Chapter 119: The Mud Hut
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Only a whistleblower was not enough, the black-robed women's whereabouts needed to be revealed. Gu Shenwei passed this task to Maid Lotus.
Although Maid Lotus was close to Slave Huan, Shangguan Yushi still tried to win her over. Actually, other than Slave Huan, Shangguan Yushi was her greatest ambition of all the Dragon Year apprentices.
The trick indeed worked. At the third watch that night, two Shangguan masters came unexpectedly. Maid Lotus woke up the three youngsters from outside the tent.
Gu Shenwei was pretending to sleep, so he immediately rose up when Maid Lotus's voice came. Then he got dressed while watching the two others. As usual, Liuhua was clothed during sleep, so he jumped straight out of bed already holding his bow in hand; Wildhorse took his time getting dressed, and shot a glance at Slave Huan, his wide apart eyes showing a trace of blankness.
The whistleblower was Wildhorse.
Gu Shenwei was a bit disappointed. Though they used to be mortal enemies, and there were even scars left by Wildhorse's saber on his chest, this sensible boy held excellent machete skills and natural charisma. Gu Shenwei was originally planning to turn him into an ally.
Shangguan Ru was dressed in all black with a piece of black cloth mask hanging around her neck. She was gripping her saber hilt as she mysteriously announced she had a mission. She requested all brown-belt assassins, wearing a look as of to say that he who declined was a traitor.
Nobody objected, not even Gu Shenwei. He knew Shangguan Ru hated so-called discretion. In the meantime, Shangguan Yushi, who was more mature than six months ago, had been watching Slave Huan. Now she could read emotions hidden in the eyes.
The six youngsters set off before dawn.
In addition, Shangguan Ru had left a letter for Bighead Kingpin, thanking him for his warm hospitality, and asking him to have Slave Qing and others safely returned to Golden Roc Fort. Furthermore, they had "borrowed" six camels, along with plenty of supplies.
Nevertheless, Gu Shenwei doubled the water sack. He originally planned to have Shangguan Yushi charged with "luring the master to risks". But in distrust of Bighead Kingpin, he then decided to urge Shangguan Ru back to Jade City when they set foot in the desert.
It was quiet in the Iron Mountain camp, and the guard minions bowed in amazement to the Tenth Young Master. The bandits were straight, so they asked, "Tenth Young Master, where are you going?"
"I'm going hunting," Shangguan Ru answered with a smile. It was the moment she had been waiting for: To hunt down evil black-robed women in command of formidable killers. It was once an assassination game, now it finally came true.
Shangguan Ru could not hold her excitement. She held the rein with her left hand, and her right hand held the saber. She looked serious, but a smile flashed on her face. She reacted to even the slightest blow of wind. But for the principle of silence, she should have been jabbering all time.
Gu Shenwei looked at her from behind, and was reminded of himself two years ago: He was just like Shangguan Ru at 14, seeing the whole world like a playground. He would only care about his own happiness, and his father and elder brothers would solve every problem for him.
But on the road to kill, nostalgia felt so out of place. Gu Shenwei soon cleared his mind.
The six of them had entered the desert that evening. To keep away from spies from Iron Mountain, they had moved toward the east for some time, and then turned south.
The black-robed women had once tried to force them into the southern desert. Now that "the guests" had arrived, "the hosts" had to hide from being discovered.
Finally, Shangguan Ru's facade failed. She put up tents with the teenagers, and helped prepare the banquet on the ground. They drank half the wine they brought in one meal, and their laughter drifted miles away.
In the end, she listened to Shangguan Yushi advice of not starting a campfire. Actually, drinking in the moonlight added much to the passion of drinking.
The next day, the desert showed its hot burning power, and the pleasure of the assassination gradually abated. Even Shangguan Ru grew discouraged. By afternoon, she even stopped holding onto her saber hilt.
Gu Shenwei once suspected that Bighead Kingpin was in some way connected to black-robed women. His suspicion lessened now since they hadn't been following or set up all this time. Probably no one except Bighead Kingpin himself knew that the tenth young master was in danger.
On the third day, the six-person squad met with such a sandstorm that they began to stray. Not to mention the direction, they couldn't even see each other clearly. Yet, they had to keep going in case the overwhelming dust buried them. The storm was so intense, it could have buried a camel in an instant.
It had been a fateful sandstorm. It finally abated at dusk and stopped embarrassing the six pale-faced teenagers.
They had lost their way. For they were supposed to see the "three dead trees", a sign of where the women resided. However, they were merely looking at the boundless dunes. There was nothing in sight except endless yellow sand.
Moreover, only Gu Shenwei noticed another consequence of the sandstorm, that was they were completely traceless now. If Bighead Kingpin had had them followed, by now he must have lost them.
They also ran out of wine. Thus, Shangguan Ru had a few mouthfuls of bland water, and soon went to bed.
