Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
When Gu Shenwei got closer, he only saw five corpses.
Han Wuxian was like a low-flying falcon, constantly rising and falling above the grassline. This was the golden roc killers and the Dragon King’s killers first time cooperating, but they acted in perfect harmony. Without any previous arrangements or commands, they immediately dismounted and fanned out, either pursuing or intercepting on their own like a pack of loyal hounds hunting for hidden birds.
One of the corpses was wearing a hood. Shangguan Fei broke off a large piece of grass straw and used it to prop up the hood. “It’s a nobleman of the Norland,” he said.
Gu Shenwei sighed. “He’s the Commandant of the Court Attendants’ Army.”
Shangguan Fei was taken aback and threw the grass straw away. “What is the Commandant doing here? Isn’t the Court Attendants Army and King Shengri about to go to war?”
Gu Shenwei also didn’t understand. The contest held by King Riyao was a very simple trap. The Commandant shouldn’t have been fooled and also should have brought much more than four guards with him.
“King Shengri must be very happy now.” Shangguan Fei hadn’t met the Commandant before but he was very well aware of his importance. “The next round of the chaotic fight in the Royal Court is about to begin.”
Gu Shenwei had long since speculated that the Waning Moon Hall would do anything to assassinate the Commandant. But during the meeting that had taken place the day before yesterday, the Commandant appeared to have well-thought-out plans regarding his own safety as if he had a way to guard against the female killers. Gu Shenwei didn’t expect that he would actually be so careless.
“Ahem.” One of the corpses made a sound. Shangguan Fei was startled again and jumped back three steps before he drew his saber. Realizing that his fists were fiercer, he threw away the saber and took a fighting posture.
The wounded man seemed unable to stand up, and all that came out with his cough was blood from his mouth.
Gu Shenwei went to the victim and knelt down on one leg to check his condition.
“Be careful, Dragon King,” Shangguan Fei warned. These people had been killed by people of the Waning Moon Hall. Shangguan Fei would rather stay far away from them for his own safety.
It was an external injury. There were five small bloodstained holes in the lower part of his heart. In the process of avoiding Han Wuxian, the assassin had left hastily and actually left a man alive.
But he couldn’t live for long.
The wounded man looked at the Dragon King and seemed to recognize him. Gu Shenwei recognized this man as the only bodyguard of the Commandant present on the day of the kings’ meeting; he had caught King Shengri’s flying knife and was a kung fu expert.
This expert probably didn’t even have the slightest chance to make a move before the knockout drugs of the Waning Moon Hall had taken effect.
He vomited up some more blood and finally decided to trust the Dragon King. “There’s… a mole… Tell… Tell…”
As for telling whom, he wasn’t able to say.
The killers returned with more eight corpses. Han Wuxian returned to the cane chair on Nie Zeng’s back and hummed a melody in a low voice.
The five golden roc killers acted discreetly. They quietly lay down the corpses and stepped aside. However, the six teenage killers of the Dragon King, including Nie Zeng, couldn’t suppress the excitement in their hearts. Before this, their only formal mission had been to rescue Han Wuxian, which they had plotted for many days but in the end, had mostly been Hu Shining’s work.
The five teenagers knelt down. Nie Zeng hesitated a little and also followed in kneeling down. Han Wuxian could only sit in the chair with her legs crossed. She wasn’t able to stand on the ground yet. The lightness skills she had just shown had mainly relied on the support of her hands and couldn’t be used all the time.
Gu Shenwei understood what the teenagers expected and agreed that they deserved the honor. So he produced a dagger, gently cut the palm of his left hand, and smeared his blood on the foreheads of the six young boys. Then he dipped his right hand in the blood of the enemy and smeared their foreheads again to cover his blood.
The six teenagers had learned the procedure from their training instructor and knew what they should do next. They drew their narrow sabers and stabbed them into the ground. With their left hands holding onto the hilt and their right hands running across the blade, they smeared their forehead with a third layer of blood.
The blood oath made up of the blood of the master, enemy, and the disciple killers was completed. Although it was a lot simpler than the more primitive rites, it still possessed an air of mystery and solemnity. Even Han Wuxian turned around and watched curiously.
Shangguan Fei felt his heart tremble. He wasn’t an impulsive person. If anyone had spoken of such rituals in front of him, he would have dismissed them as ‘flashy.’ But at the moment he felt that this was true allegiance and he even wanted to kneel and take the blood oath together with the young boys.
But he wasn’t a killer, so he controlled his knees.
The five golden roc killers witnessed all this, their faces impassive. No one knew what effect the scene would have on them later on.
Gu Shenwei examined the eight corpses. There were two women who he was familiar with and had to be the disciples of the Waning Moon Hall. The others were all men.
Han Wuxian also recognized the two. “When they were little, they used to take candy from me. Of course, it was not real candy but rather nauseating drugs. They survived my training but turned to Lotus in the end. Well, I liked these two little girls. Killing them with my own hands made me feel twice as happy.”
Nie Zeng could no longer bear it. “Don’t you have any feelings?”
Han Wuxian was as soft as a snake. She twisted her body and stuck out her left foot over Nie Zeng’s shoulder and swayed it under his nose in a position that seemed nearly impossible to outsiders.
The bare foot was close to his face, and the scar on her ankle was horrifying. Nie Zeng’s face was redder than the blood on his forehead. “Take it away, what are you doing?”
