Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Nie Zeng walked towards Tie Linglong as she basked in the moonlight and greeted, “Hello.”
Tie Linglong turned her head and glanced at him sideways, but didn’t say anything, acting as if he were not welcome.
Since he knw that this little girl had always been rude, Nie Zeng ignored her cold attitude and replied that he meant to patrol the nearby areas. He didn’t know why, but off of an impulse, he then said, “It seems like something’s bothering you. Did Shangguan Fei piss you off?”
“It’s none of your business,” Tie Linglong coldly shot back. Her strident tone was beyond Nie Zeng’s expectation as she followed it up by saying, “So stay away from me.”
“Hmph.” The wisp of fondness for her in Nie Zeng was instantly snuffed out. He immediately turned around and was about to leave.
Tie Linglong felt a little guilty about her actions and yet she didn’t want to apologize. Instead, she awkwardly said, “Come back. I want to have another sabersmanship competition with you.”
“Sorry. I have no time for that.” This time, it was Nie Zeng who replied harshly, and he did so without turning his head around. Silence sounded out from behind him. After taking several steps forward, he did something involuntarily once again – he whipped out his saber and turned around to say, “But it shouldn’t take me too long to defeat you.”
“Ha.” Tie Linglong’s pride had been challenged. She unsheathed her saber and looked around, before saying, “We can’t fight here. Let’s find another spot.”
Tie Linglong led the way to the front yard and then abruptly leaped onto the roof. Nie Zeng followed her, and then he had an idea of his own. He whispered, “Let’s do it another way. We’ll fight on the roof, but without being discovered by those security guards.”
Tie Linglong nodded. This mansion belonged to Lü Qiying. It had an normal exterior and lax security, with only two sabermen patrolling around at night. Those two sabermen didn’t patrol frequently either, so it should be easy to stay out of sight. But the clashing noises of their sabers would still attract their attention.
This was a restricted kung fu competition and both sides were highly competitive. The first rule they had learned from their respective instructor was to strike ruthlessly, but now they couldn’t parry with their sabers – they could only dodge and search for opportunities to make their own moves.
It was actually a competition between their lightness skills rather than their sabersmanship.
The origins of their lightness skills were the same – Golden Roc Castle and Waning Moon Hall. Tie Linglong had started practicing a little earlier than Nie Zeng, and so her body was lighter. On the other hand, Nie Zeng had worked very hard and his saber attacks were more ferocious. The two were well-matched. On the rooftop, in the dim moonlight, their fight became an entangled dance and their figures flitted around like that of ghosts.
Footsteps sounded out from down below, and the two stopped fighting simultaneously.
The security guards passed by, unaware of the rooftop duel. But before they went too far, the fierce fight resumed.
Tie Linglong’s mood gradually imrpoved. Although she felt that her sabersmanship was far better than Nie Zeng’s, she thought this was a pretty good fight, and she was enjoying herself very much. And it seemed that those inexplicable thoughts that had been bothering her earlier had been quickly severed by a saber.
However, her good feeling didn’t last long. After the security guard sabermen passed by for the third time, those intrusive thoughts came back and slowed down her reaction time, and thus gave Nie Zeng the upper hand.
In her rush, she forgot about the rules of the kung fu competition and subconsciously parried with her saber. With a ringing sound, the narrow saber left her hand and was thrown off into the distance.
The two security guard sabermen yelled out, “Who!” instantly, but no other sound rang out for quite a while, so they came up with the excuse that maybe a slate tile had fallen off of the roof and they continued patrolling, without even checking the rooftop.
Tie Linglong felt lost. Nie Zeng stared at her for a while before commenting, “You think too much.”
“The Dragon King said the same thing,” Tie Linglong replied as she walked towards the backyard.
“Your saber?” Nie Zeng reminded her, surprised. For a killer, their weapon was half their life.
“I don’t need it anymore.”
They returned to the backyard, but Shangguan Fei hadn’t come out of Dragon King’s room yet. Nie Zeng carefully patrol around outside, and when he came back he saw that Tie Linglong was standing in the middle of the courtyard like nothing had changed, except she seemed even more preoccupied.
Nie Zeng retrieved her saber and offered it over, saying, “It was just a competition. It meant nothing.”
