Chapter 301: Two Guardians
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Suddenly saved by this strange but strong swordsman, Li Xingkong felt like he was dreaming. He struggled to stand and express his gratitude or flatter the swordsman, should he change his mind. However, Li Xingkong failed. He found that the assistant of the swordsman had much strength, and that he was much weaker than him. Worse still, he could not move at all. And so, Li Xingkong could do nothing but allow the assistant to deal with his wound.
“The assistant is also quite powerful…” Glancing at Jiang Hengchuan, who looked like a farmer, Li Xingkong was even more shocked.
Still, with his back to the swordsman in white clothes, the last survivor dared not act rashly. He fearfully replied, “Snake King wanted to annex several controllers to win over Han Sanniang and others. After he was refused by Brother Li, he promised us that as long as we killed Brother Li, he would give us a large sum of money, or offered us Brother Li’s position, or those controllers. We, we were overcome with desire and lost our minds…”
“Hmph, I’m not your Brother Li!” Li Xingkong was irritated. His wound hurt.
The survivor kept nodding and not daring to reply again. He peered at the back of the swordsman in white clothes.
“Why did Snake King choose to annex them at this time?” Meng Qi asked calmly while drawing back his sword to the scabbard. Like snow being blown by the wind, the blood on the sword dropped.
The survivor immediately shook his head. “I wouldn’t know Snake King’s plan. Maybe it was because Han Sanniang and the head keeper Luo are more and more aggressive.”
“Wait quietly.” Meng Qi ordered firmly.
Obeying Meng Qi’s order, the survivor repressed his fear and stood aside with his hands down. He did not dare to launch any sneak-attack to the cold swordsman in front of him.
“North Street leads to River Jin.” Meng Qi suddenly said looking at Li Xingkong.
Li Xingkong’s eyes lit up. He promptly answered, “The dragon belongs to the vast river.”
“It turns out that Six Fan School did, in fact, receive the message and sent a master to save me. It’s so good to be supported!”
“Any news about North Street?” Without the cold sword light, Li Xingkong was less cold and more handsome. However, his pride was still clear.
With the help of Jiang Hengchuan, Li Xingkong stood up and forced a smile. “News comes from North Street every day. Otherwise, North Street wouldn’t be North Street anymore. New assassins finish their apprenticeship there, and some people are killed at the corner every day. ”
“That’s routine North Street. I’m asking if anything strange happened?” Meng Qi changed his wording.
Thinking Li Xingkong said, “Something abnormal? The most apparent one was that Han Sanniang and the head keeper Luo seemed to plan to work together. Thus, Snake King had to act before them. As for Snake King and Han Sanniang, they were both abnormal.”
“Snake King has a yard where he trains assassins. Normally, he goes there about twice a month. But these days, he went every day. Han Sanniang has a house at the end of the street where her lovers live. This month, she didn’t favor anyone, but she stayed there last night.”
Like a good assistant, Jiang Hengchuan quietly listened to their conversation. Meng Qi said with a smile, “Snake King wanted to add them. It was reasonable to go to the yard, wasn’t it?”
“No, it would only alert Han Sanniang.” Li Xingkong denied as if he knew Snake King well. “If he planned to do something, he would do it without showing any signs like the betrayal of my men this time.”
Meng Qi stood up straight. His white robe looked colder under the dim candlelight. “Anything else? Any strange things happen to normal families?”
Meng Qi thought the spies of the grassland would disguise themselves as normal people or hide in shops. They might collect information by taking advantage of North Street, but avoid attention.
“Normal families? How could there be a normal family on North Street?” Li Xingkong rebuttled. “They have to be abnormal if they want to live here.”
“Is anyone trying to gather more information?” Meng Qi asked in a direct way.
Although his words were strange, Li Xingkong understood anyway. He shook his head. “Nothing abnormal. On North Street, news is money. If there’s nothing strange about the money, then the spread of the news is absolutely normal too.”
Meng Qi knew Li Xingkong hadn’t heard anything new. Thus, he said with a smile, “Do you have any words for the Snake King?”
A seemingly kind smile filled with pride… Li Xingkong paused and was confused. “I’m sorry?”
“If he wants to add you, he has to pay the price. We’re not easy to deal with.” With the quality of a swordsman, Meng Qi viewed Snake King as a nobody.
While he secretly used Secret Voice-sending to communicate with Jiang Hengchuan.”Let’s investigate the two weird characters first.”
“Ok. The assassins must have tunnels in their yards. Since we don’t know where Wolf King is hiding, we would alert the enemy if we acted rashly. We better find out where Snake King is hiding first. But, I think he’s more likely to be in Han Sanniang’s house. After all, there’re so many logical reasons for Snake King to continuously go to the assassins’ yard.” Jiang Hengchuan shared his opinion.
“Well, great minds think alike. But we now have legitimate reasons to find Snake King. We don’t need to worry about alerting Wolf King. As long as we act quickly, we won’t alert the big boss behind Snake King either.” Meng Qi laughed.
Snake King enticed Li Xingkong’s men to betray him. They even tried to assassinate him. He had to pay the price.
This way, everyone would view it as a common North Street takeover.
After thinking, Jiang Hengchuan said, “Ok.”
