Jiang Ye (Before Night) by Mao Ni (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

[HPC7595]

Thanks binggodude

[binggodude]

Chapter 13: A Crimson Flower Blossomed from The Green Robe

Sho!

The second arrow followed the first one like chained lighting. The arrow pierced into the middle aged scholar’s chest with a terrifying sound of tearing flesh. The place where the second arrow landed was exactly the same location where the first arrow penetrated the armor.

There seemed to be no time gap just before the third arrow arrived. It again piereced into the same exact location where the two arrow before landed, except now there was no protection blocking its path. The third arrow penetrated through his body!

No one knew how Ning Que accomplished this seemingly impossible task. In just a flash, he used a regular hard wooden bow and shot three consecutive arrows. Furthermore, no one could understand how this normal young soldier obtained such high level of mastery in archery; He was able to shoot into the same spot three times in a row!

The middle aged scholar felt a hard and heavy wooden stick pushed into his chest, and moved backwards for two steps due to its tremendous momentum. He realized there was a warm flow around his chest, until that warmth became boiling hot.

He looked down instinctively, and saw an arrow penetrated almost all the way through his body. Only a small portion of the arrow and feather was seen outside of his clothing. Blood streamed out of his body and a crimson flower blossomed from the green robe.

The scholar looked at the crimson flower on his green robe, disbelieving of what just happened. His face was not only filled with shock and bewilderment, but also with his own blood from the wound.

He lost his strength and slowly sat down onto the ground, which was filled with fallen leaves and mud.

Even xiuxingists, even xiuxingists who used Satanism techniques and absorbed the qi of nature into their body cannot control their spiritual force after their heart got destroyed.

The invisible string controlling the broken finger was tore apart when he fell and sat on the earth.

The bloody broken finger could no longer harm a Psychic Master after its master lose its control, even if that Psychic Master was exhausted of energy and qi.

Lu Qing Chen raised his eyebrows and shook away the broken finger in front of him.

The broken finger slid past his face and flew towards the carriage behind the elder. Hearing a few collapsing noise, half of the carriage was destroyed and fell into the ground, crumbling to debris.

A tiny portions of the qi of nature absorbed by the middle aged scholar was enchanted into the broken finger. Although it lost its controller, it could still cause this terrifying damage. If it wasn’t for the three arrows, this broken finger definitely could cause huge amounts of damage to the elder, and this ambush would be resulted in the death of the elder.

All of the last surviving guards and soldiers knew this, but the scholar was the person that knew the importance of the three arrows the most. He painfully stared at the arrows inside of his chest, struggling to raise his head and glanced at the back of the carriage formation, wanting to see what the archer looked like.

The combination of perfect timing of the arrows and the master level of archery was the reason Ning Que accomplished this seemingly impossible task of killing a Great Sword Master. He saved everyone including the Tang princess from absolute danger....... It seemed to be the time to accept the shocking, thankful, and praising expressions from the group.

However, Ning Que thought otherwise. There was no relieving smile on his face. He still held his hard wooden bow tightly in his hand, the arrows already on the string, and the string was already pulled. He aimed at the Great Sword Master sitting under the tree, but his ears were focusing on the light brushing sounds on top of the tree.

He stayed cautious.

“Xia Hou.”
“Xia Hou!”

“Xia Hou….”

When the maid told him that the Great Sword Master should be Xia Hou’s subordinate, and he also admitted this, Ning Que had been begun repeating this name to himself in his mind.

Xia Hou was not called Xia Hou something something.

His last name is Xia, and his first name is Hou.

As one of the four most influential Great Generals, his Xiu Xing was really high, had many military accomplishments, and was brave yet cold and ruthless. He stationed the troop in the Meng Liu Camp for years, and obtained his fame for being brutal and warlike.

However, while his last name is Xia, he never allowed his children to use Xia as their last name. Instead, he let them to use his whole name as their last name. So, his 1st son was called Xia Hou Jing, 2nd son was called Xia Hou Wei, and so on. When the court’s intellectuals asked about it, Xia Hou answered arrogantly, “I want to create a last name myself, that would pass on for thousand centuries, and I will be the ancestor, so they need to use my name as the last name.”

