Watching the familiar face of the body beneath his feet, Wild Horse was carried back to his memories of six years ago. Back then, he had had two arms and the rear half of his tongue, but he didn't mind the disfigurement at all. Words became redundant when he was able to express everything through a saber or a sword.
He believed that he was born to be a killer. Unlike the many other people who had been taken away from their family when they were still young, he retained some of his childhood memories. He remembered the boundless snowy ground, his grim-faced parents, and his joyous playmates. And even more vividly, he remembered the scenes of them being killed.
Back then, he had only been five or six years old, but even then he had felt nothing when he had seen his parents be killed. He had merely been surprised that it was so easy to kill people. It had taken those people in black just a single saber slash to kill someone. Their movements had been neat and clean, and it seemed like killing was even easier for them than collecting spring wild vegetables was for a villager.
A killer walked up to him, looking at him with expressionless eyes. "Are you a fool?"
Because his eyes were unnaturally far apart, many people had similar suppositions about Wild Horse since his childhood. He remembered that he immediately shook his head at that time, but he didn't remember whether he had spoken or not. Speech had disappeared in his memories a long time ago.
He never found out the identity of that killer who had stared at him back then, and neither had he ever tried to find out.
He had then been sent to a place outside the mountainous area, where he lived with three other children of his age. The house was shabby, but the food there was far better than what he had had in his own home.
One day, the adult responsible for bringing them meals came to them. Besides food, he also brought out four strange sabers and said, "I will only bring enough food for one from now on. You'll have to decide who shall have it."
While the other three children had been looking at each other in confusion, Wild Horse was already rushing to the first narrow saber that he had seen and grabbed it. He tried to imitate the killers he had seen before. Clumsily but composedly, he soon killed his three companions. Nobody even touched the other three narrow sabers.
"Not bad. You'll make a good killer," the adult said blandly. Clearly he was very used to this kind of scene.
Then, Wild Horse had been sent to another strange place. There were a lot more children, and their age varied from four to thirteen years old. Every day, they practiced sabersmanship from dawn until dark, and they also worshiped Golden Roc Castle and the Unique King, both of whom they only had a vague concept of.
On the seventh day after his arrival at the new place, Wild Horse followed the examples of the strongest children and cut off his own tongue, but he wasn't acknowledged right away. Two years later, he had become accepted by the strong after he proved that he was one of the best among his peers. He was also given the name "Wild Horse."
As a matter of fact, the so-called "strong" was a title that was constantly given to different children. Before the elementary-level training was over, several seemingly invincible children had been defeated by obscure challengers, usually because of a momentary carelessness.
It was from that time on that Wild Horse realized that, a;though kung fu was important, it was not the only quality that a killer should have. A strong will, calmness, patience, a quick and accurate judgement, and a good sense of timing for counterattacks were all helpful at crucial moments.
On Wild Horse's first day in Golden Roc Castle, an experienced killer instructor had started to instill a similar killer philosophy the into young newcomers, which made Wild Horse very excited. He wholeheartedly believed that the stone castle was a holy shrine for killers, and that it was well worth his many years of worship.
The training in Carving Wood Yard was uneventful. Wild Horse was neither outstanding nor weak. He was now a senior member of the "Snow Mountain Gang," the members of which had all cut off their tongues, and he had also secured his status within it, so nobody dared to bully him.
And then he had gone to the Furnace Yard where Wild Horse had remained a mediocre trainee. It was also where he and his enemy, Servant Huan, had met but still been unaware of each other's existence.
After that, the apprentices started killing each other. Just like how a storm always blew down the tallest trees to allow the shorter ones, which had been overshadowed before, to enjoy more sunlight and rainwater, the relatively stronger apprentices were killed first, and Wild Horse was one of the biggest beneficiaries.
Unlike the Servant Huan who was at a loss for what to do, Wild Horse had long since prepared himself for this situation. He had a wide range of contacts. He knew how to make full use of his leadership. And he certainly knew how to survive during a chaotic battle.
As a result, he looked down upon Servant Huan and the Tattooed Arm Gang, believing that Lotus was the only true killer in that small group.
For a very long time, Wild Horse had regarded Lotus as his only opponent. He had tried to co-opt her, and he also tried to assassinate her. But all of his attempts had failed.
Eventually, it was Servant Huan, whom Wild Horse despised, who changed his destiny.
