Chapter 2 - Desert Wolves, Purple Flag

The scorching afternoon sun beat down relentlessly on the barren desert landscape. The stillness of the sands exuded an eerie anxiety that stretched for as far as the eyes could see. This picturesque scene was suddenly disrupted by the rumble of the footsteps of horses and men. Clouds of dust and dirt were kicked up into the arid sky as a company of troops marched hastily through the desert. Several armored horsemen lead the group holding up large purple flags that flapped majestically in the wind. About ten horse drawn carriages followed behind with several ranks of soldiers on either side. Such a heavily guarded caravan was a rare sight in the barren Northwest.

The procession had reached a ravine where jagged crags towered over both sides and the only way through was a narrow winding path down the middle. The path was just wide enough for a single carriage to fit through from wheel to wheel. The company of soldiers had to thin out almost to single file as they marched into the ravine.

As the soldiers reached halfway through the path, the leading horseman suddenly pulled the reins of his horse and it came to a neighing halt. Several paces ahead, a short man carrying a large basket on his shoulders appeared in the path of the procession. The man had a friendly smile and approached the four leading horsemen.

"Ah! I am in luck today! Finally, some patrons have come to buy my wares. Hopefully my wife won't scold me tonight for not bringing home any earnings!" the short man said.

The soldiers in front looked quite amused by this silly man. Seeing that he was of small stature, they didn't feel the least bit threatened. However, one of the flag-bearing horsemen realized that they were in a treacherous ravine surrounded on both sides by mountains. Such a spot was perfect for an ambush. So he yelled at the short man with a harsh tone of voice.

"You, peddler, out of our way. We haven't any time to waste with you. If you don't move, don't blame us if you're accidentally trampled over."

"Ah brave soldiers, but you should at least take a look at what I have for sale! I promise you won't regret it."

This sparked a slight curiosity in the ears of the soldiers. What could this odd man possibly be selling? And what would he be doing setting up shop in the middle of the desert? Everyone was at least a bit intrigued as to what kind of wares the short man had with him.

The short man took the basket off his back and placed it on the ground. In it were umbrellas of all different sizes and colors. When the soldiers saw the umbrellas, they broke out in laughter.

"Ha, ha! And why would we need umbrellas in the middle of the desert? Foolish old peddler! Out of our way!" the lead horseman shouted as he ordered the troops to keep marching. As they approached the short peddler, he still didn't budge. Instead, he took out the biggest umbrella in his basket and opened it up. Because of his small stature, the umbrella nearly enveloped his entire body with only his stubby legs showing.

"Forget this fool, if he doesn't move just trample him." the lead horseman ordered as the procession started marching again.

"Heh heh." the short man smirked, "Foolish soldiers, you should have bought an umbrella, because the desert rain is about to fall!"

Suddenly, a massive downpour of a clear thick liquid rained down from the top of the ravine. As the liquid came into contact with the soldiers, they screamed in agony. The substance burned through their armor and clothing and consequently their skin and flesh. The horrid anguished cries of the soldiers echoed throughout the ravine. It was a ghastly sight to behold. In mere moments, the bodies of the soldiers who were hit with the liquid no longer resembled anything human, all that was left were brownish red piles of flesh. The number of troops in the company were instantly cut in half.

A shrill laughter came from above as a small woman appeared at the top of the ravine looking down at the battered troops.

"Ha, ha, ha! Old fool, looks like it is your wife who once again has to step in and take charge! You didn't even manage to sell a single umbrella. Totally useless!"

The short man smiled at her and closed his umbrella. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled and about thirty to forty men blocked both the entrance and exit paths of the ravine. They all wore tattered rags and brandished clubs and sabres. Roars of laughter and taunting erupted from the bandits as they watched the soldiers cringe and suffer from the lethal poisonous rain.

The soldiers who were lucky enough to avoid contact with the poisonous liquid all immediately rushed to one of the carriages in the middle of the procession. They drew their swords and formed a tight formation around this carriage, guarding it as if it were more important than their own lives. Then, a loud voice came from within the carriage.

"My brave comrades, I thank you sincerely for your loyalty. I shall handle this matter personally. Stand back."

A tall, slender man walked out from the carriage. He was clad in armor and wore a long flowing red cape. He had the definitive look of a warrior as his eyes blazed with confidence. They were the kind of eyes that gave soldiers the confidence to fight through hell and back. His smile also carried with it a graceful austerity. He walked towards the front of the caravan, his strides were slow yet resolute. His mannerisms had all the makings of a celebrated general yet he only appeared to be in his late twenties.

"You must be Jia Bu [ 賈保 ]." the man said, "and the one at the top of the ravine is Madame Jia [ 賈夫人 ]. The two of you are high ranking members of the Desert Wolves [ 沙漠狼 ], the largest association of bandits in the Western Regions."

"Hah! I'm thoroughly impressed that you are able to figure out our backgrounds so easily. Yes, we are bandits and we only want your gold and supplies. Leave them with us and I'll let you and your remaining troops walk away with your lives." Jia Bu said with a cocky smile.

