Eternal Empire

Chapter 11 - Did You Bring A Handkerchief?

Back then, when Bai Litu was still around, second-in-command, Song Taisheng had always been overly cautious. This was because he knew how ruthless Bai Litu was. He also knew what would become of the first-in-command of a group of water bandits if he was not ruthless enough.

Hence, when he became the first-in-command, he had been following Bai Litu's way of handling things the entire time. In fact, he was even better than Bai Litu. He was more meticulous and ruthless at the same time.

When he first witnessed Shen Leng's attack, his first instinct was to escape. He did not dare to forget how Bai Litu died that year. However, moments later, he realized that the assassin was way beneath that of Mr. Shen.

"Kill him," instructed Song Taisheng coldly.

The remaining ten over water bandits brandished their knives and charged towards Shen Leng. All he could think about was the image of Great Ning's soldiers moving forward in sync, in groups of five or ten. When compared to the water bandits, he realized that these fellas were not well-coordinated at all. Their formation was full of mistakes.

Great Ning's battle troops had a formation that had been trained and refined via their experiences on the battlefield. Offense, retreat and defense were all organized.

What he saw before him were loopholes. Hence, it made it easier for him to kill them.

Shen Leng did not face them head on; even if he was extremely powerful, it would still be bad news for him to take on more than ten water bandits at one go. This was because they did not follow any sequence of attacks, hence it was hard for him to predict what they were going to do.

However, Shen Leng had learned over a thousand times over the past three years with regards to how to deal with people like that.

He charged towards one side, and grabbed the repeating crossbow from his waist. The one he was using was Great Ning's standard issue repeating crossbow - it could hold and send out eight arrows at one go. Shen Leng ran while he pulled the trigger release. Foot-long arrows shot out in succession. The four or five water bandits chasing him immediately fell to the ground. He aimed fatal areas, such as their necks and their hearts.

After the men had been shot down, the people chasing behind did not dare to run too fast. After he had shot the four or five men, Shen Leng hung his repeating crossbow back on his waist. He used his left hand to grab the long whip and slammed it..A crisp slapping sound was heard; There was a string of copper coins with sharpened rims attached to the front end of the whip. It slashed the water bandit that was three meters away from him in the neck. Immediately, blood spurted out of his neck like a b****y waterfall.

Shen Leng's flicked his wrist and the long whip uncoiled itself from the dead corpse's neck. He pulled it back and swung it forward, before striking another water bandit in the heart. It was a ghastly sight.

Another water bandit grabbed Shen Leng's long whip; Shen Leng flicked his wrist and took the long whip back by force. The copper coins slid through both hands and neatly sliced off six or seven fingers.

The whip coiled around the water bandit's neck. Shen Leng pulled it backwards; the copper coins slit his throat, causing blood to spurt out.

Song Taisheng sensed that something was amiss. That person looks rather young, but why is he so ruthless?

It seemed as though someone had killed his biological father and he was taking revenge. Every single attack was fatal.

Little did he know that Shen Leng had always assumed that his biological parents were killed by water bandits, resulting in him getting abandoned. Naturally, this was akin to avenging his parents to him.

"Brother!"

Song Taisheng yelled abruptly, "Are you after money or something else? If you're after money, I can give you a share of what we have here. It'll be more than enough for you to enjoy the rest of your life. If you're after something else, we have hundreds of people here. You might not succeed."

Shen Leng released his hand and the water bandit that he strangled to death fell to the ground.

"Trying to use money to save your life?"

Shen Leng smiled and asked, "So tell me then - how much silver do you intend to give in exchange for your life?"

Song Taisheng had a grave look on his face. "200 taels of silver. Is that enough?"

Shen Leng scoffed. "When you were with Bai Litu, you hurt a lot of people. When you got hold of a rich hostage, you asked for 10,000 taels of silver, while still sinking him in the river after you get the ransom anyway. Whereas today, you want to use only 200 taels of silver to buy your life?"

"Who the hell are you?!" bellowed Song Taisheng.

"Me?"

Shen Leng pulled down the black cloth. "Do you still recognize this face?"

"Stupid Leng!"

Song Taisheng was greatly taken aback, and went pale instantly.

In truth, Shen Leng did not look much different from before. He was slightly more muscular than his twelve year old self, and he had a more mature face. It was only three years - how big of a change could he have made? It was no wonder that Song Taisheng recognized him. The adopted son of Mr. Meng, the stupid Leng who was used by him as a beast of burden; how did he become like that today?

"That nickname coming out of your mouth did not sound cordial at all."

Shen Leng shook his head, "Are you still trying to redeem your life with money?"

"You came here alone?"

Song Taisheng's voice was trembling, "What about the man who took you away that time?"

"Sleeping at home."

Shen Leng rotated his wrist and held the scabbard tightly, "He got lazy. He said that in the future, I will be the one in-charge of killing water bandits. He also added that if I did not kill enough bandits, he would not give me any food. Hence, if I were to compare which was more important - your life or food, of course, food is more important.

Suddenly, Song Taisheng grabbed a water bandit next to him and tossed him towards Shen Leng, before he turned around and ran. He did not believe that Shen Leng was there by himself.

As the water bandit was being tossed to him, he swiftly lifted his scabbard and punctured his throat. The water bandit groaned for a second and fell to the ground. He was dead as soon as he landed onto the ground.

Shen Leng gave chase; the remaining three or four water bandits fled as fast as they could. Since their first-in-command had fled, why would they be waiting there? Water bandits and evildoers like them had something in common - when everyone was aggressive at the same time, they would be like a group of beasts; and when everyone started to get scared, they would immediately become like a sheet of loose sand, thrown into disarray.

