Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Gu Shenwei had to protect these provisions. Originally, selling them for a high price was supposed to be a tactic that killed two birds with one stone. The first purpose was to hoard supplies in preparation for the imminent war, and the other was to inflate prices so that enemies wouldn’t be able to build up their own supplies. But if the provisions were burnt, the first purpose would suffer a crushing failure.
Red Bat stepped forward boldly. She whipped out her single saber, threw it into the ground and took out a bow in her right hand, with her left holding an arrow. It had been only two years since she started practicing kung fu, and this was the first time that she had challenged someone. Unfortunately, her only backer at this time was the Dragon King who was temporarily crippled.
Gu Shenwei sat behind her on a felt bundle, his entire body covered by a thick cape to avoid unnecessary attention.
Upon realizing that they had been challenged by a saberwoman, the three ringleaders were very surprised. When they looked a bit further and noticed that she was alone and looking around nervously, they burst into laughter, and their followers nearby also started whistling and looking at her contemptuously.
Even the “lambs” who were crouching and kneeling felt that Red Bat’s challenge was unbelievable, and some of them were even indignant about it. One of the men in charge of the caravan reprimanded loudly, “Do you want to die? Quickly apologize. Hurry up! We don’t want any more trouble.”
Perhaps he did this out of good faith with a desire to save the saberwoman’s life, but Red Bat shook her head in response and said, “Listen to me, everybody. We outnumber them so we shouldn’t wait for our death. These provisions are very important and our profit is the fruits of our hard work. We can’t just give it to them that easily.”
Red Bat had thought of these words all by herself. Gu Shenwei was more familiar with the rules of martial arts world than she was, so he knew that all of her words were pointless.
The people in the camp did outnumber the bandits, but they were unorganized, and more importantly, more than half of them didn’t even have weapons. Just how were they supposed to work up the courage to fight the bandits?
Red Bat finished her speech, but the whole camp was completely quiet. Only the three ringleaders were looking around curiously.
The short Golden Saber then said, “Brothers, my hands are feeling a bit itchy. Let me handle this blind girl.”
The Mighty King and the Skyscraping Beast nodded to express their consent. They had received a message from a reliable source that there were no kung fu experts in this caravan, so they had nothing to worry about. The Mighty King looked at the challenger in the distance and remarked, “It’s a pity that she’s not pretty enough. Otherwise we could have shared her as a wife, in rotation.”
The Skyscraping Beast’s lightness skills were excellent. He quickly moved in front Red Bat in just a few leaps and then retreated without even attacking. “If you capture her and give her a bath, maybe you’ll see her in a different light, Golden Saber. If not, you could just give her to our other buddies and let them have some fun.”
The whistles around them grew louder. Upon seeing the Skyscraping Beast’s impressive lightness skills, the people of the caravan became even more discouraged. Nobody dared to take Red Bat’s side, and the ones around her edged away quietly. Only Gu Shenwei remained sitting where he was.
Golden Saber walked forward, wielding his saber as he did so. Red Bat shot two consecutively arrows at him, but he just casually parried them. As he stood in front of her, he giggled and said, “Give me your name, girl. I never kill unnamed people. Right, I’m going to need you alive, so I should say that I never capture unnamed girls. Ha-ha.”
Red Bat didn’t know much about the pleasantries of the martial arts world, and she was also very nervous, so she involuntarily took a step backwards. “I… I’m not going to tell you. Maybe I will after I defeat you.”
The voice of the saberwoman rang out, loud and sweet. Golden Saber peered at her for a while before he turned his head around and loudly said, “It seems that this girl’s disguised herself, brothers. Maybe we’re really going to get ourselves a beautiful wife!”
Although Shangguan Ru didn’t like killing people, she still believed deep down that sneak attacks were a rather normal tactic. As a result, she had unconsciously instilled this opinion into the female soldiers as she taught them sabermanship in the Land of Fragrance. Seeing that the enemy had turned his head away, Red Bat immediately dropped her bow and arrows, grabbed the saber, and pounced on him.
Shangguan Ru didn’t like narrow sabers, so Red Bat used a common straight single saber, which was longer, broader, and also heavier than a narrow saber.
Golden Saber had planned on showing off his kung fu, so he parried this saber attack without turning his head. Then he yelled in a fake surprised tone, “What a vigorous girl! Are you as vigorous in bed?”
