Death Sutra Chapter 116

Chapter 116 Reinforcements

Gu Shenwei didn’t like this kind of chaotic killing scene. As far back as when he was fighting in an alleyway with the assassins sent by Meng Mingshi at the southern Jade City, he had the feeling that his ability fell short of his wishes.

Today, he had escaped from the siege and resolved to make up for this weakness in the future.

Only four of them had ran out: Servant Huan, Lotus, Wild Horse, and Liuhua. And all of them were injured.

Looking back, that cameleer was still jumping non-stop, and for each jump he made, another enemy fell at his hands. Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi must be under his feet and surrounded by bandits who did not get the treasure.

Gu Shenwei took the lead and rushed back. They carved out a bloody road to rescue the two gongzis.

The two were covered with blood, their eyes stiff and mad. They seemed to have become blood-thirsty and if not for being pushed forward by those brown-belted killers, they almost forgot to run forward.

The seven of them were marching at full speed since the chaos caused by the gold and silver would soon come to an end, and the bandits would start chasing them on horseback.

The flat prairies became a nightmare that they could not escape.

After running for about one mile, the bandits behind them gradually started to catch up. Liuhua pulled back his long bow and shot an arrow back. One enemy in the front was shot down, which slowed the pursuit for a moment, but Liuhua had less than ten arrows left and could not sustain this much longer.

There were more than ten black-robed women, separated into two groups, that were also chasing them. They had overtaken the escapees and were preparing to outflank them.

That cameleer suddenly leapt out and outran the horses. He stopped a woman in black, jumped on the horse and killed her, then dropped the body and went back with horse. He grabbed Shangguan Ru, and sped away on the horse without saying anything.

Shangguan Ru was caught off guard for a moment before she snapped, “Put me down!” She surprisingly managed to successfully struggle out of the cameleer’s grip and jump off the horse, rolling several times on the ground before running back to the teenagers. “I’m with you.”

The brown-belted killers felt a bit touched by the Tenth Gongzi’s loyalty, but they also thought she was silly. Without her, they might have more chances to escape. However, no one would say such a thing. That was, except for Shangguan Yushi who said while running, “Silly little girl, get on the horse and leave now. The person they want is you, not us.”

Shangguan Ru’s lips were tightly sealed, and her eyes strangely widened. She tightly held onto her sabre and closely followed by Shangguan Yushi’s side. Gu Shenwei was very familiar with the look on her face. It was the expression that she would not change her mind.

The best time to escape on horseback was already over. Those black-robed women were in front of them. Now, they only needed to block the killers for a moment of time for the group of bandits behind to encircle the seven again. If that happened, even the killers with high martial arts skills wouldn’t be able to break out.

Those teenagers suddenly seemed to perfectly understand each other, and together they used their lightness skills to dash towards those black-robed women. Lightness skills had always been Gu Shenwei’s weak point, so he was left to guard the rear.

That cameleer had already exchanged several moves with those black-robed women. He kept jumping from one horse to another, blood splashing with each slash. The black-robed women also jumped around like he did, watching for openings and leavin

g more and more wounds on that cameleer with their sharp steel thorns.

The teenagers joined the battle group, killing and robbing the horses at a stretch. But that camel driver no longer jumped and disappeared amongst the horses.

Shangguan Ru and several others jumped onto the horses and galloped forward, but Gu Shenwei found that he was left alone. The pursuers behind them only wanted to capture Shangguan Ru, and didn’t care too much about a brown-belted killer. A wave of random arrows flew towards Gu Shenwei. He managed to block several of them but was still shot in the left arm.

“Get on the horse.” Someone said to him.

Gu Shenwei threw away his narrow sabre, as he stretched out his right hand to grab onto that person’s hand.

It was Lotus.

Gu Shenwei pulled the arrow out of his arm. Now that he had no narrow sabre, it almost felt like he had lost his other arm.

