Death Scripture

Chipo was a tough man and refused to divulge any information to the Great Snowmountain. Two swordsmen had beaten him so hard that they had broken a wooden cudgel each, but he just continued taunting them as he wished, after spitting out teeth and blood.

"Harder, why do you have less strength than a whore from Pleasure Alley? I'm not enjoying it enough."

The two swordsmen were already panting from their exertions. Nevertheless, upon hearing his taunt, they lifted up what was left of their cudgels and wanted to work Chipo again. They were only stopped when Gu Shenwei, who was observing from the sideline, ordered them to stop. He instructed them to leave him alone with Chipo, as he wanted to speak privately to the bandit.

Chipo was covered in his own blood and looked cheekily at the Dragon King, the ferocity of his gaze undiminished even after his ordeal. "It's so easy to be called a king nowadays. I'll get myself such a title one of these days. Since you're the Dragon King, I shall be known as the Dragon Slaying King, ha, ha."

Gu Shenwei was unaffected by his taunt. Other than Xu Yanwei, nobody could get him angry. He waited for Chipo to stop laughing before replying, "You can call yourself king of whatever for all I care. Since you're unwilling to admit to conspiracy with the Golden Roc Fort, I have to make a wild guess."

"As you wish. You can even assume I had an affair with women of the Fort for all I care."

"The Golden Roc Fort's willingness to cough up large amounts of money in return for your life proves that your value to the Supreme King lies beyond your machete skills."

"Are you suggesting that my machete skills are inferior? I was careless before, let's have another fight."

"There's no need to. Your machete skills are alright, but not worth one or two million taels of silver. You operate alone, with only a few men, and are known for being a spendthrift. No one has noticed you ever hoarding your money. Therefore, I can say the Supreme King neither values your skills nor your wealth."

"Of course, why should I hoard my money? Money only has spenders and not owners. Hey, Dragon King, why don't I introduce some whores to you? They're guaranteed to be worth it and once you've tried their services, I'll be sure that you'll be the same as me—spending all your money away in no time."

Gu Shenwei stared at the bandit, who was immensely pleased with himself. The Dragon King wrinkled his eyes slightly and said, "Why would the Supreme King spend so much effort to rescue someone so useless?"

"Are you calling me useless?" Chipo stared angrily, puffing up his body. The cowhide rope which bound him pressed deep into his muscles, but he did not seem to care. "You really think you're a king after earning the loyalty of a few thousand swordsmen from the Great Snow Mountain? How dare you call me useless. The joke's on you. With a single call, I can summon ten times your number of men. Yang Huan, you're just a killer on the run and no different from a rat scampering across the street. Kill me now if you dare, we shall see how much longer than me you have to live. Aren't you cruel and ruthless, capable of any methods..."

Chipo had let his secret slip and was frantically trying to cover it up by spouting a bunch of gibberish. However, it was too late and the Dragon King had already caught on to him. The information on Chipo collected by Xu Xiaoyi and the Tianshan Sect checked out with what the bandit himself was saying and basically confirmed Gu Shenwei's suspicions.

"Summon more than 10 times the swordsmen of the Great Snow Mountain," Gu Shenwei repeated what the bandit said. "Hearteater Chipo, the bandit who acts alone, travels across each nation in Western Region and likes to make friends with his fellow bandits. The amount you've spent to secure your connections is a hundred times more than what you've spent in Pleasure Alley."

Chipo's looks changed a little and he tried to cover it up by laughing loudly. "You're right, every bandit camp I visit, I'm treated as a VIP. What about swordsmen from the Great Snow Mountain? Bunch of fools with snowy mush on your legs you all are. Even if you invited me to go, I would never set foot in such a miserable place. Hey, you'd better kill me now, before every bandit in the world comes looking for you."

"What benefits does the Supreme King grant you for helping him to garner the support of the bandits?"

Chipo remained calm faced with the Dragon King's unexpected question. The only sign that he was worried was his laughter, which had become a little hoarser. "Ha, ha, you really like to joke, Dragon King. Are you a joker? What a pity that I don't have any women or booze around me now."

Gu Shenwei knew he could not squeeze out any more information from the bandit. "I'll let you walk out of here alive. After that, I'll send people to establish contact with bandits all around the land. Soon, news will spread that both the Great Snow Mountain and the Golden Roc Fort are competing to gather the most support from bandit gangs in the Western Region, as well as news that I have a list of all the gangs that have secretly allied themselves with the Supreme King. Don't you think that everyone will wonder how I got hold of this list?"

