Chapter 78

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

Although the house slave had not personally witnessed the scene today, besides judging the footprints here, he also knew many of the prior circumstances, so he did not hesitate to answer Shaowei's question affirmatively: "They are people of the Court."

Shaowei did not stop underfoot, and asked again: "The Court's people came to kill her—is it the Emperor of Chang'an City who wants her dead?"

"This time it should not be, at least not entirely." The house slave answered: "This action is not devoid of personal grudges."

Shaowei asked again: "Are they people of the Brocade Guard, or that so-called Immortal Master?"

The house slave turned his head somewhat surprised, lowering his eyes to look at the girl walking beside him with her gaze fixed straight ahead; this child did not know that Immortal Master's specific title, showing she had no understanding of these people and matters, only some vague hearsay, yet she possessed her own keen discernment that cut to the heart of things; this keenness was like the excellent sense of smell by which mountain forest animals distinguish where prey lies and the source of blood qi—she could smell from which direction danger and bloodiness came, even though she seemed already drowned by immense anger and hatred.

"It should be both working together." The house slave told her: "That Immortal Master is named Chiyang, the Commander of the Brocade Guard is surnamed Zhu and named Zhu Zhi; both are not ordinary people."

Shaowei gripped her bamboo staff tightly with her right hand, remembering these two people.

She finally asked: "What identity did she have before those people? What had she done?"

This question put the house slave into hesitation, just as he had previously said "a house slave must not rashly discuss the Head of Household's affairs"; Jiang Fu had not been willing to speak clearly, so he seemed to have no qualification to arbitrarily decide and reveal everything; his mouth was also a mouth, not some giant ladle hanging on the stove house wall that had become a spirit.

Before he could answer, Shaowei coldly said: "If you don't want to say, then forget it."

This was originally a statement carrying some petulant coercion, but the house slave seemed unable to hear it, nodding: "Thank you."

"..." Shaowei, as if she had kicked a stack of straw, turned her head speechless and annoyed, but did not pursue the question further.

Whatever Guan Jiangfu's origin and identity, whatever good or bad deeds he had done, whether he was a prisoner or a rebel, none of it would affect her decision to avenge the Green Ox.

Seeing that her resolve did not change, the house slave then spoke: "Not mentioning Chiyang's unique abilities, just speaking of the Brocade Guard led by Zhu Zhi—they are well-trained, with fine horses, armor, long knives, and excellent bows and crossbows; their numbers exceed you and me two people by over a hundred times. Do you know what that means?"

Shaowei's voice held no fear, only killing intent: "It means they bully the weak with their strength, not even sparing a single ox; they truly deserve to die ten thousand times."

"... Indeed so." The house slave added: "It also conveniently means that you and I two people will die very easily."

This child's determination and courage made him admire her; he also had no qualification to forcefully compel or stop anything, but as an elder and senior, he had an obligation to explain the danger and odds of victory to this child who had just stepped out of her thatched cottage.

Danger was like a rainstorm pouring down; odds of victory were like searching for a needle in the ocean.

Shaowei's expression remained unmoved, only continuing forward.

The house slave, having no child-rearing experience and average communication skills, did not know if she understood; seeing that she was not easily continuing the conversation, he tried changing to asking questions, at least letting this child open her mouth to continue communicating—

"Have you killed anyone?" The house slave tried asking.

"I have."

"How many?"

"Four who breathed their last under my hand." Shaowei's expression was cold, her words honest and rigorous: "One could be counted as taking advantage of someone's peril, but he begged me to act."

"Hmm." The house slave also gave his evaluation very honestly and rigorously: "It can be seen that you have a talent for killing."

He smoothly extended this to the topic he wanted to discuss: "But the enemies you face this time cannot be called 'people'; they are a large force, over a hundred soldiers with bows and crossbows fully equipped. This is no longer a sparring match, but a battlefield for one side."

"The fighting on a battlefield differs from the martial world; even a supreme wandering knight, if thrown onto a battlefield and placed among ten thousand troops, would find that no matter how many abilities they have, they cannot be deployed beneath iron hooves and arrow rain."

The profession most suited to a knight-errant is that of an assassin; they excel at assassination, ambush, and lightness skill escape arts, but no matter how formidable a mortal body is, it cannot withstand the frontal tactics of a sea of people.

Hearing these, Shaowei only asked: "Have you been on the kind of battlefield you speak of?"

The house slave: "No, so I am still alive."

Shaowei: "Then how are you different from someone who discusses strategy on paper?"

"..." Verbal hypothetical education failed; the house slave could only directly and simply inform her again: "But going there really is very easy to die."

"People living will all die; many things will cause people to die." Shaowei said: "Your experience is far greater than mine; knowing clearly that going there is full of danger, haven't you still followed along?"

