Chapter 355: Demonic Tone
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Old Man Mu was indeed an old man. His exposed skin was covered in layers of wrinkles, yet his forehead was the only part of his skin that was as smooth as a baby’s, which made him look all the more stranger.
Gu Shenwei’s sword had pierced into He Sancai’s corpse which was used by Old Man Mu as a shield.
Draped in a dark yellow cape and hidden in a pile of sand, Maid Lotus used her sword with all her strength as she rose up into the sky.
Expecting an ambush at his feet, Old Man Mu did not hide from it but instead faced the attack with his bare body.
Maid Lotus’s long sword pierced into the enemy’s chest but it could not enter an inch further into the body even though the blade was already bent into an arc. Even an expert like Old Man Mu would actually wear a tight-fitting armor that protects his body. U.p..dated by NovelFull
Although it was only a brief moment when the three of them were in the air, each of them gathered all of their strength as they striked blows at each other.
Shangguan Ru was late by a step and leaped above the three of them, while her wooden saber struck the enemy’s forehead.
She has been practicing the Wayless Qigong for a long time, therefore her attack was also extremely strong despite using a wooden saber.
But her blow was too hesitant.
Old Man Mu was unable to hide from Shangguan Ru’s attack as the vital forces of the three people were tense at the moment. But once Shangguan Ru hesitated and thought that a wooden saber could also kill people, Old Man Mu took the chance and finished channeling his first Internal Breath. As he generated his second Internal Breath; borrowing the strength of Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus, he suddenly leaped up into the sky like a stone thrown out by a stone thrower and fell just behind Wildhorse.
“Hahaha, these three babies’ kung fu are not bad at all, it will be very enjoyable to kill you all. Get the Dajue Book of Swordcraft ready, we will fight again tonight.”
Wildhorse turned around his horse and disappeared into the dark.
As both Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus were falling down their swords collided with each other. Unfortunately the “Huan” sword was no match for the Dragon Head Sword and broke into two pieces which was heard with a “clang” sound.
Shangguan Ru fell to the ground right after and did not react upon seeing this scene. Shangguan Fei, however, did not understand what was going on, “You, the two of you…”
“It’s okay.” Maid Lotus picked up the broken sword, staring blankly at it for a while and put it back into the scabbard, she still had another sword with the character “Yun” written on it that she could use.
“Something” had almost happened to Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus back then. Old Man Mu’s last leap absorbed most of the strength from the two of them, and a bit of it still remained on the sword itself. The remaining strength had to be drained immediately, otherwise, it could trigger a backfire.
“It’s my fault, I acted too late.” Shangguan Ru admitted her mistake, but this was something that she did not have a choice in. No matter how ruthless Old Man Mu was, he still was a real person and she could not possibly kill him.
“It doesn’t matter, at least we know more about Old Man Mu now. If we join forces together, the five of us will be able to kill him.” Gu Shenwei could not blame Shangguan Ru for this, no one knew her situation better than him.
“Five of us together?” Shangguan Hong jumped off and asked anxiously, “But I can’t help with anything.”
“Everyone is useful in their own way.” Gu Shenwei finished saying these words and straddled his horse. He actually doubted that Shangguan Hong could survive until the next night.
At dawn, the five people with seven horses continued their journey on the border between the Gobi desert and the Sha Kingdom.
On this day, they did not ride their horses and gallop away, but let them wander forward slowly instead. The horses were already exhausted and the five of them were afraid that the horses would not survive for the next few days if they continued to gallop at full speed.
Shangguan Hong was in the middle of the group, but he was not reassured and kept looking around anxiously. Hence, he was the first to notice someone behind them, “Look, Wildhorse is still following us.”
There was indeed a little black dot in the distance, keeping at the same speed as them.
“They are waiting for nightfall.” Shangguan Fei said gloomily. Resentment grew inside him since he was now abandoned by his father, had no attendant to serve him, and was followed by strange people who wanted to kill him, “Whose turn is it tonight?”
