Chapter 18: Don’t Look Over Your Shoulder
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The night was silent, and it was difficult to tell people from ghosts.
It was a good time to carry out tricks, forgeries and smokes and mirrors.
Three jailers escorted Su Mu to a remote, private execution ground.
In the dark, two tall figures made minute movements.
One was sharpening a knife, while the other was waiting quietly.
These two people were the executioners in charge of the execution.
A master and a disciple.
Executioners had three rules, commonly known as the three do not’s.
Don’t sharpen the knife, don’t execute beyond a hundred in your lifetime, don’t look over your shoulder.
Executioners did not sharpen their knives.
Therefore, the person who was sharpening the knife was his disciple.
The real executioner was the man who was standing still.
…
“Liu Yidao, I’ve brought him here. Hurry up and get it over with.”
The jailer escorted Su Mu to the front of Executioner Liu Yidao and urged him.
Su Mu glanced at Liu Yidao and then gave a faint smile.
For some reason, this seemingly harmless smile made Liu Yidao feel an inexplicable chill in his heart.
He had a vague premonition that this didn’t seem to be a good job!
However, when he thought of the money that the master had given him and the pregnant wife at home…
Liu Yidao could only bite the bullet and proceed with it.
If he did not want his unborn son to continue in this line of work, he would have to rely on fishing for a living.
He had to do this!
As he thought of this, Liu Yidao let out a long sigh of relief. He took the executioner’s blade from his disciple and escorted Su Mu to the execution ground.
“Kneel down!”
Liu Yidao pushed Su Mu, but Su Mu didn’t move at all, like a stone pillar.
This made Liu Yidao feel even more uneasy.
In terms of figure.
Su Mu was sixteen years old, and his body was thin and weak. He was only about seven feet tall.
As for Liu Yidao, he was seven feet and eight inches tall and had a robust physique.
In terms of cultivation.
Su Mu had barely stepped into the ranks of third-rate warriors.
As for Liu Yidao, he had been a third-rate warrior for more than ten years. Although he had struck a wall and couldn’t advance, he was still much stronger than Su Mu.
However, pushing Su Mu had not budged him in the least.
It was really strange!
…
When Liu Yidao’s heart was palpitating, Su Mu turned around and grinned at him, saying, “Just give it a good swing from here. My bones are stiff and I am unable to kneel.
“Oh right, I’m in a hurry, so you have to be quick.”
“You…”
Su Mu’s frail and narrow face, in Liu Yidao’s eyes, gave him an inexplicable sense of fear, giving him the impulse to run away!
However, the jailers who were watching from a distance didn’t feel the same. Seeing this, they also urged him on.
“Liu Yidao, hurry up and do it. Stop wasting time. It’s the same whether you cut him while he’s standing or kneeling. I’m in a hurry to use his body to report on my mission.
“Hurry up and do it. It’s a cold night. Isn’t it better to end work early and go home?”
As an executioner, it was the first time Liu Yidao was repeatedly urged like this.
He decided to give up thinking. He raised the executioner’s blade high.
“Every injustice has its perpetrator, every debt has its debtor. Don’t blame me, don’t blame me.”
After he finished speaking, a flash of light from his blade flashed past, and he went straight for Su Mu’s neck!
“Swish!”
Blood spurted out, and Su Mu’s head flew high into the air, rolling a few times before it finally stopped.
The strange thing was, even though his head was separated from his body, Su Mu’s face still had a faint smile.
It was as if he was still alive!
It was just that it was dark here, and no one saw this horrifying scene.
…
“Clap clap clap!”
After the execution, the head jailer clapped a few times and praised him, “As expected of the Liu Yidao who beheads with a single strike and never once messes up. Alright, that’s enough. You can leave now.”
As he spoke, the jailer gave his two subordinates a look.
The two of them understood each other’s thoughts and lifted Su Mu’s corpse to walk in a certain direction.
Liu Yidao kept feeling that tonight’s errand was strange.
After finishing, he and his disciple went their separate ways, only wanting to go home quickly.
The streets were empty at midnight.
Liu Yidao was walking alone on the road.
The night wind was cold, and it only exacerbated the chill on his body.
