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Chapter 1
Blood Stains Rivers & Lakes Loft
Roaming the jianghu for twenty years.
Invincible throughout the land.
These ten words were spoken by King Wu in Rivers & Lakes (jianghu) Loft.
He not only said it, he used his finger and “wrote” those two lines on the stone wall of Rivers & Lakes Loft.
His calligraphy was bold and strong, what was called a forceful style that penetrates three tenths of a fingerwidth into wood.
But King Wu’s ten words went a full fingerwidth into the stone.
X X X
Rivers & Lakes Loft had rivers and lakes in its name, but there were no rivers here and no lakes.
Rivers & Lakes Loft was near the mountains.
Mount Huang.
Mount Huang was also called The Yellow (Huang) Marchmount.
Mount Huang had thirty-six peaks, the most precipitous and most imposing was called Lotus Peak.
Rivers & Lakes Loft was at the foot of Lotus Peak.
At the foot of Lotus Peak was Lotus Village which specialized in brewing Fragrant Lotus Dew. It was the villagers’ most proudest, finest brew.
This wine was singularly fragrant.
But an original fragrance, strongly aromatic.
Even those who didn’t want to drink wine wanted to down a cup of this fine brew.
Of course Rivers & Lakes Loft served wine.
But for several decades now it had only sold one kind of wine.
—Fragrant Lotus Dew.
X X X
The biggest attraction to Rivers & Lakes Loft, aside from the Fragrant Lotus Dew, was its Lotus-stewed Duck.
These ducks weren’t plump, but there was a lot of glistening meat, and steaming on its plate on the table, when you put it in your mouth you almost didn’t even have to chew the way it melted in your mouth, so sweet and savory.
It was said that it was best to take your time and drink Fragrant Lotus Dew and enjoy Lotus-stewed Duck in Rivers & Lakes Loft’s Lotus Parlor.
Lotus Parlor was Rivers & Lakes Loft’s most spacious, most lavishly decorated dining room.
But the local villagers wouldn’t dare go to this dining room to enjoy a meal even if they found a gold ingot in the street.
Because the banquets served in the Lotus Parlor were frighteningly expensive. If you weren’t rich there was no way you could afford it.
Today, someone had reserved the Lotus Parlor.
The person who made the reservation was a rednosed, baldheaded, graybearded, old man in a teal robe and shouldering a tattered cloth bundle.
X X X
Strong aroma of wine.
“Fragrant Lotus Dew truly is an excellent wine!” The teal-garbed oldster praised over and over as he drank.
After downing a few cups, the Lotus-stewed Duck was presented.
The wine smelled good, the duck also smelled good.
Too bad this teal-garbed oldster was “too skilled”.
The stench he gave off actually masked the aroma of these two fragrant items!
X X X
The waiter carrying the stewed duck withdrew at once.
Withdrew pinching his nose.
He couldn’t stand it.
How could this old rotten egg smell so bad?
“Damn!” the waiter cursed too himself who knows how many times, but he kept his face all smiles.
The teal-garbed oldster was old and smelly, but what he had was silver.
He’d already paid the bill.
He had been frank with the mister shopkeeper, “If this old fellow doesn’t put down a bit of silver, you all will think this old fellow is trying to eat and drink for free.”
The shopkeeper emphatically denied it, but to himself that’s just what he had been thinking.
Once the teal-garbed oldster put fifty taels of silver on the counter though, no one had any more thoughts of him being a pauper.
At taverns, brothels, and gambling dens, those with money are Big Daddies. You could be some strange creature emerged from a manure pit, but if you had silver you’d definitely find see people delighted to greet you.
The teal-garbed oldster was smelly, but his silver wasn’t.
So he could drink Fragrant Lotus Dew and eat Lotus-stewed Duck in the Lotus Parlor.
“Ah!” The teal-garbed oldster propped his properly “smelly feet” up high and heaved a long sigh. “Goddamn that’s as nice as all get out!”
His many teeth were not idle while he said this, gnawing on a duck leg. Soon there was only a duck leg bone remaining.
On the east side of the Lotus Parlor there was a balcony.
Outside the balcony was a stone wall, and it was on this wall that King Wu “wrote” his ten words.
The teal-garbed oldster suddenly tossed his duck leg bone aside.
It looked like a casual toss but actually it flew like a sharp arrow aimed directly at the the stone wall.
Thunk.
The duckleg bone really was like a sharp arrow, lodging itself deep into the stone wall.
The waiter standing off to the side saw it clearly.
“Whoah!” A startled chill ran through him. “What kind of amazing skill is that?”
The teal-garbed oldster seemed completely unaware that the duckleg bone was nailed into the stone wall and began eating a wing.
