Tie Hanfeng had a good dream: he lived in a villa of the North City and was surrounded by countless gorgeous beauties. One bloke who looked like Slave Huan called him "dad".
As he was still immersed in his dream at the moment when he opened his eyes, he did not immediately recognize where he was.
"It really wasn't my house..."
Tie Hanfeng rubbed his eyes and observed his house thoroughly. This was the exact same stone cabin in the East Castle, and he was lying in his recliner, but everything was so... so clean.
Everything, including flagons, cups, spitballs, broken daggers and fallen chairs were all gone. It seemed like a hurricane just swept over this place.
The beddings were neat and the closet was sparkling.
Tie Hanfeng could recall a servant cleaning his residence in his dream. But who would do that in reality? He only had one apprentice, who was once a servant but knew nothing about cleaning.
He stood up and walked out his room.
The yard was neat. There was a weapon rack standing by the wall, with some sabers placed on it.
The whole yard seemed to be two or three times bigger than before, which surprised Tie Hanfeng. He gave his arm a pinch to ensure he was not still living in his dream and then asked his apprentice, who stood in the center of the yard. "What's the hell is going on? You don't need to drive me away like this!"
"We'll have a duel." Gu Shenwei said coldly. He clutched his saber with one hand and held a black mask with the other hand.
"What? Are you mad? Or do you want to die?"
Tie Hanfeng thought his apprentice was kidding, but soon his instinct told him it was not a joke.
Gu Shenwei could kill him when he slept deeply, which was also in line with the protocol of a killer. Though Tie Hanfeng could defend himself during his dream, he would be much weaker than when he was awake. Besides, Gu Shenwei had progressed a lot.
This was a ceremony. By killing Tie Hanfeng face to face, Gu Shenwei could pay all his debts. Also, it would be a test of his swordcraft of the Death Scripture . If he was even unable to cut off Tie Hanfeng's head, then his quest of vengeance against the whole Shangguan family would be ridiculous. In that case, it might have been better to die from his master's saber.
"I'm not Yang Huan or Slave Huan. My family name is Gu, and I'm Gu Shenwei. The woman you raped is my sister if you still remember."
Tie Hanfeng's face twitched, seemingly wanting to frown and mock at the same time. "Gu Shenwei? You've already died. I've seen the skull."
"That's a wrong skull. The Eighth Young Master brought the wrong skull both times. He had fooled the Supreme King as well as everyone else."
Finally, the mist around the truth cleared up. As Tie Hanfeng now understood what had really happened, he became a hard-hearted killer again. "Well, you're bold, and I'll give you that. But you're too stupid. You gave up your best opportunity to kill me and then you challenged me to a duel, like those ridiculous machetemen."
Gu Shenwei unfolded the black veil, and covered his eyes with it by tying a knot behind his head. "There're always some exceptions." He pulled out the saber and threw the scabbard to the ground.
Tie Hanfeng limped away to his house, grabbed his saber beneath the recliner, and went back to the yard. He was ready to kill his apprentice with one stab. He was not even thinking about how to stab, but how to deal with this the aftermath of this incident.
He was not prepared to publicly reveal Gu Shenwei's identity, for it would not only cause troubles for Shangguan Nu, but also pull him into the vortex that surrounded the Shangguan family. Now he was a man ready to enjoy his remaining years, so there was no need to have a loose tongue.
Killing this bloke would put an end to all of this.
He carried the saber and watched the teenager ten steps away from him, who held his saber while blindfold. His apprentice must have been driven mad by the hatred, otherwise, why would he strike such a pose? Killers should act like a craftsman, being serious and cautious at all times.
But he could not attack.
There was not even a hint of the killing intent in the youth.
The killing intent was not stable. It could change slightly with one's breathing, Internal Breath and strength of will. The experts could always sense this slight change and found a loophole. This kind of kung fu was hard to teach to others, and one had to learn it by himself.
But Gu Shenwei had no killing intent. Tie Hanfeng could not find any weakness in him.
Some superiors did know about how to hide the intent and would not unveil it until he moved. But would his apprentice be a superior? Tie Hanfeng doubted that, yet soon he confirmed it. During these several days, something inside this teenager was totally different. He should have noticed that earlier if he was not blinded by that robbery.
Gu Shenwei could only see darkness, and he felt like he was staying at an underground crypt.
This was the first time that he was using a sword to kill a man. He learned from Death Scripture that one could not predict the process of killing, nor could he practice the killing skill. One should put all his trust on this swordcraft.
The swordcraft was beyond a kung fu. It was a belief. Gu Shenwei would not comprehend it until he believed in it.
Now he was more convinced, more than any time in the past, that his insights about the scripture were right. Only by going through "self-destruction" could he entrust himself to the sword, which could reveal the flow of the "living energy".
"Qi" was flowing all the time, like a revolving mist. People could not see it but feel it. In the end, it would form an ever-changing picture.
