Death Sutra Chapter 5

Chapter 5  Swordsman

Two years ago, as soon as he had arrived the Central Plains border, Gu Shenwei had heard a lot about the Golden Roc Castle and the Unique King‘s legend. At that time, he had been interested in the famous killer organization in the Western Regions. He had unintentionally mentioned that he wanted to see the Unique King, but because of this, he had been ridiculed by his two elder brothers.

In the Western Regions, the Gu family hadn’t have any chances to make a connection with the Golden Roc Castle. As a result, Gu Shenwei had quickly forgotten about the castle and and the King. He would never have imagined that the next time he heard of them would be related with his revenge for the ma.s.sacre of the Gu family.

That night, after the masked men had broken into the manor, his father and elder brothers had frequently mentioned the word “butcher”, unexpectedly it had actually been the Unique King. Gu Lun had already guessed that it was the Golden Roc Castle that had intended to do harm to the family, therefore he had deliberately driven his daughter and youngest son away.

The Golden Roc Castle wanted to exterminate the Gu family, but why on earth would they want to?

Gu Shenwei was puzzled. The Gu family hadn’t dealt with any outsiders in the Western Regions in the past two years, how could they offend the ‘a.s.sa.s.sin King’ of the Western Regions?

The clip-clop of horse’s hooves was suddenly heard. From the north mountain pa.s.s came a brown horse, a rider in a grey cloak sitting on it. After seeing him, the robbers became excited, but then disappointed since he was not the one they were waiting for. If there hadn’t been a ban for crossing the line, someone would have already immediately gone to the rider to force him to leave some money for using the road.

The rider, who was wearing a grey cloak, suddenly saw a group of hideous people gathering at the roadside. He was neither surprised nor panicked. Instead, he urged his horse to trot forward.

Swoos.h.!.+ Someone threw a flying dagger at the rider. People were not allowed to cross the border, but weapons could.

The rider’s grey cloak swept over like a cloud. He raised his right arm and grabbed the flying dagger with his bare hand, casually putting it in a leather bag, “Got it.”

With a lift of his cloak, a long sword was exposed, hanging by the horse’s side.

“Swordsman from the Big Snow Mountain!”

Someone in the crowd cried out. Nearly a hundred robbers seemed to have been cast by a spell. All of them pulled their horses to retreat two steps almost at the same time. Especially the one who threw the flying dagger, he didn’t even dare to utter a sound. Some of the prisoners on the ground understood what had happened, while some were confused, but they were affected by the fear in the atmosphere, so they stepped back together.

Gu Shenwei, who stood at the rear of the line, was almost knocked down by the people in front, but he still tried to look at the front by standing on his tiptoes. He had never heard of the ‘Swordsman from the Big Snow Mountain’, and didn’t know why others were afraid.

In front of him were two teenagers similar to his age. Like the robbers, they obviously knew the horror of the ‘Big Snow Mountain’, and lowered their head to hide behind the adults.

The rider from the ‘Big Snow Mountain’ revealed a slight smile; his cheeks were red from the exposure to the wind, snow, and suns.h.i.+ne. He habitually narrowed his eyes, as if he was always looking for something.

“Members of the Soaring Eagle gang, step forward.”

His voice was not high, and he didn’t speak harshly, nor looked scary, but it had an irresistible power. Gu Shenwei observed as the face of the scar-faced bandit who was called Soaring Eagle turn blue.

The Soaring Eagle gang was a small gang with only six people. It wasn’t even convincing to be called a gang. But Soaring Eagle, after all, was a leader, so he couldn’t retreat like a turtle retracting its head into its sh.e.l.l.

“The Soaring Eagle is here. This is the territory of Golden Roc Castle, what do you dare to do?”

The rider in a grey cloak glanced at the empty land of wilderness. “There is still one step left. Besides, when have you ever heard that the men of Big Snow Mountain were afraid of the ‘Butcher King’.”

