It’s a man in black; before Duan Ling has a chance to react, he sees a shimmer of cold metal flashing before him as a tiny needle makes it almost to his face followed closely by Wu Du throwing himself on top of him, and the two drops from the top of the sentry tower with a flip.
Another three needles are flying at them, and a sabre is slashing down on his head — there’s another man in black!
Two assassins brandish sabres, cutting down at them simultaneously. In midair, Duan Ling puts his foot on a step, and with a flip, he throws himself on top of Wu Du to cover him with his back. The two sabres land on his back, but with the White Tiger Armour in the way, the only thing they manage to hurt is his outer robe. In this split-second, Wu Du has already grabbed hold of Duan Ling and backflipped to step onto the inside wall of the tower, and by stepping onto the wooden stakes he leaps, flying over the assassins’ heads.
There’s a light swish as two streams of powdered drugs shoot out, and the assassins fall from the top of the tower.
It happens so quickly that before Duan Ling catches what Wu Du just did, Wu du is already taking his hand and running down the stairs at a mad run. The two men in black dash out of the sentry tower one after the other.
Sun Ting is out there ordering his subordinates to search through the ruins. When he suddenly sees people dashing out of the tower he’s quite surprised, and howls, “Assassins!”
The soldiers each draw their weapons. Wu Du shouts, “Move aside!”
In front of them, the men in black are moving at a dead run; Duan Ling nocks and draws his bow at once, firing off two arrows. When the two assassins hear the sound of arrows cutting through the air, one of them rolls to dodge out of the way. After he lands he continues to run towards the Xunshui. As it looks like he’s about to leap into the river, he stumbles over himself.
Both of them nearly collapse to the ground simultaneously. Wu Du is still standing there holding Duan Ling’s hand, and Duan Ling’s heart beats madly as he stares at the two assassins struggling in pain on the shore, spasming until at last, they roll in on themselves.
The soldiers slowly walk up to them, wondering where these two came from.
“Don’t touch them,” Wu Du orders, and approaches the bodies with Duan Ling.
“Is that your poison?” Duan Ling asks.
“Yeah.” Frowning, Wu Du uses a branch to pull down the man’s mask.
Duan Ling asks, “Do you know them?”
Wu Du isn’t sure, then slowly shakes his head. “They don’t look Mongolian.”
“Could they be …” Duan Ling’s eyebrows draw together as he observes Wu Du’s expression. Wu Du meets his eyes.
“It’s possible,” Wu Du whispers.
Duan Ling was asking if they may be sent by Cai Yan, and Wu Du has also guessed as much, but they can’t talk too much about this in front of Sun Ting and the others.
“Were they Mongolians?” Sun Ting, “That was seriously close.”
Duan Ling is still deep in thought, and he nods. “Leave them here. Don’t touch the bodies.”
Duan Ling knows that Wu Du had used a deadly poison as a first move earlier because he was worried about imminent danger to Duan Ling’s person, but he’s surprised to see that it worked so quickly. He seldom witnessed this particular skill of Wu Du’s firsthand, so he’s somehow forgotten that his speciality is poison.
“Do you still want to go up there?” Wu Du asks.
“Yes,” Duan Ling says.
The mood has turned serious all of a sudden after something like that happened, but they still have to do what they came to do. Sun Ting wants to inspect the area, and Duan Ling was going to stop him because after all with their martial arts skills even if they do manage to find the assassins they’re no match against them, but Wu Du shoots him a glance to signal him to let them be — don’t say that out loud, it’ll hurt his pride.
Once they’re inside the sentry tower again, Wu Du says, “They were probably part of the Shadow Guard.”
“How many people are in the Shadow Guard?”
“One hundred even. You really can’t get rid of them.”
“That’s alright. It’s actually quite lucky for us that they’ve shown themselves right now. Otherwise, if they’d chosen to attack when you’re not around, I may really be done for. What was that poison you used just now?”
“Life Melt. The poison takes effect as soon as it touches the eyes or the mouth, and death comes after taking a hundred steps.”
“Did you use a lot?”
“No. It’s one of the few poisons that can kill someone immediately.”
