Governor’s Illness

horizontally in front of her chest, like an arc of moonlight.
The assassin was ready to go, and every stroke of her saber was sure to cut off a head. 

“Hold on!” A low voice suddenly sounded.

The disciples all backed away toward two sides, clearing out a narrow road.
In the heavy rain, a tall man was holding a saber as he slowly approached. 

“Your enemy is me, Garuda.” Liu Guizang stopped, standing outside of three feet away from Xiahou Pei.
This was the safest distance that would also allow him to attack the fastest.
Their sabers were only three feet, so a saber had no way of reaching this distance.
However, they weren’t far from being three feet away, and they only had to take one step forward.
They were on the verge of a battle.

“I’ve waited for you for a very long time, and I knew you would come sooner or later.
I’m the world’s best saber, so I’d naturally be assassinated by you, the world’s best assassin.” Liu Guizang was a burly, middle-aged man.
His hair was graying, and the wrinkles on his face were like ravines after ravines.
His gaze was somber yet sharp, and when he looked at others, it always made them associate him with an eagle. 

“Apologies.” Xiahou Pei raised her mouth into a provocative smile.
“The world’s best assassin is me, and the world’s best saber is also me.”

“Sure enough, you’re arrogant.” Liu Guizang laughed extremely lightly.
His smile was very stiff, as if he was forcibly pulling the corners of his mouth up.
“Any title is given by the common people.
It’s not important whether you’re the world’s best or not, the crux is how those idiots view it.
I’m very curious about your saber techniques, but I won’t be defeated by you.
You’re destined to die here.
Then, the world will know that I, Liu Guizang, killed you, the Garuda.”

Xiahou Pei smirked, and an infuriating ridicule was written all over the corners of her eyes and the tips of her eyebrows.
“Hey, ugly thing, do you know why there’s no way you can become the world’s best saber?”

Liu Guizang didn’t mind what Xiahou Pei had called him and asked, “Why?”

“To become the world’s best saber, of course you have to first become a saber.
You have so many devious thoughts, so just accept your fate and be a person!” Xiahou Pei lowered herself slightly and pounced forward, as abruptly as a leopard.
Hengbo struck Liu Guizang’s blade, the swift and fierce light of the saber flying out.

Liu Guizang leaned back and met another blow from Xiahou Pei.
“What an assassin with a mind as calm as still water.
Don’t you want to know why you’re going to die here?”

Xiahou Pei was dismissive.
“I don’t have time to talk nonsense with you, I still have a fool at home waiting for me to eat.
I’m in a fucking hurry!”

In an instant, the light of her saber overwhelmingly enveloped Liu Guizang.
It was as if the heavy rain that filled the sky feared the continuous momentum of Xiahou Pei’s saber that could topple mountains and overturn seas, and it all avoided that sharp blade.
Liu Guizang’s eyes practically couldn’t keep up with Xiahou Pei’s saber, and he could only rely on his keen sense of danger that had accumulated over the years to dodge those chops that were like thunderbolts.

This was impossible, impossible! Xiahou Pei had already been covered with cuts and bruises, so how could she still be so agile?

In the dark night, the woman’s eyes were like the pupils of a demon, and his every movement and even his next movement could be seen through by them.
However, after all, she wasn’t a demon.
Liu Guizang calmly felt her breaths and the momentum of her saber.
She was a person, so she would be tired, and even more so exhausted.

Sure enough, it was finally difficult for Xiahou Pei to continue.
The momentum of her saber was interrupted, and a blunder appeared in her dense saber techniques.
The ferociousness from just then had been nothing more than the ephemeral blooming of a flower, the last glow of the setting sun.
Liu Guizang seized the opportunity and sent out a stab of his saber toward Xiahou Pei’s heart.

Xiahou Pei gritted her teeth and blocked that fatal stab at the cost of her shoulder.
Then, she raised her left hand and shot out an arrow from inside her sleeve.
The short arrow sliced through the dark night, piercing Liu Guizang’s right eye.

