It was almost the beginning of summer, but there was still a spring chill in the air in the mountains. Puffy clouds drifted in the sky so that no stars s.h.i.+ned through. The dense, towering dark green primeval forest in the high mountains was a stark contrast to the distant silvery snow-capped peak of Taibai Mountain. the cries of wild animals sounded in the wilderness over and over, and the hooting of owls at night froze one"s heart.
Wenchang concealed his donkey on the valley floor and, with the help of information he had learned during the day, found the secret entrance trail to Hero Stronghold. Men of the jianghu were quick-witted, they could sniff out trails like a hunting dog. Concealed paths were not concealed for long with them, and concealed lookouts would not find traces of their movements.
The Taibai Wolf Xu Zhonghua was an extraordinary star of the Greenwood in the northwest region. He had informers positioned everywhere and the was involved in many unsolved cases. He had his own brothers here, his own fortress and battlements. For hundreds of miles all around he could do whatever he liked and the authorities couldn"t touch him. Sometimes he would plunder, drifting about from place to place like the wind. Black Flag Sovereign considered the Taibai Wolf his most faithful lackey, his most swift and fierce henchman, and his most valued and trustworthy friend.
At Hero Stronghold there were nearly 300 cold-blooded men, a horse ranch in the valley with some 5-600 head of fine horses, a cliff fortress that looked down on all the main trails all over the mountain, and a d.a.m.n near impenetrable fortress that could be defended single-handedly. But none of that would stop a highly skilled master of the martial fraternity.
By day there were lookouts at every high point on the mountain around the entrance to the mountain trail, and at night there were outlooks laying low along the road.
Men of the Greenwood were not worried about friends of the jianghu or light path heroes coming to give them trouble, they were only on guard against a large-scale attack from government troops. A dozen or so people coming up the mountain was no big deal; a swarm of ants can consume an elephant, so being on the lookout for an a.s.sault by government troops was the main mission of these mountain bandits. They didn"t care about some people here and there coming to look for trouble.
Wenchang quietly made his way inside, past several careless sentries, and entered the forbidden zone of the stronghold in the greatest of secrecy and went straight for the cliff fortress.
It was a small fortress, built with rammed-earth walls and crenellated battlements. A path behind the fortress led uphill to the big stronghold. The fortress was the first line of defense, the feelers. Normally there were about twenty or so men stationed there, standing guard and keeping a strict lookout.
The third watch was over and it was pitch-black out as a dark figure neared the path behind the cliff fortress and reached the first sentry point to the left of a big tree. The sentry crouched under the tree heard a noise behind him and turned around and was socked square in the forehead and he doubled over and blacked out.
The fortress was dimly lit. The deputy chief lived in the hindmost room. Don"t think all bandits are rich; they weren"t happy-go-lucky men with lots of gold and rich silk finery, able to obtain whatever they wanted with ease. They were equally hard-up, they just had some moments of enjoyment, that"s all. Times of true delight for petty bandits did not come often, and this deputy chief"s living quarters had little more than a heated brick bed and a quilt.
Wenchang stole into the fortress and knocked out a guard first, then entered the deputy chief"s quarters, closed the door and lit a candle. He was dressed in nightwalker clothes and wore a black mask over his face that only revealed his eyes and mouth. He looked like a big black ghost as he silently approached the foot of the heated bed, which at this time had no fire.
The deputy chief was sleeping deeply when a cup of tea was suddenly splashed on his face, making him jump upright in his bed, not sure what was going on. A big hand was already gripping his throat and he heard a whisper in his ear, "Buddy, wake up, wake up. If you don"t want to die, don"t scream or call out, and we can have a nice discussion."
The deputy chief was terrified; the hand around his neck was hard as stone. The lamp at the end of the bed was lit and he saw the eyes of an enormous dark figure and a gleaming dagger against his hairy chest. Even though he was a courageous man, he didn"t dare call out and his face was pale as death. "Tell me what you have to say, sir, and why you came here."
