The First Talent I Met
I rode for two full days before reaching the dock, where a large ship lay at anchor.
I was looking for a vessel to cross the Yangtze River and head north.
Among the boats, there was one quite large moored at the pier, and I could see a great many people boarding it.
“They’re even loading carts with oxen. My horse shouldn’t be a problem, then.”
I led the horse that had carried me all the way from Wu Commandery toward the ship.
“Where are you coming from, sir?”
“I came from Wu Commandery. I wish to cross the river and go to Guangling. May I board?”
“Hmm. You do realize the fare includes the horse, yes?”
I reached into my robes, pulled out a few coins, and handed them over.
These were the famous wuzhu coins minted during the Han Dynasty. Their influence had spread across the north, Southeast Asia, and even the Korean peninsula. They could truly be called the ancient world’s reserve currency.
After inspecting the coins, the boatman crooked his finger.
“I told you the horse is included. You’ll need to give two more fen.”
“Here you are.”
Since I was only taking the trip once and wasn’t short on travel money, a few extra coins didn’t matter. The boatman accepted them with a wide grin and ushered me aboard.
“Tie your horse over there where the other mounts are.”
Following his directions, I secured my horse and then sat down on the railing.
As the ship set sail, I looked up at the sky. It was impossibly clear.
The unpolluted blue sky of ancient China suddenly brought the Yellow Turban slogan to mind.
The blue sky is already dead.
The yellow sky shall rise in its place.
In the year of Jiazi,
The world shall know great fortune.
Of course, if I had recited that out loud, every person on the ship would have rushed me, beaten me senseless, and tossed my body into the Yangtze.
“Still… it really is a beautiful blue sky.”
While the ship moved, I lay back comfortably and waited until we arrived.
Besides me, the vessel carried many passengers. Merchants with heavily laden carts, musicians and jesters carrying various instruments, and impoverished scholars clutching multiple bamboo slips. A truly diverse crowd.
To me, this felt both like an entirely different world and exactly like the late Han era I had seen in media. The atmosphere of the Three Kingdoms period finally felt real.
At that moment, a shabbily dressed man walked past me.
“Hmm?”
His hair was medium length, not properly tied in a topknot, and completely disheveled. His clothes were filthy, making him look like a vagrant.
Yet the eyes visible between his messy bangs were incredibly sharp, and a sword hung at his waist. It wasn’t just any sword—the grip and scabbard showed heavy wear from years of use.
Was this one of those famed wandering knights?
Curious, I watched him closely as he sat down nearby. Like me, he settled on a section of the railing, closed his eyes, and quietly waited for our destination.
There was something about this mysterious man that made me desperately want to speak with him.
And in that silence, the man with his eyes still closed spoke first.
“Why do you keep staring at me?”
He had clearly sensed my gaze even with his eyes shut. I flinched for a moment, then cleared my throat and answered quietly.
“Ah… I was admiring your sword, sir. I’ve never seen one with such heavy wear on the grip.”
When I addressed him respectfully as “sir,” he kept his eyes closed but untied the cord at his waist and tossed the sword toward me.
“Whoa?!”
“Then stop looking at me and examine the sword instead.”
What kind of person was this?
In an era where public safety was practically nonexistent, a wandering swordsman casually threw his weapon to a complete stranger?
It was absurd, but I caught the sword and carefully drew it.
The exterior was worn, but the blade inside was perfectly honed. Even pulling it just a little caused light to flash brilliantly along its edge.
This was unmistakably a weapon that had been used for many years by a highly skilled swordsman. I had no doubt that dozens of men had fallen before it.
“A blade of troubled times. It looks like it has seen many years of service.”
“So you’re saying I’m a blood-soaked brute who’s killed that many people?”
“N-no! That’s not what I meant at all, sir!”
I quickly apologized to the curt man, but at that exact moment, a horn blared from inside the ship.
“W-what is that?”
The moment the horn sounded, the passengers on deck suddenly panicked and scrambled into the cabins to hide.
“Oh heavens! What is happening?!”
“Hey, what’s going on? What’s that horn for?”
“River pirates! River pirates!”
“What?”
“It’s the signal for river pirates! If you don’t want to die, get inside and hide right now!”
A man who looked like a merchant grabbed his belongings and rushed below deck.
In the end, the only ones left on deck were me and the shaggy-haired swordsman.
“Hey. Give me back my sword now.”
I immediately tossed it back to him. He caught it lightly, drew the blade, and his eyes gleamed with killing intent.
