Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Dog Butcher was caught in a dilemma. On top of that, he had never been a good decision maker, and it all accumulated as a big headache for him. In the current situation, any action he took would be against the rules no matter how hard he thought.
On one hand, the wounded Deng Yuanlei and Liu Fangsheng were from the nine major sects of the Central Plains like him. Although they had fought against each other for the head of the Khan, he could not ignore the decades of friendship and good will between the two sects. On the other hand, he had just openly pledged allegiance to the Dragon King with dozens of eyewitnesses and his pledge meant that he had to follow the other side’s orders.
“Fan Yongda!” Dog Butcher shouted, grave and dignified. Startled, the disciples of the Kongtong Sect immediately gathered around him. Among them was Fan Yongda, who appeared more respectful than usual, and he asked, “What are your orders, Uncle Master?”
“What should I do?” Dog Butcher whispered for help, sweat oozing from his forehead.
Fan Yongda found himself in an even more difficult situation than his senior. He looked at his Uncle Master and then glanced at the Dragon King. “Ah? Uncle Master means to…”
“Don’t play dumb. The Dragon King is going to kill Elder Deng and Little Liu. Should we save them or not?”
“Well… Uncle Master should help restore the acupoints of the Dragon King’s subordinates first.” Fan Yongda’s idea was to delay making a decision for as long as possible.
Dog Butcher lifted his crutch and swept past Shangguan Ru and Doctor Sun, unsealing the two’s acupoints.
Liu Fangsheng barely got up with the help of his fellow disciples but he immediately pushed them away and said with his head held high, “We are not dead yet, so the duel is not over. Uncle Master Tu does not need to feel embarrassed. This is a fair duel, and even if Uncle Master Tu joins the fight, the Qingcheng Sect will not blame you. Listen up, Qingcheng disciples. Withdraw from the field and do not interfere with the duel. Do not let anyone underestimate our Qingcheng Sect.”
Upon hearing the harsh and righteous words of their young master, all the disciples of the Qingcheng Sect, who had drawn their sabers, immediately lowered them. However, they all refused to move away from him, the Sect Leader’s son.
Deng Yuanlei, who was now seriously injured, also managed to get up. “Haha, Junior Brother Liu said it so well. I’m also not dead yet, so let’s continue the duel. Our Qingcheng Sect will never surrender.”
Dog Butcher didn’t recognize the irony in the other side’s words. Instead, he breathed a sigh of relief and said to Fan Yongda, “The Qingcheng Sect said that they don’t need my help. Does that mean that I don’t have to take them into consideration?”
“Ah?” Fan Yongda continued to pretend that he didn’t understand. The Qingcheng Sect was obviously trying to stoke the fighting spirit of the Kongtong Sect, but how could he openly point this out to his Uncle Master? It would especially offend the Dragon King.
“What a worthless piece of garbage,” Dog Butcher complained. Then he turned to the Dragon King and said, “I have surrendered and I won’t change my mind. The rest is between you and the Qingcheng Sect. I hope that you can let these two go so that everyone’s pride and feelings can be preserved. But I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”
The dozen or so disciples of the Qingcheng Sect angrily looked at Dog Butcher and raised their sabers again, standing guard in front of Deng Yuanlei and Liu Fangsheng.
Gu Shenwei waved his Five Peaks Saber and said, “Those unrelated should step out of the way now.”
The Qingcheng disciples all retreated half a step but none of them left their positions.
Deng Yuanlei stumbled forward in great pain, saying, “Attention, Qingcheng disciples! Enter the sword formation and protect Junior Brother Liu.”
“No…” Liu Fangsheng tried to refuse, but he could barely get out one word when the fourteen disciples had resoundingly shouted ‘yes’ and surrounded the young master, each standing in their designated position.
Gu Shenwei hummed in acknowledgement and rushed at the nearest Qingcheng disciple, who lifted his saber and prepared to fight. Before the sabers touched, however, Gu Shenwei had already turned to attack the disciple behind that person.
Gu Shenwei had many personal experiences of fighting while out-numbered, and he seldom failed to win in those conditions. But this time his tactic of luring the enemy and attacking the ones who fell behind didn’t work as well as it usually did. The Qingcheng disciples had obviously practiced this sword formation extensively. Everyone knew what they needed to do and took care of each other. Although a single person could not stop the attack of the Dragon King, none of them chased after the opponent or over extended themselves.
