Book 9: Chapter 20: Ten Wolves

A dark-sailed small passenger ship was slowly moving across the nighttime river.

There were apes that roared by the river shore, households that still had their lights on visible from time to time and even some glowing fireflies that fluttered about in the air.

On a distant merchant ship, there was someone playing the pipa.

At the tail of the dark-sailed small passenger ship, an old boatman was sculling the ship. At the bow of the ship, there was a grizzled haired old servant wrapped in cloth, about to fall asleep. Inside the dark-sailed ship’s small cabin were two youngsters, one male, one female.

Lin Xi had met these two before during the academy’s organized recruitment, they were Self Defense Department’s third year students, Chen Mu and Du Zhanye.

The bright and talented Chen Mu had a small coded text scroll in his hands, its contents completely scrambled. He looked at Du Zhanye and said, “For the sake of safety, this is the last piece of information we will receive before we arrive at Jadefall City, there won’t be anyone else who will try to contact us again on our journey… However, I don’t reckon you to expect this final piece of information to actually mention that Lin Xi I had you pay attention to.”

Chen Mu looked at the extremely gentle and ordinary, but slightly chubby Du Zhanye who never treated him like a normal friend, but always carried the utmost respect for him. This was especially the case when the two of them were alone.

She bowed slightly. “Your majesty, is he going to be transferred west as well?”

“He was the heaven’s choice who obtained such a high score in Summer Spirit Lake, moreover a Windstalker… only true battles can polish a truly powerful Windstalker. Now that Dragon Snake’s great battle has ended, having him transferred west was something that was bound to happen.” Chen Mu calmly smiled and said, “Only, the reason his name was mentioned in this message is because he has already become a Spiritual Sacrifice Priest.”

Du Zhanye originally wasn’t all that shocked that this secret message mentioned Lin Xi, but when she heard the three words Spiritual Sacrifice Priest at this time, she immediately cried out in alarm, “Spiritual Sacrifice Priest?!”

“He obtained a Black Foxcat that no one in Yunqin has ever subdued, moreover a variant type with three tails.” Chen Mu said with a smile. “This isn’t all. There was a Purgatory Mountain Shentu Clan Sacred Expert who died under his and Teacher Tong’s hands, and he even brought back the secret to the cave barbarian’s giant lizard mounts.”

Du Zhanye’s jaw dropped, her mouth not closing for a long time.

“From the moment he refused Zhou Yongxian’s invitation by the Freshman Dormitory, I already felt like he was the type of upright and honorable, lofty and unyielding talent our Yunqin needed the most. From when he left the academy until now, he has always been confirming my first impression of him, moreover doing even better than I imagined.” Chen Mu slowly crushed the secret message in his hands into powder, releasing a light sigh of admiration.

Du Zhanye’s face produced a bit of worry. “However, the emperor’s impression of him doesn’t seem to be great.”

“There are no perfect men, who hasn’t been wrong before?”

Chen Mu said with a light sigh, “Not even father emperor can make the right judgments every time. If his judgment is wrong, he might force Lin Xi down the opposite direction, I do not wish to see… I hope the things that I do in the future can prevent Lin Xi from drifting too far from me and father emperor, I don’t want him to produce hostility towards us.”

Du Zhanye’s expression paled slightly. For Chen Mu to be able to say these things, she became even more confident that Chen Mu truly possessed the style of Yunqin’s late emperor. However, she also began to feel a mysterious unease inside. The things she knew were more than an ordinary Green Luan student or royal court official knew, so she naturally carried some criticisms towards the emperor’s way of doing things. Now that even someone who respected and revered the emperor the most under the heavens said these words, it could only prove that in recent years, those who inwardly carried criticisms, finding faults with many of the emperor’s way of doing things, were already extremely numerous.

“He should be setting out from Dragon Snake Border Army now as well. I look forward to meeting him in Jadefall City.”

Chen Mu lowered his head, but then said quietly with a sincere voice, “I hope our trips go smoothly… hope that the two of us can become good friends.”

