Chapter 294 – The Sword pierces through the Golden Horse Riders Department!
Even in the presence of a bright moon and countless dazzling stars in the sky, the radiance of this waning moon was still dominant enough to make it look quite magnificent like a bright silver spoon! Its hazy luster still made it appear as dreamy as the fantasy itself!
After the fierce competition from the previous time was over, almost everyone was exhausted at the moment! At present, an utter calm was prevalent everywhere.
After several big and influential clans came in to participate in the competition, most Jiang Hu people left the scene in abundance as they already knew about their own hopelessness in this situation. As for the so-called descendants of Ask the Heavens Sword Saint and Underworld Saber Saint, no one knew when they all vanished without a trace…….
However, during this phase of tranquility, there came a loud shout which resounded like a thunderclap all of a sudden: “Don’t let the Moonlight Sword escape! Follow it!”
People saw a stunning sword light soaring high into the sky. A man was rapidly fleeing at the speed of lightning; he was being closely followed by the sword light, which seemed reluctant to part with him!
As this pursuit was taking place so swiftly, they soon disappeared in the distance.
Compared with the emergence of the Sunlight Saber, the appearance of Moonlight Sword had been quite foggy and somewhat surprising in a way!
But no matter how surprising and unexpected a situation maybe, experts will always be experts!
There sounded a loud whistle in the Heaven Reaching Tower, followed by the emergence of the shadows of several mighty experts in the sky; each of them possessed powerful spiritual pressure. They flew up toward the sky and took a sharp turn in midair to set off in hot pursuit.
The entire Heaven Reaching Tower suddenly boiled over as a person’s figure directly broke out of the windows and flew off in pursuit. It seemed as if he was expelling the wind from his body while flying at a lightning fast speed.
Since the Sunlight Saber had fallen into the hands of Ao Xie Yun, the importance of Moonlight Sword rose significantly.
Not just Mo Tian Yun, but also those other young masters felt a fire surging in their hearts, along with a bit of anxiousness.
If Ao Xie Yun…….managed to obtain the secret of the Sword Saber Saint, then the strength of Ao family would exceed theirs in no time! This was truly a crisis of life and death.
It was naturally a more urgent issue for Ao Xie Yun as well!
The Sunlight Saber was already in his possession and now that Moonlight Sword had already made an appearance, how could he not go all out to obtain it?
In fact, the first one to discover and chase after the Moonlight Sword was a member of Ao family!
The sword light was moving toward the west, while hopping along the way to dodge away from the obstacles in the path. The person who was holding the Moonlight Sword suddenly came to a halt, and just then, bursts of bloody light dispersed everywhere in the sky.
This person was clearly more vicious and merciless than the master of Sunlight Saber!
If you block my way, you die!
He was using actual actions to annotate the above mentioned sentence! Even without saying a word, he made the meaning of these words quite apparent to all!
As the pursuers arrived very close to the sword light, it abruptly stopped and dropped down.
Then it immediately vanished without a trace.
Several elite experts looked around in all directions then jumped up in the air to size up the surrounding area, but couldn’t find it.
Could it be that it escaped?
Just when this thought passed through their minds, the sword light suddenly appeared about a thousand feet away; it swiftly leaped up against the wind to declare its presence!
Everyone’s morale was aroused again for yet another round of pursuit.
It was clear that this item had a significant level of intelligence.
They saw a hill dead ahead, and at its base was situated a dilapidated army camp that appeared quite shabby and worn-out. It seemed like these troops had been stationed here quite a while ago….
The military flag also looked somewhat old and shabby.
Most people would think that this was an ordinary military compound at first glance. Only a small number of knowledgeable people knew that it was the headquarters of Golden Horse Riders Department!
The army camp’s design was aimed at tricking one’s eyesight; there was an entire space hidden under this hill! Even the vastness of the hidden underground space must be far beyond the scope of the camp that was visible on the ground!
The invincible Golden Horse Riders Department was located here!
Dong Wu Shang darted forward with a sword in his hand, while Luo Ke Di was in hot pursuit of him. It was a chase so intense that the pursuer was absolutely reluctant of parting with the pursued, not to mention their enmity also appeared quite irreconcilable; Slam Slam Bang Bang, accompanied with such loud sounds, the hustle and bustle continued to take place right before the army camp.
“Brother, let me go and I will surely return the favor in the future!” Dong Wu Shang said with hints of grief and indignation in his voice.
“Cut the crap! I want you to hand over that sword in your hand.” Luo Ke Di was disguised as a black-clothed enemy with a cold frosty visor masking his face.
“Are you really refusing?”
“I am absolutely refusing!”
“You are compelling me now!”
