Today we reach the finale of Huang Ying’s 1974 wuxia novel/novella, The Silver Sword Grudge. This is the final installment. Sometime in the next few days I will combine all these parts and put them together in full chapters and post them on a page dedicated to the novel similarly to other novel translations on this site.
This is the first of 29 stories in the Legend of Shen Shengyi series. The next one in line is called《十三殺手》(The Thirteen Assassins). I don’t currently have any plans to translate it. But that might change if people want it. I don’t know if people will liked The Silver Sword Grudge or not. Let me know in the comments!
EDIT: I’ve got the novel page up if you want to read the full chapters all at once instead of broken into multiple installments: https://wuxiawanderings.com/the-silver-sword-grudge/
Have you ever heard Huang E’s Windblown Plum Blossoms, Gu Gu’s Venting Inner Feelings, Zhu Tingyu’s The Devotee, Yao Mu’an’s New Water Command?
Have you felt the pent-up bitterness of them, how melancholy and bleak they are!
Do you know how melancholy and bleak , how bitter Huo Qiu’e felt when playing those tunes?
If you don’t know, if you haven’t felt it, if you haven’t heard them, then you might as well take note of this.
It’s not Windblown Plum Blossoms or Venting Inner Feelings.
Nor is it The Devotee or New Water Command. It’s Water Immortal, Black Liu the Fifth’s Water Immortal:
Hate piling up, piling up hate, continuous hate, filling the lady’s boudoir of an evening.
Woe building up, building up woe, getting more and more intense, filling a jade-green cup.
Lazy to dress up, dressing up lazily, languidly lighting the incense burner.
Teardrops spilling, spilling teardrops, teardrops flowing and flowing nonstop.
Feeling unwell, unwell feeling, this sickly state is my mood.
Flowers with me, I with the flowers, flowers even more wan and withered.
Moon faces me, I face the moon, the moon even more bashful.
Complaining to Heaven, with Heaven complaining, Heaven too looks sad…
With a tinkle the zither stopped playing and the lady’s bedchamber became more silent, her figure more forlorn.
Huo Qiu’e stood up absently and moved to the roseleaf raspberry stand under the flowering crabapple blossoms.
The crabapple blossoms were in full bloom. Another drizzling rain tomorrow and they would all turn to rouge tears.
Huo Qiu’e sighed inwardly. Turning around, she saw her own shadow on the ground. Her and her shadow were equally thin. The moon on the horizon was as forlorn as she.
Moon rising in the east, the eastern sky a blanket of depressing clouds, perhaps the sky also grieving for her!
The wind was up, urgent, clouds surging, clouds drifting. The moon was bright, the moon was dim, the moon vaguely dejected.
Huo Qiu’e let out a short sigh, then a long one.
The moon sinks, two hearts entwined as one,
Tonight’s parting is more painful than last night’s,
Facing a solitary lamp, no mood for sleep, tears and woe expressed through this gem-studded zither
Grief at parting lamented through the strings, melancholy intoned with each pluck,
Lacking anyone who understands it…
Have you ever seen such a sentimental woman as Huo Qiu’e?
Who was she longing for? Who was her one who understood?
Shen Shengyi?
Shen Shengyi leaned on the railing.
Blankly he watched the beautiful woman gently singing under before the flowers, under the moon, expression transfixed with knowing eyes.
It was his wife, Huo Qiu’e. In his heart he knew this, but suddenly even he couldn’t believe it.
A look of pain appeared in his eyes.
He wanted to walk out of the courtyard, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He lowered his head, his eyes met his snowlike robe, spotlessly, flawlessly white. But what about his heart?
He looked again at his hands, so strong and powerful, especially his left hand!
This left hand once defeated Gold Thread Swallow, Liu Mei’er, Lady Snowclad, Skyful of Stars, and the Sword Embracing Young Master.
This left hand was once famous throughout the jianghu.
This was indeed an extraordinary left hand. But though this hand was strong and vigorous, it couldn’t play the zither, nor could it play the flute.
Sword in hand, this left hand could cut off seven arms one after another, kill seven people one after another. Zither in hand, this left hand couldn’t pluck the seven strings of the zither. There was no such thing as a perfect, complete person. Hands are the same, when have you ever seen a pair of hands proficient in everything, capable of anything, excellent hands, deft hands?
Shen Shengyi was just a person.
Because of his hands he was always proud, he never dreamed there would be a day like this, a night like this, that because of his hands he would be grieved.
Did he even know what grief was?
Shen Shengyi’s eyes right now were brimming with grief!
He was still, she was still, wind kicked up shadows of flowers in the courtyard.
“Milord! Milord!” A servant girl ran calling through the moon gate and suddenly entered the courtyard.
Huo Qiu’e was taken aback. “Qiuju, who are you calling?”
“I’m calling Milord, he instructed me to prepare some food and wine and it’s ready now.”
“Milord is back?” Huo Qiu’e looked happy when she heard this, but that single thread of happiness vanished instantly.
Shen Shengyi saw this and felt a stab in his heart. He wanted to turn around, but Huo Qiu’e has already noticed him there. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something. She hesitated, and finally received him.
“Greetings Milord…”
“Greetings, Milady…”
What kind of talk was this? Didn’t it sound like a husband and wife finally meeting after a long separation?
Those two sentences and they were silent.
