Chapter 257: Five Days
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Fang Wenshi and the swordsman who worked as his guard were shut away in a room inside the Prime Minister's mansion until midnight.
When they finally walked out of the mansion, they worried that they would have to live in the street tonight. They could not return to the inn since all the gates of the city were closed at this moment. Fortunately, Xu Xiaoyi had sent someone to bring them to a hotel when they came out.
After entering his room, Fang Wenshi immediately closed the door and took off his wet pants. After heaving a long sigh of relief, he began to shout curses at his lord, as if the Dragon King was standing right in front of himself now. The counselor swore to the gods that he would never work for such a cruel wretch anymore and would set out to return to his hometown tomorrow morning without bidding farewell to Yang Huan.
Gu Shenwei did not hear these words, and Fang Wen did not leave in the end. It was not money or power that made him change his mind. He decided to stay because of a woman.
That woman directly pushed the door open, and then she leaned against the doorframe while looking the scholar up and down. When she found out that the scholar had already taken off his pants, she sneered, "Tut-tut, what an impatient client. I've never seen any client like you before."
"Who are you?" asked Fang Wenshi, his face flushed with embarrassment. He crouched, trying to use his shirt to cover his lower body.
"Someone paid me to serve you. What's the matter? Are you unhappy with me?" asked the woman.
Fang Wenshi stood agape, and the women smiled at him. He was not sure if he had said anything funny to the women. He just smiled back at her and did not want to leave anymore.
That night, Fang Wenshi did not have any time to ask others what had happened inside the Prime Minister's mansion during the day, which frightened Prime Minister Shi so much and made him release the hostages.
The next morning, when Xu Xiaoyi came to the hotel to console him, he finally got a chance to ask the merchant for more details about the incident.
Xu Xiaoyi told the counselor all the information that he knew. "One of the wooden boxes sent to the Prime Minister's mansion contained half a human head, while the other four were just filled with gold, so the servants carried them to the warehouse. The warehouse supervisor weighed and recorded the amount of gold received. He then opened the door of the warehouse, preparing to put the gold into it. However, the moment the door was opened, all the people at the scene saw half of a head hanging down from a ceiling beam inside the warehouse."
"Since it was tied to the beam with a thin rope, it kept swaying slightly. Upon seeing it, all of them were frightened to death. One of them passed out, and another two became paralyzed with fear. Three of them started to vomit and four of them got cold feet and couldn't move. In the end, only one of the servants managed to run away to call the guards," said Xu Xiaoyi.
"When the guards came, they put the two halves of the head together and recognized that this man is the Golden Roc Fort killer named Xiang Kai, who's a frequent visitor to the Prime Minister's mansion."
According to Xu Xiaoyi, Prime Minister Shi had also been shocked when he heard the news, since the warehouse was the most heavily guarded place in his mansion. "Prime Minister Shi found it hard to believe that someone could sneak into his warehouse. He probably also suspected that there was a spy inside his residence. No matter what, that half of the head proved to him that the Dragon King could sneak into his mansion to kill anyone at any time."
Upon hearing that, Fang Wenshi realized that the half of the head hidden inside the wooden box was just a reminder, and the other half of it hanging inside the warehouse was the real threatening message.
Xu Xiaoyi told Fang Wenshi that Prime Minister Shi had been frightened and irritated, and had hesitated for a long time before making a decision. "The Prime Minister decided to release you and the swordsman in the end. After your departure, he invited Shangguan Tian to have a talk with him. He politely asked the young master to bring the Dragon King's head to his mansion within five days. He contended that if Shangguan Tian failed to do so, he would introduce the Great Snowmountain's messenger to the King of Shu-lik," said Xu Xiaoyi.
After talking with Xu Xiaoyi, Fang Wenshi rubbed his neck and thought, "What a risky plan. I nearly got killed yesterday. However, if the Dragon King hadn't taken this risk, it would've been really difficult to persuade Prime Minister Shi to give up the Golden Roc Fort by relying solely on the 10,000 taels of gold. Now that the Dragon King has to depend on himself. As long as he can survive the coming five days, we'll be able to meet the King of Shu-lik."