He had forgotten that she was a sabersman, but more so an assassin.

Liu Guizang yelled out in pain, and the disciples all held up his body that was about to fall.
Xiahou Pei leaned against a tree trunk and panted as she laughed.
“This is great, you’ve turned into a one-eyed ugly thing.”

“Disciples, kill this woman!” Liu Guizang used his remaining eye to stare at Xiahou Pei.
He roared sinisterly, “Behead her, separate her limbs, and dump her corpse into the marketplace to be exposed to the sun and wind and laughed at by thousands of people.
Let everyone know the Garuda’s end!”

The disciples rushed forward, like raptors pouncing toward their prey.
Xiahou Pei roared loudly, like a lone wolf that lived toward death, an Asura that lived bathed in blood.
She swung her saber, cutting through the dark night.

In the dark dome of the sky, there wasn’t a single star.
There were only the countless ferocious raindrops hitting her face.

She recalled several years ago, when she had been standing on the top of Black-Faced Buddha, and a black-clothed monk had come behind her.

“You should give me Xiahou Lian, too.”

“Hey, damned bald donkey, don’t tell me you’re going to go back on your word.”

“You’re invincible because you have no cares.
When you wield Hengbo, it’s like you’re wielding your own arms.
Now, Hengbo has a hindrance, and it’ll become heavier.
There will be a day when you won’t be able to wield it anymore.”

The top of Black-Faced Buddha overlooked the entire big mountain.
Xiahou Pei raised her eyes, looking far into the distance.
The soughing of the wind in the pines surged like sea tides, ebbing and flowing, rising one after another.
She exhausted her eyesight and seemed to see the afterimage of a dirty child leaping in the big trees.
In her eyes, there were suddenly ripples from a breeze sweeping across waves, and in every ripple mark, there was hidden an indescribable gentleness.
It was an expression she had never had before.

“What are you afraid of?” She remembered saying at the time, “There will be a day when he becomes a true man of indomitable spirit.
Then, I won’t need to wield Hengbo anymore.”

Blood and rain mixed together as they splashed on her face, and the sound of flesh and bone tearing was so close.
She saw that on the disciples’ faces, some had fear, some had ferociousness, and some had frenzy.
They engaged in a fierce battle in the heavy rain, clashing with each other, only stopping at death. 

This was the last time she would swing her saber.
For an instant, she seemed to see that child who had stars in his eyes.

“Xiao Lian——”

Promise me, do not be afraid.
From now on, you will be alone, fighting all night long.
But even when the wind and rain sweep across the dim sky and it is as dark as iron, your enemies and thorns will still be crushed into mud by your feet.

May your saber and sword be indestructible, may you not be invaded by wind and rain, and, in the deepest parts of the endless dark night, may you finally see the dawn.

Five sabers cut into her left arm, and three sabers hit her calves.
She knelt on the ground at once, and behind her back, countless sharp blades stabbed her body.
She fell to the ground, her head broken and bleeding.
Hengbo landed underneath the disciples’ feet, and it was stepped into the mud.
Xiahou Pei used her last bit of strength to draw a dagger from her waist and cut her own face, one slice after another.
The sabers at her back stopped cutting, and the disciples changed to using their feet to trample, kick, and step.
This way, more people could join in on the attacks against the Garuda.
All of the bones in her body were already broken, and her mangled left hand hung disorderly on her body.
When the disciples flipped her over, she had already stopped breathing for a long time.

Liu Guizang ordered the disciples to pull her up.
Two disciples each pulled one of the Garuda’s hands, standing her up.
However, her left hand suddenly broke, and the Garuda’s body crookedly went down again.
The disciples held her waist, lifting her up again.

Liu Guizang picked up Hengbo that had been on the ground, and cut off the Garuda’s head with a single stroke of the saber. 

Translator Notes:

Lit.
Shocked Saber Mountain Village. A famous dramatic work about a secret love affair.