Gu Shenwei walked out of the room, leaving Chipo to ponder the answer to his question alone.

"You, you despicable, treacherous, nasty person!" Chipo shouted, finally unable to keep his act up. "It won't be so easy to frame me. The Supreme King would not believe your lies, and I will come for you sooner or later to take my revenge."

That afternoon, Xu Xiaoyi came back with the old machete man Liu Zu, smiles on both their faces. The former was genuinely happy and could not control himself, while the latter's expression was so stiff and unnatural that even the loose skin on his face was all stiff. When he greeted the Dragon King, it seemed that his throat was filled was phlegm.

Gu Shenwei was sure that the old moneybags had to cough up some of their personal savings to contribute to the ransom; there was nothing unnatural about the hate in Liu Zu's eyes.

Gu Shenwei nodded nonchalantly and let Xu Xiaoyi handle the transaction on his behalf.

Chipo was gagged tightly and escorted by 10 swordsmen from the residence of the Dragon King to Liu Zu's residence in South City. It was impossible for an infamous bandit such as Chipo to enter North City openly.

The next day, the severed head of 'Chipo' was hung high up for all to see, inviting many people to crowd around it. They had not come to see the head of an infamous bandit, but rather a valuable object that was worth two million taels of silver.

"This is the most expensive head in the whole world, isn't it?", observed many amongst the crowd. Thus, the reputation of the old machete men who were one foot in the grave spread so far that there was always someone trying to visit them nearly every day, either to offer their services or to secure a loan from the old men.

Later, Xu Xiaoyi went to inspect the severed head personally, and came back reporting, "It's pretty identical, but the hair is still intact."

The two swordsmen had pulled off a clump of Chipo's hair when interrogating him, upon receiving the secret instructions of the Dragon King. A little of the bandit's scalp was thus exposed, and as he was being beaten at that time, he took no extra notice of the pain emanating from his head and did not know that there was another identifying mark on his head now.

Gu Shenwei's guess about Liu Zu's link with the Golden Roc Fort was proven correct by the old man's act of using a fake head to deceive others into thinking that Chipo was dead.

After another day had passed, news that the Great Snow Mountain and the Golden Roc Fort were competing to garner the support of the bandit gangs started to surface, resulting in a series of events.

Trade was the bedrock of Jade City's economy, and its businessmen, big and small, hated the countless number of bandit gangs to the core. They were distraught upon hearing that both the Great Snow Mountain and Golden Roc Fort were getting friendly with the gangs, and were worried whether the leaders of both factions would sacrifice the livelihoods of the merchants for the support of the bandits.

Fang Wenshi immediately rose to the challenge and did his best to make the Great Snow Mountain's stance on the matter clear. He spoke up during the peace talks and at all sorts of occasions, earnestly vowing that the Great Snow Mountain was not a bandit gang itself, and stating that its swordsmen had never engaged in arson, murder or robbery, nor would they ally themselves with unlawful criminals. He gave a lot of supporting evidence to hint that the Golden Roc Fort was, instead, the protector of the bandits.

The issue soon blew out of proportion, and the Golden Roc Fort was slow to react. It only sent out a chief from the White Robe Academy a few days later to clear the air and was forced to promise that they would send out their killers to take part in each country's bandit extermination operation.

Gu Shenwei had achieved his goal but was soon faced with another problem.

Liu Zu had issued a bank note for the two million taels of silver he owed, and they could only cash it out from a bank owned by the Meng family. Gu Shenwei was unwilling to leave his money in the hands of his enemy, but when Xu Xiaoyi went to transfer the silver to another bank, all the banks owned by the Meng family rejected his request, saying that the amount was too large for them to handle and told him to the deal directly with the Meng residence.

At the same time, the smaller banks were also pressured into rejecting the transfer, and even underground bankers like Shopkeeper Lyu and Xiao Fengchai dared not announce that they would accept it.

These small bankers had no other choice but to deal with the Meng family if they wanted their business to progress, so they had to obey the Meng family's order.

The two million taels of silver had become a useless source of funds which they could not tap into. From the way things looked, it was necessary for the Dragon King to personally deal with the Meng family.

Gu Shenwei knew what Meng Yuzun's motive was. It seemed that the fat man was still coveting the Dajue Book of Swordcraft.