Tie Linglong smiled. Her green pupils reflected the moonlight like gems gleaming in the dark. “You misunderstand. I gave up my saber because I want to concentrate on another kung fu.”
Nie Zeng held the saber, looking rather embarrassed.
However, Tie Linglong accepted her saber and sheathed it. “I might as well keep it. As an ornament.”
“What kind of kung fu are you going to practice? It’s even more powerful than your sabermanship?”
“Not right now. But it will be.” Tie Linglong stretched out two fingers of her right hand and drew a circle in the air. “Besides, the Dragon King said that he’s going to teach me some new moves and that they have nothing to do with Gold Roc Castle’s sabersmanship.”
Admiration appeared on Nie Zeng’s face as he said, “The Dragon King’s so good to you.”
“The Dragon King’s so good to me…” Tie Linglong repeated, yet there was not much delight in her voice. “I don’t know whether he’s good to be because he likes me or whether it’s because of my grandfather.”
“Your grandfather?”
“Emm, my grandfather was also a killer in Golden Roc Castle, and he used to be the Dragon King’s master. I bear my grandfather’s surname.”
“Tie Hanfeng?”
“Eek, how did you know?”
Of course Nie Zeng knew. But he had never expected that these two people who bore the same surname would be family members, “I thought… that… the Dragon King killed your grandfather. Yet you seem as if… you don’t mind at all.”
Tie Linglong didn’t notice the subtle changes in the look on Nie Zeng’s face, as she straightforwardly replied, “it’s because I’ve never seen my grandfather and he didn’t even know about my existence; it’s because killers always get killed; it’s because the Dragon King must have his own reasons; it’s because the Dragon King saved my life.”
Tie Linglong had a series of reasons to harbor no grudges toward the Dragon King.
Nie Zeng was unable to do that as he incredulously asked, “You don’t feel anything for Tie Hanfeng at all?”
“I don’t know. My mother talked about grandfather all the time, but she had also never seen him. I have a vague memory of him in my mind, but other than that, there’s nothing.”
Nie Zeng was relieved, feeling both happy and stupid as he said, “That’s good.”
Upon hearing this inexplicable reply, Tie Linglong was slightly surprised. “Right, didn’t the Dragon King kill your family members too? Uncle…”
“My uncle’s family. All three of them. My cousin was only ten.”
“You want revenge?”
“I have to,” Nie Zeng tightened his fists – and not just to show his hatred but also to tamp down the ever growing favorable feelings he was gaining for the Dragon King. “Otherwise, my many years of kung fu practice will have been in vain.”
The look on Tie Linglong’s face suddenly went sullen. “I won’t allow you to touch even a finger of the Dragon King’s. You’ll have to get through me first if you want to get your revenge.”
Nie Zeng had almost forgotten about how loyal she was to the Dragon King. “Fine. When I decide to take revenge, I’ll go through you first.”
The two glared at each other. Suddenly Tie Linglong laughed. “Ha-ha, you’re bluffing. You’ll never stand a chance against the Dragon King. How can you possibly get your revenge?”
“Nobody thought that the Dragon King could defeat Golden Roc Castle, and yet he did it.”
“He’s the Dragon King, but you’re not,” Tie Linglong sneered. In her heart, the Dragon King was incomparable to anyone else.
Nie Zeng slightly flushed, but he remained unconvinced. “I, Nie Zeng swear to God that I will surpass Dragon King in sabersmanship, and avenge the murder of my uncle’s family.”
Tie Linglong said back with an even deeper sneer, “Swear as much as you want. Around the Dragon King, there are plenty of people who bear a deep resentment against him and are waiting to take their revenge on him. You’ll have to get in line for your turn.”
This was something that had always confused Nie Zeng, but he had never asked the Dragon King for a clarification – the Dragon King harbored an irreconcilable hatred against Golden Roc Castle, but why was he so tolerant towards people who bore a hatred just as deep against him?
Shangguan Fei walked out delightedly as he said, “Let’s go, Tie Linglong. We have some valuable jobs to do.”
“No. I want to speak to the Dragon King.”
Shangguan Fei gave a few short laughs. “All right then. I’ll go get some sleep first.”
