Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Tie Linglong did not say a single word about why she had appeared in the Royal Court, and neither did Chu Nanping ask.
“Let’s go find the Dragon King.” Chu Nanping invited.
“Why? He himself said that he didn’t want me to appear before him again.” Tie Linglong’s tone was still fierce but her whole personality was changing in subtle ways. The hard shell covering her was disintegrating, and with every word she uttered, she took one step closer to the little girl that Chu Nanping was familiar with.
“The Dragon King said that just to vent his anger, and he already forgave you a long time ago.” As usual, Chu Nanping played the role of being a comforter which he wasn’t very good at.
“Forgive? I’ve done nothing wrong. Why do I need him to forgive me? He should have apologized to me.” The more Tie Linglong spoke, the angrier she became and the harder it was for her to maintain her cold demeanor. Eyes glistening, she tried hard not to let the tears out.
Chu Nanping was at a loss as to what he should say. He couldn’t even understand his own feelings, let alone understand the complex emotions of others.
After a moment of silence, it was still Tie Linglong who was the first to speak up. “I can go with you to find the Dragon King, but I won’t show up or help.”
“All right.” Chu Nanping revealed a smile.
The one-eyed man looked at the young boy and girl and felt inexpressibly astonished, exclaiming in disbelief, “You are a disciple of the Essence Pavilion and the attendant of Immortal Peng.”
“I was, but not anymore.”
The two repeated what they said but the meaning was different this time. The one-eyed man shook his head and lamented, saying, “How can you fall in love with a woman when you mastered the Emotionless Swordsmanship alone? Is she the tool you will use to sever your emotions and break through to the fourth level?”
Chu Nanping was slightly stunned by this comment. He did have a ‘tool’ in mind, but it had always been Xu Xiaoyi ever since he was eleven years old. It was not until the one-eyed man pointed it out that he suddenly realized that his best ‘friend’ had become the girl in front of him.
As a matter of fact, his friendship with Xu Xiaoyi had already come to an end naturally. The two had walked further and further apart, to the point that they could only see an obscure outline of each other. They still treasured their former feelings but neither of them intended on reluctantly maintaining them.
Chu Nanping had been trying to break through the fourth level this whole time, but it was also under the one-eyed man’s questioning that he suddenly found that he had lost interest in such a goal. “No.” He hesitated for a moment before explaining his answer. “I’m not in love with her and she isn’t a tool either. This is the end of the Emotionless Swordsmanship, as I will not practice it anymore.”
The one-eyed man looked at Chu Nanping with his mouth agape as if a miser had heard that someone was giving away his great fortune without any reasons. “You’ll be a disciple of the Essence Pavilion after all.”
“No, I won’t.”
Tie Linglong, who was listening aside, felt puzzled and also a little shy. “Let me kill him.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Why? They are masters hired by the Khan; do you want to leave him alive so that he can tell on us?”
“Will you tell on us?” asked Chu Nanping.
“Huh.” Tie Linglong laughed aloud. She was just about to tell Chu Nanping that he would not get the truth with such a question when the one-eyed man lying on the ground said without hesitation, “Yes.”
With his head lowered, Chu Nanping thought for a moment before speaking to Tie Linglong, “But you still can’t kill him.”
“You’re just gonna let him go?”
Chu Nanping turned around, drew his sword, and stabbed out, killing in an instant. “From now on, I’ll kill you for you.”
Tie Linglong felt despised and proudly raised her head, before declaring, “Do you think my kung fu is so poor that I’m not qualified to kill?”
“No.” Chu Nanping’s voice was unexpectedly soft. “Rather, because you are kind-hearted and always regret it after killing.”
Tie Linglong’s killing aura grew heavier once again. “I just killed three freaks and I don’t feel regretful at all.”
“This is not who you are.”
Tie Linglong frowned. The teenage boy in front of her was all good except that the words he said were always mystifying and he still seemed under the influence of the Essence Pavilion. Rolling her eyes, she asked, “There are a lot of people I want to kill.”
“I’ll kill all of them for you.”