He imagined to himself what that man must be feeling, seeing half his company of troops wiped out before they could even act, being surrounded on both sides and above by a vicious enemy. What kind of man wouldn't feel completely hopeless in this situation?

The man walked over to one of the corpses of the dead soldiers and picked up a bow and a quiver of arrows. Jia Bu looked slightly peeved that this person was disregarding his threats.

"Hey! What are you doing? I said surrender now and we'll let you live. Do you think that my words are said in jest?"

The man didn't respond or even bothered to look towards Jia Bu. Madame Jia at the top of the ravine was starting to become impatient and screamed for her husband to give the order to attack the remaining soldiers. But seeing just how calm and resolute this man was made Jia Bu feel slightly uneasy. He glanced around and took notice of the majestic purple flags that had since fallen to the floor.

"Who are you?" Jia Bu asked insistently, "What, under whose command is this force?"

The man spoke, his words echoed with confidence, "These are the soldiers of the Purple Legion [ 紫旗軍 ]."

Upon hearing those words, Jia Bu was swept over with worry. As a bandit for many years, Jia Bu had long disregarded the authority of soldiers whether they were Imperial Soldiers of the Tang regime or local militia of the Jiedushi. Imperial Soldiers of the Tang regime were far too disjointed to be taken seriously as their jurisdiction held little sway in the border regions. The local militia of the Jiedushi cared only for the welfare of their own individual cities and rarely pursued roving bandits.

However, the name of the Purple Legion seemed unusually discomforting to his ears. Jia Bu seriously started to consider calling off this raid altogether, but over forty of his bravest men were ready and willing to fight. Retreating would cause him to lose great respect in the eyes of the Desert Wolves. Unable to sort out his thoughts, Jia Bu stood still at a complete loss for words.

"My name is Xiong Leijung [ 雄雷忠 ], Grand General of the Purple Legion. From a military strategist's point of view, I must applaud your attack on several accounts. Firstly, this is an ideal geographical location to set up an ambush as this path is narrow and blocked off on two sides by mountains. Secondly, using a lethal poison liquid, you were able to reduce my forces by one half. Lastly, after gaining superior numbers, you surround my remaining forces on both sides. Normally, this type of strategy is completely flawless. But, you neglected one important thing."

Jia Bu and the bandits listened intently on Xiong Leijung's every word as if some great sage were lecturing them. Yet, they remained extremely alert and kept their eyes focused on Xiong Leijung's movements.

"You have underestimated your enemy. One should always analyze one's enemy to the very last soldier before attacking. And because of that oversight, today you have lost."

Jia Bu stood in shock, the words that he heard had not yet registered in his mind. But the bandits behind him were already growing restless and itching to fight. They started taunting and shouting at Xiong Leijung that his bluffs couldn't scare them one bit. Madame Jia had lost her patience as well and was prepared to unleash more of her deadly liquid from one of the large jars that sat atop the ravine.

Jia Bu scrambled to recollect what little he knew and had heard in passing from merchants and fellow bandits about the Purple Legion. He recalled that they were a private army that was formed some five to ten years ago, by who, no one knows. What was known was that they were extremely well disciplined and relentless in their operations, always fighting down to the very last man rather than surrendering. He had been warned before by other bandit leaders to avoid raiding soldiers that carried purple banners, but in the spur of the moment it really was too hard to adhere to foresight. The other bandits started to look anxious as they saw their leader mumbling to himself, lost in a daze.

Suddenly, Xiong Leijung drew three arrows and fired them off in succession, each a few instants after the previous, each at different angles. The three arrows soared upwards towards the top of the ravine with incredible speed and power.

When Madame Jia caught sight of the first arrow it was already within inches of her throat. At the last second she was able to leap to her right, as the arrow narrowly pierced her left sleeve. Madame Jia almost slipped upon landing when she realized how close she was to the edge of the cliff. Before she could even regain her balance, a second arrow soared straight at her right leg from the opposite direction. She leapt forward to avoid that arrow at the last second, but unfortunately it was too late when she realized that there was no ground under her feet. Madame Jia let out a loud scream as she fell from the top of the ravine.

Jia Bu let out a shout of utter disbelief as he looked up and heard the deafening scream of his wife as she plunged towards the ground. Even though he knew he would never be able to reach her in time, Jia Bu ran towards where she was falling. But suddenly, her loud screams abruptly stopped and her body stopped its descent as well. The third arrow pierced through Madame Jia's throat with incredible force and pinned her lifeless body against the side of the cliff.

"You ... how could you? You murderer! Despicable lowlife, I'll take your head for this!" Jia Bu cursed and screamed at Xiong Leijung, veins started to appear all over his face as his rage built up.

"Hmph. You take the lives of half my troops using underhanded methods and you call me the lowlife despicable murderer?" Xiong Leijung responded indignantly.

"My brothers, fearless heroes of the Desert Wolves, let's take these bastards' lives!" Jia Bu gave the order and was met with an uproar of approval from the other bandits as they all charged towards Xiong Leijung and his remaining troops.

"General Xiong, your orders?" one of the troops asked. The remaining soldiers all remained firmly planted and still despite the oncoming charge of the bandits. They were so well disciplined that without orders not one of them dared to move.