After Wild Horse left those killers behind and started socializing with his masters, his advantages instantly became disadvantages. He was unable to make friends with the Tenth Young Master Shangguan Ru. Shangguan Yushi appreciated him, but only regarded him as a tool that she could use to deal with Servant Huan.
Wild Horse still scorned Servant Huan, but was frequently outdone, and his contempt for him soon turned into hatred.
Servant Huan broke numerous killer rules, but instead of being punished, he had been promoted again and again. His very existence was a threat to all killers as well as a potential flaw of Golden Roc Castle.
The premonitions of Wild Horse had then been verified one after another, and it was through this very process that the lofty image of Golden Roc Castle in his mind had finally collapsed. Wild Horse started to seek his own path. Old Man Mu, the Essence Pavilion, the lords of the Norland, the Waning Moon Hall – like he had when he was a child, he yielded to many powerful forces. However, he always refused to take orders from that mortal enemy of his, no matter if he was called Servant Huan or the Dragon King.
Likewise, when the strong became weak, Wild Horse regarded his inevitable betrayal as a natural thing, and he didn't even bother trying to justify it. Just like the sheep and cattle, no matter how abundant the grass initially was, they always had to transfer to another place before they ate up all of the grass.
Wild Horse's kung fu became better and better, but surprisingly, the gap between him and the Dragon King was growing wider and wider, which greatly confused him. Eventually, he attributed it to the Death Sutra.
The Death Sutra was no longer a secret. There were more and more rumors about it circulating around. Wild Horse finally understood why Servant Huan, who didn't act like a killer at all, had stood out amongst all other competitors. Like the other servants who had achieved success and won recognition, it was neither hard work nor wisdom but rather luck that Servant Huan had relied on.
He wanted to take this luck away from Servant Huan.
Lotus was not easy to deal with. Not only did she consider the Death Sutra as a lifesaving unique skill, but she also regarded it as an absolute secret between herself and Servant Huan. No matter how humbly Wild Horse behaved, he still couldn't attain her absolute trust, and neither could he obtain the Death Sutra.
But the Goddess of Luck had finally smiled upon him. When Lotus was about to carry out her ambitious plan, her kung fu had reached the level of dispersing internal energy. Without any trust in the disciples of her sect, she had to temporarily hand over her power to Wild Horse.
Wild Horse seized this opportunity and soon discovered that not all the disciples of the Waning Moon Hall were loyal to Lotus. A small group of powerful members, most of whom had witnessed and could compare the times of the two hall leaders, Han Wuxian and Lotus, believed that neither of these two people were the master that they wanted to serve. In addition, inspired by Lotus' deeds, every one of them coveted the position of Hall Leader, as long as they were powerful enough to take the position.
Wild Horse immediately regrouped these disciples and meanwhile, also recruited more members into the Essence Pavilion. Since Golden Roc Castle no longer trained any killers, the children who possessed the potential to become killers were abundantly available, like jewels waiting to be picked up. Shangguan Ru and Madam Meng took in most of the killers dismissed by the stone castle, but Wild Horse had kept those outside the stone castle in mind.
With his memories, Wild Horse had found a batch of children. Following this clue, he had then managed to find more. Eventually, there were so many of them that he had to sift out the inferiors in large numbers.
Wild Horse had delegated this job to his subordinates. He himself instead concentrated all of his efforts into pressuring Lotus by telling her the current situation. The Waning Moon Hall could hide in the dark, but no matter what, the Master Commander needed a public organization to exert direct influence on the other sides, and this organization also had to become a powerful force in a short time. He told her that the Dragon King was imparting the Death Sutra to his most trusted and excellent subordinates, and so she must do the same.
Wild Horse couldn't speak, but this was no hindrance to his strategy. More and more people came to his support. Even some of the disciples of the Waning Moon Hall who were loyal to the Master Commander believed that, since the Daoless Divine Power could be widely imparted to disciples, the Death Sutra was no exception.
Lotus had just dispersed her internal energy, so not only was her kung fu temporarily gone, but her will had also greatly weakened. She had then handed over the Death Sutra. Though it was only a part of it, it was far more powerful than what the Dragon King had imparted to his subordinates.
