King of Hundred Victories Saber

Shi Feiyang cupped Guo Xiangyu’s face, the pad of his finger brushing past her reddened eye rims, touching the tiny ice crystals clinging to her lashes.

”All right, I promise you.” He lowered his head and caught Guo Xiangyu’s trembling lower lip between his teeth, only letting go after a long, lingering grind and kiss. ”But your Hundred Victories Qimen Sancai Saber Technique still hasn’t reached the ninth level—are you really willing to let me go see King Yama so early? Once the world is at peace, we’ll find some place of clear waters and green hills, teach our children martial arts, and watch them grow up.”

Guo Xiangyu broke into smiles through tears, her pink fist lightly thumping his chest, only to be caught in his reverse grip, ten fingers interlacing.

Something suddenly occurred to her; she drew out from her sleeve a brocade box embroidered with golden silk, with a few loose thread-ends still clinging to it.

”Oh right, I’ll show you something.” Guo Xiangyu opened the brocade box. Inside lay a delicate little silver bell, its body engraved with intertwining twin lotuses, with two Rubies set at the heart of the flowers, blood-like under the candlelight. ”I specially asked Miaojiang craftsmen to forge this.”

She tied the silver bell at Shi Feiyang’s waist, the icy bell brushing across his burning skin. ”From now on, no matter where you go, as long as the bell rings, I’ll know you’re thinking of me.” Shi Feiyang lowered his head to look at the bell at his waist, then at the beauty before him, her earlobes flushed a faint red from nervousness, and felt that his heart and lungs were filled to the brim with softness.

He suddenly flipped over, pressing her down onto the bearskin cushion. Outside the tent, the cold wind beat against the hanging flaps, yet could not blow away the warmth in this enclosed space. ”Xiangyu, once the war is pacified, I must take you to Jiangnan. We’ll build a brand-new pleasure boat, spend our days roaming mountains and rivers, and never again concern ourselves with Jianghu feuds. By then, we’ll have a few children and let them run about on the boat, laughing and playing.”

”Really?” Guo Xiangyu’s eyes shone astonishingly bright. She wrapped her arms around his neck, the silver bracelets at her wrists chiming crisply as they collided. ”Then I want you to pick lotus flowers for me every day, and you’ll have to teach me how to row!”

”I’ll do as you say.” Shi Feiyang’s lips fell upon her collarbone. ”So long as you’re happy, I’ll even pluck the stars from the sky for you.”

His gaze was firm yet gentle, already seeing clearly the beautiful life that awaited them.

Outside the tent, night deepened; the north wind rolled dry leaves against the tent poles. Guo Xiangyu pillowed her head on his shoulder, listening to that familiar heartbeat, then suddenly traced circles on his chest with her fingertip. ”Feiyang, sometimes I think, if only I could have met you earlier...”

”Why bring this up all of a sudden?” Shi Feiyang’s chin brushed over the crown of her hair, stirring a fine dusting of frost. ”If I’d met you earlier, I could have stayed by your side a few more years.” Her voice grew lower and lower, tinged with a slight choke. ”I’m so afraid... afraid that happiness will be too short-lived...”

Shi Feiyang turned over and locked her tightly in his arms. The tent flaps rose and fell with the wind, wrapping their silhouettes in a hazy halo of light.

”Silly girl, our road is still long.” He pressed a slow, lingering kiss to her brow. ”Every sunrise and sunset from now on, I’ll watch with you. This world, I must protect; you, I must protect even more.”

Before the words had faded, the silver bell at his waist suddenly gave a soft shake, letting out a fine tinkling that could not startle away the warmth in this room.

Seven days later, at 11:45 PM, the air after the first lull in the torrential rain steamed with a sweet, metallic scent of rust.

A hundred kites shrouded in black cloth shot skyward from the dense forest, the sulfur-oil-soaked burlap dragging trails of crimson tailfire across the night sky, like a hundred fire dragons tearing open the heavens.

Miao Menlong planted his feet on the eight trigrams positions, bow bent like a full moon. The Star-Chasing Arrow was wreathed in heavenly thunder that echoed the lightning lurking in the clouds; the sigils at the arrow’s tail flowed and gleamed in the thunderlight. ”May I ask if Lei Gong will lend his aid in battle?!”

With a thunderous roar, the arrow turned into a streak of violet lightning that pierced straight through the belly of one of the kites.

In an instant, heaven and earth plunged into a sea of fire. The burning fire oil fell like meteorites; the beacon tower groaned under the strain of the raging blaze.

The howls of rebel soldiers, mingled with the stench of charred flesh, soared up toward the clouds. Some were caught by the tongues of flame, rolling on the ground like leaping fireballs; some fled in blind panic and plunged off the cliff, sending up a string of shrill, tragic screams.

Amid the cries of the trapped commoners, icy-blue True Qi surged around Shi Feiyang. The shield forged by Bright Jade Technique was like a cold, round moon, tearing open the sea of fire by sheer force. The Celestial Frost Blade carried the domineering saber force of ”Heaven and Earth Share Their Lifespan”; seven streaks of cold light flashed past, and the chains binding the commoners snapped inch by inch.

”Eagle Strikes the Long Sky!” Xie Wengang’s claws were stained with blood as he swept through the enemy ranks like a soaring falcon; wherever he passed, fine blood lines opened at the rebels’ throats.