Gu Shenwei changed targets five times in a row, but still wasn’t able to disrupt the sword formation. So he simply turned away and jumped straight at Deng Yuanlei, who was outside the sword formation’s area of influence.
Unarmed, Deng Yuanlei was still shaking, and it looked as if he would have to face the enemy with his palms.
“Break formation!” Liu Fangsheng no longer insisted on having the disciples withdraw, but he would also not let them protect him and idly leave his senior brother in danger.
Seven disciples immediately followed the order to move. Gu Shenwei had been waiting for this opportunity. Deng Yuanlei was injured and was no longer a threat to him. The sword formation was his biggest obstacle now.
The sword formation of the Qingcheng Sect had its own set of rules even while breaking formation and moving out. But even so, it was not as tight as when it was static. The seven disciples had just taken two steps when Gu Shenwei made an exception and rushed into the formation, and stabbed over a dozen times in a row, forcing them to retreat step by step. The sword formation, therefore, became even more spread apart.
Deng Yuanlei was also waiting for this opportunity. He was really afraid that his junior brother would be selfish and not have the Qingcheng disciples save him. If that happened, then he would have no choice but to take the Dragon King’s deadly blow head on. Now, he had a chance to escape.
When Deng Yuanlei jumped out with his first step, everyone thought that he would join the group battle. But in the blink of an eye, he had changed directions and fled a dozen paces away from the fight, and his speed was as if he wasn’t like injured at all.
The Dragon King had indeed injured him but it hadn’t hurt his meridians. Deng Yuanlei had played the same trick and pretended to be seriously wounded, fooling everyone again.
This was the first time that Gu Shenwei had misjudged the same man two times in a row. Although he was a suspicious man, he had not yet reached the point of being suspicious of everything. He had wandered in Jianghu for many years now, plotted and received numerous schemes, and believed that there were more shameless than good people when faced with temptation. But he had never met a person as cunning as Deng Yuanlei. As a master of a major sect, Deng Yuanlei looked bold and forthright in appearance, talked straight-forwardly, but would resort to the lowest level of tricks at the drop of a hat.
The trick was low-level but it didn’t mean that it wouldn’t work well.
Gu Shenwei paused for a moment before leaving the half-broken sword formation behind and chasing after Deng Yuanlei.
Deng Yuanlei gnashed his teeth and ran about wildly. Seeing that someone was chasing after him, he changed directions again and leaped at the disciples of the Kongtong Sect, causing another burst of chaos. Then he kicked a person into the Dragon King.
“Asshole!” Dog Butcher shouted and jumped in front of the Dragon King, opening his arms to take the person.
The person Deng Yuanlei had kicked was precisely the unconscious Tu Pianpian.
Dog Butcher managed to catch his sister but in the process also blocked the Dragon King’s path. Although it was only a moment’s worth of time, Deng Yuanlei had taken advantage of it to run more than a dozen steps further. It would be even more difficult to catch him now .
“Junior Brother, wait for me to avenge you.” Deng Yuanlei’s voice came from a distance. His words were even more lethal than ten top-notch kung fu experts, as the Qingcheng disciples were immediately thrown into confusion. Five or six of them turned around and ran away at once. Although there were still eight or nine people left, they were suspicious of each other and couldn’t form the sword formation anymore.
“Flame Foal,” Shangguan Ru reminded. She had never despised anyone so much and even advised the Dragon King to go after him.
The horse was nearby. Long Fanyun loosened the reins, ready to hand them to the Dragon King.
Deng Yuanlei was very lucky. Gu Shenwei was just about to take the reins and continue the chase when a sound of hooves came over and interrupted the plan.
It was already dawn by now. A scout galloped up with an important message.
“King Shengri is coming with his army!” The scout saw the Dragon King from a distance and shouted. When he came near, he rolled down the horse and gasped, “King Shengri gathered his troops and claimed to wipe out the evil and protect the king. They set out last night and may have arrived at the camp by now.”
Gu Shenwei’s heart thumped heavily. King Riyao’s army was going to elect their new king this morning. He and Fang Wenshi were trying to help Shulitu, King Riying’s son, take that position. That must have been the reason why King Shengri had sent out his troops.
Gu Shenwei was very surprised that no one had informed him of such an important matter in advance, but he could only investigate it further later. For now, he had to return to camp as soon as possible.
The scout was the one he had met yesterday and should be reliable.