To whom the Death Sutra should be imparted to was solely at Wild Horse's discretion. Lotus wanted this group to be as small as possible, but Wild Horse had his own plans. Diverging from Lotus' intentions, he had imparted the swordsmanship to almost all of the disciples of the Waning Moon Hall as well as most of the newly-recruited disciples of the Essence Pavilion. Then, he had sent them to Jade City to improve their kung fu by killing people.
He had a plan, one that had taken shape a long time ago. Looking back on how it had developed as the years went by, he realized that the most effective method of improving one's kung fu was to kill one's fellow disciples. The slaughtering period of the killer disciples of Golden Roc Castle had given him a deep impression. Never had he been more satisfied than he was during that period. He wanted to rigidly duplicate the entire training system of Golden Roc Castle.
Like almost everyone else who practiced the Death Sutra, Wild Horse had also, at one time, become conceited due to his overestimation of his swordsmanship, believing that he was the best. Thus, he had wanted to challenge the Dragon King to prove it.
In the peach forest of Gui Garden, Wild Horse had missed the chance to fight with the Dragon King, but afterwards, he knew he would have surely been defeated if he had fought with him. The Dragon King was not the only person who had disillusioned him. Shangguan Hong had also done so.
Apart from Wild Horse, Shangguan Hong was the only other person to whom Lotus had personally imparted the Death Sutra. Likewise, Shangguan Hong had learned only part of one cultivation method, the essence of which was "Killing Enemies."
Wild Horse had been paying close attention to this competitor of his. He discovered that Lotus was not partial to anyone. Shangguan Hong's internal energy was somewhat more powerful because he had the Seven Rotation Skill, but his swordsmanship was no different from that of the other practitioners.
However, in the peach forest, Shangguan Hong, with his strong desire for survival, had broken through the restrictions that Lotus had imposed on him at the very beginning and managed to develop his own, more powerful swordsmanship.
Nominally, the Dragon King's act of switching his weapon from a sword to a saber was also not in accordance with the Death Sutra's principles.
It was at that moment that light had suddenly dawned on Wild Horse. He realized that his comprehension of the Death Sutra was still superficial, but he couldn't think of a way to obtain true mastery of it.
The fundamental solution to this issue was in Lotus' hands.
When an spy confirmed that the Dragon King might be trapped in Golden Roc Castle, Wild Horse had taken advantage of this opportunity by inciting Lotus, who had just regained her internal energy, into publicly launching an attack on Golden Roc Castle and declaring to the whole world that the Waning Moon Hall was back.
Wild Horse didn't care about the Waning Moon Hall at a;;. He merely wanted to see how Lotus, who had been reborn, would perform the Death Sutra.
Lotus had probably seen through his intention, so she hadn't even pulled out her sword, instead fighting the Unique King with only palm techniques.
But for Wild Horse, that was already enough. The Death Sutra had completely sunk into Lotus a long time ago. Just like how the Dragon King had learned to perform the swordsmanship with a saber, Lotus' every move now bore the brand of the Death Sutra.
After seeing Lotus perform the Death Sutra, Wild Horse had also broken through the restrictions of the singular principle of "Killing Enemies." He wanted to make another breakthrough and finish his cultivation of the Death Sutra along with the unrestricted cultivation method of "Ceasing and Arising."
As a result, he had created this underground slaughter chamber. Every disciple who practiced the Death Sutra, no matter if they were from the Essence Pavilion or the Waning Moon Hall, had to prove themselves with their swordsmanship. The last survivor would be deemed the strongest one and be eligible to challenge the Master Commander.
Shangguan Hong had survived the early stages of this fight. When he, covered in blood, had tried to escape, Wild Horse didn't stop him. He wanted more people to join this fight. He hoped that everyone who had ever practiced the Death Sutra would gather together, turning this fight into an unprecedented feast.
Wild Horse didn't keep count of his kills like he had used to when he was an inexperienced killer disciple. He felt it was now pointless, since he could distinctly feel his swordsmanship becoming more and more powerful, and that he was making progress with each body that he left behind.
Beneath Wild Horse's feet, the last disciple of the Essence Pavilion lost his life. He thought that he had been helping the young man who would kill him become a part of Immortal Peng, but it turned out that he had instead become a sacrifice for the Death Sutra.
Smelling the strong odor of blood, Wild Horse was looking forward to the last phase of this ruthless slaughter. This time, he was going to challenge Servant Huan to a duel, and only one of them would leave alive.
Comments