Gu Shenwei was not content with just hiding for the next five days. He planned to prove his strength further to Shu-lik.
In a sense, this competition between him and Shangguan Tian was a close match. No matter how powerful the Golden Roc Fort was, it could only offer limited help to its Second Young Master within Shu-lik. The Dragon King, a former killer of the Golden Roc Fort, was very familiar with all the means and tactics used by the killers. As to Prime Minister Shi, he had already declared that he would not help either party in this competition.
On the first day, both parties adopted a similar strategy. The Dragon King and his guard, Chu Nanping, hid in a place that remained unknown to everyone. Even Xu Xiaoyi had no idea where they were. Shangguan Tian and Shangguan Hong moved out of the Prime Minister's mansion and disappeared too. Their servants and killers all moved to the Golden Roc Security Agency.
The first day was peaceful. Although both parties were well aware that killers would never expose themselves to rescue anyone, each of them still sent out scouts to monitor the other party's movements in case that someone in their own team was kidnapped. Knowing this, Fang Wenshi felt secure. He was pretty sure that he would be safe and be able to enjoy himself with that woman as much as he could during these days.
The second day, Golden Roc Security Agency send out all of its staff to search for Yang Huan and promised to give 50,000 taels of silver to the one who offered correct location of Yang Huan and 100,000 taels of silver to the one who brought Yang Huan's head to the security agency.
Everyone in the city was motivated and began to ask around for the pale-looking young killer. The locations of Fang Wenshi, Xu Xiaoyi and a few of the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain all got exposed. A few hooligans kept coming to the inn, intending to kidnap some of Yang Huan's friends to force the killer to show up. As a result, Xu Xiaoyi had to ask everyone in the team to stay together and hired some machetemen, who had no connection to the Golden Roc Fort, to protect them.
The Shu-lik government sent out troops to stop the hooligans, as the Prime Minister ordered that this competition was just between the killers.
Both parties of the competition had achieved nothing on the second day. However, from that day on, residents of the city showed more respect to Yang Huan, since they all heard about how he had threatened Prime Minister Shi with a Golden Roc Fort killer's head a few days ago. Now, every time when they talked about the pale-looking young killer, they would refer to him as the Dragon King.
On the third day, when all the hooligans in the city continued to hunt for the Dragon King, Golden Roc Security Agency suddenly recalled all of its armed escorts and kept them inside the agency for a whole day.
This move made many people believe that the Golden Roc Fort had already found the Dragon King. They guessed that the armed escorts were busy preparing for an attack right now.
Fang Wenshi and Xu Xiaoyi were a little fidgety, as their lives and futures were closely bound with the fate of the young killer. If the Dragon King was killed, they would immediately lose everything they had now.
Only Tie Linglong was perfectly calm and collected. She practiced her saber skills as usual and then consoled the other members of the team. "Don't worry. The dragon king will be alright even if they find him. He'll kill them all."
Unfortunately, the little girl failed to convince anyone in the team, and even the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain also began praying for the giant roc to appear again and come to the rescue of the Dragon King.
Upon hearing the swordsmen's prayers, Tie Linglong solemnly explained, "The roc isn't the Dragon King's pet. Nobody can control it. It comes and goes as it likes. Even the Dragon King can't summon it."
Tie Linglong's words further undermined the team members' confidence. Upon hearing that, Fang Wenshi thought to himself, "If things are getting bad, I have to persuade Xu Yi to make some arrangements as soon as possible. Maybe I can earn some money during this process."
On the fourth day, when the Golden Roc Fort launched an attack, the team members' confidence hit rock bottom.
As the Dragon King needed someone to collect intelligence for him, he sent Chu Nanping out. Although the teenage swordsman had used some make-up to change his looks before going out, the Golden Roc Fort killers still recognized him. They followed him to a small inn and had him surrounded at around 9 pm.
This time, Shangguan Tian had sent out 30 killers. Such a team would be enough to eliminate a small gang. Upon hearing this news, many people in the city guessed that Shangguan Tian had found the Dragon King and Chu Nanping long before this day. They thought that the Second Young Master had just pretended to have no idea about where the Dragon King hid while secretly assembling his killer team.