Shen Leng picked up speed and gave chase, killing three people in succession. Song Taisheng had already jumped out of the window at the back of the house and ran away as fast as he could. Shen Leng ran after him with all his might and saw Song Taisheng standing there, too afraid to move.

Shen Leng tilted his head and looked in front. He saw Shen Cha Yan standing in front of Song Taisheng, with a bandit in each hand. She had knocked them out earlier.

"Why did you come here?"

When Shen Leng saw Shen Cha Yan, he could not help but smile slightly, "Are you tired? Carrying the two men."

Shen Cha Yan scoffed, "I was merely wondering why you were so slow so I came over."

Shen Leng continued to look at the two fellas. "You don't dare to kill them?"

Shen Cha Yan lowered her jaw. "I don't dare to kill them? I've been with sir for years before you came along. I have learned everything that he taught you. In fact, I'm sure that I'm better than you!"

"And so?"

"And so..indeed, I don't dare to kill them."

Shen Cha Yan flung the two fellas onto the ground, "b****y and gooey. I feel disgusted."

Song Taisheng was in between the two people. He was not only afraid, but also somewhat awkward.

"Are you two done talking?!"

He was scared, and hence he was yelling at the top of his lungs. "Move out of the way!"

Shen Cha Yan tilted her head and looked at Shen Leng, "Who's this? He's so aggressive."

Shen Leng replied, "This is the first-in-command."

Shen Cha Yan said, "First-in-command, huh..the one who escaped back then?"

Shen Leng nodded. "Yes, yes, yes."

Song Taisheng felt as though he was about to explode. The two fellas completely disregarded him..He charged forward in a frenzy. To his surprise, the girl who looked very, very beautiful, flipped him over immediately. The way she dealt with him was one of a kind. Somehow, she managed to grab his wrist and held him down after turning and twisting.

Shen Leng went over and squeezed Song Taisheng's neck, and continued walking. After they went around the house and got to the front, they were forced to stop in their tracks. There were at least two to three hundred people standing in front of the house - men, women, the elderly and the young. They were all holding wooden sticks, metal forks, kitchen knives and everything that could be used to kill a person.

They were not water bandits, but the families of the water bandits. The majority of them were women and the elderly. The younger children were about two to three years old, and the older ones were about fourteen or fifteen years old. Every single one of them looked aggressive and exuded strong killing intent that made one tremble with fear.

"Let him go!"

A woman, who was holding up a kitchen knife, yelled, "Don't expect yourself to get out of here alive."

Shen Leng looked at these people and found them familiar. They were all the aunties and uncles from Yulin town who used to wear a warm smile on their faces. However, once their family members became water bandits, they had changed.

"How?"

Shen Cha Yan was slightly panicking. At this moment, she understood Shen Leng's concern earlier on. These were the elderly, women and children. Were they really going to kill in front of these people? Or..kill them?

"Judging from how they look, they are not human beings anymore."

Shen Leng seemed to be completely unafraid and not anxious at all, just like the time he chased after the battleship of those water bandits. The more serious the circumstance was, the more calm and collected he was. He lifted his finger and pointed to the faces of those people. "Take a good look at how ugly they all are."

Shen Cha Yan replied, "Ahem..I was asking what are you going to do."

Shen Leng replied, "I'll handle it."

Thereafter, he took a step forward, and pushed Song Taisheng, whose neck he had been squeezing the whole time, to the front. Song Taisheng could not stand steadily and fell forward. Immediately, he struggled to get up. When he was about to run, Shen Leng kicked him from the back and flipped him over.

Shen Leng stepped on Song Taisheng's back and his right hand drew out the knife from his back, that had not been used. "Leave him behind? Ok!"

He unsheathed the knife; the sound of it was akin to a dragon's roar. The light that reflected off its surface was blinding.

The knife descended. And so did the head.

Shen Leng cut off Song Taisheng's head at one go. Thereafter, he used his knife to lift his head up. "I don't want to have any heart to heart talk with you. Because ever since you killed a person, those words would mean nothing to people like you. I only want to tell you that as long as I, Shen Leng, am around, you water bandits will not lead a peaceful life here in Nanping River. I will kill every single one of you.

He flung the head to the feet of those people. "I'm giving him back to you. Pick it up!"

Every single one of them was too scared such that they retreated a couple of steps. Nobody dared to pick it up.

However, at this moment, a battleship had arrived at the pier. A group of water bandits had just gotten back from plundering. They got off the ship, looking very aggressive.

Shen Cha Yan went over and stood next to Shen Leng. She drew out her knife and said, "It seems like we're in trouble."

Shen Leng leaned his head to one side and smiled at her. His teeth were very white. "Wait for me in the house over there. You said earlier that you don't like b****y and gooey stuff. It might get all b****y and gooey later on."

He bent over and tore a piece of cloth from the corpse and tied his knife to his hand. He took a deep breath and said, "Sir said that it's better for girls not to engage in killings."

Unexpectedly, Shen Cha Yan asked foolishly, "Sir said that? And what do you think about it?"

Shen Leng took a huge step forward. "I think..I think that what sir said was right."

He turned around and smiled at her, "Did you bring a handkerchief?"

"I did, why?"

"In a moment, I might end up sweating a lot. Help me wipe my sweat off."

Shen Leng turned his head and the warm smile had vanished from his face. Instead, it was replaced with an insidious smile, exuding strong killing intent.