Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Dragon-rocky City’s downtown extended in all directions. Even if it was not a major city, its main streets were built slightly wider. After all, Jianghu was comprised of many people, and a majority of them had a short fuse. They could suddenly burst into a fight over the slightest conflict. Making the streets wider allowed it to serve as a kind of practicing field. It would prevent them from disturbing passers-by and those trying to make a living.
Rumor had it that Luoyang’s longest streets measured 18 li in length and 33 zhang in breadth. It was the same length as the streets of a small city. The usual crowd of people squeezing their way through would suddenly make way, leaving a huge path in the middle for officials and arresters to pass on their horses, or for the disciples of aristocratic families to spar. It was a very lively place full of activity.
Of course, when it came to outrageously long streets, even if Luoyang did not have many of them, the other cities in the prefecture, like Jun City, probably only had about three or four of them. Streets like Yedu’s Jade Bridge Street belonged to the normal range.
The Eastern market was bustling with activity. Hawkers selling cattle, sheep, pigs and other domestic animals took up nearly half the street. Cui Hao and his gang of scoundrels, including Jiang Qing, were strolling down the street in search of a good steed. The dirty water from the melted snow on their feet marred the surface of the ground.
“It stinks!” He pinched his nose and cursed.
Jiang Qing chuckled. “I told you we could’ve gotten one from my house. Then we wouldn’t have had to come here to the Eastern Market and breathe in this filthy air. But you, The Twelfth Cui, were so excited that you just had to come and select one yourself, huh? Don’t tell me you think that everyone has those encounters like the heroes from Jianghu rumors! Did you think you were gonna find a hidden gem at the horse market? Pssh, there’re such rumors precisely because they succeeded. There’re countless others who’ve failed and are nameless!”
“Didn’t I say that I’ve never been to a horse market before? I’ve got to at least take a look at it.” Cui Hao wanted to turn and flee, but he controlled the impulse to do so in case he was mocked by his friends.
Once he had gotten used to it, the combination of various stenches was no longer as unbearable. By the time they had squeezed their way through to the side of the street, he was a lot more comfortable.
“Ah, it’s so nice and refreshing!”
Only then did he have a leisurely mood to check out his surroundings.
It was a horse marketplace. The horse traders seemed to be pretty good at their job, because every steed was sturdy and strong and had shiny fur. They looked so beautiful that it made him secretly nod his head as he went by. It was just that the trader had occupied about half the width of the street, forcing many passers-by to go around him.
The horse trader wore a felt hat and had his chest bare even though it was winter. It was full of black hair that emitted heat. In his hand was a horse whip.
There was a stall selling sugary drinks not too far behind him, its sweet fragrance mingling with the stench. Its owner was a woman in plain white clothes with such a beautiful smile that it drew customers over to stop and taste her beverages.
“After walking around here, it sure would be nice to get a sweet drink to drive away the cold and stench.” Jiang Qing’s eyes were shining as he stared at the owner of the stall. One could not say for sure what his intentions were.
Cui Hao laughed. “Setting up a sweet drink stall here means it’ll be full of the stench. Apart from the lower class, who’d actually care to have a drink?”
Although that was what he said, the sweet drink stall’s business was actually very good. Perhaps the drink was not the only thing that was sweet, but also the owner. She was like honey, attracting many bees around her.
“Maybe she’d get rich if she changed her line of work…” Cui Hao sighed out of nowhere.
Jiang Qing loudly chuckled and exclaimed, “The Twelfth Cui, you’re right! If she were my concubine, she would definitely be rich!”
Just as he finished, he heard a scam-like voice say, “Masters, how about getting your fortune told? You, Master over here, the space between your eyebrows is dark. There will be bloodshed today!”
Jiang Qing angrily glared in the direction of the voice. He saw an old man who was blind in one eye and had a few strands of hair for a beard. His withered yellow face bore a serious expression. The long bamboo pole in his hands had a sign on it reading “Accurate Forecasts”.
“I dare you to say that I’ll have bloodshed today again! Watch it or you’re gonna lose your other eye too!” Jiang Qing retorted viciously.
The fortune-telling old man shuddered and quickly turned away, grabbing other passers-by and spouting more nonsense.
Cui Hao suddenly piped up. “That swordsman isn’t bad.”
“Oh?” Jiang Qing followed his gaze and spotted a young man dressed in simple robes. He was currently picking a steed with the utmost focus while his right hand gripped an unsheathed sword.
His right hand was slim, long and clean, but the way he held his sword was unusually steady, as if he had fought hundreds of battles and killed hundreds of people before. It was like nothing could ever shake the firmness with which he held his sword.
“Hehe, The Twelfth Cui, want to spar with him? You were randomly grounded for two years so your name isn’t quite known in Jianghu!” Jiang Qing incited.
Cui Hao smiled and shook his head. “If I fought in this kind of place and got animal feces on myself, I’d be in trouble.”
“Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop.” The sound of rushing horses could be heard coming from the entrance of the street. Cui Hao and the others instinctively turned to look, and saw a man in blue robes riding a horse towards a place near them.
His general features were plain but had a lingering appeal upon closer inspection. His face was stretched taut and emotionless. It looked like he was in a hurry to do something.
Cui Hao had seen far too many similar figures who were rushing to do something or be somewhere. He stepped back a bit to avoid the horse knocking him down.
