769 Borrowing a Horse (2/2)
The other four sabermen were taken aback and immediately grabbed their sabers, poised to attack. Their idleness was completely gone.
”It turns out you are a veteran.”
'Veteran' wasn't a word frequently used by people of the Western Regions. Gu Shenwei put the narrow saber back into the scabbard and replied, ”And you are from the Central Plains.”
The saberman who was holding onto the scabbard still wasn't able to react in time, which made him look even clumsier. Blushing, he dropped the narrow saber on the ground and grabbed his own single saber, ”Heh, we are from the Central Plains. So what?”
As he spoke, he made a move, slashing at his opponent's arm. He didn't have the intention to kill, and just wanted to frighten this odd man and teach him a lesson.
Gu Shenwei realized that he might have been foolish in wasting this much time on the five scoundrels. With a shake of his body, he flashed behind the attacker, grabbed both the bundle and narrow saber, and then put them back onto the horse. During his quick movements. the saberman had slashed at him three times, but they were all easily dodged by Gu Shenwei.
”He knows kung fu!” The other four sabermen drew their sabers and joined the fight. Their sabersmanship wasn't that weak, but their eyes were too poor to realize that they were actually the weak side.
Without waiting for the enemy to surround him, Gu Shenwei struck out five times in a row with his palms. The five sabermen retreated step by step, all of them nearly bumping into the carriage at the same time. As they plopped onto the ground, the five of them found that their internal Qi had become chaotic and they were actually unable to stand up for the time being.
Gu Shenwei got back onto his horse and took one last glance at the five people. He hadn't used his narrow saber or the frosty Qi. To hide his identity, he had to let them off with their lives.
He was starting to understand Old Man Mu's pain of being unable to kill people. He could have easily killed the other side, but he just couldn't do so. It was like a naughty boy that had caught an insect in a net, but couldn't pluck its wings. This was also a form of torment.
He could hide his killing aura deeply at heart but his killing desire was becoming more and more vigorous with each passing day.
Gu Shenwei urged his horse to run forward. The five sabermen finally came to their senses and abused defiantly.
The sound of cursing soon faded away, but Gu Shenwei remained unmoved, completely absorbed in his pondering of the Daoless Scroll and the Death Sutra. Occasionally, one or two unrelated ideas would float through his mind.
One of the ideas actually prompted Gu Shenwei to turn around his horse and run back along the way he came. He had paid too much attention while reading the book and neglected an important flaw.
Unfortunately, he was a bit too late. Four sabermen lay dead on the road while the last had disappeared. The carriage was still there, but the lone living horse had also disappeared. The dead horse, in contrast, had been cut open and its entrails spilled out all over the ground, even more gruesome than the corpses nearby.
The mistake Gu Shenwei had made was the dead horse which he had ignored. For common people or even ordinary killers, it would be nigh unbearable to hide in the airtight belly of the horse's corpse, but Gu Shenwei knew that some people could.
The sabermen had died from saber strikes, and each of them only had one wound, all of which were precisely made at the throat, heart, and other vital parts.
There had been an assassin hidden in the horse's belly. Why didn't he make a move back then? Why did he kill the four scoundrels and take one away, alive?
Gu Shenwei mounted his horse and left again without touching anything in the scene.
He quickened up and this time, he spent more time thinking about things unrelated to kung fu.
He arrived at Jade City at noon the next day and was surprised to find that it had barely changed. The streets were still crowded, especially Southern Jade City. The brothels on both sides of the street had opened early, and the gambling houses and taverns were hustling and bustling as usual.
Before entering the city, Gu Shenwei had already disguised himself as a common saberman by settling down in a saberman village, wandering around with other sabermen, looking for jobs everywhere, and observing the all-around situation.
He was not followed because he was no different from any other wandering sabermen except for the sole peculiarity that he did not drink. But even this was not particularly odd as some of the sabermen would abstain from drinking before being hired by an employer, in an attempt to leave a good impression on their new master. Only when they found that the received payment was far less than expected would they start cursing the rich and revert to their old habits.
One day in early autumn, three caravans arrived at Jade City before noon. Before unloading their goods, many buyers had already surrounded them and asked about the prices of the new merchandise. The merchants perfunctorily turned away all the requests. They did not care about these casual buyers at all. They would entreat some really rich people in the evening, and if they were lucky, they would be able to sell most of their goods in one go.
Southern Jade City had become even busier. The businessmen who had made a fortune spent lavishly. Some of them even booked a whole brothel to enjoy themselves while many more spent money renting houses because they still had to deal with the rest of the goods in Jade City. Meanwhile, they would indulge in giving and 'returning' most of the profits they had made back to this Sin City.
Gu Shenwei found a part-time job easily, working as a guard for one of the big houses of the Southern Jade City for half a month.
Although the businessmen had their own bodyguards, those bodyguards would still want to take a break every once in awhile to enjoy themselves so the businessmen had no choice but to hire some local people to take their place.
Lü Qiying wished that the Dragon King's use for him would end there. After the three bandit chiefs returned the money to him, a few strange-looking guests suddenly appeared in the caravan which terrified him. He had no choice but to hide them among the goods and smuggled them into Jade City, hoping that the Dragon King would take them away soon.
He knew nothing about the Dragon King's coming.
On the third night, Lü Qiying went to attend another banquet, and Gu Shenwei joined his companions.
There was Han Wuxian, Old Man Mu, Dog Butcher, Shangguan Fei, Nie Zeng, and Tie Linglong for a total of six people.
Although there were no fights or murders, Dog Butcher was very pleased with their tortuous journey. He looked excitedly at the Dragon King, hoping for more exciting adventures.
”Someone betrayed me.” Dog Butcher's enthusiasm was immediately extinguished by Gu Shenwei's words.
”Who? Was it one of us? It's definitely not me.” Dog Butcher wanted to seem calm, but he only revealed his flustered mind.
”It's someone from the Xiaowan Kingdom,” Old Man Mu responded faster. ”Shangguan Yun let out the secret and sent a message to Golden Roc Castle.”
”Shangguan Yun only has access to Long Fanyun and Chu Nanping; there was no third person.”Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.
Azheba was actually the one Gu Shenwei was guarded against the most. Liman and Mo Lin had gone to the Naihang Tribe to lobby them. While there might be someone else who could guess the Dragon King's scheme, those who really knew the details only numbered ten, and six of them were next to the Dragon King right now and the other four were in the Xiaowan Kingdom.