“I swore I wouldn’t play the role of executioner anymore…”
The terrifying aura that radiated from him sent a chill down my spine. Reflexively, I drew my own sword.
Then grappling hooks flew over the side of the large ship, and one by one, the river pirates began climbing aboard.
“Hehehe—look at this! They’ve got oxen, horses, and all kinds of goods!”
“Boys, this ship’s a huge catch! Everyone up!”
“You bastards, put down everything you—”
Schlick—
A gust of wind swept past me, and the head of the first pirate who had just reached the deck flew into the air.
“…Huh?”
The cleanly severed head spun through the air before landing on the deck and rolling with a gruesome sound.
Splash—
Blood gushed like a fountain from the headless body, spraying everywhere. Some of it even splattered across my face.
“Ugh!”
“Y-you son of a—?!”
Enraged by their comrade’s death, the pirates charged the swordsman. But he moved as if their numbers meant nothing, and his blade danced.
Swoosh—
“Aaaargh! My arm! My arm!!”
The second pirate swung a sickle, only to have his own arm—still gripping the weapon—severed in return.
After felling the second man, the swordsman spun and drove his blade straight into the chest of a third who had tried to attack from behind. He shoved the screaming pirate all the way to the edge of the deck.
“Guh… guh-heh-heh…”
Blood sprayed across the planks as he kept the man impaled. When he finally yanked the sword free, another fountain of blood erupted.
“Hmph!”
The swordsman kicked the third pirate overboard. The remaining bandits grew even more frenzied and rushed him.
“Sir, it’s dangerous!”
I couldn’t just stand by any longer. I drew my sword and charged in.
This was a life-or-death fight against river pirates right before my eyes. If I hesitated, I would be the first to die. During my time in Wu Commandery, I had fought not only tigers and bears but also mountain bandits who tried to set fires.
While the swordsman carved through countless pirates, I faced those who came at me.
“You fools! Do you even know who we are?!”
“Does it matter if there are eighteen bands of Yangtze pirates?”
The pirate swung his axe. I barely twisted my head out of the way.
One wrong move and my skull would have been split in two.
“You rat bastard, dodging my—”
I evaded the axe swings, spotted an opening, and slashed with my sword.
Schlick—
“Guhk!”
The cut landed cleanly. The pirate clutched his stomach, staggered, and toppled into the river.
When I killed my first man, my hands trembled violently and my heart felt like it would explode. Still, I clenched my teeth and swung at the next pirate.
The man I had targeted suddenly vomited blood as the swordsman’s blade pierced him from behind. He collapsed with a heavy thud.
Thump—
He fell into a pool of blood, splattering more onto my feet.
“Haa…”
The pirate who had been twitching on the ground in front of me finally went still. He was dead.
“That was the last one.”
“Ah…!”
The swordsman had single-handedly dealt with over a dozen pirates. His face was smeared with thick blood as he looked at me. His white clothes were soaked red, and the eyes staring out from beneath his messy hair made him look like a terrifying demon of the jianghu.
At that moment, the cabin door behind us opened.
“Hiiieee!”
“There are corpses on the deck!”
The boatmen who finally emerged were shaking with terror. I let out a long breath and called to them.
“I suppose the crew should take care of the pirates’ bodies, right?”
At my words, they hurriedly began cleaning up the corpses.
By the time we reached Guangling, my legs had gone completely weak.
The swordsman wiped the blood from his blade and quietly prepared to disembark.
“Wait! Just a moment, please!”
“?”
The blood-stained swordsman stopped at my shout and turned around.
“What is it? We already took care of all the pirates, didn’t we?”
“I wish to know your honorable name, sir.”
“There’s no point in knowing the name of a butcher who cuts down men. Just go your own way.”
“Sir, my name is Cao Xiu, courtesy name Wenye, from Wu Commandery. I truly wish to know more about you.”
When I persisted, he let out a long sigh and spoke in a low voice.
“Just remember me as Xu. That should be enough, yes?”
“It is an honor to meet the master swordsman, Sir Xu…?”
Xu? The Xu clan?
A wandering knight with incredible swordsmanship and the surname Xu… There was only one person who came to mind.
“Are you perhaps Lord Xu Yuanzhi?”
“You… How do you know that name?”
Oh my god. It really was him!
A man of the Xu clan from Yingchuan. His real name was Xu Fu, courtesy name Yuanzhi. But to those who knew the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he was far more famous as Xu Shu. In his youth, he had indeed been renowned as a wandering knight.
This was an incredible stroke of fortune.