still far from the champion title of the warrior contest.
He looked up at the Dragon King, hoping for a hint, but to his disappointment, the Dragon King was gone.
Gu Shenwei left in advance, leaving it up to the guards to choose the swords of King Kuari. He had to go to see Luo Ningcha. If the plan went well, she should be back at the Flower Camp.
