Death Scripture

Standing in the snow, Shangguan Hong felt so cold that his face had turned a ghastly pale, but this was not the main problem concerning him. A possibly fatal issue he was facing was that he had run out of antidotes.

There was a price for rapidly improving his Daoless Divine Power with the help of the Seven Rotation Skill. The quantity of Shangguan Hong's Qi and blood was far more than that of a common person. For a man who had lost his genitalia, this was very ironic, but he would rather endure pains that others couldn't see than become a dwarf like Old Man Mu.

There were two methods of subduing his Qi that went into a violent circulation at irregular intervals. The first one was to bleed himself, but this method could only alleviate the symptoms, and should only be used when he had no other choice. And after he bled himself, Shangguan Hong would always feel horrified and worry that the scars on his body would be more than those on the Dragon King.

The other method was more effective and also milder. Lotus had made some special pills for him, which could helped restrain the uncontrollable Qi in him. The only downside was that all of these pills were in Lotus' hands, Shangguan Hong had no idea what ingredients they were made of, and neither did he have an easy way of accessing them.

He had taken the last pill two days ago. By no means could Shangguan Hong have expected that he would have to stay at the uninhabited bottom of this cliff for three full days. He didn't dare leave, but he was so anxious that he felt like he was about to go crazy.

'Nobody cares about me,' Shangguan Hong secretly complained in his head with his back to the five killers, cautiously controlling the anger in him. He was not yet eligible to vent his mood.

'I'll have to wait until I master the swordsmanship.' Shangguan Hong constantly fantasized about that day. On the top of the border wall between southern and northern Jade City, he had killed that assassin, believing that he had become a top killer. But then soon after, he had been hit by that mysterious sword blow in a small alley in southern Jade City, which had cruelly shattered his illusions.

'That guy's swordsmanship was so good.' Shangguan Hong still felt horrified at the thought of that sword strike. If weren't for the fact that he had ran away quickly enough, he probably would have died in southern Jade City without even knowing who had killed him. That sword strike was somewhat similar to the moves in the Death Sutra, but it also felt different from what he had learned.

What Shangguan Hong had adopted was the cultivation method of "Killing Enemies," which was callous and ruthless. In order to kill one person, he had to have the determination to massacre hundreds and even thousands of people all at once. But that mysterious person's killing aura was barely detectable. It was more like…

Preoccupied with his own thoughts, Shangguan Hong suddenly discovered that the killers behind him had pulled out their sabers, so he raised his head and saw a small figure walking towards them in the light of the setting sun.

"Is it Old Man Mu?" Shangguan Hong asked loudly. The figure was too far away for him to gauge his actual height.

"Ha-ha. Take a guess."

It was definitely his voice.

"Why are you… Where's the Dragon King?"

"The Dragon King's at the camp. He sent me here to tell you that everything's fine. You may leave."

Shangguan Hong was relieved, but soon, a wave of uncontrollable anger swept over him. "Okay," he said, trying hard to remain calm.

"You feel that you were played, so you're very unhappy, right?" Though he was far away, Old Man Mu could still easily tell that there was anger in Shangguan Hong's tone.

"We're all following orders. There's no point in being happy or unhappy." Shangguan Hong walked towards Old Man Mu with the five killers, his voice more composed now.

"Heh-heh. We're all following orders, but orders have different contents. Handmaids have orders to clean the floor, make beds, and fold quilts. Soldiers have orders to fight enemies. Scouts collect intelligence. Generals command armies from their tents. The ones who followed the Dragon King into the castle are his henchmen. And who were the ones who stayed down here as lookouts? Oh, you guys. Ha. I guess that if I left a dog here, it also would have fulfilled the task just as well."

Old Man Mu was in a good mood, so his words were meaner than usual. Even the five killers who had been rigorously trained by Hu Shining glared at him. Shangguan Hong was even angrier than them. Blood was surging upwards into his head, veins were protruding on his forehead, and his eyes were ablaze with fury.

Old Man Mu specifically ran a few steps closer to him to get a clearer view, laughing in satisfaction. "If I had known that your anger would be so intense, then I would have brought you to the mountaintop. You could have burnt Golden Roc Castle with your fire of anger, so there would have been no need to set a fire."