“Therefore the family name from now is Xia Hou.”

…….

General Xia Hou is a celebrity, but Ning Que kept saying his name in his mind. The tone changing from narrate to surprise to slightly sneering. Obviously the fact that Xia Hou is famous is not the reason why Ning Que repeated the name.

Since he was four, the name, engraved into his blood, had always been hidden deeply in his mind, and he never forgot about it.

He had never seen Xia Hou.

But he knew Xia Hou’s hobby, knew who Xia Hou’s favorite concubine was, knew why Xia Hou wanted to kill that concubine, knew Xia Hou would eat three kilograms of mutton in every meal, and even knew Xia Hou’s daily routine of taking pisses.

He believed that he was the person who understood the Tang’s famous general the most, because he believed that there was no one who wanted to kill this Tang’s famous general more than he did.

Under the rough and powerful figure of that general hid a cold and cunning heart. He was harsh and ruthless, but he only trusted his own hands. Therefore he would not rely solely on the foreign middle aged scholar to assassinate the princess.

For sure that general sent his most loyal assassins and subordinates to watch this ambush and observe how the fight went. Maybe those underlings would jump out at important moments to finish the task.

In Ning Que’s eyes, those moments were the best moments.

Behind the half collapsed carriage a crying little boy stuck out his head. The pretty maid raised her dress and ran towards him nervously.

Ning Que extended his right arm as quickly as a thunderstrike and knocked her onto the ground.

The tree branches on top of the scholar shook violently and broke. The fragments fell onto the ground while two masked men dressed in black appeared and threw two metal balls at Ning Que and took out their long swords from the sheaths behind their backs.

The two accelerating metal ball was painted with red dots. They were firebombs equipped by the elite force of Tang borderline armies; their burning effect? Horrifying.

But Ning Que was no stranger to these firebombs because he was also once a soldier in the army camps,. He threw the bow away as fast as he could and his two hands reached for the sword handle behind his back, then he screamed, “Umbrella!”

[BocahTuaNakal]

thanks binggodude

[Aequitas]

Mmmmm Ning Que so spiiicy. Thanks for the chapter

[faerro]

hoh hoh, this is getting good.....

[mrcoolguy]

Made an account just to say thanks binggodude. No worries, we all have in real life issues to deal with. Thanks for taking time out of your/your buddies day to give us the translation.

[binggodude]

Here is the Raw and UNEDITED TRANSLATIONS for now. I don't want to make you guys wait. If there are parts you think can be expressed clearer please comment And again THIS IS THE RAW. Sorry i didn't edit it, i got a test tomorrow and been bussy studying..


Chapter 14 I have three knives

Simply a word “Umbrella.”

No verb.

Ning Que also did not call out Sang Sang’s name.

The master and maid had been living together since very young. Together they cooperated to survive on the mountain, forest and plain for years, so they already knew what each other’s thinking. They could inform each other by giving simply a look or a word or a hand signal.

Immediately after the hearing the word “umbrella,” Sang Sang, like a mice, quickly ran to the side of the maid, then pushed the handle of the umbrella, opening up the extremely large black umbrella, like a dark sky appearing in the forest on the Way of North Mountain, blocking off all the starlights.

Two firebombs dropped on the ground, burning up fast. The vigorous fire causing the fallen leaves on the ground to fly up. These leaves then caused the fire to get even bigger that people could not stop it.

The survived guards and barbarians around the wagon, looked at the big fire, thought about the noble hiding over there, suddenly felt hopeless. They were all heavily wounded, so they had no more energy to help out, and all they could do is watching that hot fire wall destroying everything in a second.

However, they did not see that, the big black umbrella did not get burned up. When the high temperature fire touched the greasy umbrella cover, it strangely became small and weak. What kind of material was this black umbrella made from, that it could block off the starlights like a dark sky, and also keep the fire away!?