Looking at the receding figure of Shangguan Fei, Nie Zeng frowned, “What’s wrong with him? He’s wearing women’s clothes and yet he’s so happy.”
“You don’t understand,” Tie Linglong said gravely. “A woman is exactly what he wants to be.”
Nie Zeng indeed didn’t understand, and his frown only became more obvious.
Han Wuxian leaped beside them from the top of the wall, her long hair hanging freely at her waist, and an extremely tender smile on her face. “What a pair of love birds. The moonlight tonight is perfect, isn’t it?”
Both Nie Zeng and Tie Linglong flushed. Before they could correct her, Han Wuxian entered the Dragon King’s room.
Like a wild cat hunting at night for food, Old Man Mu was the next to leap into the courtyard. He was bent at his waist and was staring at the door of the Dragon King’s room as if it were the entrance to the cave where his prey would appear. After a while, he turned his head and asked the two teenagers, “Did you notice that she’s even more beautiful in the moonlight?”
Tie Linglong nodded, but Nie Zeng curled his lips.
Old Man Mu snorted as he chastized, “You little bastard, you know nothing about beauty. You think that being green-eyed means that she comes from the heaven? I’ll take you to Flower-Plucking Garden some other day. The girls there have pupils of any color you can think of.”
Old Man Mu rushed into Dragon King’s room as well.
Nie Zeng blushed even redder as he said, “Ignore him.”
A ghost of vigilance appeared in Tie Linglong’s eyes and she turned to rush towards her room.
Nie Zeng suddenly felt a stabbing pain in the heart, followed by an even stronger feeling of grandeur: he had to be stronger than the Dragon King – this, and this alone, was the sole pursuit of his entire life.
Old Man Mu was quickly tossed outside. He made several somersaults in the air before landing right beside Nie Zeng. He raised his head and sympathetically looked at Nie Zeng. “You got dumped too? It’s okay. The old woman and the young girl are the same – they treat us like grass now, but when I get my full power back and when you…”
Old Man Mu glanced at the teenager a few times before saying, “Forget it. You’ll never make it. Practice the Golden Roc sabersmanship however hard you want, but I’m telling you, you’ll still end up being mediocre to the day you die. So just face the truth and be satisfied as a normal killer, and forget about the girl. Chu Nanping is more handsome than you, and his kung fu’s also better than you – even a man would choose him over you, let alone a girl.”
“You done talking?” Nie Zeng asked frostily.
“Not yet.” Ever since his kung fu had declined, poking at the sore points of others had been Old Man Mu’s only joy, which he always tried to do with every chance he got. “‘If an old dog barks, it is giving counsel.’ Little Nie Zeng, you have to face the truth. This is how the world works. Bitterness and grudges won’t help when you encounter someone more powerful than you. All you can do is… Hey, don’t leave yet. I have a lot of words of wisdom and life philosophy to share with you.”
Nie Zeng left, almost running away. Overwhelmed by thousands of emotions, he felt that he wasn’t cut out to bea killer at all.
Feeling unsatisfied, Old Man Mu went to knock on Dog Butcher’s door and was determined to take out his frustrations on this old guy.
Dog Butcher was obedient and had a weak personality, which made him a perfect target for Old Man Mu.
“Old Dog, what did you tell the Dragon King? Were you being silly again? Why did the Dragon King…” Old Man Mu suddenly shut his mouth, because the look on Dog Butcher’s face was a little weird, severe yet excited, as if there was something significant weighing on his mind. “What’s wrong with you? It’s not like I slept with your sister or something.”
Dog Butcher had been thinking about the lecture the Dragon King had given him, and he involuntarily cried out, “My kung fu is better than yours, so I should be the one calling the shots.”
“You call the shots? You’ve barely been in the martial arts world for a couple days! You don’t know shit!” Old Man Mu almost laughed out loud.
Dog Butcher abruptly launched an attack and struck one of Old Man Mu’s acupoints by the fifth move. He then pinned Old Man Mu to his side and said, “This time I’ll be the one taking you to explore the martial arts world!”
Old Man Mu discovered that not only had he lost face, but he might also be brought into a dangerous situation by this excited old guy.