He was getting more and more into his eating.
The bones left over from every piece of duck he ate were not placed on the table.
Every one of those bones was nailed to the stone wall like some sort of sorcery.
The most shocking thing was that even the softest bones were shot into the stone wall just the same.
By the time the teal-garbed oldster had eaten the entire duck, twenty-eight duck bones were embedded into the stone wall.
They were embedded such that they formed a perfect square, completely surrounding King Wu’s ten words.
The waiter was dumbfounded.
His expression was the same as the day he saw King Wu use his finger to write those ten words.
X X X
Outside Rivers & Lakes Loft there was a slabstone road.
The road was broad enough to allow four horse carriages side by side.
But at that moment, the road suddenly became deserted.
Not to mention horse carriages, even the pedestrians had vanished.
Even if this street normally wasn’t all that bustling, at least there ought to be some pedestrians and peddlers.
But now there were not.
No pedestrians.
No vendors hawking their wares.
Because the street had been blocked off on both ends by large flags.
X X X
The sky was a swath of cerulean blue.
But the two big flags were black.
The flags were lacquer-black like the sky on a moonless, starless night.
In the middle of the flags was one word: “kill”.
The word was bright red.
X X X
Kill!
What a murderous word.
What a murderous flag.
Around here, dholes and wolves, tigers and leopards were not too frightening.
Most frightening was this black kill flag.
Because when the black kill flag appears, someone was going to die. Anyone who dared get close to the black kill flag met certain death.
X X X
The long street was quiet and still, like a ghost town.
Just then, one of the stones in the slabstone road suddenly lifted up slightly.
A crack showed under the slabstone and a pair of eyes appeared in the crack.
These eyes were big and round and they shifted from side to side, lively as anything.
The eyes inspected around for a while, then the slabstone slowly sank back down.
No one noticed this.
The two black-flag bearers didn’t see it either.
X X X
The two black flag flagbearers were highly ranked purplebelt killers of the Black Killer Gang.
Over the past twenty years the Black Killer Gang had become the greatest force in the dark path of the jianghu.
No one knew the origins of the Black Killer Gang.
It was like a huge python that had suddenly risen up, and it ate people and spit out the bones.
It was said that Black Killer Gang headquarters was on Mount Huang.
Ever since the gang’s abrupt rise, the Mount Huang School had suffered the worst disasters, had borne the brunt.
In the martial world of the Central Plains, the name Eight Daoists of Mount Huang resounded far and wide.
In addition to the Eight Daoists of Mount Huang, the Mount Huang School sectmaster, Daosenior Firenurture’s “Nine Transformations of the Mysterious Void Swordplay” was an even more unique martial art in the martial world.
However, the announcement of the destruction of Mount Huang School’s foundation occurred more of less simultaneously with the Black Killer Gang’s abrupt rise.
The Black Killer Gang and the Mount Huang School seemed to have a profound hatred for each other. As soon as the gang was established it immediately beat the Mount Huang School so bad it could no longer hold its head up.
The Mount Huang School may have been one of the major illustrious martial arts schools of the jianghu, but it was unable to ward off the Black Killer Gang’s merciless onslaught.
After this battle, the Mount Huang School would be in decline for over a century, but that is another topic and won’t be mentioned now.
But the Black Killer Gang’s flame of arrogance grew more and more.
Over the past twenty years the Black Killer Gang had established an immense force. Everyone frowned in worry at the mention of this gang.
The two black-flag bearers were purplebelt killers of the Black Killer Gang.
The Black Killer Gang had yellow, green, blue, purple, and black belts.
Those with a yellow belt around their waists were fifth rank warriors.
Those with green belts were fourth rank warriors.
Bluebelts were killers. They could travel and conduct business on their own. Their martial arts, though not of the first-rate finest, but they were brilliant second-rate talents.
As for those with purple belts around their waist, there were only five in the entire Black Killer Gang.
The black-flag bearers were two of them.
And the blackbelts?
Up to now, no one knew.
Not even the two black-flag bearers knew.
But they knew one thing. The Mount Huang School had been routed by the gang’s blackbelt protectors.
Mention the blackbelt protectors and everyone would feel a chill in their heart.
Even the purplebelt killer black-flag bearers were no exception.
On the west end of the street six black horses suddenly appeared.
At the same time, on the east end of the street, another six horses suddenly appeared.
Twelve black horses, twelve blackgarbed, goldcloaked bluebelt swordsmen advanced on Rivers & Lakes Loft from both ends of the street.
Two waves of a murderous aura pressed in on Rivers & Lakes Loft.
Besides the twelve black horses there were also two purplehaired gray horses bringing up the rear, one on the east, one on the west.1
The one on the west end had bushy brows, thick lips, and a pockmarked face.
