Book 3 Chapter 1 – People in Terrible Situation

Translated by Foxs

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling put on their tattered and wet clothes, and ran over the mountain and fields, giggling and laughing, heading toward the direction of what they guessed to be Pengcheng.

Right now they did not have a single wen, even their weapons were gone, nevertheless, in their heart they were exceedingly cheerful; there was a joyful feeling that ‘the whole sea and sky were wide open for me to crisscross’.

The more they ran, the more the joy in their heart grew.

Although they often felt that the breathing from their mouth and nose could not keep up, their inner breathing was circulating endlessly.

Kou Zhong jumped onto a boulder. From its top he soared high into the air and made a flip as he descended onto the slop below. Unfortunately his footing was unstable, he fumbled three, four zhang down the slope into a clump of underbrush at the bottom of the hill. This time even his left sleeve was caught by the twigs and tore, exposing his thick and solid arm.

In his playful spirit Xu Ziling wanted to suffer the same fate, so he also rolled down and crashed onto Kou Zhong. Holding their head in their hands, the two boys laughed heartily. In their delight they forgot their appearance.

“Ah!” Kou Zhong suddenly exclaimed; pointing to the far away sky he said, “What is that?”

Xu Ziling raised his head and looked; seeing bright and flashing red light, he said in horror, “Fire!”

Kou Zhong sprang up and said, “Let’s go and see!”

It was a burned down small town. All the houses have burned through the roof. Inside and outside the town was full of human and animal bodies scattered around. Some have turned into barely recognizable charred remains.

The houses were still burning, creating crackling noise and emitting unceasing stream of thick black smoke. Apart from that, this supposedly lively and prosperous market town had become a deathly still ghost town. The survivors must have fled far away.

Some of the corpses still had dried bloodstains. Unexpectedly the murders did not distinguish men, women, young and old; everybody was massacred cruelly.

Looking at all these, the two boys’ eyes were brimming with hot tears, but their hearts were as cold as ice.

Could it be that Du Fuwei’s men committed such atrocity? Why did they commit this kind of worse-than-a-beast action?

From the west of town they heard faint noise of carriages, horses and men. But the noise was moving away. The two boys clenched their teeth and madly chased away.

Passing through a thick wooded area, the two boys were stunned. They saw along the official road heading north a large number of Sui troops. Their body armor and helmet were in disarray, their banner askew; evidently these were retreating defeated troops.

Falling behind at the end of the line were countless mule carts. Due to the load they carried, they lagged some distance away from the troops’ main body, just like an old man struggling and trudging along this section of the road.

The two boys were bewildered and were just wondering if it was this group of defeated soldiers who committed the heinous crime when suddenly from a mule cart near the end of the line they heard a man’s malicious laughter, followed by a naked woman, whose body was covered in blood, was thrown out of the cart. ‘Bang!’ the woman landed on the muddy road, motionless. Obviously she was dead.

The Sui troop driving the cart laughed heartily and said, “Lao Zhang [ole Zhang], you are all right. That was the third.”

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were burning with anger. They could not hold it anymore and ran madly after the cart.

The thief soldier, who had just raped and murdered an innocent woman, lifted himself up from the cart; suddenly seeing the two boys, he drew his saber and with a loud laugh said, “

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survivor [orig. dead leftover], was it your Niang that I just f*ck?”

Righteous indignation filled the two boys’ heart; without even remembering that they had no weapons, they flew toward the Sui soldier.

Seeing the two boys know martial art, the Sui soldier jumped in fright; he cried out to the driver to turn around and help him, while at the same time he swept his saber horizontally to prevent the two boys from landing on the cart.

Kou Zhong was about to take him head-on, but then he suddenly realized that he had no weapon in his hand. Without even thinking he sent out a mouthful of true qi, unexpectedly, for the first time ever, while he was still midair, his body rose and the enemy’s saber missed by a hairbreadth. With great difficulty he somersaulted over the enemy’s head.

In front, the Sui soldier driving the cart raised his lance and thrust it toward Kou Zhong’s chest. It happened right when Kou Zhong, who was still midair, suddenly realized that he had made a breakthrough; his heart was shaken, he abruptly sucked a mouthful of ‘physical qi’, hence his true qi became disturbed, he landed heavily on the sacks of grain, the cargo of the mule cart, and thus escaped the enemy’s lance.

In the meantime, Xu Ziling’s right foot had just landed on the railing of the mule cart. Seeing the saber swept, using this foot as the axis he hastily revolved his body around and fast as lightning his left foot kicked the enemy’s left ear.

Both his qi and strength were transmitted via the foot, the result was so brutal that the Sui soldier did not even have time to cry out when his neck bone was broken while his body was thrown behind the cart and he died on the spot.

It was the very first time that Xu Ziling ever killed anybody. Horrified, his true qi was disturbed and he also fell on the pile of grains.

Kou Zhong had just raised his hand to grab the incoming lance; clutching the enemy’s lance, he sent out his strength to pull hard. Unable to hold his footing steady, the Sui soldier, the driver of the cart, slipped between the driver seat and the cart. Immediately a shrill, blood-curling screech was heard.

By this time the Sui soldiers at the front of the line already knew something was happening. A dozen or so riders turned around to charge.

“Let’s go!” Kou Zhong shouted. The two boys hastily jumped off the cart; like a wisp of smoke they darted into the dense forest and disappeared without a trace.

The two boys ran for more than ten li at a stretch, before they finally sat down to rest. Xu Ziling sighed and said, “I just killed a man! How would I know that with one kick I sent him to his death?”

Kou Zhong wrapped his arm around Xu Ziling’s shoulder and said, “Death of those people who murdered, burned and raped innocent people need not be begrudged; don’t let your heart be troubled.”

After a short pause, he continued, “Those dog soldiers in Yangzhou, if they don’t go on the rampage with total disregard of the law, then they bully innocent citizens; I just did not expect that murder and arson are also their masterpiece. No wonder so many people rise in rebellion. Compared to last time, our Ol’ Die’s men can be considered not too bad. Hey! Did you hear that?”

Xu Ziling focused his attention to listen carefully; sure enough there was a faint sound of battle carried by the wind. The sound seemed to come from a very wide area, as if two very large troops were fighting each other in life and death battle.

Remembering the town people who were massacred by the Sui army, their heart was burning with anger as they sprang up at once.

Kou Zhong said in deep regret, “If I had known earlier, I would have seized that lance, so that we could stake our lives against those dog soldiers.”

A murderous aura bubbled up in Xu Ziling’s heart; expressing his agreement he said, “We can go to look at the situation first, won’t seizing two sabers be easy then? After all, what we lack the most is battle experience. Let those thief soldiers, who are worse than a beast, have a taste of our saber.”