Nightfall

The five sword blades returned to the Abundant Sword. The fine drizzle within the courtyard of the Chao Mansion seemed more anxious, as if an additional invisible sun hung in the night sky. The rainwater near the Rain-savoring Building unexpectedly began to turn into white smog.

The sword seemed not so much like the Abundant Sword for its innumerable swords contained extremely sharp blades. Chao Xiaoshu gazed at the Rain-savoring Building. With his powerful consciousness, he made the thin cyan-steel sword attack the copper bowl. Then he retracted it at lightning speed, and once again stabbed at a higher speed, thus several hundreds of swords were stabbing in an instant!

Swords stabbed continuously, much faster than a woodpecker pecking a tree, at the central position of the copper bowl, making terrifying “Tuk Tuk” sounds. No intermittence could be heard between the sounds due to the high frequency in which the sword was stabbing. As a result, the people in the courtyard could only hear the prolonged sound of a muffled strike!

He is losing it! Get close and kill him!”

Shouting in a stern voice, the leader of the Tang troop, was watching Chao Xiaoshu sitting cross-legged in the rain, noticing that his face was becoming paler and paler. At this point, these soldiers needed no discipline or glory to support their actions. They were very clear that they had to kill Chao Xiaoshu immediately. Otherwise, if the thin sword broke open the copper bowl, killing the sadhu from Yuelun Kingdom, they would have no chance of killing their opponent. Or more accurately, they would also die.

A thick rain of crossbows shot out again, and several agile and fierce forms made an attack. This time the elite troop of Tang seemed even more resolute and intrepid, a feeling compelled by their despair.

They had not been able to get close to Chao Xiaoshu’s body to kill this fearful Great Sword Master yet. Someone was always standing in front of him.

Ning Que moved incessantly on the blue flagstone accumulating the rain, not nimbly but heavily. The spray splashed every time his boots hit the ground, or when his blade killed a soldier of the elite troop of Tang.

Chao Xiaoshu sat cross-legged in the heavy rain, seemingly entrusting his life completely to him. So, Ning Que all alone defended Chao Xiaoshu by sticking to him, turning himself and the podao in his hand into a net.

Ning Que cut the knee of a Tang soldier by bending back his right elbow, dropping his blade, and then popping his left foot like a flying rock. He kicked at the pudendum of another soldier firmly before drawing out his podao. His two hands grasping the slender hilt, and revolving it once, the blade rose upwards from the bottom, and cut open the belly of a third Tang soldier. Another shadow pounced over violently. He twisted his waist from half-squatting on the floor and scratched firmly with the podao in a single hand, breaking apart several calves as the light of the podao burst out.

His black face mask had long been dampened by the rain, with his gasping being accompanied by a bit of moisture. But the facial features exposed outside of the mask were as calm as before, seemingly even a bit impassible. He acted extremely simply, but had an abnormally astonishing lethal effect, such that the violent elite troop of Tang was cut down and trodden on, utterly routed like blocks of wood under his podao.

No matter how dense the rain of bolts fired or how cold the light of blades shone, he stood in front of Chao Xiaoshu, without retreating a step! Even if his shoulders were abraded by the bolts and his legs lacerated by the blades, he did not retreat even half a step!

An extremely rugged bang came from the Rain-savoring Building, as if an iron pan had smashed into bricks. The copper bowl in front of the sadhu had finally shattered into pieces by thousands of swords!

The rice farmer’s hat on top of the sadhu’s head cracked along with the breakage of the copper bowl. A resolute complexion flashed on his swarthy face. His mudras changed irregularly once again. The prayer beads that had been defending him stopped rotating, and abruptly became a black serpent, entangling the thin cyan-steel sword toward his face, making the power of the sword pause temporarily.

Chao Xiaoshu looked at the building silently, and with his right hand scratching the accumulated water beside him, he held a handful of rainwater and sprinkled it in front of him. The thin cyan-steel sword within the Rain-savoring Building began to vibrate and buzz suddenly, like a dragon about to break through the clouds, thrusting forward, tough and ceaseless!

The soybean-sized raindrops fell onto the blue flagstone, uttering a light “Pa Pa” sound. New branches torn off by the wind also made the same sound on the Rain-savoring Building. Suddenly, the beads surrounding the sword burst forth in every direction!

The sadhu bitterly forced a smile and closed his eyes. The cyan-steel sword whistled, penetrating over a hundred shots of prayer beads. It stabbed deeply into the center of his dark brow, resulting in the slow seepage of his blood. His anguished smile thus froze.

At the main entrance of the Chao Mansion, Ning Que saw the enemies not far off, and slowly pulled his podao out from the chest of a Tang soldier.

“Ta-dah, Ta-dah!” The broken prayer beads bumped against the walls and the beam columns, and then fell onto the timber floors.

The living elite troop of Tang felt deeply hopeless at the sight of the smiling middle-aged man sitting cross-legged and the masked man who stood silently in the heavy rain.

The sound of a carriage came from an alley.

Chao Xiaoshu’s brow rose slowly.

…

…

In the Southern City of Chang’an, Lord Meng’s most lucrative Star-Picking Casino was in ruins. The smashed gambling devices were thrown all over the street. The chips, ordinarily representing silver coins, were soaked in filthy rainwater which no one dared to pick out. Along the road, his female family members and children were found weeping and wailing. They surrounded the chief steward and more than ten guards of the gambling house, but no one dared to curse at those damnable assailants with a word or even appear to be hateful.