“What if I want to kill the Dragon King?”
“Same.”
Chu Nanping’s answer was so definite that Tie Linglong was actually startled. She stared into his eyes for a while and said with her lips curled, “You won’t.”
“Neither will you.”
Tie Linglong looked a little fidgety. “I’m really tired after talking with you. I almost forgot what I said. Let’s go. The Dragon King might be killed by someone if we are a bit late.”
The two were just in time to catch the last batch of kung fu practitioners who were heading towards the palace. So they took two horses from the roadside and galloped northward, and just happened to run into Shangguan Fei and Old Man Mu who were practicing by killing people.
Old Man Mu disliked all the disciples of the Waning Moon Hall. He looked the green-eyed little girl up and down and said, “It’s not right, it’s not right at all.”
“What’s not right?” Tie Linglong withdrew her left hand into her sleeve and could take out her dagger at any moment.
“Han Wuxian has always only let the successfully trained disciples wander Jianghu while she kills those semi-finished products. You are a semi-finished product, so why are out here?”
Tie Linglong was so angry that she smiled instead. “You must be Old Man Mu?”
“Yeah. So, Han Wuxian mentioned me? The people of the Waning Moon Hall are all heartless, and your Hall Leader is the leader of heartlessness. But she’s not that heartless to me.” Old Man Mu was quite proud of himself.
Tie Linglong turned to Chu Nanping, “This is the man I want to kill. You can do it now.”
Old Man Mu helplessly watched the long sword rush at his chest. He wasn’t familiar with Chu Nanping but the handsome young boy he remembered hadn’t been so violent. How could he act at once without a word? Even the Dragon King couldn’t change his face so quickly.
Old Man Mu had a quick mind. He immediately thought of ten ways to dodge the sword, four of which he could even fiercely counterattack from. But with his current internal energy, he couldn’t use any of them, so he could only resort to his eleventh ‘unique skill’ — plopping down on his knees and begged, “Miss, have mercy on me please!”
Chu Nanping’s longsword stopped barely an inch from his forehead.
“Have mercy?”
“Heh heh, I was being stupid and just put my foot in my mouth. More than a decade ago, the Waning Moon Hall always drove their disciples mad, but now it’s different. Hall Leader Han has great foresight by helping to build a good foundation for the disciples’ martial arts skills except for teaching them the secret arts. As soon as I saw the young lady, I knew your kung fu skills must be good enough to wander in Jianghu.”
“No matter how good I am at kung fu, I don’t need to show you any mercy.”
“But Hall Leader Han certainly wants me alive. Heehee, I’m wondering if she ever mentioned that I’ve made a small contribution to the martial arts of the Waning Moon Hall. Well, I’ve actually put in a lot of sweat rather than effort. By the way, you can ask Lotus. She’s always wanted to capture me alive and present me to your Hall Leader.”
Tie Linglong did not seem to believe what he was saying. Shangguan Fei, who had just recovered from the panic, thought that Old Man Mu could not die now, so he ventured to speak for him. “I can prove that Lotus has had several chances to kill … Old Man Mu, but never did it.”
Tie Linglong wasn’t ignorant of the things that happened around the Dragon King, so her actions were more to test if Chu Nanping would really kill Old Man Mu. “I’ll spare your life, as long as you follow me to the Waning Moon Hall later.”
“That’s for sure.” Old Man Mu calmly stood up, having neither the concepts of being a senior nor feeling shame after kneeling down to beg for mercy. “I also miss your Hall Leader a lot. How is she? Has she become younger and prettier than before? Over the years, I have collected a lot of new martial arts findings and am preparing to have a good conversation with her.”
Shangguan Fei became more and more respectful to Old Man Mu, thinking that he was not following the wrong person and that sooner or later he would have to learn both his ability to kill and skill of being shameless.
Chu Nanping put away his long sword as if nothing had happened and asked, “Are you also going to the palace to help the Dragon King?”
