Death Scripture

Han Fen was very thoughtful. She was worried that the mediocre food and water might go bad in a month, so she had come up with a supposedly good method to spare her prisoners from some needless worry and fatigue.

"There are ten sheep here. This large pile of grass should suffice. I know that the Dragon King has a dagger on him, so just kill one of the sheep every few days; you can eat their meat, drink their blood, and refuel the lamp with their fat – be sparing with them though, since I didn't expect that there would be so many of you."

They were thrown into a long corridor about a hundred steps in length and seven to eight feet in width, with ten or so oil lamps lining the walls. At the end of the corridor, there was a bale of hay that had a half-green, half-yellow color, and ten sheep were duly chewing on it, unaware of their predestined fate.

Sitting face to face, the four people were transfixed by Han Fen's plan. After recovering from the shock, Old Man Mu, Lu Mian and Deng Yuanlei were hesitant to believe her words, and only Gu Shenwei knew that Han Fen was serious.

Old Man Mu had met a lot of Waning Moon Hall disciples and he knew that Han Fen was different from the others, but he didn't know how different, so he asked, "You're kidding, right?"

"I'm not." Han Fen shook her head and explained, "If I were kidding, I'd usually say something like, uhmm. Here's a joke – once upon a time, there was a corpse…"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Old Man Mu believed her now. "Eating meat and drinking blood. I can live with that. But what about the other stuff? How are we supposed to kill the sheep when we barely have the strength to eat grass?"

"You're under the influence of two knockout power. While the Indra Fragrance can't be naturally detoxified, the paralytic powder's effects will wear off in a few hours. You'll be as strong as a normal person and killing a sheep shouldn't be a problem then."

"I don't want to be normal!" Old Man Mu cried, but he also knew that this kind of protest wouldn't help. "And what about relieving ourselves? Is there an extra room?"

"There're plenty of rooms here, but they're all locked up securely and can't be opened. Even if they could be, don't, as there're ghosts in there…" Han Fen lowered her voice, and pointed out with her arms at the two ends of the long corridor. "The sheep shit there, and you can shit here. See, I have it all figured out."

This was all because of the Dragon King. If her prisoner were someone else, Han Fen might not have been so "thoughtful." Gu Shenwei had no idea whether he should be thankful or not. "Han Fen, the next time you end up in my hands, I'll repay this favor double."

Han Fen smiled so broadly her eyes squinted, and the lamp on her head tottered. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

With an exit close to the hay, Han Fen left, leaving the four people eying one other alone in hostility.

Old Man Mu didn't think that much of their situation, and there was only one thing that concerned him. "Han Fen was such a foolish girl. Now we know the positions of both exits, we can leave once we recover, right?"

Deng Yuanlei discovered that they still had an advantage, so he responded with two laughs and said, "In a short while, Sect Leader Lu and I will be leaving. But you guys, unfortunately, will still be prisoners. Because right up there is the camp of the Qingcheng Sect, so neither of you are going anywhere."

Out of the corner of his eye, Old Man Mu glanced at his ally and commented, "Dragon King, this kid said that we're still going to stay here as prisoners. You agree with him?"

Gu Shenwei had been staring at Lu Mian who was in front of him this whole time. The efficacy of the antidote made by Doctor Sun was very slow, and he had only recovered a small portion of his internal energy. He believed that the recovering speed would speed up once the effects of the paralytic powder wore off. "I'm afraid not. But the Qingcheng Sect can keep the sheep."

"Haha, you're so generous, Dragon King. You guys, hurry up and kowtow to show your gratitude."

Deng Yuanlei snorted. "Enough with this nonsense! It's almost noon. The Dragon King won't be able to make it to the kung fu competition. Aren't you worried?"

"Why should he be?" Old Man Mu couldn't kill anyone at the moment, so bickering was the only source of fun left for him. He naturally wouldn't give up any chance to do so, not to mention that bickering could actually buy them some time at the moment. "There are thousands of kung fu experts among the Dragon King's troops, and any one of them is capable of kicking the Qingcheng Sect's ass until they kowtow and beg for their lives. Oh, right, Dragon King, don't we still need some servants to clean up the toilets? The Qingcheng Sect has dozens of people and they would fit that role quite well. Haha, maybe you should change your name from Qingcheng Sect to Shit-Cleaner Sect… Eek, how can you stand up?"