Below the big black umbrella, the skinny Sang Sang nervously put her head down, closed her eyes, shut her mouth, her hands tightly held the handle of the umbrella, defending against the terrifying fire that was only a few inches away. Her left hand holding the handle tightened temporarily, but it relaxed for a while for no reason, appearing to be extremely restrained, but also seems like she had a difficult struggle inside her mind.

The maid was also under the black umbrella. She sensed the high temperature separated by the umbrella, looked at the fire, felt extremely nervous, yet when she looked through the gap, seeing the readily opening fighting scene, a surprise came up in her eyes.

The men dressed in black hiding in the jungle, had holden their breathe for a really long time. They silently spectated the reactions of the princess’s subordinates, judged and analyzed their plans, eventually ascertained where the target really was. Then, when the Great Sword Master and the giant man grabbed Lu Qing Chen’s attention, they silently moved close to here and started the assault.

Fragmented wood fell off, as the two men dressed in black jumped down. The time they chose was just about right. They first threw out two firebombs without hesitation, then got close to the opponents to assassinate them, giving no time and opportunity for Ning Que to use his archery skill.

They were not powerful Xiu Xingists, but they were more expert than those Xiu Xingists in assassination.

Seeing two assassins jumping out, Ning Que’s facial expression did not change much. He did not feel surprised and nervous, throwing out the bows and arrows like they were useless shoes, then jumping up at the moment the two firebombs were thrown out.

The muscles at his waist and legs tightened then loosened, his legs seemed to have fixed to springs, without run-up, suddenly jumped up in the original place.

At this point the firebombs started to burn. His body was over the fire wall, like he was stepping on the fire and used it as a tool to float in air.

He passed through the big fire in air, his hands making two hollow fists - along with inertia his fists and legs swing to the back, his body inclined to the front - the entire movement appeared to be very natural and coordinated, like a bird gliding in air, and the handles of the knives on his back were about to go in his two hollow fists.

Jumping over the fire wall and floating in air, while Ning Que was doing these movements, he consistently stared at the two assassins. His eyes contained no any distracting thoughts, only extreme calmness and attentiveness, seemed to be abnormally unhurried.

The black maid looked at his movement of jumping out of the fire wall, seeing the youngster’s calmness, suddenly felt extremely cold for no reason.
At this moment, she remembered what she saw when she followed the Chief for Great Plain hunting a half year ago.

When that young tiger jumped towards him from the jungle, with front claws clenched up, back feet slightly contracted, eyes contained not a single brutal or violent feeling, only extreme calmness and attentiveness, at that short moment it actually showed a sort of noble temperament. That tiger’s eye expression was the most terrifying expression she had seen in her life. Sometimes during midnight, she might even awakened by the tiger’s calm and unhurried look in her dream.

--The expressionless calmness represented power and confidence, attentiveness represented volition and determination. Tiger hunting, attentive and calm yet not cold, because to tear every enemy into pieces, was not his desire to let off pressure, but his innate talent.

In the fire the maid looked at Ning Que’s face, came up with such thought.

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Assassins who had been living in the darkness of light were creatures most sensitive to danger, even the maid felt the peril under Ning Que’s calmness. The two assassins dressed in black stared at the youngster who jumped through the fire wall and instinctively felt uneasy. They did not feel this nervous even when killing Yan empire’s cavalry back in the days. Their hands holding the long swords paralyzed under the extreme pressure.

In the blowing sound of wind, Ning Que jumped right between the two men. His cotton shirt was still burning a little from his previous actions, the fire lingered and brought light into the night of the dense forest.

Two rusted long swords were pulled out quickly from the back of his shoulders and slashed towards the assassins like a rainstorm. Consecutive clashing noises spread throughout the the forest. A strong wind breezed by and blew the fire on the burning shirt into smaller sparks, but brightened the battlefield even better than before.

Knives and swords were slashing against each other, Ning Que bounced his body forward and forcefully stepped into the middle of the two assassins. Ning Que used the enemies’ sword backs as direction while his waist switched from a chopping motion to a dragging motion to slice right into their ribs.

