Lord Shadow

A TAVERN IN BEIYUAN

The tavern was full of rowdy business as people enter in droves in this cold winter

Beiyuan is a kingdom on the North of continent. It neighbors Silhae and Dong Xia (Eastern Xia)

On its South is the large Zhou Empire. It is a grassland nation full of many tribes and ruled by the Du family of the Borgit tribe.

They take the name of the people of Zhou and Yong to appease the rulers of Zhou in their Southern borders.

As it is a grassland nation, it has many horses and also many martial artists.

But unlike Yong where many of the major sects of the martial art worlds is seated in or the expansive Zhou Empire which has many lineage of martial family that put down their roots there, there is only one martial art sect in Beiyuan.

If it could even be considered a sect.

Most of the martial artist in Beiyuan learn from the Majusi cult.

The Majusi Cult worship fire and they have strict code of conduct.

But they were not stingy with their inheritance as many of the warriors of the grassland martial arts originated from the Majusi Cult.

Today, a young warrior wearing thick fur of a wolf enter the tavern. He quickly ordered a few strong drink to ease the cold of this winter

As he sat down waiting for his drink he heard people talking aloud in one corner of the tavern. He looks at his companion and then smiles as he got up.

‘Tukhla, do not make any trouble’

‘I am not going to make trouble’ he replies as he walks to the group of the people.

As he pushes himself forward through the crowd he finally saw the reason why many of the patrons of the tavern all crowd themselves around here

The List of Swordsman he exclaimed. He did not think that even in this remote tavern the list of Swordsman could be seen.

The List of Swordsman is updated by the Martial Alliance and the Yong Record Keeper. Beiyuan nobility uses the List to take note of the talent of the Southern kingdoms and Empire

Tukhla then ask

‘What is all the fuss about?’ One of the people from the crowd who is bulky and have a large saber behind his back then said

‘Look at the 30th ranking’ he said. The other beside the bulky man

Tukhla then look and saw it

His eyes narrowed as he read the assessment of the swordsman ranked at the number thirty

‘Xi Feng. Age 25. Killed the traitors of the Martial Alliance in a great battle on top of the Five Finger Mountain. From the investigation of the Martial Alliance Feng Xiao the Pale Swordsman and Xu Meng the Ugly Maiden is an Elder in the Sun Devouring sect while the Saber Lover Yu Rong is actually the Elder of the Vulture Peak. Traitor Yu Rong travel from Eastern Yuan, from the headquarters of Vulture Peak and went to Silhae to force Sword Gentleman to hand him the location of Immortal Tian. On the other hand, Sun Devouring sect Elder, Feng Xiao and Xu Meng also went from Xia to Silhae joining hands with Yu Rong to force Xi Feng to reveal the location of Immortal Tian. They then in an act of evil massacre everyone on top of the mountain, killing the pupils and disciple of the Sword School that Sword Gentleman has erected and fought with Sword Gentleman Xi Feng. In the end, all three of them were killed by the Sword Gentleman and their head were displayed on the foot of the Five Element Mountain as warning. They have disguise themselves as orthodox martial artist and they were probably thinking of making a big matter later in the future if not for Sword Gentleman ending their lives. With his achievement, the Martial Alliance put him in the current ranking’

Below that there is other info about Xi Feng.

‘Wow. The Elder of the Sun Devouring sect and Vulture Peak. If they could reach Elder status they must not be some nobody’ Tukhla said.

The bulky man responded to Tukhla

‘They are not nobody. You are not from Yong and Zhou so you don’t know’

Some of them nodded. The bulky man continues his words, feeling excited to enlighten the people with his knowledge of Jianghu

‘Before they were exposed as the Elders of the heterodox sect they are known in Jianghu as powerful martial artist and roam the martial arts world proudly. People even respected them. That just shows how clever they are in acting. They might not be as powerful as those people that come from the Temple of Xi or the prodigies of the Sword Residence but their ranking is around sixty and fifty. While the Sword Gentleman is around one hundred below them since he did not get involved in many of the battles in the martial art world. Though he is famous in some part of the Yong Empire because of his demeanor and his handsome face, his light could not be compared to the big names like Zhu Yao of the Sword Residence or Zhen Hui the Iron Monk of the Temple of Xi.

Tukhla nodded, as he begins understanding why it was so shocking to see Xi Feng at that ranking.

But he also had his own doubt. His eyebrows furrowed.

‘Xi Feng. Xi Feng. I think I heard that name before’ The Bulky man laughed as he expected this reaction.

The bulky man smiles and nodded

‘Of course. If you are a martial arts practitioner of course you at least once heard his name. Any martial artist would remember’

‘Hmm?’ Tukhla eyebrows is raised

‘You mean he is famous even before his rise in the rankings? Is he some disciple of a grandmaster?’

