How could there be such a blade in this world?

 

For a brief moment, everyone present felt as if they were dreaming.

There was no need to open the boy's hand and examine it carefully. One glance was enough to see that he was a sub-beast. There was no way a beastman could grow into a body like his.

A sub-beast youth with so little flesh and such light bones had just cleanly cut down a beastman in beast form with a single stroke. Even Hua Yi, who had just been saved, had the same thought as everyone else at that moment: Was this boy really human? What kind of monster was he?

Chang An calmly shook the blood from his blade. The rain hat on his head had tilted to one side and was barely covering one eye. It looked rather funny. He shook his head, but he could not straighten the straw hat, so in the end he impatiently took it off and threw it onto Hua Yi.

Then he looked around at his unbelieving enemies and asked, "Are you still going to fight?"

Once he took off his hat, everyone could see him clearly. Perhaps because he had just been moving around, there was a faint flush on the boy's cheeks. A strand of his black hair was wet and stuck to his face. His black-and-white features were strikingly clear. Even his expression and tone when speaking were not fierce at all. He almost sounded as though he were politely asking for their opinion.

No one answered. With a "bang", the boy planted the heavy saber into the ground. The winged beastman closest to him instinctively flapped his wings and jumped onto a branch farther away.

The boy then said very sincerely, "We have no grudge against each other. I think we should stop fighting. What do you say?"

After saying this, he seemed certain that everyone would accept his suggestion. Leaning on the saber, he bent down slightly and held out a hand to Hua Yi. He asked, "Should I help you up, or can you stand by yourself?"

When Hua Yi saw the boy who called himself Chang An again, his feelings were very complicated. He was so speechless that he suddenly laughed. He grabbed the boy's hand and unsteadily pulled himself up, then immediately let go.

He put on a foolish smile and said, "Look at that. I just said there wasn't a beauty here, and now one has appeared. Alas, this bunch of ugly men insisted that I take off my clothes. Of course I wasn't willing. If you had come a little earlier, I might have taken everything off already. Then none of us would have needed to make such a fuss…"

"Wait! Stop!"

Someone had finally recovered from the shock. The winged beastman on the tree suddenly folded his wings and instantly changed into a gloomy-looking small-headed man as he landed. His narrow, triangular eyes swept coldly over Chang An. His gaze was like a venomous snake flicking its tongue. In the strange, mocking tone unique to birdmen, he said, "You killed our people, and now you think you can just leave?"

Chang An turned around with the saber in his hand. He frowned at him and asked, "Then what do you want?"

The winged beastman exchanged a look with the others around him, then pointed at Hua Yi. "Leave your life behind."

"This won't do." Hua Yi had not even spoken yet when Chang An answered on his own.

He had clearly taken charge of the situation. Unfortunately, his way of handling problems was quite unusual. Chang An could not let Hua Yi die, but he could not think of another solution either. He glanced at Hua Yi, thought for a moment, and suggested, "Why don't you take your clothes off after all? It's only taking off your clothes. You won't lose any flesh. Just let them have a look."

Hua Yi's trademark foolish smile almost froze.

There was not the slightest sign that Chang An was joking. His serious face showed that he really thought this was a good idea.

Unfortunately, the pursuers had never encountered such great wisdom in mediation. They were clearly enraged and thought they were being mocked.

The winged beastman was the first to transform into a great bird and fly into the air. The other pursuers also transformed into giant beasts on the spot. In a moment, the two men in human form were completely surrounded.

Hua Yi's expression became serious. He leaned against the tree and tried to keep his balance while conserving his strength. He put one hand on Chang An's shoulder and gently pushed him away. "Little brother, this has nothing to do with you. You should step back."

"Oh." Chang An was stunned for a moment. Then he looked at him and asked bluntly, "If I step back, can you beat them?"

Hua Yi laughed when he heard this. He did not take offence. He said, "What does it matter if I can't? I still haven't achieved what I wanted. I have travelled the world for ten years. If I can fight with all my strength here and die at the hands of my enemies, that would not be shameful. At least it is better than those flat-feathered brutes who hide their heads and attack from behind."

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly pushed Chang An aside.

At the same time, a green-tipped blowpipe dart struck the place where Chang An had just been standing.

These winged beastmen really were like dogs which couldn’t stop eating filth. They were full of dirty tricks. After turning into birds, they could even hide weapons in their beaks.

Chang An frowned. He looked at the dart that had almost struck his head. Then he picked up the saber he had planted in the ground. He raised the blade slightly and looked up at the bird-beastman. His face was calm as he asked, "Are you looking for death?"

The winged beastman in the air suddenly felt a strange chill run through him. At that moment, he instinctively cried out and flew upward.

At the same time, a giant beast suddenly pounced at Chang An.

The boy's body moved like a ghost. He disappeared from his original position in an instant. The giant beast only felt a strong wind pass beside its ear. It was so fast that it could not even see the blade.

For the first time, the beastman realised how heavy and clumsy his beast form was. There was no way to avoid it. The heavy back of the saber struck the back of his head. The beastman was knocked unconscious at once and rolled forward.

Chang An stepped onto the giant beast's huge body and used it to leap into the air. Both hands slid down to the very bottom of the saber's handle. The saber swept sideways with tremendous force, like thunder carrying ten thousand jun (NT: idiom for enormous weight and force). It barely caught up with the winged beastman already flying through the air.

The cold that reached deep into his bones made the winged beastman's feathers stand on end. He hurriedly turned around and tried to spit out the second blowpipe dart hidden in his mouth at this strange monster that had appeared from nowhere.

