Death Scripture

Old Man Mu had never expected that accepting a disciple would be so difficult. He was on the verge of pleading, but Shangguan Ru was simply not the least interested. No matter how many reasons and advantages he put forward, she did not respond most of the time but lay sleeping soundly in the tent.

“If you learn my martial arts, you will be invincible. Everyone will fear you. Even just a suggestion of your skill and that Dragon King, or Monkey King, all of them will come running like a dog to please you.”

“Doesn’t Maid Lotus feel that she is very powerful? She won’t even be able to receive ten blows from you.”

“Think about it, you will reign across jianghu, you can either take your revenge or repay any favors. You can do whatever you want. You will have it all. You will hold power over the life and death of everyone like an emperor, but without the responsibility of governing the world. All beings are like ants to you and you are the god. Anyone who disobeys you will die. Even the ones who follow your lead will have to die too if they are not pleasing to your eye…”

Old Man Mu grew excited the more he talked and completely forgot that Shangguan Ru had a deep-seated hatred for all this stuff. When he finally realized this, it was even harder for him to take her in as a disciple.

After midnight, Old Man Mu quietened down for a while, but he started nagging again as soon as he hid into the luggage the next morning. This time, he changed his strategy and used thinly veiled threats instead of patient and earnest persuasion.

“Little girl, I know that you don’t like to kill. But I have to remind you that my hobby is killing. Especially when I am in a bad mood, I have to kill to vent my anger. You are now making me unhappy. When I recover my Kung Fu, the first thing I will do is to kill a hundred people, regardless of age or gender. I will kill every single person I see and it will all on you. Since you wouldn’t take me as your Master Shifu, all of them will die because of you…”

Old Man Mu’s threat had an effect, but it was not the effect that he wanted.

Shangguan Ru stopped walking and she pulled Old Man Mu out of his luggage and threw him to a few feet away. “Walk by yourself. Don’t follow me. I won’t protect you and I won’t learn your Kung Fu. We are not the same. Just come and find me the next time you want to kill me.”

Old Man Mu was most afraid of the sunlight. He covered his head with both hands and ran like the wind toward the shade of the horse’s belly. In agony, he begged for mercy. “Oh, you really have a hot temper, little girl. I was just kidding. We are in the middle of nowhere. Not even a rat is in sight, where can I go to kill people? Good girl, kind girl, the most beautiful girl in the world, put me back into the luggage, please! I can’t hold on any longer if this continues.”

Old Man Mu returned to the safety of the luggage as he wished and stayed quiet for a while. But instead of giving up, he changed his tactics once again. “I have an idea.”

Shangguan Ru continued walking forward and simply ignored him. Now that her abdominal pain had disappeared, she only wanted to get as far south as possible.

“I was moved by you.” Old Man Mu’s fingers wavered in the air in the luggage as if he was really remorseful. “Really, I have never seen anyone like you. You are highly skilled in Kung Fu but reluctant to kill. You would even give a helping hand to such a devil like me. Your kindness makes me feel ashamed of myself.”

However, his flattery had no effect on Shangguan Ru.

“I have made a decision. I will never kill anybody anymore even if I could recover all my Kung Fu. Just like you, Old Man Mu wants to be a good person, a nice person, a saint.”

Shangguan Ru gave a snort of contempt. She obviously did not believe him. But Old Man Mu was certain that he finally found what this little girl liked to hear.

“I want to kill people and people naturally want to kill me as well. The heroes of the world are not few and there are so many experts among them. There’s bound to be someone who is much stronger than me. Just like Dragon King and Maid Lotus. Within three years, if they join forces, they can defeat me. In another ten years, if they attain a higher level in Wayless Qigong and Dajue Book of Swordcraft, I won’t even be able to beat one of them.”

Among the many things that Old Man Mu had said, only these sentences made some sense. Shangguan Ru was a little surprised but still did not say anything.

“That is why I want to stop killing. I want to learn from good girl and repay evil with good. I hope to bury all my grudges in this life.”

Old Man Mu’s words seemed hypocritical, but he was very serious when he said all these. Then, he paused for a while and added very solemnly: “But I need your help.”

After saying this, Old Man Mu no longer spoke. Shangguan Ru waited for 15 minutes, then she couldn’t help but ask: ” What are you up to again? Whether you want to kill or not is totally your own business. How can I help in this?”

Old Man Mu felt smug when he heard Shangguan Ru speak. But he continued to maintain a serious tone. “It’s not easy to quit killing. It’s alright if you don’t have the capability. But if you can kill by using a finger, it is very hard to resist the urge. Like a habitual thief standing in front of unguarded treasures. Don’t you think it’s extremely difficult to quit?”

“It’s not that hard. Just put yourself in other people’s position. Be compassionate and considerate, naturally, you will feel that killing is wrong.”

“Little girl, you forgot that we are not the same. You are from heaven and I am from hell. The things that come very naturally to you, for me, it is even more challenging than ascending to heaven.”

Old Man Mu stopped talking once again, so Shangguan Ru could only take the initiative to ask, “Don’t keep me guessing. Go on! What can I do to help you? Destroy your Kung Fu for you?”

Old Man Mu was shocked by her words. For the past few days, he had been weak and fragile and at the mercy of Shangguan Ru. He would rather die than be an ordinary person. So he hurriedly said: “No! No! My Kung Fu is kind of special. If you destroy it, I will be dead as well. What I mean to say is, how about you supervise me instead? If I have the killing desire, you can quell it right away. After I get used to it, it would be much easier to quit killing eventually.”

“I am not your match.” Shangguan Ru pointed out the obvious loophole in Old Man Mu’s plan.

“You are practicing the Wayless Qigong. If you learn some moves from me, you will be able to defeat me.”

