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Chapter 249: A Year

He had only two beliefs in life: sabers were his life blood, and his brothers were his family. He was thus nicknamed the “Long Machete God” in the jianghu. To him, gold and silver were like dirt, while women were nothing more than lust-satisfying objects which could talk, and which often annoyed him when they talked too much.

Five carriages were overturned along the roadside. The horses laid in the pools of blood gasping feebly for air while a dozen or so human corpses were scattered amidst the tall grass. This had been an all-too-common transaction. If he had not been paid for it, Zhuang Heng would not have bothered to make this trip.

Having more “dirt” was always welcomed. To the bandits, this served as food which they could never have enough of.

His twelve brothers had already heaped together all of the items found in the carriages, and were currently searching the corpses one-by-one for money and valuables. They were not a big gang, and thus every cent and item mattered to them. If they saw that one of the corpses was wearing a comfortable pair of boots, they would consider it a huge waste not to take it off.

“Hey, look what I’ve found!” The stubbly Elder Du was carrying a young girl of around ten years old, and was eager to receive the approval of his boss.

Elder Du was an imperceptive person who could not discriminate what was valuable and what was not. A young girl like this was not yet a woman, and could not even be used by his brothers to release their urges upon. But Zhuang Heng was in no mood to educate him and lazily waved him off.

Disappointed and despondent, Elder Du placed the girl down and pulled a short sword out from beneath his waist. He always hoped to own a five feet long saber like his boss’, for it was more powerful at scything people and looked more imposing, but he did not have the courage to ask for one. His current short sword was decent as well. At its best, it could chop down a tree which was as thick as the rim of a bowl.

The young girl raised her head and gazed at the bandit. Her slim and fragile neck was certainly not as thick as the rim of a bowl.

Perhaps because she had been scared silly, the young girl neither cried nor whined, and showed no intention of running away. Instead, she seemed to be waiting for the adult to give her sweets.

“Lower your head,” Elder Du ordered. He wanted to chop her head off with one perfect stroke such that her head would roll over to his boss’s feet while her body remained standing upright. He had witnessed a scene like this before and always wanted to imitate it at least once.

The final wish of Elder Du’s life would, however, be impolitely interrupted by an intruder.

Everyone turned their sights toward the wilderness, starting from the boss Zhuang Heng, followed by the brothers who were searching through the corpses, and finally Elder Du who was taking careful aim at the young girl’s neck. Only the young girl remained unconcerned and continued to stare fixedly at the bandit.

A pure black horse ambled its way toward the crowd. It was ridden by a pale-faced young knight who looked like a lost traveler. He appeared calm and unperturbed despite having barged into a group of bandits in his disorientation. Like the little girl, he seemed to not understand the cruel reality of the situation.

As the bandits brandished their shiny swords, several of them moved toward the flanks and prepared to encircle the prey which had arrived on its own.

Although the horse was a fine specimen, the knight himself did not carry much luggage. Zhuang Heng felt that a fool like this was too insignificant for him to get worked up over.

The knight stopped ten steps away from Zhuang Heng, unbothered by the movement behind him. Without saying a word, he performed an action which confounded the bandits. He took out a piece of black cloth and rubbed it gently on the horse’s cheek several times before he covered the horse’s eyes with it. The animal was apparently accustomed to this practice and did not display any sign of resistance.

The knight leaped off the horse, revealing the saber and sword which were attached to his waist.

“Are you Zhuang Heng?”

The knight’s sickly pale face suggested that he had just arrived from a frozen land, but it was currently early autumn and the sunshine provided a pleasant warmth. The bandits, who had been busy for half a day, were even sweating profusely.

“Yes.” Zhuang Heng bucked his spirits up slightly, albeit he still did not take seriously the knight who had appeared from nowhere.

“You can’t be like this.” The knight shook his head in some disappointment.

“What?”

“You aren’t worthy of being slain by my sword in your current state.”