“How am I compelling you?”
“Wa Ya Ya, you are irritating me!”
“Ahwooh Ahwooh…… just hand it over, come on!”
The lackluster dialog continued like this as the two kept on shouting crazily at each other.
Luo Ke Di was playing the role of an enemy on one hand while simultaneously acclaiming in his heart. Fucking hell, you really can’t judge a book by its cover. This second young master of Dong family is truly an enigma. I never imagined that he would be such a skilled actor!
The silhouettes of the experts could be seen swirling in the distance.
The first wave of troops arrived, and one of them directly entered the fight without any delay with his eagle-claw like fingers directly grasping toward the Moonlight Sword.
Dong Wu Shang got furious!
He slashed his sword in the air.
That man snorted loudly and dodged the blood-colored light, although his fingers were lacerated in the process. However, Dong Wu Shang took a malicious blow from a sledgehammer right to his chest and staggered back. The impact caused the blood capillaries inside his nose and mouth to burst open; even his eyes were bloodshot.
If he had not relied on the divine sword to lessen the impact, then he might have ended up losing the grip on his sword!
The silhouettes of several people appeared in the distant horizon as they rushed in at meteoric speeds. The magnificent royal crowd gradually assembled in the sky.
Their crew also arrived almost at the same time.
Everyone huddled in a circle and trapped Dong Wu Shang inside the encirclement.
Mo Tian Yun was standing at the front; his eyes were flashing with determination. Seeing a fierce competition going on over the Moonlight Sword, he was determined to win it for himself!
Ao Xie Yun stood calmly with his hands crossed behind his back; his demeanor was quite natural and unrestrained.
If there started a martial arts contest again….it would be senseless. Considering Ao Xie Yun’s strength, he would definitely be the undisputed champion. That would be equal to presenting the Moonlight Sword to him with both hands. In that case, what should be done this time?
“You want to rob my Moonlight Sword?” Dong Wu Shang looked bitterly at those people around him.
Xie Dan Qiong sighed and said: “Listen brave warrior, you can already assess the current situation you’re in. You alone cannot save yourself and certainly cannot save your sword from getting snatched away either. So, you might as well just honestly hand over the sword and there will a possibility of saving your life as a result.”
“Hand over the sword to whom?” Dong Wu Shang said with a sneer.
Xie Dan Qiong suddenly went speechless.
Correct, even if he is to hand over the Moonlight Sword, whom should he give it to?
Who would say no to the Moonlight Sword?
Or, who would dare to be the first one to show off under these circumstances?
In everyone’s mind flashed the scene from that night in which Mo Tian Yun was the first person to obtain the Sunlight Saber, but everyone knew what happened afterward. They couldn’t help but hesitate from taking an action.
The first person to obtain the Moonlight Sword, no matter who that may be, will absolutely not win it for sure! That person will become everyone’s target and end up exhausting his strength eventually!
And precisely because people were having such scruples at this moment that they spontaneously stuck to not taking any action without prior consultation.
“What’s wrong? Is it too difficult to decide what to do?” Dong Wu Shang sneered “How about I give you a proposal? Would you like to hear?”
“What kind of proposal?”
“Why don’t you all just start killing each other until there’s only one person alive? I will give this Moonlight Sword to that person. What do you think? Sounds fun right?”
“Bullshit! What utter nonsense!” People were angry at this.
Does he really think we are that stupid?
“Then what do you plan to do? Do you all want to keep standing here in a stalemate?” Dong Wu Shang asked in a cold voice.
While watching this black-clothed masked man, Dong Wu Lei suddenly had a very familiar feeling. It was a wonderful feeling that was telling him that this masked man seemed very familiar, like a very close person to him. So, he couldn’t bear anymore and asked: “Who are you?”
Dong Wu Shang grunted: “Since you are going to snatch the sword anyway, why even bother asking who I am?”
“No matter what, I say capture him first then we’ll discuss what to do later on!” Li Xiong Tu roared and took the lead by directly pouncing toward his target.
Dong Wu Shang laughed: “Come on!”
He did not go for evasion and directly charged forward with his sword!
It was a reckless move!
Li Xiong Tu was famous for his extraordinary strength, but the collision with the masked man made him feel as if he had collided with a mountain. The other party looked like he weighed hundreds of pounds, thus the impact force generated from the collision had to be massive!
The other party seemed as strong and durable as a chunk of ice-cold iron!
Li Xiong Tu cried out and spouted blood from his mouth; with two successive ‘Kacha’ sounds, two of his frontal ribs cracked inside his chest which made him curse out loud in anger: “Fuck! Who are you motherfucker? How can you be so heavy?”
