113 A Counselor (2/2)
”You're dressed in black, and there are birds patterns on your shoulders. Your weapons look different from the ordinary machetes. However, I've never seen any Golden Roc Fort killer wear a brown belt. Are you a killer apprentice?”
”Why did you stop running?” Gu Shenwei asked without answering the man's question.
”I can't run any longer. I'm starving and exhausted. Could you lend me a horse?”
The teenagers had two extra horses. Snowcamel had dragged them here.
”No, Golden Roc Fort never lends things.” Gu Shenwei replied assertively, but in fact, he did not know whether there was such a custom in the fort.
”I see. How about you take me with you? You can introduce me to the Supreme King. I'll only need two or three sentences to please the lord. I promise that he'll be delighted to meet me and reward you generously for taking me to him. When I get a high position in the fort, I'll never forget you.”
What Fang Wenshi said struck the teenagers as ridiculous. If they had never been strictly trained in the fort, they would have burst into laughter now.
They thought this scholar must have been crazy or shameless since he had apparently failed to talk himself out of trouble when he had run into the eight bandits. Despite that, the teenagers still managed to hold back their laughter and remained silent while hearing the scholar boast about his eloquence.
”How about you tell me two or three sentences now? If you can please me, I'll send you a horse,” Gu Shenwei said.
”No, you won't understand it. Oh, no, no, I mean you won't be interested in the political situation and the strategies of the states. You teen heroes are brilliant enough to understand everything, but you're killers who only care about your killing business, aren't you?”
Gu Shenwei realized that this poor scholar was a counselor, but no matter what, he just wanted to use him as a bait to lure his enemies out. Now that this bait refused to cooperate, he had no other choice but to kill him.
Fang Wenshi looked at the shining saber with a bemused expression. He did not seem to notice the murderous look on the teenager's face at all. The next moment, he said something, which not only saved his life but also marked the beginning of the friendship between him and the teenager.
Years later, when Gu Shenwei mentioned this incident to Fang Wenshi, the counselor could not remember these words anymore and insisted that he had saved himself with an eloquent speech.
”You kill people with sabers. We, counselors, kill with tactics, and most of the time, we can kill more people than you do.”
Like a bolt of lightning, Zhang Ji's words flashed across Gu Shenwei's mind. ”In the past, the sharpest saber was money, and the best killers were counselors.”
He had given up many of his old beliefs but still firmly believed in Mister Zhang's teachings. He considered them as guidelines for his revenge campaign against Golden Roc Fort. In his view, these guidelines were even more critical than kung fu.
He had never expected that such a shabbily-clothed scholar would have said something similar to Mister Zhang's teachings and thus started to take the scholar seriously.
For a moment, he even forgot about the unknown enemies nearby and focused on imagining the distant future.
Fang Wenshi was still young, probably in his early 20s. Although he looked dirty and poor, Gu Shenwei again spotted a fearless look on his face after careful observation. This was the typical look of a counselor, but it would always make the ordinary people think a counselor as an arrogant twit.
”Give him a horse.”
Snowcamel was stunned, but after a moment, he still obeyed the order and threw the reins of a horse to the scholar.
Fang Wenshi was even more stunned than Snowcamel. Someone was touched by his words. This kind of thing had seldom happened to him during the past few years when he had been working as a counselor.
”Are you going to introduce me to the Supreme King?”
”No, I just want you to move faster.”
Gu Shenwei had learned his lesson. Compared to the distant future, he cared more about solving the current problems. He still wanted to use the scholar as a bait.
Fang Wenshi reluctantly mounted the horse. When he turned his head back, wanting to say something, Gu Shenwei patted the horse with his saber. The horse immediately galloped forward with the scholar on its back. After traveling across a few gentle slopes, they vanished into the horizon.
The four brown-belt assassins trotted their horses forward while carefully observing everything along their way.
The road was getting increasingly rough. When they saw a high hill in the front, Fang Wenshi galloped back, his face extremely pale. According to Dan San, a day after traveling past the high hill, they would be able to meet an outpost of the Iron Mountain Gang. To the south of the steep hill lay some low barren hills. To the south of the small hills lay a vast desert.
When the scholar came to Gu Shenwei, he said, ”They told us to turn back as soon as possible and to travel southward with all the other people.”
”They?”
”Three ferocious-looking people, just like those bandits,” Fang Wenshi said with stooped shoulders. It seemed that he had not yet fully recovered from the shock.
Gu Shenwei was a little disappointed by the counselor's cowardly performance.
The brown-belt assassins galloped forward without any hesitation. Fang Wenshi trotted his horse in a circle and then reluctantly followed the teenagers.
After traveling for one or two kilometers, the teenagers stopped on the top of a slope. They saw three riders in the front blocking the way. The riders wore felt clothes, revealing one shoulder. Every one of them carried a long machete on his back and held a longbow in his hand.
Gu Shenwei looked to the south, wondering what the riders intended to do by driving all these people into the desert.