Chapter 98: The Capture
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The first horse was in pursuit and was aligned with the carriage. The knight raised his blade to hack at the teenager on top of it.
Gu Shenwei did not have time to think about why, as his left hand still clung to the edge. His body was then swung into the air. He circled around and finally fell back onto the top of the carriage.
The knight raised his arm, but then stopped moving. The horse rode on, but his sword fell to the ground. Then, he fell over as well with his feet tangled up in the saddle. He was dragged to some distance by the horse.
"Let's go, don't get left behind," the attackers shouted. Then, the four horses caught up.
Pleasure Alley was the only straight street in South City, but it was not very long. After Gu Shenwei had killed the first attacker, Xu Yanwei had already ridden out of the alley and turned into the maze-like small alleys.
Four horses could not ride aligned. He managed to kill one attacker at a sharp turn. Another two were standing on their horses and jumped onto the top of the carriage. Then, the last one followed suit.
The knights were ordinary machete-men, who were ruthless but lacked techniques. Thus, they would stand to attack, even on top of the carriage. Gu Shenwei held on to the edge left-handed and crouched like a cat. He swung his knife first, slashing one's heel, and then pierced another's thigh.
The two knights fell off screaming. Seeing this, the fourth knight ceased his pursuit and slowed down to join his companions.
Gu Shenwei successively defeated two groups of attackers, but did not capture anybody alive. He was taught to kill, not to capture while he was being hunted down.
Another knight caught up. He snuck behind the carriage and rose up suddenly in the air. He flew over Gu Shenwei into the coachman's seat.
The knight looked resolute but his age was hard to discern. He was about 30 to 50 years old. He had a pair of cold eyes. And just like Gu Shenwei, as he landed on the top of the carriage, he clung to the edge and swung his sword.
"This man is a master," Gu Shenwei thought. In the meantime, he had swung his saber toward his enemy's leg.
Fortunately, this man was not a master like the knight of Stone Kingdom. The sword and the saber collided. They were both at the same level.
Golden Roc Fort's machete skills were for assassination. Killers were supposed to kill in one move. In a duel, their skills would stretch thin. Although the two people were fighting fiercely on top, neither of them could fully perform their skills. They could only quickly and ferociously attack. In an instant, they had already performed a dozen moves. Blades were tangled, but neither had gained the upper hand.
The rest of the attackers caught up. One of them fell from the top of the carriage when he tried to climb up. Thus, the other five knights stayed on their horses. They followed the carriage and struck out a knife from time to time. This flustered Gu Shenwei and soon left him in a bad position.
As the carriage turned into another alley, Gu Shenwei had two wounds in his legs. The wounds were not fatal, but they limited him more.
The knight on top probably thought this was the time. Thus, he shouted, "It's your death", and struck at Gu Shenwei fiercely, who could only defend himself without any resistance.
Moreover, a knight sped up to the front of the carriage. He wanted to kill the driver. Gu Shenwei was far from that seat and unable to save her.
It seemed that they were losing, whereas, opportunities arrived.
The driving Xu Yanwei let out a scream, but was free from the attack. It was the knight who was shot by an arrow. He immediately fell to the ground like a falling sack.
From the rooftops on both sides, people jumped down. As they landed and slashed, four knights were hit and fell off their horses.
Seeing this, the knight on top of the carriage became flustered and he screeched. An arrow came from inside the carriage and pierced through his feet.
Gu Shenwei took the opportunity to jump on him and knock him unconscious with the saber handle.
The carriage slowed down and stopped. It turned out that Xu Yanwei had taken them back to Pleasure Alley again. It was at the same time that the apprentices had returned from capturing the attackers.
It also turned out that Xu Xiaoyi in the carriage had already woken up. After his careful scrutiny, he finally took the opportunity to pierce an arrow through the knight's feet.
Gu Shenwei sat on the top sweating. He originally thought there were only one or two assassins. He did not expect that there would a group of machete-men. Moreover, they did not target the bait that he had set up, but himself.
Something still went wrong, which he could not understand.
The apprentices gathered around; some carried a body, another held a wounded captive. Moreover, Shangguan Yushi wore a long face.
The dead man was Slave Liu, one of the killer apprentices. He had been on their team. He used to be smart, but not that proficient at machete skills.
In Golden Roc Fort, losing your members in action was a mistake. Thus, killer leader Shangguan Yushi would have to justify herself. No wonder she was in a bad mood.
"Stupid. We shouldn't have chosen him."
She meant Slave Huan. The apprentices stayed silent. They were survivors of the slaughter in East Castle. They did not share the same side as Master Yu of the Inner Residence.
"They'd better have something to justify you, otherwise you'll take the entire blame. You came up with this action without even consulting me," Shangguan Yushi snapped at him.