The heavy knife blade slashed right into the chest bones of the two assassins from under. Their rib cages were broken, flesh and blood were squeezed out by the body of the blade. The assassins cried painfully, but showed the unmatchable will of Tang soldiers at their dying moments. They forfeited their swords and used their own body to lock Ning Que’s two knives in place.

Just this moment, another assassin dropped down like a raging ghost. His two hands were holding a sharp dagger, which was striking towards the back of Ning Que’s neck with unstoppable determination.

There was a third assassin in the forest!

No matter from what perspective, it seemed that the two assassins were the last attempt. It was hard to believe they still had another plan. This plan may seemed repetitive and unnecessary but it was ruthless; The assassins did not have their lives in mind when they made this plan!

No one could have predicted this situation, except Ning Que, or the young maid under the black umbrella.

“Six! Two!”

The young maid under the black umbrella shrinked her body nervously. Just when the third assassin stroke toward Ning Que, she closed her eyes tightly and used all her force to yell out two numbers.

It was two very simple numbers, what could it possibly warn Ning Que of? Was it a secret code or direction? But she could not see the assassin because her eyes were closed. Even if she did measure the location of the assassin accurately, at this moment Ning Que’s two knives were still locked in the chests of the two assassins, what could he possibly done?

“Six? Two? that is pretty tall.”

Hearing Sang Sang’s yelling, Ning Que quietly complained in head. He released his two hands from the weapons without hesitation while the two dying assassins were using their lives to hold his knives and locking him in place. Now that his two hands were empty and the lingering sparks were dying out while the night kept on getting darker, he held tightly a handle wrapped in cotton which was soaked in blood and fiercely pulled out his last knife from his back.

Two hands holding the long knife handle tightly, the blade came out of the sheath with a abrupting sound. Ning Que did not peek an eye toward his back and he turned around, putting all of his force into his long knife, and ripped the night sky apart with his strike.

It was like he had an eye on the back of his head. This forceful strike accurately landed on the assassin who was accelerating downward. The sharp blade sent the dagger in the assassin’s hands flying.

Then the long knife sliced right into the assassin’s neck bones with no interruption.

The momentum of the blade was so strong that the knife did not stop until it was halfway through the his neck.

The assassin did not have time to moan. He jumped down from the branches of the tree and then fell onto the dried fallen leaves, his knees were on the ground.

Ning Que backed off a little and held a handle which was in another assassin’s chest, pulled the knife out quickly and returned to the third assassin. He slashed the other side of broken neck and the two blades met in the middle of the assassin’s bone.

Blood was spilling everywhere. The head of the assassin dropped on the ground and rolled away from his knees and the fallen leaves. It rolled a long distance in the middle of the forest.

During the war between Tang and Yan, General Xia Hou’s elite force assassinated countless cavalry. Those secret assassin units were formed by the best soldiers. Although they were not xiuxingists, their performance in battles were excellent. There were times when the units successfully assassinated xiuxingists.

Normal people had no idea what the secret assassin unit under General Xia Hou consisted of, but Ning Que knew.

He knew the assassin unit always attended their missions with three killers.

That’s why he started to carry three knives on his back from his younger days.

[Aequitas]

Thanks so much for the double chapter

[HPC7595]

Thanks binggodude

[Laoren]

Wow, 2 chapters, thanks binggodude

[DAO1995]

Thanks for the translations.

[SaberWolf]

Thanks for the Novel. Been waiting for it's translation on OSTNT, and only just found about this.

[binggodude]

TL: Here is chapter 15 And i hope 16 comes out within the next hour or two. I go to sleep early so i just hope the other two guys will finish the other half within 2 hours (I SAY 90% yes but theres always that 10%) BUT heres the chapter 15 =D enjoy
I will correct grammer a bit later or edit it again later...

Edit: no 2nd chapter today... only half is done because the other half translator has to study for his test.... >.> sorry guys.