Huo Qiu’e hung her head, Shen Shengyi’s eyes constricted, heart constricted. He had long ago felt there was some unfamiliar distance, between the two of them, but it had never been as distinct as it was this time, as deep, as profound, so he had never paid much attention. Now, now it was rather too late.
Shen Shengyi’s heart was so grieved it was nearly dripping blood.
He made no sound but suddenly turned around a walked out with big strides.
Huo Qiu’e’s tears fell…
No stars, only the moon.
Curved moon, high moon, solitary moon, bright moon.
Moon pale white, the long street pale white. Shen Shengyi’s face was so pale it was terrifying. He walked alone down the street, leaving his home far into the back of his mind.
He’d rather lead a vagrant life on the streets than stay at home!
Suddenly he stuck his chest out, turned around, and strode back the way he had come.
A person must always face reality.
Shen Shengyi was not a person afraid to face reality.
He had no vain hope that when he returned home things would be warmer, that Huo Qiu’e would be gentler. Nor did he think that he could change everything.
He only hoped to settle things, to explain things.
Settle, explain, he had to go back.
He was absolutely not a muddled person, and he absolutely did not do muddled things.
His sword was decisive, and his heart, his heart was also decisive.
As soon as he turned around, a person came up to meet him. The person was around forty years old, not short, but no matter where this person went they gave people an undersized feeling.
This kind of person could never raise their head.
This person’s bearing was as wretched as you say it is.
This person put on an ingratiating smile.
As long as you are rich and powerful, so much so that as long as you are courageous and knowledgeable, all you had to do was show this person a fist and they would give you an ingratiating smile.
Aren’t there a lot of people like this?
Shen Shengyi of course would not recognize this kind of person. This kind of person recognized Shen Shengyi though.
“Master Shen!”
“What is it?”
“My humble self is Shen San…”
“I didn’t ask you your name. I don’t know you and don’t want to know you!”
If it were anyone else, they likely would have turned tail and left, but Shen San didn’t, still with that fawning smile, that smiling face he could wear all day long.
“Master Shen of course doesn’t know my humble self, but this lowly one knows Master Shen. Not only that, this lowly one also knows Her Lady and knows Madame Shen’s older cousin Young Master Liu, Liu Zhanqin.”
“You certainly know a lot of people.” Shen Shengyi sneered, “Is that all you wanted to tell me?”
“There’s more, there’s more…” Shen San lowered his voice. “Does Master Shen want to know?”
“Know what?”
“For example, if Young Master Liu is really Madame Shen’s older cousin…”
Shen Shengyi’s eyes constricted.
“For example, when the master is away, Young Master Liu often pays a visit and stays till very late at night before leaving…”
Shen Shengyi’s eyes were narrowed to slits.
“Of for instance… Strange…” Shen San suddenly realized something. “How come when I came here I seemed to see him nearby?”
“Who?” Shen Shengyi’s eyes suddenly exploded wide open.
“Young Master Liu, and he was leading two gold fur hounds on a leash…”
“Gold fur hounds!” Shen Shengyi’s eyes were even wider. “Okay, okay, okay!”
He said “okay” three times in a row, but he didn’t look a bit okay, he looked more and more unsightly.
“Master Shen seems not to know much.”
“And you seem to know a lot!”
“Qiuju is Master’s house servant girl, this lowly one is Qiuju’s older cousin…”
“Really?”
“No…” Shen San’s expression unexpectedly did not change.
Shen Shengyi stared at Shen San and suddenly threw his head back and burst out laughing.
Such an alarming laugh. Shen San watched Shen Shengyi in surprise not knowing what to do, when the laughter suddenly ceased.
“Shen San!”
“This lowly one is here.”
“You’re telling me this obviously for some reason.”
“This lowly wouldn’t dare, this lowly one just couldn’t stand idly by and watch.” Shen San looked indignant.
“Oh!” Shen Shengyi sneered.
“And besides,” Shen San said, putting that fawning smile back on, “this lowly one knows Master Shen is always forthright and would absolutely never mistreat this lowly one.”
“How could I mistreat you!”
“Then, this lowly one thanks Master for five taels of silver!”
Shen San was a person who really knew how to take advantage of a situation.
“You only want five taels of silver?”
“This lowly one has always been content with his lot.”
“Alright, I’ll give it to you!”
Shen Shengyi cried out in extreme grief and suddenly his fist flew!
Shen San was thrown with a bang and crashed into the wall and bounced off and fell on the road in the mud.
If you say the wrong thing at the wrong time, crashing into a wall is not really all that strange a result.
Shen Shengyi’s wild cry had not died out when he pulled back his fist and stood in the road in a crazy posture like he was going to throw another punch and hollered again.
His heart was trembling, his hands were trembling, and the corners of his eyes split and blood streamed down!1
Do you know what grief and indignation is?
His holler cut off suddenly pounced like an angry lion and leaped back home!
The gates. The main gates of the Shen residence were very thick, a full three fingerwidths wide.
The power of grief and indignation is enough to open up mountains and split rocks! With a booming thunderclap the two three-fingerwidth thick wooden doors flew into the air and fell heavily on the ground, filling the sky with dust!
Amidst the skyful of dust, Shen Shengyi’s head of disheveled hair danced wildly in the east wind as he took big strides and walked inside.
Sword in the scabbard but a murderous aura rising.
