Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Humming a tone that n.o.body present had ever heard before, Han Fen picked up a stone and hurled it towards the side of the cliff, startling all the nearby people.
The stone flew about forty to fifty meters up before hitting the wall. A crisp sound was heard and then the stone rolled back down.
The others knew that Han Fen was a disciple of the Waning Moon Hall as well as a strange “prisoner”, so none of them were willing to talk to her. They just cast an unhappy glance at her - they had been expecting the Dragon King and Instructor Shangguan to return at any moment, and that stone had badly ruined the atmosphere.
Han Fen was still discontent with the situation. She ignored the more than ten people who were looking at her and started abruptly yelling, “Dragon King! Come down! I feel bored!”
Startled, Dugu Xian hastily said, “Stop that. You might draw enemies here.”
“Draw enemies here?”
” Thousand Hors.e.m.e.n Pa.s.s is not far away from here. Some enemy scouts-”
Han Fen became happier and yelled even louder, “Come here, enemies! The Dragon King's here!”
Her voice carried very well, echoing throughout the canyon repeatedly.
Dugu Xian was unaware of Han Fen's true intentions, and his face changed dramatically, but there were not many guards nearby, so he had to ask Nie Zeng and Tie Linglong for help.
Holding his saber, Nie Zeng walked to a position about seven steps in front of Han Fen and coldly said, “Don't yell again.”
Han Fen watched him with a smiling face. “Don't you feel bored, little Nie Zeng? Wouldn't it be more interesting if I draw a couple of enemies here?”
“That's not necessary.” Nie Zeng tightened his grip on the saber hilt.
Dugu Xian regretted having asked Nie Zeng for help. This was the very reason why he had always tried to keep a distance from those bodyguards of the Dragon King - they drew their sabers for no reason far too often. He walked over and gave two coughs. “We can discuss this. There's no need to fight… ”
But Han Fen was very excited. “I like fighting. Little Nie Zeng, I'll allow you to make… a hundred moves before I fight back.”
“You don't have to do that.” Nie Zeng's face turned livid. He was very displeased by the placement of the word “little” before his name. “I don't want to fight you. As long as you don't yell.”
This threat had the opposite effect. Han Fen raised her voice and yelled out a string of “Dragon Kings.”
Nie Zeng whipped out his saber and then Han Fen stopped yelling. She slightly gathered up her skirt to reveal her feet, bent from the waist, and raised her head, making her look like an old woman. The smile on her face was still bright. “You'll use your saber and I'll use my feet. Little Nie Zeng, neither of us are allowed to use hands.”
Tie Linglong was familiar with the Waning Moon Hall, and she believed that Nie Zeng was probably no match for Han Fen. She walked forward and said, “This kung fu compet.i.tion must be fair. No peculiar tricks.”
“I won't even use my hands. How can I play ‘tricks'?” Han Fen's eyes suddenly lit up. “Actually, the three of us can play this together. Let's fight on our own respective behalf.”
“Even if I take part in this, I'd be… helping him.” Tie Linglong glanced at Nie Zeng.
“In that case, it will be boring.” Han Fen rolled her eyes as she asked, “Don't you guys hold grudges against each other? Why not dissolve it by having a kung fu compet.i.tion?”
“Why do you think that there are grudges between us?”
“He likes you, but you don't like him; he wants you to leave with him, but you think that his kung fu is not good enough-”
Nie Zeng and Tie Linglong simultaneously yelled in astonishment, “How do you know-”
Suddenly it dawned on the others that these two teenagers had some relations.h.i.+p issues between them. Some of them looked away out of embarra.s.sment. Some others lowered their heads and smiled to themselves. Dugu Xian shook his head repeatedly - this general, who always remained composed on the battlefield, felt that his hands were tied.
“I eavesdropped on you,” Han Fen admitted frankly.
“Why did you eavesdrop on us?” Tie Linglong's face blushed fiercely with anger and embarra.s.sment.
“If I don't eavesdrop, then how can I call myself a killer? The Dragon King won't give me any a.s.signments. Do you know how bored I've been?” Han Fen's face was full of confusion, as if Tie Linglong had just asked a very childish question.
Nie Zeng didn't say anything. He whipped out his saber and was ready to fight. A cavalryman rode towards them from the foot of the hill, yelling, “General Dugu! There's a group of people coming our way from the east!”
Dugu Xian walked to the edge of the hill and looked down. “This is bad. They're already here.”
Hearing that some people actually had come, Han Fen left Nie Zeng and Tie Linglong, rushed to Dugu Xian's side in just a couple of steps, and mimicked his voice to say, “This is good. They're already here.”
At the foot of the hill, a thousand Norland cavalrymen were confronting enemies of a similar number. From high above, the two sides seemed very close to each other. Red Bat pointed at somewhere further in the east. “There're more people there.”
As expected, another procession of cavalrymen, like a multiple-segmented worm, was rapidly approaching the 1000-men Norland army at the foot of the hill,
But Gu Shenwei and Shangguan Ru didn't hear a word of their conversation. There was spring water about a man's height in depth as well as high hills between the two of them and the rest of the group.
The depth of this pool to the south of the hill seemed no greater than half a man's height, but the pool was actually very deep. When they stood in it, the tops of their heads were only five or six inches above the water.
Totally naked, hand in hand, they held their breath and stared at each other. It seemed as if they were creatures encased in amber, and that time had stopped pa.s.sing as they lost their mobility.
The slowly floating hair and strings of bubbles occasionally coming out of their mouths were the only remaining proof that they were still alive.
Gu Shenwei had never been so calm before. He was even able to fully appreciate every detail of the body in front of him in an extremely objective and restrained viewpoint.
