Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
When the cavalry first arrived, many people assumed that they were helpers.
It wasn’t entirely fair to blame these kung fu practitioners for being careless. They were not gullible fools but rather martial artists who strictly followed the rules of Jianghu. They only trusted the news they heard from their friends. Otherwise, even the senior officials of Norland who had invited them here in person would be severely questioned and doubted.
The arrows fired by the tens of thousands of Norland Cavalry poured down in torrents, forcing the crowd to move closer to the center. Soon, nearly a thousand people were huddled into a ball. Panicking, they didn’t understand how things could have turned out this way. They were actually working for the kings of the Norland, so why were they under siege?
The cavalry stopped just outside the area filled with arrows and didn’t continue their offensive, which reassured the besieged martial artists a bit, allowing them to finally find out the truth.
So, one after another, the ‘friends’ of the ‘friends’ were exposed. In the end, they all pointed to the kung fu masters from several well-known sects of the Central Plains, signifying that they had been the ones to first spread the news and promise with an assurance that the operation was perfectly justified and risk-free.
There were, in total, nine famous sects in the martial arts world of the Central Plains, seven of which had sent disciples to the Norland. They had then changed their names to be an honored guest of the kings. They had witnessed and participated in the chaos of the fight for the throne. Therefore, when the kings hinted that the Khan was already dead and that they needed outsiders to remove the ‘masters,’ they immediately felt it was fifty or sixty percent credible. When they learned that the news was confirmed by the others kings who were extremely opposed to each other, the news became eighty or ninety percent credible.
The appearance of the cavalry, however, proved that everything was a hoax.
The dozens of disciples of the seven sects quickly became the targets of public criticism, and the recriminations were far tenser than the arrow rain of the Norland Cavalry.
The reaction of the seven sects was very fast, who soon all gathered together to strengthen themselves. After stabilizing the panicking crowd, they selected a representative to talk to the soldiers to find out what was going on. When they found out that the commander in chief was King Shengri, they finally understood that this could not be a misunderstanding.
Among the ten kings of the Norland, only this alcoholic and bird-lover had never hired a kung fu expert from the Central Plains or the Western Regions.
King Shengri watched all this from a distance. These people had already fallen into his snare. No matter how they struggled, there was no way for them to escape. It would be too boring to just shoot them to death; he had a much better method in mind.
“Your Majesty, there must be a misunderstanding. We are loyal to the Norland.” The representatives of the seven sects were in the midst of ‘struggling’ for the last time.
King Shengri snorted. Half of these kung fu experts of the Central Plains had come to fish in troubled waters and the other half wanted to bring back the Khan’s head for a big reward from the Emperor of the Central Plains. How could they possibly be loyal?
“Loyalty cannot be achieved by mere talk. You have to show it.”
“What does that mean?”
“If you want to prove yourself a wolf, go kill a few cows and sheep. If you want to show your loyalty to the Norland, kill all of the people from the Central Plains for me. The more you kill, the more loyal you are. Do it now, as I’ll only keep the last fifty people.”
Everyone was stupefied when the news spread through to the core of the crowd. The Norland actually wanted them to kill each other to demonstrate their loyalty. But there were nearly a thousand people who were either friends or fellow disciples. How could they do such a thing?
Dozens of sabermen from the Western Regions suddenly threw away their weapons and ran towards the outside, shouting, “We are not from the Central Plains.”
The answer of the Norland calvary was a round of shots, telling the group of sabermen that they were not from Norland either.
More than a dozen people fell to the ground. Those who wanted to break out of the circle immediately dispelled the idea from their minds. Faced with tens of thousands of bows, even immortals could not escape.
It was already impossible to run away. Mutual suspicion among the crowd was getting worse. Everyone felt that they had been tricked by their ‘friends’. So those whom they had felt reluctant to attack were now the most damnable person.
