Chapter 116: The Reinforcements
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Gu Shenwei did not like being in the middle of a chaotic bloodbath. When he was in the street fight against the assassins of Meng Mingshi in South City, he had not felt confident in his strength.
Although he had escaped from the encirclement, he decided to make up for this weakness in the future.
Only four managed to break through. Slave Huan, Maid Lotus, Wildhorse, and Liuhua. All of them were wounded.
They looked back and saw the camel driver was still jumping around, and every jump would kill one enemy. Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi must be behind him, being surrounded by those bandits who were not able to snatch the treasures.
Gu Shenwei charged back toward the enemies, cutting open an escape route, and rescued the two masters.
The two masters were both bathed in blood. It appeared that they had been on a total killing spree because their eyes looked glassy yet frenzied. If it were not for the brown-belt assassins that pushed them, they would almost forget to run forward.
After that, the seven that survived rushed forth at full speed. Since the treasure snatching frenzy was about to end, those bandits will be chasing after them soon.
The wide prairie became a nightmare that kept haunting them.
They had run about 1500 meters when the bandits gradually caught up with them. Liuhua drew the bow, turned around and shot the leading enemy, which slowed down the pursuit temporarily. Be that as it may, he only had less than 10 arrows, which could not buy much more time.
More than 10 dark robed women branched out into two columns, ready to outflank the escapees.
The camel driver suddenly sped up, changed direction toward a dark robed woman, jumped onto her horse's back and slew her. After dumping the corpse, he rode back to the team, picked up Shangguan Ru, and continued accelerating without a word.
Shangguan Ru was unprepared, and harshly shouted, "Let go of me!" While she struggled, she fell off the horse. After several rolls on the ground, she ran back to those young killers, and said, "I'm with you."
The brown-belt assassins were touched by her comraderie, but also thought her stupid because they had a bigger chance to survive without her. However, none dared to say this. Shangguan Yushi said, "You little dummy, get on the horse and run, now. They want you, not us."
Shangguan Ru kept her mouth shut, clenched her saber, and followed Shangguan Yushi closely. Her pupil stretched wider. Gu Shenwei was so familiar with her countenance that he knew it meant that she would not change her mind.
The best chance to escape was gone. The dark robed women had already ridden ahead of them. All they needed to do was to stall them for a little while so that a throng of bandits behind would catch up and surround the seven escapees. By then, even a killer with the best kung fu could not escape.
Several teenagers had the same thought as they simultaneously used Qing Gong and flew toward the dark robed woman. Due to Gu Shenwei's weak Qing Gong, he brought up the rear.
The camel driver was already engaging with the other dark robed women. He leaped from one horse to another, with every strike hitting a target. The dark robed women leaped around as well, seizing the best opportunity to attack with their steel needles, which left stripes of wounds on the camel driver.
The youngsters joined the battle, killing enemies and robbing horses, while the camel driver no longer jumped around as he disappeared among the group of horses.
Shangguan Ru and the others mounted the horses and continued to escape. Meanwhile, Gu Shenwei found himself all alone. The enemies only wanted Shangguan Ru alive, and they did not care about a brown-belt assassin. Clouds of arrows fell and, although Gu Shenwei blocked a few, he got shot in his left arm.
"Get on the horse," someone told him.
Gu Shenwei dumped his saber, grasped the person's hand and mounted the horse.
It was Maid Lotus.
Gu Shenwei pulled out the arrow on his arm. Losing a saber was almost equivalent to losing an arm.
The wind was roaring in his ears. The remaining dark robed women followed at the sides like gigantic bats, and the sound of horse hoofs behind was thundering.
"The six great divisions in the wheel of karma, there's never enough to kill." The stele in front of Six Kills Temple of Golden Roc Fort came to his mind for no reason. He then thought about the other saying, "Immortal be those who kills."
"Gimme the saber." Gu Shenwei yelled. With the wounded left arm holding Maid Lotus' waist, he grabbed the saber from her with his right hand.
Two dark robed women rode up to them and abruptly jumped up together. Like two ravens, they threw themselves at the two youngsters on the horse.
Then, the two women suddenly lost control and crashed into each other, and they fell to the ground, dead.
Nobody saw what had exactly happened at this moment, and it seemed like the youngster on horseback had not moved at all.
"The swordsmanship! The prototype of machete skills in Golden Roc Fort." Gu Shenwei said in Maid Lotus' ears. His finding was so important that he had to tell her immediately.
"What?" Maid Lotus did not understand.
"We were not using the right method of practicing the Nameless Swordsmanship. The machete skills of Golden Roc Fort was just a complicated derivative of it. We always knew how to raise the speed, but we didn't apply the method on swordcraft."
Although Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus did not practice swordcraft in the same way, their methods had many things in common. Nevertheless, they had both long been confused about how to swing the sword fast enough to ensure that it will hit the enemy.
It was just in this moment between life and death that Gu Shenwei came to a realization. It was not an accident that the Nameless Swordbook had fallen to the bottom of Reincarnation Cliff. Nameless Swordbook had everything to do with Golden Roc Fort. And its method of raising speed was a more profound and effective version of the machete skills of Golden Roc Fort.
The fact that the two smoothly applied swordcraft into machete skills, had revealed the connections between them. However, pitifully, the two had been too shallow in their knowledge of kung fu to comprehend this all along.
What had happened just now, was that Gu Shenwei swung twice with a saber, and killed two enemies. If it were a sword with the correct weight, he would have swung faster.
