Song Of Exile Chapter 109

Now let's go back to Black Iron PaG.o.da. He stood guard by the side of the little path leading to the Emperor Ling Mausoleum at the foot of the mountain to intercept and the two men carrying the gold.

The path wound around the right side of a cemetery. The path was lined with man-high pine and cypress. He hid behind a tree. It would be easy to miss him as one walked past.

He heard steps from farther down the path. Someone was coming. It was dark, difficult to see someone twenty feet away.

Two men in black were walking up, white armbands on their left arms. They each carried good-sized bags. It was the men with the gold.

They were half a mile away when a group of black-clad men sprang out, led by Black Flag Sovereign himself, along with his manager of Nine Palace Fortress, Lonestar Silver Sword Sun Changhe. They were more than twenty men strong.

Behind them a group of people dressed in white arrived as well. They were good men of the light path, Endless Valley's Gold s.n.a.t.c.hing Silver Sabre Ling Guangzu, Iron Arm Ape You Jian, and ten other masterhands.

Behind the men in white a dark figure drifted about, silently following and evading detection, not interfering with anyone.

A storm was brewing on Mount Mang as the groups of powerful men converged.

The two gold envoys were highly skilled martial artists from Luoyang, but they weren't that great as they didn't notice the people following them, nor did they know there was danger lurking on the side of the path. They chatted as the walked, seemingly paying no attention to the looming danger.

As they neared as cypress, the one walking a little behind the other said, "I heard Cai Wenchang was really something in Xi'an, his name has shook the jianghu, but I'm doubtful myself."

"Why is that?" the other man said. He was a bit ahead so he had to turn his head slightly.

"He's young, no one knows what school he's from. How can he have the guts to square off against the Thirteen Greats? As I see it, it's just a bunch of false rumors someone made up with some hidden agenda behind it."

"Brother Qingyun, it's a big world, anything is possible, what makes you so sure…"

He reached the cypress before he finished speaking, Brother Qingyun on his right nearly brus.h.i.+ng the branches as he past, neither of them noticing someone was there.

Black Iron PaG.o.da had plenty of experience among the jianghu. He knew at a glance that the bags the men shouldered didn't contain gold. A thousand taels of gold might weigh 62.5 catties, but it wouldn't take up much s.p.a.ce, but the bags those men carried could easily hold 100 catties or more, and they walked with light steps so he knew at once they'd been cheated.

Sons of b.i.t.c.hes, Black Iron PaG.o.da cursed to himself. Master Zhu the Fifth is despicable. f.u.c.k! Just as I thought, they're cheating us.

Brother Qingyun pa.s.sed by the tree and they nearly touched. Black Iron PaG.o.da suddenly reached out and put his arm around Qingyun's neck, his other hand grabbing his forehead with his fingers out like claws. He jerked up and Qingyun's arms and legs twitched a few times and he was out cold without a word.

Black Iron PaG.o.da set him down and looked through the bag. As expected, no gold, just some gray bricks. The bag was tied with a b.u.t.terfly knot, so he just needed to pull on it to loosen it, so it would be easy to attack. Clearly the two had been prepared to fight.

He took Qingyun's place and walked behind the man in front, whose lifetime of martial art training had been a waste since he still didn't notice the person behind him was someone else. He continued on talking. "What makes you so sure Cai Wenchang isn't that good? I hope Elder Tian, Divine Pellet, from Northwest Escort Agency shows up on time to reinforce us, otherwise it might bode ill with just the two of us. On the other hand, we needn't be too worried, that guy has really gone too far in making a mess of things, violated jianghu taboos and provoked a lot of masters of the martial fraternity. This time it really will be hard for him to make it out alive. He'll die in our Henan prefecture."

"You think so?" Black Iron PaG.o.da copied Qingyun's line of questioning and actually sounded a lot like him.

"Oh yeah, brother. That guy has raped and pillaged and taken advantage and looted, did a lot of damage among the jianghu. With that handsome price on his head the master put out, he'll never break out of the layer upon layer of defenses around the tomg grounds."

"Haha! You make it sound so easy when you say it like that, but how could Cai Wenchang be such a worthless fellow? Haha!" Black Iron PaG.o.da's laughter was like a peal of thunder.