Shangguan Hong almost fell off his horse, “Dragon King said that… the five of us together can win against Old Man Mu.”
“Huh!” Shangguan Fei sneered grimly as if mocking at Shangguan Hong’s foolishness.
The group continued to go forward in silence. When the sun was blazing hot at noon, Shangguan Fei’s anger finally flared, “I mean, Old Man Mu’s targets are Dragon King and the Dajue Book of Swordcraft. What does it have to do with us?”
“Stop sprouting nonsense.” Shangguan Hong hurriedly tried to please Dragon King and quickly rebutted him, “If it was not for Dragon King, you would already be dead.”
“It is better to die rather than suffer like this. Do you want your heart to be taken out alive?”
Shangguan Hong wanted to continue and flatter Dragon King, but the muscles on his face were stiff and he was unable to say a word.
Gu Shenwei did not pay attention to Shangguan Fei’s complaints.
In the afternoon, the group sped up and managed to ditch Wildhorse out of sight. But walking at the edge of the desert which was as flat as a mat made it impossible to hide their tracks.
Wildhorse soon caught up with them, though he continued to keep a distance.
“What the hell are they doing? Must they only act at night?” Shangguan Hong was constantly turning around. Seeing the sun setting made him even more anxious.
But no one answered his question. Only Shangguan Fei continued to mutter about how unlucky they were.
In the evening, the group sped up again and only stopped when it was almost midnight.
Gu Shenwei jumped off from his horse and told the three siblings of the Shangguan family, “All right, we can part our ways now.”
Shangguan Ru remained expressionless, while Shangguan Fei’s gaze was evasive and Shangguan Hong was shocked, “This, Dragon King, I really do trust you, just let Shangguan Fei leave by himself.”
“I can’t spare enough energy to protect the three of you. And neither of you are of service to me. It’s better to go separate ways. We will meet again when we are out of the desert.”
Out of the three people, one did not have the killing desire, one was too timid and one was poor in kung fu. They were indeed of no help.
Then they heard a voice that was both gloomy and joyous in the dark, “The babies’ morale is scattered, yes? Good to separate then! Separate!”
“I want to stay with Dragon King.” Shangguan Fei quivered and immediately said, “I might come in handy, just give me the instructions on what to do, Dragon King.”
Gu Shenwei did not insist that they separate their ways again but he ordered everyone to rest for an hour.
Old Man Mu was a bit too excited and kept on talking, but he still refused to show himself. His voice could be heard here and there, yet no one could tell exactly where he was hiding.
From a distance, Wildhorse could still be noticed faintly in the darkness like a doll figure riding on a horse, away from the five people.
Old Man Mu was telling his killing history to them: one story after another about all the people he had killed, it was as though he had a booklet full of details dedicated to record these killings. Especially his voice, it was changing irregularly as if he was playing different roles: suddenly his tone was fierce, then it was pleading, and he would even imitate the sound of a saber breaking a bone, which was even more creepy when combined with the whistling wind.
But Old Man Mu’s voice became weirder and weirder. Not a sentence could be finished in a fixed tone, like a group of clumsy drummers, his voice was recklessly knocking on the eardrums of the five people around him. Shangguan Hong was the first who could not take it any longer. Covering his ears, he jumped up and shouted, “Stop it, shut up!”
The twin’s faces were a little pale as well.
“Use your Internal Strength to resist,” Maid Lotus had already understood what Old Man Mu was doing, so she said, “It’s useless to cover your ears.”
“Eh? The young lady knows what the old man is doing?” Old Man Mu seemed surprised at what Maid Lotus said.
“Seven Magical Tones, nothing extraordinary.” Maid Lotus replied. She was someone with few words and even when she occasionally talked, her voice was always flat, but this time she seemed like a different person. There was a faint rhythm to her words as her voice fluctuated up and down when she said it, and it produced the opposite effect from Old Man Mu as it made the rest felt happy and relaxed.
Maid Lotus motioned everybody to mount their horses as she stayed at the back.
