ChangNing’s Imperial Army - Chapter 119

Chapter 119 – Must Not Die Again
The hengdao swung down and struck the ground. When the sword cut into the soil, it released Gui Si’s murderous intent and hatred. His smooth-sailing life, and beautiful prospects vanished into thin air following Pei Xiao’s death.

He did not expect that young man to dodge it once again. Evidently, the other party was already semi-conscious. He could not even lift the black cord sword. How was he able to dodge the attack still, at a crucial point?

Shen Leng rolled over to one side before putting weight on his black cord sword, as he struggled to stand. He shifted his body weight to the front. Everything before his eyes was blur.

“Who are you?” he asked.

Gui Si turned around and looked at him. The two people on the other side had already collapsed to the ground and passed out. He was the one who personally concocted the drug powder. It was effective enough. Even a few bulls would not be able to withstand it, let alone humans. But Shen Leng was trying to resist with all his might.

“I came from the northern border.”

Gui Si lifted his hengdao and pointed it at Shen Leng’s throat. “Why are you still resisting?”

Shen Leng coughed a few times. “When Pei Xiao tried to kill Meng Changan in the northern border, he probably thought the same too. I’m sure he wanted to ask Meng Changan why he was still resisting.”

There was a cold look in Gui Si’s eyes. “A life for a life.”

Shen Leng’s body swayed as he tried to stand upright. “Then you need to be stronger. At your current state, you cannot kill me.”

Gui Si swung his sword. The tip of the sword swept towards Shen Leng’s throat. Shen Leng lifted his black cord sword in an attempt to block it. The impact of it caused Shen Leng to retreat backwards. It seemed as though he was about to collapse anytime, but he simply refused to do so.

The black cord sword pierced right into the ground making him stop. Shen Leng lifted his head; the hengdao was already at the top of his head.

Shen Leng had no time to draw his sword, hence he could only squat down. The hengdao grazed his hair as it swept across.

Gui Si was about to kick Shen Leng’s face; Shen Leng straightened both arms, blocking in front of him. The kick landed onto his forearm. The impact caused him to move backwards…Gui Si had the upper hand, naturally, he was not going to stop that easily. When Shen Leng was pushed backwards, he swung his sword once more.

Shen Leng supported himself with both hands on the ground. He flipped over to one side. Once again, the sword struck the ground.

After Shen Leng landed onto the ground, he charged towards a tree. He staggered.

Gui Si raised his sword and kept pursuing behind him. After he caught up with Shen Leng, he swung the sword towards Shen Leng’s neck. Shen Leng pounced forward, dodging the sword once more. It seemed as though he had a pair of eyes at the back of his body. He could predict every attack accurately.

Under such circumstances, Shen Leng still refused to give up. It made Gui Si even more furious, and he was filled with more hatred. He just moved forward, and Shen Leng, who was laying on the ground, suddenly flipped himself over. Something black in his hand was tossed towards Gui Si’s face. Gui Si tilted his head to dodge it, but came to realize that it was only a small scabbard.

“Idiot.”

He snorted. He lifted his sword and was about to cut off Shen Leng’s head. Thereafter, he saw Shen Leng smirking. He pulled his hand back.

As the squad leader of Pei Xiao’s soldiers, he had been through hundreds of battles. At this moment, he instinctively made a judgement to dodge. However, he was still a bit too slow. When Shen Leng pulled the scabbard back, it grazed Gui Si’s face, cutting it.

“You are courting death!”

Gui Si felt his face burning with pain. Half of his body was covered in blood. He suspected that the flesh on half of his face had been peeled off. Even a layer of the bone on his face had been chipped off.

Shen Leng gripped the wire in his hand. Pulling the scabbard back seemed to be his last tactic.

“Under such circumstances, you managed to hurt me. I am truly impressed.”

Gui Si lifted the sword before staring blankly for a bit.

He was completely unaware of the whole process of the scabbard flying to and fro. The wire that was connected to the scabbard actually coiled around his arm.

Shen Leng pulled with all his might; the wire strapped tightly around Gui Si’s wrist. He used all his strength to stand up and retreated, as he went around the small tree, with one leg pressing against it. The wire had already made a deep cut in Gui Si’s wrist – the more he struggled, the tighter it got.