Shaowei was now almost certain that even if she had agreed to leave with this person, after he escorted her to a safe place and completed Jiang Fu's instructions, he would surely go seek out Jiang Fu's life or death, secretly eating this portion of revenge alone.

Indeed, she only heard the so-called house slave say: "I need not fear death; I am already over thirty, I have lived enough. You are different; a young person should not die."

Hearing these words, Shaowei couldn't help but think of Jiang Fu—was that also how Jiang Fu thought? Anyway, having lived enough, he had somehow lived until the day calamity descended; those who have lived enough should not involve young people who should not die?

Merely imagining Jiang Fu's tone and expression when saying such things made Shaowei feel a nameless anger surge in her heart.

She also couldn't help but think of her own fate; in her previous life she had not lived past eighteen years old, and now the erysipelas and cold sickness could no longer easily endanger her life—must she instead make up this gap with some new way of dying before eighteen?

It would have been better not to think this way, but once this thought appeared, it instead aroused Shaowei's contrariness—in a corner unseen by anyone, someone had just goaded herself.

"I want to go." Shaowei finally said: "Not mentioning whether those people are truly worth fearing, I fear there is basically no chance left for a direct confrontation; someone has already alone borne the true danger of direct confrontation, hasn't she?"

Jiang Fu had himself taken on that unwinnable situation of direct confrontation, isolating her behind, and sending the house slave far away.

Now those people had already succeeded; with her and the house slave in the dark, even with danger a thousandfold, such a terrible frontal encirclement situation probably would not easily form.

The house slave had only fulfilled the responsibility of clearly explaining the danger, and would not influence Shaowei's own views and analysis.

Hearing Shaowei say this now, he also nodded very readily: "Hmm, then let's try."

The preaching of an experienced person had little meaning and could not scare back a stubborn and unbridled young person; she was destined to only trust the experience she personally accumulated.

He would accompany this brand-new young knight-errant to her first trial—an opening trial equivalent to a dead end for ordinary people, and equally an opening trial of heaven collapsing and earth splitting for extraordinary people.

The two people said no more, and together darted into the night full of crises.

Shaowei's goal was clear; she knew very well where she first needed to go.

After the Autumn Equinox, the daylight became shorter, and the night was stretched longer.

Before the sky had brightened, tide mist gathered at the neighboring mountains and waters; under the gray mist, Taoxi Township fell into Shaowei's eyes and suddenly became strange.

Especially thinking that Jiang Fu no longer existed here; usually at this time Jiang Fu would surely still be asleep in dreamland.

An autumn leaf fell before her eyes; Shaowei subconsciously closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she felt that this single falling leaf was like a sharp blade, thus slicing open the Tai Xu Huan Jing that carried infinite beautiful scenes.

The truly deserving Peach Blossom Spring thus had a crack; those evil-ghost-like black shadows followed this crack and drilled in from outside.

Over ten black shadows holding blades and gripping bows appeared from the thick mist, crossing the small river along the single-log bridge behind the house that Shaowei often walked, swiftly approaching the small courtyard from behind, flying and surging in like bats.

There were several dozen of them in total, divided into three routes.

This place is the Changsha King's Fiefdom, and they were not acting on imperial orders; they had come on behalf of Commandant Zhu Zhi to uproot the problem, so it would not do to stir up too much noise and escalate matters. Best to finish it quickly and decisively before daybreak.

Moreover, they had already scouted the personnel composition of this small courtyard overnight. Aside from that woman, only a servant and a young girl remained; a squad of ten-odd Embroidered Uniform Guards would be more than enough.

The group rapidly searched inside and outside the small courtyard; only one leader stood inside the courtyard gate, staring fixedly at the courtyard center.

Before long, a subordinate rushed out from the hall, and reported in a low voice to that leader: "The people are gone. Judging by the items used inside, they left in a sudden hurry!"

"So Chi Yang predicted it correctly..." The leader sneered in contempt: "They really did flee in a panic!"

The words had barely fallen when the speaker suddenly felt a chill at the back of his neck; a sharp wind seemed to strike from behind, yet within this wind a human voice drilled out: "Which eye saw me flee—"

It was a young girl's voice. Accompanying this sudden voice, a long, straight weapon drilled out of the dim, damp mist, swift as a lightning dragon, piercing straight through that leader's neck!

The bloodied weapon protruded from the throat; a small spray of fresh blood splattered. The pierced man subconsciously looked down, only to realize in shock that it was not a weapon at all, merely a section of bamboo staff.

A sticky sound of muscle and windpipe being churned rose; the bamboo staff was yanked back from behind, and a fountain of fresh blood gushed out. He clutched the blood hole with both hands, knees buckling as he collapsed to the ground. He wanted to turn his head to see the comer's face, but no longer dared twist his fragile pierced neck.