Shen Shengyi’s swordlike stare twinkled in the night air.
There were a few blooming apricot trees in the garden. Apricot blossoms fluttered down. Had they been wrecked by his stare or by his murderous aura?
A gold fur hound barked furiously and scurried out from over by the study, rows of sharp white teeth bared as it pounced at Shen Shengyi.
Shen Shengyi roared a thunderclap!
Sword light like lightning cracked amidst the thunder!
The dog’s bark was cut short and a rain of blood sprayed out, the still-living gold fur hound now cut into two at the waist, a section here, a section over there!
Shen Shengyi though flew north, flew toward the study!
As soon as he moved a hole burst through the roof of the study with a band and pieces of rooftile were sent flying and a finely dressed man holding a gold fur hound shot out like an arrow!
“Liu Zhanqin!” Shen Shengyi roared, and he and his sword pierced through the air like a flash of lightning.
Shen Shengyi did after all recognize Liu Zhanqin. That really was Liu Zhanqin.
How could he have time to open his mouth before his nerve was scared shot like a cat and he scurried up the wall and tumbled over.
The gold fur hound in his arms couldn’t help but emit a muffled snarl, but he was already dozens of staves away, nowhere to be seen.
Shen Shengyi had never before seen such incredible lightness skill. He didn’t give chase but stood on the wall and let out a loud laugh.
His laughing was brimming with ridicule. It spread a long long distance. Liu Zhanqin could still hear and he heard it. His heart constricted. He had never been so embarrassed, and he wasn’t a coward.
But this time he didn’t dare face reality. He really was afraid!
Shen Shengyi, ah! Shen Shengyi!
Liu Zhanqin was soaked through with cold sweat.
Pieces of rooftile and dust rained down and covered Huo Qiu’e’s clothes, as well as the long, narrow black cloth bundle on the writing desk.
The bundle was opened, inside a set of black tightfit nightwalker clothes and a silver sword!
Sun Yu’s silver sword!
Shen Shengyi remembered personally stowing the bundle in a dark corner up on the roofbeam, not on the writing desk. He also remembered that the bundle was wrapped up well. But right now it was not. He knew why.
Sun Yu, Shen Shengyi, Sun Yu was Shen Shengyi!
It had been a secret, but now it was a secret no longer. At the very least, Liu Zhanqin now knew.
Shen Shengyi didn’t care, his heart was already half dead, he didn’t really care about anything.
He simply could not care.
He wanted to laugh, but too bad, he really couldn’t laugh.
Calmly he sat at the table and absently regarded Huo Qiu’e.
Huo Qiu’e was absently watching him too, tears in her eyes, tears embodying grief, pain, and shame.
Her teardrops finally fell and splashed apart.
Teardrops were fragile like that, and the heart, the heart was the same.
Wasn’t Shen Shengyi’s heart already half-shattered?
The corners of eyes pulsed, his nose tingling, but there were no tears in his eyes.
Grief was not necessarily expressed through tears.
Huo Qiu’e at long last understood the bitter misery and pain in Shen Shengyi’s heart. She hung her head, tears staining the lapel of her robe.
“I know everything.” She was barely able to get the words out.
Her teary voice sounded especially heartbroken. Shen Shengyi couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness. “There’s no such thing in the world as a permanent secret.”
“I know you did it all for me.”
Shen Shengyi said nothing.
“I never forgot that Mid-autumn night.”
“It’s best if you could.”
“That night I grumbled…”
“Hungry for half a day on the joyous Mid-autumn Festival and still have to face the full moon on an empty stomach. Anyone would grumble at that.”
“You didn’t…”
“It’s not that I didn’t, you just couldn’t see it, couldn’t hear it. I grumbled in my heart, hated it in my heart!”
“That you don’t need to…”
“If I had had a day or two more to think it over, maybe I would have though another method or two, but at the time, at the time I didn’t think anything else would happen…”
“It was I who harmed you…”
“That’s what I should be saying, there was never any need for you to suffer along with me.” Shen Shengyi gave a wan smile. “Green plums and stick horses is nothing more than a child’s plaything, you and I took it too seriously.”
“You know everything?”
“It wouldn’t do if I didn’t.”
“Do you hate me?”
“I only hate myself!”
“Let me tell you, I didn’t…”
“I wish I could believe that…”
“You can’t? You don’t believe it?”
Shen Shengyi didn’t answer, he looked out the window.
Outside it was pitch black, nothing to look at.
Huo Qiu’e raised her head sadly, an imploring look in her eyes brimming with hope.
Shen Shengyi didn’t know, he was looking out the window.
Huo Qiu’e’s eyes finally revealed a look of despair.
“I don’t blame you for not believing me , I will definitely make you understand.”
She bit her lip hard, bearing her bitter misery, and tearfully withdrew from the study.
Shen Shengyi wanted to call her back, but it was just a thought, he didn’t actually call out to her, still looking out the window.
Night wind blew through the window screen, carrying with it the scent of flowers.
The scent of flowers was faint, spring drawing to a close, how much longer could the scent of flowers remain?
But when spring was over, it would be back next year. Flowers wilt but next year they will bloom once more.
maybe next year’s flowers will be more fragrant than this year’s, will be better than this year’s. And people?
The years were like flowers, people were different year after year.
People were the same.
