35 The Night, the Moon, the Wind, the Swords Ⅰ

Chu Xiaoyue was only fifteen years old this year, five years younger than Liu Xingfei. Liu Xingfei had known her for more than a year, always regarding her as his sister. Every time he went down the mountain, he would come to the Chu Village to visit her. He never thought such a suffering could happen to such a sweet, gentle girl.

A bunch of beasts!! How could they treat a girl of fifteen like that!! Liu Xingfei clenched his fists and cursed in his heart.

He looked up and asked, "Uncle Chu, do you know where they took Xiaoyue? I'll save her!"

"We're not so sure about the exact location of their lair… It should be in the mountains over there," Chu Shan'gao pointed to the distant mountains.

Wei Gaoyuan looked over where Chu Shan'gao was pointing. It was a row of mountains. Although not as tall as East-Lee Mountain, it was huge and seemed endless. To search the group of bandits in such mountains was certainly not so easy.

"Let's move, go saving Xiaoyue!" Liu Xingfei said as he was turning to leave immediately.

"Wait!" Chu Shan'gao stopped him and said, "I'll go with you!"

Liu Xingfei looked at the waist of Chu Shan'gao and said: "I promise I'll bring her back! So, Uncle Chu just rest in the village."

...

After half a day, the dark night fell, the new moon rose, and the cold wind whistled through the branches of the trees in the mountains.

Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan carefully entered the mountainous area. It was very hard to find exact directions at night. In case of getting lost in the dense forest, the two of Wei Gaoyuan tried searching upstream along a small stream.

After all, the bandits needed to drink. it probably detected some of their traces by the stream.

After about one hour's searching, a small valley appeared in front of them, where some dim lights were flickering.

Liu Xingfei gave Wei Gaoyuan a sign to be keeping careful, then climbed up a tree quietly and jumped down after observed the valley for a moment. He whispered, "The front probably lies the bandits' lair. As I've been here before, there should be no people live around..."

"If so, just sneak up, then give them a surprise hit under the cover of the night," Wei Gaoyuan blinked.

"Move! Be careful, don't make any sound!" Liu Xingfei whispered, then quietly walked forward.

The front was getting empty as they were approaching the valley, and there were some faint figures moving around under the lights in the distance, who might be the bandits guarding at night

"Brother," Wei Gaoyuan whispered, "I'll go to get their attention, you swim there to make a raid…"

"Make it simple," Liu Xingfei shook his head. "I'll directly begin killing to create chaos while chatting with them, then I'll try making them occupied as long as possible, stalling for you to save Xiaoyue."

"Or let me stall, you go to save her, I've never seen her…" Wei Gaoyuan said.

Liu Xingfei thought for seconds and said, "Alright! You attract them, I go saving her. After making her settled we'll return to sweep their lair!"

They sneaked towards the lights as talking the battle plan. When they were getting less than ten feet from the lights, some bandit found them and shouted, "Who's there?!!"

Suddenly getting startled and tense, Wei Gaoyuan put his right hand on the handle of sword.

Liu Xingfei reached out to stop him, shooting him a look, and then looked up and smiled gently to the bandit, "Brother, we two just got lost in the mountain, I wondered if we could stay overnight in your village."

The bandit coming over, dressed in black, was a long-faced man with a goatee and little triangular eyes. He looked up and down the two of Wei Gaoyuan, smiled and said, "No problem! Just stay over in my house! I just killed a fat chicken; no one hates my chicken soup!"

"Thank you very much for your kindly treat! How should I call you, brother?" Liu Xingfei looked pretty happy.

"I'm Third Hou, just call me Third Brother!" said the man in black, seemed quite frankly.

"Thanks! Third Brother!" Liu Xingfei greeted with a smile.

When they were talking, another man in black came over and asked, "Third Hou, what are you doing? How can you bring two…"

"They're passers-by, just lost their way, wanna stay overnight in our village." Third Hou gave a look to his partner.

The other bandit took it quickly, said with a simple and honest smile, "Ah, come in, come in please, just take here as your home!"

"Thank you, brother!" Liu Xingfei greeted with a cupped-fist.

The bandit lowered his head and was raising his hands to give a cupped-fist. Swish! Swish! Two streams of blood were spurting from the throats of the two bandits with Liu Xingfei's blade sweeping fast across their necks!

The two bandits fell to the ground, their hands covering their throats, their eyes bulging, wanting to shout madly but no sound came out.

After a while, the two bandits didn't move at all. Liu Xingfei went down to take off Third Hou's black clothes and said to Wei Gaoyuan, "Put on the clothes, quickly!"

Wei Gaoyuan immediately understood his intentions and began doing as what his brother did. After finished, they dragged the two bodies into the trees, and then walked towards the lights.

There were a total of ten small cabins around, which seemed to be the bandits' temporary lair. It was estimated there were not too many bandits in this lair now. The fence outside the cabins looked so simple that it appeared to be blown by the wind in the mountain.

Liu Xingfei and Wei Gaoyuan walked over the fence and saw that two bandits sitting on the floor were chatting. One of the bandits said to them without raising his head, "Where did you go?"

Liu Xingfei coughed twice and replied in a fake voice, "Just go searching treasures."

"Searching treasures??" the two bandits raised their heads at the same time as Liu Xingfei was timely throwing them a small silver coin, which attracted all their eyes.

"Aha! Where did you guys get the silver coin so…" one of the bandits smirked.

Before his last word came out, however, his throat was cut by Liu Xingfei's sword, and so was the other bandit's at almost the same time. Two clear strokes of sword!

"Smart and powerful!" Wei Gaoyuan gave his brother a thumbs-up in his heart.

Liu Xingfei didn't know Wei Gaoyuan's thought, staring at the biggest cabin at the end of small ones and said to Wei Gaoyuan, "That one should be their leader's. Clean up those in the small cabins first, or we might get stuck front and back!"

"Got it!" Wei Gaoyuan nodded, following Liu Xingfei.

Liu Xingfei came to a cabin and knocking at the door.

"Who?!" came the question in the room.

"The head called you," Liu Xingfei lowered his voice.

"Well…" the person inside said, followed by the footsteps.

The door was opened, Liu Xingfei said with his back to the door, "Just follow me…"

Wei Gaoyuan glanced at the two people coming out from the house, and Liu Xingfei's look. Liu Xingfei suddenly turned, and his sword flashed through the one's throat as Wei Gaoyuan's sword had penetrated the other one' heart.

"Ah!!!" the man who was stabbed by Wei Gaoyuan made a sad scream, which broke the silence of the night!

Liu Xingfei's expression changed a little, "I forgot it! It's my fault, not telling you to cut their throats so that they won't make a sound."

"I'm so sorry! Brother, I never thought it would be…" Wei Gaoyuan's face was pale. His hand holding the sword kept shaking slightly.

It was the first time he'd ever killed a man, and he didn't knew that results might differ between different patterns of killing.

There followed a noise in the surrounding cabins with lights, from which soon came a group of bandits, more than 10...

With a deep sigh, Liu Xingfei said, "Hold your sword! Kill them all! Hope they won't hurt Xiaoyue!"