Death Scripture - Chapter 937: Half a Move
Shangguan Hong had never been a clever man who could easily understand other people’s hints. When the Dragon King refused to demonstrate the sword move again, his first reaction was that he had been fooled again; he couldn’t even help give the Dragon King a resentful look.
‘But Master Commander…’ Shangguan Hong was confused. Had he been abandoned again? Zhang Ji had at least bled him dry. But the Master Commander hadn’t assigned him any important tasks so far. All he had done was merely pass a message to the Dragon King, which could have been done by anyone.
‘I will not die.’ Shangguan Hong suddenly became confident. He did not believe in the Dragon King; he didn’t even believe in himself, but he did believe in Lotus. The Daoless Divine Power, the Seven Rotation Skill, the Waning Moon Swordsmanship, and those specially made pills. The Master Commander had paid too much for him and would definitely not let him die casually.
But he still didn’t understand the Dragon King’s move.
Shangguan Hong closed his eyes, trying to recall every motion of the Dragon King’s.
Wild Horse didn’t move. He wanted to see what new tricks Servant Huan would play.
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Old Man Mu had almost died under Wild Horse’s sword, but he still couldn’t help but open his mouth, though he kept his voice down this time. “You are such a fool. There are only twenty-one changes. Is it really that difficult to remember? And you don’t have to use all of them when fighting the enemy either. You just have to be flexible. Block the left when the attack comes at your left. Block the right when the attack comes at your right. This move is used to save your life. Alas, Shangguan Hong, just forget about it. You might as well kill yourself. Your training method, the so-called Sword of Survival, doesn’t sound reliable at all.”
When he was interrupted by Old Man Mu, Shangguan Hong forgot some more of it. He opened his eyes, looking a bit excited. He seemed to understand something, but also seemed frightened. “Just one move. You won’t make a second move?”
In the eyes of Wild Horse, Shangguan Hong was no different from the rest of the disciples in the hall and was perhaps even weaker. Like Old Man Mu, he also believed that the so-called Sword of Survival was a helpless invention by cowards and was wholly inferior to the Sword of Death, not to mention his Ceasing and Arising Swordsmanship.
Wild Horse raised his head proudly. He would never make a promise to a worm.
The sword came, as slow as before, but still leaving the target no room to dodge. Shangguan Hong didn’t have any advanced lightness skills like Old Man Mu’s, not to mention the magical Amber Power. He was not afraid of bleeding, but Wild Horse didn’t rely on bloodletting to kill. So he only had one choice left, and that might be what the Dragon King was trying to say.
Shangguan Hong really wished that the Dragon King could have said it more clearly.
The soft sword bent into a semicircle. Shangguan Hong stabbed himself.
Old Man Mu had been right. “Block the left when the attack comes at his left and block the right when the attack comes at his right.” Wild Horse had thrust his sword at Shangguan Hong’s heart, so Shangguan Hong had stabbed at the same spot but with a much faster speed. It was like a hungry baby wolf fighting with its siblings for food from its mother’s mouth.
One should never underestimate a survival maniac’s will to live in a desperate situation.
This move was completely out of Wild Horse’s expectations. He had thought too highly of his own training method and hadn’t carefully considered the characteristics of the other training methods, so he didn’t expect that Shangguan Hong would make such a dangerous move.
Wild Horse’s sword still hit the targeted spot accurately but what should have been flesh had instead turned into cold steel. His sword pushed a bit deeper under the resistance, but it stopped an inch or two shallower than the depth it was supposed to reach, and that was the difference between life and death.
Wild Horse felt the backlash effect for the first time. It was just a small force, but he had poured all of his internal Qi into the sword and his Dantian had become empty as a result; even this small force jolted him and made him involuntarily retreat by half a step.
Shangguan Hong stumbled back, all the while gnashing his teeth and moaning in pain. Then he steeled his heart and pulled the soft sword out of his chest. He was afraid of the wound, but he was more afraid of death. Thus, he would rather stab himself and seize the space that the enemy sword wanted to inhabit. The only change was that the soft sword had curved such that the tip had remained half an inch away from his heart.