He had a spear in his hand.
It was an iron spear, not lightweight, with a glossy raven-black shaft, but the speartip emitted a faint dark red bloody awn of light.
This person’s surname was Xu.
He was Blood Spear Xu Zuanming.
X X X
Xu Zuanming always used a spear. He liked to bore a hold through his enemy’s heart. He felt that was the most joyful thing there was.
In fact, he really was a joyful person, just too bad his heart wasn’t any good.
He not only liked killing people, he especially loved killing unarmed people.
Every time he saw someone struggling he felt that moment was the most joyfully satisfying moment of his life.
Yep, he really was joyful.
His joy was built on the suffering of others.
A person like this obviously didn’t have a good reputation in the jianghu.
But he didn’t care.
He had a spear move called “Scowling Coldly at a Thousand Pointing Fingers”.
Those seven words summed up his normal attitude.
X X X
One the east end of the street another person appeared. He was at least thirty years older than Xu Zuanming.
Upon first glance he looked like an old, infirm village hick.
No matter how you looked at him, he didn’t not seem at all like a man of the martial world, and really not like martial world masterhand.
He looked a lot like the teal-garbed oldster in the Lotus Parlor, only there was a trace of viciousness in his expression.
He too was one of the Black Killer Gang’s top hands.
This hick-like old man thirty years ago already held sway over the Liaodong area, the Sky Wolf Bandit Huangfu Ji.
X X X
Xu Zuanming was one of the Black Killer Gang’s blackbelt protectors.
Huangfu Ji was also a Black Killer Gang blackbelt protector.
These two evil stars of the jianghu appeared at the same time on this long street, no wonder not even a stray dog dared to cross it.
Still, who knew about the two mysterious people hiding under the street?
Who were they?
No one currently knew.
But everyone could feel the reek of blood beginning to waft through the air.
X X X
Fragrant Lotus Dew was an excellent wine, and the more the teal-garbed older drank it, the more he enjoyed it.
The wine was good, the duck was good as well. The only bad thing was that it suddenly started to rain outside.
Watching the rainy day scenery was one of life’s pleasures, what was bad about it?
Oh, no wonder the teal-garbed oldster was frowning, the rain appearing was a rain of blood!
A spray of blood rained down outside Rivers & Lakes Loft.
Had someone been killed?
No.
It wasn’t a person killed, but a dog.
This dog was a bit ugly. As far as dogs go, it was not “handsome”.
But the teal-garbed oldster was inexplicably fond of this homely dog.
The dog had been hacked with a sabre for no good reason.
The chop wasn’t fast, but for a dog that didn’t know martial arts, it was fast enough.
A dog obviously doesn’t know martial arts.
The one who killed the dog with one hack of a sabre was one of the Black Killer Gang bluebelt killers.
The teal-garbed oldster thought it a great pity.
This bluebelt killer’s skill was unknown, but if he used that sabreplay on a martial world masterhand, heheh!
The teal-garbed oldster didn’t think any more about it.
Now was the time to drink, why let that matter spoil the mood?
But could he just ignore it?
Of course not.
Because the Black Killer Gang killers were here for him.
X X X
The first to barge into Rivers & Lakes Loft was bluebelt killer who had killed the dog to flaunt his strength before entering.
He was called Blind Cao.
Blind Cao (mangcao) was originally the name of a sea fish, but people called him Blind Cao because he was a lot like a blind person.2
His surname was Cao, so people called him Blind Cao.
Blind Cao had been rose quickly through the ranks of the Black Killer Gang, from a yellowbelt warrior straight to bluebelt killer in just two years.
His story, regardless of what happened to him later, would forever be a prime example of an exemplary talent.
He was originally a butcher, but somehow later on he was taught an incredible swordplay, and he changed professions, no longer a butcher, then becoming a bandit robbing traveling merchants in the Lanzhou area.
One time, he had eyes but didn’t recognize Mount Tai and robbed someone in the Black Killer Gang.
He was nearly killed by the Black Killer Gang.
But in the end, Xu Zuanming saved his life.
Xu Zuanming liked him. He believed that if Blind Cao joined the Black Killer Gang, he would do good things.
In the end, Blind Cao really did become a member of the Black Killer Gang.
X X X
Once he joined the Black Killer Gang, Blind Cao’s temper was more restrained than it had been before.
But that was just to his superiors.
But whenever he did have occasion to lose his temper, he was like an exploding volcano.
On this day, he once again lost his temper.
Before he charged into Rivers & Lakes Loft, he hacked an innocent yellow dog to death with his sabre.
Why did his temper flare up like that?
Turns out the person who killed his father was in River & Lakes Loft.
