Chapter 238: Dagger
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The seventh chapter of Wayless Book had two versions. Gu Shenwei’s heart was racing. He asked about the origins of the text while he pretended to be concerned about Shangguan Ru’s safety.
“Alright, it’s okay to tell you,” Shangguan Ru said. She could not dissuade Slave Huan and had to say the truth, “The text on Eighth Sister-in-law’s plank was relatively short and Fifteenth Sacred Master was responsible for reciting it. Mother pressured him a little bit…”
Gu Shenwei suddenly realized that there was a special method to preserve the Wayless Book. A temple guard had to memorize the entire content and fifteen sacred masters would memorize different parts of the book to prevent any error and forgetfulness. They would check against one another annually. The temple guard would never casually leak out the contents and it was even more difficult to get the sacred masters to reveal them. However was still possible to make them reveal the contents by pressuring one of these masters, especially the last master. Hence, the “little pressure” applied by Lady Meng seemed to be effective.
“Did the Sacred Master recite the text to you?”
“No. After mother obtained the text, she handed it over to me,” Shangguan Ru answered. She stared into Gu Shenwei’s eyes and looked slightly confused. Slave Huan should be thrilled since he had received the text.
Gu Shenwei then revealed a warm smile and said, “This is great. I’m finally not restrained by the Missus. She can keep that plank.”
Shangguan Ru smiled. This was what she expected. She said, “Eighth Sister-in-law is too petty. She wants to get hold of everything.” She paused and asked again, “Was my father really in her…room that night?”
“It’s better for you to feign ignorance.”
Shangguan Ru kicked the boulder angrily and appeared to be in pain. Different people had different impressions of the Supreme King. In Shangguan Ru’s eyes, he was a strict but loving father. Few dared to gossip about the Supreme King in front of her. However, her father suddenly changed. Her third brother was the first to tell her about how unacceptable their father was. Then, it was followed by the incident concerning Eighth Sister-in-law.
Since the death of Master Yu, Shangguan Ru’s world was gradually collapsing, but it was far from over.
“Killers are always like this,” Gu Shenwei said. He could not think of any words to comfort her. Suddenly, without rhyme or reason, he thought of the crippled killer Tie Hanfeng and started talking about his past. He finally said, “Forgetfulness is a type of ruthlessness, and promiscuousness is also ruthlessness.”
Shangguan Ru felt that it was extremely unacceptable to kill people. However, she could come to terms with it. Little did she know, that was just the tip of the iceberg. There were too many unacceptable things that were beyond her imagination. She was disappointed, but she quickly detached herself away from it. She was unable to think so much as she was only fourteen.
“Hey, could you teach me swordcraft?” Shangguan Ru asked in order to change the subject so she could get rid of such meaningless thoughts. As if she was surrounded by a sea of evil, she hoped to isolate herself on a lonely island and stay like this forever.
“Swordcraft?” Gu Shenwei asked. Shangguan Ru changed the topic of conversation too abruptly and Gu Shenwei could not keep up with her.
“Didn’t you learn swordcraft at Joy Pavilion?”
“Those things,” Gu Shenwei said contemptuously, “Alright, I’ll teach you.”
There was a conflict between Emotionless Swordsmanship and swordcraft of Death Scripture. Gu Shenwei had not practiced Emotionless Swordsmanship for a long time. He used a wooden saber in place of a real sword and taught Shangguan Ru move by move.
Emotionless Swordsmanship appeared to be flamboyant without the cooperation of Secrets of Love. They seemed to be having fun, and they weren’t bothered by it.
Gu Shenwei didn’t practice Wayless Qigong that night. Instead, he was comparing the contents between the two versions of the seventh chapter of Wayless Book.
It was indeed different. Most of the contents were the same, but there were some keywords, which were completely the opposite. One wrote “Congealing Qi,” and the other wrote “Dispelling Qi.” One wrote “From Yin to Yang,” and the other wrote, “From Yang to Yin.” It was obvious that it was not an act of negligence, but rather, it was a deliberate forgery.
Although Gu Shenwei had a few suspects in mind, he calmly reconsidered all the possibilities.
The first suspects were the temple guard and the sacred masters. They had no reason to forge the contents as they knew if someone were to overhear any of the contents, they would just silence the person. There was no need to complicate things.
The second suspect was Maid Lotus; however, she had no reason to do it. She had numerous chances and methods to kill Slave Huan. Hence, she did not need to come up with a set of fake Internal Strength. Furthermore, she was suspended in the air while memorizing the content. It would be difficult for her to change the words within.
The next suspect was Shangguan Ru. However, she knew that Slave Huan had lost all his skills and could easily kill him.
The last suspects were Lady Meng and the Fifteenth Sacred Master. One of them must be the one who forged the contents. If the culprit was Lady Meng, she would first harm her daughter then Slave Huan. Therefore, Lady Meng was less likely to be the culprit. As for that Sacred Master, he was likely to forge the contents as he was pressured to say them, but he didn’t want to break his oath.
Thus, Shangguan Ru was the only victim.
Gu Shenwei hid both versions and didn’t mention about them to Maid Lotus. He hesitated whether to tell Shangguan Ru the truth. At this moment, he did not understand the hidden meaning behind the hesitation. A few days later, he realized that he had unconsciously changed.
Both of them continued to practice their swordcraft at the Giant Rock Cliff. Even though they knew the swordcraft was not very powerful, they still practiced diligently.
