Chapter 109: Traveling Together
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Meng Mingshi's caravan had camped across the road. On the next morning, they set out together with the escort team.
The Fifth Young Master Meng led a large team. He had 50 or 60 camels and a similar number of horses. There were more than 100 people in his caravan, 30 of whom were guards.
The brown-belt assassins discovered that all the 30 guards were just hired machetemen, but the rider at the forefront of the caravan, who carried a Golden Roc Flag, was obviously a professional killer from Stone Castle. None of them had met this red-belt killer before, and the killer did not show any interest in this group of brown-belt assassins either.
Meng Mingshi looked like a completely different person. He seemed very amiable and chatted cheerfully with Slave Qing all the way. He did not disturb the girls or show even the slightest hatred toward Slave Huan. It seemed that he did not recognize this brown-belt assassin who had threatened him with a wooden saber at all.
Gu Shenwei observed Meng Mingshi's machetemen carefully and discovered that only two or three of them appeared to be good at kung fu. However, he still ordered his brown-belt assassins to stay alert, since the caravan's guards still significantly outnumbered the guards of the escort team.
At first, the girls followed their chief's order to stay away from the caravan, but after a while, they began to approach the Fifth Young Master Meng to make fun of him through ridicule and satire. Surprisingly, Meng Mingshi reacted very calmly and seemed to regret his deeds very much. Seeing this, Slave Qing was a little embarrassed. He apologized to Meng Mingshi again and again while dissuading his young masters from mocking him.
After quite a long time, Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi finally felt that they had said enough and returned to their own team, leaving Meng Mingshi alone.
The two teams traveled together peacefully for three days. On the third night of their trip, they camped near a mountain pass, which was located at the border of Golden Roc Fort's territory. To the north lay a vast grassland, which was Norland's domain in name, but in fact, it was a lawless place. There were many bandits on this grassland, but they usually would not rob a team with a Golden Roc Flag.
After spending another two peaceful days on this seemingly endless grassland, Shangguan Ru got bored. There were few inhabitants along the road, and the vegetation became increasingly sparse. On many occasions, she wanted to provoke Meng Mingshi's machetemen, but Slave Qing and Slave Huan managed to dissuade her every time.
At a fork in the road, the two teams were divided on which way they should take.
The road to the north was safer, since it was guarded by Norland's cavalrymen. If they took this way, they would be able to see a village every few days. The only disadvantage was that it would take them around 20 days to get to the camp of the Iron Mountain Gang.
The other road directly led to the capital of a small country in the northwest of the Western Region, which was the caravan's final destination. At the same time, this road was also a shortcut to the camp of the Iron Mountain Gang. If they took this way, they would need only 10 days to arrive at their destinations. However, this road was rough and risky.
Meng Mingshi had decided to take the way to the northeast a long time ago. With 30 machetemen protecting him and a Golden Roc Fort killer leading the way for him, he was not afraid at all. He formally bid farewell to the girls and said, "There are many bandits along this road. We can never let them scare you. Master Ru, take your time. It's not a big deal. I'm willing to stay in the city for 10 more days to wait for you."
Everybody could tell that Meng Mingshi was just goading Shangguan Ru into taking the shortcut except the girl herself. She fell into his trap immediately and urged the escort team to take the shortcut regardless of her chief's objection.
Gu Shenwei and the guide, Dao San, suggested the team take the safer road, which was also their scheduled route. Gu Shenwei worried that Meng Mingshi might have been secretly plotting against him, but he could not tell this to Shangguan Ru.
In the end, Slave Qing, the chief of the whole escort team made a decision. "Let's travel together with Mister Meng. We can take care of each other along the way. He's so many machetemen. Bandits won't dare to approach us, will they? "
Slave Qing did not want to act against Meng Mingshi. He had had such a good time with this nice young master during the past few days. He would have felt excited to serve the Fifth Young Master Meng if the fort had sent him to the Meng family now.
The escort team had to obey Slave Qing's order, so they followed the caravan to travel along the road to the northeast. Shangguan Ru insisted that the team should stay away from the caravan. Given that, the escort team camped early in the night and planned to set off later the next morning to distance themselves from the caravan. That night, Shangguan Ru earnestly hoped that some bandits would come to the camp to give her a chance to show her excellent saber skills.
Gu Shenwei secretly ordered his brown-belt assassins to stay alert and appointed Maid Lotus to protect Shangguan Ru. He was clear that now the most valuable thing in this team was not the gifts but Master Ru.
He found it quite ridiculous that now he had to try his best to protect this girl whom he had planned to kill in the future.
The following two days and nights were still quite peaceful. The biggest accident during this period of time was the sudden appearance of a wolf. It had abruptly approached the camp and then was shot dead by Liuhua. Shangguan Ru was excited about this incident for a long time.
Early in the third morning, when Gu Shenwei was preparing his horse, Shangguan Ru came to talk to him with her left hand on the hilt of her saber. Her eyes looked even darker since she now stood with her back to the sun. "Why do you treat me so coldly?"
"You're a macheteman, and I'm your chief. That's the way it's supposed to be."
"No, I saw you chatting merrily with the brown-belt assassins."
Gu Shenwei clearly remembered that he had never chatted merrily with anyone during the past days, but he did not want to continue this childish conversation. "Now, we're chatting merrily," he smiled and said.
Shangguan Ru bit her lips and put on a straight face. She paced beside Slave Huan for a while and asked, "Why did you come out to protect me on that day in Bodhi Garden?"