Lu Mian had stood up. Although he was leaning against the wall and appeared quite feeble, his mobility had clearly recovered.

"Amazing! Sect Leader!" Deng Yuanlei praised in extreme excitement. "All that Indra Fragrance and paralytic powder, they are nothing to our Sect Leader. Now you can see the true strength of our Qingcheng Se — "

"Shut up!" Lu Mian reprimanded in a low voice, his left hand pushed against the wall. For all these years, he had cultivated both external and internal kung fu skills simultaneously, which made his constitution much more robust than others', so he had recovered from the paralysis in advance, but his internal energy still hadn't returned.

He also had a dagger. "Dragon King, it's about time we begin our kung fu competition. Let's do it."

Old Man Mu was startled, and in a hurry he cried out, "No, it's not fair! Where are the rules? Where are the morals? You're the Sect Leader of the Qingcheng Sect, so stop acting like a vulture."

"Heh, only when the Dragon King is defeated and the Khan's head is retrieved will I be the true Sect Leader of the Qingcheng Sect."

"No, you can still be counted as a hero, right? The Dragon King is in such a bad condition, you'd be no hero by defeating him now."

Deng Yuanlei was overjoyed, and he reprimanded, "Since when did you want to be a hero, Old Man Mu? I've heard a lot of your 'heroic' deeds. Even killing you ten times wouldn't be enough to redeem your sins."

"It's not me but the Sect Leader of the Qingcheng Sect who wants to be a hero, right?"

"Killing monsters and devils is exactly what a hero should do," Lu Mian replied in a grave tone, shuffling slowly towards the Dragon King.

"Bravo!" Deng Yuanlei's voice sounded a little feeble, yet this cry still echoed through the walls. "Old Man Mu and the Dragon King, an old devil and a young devil, are both going to be executed by the Sect Leader of the Qingcheng Sect on this day. Afterwards, the news will spread throughout the whole martial arts world, and everybody will show their admiration!"

Lu Mian had a cold expression, but he didn't stop Deng Yuanlei's flattering. On the contrary, he felt that it was helping him recover his strength faster.

"I won't kill you two." As he stood before the Dragon King, Lu Mian's body stopped shaking. "But I will cut the tendons of your legs and arms. And then I'll decide whether you should be killed or not after you hand over Khan's head."

"You think I'm going to yield?" Gu Shenwei asked calmly, trying hard to gather as much internal energy as he could.

"I'm not sure. Most people tend to change their attitudes when the state of their bodies change from normal to extreme pain, and I'd like to see how you react, Dragon King."

"Try it on him first, and maybe I'll change my attitude sooner," Gu Shenwei said.

"Ah? Dragon King, I don't have that much flesh left on my bones…"

Deng Yuanlei burst into laughter. "Old Man Mu, you're the Dragon King's inferior, and you should volunteer to take the penalty for your king. How could you try to evade it? You evildoers."

Lu Mian glanced back and forth at the two and eventually focused on Old Man Mu, "Not only am I going to sever your tendons, but also your tongue, so that you will never be able to speak nonsense again."

Deng Yuanlei gave several cheers at this statement.

Old Man Mu shut his mouth right away as though he would never talk again.

Lu Mian grabbed one of Old Man Mu's arms and aimed the dagger at his wrist.

Old Man Mu had once had his tendons cut by Lotus and he knew what it felt like, so he couldn't help cry out loud, "Dragon King, I'm going to tell them the truth!"

Gu Shenwei threw a palm strike at Lu Mian's right knee, which used up all the internal energy that he had painstakingly saved up.

With a screech, Lu Mian several hops back and whirled around before falling to the ground. As luck would have it, the dagger in his hand coincidentally stabbed into Deng Yuanlei's left shank.

Lu Mian passed out, and his screeching was replaced by that of Deng Yuanlei's.

The screech was like divine music to Old Man Mu, who closed his eyes and listened for a while before saying, "Dragon King, shall we leave now?"

"I can't." Gu Shenwei still had to wait for the effect of the paralytic powder to wear off.

Old Man Mu was deeply disappointed. But then, when he looked at Deng Yuanlei who was lying opposite to him and sweating in pain, he rejoiced again. "Hey, Old Deng, you're from the Central Plains, so didn't you make prediction with your divination techniques? Your luck is running contrary to the White Tiger constellation, which makes you extremely vulnerable to metal, so every time you came near a weapon today, you were hit by it. Haha!"

