Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
It had taken Chu Nanping two whole days and nights to capture that drifting shadow.
He followed the Dragon King’s requirement of avoiding the disciples of the Essence Pavilion, though not out of fear. As the only lone practitioner of the Essence of Perceiving Passion, his kung fu was already better than most of his fellow disciples, and Gu Shenwei hoped to strike a balance so that even if those weirdos had Shangguan Ru in their hands, they would not dare to make a move.
Chu Nanping had actually been hiding in the Royal Court. In the boundless grasslands that were as flat as a pancake, the perfect place for him to hide was actually the tented city. So he had been lurking around the Dragon Army’s camp while on the lookout for other lurking shadows.
Outside the camp, there were always some sneaky fellows, who either overtly or covertly watched every movement of the camp day and night. Chu Nanping’s task was simple. Instead of disturbing these people or warning the camp, he only had to ensure that there were no ‘tails’ following the Dragon King when he quietly went out.
This never happened.
But on the first night, he noticed something strange.
Formless and soundless, it was like a cloud’s shadow quickly drifting away. Chu Nanping suddenly felt something passing by fleetingly, as light as if it were just an illusion.
Those who were constantly in a state of alert often heard danger in every sound but this time it was different. Chu Nanping had a strange feeling that the illusion would turn into reality if he could rewind time.
He should have stayed in the tent he had rented beforehand in the day, but he couldn’t fall asleep. So he put on a disguise and started circling the camp. And as time went by, he started expanding his searching range.
He had never mastered the killer techniques, but he was patient and observant. After a whole day’s worth of scouting, he had finally figured out a hidden route that would allow him to keep an eye on the Dragon Army’s camp without being seen.
That night, Chu Nanping quietly patrolled along the planned route while changing directions every two hours.
The feeling of a cloud’s shadow drifting away appeared again, but when he turned and leaped towards it, he missed and nearly exposed himself.
Two disciples of the Essence Pavilion jumped out, and Chu Nanping quickly fled.
After this, patrolling became much more difficult. There were originally four disciples of the Essence Pavilion watching outside the Dragon Army’s camp, but after that incident, they sent another four to guard at different positions after discovering the target’s whereabouts. Chu Nanping could only stop using the best route and go around in a bigger circle.
During the second day, Chu Nanping didn’t leave the tent. He took a much needed rest and spent the rest of the time improving his sword techniques.
He felt no fear, so he continued searching for that strange shadow that night.
But this was evening was the one where the Dragon King and the five elders of the Jade Pure Sect sneaked into the palace after the competition, Old Man Mu and Shangguan Fei confusedly participated in a riot, and Chu Nanping found himself beset with a crisis twice.
The disciples of the Essence Pavilion had sworn to capture this young swordsman who had a peculiar perception. So besides those eight disciples, they also invited a few other helpers.
Chu Nanping’s first encounter was with a masked man who dressed like a golden roc killer but had completely different kung fu skills. With a machete in the style of the Norland, he had rushed out suddenly like a stray bison.
Chu Nanping only remembered a few killer principles, one of which was that if the enemy abruptly jumped out, the best way to deal with it was not by turning around or dodging to the side because there was probably a trap waiting ahead, but rather to charge forward as the real safe place was actually behind the enemy.
This principle wasn’t always right but this time it worked out. Chu Nanping unsheathed his sword to block the enemy and passed by him at the same time. Then he quickly slipped into the shadows and fled down a route he was already familiar with. Behind him, several lurkers pursued him for a while before soon giving up.
After he had gotten away, Chu Nanping circled back to the periphery of the camp. He never wavered from the tasks he had accepted and the things he wanted to do and didn’t even make a change about it. To an outsider, it was a kind of foolish obstinacy. To him, however, it was very simple. His mind was always this simple, so simple that he never thought that there were other alternatives.
It was this character that had kept him from becoming a qualified killer no matter how much professional training he received. Sometimes he could be easily deceived by way of his character. But it was also this character that enabled him to find the faint shadow that had only appeared twice during his relentless pursuit.
If it was Gu Shenwei, he might have ignored it or he would’ve become suspicious, and then set trap and wait for the other side to step in it.
Chu Nanping was in danger for the second time now. He felt the drift of the cloud’s shadow for the third time, this time the feeling so strong that he could not help but let the curiosity get the better of him, speeding up to pursue it. And as he did so, he just happened to run into four disciples of the Essence Pavilion.
They consisted of a pair of one-eyed men who used single sabers and a pair of one-eyed men who used short halberds.
The confrontation was extremely short. Chu Nanping wielded two swords, simultaneously blocking and attacking while not slowing down his pursuit at all.
The shadow was not far ahead. He knew it, and he could feel it. Following his instinct, he ran eastward with four ‘tails’ still chasing behind him.
The shadow suddenly disappeared into the wilderness, and Chu Nanping felt disappointed and sad for the first time in his life. He didn’t even have such feelings when the Dragon King refused to practice the Emotionless Swordsmanship with him.
Those four disciples of the Essence Pavilion were now surrounding him. They had ran too fast to inform their companions, but they believed that they four could easily capture the target.
They were very familiar with Chu Nanping, especially the younger Chu Nanping in his teens, so they naturally underestimated him.
“Why are you running away?”
Chu Nanping’s personality seemed to return to home, a home of indifference and self-destruction. Even after decades together, they were still calling each other ‘you’ or ‘me’, even while they only had one name — Immortal Peng. Even if the dwarf was already dead, they would never be able to regain their sense of independence and always felt that part of them was missing from the inside out.
