The skiff reached shore at dusk. The boatman dared not to enter the harbor and stopped at a deserted beach. Shangguan Fei and Long Fanyun had no choice but to get down earlier than planned and wade through the last portion of their journey.
The boatman hurriedly pointed northward and said, “Continue walking forward and you shall find a town there.” After speaking, he immediately started rowing again, embarking on his journey back to whence he came.
Shangguan Fei kept griping and he spent a lot of time re-arranging the bundle of necessities and clothes that he was carrying after reaching land. When he was finally ready to move again, it was already dark.
After bickering over their plan for a few days, Shangguan Fei emerged the victor. It was decided that he would pretend to be a young master while Long Fanyun, his bodyguard. The latter adamantly refused to act as a servant. As he was of big build and his eyes were full of vigor, he did not fit the profile of an ordinary attendant.
Long Fanyun left his heavy sword on the skiff; the weapon was the trademark of a Great Snowmountain swordsman and too conspicuous. Instead, he carried a scimitar with him, a weapon that was commonly seen in Western Region.
Shangguan Fei did not bring any weapon with him. “I’m not very well versed in the use of weapons. From a young age, I had been learning how to use a saber, but I never really got the hang of it. Furthermore, we’re not on an assassination mission; it’s best for everyone if it goes smoothly and we don’t have to use our kung fu. Elder Fan, you’re so skilled in swordcraft, but are you used to a scimitar?” he asked.
‘Elder Fan’ was Long Fanyun’s fake name and he had gotten a little used to Shangguan Fei’s nagging and apple-polishing. In fact, the swordsman had even discovered a way to handle him: unless absolutely necessary, he would not reply and usually acted as if he had not heard the younger man.
Shangguan Fei was even more used to answering his own questions, and it did not reduce his enthusiasm in the least bit. “Of course you’ll be accustomed to using scimitars. I heard that swordcraft from the Great Snowmountain should be called machete techniques instead, as they’re mainly focused on slashing and hacking. Besides, you have the patronus’s saber. I heard that the Dragon King gave it to you on the battlefield. Tsk, tsk, even I would feel brave when seeing a person of your caliber fighting with such a great weapon.”
Long Fanyun could feel his temples beating and hoisted his own bundle, walking ahead of the younger man with big strides.
Shangguan Fei followed closely behind, saying, “Say, Elder Fan, you have to walk slower. My leg is busted and I can’t keep up with you.”
He had no inhibitions when talking about his own busted leg. “It happened many years ago. I was crushed under a huge piece of rock and it destroyed my leg. Come to think of it, it was the Dragon King who saved my life and a legendary physician that treated my wounds. I’ve recovered pretty well, you can’t even notice my injuries normally, right? But I can’t walk too fast. In the past, I usually rode a horse, and if it was really impossible to find one, someone would carry me.”
After walking in the dark for a while, Long Fanyun stopped. It was pitch black in front of him and he could not see any light; he did not know which direction to proceed in.
Shangguan Fei caught up and let out a long stream of breath. “Let’s rest, let’s rest for a while. I’m actually a little tired. I don’t know how far my cultivation of Internal Strength had progressed and perhaps I’m a little not used to walking on foot…”
“Do you know the way?” asked Long Fanyun. It was the first words that he had spoken since reaching shore.
“My god. I’ve made a mistake,” said Shangguan Fei as he clapped his hands together. “Both of us are not locals from the Xiaoyao Lake region, and I should have requested for a guide from the Dragon King. What should we do now? Why don’t we set up a tent and rest first.”
Long Fanyun had never thought that he would be capable of such cruelty. He raised his head and looked at the stars in the night sky, striding away once he had roughly determined where north was.
Shangguan Fei was already limping but could still manage to keep up, albeit barely. “Elder Fan, if we were to meet someone now, who would believe that you’re my bodyguard? I say we needn’t be hasty. All we have to do is to pass on the Dragon King’s message and it’s going to be very simple. Besides, we have three days’ time to do that.”
Long Fanyun, however, was not feeling so carefree. He was in a hurry to return back to the An Kingdom to take part in the impending battle. It would be a disgrace to him if he missed it, and he would not be able to look the people of his own tribe in the eye ever again.
