653 The Woodcutter, who Returned to Shubi Lake (2/2)

Tang army called the activity of suppressing horse gangs – or those people pretending to be horse gangs – wood cutting. Those who carried out this mission were definitely the best of the cavalries, called – woodcutters.

Since the young man from the City of Wei joined it, 'woodcutter' in the horse thieves' mouths referred to him in particular. The young man was the woodcutter, famous among horse gangs.

He was not the person who grabbed the most silver, nor someone who killed the most horse thieves, but definitely the one who made all horse gangs in Shubi Lake the most afraid. Those horrible days of the past were still their most painful memories.

It was not until the young man left the City of Wei for the City of Chang'an that they regained their courage, the pleasure of swinging knives in wind and the happiness of life.

Woodcutter of Shubi Lake was a nightmare for all horse thieves. There was no horse thief who was unafraid of him.

When the news from Chang'an came to the Wilderness, horse thieves knew that the man had become a student of the second floor of the Academy, as well as the most trusted subordinate of the Tang Empire's Emperor. Fear, or perhaps – a kind of abnormal admiration, peaked in their hearts. At the same time, they thought that he had become a man of another world and would never come back to Shubi Lake to deal with lowly horse thieves. So they felt even more relieved.

Tonight, however, the woodcutter was back at Shubi Lake.

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Countless screams rang out from Shubi Lake, both from women and horse thieves, who were heartless and cruel in daily life. In a scene of chaos surrounding the bonfires, hundreds of horse thieves ran away with their women in a flash – like a gust of wind. It became extremely quiet beside the lake.

In the whole process, no one had the courage to try attacking Ning Que. No one even dared to look at him. They looked so frightened that the whole situation seemed ludicrous.

Ning Que put the boxwood bow back over his shoulders and held the reins to lead the carriage to a bonfire by the lake. Then he helped Sangsang get off the carriage and sit on the wool felt left by the horse thieves.

The roast sheep on the bonfire was still dripping with grease, spreading attractive fragrance.

Ning Que made himself at home. He took out a sharp knife and cut three big plates of meat from the best part of the sheep. Then he took two bags of unopened liquor from another bonfire and handed one of them to Sangsang.

Sangsang ate meat in small bits and drank a lot, while Ning Que did the opposite. Soon they finished all the meat and liquor.

Ning Que turned to look at the Shubi Lake he had not seen in years.

Sangsang looked at his profile and asked, ”Aren't you afraid the horse thieves will leak our whereabouts?”

”The south of the Shubi Lake is under Tang's sphere of influence. Neither Golden Palace, nor the two Sects would dare enter. If someone wants to kill us – it should only be the Tangs.”

Ning Que suddenly noticed that there was a pile of charred wood by the lake. There was a gigot on it and a circle of stones around it, making it look like a sacrificial altar. But he did not know which god it was made for.

In his memory, neither the barbarians nor the horse gangs from Golden Palace had such a ceremony of worship.

Near a bonfire in the distance, was a drunk horse thief, who had been abandoned mercilessly by his companions. He did not know what had happened at all. Ning Que walked over and threw him into the cold lake.

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The horse thief regained consciousness immediately in the cold water. Ning Que found out what he wanted to know with no effort, such as the recent situation in the City of Wei and Golden Palace. What's more, he also learnt that the simple altar by the lake was an emerging religion in the Wilderness in recent years.

The god of the religion was called Tengri.

Ning Que had not heard of the name before, nor this religion. After pondering for a moment, he decided not to think about it again. He took out his podao and beheaded the horse thief.

His action was fluent – as if it had been repeated countless times. In fact, he had done it so many times that it had become kind of a habit.

After cutting off the horse thief's head, Ning Que realized that he was no longer a serviceman of the Tang Empire, nor a woodcutter – he had no need to kill the horse thief.

However, he had killed him anyway and he would not feel guilty.

Every horse thief had a pair of hands stained with the blood of innocent people, so every one of them should die. He had allowed those three hundred horse thieves to escape because he was tired and not in the mood for killing. In addition, it was indeed difficult for him to kill all of them.

Since the horse thief dared to drink himself unconscious by Shubi Lake, he had no choice but to die.

It could just be regarded as woodcutters' worship or commemoration to Shubi Lake.