…

Next to a shabby mountain deity temple, there was a simple and crude little courtyard with a roof-tiled house and a livestock fence.

A tall and skinny man dressed in cloth clothes covered in patches, his face covered in stubble, was currently eating while examining all types of secret documents.

The speed at which he ate and examined these documents were both extremely fast. In the time ordinary people took to finish a bowl of rice, he already ate a large bucket of rice together with a large pot that stewed several chickens and several pieces of dried meat in red hot sauce, as well as finished looking through more than twenty documents.

His name was also extremely interesting. He was surnamed Zhen, his given name a single character ‘kuai’. Together, it became ‘Zhen Kuai’. [1]

On the surface, Zhen Kuai’s identity was someone who guarded this mountain deity temple and served as a hunter, but his true identity was one of Wenren Cangyue’s undercover leaders.

After reading through all of the secret documents, finishing another bucket of rice and all of the pot’s dried meat and soup, Zhen Kuai completely burned all of the secret documents. He silently looked at the large bellied woman who was stitching old cloth into diapers, preparing to welcome a new life several months later, and then sighed inwardly.

He knew that even though he was named ‘Zhen Kuai’ and the speed at which he handled matters was extremely fast, regardless of whether it was eating, reading secret documents, thinking over matters, cultivation, killing… compared to Wenren Cangyue’s great army, he still couldn’t hope to match them, he was far slower than them. All those who followed Great General Wenren clearly understood just how powerful the great general was.

However, as for those like him who followed Great General Wenren in fighting the entire world, they didn’t do so only because of the great general’s powerful strength, but also because of the kindness of recognizing their worth, as well as them already having the great general deeply engraved in their hearts. That was why this battle, for them, had to be won.

…

“The enemy is Wenren Cangyue, unrivaled in the Sacred Expert level… even if it were that Shentu Clan Purgatory Mountain Sacred Expert, if he wanted to face Wenren Cangyue alone, he might still be slapped to death by a single palm. Facing this type of opponent, we don’t even know the people in our troop, the academy cannot even ensure our safety, this truly is an impossible mission…”

“Taibai Restaurant… does this world have a Li Taibai? Even though you already disappeared for so many years, in this world, there are still traces of you everywhere.”

Lin Xi who wore a conical bamboo hat led along an old horse, looking at this restaurant in front of him through the black cloth hanging from his hat.

It had already been several days since he left Sheep Point Field Mountain Army in Dragon Snake Mountain Range, Lin Xi also already reached this Great Calm City at the center of East Forest Province. For the sake of ensuring safety, all transferring was done in secret. Apart from Dragon Snake Army’s few high level commanders, no one knew that he already left Sheep Point Field Mountain. As for Lin Xi, the secret instructions he received was merely to arrive at Great Calm City’s Taibai Restaurant before sundown. As for who was traveling with him and what mode of transport was to be used, what kind of path they were going to take to Jadefall City, he knew absolutely nothing.

This world naturally didn’t have that immortal of poetry who wrote Bring in the Wine. However, because the middle-aged uncle who appeared in Yunqin fifty years ago spread quite a few verses, perhaps because he felt a bit embarrassed, he said that some of these were written by a sir named Taibai, that this Sir Taibai was fond of drinking, so that was why this Taibai Restaurant came to be in this world.

Lin Xi first looked at the different people who came and went,then looked at the restaurant’s gold lettered black signboard, inwardly sighing with admiration.

A young waiter dressed in black clothes, a white scarf around his neck welcomed him, bowing towards Lin Xi respectfully and asking, “May I ask if sir needs some firewood or a place to stay?”

Lin Xi removed himself from his thoughts, looking at this young waiter and saying with a smile, “I came to feed my horse.”

The young waiter’s trademark smile didn’t change, “Do you wish to feed it bean cakes made with fine ingredients or just ordinary fodder.”

Lin Xi said, “My old horse is rather fickle, needing chopped up fine bean cakes mixed with slop.”

