Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
When Wild Horse had agreed to become a part of ‘Immortal Peng,’ he had never expected that he would one day have to kill his dual cultivator.
In fact, he had every reason to thank the disciples of the Essence Pavilion. If it were not for their reception and help in the Norland, Wild Horse could have only practiced his one-armed sabersmanship quietly and would never have had access to advanced martial arts skills.
Before he joined the Essence Pavilion, Wild Horse’s ‘Masters’ solely consisted of the golden roc killer and Old Man Mu. The former wasn’t much of a kung fu master himself while the latter was too clever and had sharp eyes. Old Man Mu didn’t care at all for how much Wild Horse wanted to be a kung fu expert. During their two years together, although Old Man Mu had made all sorts of promises, he had never taught Wild Horse any real unique skills. He would rather pass the Five Hole Punch to Shangguan Fei than teach Wild Horse a single move.
The disciples of the Essence Pavilion, however, liked Wild Horse. This young man’s unique appearance and physical disability were like a voucher to enter this new group. He was not at all weird among a group of weirdos. Besides, his perseverance, his desire, and his unconditional acceptance for advanced martial arts skills were highly appreciated by his new Masters.
As soon as Wild Horse received the Essence of Perceiving Passion, he was fascinated by the various techniques in it and volunteered to be that old man’s training partner. When he realized that he couldn’t surpass the Dragon King alone no matter how hard he practiced, he decided to give up his own mind and become the ‘Immortal Peng’ who had two bodies and one mind. His only requirement was that the Immortal Peng had to inherit his hatred for the Dragon King.
This wasn’t a problem because the disciple of the Essence Pavilion hated the Dragon King no less than him.
The hardest thing was to give up his own thoughts, not it wasn’t as hard as it was to empty them. Wild Horse had to keep his mind away from things while also trying to grasp the intentions of the old man of the Essence Pavilion with all his heart. Any delay would interrupt the connection between them.
Wild Horse gradually lost himself. Occasionally, he would recall his original name and feel that the name ‘Immortal Peng’ was very strange. But on the whole, he seldom resisted. The old man of the Essence Pavilion was very satisfied with him.
Their mysterious connection wasn’t interrupted even when he began practicing the Waning Moon Swordsmanship taught by Lotus. And he even benefited a lot from the many insights of the old man of the Essence Pavilion in the process.
In the peach grove of the Gui Garden, Wild Horse had frustratedly found that he was still no match for the Dragon King even with the Waning Moon Swordsmanship. His chagrin also affected the old man of the Essence Pavilion who had re-examined the swordsmanship taught by Lotus alone and finally concluded that the swordsmanship was incomplete. Lotus had hidden something, but he could break through the limitation.
It was the old man of the Essence Pavilion who had thought up a new training method and named it ‘Ceasing and Arising.’ Then, he had instilled it into ‘Immortal Peng”s mind. Wild Horse had successfully accepted it and thought that it was his own idea.
Wild Horse started killing people. As time went by, it became harder and too time-consuming to find a close rival. So, he had gathered all the disciples of the Waning Moon Swordsmanship as well as the Essence Pavilion in the underground chamber of Bodhi Garden and improved his swordsmanship through their lives.
And he had succeeded. Wild Horse could feel the changes in his swordsmanship. Killing became easier and easier for him, and he had finally become bored with it. When he found that he had no rival around him and that the only person he could kill was ‘himself,’ he had acted without hesitation.
The one who fell was the old man of the Essence Pavilion and it was only then that Wild Horse felt the foul Qi that had accumulated in his body for years be released, and that killing had become as easy as cutting the grass.
But it was the Dragon King. It was the Dragon King again who had just shown three incredible moves and proved to Wild Horse that he hadn’t reached the peak of the swordsmanship.
Lotus didn’t know this much, but she had indeed pointed out the truth: Wild Horse had also suffered the backfire of the swordsmanship. But after killing the old man of the Essence Pavilion, he had become the closest to perfecting the swordsmanship in the hall, even closer than the Dragon King and Lotus.
Old Man Mu seemed enlightened. “See? Now do you understand? Wild Horse has fooled all of you. He taught you the Death Sutra Swordsmanship and asked you to improve it quickly so that you could become a stepping stone for him. He has led you to a dead-end while he himself has already figured a way out.”
Old Man Mu’s accusation wasn’t entirely correct. Of course Wild Horse didn’t care about the disciples’ lives. But when he had decided to improve his swordsmanship at all costs, he had no premeditated intent to kill his partner. The idea had naturally occurred to him. He had neither planned it out beforehand nor had he felt guilty after doing it.
Wild Horse couldn’t argue, and he didn’t want to argue for himself either. Even if he were facing with enemies numbering ten times more than the current situation, he would only wish that there were more of them. As his eyes swept across the crowd, he was looking for an opponent who could help improve his swordsmanship.
There were very few people left. Wild Horse suddenly felt the same boredom that he had when he had ‘killed himself’ for the first time.
The people in the hall gradually woke up. Some people threw away their swords while more hesitated to do so. They had spent too much effort on the swordsmanship and it was really difficult for them to give up on it.
Han Ling was the first to experience the power of the backlash, so her mind was also the clearest. Old Man Mu’s accusation was flawless, but she still had more doubts. “Master Commander, you knew about this long ago, but instead of stopping it, you watched the disciples fall into the trap?”
Her question led the crowd’s resentment to focus on Lotus and it also angered Han Fen.
“Hey, Han Ling, and all of you, come on and be reasonable. You betrayed the Master Commander and obediently let yourselves be deluded by Wild Horse. Now that you find that you were fooled, you blame everything on the Master Commander? Don’t forget the vows that you made.”