The other man flinched in surprise and turned around suddenly and cried fearfully, "Who… Who are… you?"

"I'm Cai Wenchang, you b.u.m, you probably don't recognize me."

The man yelped and quickly pulled a dagger from his robe and took up a defensive stance. "Capture Cai Wenchang, capture…"

"What are you squawking about? Lay down!" Black Iron PaG.o.da bellowed and put his hands out plowed into him.

A shout was heard from below, "Where's Cai Wenchang? Wait!"

The man countered, his left hand loosening the strap and letting the bag fall to the ground as he came at Black Iron PaG.o.da from the right side with a swift jab of his dagger.

Black Iron PaG.o.da wasn't worried about the dagger; it was unlikely to break through his Primordial qigong, and his opponent was not very skilled, but there was no glory in taking a hit from a weapon. He grabbed the guy by both upper arms and spun and flung him thirty feet through the air before he crashed to the ground and rolled down the slope.

Black Iron PaG.o.da heard the call earlier and was on his guard. He knew there were masters waiting down below. Once he flung the guy he scurried at once toward the dense wood and took off running.

Unfortunately, it was too late to get away. The party below had split up and were coming at him from both sides, cutting off his escape route. People were whistling all around, figures flitting by like ghosts. There were people everywhere, all of them extraordinary masters. He ran a hundred feet or so and a black image flashed before him. He ducked into the gra.s.s and quietly snuck away, slipping off twenty feet or so until a white image flew toward him, the person's lightness skill out of this world, coming on like a bolt of lightning.

Black Iron PaG.o.da cursed under his breath, "G.o.dd.a.m.n it! Why are there so many people here tonight?"

Luckily, just in time, someone shouted from behind, "I got him, haha!"

He peeped out from the tall gra.s.s and in the twinkling of an eye three white figures brushed past him from the side, no more than ten feet away and dashed after a human figure.

He waited until they were gone, then creeped like a snake through the vegetation, making progress bit by bit.

Behind him someone yelled, "Who's there? You have the nerve to strike Dark Soul Han Tao?"

"Heheh! So it's 'You' Red Banner Captain Han Tao, long time no see. Do you remember me?"

Dark Soul Han Tao said, "Son of a b.i.t.c.h, this guy isn't Cai Wenchang."

Another with a thick Henan accent said, "Banner Captain Han, this is one of the guys sent to fake the gold delivery to lure Cai Wenchang into the ambush. He's a martial artist with the Zhu manor, not Cai Wenchang."

Black Iron PaG.o.da stomach dropped. Dark Soul Han Tao was the third-ranked master of Nine Palace Fortress, and Silver Sabre Ling Guangzu was Endless Valley's number-one man. This was bad. Masters from both the light and dark paths were here.

A soul-quaking laugh suddenly sounded to the high heavens. "Hahaha! Ah so it's Brother Ling honoring us with his presence. It's been a worthwhile trip. I've long revered your integrity, but I wonder if your Master Qiu has come or not? I would like you to introduce me to him." This was Han Tao.

Black Iron PaG.o.da felt his blood run cold. Black Flag Sovereign himself happened to be here. It would be difficult to escape death tonight, more difficult than ascending to Heaven. But he couldn't just sit around and wait for death, he backed away at once and ran like mad.

He ran half a mile and then a dark figure appeared before him and charged. "Excellent, junior" the figure said sinisterly. "Stop and state your name!"

Like he was really gonna stop and wait for death? He took off running without a word. He felt a blast of air from behind, someone chasing him and attacking. He couldn't see the person's face in the dark, but their lightness skill allowed them to close in fast so it must be someone good, right? He had to fight back so he took out his whip, darted to the left, spun to his right, and attacked with "Divine Dragon Wags Its Tail", his sudden s.h.i.+fts in momentum sudden and fierce, sending a gust of air surging past, screaming through the air like a tempest.

There was no one behind him and his whip snapped at the air, and the dark figure appeared from the left, screeching in his ear, and a cold, gleaming sword blade appeared before him. "Muahahaha! Junior, you're really good with that whip."

Black Iron PaG.o.da was shocked. He bellowed and lashed out three times.

The dark figure followed after its sword, fluttering like a ghost between the whip lashes like a formless apparition, gradually closing in.