Zhuang Heng was taken aback for a moment before he and his brothers broke into laughter. The solemn and murderous atmosphere evaporated faster than the droplets of water on the grass did. There were always a few machetemen and swordsmen in this world who highly rated their own kungfu and considered the bandits to be a bunch of incompetent goons. They would then seek to kill these bandits in order to make a name for themselves. Like the pale-faced knight, this type of people would speak profoundly and abstrusely at the start, but would become all flustered and overwhelmed when the action started. Subsequently, they would either die horrifically or escape through sheer luck. In the latter case, they would then grumble, while shuddering with terror, that the bandits were breaking the rules of the jianghu by outnumbering their enemies. The one thing which these people would never mention was that they had initiated the challenge themselves.

This was yet another swordsman who came to court his own death. Zhuang Heng increasingly felt that this was a day for fun and game, and thereupon pulled his long-saber out of the ground and rested it on his shoulder. “Come, let’s fight while I’m still slightly interested. We have to be on our way soon, unlike you with all that spare time.”

The knight did not react to the derisory laughter. With his pale face remaining expressionless, he pulled his sword out and slowly drew nearer to his enemy.

Zhuang Heng felt a quake in his heart the moment the knight took his first step forward. Even though there was no perceptible killing intent or swift offensive from the latter, the bandit leader began to tense up involuntarily. He grasped his saber shaft forcefully and lowered his center of gravity, as if he was facing a formidable opponent.

Unable to sense their boss’s frame of mind, the twelve brothers were bored stiff as they watched the duel play out. While awaiting the impending outcome, they were strenuously estimating their total yield for the day. A few quick-thinking ones among them were already eyeing the pure black horse. By the bandits’ principles, whoever touched a particular piece of loot first would get to claim it as his own.

Therefore, most of the bandits were not paying attention to what was going on on scene, and did not know that the duel had already ended in the blink of an eye. Only the simple-minded Elder Du clenched his fists excitedly and prepared to applaud and cheer. He never got tired of watching his boss use a two-handed saber to kill.

But his applauses and cheers would never be heard. Though he had been watching, Elder Du did not understand what was going on. It felt the same as when one entered a different dream while halfway through a dream; because the contents of the two dreams were completely unrelated and the dislocation between them was ludicrous, one would even murmur to one’s self within the dream that this was impossible.

Zhuang Heng’s long-saber was resting on his shoulder as before. What the brothers would never find out was that the long-saber had moved away from his shoulder for a short time and been a flash away from scything the enemy, but his rapid technique was not fast enough today.

Feeling that killing one person a year with it was enough, the knight sheathed his sword and took his saber out instead. It was only now that the bandits fixed their attentions on him. They recognized the weapon for what it was – a saber exclusively used by Golden Roc killers as well as a few daredevil impostors.

As Zhuang Heng remained motionless, everyone gradually recognized the fact that their boss was dead.

In contrast to many bandit gangs, they were a group of people with affection and loyalty for each other, and would not hold back from taking revenge against, let alone run away from, a strong opponent. Like a wounded wolf, Elder Du howled toward the heavens and became wildly ferocious as he led the mass charge toward the knight.

It was twelve versus one, with the only bystander being the little girl standing transfixed in the tall grass. The bloodshed caused by the bandits during the robbery had already petrified her. In comparison, the killing which was currently taking place in front of her eyes was relatively simple, and did not showcase any horrific scene which could rouse her from her daze.

The knight looked like he was dancing as he fought. Every action he performed, whether it be advancing, retreating, turning, or striking, was executed efficiently and seemed to have been rehearsed. The bandits also exhibited their good teamwork as they met him head-on, pursued, struck, and eventually collapsed. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as a dog was when chasing after a bone.

The young girl slowly comprehended the scene in front of her eyes. Instead of twelve bandits encircling a knight, it was the exact opposite. The knight would never rush into the group to hack and slash, but would rather maintain continuous movement to keep himself positioned on its periphery. Throughout this process, the bandits were always at different distances away from him, such that there was always one of them face-to-face with him alone, whom he would kill with a lightning-fast swing of his saber, while their companions were always a step too slow to rescue their brother or to catch hold of him.

The last surviving bandit was Elder Du, who was utterly oblivious to the collapse of his brothers. As he remained wholeheartedly focused on avenging his boss, his howling became increasingly monotonous. This was because there was a strong buildup of force in his heart, but he never had an opportunity to exert it upon the quick-footed knight. The buildup continued to a point when it urgently needed to be released. “I can chop a tree as thick as the rim of a bowl,” he thought to himself right before he suffered a strike on the neck. His thoughts immediately disintegrated as silently as silk.

