Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In total, the Dragon King’s party had fifteen people, which were the Dragon King and his fourteen subordinates, which meant there were fifteen competitions waiting ahead.
King Shengri felt that he didn’t need to be in a rush. Looking at the slightly panicking kung fu experts of the Central Plains, he ordered, “I hope the next fighter can be a little more powerful, so as not to make it look so bad.”
More than thirty experts volunteered to fight, but their enthusiasm could not hide the fear lurking in their hearts. The Dragon King’s saber was faster than they had expected. Although Yang Yingshu was not a top disciple of the Qingcheng Sect, he was not mediocre either. They were surprised that he couldn’t even receive a single blow, and now their confidence against the Dragon King had also waned.
Only a few people knew that the Dragon King’s attacking speed was just one of the causes of Yang Yingshu’s death. The leading cause was his own mistake. He had made the wrong move at the wrong time by competing in speed with the enemy who was best at attacking quickly, and he had also happened to be distracted and absent-minded, which meant he could only exert sixty to seventy percent of his real kung fu strength.
All martial arts required the practitioners to cultivate their mind once they reached a certain level. No matter what means one used, how much one had to suffer, one had to remain calm. The contemplation and visualization of Taoism, the meditation of Buddhism, the slaughter of Golden Roc Castle, the madness of Waning Moon Hall; they all had the same purpose of calming the mind down. The Qingcheng Sect was no inferior to other sects in this respect. Rather, it was Yang Yingshu who had failed.
Finally, one of the kung fu experts of the Central Plains made up his mind to take practical actions in addition to his lip service. Without the lord’s order, he directly pushed his way through the crowd and walked into the field.
King Shengri nodded approvingly.
Some of the subordinates behind Gu Shenwei also found a problem. Puzzled, Chu Nanping murmured to himself, “Why was the Dragon King’s saber slow?”
Everyone felt that the cut the Dragon King had used to kill Yang Yingshu was as fast as lightning except for Chu Nanping. He didn’t think that it was up to the mark and was puzzled because the Dragon King had a firm principle that he would never hide his power and would always treat his enemies as a powerful foe and attack with the fastest speed regardless of the other side’s kung fu level.
Old Man Mu also noticed this, and he noticed more details than Chu Nanping, whispering, “Is the Dragon King suffering from internal injuries?”
Shangguan Fei was startled to hear this. He kept shaking his head as he said, “No, that’s impossible. Who could inflict internal injuries upon the Dragon King…” Then he remembered that there really was one person who could do such a thing, the Dragon King himself.
‘If the Dragon King’s Qi deviation breaks out at a critical moment…’ Shangguan Fei did not dare to think further. He looked at the Dragon King’s guards and sighed in his heart. Based on his status in the Dragon King’s mind, he probably wouldn’t be rescued until the last or the second last. King Shengri seemed well-prepared and the experts he was sending out could only become stronger and stronger, and thus no one knew how long the Dragon King would last.
Among the trapped subordinates, there was no Lotus, Shangguan Ru, or any generals who could influence the whole situation, so why the Dragon King was willing to stand up for them? Shangguan Fei mulled over this thought again and again, all the while in disbelief that this was the leader of the Dragon Army he had once thought he knew.
Chu Nanping and Old Man Mu were right. Gu Shenwei really had become slower in his moves. And it was not just that, but he had almost exhausted all of his internal Qi in the last blow.
The Death Sutra Swordsmanship didn’t have a high requirement for the practitioner’s internal energy. He and Lotus could still launch fierce attacks when they were still weak in terms of internal Qi several years ago. But the improvement of their internal energy did bring them benefits. Although there was no limit to improving one’s attack speed, the practitioner needed lots of internal Qi to improve it by just a small level after reaching a certain level.
The broken meridians had not yet recovered, and the out of whack yin and yang internal Qi had barely completed one circulation in his body, bringing great pain to their master. From head to toe, Gu Shenwei felt that all of his acupoints were violently pulsating as if they could explode at any moment.
But Gu Shenwei endured the pain. Like a child who could taste some sweetness from the bitter pills, he had also gained some benefits.
The internal Qi ran through the broken meridians like a stone wheel crushing through a rough road, a bumpy ride yet one that also flattened the road as it rolled.