There was a sharp sound and the sword hit the tip of his whip and he retracted it. The dark figure took that moment to steal in.

Black Iron PaG.o.da felt his right arm go sore and numb and the crook of his thumb cracked from the incredibly powerful jolt coming down from the end of the whip and throwing him off balance. His hair stood on end and he turned and hauled his whip in and ran.

The dark figure was right on his tail. "Muahaha… You are Black Iron PaG.o.da, Cai Wenchang's accomplice. You can't run."

Black Iron PaG.o.da could only run upward, but he didn't make it a hundred ffet before a white figure appeared. "Stop! State your name, or else you might hurt yourself."

Black Iron PaG.o.da saw the person blocking his way with sword leveled and he didn't bother about him but recklessly tore to the right, snapped his whip, cracked the tip of a blade of gra.s.s, and withdrew it.

The white figure's attention was on his face and so he was confused by Black Iron PaG.o.da's distraction. He leapt to intercept and the whip hit him between the legs and a shrill wail resounded through the sky.

That miserable wail drew everyone's attention, and they all converged on that spot.

Besieged on all sides, Black Iron PaG.o.da was at the end of his rope.

Black Zombie arrived, Seven Spells' men behind him.

Black Iron PaG.o.da ignored the man in white on the ground and he hit the ground himself and rolled downhill into a ditch and wormed his way into the weeds to hide out.

Men dressed in black and in white pursued from all sides, but it was dark so the advantage was his. Cries and shouts of people's names rose one after another as the vicinity descended into pandemonium.

Time seemed to pa.s.s particularly slow as he hid in the weeds. Seemed like it had been dozens of years. At the same time he felt time was pa.s.sing quick. It seemed it would be light out soon and the sun would creep up along the distant horizon in the east. Once it got light out, his b.u.t.t was doomed on Mount Mang. How could he run away in broad daylight?

He cried out to himself, My dear brother, whatever you do, don't come to my aid. Heaven! Protect me. He prayed that Heaven would stop Cai Wenchang from coming here to back him up.

♦♦♦

Wenchang, at the moment, was bathed in blood as he ran for Mount Mang.

It was the fourth watch, the night was pa.s.sing by.

Everyone was quiet, but danger was everywhere as they searched all over, step by step, people from different standpoints guarding their positions, groping in the dark.

A faint sound of rustling in the gra.s.s slowly approached. They were going to find Black Iron PaG.o.da soon. There was a sound above the ditch and an answering call from below. Someone was slinking along the right side of the ridge, and another figure swayed from a high vantage point to the left. s.h.i.+t! They were closing in.

Every muscle in his body was taut and he was dripping with sweat. His palms were sticky and a cold chill ran up from his spine. This brave man who feared neither heaven nor earth was shaking with fear for the first time. He was just a first-rate junior of the jianghu, how could he hold out against scores of martial fraternity fiends and top light path masters? Forget Black Flag Sovereign or Silver Sabre Ling Guangzu, even just Dark Soul Han Tao was enough to kill him a hundred times over.

They neared, the two search parties above and below not far from each other now. The clouds in the sky had all dispersed and the stars were out, along with endless danger.

He gripped his whip and said to himself, Do or die, it all comes down to this. Come on, let's see which sould will accompany me to the netherworld."

Suddenly, a shout came from a high point on the left. "When the black decree is waved, the world obeys. Halt. State your name."

A voice answered as loud and deep as a large bell. "Endless Valley of Wuling, Red Cloud & Swallow. State your name."

Red Cloud & Swallow were Endless Valley's youngest masterhand couple. They were lovers, their skill second only to Gold s.n.a.t.c.hing Silver Sabre, but they were a generation younger. The man was Red Cloud Ge Long, the woman was Gold Needle Swallow Liu Suyue. They were a famed husband and wife couple among the martial fraternity, universally praised. Friends of the light path greatly esteemed them, and men of the dark path hated them to to the very marrow of their bones. They frequently roamed the jianghu and their reputation gradually rose.

"Linghu Chao, tonight we each go our own way, we'll settle our differences another day." The first to answer was Black Fox Linghu Chao.

Both sides retreated the way they had come. The person at the high vantage point was gone.