He mostly saw flaws.
This body was not perfect: the swell of her bosoms was not very obvious, as if they were not fully developed, her hips were a little narrow, there were a couple of obtrusive moles on the skin near her arms and armpits, and her figure was unduly upright, maybe because she had been practice kung fu since childhood,.
Images of another two female bodies flashed across his mind.
By comparison, Luo Ningcha was the most perfect one. Her body was like a combination of both men and women's dreams and by no possible means could it improve in any way.
Queen Ju was about Shangguan Ru's age, but her body held a much more mature and different sort of charm.
But Gu Shenwei couldn't recollect any details about them. Although he had never observed any woman's body so carefully before, he shouldn't have had no impressions of them at all.
While he was thinking of the words “perfect” and “mature”, he actually only had a very vague impression of them, just like how people couldn't fully picture something they were talking about when they had never seen it before.
“The Dragon King's sly and sinister.” “The Unique King's ruthless and callous.” “Central Plainsmen are smart.” “Western Regioners are tactful.” “Zhang San's ugly.” “Li Si's handsome…” When people described other people, they merely used the corresponding words out of force of habit. Once they were asked to expound on these words and offer more details, they always became tongue-tied.
The names of Luo Ningcha and Queen Ju were only words. There were other women who hadn't even left any words in his memory.
When Gu Shenwei allowed himself to become slightly absent-minded as he recalled the past, he discovered that he could only faintly remember his own feelings. As for those women's reactions, he hadn't paid any attention to them. By this point, he had completely forgotten about them afterwards.
This was the first time that he had ever observed those details without paying any attention to the body as a whole. The impression given by these imperfect details was even deeper than that which was given by perfect words. So at this moment, at this place, he was wholly unable to describe this body.
But he didn't need to describe it. With his killer composure and senses, he could promise this. No matter how many years elapsed, he would always be able to instantly remember this body that was made up of many imperfect details. But he would never be able to describe it with words, and it was not because he didn't want to or wasn't willing to. Rather, it was because he couldn't.
Words will never be enough , he thought. The more abstract things became, the easier it would be to describe it. But when the demand for precision reached a certain point, then language would no longer suffice. The harder people tried to describe these ephemeral things, the further away from the truth their description would stray.
There was a smile as clear as crystal on Shangguan Ru's face. She didn't care much about all the details she had seen with her eyes. That handsome face and those countless scars were all a part of her feelings.
Feelings were all she wanted.
Feelings were also ineffable. There were neither specific parts nor a whole, and there was no need to use any words to describe him. Feelings were the water surrounding them, which was stimulating all their senses. As a result, when she recalled the sensation of this water in the future, she would have to use her olfactory, visual, auditory, and gastronomical senses. Even then, they still wouldn't be enough. There would still be an inexplicable feeling hidden among them.
All her sentiments about this pool would be forever linked with the man in front of her and become a part of her. This was the effect that she wanted.
The two slowly floated upwards. When they emerged from the water, they hugged and kissed each other, doing whatever they wanted do.
What surprised Gu Shenwei was that the beast hiding within him hadn't shown itself yet. Everything felt so natural. On a hill, below the sky, his instincts seemed to have returned to its original form - wholly unrestrained. And there was no wild pa.s.sion left. Only pleasure, the purest pleasure.
Standing at the edge of the cliff, Shangguan Ru opened her arms and displayed her body without shame, yelling out, “I am Shangguan Ru!”
She was not very satisfied, since her voice was still a little restrained. So she yelled even louder, “I am Shangguan Ru!”
She turned her head back and looked at him, her gaze half tender, half provocative.
He also walked to the edge of the cliff. After inhaling deeply, he failed to let out any words even though he had tried several times - surprisingly, yelling out his own name was difficult for him.
“I am Shangguan Ru!” She yelled again in a more relaxed and more affectionate manner. “He's Gu Shenwei! Today, we fell in love with each other!”
“I am… Gu Shenwei.” his voice was clearly not confident enough, so he yelled again, “I am Gu Shenwei!”
These were the only words he could yell. Too many emotions surged forth in his heart at the same time, as if they were about to break through the self-imposed restrictions that had been cast so many years ago. He had to forcibly send them back into the cage.
“It's so cold,” Shangguan Ru said. She had no other desires in her heart.
Gu Shenwei retrieved his coat and put it on her.
Shangguan Ru giggled. “I just remembered something.”
“What?”
“It was said that the old Khan preferred to sleep with women from enemy tribes, claiming that he derived a sense of double conquest when he did so. Do you feel the same way?”
Gu Shenwei was stunned. The sacred atmosphere vanished almost instantly - Shangguan Ru had talked to him boldly again, just like how she had used to do when she was young. “This question… Your tone was somewhat similar to that of the Second Consort.”
“You're evading it.”
“I don't feel that way. I don't want to conquer you, and you were not conquered by me.”
Shangguan Ru inhaled deeply. “This is an issue that brings pleasure to both sides. Why do people always connect it with the idea of ‘conquest'?”
“Sometimes the pleasure is only unilateral… I think we should go back.”
“Hha, I guess that you've been shy since you were young.”
“I wouldn't be able to answer your question even if I weren't shy.”
“Am I getting more shameless?”
“Uh… Kind of.”
“I let you see me clearly. This is me. Forget the previous me, and ignore what kind of person I'll become in the future. Promise me this - that you'll only remember this current me.”
Gu Shenwei nodded, but didn't make the same request because he had forgotten his true self a long time ago.
Looking into the direction of the Thousand Hors.e.m.e.n Pa.s.s, he began to think about the plan for taking that fortified city.