X X X
Blind Cao’s father was called Cao Shixiang.
Cao Shixiang was also a butcher.
But aside from slaughtering pigs and cattle and sheep, he also frequently killed people.
When it came to killing people and seizing their goods, Cao Shixiang was even better at it than Blind Cao.
Even so, everyone has bad luck at times.
One time, Cao Shixiang had a big string of bad luck.
He ran into an old Daoist whose swordplay was three times better than his sabreplay.
Within ten moves, Cao Shixiang was seriously wounded. He managed to make it home, spoke the Daoist’s name, then died.
The old Daoist was called Daosenior Deficient North, the leader o of the Ten Friends of Mount Huang.
At the time there were already only a few of the Ten Friends of Mount Huang remaining. Later, after an assault by the Black Killer Gang, they nearly all lost their lives at the foot of Mount Huang.
The only survivor was Daosenior Deficient North.
Daosenior Deficient North hadn’t been killed because he wasn’t on Mount Huang at the time.
Now, centuries of Mount Huang’s enterprise had suffered serious destruction.
And Daosenior Deficient North, what was his situation?
X X X
Daosenior Deficient North was a very strange person.
Though he was the head of the Ten Friends of Mount Huang, his behavior was always absurd, and the other nine Daoists looked down on him.
Though he was a high-ranking senior of the Mount Huang School, he was never given any tasks, important or trivial, to do.
You could say he was really idle.
Since he was despised by others, Daosenior Deficient North obviously became an “idler”.
Luckily he never cared about contending for power or wealth. He was the head of the Ten Friends of Mount Huang only because he was older than the other nine.
The Mount Huang School had their Ten Friends, and they also had their Eight Daoists.
Some in the jianghu didn’t know that even though the Ten Friends and the Eight Daoists both belonged to the Mount Huang School, they didn’t get along.
The only one who opposed the fight between the Eight Daoists and the Ten Friends was Daosenior Deficient North.
But no one paid attention to what Daosenior Deficient North said.
They still fought amongst each other.
The Mount Huang School sectmaster Daosenior Firenurture was caught in the middle and once even drank three catties of strong liquor to relieve the stress.
After three catties of strong liquor, the old sectmaster’s mind was not too clear.
He suddenly sent someone to find Daosenior Deficient North and told him, “This poor Daoist doesn’t want this position as sectmaster, why don’t you take over.”
Daosenior Deficient North’s eyes widened.
He only said three words, then ran for his life as if he’d just been bitten by a tiger.
After that, he never returned.
The three words he said to Daosenior Firenurture were”
“Don’t scare me!”
X X X
There were a lot of strange things in the world.
And there were too many strange people to count.
The position of sectmaster was much venerated. Many senior and junior brothers couldn’t snatch it away, but Daosenior Deficient North was afraid to be sectmaster and instead left Mount Huang at once, preferring to roam all over the jianghu instead.
His departure was remarked on by more people who didn’t know what they were talking about than there were flies in a summer latrine.
Some said he was expelled from the Mount Huang School by the sectmaster.
Some said The Eight Daoists drove him out.
Others said that the other nine of the Ten Friends forced him out.
Still others said he tried to assassinate Daosenior Firenurture and failed and had to flee for his life.
But no one actually knew what the true story was.
But only two months after he left Mount Huang, the Mount Huang School suffered a huge, unprecedented catastrophe.
The entire Mount Huang School was more or less wiped out by the Black Killer Gang’s men.
X X X
Now, and even more frightening rumor spread through the jianghu.
That Daosenior Deficient North was in cahoots with the Black Killer Gang.
That the Mount Huang School’s catastrophe was actually Daosenior Deficient North’s doing.
X X X
Gossip is a fearful thing!
The facts had been clouded by rumors.
Daosenior Deficient North cursed his head off when he heard the rumors.
But even though he cursed till he was blue in the face, he still wasn’t sure who it was he should be cursing.
After cursing half a day, he suddenly wasn’t even able to be a Daoist anymore and simple returned to secular life.
He believed that he was simply not suitable to be a Daoist.
He resumed using his lay name before he became a renunciate.
His surname was Shen, given name Qianxiao, and his birthplace was Caochuan County in Jiangnan.
Before he went back to secular life, Blind Cao’s father was already dead by his sword.
Blind Cao looked all over for Daosenior Deficient North.
But Daosenior Deficient North had vanished from the jianghu. He had resumed secular life and become Shen Qianxiao, who roamed all over and took everywhere within the four seas as his home.
X X X
The teal-garbed oldster drinking wine and eating stewed duck in River & Lakes Loft’s Lotus Parlor was Shen Qianxiao.
Blind Cao had looked all over for Daosenior Deficient North, until a year ago when he learned that he had returned to secular life.