When Duan Ling first started living with Wu Du, he was always on edge lest he topples one bottle or another and dies on the spot, but later on he realises that Wu Du seldom uses deadly poison that kills without warning so he’s started letting down his guard. Seeing that today has made him anxious again.
"Are your hands going to be alright?’ Duan Ling asks. Earlier, it seems like he saw Wu Du use his hand to flick the poison outwards.
“Don’t worry. Poisoning uses qi to send powder in the right direction, so it doesn’t stick around on my hands.”
Even after they’ve climbed the sentry tower, Duan Ling is still a bit worried, so Wu Du gives his hands a rinse in a puddle of rainwater on the roof. He sits down and has Duan Ling sit on his leg; the two of them stare off into the distance.
“I wonder how many people the Shadow Guard’s sent here,” Wu Du says, “Even Ye isn’t safe. I’ll have to find some time to take care of this.”
“We can always get a messenger to bring the bodies back to Jiangzhou. If the imperial court can recognise the bodies, it’ll act as a warning to him.”
Wu Du replies, “With Wuluohou Mu there, he won’t let the bodies be escorted back to Jiangzhou.”
Duan Ling thinks that’s true as well — Lang Junxia will surely take care of it; presumably he’s an expert at murder and covering up evidence. If they get an escort to bring the bodies back to Jiangzhou they’ll only end up throwing the escort’s life away.
“You don’t have to worry about this anymore.” Wu Du says, “This is something for me to fret over.”
Duan Ling nods. He knows that with Wu Du by his side he has nothing to be afraid of. They’ve gone through far more turbulent times, what’re a few more assassins?
A breeze brushes by; from the top of the sentry tower, they can see the mountains and plains on the other side of the river. It’s truly the kind of view that fills one with peace and a sense of wellbeing.
“If the Mongols come from the north,” Duan Ling says, “we’ll be able to see them from the top of the sentry tower.”
“Yeah.” Wu Du is still thinking about the assassins.
The view before Duan Ling verifies the hypothesis he made before leaving the city.
“There should be more villages over there, and every village is likely to have a sentry tower like this as well,” Duan Ling adds.
“No idea. Take a look?” Wu Du comes back to himself and asks, “What do you want to do?”
“Let’s go.” Duan Ling drags Wu Du off the tower, gathers the soldiers, and they head towards a point in the distance. As he thought there would be, there’s a ruin about twelve miles away from where they were with another sentry tower, and there’s even a rack for a gong on the tower. Nearby, there are four houses with ceramic tiles seemingly built at random, as well as a great stretch of farmland left to lay fallow.
More than a dozen years ago, Chen and Liao had waged a war here. Every time the Khitans attacked, the commoners would ring the gong as a warning. Later, the Han attacked the Khitans, then the Khitans attacked the Han, and the war went on and on until they were both exhausted. At last, when the Khitans had finally left, even the gongs have been melted into steel and forged into weapons.
“Nobody lives here anymore.” Wu Du says, “Otherwise, ringing the gongs would make a good warning system.”
Sun Ting says, “When it gets windy you won’t be able to hear the gongs.”
“You can see into the distance,” Duan Ling says, “and with the two sentry towers twelve miles away from one another, if one lights a smoke signal the other can see it.”
Duan Ling unrolls a map and says to the soldiers, “Let’s split up and find these sentry towers. Draw a rough map and mark them down. Let’s go. Lets do this now!”
Duan Ling is beside himself with excitement over this discovery — if he can use all of the sentry towers between Ye an Hejian, build a smoke signal warning system like the beacon towers, they’ll be in possession of a defensive perimeter that resembles a small-scale Great Wall. The Mongolian army has to ford the Xunshui every time they want to cross over this way, and whether what they want to invade is Ye or Hejian, with the ability to pass signals on with these sentry points, they can give the Mongolians a fatal blow.
Wu Du, however, keeps a grave expression on his face the whole time, the furrow between his eyebrows resembling a dead knot.
Aside from having sentry towers on the level plains, they can also build temporary sentry posts on the hills and cliffs. Built against the mountains, with the terrain so steep, they won’t have to worry about the Mongolians seizing these posts at all.
