Jiang Ye Chapter 56

Cold rainy night, Spring Wind Pavilion, Alley outside of Chao Mansion

That middle-aged fat man stood beside the carriage. Standing in the rain, he bent over and said in a low voice, “Chao XiaoShu is indeed a cultivator. It seems like his realm isn’t low either, right now the situation seems th.o.r.n.y……”

The person inside of the carriage coughed twice, and indifferently said, “What’s so pressing? Doesn’t the mansion also have the two people the Ministry of Revenue hired? If even those two can’t stop that guy from the JiangHu, if we also attack it won’t be too late…… as for those people of the JiangHu that died, in this ChangAn City’s dark gutters, how many days are there where rats don’t die?”

Several hundred of the ChangAn City’s braves of the JiangHu flooded over from four sides and eight directions. In a skilled person’s eyes in the distance, they were just like rats in a dark gutter, exploding in this moment of life or death of an extremely amazing person’s fighting strength and bloodiness.

But Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao was a cultivator, and they were just ordinary people of the JiangHu. The gap between the two side’s fighting strength was like that of an eagle and ant in distance. The sword’s figure pierced in a leg and through it, carrying a spray of flowery blood, then revolving around a neck and lopping off a very big head and cutting a man’s fingers carrying an axe;  men wielding blades fell down in the rain. Before that at times seen and unseen sword’s figure, the fighting strength of those strong men weren’t even worth a single stroke – before those brave men’s bloodiness, if their companions weren’t falling over backwards, they would always be hopelessly breaking and scattering.

Chao XiaoShu calmly advanced – his body’s blue robe had long been soaked by the rainwater, but each time Ning Que saw him it was like that. No one would think that this number one man of ChangAn’s “night work” was having a hard time as he walked inside of the rain as naturally as the spring rain. The aura exuded from his body was like the spring rain moistening the earth, making people feel there was no way to resist so much so that they didn’t want to resist.

The mob that came from ChangAn’s West City and South City saw the middle-aged man coming towards them in the rain, as though seeing a demon acting refined and cultured nodding to them hinting at something – then raising demonic claws and calmly squeezing them into pieces. They, with horror filling their hearts, had no way of suppressing the fear in their hearts. Not knowing who called out, the crowd finally scattered.

Those several people, South City’s Lord Meng and West City’s Jun Jie and also Uncle Cat had already unknowingly already slipped away quietly. In the four directions of the worn down Spring Wind Pavilion, besides those bodies being constantly washed by the rushing rain water and those heavily wounded groans of the injured, not one person could be seen standing. Between heaven and earth there was a slice of peacefulness – if you ignored those dead and wounded in the rain, suddenly the falling rain water had no way of rinsing the smell of blood and the smashed corner of the Spring Wind Pavilion.

Ning Que silently following behind Chao XiaoShu wanted to walk in front. His two hands tightly held onto his blade’s handle, with the sharp blade’s body across his chest drenched in the rainwater. From beginning to end, he hadn’t used it once. This one-sided ma.s.sacre ended just like this, but he even less was about to relax with an embarra.s.sed apology, because he knew that the real battle had yet to come. If you had the chance to follow a battling cultivator, then there is an extremely high chance that the enemies you meet may even be several cultivators.

One step, two steps – Chao XiaoShu walked to the front door of his own home’s courtyard. The sheath on his body swordless, that sword was pa.s.sing through who knows where in the night rain, and he stretched out his two empty hands and lightly pushed. The hinge of the door soaked by the rainwater gave a bit of a strange groan.

The courtyard’s door was pushed open, and tens of elite Tang troops wearing dark rain coats carrying crossbows greeted them, with their expressions unswervingly cold. After listening to the rain behind the curtain of rain in rain-listening pavilion with the wooden planked floor, the brow of the middle-aged man wearing starry white robes faintly knitted. The short sword at his side lowly cried. The ascetic wearing a bamboo hat slowly raised his head, the rosary in his hands slightly stiffened. The two horse carriages far away in an alley remained calm as before, the coughing sound from one of the carriages went who knows where.

Tranquility was still tranquility, the sound of light calm winds among the tree leaves between roof pillars lightly rustled and the sound of pattering rain between the courtyard and the small pond lightly sounded. Each looked at the other, no one chose to be the first to attack.