"What?!" Shangguan Hong was taken aback. "The Dragon King burnt down Golden Roc Castle?"

Including the five killers, all six people turned their heads back and looked up, but besides the steep cliff, they saw nothing.

"It wasn't completely burnt down. There's still a part of it left standing. Alas, you guys must be the last batch of people of Jade City to hear about this, right?"

Surprisingly, Shangguan Hong was no longer angry. He didn't dare to get angry again. He could feel that there was something wrong with the surge of blood that had just flooded into his head. He didn't want to suffer through Qi deviation in front of Old Man Mu in the wilderness.

Old Man Mu would never easily pass up the opportunity to derive pleasure from humiliating others, so he kept nagging and flaunting his experience. It was pointless to laugh at Shangguan Hong and the others. The longer the listeners stayed silent, the more excited he got. He never stopped talking on the way back, but continued to give a full account of what happened last night.

As Old Man Mu talked, Shangguan Hong became more and more startled. When they walked out of the river valley, it was totally dark. Looking in the direction of southern Jade City, which was over ten miles away and ablaze with lantern light, he couldn't help himself from asking, "The Master Commander and her subordinates invaded Golden Roc Castle, and the fight between her and the Unique King lasted for over a hundred rounds, and then the two sides called a truce. How… How is this possible?"

"I saw it with my own eyes. How could it be false?" Old Man Mu greatly exaggerated this fact, but he had no intention of correcting it.

Shangguan Hong stopped. He didn't expect that the situation of Jade City would change drastically again in just a few days, so he had to think carefully about what he should do next.

The five killers went into the woods to fetch the horses. With a big smile on his face, Old Man Mu looked at Shangguan Hong. "We are the only two people who have ever practiced the Seven Rotation Skill. Isn't this some kind of destiny? We should get to know each other better."

"Humph."

"Ha-ha. I knew it. Kung fu changes people's temper. Now, even Shangguan Hong has become somewhat proud. Be careful, though. Don't forget how to be humble too soon, since you still have several masters to serve – the Dragon King, Lotus, the Queen, the Unique King, Madam Meng… "

Shangguan Hong snatched the reins on a horse and galloped west towards Jade City. The five killers watched his receding figure with a surprised expression, perplexed.

Curling his lips, Old Man Mu shook his head. "Decayed wood cannot be carved. He can't even handle such petty teasing. Shangguan Fei is way better than him. This is so boring… How long have you guys been killers for? And your surnames and given names? Let's chat as we ride."

The five killers stared at one another speechlessly and then leaped onto their horses at the same time, galloping towards the army camp in the east. As the only one left, Old Man Mu scratched his head and mumbled, "It turns out that Wild Horse was the most obedient. Dumb people also have their own strengths."

Ever since City View Alley had been burnt down, Shangguan Hong had lost contact with Waning Moon Hall. Upon entering southern Jade City, he became perplexed. People on the streets and those in taverns were all heatedly discussing the Waning Moon Hall and the Master Commander. Some of the messages were even more dramatic than Old Man Mu's account, but nobody knew the whereabouts of Lotus.

Waning Moon Hall had obtained a public identity, but those weird women had no intention of appearing in public at all and still acted in a mysterious manner. After walking out of the stone castle, they had disappeared like usual before reaching Northern Jade City.

The only clue was the Essence Pavilion. City View Alley had been burnt to ashes, but a plaque with the Essence Pavilion's name on had just been hung up at the busiest street in southern Jade City this afternoon.

Shangguan Hong didn't like Wild Horse. Like two birds born in the same nest, they held a natural hatred towards each other, but Shangguan Hong had no other choice. He could only get in touch with Lotus through the Essence Pavilion, which doubled his jealousy.

'The Master Commander chose me herself,' he thought. 'She imparted a top-notch kung fu to me and also gave me the antidote. She must have a big plan for me. By no means will she have forgotten about me like this.'

The busiest street in southern Jade City was Retention Alley. And the best building in the Retention Alley used to belong to Xiao Fengchai. Now, it had become the Essence Pavilion.