The wind howled in ears. The black-robed women who had not been killed relentlessly continued to follow them like giant bats; the hooves of horses behind thundered in peals.

“Endless killing along the six paths of reincarnation.” At this juncture, Gu Shenwei remembered the stele in front of the Liu Sha Dian of Golden Roc Castle, and then his mind jumped to another sentence, “‘If one kills one’s thoughts, one will live forever.”

“Give me the sabre.” Gu Shenwei shouted. His injured left arm held Lotus by the waist, and his right hand snatched the sabre from her hand.

Two black-robed women rode up to him and suddenly leapt towards those two teenagers on horseback like two ravens swooping down.

Then, the two women suddenly lost control, ran into each other and fell heavily to the ground, apparently dead.

Whether it was the escapees in front or the pursuers behind, no one saw what had happened at that moment. The teenager on horseback did not seem to have moved at all.

“Swordsmanship! It’s the prototype of the sabresmanship of Golden Roc Castle. ” Gu Shenwei shouted into Lotus’s ear. He felt his discovery was so important that he must tell her at once.

‘What?’ Lotus didn’t immediately understand the meaning of his words.

“We were running around in circles. The sabresmanship of Golden Roc Castle was adapted from the mysterious swordsmanship, but it became more complicated. We already knew how to improve the speed, it’s just that we didn’t use it in the swordsmanship.”

Although Gu Shenwei and Lotus walked two different paths in their practice of the swordsmanship, they still had many things in common. The question of how to stab faster with the sword and make it unavoidable for the enemy was one of the more difficult problems they had encountered.

In that hair’s breadth between life and death, Gu Shenwei suddenly understood that it was no accident that the mysterious sword manual had fallen below the Afterlife Cliff. It must have a very deep connection with Golden Roc Castle. In fact, the method of increasing speed described in the book was exactly one of the unique aspects of golden roc sabresmanship, only more profound and more effective.

The fact that the two could smoothly apply the swordsmanship into their sabresmanship already showed that there was a connection between the two. Unfortunately, their knowledge of martial arts was so limited that they had never realized it.

Just now Gu Shenwei had made two stabs at the same time and killed two of his enemies. If he had the right sword in his hand, he would have killed them even quicker.

Lotus didn’t speak. After running over a hundred steps, she cried out, “I see.”

The two had realized one of the most important secrets of swordsmanship, but this could not help them defeat the pursuers behind them.

To make matters worse, a large group of people had appeared ahead of them.

That group of people had several hundreds of people who had already lined up. The flags were fluttering, the arrows pointing at the sky. They were ready to fire.

The teenagers in front stopped, not knowing what to do.

“Keep going!” This was the only option, Gu Shenwei cried out the way he had persisted in the journey, and there was no chance for him to change his mind.

Four brown belt killers rushed to the front row, while Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi followed closely behind. If they were ordinary martial-arts teenagers, they would shout out to encourage themselves. But this was a silent group of killers. The only thing that accompanied their movement was the sound of horseshoes, showing their resolve to never compromise.

The interceptors at the opposite fired.

Hundreds of arrows covered the sun like locusts, which passed over the heads of the teenagers, and fell on the bandits pursuing behind.

“Iron Mountain! Iron Mountain Flag! ” Shangguan Yushi cried out, her voice trembling with excitement.

The teenagers slowed down. Looking at the rescuers ahead, they were bewildered, as if they were in a dream.

Unlike the wandering bandits who had gathered on the prairie for a short time, bandits of the Iron Mountain were more skilled in battle array and the threat of the Iron Mountain flag was well-known in the Western Regions. After two round of firing arrows, the wandering bandits left a dozen corpses behind and fled in all directions; even a person ten times more powerful than the black-robed women wouldn’t be able to stop it.

Groups of men and horses of the Iron Mountain went around the teenagers and continued to pursue the remnants. The roar was deafening, their formation was scattered yet not in disorder. No matter whether it was chasing, blocking, rounding or driving, they were all in good order. Gu Shenwei originally thought that the Iron Mountain was just a larger robbers’ gang, but now he knew that his first impression was not accurate.