But he was shocked to discover that he no longer had the strength to open his mouth.

The winged beastman did not know how he had fallen to the ground. By the time he realised what had happened, his lower body had landed several feet away and had already been separated from him.

How could there be such a blade in this world?

How could there be such a person in this world?

Chang An brought the saber down in a single stroke. He did not even raise his head. He did not waste any strength pulling the blade back. His body moved sideways with the momentum, and the saber swept through half a circle. The falling blood drew a terrifying arc on the ground.

At some point, the rain had stopped. The morning sunlight appeared through the clouds. The boy stood there, with the faint light falling across the side of his face. He looked both gentle and beautiful.

One of the giant beasts closest to him suddenly stepped back more than ten steps. It then changed back into human form and shouted, "Monster!"

He scrambled into the forest and ran away.

Half of the pursuers had already been dealt with by Hua Yi. The strange youth who had appeared from nowhere had killed almost all the rest. The few who remained were so frightened that they scattered in all directions and ran away.

"You're the monster," Chang An muttered unhappily.

Then he turned towards Hua Yi. "Hey, you…"

Hua Yi said nothing. He suddenly collapsed in front of him.

He had been paralysed by the bird poison and had struggled to hold on for so long. Now he had reached the end of his strength.

Chang An stared at him for a moment. Then he sighed. He tucked his saber under his arm, dragged Hua Yi up with great difficulty, and threw him over his shoulder. He then staggered forward.

This big fellow was incredibly heavy. He was even heavier than his saber. His body was also awkward to carry, which made him extremely difficult to hold. Chang An felt as though he was about to die from exhaustion.

When Hua Yi woke up again, the whole day had already passed.

He instinctively did not move. He first kept his eyes closed and checked his body. His wound no longer hurt as much, and most of the anaesthetic had worn off. The strength had returned to his hands and feet. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Then Hua Yi remembered the strange events he had experienced earlier.

When he opened his eyes, he immediately saw the "strange" person at the centre of those events beside him.

At some point, Chang An's saber had been put back into his unbelievably large pack. The boy also seemed to have an endless amount of sleep. In this forest full of danger, he was boldly curled up and sleeping.

He was sitting against a tree trunk while sleeping. It seemed that he wanted to look like some great master who lived apart from the world, but he could never quite manage it. As he slept, his head would unconsciously tilt to one side. Once it tilted far enough, he would fall over. He would then drowsily get back up, sit beneath the tree again, and fall asleep almost at once.

Hua Yi watched this strange boy for a while, then slowly sat up.

Chang An was awakened by the rustling sounds Hua Yi was making. He opened his eyes and looked at Hua Yi. The first thing he asked was, “Do you still have any sprouted-wheat candy?”

Hua Yi took a handful from his own pack and placed it in his hand. He picked through them for a while, then selected several pieces. Seeing the reluctant look in Chang An’s eyes, he explained, “Those pieces cannot be eaten. They contain poisonous powder.”

Chang An happily took the candy and peeled one open, while putting the others away. He had always had a strange attachment to sprouted-wheat candy. When he was little, A Yan liked to secretly hide a few pieces and slip them to him. After he went to Bei Shi, whenever his unreliable master had one of his fits, the rewards he threw at him were also these soft and sweet candies.

Hua Yi stared at him for a while. Finally, he asked, “Why don’t you lie down and sleep?”

Chang An rubbed his eyes. “I have to look after the fire.”

Hua Yi’s gaze fell on the fire that had gone out long ago. He fell silent.

Chang An followed his gaze and muttered in confusion, “How did it go out?”

Hua Yi sighed. He resigned himself to getting up and poked at the fire for a while. After fiddling with it for some time, the fire finally came back to life. He sat there. The honest, simple smile on his face had faded somewhat, almost revealing a trace of hardness underneath. In a casual tone, he asked, “You saved me without even knowing right from wrong. Aren’t you afraid that I might be a bad person?”

Chang An yawned and said indistinctly, “Zhe Yan said you had saved me too.”

Hua Yi looked at him and asked, “Are you… seventeen? Eighteen?”

“Mm.” Chang An nodded without much concern. “About that.”

Hua Yi hesitated for a moment. He did not ask where Chang An had come from, nor did he ask how he had learned such astonishing swordsmanship. Facing Chang An, he instead found that he had nothing to say. This youth, whom he had once viewed with malicious suspicion, had just saved his life.

Over the years, apart from the few exiled Traveller companions with whom he had formed bonds of life and death by chance, Hua Yi had met only two kinds of people: those who hunted him, and his employers. Yet this time, he had encountered someone different.

He had been at ease with everything for so many years. But now, that big fool from his childhood suddenly seemed to have come back to life inside him, leaving him at a loss for what to do.

Just as Hua Yi was thinking about how to start a conversation with the youth, he did not expect that after only a brief silence, Chang An had already fallen asleep. This time, perhaps because someone was looking after the fire, he felt at ease and had nothing left to worry about. He leisurely used his own pack as a pillow and lay down comfortably with his arms and legs spread out.

His swordsmanship was so powerful that it was almost demonic. Hua Yi could not help suspecting that this youth was also some exiled Traveller who had concealed his identity. Yet, seeing how careless and unconcerned he was, as though he had no idea what caution meant, Hua Yi felt that he was probably thinking too much.

Hua Yi frowned and studied Chang An for a while, but he could not figure anything out. In the end, after some hesitation, he took off his tattered outer garment and draped it over Chang An. Then, by the light of the fire, he began treating the wounds covering his body.

 

Translator : DarNan