Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
This winter, two unprecedented events took place in Jade City. Most residents were merely passive onlookers, but the few wise ones understood that a groundbreaking event had finally occurred after all the movements in the dark.
The first one of the two events was a sudden tide of assassinations. Originally, this shouldn’t have even made the news; even when the Jade City was in its most peaceful period, several murders took place every day. What made this wave of assassinations special was the mysterious identity of the assassins.
Zhang Ji, the counselor of the Heaven Mountain Sect, was the first target of these mysterious assassinations. Though the assassination failed, it still caused a sensational uproar throughout the city. Everybody knew that this wandering sabersmen organization had been reduced to a mere affiliate of the Golden Roc Castle, so most people believed that the Dragon King was the one ultimately responsible for the assassination. However, those with more inside information tended to believe that Waning Moon Hall was actually behind all this.
But before long, the spread of targets for those assassinations widened, and it was soon no longer limited to members of the Heaven Mountain Sect. Assassination victims included random sabersmen, kung fu practitioners from the Central Plains with an unknown background, the already dwindling Golden Roc Castle killers, attendants of the Dragon King who had been dispatched earlier, and many more. Even a Buddhist monk of the Four Noble Truths Temple was not spared.
After a brief period where every faction accused each other, they all eventually claimed with absolute assurance that they were not the mastermind behind these assassinations. However, not many residents believed them, and things just got more confusing.
Some people said that Golden Roc Castle had indeed declined. There were also some others who believed that the Dragon King was merely not tough enough and that he had actually carried out these assassinations but was just too scared to admit to it.
But Jade City was Jade City after all. Although those assassinations brought much panic, they didn’t cause too much public disturbance, and all the businesses were still as prosperous as ever. What truly shocked the city was the second event.
Four armies were stationed about thirty miles from the city, and each army consisted of at least 20,000 men. The last time that Jade City had faced an attack from a large army was about five or six decades ago. The then-Unique King had successfully defused the crisis and then ushered in a prosperous time period. But this time, no one dared to make a prophecy that a similar thing would happen.
The 20,000 men of Golden Roc Army had originally been defending Thousand Horsemen Pass. But because of an important agreement, they had transferred to the northeastern area outside of Jade City and pitched camp not far away from the Four Noble Truths Temple.
The 20,000 Central Plains soldiers as well as the 10,000-men vanguard who had arrived in Thousand Horsemen Pass earlier had come here at the “invitation” of the Unique King. They were stationed to the east of the city and to the south of the main road, essentially mirroring the Golden Roc Army’s encampment.
The third army was the Dragon Army from Xiaoyao Lake. Their troops numbered around 20,000 as well, and their encampment was even further away towards the south, on the riverside. They had also been invited here, and their backer was Prince Xiao of the Central Plains. It was said that this was one of the crucial reasons why the Dragon King had given up on attacking Thousand Horsemen Pass.
Currently, Shuangquan Village was no longer under Golden Roc Castle’s sole control, and it had transformed into a free passageway for Xiaoyao Lake residents to go in and out of Jade City.
The last army consisted of the surviving troops of the former Shule Kingdom’s army.
To take control of the passageway at Shuangquan Village, the Dragon King had also paid a heavy price. Large numbers of Norland cavalrymen had left the northern border of Jade City and transferred to a more distant area so as to potentially evade the main forces of the Central Plains. After some negotiations, the Shule Kingdom had regained its identity as an independent country, but its old King was missing. So, the crown prince didn’t succeed the throne and instead designated himself as the Kingdom Supervisor, quickly established an army, and took control over Thousand Horsemen Pass. The Commander-in-chief he had appointed was Shang Liao, the King of the Kang Kingdom of Xiaoyao Lake.
Shang Liao also served the Dragon King as the General of the Right, so there was a wide consensus that the 20,000 troops were under the Dragon King’s command.
This army was stationed to the west of the Jade City where there was no hostile forces nearby.
Gu Shenwei had spent two full months signing agreements and dispatching armies. When he finally returned to Jade City, the first issue that he had to deal with was the serial assassination that had been going on for almost a month now.
