Everyone readily accepted Duan Yunfeng and invited him to sit by the fire to chat.
“I, Old Guo, have traveled extensively and am quite familiar with the Green Forest of Yan Bei. However, I’ve never heard of Brother Duan’s name. I wonder where Brother Duan has been active in the past?”
Guo Haishen asked in curiosity.
Duan Yunfeng shook his head, “I’m not from the Green Forest . I have learned from my master since I was young. Later on, my master passed away and I returned to my hometown.”
“May I know who Brother’s master is?”
“It’s not appropriate for me to call the Master by his name. He once roamed the martial world and had a name, Northwestern Cold Sword, but he has long retired.”
Hearing this, Guo Haishen was slightly moved, “Northwestern Cold Sword… Is it Senior Nie Wu?”
“That’s right.” Duan Yunfeng nodded.
“So it’s Senior Nie’s disciple. Sorry for being rude.”
Guo Haishen was filled with respect as he cupped his fists solemnly.
Seeing that many of his companions were puzzled, he turned around and carefully introduced this person’s life.
The Nie Wu mentioned was a top-notch swordsman who had run rampant in the Northern Region 20 to 30 years ago. He was a famous lone warrior and was good at using a pair of parent and child swords. There were countless martial artists who had been defeated by him.
At that time, it was still the previous Emperor ruling over the dynasty. One of the righteous officials was harmed by a corrupted official and was wrongly accused. He was beheaded and executed, and his family was exiled and sent to prison and his family assets confiscated.
Nie Wu had once received the favor of this official and rushed over from afar to save the official’s family. Then, he entered the capital alone and brazenly assassinated the evil official. As a result, he lost an arm and escaped with injuries. From then on, he disappeared without a trace.
“This Senior Nie repays kindness with kindness and doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself. He’s also a good man.”
Zhou Jing nodded in response.
No wonder Duan Yunfeng dared to enter the palace to assassinate the Emperor. It turned out that this was all a tradition…
Duan Yunfeng took off the two swords on his back and sighed softly. He said, “Master only had two disciples in his life. My senior brother left without saying goodbye back then, and I don’t know where he went. Before my Master passed away, he passed the weapon he used to roam the martial world to me. It’s called the Mother and Child Sparrow Python Sword.
(TL Note: I directly translated it, but the term Sparrow Python is a phrase used to describe a weak-to-strong character, who grows step by step until it as a python can even consume a dragon. Aka MCs.)
Everyone looked at the two swords in his hand. One was a longsword while the other was short. Its style was quite ancient.
“Brother Duan mentioned that he is from Northern Yan. What are you doing in Jiangchun?”
Fang Zhen probed.
Hearing this, Duan Yunfeng’s expression darkened,
“I returned home after mastering my techniques. Coincidentally, there was a drought in Yan Bei, and my hometown’s elders all died from natural and man-made disasters. The world is huge, and I no longer have a home to return to, so I traveled everywhere. I only hate myself for not being good at learning and not being able to kill all the treacherous officials in the world. I happened to hear of Brother Chen’s name of getting rid of evil, so I came to join him.”
He did not dare to completely trust everyone at the moment, so he hid the part about assassinating the Emperor.
“Brother, don’t worry. With my second brother here, all of their heads will roll one day.”
Fang Zhen patted his chest.
When Duan Yunfeng heard this, he looked at Zhou Jing and said in a deep voice, “I wonder what Brother Chen’s long-term plan is. Although it’s happy to do justice for the heavens everywhere, after killing so many county officials, the Imperial Court will not ignore it. Sooner or later, it will attract a huge disaster.”
Although he felt that Chen Feng was worth submitting to, he also wanted to know what long-term plans this person had. If he only wanted to continue killing officials, he felt that it would be difficult for him to achieve anything.
Hong Dingxian, who was at the side, snorted, “It’s not been a day or two since the Imperial Court wanted us. What’s there to be afraid of?”
Over the past few days, everyone had killed many county officials, making it increasingly unbearable for the government. However, there was nothing they could do about Chen Feng’s small group.
Ordinary small groups of bandits were actually very easy to eliminate, but with the addition of Chen Feng, it was completely different. If hundreds of soldiers chased or ambushed them, they would be killed until they abandoned their armor and ran away.
This group was small and agile, only roaming around the county city and the countryside. If they sent an army to surround and intercept them, it would take an unknown amount of time for them to drill into the mountains. Every day, it would cost a lot of money to eat and feed their horses. Not to mention the problem of supplies, just Chen Feng’s ability to infiltrate the military camp to assassinate the officers was enough to make the officers everywhere fear him.
Moreover, even if the government issued a capture document and put a bounty on Chen Feng, no one would dare to provoke him.
The Jiangchun state government had never seen such a troublesome small group of bandits. They were like gangrene attached to the bones, giving them a headache.
However, Zhou Jing was not arrogant. If the Imperial Court really did not care about the costs, they could make things very troublesome for him. Therefore, he was only wandering in the countryside at the moment, controlling the intensity. He was drawing a fine line between what made the various governments angry, but at the same time made them hesitate if they should invest a large sum of money to suppress the bandits.
After all, in the eyes of the government, although this group of people was quite dangerous, there were not many of them. They could not create a huge impact. Compared to paying a huge number of casualties and spending a lot of effort to eliminate them, it seemed to be more cost-effective to wait for Chen Feng to escape to other states and provinces.
To many state officials, as long as Chen Feng did not cause trouble in their territory, they could care less about it.
Zhou Jing wanted to hear this person’s thoughts, so he asked, “Brother Duan, what do you think?”
Duan Yunfeng pondered for a moment and said, “Brother Chen has killed too many officials and is no longer tolerated by the Imperial Court. Even if he gathers in the forest, I’m afraid he won’t be accepted. In the future, there will be nowhere in the world to hide. Since things have come to this, why not rebel?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the scene fell silent.
Zhou Jing raised his eyebrows.
Good lord, why are you even more anxious than me?
That made sense. This guy had no way out of assassinating the Emperor, even more than me. He had long thrown caution to the wind.
Seeing that no one spoke, Duan Yunfeng hatefully spoke out,
“The Emperor is muddle-headed and tyrannical, and the treacherous officials control the court. The Northern Region has been plagued by disasters for years, but the various governments have deceived the higher-ups to cover up what happens below them. They are still tyrannical and corrupt.
The aristocratic families take the opportunity to expand their production and force citizens to become slaves to fill their own pockets. Brothers, you might not understand it deeply in the south, but the resentment of the people in the north has long boiled over. The officials treat us as pigs and dogs. The world has deteriorated to this extent, and the officials are forcing the people to rebel!”