249 A Year (1/2)

Chapter 249: A Year

Translator: TransnEditor: Transn

Leaning on his five feet long saber, Zhuang Heng watched as his brothers plundered wantonly, and felt a warmth in his heart as though he was watching his children playing and having fun.

He had only two beliefs in life: sabers were his life blood, and his brothers were his family. He was thus nicknamed the ”Long Machete God” in the jianghu. To him, gold and silver were like dirt, while women were nothing more than lust-satisfying objects which could talk, and which often annoyed him when they talked too much.

Five carriages were overturned along the roadside. The horses laid in the pools of blood gasping feebly for air while a dozen or so human corpses were scattered amidst the tall grass. This had been an all-too-common transaction. If he had not been paid for it, Zhuang Heng would not have bothered to make this trip.

Having more ”dirt” was always welcomed. To the bandits, this served as food which they could never have enough of.

His twelve brothers had already heaped together all of the items found in the carriages, and were currently searching the corpses one-by-one for money and valuables. They were not a big gang, and thus every cent and item mattered to them. If they saw that one of the corpses was wearing a comfortable pair of boots, they would consider it a huge waste not to take it off.

”Hey, look what I've found!” The stubbly Elder Du was carrying a young girl of around ten years old, and was eager to receive the approval of his boss.

Elder Du was an imperceptive person who could not discriminate what was valuable and what was not. A young girl like this was not yet a woman, and could not even be used by his brothers to release their urges upon. But Zhuang Heng was in no mood to educate him and lazily waved him off.

Disappointed and despondent, Elder Du placed the girl down and pulled a short sword out from beneath his waist. He always hoped to own a five feet long saber like his boss', for it was more powerful at scything people and looked more imposing, but he did not have the courage to ask for one. His current short sword was decent as well. At its best, it could chop down a tree which was as thick as the rim of a bowl.

The young girl raised her head and gazed at the bandit. Her slim and fragile neck was certainly not as thick as the rim of a bowl.

Perhaps because she had been scared silly, the young girl neither cried nor whined, and showed no intention of running away. Instead, she seemed to be waiting for the adult to give her sweets.

”Lower your head,” Elder Du ordered. He wanted to chop her head off with one perfect stroke such that her head would roll over to his boss's feet while her body remained standing upright. He had witnessed a scene like this before and always wanted to imitate it at least once.

The final wish of Elder Du's life would, however, be impolitely interrupted by an intruder.

Everyone turned their sights toward the wilderness, starting from the boss Zhuang Heng, followed by the brothers who were searching through the corpses, and finally Elder Du who was taking careful aim at the young girl's neck. Only the young girl remained unconcerned and continued to stare fixedly at the bandit.

A pure black horse ambled its way toward the crowd. It was ridden by a pale-faced young knight who looked like a lost traveler. He appeared calm and unperturbed despite having barged into a group of bandits in his disorientation. Like the little girl, he seemed to not understand the cruel reality of the situation.

As the bandits brandished their shiny swords, several of them moved toward the flanks and prepared to encircle the prey which had arrived on its own.

Although the horse was a fine specimen, the knight himself did not carry much luggage. Zhuang Heng felt that a fool like this was too insignificant for him to get worked up over.

The knight stopped ten steps away from Zhuang Heng, unbothered by the movement behind him. Without saying a word, he performed an action which confounded the bandits. He took out a piece of black cloth and rubbed it gently on the horse's cheek several times before he covered the horse's eyes with it. The animal was apparently accustomed to this practice and did not display any sign of resistance.

The knight leaped off the horse, revealing the saber and sword which were attached to his waist.

”Are you Zhuang Heng?”

The knight's sickly pale face suggested that he had just arrived from a frozen land, but it was currently early autumn and the sunshine provided a pleasant warmth. The bandits, who had been busy for half a day, were even sweating profusely.

”Yes.” Zhuang Heng bucked his spirits up slightly, albeit he still did not take seriously the knight who had appeared from nowhere.

”You can't be like this.” The knight shook his head in some disappointment.

”What?”

”You aren't worthy of being slain by my sword in your current state.”

Zhuang Heng was taken aback for a moment before he and his brothers broke into laughter. The solemn and murderous atmosphere evaporated faster than the droplets of water on the grass did. There were always a few machetemen and swordsmen in this world who highly rated their own kungfu and considered the bandits to be a bunch of incompetent goons. They would then seek to kill these bandits in order to make a name for themselves. Like the pale-faced knight, this type of people would speak profoundly and abstrusely at the start, but would become all flustered and overwhelmed when the action started. Subsequently, they would either die horrifically or escape through sheer luck. In the latter case, they would then grumble, while shuddering with terror, that the bandits were breaking the rules of the jianghu by outnumbering their enemies. The one thing which these people would never mention was that they had initiated the challenge themselves.

This was yet another swordsman who came to court his own death. Zhuang Heng increasingly felt that this was a day for fun and game, and thereupon pulled his long-saber out of the ground and rested it on his shoulder. ”Come, let's fight while I'm still slightly interested. We have to be on our way soon, unlike you with all that spare time.”

The knight did not react to the derisory laughter. With his pale face remaining expressionless, he pulled his sword out and slowly drew nearer to his enemy.

Zhuang Heng felt a quake in his heart the moment the knight took his first step forward. Even though there was no perceptible killing intent or swift offensive from the latter, the bandit leader began to tense up involuntarily. He grasped his saber shaft forcefully and lowered his center of gravity, as if he was facing a formidable opponent.

Unable to sense their boss's frame of mind, the twelve brothers were bored stiff as they watched the duel play out. While awaiting the impending outcome, they were strenuously estimating their total yield for the day. A few quick-thinking ones among them were already eyeing the pure black horse. By the bandits' principles, whoever touched a particular piece of loot first would get to claim it as his own.

Therefore, most of the bandits were not paying attention to what was going on on scene, and did not know that the duel had already ended in the blink of an eye. Only the simple-minded Elder Du clenched his fists excitedly and prepared to applaud and cheer. He never got tired of watching his boss use a two-handed saber to kill.

But his applauses and cheers would never be heard. Though he had been watching, Elder Du did not understand what was going on. It felt the same as when one entered a different dream while halfway through a dream; because the contents of the two dreams were completely unrelated and the dislocation between them was ludicrous, one would even murmur to one's self within the dream that this was impossible.

Zhuang Heng's long-saber was resting on his shoulder as before. What the brothers would never find out was that the long-saber had moved away from his shoulder for a short time and been a flash away from scything the enemy, but his rapid technique was not fast enough today.

Feeling that killing one person a year with it was enough, the knight sheathed his sword and took his saber out instead. It was only now that the bandits fixed their attentions on him. They recognized the weapon for what it was - a saber exclusively used by Golden Roc killers as well as a few daredevil impostors.

As Zhuang Heng remained motionless, everyone gradually recognized the fact that their boss was dead.