Gu Shenwei had "seen" it.
He saw a bundle of "Qi" coming for him, and quickly found the weakness in it. He stabbed that point almost automatically and withdrew. Everything was so natural and simple.
Gu Shenwei ripped the veil off and saw Tie Hanfeng's saber on his neck, plunging half an inch inside.
Tie Hanfeng's eyes widened, and he could not believe what had just happened to him. The biggest wish of him was not to die under a saber. But it was obvious that he had just died under a sword.
Tie Hanfeng let go of the saber, and tried to walk back to the room. It felt really absurd and ridiculous watching him limping over with heavy steps.
The saber fell down from Gu Shenwei's neck. He wiped out the bloodstain with the black veil. He could still find the imperfections in his swordcraft, because he failed to finish his master's life with one stab.
He slipped his sword back to its scabbard and picked up the saber. When he walked to the room, he found his Master Shifu lying down on the recliner, with his mouth feebly open. Tie Hanfeng's fragility could be seen from his eyes. "Damn, what was I bustling about?"
It was his last words.
Gu Shenwei got on one knee and observed Tie Hanfeng's chest turning from crimson to white. He seemed to become another person, whom Gu Shenwei not care and knew nothing about. Maybe the prostitute, Zi Linglong would recognize who he was right now.
As Tie Hanfeng's fatal wound was on his neck, which barely bled, it would be difficult for other people to detect it.
Gu Shenwei held the saber against the neck of his master, and cut deeply through the wound. No one would ever know the real cause of death.
The blood gradually stained the recliner and dripped onto the ground. Gu Shenwei untied Tie Hanfeng's red belt and held it in one of his hands, while the other held his head, and then walked out.
The belt was nailed on the gate of the academy, which indicated that someone had finished his apprenticeship. On this day, which was only three days before the birthday of the twins, Slave Huan became the first formal killer among all of the Dragon Year Apprentices.
But this behavior was hard for all of them to understand.
The supervisor of the Pyrowork Academy was so shocked by the head Gu Shenwei brought, that he could hardly speak. After quite a while, he finally reacted and brought the new killer to the Whiterobe Academy for registration. Gu Shenwei obtained a brand new red belt and the killer's waist token. From now on, he should be called "Yang Huan", instead of "Slave Huan", though the scar on his arm was unable to be removed.
The brown-belt assassins were the most confused. Yang Huan was destined to become a formal killer after three days, why would he still kill his master? When compared with the others, Tie Hanfeng was a relatively nice teacher. Yang Huan would not obtain any benefit from killing him, furthermore he would lose a backer.
Every year, there would be students who tried to kill their masters. But no one had acted like Yang Huan, who seemed to have no reason to commit the act.
Thus people came up with a purpose for his inexplicable behavior. A new rumor was spreading around that the Cripple Tie had recently made a fortune, which his apprentice wanted ardently. Considering that it would be a crime for a formal killer to kill a master, Yang Huan did it before his promotion so it wouldn't be considered a crime.
Tie Hanfeng's death didn't cause any unrest. He had almost cut off all his relations in the fort so he could live in peace in the North City. Hence no one came out to avenge his death.
Gu Shenwei only explained his behavior to Maid Lotus. "Using the swordcraft would be more difficult if the enemy was more powerful. But you'll progress faster."
Maid Lotus discovered the sudden and strange change in her companion. "Your skill is getting stronger. Will you kill me one day, just for practice? But I'm not so powerful for you to want to kill..."
Though Gu Shenwei could not expose his biggest secret, he still told her his insights. "You still don't get it? You and I will put an end to ourselves sooner or later if we continue to practice this swordcraft."
This was the quintessence of the Death Scripture . The apprentices of the Barren Sect never heard of it, and the fort only knew the first sentences of this book. They did not consider it to be of any value. Who would use a kung fu, whose final destination was self-destruction?
Only the one who carried a blood feud and did not care about their own life would use it.
Not to mention, the Peripheral Force in Gu Shenwei's body did not disappear at all. He blended his Internal Strength by the sped-up technique of the Yin and Yang Strength and thought he could eradicate the hidden danger, yet he found the burning Qi in the Xuanji acupoint and the Baihui acupoint was only suppressed for a time. It was restored after several days.
Those who planted the force into his body were all dead. No one could eliminate that for him. He did not count on the remaining apprentices of the Barren Sect to teach him their unique Internal Strength, either.
Maid Lotus was surprised yet she comprehended it quickly. She smiled. This was the first time Gu Shenwei saw her smile, which was as pure as a child. "Well, killing yourself is better than being killed by others."
Gu Shenwei told everything he recognized in the scripture to Maid Lotus. Because they viewed this book in different ways at first, Maid Lotus did not accept it completely. But his comprehension did answer many questions for her.
Now all she needed was to complete a perfect slaughter, by which she could rebuild her killing desire, and experience the subtleties contained in this book.
This slaughter came much earlier than these two had expected.
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