15: Parting of Life and Death [Translator"s Note: Happy Valentine"s! – LLS]
The back mountain, beneath the precipice.
The heavy rain gradually ceased, and the faint light of the sky pa.s.sed through the branches of ancient trees, rocks and bushes casting strange shadows in the dimness.
With a boom Shan Chao stabbed the Seven Stars Longyuan sword into the muddy ground, supporting himself to his feet with the mountain wall, and gave a long breath that reeked of scorching blood, as he turned a hand over to reach his back.
—the Tai-E sword was gone.
Fu Wenjie"s silhouette had already gone missing, and presumably in dire straits. The surrounding rocks and puddles were in complete disorder, the clay congested with the distinct coppery stench, along with a broken blade still stained with blood, fallen on a nearby hillside rock, so it was very obvious that this place was the site of a fierce battle.
Yet—there was no body.
After the brawl both sides had taken away their compatriots" bodies, clearly well-trained.
Shan Chao gave two hoa.r.s.e coughs, spat out a blood-flecked wad of spit, and walked forward a few steps, when he suddenly saw within a muddy crevice in the rock, something was reflecting the light.
He reached out to take it, carefully scrutinising for a while, only to confirm that it was half a bronze token that had been chopped in half, the decorative carving incomparably fine, and the lower corner of a character could be vaguely made out—
Restricted (禁).
Restricted to the Daming Palace (大明宫禁).
"Looks like between you and me, is an ill-fated relationship."
"Stupid, there was no poison in the dessert at all—"
"I have the royal family"s Imperial Guard tablet, and can enter the palace to seek imperial audience at any time, and act at discretion within the capital."
Before Ci"en Temple on the Zhongzheng Street, a cough of poisonous blood suddenly came forth, and that seemingly vicious and invincible person, just completely collapsed, in an unexpected anti-climax.
Shan Chao wheezed, and slowly clutched the command token, until the sharp broken edge had forcibly bitten into the flesh of his palm.
"I am surnamed Xie, with the single name of Yun, the Yun is from "a lone star of signal-fire reaches the north clouds"…"
"Henceforth I am your Master."
"Xie Yun…" Shan Chao spat out those two words from between the gaps of his teeth, raising his head to regard the back mountain villa hidden amongst the forests and mountains.
After a while he finally pinched the bronze token, and walked forward step by step.
The front hall of the villa.
There was a loud slam, resonating in the ear as if separated by the water surface, heavy, vague and indistinct—that was because the ears were filled with blood.
Jing Ling fell forward onto the ground, and in his daze it seemed as though a long time had pa.s.sed, yet he knew that in reality only mere breaths had pa.s.sed.
Right then a thread of cold stuck to his throat, and Xie Yun"s low voice came from above: "—now do you think that you can kill me?"
Jing Ling opened his eyes, to see that victory had already been decided in the front courtyard: although ten-odd martial-arts disciples suffered heavy casualties under the Mysterious Demon School a.s.sa.s.sins" pincer attack, yet afterwards the a.s.sa.s.sins were unable to resist the power of Xie Yun"s sword, and under the circ.u.mstances of heavy losses were forced to withdraw to the surroundings as defence.
The torches were either extinguished or fallen, the combusting sparks crackled with the bitter moans of the injured, and the ground littered with broken blades, under the dusky sky-light they formed an extremely cruel, dismal and preposterous scene.
"It"s my mistake… I remember now."
Jing Ling"s throat shook with a m.u.f.fled cough, and then he gave an intermittent laugh: "Whenever the tattoo appears, you would always suddenly explode with this demonic power… what is this? A restricted technique of the Mysterious Demon School, or some secret method from the Palace?"
Xie Yun half-knelt beside Jing Ling, one hand holding a dagger, and the other resting on his knee, as he lazily said: "This is not a problem meant for little children to worry about, leave it to the adults."
"Is that so Senior," Jing Ling ridiculed, "Then, have you learnt to control this power now and not suffer a qi deviation?"
Xie Yun studied him up and down, and finally narrowed his eyes in thought.
