Death Scripture

Monk Lianye allowed the macheteman to strike him with the wooden saber without resistance, before shattering the weapon with his body.

The move created a controversy among the three judges and hundreds of spectators. What if it was a real saber instead of a wooden one? The monk would have been split in half. This was the Machete God Contest. The monk had somewhat violated the rules for not using a saber in the contest. It was difficult to convince the public that Monk Lianye won the contest just by shattering a wooden saber.

Master Lianye became angry. Only his senior, Lianhua’s chanting could subdue this vigorous force within him. However, he had no qualms restraining himself since his senior had passed away. “Bring over a real saber!” His loud voice echoed across the arena like a booming thunder roaring above everybody’s heads. Those timid spectators wanted to cower in fear.

The three judges were still hesitating. Then, someone threw a saber onto the stage.

The macheteman picked up the saber and looked at the monk. He had already suffered a terrible defeat and was thinking of a way to save some face. “You asked for it, monk.”

“Come at me!”

Lianye shouted out every single word. The macheteman was terrified. He wanted to hop off the arena and admit defeat, but he was holding onto a real saber. Hence, he could only bite the bullet and attack the monk.

“Receive my moves,” the macheteman shouted. As compared to the monk’s roar, his voice was akin to a child’s squabble.

The monk didn’t budge when the saber came towards him. When the blade touched his body, he suddenly shouted, “Go!”

Although the macheteman readied himself for the monk’s roar, the roar still made him feel lightheaded. Even though the saber landed on the monk’s chest, the move did not have much strength.

Lianye’s internal breath was akin to that of an avalanche and a tsunami. The weak short sword was caught in the powerful force. In a moment, the sword which was made of fine steel was shattered into three pieces, leaving only the handle in the macheteman’s hands.

The macheteman was stunned. Even though he didn’t use much strength, the saber was destroyed purely by the monk’s Internal Strength. He murmured, “Holy monk,” admitting defeat in public and exclaimed, “Holy monk!”

This was the contest after Tie Linglong’s defeat. Lin Xiaoshan, the macheteman witnessed the entire process. Like all the other spectators, he was awestruck. “Lianye had mastered the body of Diamond Sutra. Some even said that there was an apparition of Holy Monk Lianhua. The holy monk protected his junior from harm.”

Gu Shenwei did not believe it. He had once stabbed Lianye with his Five Peaks Saber so he was sure that the monk was a mere human.

“All the machetemen are going crazy about it. Dragon King, let’s use real sabers since Lianye is not afraid of them. Five Peaks Saber is a rare weapon. I’m sure it can penetrate the monk’s kung fu.”

Gu Shenwei found himself in a difficult position. Both the Five Peaks Saber and the Dragon Head Sword could penetrate Lianye’s kung fu, but it would portray him as a coward. However, he was not certain if he could win by using a wooden saber.

This time, Lianye caught on to the Dragon King’s weakness.

Gu Shenwei remembered what Mama Xue once said when she was teaching him kungfu. She said that his fists were the foundation, but it could never win against weapons. Killers used sabers to win against both sabers and bare fists. All these made a lot of sense to him at that time. However, he did not expect that there would come a day whereby he had to do away with his identity as a killer and resort to fighting with his bare fists.

Fang Wenshi knew nothing about martial arts, so he didn’t think about it much. He simply assumed that Dragon King would definitely win. The key was how he would win. “You cannot let the Four Truths Temple lose face. You need to achieve a balance. You need to win beautifully and let the monk save his face. Do you know what I mean, Dragon King?”

The military counselor was of no help. Gu Shenwei ordered everyone to leave the room as he tried to come up with a solution.

He still remembered the scene when Lianye fought with the expert from Barren Sect. He knew that once the wooden saber was broken, he had to face Lianye with his bare fists. He would likely lose.

It seemed like the only way to solve this problem was to use the Five Peaks Saber shamelessly.

Gu Shenwei still hoped that he could convince Lianye. Only the monk could explain away the doubts that he had.

Jiang was carefully wiping the cabinet on one side. She was now able to use a cloth and her face did not blush as much as before. Gu Shenwei looked at her and thought of something. He asked, “Do you know kung fu, Jiang?”

Upon hearing Dragon King’s question, Jiang was shocked. The cloth in her hands dropped onto the floor. She picked it up hurriedly and blushed. She then said in a soft voice, “I don’t know.”

Gu Shenwei was somewhat disappointed. He had once recalled seeing women of Great Snow Mountain fighting fiercely with one another in close combat, and their valor was comparable to swordsmen. He was hoping to learn a few techniques, but Jiang appeared bashful and didn’t seem like a person who know how to fight.

Gu Shenwei stood up. Jiang knew his habits very well now. Knowing that Dragon King was going to head out in the night again, she quickly passed him his black cape.

Gu Shenwei did not alarm anybody in the residence. He sneaked into North City by himself.

There was something that he should have solved some time ago. He had been procrastinating till now. It couldn’t wait any longer.

He came to the small temple where Lianhua was killed. Like always, he would climb over the wall and enter the premises after inspecting the surroundings.

No one was in the west wing. A faint breathing sound could be heard from the east wing.

This was not a wasted trip, Gu Shenwei thought to himself. He took out a dagger, pried open the lock and entered the room silently.

Lying on the bed was an overweight monk, who was sleeping soundly. He was the abbot who Gu Shenwei knocked out the last time.

Gu Shenwei kept his dagger and drew out his Five Peaks Saber. He then tapped the monk’s face with the saber.

The monk waved it off but did not wake up.

