Wulin : Martial Heroes

Chapter 15: Six Fingered Man

As Li Xin is in his hut trying to review his status, inside a secluded cave, there is a middle aged man that is sitting cross legged and gathering energy around his body.

The aura around him seems to be disorderly and chaotic. His forehead creased every few second like he was enduring some kind of painful baptism.

Sometimes, his face would turn red and then blue and then green and then return back to normal but pale

Then suddenly this middle aged man coughed up blood. He opens his eyes and takes deep breath.

‘I forced myself too much’ he muttered to himself. For a few second he is still sitting cross legged, regulating his breath and then he got up.

He got up and look at his cave. This cave is well lighted and there are some holes that he had created to give light.

It was designed in such a way that it could regulate the air in and out and give light to the dark cave. There is also candles that he brought from the outside.

It is a cave dwelling that is both spacious and beautiful.

This middle age man has thick beard on his face and his body is thin. His eyes seem to hides some kind of mischievousness.

He wears a black robe. The black robe is dirty and there is traces of dirt and the scent of herbs could be smelled around his black robe.

His face is not easily seen in the darkness of the cave. On this part of the cave, he did not yet light up the candle.

Only some of the sunlight from the other areas barely illuminate some of the area of this cave

To this person, he is accustomed in living in all kinds of places.

Him being in the cave while some people might not be comfortable in living in such a place, to him it is nothing big.

He could easily accommodate himself.

This cave entrance is hidden by branches and dead leaves and even if he did not hide it using the branches of tree it is not easy to spot it a sit is on top of a hill.

From below one would only see the stone that is actually the roof of this cave.

The entrance to the cave is very narrow but if you enter the narrow entrance you would see a huge space inside.

There is a tunnel of caves that he had carved for many years.

This is one but of the many places that has become his safe places. He had many such places all over the territory of the Tang dynasty

Because his activity spans over all of the Tang dynasty and he even went to the Western Regions in the past.

This middle age man then walks to his table and then light up the candle and the room is finally illuminated

This person did not have that many defining features.

His face while is not particularly handsome, he is not ugly. His height is not too tall, not too short. The best way to describe him was that he is nondescript.

But if there is one thing that would differentiate him easily from any other people it is that he has six fingers in his right hand

As for his left hand, his fingers are normal.

He had finished regaining back his inner energy. As he calmed himself down and his chaotic inner energy has been calmed down he finally lay down on the bed.

Inside the cave, there is a few furniture’s like tables and chairs and there is even a few other furniture like chairs and there are many storage rooms all over the cave dwellings.

It is amazing that he created such a large complex of cave dwelling for himself but to him it was necessary

Because it is related to his job. In each of this storage, there is many precious things from herbs to gems, to treasures.

For a while he just takes deep breath looking at the ceiling of the cave and then after a while he sat on his bed.

There is a lot of things in his mind right now

‘Who is that young hero?’ this is the first question in his mind.

‘Tch’ he clicked his tongue.

There is an outsider, he thought to himself. He doesn't like it when there is people intruding on his mountain.

Of course, there is hunters from the villages that hunts around this mountain and some people who made a living by the resources that is present in the mountain.

These people are not outsiders and they know which place to go and which place to not go. They did not live in the mountain nor would they stay long in the mountain.

There are a few huts all over the mountain for these hunters to rest or to store their stuff when they climb the mountain.

But, the longest they would stay is only a few days.

If they stay more than that, he would send his wolves to warn them and these people would usually get the meaning and quickly stay down.

After a few years, the people of the village near the foot of the mountain seems to understand certain taboos like they should not stay here in the mountain than more a few days or you could get attacked by a pack of wolves.

The villagers on the foot of the mountain could differentiate between normal wolves and his wolves and if they saw his wolves, they quickly understood that their stay is no longer welcomed and they usually would pack their stuff and god own the mountain.

This kind of things is only known to the people in the foot of the mountain and peace between him and the people on the foot of the mountain is established.

Not before long as the wolves that is enhanced by him is different from the wolves of the mountain some of the villagers believe it to be the spirit of the mountain giving them guidance because these pack of wolves never attack them if they do get back down.

To some who knows more of the world they know that it might be the work of some martial artist that have deep knowledge of poison arts.

But people who came around here usually only wanderers and most of them would not stick their nose to where it doesn’t belong.

Those that don’t know this kind of rule would usually die young in Jianghu. And the middle age man himself rarely make anything too big.

After all, he prefers this area to be quiet and unassuming.

If people from the outside does come in, he usually would not send wolves toward them as they would usually go away after a few days for fears of being attacked.

And sometimes even the villagers on the foot of the mountain would warn people not to stay too long in the mountain.

The middle age man himself is not a heartless killer. He uses the wolves to warn people. Of course, there were a few times that accident happens.

After all, these wolves are after all are beast. But, he never had the kind of experience he is having in this one week.

A few days before he ran back to here. He was at Henan a few days ago. Then to run away from some people, he went back to one of the closest and most undisclosed location of his hideout which is this mountain.

