Chapter 12: Names
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The largest killer organization and the number one bandit gang in the Western Region were connected by a marriage. This was destined to cause a sensation in Jade City and be remembered for a long time.
Riding a horse among the bride-escorting procession, Gu Shenwei might have been the only person who was not interested in the wedding. He had been to Jade City once before. Now revisiting it, he was in a quite different mood.
Two years ago, the Gu family had marched laboriously in the desert for nearly a month. They initially had seen a densely populated place, Jade City. Parched, the first sip of water was like drinking bejeweled nectar. In the travelers' eyes, Jade City was comparable to an earthly paradise.
There were a large number of shops and taverns spread throughout the exterior of this city. All sorts of people from various places walked along the streets. It was the first time they had seen so many different races. They could not stop staring with wild abandon.
Master Gu Lun did not like this place, however. After staying for a while, he went to the yamen to exchange their passports. Once morning came about, they had to travel west. They were heading for an oasis manor that had been bought with the help of a bailee. The manor itself was hundreds of miles away.
"It's such a pity," thought both Gu Shenwei and his two elder brothers. His eldest brother had scolded his second brother for wanting to buy an exotic beauty, but he himself had stared fixedly at those beautiful women on the street, nearly falling off his horse.
Hoping to revisit Jade City to purchase a big-eyed, fair beauty someday, his second brother had kept quite a few private savings. He had hidden them under his bed.
The bride-escorting procession entered the city through the western gate and marched on the street with great fanfare. Both sides of the street were congested with onlookers. Everyone bowed, showing their respect and strewing flowers on the ground. It was a win-win marriage received like royalty.
In Jade City, the sword ruled all.
Golden Roc Fort was situated on the top of the mountain outside Jade City. The only access to it was a zigzagging mountain road, starting from the northern gate of Jade City. Seen from afar, the fort in the mountain looked like an imperial palace. The city at the foot of the mountain became its portal and its first line of defense.
Houses stood along the mountain road. Although it was not as populated as the city, it was not bleak. All the houses' doors and walls were decorated festively for the wedding in Golden Roc Fort. In fact, most of these households were associated with Golden Roc Fort in various aspects. By depending on the Supreme King, they could enjoy a good living.
The temperature gradually decreased with the rise in altitude, which brought a bit of briskness in the midsummer.
Approaching Golden Roc Fort for the first time, people would be astounded by the precipitous terrain. Under the mountain, no one would notice that the fort was built on an isolated summit surrounded by an unfathomable abyss. There was only a roughly 10-foot-wide stone bridge that connected the mountain road to the fort.
If someone were to walk on the bridge and look down, they would feel dizzy. There was no protection on both sides of the stone bridge. Clouds and mist drifted around and nothing could be heard.
As they passed over the bridge, everyone dismounted and began to walk. No one dared to risk the horses being frightened, lest they fall and break into pieces.
Cautiously and anxiously, they walked over the narrow stone bridge while holding onto the fort in awe.
It was an antique fort. In front of its gate was a vast, vacant piece of land, paved with bluestones, which was partially damaged.
The wall of the fort had huge rocks stacked up, varying in height. They were well-arranged with the lowest wall being 30 or 35 feet in height. On top of the wall, there were watchtowers spread with an infinite amount of piles of arrows. Countless flags rose up into the clouds.
If there were enough provisions, one man could defend against 10,000 enemies. No one would be able to break through the fort from the outside.
Gu Shenwei believed in the existence of the Will of the Divine more than ever. Because of that, he was able to enter Golden Roc Fort.
Opening the fort gate, the crowd stood at the entrance to greet the bride.
Gu Shenwei thought he could see Shangguan Fa, the legendary Supreme King. However, he was disappointed that he neither saw any other members of the Shangguan family except Shangguan Nu, nor got a chance to witness the scene of making ceremonial obeisance.
The 10 pairs of teenage boys and girls became the Shangguan family's property along with innumerable other dowries. They were taken over in Golden Roc Fort.