"She knew that it was me." Gu Shenwei thought. He regretted what he had done on that day even more. He stopped preparing his horse and said, "That's my fault. You didn't sleep. You heard that someone was approaching, didn't you?"
Gu Shenwei believed that a competitive person like Shangguan Ru would answer "yes" to his question. However, the girl said, "No, I was stoned. I heard nothing."
Gu Shenwei was speechless. After a moment, he replied, "I came out to protect you because I'm your Slave Huan, your apprentice and your killer."
Shangguan Ru was about to turn 13 in a few months. At that time, she would officially become the Tenth Young Master of Golden Roc Fort and own a killer team. Like all the other young masters of the fort, she had received a series of training and learned the skills of guessing the needs and intentions of others, but she still failed to discover the bitterness hidden in Slave Huan's reply.
"Good, you still remember it. I'll fight you in the future to check your progress on your saber techniques," Shangguan Ru smiled triumphantly and said.
Gu Shenwei bowed to her slightly. "No matter how hard I practice, I can never surpass my Master Shifu in saber skills. However, please remember that I'm your chief now."
Hearing that, Shangguan Ru slightly bowed back to Slave Huan, saying, "It's really not easy to earn 10 taels of silver a day." After that, she cheerfully left.
Gu Shenwei had mixed feelings after Shangguan Ru's departure. He began to long for killing, hoping to see blood gushing out of someone's neck. This scene would make him feel sick in his stomach and, at the same time, feel peaceful in his heart.
In the afternoon, an accident occured, which happened to partially satisfy his craving for blood.
Meng Mingshi's caravan suddenly stopped at the roadside, waiting for them.
Seeing that, Slave Qing, Slave Huan and Dao San quickened their horses to check the situation in the front, while the other members of the escort team stopped and waited.
The caravan members all looked frightened. Seeing that, Slave Qing turned pale. He speeded up further to ride at the forefront.
"What..." Slave Qing said in a hoarse whisper when he saw a corpse lying in the middle of the road.
The dead man was a macheteman hired by Meng Mingshi. He lay on his back with an arrow shot into his chest, his machete unsheathed.
"Someone wants our goods," the banner-carrying killer of the caravan said as he glanced at the dead body.
Slave Qing looked around nervously and asked, "Who dares to rob us? Where are they? How about we return to the fork to take the safer road?"
"No, we can't," the banner-carrying killer blurted out while shaking his head. Slave Qing was stunned. Since he had become a butler, he had never been denied by any ordinary killer so harshly.
Dao San was an experienced guide. He explained to Slave Qing, "This is the bandits' typical way of telling their peers that they want a caravan's goods, We can't turn around now since they must have already blocked the way behind us."
"What? Peers? Are you saying that there are more than one group of bandits here? How come... we have Golden Roc Flags."
"Bandits with names won't dare to rob us, but nameless roving bandits will never care about our flags," the banner-carrying killer said plainly, seemingly not surprised at all.
"Roving bandits? It must be easy for us to defeat some roving bandits, isn't it?"
"Yes, we'll kill them all if they dare to show up."
The banner-carrying killer said assertively, which greatly raised everyone's spirits. They were confident that their killers and machetemen would defeat those sneaky bandits who only dared to shoot arrows at them while hiding in the darkness.
"Let's camp here," the banner-carrying killer said to the Fifth Young Master Meng in a commanding tone.
Meng Mingshi looked as pale as Slave Qing and kept nodding to the killer. His attendant hurriedly went to deliver the order to everyone in the caravan.
"You'd better camp together with us," the banner-carrying killer said to Slave Qing. Slave Qing could not agree more and nodded violently.
The escort team and the caravan stayed together again. Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi refused to trust Meng Mingshi's judgement and went to check the dead body by themselves. When they came back, they looked solemn and volunteered to keep watch at night.
Gu Shenwei put them on the first shift and then went to implement his own plan.
Every time he sensed danger, he would become much calmer than usual. He focused on analyzing the incident because he did not believe in coincidences. "The death of the macheteman is not an accident."
He thought he had already seen through Meng Mingshi's plot against him.
It was getting dark. He walked around the camp to make sure that everything was alright and then he went to visit the camel drivers.
The five camel drivers were sitting around a fire, chatting and drinking. He joined them, and soon the four hired camel drivers left, saying that they wanted to sleep early.
They purposely left the chief of the guards and the fort's camel driver alone.
Gu Shenwei stared at the camel driver. He did not know his name, but he believed that he did not need to know that.
The camel driver kept his head down and remained silent for a long time. When he looked up, Gu Shenwei saw his piercing eyes. Only killers had this kind of look in the eyes. "You take care of your things, and I'll take care of mine," the camel driver said.
Gu Shenwei nodded to him and left. His guess was right. This camel driver was sent by Golden Roc Fort to protect Shangguan Ru. It seemed that the girls' plan had been leaked long before they had sneaked out of the fort. Gu Shenwei was sure that the girls would be safe with this camel driver around.
The girls were still standing on sentry. Gu Shenwei took this chance to wake up the other four brown-belt assassins. He ordered Snowcamel to stay in the camp and the other three to leave with him on a mission.
"Let's go to find the bandits. If I guessed correctly, they're not very far away from us."
Four brown-belt assassins scuttled away from the girls and walked out of the camp with their horses. After that, they mounted their horses and galloped to the northeast.