Death Scripture

Gu Shenwei trotted to the stone house where he used to live. He wanted to find Elderly Zhang, as the old man was able to help him carry out the plot that he had planned beforehand.

Elderly Zhang was not in the room, but he was in the stable instead. He was looking after the Eighth Young Master’s horses. He rarely spoke when he was living with Slave Huan, but now he was chatting with the horses as if he was talking with some old friends, and he even did not notice that Slave Huan was coming over.

When he saw the old man being more intimate with the animals than with human beings, Gu Shenwei felt that the man was out of place in Golden Roc Fort.

“Ahem.”

Elderly Zhang quickly turned around. His serene face immediately fell, as if he changed a mask in the blink of an eye.

“Do me a favor,” Gu Shenwei directly said.

Elderly Zhang kept silent and did not even greet him, so Gu Shenwei had to speak first.

“I cannot help you.”

Elderly Zhang refused straightforwardly and began to do his work. His behavior seemed to indicate that the conversation was over.

Gu Shenwei did not leave, because he did not have a real friend in the fort and could not find another person who could help him. He waited. After Elderly Zhang added the fodder, washed the horses, swept the horse dung, and when he could no longer pretend to have something to do, Gu Shenwei tried again. “I want to meet the Eighth Young Master.”

“The master is not here.”

“I’d like to report a plot to the Eighth Young Master. It will occur next to him.”

Elderly Zhang suddenly stood up and took two steps towards Slave Huan. “I don’t know about the plot and I’m not interested in it. If you want to meet the master, you can go ahead. Don’t talk to me.”

Gu Shenwei stared at Elderly Zhang. He knew that the old man, despite his cold appearance, was a warmhearted and very compassionate person, so he pleaded, “I can’t survive this night without your help.”

Gu Shenwei exaggerated a little bit, but he did not lie to the old man. He speculated that Six Kills Temple would discover that the wooden saber was fake and then he would become the prime suspect.

“Everyone will die. It’s quite normal to die early in the fort,” Elderly Zhang retorted angrily.

He turned around and picked up a bunch of horse fodder, but he had to put the fodder back after seeing that the stable was still full. He turned back again and saw Slave Huan still standing there. He could not help but become angrier. “Piss off. I’m only responsible for feeding my horse. I don’t interfere in other people’s business. If you want to meet the master, you can go south to the academy. It’s just by the fort gate.”

“I cannot let others know about my meeting with the Eighth Young Master.”

Elderly Zhang sneered. He had talked too much to the teenager. He could not help it and sarcastically said, “You mean you want the master to meet you?”

Gu Shenwei nodded.

He wanted to stealthily meet the master, but he did not intend to hide it from Mama Xue. It might be difficult for Mama Xue to bribe the people in the fort, because of her surly Miss. He needed to do this so his plan would not be ruined by the Eighth Young Master’s enemies, such as Mister Guo.

This was important.

Elderly Zhang was astonished, but became increasingly furious as he thought the teenager was making fun of him. “You can wait patiently. There are too many servants in the fort. The master doesn’t have the time to meet all of us. I’ll tell him when he comes to ‘meet’ me.”

“The conspiracy that I want to disclose is about the Eighth Young Master himself.”

Gu Shenwei lied a little bit, but it was also important for him to let Shangguan Nu think that Mama Xue was his enemy.

Slave Huan looked serious. He did not appear as if he was being possessed by an evil spirit or was being drunk. Elderly Zhang had remained loyal to the master, therefore, he took the teenager’s words somewhat seriously. “The master will be back for supper. I’ll find a chance to tell him when I am leading the horse.”

“I cannot wait until tonight. I need to tell him now. Maybe it’s a bit late now.”

Gu Shenwei imagined that Six Kills Temple would fall into a state of panic after discovering that the wooden saber was fake, and the killers would search for the daring servant.

Elderly Zhang was quite ambivalent. He was faithful to his master, but he was reluctant to take part in a conspiracy. Even if he could further his career, he was also unwilling to step in, not to mention that he did not completely believe in Slave Huan.

In his eyes, Slave Huan was a weird teenager who looked preoccupied and sometimes showed scary eyes. Elderly Zhang thought Slave Huan was both pitiful and disgusting and he would never be a good servant.

Elderly Zhang seemed to make up his mind. Going back to his stable, he picked up the bunch of fodder he just threw back. Nevertheless, after turning around, he threw it again, walked to Slave Huan and said angrily, “You’d better not lie to me, or I’ll use you to feed the horses. They’ll eat you until nothing is left.”

At this moment, the six horses inside the stable sneezed together.

Gu Shenwei returned to the stone cottage to wait. He speculated that Elderly Zhang had a special relationship with the Eighth Young Master, beyond that of a relationship between an ordinary servant and a master. The posture of Elderly Zhang stepping away after he agreed had confirmed his thought. While he waited, Gu Shenwei used the time to think about his whole plan over again.

He could not be Mama Xue’s match by himself. To snitch on Mama Xue was his only way out, but it was a delicate matter to choose the person whom he should report to.

Normally, the people who were told about the conspiracy would catch Mama Xue as soon as possible, subject her to cruel torture and force her to confess about her leader. The first thing Mama Xue would confess was Slave Huan’s origin.