More than 40 gangsters of Spring Breeze Pavilion, with black clothing and black boots, stood indifferently all around to keep order, and simultaneously, declared their garrison to all the people in Southern City. At the very front of the crowd, Qi IV received a blue handkerchief from his subordinate. He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth with no expression of exultance or arrogance on his face, only anxiety and discomposure. He knew that even though the Fish-dragon Gang had taken the advantage tonight by invading many territories, Big Brother was alone facing the ambush of those powerful enemies at Spring Breeze Pavilion with no one else on his side.

Tonight, there were many similar cases to the above story, and the various downtown streets of Chang’an were in no way different. The pawnshops and brothels under the Old Cat’s control had been smashed by a group of fierce and agile men in black, and yet another group of black-clothed men controlled Junjie’s three mistress houses, smashing the three luxurious little courtyards.

The cold and mournful spring rain pattered all the while, seemingly heavier and heavier. The various underground powers of Chang’an all flushed to Eastern City, taking advantage of the fierce appearance of local authorities to make an onset on Old Chao of Spring Breeze Pavilion, who had governed Chang’an for many years. Unexpectedly, in the dark night, the legendary figure used himself as bait, and seized the opportunity to dispatch all the brothers in the gang to control the overall situation leaving no opposition force in Southern City and Western City.

From this night on, if Old Chao was still living, then he and his brothers could bring the whole Chang’an under their control. But… now Chao Xiaoshu was all on his own. Could he survive this disaster without his brothers?

…

…

In the heavily-guarded garrison of the Yulin Royal Guards in the Northern City of Chang’an, Cao Ning, sub-general of the Yulin Royal Guards watched two captains whose hands were being tied. He said with a sardonic grin, “Chang Siwei? Should I call you Chang III? Fei Jingwei, should I call you Fei VI? I was not expecting that the two heads of the Fish-dragon Gang were members of our Yulin Royal Guards.”

Chang Siwei, a middle-aged man with a moderate temper, looked at his superior, saying with a slight smile, “Did you really not know? Many people in the military camp earn extra income. As far as I know, General, you seem to earn interest from Lord Meng and the Old Cat.”

Fei Jingwei kept silent, staring coldly at Cao Ning’s face.

Cao Ning drank from his teacup, saying, “What’s the purpose of mentioning these things now? It is just for the sake of arguing. You’re both just tiny captains. If not for keeping Spring Breeze Pavilion’s face, why would I have to say these useless words to you? But don’t think that you could put on airs before me relying on the support of Spring Breeze Pavilion. I can keep you two within the camp only by right of an order, whereas if you leave the camp, I can behead you without asking for an Imperial Order. And if you two can’t leave the camp, Spring Breeze Pavilion will be certain to go on an end tonight.

“Spring Breeze Pavilion will be over for sure.” He slowly raised his teacup, saying indifferently, “That’s why you guys are useless.”

Chang Siwei said smiling, “In this world, many people have died, but my big brother won’t die.”

“In this world, there is no one who can’t be killed.” Cao Ning stared at his face, saying in a cold voice, “So many nobles in our great Tang wanted to show appreciation to Spring Breeze Pavilion, but he didn’t accept, contrary to what’s expected. Many nobles wanted him dead, how can a humble vagrant like him turn the tide!”

The door curtain was lifted and a slight chill floated in along with a few raindrops. Slightly terrified, Cao Ning tried to reprimand, but suddenly his expression was benumbed. He stood up submissively to salute. “Eunuch Lin… It’s so late. Why are you here? What’s wrong?”

Eunuch Lin, with a short and stout stature, looked at him, and said smiling, “There’s nothing else. It was said that the Yulin Royal Guards raised the security levels tonight by the Palace Inhibit Gate, so I came over to ask what exactly happened.”

Afterwards Eunuch Lin turned around looking at the two military officers with their hands tied at their backs. Frowning, he asked, “What’s going on here?”

…

…

The horse-training area was lit by torch in the Valiant Cavalry Battalion campsite. Even with continuous rainwater it could not be extinguished. The Deputy Commander Chu Ren stared at a man with a square face on the horse opposite, roaring, “Liu Si, you damn bastard! The order for closing the camp was sent by the Military Ministry! If you dare rush into the camp, I’ll behead you!”

The square-faced man’s stature was exceedingly stalwart. Even though he was sitting on a steed, his legs seemed to droop to the ground. Despite the deputy commander’s rebuke, there was still vagueness on his face. His right hand slowly stroked the iron spear at the side of the saddle. He gazed in the direction of the Spring Breeze Pavilion in Eastern City of Chang’an, penetrating the night rain.

He was Liu Si, ranked fifth in the Fish-dragon Gang. It was due to this man following Chao Xiaoshu closely that Old Chao of Spring Breeze Pavilion had fought to win a certain power by virtue of the sword in those years. However, he could not stand by the side of his eldest brother and block arrows for him. He could only silently hope that the young fellow Big Brother had taken a fancy to could manage the matter well.

Liu Si looked back towards the Deputy Commander at the camp’s entrance, as well as the dense and numerous soldiers, and said without an expression, “Commander, your humble subordinates don’t dare to defy the military order and break out of camp. But since you tore the promotion order ten years ago, I have always wanted to fight with you. I don’t know whether you dare to or not.”

…

…

A voice with a strong Hebei accent emitted in a remote and quiet room somewhere inside the Imperial Palace. “Old Chen, you’ve been an Imperial Bodyguard for many years. Although in your early years you quit, since you served as an Inner-Chamber Guard for a day, you will be an Inner-Chamber Guard all your life. As a representative of the emperor, how could you be involved in such a dispute in Jianghu? I know that you and Old Chao have friendly relations, but you should be very clear who made the proposal for tonight’s matter, so no one dares to hinder it.”

…

…

The carriage stopped slowly in the rain, about 100 feet away from Chao Mansion in the Spring Breeze Pavilion.