The bandits felt conflicted about this "Dragon Slaying Contest". In accordance with the existing rules of their trade, the loot always belonged to the one who got it first, but this time, the one who led the charge would definitely take the most risk. Given that, no one wanted to risk his own life to pave the way for others.
The t.i.tle "Bandit King" rather appealed to the bandits, but they were also clear that if they fell under the Dragon King"s saber, no one would even remember their names.
Therefore, after the short fat man announcing the beginning of "Dragon Slaying Contest", all of the different groups of bandits reacted nonchalantly and modestly declined to lead the charge.
They could not figure out why the Dragon King stayed behind in the desert when he was not injured. They were particularly worried about falling into a trap set by the Dragon King.
Gu Shenwei felt that it was unnecessary to continue observing the hesitant bandits, so he tightened the flap to securely close the tent and sat beside Maid Lotus. He put his Five Peaks Saber down beside himself and then gripped the Dragon Head Sword.
He had no choice but to use his sword now, as there were so many enemies outside and some of them probably had superb kung fu; Maid Lotus would be killed if there was so much as a slight delay in his actions.
He sincerely hoped that there were no kung fu masters like Fayan among the bandits, since the swordcraft of Death Scripture had a fatal defect—the backfire effect. Several years ago, when Maid Lotus and he had just begun practicing this sword technique and only occasionally failed to kill their targets, the backfires would not cause them any severe qigong deviation. Nevertheless, the backfire effect had been getting more and more harmful to them since they had started practicing Wayless Qigong to rapidly improve their sword skills. Now, they could no longer easily recover from such a qigong deviation caused by the backfire.
Maid Lotus had been sitting still for a whole day. Even a senior monk who was deeply absorbed in a meditation could not hold this position for such a long time. Now, she was oblivious to her surroundings and unable to fight back when being attacked. Even a small child can easily kill her at this moment.
The frayed edge of the carpet beside her was already covered with frost.
Gu Shenwei closed his eyes and channelled his Internal Breath to increase his sensitivity to his surroundings. Once a living being came within 3.3 meters of him, he would be able to spot its living energy. At first, he only sensed Maid Lotus" energy. It "looked" like an extremely thin thread or fibre, which would break at a touch.
Soon enough, he felt that the first wave of "contestants" were swiftly approaching his tent in a very unique way.
They came from three different directions and were traveling toward his tent at a high speed. If he had used his eyes to track his enemies, he would have never been able to immediately spot them and kill them without disturbing Maid Lotus.
With his eyes closed, he could clearly sense their living energy at this moment.
He stabbed three times with his sword and each time he hit the target accurately.
The next moment, he opened his eyes and saw three fountains of blood spewing out of the sand in his tent.
Evidently, the first wave of attackers had planned to use "Sand Tunneling Skill" to sneak into the tent.
When blood stopped gushing out, Gu Shenwei picked up the Five Peaks Saber and inserted it into the ground. He gently ran the saber through the sand and then inserted his hand into the sand to pull out three heads. After he threw them out, the other bandits outside immediately withdrew 1.5 kilometers.
Gradually, night began to fall. As winter in the desert was particularly cold, Gu Shenwei was unable to maintain the fast circulation of his Internal Breath for a very long time. He needed some rest now.
However, his enemies would never give him such a chance.
"Dragon King, please come out. Let"s have a talk," a bandit shouted outside Gu Shenwei"s tent.
"I can hear you in the tent," Gu Shenwei said, while standing behind the curtain at the entrance of his tent, with his Five Peaks Saber in hand.
He heard the bandit exchange some whispers with the other 6 or 7 people outside, and a moment later, the bandit said, "Dragon King, let"s get straight to the point. We"ve come here to avenge Chipo"s death. You can"t blame anyone else for this. After all, it was you who handed him over to those machetemen. According to our rules, you have to pay with your life for sending him to his death."
"Chipo is still alive."
The bandits outside the tent paused for a moment.
"Dragon King, are you kidding us?" asked the bandit.
"Chipo didn"t die. The Golden Roc Fort saved him. The head it hung up was just a fake human head," said Gu Shenwei.
"Haha." "Hur Hur." "Hee-hee." The bandits sneered. "Dragon King, are you trying to persuade us to spare your life? Do you think we"ll buy your story?"
"Well, you won"t be able to hear any story in this world very soon," said Gu Shenwei.
He did not want to waste time explaining to the bandits. In his eyes, they were either idiots being used by the Golden Roc Fort or wicked guys who intended to acquire the "Bandit King" t.i.tle on the pretext of avenging Chipo"s death.