Shangguan Hong covered his chest with his left hand and spat out a bloody patch of phlegm. After shooting a glance at the opposite Wild Horse, he turned to the nearby Dragon King, his eyes full of hatred and madness.
The Dragon King had pushed him to the brink of death and then saved him, but at the cost of injuring his own body. It was very hard for him to feel grateful. Even if his swordsmanship had improved as a result, he still felt angry. It was as if a miser had been forced to throw away a few pieces of gold and silver to keep most of his wealth. Even though he knew that it was necessary, he would still become annoyed at the person who had made the suggestion.
Shangguan Hong’s move shocked the audience. Shangguan Fei was the one who felt the most surprised. He had been standing in the corner and holding his breath along with the guard of the Heavenly Mountain Sect for fear that the Dragon King would remember that he was there. But the perseverance and determination of his half-brother frightened him even more.
Shangguan Fei had castrated Shangguan Hong, but he had never considered him as an enemy. The most important reason was because there was a huge gap between the two’s martial arts skills. He didn’t feel the need to be afraid. Shangguan Hong was said to have killed the assassin who had killed the envoy of the Central Plains, but Shangguan Fei didn’t put that in his mind. He thought that it had either been a coincidence or the assassin had been too careless. But after seeing Shangguan Hong’s unusual sword techniques, he suddenly realized that the gap between the two didn’t exist at all.
It was Shangguan Hong who had been stabbed, but Shangguan Fei seemed to have also felt the pain, and a voice echoed through his mind, saying, ‘You have to be careful.’
No one in this hall cared about Shangguan Fei’s reaction. All of their eyes were still focused on Wild Horse.
As the Dragon King had predicated, Wild Horse wasn’t able to kill his target yet again. The disciples’ reverence toward Wild Horse was, therefore, greatly reduced and placed onto the Dragon King instead.
The practitioner’s belief in the Death Sutra Swordsmanship might sometimes turn into arrogance, which was what was happening to Shangguan Hong. He suddenly felt like he was omnipotent and that he was fully capable of killing Wild Horse and then challenging the Dragon King. Driven by this arrogance, he took a step forward but that was it. It was already a great achievement to put on an attitude of defiance in front of Wild Horse. The arrogance had fulfilled its task and then quickly disappeared. Shangguan Hong immediately changed directions and retreated to Old Man Mu’s side.
Wild Horse adjusted his internal Qi. The backlash didn’t have a huge impact on him. He could still move normally.
The Dragon King had taught him another lesson, but Wild Horse wasn’t discouraged. Both Old Man Mu and Shangguan Hong’s moves could be only used once. Although he had failed, his understanding of his swordsmanship had deepened. If they fought again, he was sure that he would kill the two of them in one attack shot regardless of how many weird moves they made.
He had failed to kill his targets but his swordsmanship had still improved. Wild Horse was even a bit grateful to the Dragon King.
Gasping, Old Man Mu looked up at Shangguan Hong and slapped him hard on the leg. “Good boy, how did you figure it out? You actually dared to stab yourself.”
Shangguan Hong’s legs softened and he almost fell onto his knees, “Every move that the Dragon King demonstrated was targeted towards a specific training method. So, I thought that this move must have something to do with the Sword of Survival. And then he told me not to remember the move, so…”
“So what?” Old Man Mu eagerly asked. As clever as he was, he wasn’t able to figure it out himself. But the stupid Shangguan Hong had seen through it, which really annoyed him.
“Actually, the Dragon King only displayed half a move…”
Old Man Mu slapped his thigh and cried out, “I got it. The Dragon King’s move was both offensive and defensive, which was what confused me. It wasn’t like the style of the Death Sutra Swordsmanship. It turned out that he only showed half of it. The complete move is to cooperate with the enemy’s weapon to stab oneself at full strength. Haha, the Dragon King didn’t want to stab himself and also didn’t want Wild Horse to be prepared in advance, so he talked in riddles so that only those skilled in the training methods of the Sword of Survival could understand.”
