Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
As she took in the desolate land and strange sights around her, a mixture of joy and fear grew in Shangguan Ru.
From a young age, it was her dream to wander in jiang hu. In her dreams, she would always be leaving the Stone Castle in a blaze of glory and returning triumphantly, but now, she was alone and without support. She had no direction and was like a migrant bird who had left its flock.
There was a short while where she felt that the world was unfair to her. She had done nothing wrong, yet her family and friends treated her terribly and she was surrounded by lies and conspiracies since she was young.
As such, the seeds of hatred were very nearly sown in the young woman’s heart.
At this moment, the chilly winds of cold, early Spring blew across and her mood suddenly became carefree. The wind had completely blown the seeds of hatred away.
However, when she recalled her past, the carefree feeling soon went away as quickly as the slight warmth in the wind.
She began to think that she was not completely innocent. She was only used to being pampered, and even if she had harmed somebody in the past without meaning to, she would be completely clueless until she experienced the same kind of hurt herself. Only then, would she understand how much pain she had caused others in the past.
She had happily tortured the slaves in the fort in the past and believed their smiles to represent their true feelings. She had even informed against Slave Huan to her father, causing the deaths of the two giant golden-crowned rocs, who were like family to Slave Huan. At that time, she was proud of her own actions, but Slave Huan dared not show that he was displeased in the least.
“There’s a cause and effect to everything,” she continued thinking. “I have to find out the real reason behind my tragic situation today.”
Her thoughts led to Shangguan Yushi, who was her closest friend and with whom she seemed to be completely open with. She could now recall that their conversations were never about her friend and they only talked about herself.“What did Master Yu like? What did she hate? How could I not know anything about them?” she thought.
The 18-year-old Shangguan Ru was like an old person who was self-aware of her own impending death as she tried to recollect every moment in her life. She felt increasingly detached from her previous self the more she remembered.“How could that spoilt brat be me?” she thought.
She would have been driven insane if she kept at it. Luckily, a very simple need dragged her out from the depths of self-pity.
She was hungry till the point where her stomach was slightly hurting.
She fished out some dry rations, and her hunger subsided as she ate a little. Her abdominal pain, however, kept growing stronger. She felt as if someone was poking and stirring up her insides with a pair of blunt scissors. Eventually, it grew to a point where she was unable to continue riding her horse.
She had to dismount to rest. She channelled her Internal Strength in a bid to contain the pain, but it made matters worse. She felt as though her internal energy had become thousands of tiny steel needles threading their way through her meridians. Every inch they moved caused her to feel even more immense pain.
Eventually, she gave up. She sat on a rock, hugging her knees close to her chest, comforted by the idea that she was about to die.
She was certain of the source of poison – someone had put it in her food. “Was it Slave Huan or Maid Lotus? It doesn’t matter. Both of them are as good as one,” she thought.
Sweat droplets the size of beans began rolling off her forehead onto the ground in front of her toes. The dry earth absorbed them up instantly, leaving no traces behind.
“Perhaps, a handful of grass will sprout here someday,” she thought, her nonsensical ideas still not yet completely stopped. She continued thinking that her corpse would probably provide sufficient nutrients for a small tree.
Her pain gradually stopped after two hours. She felt a little regretful that she was still alive.
“As long as I’m not dead, I have to continue living,” she thought.
She led the horse by its reins, wandering about the wilderness without any hurry. She only wanted to head southwards, as far away from her previous life as possible.
She did not travel far that entire day. The pain in her abdomen kept coming back every four to six hours and when it flared up, she had to stop and curl up with her knees close to her chest as much as possible for the pain to slowly subside.
The option of heading back to get the antidote from Slave Huan did not even cross her mind.
That night, she erected a small tent. She kept her ears peeled to the calls of the wild outside as she lay inside. She tried to bear the pain in her abdomen but it kept her awake throughout the entire night.
On the morning of the next day, she felt incredibly tired but did not wish to stop at her current spot. As such, she dismantled her tent and decided that she would travel for as far she could.