Looking back, it was a bloody-red sunset. There were over a hundred people in the team, but only six teenagers had escaped. 

What happened next dazzled the fledgling teenagers, as if they had suddenly stepped into another strange world.

An Iron Mountain chief came to apologize to the Tenth Gongzi of Golden Roc Castle, and immediately sent them into a tent. At the same time, he dispatched men to deliver a message to Big Head God in the rear, that they would seize the mountain pass ahead and save the survivors.

It was the fire lit by the enemy that had saved them.

Big Head God knew that the team for sending gifts of Golden Roc Castle was on the way a long time ago, so he sent several hundreds of people to welcome the team on the two roads. The outpost found a big fire at the entrance of the mountain pass last night and reported it immediately. The chief of the Iron Mountain hadn’t expected for the escorting team of Golden Roc Castle to be in danger. He then commanded the group of people to cautiously move forward and had luckily met Tenth Gongzi who had escaped.

Gu Shenwei had been worrying about the possibility of his choice to keep on moving forward being wrong, but now he could breathe. If they had stayed at the mountain pass and the rescuers didn’t reach them by sunset, they would have been forced to move to the southern desert.

But it was quite the accident to be rescued, so Gu Shenwei didn’t think that he had contributed much.

The good news kept coming. The wandering bandits feared the Iron Mountain, especially Big Head God. Although they were outnumbered, they still fled and left behind most of the treasure and many of the captives.

That midnight, the captives who survived arrived at the camp one after another. Servant Qing knelt before the little lord and cried bitterly. Little Sui looked utterly pale and was immediately sent to the tent to rest.

It was hard to say whether Fang Wenshi’s expression showed fear or excitement. Maybe it was that he was afraid, and then he was excited again and pulled Gu Shenwei aside, “You’re guests of the Iron Mountain. Why didn’t you mention it earlier? To tell you the truth, the last person I want to see on this trip is the lord of the Iron Mountain. Young hero, please refer me to Big Head God. If I become powerful, you will be my benefactor. “

Fang Wenshi’s eyes were shining, and Gu Shenwei disliked it very much. For him, a strategist should be like the old teacher Zhang Ji, who was concerned about people in the whole world but had a non-competitive demeanor, “Let’s see, I am not sure if I can meet with Big Head God or not. 

Fang Wenshi saw his words as consent, so he solemnly nodded and paced back and forth at a place where there was no people, muttering. He was probably practising the words he would use to persuade Big Head God.

White Camel, the flag-carrying killer and that cameleer were all dead. They were trapped in the siege and were not even as lucky as the unarmed supply servants.

The Iron Mountain Chief ordered his men to pursue until they reached the mountain pass. He didn’t have enough people and didn’t dare to pursue too far away, so he didn’t find the whereabouts of Meng Fifth Gongzi.

Three days later, Big Head God arrived in person and set up a main flag at the mountain pass. He gave the order to camp there and vowed to kill all the bandits and sweep the desert, to avenge the golden roc and iron mountain flag.

Another three days passed, and now thousands of Iron Mountain troops surrounded all the wandering bandits within hundreds of miles, killing more than half of them and taking more than two hundred alive.

At the entrance of the mountain pass, Big Head God ordered his men to erect two huge flags, one was embroidered with a golden roc and another with a black iron spear head. On both sides of the flags the captives knelt, and were all beheaded, their bodies piled around two large flags with layers of heads on them.

Big Head God was busy with revenge and treating Tenth Gongzi, and it was many days later that he met Gu Shenwei alone.

Gu Shenwei had been entrusted with the jade ring of Miss Luo Ningcha to give to Big Head God, and he wanted to send a secret message to Big Head God to stir up the relationship between the Iron Mountain and the Meng family. That was the main purpose of the trip.

Chapter end