Chapter 6
Waylaid
Nangong Xue was stunned.
—What was that guy doing there? And at this time?
Nangong Xue watched him, puzzled, and pushed off with her knee and gracefully floated up to the roof.
“Nice lightness skill.”
Lucky actually wasn’t sitting there but reclining against the ridge of the roof with his hands pillowed behind his head, one foot propped on the other, gently shaking his foot. Beside him was a fragrant, unsealed jug of bambooleaf green wine. He regarded Nangong Xue leisurely and said casually, “So you’re a night owl like me, don’t like sleeping at night.”
Nangong Xue slowly walked over to him and looked at him coldly, then said coldly, “What are you doing here?”
“Drinking,” Lucky said, grinning. “Don’t you see this jug of wine next to me?”
Nangong Xue of course saw it, and she also saw some stewed meat on oilpaper next the wine jug, but she didn’t believe for a second that he was just up here drinking in during the middle of the third watch.
“Well? Want a drink? I’m not a stingy person.” He cupped the jug and took a couple chugs and grabbed a chicken wing and took a big bite. “Relax, I promise it’s not poisoned.”
Nangong Xue didn’t like drinking, and even if she did she wouldn’t want to drink at a time like this. She still had a sword in her hand, poised to strike at any moment. Clearly she was on her guard against Lucky. “Just who are you?”
“Lucky,” he said, grinning cheekily. “Didn’t you call me Lucky?”
“Cut the act!” Nangong Xue found him so annoying.
“Strange, if you’re not being cold to me you’re being mean.” Lucky frowned. Does a woman like you really not have any manners at all?”
That stopped her in her tracks. Nangong Xue of course was not an uneducated woman. Reproached like that, her tone involuntarily lightened. “Let me ask you, were those masked people just now sent by you to kill me?”
Lucky was taken aback. “After all that you come out with such a stupid question. If I wanted to kill you, wouldn’t you have died a while ago?”
Yes, if he wanted to kill Nangong Xue, he could have killed her with a single palm strike that night. Wasn’t her question really dumb?”
She stood their dumbstruck, wanting to say something but not knowing what. Suddenly she saw Lucky with his eyes fixed on her and realized that she was not wearing an upper garment, just a thin pink gauze bandeau, because when the masked men assailed her she hadn’t had time to put on clothes. Then there was the fight and she forgot all about it.
Nangong Xue’s fair cheeks flushed into pink clouds and she quickly lowered her head and leapt off the roof and ran inside her room…
By the time she got some clothes on she still felt as flustered as a fawn.
That night, she tossed and turned until the cock crowed at the fifth watch before finally drifting off to sleep…
X X X
On the morning of the tenth there was not a cloud in the sky, and before the hour of the snake arrived it was already hot enough to make you want to strip down and jump in the water.
Right now Nangong Xue was trying hard to convince and old woman in a narrow lane to let her stay here until the fifteenth of the month.
Early in the morning she had checked out of East Wind Inn and had taken a double-hour to find this place.
Now this house was the simplest, crudest in the dark alley, constructed of just thin earthen walls, the thatching on the roof giving off a mildewy smell. This house without a single brick or tile to it was not one you would expect to be comfortable living.
Especially since the only owner was a wrinkly old woman who was if not 100 years old at least 99. The real headache was that no matter if you spoke to her or she spoke to you, only about two sentences in ten could be heard.
Such an old, hard of hearing, mumbling old woman was not likely to be a good host with good service.
However, Nangong Xue needed to stay here.
Was she really so poor that she had to live in this small, cramped, damp, and dark house that was not even as good as a pigeon cage?
Of course not. When her poor mother, who lived a life of prostitution, had died ten years ago, she came into a considerable fortune, plus her master left her some money before he died three years ago, enough for her to live on the rest of her life. Though she wasn’t a rich merchant or a business tycoon, but she was absolutely not a common pauper either.
—So then, why did she need to stay in this rundown house in this narrow alley?
Naturally there was a reason. Ever since word of the duel between Silver Sabre and Nangong Xue began to spread, Nangong Xue had not had a day of peace. Nearly every day, busybodies came to the inn vying to see what she looked like, and every time she left the inn there would be countless pairs of eyeballs gawking at her in curiosity, amazement, praise, envy, and admiration, even ill-intentioned looks shot at her, and she faintly heard people discussing her in whispered voices.