Han Wuxian paused for a while before moving her foot back. “When the chains went through my ankles, they were there. Did you ever hear the screams and begging of the Waning Moon Hall’s Hall Leader? Hey kid, who are you to talk about ‘feelings’? When you fall in love with someone, I’ll let you know what true feelings are.”
Nie Zeng glared but unfortunately, he couldn’t see the person behind him. He was a killer and would not fall in love with anyone.
Gu Shenwei didn’t pay any attention to the two. Everything had changed so fast. He had changed from being a war-watcher to a war-taker, and now he had to solve all the problems at hand quickly. So he ordered Nie Zeng, Han Wuxian, and the five golden roc killers to immediately return to the Dragon Army camp and bring back some soldiers. He and the five teenage killers would stay at the site to guard the corpses while Shangguan Fei followed the request to tell someone from the Court Attendants Army.
Liman had been staying at the camp of the Court Attendants Army, meeting with friends, and seeking information for the Dragon King these past two days. Gu Shenwei hoped that he would come in handy today.
The first to arrive was not the Court Attendants Army but rather King Riyao Tuosai who had also come from the west to watch the battle.
Tuosai quickly approached the scene while under the protection of one hundred guards in silver armor, one thousand ordinary horsemen, and dozens of kung fu masters.
Gu Shenwei and the five teenagers remained lurking in the grass. They were barely able to cover up the dozen or so corpses before the army passed by just a few dozen paces away. The rumbling of the horses’ hooves shook the ground. And they could be exposed as long as a single soldier turned his head to look around.
As the troops passed by, a distinct trace of trampled grass was left on the prairie. Gu Shenwei heaved a sigh of relief.
Shangguan Fei finally returned, followed by seven or eight officers.
The officers jumped off of the horses and ran straight to the corpses, and all turned silent after examining them.
Liman, who was among them, pointed at the other eight corpses and asked, “Were they the assassins?”
Gu Shenwei nodded.
An officer who appeared to be the leader of the crowd also asked, “No one was left alive?”
“No.” Everything happened too fast. It was already difficult for Han Wuxian and the killers to catch up with the assassins, not to mention the fact that the other side were disciples of the Waning Moon Hall. So it was very hard to keep them alive.
The officer questioningly looked at the Dragon King, “You were here just in time to catch up to the assassins but didn’t have the time to save or capture anyone alive?”
“Sometimes things just happen.”
Liman came over and introduced him, saying, “This is the Dragon King, and this is the chiliarch of the Court Attendants Army, Azheba.”
Gu Shenwei remembered this name. Xu Yanwei had escaped from the prison with this person but at that time he had just been a centurion.
Xu Yanwei had said some weird words, suggesting that Azheba was fond of Shangguan Ru. Gu Shenwei didn’t take it to heart at that time, but now he suddenly felt a surge of anger after seeing the other side and being impolitely questioned by him.
Azheba seemed to feel the anger, so he softened his tone, “Please forgive me, Dragon King. The Commandant was assassinated and I am acting flustered.”
The officers gathered around Azheba. “What should we do? King Shengri is still challenging us over there, and the whole army is waiting for the Commandant.”
“Take the body back. Do not release the news. Let’s do as we see fit.”
“It’ll be hard. We are just a bunch of centurions and chiliarchs, and we can’t control the whole army. We need a general to take command,” said one of the officers.
Azheba was silent for a moment. He had just been promoted to chiliarch and had little prestige in the army. Although he had many friends, most of them were young men without a high rank. “It’s the only thing we can do. Let’s choose a suitable general, hand the body of the Commandant over to him, and then let him announce the news. Then we’ll all take him as our new leader.”
The officers obviously had to discuss some secret affairs so Gu Shenwei and Liman walked away. The five teenage killers who had been lurking nearby had never showed up.
“Alas, this situation troublesome. We just gained the trust of the Commandant and were about to persuade him to support Prince Duodun. How could this happen? How could he leave the camp with so little people?” Liman looked quite frustrated.
“His guard claimed that there was a mole before he died.”
Liman took a glance at the officers and said, “It’s very possible. Not many people could persuade the Commandant to venture outside of the camp. I’m sure that we’ll find the mole soon.”
“The key is who will succeed the Commandant’s position.”
Liman glanced back again and said, “Right. As the Dragon King knows, there’s a serious rift within the Court Attendants Army and only the Commandant could suppress it. Now that he’s dead, it will be very hard to maintain the integrity of the Court Attendants Army. All we can do is to try to retain the biggest fraction.”
What Liman hadn’t said was that if they really wanted a piece of the pie, then just the Dragon King’s title and the identities of several noble officers were not enough. They had to choose a royal heir.
The officers finished the discussion but didn’t reveal the results of their discussion. Azheba invited the Dragon King to go with him to the camp of the Court Attendants Army. “There are rumors everywhere in the Royal Court right now. It would be better if the Dragon King went there in person just to prevent the soldiers from gossiping.”
Gu Shenwei agreed. He didn’t verbally call out the hidden teenage killers, and instead hinted for them to follow far behind.
The ruins of the Royal Court were not far away now. Gu Shenwei could even see the two armies currently locked in confrontation as well as a few small armies looking on from the sides.
A group of hundreds of horsemen ran at them head-on and began to separate dozens of steps away, encircling the team carrying the bodies.
What Gu Shenwei did not want to see had happened. The scouts had discovered Azheba and the other officers which then attracted the attention of King Riyao. Naturally, he led his troops there to investigate the cause in person.