"I'll take the blame." Gu Shenwei fetched a rope and tied up the fainted knight. He then jumped off of the carriage. With another two apprentices, he squeezed the two captives into the coach.
As the coach stopped, the Xu siblings jumped off, away from all the apprentices. Although about the same age, killer apprentices were completely different people in their eyes, even scarier than the rude machete-men.
"What about them?" one apprentice asked.
Before Shangguan Yushi could speak, Gu Shenwei broke in. "They'll work for the fort."
Shangguan Yushi hesitated. As a killer leader, she had every right to have these two used as bait killed. It was also a principle of the killers in Golden Roc Fort.
Gu Shenwei pushed the siblings and whispered, "Go to Southwall. Look for the cripple, Tie Hanfeng."
South City was now dangerous. The siblings were reluctant to move alone. However, they knew that staying with the killer apprentices would be more dangerous. Thus, they nodded and ran away in a panic. Only when Pleasure Alley was out of sight again did they feel a little relieved.
The apprentices got into formation again and set off. Two bodies and two captives were squeezed into the coach.
The attackers did not show up again. The teenager's capability seemed to have frightened the mastermind behind them.
They met with some trouble crossing the bridge. The North City guards declined to accommodate them and insisted on checking everyone's waist tokens. The two captives were not allowed inside.
The apprentices had just been killing in the street. Therefore, they found it hard to follow strict rules now. If Shangguan Yushi placed an order to kill, they would not have hesitated a second to kill all the guards.
But Shangguan Yushi did not. She knew the boundaries between North and South City. The guards came from different powerhouses in Jade City. Some even served masters from Golden Roc Fort, whom she could not afford to offend.
North City was necessary to pass through to get into Golden Roc Fort. There was no other way.
"Throw the corpses away, kill one captive, and the other one will use Slave Liu's token," Shangguan Yushi ordered.
Two apprentices were starting to throw the corpses on South City street. The two captives were awake, and the wounded one was terrified. He begged and cried, "Let me go, I know nothing."
The utterance of "I know nothing" sent him to hell. An apprentice stabbed him to death and threw his body on South City street as well.
Seeing this, the experienced North City guards could not help fearing as they opened the gate.
Thus, an ordinary assassination by the apprentices had made quite a stir in South City. If they were to enter South City again, they would have discovered that "teenager killers" was already a household name.
The captive was handed over to Heart Cleansing Yard. Moreover, what happened next surprised them again.
The assassination was not smooth or perfect. They had even lost one member. However, Shangguan Yushi was not blamed, but praised because of her timely reactions in the face of a crisis.
On the long lists of awards, Slave Huan was absent. He was buried in heaps of words. Soon, even the apprentices in action forgot how he had saved them all. Only a few insiders like Maid Lotus knew about it, thus, they respected him even more.
Nobody could keet a secret in Heart Cleansing Yard and the captive finally started to talk. He confessed that he was not related to anyone in the fort, but a leader of a group of tramp machete-men. The one who hired him was another obscure machete-man.
That ended the investigation.
A few days later, rumor had it that the real mastermind was Meng Mingshi, the fifth young master of the Meng family in North City.
Gu Shenwei took his time to understand his feud with this Fifth Young Master Meng.
It started from the Xu sibling's father, Pot-bellied Buddha. When he was alive, he claimed to be "Meng's people". Indeed, he was Meng Mingshi's follower. He also led his master to a luxurious life. Thus, his death was a great loss for Fifth Young Master Meng, who had just tasted the sweetness of South City.
Fifth Young Master Meng was known for his bad temper. He used to get a lot of money from the siblings. Thus, he would look after them and kept an eye on who had intervened. Golden Roc Fort's light penalty of Slave Huan dissatisfied him so much that he personally plotted against Slave Huan.
The Meng family was Golden Roc Fort's biggest benefactor and ally. Since the killer apprentices first started the assassination, Supreme King decided not to pursue. But how they solved it was not known to others.
Once again, Gu Shenwei learned the difference between "solving the problem" and "seeking the truth".
He did not believe that Mister Guo was innocent in this matter. The implicit document was not something that Fifth Young Master Meng could write. The complicated conflicts in the Shangguan family also baffled him. Young Master and Mister Guo did not get along well with Lady Meng. But they were secretly related to the Meng family disciples.
He bore the suspects deep in his mind, only sharing that with Maid Lotus. She agreed that Fifth Young Master Meng was Mister Guo's pawn. Thus, the two secretly contacted some apprentices to plan revenge.
But the action was aborted. Tie Hanfeng found out the disciple's little tricks. He immediately stopped him and taught him an important lesson.
Throughout his lifetime, Gu Shenwei would always remember Master Shifu's teachings. In every attack and every scheme, he would strictly follow the rules.