Shen Qianxiao was the one who had killed his father.
Back then Blind Cao had already become a member of the Black Killer Gang.
Blood Spear Xu Zuanming once promised him that if he found Shen Qianxiao, he would give Blind Cao a chance to get his revenge.
Now was his chance.
Blind Cao’s blood was seething.
Because Shen Qianxiao was in Lotus Parlor.
X X X
Blind Cao brandished his sabre and charged into Rivers & Lakes Loft hacking and chopping at anyone he saw.
He had received permission from Xu Zuanming to slaughter his way through innocents this way.
In fact, any time Blind Cao wanted to kill, Xu Zuanming would do his best to do him a favor and give him the opportunity to do so.
Blind Cao was bloodthirsty.
Xu Zuanming was as well.
The two of them were birds of a feather, they often worked together happily.
But Shen Qianxiao was not happy.
He didn’t like to see any bloodshed when he drank.
He liked the aroma of wine, but he didn’t like the mix of the smell of blood and wine together, because it affected his appetite for drinking.
But Blind Cao was a madman. He slaughtered all the way from the main entrance of Rivers & Lakes Loft to the Lotus Parlor. At least seven or eight people were wounded by his broadsabre.
Shen Qianxiao didn’t want to fight just then, but he couldn’t refrain any longer.
Especially with Black Killer Gang men were charging at him.
X X X
A fresh, cool mountain breeze blew in, carrying with it the reek of blood.
Shen Qianxiao stared at Blind Cao.
Blind Cao looked back at him with a fiendish gleam in his eyes, glaring right at Shen Qianxiao.
Shen Qianxiao smiled coldly. “Who are you?”
“Blind Cao!”
“Blind Cao?” Shen Qianxiao’s expression relaxed. After a while he said, “That’s an interesting name.”
Blind Cao said coldly, “Are you Shen Qianxiao?”
Shen Qianxiao nodded. “Looks like you’re here to settle things with this old fellow?”
Blind Cao kept a straight face. “You’re Shen Qianxiao, the only remaining oxnose of the Ten Friends of Mount Huang?”
Shen Qianxiao smiled faintly. “Oxnose, fine, Pignose is fine too. Looks like you have some enmity with this old fellow.”
Blind Cao said severely, “Cao Shixiang was my father, you remember?”
“Cao Shixiang?” Shen Qianxiao was silent for a time. “Would that be the great jianghu bandit who killed without batting an eye?”
Blind Cao didn’t deny that his father was a jianghu bandit, he just said severely, “Why do you need to bat your eyes to kill?”
Shen Qianxiao laughed.
“Nice! Why bat your eyes to kill! This old fellow really wants to see if you bat your eyes when you kill or not!”
Before he finished, Blind Cao’s sabre nearly chopped his head off.
Blind Cao really didn’t bat an eye.
He was worthy of being called as demon who kills without batting an eye.
Too bad this time he was up against Shen Qianxiao.
Shen Qianxiao didn’t bat an eye when he killed either.
Blind Cao’s sharp sabre chopped down, the sabre getting there before he did.
The blade whirred.
Blind Cao’s sabre was already stained with blood.
Stained with dog blood and with human blood.
In the past very few could dodge his sabreplay, because Blind Cao had never before encountered a true martial world masterhand.
He was always victorious, and he won easily.
Just now killing in Rivers & Lakes Loft was as easy as chopping melons or cutting vegetables.
There was nothing special about that, because those people were unarmed and didn’t know martial arts at all.
But Blind Cao still attacked them.
Whatever else there was, those lives alone were enough for Shen Qianxiao to not be able to permit him to remain among the living.
Just now it wasn’t that he didn’t want to save those people’s lives, it’s just that they were too far away.
Blind Cao didn’t just kill innocents, he also wanted to kill Shen Qianxiao.
Still, a real expert could tell that Blind Cao was no match for Shen Qianxiao.
Shen Qianxiao knew he would win for sure.
Xu Zuanming also knew that Blind Cao was no match for Shen Qianxiao.
But he still let him take the lead.
On the surface it looked as if Xu Zuanming was giving him an opportunity to avenge his father.
But in his heart of hearts it was not like that at all.
Having Blind Cao take the lead was nothing less than ordering him to his death. Xu Zuanming’s goal was to see how good Shen Qianxiao’s swordplay was before he had to fight him himself.
Blood Spear’s experience killing was obviously more than Blind Cao’s.
Blind Cao was just like his name, he really was like a blind person.
The most lamentable thing about a blind person was that everyone else could see that he was in danger, but he couldn’t see it himself.
X X X
Blind Cao’s sabre was fast.