Chapter 15 He is the Lumberjack in the Shu Bi Pond

Since Ning Que grew up in mountains and prairies where violent beasts roamed freely, assassins skilled in ambush at night was no danger to him. The mysterious xiuxingist was the reason for his uneasiness. After his used his dual blades to capitalize the third assassin, he swiftly returned to the camp and quickly picked his hard wooden bow up and aimed at the Great Sword Master once again.

But this time his cautiousness seemed to be unnecessary. The middle aged scholar wearing a green robe did not move. He leaned on the big tree and looked quietly at the youngster near the campfire with his dark pupils. He whispered something under his breath and smiled, then opened his palm and passed away.

Ning Que aimed silently at the corpse of the Great Sword Master for a long time; He then slowly put down his bow and arrows because his two arms were shaking due to fatigue, not until that moment he felt the sore muscles and the tiredness in his body.

He asked without turning his head, “Any problem?”

The explosion of the firebomb ignited the fallen leaves, but the mud on the entrance to North Mountain was extremely wet. The fire died out over time and that big black umbrella was closed once again. Sang Sang squatted half way on the ground, raised and shook her head while looking at Ning Que’s back. She knew that even she did not say anything, her young master knew what she did.

The pretty maid knew Ning Que was not asking her. She stood up and ran quickly to the collapsed carriage formation and started to lifted and throw the heavy debris away crazily. She finally found the little boy who was covered in the fragments and hugged him dearly and wiped off the dusts on his face softly.

There were approximately six or seven barbarian soldiers and Tang guards left. They struggled to get up and walked to the debris of the fancy carriage. The heavily wounded guard leader kneeled with the last surviving members, lowered his head onto the ground and apologized, “I’m sorry, we could not stop the bandits from bothering your Highness. We should be punished.”

The surrounding stars and the leftover sparks shined and brightened the scene. The bloodsoaked men gathered around and kneeled before the maid carrying a child. It was not particularly sad, but rather solemn and ironic.

Sang Sang walked toward Ning Que and they observed this scene silently. They weren’t surprised because they knew the true identity of the maid.

After resting for a while, the guards and barbarians struggled to bandage and heal each other. They waited until they gained back some strength and then started to clean up the battlefield; they lifted back some badly wounded companions and killed some enemies who were on their last breaths. After doing all this, these tough and strong men looked backwards instinctively.

Looking at the youngster who was wearing a burnt out cotton shirt, the expressions in the eyes of the guards were mixed and complicated. Some were shocked, some were confused, some were even afraid..... They saw the previous actions of Ning Que. They knew the youngster’s was skilled in martial techniques and a master in archery, but he was not an invincible elite xiuxingist.

The guards and the elder were the ones who fought back against the strongest of the enemy, the two xiuxingists. If it was not for the guards’ selfless sacrifice which weakened much of the Great Sword Master’s strength and force, Ning Que could not have the opportunity to slain him with the three arrows.

But because of this reason, they felt that the youngster was an incredible character.

His moment and angle of attack was accurate and deadly. The youngster may appear soft and naive, but a calm and daring heart hid under his exterior. Especially at the end when he used the three knives to kill the three assassins, the outcome was dazzling. How could he done all these this at such a young age? How many people did he kill at the borderline city, how many heads had he chopped off?

The guard leader was using a tree branch as a walking stick and struggled to walk towards the young master and his maid, then he bowed respectfully. Although he did not thank them, his action showed his thankfulness from the bottom of his heart.

Ning Que held Sang Sang’s hand and dodged his bow. Just like what the dead Great Sword Master said, the strict rules and the ironed will of this group of Tang warriors were enough to be respected by any enemy or friend.

“I can see that you haven’t get any training for fighting. If we fight against each other without using any weapon, I think you can’t beat me. However, even I, when the three assassins appeared, probably wouldn’t be able to survive under their assault, and of course I wouldn’t kill them that easily like you just did.”