The killing covertly began. No one talked about showing loyalty, and instead the pretexts they used were something like ‘tricking me into this death operation,’ ‘borrowing too much money from me,’ and ‘staring at me for no reason’.
The cavalry of the Northern forbidden zone had started many torches and they now lit up the northern forbidden zone as if it were daylight. But King Shengri still felt that it was not clear enough. If not for fear of his own personal safety, he would have run to the inner circle to watch it more closely.
There was a tendency for the killing to spread into melee range, but King Shengri’s excitement did not last long. People of the Central Plains always seemed able to find a way to make rules quickly even in the face of danger. Although the seven major sects had lost their credibility, there were still other prominent figures who stood out to stop the meaningless slaughter and instead turn it into a rotating kung fu competition.
King Shengri was bored and wanted to force the prey to fight more fiercely. But he soon changed his mind and thought that it wouldn’t bad this way as the killing would continue until dawn, at which point he could see it more clearly. He only sent one message to the crowd: those who acted earlier were more loyal to the Norland.
Old Man Mu had at least achieved one of his purposes; Shangguan Fei could now kill at will.
He didn’t run away. If it was the old him, he was sure to safely break through the horse hooves even when facing ten times the cavalry. But now he was too weak to do what he wished and had no choice but to rely on the protection of others.
Shangguan Fei tried to explain that he was the Dragon King’s man and was not an accomplice of these conspirators, but he only received contemptuous replies from the underlings of King Shengri. “Who is the Dragon King? There’s no such king in the Norland.”
After being forced by Old Man Mu, he could only join in on the kung fu competition. One round after another, until he had killed nine people in a row. At the end, he was so bloody that no one dared challenge him again.
This was the situation that Gu Shenwei and the four elders of the Jade Pure Sect had arrived at. It was just dawn but nearly a hundred people had already been killed. King Shengri also issued the order to put out all the torches and was ready to apply more pressure to make the killing become bloodier.
The Dragon King was exactly the man he wanted.
“Why are my men trapped in there?” Gu Shenwei asked, already understanding the general situation at heart.
King Shengri made a surprised expression as he explained, “Dragon King’s men are also in there? How did this happen? They’ve disgraced the Dragon King by taking part in the rebellion behind your back.”
The four elders of the Jade Pure Sect also saw Dao Lun but didn’t dare to utter a sound. Instead, they moved aside to hide behind the cavalry.
“There must be some misunderstanding. Let them come out to explain themselves.”
King Shengri sat on his horse and looked at the two hunchbacks leading the way before turning to the Dragon King and smilingly saying, “I’m afraid I can’t let them out no matter if there’s a misunderstanding or not. This is the order of the Khan. I’m not as bold as the Dragon King’s men who dared to disobey the Khan’s orders.”
“I’d like to see the Khan.” Gu Shenwei didn’t mention the truce between him and the Norland because that would be a waste of time and energy. The ones who surrounded Shangguan Fei was the Norland Cavalry but those who were fighting were the kung fu practitioners of the Central Plains and the Western Regions.
“The Khan also would love to meet the Dragon King. But the Dragon King has to undergo a test first. As for the reason, I think you know why. There will only be experts left in the circle later. When the time comes, the Dragon King will be called upon to help the Khan kill the usurpers. You don’t have to kill too many; ten people will be enough.”
King Shengri then turned to the four elders of the Jade Pure Sect but this time there was no smile on his face. “So too for you all.”
“We’ve seen the Khan, and our loyalty has already been verified.” Afraid and angry, Dao Nian could barely keep his composure.
“As long as you’re not a man of Norland, you have to be tested again. No exceptions. And you’ve brought an outsider inside without permission, so I don’t think you’re as loyal as you proclaim to be.”
“What about them? The people of the Essence Pavilion are also not from Norland.” The tall Dao Xiu pointed to the two hunchbacks and questioned, appearing more defiant than his senior brother.
Although they were all the masters hired by the Khan, the competition between them was quite fierce.