At this point, Old Man Mu was talking to himself. It solved the doubts of the crowd, but he himself seemed to be even more confused. “Dragon King, please do not blame me for talking too much. I really want to know one thing. What’s your training method? Could it be that you’ve mastered all of the training methods?”
The crowd’s reverence for the Dragon King suddenly doubled. By contrast, Wild Horse seemed much more ordinary now.
Gu Shenwei’s training method was indeed different from everyone here. Long before he had practiced the Death Sutra Swordsmanship, he had made up his mind to take revenge at any price, even at the expense of perishing with the enemy. Thus, he had adopted the way of ‘Killing Oneself.’ The better his swordsmanship was, the weaker his killing aura. The only person who knew this was Lotus.
On the wall of the stone chambers of Golden Roc Castle, Gu Shenwei had found six other training methods similar to ‘Killing Oneself.’ He had tried each of them, but had been unable to integrate them into his swordsmanship. Although they were based on the same idea, each training method was extreme in its own way and forcefully combining them would be counterproductive. Only the Dragon King himself knew about this.
So instead of answering Old Man Mu’s question, he turned to Wild Horse and shook his head as he said, “No, your swordsmanship is not strong enough. It’s still far away from “sacrificing the body to achieve enlightenment.” Do you still have doubts about your sword technique?”
The Dragon King sounded like he was lecturing a novice disciple. Wild Horse couldn’t stop himself from becoming furious. The person in front of him was the only person who he couldn’t maintain the mentality of ‘Ceasing and Arising’ towards. Perhaps this was the only doubt he had about the swordsmanship. When he thought of this, he became even angrier because the Dragon King was actually right.
Sacrificing the body to achieve enlightenment? Wild Horse took a step forward. Did the Dragon King really think that he was a god and that he could persuade a person to commit suicide with just his fancy words?
A fierce killing aura filled the hall. Many of the disciples were tormented as they were stuck between awe and fear. No one dared to escape. They all stood against the wall, huddling together. Their killing desire had long since dissipated.
“‘Impermanent are all material things. They arise and cease; that is their nature.’ I remember that that’s how the scripture describes the Ceasing and Arising Swordsmanship. Old Man Mu, what does it mean?”
Wild Horse’s killing intent was stirred up while the Dragon King was still dwelling on the scripture. Stunned, Old Man Mu mechanically replied, “That’s the nonsense of Buddhism. Whatever has the nature of arising also has the nature of ceasing, which is the so-called ‘impermanence.’”
“Then what does the opposite—’Ceasing and Arising’ mean?”
“Well, the opposite. If everything you see, hear, feel, and so on and so forth ceases, then your pure, true self will arise. Then it will transcend impermanence. That’s probably what it means, but little Wild Horse doesn’t read much and may not be able to understand it.”
Gu Shenwei asked Wild Horse, “Now you understand?”
Wild Horse was enraged. Of course he understood, but what he understood was the Dragon King’s tactics. This cunning lackey of his was infuriating him and forcing him out of his current state of mind of Ceasing and Arising so that he was unable to perform his most powerful swordsmanship.
What he practiced wasn’t the Sword of Fury so anger wouldn’t provide him any strength and it would only disturb his mental state.
Wild Horse tilted his head and glanced at his broken arm, and put out the anger in his heart. It was all because of Servant Huan that he had lost his arm. Servant Huan was, after all, a life. Even if he was ten times smarter, he was still just a life like everyone else.
Wild Horse regained the familiar old feeling.
Old Man Mu chuckled. “Dragon King, it’s not looking good. Little Wild Horse doesn’t seem to have been fooled. Do you have a backup plan?”
Gu Shenwei didn’t have any backup plans. All his efforts had been made in the hopes that Wild Horse could improve his swordsmanship faster. This was an ‘open stratagem.’
He turned to Lotus, who was sitting in the chair, and asked, “Does the Master Commander have any more strength to fight?”
Lotus nodded and stood up, her body swaying slightly. Obviously, she hadn’t fully recovered from the injury yet as a trace of red could be seen flushing across her face.
