Chapter 110: Splitting
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Four brown-belt assassins galloped rapidly on the narrow road in the wilderness. Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus were in the front. Twenty steps away from them were Wildhorse and Liuhua. They had stayed in this formation all along the way. Although some parts of the road were broken, they could still determine the route in the moonlight.
After traveling for more than a dozen kilometers, they finally saw a wisp of smoke rising from one side of the road at dawn.
They got off their horses and headed for the smoke. They spontaneously walked in a formation. Maid Lotus was at the forefront. Behind her and to her left and right, were Slave Huan and Wildhorse, who were guarding against flank attacks. Liuhua followed at the rear with a crossbow in hand.
It seemed that all the people in this camp were fast asleep. They did not see anyone on sentry duty.
Gu Shenwei recognized a familiar smell. He had thrown so many dead bodies off the cliff in Golden Roc Fort that he could never forget this smell.
They walked into the camp and saw that the campfire was about to go out. They found more than 50 dead bodies inside and outside the tents. The blood on the corpses had just coagulated.
Gu Shenwei had expected that some bandits were waiting for them, but he had never expected that they would be dead when he found them.
Soon, the campfire died out, and the sun began to rise.
"Wildhorse, Maid Lotus, you go back to warn everybody. Liuhua and I will stay here," Gu Shenwei ordered. He had no time to consider the matter carefully now.
Wildhorse and Maid Lotus immediately went to get their horses and galloped away.
"You stay within ten steps of me," Gu Shenwei said to Liuhua. Within this distance, they were able to coordinate with each other in action, and Liuhua could not shoot him with an arrow within such a short range.
Liuhua nodded and put his crossbow down. After that, he looked away with a straight face.
An hour later, Wildhorse rode back and seemed to get some bad news.
He waved to Slave Huan and Liuhua, inviting them to leave with him right now.
Gu Shenwei trusted Wildhorse's judgment. He and Liuhua immediately mounted their horses and rode after Wildhorse.
Gu Shenwei thought that this whole thing was probably a plot against him, but somehow this plot went wrong. He racked his brain but still could not figure out what went wrong. Given that, he decided to stop thinking about this complicated issue for now. He looked at Wildhorse's back and began to wonder. "These strange guys. What's the point of cutting off your own tongues?"
After traveling one or two kilometers, he saw three corpses on the road. The dead people's horses were grazing on the grassland nearby.
He went to check the dead bodies. They were Meng Mingshi's machetemen. He remembered that compared to the other machetemen, these three were quite good at kung fu. He thought that they must have followed them to leave the camp last night and gotten ambushed here. A significant amount of blood had spouted from their wounds in the chests and stomachs, and the blood had not yet wholly coagulated.
Gu Shenwei stood up and looked into the direction where they came from, feeling worried. He was not sure who the murder was and where this murder came from.
When it was near noon, the two teams behind finally caught up with the brown-belt assassins. The moment they arrived, they immediately gathered around the dead bodies. Slave Qing nearly passed out at the sight. He leaned himself against a handyman and said, "This is, this is..."
"They were not killed by some ordinary bandits," Gu Shenwei said to everyone. He was sure that bandits would never take the trouble to cut every victim's chest and stomach open.
"It's you... You killed them. You, You've been..." Meng Mingshi pointed at Slave Huan and grumbled while hiding behind two machetemen. His eyes were full of fear and hatred, which indicated that he had recognized the slave boy a long time ago.
"If you believe you can frame me by saying that, you're foolish," Gu Shenwei looked at Meng Mingshi and thought. After a moment, he replied peacefully, "No, I didn't kill them, but they did want to kill me."
"Nonsense! This is slander! No one wants to kill you. You, You want to kill me. Yes. You surely want to assassinate me."
Meng Mingshi's speech became increasingly incoherent, but this did not prevent his machetemen from reacting swiftly. They quickly unsheathed their machetes of different size, waiting for their boss' order. At the same time, the teenagers in the escort team also drew out their sabers. "We want to kill you. What's the big deal? Do you think no one dares to cut your throat?" said Shangguan Ru provocatively.
Hearing that, Meng Mingshi immediately covered his neck with both hands and rapidly stepped back while shouting, "This is a conspiracy! This is an assassination! You think your family is invincible, but my family won't give in easily."
A conflict might break out at any moment. Suddenly the caravan's banner-carrying killer, who had squatted to check the dead bodies, stood up and said, "Sheath your weapons. Golden Roc Fort had nothing to do with the three machetemen's deaths. Look at their wounds. That's not our style. More importantly, they don't look like knife wounds at all."
Meng Mingshi could not discern wounds, but he trusted the banner-carrying killer's judgment. "What kind of weapon did the murder use? Their wounds are deep. Even their bowels and intestines fell out," Meng Mingshi said while staring at Shangguan Ru warily.
All the three dead men's chests and stomachs were cut open. The team members did not dare to look at them carefully, except the killers from Golden Roc Fort.
Gu Shenwei agreed with the banner-carrying killer that the wounds were not caused by any kind of knife. He thought that the murder must have used something blunter than a knife, but he could not determine what it was. The banner-carrying killer did not seem to have any idea about the murder's weapon either.
"Let's travel together. We must hurry up now. If anyone of you leaves the team without permission, you'll have to face the consequences on your own," the banner-carrying killer said with a cold face, with his eyes fixed on Slave Huan.
"I'm sorry. I can't agree. We're two different teams. I'm chief of guards in this escort team. I suggested that we take actions separately without interfering in each other's affairs."
The banner-carrying killer was livid with anger. "No, I'm chief of the whole escort team. I say we should go together with the caravan. The more people, the better," Slave Qing shouted outside the crowd.