Gu Shenwei tapped with more force. The monk then opened his eyes dazedly. He noticed someone holding a saber in front of him, so he sat up straight immediately. He wanted to scream loudly but he did not dare to do so.

“Do you know who I am?”

The monk first shook his head, then nodded, “Dragon … Dragon King.”

“I have a few questions for you.”

“Yes. Dragon King, please ask. I won’t hide anything.”

“What did you see on the night when Master Lianhua was killed?”

“I … I saw Dragon King fighting with Master Lianye.”

“Before that.”

“I was sleeping at that time, so I didn’t know anything.”

Gu Shenwei pressed the Five Peaks Saber against the monk’s sturdy chest. “It seemed like you didn’t have a regular snoring pattern. You were snoring really loudly the other time. However, you weren’t snoring this time round.”

The monk’s face changed, “I … I … Is it … I don’t even know when I snore.”

“Master Lianye was grief-stricken when Master Lianhua was killed. He must have made a lot of noise then. Didn’t that rouse you up?”

“I didn’t know. I was sleeping soundly.”

“There are many kinds of machete skills. I can kill people in one blow or hundreds of blows. All of these are considered to be top machete techniques. Which one do you prefer?”

The monk did not understand what Gu Shenwei meant initially. He soon realized what Gu Shenwei meant by using multiple blows. It was used to torture a person instead of killing him. His face turned green as he started sweating profusely. He could not imagine how many blows his fat body had to undertake. “Don’t, Dragon King, don’t, I … I will tell you the truth.”

“I want the real truth.”

“Yes, the real truth. That day … that afternoon, Liu Qi came to me and gave me 20 silver taels. He wanted me to put something into both monks’ food. I refused, but he pressured me. He said that it wasn’t poison and wasn’t deadly. Never did I thought that the drug would cause Master Lianye to lose his sight temporarily and Master Lianhua to be assassinated. If I knew that this would harm someone’s life, I would have never done such a wicked thing. As a monk …”

Gu Shenwei interrupted him, “who is Liu Qi?”

“He … he…” The fat monk was trying to think of a way that best describes Liu Qi’s origins. He finally decided to use a simple method. He said, “He was a slave from the castle. His name was Slave Qing. Dragon King would probably know him.”

Gu Shenwei definitely knew Slave Qing.

Slave Qing used to be a companion for the twins. He then came down from the mountain to serve as a butler for Ninth Young Master, Shangguan Fei.

Gu Shenwei was extremely startled. Why would Shangguan Fei kill Master Lianhua, and tried to push the blame onto Dragon King? It didn’t benefit him.

“What did you know about Master Lianhua preaching to the machetemen at South City?”

“I really didn’t know about this. The two masters were only staying here temporarily and didn’t really talk to me.”

Recognising the hidden meaning in the monk’s words, Gu Shenwei raised his head and asked, “What did you hear?”

“Regarding this, there was once when I heard Master Lianye sobbing hard. He said that he had caused harm to Master Lianhua and would punish himself by committing suicide. Master Lianhua didn’t allow it and even reprimanded him. Really, that’s all. Dragon King, that’s all I know.”

Gu Shenwei spared the abbot’s life. As Great Snowmountain was currently in the middle of a peace negotiation, killing someone now would give Golden Roc Fort a cause for objection.

There was not enough time to find Slave Qing. Gu Shenwei returned to the Residence of Dragon King and pondered what Lianye had done to implicate Master Lianhua.

It was already late at night. Other than Jiang, there was someone else in his room.

Xu Yanwei was determined to pester Dragon King. She did not persuade him to do something directly. However, as long as she found a chance, she would beat around the bush and mention Shangguan Ru. Gu Shenwei once forbade Xu Yanwei from entering his room. Her ability to please people was further honed after serving Luo Ningcha for a few years, hence Dragon King’s orders were often not executed.

This was the case tonight.

Once Jiang noticed Dragon King, she stood up immediately and spoke fearfully, “Dragon King, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have let Sister Xu come in …”

Xu Yanwei smiled and said cheerfully, “Don’t blame her. I insisted on coming in. She wasn’t as strong as me so she was unable to stop me.”

Xu Yanwei might be slightly older, but she was as petite as her brother. All her strength would not even measure up to an arm strength of a girl from Great Snowmountain.

Gu Shenwei did not bother entertaining her, nor did he drive her out. He removed his cape and passed it to Jiang. He then leaped onto the bed and closed his eyes.

“Would you like to enter Stone Castle, Jiang?” Xu Yanwei took the Great Snow Mountain girl by the arm and continued chatting.

“I had never thought about it.” Jiang lowered her voice.

“Just look for me if you want to enter Stone Castle. I can guarantee that you can enter and leave the castle safely. You can even bring someone out. Nobody will suspect anything …”

Jumping off the bed, Gu Shenwei carried Xu Yanwei from the small bed and threw her out of the room.

“That person weighs about the same as me.” Xu Yanwei kindly reminded him from the outside. “And she knows how to leap onto roofs and vault over walls, so you won’t have to carry her.”

Gu Shenwei blew the lights out and slept. Jiang helped tuck his blanket corners and went back to sit on her small bed before lying down to sleep.

The next morning, Gu Shenwei brought ten swordsmen, ten machetemen, along with Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong to the Rouge Forest.

The spectacular occasion had reminded him of the duel that he had with Sword Sacrificer Ye Silang a few years back. That match was fought according to the ways of killers. The entire forest was the fighting ground. Today, he would be following the rules, which were laid out by the machetemen and would battle it out, face to face against a strong rival in a small arena.

Gu Shenwei did not sleep much last night, but he was quite refreshed. He had thought through several important matters and that gave him much more confidence in today’s match.