Wenchang sat on the brick bed and smiled. "Brother, Stronghold Chief Xu"s coffers are piled high as a mountain. It will take many generations for him to use all that up. It"s just going to get mildewy sitting in there so long, don"t you think that"s a shame? So I came to you to talk about it."
"You… You want to borrow some money?"
"Nope! I don"t need a weapon to borrow money, looting is much better. Chief Xu has too much gold and silver. He can"t use it all. We will help him, and should he refuse… Oh! He won"t refuse. I trust he will understand that I am helping him in good faith."
"How are you going to do it?"
"Brother, there"s an extremely secret signal here for communication, and if a most urgent warning signal is sent out, then Chief Xu will for sure hurry here personally to tend to it. Heheh! If not then fine, but if he does come, then I will help him well. Brother, the warning mechanism is behind the bed, you can get it yourself. Or do you want me to? Heheh. I"m sure your arms and legs aren"t broke, I know I won"t need to do much on my own."
The deputy chief stared hard at Wenchang, then reached out behind the brick bed and grabbed a metal handle. As soon as he touched the handle, Wenchang reached over and pressed down with his hand and laughed. "Brother, if I were you, I wouldn"t play around with my life. If the person who comes isn"t Chief Xu, then I think you can guess what the outcome will be. Lopping off a head in one stroke is one of life"s great pleasures. If the blade doesn"t cut it clean off, or if it only cuts off the face or severs a hand or foot, that"s no good at all."
The deputy chief heaved a deep sigh and said helplessly, "If the chief got drunk tonight, he will sent the third-in-command instead, and then wouldn"t my death be a grave injustice?"
"Don"t worry, haha! Chief Xu was fooling around in Xi"an prefecture the day before yesterday. He didn"t get back to the stronghold until today at around the hour of the monkey,[1] and was dead tired. How could he have gotten drunk?"
The deputy chief clenched his teeth, pulled the handle and smiled wryly. "At any rate, my life is already in your hands, it"s up to you. As a bandit, not dying in a fight and instead having my life decided by whether or not I call the chief over or not is really a joke."
"That"s how life is, a single action can determine one"s fate. Why grumble about it?" Wenchang said it as if it were of no consequence.
There was no underground tunnel from the fortress to the mountain stronghold, there was just an ox-tendon rope from one fortress leading to another fortress halfway up the mountain. When the handle was pulled an alarm bell would sound and someone in the other fortress would pull another rope leading to the mountain stronghold, which would alert a guard there to report to the chief at once and say that some powerful figure from the martial fraternity was at the foot of the mountain and heading toward them. Normally the alarms were sounded by the rope during the day, and at night they used beacon fires.
Only because the Taibai Wolf was Black Flag Sovereign"s trusted henchman and masters from Nine Palace Fortress often stopped by uninvited was this method used, as it signaled that he should come meet the guest in all sincerity. If the guest was no one special then they wouldn"t use this signal method.
Soon, a high-pitched bell sounded by the brick bed. The chief was leading a group down the mountain to receive the guest. The deputy chief heaved a deep sigh. "The chief is coming. There"s no way for me to stay here at Taibai Mountain Stronghold… Argh…"
Wenchang suddenly smacked the deputy chief in the side of the head and knocked him out. He tied him up stuffed him in the unlit fire pit under the brick bed and ran out.
He knew there were 2-300 brave, violent men in the stronghold, and he was alone and there were b.o.o.by traps all over the area. It would be too risky and dangerous to try to enter it, so he was going to lure the Taibai Wolf out and down the mountain and attack him there.
There was some gold and silver in the fortress as well, but he didn"t want to look for it. At the same time, he absolutely detested Black Flag Sovereign. He had to take out the sovereign"s men through any means necessary if he wanted an opportunity to take out the sovereign himself, and he was not going to pa.s.s up this chance to wipe out one of his a.s.sistants. It was like smearing mud on the sovereign"s face and he was only too happy to do it.