Delight emerged in Gu Shenwei’s heart. So the Unique King also has enemies. He had always thought that no one would dare touch the Golden Roc Castle. In this way, his hope for revenge seemed to become much bigger; he thought he should find a way to join the Big Snow Mountain sect.

Soaring Eagle‘s face became greener. His brothers held their sabres while in a panic. The east side of the road was the territory of the Golden Roc Castle. As bandits, none of them were allowed to cross the border, not to mention being protected.

Soaring Eagle gritted his teeth and exclaimed, “Brothers and sisters, why are we 81 Gangs of Tian Mountain not united? Why does n.o.body utter a sound when we are being bullied?”

The other bandits looked at each other. n.o.body spoke. They were all small gangs, barely making a living. This was the first time that they heard the so-called ‘81 Gangs of Tian Mountain’, so if they didn’t have any hatred, then they didn’t think there was a need to draw the sabre to help.

The rider from the Big Snow Mountain sneered. “81 Gangs of Tian Mountain, what a big name, I am very scared. However, I’m only looking for the Soaring Eagle gang, it has nothing to do with the others.”

These words rea.s.sured the other robbers. Not only did no one stepped forward, they also moved backwards a bit to keep a distance from the Soaring Eagle gang.

Although Soaring Eagle knew that he had reached a dead end, he was a bandit who had experienced hundreds of fights and had survived the bandits’ ‘Golden Age’ a decade ago where there were gangs everywhere. His bones were left with a stubborn cruelty. If it couldn’t be avoided, he would fight hard instead; there was no use asking for forgiveness.

Soaring Eagle spat phlegm out. This was the last dirty thing he would spit from his mouth.

He jumped off the horse, and pulled out his sabre, his brothers doing the same. Six men lined up, six sabres gleamed in the sun. The snow-white stainless blades were a sharp contrast to their dirty clothes.

The rider from Big Snow Mountain gave a smile of satisfaction. He untied his cloak and put it on the saddle. He then jumped off his horse and pulled out his large broadsword from the side of the horse.

His broadsword was almost as wide as an adult’s palm. With the tip of the broadsword touching the ground, the hilt was as high as the rider’s heart; the blade had some obvious dents, as if the owner had used it to cut wood.

“My name is Long Feidu.”

“What you’re called means s.h.i.+t to me. Anyway, you are a man from Big Snow Mountain, we have to fight to the death.” Soaring Eagle led his five brothers and slowly moved forward. The six separated and formed an arc, encircling Long Feidu.

“I had to let you know who killed you.”

Long Feidu held the broadsword with his two hands, the tip of the broadsword still on the ground.

The six members of Soaring Eagle gang approached step by step. They didn’t have a habit of declaring their names before killing somebody; these bandits were more accustomed to the principles of the Golden Roc Castle: The result justifies the means; kill first, speak later.

Gu Shenwei had a very good impression of the rider Long Feidu. He was trying to stand on his tiptoes and see a little more clearly, but the two boys in front of him were totally frightened, always squatting behind the adults. With the connection of the same rope, Gu Shenwei was not able to stand straight, and he couldn’t see what was happening at the front.

A shout came from nowhere, then weapons clanked twice, but then it was all quiet again. It sounded more like a bored blacksmith casually beating tools than an intense scene.

But the onlooking bandits and the prisoners had all exclaimed in unison.

Gu Shenwei jumped high over the head in front of him. He was just able to see Long Feidu lifting his broadsword high. Five out of the six from the Soaring Eagle gang had already fallen. Only the leader, Soaring Eagle, was standing stunned opposite, his sabre fallen on the ground. He raised his left arm in front of his face, as if to withstand the broadsword.

Although Gu Shenwei only caught a glimpse, he firmly remembered this scene and hadn’t forgotten it for many years later. What gave him the deepest impression was not Long Feidu, who held the broadsword standing like a G.o.d, but Soaring Eagle, who was scared, completely losing the will to resist.