That very night when Xu Xiaoyi's request to cash out the silver was rejected, the Dragon King summoned him, the military counselor and Lin Xiaoshan for a meeting on how to solve their problem.

Xu Yanwei had also snuck in and she spoke up with conviction when the Dragon King tried to banish her. "Even though I'm not as smart as all of you, I know about many things—no matter what, I've been in the Stone Castle for three years. Who knows, maybe I can come up with some simple solutions to your problems."

Gu Shenwei had no choice but to let her remain, but not before warning her, "You're not allowed to speak unless I ask you a question."

Xu Yanwei nodded vigorously in agreement and she indeed kept to her word.

Gu Shenwei spoke first. He had the intention of declaring war on the Meng family. Even though it was allied with the Golden Roc Fort, it was not part of the ceasefire deal, and the fort could not interfere even if the Dragon King attacked the Meng family at this point in time.

"Meng Yuzun will never betray the Supreme King, so why not take this chance to get rid of him," said Gu Shenwei.

Upon hearing the Dragon King's proposal, Lin Xiaoshan made no response, except for lowering his head, and the Xu siblings nodded solemnly in agreement. Fang Wenshi remained still for a while before he spoke, "This won't work out. The Meng family is a big clan, and even if we get rid of that fat man, it won't affect their influence on the entire Western Region's banks. We will also have another tough opponent to handle, and it will adversely affect our ability to get funds in the future."

"Then we'll keep killing until one of them is willing to give in," said Gu Shenwei.

Fang Wenshi felt that the statement was even more incredulous. He was so agitated that his face had turned red. "I don't agree. As your military counselor, I'll never agree to such a strategy. The most important task for us now is to achieve peace for the Great Snow Mountain, and then we have to carve out our own territory and gain a foothold in the region. As for money, once peace is achieved, we can request for financial aid from the Central Plain. They need a pawn in the Western Region and therefore will be bound to help us financially."

He calmed down after realizing that he should not lose his cool as a counselor. He took a deep breath and continued in a softer tone, "Please look at the big picture, Dragon King, and prioritize our plan to achieve ascendancy for the Great Snow Mountain over matters of the heart. There are many beautiful women in the world, and once you secure your position in the region, you can have your pick of them. Why should you be so eager now?"

Gu Shenwei lifted his head slightly while he replied, "You're over thinking it, military counselor. I have no ulterior motives for getting rid of Meng Yuzun. The Meng family is like a noose slowly tightening over our necks, and if we don't get rid of it, it'll surely become a problem for us in the future."

Fang Wenshi still shook his head and said, "Sometimes, a moment's restraint can lead to great accomplishments. Dragon King, we cannot touch the Meng family now. If you have the ability to strike, why not use it to exterminate the Wildhorse gang?"

Gu Shenwei lowered his head and remained silent while considering the counselor's suggestion.

Xu Xiaoyi and Lin Xiaoshan were tactful and kept quiet upon seeing that the Dragon King and his counselor were deep in debate. However, Xu Yanwei was increasingly infuriated, and stood up with a flourish, after receiving no reaction from her brother despite repeated eye signals. "Even if the Dragon King wants to behead me, I still have to speak now."

Upon hearing that, the Dragon King did not ask for her head and only looked coldly at her. She took it as tacit encouragement for her to continue, and pointed at Fang Wenshi as she said, "Ungrateful fellow, what did you promise me when you lay with me? You sure change attitudes real quickly. Do you think I slept with you expecting nothing in return?"

Fang Wenshi's face was peach red and could no longer maintain his image as a military counselor. He replied, obviously exasperated, "You, you, how could you say such a thing? And in the presence of the Dragon King furthermore."

"Since you can act in this manner, I can talk like this," Xu Yanwei rebutted, both hands on her hips and eyebrows raised. Even though she was short, her presence outgrew the counselor at this moment.

Xu Xiaoyi's face was as red as Fang Wenshi's, and his tone showed as much exasperation as the counselor's. "You, you, how dare you get intimate with my sister? Are you trying to take advantage of her? She's stopped working in the flesh trade a long time ago..."

"Incorrect, incorrect, it was she that came into my room..." retorted Fang Wenshi.

Just like this, the serious atmosphere of the meeting was spoiled, and Gu Shenwei had to chase everyone out. He continued thinking about the entire matter in private and came to a decision to go against his military counselor's prudent strategy.

As he gripped the hilt of his saber, he realized that it was increasingly difficult to control the desire to kill deep inside himself.