Red Bat clenched her teeth and thrust out with several consecutive saber attacks, but she couldn’t even touch the tail of her enemy’s coat.
Golden Saber felt that it was about time to finish things and gave out a loud yell. “This is how you use a saber!” He stopped defending and started attacking. In just two or three moves, he had gained the upper hand.
Red Bat’s archery and sabersmanship were average, but her lightness skills were stellar, so although she couldn’t fight back, the enemy wasn’t able to restrain her either.
Golden Saber was a little surprised and exclaimed, “Eek, the girl’s not bad. Ha-ha, I like her, brothers. I want to be the first one to sleep with this rotating wife.”
“Stop the nonsense and grab her already,” the Mighty King ordered. The Skyscraping Beast had been observing the saberwoman’s bodily movement technique, but he didn’t notice anything special.
Red Bat backed up until she was beside the Dragon King, and she was struggling to hold on by maneuvering around him.
After chasing her for a while, Golden Saber became impatient and aimed a kick at the cripple sitting on the ground.
He didn’t miss, and the cripple tilted to one side. Golden Saber took an aggressive step forward and it seemed as if he was about to catch his target, who was as slippery as a fish, by just stretching his hand, but then he suddenly fell to the ground. He rolled through, stood up, but fell down again. Someone seemed to be tripping him over.
“So wei– rd.” Golden Saber’s voice was normal as he uttered the first word, but when he reached the second one, his breath had become extremely feeble, and his teeth were chattering by then.
Red Bat took a step forward and stamped on Golden Saber’s back, the tip of her saber pointed against his head as she fiercely cried out, “Leave the camp if you want him to live.”
What had happened surprised everybody. Some of those who had been crouching even attempted to stand up to see the situation more clearly, but the nearby bandits reprimanded them and they had to crouch down again.
The Mighty King and Skyscraping Beast exchanged a glance in surprise. The latter had been watching more attentively, and he pointed at the cripple beside Red Bat. “A kung fu expert.”
“You got this?”
The Skyscraping Beast nodded, whipped out his saber, and started walking towards Red Bat.
Red Bat thought that she had seized the initiative. But when she saw that another enemy was coming for her, she panicked again. “Hey, stop. I’ll… I’ll kill him.”
The Skyscraping Beast let out a cold laugh as he replied, “Didn’t you hear what the Mighty King said? We have our respective turfs. This is just a temporary cooperation. The fewer the people, the bigger the shares. So just go ahead.”
Seeing that the bandits were callous about their companions, Red Bat didn’t know what to do. After some quick thinking, she withdrew her foot from Golden Saber’s back, planning to use the same tactic to defeat the second enemy and take another hostage.
The frosty Qi in Gu Shenwei’s body was both a threat to himself and a sharp weapon to others. But he didn’t have much mobility, so he had to wait for the enemy to come close.
Staring at the saberwoman, Skyscraping Beast abruptly launched an attack, his first saber slash actually aimed at the cripple beside her.
Red Bat was astounded and tried to stop the enemy, risking life and limb to do so.
Skyscraping Beast leaped around the two targets with his lightness skills, every saber attack aimed at the vital parts of the cripple. Yet he never came closer than three steps to the cripple, only occasionally stabbing at the saberwoman. After a dozen moves, Red Bat was reduced to a terribly passive situation.
Watching from far away, the Mighty King believed that this time, victory was certain.
Gu Shenwei had prepared his frosty Qi, but the enemy was too far. Seeing that Red Bat might not be able to hold on any longer, he had no choice but to risk it all. He planned to make a move with his full strength, disregarding whether he could hit the target as well as whether he would still be conscious after making his move.
Red Bat also realized that this was a life-or-death moment. What she cared about at this point was not the provisions but rather the Dragon King. So, she crazily launched an all-out attack, all her moves both deadly and suicidal, irrespective of whether or not there were any flaws in them.
In the Skyscraping Beast’s eyes, there was only one enemy, and his fight with the saberwoman was just a perfunctory one. He dodged a bout of ferocious attacks, suddenly maneuvered behind her, and then slashed out — he had no interest in keeping her alive or in taking her as his wife.
Gu Shenwei was just about to stand up and make his move through the suppressed pain when he failed to mobilize his internal Qi and was forced to sit down.
The Skyscraping Beast’s saber flew away and fell into the bonfire a dozen steps away from him. Both Red Bat and the Dragon King had survived.