“So you are a disciple of New Moon Hall. Excellent.” Old Man Mu immediately guessed Maid Lotus’s identity.
“So you are the disciple who abandoned New Moon Hall. Very bad.” Maid Lotus ridiculed. The Seven Magical Tones were one of the skills taught by New Moon Hall and she was using it as well.
It was a strange contest. The two of them kept asking each other questions using plain words, but their intonation was as strange as it could be as if they were challenging the limits of the human voice and using it as weapons to attack and defend.
But it was quite an unpleasant experience for the listeners. One moment their hearts were beating like a drum as the blood rushed through them, the next moment they were gasping for breath as though their blood froze. Luckily, Maid Lotus’s voice was the opposite of Old Man Mu’s and therefore created a balance to this contest, the rest was able to keep their minds in order relying on their Internal Breath.
“Ha ha! What does the young lady know, is Han Wuxian well?”
Maid Lotus was slightly surprised. Han Wuxian was the Master of New Moon Hall and very few people knew her name, yet this strange old man just said it casually without even thinking.
“The Master is very well, don’t worry about it. Old Man Mu, you have stolen the occult sciences from us, quickly kill yourself or else New Moon Hall won’t let you off.”
“Ignorant girl, who has stolen what from who? Go and ask them yourself and you’ll understand.”
But Old Man Mu seemed to want to defend himself very much and continued to talk. His tone was slightly excited and destroyed the effects of the Seven Magical Tones. It was much better for the listeners and Maid Lotus only had to counterattack occasionally.
“Was it more than ten years ago? Old man doesn’t remember clearly, but several thousands of cowards from the martial arts world besieged me.”
“What a brag, it was no more than a hundred people.”
“It doesn’t matter how many, but there were a lot of people. We fought all the way and accidentally entered New Moon Hall’s territory. Old man had killed and injured many people, but I was stabbed accidentally and almost died. Those idiots also assumed that I was dead…”
“But, in fact, you were saved by New Moon Hall yet, in return, you avenged our kindness by stealing the occult sciences.”
“No! That girl Han Wuxian saved me for other purposes. You New Moon Hall people are experts in the occult sciences but you guys are terrible at kung fu involving real weapons. She taught me the ‘Manual of Seven Secret Techniques’ to survive, and I taught her all of my skills. It’s all thanks to me that her disciples have made great progress in kung fu over the years.”
Maid Lotus only joined New Moon Hall a few years ago so naturally, she would not know whether all these past events were true or not. But the “Manual of Seven Secret Techniques” was true and the Seven Magical Tones was one of the manuals as well, “Braggart, New Moon Hall, however, doesn’t remember about you.”
“Of course she doesn’t remember!” Old Man Mu became increasingly indignant and this made his demonic tone lose its effect, “Since when did you guys from New Moon Hall keep your words? Han Wuxian is the Master so, of course, she’s the best at cheating people. She taught me the “Manual of Seven Secret Techniques”, but she did not say which techniques could be practiced and which ones could not.”
“So you were secretly practicing the Seven Rotation Skill. No wonder you became a dwarf who dare not see the daylight. But you cannot blame the Master, ‘practice this with caution’, it was clearly written in the Manual of Seven Secret Techniques.”
“Fuck her!” Maid Lotus’s words touched his sore spots. Old Man Mu’s anger broke out, unable to keep calm anymore, he said, “At that time this old man was tall and handsome, now I am disliked by gods and hated by demons, and this is all because of New Moon Hall! Accept it, little girl, tonight I’m going to cut your chest, dig your heart out, and cut it into pieces.”
Shangguan Hong, who was in the middle of the group, breathed a sigh of relief when he heard these words.
“Go.” Gu Shenwei, who had not spoken all this while, suddenly ordered and sped up in front.
He wanted to go all out and rush toward the Great Snowmountain camp as he raced against time with Golden Roc Fort. But now it seemed like he had to waste some time with Old Man Mu. It would be a disaster if they don’t get rid of him.