Chu Nanping suddenly realized how lucky he was. Amongst all the disciples of the Essence Pavilion, only he had chosen a different path by following the murderer who had killed Immortal Peng and as a result, had gone further than anyone else in the search for his own self.
“I’m not running, but chasing.”
The one-eyed and one-armed men were stunned a bit and said, “You are a disciple of the Essence Pavilion.”
“I was, but not anymore.”
“You will always be one.”
Both sides fell silent, and then both sides made their move.
Chu Nanping’s advantage was that he could wield dual swords alone while his disadvantage was that he hadn’t broken through the fourth level. Ten moves later, the five of them had all landed in hot water.
Chu Nanping was trapped because the martial arts skills of the disciples of the Essence Pavilion all originated from the Essence of Perceiving Passion, which meant that all of them knew each other’s moves well. His subtle and swift sword moves were nothing special in the other side’s eyes.
Those four disciples of the Essence Pavilion were also trapped. They had seen with their own eyes that a man could actually wield two sets of swordsmanship more smoothly than that of the dual cultivators who held a tacit understanding between each other.
They were so intoxicated that they couldn’t bear to bring down their opponent and only wanted to force Chu Nanping to continue showing it until they themselves figured it out too.
Chu Nanping suddenly changed his swordsmanship on the fifteenth move. He disappeared in a flash and stabbed out like lightning.
A one-armed man quickly retreated with blood oozing from his shoulder and his face gleaming with excitement. The individually-trained swordsmanship of the other side was more powerful than he had imagined.
In fact, what Chu Nanping used was a modified sword technique of the Death Sutra.
Gu Shenwei had chosen some key ideas and theory of the Death Sutra Swordsmanship and taught Chu Nanping, which was very helpful to him. It always had an amazing effect when he occasionally used it in his Emotionless Swordsmanship.
Each disciple of the Emotionless Swordsmanship had their own special skills. They had seen the Emotionless Swordsmanship before and were familiar with it but they had no deep understanding of it. So they naturally attributed this move to the martial arts of the Essence Pavilion when they suddenly saw a powerful sword technique.
“You can’t keep it all to yourself,” said the wounded one-armed man.
“You and it both belong to the Essence Pavilion,” another one-armed man said while attacking with his short halberd.
Those two one-eyed men followed to say, “You can be Immortal Peng. You should be Immortal Peng.”
The four of them were thinking the same. Since this young boy had surpassed all the disciples of the Essence Pavilion, he was fully qualified to be the new Immortal Peng.
Chu Nanping hesitated a bit. What tempted him was not fame and status but the familiarity of that way of life. One as all, and all as one. He wouldn’t have to make his own decisions anymore.
Chu Nanping only hesitated for a moment of time before jumping to the nearby grass. He had tasted reality and could never return to that dreamland anymore.
The disciples of the Essence Pavilion did not hesitate at all. They followed closely like shadows, and even the circle formation surrounding Chu Nanping retained its shape.
The four men fell one by one as if they had lost control of their bodies. A blackbird-like assassin leaped from the grass and killed three people with three pecks. The fourth peck was blocked by the long sword.
“There’s no need to kill him.” Chu Nanping said.
The ‘Blackbird’ crouching the ground suddenly turned around and stared at Chu Nanping.
It was a pair of green eyes he was familiar with, both stubborn and persistent, and also a pair of eyes he felt strange about, a bit mad and ferocious. “Get out of the way.”
Tie Linglong used to be fond of ordering Chu Nanping to do this and that, mostly in jest, and sometimes in a coquettish manner. She had never acted like this as if it were a command that could not be disobeyed.
“Nice to see you again.” Chu Nanping didn’t care and also didn’t step aside.
Tie Linglong’s eyes rolled and her face also relaxed a bit as if she had just recognized the teenager in front of her. But a moment later she became vicious again. “I’ll make you unhappy if you get in my way.”
“You won’t,” Chu Nanping said while putting away his long sword.
In the blink of an eye, Tie Linglong had pressed her dagger against the young boy’s chest. The two of them were so close that they could hear each other’s heartbeat.
Chu Nanping didn’t know why he smiled, but he smiled heartily. After a long time of waiting and boring chasing, he finally reached the end.
Tie Linglong put down the dagger together with her fierceness, revealing the chagrin Chu Nanping was most familiar with. “It’s all your fault for breaking my murderous heart.”
“This man may be useful to the Dragon King.”
“So what? I’m not his subordinate anymore. I’m a disciple of the Waning Moon Hall now.”
“That matters not. You’re not fit to kill.”
Tie Linglong took his words as an insult and raised her dagger again, “I can kill you and the Dragon King if I have to.”
“Why don’t you use your old saber?” Chu Nanping did not seem to hear the threat and continued asking about what he wanted to know.
If she hadn’t gotten used to the way Chu Nanping spoke, Tie Linglong would have thought that the other side was tricking her. She wanted to show indifference but couldn’t help answering, “I don’t want to use the saber techniques taught by the Dragon King…”
A burst of strange laughter suddenly rang out behind Chu Nanping. It was the sole surviving one-eyed man lying on the ground. He had a few needles stuck in the soles of his feet, which prevented him from standing up. “You don’t like the Dragon King? Very good, he’ll die soon in the palace and you’ll never see him again.”
Tie Linglong’s face paled right away, showing no trace of joy at all.