After beating around the bush for so long, Old Man Mu finally returned to his original goal.

“I won’t learn from you.” Shangguan Ru bluntly refused. “Your Kung Fu is cruel and domineering. It is better if it disappears completely.”

Deep down, Old Man Mu had plenty of unspoken criticism for this little girl, but he kept them to himself and said instead: “Not all of them, for example… Lightness Skills. I have good Lightness Skills, right? You can run or fight as you wish if you learn it. It can be a little domineering but it is not cruel at all. When I have the urge to kill, you can take away the person whom I want to kill and run without a trace. This way, you can save lives and do me a favor as well.”

Shangguan Ru knew Old Man Mu’s intentions. He wanted her to learn Lightness Skills so that they could escape from Maid Lotus at any critical moment. But Old Man Mu’s Lightness Skills was remarkable indeed. He could move faster than a running horse and make no sound at the same time. There was no harm in learning it. “Mastering Kung Fu will take some time since I need to study and practice diligently. Even if you teach me now, I won’t be able to master it in a short time. I still won’t be able to help you. If Maid Lotus catches up with us, let me talk to her. Maybe I can save your life without using force. But you have to promise that from now on, you will not kill people anymore.”

“Absolutely no more killing. I promise. But that woman is hard to deal with. We should have an alternative plan, right? Your foundation for Internal Strength is pretty good. For the others, it may take a year but you can make a breakthrough within a few days. ”

Shangguan Ru thought about it for a long time and finally said, “Okay.”

Old Man Mu was exhilarated and almost jumped out of the luggage. He couldn’t maintain his reserved manner anymore. “I will teach you now.”

“Wait, let me get this clear. I don’t want to take you as my Master Shifu.”

“It is a pity, but you can have it your way. Wildhorse wants to take me as his Master Shifu and I didn’t accept him as a disciple, but I still teach him Kung Fu anyway.”

“You… make a vow that you will not kill people anymore.”

Shangguan Ru didn’t really believe Old Man Mu’s words. Betrayals and broken promises were a common occurrence in her life, however, she still wanted to hear some promises.

“I, Old Man Mu, swear that I will not kill anyone from now on. I want to be a good old man who is willing to help others. If I break this vow, I will die without a burial place and will never see the wife of my master ever again for generations to come.”

It was the first time that Shangguan Ru heard someone sworn on “the wife of my master” in a vow. She was very surprised and asked, “What happened to the wife of your master?”

“Alas.” Old Man Mu sighed. These words seemed to be more true than the previous thousand speeches. “In order to express my sincerity, I will tell you about it. But you can never disclose it to anyone else.”

“Yeah, I won’t.” Shangguan Ru’s curiosity was aroused.

“In the past, I was tall and handsome. We were meant for each other. But my Master Shifu, that bastard, forcefully broke us up and injured me greatly. Then he used all means possible to torture her right in front of me. No part of her body was left unhurt when she finally died. It was then that I made a vow to avenge her with more cruel means on the world.”

Shangguan Ru was stunned by his story but she believed most of it. “But your enemy is only your Master Shifu. It has nothing to do with anyone else.”

“There are only two people in this world, me and the rest of the world. If one person hurts me, it is equivalent to the whole world hurting me. And if one person saves me, that is equivalent to the whole world saving me. So help me so that I will not kill anyone.”

Old Man Mu way of thinking was far too odd. Shangguan Ru was confused but judging by his tone, she felt that it might be true.

Old Man Mu seemed to be dwelling on the death of his love; it was rare to not hear him say a word for half a day.

“Teach me Lightness Skills, then.” This time, Shangguan Ru took the initiative to speak first.

“Oh right, we have some serious work to do. Okay, I will teach you Foxlike Movement Skill first. This set of Lightness Skills will improve your speed in running for a period of time. You can use it for escaping for for pursuing people. Either way, it is a perfect choice…”

“Foxlike Movement Skill? Is that the Lightness Skill whereby I will be on all fours when I use it?”

Shangguan Ru seen Old Man Mu escaping from the Dragon King’s sword before. That scene flashed across her mind immediately.

“Yes, it is. You may not be able to hold on for long when you just started learning it. But it will be more than enough for you to get rid of your pursuers at critical moments…”

“I don’t want to learn it.” Shangguan Ru refused before he could say more.

“Why?”

“It… it’s too ugly to be on all fours.”

It was the most unexpected reason. Old Man Mu was so surprised that he couldn’t respond. It took him some time before he asked confusedly: “Ugly? This is the best set of Lightness Skills in the world. Wildhorse begged me to teach him for dozens of times but I always refused him!”

“Anyway, I don’t want to learn it.” Shangguan Ru’s face was flushed. She had been raised as a boy since young, but her thoughts had gradually evolved after putting on women’s clothing, and she was very opposed to indecent behaviors.

Old Man Mu still could not understand, “This… you… don’t want to learn anything cruel, don’t want to learn anything ugly. Did you really grow up in Golden Roc Fort?”

Shangguan Ru pursed her lips and refused to change her mind. So Old Man Mu had to compromise again. “Okay. All right. Fortunately, I know a lot of Kung Fu. Otherwise, I would be really stumped by you. Uh, let me think… let me think… Yes, I’ll teach you another type of Lightness Skills. Although it cannot help you run fast, it can make your body flexible and it is best for evading attacks from enemies. It is not cruel, and it is very pretty. You know it just by the name – Subtle Shadow Lightness Skill…”

Suddenly, Shangguan Ru stopped walking, and the horse stopped too. Old Man Mu, who was in the luggage, realized that something was wrong. “What happened?”

“There are smoke and dust rising in the distance, maybe… Maid Lotus is catching up.”