That afternoon, the autumn chill damaged a few fallen leaves. Shangguan Ru practiced slightly harder and her cheeks were flushed. Her mood was good and she had a naughty and dazzling smile on her face as though she could hum a tune at any moment.
At this moment, Gu Shenwei felt a sudden impulse to tell Shangguan Ru that there were some issues with her Wayless Qigong.
“What’s wrong with you?” Shangguan Ru asked with concern. She felt that there was something wrong with Slave Huan.
Gu Shenwei reminded himself that she was the daughter of his enemy. His hatred was like the tide on the ocean. But he couldn’t reignite it regardless how hard he tried. He said, “I’m a little tired.”
“Oh. I always forget that you currently have no Internal Strength. Let’s call it a day. How long have you been under the self-destruction for? Haven’t you recovered yet?”
“It’s been half a month. I think it’s almost over.”
Both of them left together. Shangguan Ru was hopping all the way as though she had returned to her old self. When they separated, she whispered, “I will give you the same gift tomorrow.”
Gu Shenwei became so afraid that he didn’t even eat his dinner. He was alone in the house and banned Slave Xin from entering. He was thinking, but he didn’t understand what was wrong with him and why he felt apologetic towards Shangguan Ru.
This was the first time. He felt more and more guilty ever since he obtained the fake seventh chapter. He often found himself defending Shangguan Ru so that he could prove that she wasn’t his enemy.
Indeed, what did Shangguan Ru do to hurt him? No, nothing at all. Shangguan Nu wiped out the Gus Family, but what does it have to do with Shangguan Ru? She neither participated in nor planned the killing.
The entire Golden Roc Fort was also innocent. They were an organization of killers and were employed to kill people. Now, it seemed that the employer was probably his in-law Wei Song. There was no difference between the Stone Castle and the saber, which was used to kill people.
Such thoughts scared Gu Shenwei.
Time was like running water and hatred was like a tough towering stone. As water flowed, the stone would be eroded. This was the first time Gu Shenwei felt that his hatred was being eroded in these three years. It had been the only thing that supported him, but now it became unfamiliar and distant.
No one, excluding himself, had ever called the name “Gu Shenwei” for a long time. The killer began to worry if he had completely became Slave Huan.
Maid Lotus visited him the next morning. Gu Shenwei, who stayed up all night, could not stand it any longer. He poured out some of his worries to her, but he didn’t mention the annihilation of the Gus Family. He said, “Killers need hatred, but I can’t seem to hate anything.”
Maid Lotus thought for a while and stretched out her hand to press against his forehead. Although she was indifferent, her palm felt warm and soft. Gu Shenwei realized that not only had he forgotten about his hatred, he had become more affectionate. Even though he often worked with Maid Lotus, he rarely felt something for her. However, he had an impulse to embrace her forcefully today.
Maid Lotus felt that there was nothing strange about Slave Huan and said, “I think that it is related to the lack of practicing the Death Scripture after you have dispelled your Internal Strength.”
“What do you mean?” Gu Shenwei asked eagerly. He hoped for an explanation and wished that his changes were caused by external forces.
“I heard from a killer mentor said that both the desire and the kung fu constitute the killing desire.” Maid Lotus pondered and recalled what she heard at that time, “The weak have no killing desire. The stronger the person, the stronger the killing desire. The killing desire and one’s strength are correlated. Although he had mentioned killing desire, it seemed appropriate for your current situation.”
Gu Shenwei gained a slight understanding but had another concern. Maid Lotus was implying that the Death Scripture was controlling him, instead of Gu Shenwei practicing it. What was the difference between this and Immortal Peng’s trick?
Gu Shenwei had once experienced true hatred. That feeling was strong, but it often made him lose his rationality. He would go all out for the sake of killing people. his hatred became more and more stable as he improved his kung fu. He could finally control it and often relied on it.
His hatred and killing desire diminished with the momentary loss of his kung fu. He had little true hatred left in him.
After Maid Lotus left, Gu Shenwei was still confused, but he couldn’t extricate himself from the confusion. He tried many ways to reignite the hatred, but he would give up halfway each time. It continued until Shangguan Ru arrived as promised, and she brought him a present.
“This was given to me by Eighth Brother a few years ago. I like it very much and have treasured it. It just so happened that you use a sword, so I decided to … give it to you,” Shangguan Ru said. She reluctantly handed the dagger to Slave Huan.
Gu Shenwei received it. He drew the sword out and looked at it. He said, “This is a good sword, but I don’t have any present for you.”
“You could probably give me a sword that has a name engraved on it?” Shangguan Ru asked as she laughed.
Gu Shenwei smiled, but he felt like someone was stabbing his heart. Instead of blood, hatred was surging out like a volcano eruption. The deep intense hatred, which he thought had been eroded away by time, suddenly emerged ferociously.
Regardless of who the employer was, Golden Roc Fort was still his enemy. Hadn’t Shangguan Ru hurt him before? She had betrayed the two giant rocs.
Gu Shenwei tightly gripped the dagger. He became less empathetic and fearful. Should he tell the truth? It was a ridiculous idea. He wanted to watch Shangguan Ru practice the wrong Wayless Qigong until she died painfully.
Gu Lun gave this dagger to his youngest son and the young personal attendant kept possession of it. After the attendant was killed by Young Master Gu, Shangguan Nu got hold of the dagger, which was then given to his sister, Shangguan Ru.
The Will of the Divine didn’t want to further weaken the killer, hence it made Shangguan Ru bring his most familiar dagger.
