Ch. 23
Chapter 23: Escort-Road Cant
According to the experience he had built up over decades on the escort road, when faced with pursuit by this sort of pack-type demonic fiend, even if one had to risk one’s life, as long as one could escape the bounds of their territory, one would be able to throw off the danger entirely.
And yet this fellow had actually stopped to make a stand head-on?
Wasn’t this simply courting death?
Thud!
Chen Guan ignored him. With a backhand motion, he took the horse-cleaving saber from his shoulder and drove it into the hard ground before him. It sank half a foot into the earth, throwing up a burst of dust.
Then he swung down from his horse, his voice cold and hard.
“If you want to leave, then go. I’m staying here.”
“You!”
Luo Tong’s face darkened again, his chest rising and falling sharply.
What did this brat mean by that?
Was he mocking Luo Tong for cherishing his life and preparing to flee like a coward when battle approached?
True, Luo Tong cared deeply for face, seniority, and appearances within the escort trade—but when it came to the iron law of protecting the escort, he had never once been ambiguous in all these decades!
“As long as the escort remains, the cargo remains!”
This was not merely a slogan.
It was a code of righteousness every escort master defended with blood and life, a faith carved into their bones.
Otherwise, how could the status of escorts possibly stand above that of the ordinary Demon Suppression Bureau or county magistrates?
It was precisely because generation after generation of escort masters had used their lives as the foundation that they had carved out this respected road!
How could it possibly be ruined in his hands?
“Hmph!”
Luo Tong gave a cold snort. Without another word, he swung down from his horse.
He gripped his great saber in both hands and strode several paces to stand in front of Luo Li. An invisible force spread from his body, stirring the dust on the ground into a whirl.
Those old, clouded eyes of his burst with terrifying sharpness as they fixed themselves on the rustling grass drawing closer.
Every bit of him spoke of seasoned experience and steadiness.
At that moment, Li Fei and the others came rushing up from behind with the carriages.
When they saw that Luo Tong and Chen Guan had already taken up their positions, years of escort-road experience made them understand the situation instantly.
Without the need for a single word of discussion, they swung down from their horses, drove the warhorses and carriages off to one side, and, gripping their weapons, quickly formed a circular defensive formation around Luo Li.
At this moment, Luo Li no longer had any trace of her earlier pampered willfulness.
Her little face was deathly pale, and that soft boneless hand of hers was now clutching tightly at the hem of Chen Guan’s robe behind him.
At such a moment, how could she still dare dislike this man for loving money? Her beautiful eyes were fixed on that broad back before her, as though afraid he might leave her behind and run.
“ROAR—!!”
Suddenly, a deafening roar burst from the distant grass.
In the next instant, a black blur shot out from the brush like a cannonball, springing a full five zhang into the air from a standing leap!
Boom!
With a heavy crash, the black shape landed three zhang before them, its heavy body stomping two deep pits into the ground and throwing dust everywhere.
Luo Tong and the others sucked in a sharp breath.
“Th-this truly is no ordinary Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape!”
The monster before them stood no more than seven feet tall. It had a savage ape’s head, with two pairs of fangs jutting outward, flashing with cold light.
Its entire body was covered in gray fur like iron needles. Its arms were short and only about as thick as an adult man’s, but its hind legs were grotesquely thick and huge, like the trunks of ancient trees a hundred years old!
Though its outward appearance was similar to that of an ordinary demon ape, that terrifying leaping power was absolutely not something an ordinary ape could possess.
“ROAR!!”
The Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape suddenly crouched low upon the ground and let out a shrill roar toward the sky ahead of it, the force of the sound rattling loose stones off the earth.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—!
The Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes hidden in the grass behind it seemed to receive some kind of command. The grass broke apart in wave after wave, and countless black figures shot into the air before crashing heavily down before the group.
In the blink of an eye, layer upon layer of demon apes had completely sealed off the cliffside, surrounding them so tightly that not even water could pass through.
At a glance, there were nearly a thousand of them!