The sack for the tent was left outside the entire night, tied to a sturdy piece of rock. Just as Shangguan Ru was about to keep the folded felt tent, she noticed that there was something unexpected inside.
At first, she was shocked as she thought that it was a wild creature that had crawled into the sack in the middle of the night to escape from the cold. When she took a closer look, she discovered that it was not a creature but seemed to be a small child. It was curled up into a ball like a porcupine and looked as if it was trying to bear an abdominal pain like hers.
Shangguan Ru grabbed and lifted the intruder by its hair. She soon recognized the creased, extremely ugly face of Old Man Mu.
Her first reaction was to fling him dozens of steps away and draw her wooden saber, readying herself for a fight.
Old Man Mu tumbled around a few times after hitting the ground. He was still curled up like a shrivelled up piece of meat and he did not shout in pain or move. He seemed to have been dead for a while.
Shangguan Ru’s heart was racing. As she began thinking about his terrible kung fu technique which specialized in ripping out the hearts of his opponents, it began beating even faster.
After exactly 15 minutes, she slowly moved towards Old Man Mu. She prodded him with her wooden saber for a few times with increasing force. Eventually, he gave out a weak groan, proving that he was still alive but had lost the ability to react.
Multiple questions came to her mind. Shangguan Ru did not understand how he had escaped or come to be hiding in the sack, but the most pressing question was how she should handle him.
To most people, the easiest solution would be to kill him when he was powerless to react. However, Shangguan Ru could not bring herself to do it. Her disgust for killing had far exceeded her fear of being killed by the old man.
The other option most people would choose would be to leave him here to his own fate. She had heard from Maid Lotus that Old Man Mu practiced the Seven Rotation Skill and was most afraid of sunlight. She did not even have to lift a finger and his kung fu would be removed on its own. If that happened, he would never be able to harm anyone in this world again.
She had already packed her belongings up and led her horse away for a few dozen steps before realizing that she was unexpectedly unable to leave with peace of mind. She did not understand why.
Old Man Mu was like a discarded newborn baby now.
She turned back and threw out a few items from her sack which were of no use to her at the moment. She then picked him up and stuffed him into the sack.
“It’s a mistake,” a voice said to Shangguan Ru. “Old Man Mu is not someone who knows how to repay kindness. Once he has regained his power, the very first thing he does could very possibly be to rip out your heart.”
Shangguan Ru knew that she was making a big mistake but still kept the old man in her sack.
During the noon hour, she experienced another episodic abdominal attack and had to sit down, but it was not as painful the other day, when she had felt like dying. After the attack, she even had the mood to consume some dry rations. She did not care even if they were possibly poisoned as well.
Since arriving at this place, she had not seen any flora or fauna around. She was sure that she would starve to death once she finished her supply of dry rations.“No matter how skilled Old Man Mu was, he could not possibly defeat hunger in the end.” This thought calmed her down significantly, but then she felt that it was comedic. She did not know if she was saving or killing the old man.
Compared to her, Old Man Mu was much more clear-headed about the entire matter.
“Young lady, don’t keep sitting and admiring the scenery. If you don’t continue walking, we’ll both die here.”
Old Man Mu’s weak voice came out from the sack.
“It doesn’t matter where one dies, it’s still dying. It’s alright here anyway,” Shangguan Ru replied. She was still hugging her knees to her chest, unafraid of death.
Old Man Mu was silent for a while. When he resumed speaking, his tone had turned extremely angry. “Fool, you wish to die, but I don’t. Don’t try to practice Zen at such a young age. If everyone is as unafraid to die like you, what pleasure would there be in killing?”
“Leave yourself then. I didn’t want to bring you along anyway, and I don’t wish to see you start killing once you’ve recovered.”
Old Man Mu changed his tone again. “Young lady, I can hear from your words that you are no ordinary person. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to attain enlightenment and become a bodhisattva some day. However, you should go all the way if you intend to save somebody. It’s broad daylight now, how do you expect me to walk by myself?”