For some reason, Liu Yidao felt that the execution just now had been most bizarre.
How was there any abnormality?
Thinking about it, something felt a little weird.
His blade never seemed to pass through anything. There had been absolutely zero resistance.
It was as if the neck was deliberately cooperating with him.
But why would flesh simply part ways to cooperate with the executioner?
What of the bones? Did they separate with a will of their own?
The more Liu Yidao thought about it, the stranger he felt.
Suddenly, an image popped up in his mind.
He finally knew what was wrong!
Bones!
It was the bone of the prisoner just now!
Liu Yidao remembered catching a glimpse of Su Mu’s neck bone in the dim light.
It was blood-red from the inside out!
His mind had been preoccupied, so he didn’t notice it at first.
Now that he thought about it, he realized that something was wrong.
It was not merely bone drenched in blood.
His bones were blood-red, to begin with!
…
“No, no! How can human bones be blood-red?
“I must be seeing things, that’s it!
“I can’t let my thoughts run wild anymore. Let’s hurry home.”
The more Liu Yidao thought about it, the more horrified he felt. He quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts.
All he wanted to do now was to go home, step over the fire basin, wash up, and get rid of all the bad luck.
Thinking of this, Liu Yidao quickened his pace.
However, he had not walked far when a gust of chilly wind suddenly attacked him.
Liu Yidao’s body trembled, and his face turned pale.
He something approaching him from behind!
Liu Yidao’s scalp went numb. He felt a chill climbing up his shoulder, like a poisonous snake.
He really felt the urge to look over his shoulder and see what was behind him.
However, according to the rules, there was no turning back after beheading someone!
There were some ancestral teachings and unspoken rules in an industry that one had to adhere to!
Liu Yidao gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to turn back. He desperately walked forward.
However, what he didn’t expect was that the terror had just only begun!
After walking for a while, Liu Yidao’s right shoulder suddenly sank, as if something had fallen on it.
Then, a cold and strange voice sounded in his ears.
“Su Mu is dead. Su Mu is dead.
“Remember, remember!”
This voice was close to Liu Yidao’s ear, coming like a whisper.
He suddenly felt cold all over, and his heart almost stopped beating!
In the dark, Liu Yidao could vaguely see something on his shoulder from the corner of his eye.
But he did not dare to turn his head to look!
“Don’t turn, don’t turn!”
Liu Yidao gritted his teeth and kept repeating the rules in his heart.
At the same time, he pretended not to hear anything and continued to walk forward.
But the voice did not let him go.
When it saw that Liu Yidao was pretending not to hear him, the voice became even more sinister.
“Su Mu is dead. Do you remember?!”
This obvious question made Liu Yidao, an executioner who had killed countless people, tremble all over.
It seemed that he had indeed encountered evil!
Coincidentally, Liu Yidao passed by a waterhole.
In the moonlight’s reflection, he could see the situation on his shoulder.
What was resting on Liu Yidao’s shoulder was actually a strange, bloody head.
From the looks of it, it was clearly the person he had just beheaded!
“I, I remember… I remember…” He said.
Liu Yidao was so terrified that his voice trembled so much that he could barely hear it.
Fortunately, the weight on his shoulder was lifted immediately after he answered.
The bone-biting chill also disappeared.
…
After walking for a while, Liu Yidao finally arrived at the door of his house.
As soon as he entered the house, he collapsed on the ground, his clothes soaked in a cold sweat.
Hearing the commotion, his wife, who had been waiting for him the whole night, hurried out.
Seeing this scene, he couldn’t help but ask worriedly, “What happened?”
Liu Yidao turned his head and looked at his right shoulder.
There was an obvious bloodstain there.
Obviously, what that just happened was not an illusion. It really did happen!
“Husband, what happened?”
Seeing that her bold husband was so frightened, Liu Yidao’s wife was very worried. She wanted to help him up, but was refused by a wave of her hand.
“Don’t come over, there’s great misfortune about!”
Liu Yidao didn’t let his wife get close. Then, he looked at her slightly bulging belly in a daze and murmured, “No more, I’m giving up on the blade.”