Shangguan Fei’s leg was busted, but his mouth was working pretty well. He spoke about everything: from constellations to the weather and from weapons to famous tailors in Jade City. He did not allow Long Fanyun any peace and finally forced the swordsman to speak for the second time since they landed.
“Are you really the son of the Supreme King?” he asked.
“Of course. Do I not look like him? Well, I look more like my mother, but if you were to observe closely, you would find features of the Shangguan family in me. Let me tell you, the Supreme King is very particular about such matters…”
This was the only topic that he had inhibitions about, and he remained silent for a while.
Both of them managed to locate the town mentioned by the boatman when it was close to midnight.
It was not a big town and there were only about a hundred or so families in it. War had left a visible impact on the town and many families had already moved away. Some of them travelled southward to turn to the Dragon King, and a few of them moved to the city to escape from danger. Those that remained behind kept the doors of their houses tightly shut and did not venture out when it was dark.
Even so, there were quite a number of people in the streets of the town.
A unit of soldiers from the Golden Roc army had passed by the town and the two taverns at both ends of it became their favorite hangouts. Even though the quality of drinks there was not very different in both watering holes, the soldiers still walked drunkenly from one to another, creating commotion all along the way.
“One look at them tells me that they’re machetemen hired from Jade City,” observed Shangguan Fei as he took in a deep breath. “It’s starting to smell like South City here.”
Long Fanyun grunted disdainfully. There were so many soldiers drinking uncontrollably when the battle was not over, and even though there were many people in the streets, none of the soldiers were in sentry posts outside of the town; they had just allowed two strangers to walk in during the middle of the night.
He looked forward even more to hurrying back to take part in the battle.
Whether they wanted to ask for directions or to purchase a horse, there was only one place they could go to—either of the taverns located at the east and west ends of the town respectively.
The two tavern managers were in an equally foul mood. Their young counterjumpers had been conscripted into the army and they could only hire small, inexperienced children. There were times when the managers themselves had to serve the customers themselves, and it did not help that these foreign soldiers were not an easy bunch to handle. Fights broke out frequently and things kept getting broken. What was most infuriating to them was that there were always some of the soldiers who refused to pay up.
As both Shangguan Fei and Long Fanyun walked into the tavern located at the east of the town, they managed to catch an argument in progress.
A soldier who was peach red and wobbly had grabbed onto the collar of the tavern manager, shouting, “I, your father, came from so far away to help you fight the Dragon King, yet you wish to collect payment from me? I will be putting my life on the line in a few days’ time, yet you still want to get money from me? I’ve been drinking eight times a day at your tavern and only been on your tab once. Yet you want me to pay up?”
Most of the onlookers were soldiers and acted as if they had not seen anything. The tavern manager knew that he could not afford to offend them and apologized profusely, managing to soothe things over and get the offended soldier to leave after much effort. He then chastised the newly hired youth softly for having a lack of judgement.
The manager was extremely delighted to see guests who were not soldiers but was a little uneasy and perplexed upon noticing that they were strangers. “Are you two guests here for a drink? Let me pick a spot for the both of you.”
Long Fanyun had originally not wanted to enter the town, but unexpectedly, Shangguan Fei, who was usually timid, grew brave at that moment. “Let’s go in to ask for directions. Furthermore, it’ll be less conspicuous if we were to bump into soldiers of the Golden Roc Army in a tavern than outside of town.”
Once they entered the town, Long Fanyun had no choice but to put in more effort to act like a bodyguard. As such, he followed behind Shangguan Fei and let his ‘master’ speak.
“No need for that. We’ll have a couple of drinks standing up,” Shangguan Fei replied to the tavern manager. He had actually never been to a small tavern like this. He spent most of his time in Jade City hiding in North City and the Stone Castle, but strangely, he was unafraid in his first trip behind enemy lines. He was extremely calm, and even he himself was perturbed by his own behavior.
Shangguan Fei immediately gave the tavern manager a good impression by paying up first and looking amicable. It took him just a few words to get the manager to tell him about everything in the town.
“The Hui Kingdom is not far away in the northwest, and it’ll take only slightly more than half a day’s travelling on horseback to reach there. However, trying to buy a horse will be difficult. They’ve all been expropriated. You could hire two donkeys the next day, though. They’re pretty fast.”