Deng Yuanlei's hand, shoulder and leg had been wounded consecutively. Especially this time, the pain came from deep in the bone, which left him unable to even hear Old Man Mu's teasing. As a kung fu expert of the Qingcheng Sect, after suffering a series of agonies, he regained control of himself and with an unyielding spirit, he regained part of his mobility.

It was not until he had pressed his hands to his calf that he realized this.

He made up his mind, pulled out the dagger, tore off a part of his clothes to dress the wound, bound up his shoulder carelessly, took up the bloodstained dagger, and stood up against the wall, with a murderous look on his face. "In the end, it seems that I am the only one I can rely on. Dragon King, are you ready to take a knife strike?"

Old Man Mu was startled again. "Dragon King, it seems that you'll have to do the palm attack again." But he knew the Dragon King's true condition, and his words were just a bluff.

However, Deng Yuanlei refused to take any more risks. After a few laughs, with his left foot dragging behind on the ground, he shuttled towards the entry they had come in through.

"Dragon King, do you have another contingency plan?" Old Man Mu asked in a low voice.

"What do you think?"

"I hope you do. But judging by your current look, I figured that the contingency plan might not come into effect any time soon."

"Hmph, that's right."

Deng Yuanlei arrived at the front of the door, and found the switch after searching for a while. Then he started pressing and twitching it like Han Fen had done so before, but no matter how hard he tried, the door wouldn't budge a bit.

Han Fen was not stupid, and she left nothing up to chance. There was nothing special with the security mechanisms in the mausoleum except that they required great strength to press the switch down.

Deng Yuanlei finally understood, but he was still reluctant to accept reality, so he shuffled to the exit through which Han Fen had left. Yet still no luck. He could move, but he had no internal energy.

Deng Yuanlei sat down in disappointment. Watching the fat sheep not far away, he wanted to kill one right away, but then something occurred to him and he twisted his head to look at the Dragon King.

Old Man Mu made eye contact with him. "It turns out that you're not so idiotic after all. Figured it out yet?"

Deng Yuanlei stood up excitedly and exclaimed, "The Dragon King still has his internal energy, so he can open the door, right?"

"Of course he can," Old Man Mu answered immediately, "but Han Fen gave these sheep to the Dragon King specially, so Dragon King won't leave until he eats all the sheep."

"I've always known that the Dragon King wasn't a common person. The Waning Moon Hall has been bragging about the Indra Fragrance all the time, yet the Dragon King has never been worried about it. Dragon King, I will-"

The stone door opened suddenly. A person rushed in and roughly pushed Deng Yuanlei who was in her way into the sheep herd, "Oh, crap. This is bad!"

After closing the door, Han Fen was still worried, so she had pressed her ear against the door and listened for a while. After rushing in, she turned to talk to the Dragon King. "Hall Leader is right above. What should we do?"

Old Man Mu's eyes lit up. "That woman must have come to rescue me… and the Dragon King. Alas, we're friends after all. Han Fen, don't be afraid. Wuxian will spare you if the Dragon King and I plead to her on your behalf."

Han Fen shook her head vigorously. She might be naive, but if there was one thing she would never believe, that was that the Hall Leader of the Waning Moon Hall would show mercy to someone. "No, I have to get out of here." Then she ran beside the Dragon King and pushed him aside. It turned out that there was actually a third door.

"I have to take you with me." Han Fen picked up the Dragon King, and after some quick thinking, she also picked up Old Man Mu with her other hand.

"What about us?" Deng Yuanlei crawled out of the sheep herd and asked.

"I don't know. Take care of yourself," Han Fen was extremely scared. She pressed a switch with the tip of her foot, opened the door, and was about to escape through another path.

Deng Yuanlei had a difficult choice to make: he didn't think that going with Han Fen would do him any good, but he was also worried that nobody would come to rescue him if he chose to stay. But eventually, with a foot still dragging on the ground, he shuffled desperately in an attempt to follow them. After a few steps, he glanced at Lu Mian who was still on the ground, unconscious. Recalling that his future was dependent on this Sect Leader, he helped him up.

Han Fen put Old Man Mu down, took an oil lamp off of the wall, and placed it on her head. Then she picked him up again. Looking into the pitch-black corridor, she said to herself, "Better a ghost than the Hall Leader. Better a ghost…"