Gu Shenwei held his saber tightly and lifted his head up, while saying, "You can leave with the Meng family's caravan with all the goods, but all the guards must follow me. We never unite with the people who act suspiciously."
Hearing that, the other six teenage guards simultaneously stood behind their chief.
"Who? Who acted suspiciously?" Meng Mingshi shouted while hiding behind several machetemen.
Gu Shenwei pointed to the front and said, "There's a camp not very far away from here. There are 50 bandits in the camp waiting to rob us. However, now they're all dead, just like these three machetemen. Mister Meng Mingshi, how are you going to explain this matter to everyone?"
"They're all dead now?" Meng Mingshi murmured, looking confused. After a while, he recovered from the shock and retorted, "What do the deaths of some bandits have to do with me?"
"Let's stop beating about the bush. Can you tell us what goods your camels are carrying?"
Gu Shenwei intended to expose Meng Mingshi's plot. "This young master must have hired some bandits to kill me in this way. That's why he goaded Shangguan Ru into taking this shortcut. He probably also planned to scare the girl with those bandits. To make this incident seem real, he must have told the bandits to rob both teams. He's sure that Golden Roc Fort won't blame the Meng family for the death of a brown-belt assassin during such a robbery."
Gu Shenwei believed that the machetemen who had been shot dead yesterday were also part of the show Meng Mingshi had arranged.
However, some unknown enemies suddenly appeared last night and killed all the bandits Meng Mingshi hired. Gu Shenwei thought these unknown enemies were probably not the young master's friends.
Meng Mingshi was apparently not the kind of person who could take in a situation at a glance. "That's none of your business. You're not eligible to talk to me like that," Meng Mingshi continued to shout at Slave Huan.
As a slave boy, Gu Shenwei was not qualified to question the young master, but some of his guards were able to do so. Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi rushed to the caravan's camels to cut the ropes on the wooden boxes. The next moment, the boxes opened, and many stones fell out. They continued to open many other boxes and found out that all of them contained only stones.
After that, the girls came back to their team with their sabers. The murderous light flickered in their eyes. "The Meng family is so smart. You can sell such useless stones to make money," Shangguan Ru said mockingly.
Meng Mingshi's face changed. He had hired a group of machetemen to fake a robbery and had not wanted to suffer any loss during this show, so he had filled all the boxes with stones.
Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi began to brandish their sabers. Since they had been trained by the top killers, they seemed to have even better saber skills compared to the brown-belt assassins. Seeing that, Meng Mingshi's machetemen tightly surrounded their young master, ready to fight.
"Wait," Gu Shenwei said. He did not want to see the teams fight against each other now. "Mister Meng just wanted to play a joke on us. We don't need to take it seriously."
"Yes." Meng Mingshi shouted while hiding among the machetemen. The teenagers could only hear his trembling voice but could not see where he was. "It's a joke. Master Ru. I never meant to kill you. If I dare to harm you, my parents won't let me off easily."
"Now, what're you planning to do? Chief of guards," the banner-carrying killer asked Slave Huan. This time, the killer did not look that arrogant.
"We travel together. You give all your machetemen to me," Gu Shenwei said.
"I'm just a banner-carrier," the banner-carrying killer stepped aside and refused to get involved in this thing anymore.
Now Meng Mingshi had to make a decision by himself. He looked at Slave Huan with distrust while hiding behind many machetemen.
"If I dare to hurt you, Stone Castle will never let me off easily," Gu Shenwei said with his hands laid out in a shrug.
The slave boy was telling the truth, but Meng Mingshi still felt uncertain. "Alright, I give you my machetemen, but you have to swear that you'll ensure my safety."
"I swear to gods, I'll ensure the Fifth Young Master Meng's safety."
Gu Shenwei was adept at swearing allegiance now.
After that, Gu Shenwei integrated the two teams into one. He asked the team members to throw away those boxes of stones. By doing so, they got more camels for the gift boxes and the team members.
He also ordered the team to camp in the place and sent machetemen to explore the way. He posted five machetemen to investigate the road in the front and five to the road behind them. The machetemen would return before dark. If they found out that the way behind them was safe, he would lead the team to return to the fork to take the more reliable route.
Since Meng Mingshi admitted that the macheteman who had been shot dead yesterday was a show he had arranged, Gu Shenwei thought that they might still be able to turn back.
Shangguan Ru was eager to meet some bandits, but she still accepted her chief's decision in the end.
Gu Shenwei did not like the current situation. He had no idea who the enemy was and what the enemy wanted to do. He also suspected that this might be another show arranged by Meng Mingshi. After all, the deaths of several dozen bandits were not a big deal for the wealthy Meng family.
He preferred to take the initiative to launch an attack, but now he had no choice but to wait. Shangguan Ru was in his team. He had to be extra careful and tried his best to ensure her safety.
Although the camel driver sent by Golden Roc Fort looked like a good killer, he still worried that it was not enough to rely on just one person to ensure Shangguan Ru's safety. Given that, he ordered Maid Lotus to protect Shangguan Ru.
As for Meng Mingshi, he was sure his machetemen would take care of him.
He sincerely hoped that the bandits only wanted their goods. He could give up those gift boxes to ensure the young masters' safety.
The machetemen who went to the front came back in time and reported to the teenager chief that everything looked alright in the front. They had seen the camp mentioned by the chief and behaved very politely to the boy when they came back.
The other five machetemen were late. Everybody in the camp was nervous and could not sleep.
At midnight, a horse galloped back from the road behind them. A macheteman went out to take it into the camp. Slave Qing and Meng Mingshi came out to check it and nearly passed out again.
A macheteman's head was tied to the horseback, and his feet were stuck in the stirrups. The other parts of his body were gone.
"The unknown enemies want us to move forward," Gu Shenwei thought and felt hesitant.