A female disciple in the crowd sneered. “Everything that Wild Horse has done was done under the banner of the Master Commander. We all thought that the swordsmanship was taught by Master Commander. You call this a betrayal?”
“Of course it’s a betrayal. It’s so obvious,” Han Fen said with certainty, but she couldn’t come up with more evidence, which only caused more sneers to emerge.
Compared to Han Fen, Old Man Mu was more skillful at verbal fights. Although he didn’t like Lotus, he still stepped out and argued for her. “Do not sneer. You think that you are loyal, but when that girl said Lotus’ training method was wrong and that Wild Horse was right, I didn’t see any of you stand out and speak for Lotus.”
“That’s right.” Han Fen was happy. “What else do you have to say? Old Man Mu, I love you.”
Old Man Mu proudly nodded. “I love you too, but do not let my lady know that. She likes to be jealous.”
Han Fen beamed with joy. “Of course. I won’t tell Hall Leader Han.”
Han Ling coughed and said, “We are at fault, but the Master Commander did nothing to save us from ruin in the first place. More than half of the disciples of Waning Moon Hall are dead. Those people thought that the swordsmanship was taught by the Master Commander and that the order of slaughter was also given by the Master Commander till the moment they died.”
Han Fen had nothing to say in reply so she could only seek foreign help. In an authoritative tone, she said, “Old Man Mu, say a few words. Do not let her speak such nonsense.”
Han Fen’s ‘love’ had a price. Old Man Mu could no longer find an excuse to refute the other side with so he chuckled and said, “I’ll usurp the host’s role if I go on. Look, the Master Commander is going to explain herself. ”
Han Fen thought about what ‘usurping the host’s role’ meant as she turned to look at the Master Commander near her.
Lotus seemed to have been lost in her thoughts and paid no heed to the accusation of the crowd and Old Man Mu’s words.
“Master Commander,” Han Fen whispered.
Lotus slowly raised her head, her eyes blank. “Han Ling was right. I asked Wild Horse to teach you all the swordsmanship. As for the backlash, I didn’t make it clear to Wild Horse. He gave the order to kill each other, but I didn’t object. In fact, with so many people practicing the swordsmanship at the same time, killing each other is only a matter of time.
Han Fen scratched her forehead in confusion, wondering what the Master Commander was trying to say.
The disciples all puzzledly looked at each other. It was Han Ling again who asked, Why did the Master Commander do this? Are you unsatisfied with us? Have we done something wrong, or have we not expressed enough loyalty?
Lotus actually revealed a smile which that spread like a ripple from the corner of her eye to the corner of her mouth. “I have a question for you all. Why did Han Wuxian try to seize the Daoless Scroll by any means in the first place?”
Han Ling was slightly stunned, and slowly said, “Hall Leader… Han Wuxian said that secret arts and pills were low-level techniques. That the better we were at them, the more others would be on guard against us, and the harder it would be for us to gain a foothold in Jianghu. To return to Golden Roc Castle, we had to learn advanced martial arts skills.”
“I retrieved the Daoless Scroll and taught many of you. It’s been several years now. Do any of you think that you have become a kung fu expert as a result?”
Han Ling no longer said anything in response. The others also kept silent. The disciples of the Essence Pavilion had joined the Waning Moon Hall not long ago but all of the original disciples of the Waning Moon Hall knew that although their internal energy had greatly increased with the Daoless Divine Power, no one had become a real kung fu master besides the Master Commander.
“It’s not easy to give up the skills that you’ve gotten used to since you were little.” Lotus continued explaining. “Even learning the Daoless Divine Power hasn’t made you give up the secret arts and pills; instead, you’ve started relying on them even more.”
Han Ling bowed her head in shame. “So the Master Commander taught us the Waning Moon Swordsmanship but didn’t point out the side effects in order to have us become obsessed with it and change our inherent habit.”
Lotus had achieved her goal. The Death Sutra required the practitioner to have a strong belief in the sword manual which meant the practitioner would toss aside all other kung fus, including the use of secret arts and pills.
Hundreds of people had lost their lives for this, but Lotus didn’t need to explain much because this was a perfectly normal way for the Waning Moon Hall to achieve their goals.
Lotus nodded slightly. There were many reasons for her to choose this moment to teach the swordsmanship, such as diverting the disciples’ attention during her period of dispersing internal energy and dealing with Wild Horse’s overt coercion. However, she didn’t have to bring attention to every one of them.
“But the Dragon King said that we have to give up the Waning Moon Swordsmanship. If we continue practicing it, we’ll… kill ourselves. Master Commander, should we listen to the Dragon King or not?” one disciple of the Waning Moon Hall asked from the crowd, her tone clearly turning respectful.
“The Dragon King is right.” Lotus looked down and then said, “You should give up on using the sword, but the sword intent that you’ve comprehended won’t affect your secret arts and pills. You can apply it to any martial arts skill. That’s what the Dragon King did.”
Gu Shenwei nodded. That was indeed what he had done.
“You are indeed the Master Commander, always so organized in doing things,” Old Man Mu said while staring warily at Wild Horse who was standing besides Lotus. “Did you invite the Dragon King here just to tell everyone this? You are really a good guesser. You actually knew in advance that the Dragon King was fond of teaching others.”
“I didn’t invite the Dragon King here to reason with anyone, but rather to kill Wild Horse.” Lotus looked up, and her eyes suddenly became firm. “In this world, there’s only one practitioner of the Death Sutra Swordsmanship who has ‘killed himself.’ I think that the Dragon King must be very interested.”
Gu Shenwei was indeed very interested, and it was also why he hadn’t made a move yet so far.