The throats of Luo Tong and the others bobbed involuntarily, and the palms gripping their weapons were slick with sweat.
Though the individual strength of these demon apes was mostly no more than the Subtle Insight Realm, with their veteran eyes, they could immediately tell something was wrong.
These beasts were positioned with extraordinary precision.
They had blocked off every possible route of escape, like a wall of bronze and iron, forcing the entire group tighter and tighter against the edge of the cliff.
Other than jumping off the cliff, there was no road left!
Chen Guan’s face remained unchanged. Turning around, he lightly patted Luo Li’s small hand, took it off the hem of his robe, and placed it onto the hilt of the horse-cleaving saber planted in the ground.
“Hold onto the saber. Don’t be afraid.”
Luo Li nodded tremblingly and clasped both hands tightly around the cold hilt, as though she had seized her final lifeline.
After settling Luo Li, Chen Guan stepped forward and fixed his gaze on the leading demon ape.
This Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape was a full two feet taller than the one he had killed last night, and even a head taller than the others around it.
Though he could not be certain it was the leader of the entire pack, it was absolutely the leader of this vanguard group.
The reason he had chosen to make his stand here was because he intended to deal with the mark on Luo Li’s body. If he could wipe them all out at once, so much the better. If he could not, then at the very least he needed to test the depth of their strength.
Chen Guan drew in a deep breath, clasped his fists, and made a strange jianghu salute. Suddenly, a string of obscure and difficult words spilled from his lips.
“Under the mountain’s foot, the road returns to heaven. On all roads beneath heaven, the hind foot comes after the first. Today the fault is mine first, so I ask Your Excellency to draw out a path for us!”
Luo Tong and the others froze for a moment. Then, as realization struck them, shock rose in their hearts.
This was...
“Escort-road cant?!”
And not just any cant, but the ancient fiend-tongue used specifically to negotiate with demonic fiends!
What Chen Guan had said meant this:
He was walking the road of an escort master’s duty, a road that had always existed and was not meant as a deliberate trespass. But since he had killed the demon ape and was thus in the wrong first, he hoped there might still be room for peace.
This craft was one of the secret arts of escorting, passed down for a thousand years.
The ancient teaching said: first courtesy, then force.
Legend held that in the distant ancient age, this technique had even worked on uncanny fiends.
So long as one was willing to pay a certain price, there was often a fifty-percent chance of reaching an accord with demonic fiends and turning conflict into peace.
Yet no one knew from what point onward this secret method had long since been lost and become nothing more than legend.
Nowadays, when escort masters met demonic creatures, the only path left to them was to draw their blades and fight. Without mastery of this secret method, no matter what dark language one spoke, these beasts simply could not understand it!
And yet now, to their utter astonishment, this wild young brat actually possessed such a long-lost secret art!
Luo Li, too, stared with wide eyes at Chen Guan.
She remembered that earlier he had done something similar with the demon wolf, muttering a string of strange words to it. At the time, she had laughed at him for being ridiculous.
Now it seemed her little aunt had been right all along.
She had truly gotten the advantage and then still complained besides.
Only now did she realize that she really had stumbled upon an enormous bargain. At the very least, the back before her looked more reliable than the combined strength of the other twenty-some men.
If not for him, she might very well have been dead before dawn ever broke!
After Chen Guan finished speaking, the leading Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape did not attack at once.
Instead, those scarlet eyes of its flickered without stop, as though it were hesitating over something.
The more Luo Tong and the others watched, the more astonished they became.
This long-lost “fiend-tongue” actually worked?
A brief stretch of deathly silence followed.
Then the leading Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape’s scarlet gaze swept across Luo Tong and the others, before suddenly fixing in place. The ferocity within it not only did not diminish, it intensified.
“ROAR—!!”
Its gaze passed over Chen Guan and suddenly locked onto Luo Li, who was clutching the horse-cleaving saber. It bared its huge tusked mouth and let out a low growl.
A wave of hot, rank, blood-stinking breath rushed straight toward the cliff edge.