He happened to be standing a few steps away from the young girl, while still raising his saber, when he keeled over in a perfectly straight posture, with the tip of his saber narrowly missing her legs by several inches. Yet, she continued to remain motionless.

The knight sheathed his saber and gestured toward the young girl to cover her eyes.

Having seemed to be petrified, the young girl reacted very quickly instead at this moment. She immediately raised both hands to cover her eyes. Soon, she heard a strange whistle, and a gale which nearly knocked her off her feet arose abruptly. A puffing sound was then heard after the gale stopped. Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she made a tiny gap in her fingers and peeked outward. She was unable to close her eyes thenceforth.

A giant black bird which was a head taller than the pale-faced knight, with red feathers and eyes, was gleefully pecking on the eyeballs of the dead bandits. After every two pecks, it would make a little hop with alternate legs to express its immense joy and satisfaction.

She finally understood why the knight had covered the horse’s eyes, albeit she could not bring herself to close the gap in her fingers.

The bird leaped towards Elder Du’s body and ate its favorite food in two successive pecks. It then turned to face the little girl and saw through the gap in her fingers that her pupils were green in color and sparkling like a gemstone reflecting the moonlight.

Shrouded by the shadow of the giant roc, the little girl imagined that its pair of crimson eyes could shoot blazing fireballs at any time. Although she was astonished to the point that she forgot to breathe, she was not the least bit afraid. In fact, she believed that the bird was the most beautiful living thing she had ever seen, and thus slowly reached out her hand, hoping to get a touch of its body of silky smooth black feathers.

The giant roc soared up and leaped over the young girl’s head, before continuing to peck on the eyeballs of the corpses. It was not an animal which would casually allow humans to touch it.

“What’s its name?” The girl was completely fascinated by the giant black bird, and began asking the knight questions about it.

“It isn’t a pet, and so it doesn’t have a name. But some people call it the giant red-crowned roc, while others call it the Demon Bird.”

The girl nodded her head thoughtfully.

When the giant roc had eaten enough snacks for the day, it hopped towards the knight and pecked gently on his body twice before it soared high up, produced a gust of wind, and quickly disappeared into the sky.

The knight mounted his horse, and after removing its blinkers, he turned it towards the direction of the route he came from and slowly advanced forth.

After a brief hesitation, the young girl took the short saber from Elder Du’s hands and used it to unshackle her slender calves. She then followed a few dozen steps behind the knight.

As the sky became darker, the black-clothed knight riding on a black horse was on the verge of blending into the night. The young girl accidentally tripped over and could no longer see where the knight was when she raised her head once again. “Wait for me!” she cried out, but her voice disappeared into the wilderness and did not even echo.

The young girl raised the short saber and shuddered. Had she not vowed to never cry ever again, her entire face would be soaked in tears already. Nevertheless, a teardrop formed in her eye, and she had to put in all effort to prevent it from flowing down.

“Why are you following me?” a voice asked from above her. A moment or so ago, the knight had returned to her side, yet she did not even hear the clattering of the horse’s hooves.

“I… my parents were murdered and I was later sold to somebody else. But I want to take revenge and hope that you can… help me.”

“I won’t help anyone to take revenge when I have yet to take my own.”

“You can teach me kung fu and I’ll take revenge myself.”

“I also don’t teach kung fu. Killing is very simple. You have a saber in your hand, just swing it across.”

The knight departed once again.

The girl trotted and followed him closely. Based on an intuition which only children possessed and which she had not completely lost, she knew that the knight would not forsake her.

“The bird doesn’t have a name, but do you?”

“I’m… called Yang Huan.” The knight provided one of his two names.

“I also have a name. I’m called…”

“I know your name.”

“You know? How?” The girl widened her eyes in surprise and nearly tripped once more.

“You take your maternal grandfather’s surname Tie and your maternal grandmother’s name Linglong, right?

The girl named Tie Linglong paused her footsteps, her green eyes fixed upon the knight whom she had never heard of. All of a sudden, she began to sob, flinging to the four winds her promise to never cry ever again.