Chapter 13: Liang Zhongshu: Your Mother Is a Servant!
Page 1 of 3
Oh no. I’ve become someone who kills without even blinking…
Once they had left the city, the night wind rushing into his face finally brought Cai Fu back to his senses. He instinctively reflected on himself:
It was all the original Cai Fu’s fault!
The original Cai Fu had become an executioner at eighteen. He was twenty-five this year, and how many heads had he chopped off? More than a hundred, certainly.
He truly was a man who killed without blinking!
After merging with the original Cai Fu’s memories, Cai Fu remained in control, but he could not help being influenced a little.
With troubled times approaching, being decisive and ruthless was not necessarily a bad thing.
Cai Fu glanced back at the government troops trailing them a hundred paces behind. They looked like a pack of hyenas tracking their prey.
If Cai Fu had not taken Liang Zhongshu hostage and killed a man to establish his authority, those hyenas would have pounced on them long ago.
But now, all they dared do was shout for Cai Fu to release Liang Zhongshu. Not one of them dared come any closer.
The brothers Cai Fu and Cai Qing, Lu Junyi and his servant Yan Qing, and Yue Fei and his three fellow disciples were all natives of the region, thoroughly familiar with the terrain around Daming Prefecture.
Yan Qing in particular loved hunting in the countryside. He was practically a human navigation system.
Even under the pitch-black sky and fierce night wind, Cai Fu’s party soon reached Wild Dog Forest, thirty miles outside the city.
“Neighhh—”
Cai Fu hauled back on the reins.
His mount stamped its hooves and let out a long whinny. Cai Fu suspected it was cursing him, but he had no proof.
With his blade across his saddle, Cai Fu reined in his horse before Wild Dog Forest and looked down disdainfully at the several hundred pursuers. Then he unleashed a peerless martial art widely celebrated in the twenty-first century.
Combining the One Yang Finger with the Lion’s Roar, Cai Fu pointed at the pursuing soldiers and bellowed:
“Come and get me!”
“Flap-flap-flap—”
His thunderous shout tore through the silent night, startling a flock of wild birds into flight.
“Whoosh—”
Rather than advance, the several hundred pursuers all took two steps backward in unison.
Useless!
Every last one of them was useless!
Lying belly-down across the saddle in front of Cai Fu, Liang Zhongshu felt sick to his stomach while mentally roasting the soldiers’ entire maternal genealogies.
“Hahahaha!”
After waiting a moment and seeing that no one dared come forward, Cai Fu raised his blade and threw back his head in wild laughter.
His boldness infected Lu Junyi and the others, who found themselves laughing along despite themselves.
Even Yue Fei and his three fellow disciples, all children of eleven or twelve, burst into laughter like a row of ringing iron bells.
“Liang Shijie is in the forest!”
Cai Fu patted Liang Zhongshu’s backside with the broad back of his ghost-headed saber.
Liang Zhongshu let out a shriek worthy of a ghost.
“Blade King, spare my life!”
Having confirmed that Liang Zhongshu was still alive, Cai Fu drew himself up in majestic confidence and pointed his saber at the several hundred pursuers.
“Anyone who isn’t afraid to die is welcome to come rescue him!”
Page 1 of 3
Page 2 of 3
With that, Cai Fu turned his horse around and led the way into the pitch-black Wild Dog Forest.
Lu Junyi, Yue Fei, and the others followed Cai Fu’s lead, charging into the forest in a single mass.
The several hundred pursuers exchanged bewildered looks. After hesitating for a long while, they finally advanced noisily to the edge of Wild Dog Forest.
“Be careful!”
“Inspector Wen said never to enter a forest!”
“It’s so dark in there you can’t see your own hand. I heard the wild dogs in Wild Dog Forest eat people…”
As if to prove the soldier’s claim, the forest suddenly resounded with the snarling howls of vicious dogs.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
Even more terrifying, pairs of tiny green lights began appearing in the darkness of the forest, like the eyes of wolves.
“Good heavens!”
The several hundred pursuers were horrified and shivering with dread. Not one of them was willing to take the first step. Instead, they egged one another on.
“Go on! Get moving!”
In the end, one of the bolder soldiers steeled himself, snatched up a torch, and shouted:
“Fine, I’ll go. You follow me!”