"…looks like between you and I, there is certainly some grudge…"
This time it was Jing Ling who coldly said: "No, Cloud Messenger. There are many a.s.sa.s.sins with mutual grudges in the Mysterious Demon School, just leave it."
The Mysterious Demon School had severe internal strife, and for people to injure or kill one another was normal. Yet for some reason, Xie Yun keenly sensed within Jing Ling"s words, there was a veiled and malicious implication hidden in the words "qi deviation".
He frowned, and suddenly saw Jing Ling reach out a hand.
—his arm had been slapped aside by Xie Yun just now when he attempted to recapture the Soul-Stealing Hooks, and the strike of internal force had broken muscles and bones entirely, leading to it being criss-crossed with drying bloodstains, a rather terrifying sight on such strong muscles.
Xie Yun tilted his head slightly, but Jing Ling"s hand connected, the fingertips slipping past the side of his neck in an instant.
"The tattoo is gone," he said meaningfully, "This sort of power which is formidable to the point of not being human, is bound to create a corresponding backfire."
"……"
"The Mysterious Demon School has been operating for a long time in the Huainan region, well-established and growing strongly there. Moreover Yuwen Hu is currently leading five hundred of his personal troops out of the Capital to go down south, bound to quickly arrive here… once the backfire arrives, how long more can you hold the scene?"
A barely concealed malice floated up in Jing Ling"s eyes, and Xie Yun looked at him for a moment, and finally leant down to whisper into his ear: "Since you understand me so well, then do you think I have a good temper?"
"—or do you think that I would spare you on account of us being formerly of the same school, and won"t silence everyone here on the scene?"
His voice may be low, yet he did not deliberately exercise control. The surrounding few people nearby all heard him, and their faces instantly turned deathly white!
Yet Jing Ling gave a teasing glance to the sharp edge at his throat: "But you won"t be able to find the Snow Lotus if you silence everyone here, Commander Xie. Are you not afraid that the current Emperor and Empress in the Capital would fall out with you simultaneously?"
"Commander Xie?" Someone could not help but blurt out.
"Xie… Xie Yun…"
"He"s Xie Yun! Imperial City Guard Commander Xie Yun—!"
Fear spread like an electric flow, and everyone was flabbergasted for a while, minute noises rising and falling in succession.
Xie Yun looked down over at Jing Ling, and abruptly gave a clear laugh: "First I"ll kill you, and then kill everyone else here, then order the Imperial Guards to dig up the entire Sword-Forging Manor to a depth of three feet, don"t tell me I still can"t find a single blossom of the Snow Lotus!"
Everyone"s attention was now focused on him, and no one noticed at a corner of the front courtyard"s entrance, a masked a.s.sa.s.sin of the Mysterious Demon School advanced several steps, his hands moving slightly.
Right at this time, Xie Yun abruptly turned his head, and accurately fixed upon that a.s.sa.s.sin"s direction:
"—don"t you agree, Young Master Fu?"
Pa!
Xie Yun backhanded with his blade, and at the critical moment chopped the crossbow bolt fired by the a.s.sa.s.sin in mid-air into two halves!
Right there someone was incited: "Young Master Fu?" "What?" "Isn"t the Young Master already dead?"
Chen Haiping"s bewildered gaze flew towards the corpse covered in white cloth: "My cousin is obviously already—"
Right in the midst of that uproar, that a.s.sa.s.sin saw that the sneak attack had been seen through, and suddenly turned around to leap out of the courtyard, moving as fast as lightning under everyone"s startled gaze!
A series of unforeseen events had simply erupted out, and while everyone had yet to react, Xie Yun had already flipped his hand around and used the dagger handle to firmly pound on Jing Ling"s temples, knocking him down right there and then.
Then he stood up, raising his qi to leap for the roof eaves, his figure floating like a shadow or a ghost.
— unexpectedly he was completely unconcerned with Jing Ling behind him as well as the disciples of the various martial sects, and instantly chased after the a.s.sa.s.sin towards the direction of the back courtyard.
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