At least twice as fast as when he had hacked that yellow dog to death earlier.
Fast was good and all, too bad it wasn’t accurate.
He had calculated correctly, his sabre would definitely cut a big hole in Shen Qianxiao’s neck.
A big hole cut into your neck would obviously be fatal.
But as his sabre chopped down, at least two people were shaking their heads to themselves and sighing.
The first one shaking his head and sighing was Xu Zuanming.
The other one was the person hidden under the slabstone road.
Though it was some distance away from where Blind Cao and Shen Qianxiao were fighting, this person could still clearly see that although Blind Cao’s sabre was fast, there was an opening around his midsection.
X X X
There was a person on the ground?
No, not one, two.
This pair of eyes was different from the ones that had revealed themselves earlier.
That pair of eyes earlier were big and round and clear and shifted from side to side easily.
But this pair of eyes were composed and steady, and penetrating.
In the dark, the eyes were like a leopard’s eyes.
X X X
Though it was bright outside, inside the narrow tunnel it was a damp and dark world.
Lil Leopard didn’t like the dark.
He had spent the more than half a year digging out this tunnel.
Lil Leopard was the one with the agile eyes.
He was young, only fifteen.
But his burglary skills were first-rate.
And no wonder, his father had been one of the Three Amazing Thieves Under Heaven.
His father was surnamed Han, given name Bao (leopard).
But no one called him Han Bao. Everyone called him Old Cat Burglar.
Old Cat Burglar’s burglary skills it was said came from the family line. His father had also been a thief who relied on burglary.
But Old Cat Burglar’s burglary skills were even better, much better than Lil Leopard’s grandfather.
Now, Old Cat Burglar had retired to a life of seclusion, had washed his hands of his former ways.
Why had he washed his hands of it?
Had he already made a fortune thieving?
Nope!
Actually the exact opposite.
Old Cat Burglar thieved for more than thirty years and had obtained countless precious treasures, gold, silver, and rare curios.
But in the long run, this pilferer ended up emptyhanded, to the point that even being able to eat became an issue.
Could that really happen?
Yes, it absolutely could.
How?
Did he lose all the money he’d stolen?
No! It wasn’t like that at all.
Old Cat Burglar did like to go to the gambling den every now and then and bet a few hands, but his bets were never large, and he bet carefully. Year in and year out, he not only didn’t lose out, he even came out a bit ahead.
That being said, then where did all of his loot go?
Turns out Old Cat Burglar was really serious. He was a chivalrous bandit through and through.
The riches he stole he gave to the poor and needy.
But he never told the beneficiaries who he was, and when he stole he never wore a mask, but when he distributed money to the poor and destitute, he would wrap his face up like a salty glutinous rice dumpling during the Dragon Boat Festival!
He only left his eyes and nostrils uncovered. Even his ears were concealed behind cloth.
He felt that stealing ill-gotten gains from the rich was a joyful thing.
Giving the money to the poor and needy was even more joyful.
X X X
Until two years ago, when Old Cat Burglar finally retired and no longer acted as a gentleman on the roofbeam.
Why not?
You mean to say he’d gotten tired of it?
No.
If he could still do it, he would not hesitate to keep on doing it,
But now his miracle hands had left him.
His dexterous hands had been cut off by a sharp axe.
X X X
Two years ago, Old Cat Burglar slipped into the home of the Chu family in Datong prefecture, into the Hidden Treasure Loft, thinking to steal the Chu family’s heirloom mandarin duck jade annulus.
Five generations of the Chu family, from Chu Chenghuan to Chu Gangkai, Chu Peitao, Chu Bufan, all the way to the current patriarch of the Chu family, Chu Baiyu, not one of them wasn’t a miser.
They not only regarded money as life itself, they used any and every underhanded method to make it.
Especially when it came to Chu Baiyu’s generation. His behavior would make you bristle in anger.
Chu Baiyu spent 100,000 taels of silver to recruit dark path masterhands of the martial world and formed the Chu Family Gang.
Once the Chu Family Gang was formed they committed all kinds of outrages, including strong-arming and buying up a lot of local houses and looting others’ farmland.
One big house worth 10,000 taels they paid only 500 for and forced the owner to hand possession over to them.
Of course not a few swore to oppose them.
But in the end, these people frequently turned up dead under dubious circumstances.
Old Cat Burglar only regretted that his martial arts wasn’t good enough, or else he would have cut off Chu Baiyu’s head.
But he really didn’t have the ability, nor the guts.
He only had the guts to steal, not to kill.
Even slaughtering a chicken would make his hands and legs tremble, how could he go assassinate a living person?
In the end, Old Cat Burglar decided to steal the Chu family’s mandarin duck jade annulus and thus make Chu Baiyu disheartened for the rest of his life.