“Yes.” Old Man Mu and Shangguan Fei answered in unison while exchanging a glance. Both of them were satisfied with each other’s answer. Shangguan Fei didn’t forget to explain, saying, “It was all a misunderstanding. I knew you two were experts as soon as I saw you from afar and I thought you were the assassins sent by one of the kings.”
Without thinking too much, Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong urged the old and the young to get on the horses and move on.
The two who wanted to follow behind quietly to practice killing followed them into the northern forbidden zone just like this. With a guilty conscience, they did not dare to ask anything and therefore, were completely unaware that those two teenagers wanted to save the Dragon King simply because they had listened to a threat and didn’t actually have a clear plan.
Shangguan Fei finally asked when they had caught up with the large number of kung fu practitioners ahead, “Little Chu, do you know where the Dragon King is?”
“I don’t know.” Chu Nanping never lied.
“He’s not in a crowded place for sure. We used to be his bodyguards… Anyway, we know his habits and we’ll find him soon.”
The Dragon King usually liked to lurk on the periphery of the crowd but the four didn’t find any clue even after going around in a big circle. Instead, they only saw a dozen or so timid followers who immediately jumped into the grass like rabbits at the sight of their approach.
“What’s going on? Was that one-eyed man a liar?” Tie Linglong said that she didn’t want to see the Dragon King but she appeared more impatient than anyone else when they didn’t find him.
She was not the only one to complain. Those thousand or so kung fu practitioners were moving more and more slowly, and many of them were simply walking alongside their horses now.
It was a good sign that there were no guards in the northern forbidden zone but the closer they got to the palace, the more nervous the crowd became, and the more eagerly they wanted to elect a leader.
“Where’s the Dragon King? Why hasn’t he shown up yet?” Most people who said this were from the Western Regions.
“Where are the nine famous sects? Where are all those kung fu masters?” People of the Central Plains held more faith in the eminent martial artists of their own country.
“Hey, isn’t that someone from the Qingcheng Sect?”
“Kongdong Sect!”
“Taishan Sect!”
Before long, the kung fu practitioners of the Central Plains had divided into over a dozen groups, each following a different leader.
There were not many sabermen from the Western Regions, only about three hundred people. Some of them joined the small groups of the Central Plains while the others persisted in searching for the Dragon King or golden roc killers.
The four of them gave up hanging around the periphery and tried to find some information in the crowd. And soon they found a large group of sabermen gathering around them.
“Shangguan Fei…”
“The Dragon King’s subordinate, he also won the warrior contest two days in a row …”
“The Unique King’s son …”
“He killed a bunch of people in one punch …”
Before Shangguan Fei could react, he had become the leader of the sabermen of the Western Regions, without anyone asking for his opinion. In short, there were more than a hundred people following him everywhere he went.
With the help of the firelight, Old Man Mu saw an acquaintance among the small groups of the Central Plains. “Red Bat, why are you here?”
“I’ve come to look for the Dragon King.”
Red Bat, together with the ten guards of the Dragon King, had come with the hostage, Dao Lun. They didn’t expect that Dao Lun would somehow assume the leading role. Just like Shangguan Fei, Dao Lun had a large group of followers as soon as he was identified.
Old Man Mu didn’t like the scene, so he whispered to Shangguan Fei, “We’ve got big trouble. We won’t be able run away later even if we want to.”
“Yeah, what if these guys keep following us?”
“No, they are following you, not us, so …”
“You can’t go.” Shangguan Fei objected before Old Man Mu could even say it.
Old Man Mu was just about to force Shangguan Fei to accept it when a loud noise came from ahead. “It’s started! No cavalry! No cavalry!”
The crowd broke into a feverish excitement and rushed forward like the advancing tide. Shangguan Fei couldn’t get away and in a blink of an eye, he had lost track of Old Man Mu.
Although Old Man Mu didn’t have much internal energy left now, it was still easy for him to escape from a crowd of disorderly sabermen.
So he was the first to break away from the main crowd. But before he could take a long breath, he also became the first to find large groups of cavalry advancing from the rear and flank. Without any torches, the cavalry moved like a great serpent in the dark night and was rapidly encircling its prey.