After he reacted, Gui Si charged forward. The wire that was stretched taut immediately loosened up. However, Gui Si’s right wrist was almost disabled. The wire had cut so deep that it had severed his tendons.

The black cord sword in his right hand dropped. Shen Leng rolled to the front and picked the black cord sword up. He swung the sword up from below…a long cut appeared on Gui Si’s chest. Blood spurted everywhere.

What a pity.

If Shen Leng’s hand could be more stable at this moment, The sword would have sliced Gui Si’s throat open instead.

Gui Si’s leg swept over, hitting Shen Leng’s right arm. The sword in his hand flew upon impact.

“Good, very good, very good!”

Gui Si’s eyes were already very, very red. He gritted his teeth, revealing traces of blood on it.

The person who was supposed to collapse a long time ago actually managed to severely injure him. This made Gui Si extremely furious and caused his hatred to reach its limit. From the start, Shen Leng was on the passive side. No matter how one looked at it, he could be killed easily in under one second. And yet, that second never came.

Shen Leng gasped for breath and stood up. He lowered his head and looked. Thereafter, he stuffed his thumb into his mouth…he rubbed his teeth against his finger. After a soft sound was heard, Shen Leng bit the tip of his little finger. In that moment, the pain pierced through his mind jolting him awake.

“You praised me, but I don’t feel very proud. Your praise is worthless.”

Shen Leng took a deep breath and charged out. The pain made his dizziness go away, and made him more clear-headed. Gui Si threw a punch with his left hand towards Shen Leng’s face. Just when he was about to get hit, Shen Leng bent down and hugged Gui Si by the waist. Both his hands exerted force as he lifted Gui Si up before throwing him down…Gui Si’s head hit the ground hard, so hard that it seemed as though his head was going to smash into his thoracic cavity.

Gui Si felt as though his brain exploded. There was a buzzing sound followed by a brief blackout. The sharp pain caused him to wake up quickly. He felt as though his neck might already be broken.

However, after all, he was a veteran who had been on the battlefield for so many years. Before he followed Pei Xiao, he was an assassin in the underworld. He had a lot more combat experiences compared to Shen Leng. The methods he used to kill, as well as his ability to react fast, did not lose to Shen Leng. When he rolled over, he conveniently glanced over. He realized that Shen Leng’s black cord sword that was pierced into the ground was not very far away. Hence, he gritted his teeth and charged over.

After Shen Leng saw that, he charged forward too. Both of them were fighting for the sword. Gui Si was closer to it, hence he got there first. He tried to pull the sword out of the ground…but he could not pull it out.

He was greatly taken aback. Why is this sword so heavy?

It was not that he did not have the strength to pull it out, but he did not expect the sword to be that heavy. He exerted strength based on the weight of an ordinary black cord sword; when he was about to use more strength, Shen Leng had already arrived.

Shen Leng kicked Gui Si in the lower abdomen, Gui Si grabbed the black cord sword tightly refusing to let go. When he flipped himself out, the black cord sword was finally pulled out of the ground.

With the black cord sword in his hand, Gui Si was immediately more confident. However, his vision became dark all of a sudden. Shen Leng pounced over and pressed both hands onto the back of the sword. The tip of the sword pointed downwards. At this moment, Gui Si lifted his right arm in a bid to block it.

After the blade of the sword cut his skin and flesh open, it was being obstructed by the bone in his arm. The edge of the blade rubbed against the bones, creating a sound that broke the silence of the early morning. It was extremely piercing to the ear, causing one’s hair to stand on end.

“My sword.”

Shen Leng pressed down with both hands as hard as he could. “How are you be good enough for it?”

Gui SI’s right arm was being cut open; the tip of the sword landed on his neck. Shen Leng placed the weight of his entire body on the back of the sword. Gui Si felt as his throat area was ice-cold. He cried out. He tried to lift his left hand, that was gripping the sword, with all his strength. The veins on his face were already bulging, and his eyes became more and more red.

Shen Leng’s eyes were very red too.