The wind carried with it the sound of singing. Who was singing Li Bai’s plaintive Ballad of Changgan?
My hair at first covered my forehead, picking flowers, playing before the door.
You rode in on a bamboo stick horse, circling the bench, playing with green plums.
We lived together on Changgan Lane, two youths without ill will or suspicion.
Changgan Lane was in Jiangning, it was quite ordinary to hear the Ballad of Changgan in Jiangning.
There were many husbands and wives who grew up together playing with green plums and stick horses2 just like Shen Shengyi and Huo Qiu’e.
And Shen Shengyi had heard the Ballad of Changgan he didn’t know how many times, only it had never given him such a large reaction as it did this time tonight.
He listened to it in a daze, heart feeling sweet, also bitter, he didn’t know what it felt like.
“In the eighth month the butterflies are yellow, they fly in pairs over the grass of the west garden. This grieves my heart, sitting here grieved, pink face aging…” He sighed in the midst of the singing. “Qiu’e, ah Qiu’e, how could I be so hardhearted to let you stay here alone, waiting while your youth grows old…”
“I can’t be frank with you, no wonder you couldn’t understand me…”
Frankness, understanding, and how many things husband and wife had done that genuinely could cause one not to be suspicious and jealous, to have mutual trust. Frankness, understanding?
Outside the window the singing suddenly cut off.
Maybe the singer was tired of singing, or was drunk?
Shen Shengyi at the same time had a bad feeling! He abruptly called out and shot out like an arrow!
The door was unlatched and Shen Shengyi barged through the door headfirst and he and the door alike flew out. He rolled on the ground and shot back up.
He was going as fast as he could go, but even if he could have gone faster it would have been too late, too late!
It was not an easy thing for a person to live, you had to have the conditions for life, and you had to have the courage.
Sometimes you wanted to live but the environment would not permit you to keep on living.
If a person wanted to end their life, that by comparison was much simpler.
Huo Qiu’e only needed a strip of thin red silk to accomplish it.
She had said she would definitely make Shen Shengyi understand, and she had, and the method she had used was simple and effective.
How could Shen Shengyi not believe her now?
He was still out by the door, but fortunately the silver sword in his hand had been extricated from the scabbard and thrown, shooting toward the red silk suspended from the roofbeam.
His eyesight had always been accurate, his wrist power always astonishing, and the silver sword had not become rusty but was very sharp. Just one stroke and the red silk was cut off.
At about the same time he was in the room, hands out to catch Huo Qiu’e’s body.
Her skin was ice cold.
Shen Shengyi’s blood was also frozen.
“Qiu’e!” He let loose a heartrending cry, his heart shattered into a million pieces, a million pieces!
Liu Zhanqin’s heart at the same time was also shattered into a million pieces.
He hadn’t gone far. Once Shen Shengyi’s laughter had died down back then behind the wall he had quietly snuck back to outside the wall.
He had been pacing back and forth and didn’t know many times he’d circled the enclosing wall.
He had been worried.
And only worried. He hadn’t made a single move, he didn’t dare!
He didn’t dare face reality, he didn’t dare face Shen Shengyi, Sun Yu!
Though he was outside the wall and couldn’t see anything, he could hear everything, so he heard Shen Shengyi’s heartrending cry clearly. He was smart, of course he could imagine what had happened.
His face was deathly pale, his fists clenched tight, the veins on the back of his hands bulging. Flames flickered in his eyes and he clenched his teeth and suddenly rushed up the stone steps to the gate.
But, before he crossed the threshold he suddenly stopped and went back.
He was pained, he was grieving.
A fierce punch he leveled at the wall! Bricks crumbled and pieces sifted down.
Metal-Breaking Hands was really no small matter! Another punch and another and bricks pieces of brick flew, his gums bleeding from biting down so hard!
He opened his mouth, grieved, but his cry of grief remained in his heart, only a croak emerged from his throat.
Once again he rushed up the stone steps and consequently went back again, this time withdrawing even farther, lurching along, despondently backing out into the middle of the street.
He did not notice at all the seven riders on fast horses galloping his way, he didn’t even hear their hoofbeats.
Soon they would collide. The front hooves of the rider in the lead raised up and moved to the side a stave away.
Such excellent horsemanship and such a big temper. He reined in and cursed, “You little boy are you blind or do you want to die. If you want to die your old man here can strike you dead with one swing of this whip!”
And his whip was out, a steel thirteen-sectioned Thunder God Whip that had been hanging by the saddle.
The other six riders also reined in one after another. One of them raised his voice and said, “Third Bro, don’t be rash.”
“Second Bro, don’t worry, I’m just venting at him, threatening him a bit. I’m saving my energy for really having it out with Sun Yu!”
Was that “Thunder Whip” Cui Qun? He laughed loudly and put away his whip.
Behind him “Miracle Hands” Yu Qian cupped a hand over his fist and greeted Liu Zhanqin. “I’m Yu Qian, if we have offended you, friend, please pardon us!”
Yu Qian really had a sense of propriety in dealing with others. He said a few words in brief explanation, then spurred his horse and left with the other five who were following him.
Liu Zhanqin stood in the street in a daze, not making a sound, as if he had not heard him, but as Yu Qian and the others passed by his eyes gleamed.
Yu Qian and the others turned down the street corner and he flashed to the wall, shrugged his shoulders, and dashed up onto the wall and chased after the seven riders!