She discovered that she had become a freak in the span of a night—like a freak with two heads and three legs.
Turns out becoming famous could be so bafflingly annoying.
Even worse was she still didn’t know why assassins kept coming for her.
So she found a place no one would believe she would ever stay in.
She needed a quiet place, until the day of the full moon on the fifteenth.
Brow beaded with sweat, she finally managed to come to an agreement with the old woman for food and lodging at a rate of two taels of silver a day.
She instead gave her a big ingot worth twenty taels of silver.
After eating the worst lunch she ever had to choke down, she was going to take an afternoon nap, but the room was as hot as a food steamer, so she just hired a carriage and went straight to Eighth Grand Heir Bluff out in the countryside south of the city.
Eighth Grand Heir Bluff was said to be where the eighth son of a former majestic thearch, liked to go practice martial arts, thus the name.
Nangong Xue knew of the place but had never been there. Now she went to get familiar with the place.
For any important battle, the weather, lay of the land, and human unity were all very important.
X X X
The setting sun hung low, the time when weary birds returned to the nest, and Nangong Xue was also on her way back.
Nangong Xue was sitting in the speeding horse carriage resting her eyes when she suddenly heard the horse neigh loudly and the galloping carriage came to an abrupt halt.
She promptly opened the window and asked the driver, “What is it?”
Before the driver had time to respond, she already knew what was going on—in the road up ahead were four big burly men with swords and sabres blocking the road.
These days, highway robbers were a common occurrence. It was a strange day when it didn’t occur.
So Nangong Xue was not at all alarmed as she jumped down out of the carriage. This was not the first time she’d experienced this.
“I have money if you want it, but you’ll need skill to be able to come and get it,” Nangong Xue said, sweeping a cold eye across them.
“Are you Nangong Xue?” said the tallest of them, his nose especially prominent.
Nangong Xue looked at him in astonishment. “Who are you?”
Bignose glared at her coldly. “Yes? Or no?”
“What is I am? What if I’m not?” Nangong Xue hmphed.
Beside him, a man a bald head shorter than Bignose and wearing a patterned gown way to big for him took a step forward and in an unpleasantly sharp voice said, “If so, then draw your sword. If not, then get the hell out of here.”
Clearly they weren’t here to rob, but were just here for Nangong Xue.
Nangong Xue naturally felt this was odd. “Do I have some animosity with you?”
“No,” said a man standing on the far left with a fierce look on his face. He opened his unusually big mouth and his voice was unusually loud, “This is the last time we’ll tell you, draw your sword!”
As he spoke he drew the four-span, two-fingerwidth long sword from his hip and sprang at Nangong Xue!
Regardless of his drawing his sword or springing, his big mouth was to the point and didn’t mess around.
This kind of person would of course be no ordinary martial artist. His rapidly swirling sword unleashed a number of sword flourishes, and before she knew it it was at the top of Nangong Xue’s head!
If you didn’t look closely it would be hard to notice Nangong Xue’s sword wrapped around her waist. Her sword was special, only a little over a span from hilt to tip, somewhat like a dagger. The blade was very flat with an extremely thin edge, and it was flexible and bendy, like a belt around her slim waist.
There was a distinct advantage to wearing a sword like this, which was that it was much easier to draw than a regular longsword.
Nangong Xue’s hand was already gripped around the hilt of the refined Burmese steel, fishgut-sword-like dagger.1 Bigmouth’s sword was met by this special short sword with a faint clang of weapons colliding.
Bigmouth’s assault kept coming, his hand raised and the sword dropped, unleashing five moves with thirteen variations in the blink of an eye.
Such swift movement, such swift swordplay.
Too bad Nangong Xue was swifter. As soon as Bigmouth completed his five moves in thirteen variations, the tip of Nangong Xue’s sword was pointing straight at Bigmouth’s throat!
Bigmouth had used all his moves and had no room to dodge.
“Nangong Xue, let me play with you!”
With everything hanging by a thread, the bald man broke in with a slanted stab of his sabre.
Nangong Xue had to turn and deal with Baldy.
Baldy’s sabre moved with him, attacking like an overwhelming landslide, clearly a notch better than the now resting Bigmouth.
But Nangong Xue still easily made his sabre miss, the sword in her hand stabbing at Baldy’s heart from an extremely weird angle.