Shan Zhi’s hands fluttered like butterflies; his plum-blossom throwing knives struck only at fatal points. With every hidden weapon that left his fingers, another man fell to the ground, convulsing.

Miao Menlong did not waste a single arrow. The Star-Chasing Arrows, trailing flames, pierced the rebels’ throats; the arrow oil that splashed onto the ground flared into fresh rings of fire, sealing every escape route. This entire stretch of heaven and earth had become a Xiuluo Scene, blood mingling with oil and weaving between shattered rocks, staining Panlong Cliff a grotesque red-black.

Yang Yinglong wore heavy black-iron armor on his shoulders, his Wolf Fang Club still sticky with undried human blood.

Staring at his collapsing troops, his eyes nearly split. ”Shi Feiyang! Today, it’s either you die or I perish!” Before his shout had finished, the Wolf Fang Club in his hands was already swinging down, carrying the force of a thousand pounds.

Shi Feiyang let out a cold snort. Bright Jade Technique spun up into the state of Supreme Forgetting Emotions Ice Soul Cold Prison; the chill in his palm condensed into substance, freezing the Wolf Fang Club into a block of ice within a single breath. Before Yang Yinglong could react, the Celestial Frost Blade had already swept past like a startling swan shadow; the saber light of ”Heaven and Earth Share Their Lifespan” flashed, and the heads of the rebel officers fell like overripe melons, a rain of blood mingling with the sudden downpour, splashing into blossoms of scarlet in the mud.

When the last rebel soldier collapsed, the eastern sky was already turning fish-belly white.

Shi Feiyang sheathed his blade and looked at the commoners who had survived the calamity. His voice carried on the morning wind. ”This world, in the end, belongs to the common folk. Be at ease, everyone—hereafter, no one will dare use you as shields again!”

His figure was drawn long in the rising sun, the bloodstains on his dark battle clothes glimmering dull red in the rosy light, like a tragic painting.

Just then, Xie Wen employed the Feixu Qingyan Technique and swept in at speed, the hems of his robe still dusted with lingering gunpowder smoke. ”Grand Squad Leader, we’ve scoured the battlefield and found no sign of Yang Yinglong’s head. I fear that wretch has slipped away!”

Shi Feiyang gazed at the distant, unbroken mountain ranges, his eyes deep as an abyss. ”Brother Xie, I’ve long said it—the Bozhou upheaval has roots sunk deep. Today we blunted his edge, but it is far from the final act.”

He looked toward the first snowflake drifting down from the sky, calm composure within the chill. ”As for Yang Yinglong—well, the monk may run, but the temple cannot. Winter is upon us; let the common folk have a peaceful New Year. When spring warms and flowers bloom next year, we will surely rip this source of calamity out by the roots!”

Xie Wen nodded and leapt away to pass on the orders.

By the time they seized Dragon Cliff’s sheer escarpment, snow was already falling in heavy flakes.

Shi Feiyang handed this perilous pass over to Guo Dunyi, the Ming Army general who had come to take charge.

Guo Dunyi pointed to Lv Yuan, Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard of the Jinyi Guard, Cai Kun the garrison commander of the Jinyi Guard, and Xiang Laixiang, one of the Jinyiwei Households, introducing them to Shi Feiyang.

Lv Yuan, Cai Kun, and Xiang Laixiang—these Jinyi Guard experts whom Shi Feiyang had once beaten until they doubted their very lives—were all wearing thoroughly embarrassed expressions.

Shi Feiyang acted as if nothing were amiss as he clasped his fists in greeting, then led his forces onward. However, the Jinyi Guard, eager to snatch the credit and relying on their higher official rank, ordered Shi Feiyang and the heroes of the Xiongying Squad, the Seven Sons of Wudang, the Emei Female Hero Su Qinghan, and others to camp on the spot and await further news.

Lv Yuan, meanwhile, led the Jinyi Guard forward.

The setting sun seemed to burn straight through the firmament, and Bozhou Canyon was steeped in a pool of scarlet blood.

Lv Yuan’s fingers clenched so tightly around his Brocade Spring Saber that the knuckles turned white; the blood seeping from his palm soaked into the hilt-wrap cords, and his eyes were filled entirely with greed for the Commander’s throne.

How could he possibly let such a chance to make his name and establish his authority slip by? ”All of you, pick up the pace! Bring down Yang Rusong, and the first merit will be ours!”

Five hundred Jinyi Guard troopers sped over the broken stones. Suddenly, from deep within the gorge, there came a wail like a night owl’s shriek.

Looking up, they saw a Steel Centipede Vehicle grinding over corpses as it slowly crawled out, the eight iron legs crunching white bones. The sound mingled with the tearing of rotten flesh, sending waves of echoes rolling between the sheer cliffs.

The bronze mechanisms on the vehicle’s shaft gleamed with a ghostly blue poison light; the thirty-six mechanism mouths of the Thunderfire Thousand Mechanisms device breathed out sulfurous fumes, like a giant serpent baring its fangs from its lair.

”Jinyi Guard? Nothing but a heap of stinking dog shit!” The traitorous general Yang Rusong’s sunken eye sockets danced with a morbid excitement. His withered fingers dug deep into the steering wheel, veins bulging like coiled vipers.