"Stand guard." Xiong Leijung replied as he waved them off. He drew five arrows at once from his quiver and fired them simultaneously. Each one of them punctured one of the charging bandits square in the throat. He reached back and pulled another five arrows. Again, another five bandits dropped from the front of the line. Not one of the bandits were able to close within fifty feet of him. What incredible marksmanship! To be able to calmly launch and fire successive arrows at the same time at an enemy charging from both sides!

Before long, the bandits' numbers had dwindled and the remaining were reluctant to keep charging at all. Seeing their comrades contiunously drop down at their sides sucked the morale right out of them. Soon, they started to panic and their feet felt like they were encased in solid stone. But it didn't matter, Xiong Leijung seemed to show them no mercy as his arrows cut them down where they stood.

After another volley of arrows, only three bandits remained. Jia Bu, and two other bandits who stood behind him.

In the heat of battle Jia Bu never really had the chance to notice, but now he didn't seem to recognize the two fellow bandits who stood behind him at all. Moreover, he was quite peeved that they would so cowardly hide from behind while their fellow bandits were being shot down. By now, his mind had run amok. So many people close to him had been slain in front of his very eyes.

He never had much qualms with taking lives before because it was usually him that was doing the slaying. When just before he was imagining how frightening it must be for those troops to be surrounded and waiting for imminent death, he was now experiencing that suffocating feeling firsthand.

The two bandits stepped forward. One was cloaked in black with long, unkempt hair. The other was a sickly looking lad, seemingly on the verge of exhaustion. Both of them had an unmistakable gleam of confidence in their eyes.

Xiong Leijung noticed it immediately, he knew that they were no ordinary bandits. A smile erupted from the bandit cloaked in black as he shouted, "I don't care whether you're a desert rat or are wearing purple underpants, when Yanluo the Ruler of Hell comes to claim his souls, everyone must bow down!"

Those two bandits were obviously Wang Xiaoyun and Tianfeng! With a loud roar, Wang Xiaoyun leapt high into the air and unsheathed his sword. Xiong Leijung's eyes followed him, but his many years of experience reminded him that he had two opponents. He glanced back at where Tianfeng stood but he was no longer in sight.

By now, Wang Xiaoyun's sword had started its descent as Xiong Leijung suddenly felt a deathly aura coming from his back. He reached towards his scabbard twice, once with each hand! Two swords shot out with amazing speed! With a spin of his body, the sword in his right hand met Wang Xiaoyun's sword from above, and the sword in his left hand met Tianfeng's sword from the back. All three of them froze for what seemed like an eternity. The deadlock that they had reached came after only three moves, one from each of them, but any skilled master who had the fortune of witnessing that exchange would be overjoyed beyond belief.

The desert winds kicked up, yellow sand encircled the skies. The three of them could barely see anything past a couple meters in front of them. But all that seemed to matter were the blades of their opponents. Jia Bu had run off by now, he had seemingly lost his mind after witnessing the slaughter of his wife and fellow bandits all within the span of several minutes.

"Shiit ... this purple underpants wearing bastard is pretty strong ... why don't you just give up and let me lop off that head of yours? It looks quite tiring for your neck to have to carry it around all day long." Wang Xiaoyun said mockingly. He was certainly able to keep his sense of humor even in the gravest of situations. Suddenly, he realized that Xiong Leijung was using both of his hands to defend two of their swords, while he and Tianfeng still had one arm free. He looked towards Tianfeng who seemed to be thinking the exact same thing.

Just as the two of them were about to strike, the desert winds began to swirl with immense rage. A sandstorm had kicked up and everything and everyone was blinded in darkness. In an instant, the three of them couldn't even see each other as they finally let go of their stances and backed off several paces.

After a while, the deafening roar of sand and dirt finally subsided. Wang Xiaoyun was still covering his eyes with his left hand, as his eyelids weren't a thick enough shield from the splitting sand. His right hand hadn't yet let go of his sword. He finally lowered his arm and took a look around, no one was in sight. In fact, nothing was in sight. The carriages, the caravan, the dead bodies, everything seemed to have been washed away by the devastating desert sand. He couldn't spot Xiong Leijung anywhere, nor did he see Tianfeng. Just like that, the desert fell silent once again. The only thing that seemed to remind Wang Xiaoyun that everything that had just happened wasn't simply an illusion was Madame Jia's lifeless body hanging from the side of the cliff with an arrow impaled through her throat.

Wang Xiaoyun wandered for a couple of miles until night fell upon the desert. Even though it was scorching hot during the day, for some reason it was always freezing cold at night. The small package that he carried containing rations and water had been blown away during the sandstorm. He started to realize the desperateness of his situation. His entire body shivered and shook, his parched mouth started to shrivel from the dry air and lack of water. Before long, Wang Xiaoyun collapsed to the floor.

"Shiit ... is the Ruler of Hell really going to meet his end like this? From lack of water ... ? How pathetic ..." Wang Xiaoyun muttered as his eyes slowly closed and the world around him faded to black.