Silence for perhaps quite a while, or perhaps very short, – Chao XiaoShu’s gaze crossed the sergeant of the group carrying crossbows, falling onto the ascetic monk and the swordsman in the pavilion, and lightly said, “This is my home. Please leave.”

“No one will leave.” The swordsman dressed in the starry white robes calmly responded.

Chao XiaoShu saw at this person’s side the short sword lightly shaking with a craving cry. As though he had a thought, suddenly he spoke up and asked, “During the rain a few days ago, was it you that killed my little brother?”

The robed swordsman’s body slightly leaned forward, indicating he was exactly that person.

The corners of Chao XiaoShu’s lips slightly stuck up, looking at him he said, “Then today you’ll be the first to die.”

The rain fell as always, following the tiles of the rain-listening pavilion, flowing to the eaves down to become a watery curtain. The copper bowl in front of that ascetic monk constantly bore rainwater, gradually acc.u.mulating – gradually it became a lot, and just in this moment it finally overflowed out.

Chao XiaoShu attacked.

He raised his right arm, parting the heavy curtain of rain, parting those elite Tang troops tightly grasping crossbows waiting, towards that robed swordsman in the rain-listening pavilion far far away.

With just one finger pointing out, in the rainy night suddenly echoed with a shrill cry. That thin blade hidden from beginning to end in the night scene finally revealed a trace, like a flash of lightning piercing towards his own rain-listening pavilion!

The robed swordsman’s pupils shrunk, the middle finger of his right hand hanging at his side tightened once, and shot once. With the short sword at his side already hungrily jumping, with a clear whisper it jolted out, transforming into a clear light guarding in front of him.

Chao XiaoShu said that today the first person that had to die was him – Chao XiaoShu parting the curtain of rain and pointing was also him, but Chao XiaoShu’s first sword’s objective wasn’t him, but rather that ascetic monk at his side!

Although that ascetic monk was silent throughout, but he was constantly alert, watching around for movement and the sound of activities nearby. Overhead the heaven and earth energy had some slight fluctuations, and he plainly knew that Chao XiaoShu was already about to act. Although he didn’t knew that he was a target of the sword himself, however a disciple of Buddha’s instinct allowed his withered up palm to severely beat a board beside him. Within the shock of the smoke and dust of the wooden board, only the copper alms bowl in the front of the wooden stairs was as if it was kicked by someone; suddenly missiles flew up moving in the sky in countless splashes.

The gray light of the sword figure cleaved through the air and arrived, penetrating through that those splashes as sparkling and translucent as glazed tiles, but it was blocked head-on by the copper alms bowl. The high-speed, sharp, and thin sword and the thick and clumsy copper alms bowl viciously collided, issuing a clear and loud sound that made people’s eardrums want to split!

The ascetic monk’s face revealed outside his bamboo rain hat was somewhat dark – at this moment it changed to become extremely pale, obviously he suffered some losses, and at this time, the long gown sword master’s pair of eyebrows jumped. With a strangely mechanical wrist flick, in the two fingers used to eat together executed towards Chao XiaoShu who was standing at the front gates of his mansion. All around his body the short sword strongly flew in a half circle in a dance abruptly canceled its force into a sharp turn, transforming into a single blade of blue light stabbing straight for Chao XiaoShu’s front. At this moment Chao XiaoShu’s flying sword directly collided with the Ascetic monk’s copper bowl, now in what way can he defend his own body?

Ning Que, tightly gripping the long blade and silently standing behind Chao XiaoShu’s back moved, his body rapidly flashed to dodge to the left. Just when he was about to dodge away from Chao XiaoShu’s body, he was forced to halt his step. He didn’t fear that long robed sword master’s methods, and wasn’t afraid of that blue light short sword – rather he now found that as before, it was unnecessary for himself to act.

Because Chao XiaoShu’s flying sword crashed into the back of the ascetic monk’s copper alms bowl, although it didn’t break the alms bowl, but it also didn’t fall to the ground broken. Rather borrowing the strength of the fierce strike, the cracks and streaks with unknown use on the thin blue steel sword, in a split second they abruptly enlarged separating from the sword – extremely fantastically in the sky they transformed into five thin swords – the blades quickly flew and shot out!

In the middle of no way of being able to survive, one becomes three, and three becomes five.

Chao XiaoShu’s one sword transformed into 5.    ……    ……