The night was even deeper…
The silk threads spit out, the wax candle extinguished.
Endless night, candle burned out, not able to weep for people until morning.
With no candlelight it ought to be pitch black, but the main hall of the Shen household was lit bright as day.
Shen Shengyi had kindled fires in several places.
Using fire was a simple and effective method. Fire could also burn everything, but he didn’t know, could fire burn up the grudge in his heart?
Shen Shengyi didn’t know and didn’t care. He shouldered his bundle, both his swords, and stood woodenly with his back to the door in the middle of the main hall, blankly watching the newly started flames spread. Once the flames were raging, he left.
Where was he going?
He didn’t know and didn’t care.
Flames reflected off his face, but in the flames his face was still as pale as before. His face showed no expression.
Tongues of flame licked out and spat crackling, danced and fluttered!
Shen Shengyi’s dull eyes suddenly flashed and his posture changed!
A whizzing flying dart at the same time passed by his shoulder and nailed to a wooden pillar. There was a white handkerchief pierced through the dart, and in the slanting reflection of the flames, he could clearly read the words written on it.
“Shen Shengyi is Sun Yu!”
Shen Shengyi recognized who wrote those words, and he knew who had thrown the dart!
To throw a dart so accurately and forcefully with a handkerchief pierced through it was something he knew only one person could do!
He laughed coldly and both arms went up and the two swords on his back were drawn at once. One flew up and stuck into the roofbeam over head, the other went down and stuck into the floor three spans behind him.
This one was the one he had used to kill for the past five years, stained with blood and steeped in hate, his silver sword!
Both swords flung, he stood with his back to the door as before.
Instantly there were several crashes and seven people filtered through the windows and stole in through the doors!
“Shen Shengyi!” one of them said in a low, even voice. “Sun Yu!”
“Miracle Hands Yu Qian!” Shen Shengyi didn’t even turn to look.
“you have a good memory, but mine’s not bad either!”
“You still remember the sound of my voice?”
“How could I forget?”
“Still recognize the silver sword in the ground?”
“My eyes still work.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
“I want to ask you two things!”
“The first thing.”
“You killed my Big Brother Xiang, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“A brave man!”
“The second thing.”
“The one behind it, who was it?”
“Pan Yu and Shu Mei.”
“Just as I suspected. Many thanks!”
After saying thanks he said nothing else.
Fires were burning, the flames were rising!
With a wild scream a person soared into the air almost two staves, waved his hand, and a chain sickle cut down!
A chain sickle could be used for close range fighting, and at a distance it could take off an enemy’s head, it was suitable for short and long distances, good at hard and soft at once, the most difficult to deal with and one of the most difficult of the unconventional weapons to use.
Anyone who could use a chain sickle was a masterhand. This person was certainly a masterhand. The sickle cutting through the air was the essence of the chain sickle.
Just too bad he was facing a master among masters!
Before the blade struck, Shen Shengyi met it head on, left hand exploding out and grabbed hold of the sickle hilt and chain together!
Such a nimble left hand, such a formidable left hand!
His body was lively as well. He turned back and reached back with his right hand and pulled the silver sword from the ground and slashed it out at an angle.
The chain sickle master knew he was in trouble but he was too late in letting go and so was pulled into a tumble in midair. From the corner of his eye he glimpsed sword light and was terror-stricken and involuntarily cried out in alarm. Before his cry was finished the sword light had cut open his chest!
Blood rained down and sprayed out, and the man fell.
Shen Shengyi’s left hand still had not let go. He jerked and the stolen chain sickle swept low and out across the floor.
Two blades also stuck close to the floor and rolled cutting toward him.
These two saw Shen Shengyi was still far away when suddenly the chain sickle swept fiercely before them and they turned pale with fright! With a clang the sabre close to the ground in the hand of the man on the left was knocked away and the throat of the man on the right met the sickle blade.
Blood sprayed!
The chain sickle curled back amidst the blood.
The one on the left reached to take back his sabre when he felt a tightness around his waist. The chain sickle had come back and wrapped around his midsection!
Shen Shengyi immediately retracted the sickle.
Man and sickle flew together through the air and behind Shen Shengyi.
A red-tasseled spear was just stabbing at Shen Shengyi from behind.
The red tassel danced in the air, the spear coming at him like a rainbow.
With a squishing sound the red tassel was stained with blood and became even redder, and the shiny spear tip sunk into a body.
Divine Spear the Thirteenth was wild with joy, but his smiling mood had not yet blossomed in his eyes when an alarmed cry escaped his mouth.
The spear hadn’t stabbed Shen Shengyi.
Shen Shengyi was sneering, letting go with his left hand.
The chain sickle was wrapped around the man, but the man was now a corpse, of no use any longer, nor was the sickle, so of course he let go of it!
His right hand though gripped his sword tight and he flew with it. This time it was him, too bad Divine Spear the Thirteenth’s tasseled spear had no chance to be pulled out and to strike!
It was too late for him to think carefully, he released his grip, abandoned the spear, and backed away quickly.
Divine Spear the Thirteenth’s lightness skill seemed pretty good, backing away two staves, when suddenly he cried out and fell on his back, a stream of blood jetting out from between his eyes like an arrow.
Seemed Shen Shengyi’s sword was even quicker!