When the manager was talking to Shangguan Fei, a soldier suddenly crashed into the bar counter and reached a finger out, saying, “Give me another jar.”
The manager dared not to say anything and hurriedly ordered a counterjumper to fetch a jar of wine out.
The soldier turned and cocked his head sideways as he looked at Shangguan Fei. “Why are the two of you not in the army?”
Most men in the Xiaoyao Lake region who were fit and young enough had either joined the Dragon army or been forced into hard labor by the Golden Roc Fort. Those that hid themselves dared not to show themselves in public. As such, Shangguan Fei and Long Fanyun, who were in their youth, were very conspicuous.
“I’m working for the Meng family,” replied Shangguan Fei casually. To the machetemen in Jade City, only the Meng family, aside from the Golden Roc Fort, could act as a deterrent.
The soldier hugged the jar of wine on the bar counter in one swoop, his gaze still fixed on Shangguan Fei. He asked coldly, “Do I know you?”
“Who knows. If you’re from Jade City, we might’ve met before.”
The soldier felt that it was a reasonable explanation and grunted. He then stared at Long Fanyun and took a good measure of the swordsman before hugging the jar of wine back to his table.
Long Fanyun did not speak throughout the entire incident, but he no longer considered Shangguan Fei purely as a good-for-nothing anymore.
The tavern manager was probably enamored of Shangguan Fei or afraid of courting trouble. When the soldiers in the tavern were not looking, he whispered very softly to Shangguan Fei, “That person was pretending to be drunk.”
The manager was the person who best knew who had drank the least wine in his tavern. The soldier had just arrived and was holding his liquor well; he was definitely that drunk to be walking unsteadily.
Shangguan Fei grinned a little and handed a silver nugget to the tavern manager before drinking up the wine in his cup.
Without horses, the two men could only continue walking on foot. What gave Long Fanyun consolation was that Shangguan Fei was no longer complaining about aching legs. “That person recognized me. It’s strange. I seldom showed myself in Jade City, so how did he know me? He must’ve heard about me from someone else.”
“It’s possible that he didn’t recognize you. Most probably, he was just suspicious. Even if he did, it’s fine. I’ll hold them off and you just focus on escaping.”
“Really?” asked Shangguan Fei, moved. “Actually I have one or two moves up my sleeve as well.”
Long Fanyun did not reply; he did not have much faith in those ‘one or two moves’.
As the two of them were afraid of losing their bearings, they had to take the risk of using the main roads. However, it was a quiet night, and it seemed that the soldier had believed Shangguan Fei’s explanation and treated them as merchants working for the Meng family.
It was only until daybreak when Shangguan Fei started to act up again and he began to complain about his aching body. Just as he could not walk any further, a group of soldiers caught up with them.
Shangguan Fei was surprised with his own behavior again. Unexpectedly, he was not really afraid and only took cover behind Long Fanyun subconsciously. As he gazed at the broad shoulders of the swordsman, he felt more assured.
A total of 20 cavalrymen surrounded them.
The ‘drunk’ soldier from the night before was amongst them and he whispered something into the ear of his leader.
Their leader was dressed differently from the others and did not wear any armor. He was clad entirely in black and the logo of a Golden Roc was embroidered on the shoulders of his shirt, expressing his identity.
“Long Fanyun,” said the man in black.
It turned out that the person the soldier had recognized was not Shangguan Fei, but the Dragon King’s captain of the guards.
“It is I,” replied Long Fanyun as he drew his scimitar. He would not lie when faced with an enemy.
The man in black’s move fluidly as he dismounted, drew his own saber and attacked; it was as if his feet had not touched the ground.
Long Fanyun met his attack nearly simultaneously.
A direct frontal attack was not the style of the Golden Roc Fort, and just as Shangguan Fei was about to remind the swordsman, two other soldiers suddenly leaped up from their saddles. The level of agility and teamwork was not that of ordinary soldiers or machetemen.
Shangguan Fei suddenly felt a surge of bravery. Since he was standing behind Long Fanyun, he should take up the responsibility of protecting his back. That said, he was not armed and could only face the enemy with his bare fists.