The Skyscraping Beast was astounded and horrified. His saber had been hit by a hidden weapon and flown out of his hand. However, he had no idea of where the hidden weapon had come from. He backed up seven or eight steps consecutively, stared at the cripple on the ground and asked in a severe tone, “Who are you? If you’re powerful, stand up and show it. There’s no need for these sneaky tricks.”
Gu Shenwei remained silent. It was not him who had thrown out the hidden weapon, but he knew that the one who had was right behind him.
Red Bat was just as confused as the Skyscraping Beast. She returned to the Dragon King’s side and said, “Stop making excuses for your defeat, as it’s a very shameful thing for you to do as a gang leader.”
The Mighty King also realized that something was not right. He rushed over to the side of the Skyscraping Beast, followed by dozens of his men.
Red Bat hesitated for a brief moment and then pointed the saber against Golden Saber. “I’m really going to kill him this time.”
Golden Saber’s internal energy was far inferior to the kung fu experts of the famous sects in the Central Plains, so when the evil frosty Qi had entered his body, his internal energy had dispersed immediately. Now he was in coma, lying still on the ground.
A man in a long cape walked out of the tent a dozen steps behind Gu Shenwei. A saber hilt could be seen under his cape. He walked towards them step by step. Red Bat gave a glance over her shoulder and was rejoiced. “It’s you! Great!”
“It’s me. How’s he doing?”
“He… he… We can talk later. Help me handle these two guys first.”
Mo Lin nodded. The reason why he hadn’t attacked earlier was because he thought that the Dragon King had his own plan. When he realized that the Dragon King was actually unable to stand up, he had thrown a hidden weapon and saved Red Bat.
Neither the Mighty King nor the Skyscraping Beast recognized this man. They yelled in unison, “Who are you?”
“I’m Mo Lin. A saberman.”
If Mo Lin had yelled out his old name of “Silver Condor,” then maybe the two ringleaders would have recalled something. But he hadn’t used his original name for many years, so nobody in the martial arts remembered him anymore. Both the Mighty King and the Skyscraping Beast were surprised for a short while, and then they launched their attack simultaneously.
The dozens of followers of the two ringleaders started cheering, but they were transfixed into silence only halfway through their cheering.
Mo Lin didn’t use his saber. After twisting his body, his first punch hit the Skyscraping Beast, who was trying to dodge, slamming him into the ground. Then the full force of his next three consecutive punches were taken by the Mighty King, who gave out a muffled groan and then knelt down with a thud, a stream of blood spurting out from his mouth.
Then Mo Lin turned around to face the followers. “You guys can try to mob me. I might not be able to handle all of you.”
They were all selfish and cynical bandits. After seeing their leaders being downed shortly after another, all of them were frightened. One of them turned and started fleeing, and most of the others followed suit. Only a dozen resolutely loyal ones refused to abandon their leader and stayed where they were, lowering their weapons to indicate their surrender.
Mo Lin turned to the head of the caravan and said, “Send some men to keep watch of the provisions, lest someone try to set a fire. I’m the Dragon King’s subordinate. I’ll keep you all safe.”
The situation had changed so drastically that everybody was still frozen in shock. It was not until Red Bat carried the Dragon King into Mo Lin’s tent and Mo Lin carried the three captives away that realized dawned on the bodyguards. They hurriedly grabbed the weapons they had previously thrown on the ground and struck down the followers who hadn’t fled, and then went to guard the provisions.
There was one other person in the tent. Liman walked over, helped Red Bat put the Dragon King on the felt blanket, and then asked in surprise, “What happened?”
Liman and Mo Lin had been lobbying the Naihang Tribe and just returned. They hadn’t expected that this would happen halfway. Although both the Dragon King and Red Bat had disguised themselves, they were still identified as soon as they had made their moves.
What Gu Shenwei cared about was another issue. He pointed at the three captives Mo Lin brought in. “Ask them who sent them.”
Cavalrymen made regular patrols all the way from Heaven’s Pass to the capital of Xiaowan Kingdom, but these three bandit groups had managed to approach their specific group and tried to rob them. They must have received some insider help.
Golden Saber was still in a coma. The Mighty King raised his head and refused to talk. But the Skyscraping Beast was so thoroughly demoralized that he confessed immediately. “Norlanders. It was the Norlanders who let us through.”
Liman felt that his heart skip a beat, realizing he might have made a mistake.