Shen Shengyi’s right hand was quicker, stronger, Divine Spear the Thirteenth was too late, his tasseled spear was pulled out in one fell swoop by Shen Shengyi’s left hand.
He pulled up the spear in his hand and suddenly throw it backwards! Behind him came a savage scream and two sharp axes flew out amidst the savage scream and clanged to the ground before they reached Shen Shengyi.
Dual Mountain Cleaving Axe Ma the Sixth was really not this inept, too bad his dual axes hadn’t been flown out before Shen Shengyi backhanded threw the tasseled spear and pierced his heart!
Blood soaked through the red tassel, making it even redder!
Thunder Whip Cui Qun’s eyes seemed much redder. He roared and pounced, whip lashing out wildly.
The Thunder Whip was worthy of the name, it came on fast and fierce, relentless!
If Shen Shengyi could still choose he would by no means meet it head on, but it really was beyond his control.
He had to meet it with a stroke of his sword!
An overwhelming thunderclap! A huge shock and the silver sword flew out of his hand and into the air! Shen Shengyi’s tall, think frame shot up at the same time, left hand reaching out and grabbing the sword stuck in the roofbeam overhead.
He landed and the sword landed. Shen Shengyi’s left hand wielding as sword was of course nothing to trifle with!
Cui Qun’s second strike came.
Whip and sword clashed. The force was astonishing!
The sword snapped at the sound and Shen Shengyi was in the air again, suddenly howling, the broken sword was flung at where Cui Qun’s right hand was grasping and he just happened to grab hold of the silver sword as it was falling. He pushed off with his back and knees and his tall, thin frame turned back and he and sword flew toward Cui Qun!
The third sword stroke!
Cui Qun wasn’t slow, his third whip strike was coming and smacked Shen Shengyi’s broken sword away without a trace!
Too bad this wasn’t Shen Shengyi’s third sword stroke. For Shen Shengyi’s third stroke, this time the silver sword went with him tumbling through the air.
Whip strike, two strikes, three strikes, all his effort expended, before a second wind could be roused, Cui Qun’s fourth strike would not be coming for a second no matter what!
Sword light, man’s shadow, blood spraying out!
Cui Qun fell, bathed in blood. Actually this all happened in a split second, it was too fast, “Miracle Hands: Yu Qian has his projectiles but could find no chance to use them, he was too late to throw them!
The corners of Yu Qian’s eyes split and he cried out in grief, hands coming up in unison, finally releasing his projectiles!
They exploded through the air, the air filled with flashing cold stars!
“Miracle Hands” was really a deserved name!
One throw, three silver shuttles, for throwing knives, five white wolf nails, six air-piercing darts, and seven fling arrows!
It was really unknown how he could manage to throw five different kinds of weapons with one throw, all of them differently shaped concealed projectiles.
These five kinds of projectiles seemed to be coming all at once.
Shen Shengyi was not about to try and block them. He stuck to the floor and quickly rolled out of the way. The spot on the floor where he had been was instantly nailed with glittering projectiles!
Yu Qian’s cry of grief had not died out when he threw another handful!
Shen Shengyi bounced up off the floor, sword light flying, closely binding around his tall, thin frame.
Cols stars and sword light twinkled again and again among the raging flames.
Shen Shengyi’s clothes were torn, torn again, and again, who knew how many rips were put in his clothes!
With a tear his left shoulder was suddenly bleeding, a silver shuttle ripping past and opening him up. He instantly scurried behind a pillar in the main hall. The projectiles were not done coming, they continued to nail into the pillar!
Yu Qian stopped and hollered in a stern voice, “Shen Shengyi, come out!”
Shen Shengyi unexpectedly did scurry out!
The back part of the main hall was nearly a sea of fire, and a burning roofbeam fell down, no wonder he scurried out!
Yu Qian wasn’t expected it though, so he was slow with his hands and Shen Shengyi was already scurrying toward a square table.
“Where are you going!” Yu Qian roared and his hands danced wildly.
For a time cold awns of light flashed violently as projectiles flew about haphazardly.
Yu Qian had never in his life thrown so swift and fierce and relentlessly!
No matter where Shen Shengyi moved it was hard to avoid the intercepting projectiles.
Too bad Shen Shengyi didn’t move anymore, he just crouched down and scurried under the table!
A roofbeam fell with a deafening boom and flames licked upward.
An earthshaking crash and Shen Shengyi flew up, along with the table, and charged at Yu Qian!
Thunk thunk thunk thunk projectiles slammed into the tabletop.
The tabletop flew fast and collided with Yu Qian.
A cry of alarm, a muffled grunt, both rose, the tabletop, the man, both flying!
Yu Qian collided and was flung seven spans before slamming into the window lattice and went sailing along with the window lattice outside the hall.
Shen Shengyi straightened up from behind the table, and with a flourish of his left hand a ray of cold light struck out like lightning.
This was Shen Shengyi’s third stroke, the dagger!
Xiang Zulou had died by this dagger.
Everyone this dagger killed was a famous person! Yu Qian wasn’t being insulted by dying under this dagger’s blade!
As soon as he fell out the window the dagger was lodged in his heart, sunk to the hilt!
“Good move!” Yu Qian cried out and fell.
When even a grandmaster of concealed projectiles uttered praise you knew it really was a good move!
Shen Shengyi continued on through the window.
