Chapter 120: The Tracking
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Gu Shenwei raised his saber, and chopped off one head.
The chaos expected did not come. It was quiet in the three mud huts, like there was no more enemies.
The moonlight shone on six statue-like teenagers, who was in their spot motionless waiting for the counterattack after the silence.
The counterattack arrived unexpectedly. The oasis was like being taken out of a trance. The formerly immobile all became alive. People in the shadow all dashed through doors, windows, and rooftops.
Then the killing began.
Saber went, and figures dashed. They all attacked quickly, and stood three steps back afterward. He who fell did not make a sound as if he were mute.
The killing began in silence, and also ended quietly. The spell was cast again. They all again stood or squat motionless, as if they were a bunch of puppets. It was like they had been released by the master, after a brief and violent performance.
In total, there were eight bodies. The teenagers triumphed, without anyone hurt.
Because in a killing, someone had to take the advantage, thus it was usually much easier than a duel. People in the mud huts couldn't even show off their kung fu before they died.
The last step was to check if there was anyone alive, hiding.
Three teenagers went respectively into three rooms, except Liuhua. Gu Shenwei was responsible for the middle room. As soon as he went in, he saw a people standing in between. Hence he dashed to attack, however, he fell under the floor.
Unexpected assassinations were easy to conduct, but similarly, unexpected traps were equally hard to guard against.
Because of a sudden storm, six teenagers broke into the enemy's weak defense area. Before they raised their sabers to chop off heads, it hadn't been visited by others.
Gu Shenwei was the first victim of the underground trap.
He could not see what was going on in the room up there, because the trap door closed as he hit the ground.
It was pitch dark.
Suddenly a finger pierced at his chest like a steel stick. Gu Shenwei was cast to the wall, he then swiftly rolled over to the other side, in case of another possible follow-up strike.
"What?" Somebody in the dark cried in surprise. Thus Gu Shenwei thrust his saber in the direction of the sound, but missed it. The enemy was experienced too, so that he shifted his place after letting out sounds accidentally.
In the pitch dark underground, the two people were waiting for the opportunity to attack. Nobody dared to move, holding their breath, and knew that their life depended on it.
Gu Shenwei was in the unfavorable position, for he did not know the size and shape of the trap. Besides, he also did not know if there was another accomplice. Moreover, his Xuanji acupoint was filled with hot burning energy. He was on the brink of qigong deviation.
If he hadn't seen Mama Xue beheaded by a Black-masked Assassin, he would think that was her in the dark, with the fingers piercing at him.
He suddenly knew that the dark-robed women's back around, that they were all disciples of Barren Sect, like Mama Xue. Mama Xue's real name was Kang Wenmei, also known as "Bone-piercing Ace". He should have thought about that earlier.
Those black-robed women were weaker than her in kung fu, for they even wear steel thorns on their fingers. While the person in the chamber was equal to Mama Xue, she did not need the help of an instrument.
In fact, it was the "Peripheral Force" Mama Xue planted in him that saved him. The force in the Xuanji acupoint would cause qigong deviation, but equally, it could neutralize the same Internal Strength.
Gu Shenwei didn't have the time to think. He held the saber as he placed his feet and left hand on the ground, like a crouching cat. It took him a long while to prepare.
Certainly it must have been a long while, because everything, even the time seemed to stagnate in the dark. He felt breathless in the chest, knowing that he held his breath too long.
The turtle breath technique required a lot of Internal Strength, which was Gu Shenwei's weak point. He couldn't compete with the invisible opponent in this aspect.
Once again, he turned to the words of Nameless Swordbook. So far, the swordbook had helped him survived many crises.
"Why open your eyes when it's all dark?"
So Gu Shenwei closed his eyes, trying to find the "Qi" written in the swordbook. It was "the energy flowing through all living things", prevailing but insightful or unhearable, only to be sensed by the mind. He and Maid Lotus still failed to acquire the "mysterious energy" after countless practices.
He was nearly dying. Just as he was about to give up, Gu Shenwei felt something extremely special in the chamber. Something that he could not describe, nor comprehend, suddenly struck.
Then, something fell down, and so did Gu Shenwei, his head blank. He was feeling like in a strange dream, where he saw his imminent death, and urged himself to breathe. But, he couldn't breathe, as if there was a giant rock on his chest.
Finally, Gu Shenwei inhaled, then he suddenly rose up. He breathed in and out, like a ferocious animal hungry for three days.
The first thing he did was try to remember the thing he felt just now, trying to find the door to "Qi", but failed.
All movements and methods in Nameless Swordbook could not be acquired through practice. They were only to be reached by killing people. Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus found out long ago that only by killing could they make progress. Otherwise, the practice would be meaningless.
Now that the enemy had died, Gu Shenwei could not retrieve the feeling. Thus, he could only wait for the next crisis.