It is called the Clear Green Mountain because of how it is filled with bamboo trees and greeneries

It is called that by the people of this area and soon enough the people here called it the Clear Green Mountain

This mountain itself is not that big nor as dangerous as the Mount Song. It had rivers, waterfalls and a lot of game and all kinds of resources.

For the village that is on the foot of the mountain, this mountain had fed them and give them many resources.

It is because of that this middle aged man did not forbid people or attack every people that came here to take the resources of this mountain.

If he did that kind of thing and the people of the village felt desperate enough, they might even invite some wanderer to investigate or ask the help of the Righteous Temple in Henan to look at it.

If it’s just a few wanderers, the middle aged man is confident he could deal with them.

Even though, this is not his primary place of hiding in the Tang dynasty territory, he also knows a lot about this mountain like where is the part of the mountain where you would go and be confused of where to exit and there are parts of the mountain where it emits poisonous gas and so on and so forth

But if the monks of the great sects like the Righteous Temple came to investigate, then he fears that his hideout would easily be discovered.

But, this is the first time he saw a wandering hero like that kid. He is so young but possess such a profound inner energy

And his move is all polished to perfection.

He saw how that young hero uses his sword.

All that he uses are basic moves but each basic moves seems to contain some kind of profundities of the sword arts.

This feeling could only be sensed and not easily seen but that alone is indication that the young kid had mastered his sword art to the pinnacle.

Even though it is basic moves, it contains such power that even if another person learns the same skill like that young hero they would still be defeated because the difference in the mastery of the method of the sword art

But, why would that young hero attacked his wolves and kills his wolves? Of course, this middle aged man could not possibly know that it is because he got a quest.

All he knew right now is that there is a wandering hero in his mountain and he doesn’t seem to want to leave.

 This man with six fingers is the one that had attacked Li Xin. And his mind is now filled with the thoughts of how best to neutralize this young hero

‘This has always been my place’ he thought to himself.

‘How should I deal with that person?’ he thought to himself. Even though he had killed a lot of people, it does not mean that he was heartless.

All he wanted to do was to paralyze that young hero.

That alone is very merciful of him because while he was just intending to paralyze that person, that person had already killed dozens of his wolves and after today, another few dozen wolves that he had cultivated had also been killed by that young hero

By now, most of the wolves in the mountain is cleared by that young hero.

For some reason, this young hero did not attack the other wolves but instead attack his wolves.

When he found out that his wolves had been dying when he returns back to this mountain, he tries to investigate the culprit.

He just started investigating the matter when he heard the howling of his wolves and then when he went there he saw that young hero slaughtering his wolves.

The six fingered man knows while his lightness skill is very powerful, he is not that strong when it is about attacking.

But, he does have a lot of items. He had a special needle that he had gained from one of mysterious sect in Sichuan. And he got some poisons in Western Regions.

He had special glove that he got in Chang’an and he slathers the needle with poison. His plan was to use that needle on the young hero.

The effect of the needle would paralyze his whole body for a few hours.

Then he would bring him to the cave or one of his other places in the mountain and kept him there.

He had a few concoctions that he could brew to make sure that the young hero is weak and unable to use his martial arts

Then after he finished what he is doing here he would release that young hero back.

of course, there is also a few poisons that he could use to at least make sure that the memory of that young hero is blurry about him

And he also had a few methods of disguising that could be used to fool that young hero

At least that was the plan.  

But that plan clearly did not work as even when he attacked that young hero when he is fighting against his wolves, that young hero could easily evaded his needles

That young hero changed his trajectory in mid-air and he knows that he had met an expert of lightness skill.

The moment he determined that, he quickly bail as fast as he can, his feet kick the grass but the grass is not flattened, kick the branches but the branches don’t break and he glided away like a ghost form that area.

He knew if he delays, then the moment that young hero is finished with his wolves, he would seek him. And the six finger man could not fight in his condition.

Even if he is in his tip top condition, he was never an expert in fighting head on.  

He could only have sighed as he thinks of ways of how to deal with that young hero.

The reason why he notices the young hero is simply because he had trained and drugged a few hundred wolves all over the mountain.

It is the reason why the mountain is his safe place. But that kid had been massacring his wolves like his wolves is some kind of food.

How could he not notice?

It must be known that the wolves that is drugged by him is very powerful and not some tame beast.

Not only their attacking ability is stronger than normal wolves, they are also very fierce and relentless.

But that young kid easily killed them with a slice of his sword. How could he not be surprised that someone so easily killed his wolves?

And it is because of that he became very wary. Of course at that time he did not know that one killing his wolves is a kid

Then he shakes his head.

‘Thinking about it now would not do anything. It is better if I focused on learning these martial arts skill’

He took a book and then opens the page before throwing back the book on the bed.

‘But what is the use if I couldn’t decipher the code of this book’ he shouted to himself.

Haish’ he sighed. But then after a few second, he picked up back the book and read it again.