Everyone has bad luck sometimes.
This time, Old Cat Burglar, called one of the Three Amazing Thieves Under Heaven, blundered.
He was surrounded by Chu Family Gang masterhands in the Hidden Treasure Loft.
Old Cat Burglar had a knife on him, but with his martial arts, how was he a match for the Chu Family Gang demons?
In just ten short moves Old Cat Burglar’s hands were chopped off by the deputy chief of the Chu Family Gang’s pair of sharp axes.
Han Bao, known as Old Cat Burglar, this time became a mouse under the cat’s paw.
He wanted to break out, but the cat was too terrible, and there were too many ferocious cats, so there was no way for him to escape.
This time, he figured he was dead for sure.
However, just when he’d given up all hope, from outside the Chu family’s Hidden Treasure Loft came an awn of murderous swordlight.
It looked to be a an ordinary, nondescript iron sword.
But this iron sword was suffused with a murderous aura, and the blade gave off a dark red bloody light.
Only a sharp weapon that had killed countless people and drank many people’s blood would give off such a bloody light and exude such a murderous aura.
None of the Chu Family Gang, high and low, could identify the sword, nor could anyone identify its owner.
Chu Baiyu was counting on his superior numbers and ordered this person to be chopped into thirty big pieces.
But his order was no sooner issued than the deputy chief head, along with his axes, was sent flying three staves by a palm strike from the man wearing light yellow clothes and holding an iron sword in his hand.
Chu Baiyu’s face sank.
But he still didn’t know what was good for him, he still waved his hand and ordered a surround on the man to launch an assault.
As the saying goes: “Goodfellows are afraid of superior numbers.”
The Cantonese proverb goes: “A swarm of ants can overwhelm an elephant.”
This was Chu Baiyu’s thinking.
Too bad he miscalculated this time. Certainly he did have superior numbers, and there were martial arts masters among them, but he didn’t anticipate that the person who’d come to rescue Old Cat Burglar was none other than the one known in the jianghu as “Divine Sword King” Wu Qiying.3
X X X
Wu Qiying’s name was mighty, but no one in the jianghu called him Qiying, they respectfully called him King Wu.
King Wu had the most resounding reputation in all the jianghu.
The Chu Family Gang, high and low, surprisingly had eyes but couldn’t recognize Mount Tai.
As a result, they received a frightening retribution.
Especially Chu Baiyu. All his life he harmed countless people, but that night was the time for him to pay for his crimes.
Wu Qiying’s sword showed no mercy.
He wasn’t a heartless person, but why be softhearted like a woman toward someone like Chu Baiyu, that impenetrably thickheaded beast in gentleman’s clothing?
Chu Baiyu was stabbed three times.
None of the three sword stabs were enough to be fatal on their own.
But added together, the three stabs were just the right amount to put him in the most pain before his soul returned to the netherworld.
Consequently, Old Cat Burglar didn’t steal the mandarin duck jade annulus.
It was already an unexpected miracle that he even survived.
Still, his deft, dexterous miraculous hands were cut off by sharp axes.
He could no longer steal, so he was forced to retire to the mountains and live in seclusion and be an ordinary, lonesome person.
But he was still grateful to Wu Qiying.
He wasn’t afraid to die, but he needed to give his son a bit more guidance.
The father was an amazing thief. The son was too.
Old Cat Burglar wasn’t against his son stealing, but he hoped that his son would be like he had been in his early days, stealing from the rich to give to the poor, making the world a little bit better.
X X X
Lil Leopard didn’t disappoint his father.
Even though his skill still wasn’t up to Old Cat Burglar’s standards, there were a few cases he did an outstanding job on.
Lil Leopard only had one trusted friend.
He was Wu Qiying.
King Wu.
X X X
Why did Lil Leopard want to dig a hole outside the entrance to Rivers & Lakes Loft?
It was actually Wu Qiying’s idea.
Wu Qiying wasn’t against Lil Leopard following in his father’s righteous footsteps and stealing from the rich to give to the poor.
But he didn’t much approve of it either.
After all, it was a very dangerous affair.
Even though Lil Leopard’s burglary skills were pretty good, no one could guarantee that he wouldn’t slip up sometime.
Old Cat Burlgar’s burglary skills were great, but in the Chu family Hidden Treasure Loft he had forfeited his hands.
Lil Leopard knew martial arts and was even a bit better than his father, but that didn’t matter.
Hence, Wu Qiying told him to dig a secret tunnel outside the entrance to Rivers & Lakes Loft.
Lil Leopard didn’t ask why.
He always listened to Uncle Wu. Even if Wu Qiying told him to go into the pigpen every day and get a hundred catties of pig manure and put it in the tunnel, he would do as he was told.
