Chapter 48: Zhang Rang's Pursuit and Slaughter

  Liu Min withdrew her gaze and looked at the distant Luoyang City, suddenly feeling a little reluctant to part with it. She was born in Luoyang and had some feelings for the city. Now that she was about to leave, she wanted to take another look at this beautiful city and deepen her memories of it.

  "Brother Rui, from now on, Min'er won't have a home anymore. You'll always be good to me, right?" Liu Min got onto the horse carriage and looked at Zhang Rui beside her, this man whom she would follow from now on.

  "Don't worry, Min'er, we'll definitely come back to Luoyang City again." Zhang Rui said, hugging Liu Min in his arms.

  Shi Ah drove the carriage, seemingly not hearing the conversation between the two people inside. Those words weren't something he needed to remember; all he had to do was drive the carriage and send the two out of Luoyang's borders. Then he would return to Luoyang to report back to his master. He estimated that the Emperor still had other plans that urgently required manpower, which is why he only let him send them out of Luoyang instead of further away.

  Night was falling, and there's a Chinese proverb that says "a dark moon and strong winds are the perfect time to kill someone". Suddenly, a group of five men in black appeared on the deserted official road. The leader had a thick beard covering his face, with a prominent scar above his eyebrows that looked particularly frightening.

  The men in black acted extremely cautiously, carefully searching along the official road as if they were looking for something.

  "Big brother, the report shows that Zhang Rui should have left Luoyang alone on horseback, but our informant's mark disappeared from this small forest. Did something happen?" One of the five people said after investigating in the small forest.

  "It's not that something has happened, but rather it's already been taken care of. This Rui Zhen is no ordinary person, and can actually detect someone tailing him. The situation this time is probably a bit tricky, tell the brothers to put their guards up, others haven't killed them, but they've gotten themselves into trouble."

  "Big brother, who exactly did we kill this time? Zhang Gonggong actually needed us brothers to take action. It's been years since we last took action, and my hands are itching a bit." one of them said.

  "Fourth brother, from now on, go to those places less often. In recent years, you've always gone to which places? Take a look at your current skills, they're far inferior to before! Where is the slightest bit of killing aura left on your body? And as for all of you, do you think you have some reputation or something? One by one, you're all enjoying life now, can you still kill people?" The scar-faced big man said to several brothers.

  "Big brother, we've been following Zhang Gonggong for many years now. You say which time did we ever make a move? Those guys were all scared to death by our Northwest Five Absolutes without us even lifting a finger."

  "You've all become complacent, so comfortable that you've even forgotten who you are. Do you think we're already invincible? You've forgotten how I got this scar, but I'll never forget that night."

  The Northwest Five Heroes showed fear in their eyes. The Northwest Five Heroes were also considered chivalrous wandering heroes back then, with each of the five exceling in one of the five weapons: knife, sword, spear, bow, and halberd, which is why they were called the Northwest Five Heroes. At that time, the Qiang people were powerful and often bullied the surrounding Han people. The Northwest Five Heroes thought their martial arts skills were exceptional, so they decided to go assassinate the Qiang king at the time.

  Who would have thought that the Qiang king had so many talented men under his command? The five-man assassination attempt failed and they were surrounded, and it was then that the leader, Xu Kai Shan, received a scar on his face from the Qiang people that he would carry with him for the rest of his life. Just when all hope seemed lost, a man appeared, a man carrying a sword, a mysterious man who single-handedly charged into the Qiang tribe's camp and emerged victorious, beheading the Qiang king and leaving triumphantly. Xu Kai Shan never forgot the look in that man's eyes, nor the intensity of the battle, nor the aura of death surrounding him.

  Xu Kaisan even felt that he would never be able to face this man in his lifetime, and estimated that he wouldn't even have the courage to draw his sword in front of him. This was not an exaggeration, because the man's name was Wang Yue, and Xu Kaisan only found out later that he was indeed Wang Yue, the world's number one swordsman.

  Later, the five were pursued by the Qiu family and happened to be rescued by Zhangrang. They followed Zhangrang and were treated well with good food and drink. When needed, they would go on missions. Xu Kaisan always took Wangyue as his goal and practiced his knife skills diligently, while the other four brothers had probably been corrupted by the sugar-coated cannonballs and couldn't even lift their weapons anymore.

  "Big brother, do you think this Zhang Rui will deliberately not ride a horse and use a carriage instead to confuse us? Look, the wheel tracks on the official road are getting clearer and clearer, it's possible that he's just ahead of us." Lao Wu's words brought Xu Kaisan back to reality from his reverie.

  "Alright, let's speed up, lest we invite trouble." Xu Kaisan instructed his brothers.

  "Hmm, something's not right. There are horse hooves behind us. Little sister, you and Zhang brother hide in the woods first. I feel like there's something off about the rear, let me go take a look." Shi Ah suddenly stopped the horse carriage and said.

  The northwest five galloped wildly on the road, and a horse carriage could be seen walking in the distance. Everyone stopped their horses and waited for the boss's orders.

  "Fourth, you go." Seeing Xu Kai's intention was to let the fourth of the five take action. The Northwest Five Extremes were ranked according to their proficiency in the five types of weapons, and naturally, the fourth was the bow. This Fourth also had a loud nickname called "Life-Taking Bow".

  The life-taking bow drove the horse to the edge of the forest, and with a single arrow aimed at the carriage in front, although it had been a long time since he last took action, it was clear that this life-taking bow still had some ability. The bow and arrow shot out silently and quickly, and just as they were about to hit the horse, a small sleeve arrow suddenly appeared, hitting the bow and arrow squarely and shattering it in an instant.

  Someone, five absolute the rest four people quickly dismounted and rushed to the place where the arrow was shot. "Ah" a sound, the four men turned their heads and were shocked at once. At this time, Lao Si, who had just been probing the attack, suddenly fell to the ground with his head severed, and blood was still gushing from his neck, clearly having died recently. And on the official road, it was empty, without even seeing anyone taking action.

  Everyone took a deep breath, thinking they had encountered an expert.

  "Which one is stronger? I've crossed the Five Extremes of the Northwest with you, and we can't get past each other." The second of the Five Extremes asked, hoping to scare off his opponent with the reputation of the Five Extremes.

  "How could the once renowned Northwest Five Tigers also become Zhang Liao's running dogs?" A voice drifted around, and everyone felt that this voice was right next to them.

  Zhang Rui in the forest, however, had his yin-yang eyes fully open and could see Shi Ah's figure. It turned out that so-called assassins also utilized their own footwork skills, combined with agile movements, to adopt a one-hit kill approach, which was why they seemed so mysterious. Zhang Rui saw Shi Ah constantly moving around the four people, who clearly couldn't detect Shi Ah.

  "We have come to carry out this task with a determination to die, since this great hero's abilities are so powerful, why must he tease us here? Let him show himself, and let us die with our eyes open." said Xu Kai Shan.

  "Fine, let you know who died in whose hands." Shi Ah stopped moving and appeared right in front of the four people.

  Xu Kai Shan looked at the young man in front of him, and the long sword on his back, and for some reason he thought of Wang Yue. This person was too similar to him, whether it was his attire or temperament, even the murderous aura on his body was as if carved from the same mold.

  "You... you are that person's disciple, if so, isn't it the Emperor who sent you to protect?" Before Xu Kai Shan could finish speaking, a sword wound had already appeared on his neck.

  "You know too much." As soon as Shi Ah finished saying this, he easily sheathed his sword and stood in place, just like he hadn't made a move at all, the difference in their abilities was actually this great...