Appointed as the young mistress's personal servants, the girls were sent to Shangguan Nu's residence, while the boys were assigned to a small courtyard. "Firewood Yard" was engraved on the lintel, so Gu Shenwei presumed that their duty from now on was chopping firewood.
For these newcomers, the wedding banquet consisted only of ethereal music and faint laughter.
It was a peaceful, endless first night in Golden Roc Fort for them. Apart from someone bringing them dinner, no one cared about the new property. The 10 teenagers slept in one room, sharing a large, heated brick bed that could barely fit them all.
The pointy-faced teenager, Lin Yang, was the first to recover from the shock. The handprint on his face had already disappeared and his confidence had almost recovered. He was the one that thought of making a pact with everyone. Proclaiming himself as "big brother", they were now sworn brothers.
"This is Golden Roc Fort, you know? All of the major royal families in the Western Region have to respect the Shangguan family. We're lucky... no, I'm lucky. I can succeed in winning the Supreme King's favor. If you gain favor in Golden Roc Fort, you gain favor in the entire Jade City. As for you guys, if you follow me honestly and learn how to deal with people, you may be successful someday as well. Don't blame me for not warning you that at least one person will get killed every day in Golden Roc Fort. You'd better watch out!"
Lin Yang liked to frighten people but he liked to be flattered even more. Therefore, several scared, pale teenagers catered to his commands, begging him for special care.
After babbling for almost two hours, Lin Yang slept with satisfaction. The other teenagers also fell asleep one by one. Gu Shenwei could not fall asleep. Closing his eyes and then opening them, he could not remember the last time he had slept well.
He had already entered Golden Roc Fort. His sister might be locked up in here somewhere. He could even imagine her crying. Although it was quite risky to probe the fort, he could not tolerate giving up.
Despite the possibility of Lin Yang waking up and the traps spread outside, Gu Shenwei still quietly crawled up and sneaked out of the room, barefoot.
In the small yard, there were doors on the east and west sides. Outside the eastern door lay a long and deep alley, which Gu Shenwei and the others had passed through to enter the yard. Knowing that there were guards during the day, he decided to go from the western door to check out the surroundings outside.
The door was unlocked, which was a good sign. It was totally dark outside, however. It took Gu Shenwei some time to make out the surroundings. There was a flat, muddy ground with lots of gravel and vague shapes of large trees not far away.
The place looked like the outside, rather than a part of Golden Roc Fort.
Gu Shenwei was surprised at how easily he was able to leave the fort. He gingerly felt his way forward. After taking 30 or 40 steps, he felt a stone fall and heard a strange sound. He stopped walking and looked down. He was startled.
He was already standing on the edge of a cliff. If he had taken one more step, he would have fallen into the abyss. No wonder there was no guards here. In fact, there was no need for guards.
The sound of a pebble hitting the precipice below made a strange, weak sound on such a silent night. It sounded like a sort of shrill whistle, like an echo from the netherworld.
Gu Shenwei was tense as he slowly backed away two steps and ran back into the yard.
Back in the yard, Gu Shenwei calmed down and carefully walked to the eastern door. After pushing against it, he found that the door was locked. He walked back a few steps to observe where he could climb over. He suddenly collided with something, however. Turning around, he saw a man looking down at him.
The man in all black wore a mask, camouflaged in the night. His right hand was placed near the left side of his waist. If one looked closely, one would recognize that the man's hand was holding a hilt. He was as quiet as a ghost.
"Is there someone who is also here to pay Golden Roc Fort a nighttime visit like me?" Gu Shenwei thought.
Gu Shenwei was astonished and delighted. He remained motionless and silent because of what had happened on the cliff edge. He was more vigilant than usual.
They stared at each other for quite a while. Eventually, the man-in-black spoke first.
"You are violating the curfew order."