Both of them stared into each other’s eyes. They were bloodshot.

Gui Si’s yell pierced through the early morning air. The wisps of blood on his teeth was a ghastly sight.

Pop!

The tip of the sword cut open his skin and flesh, throat, arteries…his blood spurted out like spring water, spurting all over Shen Leng’s face.

Too much blood spurted out of the neck. Very soon, the soil below Gui Si’s neck became grayish brown after mixing with his blood.

The right hand that was only gripping the black cord sword finally lost all strength and drooped down weakly. Shen Leng used both hands to press the sword down, before doing it a second time!”

The sword cut off his neck; in the moment when his head detached from his body, Shen Leng could not control himself and collapsed onto the ground.

He turned over and laid on his back. His clothes were drenched; when the wind swept against his body, it made him feel very cold.

Shen Leng tilted his head and looked. Gui Si’s head was facing him. He died with his eyes opened.

He gasped heavily for air. Suddenly, he started laughing. “Actually, you’re just a five.”

Even if Gui Si did not die, he would not have understood what he meant. If he did understand it, he would die with more grievance.

Shen Leng gasped for breath for a while and stood up. He carried his black cord sword and staggered towards Chen Ran and Uncle An who were still passed out. He sat down weakly next to them and checked for their breaths. He found out that they were merely passed out, but still alive. Hence, he felt relieved. He thought about how he should wake Chen Ran up. An inexplicable evil thought appeared in his head, making Shen Leng laugh. If it was not difficult for him to stand up right now, he would have just peed on him. That should be enough to wake that fella up. That fella would definitely fight him after.

What if peeing on him did not wake him up?

After a while, perhaps his body would absorb it.

All of a sudden, it started to rain. Jiangnan’s weather had always been erratic. The rain hitting against Shen Leng’s face made his mind clearer and clearer. The redness in his eyes started to fade away.

Soo after, Chen Ran finally woke up. He rubbed his temples; evidently, his head was hurting badly. He looked at Shen Leng who had blood all over him and yelled at the top of his voice. He pounced over to Shen Leng and started bawling. “Leng! Leng!”

Shen Leng was being shaken so hard that he was confused. He opened his eyes and glared at him. “Enough…”

“You didn’t die, hahaha, you’re not dead!”

Chen Ran wailed as he cried.

Shen Leng curled his lips. “Are you trying to shake me to death and take over as the new general?”

Chen Ran quickly stopped; only then did he notice a headless corpse that was at a distance away.

“Who’s that fella?”

“Pei Xiao’s man.”

“Pei Xiao’s man?”

Chen Ran was shocked. “Don’t tell me Pei Tingshan already knows about it?”

Shen Leng laid there and looked at the sky. “Perhaps.”

And at this moment, on a ferry on Nanping River, Gui Si’s two subordinates had been silent for a long time. All they needed to do was head in the east and they would get to the eastern border’s garrison grounds. The eastern part of Nanping River converged into the East Sea. The military camp was located not far away from the river. .

“The squad leader does not dare to go back, so he told us to go back without him.”

One of them suddenly lifted his head. “He’s afraid that the great general would kill him immediately without hearing his explanation.”

“Yeah…”

The eyes of the other person flickered for a moment. “What about us?”

His comrade was also thinking about the same thing. His voice trembled as he spoke, “Even if the great general received the letter, based on his cruel nature, we will end up dying too. A general’s soldiers have to die with him. Our fates have already been decided a long time ago.”

He took out Gui Si’s handwritten letter and took a look. After that, he looked at his comrade.

The other person nodded. His face was very solemn.

Hence, he tossed the letter in his hand into Nanping River. Both of them heaved a huge sigh of relief at the same time.

“We are already dead people. Why should we go back and die again.”

“Yeah, these hundreds of taels of silver is enough for us to find a place to start our own businesses. We can spend the rest of our lives hiding our real identities.”

“We should open a restaurant. I know you’re pretty good at cooking.”

“Where at?”

“Pingyue. The farther, the better.”

“Ok!”

Both of them looked at each other and laughed. They turned around at the same time. The letter on the surface of the river had already vanished.