“Many thanks!” He had heard Yu Qian’s praise and did not forget to thank him, only his thanks could not be heard by Yu Qian no matter what.
A few more roofbeams fell in the main hall and chips of rooftile rained down, all with a deafening boom lingering in one’s ears, a terrifying sound.
Flames had reached the roof, the blaze turning the sky red for a long time.
Shen Shengyi’s eyes sparkled among the raging flames, sparkling tears!
The sky gradually lightened and morning fog blurred the bamboo grove.
This bamboo grove stretched for ten miles, no willow branches swaying, no flower shadows mingling, and no swallows twittering, just stalk after talk of towering bamboo.
The bamboo leaves were dark green and glistening, a stretch of dark green boundless as far as the eye could see.
And only in spring could one see such a sight.
Although it was not an idyllic scene, the spring scenery of the bamboo grove was as intoxicating as wine.
Staying amidst such spring scenery, who could resist rolling in the grass a couple times?
Shen Shengyi was an exception, he just slept on the grass, slept soundly. The corners of his mouth were hung in the trace of a bleak smile; he was definitely not having a sweet dream.
Or else he would have woken up already.
Good dreams are always the easiest to wake up from.
His face was stained with several drops of water. Were they dewdrops or teardrops?
The morning fog was more dreary and hazy.
A gust of wind blew by, rustling up waves of bamboo.
The wind blew the sound of a dog barking.
The barking was getting more and more urgent.
I golf fur hound came barreling into the bamboo grove.
The barking was more urgent, and suddenly it combined with a shrill wail reverberating through the treetops.
The golf fur hound surged up into the sky and came down. The barking abruptly cut off.
Shen Shengyi slowly stood up from among the fog.
Silver sword drawn, swordtip dripping blood.
Another rustling of the waves of bamboo.
This gust of wind carried with it the sound of a flute.
The flute notes drifted around, as if in the east, now in the west, vaguely ahead, now faintly behind.
The tune was Touching Red Lips.
Shen Shengyi recognized it as soon as he heard it, the same tune, the same flute sound. This was the third time he’d heard it.
This time the flute sounded more somber.
Another gust of wind, the flute playing Muddled River Dragon and then Sixes, and it was closer now.
Shen Shengyi took half a step to the side and looked to the left.
The flute was coming precisely from the left.
It changed to Rear Courtyard Blossoms, and the flutist finally appeared in the fog.
Liu Zhanqin!
At about the same time, two figures also spread out to either side of Shen Shengyi, appearing about three staves behind him.
The one on the left was short, redfaced like a spurt of blood, clothes the same, a longblade sabre sheathed to the hilt aslant on his waist before him, the back of the blade fixed with seven gold rings that clinked, enough to intimidate the soul.
The one on the right was unusually lanky, and he wore a Fanyang dustcover widebrimmed hat3 and a gray cloth robe, and even his face was gray and gloomy. Before his chest hung crisscrossed a pair of unconventional weapons, sun and moon lockheart wheels!
With the appearance of these two, there was an added murderous aura within the bamboo grove.
These two were indeed unusual.
Liu Zhanqin had always relied on his able assistant “Soul Summoner Blade” Zeng Kui. “Lockheart Wheels” Meng Sun was also no commoner!
The three of them stopped walking at the same time.
The tone turned deadly, the sound of the flute lingering and vanishing beyond the heavens. Liu Zhanqin’s hands tightened and his jade flute snapped neatly in two!
“My intimate soulmate is gone, there’s no one else who understands me. Who is left for me to let hear my flute, what use is it?”
He gave a wan smile and tossed the broken flute away and looked intently at Shen Shengyi.
“If I had given you a clear account of things earlier, if you had revealed your identity earlier, this all might not have happened. Was it your fault? Or mine?”
“So what if it was your fault? So what if it was mine?”
“Well said, well said. Right here, right now, your’s, mine, it’s all the same.” Liu Zhanqin threw his head back and heaved a long sigh. “Heaven, Heaven! Why must you play with him so, play with me so?”
Shen Shengyi also sighed inwardly.
Liu Zhanqin’s gaze suddenly fell, became more grieved. “The note Yu Qian and Cui Qun received was something I sent them.”
“I know your handwriting well.”
“They really did tie you up.”
“I know your intention.”
“Of course they wouldn’t disappoint me.”
“You think so?”
“At the very least I’ve found you now. If the battle hadn’t been so intensely violent, how would I not have found you till now?”
Shen Shengyi laughed coldly. “They didn’t give me too much trouble, or waste too much of my time.”
“Oh!” How could Liu Zhanqin believe that?
“I’ve been waiting here for you. Two double-hours ago I was already here, and I’ve slept a good two double-hours or more.”
“So you are still able to sleep?” Liu Zhanqin’s expression now changed.
“I can still eat too.” Shen Shengyi turns out had been storing his energy waiting here.
Liu Zhanqin’s expression was becoming more unsightly.
“It’s called waiting idly for an exhausted enemy.” Shen Shengyi stretched his back. “I know you’ve been running around all night, no drool on your lips; you haven’t slept for some time.”
“I can still hold out!” Liu Zhanqin’s expression turned suddenly to complacence. “And I’ve gotten ‘Soul Summoner Blade’ Zeng Sun and ‘Lockheart Wheels’ Meng Kui for you.”
