As dusk had barely fallen, the mountain forests were already shrouded in darkness. By midnight, if there was no moon in the sky and no starlight, then traveling deep in the mountains meant plunging into pitch-black night...
A party from the Hu Ma Gang formed a cavalry troop. Their second-in-command, Chenxing Stone, rode at the head on a fine chestnut horse, leading more than forty gang members out through Suian City's eastern gate.
Every member of the troop was skilled with both blade and horse. Chenxing Stone also ordered his men to bring mastiffs and hunting falcons to track down the killer who had murdered Xie San.
The Mobei swordsmen were a mixed lot, and they followed no code of chivalry. The people of North Prefecture called swordsmen blade bandits: when they entered a city, they were treated as bold adventurers; once outside its walls, they were nothing but bandits.
The blade-wielding men of the Hu Ma Gang were no exception. Many had started out as highwaymen who robbed merchants, and they were especially skilled at sniffing out trails and hunting down their prey.
After that "A-Zhi," the young servant in blue, and his older sister escaped the Black Bamboo Forest, Chenxing Stone and the Hu Ma Gang pursued them like hounds after a hare, driving them this way and that until they fled in blind panic.
"Cheng Zhi and Cheng Yujiao—those Cheng Family siblings are pretty capable. Who knows where they learned their sorcery? Too bad an ordinary sorcerer can't stop arrows and crossbow bolts. I've got a few archers in my troop, too. No matter what kind of illusions or demonic arts they use, a volley of arrows will turn them into pincushions."
Chenxing Stone was Xie San's sworn son and a shrewd man. He knew that if the Cheng Family siblings dared come after him for revenge, they must have something up their sleeves.
But he had made preparations of his own and wasn't afraid of the siblings' sorcery. He had roamed the martial world for years and seen a few sorcerers. He believed they relied on tricks of the eye and illusions to fool people. When it came to real skill, how could they match his blade technique, honed over so many years?
Most of the other Hu Ma Gang swordsmen shared his attitude and didn't think the Cheng Family siblings were anything special.
Along the way, they rode through a mountain pass when a sudden gust of sand swept over them. It came fast and fierce, and the Hu Ma Gang members felt their faces burn as they struggled to keep their eyes open.
"What kind of cursed wind is this?"
A man on horseback felt a bone-piercing chill sweep across his face. He opened his mouth and spat onto the ground.
"Can't see the moonlight or the stars anymore."
Chenxing Stone sensed something was wrong. He surveyed their surroundings and saw that the pass was thick with locust trees, also known as yin trees. Folk tradition even split the character for locust into its components and claimed that the tree was a ghost tree.
The pass rarely saw sunlight, and it was clearly a place where yin energy gathered. Even standing at its entrance was enough to make a person shiver.
They rode on for a while and found a cluster of earthen-walled houses deep in the pass. It looked like a village about the size of a small town, though it was clearly desolate and run-down.
Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop...
The horses trotted along a yellow-mud path into the village. The men looked around and confirmed that it was indeed abandoned. The crumbling, collapsed walls, weeds sprouting between the roof tiles, and empty houses without a soul in sight all seemed to prove that no one had lived there for a long time.
"Strange. Those two Cheng siblings rode here on horseback, too, but their hoofprints vanish once they reach this place?"
One of the Hu Ma Gang swordsmen was skilled at tracking. He could identify the footprints of every beast and spot the slightest trace of a bird in flight. His eyesight was sharper than a hawk's.
After dismounting, he searched the area with a lantern but couldn't find the slightest trace.
Chenxing Stone looked toward the gang member holding the mastiff. He shook his head as well.
(They were wounded by blades and poisoned. How could they have gotten far?)
The Hu Ma Gang's second-in-command pondered for a moment, then spoke again.
"Those two couldn't have gotten far. They're probably hiding somewhere in this village. It's quite large, and the terrain is a little complicated. We'll split into three groups and search slowly. I refuse to believe we can't find them."
"Yes!"
The Hu Ma Gang members answered and split into three columns. One headed left, another right, while Chenxing Stone led the third along the central route to search.
The village was utterly quiet. More than a dozen decrepit thatched huts and earthen houses stood scattered haphazardly among the ruins. Several gray earthen walls had collapsed, leaving gaps through which dark, empty rooms could just be made out.
The long street stretched far ahead. Endless rows of gray walls and earthen houses stood in clusters, and the night wind swept through with a mournful howl.
"Come to think of it, this is strange. We've traveled all over North Prefecture, and we've been around Suian City countless times. Why have we never heard of this place?"
A swordsman in a bamboo hat walked with a reed stalk between his lips, leading his horse by the reins. His eyes roamed beneath the low brim, and his right hand rested on his sword hilt.
The swordsman was named Yu Peng. He was the most vigilant of them all and had been assigned to bring up the rear.
The men ahead walked on with their lanterns, while Yu Peng followed at an unhurried pace.
Just as the party passed a thick poplar tree, Yu Peng suddenly stopped. His whole body froze in place.
At some point, a hemp rope had appeared around his neck. Its end was tied into a noose that dangled down from the tree.
"Ugh... ah..."
The rope tightened around Yu Peng's neck, and his cervical bones creaked with a sharp crack. A tremendous force yanked his body upward.
He clawed desperately at the rope with both hands, his legs kicking wildly. He couldn't breathe, let alone make a sound.
Then the rope hanging from the tree snapped upward, dragging him into the air. The next instant, he vanished.
The poplar, known as the "Ghost Clapper," rustled all over as its leaves shivered. Riding ahead, Chenxing Stone furrowed his brows.
He turned around and only had to glance back to realize that someone was missing from the line of lantern-bearing men.
"Where's Yu Peng? Wasn't he at the back?"
Only after he said this did the men in the troop realize that Yu Peng, who had been bringing up the rear, was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is he?"
Someone turned around and saw that Yu Peng was gone from the very end of the line.
"His horse is still here?"
Yu Peng's horse was still in place, waiting leisurely beneath the tree.
"That man surnamed Yu treasures his horse. How could he have run off without a word?"
The gang members exchanged glances, all sensing something was amiss. It had happened in the blink of an eye—how could a man simply disappear?
"Something's wrong."
Chenxing Stone's heart leaped, and he shouted.
"Something's not right! Draw your blades, stay alert, and form a circle at once!"
They were swordsmen who had spent years roaming the northern frontier. At Chen Er's words, the Hu Ma Gang members' hearts tightened. They didn't dare be careless for a moment. In the middle of the street, they formed a circle in perfect unison and drew their blades.
"Blow the Ghost Wolf Reed Pipe and summon the other two groups back. There's something wrong with this village!"
At Chenxing Stone's command, one of the swordsmen pulled a blood-red reed pipe from inside his robe. This was the Hu Ma Gang's Ghost Wolf Reed Pipe, famed throughout Mobei. When played, it sounded like ghosts wailing and wolves howling, and the gang members commonly used it to signal one another.