Shangguan Ru was not in a hurry to go anywhere, however. “How did you escape from… the Dragon King?” she asked.
“Hehe, I have many excellent moves up my sleeve. I miscalculated once and decided to play along with you young people. After I had my share of fun, I used the Bone Shrinking Skill and easily escaped, leaving a fake ‘double’ behind.”
Shangguan Ru did not believe him as he was already extremely small in size. “So that’s what happened. Then, you should use one of your incredible skills and escape on your own.”
Old Man Mu knew he had over exaggerated, so much so that even he himself found his own words hard to believe. “To be honest, I didn’t know what happened either. Someone cut the rope binding me and I managed to escape with the help of the slack.”
Shangguan Ru felt a little pity for Slave Huan. He always seemed to be knee deep in countless conspiracies and plots and would probably never be able to extricate himself.
She was deep in thought and neither spoke nor got up to start moving again. Old Man Mu got a little anxious. “Young lady, don’t say later that I didn’t remind you. That woman, Maid Lotus, is now searching around for me and will discover our tracks sooner or later. She isn’t as soft hearted as you. After killing me, I bet she’ll kill you as well.”
“Why would she kill me?” Shangguan Ru shook her head, unconvinced.
“Of course it would be because she wants to get rid of the source of her problems and eliminate any future threat. Once you’re dead, the Dragon King will not think of you again and will belong exclusively to her.”
Shangguan Ru did not wish to be discussing about Slave Huan with anybody else at this point in time but could not stop herself from rebutting. “The person he misses is not me. He only wishes to be able to kill me one day to take revenge for his family and the giant rocs.”
“Silly girl. You’ve been fooled by the Dragon King’s tricks,” Old Man Mu replied. He sounded extremely sincere and earnest, as if he was speaking to his granddaughter. “Don’t be fooled by his act of calling himself ‘Dragon King’. In reality, he’s just an immature kid who lacks any technique to handle the woman he loves but can’t be together with. He thinks that his act of pushing you away can fool everyone, but let me tell you, the person who appears the coldest is usually the most romantic. I can see it clearly, even Maid Lotus…”
“Enough,” said Shangguan Ru. She had expended a lot of effort to compose her thoughts but was now confused again. She got up and continued leading her horse on, rebutting Old Man Mu’s words with one reason after another.
As long as Shangguan Ru kept moving, Old Man Mu was happy to keep quiet. He hid in the sack, conserving his energy.
As night came, he became more energetic. Even though he had not regained his power yet, it did not stop him from taking a look around their resting spot. He was constantly moving throughout the entire night and woke Shangguan Ru, who was sleeping in the tent, up before the sun was up. “You are extremely careless to leave so many traces behind. Even if Maid Lotus were blind, she would catch up with us within two to three days. Let’s quickly get moving!”
Shangguan Ru did not believe in the least that Maid Lotus would want to kill her. As such, she turned away from the old man and covered her ears, continuing to sleep till it was dawn.
Her abdominal pain grew weaker with each attack, and she finally realized that she was not given a deadly poison. She was in no hurry, and no matter how hard Old Man Mu urged her on, she continued to stroll on foot, leading her horse by its reins.
For the second half of the day, Old Man Mu unusually remained silent, seemingly having passed out again. It was either that or he was coming up with some plot again.
In reality, he was thinking of something else. No matter how fast Shangguan Ru moved, she could not possibly shake the killer chasing after them. The reason Maid Lotus had not caught up was that she had to search for their tracks in the vast wilderness, but it would not take her too long. Also, he needed more than a month to regain his power.
Escape was not a solution to his problem.
That night, Old Man Mu presented his well-thought-out plan to Shangguan Ru. “Young lady, you’re in luck. I’ve decided to go against my master’s teachings and break tradition by taking you as my disciple. Come, kowtow to me now.”