Hearing that this cold swordsman would take revenge for him, Li Xingkong was comforted, although dozens of years in Jianghu had made him a cold person. He immediately refused. “No, no, no. Snake King has many followers. Among them, there’re many masters such as the Four Big Protectors. They either have super skills or have opened their nine acupores. It’s not easy to defeat him. Besides, assassins are everywhere in his house. It’s as dangerous as a dragon’s pool or a tiger’s den.”
“In addition, Snake King’s kung fu is unpredictable. In recent years, he hasn’t fought much. No one knows which level he has reached. Furthermore, he might have the support of a master of Left Way.
Meng Qi listened carefully and coldly answered, ”
“He’s old.”
Meng Qi’s pride made Li Xingkong speechless. Meng Qi was right. Snake King was 70 years old now. He was too old. He was in his declining years if he was not an Exterior. Even though he had been strong before, how much of his strength was left?
If he was an Exterior, he would have killed Han Sanniang and the others a long time ago. So Meng Qi and the group did not need to worry about that!
After a moment of silence, Li Xingkong sighed, for he had seen that Meng Qi had made up his mind. “Viewing such a dangerous place as nothingness, you’re so righteous and brave. I’m ashamed. I can’t match you. I can only tell you some relative information.”
“The head of the Four Big Protectors is ‘Poisonous Arhat’. He has not opened nine acupores, but is good at concealed weapons. Once, a master was hit by 81 concealed weapons during a battle with him. ‘Shura Palm’ was a very strong nine acupores. He’s much stronger than those masters who used drugs to improve their strength.”
“The only big headache is that Snake King is prone to run away by secret passage if anything strange happens. The longer a person stays in jianghu, the more timid he becomes.”
Meng Qi listened to him quietly. He calmly said, “I know. Now, you go publicize the news that you were attacked in secret. Make everyone on North Street believe you’re incompatible with Snake King, and that you would still have revenge on him at any moment.”
“I’ill do it right away.” Facing such a cold and strong swordsman, Li Xingkong unconsciously became a follower.
Meng Qi turned around and said to the survivor, “Go with us.”
It was the first time the survivor had seen Meng Qi’s eyes. Like a long sword, Meng Qi’s eyes were deep, cold as snow and ice. He dared not say no. He could only obey Meng Qi’s orders.
…
Snake King’s house sat in the middle of North Street. It covered a large area and had a complicated setup.
The floor that he lived on had a secret passage. It was also separated by a large space and linked with other yards by passages to avoid sneak-attacks.
At the door, the survivor swallowed hard. He was too frightened to violate Meng Qi’s order. As told, he knocked on the door in a specific way.
After a moment, an able bodied middle-aged man opened the small door. He was about to speak when he suddenly noticed a cold yet handsome swordsman in white and his assistants. “What’s going on?”
He was shocked to see so many strangers.
“I come here to help them.” Meng Qi said in a manly voice.
The man felt that Meng Qi was extremely huge like a god or a Buddha. Meng Qi was so imposing that he believed Meng Qi’s words. “Well, you come here to help them.”
“Li Xingkong secretly turned to Han Sanniang for help. We failed.” The survivor said what he prepared before.
“Really? I’ll take you to see the Guardians.” The man was surprised.
The two Guardians on duty tonight sat in the hall near a small building. It was only about a corridor away from Snake King’s room. Meanwhile, several strong assassins were also hiding in this corridor.
Inside the hall, several assassins hid in dark corners. A tall and thin man with yellow hair sat in the chair on the left side. He put his hands in his sleeves. He was “Shura Palm”. Opposite him, a young man was cutting his nails. He bore a big smile on his face. He was “Poisonous Arhat”.
As Meng Qi and the others approached, “Shura Palm” stood up. “Who are they?”
“They’re helpers of Yue Gu.” The able man answered honestly.
“Helpers?” Poisonous Arhat squinted. All of a sudden, he jumped on Meng Qi. His concealed weapons flew out. They were Flying Locust Stone, Plum Needles, Iron Caltrop, arrows, forks, spears, darts, claws and meshes. They all shined with dark blue and a fresh green color. Some of them flew directly toward Meng Qi. Some of them hit each other. Some attacked Meng Qi’s back after moving in a circle. Together they made up an invincible web, making it hard for Meng Qi and others to dodge!
Jiang Hengchuan stepped forward to counter Shura Palm.
The survivor shook and was covered with a fine sheen of sweat. However, the swordsman, instead of dodging, rushed toward Poisonous Arhat with his sword in hand.
The sword light shone. Some concealed weapons scattered in different directions. Most concealed weapons hit Meng Qi.
Suddenly, the concealed weapon flew back. Poisonous Arhat stopped and he was hit by Plum Needles, Iron Caltrops and other items. His face quickly darkened. His expression showed that he was so surprised that he was killed by his own kung fu.
“Bang!” The assassins in the hall were all killed by concealed weapons controlled by Meng Qi.
His clothes were as white as snow with no stains. Under the candlelight, his long sword looked so sharp.
When fighting with Jiang hengchuan, Shura Palm was a little careless. He put out his right hand which was swollen. It had a strong smell of blood.
Jiang Hengchuan suddenly opened his fist, and caught the wrist of Shura Palm as if he had practiced this move for thousands of times. And then, Jiang Hengchuan forcibly shook his hand as if he were holding a seven-inch long snake.
“Crack”! All the bones in Shura Palm broke. He fell down to the ground and died with his eyes open.
The survivor was so shocked that his eyes and mouth were wide open. In front of Meng Qi and Jiang Hengchuan, the Four Big Protectors had been just like children…