By a happy coincidence, a bandit in the distance was holding up a lantern, leading three guests up the mountain. They were heading for the first fortress at the foot of the mountain, the same one Wenchang was at. Twenty bandits had been subdued already, including the guards and the lookouts.
The three guests were Blissful Monk"s favorite disciple, Jade-faced Tiger Yan Ruyu, famed martial artist from Binzhou, The Traveler Tong Ning, and the Taibai Tyrant, Evil Dragon Jiang Gui from the western foot of Mount Taibai.
The Taibai Mountains stretched across hundreds of miles. To the east was the Taibai Wolf"s bandit territory, and the western end was Evil Dragon Jiang Gui"s hideout. But this guy wasn"t a bandit, though the two were very good friends. One"s ident.i.ty was known to all, and one"s remained hidden, but they were both of them no good. And because of their differing reputations, they had few conflicts of interest.
Jade-faced Tiger walked slow. He was not at the fight at King Yu Gully, nor the battle in Luoyang.
Blissful Monk had left him behind and hurried to Chang"an to find Cai Wenchang and had told him to come shortly after him, but he had found a pretty girl in Zhengzhou to occupy him and he wallowed around in the brothel until he heard the news, then he hurried to Luoyang, but the battle there was already over and his master, Blissful Monk, had run off somewhere, so all he could do was roam around the jianghu, hating Cai Wenchang to the very marrow of his bones.
Wenchang had fled from Zhu Manor, the manor having been nearly burned down by his merciless fire. Central Plains Suppressor Wu Yong spread word that Wenchang had been wounded by Frigid Scorpion Gao Fei and might have been consumed in the fire, but friends of the jianghu were not going to rest until they had seen the body; they were going to remain doubtful until it was confirmed. Last time, word was Wenchang had been killed by Blue-eyed Snow Lion, but that turned out to be unfounded, so everyone was unconvinced this time as well. There were few who believed the news. Jade-faced Tiger didn"t believe it. He wanted to find Wenchang and get revenge for being humiliated in Xi"an prefecture. Since he was in the Taibai Mountains, he naturally went to see his buddy, the Taibai Tyrant, Evil Dragon Jiang Gui, who took him over to the Taibai Wolf"s place to hang out. The three of them were wanted criminals and so to avoid trouble during the day, they traveled at night.
Wenchang went behind the fortress and got a good look at the lay of the land and found a sabre. The bandits all used sabres, so he couldn"t find a sword to use.
Torchlight appeared at the end of the road, people coming up the mountain as five dark figures made their way down the mountain. This was not great. Why were there people coming both directions? With all the torchlight, his true ident.i.ty might be revealed. His throwing knives and silver-plumed darts were famous throughout the jianghu, if he threw them in the midst of all that torchlight they would surely know who it was, but it would be a lot more troublesome with so many people here if he didn"t use concealed weapons.
He pulled the mask down over his head well and sneered, "All the same, I can take care of you all without using concealed weapons, and if I really do have to reveal myself, then whatever."
The people coming up the mountain were coming fast. They were already close to where he stood hidden under a tree.
A voice suddenly shouted in front of the fortress, "Uh oh, someone"s penetrated our defenses. Quick! Light the signal fire."
s.h.i.+t! Flames lit up on the fortress behind him. The bandits ahead of him had discovered there was no one in the fortress and the stack of firewood prepared on the fortress wall was lit to signal a warning.
Five men dressed lightly with fur overcoats on happened to run to the tree.
Wenchang knew it was no longer possible to use stealth, so he jumped out suddenly and stood before them. He didn"t want to attack them from the shadows, he wanted to flaunt his strength and skill openly at Mount Taibai.
The five men came down one after another, having heard someone"s voice down below. The flame had just went up when a strange masked man wearing nightwalker attire suddenly appeared before them. His sudden appearance made the Taibai Wolf flinch and he darted to the side and stopped short. "Who are you?" he bellowed. "Why are you dressed like this?"
Wenchang said not a word but raised the sabre he had been hiding behind his back and kept standing there on the path, solid and unmoving as a mountain, not saying anything.
1. 3-5pm