‘No, no’

‘In the tenth year of Ji Fa reign of Zhou, Old Dragon Li went touring the Zhou River as he came with his fist to duel the Old Master. He fought and he won but he was then hunted by the Poison Valley’

One of the people in the crowd, a young man with his eyes shining, ask

‘Why did the Poison Valley chase Old Dragon Li?’

Some people already knows the story but the young man clearly did not know and the bulky man likes to tell story so he continued

‘because Old Dragon Li accidentally eat one of their serpent that possess the accumulation of ten years of internal energy. It was supposed to be for their sect leader. Who would have thought Old Dragon Li would be so lucky? He was hungry and he was lost. When he arrived at the valley, he saw a house. He thought since he is too hungry he would eat first the food in that house and pay for it later’

This part of the story even Tukhla knows. From the way the bulky man tells the story, he embellished the story a bit but in the martial art world that is common.

But he did not lie.

The bulky man is continuing telling the crowd of the story.

‘Who would have thought a serpent tries to bite him at that time. He then grabs it and the serpent slither around him. Not able to strangle the serpent to death, Old Dragon Li bite the serpent and suck all of its blood giving him a boost of his internal energy by ten years. The Poison Valley sect members who were searching for the serpent was dumbfounded when they saw Old Dragon Li has finished drinking every blood of that serpent. They then hunted him and it was then that he met young hero Xi. The Old Dragon Li thought it was fate he met that young hero once again and form a bond.’

‘So, by falling into his boat, and meeting him again Old Dragon Li thought it was fate? If that is the case, I also want to fall into his boat!’ One of the people in the crowd as aid and the other people laughed.

‘Fate is miraculous indeed. The bulky man said.

‘It is now revealed that Old Dragon Li after being save by Young Hero Xi in the forest of Poisons, shows the young hero the moves of the Flowing Swordsmanship from the Flowing Swords Art Manual’

Hearing this Tukhla eyes widened

‘One of the three great sword manuals?’

The bulky man nodded.

‘It turns out that Sword Gentleman Xi Feng master ten moves of the Flowing Sword Arts’

‘Only ten moves?’ Tukhla ask, his face shows his disbelief

The bulky man nodded and look at the distance wistfully.

‘Imagine how powerful that Flowing Sword Art. Even with only ten moves Young Hero Xi managed to use it to kill three elders of the heterodox sect. No wonder it is called one of the three great sword manuals in Jianghu’

Then he added

‘Sword Gentleman is also admirable for hiding this fact. If not, he has long would be ranked higher on the List of Swordsman. I presume right now there are many sword practitioners that would be coming to Five Element Mountains to ask for some pointers from him’

Tukhla on the other hand ask one more question. Though it seems he ask this question for himself.

‘But posting the Sword Gentleman achievement like this doesn’t it seems like the Martial Alliance is targeting Young Hero Xi Feng?’ Tukhla ask

‘What do you mean?’ The bulky man ask back

‘By telling the martial art world he had mastered the ten moves of the Flowing Sword Art and that he killed Elders from the Sun Devouring Sect and Vulture Peak doesn’t it seems like the Martial Alliance is targeting him?’

The bulky man snorted

‘What do you know?’

‘Why should he be afraid when he did such great deed? And why would the Martial Alliance target one of the orthodox martial artist?’ The bulky man said as Tukhla just shake his head and went back to his seat.

He then whispers to his companion and said

‘It seems the Holy Maiden is right. The Martial Alliance might have a spy inside it’

Tukhla knows that while some warrior like being in the limelight ad seeing their name on the List of Swordsman, he also knows that the Martial Alliance would not publish any names of the orthodox swordsman if publishing it could bring calamity on that person.

But this Xi Feng has no sect or teacher and while he did master ten moves of the Flowing Sword Arts, that did not make him a grandmaster in martial arts.

Why would they target him?

Is it related to the Immortal Tian?

Why is everyone searching for him? Even the Wu Pavilion is sending their people searching for the Immortal Tian and all of Xianbei was mobilized.

It seems this goes deeper than just some people wanting to harm Immortal Li. There is a great plot here.

Tukhla also feel that the Martial Alliance is targeting Xi Feng intentionally.

By raising his ranking and his reputation and even telling the martial art world in detail on what he had done, that is the same as making him the target of all those that is interested in the Flowing Sword Arts, the revenge of their Elders and many other interested party to pay a visit to Silhae and climb the Five Element Mountain.

Tukhla drink arrived and he drink it fast. He then urged his companion to go out of the tavern. The moment they took their horse from the stable, his companion asked

‘Where should we go?’

Tukhla look to the West and said

‘Silhae’

Then kicking the horse, they rode as the snow of winter falls down.

***

This chapter and the next chapter will show the many organization of martial art world in this world. Like always leave some votes and comments. Enjoy it