The Three Evils of Guyang

Guyang Prefecture, Kushui Road.

After night fell, dark clouds quietly spread, obscuring half the sky.

On the horizon, a bolt of lightning like a soaring dragon tore through the darkness, shining brilliantly.

Immediately afterward, a deafening rumble of thunder rolled over.

With that thunderclap, rain poured down like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses, instantly enveloping all of Kushui Road in a torrential downpour.

On the mountain road, a traveler wearing a bamboo hat, with a Green Gourd hanging from his waist, led an old horse and quickened his pace.

On Kushui Road, in the rainy night.

A post station hidden among luxuriant weeds stood quietly by the roadside, its outline emerging in the afterglow of the lightning.

From a distance, the station's doors and walls looked rotten and mottled with cracks, covered in traces of moss and mold erosion.

The steps at the entrance were piled with fallen leaves and mud, with weeds growing everywhere.

Clearly, the post station had long been deserted and abandoned.

Yet today, a faint glow of fire actually seeped through its doors and windows.

Three people stood or sat around the fire.

Behind them, three horses rested leisurely, occasionally tapping the ground with their hooves and swishing their tails against their backs in an attempt to drive away the annoying flies.

The three men looked entirely different from one another, yet they shared one mark—all three had a conspicuous scar printed across their faces.

Of the three, one was concentrating on roasting meat, its fragrance filling the air.

Another was gnawing on a piece of roasted meat, eating with oil running down his mouth and savoring every bite.

The last had his head pillowed on his arm as he lay on his back, gazing at the sky as though deep in thought.

The rain outside grew even more torrential, dense as drumbeats. The howling northern wind raged even more fiercely, mercilessly battering the dilapidated doors and windows and making them emit waves of mournful echoes.

Meanwhile, the firewood in the flames burned even more fiercely, crackling explosively.

Suddenly, the man roasting the meat broke the silence. "Second Brother, is that Seven Mysteries Sect Constable, 'Wubing,' really as miraculous as you claim?"

The man lying on the ground seemed not to hear him and gave no response.

The burly man eating meat picked up the conversation. "We've all got two arms and two legs. The skill behind the saber in my hand was forged through more than twenty years of life-and-death battles. I refuse to believe that some brat barely in his twenties could be more formidable than my saber!"

The man roasting the meat suddenly suggested, "Big Brother, should we do some business tonight? Under this moonless sky and in this storm, it's the perfect time to kill and rob!"

Slap!

As he spoke, the roasting man suddenly smacked himself hard across the face. The blow was so forceful that several purple bruised finger marks instantly appeared on his cheek.

The man eating meat was startled. "Third Brother, why did you hit yourself so hard? What, has Big Brother gone too long without beating you, and now your skin's itching?"

The man roasting the meat bared his teeth in a grin. His yellowed whites and purple bruises made him look rather sinister.

He laughed. "Big Brother, my skin isn't itching. It's just that this hand of mine is unbearably itchy!"

Hearing this, the man eating meat tapped him on the head with the roasted meat in his hand. "There isn't a single person for a hundred li around here. Where are we supposed to do business? You brat, now you've got my hands itching too!"

At that moment, another spark burst from the firewood with a sharp crack.

Seeing that his companion lying on the ground had not responded for a long while, the burly man eating meat lightly kicked him with his foot. "Second Brother, what are you doing? You haven't said a single word tonight."

The man on the ground trembled slightly, as though he had just awakened from a dream. He struggled to sit up, his voice carrying a trace of tension. "Big Brother, I think we should be careful and keep our voices down as much as possible. If that Sheng Wubing is drawn here by the noise we're making, we'll all be finished!"

The burly man eating meat casually tossed aside the chunk of meat in his hand and glared at Second Brother, a vicious light flashing in his eyes.

The whites of his eyes were shot through with blood, making his expression look terrifying.

He drew a sharp ring-pommel saber from behind him and shouted, "Second Brother, has the Seven Mysteries Sect's reputation scared you witless? We're in this desolate Kushui Road right now, with not a single household within a hundred li. Unless that Sheng Wubing possesses the ability to reach heaven and earth, how could he possibly find the three of us?"

It turned out that these three were the notorious bandits from the Guyang Prefecture region of Yunzhou—the Three Evils of Guyang. The eldest was 'Mountain-Splitting Saber' Jiang Pan, the second was 'Cunning and Wise' Wu Yong, and the third was 'Six Hands' Liu Ying.

The three men were highly skilled in martial arts, and they always joined forces whenever they committed a crime. As a result, countless martial arts experts and government constables had already fallen into their hands.

At that moment, Third Brother Liu Ying deliberately provoked him. "Big Brother, I heard that Second Brother was tortured in the Seven Mysteries Sect's prison. I'm afraid he was beaten so badly there that it left him traumatized."

Second Brother Wu Yong's expression grew solemn at that. In a low voice, he said, "Big Brother, Third Brother, you know nothing of the Seven Mysteries Sect's terror!"

Jiang Pan merely waved the ring-pommel saber in his hand and burst into loud laughter. "Second Brother, you've never gone up against Big Brother. If you really faced me, you'd learn what true terror is. Hahaha..."