The sunset's dying glow stained Yongdeng City blood-red.
Holding Ruan Dashui in his arms, Mo Tailai raised his head toward the sinking sun. Everywhere he looked, Western Liang soldiers bristled with murderous intent. In a daze, scenes from the past flashed through his mind...
"Brother Mo, Brother Mo, look..." Stark naked, Ruan Dashui emerged from the sea, holding up a huge grouper. "Let's roast it later," he said excitedly. "It's been ages since we caught one this big..."
Shitou dragged him, Dashui, and Gousheng beneath Widow Li's window, poked a hole in the paper, and pointed with a lecherous grin. "Look, look..." he whispered.
On his wedding day, he and his wife kowtowed to his mother, who smiled so broadly she could barely close her mouth. "Good, good, our Tailai finally has a family. Husband, can you see this? Our Tailai has a family now... He's made something of himself..."
His close friends laughed and roughhoused. Dashui passed out on the bridal chamber's brocade quilt embroidered with mandarin ducks playing in water, and Shitou and the others dragged him out by the ears...
Mo Tailai's eyes were bloodshot. Remembering the past, he broke into a grin, but as he kept smiling, tears filled his eyes...
Watching the Western Liang soldiers gradually close in, Mo Tailai's expression hardened with resolve. He bent down and gently laid Ruan Dashui on the ground, his voice cold as iron. "Brother Dashui! Wait for me. I'll send every last one of these sons of bitches... to join you in the grave!"
With that, he picked up several steel sabers from the ground and slowly rose...
"Kill!"
The Western Liang soldiers surged forward, shouting in unison as they raised their weapons and surrounded Mo Tailai. Spears stood like a forest, swords and sabers gleamed, and bloodlust