It seemed like an ordinary thrust, but Baldy’s face paled.
He realized there was nothing he could do to save himself or change his circumstances but to watch Nangong Xue’s cunning sword stab into his heart.
Fortunately, the big man with the prominent nose roared and pounced in.
“Foul whore, see how Big Daddy plays with you?”
As he bellowed, the pair of hookswords in his hands thrust top and bottom at Nangong Xue’s upper and lower body.
Nangong Xue turned to avoid them, twisting her waist and fluttering over two staves away like a wisp of smoke. In the meantime, Baldy retreated to the side, flustered and frustrated, an intense look of panic still on his face—he had just circled back from the gates of hell.
By the looks of it, the four men’s martial arts was each better than the last. Bignose’s martial arts was who knows how many times stronger than Bigmouth’s and Baldy’s. His huge body was like a ball of wispy catkins sweeping toward Nangong Xue!
Bignose calling her a “foul whore” had stirred deep murderous intent in Nangong Xue. She hated nothing more than men calling woman that. She decided to to stab to death this foul man with one sword thrust!
Sure enough, even though Bignose’s hookswords danced aggressively, the cream of perfection, but they still couldn’t touch even a thread of Nangong Xue’s clothes. Nangong Xue’s svelte body whirled around and suddenly soared into the air. Just then, a length of glittering, glossy black knife point stuck out from the sole of her splendid, fascinating embroidered shoes and terrifyingly stabbed at Bignose’s groin!
This was a reprehensible underhanded kungfu.
Bignose never dreamed such a dainty, flowerlike Nangong Xue would use such a sinister, low-class martial arts. He bawled and awkwardly pulled back sharply.
—Every man is afraid of injuring his groin.
But Nangong Xue’s true aim was not here. The short sword in her hand was the true fatal weapon. It was aimed at Bignose’s heart and thrusting at him so fast he was scared out of his wits! Bignose howled and retreated violently, the hookswords in his hands flailing wildly, but Nangong Xue’s sword was like a demonic spirit—it was still aimed square at his heart.
Just then, another man, who was wearing a gray gown and up to now had said nothing, suddenly bellowed, “Don’t hurt him!”
Those three short words and he unimaginably has closed in on Nangong Xue.
This time, Nangong Xue correctly calculated that the graygowned man would suddenly attack, and she knew his martial arts was the greatest of the four, so as she attacked Bignose all out, she was actually already on guard against the graygowned man.
Graygown’s martial arts truly was extraordinary. A large curved sabre swept a sheet of strong forcewind screaming at Nangong Xue’s waist.
Coldly sneering, Nangong Xue’s eyelids fluttered slightly and her graceful, arousing body suddenly coiled like a snake and unbelievably did eighteen somersaults in the air!
—This was the martial world’s generally acknowledged most difficult, supreme martial art, “Eighteen Slanting Drizzle Flips”!
Everyone was stunned.
Graygown’s entire attack came up empty.
Bignose’s heart was still being aimed at by Nangong Xue’s short sword.
The tip of his big, towering nose dripped sweat as big as beans as Bignose watched helplessly as the blade as thin as cicada wings stabbed into his heart!
He actually didn’t feel any pain at all. He just saw a stream of rose-red blood shoot out like water from a leaking water vat when Nangong Xue pulled the sword out!
As Bignose took the last gulp of air of his life, he finally comprehended two facts:
—Not every woman could just let a man trifle with her.
—Turns out that truly excellent swordplay does not cause any pain at all to the victim.
He really didn’t respect women enough.
He really thought too much of his own swordplay.
Too bad he grasped all this too late. He would never have the chance to repent.
Nangong Xue’s face was expressionless, the blade of her sword slowly dripping blood. No one knew then what she was thinking. She might have been thinking: women are definitely not weaklings.
Were women weaklings? If you asked the other three men, of course not. Though they all wore angry expressions right now, there was also dejection there. They knew better than anyone that even if the three of them teamed up, the end result would be the same as Bignose—they’d become leaking water vats.
There was forever just one truth in the jianghu—The victor is king, the loser is a marauder.2 The three men carried Bignose’s body and left quietly—the loser had no right to say anything.
Nangong Xue didn’t try to stop them, she didn’t need to. The one who became king wouldn’t go chasing down marauders. The footfalls of night unwittingly arrived.