“We’ll kill, too,” One of the hunchbacks said.
“And we’ll definitely kill more than you,” said the other hunchback.
It wasn’t just the Dragon King and the people of the Jade Pure Sect who had been called to prove their loyalty. Not long after, more and more people were brought there. There were seven sects who had been more cautious and left some of their disciples behind to not attend last night’s operation. Like the Dragon King, they could only watch their fellow disciples being trapped as they stood there at a loss for what to do. They didn’t even dare ask for mercy.
The cavalry made a wider passageway. There were now in total thirty-seven kung fu experts who had to make a choice between the Norland and their companions.
The people were all present now. King Shengri was very happy because this was the wonderful show he had been looking forward to for a long time. “Everyone.” He spoke to the thirty-seven kung fu experts as if he were chatting freely. “I have no doubt of your loyalty. You can treat the killing as a test or as due diligence. The Norland simply needs you to show your saber and sword skill, as the Khan admires blood-stained soldiers. So, this is actually your chance to win honor and glory.”
The besieged had seen their acquaintances and fellow disciples on the outside and couldn’t help but hope that they could save them. So they stopped competing in their kung fu competition one by one. While not daring to rush out, they all shouted out where they were.
Old Man Mu and Shangguan Fei had noticed the Dragon King long ago so they shouted louder than anyone else, “Dragon King, we are here to help you. Somehow we’ve been trapped here. Get us out of here please.”
None of the thirty-seven kung fu experts responded.
The hope of the besieged gradually turned into confusion, and then into anger. Someone started cursing loudly, some sighed, and only Old Man Mu nodded with admiration. “I always thought that the Dragon King was shameless, but it seems that I underestimated him. See, all the others are lowering their heads and pretending to hear nothing. Only the Dragon King holds his head high and doesn’t feel embarrassed at all.”
“Ahh, won’t the Dragon King save us?” The nervous Shangguan Fei tried hard to get up only to fall down again.
“Rubbish. If you are standing outside, will you risk your life to save the people inside?” Although Old Man Mu didn’t want to die, he didn’t take it to heart. “Try to kill as many as you can later and become one of the last fifty people.”
Shangguan Fei felt that he was going to vomit. He looked back at Chu Nanping, Red Bat and the Dragon King’s guards, who appeared even calmer than Old Man Mu. It seemed that the heartlessness of the Dragon King was a normal thing to them.
Only Tie Linglong, who stood behind Chu Nanping, snorted coldly.
Dao Lun, who had lost his long beard, didn’t give up hope. The five elders of the Jade Pure Sect had been practicing martial arts together since they were little. And they had been friends for more than decades. So Dao Lun believed that their friendship was unusual and unbreakable, so he still kept calling out ‘senior brother’.
Dao Nian’s anger suddenly flared up. Was his junior brother a fool? Couldn’t he see how dangerous the situation was? Why did he have to shout so loudly to get the other four into trouble?
“Dao Lun.” Dao Nian came out of the crowd and snapped, “How dare you call me your senior brother? The Khan has treated you well and yet you took part in the rebellion without telling us. Do you still want us to forgive you?”
Dao Lun’s expression immediately changed. Dumbfounded, he stood motionless there and couldn’t even believe his ears. Old Man Mu patted him twice on the waist as he said, “Welcome to the real Jade Pure Sect.”
Since Dao Nian had played a leading role, the other kung fu experts began to berate their besieged partners vehemently with a distinctly moral tone one after another. They only wanted to show that they knew nothing of the rebellion and they were loyal to the Norland and the Khan.
King Shengri watched the first climax of the show contentedly and imagined the rest of the scene. “All right, the fight continues. Before lunch, only the truly loyal ones will be left here, and the Khan…”
King Shengri’s well-prepared speech was cut short by an accident.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the Dragon King started walking towards the inner circle neither fast nor slow as if the tens of thousands of cavalry did not exist.