It was the most difficult sword practice in the world. It only took one failure to get you killed.
Gu Shenwei then explored in the dark step by step. Finally, he found the corpse. He also found a match in her pocket, and lit a small fire, but, he still couldn't see anything.
Hence he lit up the corpse's clothes. The fire burned brightly.
It was a small chamber, on one side there was a passage at half height of a person, like a monster's mouth. Also, there was a wooden door that was 30 centimeters over his head.
The corpse was female, and the fatal blow was at her throat. She did not bleed much, almost died in an instant. It was more close to perfect than Gu Shenwei's previous murders.
Then, Gu Shenwei jumped to push the wooden door several times, only to find that the door was completely solid, impossible to open.
The fire was swallowing the women's skin. The light became dimmer and dimmer.
No one had come to rescue him, thus it would be useless to cry for help. Gu Shenwei crouched into the dark passage holding his saber in the front, and carefully made his way out.
To his relief, the passage was not long. Soon, he pushed open another wooden door, and went back to the desert. He then turned his head, found that he was not far away from the oasis.
He came back to the three mud huts. There lay the eight dead corpses. However, the killers were all gone.
Gu Shenwei checked the other two mud huts, and knocked on all floors. He did not find any other traps.
Was he abandoned? Gu Shenwei could not believe it.
It was near daybreak. Gu Shenwei carefully searched around the mud huts. He first discovered Liuhua's three sets of crossbows. The crossbows were stretched but unreleased. He then picked them up all.
Next, he found strange footsteps, shallow and messy. Two footprints were a dozen of steps away, as if there had been long-legged giants with tiny feet walking.
Unless those people were jumping forward.
Gu Shenwei at once remember those black-robed women. They would strangely jump like this when they were approaching their targets.
Following these footprints, Gu Shen went back to the place where they hid in the daytime.
The camels were all dead. The few remaining solid foods were immersed in blood and covered with sand. Water sacks were pierced through, and the clean water was all lost.
Gu Shenwei packed a few pieces of eatable solid foods, and collected some clean water with a largely intact water sack. Then, he started his tracking.
The footprints were discontinuous. Sometimes he needed to go round and round to find the next footprint, which wasted much time. He went deep into the desert. After one day's walking, he took a turn to the south into the wilderness. From then on, the footprints became normal and continuous. Moreover, there were several other people's footprints.
The others were alive. There were only three hijackers. Gu Shenwei sped up his pace.
" The three people were all masters." Gu Shenwei thought. He had eaten the last bit of solid foods, with a little water left. Thus, thinking was to defend against hunger. "If even Maid Lotus and Wildhorse have been captured without the chance to fight, he wouldn't bear a chance either. The thing is, how did the three hijackers leave without trying to find the last teenager?"
Judging from Zhang Ji and Fang Wenshi's words, and his knowledge, Gu Shenwei was positive that Barren Sect and Golden Roc Fort used to be connected. Even their kung fu was similar in some ways. Black-robed women's jumping Qing Gong was almost the same with that of Black-masked Assassins.
On drinking up the last drop of clean water, Gu Shenwei suddenly realized that the three hijackers may not be masters in kung fu. They could have used knockout powders, like people in Golden Roc Fort would do.
Gu Shenwei walked day and night. On the fourth morning, he walked across a stream, where he had plenty of water. Then he climbed to a hillside, seeing the mountains in the south. They were branches of Tianshan Mountain. Walking along the mountains in the west, he could return to Jade City. Nevertheless, the footprints deviated more and more to the east.
At that evening, he finally caught up with the abductors.
His targets resided in a yard. It was like Barren Sect's another stronghold. But the house was bigger, and the guard was much better. There were guards hid in ambush several miles away.
Gu Shenwei did not act rashly and alert the enemy, rather, he hid and thought how he could save them.
Doing it the hard way was impossible, for his sword craft could only deal with one or two people. It was dangerous to deal with more.
The assassination did not work either. One killer was not capable enough, not to mention that his opponents were great at assassination too. They wouldn't let him leave alive.
The moon hung over the trees. Gu Shenwei detoured through the Barren Sect stronghold. He snuck to get in front of the abductors.
This was not the hijackers' final destination. In four days' tracking, he figured out the opponents' courses. He guessed that they probably would go deep in the mountains.
At the fourth watch, he came across a small and narrow but fast river. He soon found a perfect spot where he could walk across the river. Moreover, a path lined with green grass led to the spot.
It was the hijackers' must pass to move forward.
Gu Shenwei started to set up the traps. What he had were one saber, a dagger, and three sets of crossbows. He spent two hours working out how to skillfully use the crossbow. Then, he spent some time on erasing his traces.
The next was to wait. A killer had to wait. Gu Shenwei still remembered how much he hated that.
He had to kill three Barren Sect's aces at one time.