The head of the guards looked at Ning Que’s young face, suppressed the surprise he had in his heart, asked using a hoarse sound, “Youngster, I am really curious about your killing skill, where did you learn it?”

Ning Que scratched the back of his head and remained silent for a bit, then smiled and replied, “Killing skill, of course learned from killing.”

He obviously could not tell this head of guards that since he was four, when he found out about the name Xia Hou, he had started to prepare, prepare to get killed by him, or kill him.

This influential and powerful Tang general did not know at all that, at the distant frontier small city, there is a youngster practicing usage of knife through chopping firewoods everyday, analyzing all the fighting styles of his subordinate elites, and concluding countless counterplans.

Therefore, to Ning Que, the three assassins died under his knife, was simply an absolute outcome due to his decade of hard training. If his opponents were changed, such as this head of guards in front of him, he would hardly obtain such pretty accomplishment.

Today, from the battle at the way of North Mountain, Ning Que finally encountered General Xia Hou’s subordinates. Maybe this was only an occasion, or maybe this was fate, but no matter what, the knife and archery of revenge finally began revealing its coldness.

The head of guards put his hand at the wounded chest, frowned and looked at the indifferent youngster, “You are only around fifteen, did you actually kill more than I?”

“If animals are counted, then I killed quite a lot.” Ning Que laughed and answered.

“I am talking about kill human.” The head became of serious, then explained, “I am not querying you anything, I am actually very curious.”

Ning Que rubbed his face, remained silent for a while then stared at his and said, “The highest income you can earn at the frontier city is through killing horse gangsters, we call this thing chopping firewoods. In the recent years I am the leader of the group to chop firewoods. So if you talk about kill people, I actually killed many in these years.”

A Great Plain barbarian followed behind the head of guards, preparing to thank this young soldier. He had the same question in his mind. However, after he heard Ning Que’s reply, he turned and walked away immediately. Faintly it could be seen that his steps were messy, and his shoulders slightly shaking.

Another Great Plain barbarian looked at him and questioned, “Dumu(a name). what happened?”

The so called “Dumu” Great Plain barbarian sat down by the fire, hardly raised his wounded arm, flapped his face that was numb due to fear, said, “That youngster….should be the legendary Lumberjack in the Shu Bi Pond.”

After this word was out, the four Great Plain barbarians sitting by the fire changed their face immediately. They stopped saying anything. Someone secretly turned up his head, looked towards Ning Que, then quickly looked down, like he was afraid the youngster seeing his peep.

Before the barbarians were subdued to the Princess, they were all famous horse gangsters on the Great Plain, well known for their fierceness. But to them, Tang’s powerful frontier soldiers were the real horse gangsters. Those Tang calvary at the frontier, whenever the season changed so there were no enough supplies, would conduct an amature money-making activity - ransacking Great Plain horse gangsters.

The Tang frontier soldiers called this activity “chop firewoods.” The horse gangsters would call such bloody battle “lumber.” They called the most fierce and tough Tang cavalry leader “lumberjack,” and the Lumberjack in the Shu Bi Pond….is the most fierce and terrifying of the lumberjacks. He is the reason why Shu Bi Pond became red, the nightmare of the Great Plain Barbarians, and the horror story at the side of firewood.

But before this night, they never thought that this lumberjack was so young.

[billybuton]

Wow.. you're on roll binggo. Thanks for all the hard work.. You're Da Man..

[Aequitas]

And now he's a lumberjack! Thank you for the chapter

[WillieD]

Thanks for the translation! Also, "After his used his dual blades to capitalize the third assassin, he swiftly returned to the camp and quickly picked his hard wooden bow up and aimed at the Great Sword Master once again." Did you mean decapitate instead of capitalize? Capitalize could work I suppose, but given the context decapitate seems to fit better. I don't know what it said in the raws though .

[Catahn]

Wow I think you basically are caught up with the Manhua! Awesome and thank you for the chapter!

[HPC7595]

Thanks binggodude

[kai9004]

Great chapter!!! Thank you binggodude for the chapter

[darkmatter]

thank you.