Only one person might directly kill Mama Xue without interrogation. That was the Eighth Young Master, Shangguan Nu. He was at a low ebb of his life and desperately hoped to change his father’s impression of him, so he hoped that something bad would never happen in his yard again. Han Shiqi’s death had already embarrassed him. If the people brought by his wife caused a problem again, he would again be blamed for incompetence.

Gu Shenwei considered the whole thing from the Eighth Young Master’s perspective, and believed that the Eighth Young Master would immediately kill Mama Xue in an imperceptible way.

There were quite a few loopholes in his plan. Shangguan Nu might be eager to further his career and persist in interrogating Mama Xue; he might kill the informer after killing Mama Xue.

Gu Shenwei thought, “There’s no plan without any risk. This is the only way in such hopeless situation. There’s heavy fog ahead, but it’s better than the alternative which is death.”

In this fight with Mama Xue, his only advantage was that he was not afraid of death as well as his qigong deviation, which Mama Xue could probably never understand.

The Eighth Young Master Shangguan Nu quietly stood by the door, as if he had stayed here for a long time. He displayed a killer’s essential quality. He did not look displeased for having to “meet” a servant personally, nor did he appear anxious to hear about the details of a plot.

After overcoming the lingering fear for the enemy who had slaughtered his whole family, Gu Shenwei knelt down and told him everything. He divulged Mama Xue’s plot and the hidden place of the wooden saber of Six Kills Temple, without mentioning his secret that was in Mama Xue’s hands.

Shangguan Nu still did not reveal his thoughts. He stared at the servant for a long time and it seemed that he was more interested in the servant. “You didn’t snitch on Mama Xue at the beginning, but now you betrayed her.”

Gu Shenwei knew that his answer was of great importance so he had to carefully consider his words. “I beg for mercy, Eighth Young Master. I’m scared at the beginning. Mama Xue had powerful kung fu and threatened to kill me. I thought again and again, and finally realized that though I was brought by the Mistress, my real master was you. I certainly should consider my master’s interests, so I don’t think that I betrayed Mama Xue because she wants to hurt you. Eighth Young Master, she’s the traitor.”

Shangguan Nu sneered, as this servant was lacking in his efforts to flatter his master. However, there were a few words that matched up with his concerns. “My interests?”

“Mama Xue was the Eighth Young Master’s servant, but she didn’t care about the effects on the Eighth Young Master.”

Gu Shenwei was aware that he did not need to speak any more, otherwise, it would arouse Shangguan Nu’s suspicions and grievances.

Shangguan Nu’s left hand was accustomed to pressing on the hilt. Ever since his father had cut off his right hand, he had cherished his only knife-holding hand. Whenever he met the unknown teenager, he had a strange feeling, a sense of tension and hostility. The slight feeling was enough to stimulate his desire for killing.

One of the essential qualities for killers was to employ reason and abandon emotions. Shangguan Nu suppressed his indistinct, immature desire. He had once cut off several underlings’ palms in a rage. Afterwards, when he thought about it, he felt it was more stupid than killing the wrong person. His impulsive behavior was comparable to breaking the other hand by himself.

“Wait here.”

Gu Shenwei stayed in the stone cottage for a long time, but Elderly Zhang did not show up once, as the old man made up his mind to stay as far away from the “conspiracy” as possible.

Gu Shenwei even wondered whether his plan had failed. He originally thought that he would carry out his plan successfully, but now he felt his plan was childish and laughable. Shangguan Nu could interrogate Mama Xue in private and kill her after getting to the bottom of it.

At dusk, Shangguan Nu came back. Gu Shenwei had been worried for long so that his heart did not seem to beat. He felt like his chest and belly was dropping so that he did not feel hungry even though he had not eaten anything for a whole day.

Shangguan Nu brought back the wooden saber, threw it at the servant and only said, “Bring it with you when you go to meet Mama Xue at nine o’clock.”

Gu Shenwei was left in the stone cottage again, with the wooden saber in his hands. He ascertained that this was the wooden saber of Six Kills Temple that he had stolen.

Walking to the door, he looked outside through the seam of the door and stuck his ear against the wall to listen carefully, ensuring that no one was nearby. Then he lit the lamp and looked at the wooden saber carefully.

The wooden saber looked ordinary. Without the blade, it was almost the same as the Golden Roc Fort’s saber. It was around 72 centimeters long, shorter than the broadsword of the Gu family; it was extremely narrow, about three centimeters wide. The saber’s body was flat and straight, like an extended dagger or a shortened sword.

The saber’s hilt was covered with silk red string that looked new. This was probably the only difference.

Normally, the silk string would look somewhat blackened, if it was often held by people and was infused with sweat, but this wooden saber which contained a secret did not seem to be used.

Shangguan Nu wanted to use the saber as bait, which was in Gu Shenwei’s plan. However, it offered him a great opportunity to probe the secret.

When Mama Xue had glimpsed at the fake saber, Gu Shenwei had known that the secret was on the hilt.

Gu Shenwei carefully untied the knot and slowly took off the silk while thinking that the secret had better be worth the risk.