Gu Shenwei was disappointed that the man-in-black was actually a night watchman of Golden Roc Fort instead of an accomplice. Golden Roc Fort was impregnable from the outside and inside.
"I am new here, I did not know. I, I need to pee."
"You belong to the Eighth Young Mistress?"
Gu Shenwei nodded desperately.
The man-in-black hesitated, loosening the hilt that he was tightly holding.
"There is a chamber pot in the room."
Gu Shenwei knew that he had just narrowly escaped. He quickly nodded and ran back to the bedroom, finding the chamber pot. He was so nervous and afraid that the night watchman might still be spying on him outside, therefore, it took him a while to be able to urinate a little.
Lying on the brick bed, he still felt his heart beating wildly.
"No more risks." He warned himself secretly.
The other teenagers were sleeping soundly, snoring unceasingly.
Gu Shenwei had not thought about how to exact revenge yet. Worse still, the next day, he found it was quite hard to see Shangguan Nu.
Firewood Yard was not a place for firewood storage. It was a place for the dead.
Without a high status, anyone who was injured or sick would be sent to this small yard to await their death. In Golden Roc Fort, there were many who had a low status and could not receive any medical treatment. As Lin Yang had said, "At least one person dies every day."
Bighead Kingpin's daughter was enjoying her honeymoon while the 10 teenagers she had brought here were assigned to look after these dying people. They fell into "hell" when they woke up.
It was more painful to touch the dead and watch the wounds bleed and fester than to watch people being slain by swords. After one day's work, these teenagers looked decades older, silent and depressed. A rotten scent lingered in their noses. Even Lin Yang became dull, not saying a word.
The man in charge of Firewood Yard was in his 20s. He was thin and weak, with a little acne dotted on his pale face. It seemed like he had fallen ill and was sent here to wait for death, but after a long time, he became "the master" here. He had kept on living.
With a surname of Han, the man in charge was called "Slave Ji". He gnashed his teeth as he introduced his own name, as if blaming his terrible name on the teenagers.
He always held a roughly 3-foot-long rosewood stick and liked to say, "Hitting softens your bones, and teaching makes you good slaves."
The rules in Golden Roc Fort were stricter than in the Iron Mountain Gang. The first thing Slave Ji did after taking over the new servants was to give them new names. The naming was quite easy. He picked Chinese characters in sequence from the Thousand Character Classic and added one character, "Slave", to it. Excluding some taboo-breaking and complicated characters, there were 700 or 800 characters left, used by successive servants.
This was how Slave Ji had gotten his name.
He took out the name booklet, which was filled with all different kinds of signs, finding which characters were still available.
"San, Lv, Xiao, Yao, Xin, Zou, Lei, Qian, Qi, Xie, Huan, and Zhao. Well, Lv and Zou are used already, there are still 10 characters left, just enough."
The place for naming was in a yard next door. An old man with white hair and particularly loose skin was in charge of the naming. Slave Ji would confirm the character while the old man would find the matching iron mold and heat it up in the fire, turning the mold red.
Even though the teenagers were unable to understand Central Plain Chinese, they knew what would happen next. They glanced at each other. No one wanted to be the first.
"Hurry up! There are a lot of things to get done." Slave Ji urged them impatiently.
Lin Yang, with the new name of Slave Yao, pushed Gu Shenwei, who was beside him. Gu Shenwei became the first one to have his new name branded on his right arm.
Slave Huan.
His new name unexpectedly shared the same character with his nickname.
For the brother pair, the elder one and the younger one were called Slave Qi and Slave Xie, respectively.
On the teenagers' arms, two ugly characters and a flying bird were imprinted. The flying bird was the symbol of Golden Roc Fort.
Watching his new underlings with beads of sweat on their foreheads, Slave Ji felt quite content. He even showed his characters on his arm for everyone to look at. He pulled down his sleeves and said,
"Now, you're men of Golden Roc Fort. Whether you're alive or dead, you're now Lord King's servants. Right now, your lives are in my hands."