This translation is by foxghost, on tumblr and kofi. I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, it was reposted without permission. Do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎
It’s a man in black; before Duan Ling has a chance to react, he sees a shimmer of cold metal flashing before him as a tiny needle makes it almost to his face followed closely by Wu Du throwing himself on top of him, and the two drops from the top of the sentry tower with a flip.
Another three needles are flying at them, and a sabre is slashing down on his head — there’s another man in black!
Two assassins brandish sabres, cutting down at them simultaneously. In midair, Duan Ling puts his foot on a step, and with a flip, he throws himself on top of Wu Du to cover him with his back. The two sabres land on his back, but with the White Tiger Armour in the way, the only thing they manage to hurt is his outer robe. In this split-second, Wu Du has already grabbed hold of Duan Ling and backflipped to step onto the inside wall of the tower, and by stepping onto the wooden stakes he leaps, flying over the assassins’ heads.
There’s a light swish as two streams of powdered drugs shoot out, and the assassins fall from the top of the tower.
It happens so quickly that before Duan Ling catches what Wu Du just did, Wu du is already taking his hand and running down the stairs at a mad run. The two men in black dash out of the sentry tower one after the other.
Sun Ting is out there ordering his subordinates to search through the ruins. When he suddenly sees people dashing out of the tower he’s quite surprised, and howls, “Assassins!”
The soldiers each draw their weapons. Wu Du shouts, “Move aside!”
In front of them, the men in black are moving at a dead run; Duan Ling nocks and draws his bow at once, firing off two arrows. When the two assassins hear the sound of arrows cutting through the air, one of them rolls to dodge out of the way. After he lands he continues to run towards the Xunshui. As it looks like he’s about to leap into the river, he stumbles over himself.
Both of them nearly collapse to the ground simultaneously. Wu Du is still standing there holding Duan Ling’s hand, and Duan Ling’s heart beats madly as he stares at the two assassins struggling in pain on the shore, spasming until at last, they roll in on themselves.
The soldiers slowly walk up to them, wondering where these two came from.
“Don’t touch them,” Wu Du orders, and approaches the bodies with Duan Ling.
“Is that your poison?” Duan Ling asks.
“Yeah.” Frowning, Wu Du uses a branch to pull down the man’s mask.
Duan Ling asks, “Do you know them?”
Wu Du isn’t sure, then slowly shakes his head. “They don’t look Mongolian.”
“Could they be …” Duan Ling’s eyebrows draw together as he observes Wu Du’s expression. Wu Du meets his eyes.
“It’s possible,” Wu Du whispers.
Duan Ling was asking if they may be sent by Cai Yan, and Wu Du has also guessed as much, but they can’t talk too much about this in front of Sun Ting and the others.
“Were they Mongolians?” Sun Ting, “That was seriously close.”
Duan Ling is still deep in thought, and he nods. “Leave them here. Don’t touch the bodies.”
Duan Ling knows that Wu Du had used a deadly poison as a first move earlier because he was worried about imminent danger to Duan Ling’s person, but he’s surprised to see that it worked so quickly. He seldom witnessed this particular skill of Wu Du’s firsthand, so he’s somehow forgotten that his speciality is poison.
“Do you still want to go up there?” Wu Du asks.
“Yes,” Duan Ling says.
The mood has turned serious all of a sudden after something like that happened, but they still have to do what they came to do. Sun Ting wants to inspect the area, and Duan Ling was going to stop him because after all with their martial arts skills even if they do manage to find the assassins they’re no match against them, but Wu Du shoots him a glance to signal him to let them be — don’t say that out loud, it’ll hurt his pride.
Once they’re inside the sentry tower again, Wu Du says, “They were probably part of the Shadow Guard.”
“How many people are in the Shadow Guard?”
“One hundred even. You really can’t get rid of them.”
“That’s alright. It’s actually quite lucky for us that they’ve shown themselves right now. Otherwise, if they’d chosen to attack when you’re not around, I may really be done for. What was that poison you used just now?”
“Life Melt. The poison takes effect as soon as it touches the eyes or the mouth, and death comes after taking a hundred steps.”
“Did you use a lot?”
“No. It’s one of the few poisons that can kill someone immediately.”