Some say that most smart kids aren’t obedient.
But Lil Leopard was an exception.
X X X
Only now did Lil Leopard know why Wu Qiying wanted him to dig a tunnel.
Turns out he already knew that Rivers & Lakes Loft would erupt into a bloody tempest.
But Lil Leopard didn’t know what Wu Qiying’s true intentions were.
Actually Wu Qiying didn’t really need the tunnel. The tunnel as far as he was concerned was absolutely unnecessary.
He wanted Lil Leopard to dig the tunnel for two purposes.
The first purpose was that he wanted to get Lil Leopard stranded on Mount Huang so that he wouldn’t run into disaster running all over the place burglarizing.
Wu Qiying knew that his martial arts wasn’t good enough to roam the jianghu.
So the second purpose in digging the tunnel was to improve Lil Leopard’s martial arts.
Lil Leopard at the most would only need two months to finish digging the tunnel.
But he spent more then half a year before finally finishing it.
Because Wu Qiying told him he could only use his hands to dig it.
Lil Leopard was cultivating his claw skills.
Digging a tunnel barehanded was good practice for his ten fingers. It was hard work, but Lil Leopard’s claw skills improved by leaps and bounds as a result.
X X X
Wu Qiying was thirty-five years old.
He went out into the jianghu when he was fifteen.
Twenty years living in the jianghu gave him the deep understanding that this was a world where the strong prey on the weak.
Though many in the world were reasonable people, there were even more who were utterly unreasonable.
These people didn’t know what propriety, duty, honesty, or shame was. As long as there was profit to be had, they would go through any means necessary to grab it.
In the jianghu, who didn’t take?
It’s just that some were good at taking, and others were bad at it, that’s all.
As for those who truly didn’t steal or take, they would eventually end up the victims of others’ oppression.
Reality was brutal.
Especially those people of the jianghu who lived on a knife edge, their methods were often more brutal than wild beasts’.
Wu Qiying knew one thing very well.
The only thing that he really felt glad about was when he was eight years old he went with a whitebearded monk to learn martial arts.
The old monk was unknown in the jianghu.
The temple he lived in was in an extremely remote and desolate mountain valley.
No one knew about the valley.
And no one knew about the temple.
And no one really know that the temple’s name was “One Monk Temple”.
““One Monk Temple” was just like its name implied, there was only one monk there.
It was an old monk, a nameless monk.
But who knew that this monk’s seniority was two generations higher than Fifth Elder Bodhidharma, who was cultivating in closed door meditation in the Dharma Hall at Shaolin Monastery?
At the same time, no one knew that this nameless monk’s martial arts was so good he could defeat the eight sectmasters of the Eight Major Martial Arts Schools by himself.
X X X
Still, a person’s lifespan has a limit.
When the nameless monk took Wu Qiying on as a disciple, he was already very very old.
The old nameless monk had even forgotten was his true age was.
Under the nameless old monk’s careful guidance, Wu Qiying’s martial arts made great strides.
The nameless old monk was a rare martial arts talent.
And Wu Qiying’s natural endowments were superior to the nameless old monk’s.
If the nameless old monk could live five more years, then Wu Qiying’s martial arts would surpass even his master’s.
However, when Wu Qiying was fifteen years old, the nameless old monk reached perfect rest and passed away.
As the nameless old monk was approaching death, he told Wu Qiying, “You can already roam the jianghu alone and will find it hard to meet your match. All that worries me is that you don’t have enough jianghu experience. You should know that men’s hearts are treacherous, you must be on your guard…”
When the nameless old monk reached this point, he passed away.
Wu Qiying held tight to his master’s hand.
He never forgot his master’s dying words, so he did his best to roam the jianghu carefully.
He did his best not to stand out too much.
Even so, he was after all a bold, unconstrained person. These twenty years living in the jianghu he fell for people’s tricks, and several times nearly died by his “friend’s” hand.
These “friends” of course were not true friends.
They just wanted to frame Wu Qiying and use him.
However, Wu Qiying was no dummy.
He was just forthright and bold, but he was by no means stupid.
The result was those who thought to put Wu Qiying to death, who wanted to frame him, got their just deserts.
Wu Qiying didn’t want to punish anyone.
Be it friend or foe, he didn’t like using “punishment” as a means to deal with them.
But aside from this method, he could find no better way to do it.
Of course, being able to admonish the evildoers and convince them to change their ways was the best method.
Still, there were way too many thickheaded people in the jianghu.
Many people were wicked scoundrels. Treating them with compassion and kindness would just backfire and be like treating good people cruelly.
So much so that as far as he was concerned, it was even more cruel.
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