The horse that the man in blue robes was riding looked like it had been splashed with water. Its huffs and puffs of white breath streamed from its nostrils. It appeared to be close to collapsing any moment. Then the man stopped his horse and just pulled out a bunch of notes. He yelled at the horse trader,
“Get a horse ready!”
To think he was changing horses just like that!
His voice was still reverberating in the air when the owner of the drink stall suddenly picked up the pot of sweet drinks she was making and splashed the contents him!
The initially slightly golden syrup turned black the moment it was splashed out of the pot. It smelled horrible and splattered like thick ink.
“An assassin? She was actually an assassin!” Cui Hao was completely taken aback. He previously had not been able to tell at all!
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Jiang Qing who had been thinking about finishing his sweet drink felt his stomach flip. He almost threw up right then and there.
The black gas syrup turned into a thick curtain of rain. It went everywhere. It seemed like there was no way of protecting oneself from it!
Cui Hao reached a conclusion after considering his options and decided that he could only roll under one of the horse’s bellies. The horse blocked the attack, allowing him to survive.
The man in blue robes on the horse drew his long saber hanging from his waist in a flash. His Knife Momentum was perfectly round and, like a void containing hidden vortexes, sucked everything up. Every drop of the black syrup was trapped inside of it as if he was gathering and compressing it into a ball of liquid.
“What excellent bladesmanship!” Cui Hao had just inwardly praised the man when he suddenly spotted a bamboo rod shoot out like a dragon emerging from its cave. In the instant that the man was occupied with fending off the black syrup attack, it flew towards the side of his neck. Cui Hao discovered that the attacker was, in fact, the fortune-telling old man from just now who was blind in one eye!
Jiang Qing felt a chill from within. He had not doubted the old man’s identity at all before and thought him a common fortune-telling fraud.
Coupled with the fact that the owner of the sweet drink stall was an assassin, had the attack been aimed at them, they would have already died at least twice!
Right as the fortune-telling old man attacked, the man who had been selecting a steed suddenly pounced. He rolled under the green-robed man’s horse and struck straight up with his steadily-held sword. He was attempting to stab right through the horse and into the man’s pubic region!
This was the real fatal blow!
“A death trap, a perfect death trap…” There were only these words floating in Cui Hao’s mind.
Right then, the man in blue robes crouched a little and made the bamboo pole miss his neck. Instead, he hit it away with the side of his face. Then, in a stunning logic-defying display, he leaped into the air without accumulating any energy to do so. With a tremble of his blade, the black syrup he had been suspending flew towards the fortune-telling old man and splashed all over him. Not a single drop of it landed anywhere else.
“Argh!” The fortune-telling old man shrieked in pain as he rolled about on the ground. A short while later, his legs went limp. His entire body was covered with traces of decay and a yellow fluid flowed from him.
After tossing the black syrup out, the owner of the stall produced two dirks as if she had already rehearsed it. She jumped into the air and aimed the dirks at between the eyebrows of the man in blue robes.
However, the man’s body suddenly became heavy and he dropped straight down to an inch away from his original position.
That inch was the difference between life and death.
He landed beside the horse. There was a flash of knife energy as the young man and the horse still impaled by the long sword collapsed together. Blood spewed out into a huge pool.
The owner of the sweet drink stall was all alone midair. She had no strength to change her posture and so, could only fall.
Under any circumstance in which a person could not fly, he who fell first lived, and he who fell last perished!
There was another flash of knife energy as the sweet-looking face of the owner was cleaved in half.
Cui Hao and Jiang Qing had long lost their ability to think and speak. In their minds, they had already died countless times over in this death trap, yet the man in blue robes had finished off the three assassins with ease.
The man in blue robes wasted no time in running straight for the nearest horse. He was about to leave the notes and ride off on the horse.
Out of the blue, a dark and pure sword light flashed through the air, aimed between the man’s eyebrows. Its killing intent was completely exposed. It was quick, accurate and deadly.
The attacker was the bare-chested horse trader!
His candid-looking self was actually capable of such sword art!
When was the most fatal moment of a death trap?
It was precisely when one had thought himself to have repelled all assassins and survived!
Lax, rejoiceful, complacent and completely off guard!
The moment they saw the sword, Cui Hao and the others already felt like they had died because they too had relaxed!
Another flash of knife energy sliced through the air like a passing streak of lightning. Their eyes were still fixated on its silvery color when the horse trader was struck and crashed to the ground.
He had acted later but was even swifter, beating the attacker to it!
“The rumored ‘Aurora Electric Sword’ Xiao Zhenhai probably isn’t even as fast as him…” Cui Hao thought in a state of stupor.
“Thud!” The horse trader crashed to the ground while the man in blue robes leaped onto a steed and galloped off into the distance. At the same time, he called out,
“These’re assassins from Unrelenting Tower! Everyone, please take them, and help yourselves to the reward!”
“If you guys still want to get rid of Unrelenting Tower’s gold class and Red-stair assassins, then secretly follow me! So long as you have the strength, you can gain a lot of wealth!”
With a series of clip-clops, he vanished from the street, his heroic words still reverberating in the air. It was almost as if the assassins’ death trap from before had been nothing more than a dream.
However, the loud puking from those who had drunk the sweet drink, and seen the old man’s horrendous death, made it clear that it had been real.
Cui Hao took a deep breath and praised the man,
“What an amazing fellow!”