Gu Shenwei had conceived of this method after seeing the two hunchbacks of the Essence Pavilion. He had tried the Daoless Divine Power, the Sumeru Mustard Mantra, and the Balanced Power, but none of them could speed up the recovery of the meridians. Another method, therefore, came across his mind when he saw the two.
The Essence of Perceiving Passion summarized all kinds of martial arts which, of course, included the practice method of internal energy. Gu Shenwei had once sat on the first floor of the Essence Pavilion, sipped bitter tea, and listened to the sound of the crutch coming from upstairs, and gradually released all his meridians, which was of great help to his later practice.
Afterwards, he had been so fearful of the experience of almost being controlled, Gu Shenwei had not only given up the Emotionless Swordsmanship but had also forcefully sealed his memories of the Essence of Perceiving Passion, never wanting to touch it again.
His broken meridians and the timely appearance of the disciples of the Essence Pavilion reminded him of this simple method once again, and he suddenly had a bold idea: instead of driving his internal Qi to smoothly flow through his meridians, he could force it to leap through his acupoints, which was exactly one of the characteristics of the Essence of Perceiving Passion’s training methods.
He had succeeded. The two strands of internal Qi, which were huddling inside his Dantian, had actually circulated in a grand circle and helped their master to launch a quick strike. Although the acupoints were beating violently, his meridians were now slightly restored.
It was an extremely violent remedy, one that ordinary people couldn’t bear, even if they could think of it. Only Gu Shenwei, who had suffered from the pain of Qi deviation for years, could gladly endure a churning stomach while showing no traces of pain on the surface. Even the experienced Old Man Mu could not see the torment that the Dragon King was suffering through.
The next challenger drew near. It was a middle-aged man in his thirties with slanted eyebrows, a frowning face, and a longsword. He bowed to the Dragon King without saying a word.
Being almost powerless, the only thing Old Man Mu could do was to act as a eulogist for the Dragon King. “Who is that that’s coming along? State your name,” demanded Old Man Mu. “Did you only learn martial arts and no manners in your sect?”
The swordsman slowly shook his head as he replied, “The humble one’s name is not worth mentioning as it can only bring disgrace to my sect. The Dragon King’s righteousness is really admirable. Please enlighten me.”
Old Man Mu turned to the kung fu practitioners of the Central Plains and gestured, asking who this fellow was. Many people wanted to please the Dragon King so they immediately gave a lot of answers, which puzzled Old Man Mu even more. By the time he could try to choose one of them to cheat the truth out of the swordsman, the kung fu competition had already begun.
The slant-browed swordsman had obviously learned a lesson from Yang Yingshu, as he fought steadily and surely from the very first move. He mainly focused on defense and never approached within five steps of the Dragon King. Even if he occasionally attacked, it was just probing moves.
Gu Shenwei moved at a fast pace, also looking for opportunities. The opponent’s sword and bodily movement techniques were not swift, but his judgment was top-notch. As soon as he made a move, the other side was ready to meet him, not blocking or dodging, but rather attacking at the same time even at the expense of being defeated and wounded together with the Dragon King.
This was the swordsman with slanted eyebrows’ way of defense, a simple trade — a nobody’s life for the Dragon King’s life.
Gu Shenwei had wandered Jianghu for many years but this was the first time where it seemed impossible to attack. No matter which vital part he stabbed at, he would draw a reactory counterattack from the other side. He was not facing an ordinary kung fu practitioner. The sharp eyes and the direction the sword pointed at all times showed that this slanted-eyebrowed man was expert at finding flaws.
Most onlookers didn’t feel the same as the Dragon King. What they saw was a rather boring competition, in which the two parties kept circling each other while making probing attacks and stances, but without any real clashes of saber and sword.
The Dragon King had shown his speed in the first fight so everyone put the blame for the dullness on the Slanted Eyebrows and complained about him.
Old Man Mu was one of the few people who genuinely agreed with the tactics of the Slanted Eyebrows, which was why he had to do something to sabotage the match and do the Dragon King a favor.
“Sour-faced, you can’t be shameless just because you look so ugly. No wonder you didn’t dare to say your name. Your Master must have gone mad watching such a cowardly fighting style as yours.” Then he imitated the Master of the Slanted Eyebrows in a voice dripping with sarcasm, “My disciple, our rabbit sect is a famous sect of the Central Plains, so how did I take a rat like you as my disciple…”
Shangguan Fei had not yet learned Old Man Mu’s ways of humiliating others, so he could only seize the moment to echo. “Exactly, exactly.”