As far as the body-to-body collision was concerned, Li Xiong Tu had once clashed with a bison, and his injuries hadn’t turned out to be this severe back then! Such a thing was simply hard to accept! Even being defeated at this instant wouldn’t be so shocking to him.
Dong Wu Shang was also pushed to go back five or six steps; he coldly snorted but didn’t give a reply.
Li Xiong Tu took a closer look at the build of that masked man in black, who was carrying a saber on his fairly unremarkable back; he still couldn’t believe that the masked man actually weighed about 570 pounds!
Even after adding his weight to that number, the total sum would barely reach 800 pounds at most. Li Xiong Tu was basically caught off guard by the large weight difference. Not to mention, it would be better to just not compare their cultivation levels as Li Xiong Tu might get depressed at the end of it.
Judging from their facial expressions, it could be said that everyone looked more cautious now.
“That’s it! I am done!” Dong Wu Shang appeared somewhat disappointed as he looked toward the crowd of royal elites and said while shaking his head: “I had initially thought that after obtaining this Moonlight Sword, I would be able to devote myself entirely to cultivation in order to become an invincible Jiang Hu expert! I never thought that I would end up losing such a big treasure like this!”
He heaved a deep sigh and said in a desolate tone: “Sword, O sword, after all is said and done; am I really going to lose you forever?”
He successfully managed to exhibit his feelings in his speech as one could clearly sense sorrow in this sentence. Everyone’s emotions were stirred by this.
The next moment, Dong Wu Shang faced upwards toward the sky and gave out a loud shout: “However, if I cannot keep it with myself, then you all should also give up on your wish of obtaining it. If it cannot belong to me, then I will make sure that it doesn’t belong to anyone!”
Dong Wu Shang suddenly gave out a long and loud shout and leaped more than a hundred feet high into the sky. The Moonlight Sword was sparkling in the bright moonlight, and it seemed as if two moons were congealing into one.
(TLN: In the raws, it’s given a dozen zhang and 1 zhang = 10 Chinese feet. So, a dozen zhang approximately equals to 100 feet.)
Everyone was puzzled because they did not know that he was able to jump so high thanks to a divine technique. They thought in their hearts – even if it is admirable that you can jump so high but this is a straight upward jump with nothing to land onto above, are you not afraid of falling down from such height?
However, the masked man suddenly flung his arm in the air with a loud shout, and shot a long rainbow out of his hand!
The trail of light that was left behind by that rainbow appeared like the tail of a comet! It surmounted a distance of several thousand feet in a flash before finally advancing amidst the hills!
With a loud clanging sound, it completely disappeared without a trace.
Thrown away!?
The sword was thrown away!
Moreover, it was thrown from a high altitude and that too with a great force!
Everyone had witnessed the sharpness of the Sunlight Saber, so the same could be expected of the Moonlight Sword!
While taking the throwing force into consideration, perhaps it could penetrate hundreds of feet underground!
Not to mention, it would be difficult to pinpoint the location where it fell in such a dim-lit night……
Everyone got furious!
Dong Wu Shang began to fall down in the direction of his brother Dong Wu Lei and his guards, and immediately shouted: “Catch me so I Wu Shang (don’t get injured)!”
(TLN: Wu Shang means ‘to not get injured’. Dong Wu Shang basically called out his middle and last name.)
Dong Wu Lei heard these few words and his iron-clad face suddenly welcomed a strange expression; he got furious as soon as he understood what was going on and said: “You scoundrel! I will beat you to death, you bastard!” He interlocked his palms and moved forward, followed by the ringing of sounds like Ping Ping Bang Bang.
Dong family’s first young master personally went into action, so how could the others not join in on the fun? Moreover, most people were mostly concerned about the Moonlight Sword and this caused a large clamoring crowd of people to swarm in from all directions.
The forces from the army barracks attempted to block them, but failed miserably and were basically run over in the blink of an eye.
A fairly strong explosion caused by the sword’s impact had opened a large hole in the hill. At this time, someone suddenly shouted loudly with his voice full of surprise and wonder: “Let’s evade these Horse Riders! There is actually a big labyrinth under the camp!”
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TLN: I read the comments and suggestions on the previous chapter and came to a conclusion that it would be better to stick to the terms used in the previous translations to maintain consistency. So, I will continue to use ‘King of Hell Chu’ instead of ‘Chu Yanwang’ as suggested by quite a lot of readers.
I may be unaware of some terms that are used frequently in this novel as I haven’t read all of the 292 translated chapters (still reading), so if I end up assigning some other English translation to such terms, I would like the readers to point out those ‘previously used terms’ in the comment section. That’s how I will be able to make required changes.
Thanks for all your support!