The young water chuckled, “It is indeed quite fickle, but this shop is capable of satisfying your needs. Sir, please follow me into the rear stable.”

Lin Xi nodded, leading the old horse as he followed this young waiter into the rear court’s side door.

This Taibai Restaurant had three entrances in total. The first led to the three-floored street facing restaurant, the second was a side door that led to the kitchens and the third was the stable and firewood room.

When the old horse was properly arranged for in the stable, the young waiter didn’t say anything else, only nodding, leading the way in front. After making his way through a side door of this third entrance, he followed a narrow alley, entering a small courtyard roughly five or six shops from Taibai Restaurant.

“Please stay here and rest for a bit. When your respected self’s friends have all arrived, there will naturally be someone who will come to call upon your respected self.” After opening a side room facing east, this young waiter said this to Lin Xi.

“Alright.”

Lin Xi didn’t say too much either, but not long after he closed the door, before he even undid the single large bag he carried, he heard completely undisguised footsteps. Then, the footsteps stopped outside his door, a rough and hoarse voice sounding, “Now that you arrived, you can follow me.”

Lin Xi pushed open the door, seeing that the one who spoke was a large and tall bald man dressed in purple silk clothes. He was fifty something years of age, his face carrying a light scar, the type of face that would make little children on the street cry out of fear.

When he saw Lin Xi walk out, this tall bald man didn’t say anything either, only turning around and walking at the front, pushing open the door into a large room.

There were already seven individuals seated on the ground in this large room. Together with this tall bald man and Lin Xi, there was now a total of nine.

When he swept his eyes out, seeing two of the members here, Lin Xi first stared blankly and then he couldn’t help but smile.

These two were the two who were previously guarding granaries in Dragon Snake Mountain Range.

“We all know how formidable that person is and I cannot guarantee that no one among us is working under that person.”

Right at this time, the tall bald man already swept his eyes over everyone, coldly saying, “That is why for the sake of ensuring everyone’s safety, when interacting among each other, do not expose any information about yourselves.”

“Starting from now, our identity is the notorious Ten Feral City Wolves whom Judicial Sector still doesn’t have portraits of.”

“I am currently the Bald Wolf Black Tiger Slayer.”

“These are your masks and introductions regarding these ten wolves. Apart from remembering your own identities, you must also remember the identities of the remaining individuals clearly.”

“Our first objective is an official who returned home after retirement. There is an introduction in the information as well. After remembering everything, putting on your human skin mask and then destroy the information, only then can you leave this house.”

…

Jiang Xiaoyi and Bian Linghan who were previously watching over granaries in Dragon Snake Mountain Range were precisely the two individuals in this group who Lin Xi was most familiar with in this world.

After discussing things with Tong Wei, Lin Xi was already wondering when he might run into them again. He didn’t expect that things would be arranged so wonderfully, that he could meet them right here.

Because of the tall bald man’s words, Lin Xi, Jiang Xiaoyi and Bian Linghan only exchanged some expressions of pleasant surprise. Then, the two of them didn’t need to look at each other anymore. After receiving the human skin masks and notes from ‘Black Tiger Slayer, they also began to carefully size up the remaining people.

They were called ten wolves, but in reality, even with Lin Xi, there were only nine.

It was just that Lin Xi knew that the last one wouldn’t be Gao Yanan, because even if the academy specially arranged for him, Gao Yanan, Jiang Xiaoyi and Bian Linghan to be together, they wouldn’t waste so much effort to first transfer Gao Yanan from the distant Central Continent Imperial City here.

Right now, apart from himself, the tall bald man, Jiang Xiaoyi and Bian Linghan, the five remaining individuals were a gloomy and cold-faced old woman, a particularly short large headed middle-aged man, a fifty-something year old meager accountant-like man, a peasant-like robust man, as well as a short-haired young man whose bearing was extremely aloof and cold.

1. Zhen sounds like really, the second character is fast. The two together sounds like ‘really fast’

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