Everything happened in a single instant, fast beyond belief. Before this they had not even sensed anyone approaching. The Embroidered Uniform Guard who had reported to him wore a horrified expression, looking at the young girl who appeared in his field of vision following his superior's collapse.

A triangular hanging hair bun, vermilion-and-white curved-hem robe, fifteen or sixteen years old, face lively and spirited, yet murderous aura in her eyes like a ten-thousand-zhang cold abyss.

Just this one glance was enough for this Embroidered Uniform Guard to determine: this was the young girl left behind by that woman, and this girl was clearly no ordinary person, more like a monster... How would a normal person dare return, dare stare down and provoke Embroidered Uniform Guards?

That's right, he was an Embroidered Uniform Guard of Great Qian — this identity was like a Wunu Mask; once donned, one seemed to transform into a god or ghost, giving rise to boundless courage and even a sense of possessing divine power.

The blades in the Embroidered Uniform Guards' hands had soaked in blood year-round!

After that instant of horror, this Embroidered Uniform Guard recovered his ferocity, immediately raising his blade to kill.

At the same time, Shaowei stepped on the kneeling man's shoulder, braced the bamboo pole sideways, borrowed the force to leap into the air, and in mid-air lifted her leg to deliver a side kick at the opponent's skull.

That Embroidered Uniform Guard seemed to hear the sound of brain matter shaking; dazed, he retreated a step and roared, his long blade slashing out with all his might. When he swung a second time, his movement suddenly stalled—

The bamboo staff slanted into his chest.

The girl's strength was extraordinarily great, yet the bamboo staff was ultimately a mundane object; at this moment it could not withstand the poured-in gravity and bone obstruction, the dry bamboo body splintering apart, yet still the staff-holder ruthlessly drove it in again, until the split bamboo was also churned into flesh and bone together. In her hands this broken bamboo had blatantly become a brutal weapon.

The blood-overflowing Embroidered Uniform Guard retreated step by step; the long blade in his hand fell. The formless Divine-Demonic Mask seemed to have been shredded along with it; his eyes finally revealed the fear belonging to a mortal.

At this moment, a startled woman's shout suddenly rang out from outside.

Shaowei's expression changed instantly; abandoning the ruined enemy before her, she turned and sprinted out the courtyard gate.

The sky was not yet bright, and mist had risen again. No figures could be seen moving in the village, especially behind the village where it was even more silent and untrodden.

But Qingwu came over.

She had come once last night; she wanted to share face-to-face with Shaowei the joy of completing the first Nuo Ritual of her life. But when she arrived, she found Shaowei's house empty, only a single lamp burning in the stove house.

Qingwu was puzzled in her heart; she waited a long time but no one returned, until her mother came to fetch her home.

Seeing everything neat and orderly, the courtyard gate not even closed, she did not think in a very bad direction either, simply assuming the family of three had gone out.

Still, going out on Double Ninth Night was unusual after all. Qingwu returned home and did not sleep all night, never able to set her mind at ease. Thus, before the sky was bright, she mustered her courage, took a lamp, and went out the door, wanting to see if Shaowei and the others had returned.

However, as soon as she neared this place, she saw a black shadow moving swiftly along the courtyard wall, searching. That black shadow also discovered her, and without a word immediately drew a bow and shot to kill her!

Qingwu let out a scream; the lamp in her hand smashed to the ground. In panic she turned to flee, but fell to the ground in her excessive fluster, and by this stroke of luck dodged the sharp arrow that grazed past the top of her head.

But a second arrow had already left the string close behind.

Qingwu was scared out of her wits, and had absolutely no experience dealing with such a situation. She climbed up crying, not daring to look back, yet unaware that the sharp arrow was already rushing straight at her back.

In the hair's breadth between life and death, Shaowei came sprinting, crouching and throwing herself beside Qingwu, facing the direction from which the sharp arrow flew. At the same time she extended her right hand and barely caught the arrow an inch below the arrowhead. Even though Shaowei possessed boundless strength, at this moment she was still forced by the arrow's power to raise her arm and lean back, the tiger's mouth of her palm ground raw until it bled.

Qingwu had no time to react before she was quickly grabbed up by Shaowei, who hurriedly avoided behind a haystack ahead.

"Shaowei, Shaowei!" Qingwu's face was full of frightened tears. She frantically raised her hand to touch Shaowei's face: "You're bleeding! What happened? Who is that person?"

As she spoke, her other hand grabbed Shaowei's wrist: "Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid... We'll go call people, go tell the Village Head, go report to the authorities, hurry!"

But she used all her strength and could not budge Shaowei in the slightest. In this chaos, she saw Shaowei's eyes flashing with tears damp like morning mist, and she said to her solemnly: "A Jie, don't look for me. Take care."

Qingwu was shocked and bewildered by these words that resembled a farewell. She still wanted to say something, but felt a numbing force strike her nape, and instantly lost consciousness.