“I know them. Of course you will let them attack first.”
“Of course I will!”
“I just don’t know if they will give their lives for you?”
“As long as your money is still on you they will.”
“And if it’s not?”
“I’ll kill you all the same!” Zeng Sun suddenly interjected.
“It’s just better if there’s money also!” Meng Kui was still sneering.
With Shen Shengyi still around, the two of them didn’t know how much business they would lose. They’d long wanted to pull this splinter from their eye.
Liu Zhanqin clapped and laughed loudly. “Did you hear that?”
Shen Shengyi laughed coldly but said nothing else.
Liu Zhanqin had nothing left to say either.
The bamboo grove was returned to silence, the murderous aura more intense.
The fog was thicker. Was this the fog of the murderous atmosphere?
Two swallows shot through the grove, one heading west, the other heading east.
Sabre light appeared and smashed through the air in a cascade.
The western flying swallow was cut in two by the sabre light!
At the same time the sun and moon wheels flew out together and the eastern flying swallow was sliced into three pieces by the frosty snowlike lights of the wheels!
Bellows erupted from the east and west and ripped through the silent bamboo grove like two devil’s hands.
Zeng Sun and Meng Kui set off amidst their shouts, one flying from the east, one from the west toward Shen Shengyi.
Swish swish swish swish the bamboo in their way was hacked away and fell down in a jumble rustling.
Blade arrived, sun and moon wheels arrived!
Shen Shengyi’s tall and thin frame shot up into the air amidst the blue of blade and wheels. He reached out with his left hand and grabbed hold of a bamboo and hung suspended in the air.
Meng Kui shouted “okay” and the sun and moon wheels parted and cut off the bamboo, which fell.
Shen Shengyi didn’t fall. He let go and still in the air shot to a second bamboo.
Zeng Sun laughed wildly and sabre light flashed and the second bamboo was cut in two.
Shen Shengyi flew toward a third bamboo. The third bamboo was cut in to by a ray of sabre light.
A fourth bamboo, fifth… seventh!
Crash! The seventh bamboo was cut in two by the sabre light.
Meng Kui took a big stride forward and scurried over to the eight bamboo, just waiting for Shen Shengyi to get there so he could cut it down.
Shen Shengyi didn’t flit over to the eighth bamboo! His tall and thin frame abruptly flipped over and he went headfirst with his sword suddenly coming down in a torrent!
The silver sword stuck like lightning!
Zeng Sun had not yet pulled back his sabre from cutting down the bamboo when the silver sword ran through his back and punched through his heart and out!
Blood shot out like an arrow.
A savage cry erupted and a cry of alarm as Meng Kui turned and came back, sun and moon wheels racing toward Shen Shengyi!
Bloody light flashed and the sun and moon wheels entered flesh together.
Shen Shengyi instantly had pulled Zeng Sun’s body over to block the racing sun and moon wheels, the silver sword in his right palm instantly pulling out and stabbing.
The ice-cold tip of the sword went straight through Meng Kui’s throat.
Such a fast stroke!
A figure also instantly closed in at an angle!
Liu Zhanqin! He had been standing by waiting. Now he took this opportunity, timed it right!
His left palm turned and firmly grasped Shen Shengyi’s silver sword, right palm at the same time slamming toward Shen Shengyi’s chest!
His Metal-Breaking Hand was indeed incredible!
The silver sword snapped!
Liu Zhanqin’s right palm also nearly slammed into Shen Shengyi’s chest!
Suddenly the muscles of his face twitched and his legs lost their footing, and his right palm which couldn’t miss nevertheless did miss!
A blade was nailed to his chest!
Shen Shengyi’s third stroke, the dagger!
“Left-hand sword, I forgot about the sword in your left hand!” Liu Zhanqin’s right knee buckled and he knelt on the ground.
Shen Shengyi wore a look of sympathy in his eyes.
“If you had had the nerve to face reality like this earlier, then so much blood would not have been spilled this time. Of the three of us one would have to suffer for sure, but the other two could have lived happily ever after!”
This was truly what was in Shen Shengyi’s heart.
Love could not necessarily be possessed, he understood that.
He didn’t know if Liu Zhanqin had heard him or not. He was kneeling on the ground, no sound, no movement.
Suddenly, his left hand waved and a ray of cold light flew out and passed by Shen Shengyi’s neck and nailed to stalk of bamboo.
This was the tip of the silver sword broken by his Metal-Breaking Hand.
“If you had said that a moment later, that broken sword would definitely have stuck in your throat!” Liu Zhanqin slowly raised his head, his gradually clouding eyes twinkling with a strange light.
Liu Zhanqin wasn’t boasting. The broken sword had taken Shen Shengyi by surprise and really could have lodged in his throat.
Shen Shengyi believed it and was struck dumb on the spot.
“That’s enough of our old grudges, why add more? There’s already blood everywhere, why shed more…” Liu Zhanqin laughed loudly and shot up and sprinted off madly. He only made it a few steps when he suddenly fell, holding onto a stem of bamboo as he slid down.
This time he would not, would not ever get back up.
Shen Shengyi suddenly broke out into wild laughter, and as he laughed he threw the piece of broken sword in his hand and without looking back he strode away.
The sword stuck in the earth was broken. And his grudge?
Ah, a grudge is hard to dispel!
THE END