He walked ahead with the torch. To encourage his comrades, he deliberately raised his voice.
“Even ghosts are afraid of evil men!
“As long as you stay close behind me, not only will the wild dogs leave you alone, even ghosts won’t dare lay a finger on you—good heavens!”
The brave soldier suddenly toppled backward, his torch falling to the ground and illuminating his eyes, wide open in death.
Yet there was not a single wild dog in sight around him. He had died as if he had simply bragged himself to death.
“A ghost!”
The group of soldiers who had gathered their courage and followed behind him immediately screamed and fled.
Only after they had all run away did a figure leap down from the great tree overhead.
It was Yan Qing, the “Prodigal.”
Yan Qing drew a cow-ear dagger from his waist and dug a short arrow out of the corpse’s throat.
He carried only three short arrows. Every arrow he fired meant one fewer in his quiver, so whenever circumstances allowed, he had to retrieve them.
After stamping out the torch, Yan Qing climbed back up the tree and crouched on a branch, waiting for another fool to walk into his trap.
But no one came even after a long while, so Yan Qing jumped down and hurried to rejoin Cai Fu and the others.
By then, they had gagged Liang Zhongshu, bound all four of his limbs together, and hung him from a thick tree branch.
Several dead wild dogs lay scattered on the ground nearby. Lu Junyi, Yue Fei, and the others had killed them just moments earlier.
“All done!”
Cai Fu swung himself onto his horse and deliberately told Liang Zhongshu:
“Killing you would only dirty my blade!
“Your master is off to Mount Liang now, where I’ll feast on wine and meat and divide mountains of gold and silver. If you’ve got the ability, come and beat me!”
With that, Cai Fu threw back his head and roared with laughter, then led his brothers deeper into Wild Dog Forest.
You beast!
Curse your mother!
Liang Zhongshu had no idea whose filthy sock had been stuffed into his mouth, but the stench was so foul he nearly vomited up last night’s meal.
Page 2 of 3
Page 3 of 3
Unfortunately, with the stinking sock plugging his mouth, he could neither spit it out nor vomit. He could only swallow, choking until tears streamed from his eyes.
So what if you make it to Mount Liang? I’ll beg my father-in-law to send troops and have your entire band of rebels skinned and dismembered!
Especially you, Cai Fu, the Blade King of the Northern Lands!
After cursing viciously for a while, Liang Zhongshu suddenly felt every hair on his body stand on end.
He discovered that the wild dogs had returned below at some point.
First, the pack devoured the corpses of their dead companions. Then they began trying to get at him.
“Awooo!”
One wild dog suddenly sprang upward, leaping astonishingly high.
Liang Zhongshu ducked his neck and felt a chill in a very sensitive place.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness…
Liang Zhongshu, drenched in cold sweat, finally relaxed—only for another wild dog to suddenly spring up from below.
“Riiip!”
Good heavens!
Liang Zhongshu nearly lost his soul in terror.
That wild dog had torn away a piece of his trousers!
He was exposed!
“Help me!”
Tears streaming down his face, Liang Zhongshu silently prayed:
If someone comes to rescue me now, I’ll reward him with ten thousand taels of gold!
Yet half an hour passed, and no one came to save him…
Trembling all over, Liang Zhongshu made another secret promise:
If someone comes to rescue me now, I’ll pull every string for him and ask my father-in-law to appoint him magistrate of a county!
An hour passed. Still, no one came.
With the seat of his trousers shredded into tassels by the wild dogs, Liang Zhongshu swore bitterly:
If someone comes to rescue me now, I’ll smear him with filth!
I’ll have him branded an accomplice of rebels, thrown into the death cells, and executed on an appointed day!
Just then, someone suddenly shouted:
“My lord! My lord, where are you?”
“Awooo!”
The wild dogs, their eyes red, surged forward as one—but a golden-inlaid battle-axe came crashing down and cleaved one of them in two.
A fierce general with a broad, pancake-shaped face and a thick beard swung his golden-inlaid battle-axe in a furious slaughter, quickly scattering the pack of wild dogs.
When he spotted Liang Zhongshu hanging from the tree branch after half a night, the broad-faced, bearded general was delighted.
“My lord, your subordinate Suo Chao has come to rescue you!”
Page 3 of 3