The bandits took the Dragon King"s provocation very seriously and no one was laughing this time. They were quiet for a moment, before the same bandit who had spoken up for the others said, "Dragon King, I"m He Sancai, widely known as "Invincible Machete of Tianshan". Today, my counterparts and I have come here to challenge you to a fight. They are known as: "Sand Devil" Zheng Tai, "Tiger on the Hill" Ouyang Jing, "Fierce Spear" Shi Dazhi, "Single-Armed Machete" Zhang Xin, "Old Reaper" Deng Xiaoyuan and "Duansheng Taoist"."
These names were familiar to Gu Shenwei. The first five men were widely-known bandit gang leaders and the last two were notorious burglars. During the past few years, he had traveled to many different places to evade his pursuers before getting into the Great Snowmountain. Although he had never met these people before, he had heard lots of tales about them.
"Alright, just come at me," Gu Shenwei looked back at Maid Lotus and said.
Surprisingly, the seven bandits did not attack the Dragon King together. Instead, they complied with the rules of dueling and were prepared to take turns fighting him. The first of them was Shi Dazhi. "Try taking a blow of my spear, Dragon King!" he shouted.
Gu Shenwei swiftly stepped aside as Shi Dazhi"s spear shot into his tent. It was moving in a sideways fashion like a giant python, but Shi Dazhi himself did not break into the tent, seemingly fearful that there was a trap for him inside it.
As it was very dark inside the tent, Gu Shenwei could only rely on his hearing to determine where the spear was. He kept dodging the spear until he seized a chance to grasp it with his hand. He took advantage of Shi Dazhi"s forward momentum and pulled him into the tent.
Shi Dazhi was a tall strong man. Due to his own inertia, he continued rushing forward with his spear in hand after entering the tent, towards Maid Lotus.
Gu Shenwei immediately lifted up his Five Peaks Saber and used its hilt to knock Shi Dazhi out. He then took the man"s spear and threw it aside.
Right at this moment, another challenger came forth.
"Here comes "Old Reaper"," said Deng Xiaoyuan. He began to strike when he was still a dozen steps away from the Dragon King"s tent.
"If I remember correctly, Old Reaper is expert at using hidden weapons," thought Gu Shenwei. Suddenly, the tent collapsed, disrupting his train of thought. In the meantime, several knives thrown out by Old Reaper were rapidly approaching him.
Deng Xiaoyuan kept throwing weapons as he was running toward the Dragon King"s tent. Some of the weapons severed the ropes holding down the tent while the others pierced into the tent.
Gu Shenwei brandished his saber with one hand to fend off those weapons, and at the same time, he picked up Shi Dazhi"s spear with the other hand and inserted it into the ground to support the roof of the tent which had already fallen halfway down. After that, he rushed out of the tent to confront "Old Reaper".
Deng Xiaoyuan was a lean, middle-aged man. He moved very fast and managed to stay at least ten steps away from the Dragon King during the fight. Under the moonlight, he appeared like a phantom sliding on the sand. He would throw several weapons at his opponent with every step he took.
To protect Maid Lotus, who was not far behind himself, Gu Shenwei could not move around to dodge the weapons thrown by Deng Xiaoyuan. He could only block them with his saber.
Deng Xiaoyuan had already thrown 30 or 40 weapons during the past few minutes, and seemingly had suppressed the Dragon King better than "Fierce Spear" Shi Dazhi did.
Upon seeing that, the other bandits felt quite relieved. However, the tables were turned all of a sudden. Before they realized what had happened, the Dragon King had already gotten close to Deng Xiaoyuan.
In the next moment, Deng Xiaoyuan"s head fell to the ground as the Dragon King retreated to his original position. What was left of his body continued taking three steps forward before also falling to the ground. There was not blood traces left on the ground as the sand quickly absorbed his blood.
After witnessing this dreadful sight, even the merciless bandits could not help but feel chilled to the bones.
"Who"s next?" Gu Shenwei asked coldly, with the blood-stained Five Peaks Saber in hand. His pa.s.sion for killing had already been aroused and he could not wait to fight another duel.
Gu Shenwei managed to control of his own power and killing intent when fighting against Shi Dazhi and defeated his opponent without killing him because he could only be considered as a borderline good user of the spear. However, when faced with "Old Reaper", a first-rate kung fu master, he had no choice but to fight with all his strength and ended up killing the man as a result of losing control of his killing intent.
He Sancai, the short fat man who announced the beginning of the "Dragon Slaying Contest", stepped forward with a long-saber on his back, which looked almost as tall as the man himself.