The Slanted Eyebrows was more composed than Old Man Mu had imagined, as he turned a deaf ear to the insults and remained on the defensive instead of taking the offensive. He was competing in patience with the Dragon King.
Old Man Mu wouldn’t admit defeat that easily. Seeing that he was unable to irritate the Slanted Eyebrows, he immediately changed the object of his satire. “King Shengri, I really worry for you. The Sour-faced said that he was loyal to the Norland and the Khan but he was not even willing to reveal his real identity. Obviously, he’s hiding something from you. Ahh, I see. It’s called the Battered-Body Trick, pretending to be helpless and miserable to gain trust while secretly looking for a chance to kill the lord. Tut tut, If the old Khan dies at his hand, King Shengri can go to the Central Plains to receive a reward.”
Upon hearing Old Man Mu’s words, King Shengri, who already lacked trust in the kung fu experts of the Central Plains, became more suspicious. And what he wanted to see was a neat and swift killing, not the conservative style of the Slanted Eyebrows.
“What sect is this man from?”
Some of the kung fu experts knew the background of the Slanted Eyebrows but didn’t directly answer. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, please calm down. This man is good at counter-attacking. He will kill the Dragon King soon.”
“How soon is soon? He is representing the Norland right now, not his own sect. And a prairie man doesn’t play so slowly.”
The man pleaded guilty again before returning to the field, raising his voice and ordering, “Junior brother, don’t wait any longer.”
The Slanted Eyebrows’ heart trembled. He didn’t expect that the most effective tactic would be ruined by the hands of his own allies.
The long sword thrust like the snake’s tongue. The slowish Slanted Eyebrows proved that he was also good at a speed attack.
But the Dragon King was also very fast. The two exchanged a move and retreated at the same time, now ten steps apart.
Few people could say exactly who was faster. King Shengri was perplexed; his interest had just been roused and he was about to call out ‘bravo’ before the competition surprisingly stopped. “What happened?”
The master who was speaking for the Slanted Eyebrows sadly lowered his head. “The Dragon King won.”
The Slanted Eyebrows flopped onto the ground, adding a second corpse to the field.
Gu Shenwei turned to his subordinates, “You can go now.”
Shangguan Fei could hardly believe his ears. He looked around, especially at the Red Bat not standing far away, and felt that the Dragon King must misspoke. “Me? Is it really me?”
“Yes, it’s you.”
Shangguan Fei’s reasoning told him that he should refuse out of modesty, and give an excuse like saying that the Dragon King should give the chance to the only female subordinate, Red Bat. But his true and powerful instinct forbade him from doing so, for fear that the Dragon King would really agree with his suggestion.
“Thank you … I … Dragon King …”
“You have to go to the warrior contest. Today is my bet with King Dari and you can’t lose.”
“What?” Shangguan Fei had forgotten about such a thing a long time ago and didn’t expect the Dragon King would still remember the bet in such circumstances.
“I won’t let the Dragon King down!” Shangguan Fei jumped onto the horse, his voice coming from afar.
King Shengri’s discontent was written on his face, “Are you really kung fu experts of the Central Plains? Not a bunch of liars?”
No one dared to contradict him. One of the officers close to King Shengri said, “The real masters of the Central Plains won’t come to serve the Norland. The Shaolin Temple and the Luo Village are the most powerful among the nine major sects. But they didn’t come this time. Neither did the sect leaders of the seven sects. These people are all third-rate, and it’s no wonder my lord is unsatisfied.”
Such humiliation was only a bit better than death. All the kung fu experts of the Central Plains blushed but were unable to refute the officer’s statements. What the officer had said was generally correct but calling them ‘third-rate’ was underrating them too much.
Dao Nian had originally planned to capture the Dragon King alive and force him to hand over the antidote as well as the method for removing the frosty Qi, but he had no time to consider all this now. “I have a way to defeat the Dragon King,” he said.
“Oh?”
“The Dragon King competed in internal energy with me last night and both of us were injured. As long as Your Highness can send out an expert who’s good at internal energy, we can win easily.”
After observing two fights of Gu Shenwei, Dao Nian finally realized that the Dragon King was also recovering from a severe internal injury just like him.