A group of eccentric men who had moved out of City View Alley had chosen to relocate their businesses to Retention Alley. Many people felt surprised, but some also found it understandable. "City View Alley and Retention Alley have always been on good terms. It's just that one of them relied on women to prosper, and the other depended on pansies for its survival. Now they've become family. The business of Retention Alley is sure to boom."

Retention Alley wasn't strange to Shangguan Hong, but he had never spent the night here. In the past, it was because he didn't have enough money. Now, the issue of money aside, the loss of an important part of his body was a second reason, so he was very embarrassed at seeing those excited whoremasters and prostitutes hanging around.

The Essence Pavilion, which had just hung a new plaque above their gate, attracted a lot of people's attention. More than a hundred people crowded the part of the street in front of the gate, most of whom were rich whoremasters accompanied by their favorite prostitutes, and they were then followed by their attendants carrying wine for them. All of them were having heated discussion about what kind of business the Essence Pavilion was going to offer.

"Fortune-telling? It is said that Immortal Peng reincarnated again. I wonder if he still has his fortune-telling skills."

"Is it possible to cover the rent for a building in the Retention Alley by merely relying on fortunetelling? I think they'll go back into their previous profession."

"What kind of previous profession?"

"The one they were in when they were in City View Alley. Don't play dumb. A month ago, I saw you stealthily go there with my own eyes."

Those prostitutes unhappily complained. "Alas, they can't just show up and vie with us for business like this. We've waited so long for Xiao Fengchai to leave. And now, these guys have turned up. Men should have men's places, and women should have women's. Now that City View Alley is gone, they should find somewhere else to rebuild their business. Why did they have to come here to steal business from a bunch of poor women?"

The onlookers continued to argue and gossip, but the gate of the Essence Pavilion was closed, and nobody walked out. It seemed as if the people in there had no intention of doing any business at all.

Shangguan Hong was too embarrassed to knock on the gate in front of so many people, so he stayed among the crowds, hoping that these onlookers would clear away soon due to the cold weather.

Those whoremasters ran out of wine, and their prostitutes began to complain about the cold. The whoremasters also felt that it was too boring to stare at the gate, so some of them gradually walked away. But at this time, someone walked out of the building, seemingly with something to say. People immediately gathered in front of the gate again.

This man was clearly a sabersman. He was in his early twenties and very handsome, and he instantly caught a couple of whoremasters' fancy. It seemed that the Essence Pavilion's business today wouldn't be too bad.

But the young sabersman's words disappointed them "If you have any grudges against or hold hatred towards someone and want to get your revenge, then come to us. The best killers under the sun are all in the Essence Pavilion, and we are at your service."

After saying this, the sabersman turned around and walked back into the building.

It turned out that the Essence Pavilion was actually going to vie with Golden Roc Castle for business, which astounded the onlookers. Surprisingly, nobody started to talk about this new topic which was clearly well worth discussing. As luck would have it, a gust of cold wind blew over, and with that, all the people around cleared off immediately. The prostitutes who worked in the brothels near the Essence Pavilion were panicking, all thinking that they might have to move to another place.

But Shangguan Hong's heart was lit with excitement. Taking advantage of the feeble state that the Golden Roc Castle was in, the Master Commander wanted to vie with the castle for business in the assassination profession which the castle had been established in for so many years. Shangguan Hong believed that this was the perfect field for him to display his prowess.

But soon, the churning blood and Qi in his body began to bother him. Shangguan Hong stroked the dagger in his front inside pocket, thinking that he might have to stab himself to ease the symptoms.

A window of an upstairs room was suddenly opened, revealing Wild Horse's peculiar face. The look on that face was even more arrogant than the Dragon King's, as if he was a true king, and the one standing outside the building was merely one of his subjects who had crawled his way here to request an audience with the king.

Shangguan Hong's right hand slowly slid to the hilt of the soft sword wrapped around his waist. He had planned to return to the Master Commander through the Essence Pavilion, but now, it suddenly dawned on him that Wild Horse was the biggest obstacle in his path.