"You"re venerated as Machete G.o.d of Jade City, Dragon King. You do live up to your reputation. I hope to be the next one to duel with you," said He Sancai.
Gu Shenwei agreed. At this moment, he totally forgot about his original plan and fell under the control of his own killing intent. He had chosen to use his saber instead of his sword and knock Shi Dazhi out instead of killing him, since he had originally planned to avoid killing any bandit when fighting against them. However, killing Deng Xiaoyuan sent him back into the world of killers, where death was the solution to all the problems
He Sancai untied his long-saber, lifted it high over his head and brandished it slowly. The saber reflected the moonlight and looked like the shimmering surface of a lake.
Gradually, it twirled faster and faster and ended up looking like a beam of light shining above He Sancai"s head. No one could clearly see how He Sancai"s hands moved at this moment. In the meantime, He Sancai quickened his steps, and then he threw himself to the ground. In a flash instant, it looked as if he turned himself into a bright light ball as he rolled toward the Dragon King.
"Very impressive "Earth Combing Skill". He didn"t brag about himself. This "Invincible Machete of Tianshan" is indeed a kung fu master," thought Gu Shenwei.
Confronted with the light ball, Gu Shenwei just kept observing it while moving backward to dodge its attack; he was searching for weak spots.
As more and more sand was stirred up into the air by He Sancai"s saber, the light ball quickly doubled in size and looked even more formidable than before.
When Gu Shenwei took his 15th step backward, he struck his saber at the light ball and then quickly stepped aside.
It seemed that He Sancai had suddenly lost his bearings; the light ball was still intact, but it was now rapidly heading away from the Dragon King.
When he was about 20 steps away from the Dragon King, he finally stopped twirling his saber and stood up, his face pale and his mouth corner stained with blood. He walked back, leaving a thin blood trail behind himself, and then he said to the Dragon King, "Great saber. Excellent saber skills. You deserve the reputation you enjoy."
He Sancai raised his long-saber and spotted an obvious dent on it with the help of moonlight.
Gu Shenwei had won not only in saber skills but also in the quality of weapons. If the Five Peaks Saber had not been this sharp, Gu Shenwei would have never been able to easily break the "Earth Combing Skill".
He Sancai walked back to his comrades while dragging his long-saber behind himself. He said, "Let"s withdraw. We have to figure out another way."
The other three bandits all considered him as their leader and agreed, but the independent burglar "Duansheng Taoist" disagreed and retorted, "There are seven of us coming here to fight the Dragon King, and the four of us haven"t even tried once."
He Sancai glanced sideways at the burglar and said while shaking his head, "You"re an excellent sword user, "Duansheng Taoist", but... What a pity." With these words, he led the other three bandits back toward the large bandit troop.
Upon hearing He Sancai"s words, Duansheng Taoist"s face changed. Instead of challenging the Dragon King to another fight, he also left the place, but he walked in a different direction from the four bandits.
After their departure, Gu Shenwei tied the ropes severed by Deng Xiaoyuan to fix his tent, and then he looked at the monks" two tents nearby, while thinking, "These monks did keep their promises. They didn"t interfere in the fights. Neither did they emit a sound during the whole process."
When he entered his tent, he found out that Shi Dazhi was still lying unconscious on the floor. He did not mind killing one more person at this moment and thought it was unnecessary to spare this man"s life. When he raised his saber, preparing to kill the man, Maid Lotus suddenly spoke, "Wait, I need him."
She finally pa.s.sed through the first phase of her qigong deviation, but was still far from full recovery. Now she could just barely open her mouth to speak.
She took the clumps of cotton wool out of her ears and then fished out two wooden boxes from the front of her coat. She opened them and put them down beside her.
One of the wooden boxes was filled with a dozen red pills and the other with a dozen yellow pills.
She swallowed a red pill, channelled her internal breath for a while and then took a yellow pill. She repeated this process for seven times and quickly consumed most pills in her boxes. After that, her complexion was visibly better.
"I don"t want you to watch me using this kind of kung fu," she said to Gu Shenwei.
Upon hearing that, Gu Shenwei walked out of the tent and then he spotted some firelight in the distance. At this moment, the bandits were discussing how to kill the Dragon King. By far, they had sticked to the rules of jiang hu, but they would change their mind before dawn, since they were currently left with only one choice: by sheer numbers.
Suddenly, heart-wrenching screams came out of the tent and began to resound through the desert. Gu Shenwei could clearly see that firelight in the distance was beginning to flicker.
The tent beside him was opened a crack, revealing Fayan"s compa.s.sionate face.