Shangguan Yushi sent four brown-belt assassins to explore in different directions, also without success.
On the fourth day, the six of them continued toward the south. They couldn't see the pass where they came from, and they were clueless about how far they had gone astray. They only knew that if they went south, they would reach another mountain, then if they went along the foothill in the west, they would reach the Jade City border.
It fit well with Gu Shenwei's plan, compared with Bighead Kingpin, he was more keen to get rid of the black-robed women now.
Shangguan Ru refused to return empty-handed for her first assassination mission. Her name would be crippled if she left without a few heads. Hence, she insisted on searching while moving forward, which heavily slowed their speed. Finally, when food was almost gone, she had to admit her failure, and quickened their march to the south.
On the 10th day in the desert, nobody had breakfast except Shangguan Ru. Fortunately, Gu Shenwei had the foresight to bring extra water, otherwise, they wouldn't even have water to drink now.
On this very day, the seemingly doomed assassination took a turn for the better.
This part of the desert jutted out of the main part, thus it was not very broad. The assassination team had already reached the edge of the desert after 10 days of walking. Though mountains in the south were not yet seen, there went an oasis.
Actually, you would hardly call it an oasis; it was more like a sparsely vegetated gobi desert. The area was not large, and in the middle of it stood several mud huts, even without fences.
Liuhua stood on a sand dune and was the first to see the oasis. While the others hid their camels, and crept on the ground waiting. After a long while, they finally spotted someone coming in and out of mud huts. It was too far for them to see the face clearly, but the person seemed to be dressed in black.
Shangguan Yushi got excited first. "We found it, it must be another hideout of Black Lizard."
"Or a few herdsmen." Gu Shenwei didn't mean to throw cold water on them, but there were some white spots around the mud huts that looked like grass-gnawing sheep.
Shangguan Yushi stared at him. "You just want this mission to fail."
"Don't bicker, we must cooperate." Shangguan Ru quietly dissuaded, as if they were back when the three of them played the "assassination" game in the castle.
"I'll go check." Gu Shenwei volunteered, and left before Shangguan Yushi approved.
Clad in the yellow cape he took from the Iron Mountain camp, he zigzagged to the oasis. 100 steps away from the mud hut, he hid behind a rock mound where he smelled a familiar odor before he even saw any living thing.
The land reeked of death. Even a Golden Roc Fort killer who was used to corpses would think it was pungent in all of a sudden. Not far away, there was a deep pit, where vultures occasionally rose and fell.
When it was getting dark, a woman in yellow walked out the mud hut. Although she was not in a black robe, her sleepwalking steps and the madness which lingered from her head to toe proved that she was in league with the black-robed women. Not to mention that she was dragging a corpse, which was definitely not herdsmen's routine.
The woman in yellow dumped the corpse randomly, disturbing seven or eight vultures, whereas, she herself was not disturbed at all. She turned back to the mud hut. On the way, she shook and nodded her head, jabbering.
After seeing the women enter the house, Gu Shenwei then crept to the edge of the pit, and waved away the hungry scavengers.
Corpses were in a heap. The body that was dragged here was beside the edge of the pit. He was a young male, and was covered in various scars. You could hardly see any intact skin on him.
"The corpse" suddenly came alive, shaking for a moment. Blood came out of his mouth like a fountain. Soon, he went quiet.
Gu Shenwei quietly stepped back, the hungry vultures rushed to the delicacies clamorously.
Gu Shenwei brought back "good news". Then, Shangguan Ru was eager to arrange the details and rules. In fact, the teenagers had been familiar with the rules: No matter how much they disagreed, they were united as one in action.
It was a bright full moon that night. The moonlight fell on the smooth dunes and rocks like a layer of thin snow.
The six teenagers took turns to rest, and waited until the moon was down for their operation. This was when people fell into the deepest sleep.
Gu Shenwei was in the front, leading them to bypass the corpse pit. He intended to slowly approach the mud hut from behind. Although he did not see any guards in the daytime, he dared not to relax, and still zigzagged his way to observe.
Being discreet was rewarding, because they actually found out something strange in the nearby tree. It was a shadow in the tree, too big to be a nest.
He was the only guard. It seemed that people in the mud but didn't worry too much about raids. Anyway, they weren't alert enough.
Liuhua used the crossbow. The arrow went straight to the target. The shadow in the tree suddenly rose up, and died without a sound or move.
In a perfect assassination, one would sneak to the bedside, and kill the target while he was sleeping. However, their information was not enough. They did not know how many people were there, nor the room layouts. Hence they had to be conservative.
Liuhua hid 20 steps away from the mud hut. As the longbow, shortbow, and crossbow were all set up, Wildhorse, Slave Huan, and Maid Lotus guarded one room respectively. In addition, Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi went on top of the roof and waited in ambush.
Gu Shenwei was in the middle and the first to act. He simply knocked on the door lightly, and there came an obscure response. After a short while, somebody came out.
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