Maid Lotus did not spoke until the horse had run more than a hundred steps, then she loudly said, "Got it."
The two youngsters had just learned one of the most important secrets of the swordcraft, however it would not help them defeat those pursuing enemies.
To make matters worse, there was another large army ahead.
Banners and pennons were fluttering in the wind. It was an army of hundreds, and they were deployed in attack formation and they are ready to shoot arrows.
Several youngsters in the front-line halted, uncertain about what to do.
"Charge forth!" Gu Shenwei yelled. It was the only choice. He had been insistent on charging forth all this way, leaving no room for him to change his mind.
Four brown-belt assassins took the lead, following Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi. If they were just ordinary teens who practiced kung fu, they would scream in this situation. However, they were a group of reticent killers, and there was only the sound of rushing hoofs, demonstrating their uncompromising will.
The interceptors ahead shot the arrows.
Hundreds of arrows flew over them like locusts covering the sky, and showered on those pursuing bandits.
"Iron Mountain! The banner of Iron Mountain!" Shangguan Yushi shouted, her voice shaking with excitement.
The youngsters slowed down. Watching over the reinforcements ahead, they felt lost as if they were dreaming.
Unlike those temporarily summoned gangs of bandits, Iron Mountain Gang was well-trained in battle. All the more, the Iron Mountain banner was extremely feared all throughout the Western Region. After two rounds of arrow rain, all the bandits had fled, leaving dozens of corpses. Even a man 10 times stronger than the dark robed women could not take this.
Teams of Iron Mountain soldiers passed by the youngsters to pursue the remnants. With successive deafening roars, they charged, flanked, and drove the remnants, dispersed yet acted in an orderly manner. Gu Shenwei used to think Iron Mountain was a bandit gang in larger scale, which was inaccurate.
They turned around and beheld the scene. The sunset was glowing blood red, and only six youngsters out of the hundreds in the crew had made it.
What followed next, bedazzled the youngsters who had just escaped danger, making them feel as if they suddenly entered into a strange world.
One of the heads of Iron Mountain came to the Tenth Young Master to admit his guilt, and sent them into the tent. Meantime, messengers were sent to tell Bighead Kingpin to control the mountain pass ahead, in order to save the other survivors.
It was the fire lighted by the enemy that had saved them.
Bighead Kingpin had sent hundreds of soldiers on both passages to receive the gift-giving team from Golden Roc Fort. The outpost of this team, which was assigned to the shortcut passage, had found the big fire on the mountain pass and had reported back immediately. However, this head of Iron Mountain had not thought that it was the gift-giving team which was in danger, hence he commanded the troops to march on carefully, until finally coming across the escaping Tenth Young Master.
Gu Shenwei, who had been worrying about his decision of charging forth, now felt relieved. If they stayed at the mountain pass and the reinforcements had not arrived, they had to escape into the southern desert.
Nevertheless, he took it as a coincidence that they were saved. He did not deserve much credit for it.
Good news kept coming. The roving bandits were in fear of Iron Mountain and Bighead Kingpin. They scattered to escape in spite of their advantage in numbers, and left more than half of the snatched treasures and captives behind.
At midnight, the surviving captives came to the camp one after another. Slave Qing kneeled in front of his little master and burst into tears, while Little Sui was still in shock and was sent into a tent to rest.
It was hard to tell the countenance of Fang Wenshi. Maybe it was thrill followed by fear. He drew Gu Shenwei aside, and said, "You're the guests of Iron Mountain? Why don't you tell me earlier? Truth be told, the last one I want to see on this trip of mine, was the Master of Iron Mountain. Little hero, do some favor to recommend me. If I rise to a position of authority, then you're my savior."
Fang Wenshi had his gleaming eyes again, which was not favored by Gu Shenwei. He thought that counselors should be like Zhang Ji, who knew everything about the world yet wanted nothing from it. Gu Shenwei said, "Let's see, even I may not have a chance to see Bighead Kingpin."
Fang Wenshi took this as a yes, nodded solemnly, and started to walk back and forth while muttering something, probably rehearsing a speech to persuade Bighead Kingpin.
Snowcamel, banner-carrying killers, and the camel driver were dead. They were encircled so deeply, and in the end, they were not as lucky as a bare-handed handyman.
Iron Mountain commanded his men to pursue to the mountain pass. He dared not to go too far due to his current lack of numbers. Therefore, they did not find the Fifth Young Master Meng.
Three days later, Bighead Kingpin arrived at the mountain pass personally, and set his banner and camps there. He swore to kill all of the roving bandits throughout the desert, and to take revenge for both the Golden Roc Flag and Iron Mountain Flag.
Another three days later, thousands of Iron Mountain troops surrounded the roving bandits in a circumference of 31 miles, killed and injured half of the bandits, and took more than 200 captives.
Bighead Kingpin had men plant one flag embroidered with golden roc, and the other with black iron spearhead on the mountain pass. The captives kneeled beneath these two flags and confessed their sins. After that, they were beheaded, and their corpses were piled up around the flagsticks, with layers of heads on top of the pile of corpses.
Bighead Kingpin was busy greeting the Tenth Young Master, and met Gu Shenwei alone after several days.
Gu Shenwei had already handed over the jade ring of Miss Luo Ningcha to Bighead Kingpin through someone. To send the secret message to Bighead Kingpin, and to sow discord between Iron Mountain and the Meng family, was the primary purpose of this trip.