Chapter 10: Black Wind, Black Wind

Inside Unity Hall at Black Wind Stronghold, torches burned with a CRACKLE. The vast hall was built from rough timber and mountain stone, exuding an air of untamed savagery. Right in the center lay a tiger skin. Its head was still attached, jaws gaping wide, emanating a fierce aura.

Sitting on the tiger skin was a dark-faced, burly man. He wasn't particularly tall, but incredibly heavily built, like a solid iron tower. His arms were bare. A coiled dragon was tattooed on his left arm, while a long saber scar crawled down his right, stretching from his shoulder all the way to his wrist like a centipede clinging to his flesh.

This was Duan Laoqi, the boss of Black Wind Stronghold. At the moment, he was using a sharp ox-ear knife to pick the dirt from beneath his fingernails.

Three people stood below the tiger seat. One was a steward sent by the Ma Family, named Ma Wencai. He had a pointed face, narrow eyes, and extremely thin lips. He wore a long silk gown of fine material, though it had sustained quite a few tears from the mountain trek. Behind him stood two attendants, both with short daggers tucked into their waists. Right now, however, both looked dreadful. A careful observer could spot the fear lingering in their eyes.

Looking back at Duan Laoqi's side, the second boss of Black Wind Stronghold sat in the left-hand seat. He was a tall, thin man with high cheekbones and deeply sunken eye sockets, rolling a string of Buddhist Beads in his hand. He had once been a monk, but after breaking the precept against killing, he was expelled from the temple and had taken to the life of a bandit.

The third boss sat in the right-hand seat. He was a pale, beardless middle-aged man wearing a long blue cloth gown, lazily fanning himself with a folding fan. Painted on the fan was an image of a beauty emerging from a bath.

Further out, a dozen or so lackeys stood leaning against the walls. Each looked fierce and unkempt, their hair wild, radiating the sour stench of unwashed bodies.

"Boss, we've come this time with genuine sincerity to make a friend," Ma Wencai said, clearing his throat and forcing a smile.

Duan Laoqi blew the dirt from his fingernails and slowly raised his head. "Sincerity?" He grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellowed teeth. "You want me to help you kill the Shen Family's daughter for a mere three hundred taels of silver? What nerve. What do you take Black Wind Stronghold for? Your hired thugs?"

Ma Wencai's smile stiffened for a moment before returning to life. "You must be joking, Boss. The three hundred taels is just a deposit. Once the deed is done, our families will offer a generous reward."

"How generous?"

"Well..." Ma Wencai hesitated. "It will certainly be to your satisfaction."

With a THWACK, Duan Laoqi plunged his ox-ear knife into the table. The tip sank deep into the wood, and the hilt quivered continuously. "Do you think I, Duan Laoqi, am some brainless brute you can easily fool?"

Though his voice wasn't loud, his tone was ruthlessly sharp. A few of the lackeys even rested their hands on their saber hilts.

Sweat immediately beaded on Ma Wencai's forehead. He quickly waved his hands. "You misunderstand, Boss! You misunderstand! I meant no such thing. How about this... after the job is done, we'll add another five hundred taels. What do you say?"

"Eight hundred taels is too little. Let's round it up. How about a thousand?"

Ma Wencai's face drained of color. That was no small sum. But recalling the Patriarch's instructions before his departure, he gritted his teeth. "Fine. But you must guarantee, Boss, that they die within the borders of Black Wind Mountain."

"Are you telling me how to do my job?"

"I wouldn't dare. I'm merely..." Covered in cold sweat, Ma Wencai stammered to cover his slip.

Duan Laoqi had no patience for this nonsense. Leaning back against the tiger skin, he grinned and said, "Give me the details. Where are they now?"

Hearing this, Ma Wencai hurriedly cupped his hands in a salute and replied, "Based on their traveling speed, they will enter Black Wind Mountain's territory tonight. Besides the Shen Family's daughter and her son, there is a young cart driver surnamed Lin. He possesses some martial arts skills."

"Skills?" The second boss suddenly spoke up. "What kind of skills?"

"Well..." Ma Wencai offered an awkward smile. "I'm just a mere errand boy, so I'm really not sure. However, Zhao Tianbiao of the Zhao Family suffered a loss at his hands."

Upon hearing this, Duan Laoqi chuckled disdainfully. "Zhao Tianbiao?" he scoffed. "That guy who uses a Wide-Blade Saber? He wouldn't last three moves against me."

The second boss rolled his Buddhist Beads and said mildly, "Naturally, you have nothing to fear, Brother. But even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit. We might as well bring more brothers along for this job."

"True enough." Duan Laoqi stood up and stretched. His joints popped and CRACKLED like roasting beans. "Even though it's just a woman and some arrogant cart driver who doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth—seemingly of no consequence—in our line of work, carelessness is the biggest taboo. Number Two, Number Three, take some brothers with you shortly and bring them back to me."

"Bring them back?" Ma Wencai grew anxious. "Boss, we agreed it was to be..."

"Agreed on what?" Duan Laoqi suddenly turned his head and sneered. "If you want the boys of Black Wind Stronghold to make a move, you'll hand over that silver whether you like it or not. As for whether the targets live or die, that depends on whether your price is high enough."

Ma Wencai's face instantly turned deathly pale. "Boss, that's not how this works! Are you trying to..."

Before he could finish, a flurry of hurried footsteps sounded from outside the door. A lackey stumbled into the hall. His face was covered in blood, and his right ear had been sliced off.

"B-Boss!" He dropped to his knees with a THUD, his voice trembling uncontrollably. "Down the mountain... a Swordsman came up the mountain! He's killing everyone in sight! The brothers... we've already lost over a dozen men!"

Duan Laoqi's smile froze on his face. The gazes of everyone in Unity Hall shifted to the lackey.

"A Swordsman?" The second boss's fingers abruptly stopped rolling his Buddhist Beads. "What kind of Swordsman?"

"A... a young man, carrying a Black Sword on his back. His sword is so fast... so fast you can't even see it! The brothers couldn't even draw their sabers before they..." The lackey shuddered like a leaf in the wind, terror still lingering on his face.

The third boss snapped his folding fan shut, his expression turning solemn. "Brother."

Duan Laoqi's face had already darkened. A Swordsman...

After spending so many years licking blood off the edge of a blade, he had seen many people and killed just as many. But what had allowed him to survive this long wasn't his martial arts—it was his cunning. One man, one sword, daring to storm Black Wind Stronghold alone. He was either a madman or a true master. Duan Laoqi never gambled his own life on the possibility of an opponent being the former.

"Number Two, Number Three," he instructed calmly, maintaining his composure. "Go to the front and take a look. No matter who it is, stall him."

The second boss nodded. He stood up, wrapped his Buddhist Beads around his wrist, and shot a look to the men on either side. The third boss also rose. Tucking his folding fan into his waistband, he took down a single-edged saber from the wall.

With loud shouts, a dozen lackeys grabbed their weapons and surged out of the hall in a flash of blades and swords.

"What about you, Boss?" Ma Wencai asked, his face ashen.

"Me?" Duan Laoqi broke into a grin. "I'm going to the backyard to fetch my weapon. That Golden Threaded Ring Saber hasn't tasted blood in years."

With that, he turned on his heel and strode purposefully through Unity Hall's back door.