Prince Xiao explained the importance of resolving this issue. “News of the kung fu competition that will be held to choose the new Governor of Jade City hasn’t been disclosed yet, and we still need the consent of the Royal Court of the Central Plains. I think that this assassination spree in Jade City is an opportunity. If we manage to defuse this crisis with kung fu instead of an army, that will lay a foundation for the necessity of the kung fu competition. I think that you can understand this, Dragon King – it is very normal for the one with the best kung fu skills to be the Governor in Jade City. But in the Central Plains, that’s not so, which is why we have to convince those people.”
Gu Shenwei summoned the subordinates that he had dispatched earlier to the southeastern army camp.
Old Man Mu was the first one to rush in. Raising his arms, he yelled, “Long live the Dragon King! You’re finally here. Now I can put aside the heavy responsibilities on my shoulder for a while. But please rest assured… ”
Old Man Mu always nagged whenever he wanted, irrespective of the occasion. Gu Shenwei had no choice but to order him to shut up. He glanced at him and then asked, “Where’s Han Wuxian?”
“Um, Dragon King. Given that we’ve just met, isn’t it a little inappropriate to ask me where my wife is?” Old Man Mu still couldn’t control his mouth. As soon as he finished speaking his last word, he raised his hand and gently slapped his own face. “I’m just joking. I hope that you don’t mind, Dragon King. My wife will be here later. She’s very busy. She’s recruited a lot of kung fu experts to work for her – err, for the Dragon King… ”
“You don’t have to tell me what she did. Talk about yourself first.” Gu Shenwei decided to let Old Man Mu report first.
“Yes, yes. To finish the job you assigned to me, I’ve been constantly exerting all my strength and wisdom, working day and night for several months. You see how thin I am now. If you used my bones to make a soup, then the soup would be as bland as water… Um. Maybe I should talk less nonsense afterall. But where should I start? Right! Heaven Mountain Sect is basically an outside affiliate of Golden Roc Castle’s now – everybody in Jade City knows this. Its former elders either were killed or forced to quit, and now its inner circle is entirely composed of Golden Roc Castle’s men. The sect has seven to eight hundred sabersmen at its command, and half of them are killers of various ages. Heh-heh, the Unique King didn’t spare any expenses. Even the fifty or sixty-year-old killers who had been expelled a long time ago were recruited again… ”
Gu Shenwei had known about all these things. “Tell me about those recent assassinations. Have you found any clues?”
“Heh-heh, you always go right to the point, Dragon King. You haven’t asked me yet, but you already know that I have some clues. You’re right. I did find something, but I didn’t write it down in the report due to confidentiality concerns.”
“Old Man Mu glanced at Shangguan Fei, Nie Zeng, and Dog Butcher who were all standing beside him, but the Dragon King had no intention of having them leave, so he had no choice but to resume talking. “I checked dozens of bodies and from that, I drew a conclusion: the purpose of these assassinations was not to kill the targets, but rather to improve the murderer’s kung fu.”
“To improve their kung fu?” Gu Shenwei had finally heard some information that he deemed useful.
“Yeah, to improve their kung fu.” Old Man Mu nodded smugly. “There are two reasons for my conclusion. First, the victims are all from various backgrounds. Even some of my woman’s subordinates were among the victims. Second, there were several unique killing styles used. I found at least five or six completely different styles throughout all the corpses I examined. When I sorted those bodies which bore the same style by their death time, can you guess what I found? It was those assassins’ kung fu skills all along. The wounds on those bodies were just getting fewer and smaller. The assassins are clearly practicing their kung fu skills. I think that they must be disciples of Waning Moon Hall. That crazy woman, Lotus, must be training her disciples in Jade City.”
Old Man Mu intended on presenting his detailed analysis of each and every one of those bodies, but the Dragon King forced him to stop.
Chu Nanping was not responsible for surveillance but rather for protecting those important strongholds in Southern Jade City. “We lost three men – a swordsman from the Big Snow Mountain and two mercenary sabersmen. The enemies’ weapons were finger-claws that had poison applied to them. They attacked the victims when they were alone, but they didn’t seem to be tracking any particular targets.”