Gu Shenwei jumped on the Flame Foal and looked at Shangguan Ru, indicating that he wanted to borrow the horse. Then he said, “I’ll leave it to you here.”
The disciples of the Kongtong Sect and Qingcheng Sect didn’t quite understand what he meant, but Long Fanyun and Shangguan Fei understood that Liu Fangsheng and the other disciples’ lives had been spared.
Gu Shenwei could only make such a choice. Shangguan Fei and others were no match for the Qingcheng Sect, and Dog Butcher and the people of the Kongtong Sect probably would not help.
Gu Shenwei rode to Han Fen and said, “Follow me.”
“I want to stay.” Han Fen pointed at Shangguan Ru, her interest in this little girl clearly undiminished.
Gu Shenwei took ahold of her arm and, with a little effort, threw her behind him and sped away. No one understood why the Dragon King wanted to take this madwoman with him.
At the edge of the camp, as Gu Shenwei was galloping away, he encountered a group of old people and children, holding something in their hands and staring at the Dragon King with a look of fear and pleading in their eyes.
Gu Shenwei slowed down his speed to go around them when Han Fen happily said from behind him, “They also like the Dragon King.” With these words, she bent over and grabbed something wrapped in grass from an old woman.
These people’s behaviors were quite strange but Gu Shenwei didn’t have time to make any inquiries. He made a detour and sped up again, hoping that he could catch the oncoming battle.
Han Fen wasn’t in a hurry at all. No matter how fast the Flame Foal ran, she merely firmly say behind the Dragon King. She even freed her hands to open the small package she had taken and let out a whoop of joy at the sight of its contents. “Horsemeat!” After taking a big bite, however, she spat it out and threw the rest away. Sticking out her tongue, she said, “Yuck.”
Back at where Shangguan Ru was, she first said to Dog Butcher, “Senior Tu, please come with me to the Dragon Army camp.”
Dog Butcher hesitated again and looked at his sister who was being held by Fan Yongda. “Well… Can anyone give me an idea about what to do?”
Shangguan Fei leaned forward and said, “Old Man Mu is in the Dragon Army camp.”
“Alright, I’ll go. All the disciples of the Kongtong Sect, follow me.” Dog Butcher had come all the way to the Royal Court to serve the Imperial Court of the Central Plains, but an even more compelling reason was that he had heard that Old Man Mu had reappeared in the Prairie.
Fan Yongda was even more cautious and did not want the Kongtong Sect to openly follow the Dragon King, so he said in a low voice, “Uncle Master, I’m afraid that Aunt Master will make a scene again when she’s awake. Why don’t you go to the Dragon Army camp alone…”
“Right, right. Take your Aunt Master with you and go far away.” As he thought that he wouldn’t have to see his sister for a long while, Dog Butcher felt much more relieved and kept nodding at Fan Yongda.
Shangguan Fei curled his mouth and hummed coldly. He had already guessed Fan Yongda’s real intentions, but the Dragon King was not here right now and there was no need to tell his sister that.
Shangguan Ru then walked to the Qingcheng disciples.
The disciples of the Qingcheng Sect had long lost their fighting spirit. A few of them wanted to run away but dared not move.
Liu Fangsheng walked out of the incomplete sword formation and said, “It’s really shameful that our Qingcheng Sect had a traitor like Deng Yuanlei. Please kill me now, Miss Shangguan.”
Shangguan Ru shook her head and replied, “I won’t kill anybody. All of you can go as long as you promise that you won’t oppose the Dragon King in the future.”
Liu Fangsheng was surprised that they could escape the crisis so easily. “The Qingcheng Sect has just suffered a thorough defeat, so where would we find the face to challenge the Dragon King again? From now on, all Qingcheng disciples will stay away from the Dragon King as long as we hear his name.”
Shangguan Ru also wanted to return to the camp right away, but she, too, was puzzled by the crowd waiting by the roadside. She turned around and asked the scouts to find out what had happened.
The two groups of disciples left in different directions. A duel of life and death had actually concluded without leaving behind any corpses.
The scout soon returned, followed by six or seven old people. “They want to present gifts to the Dragon King in the hopes that the Dragon King will show some mercy.”
“What mercy?” Shangguan Fei asked.
The scout was also puzzled. He looked up at the clear sky and said, “They said that the devil bird came to the prairie with the Dragon King, killing and injuring both people and livestock, causing natural and man-made disasters. They hope that the Dragon King will show mercy and take it away.”