At this moment, an idea suddenly appeared and formed in his mind. It was so easy to kill a person. None of those “Sabre comes and the sword goes”, ’Tossing maneuvers”, “Wonderful tricks and superb secrets” showed up. He had systematically practiced boxing, sabersmans.h.i.+p, and now all of them seemed to be naive, exaggerated, and useless.

Gu Shenwei caught one glance before he was pulled down by the two teenagers in front of him. The nearest teenager stared at him, as if he was warning him not to move.

There was a m.u.f.fled sound of blunt objects cut by a sharp sword. Gu Shenwei clearly heard it this time, and also the sound of a body falling on the ground; he heard them all.

“I’m ‘Tan Duo Feng’ Long Feidu from Big Snow Mountain. If there is anyone who wants to get revenge, they can come for me now, after, or whenever.”

No one wanted to take revenge for the Soaring Eagle gang. The bandits were thinking about only one thing; Never provoke this person, Soaring Eagle must have lost his mind to become an enemy of this guy.

The captives in the front suddenly became restless. From the gaps, Gu Shenwei saw Long Feidu walking towards them, the broadsword still dripping blood on the ground as it had not been sheathed yet.

This person wanted to put his hands on the captives? Gu Shenwei didn’t feel fear like the other captives, he was a little bit excited. He would like to tell Long Feidu his own background and deep hatred. He would even like to wors.h.i.+p him as a master, and seek the help of the Big Snow Mountain.

He didn’t think this would be difficult. He believed that the emergence of the Big Snow Mountain rider was also part of the G.o.d’s will.

But the two teenagers in front of him bent down too much, almost pulling down the people in front and behind them. Gu Shenwei was surprised to see the two shaking bodies. He suddenly understood. Long Feidu must have come for these two teenagers. Them panicking more than others had explained everything.

In the eyes of Gu Shenwei, Long Feidu was already like a legendary martial arts hero who fought the strong and help the weak. So then why were the two teenagers were so frightened? He was puzzled.

Long Feidu slowly walked over. The crowd immediately lowered a bit upon contact with his eyesight. He stopped at the end of the lined group.

To Gu Shenwei’s surprise, the two teenagers didn’t show any fear at this time. They straightened their bodies higher than the adults attached to them, and gazed directly at the rider with broadsword.

Long Feidu’s eyes narrowed, but his face was still motionless. He raised his broadsword.

From such a close look, the long broadsword seemed heavier than it was; it didn’t even need a blade, it could kill anyone with its own weight.

With this move of the broadsword, perhaps a bunch of heads would be cut off. But the prisoners behaved like the dead Soaring Eagle, too scared to move. They had completely given up.

Only Gu Shenwei didn’t show the slightest timidity. Instead, he made a half step forward and sincerely looked at Long Feidu.

“You came from the Big Snow Mountain, so you must be a real martial hero.”

Gu Shenwei had never heard the people talking about the Big Snow Mountain, but this didn’t affect his judgment on Long Feidu.

“No, I’m just a swordsman.”

“Even a swordsman doesn’t kill indiscriminately, only …… the Golden Roc Castle does.”

Light flashed in Long Feidu’s eyes. He seemed to be really touched by these words, but his weather-beaten face quickly became as cold as the snow-capped mountains. With his breath held, he gripped the broadsword more tightly.

Gu Shenwei suddenly felt as though nothing was under his feet, and his heart seemed to have stopped beating. Just because of a superfluous word, he had to die with two unknown teenagers.

Long Feidu’s broadsword move slanted. This move could cut off more than one head, but he changed his mind midway. He turned around and cut down with his broadsword.

An arrow was cut through the middle and fell upon his feet.

“Back-stabbing, you must be dogs of the Unique King.”

“So audacious, you must be a little reptile from the Big Snow Mountain.”

From the northern pa.s.s of the mountain came a rider in black. Behind him were two more riders, each holding a big flag. The flag had a red outline, and was embroidered with a golden roc in the middle.