Chu Nanping’s statement was very simple and it nicely dovetailed with Old Man Mu’s first reason.
When Shangguan Fei heard about the finger-claws and poison, he hadn’t yet gotten over his scare from earlier. He patted his left shoulder and said, half out of fear and half out of pride, “I have a scar right here. I nearly died, Dragon King, but I owe my life to Hall Leader Han. She healed my wound.”
“Someone used Waning Moon Hall’s poison to poison you?” Gu Shenwei asked.
“Hall Leader Han said that that poison is very common and available to everybody. It isn’t necessarily from Waning Moon Hall.”
Shuangguan Fei also didn’t talk much. Dog Butcher was the last to speak.
A little nervous, Dog Butcher gave out two coughs. “Twenty seven days ago, at around the fourth night-watch, Shangguan Fei and I were spying on the Heaven Mountain Sect’s counselor, Zhang Ji, at South Wall Tavern and we happened to stumble into an assassin. The assassin was wearing a mask and black clothes. Judging by his figure, the assassin should be a man-”
“Ha, stop bragging, Old Dog. You can tell people’s gender just by looking at their figure? Are you familiar with this kind of stuff?” Old Man Mu interjected with a sneer.
Dog Butcher’s face flushed. “It’s just a guess. Although male kung fu practitioners and their female counterparts all practice kung fu, there are still some differences between them. Of course, it is also possible that I made a mistake.”
Old Man Mu was just about to continue teasing him when the Dragon King severely glared at him, so he controlled himself.
But Dog Butcher became even less confident. “This is based completely off of my instinct, but that assassin seemed… seemed to have a particular target. He fought his way in and went straight at Zhang Ji.”
Old Man Mu shook his head repeatedly. “Your instinct must be wrong. The assassinations started on that day, and the assassin was not very skilled. That was why he wanted to take risks. After he failed to kill Zhang Ji, he became much more prudent, didn’t he?”
“Old Man Mu’s got a point.” Dog Butcher hurriedly agreed with him to quell any potential arguments. “That assassin never showed up at South Wall Tavern ever after.”
The meeting was over. Old Man Mu and the others took their leave, but Shangguan Fei didn’t. He hesitantly said, “Dragon King, my younger sister… ”
Old Man Mu turned around. “Right. Where’s the good girl? Why does everybody keep saying that she’s missing?”
When nobody answered him, Old Man Mu left out of embarrassment.
Shangguan Fei was using his younger sister as an excuse, as he actually wanted to have a word with the Dragon King in private. “There’s one thing I didn’t report just now.”
“Then report it now.”
“Yes. I saw that assassin, too, and I engaged him in battle. He hit me once with his finger-claws and I gave him a punch in return, but this is not the important part. What’s important is that… that guy seemed to recognize me.”
“How did you know?”
“I don’t know how else to explain it. He didn’t speak, and he ran away immediately after hitting me. But I just feel that there was something wrong with the way he looked at me.”
“Do you know him too?”
“Um… It’s just my speculation, and even I myself feel that it’s quite unlikely, so I didn’t mention it in the report – that guy felt like Shangguan Hong. But how could he make such enormous strides and become a kung fu expert?”
“Shangguan Hong?” Gu Shenwei also believed that it was nearly impossible. “Shouldn’t he be in the Stone Kingdom of Xiaoyao Lake?”
“Yeah. I’m confused, too. He should be serving the empress. Why would he suddenly show up in Jade City for no reason? Heh-heh. Actually, please just ignore this, Dragon King.”
But Gu Shenwei kept Shangguan Fei’s words in mind and planned to do some personal investigation into this issue afterwards. “Anything else?”
Shangguan Fei didn’t leave. With an awkward look on his face, he said, “Er, first, I’d like to say that my mother and I are on your side, Dragon King. We both support you wholeheartedly. Please take my word for it.”
“I believe you.”
Shangguan Fei then exhaled deeply. “My mother received a strange message. The Kun Society – you still remember it, right? – was rebuilt. And then she heard that the Society Leader is my younger sister. Is this… is this possible?”
Of course Gu Shenwei remembered the Kun Society.