Few of them witnessed the fight that night, but on the next day, many described the scene in detail as if they had seen the whole process.
It was said that two killers had sneaked into the teenage swordsman's room last night, trying to catch the youth alive, but in the end the boy was somehow alarmed by the killers and then jumped out of the room through the window.
Chu Nanping was said to have escaped without a scratch from the inn after exchanging blows with four or five killers. Many people found it difficult to believe that the youth could have broken through the ranks of the killers.
Someone who was familiar with the Golden Roc Fort's style contended that it must have been Shangguan Tian's scheme. "The Second Young Master must've let the boy escape on purpose. He must've sent his killers to follow him. The Dragon King is probably being surrounded by the killers now."
Rumors were flying everywhere on the fifth day, and there were as many as ten versions of rumors regarding the death of the Dragon King. Even Tie Linglong could not remain calm and cool that day. She was in no mood to practice her saber skills and spent the entire day listening to different intelligence reports together with Xu Xiaoyi, no matter how absurd these reports sounded.
"The Dragon King is alright as long as we don't see his head," Tie Linglong said to herself. Every time someone hurriedly ran into the inn, she would feel that her heart had skipped a beat.
The whole city was eagerly waiting for the final result of this competition. The hooligans, who had been busy searching for the Dragon King in the past few days, felt very disappointed. They believed that they were used by the Golden Roc Fort killers. Given that, they began to openly support the Dragon King and hoped that the pale-looking young man could survive the last day of this competition.
Usually, Golden Roc Fort killers never took actions during the daytime, but on the fifth day of the competition, all the armed escorts of Golden Roc Security Agency went out to surround a place which was said to be the Dragon King's hiding place. Once they spotted an unfamiliar face among the people entering and leaving this place, they would follow or interrogate that person. Although these armed escorts were not soldiers sent by the government, no one dared to resist them.
Residents of the city were greatly surprised since the place surrounded by the armed escorts was the Prime Minister's mansion and its surrounding area, but on second thought, they realized that this place was indeed the ideal hiding place. Besides the king's palace, the Prime Minister's mansion was the safest place in the whole Shu-lik City.
Two days ago, Prime Minister Shi had left the city on the pretext of going hunting in the suburbs. Although he did not mind letting the killers fight inside his mansion, he announced that once anything in his residence was damaged, he would refuse to recognise the result of this competition.
Everyone in the city wished to watch this fight between the killers that night, but the armed escorts did not allow miscellaneous personnel to enter that place. Even the government also sent troops to help Golden Roc Security Agency seal off that area. The servants in the Prime Minister's mansion were so excited. As servants of Prime Minister Shi, they did not have to worry about their own safety, and meanwhile they could get a chance to watch the fight. They could brag about such an experience in the months to come.
As night fell, hundreds of people gathered outside the Prime Minister's mansion. They did not expect to see or hear what happened inside the mansion. They only wanted to know the result in real time.
Soon they got bored, since the mansion was too quiet. At this moment, a man who claimed to be very familiar with killers' style said to the crowd, "Killers are always as quiet as mouses during a fight. Only soldiers in the army and bandits will fight noisely like cats and dogs."
Some soldiers in the troop heard that and beat the man. With a bloody nose and a swollen face, the man still refused to leave and started to murmur, "Let's wait and see. The Dragon King is tough. He's the nemesis of the Golden Roc Fort. Even 100 killers can't..."
Before he finished his sentence, some armed escorts beat him. After that, the crowd was as quiet as the Prime Minister's mansion.
People began to leave one after another after around 9 pm. Shortly after midnight, there were only a few who stayed behind. The armed escorts and soldiers also relaxed their vigilance. Everyone was wondering if there were really any killers fighting inside the mansion.
At dawn, two servants opened the door of the mansion while yawning. Before they closed their mouth, they were shocked to find out that they were already surrounded by a curious crowd. The people eagerly asked about the fight last night, but the servants just shook their heads repeatedly and said, "No, all the dogs inside the mansion were quiet last night. There were no killers fighting here."
Now that all the five days had passed, residents of the city could not wait to know the result. Finally, at noon, they got a message from the suburbs of the city: the Dragon King had won the competition and Shangguan Tian had become his captive.