113 A Counselor (1/2)

As this time the murderer did not have time to cut the eight bandits' chests and stomachs open after killing them, the brown-belt assassins finally got a chance to determine the real cause of the bandits' death. They discovered a long and narrow wound inside every dead body, which started from the throat and ended in the lower abdomen.

After checking the dead bodies, Gu Shenwei sent Snowcamel away on sentry duty. He and the other two teenagers stood beside the extinguished campfire together, waiting for the machetemen to come back.

The machetemen were late, which made Gu Shenwei feel anxious. ”The machetemen probably have already run away or gotten killed by that crazy woman's partners. That woman doesn't look like an ordinary bandit at all. She's so possessed with something and clearly against Golden Roc Fort. Given that, these unknown enemies probably came here for Shangguan Ru.”

He felt very frustrated. All this time, he had been longing to join the fort's enemies to have his revenge on the fort, but now when he finally met them, he had no choice but to act against them.

He wondered if he should give up his own plan and went to join them now.

On second thought, he decided not to do so, since he believed that no one was trustworthy except himself. His revenge plan had just begun, and he was determined to continue it.

After restoring his confidence, he tightly held his saber shaft and considered how to defeat the unknown enemies. ”That crazy woman is good at kung fu, but I'm able to kill her with one strike. The unknown enemies have never seen anyone of us fighting. They don't know what we can do. That's a good thing for us.”

Wildhorse and Liuhua stood beside their chief, one on the chief's left side and the other on his right side. They reminded silent all the time. Wildhorse was unable to speak. Liuhua did not like to talk. Both of them were quite displeased with the fact that Slave Huan was their chief now.

Gu Shenwei turned his head to look at them, guessing what they were thinking now. ”After traveling for days, we finally caught a captive. However, I killed her before getting any valuable information out of her. They must disapprove of my performance very much.”

”Let's take a rest for now. The enemies aren't very far away from us. I plan to launch a pre-emptive attack on them.”

With these words, Gu Shenwei kicked two corpses away to sit on a rock beneath them. Shortly after he took a seat, he stood up abruptly and drew out his saber.

He found another person beside the rock, who was still alive.

That person had somehow rolled himself into a ball and hidden under the two dead bodies' legs. He was dressed in a color which was similar to that of the rock beside him and camouflaged himself well. The teenagers thought that all the people in the camp were already dead and relaxed their vigilance. Given that, they did not hear this man's breathing sound when they were standing near him.

When they took a closer look at the man, they found out that he looked like a scholar even though now he was even dirtier than the roving bandits.

The man was thin and dressed in a shabby long robe. He was tightly tied up with a rope, and now his body was as stiff as the rock beside him. He appeared scared, and his eyes widened in fear. This unlucky guy had been caught and brought to this camp by the bandits. Last night, he had seen a demon-like black bird come to kill the bandits and then he had seen some fierce teenagers with sabers pop out to catch the bird. He had not slept the whole time, but he felt as if he had a nightmare which lasted throughout the night.

Gu Shenwei lifted up his saber, pointing it at the man. The man knew that he could no longer pretend to be a rock and began to cry for mercy. ”Don't kill me. I'm not a robber.”

Gu Shenwei severed his rope and asked, ”Who are you? Why are you here?”

The man tried to get on his feet while shivering. However, he was too weak to stand up right now. In the end, he failed to straighten his legs and slumped down on the rock. ”My surname is Fang and my last name is Wenshi. This name stems from the opening sentence of all the Buddhist classics, 'Ru Shi Wo Wen' (I heard it from Sakyamuni). I just wanted to take a shortcut, but these brothers caught me on the road and asked me to pay a ransom. Alas, look at me. I'm just a poor scholar with no money in my pocket. Oh, no, I did have some money in my pocket at that time. They took it away and still asked me to pay the ransom. How could I get that much money? That's why I'm in this camp. I was frightened to death last night seeing the cruel female devil slaughter them all. Fortunately, I met you, a group of teenage heroes. You killed the devil and saved my life. I can't thank you enough.”

Gu Shenwei was well aware that the man was just trying to flatter them by calling them 'teenage heroes.' He clearly remembered that this man had not made a sound or appealed for help when the 'heroes' had come out to fight the woman. He snorted and sheathed his saber, thinking that it was unnecessary to be suspicious of such a poor scholar. ”You can leave now,” he said to the man.

Fang Wenshi was startled. He could not believe his ears. He looked at the three ”teenage heroes” one by one and suddenly bowed deeply to them. After that, he turned around and ran away. After only a few steps, he stumbled and fell to the ground. He quickly staggered up and continued to run. It seemed that he would get exhausted very soon.

”We should kill him.”

Liuhua the Silencer suddenly spoke. Gu Shenwei was surprised to discover that this thin and small boy had such a deep voice.

”No, let him explore the way for us.”

Gu Shenwei replied while looking at Fang Wenshi. He thought that this man would probably be able to help them lure the unknown enemies out.

When Fang Wenshi distanced himself enough from them, they began to stroll after him.

After traveling for about 500 meters, Fang Wenshi saw several horses galloping toward him. He tried to stop one for himself but failed and fell to the ground again.

A moment later, the horses met the teenagers and stopped. There were only six horses now, and one of them carried a dead macheteman.

The moment the horse stopped, the dead body flipped over and fell down from the saddle, revealing an arrow shot into his chest.

Liuhua came to the corpse and knelt beside it. He fingered the arrow shaft and carefully checked the wound, with a grim face.

Their enemies were not far away.

The four teenagers mounted their horses and gently pulled the reins to ride slowly behind the scholar.

Just like the other killers, these brown-belt assassins were not good at frontal attacks. Given that, they planned to find their enemies out and then assassinate them.

Fang Wenshi ran to the top of a slope and then turned his head to look at the teenagers behind him. Suddenly, he flopped onto the ground and did not get up again.

When the teenagers galloped to the man, he raised up his head and asked, ”Are you from Golden Roc Fort?”

He had run only a short distance, but he was sweating profusely now. His face was as red as blood.

”How do you know?” Gu Shenwei was a little surprised that such a weak and poor scholar could recognize them.