When Duan Ling first started living with Wu Du, he was always on edge lest he topples one bottle or another and dies on the spot, but later on he realises that Wu Du seldom uses deadly poison that kills without warning so he’s started letting down his guard. Seeing that today has made him anxious again.
"Are your hands going to be alright?’ Duan Ling asks. Earlier, it seems like he saw Wu Du use his hand to flick the poison outwards.
“Don’t worry. Poisoning uses qi to send powder in the right direction, so it doesn’t stick around on my hands.”
Even after they’ve climbed the sentry tower, Duan Ling is still a bit worried, so Wu Du gives his hands a rinse in a puddle of rainwater on the roof. He sits down and has Duan Ling sit on his leg; the two of them stare off into the distance.
“I wonder how many people the Shadow Guard’s sent here,” Wu Du says, “Even Ye isn’t safe. I’ll have to find some time to take care of this.”
“We can always get a messenger to bring the bodies back to Jiangzhou. If the imperial court can recognise the bodies, it’ll act as a warning to him.”
Wu Du replies, “With Wuluohou Mu there, he won’t let the bodies be escorted back to Jiangzhou.”
Duan Ling thinks that’s true as well — Lang Junxia will surely take care of it; presumably he’s an expert at murder and covering up evidence. If they get an escort to bring the bodies back to Jiangzhou they’ll only end up throwing the escort’s life away.
“You don’t have to worry about this anymore.” Wu Du says, “This is something for me to fret over.”
Duan Ling nods. He knows that with Wu Du by his side he has nothing to be afraid of. They’ve gone through far more turbulent times, what’re a few more assassins?
A breeze brushes by; from the top of the sentry tower, they can see the mountains and plains on the other side of the river. It’s truly the kind of view that fills one with peace and a sense of wellbeing.
“If the Mongols come from the north,” Duan Ling says, “we’ll be able to see them from the top of the sentry tower.”
“Yeah.” Wu Du is still thinking about the assassins.
The view before Duan Ling verifies the hypothesis he made before leaving the city.
“There should be more villages over there, and every village is likely to have a sentry tower like this as well,” Duan Ling adds.
“No idea. Take a look?” Wu Du comes back to himself and asks, “What do you want to do?”
“Let’s go.” Duan Ling drags Wu Du off the tower, gathers the soldiers, and they head towards a point in the distance. As he thought there would be, there’s a ruin about twelve miles away from where they were with another sentry tower, and there’s even a rack for a gong on the tower. Nearby, there are four houses with ceramic tiles seemingly built at random, as well as a great stretch of farmland left to lay fallow.
More than a dozen years ago, Chen and Liao had waged a war here. Every time the Khitans attacked, the commoners would ring the gong as a warning. Later, the Han attacked the Khitans, then the Khitans attacked the Han, and the war went on and on until they were both exhausted. At last, when the Khitans had finally left, even the gongs have been melted into steel and forged into weapons.
“Nobody lives here anymore.” Wu Du says, “Otherwise, ringing the gongs would make a good warning system.”
Sun Ting says, “When it gets windy you won’t be able to hear the gongs.”
“You can see into the distance,” Duan Ling says, “and with the two sentry towers twelve miles away from one another, if one lights a smoke signal the other can see it.”
Duan Ling unrolls a map and says to the soldiers, “Let’s split up and find these sentry towers. Draw a rough map and mark them down. Let’s go. Lets do this now!”
Duan Ling is beside himself with excitement over this discovery — if he can use all of the sentry towers between Ye an Hejian, build a smoke signal warning system like the beacon towers, they’ll be in possession of a defensive perimeter that resembles a small-scale Great Wall. The Mongolian army has to ford the Xunshui every time they want to cross over this way, and whether what they want to invade is Ye or Hejian, with the ability to pass signals on with these sentry points, they can give the Mongolians a fatal blow.
Wu Du, however, keeps a grave expression on his face the whole time, the furrow between his eyebrows resembling a dead knot.
Aside from having sentry towers on the level plains, they can also build temporary sentry posts on the hills and cliffs. Built against the mountains, with the terrain so steep, they won’t have to worry about the Mongolians seizing these posts at all.
This translation is by foxghost, on tumblr and kofi. I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, it was reposted without permission. Do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎
