Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Shangguan Hong pushed the window in front of him slightly open and the icy wind immediately blew in, but he didn’t care at all. Through the narrow crack of the window, he peeped sideways at the house opposite of him, in which a lamp was still ablaze. He held the hilt of the soft sword wrapped around his waist with his right hand, picturing himself thrusting the soft sword into his target.
This was the night before the Dragon King was to go to the top of the mountain and visit the Golden Roc Castle. The Dragon King had taken four bodyguards and a large number of guards to southern Jade City to spend the night there, and Shangguan Hong was one of them.
After being away from home for so long, he was finally about to come back to the stone castle, but his identity had changed. Now, he was an enemy of Golden Roc Castle. Shangguan Hong was in utmost horror. The few glimpses that the Unique King had given at him in the Four Noble Truths Temple would be forever engraved into his heart. His father’s eyes could scare him halfway to death just like how an experienced executioner could do the same to a criminal with his instruments of torture.
Shangguan Hong felt like he was like a criminal who had escaped from the stone castle. Even if he was going to return as an attendant of the winner, he still couldn’t suppress the horror in him.
The short soft sword wrapped around his waist was the only thing that could offer him some semblance of comfort and confidence.
Staring at the Dragon King’s room, he pictured the man in that room, who never slept at night, as an opponent who was standing right in front of him. He was also afraid of the Dragon King, though to a lesser extent, which made the Dragon King a perfect target for him with which to improve his will and courage.
There was an entire courtyard between them, and the Dragon King wouldn’t discover that he was peeping on him. In this self-deceiving and absolutely safe way, Shangguan Hong gradually felt the heavy pressure of a life-or-death situation, and he also found some kind of confidence as well as gained a deeper understanding of the Waning Moon Swordsmanship imparted to him by Lotus: the desire for survival was the most potent source of power. Wasn’t the purpose of this so-called killing just to survive?
Shangguan Hong was eager to survive. Even if his body was badly damaged and covered in wounds, he still cherished what he had left.
The pressure from the Dragon King was moderate and it was not as heavy and direct as the Unique King’s. Shangguan Hong believed that he could gradually acclimate to it. The grip of his right hand on the sword hilt was tightening. The impulse to whip out his sword was just as intense as when he had been in an affair with Madam Meng back then. He knew very well that there was humiliation and danger ahead of him, but he still couldn’t help himself from rushing forward.
He was no longer able to experience sexual pleasure, so he wanted to find a substitute for it on the sharp blade.
He wanted to whip out the sword. He urgently wanted to do it, as if an intangible weapon would sink into his body if he hesitated even a moment more. He had to make the first move if he wanted to keep himself safe.
Another pair of eyes suddenly appeared outside the window, coldly staring back at Shangguan Hong, who was about to make a move.
Shangguan Hong couldn’t have been more scared even if a ghost had just passed by the window. For an instant, he felt like all of his blood had been frozen, and that something had exploded in his brain. His mind instantly became empty, but his internal Qi started circulating madly like a waterfall.
Shangguan Hong finally whipped his sword out and thrust it forward.
The owner of that pair of eyes seemed to sense the inherent danger and dodged aside while Shangguan Hong was stunned. “Eek, your kung fu has really improved.”
At the last moment, Shangguan Hong changed his mind. He didn’t use his full strength in this sword strike. He felt as if he had been hammered hard in the chest. A stream of Qi which had previously been blocked rushed upwards from his abdomen, and then something sweet welled up to his throat and he nearly spat out blood.
Shangguan Hong was startled. When Lotus had been imparting the Waning Moon Swordsmanship to him, although she had told him that the more strength he gathered, the better, she had never said that there would be fatal consequences if he didn’t use his full strength. Previously, he had performed this swordsmanship with varying levels of strength and this kind of thing had never happened. Why had he hurt himself this time?
Shangguan Hong couldn’t think of an answer no matter how hard he tried, but he also dimly felt that if he had gone through with the full power sword strike just now, it would have been far more damaging than the current outcome.
“It’s you.” Shangguan Hong uttered these two words through gritted teeth, regretting that he hadn’t used his full strength just now.
“Of course it’s me.” Shangguan Fei’s eyes reappeared outside of the window. He was also among the four guards that the Dragon King had selected. “Why are you staring at the Dragon King’s room with a murderous look instead of sleeping at this time?”
Shangguan Hong shut the window, refusing to answer Shangguan Fei’s question. Unless the Dragon King himself asked him, he didn’t have to explain his actions to anybody.
Shangguan Fei pushed the door open and entered the room, leaving himself an escape route. “I know what you’ve been thinking about. You’re afraid of going back to the stone castle, and you hope that the Dragon King will cancel this visit. However, you don’t dare tell him this, right?”
Shangguan Hong stared at this foe of his that he hated the most. “What I’m thinking about is none of your business. Golden Roc Castle is nothing to be afraid of. For the Dragon King, it’s like an ant.”
Actually Shangguan Fei was even more scared of this trip than Shangguan Hong was. He had privately implored the Dragon King to not go, but had been flatly rejected. He had then asked his mother for help, but unexpectedly, she supported the Dragon King and had demanded that her son walk into the stone castle like the future Unique King.
Why couldn’t his mother understand that he wouldn’t need the Dragon King’s protection if he were able to face his father without fear? Shangguan Fei really hoped that he would fall seriously sick, so that he could evade this disaster. He had tried to circulate his Qi in a risky way, hoping to agitate himself and form some symptoms of Qi deviation, but he had given up the moment the frosty Qi in him had been activated. He would rather venture to face his father than try to endure the unbearable pain.
He had decided to find another way to alleviate his fear, so he had come here to visit his half-brother.
“Alas.” Shangguan Fei sighed deeply, turned around, closed the door, and sat down in a chair. “Actually I’m very scared. It’s not just the stone castle. it’s a nice place, but… but the thought of the King Lord makes my legs buckle.”
Shangguan Hong didn’t light the lamp. He just stood there while Shangguan Fei sat down in a chair. Shangguan Hong was still vigilant. He didn’t understand why Shangguan Fei had come here to spill his troubles to him. “Everybody is afraid of him,” he replied perfunctorily. If it were another person that Shangguan Fei was afraid of, then he surely would have mocked him. However, the Unique King was an exception.
Both of them were the Unique King’s sons, and both of them were not favored by their father. Almost all of their elder brothers were dead, which made them the only people who could understand each other’s fear of their father.
“I’ve been afraid of him since childhood,” Shangguan Fei continued. “Every time he appears in my dreams, there is always a killing scene as well as limbs flying around and blood splattering everywhere. I don’t care if you laugh at me about this, but I was a bedwetter until I was ten years old because of those nightmares.”
Shangguan Hong was surprised that Shangguan Fei was spontaneously talking about these shameful things that he used to do in his childhood. Meanwhile, he had also become a lot less vigilant. He hesitated for a while before saying, “Me, too. In the past, I would ask my mother whether we could move out of the stone castle. I felt that, even if we had to sell vegetables on the street for a living, that it would be better than living in the stone castle. Back then, I was unaware that the King Lord was… my father.”
“Um. Everybody is afraid of the King Lord, but nobody knows that we, his children, are the most afraid.”
Shangguan Fei had actually used the word “we,” acknowledging their brotherhood. Shangguan Hong became more amazed, and the hatred in him slightly abated. He even felt a glimmer of sympathy towards him. “Our elder brothers tried to kill each other not because they hate each other, but because they’re afraid that the King Lord will regard them as cowards.”
Shangguan Fei nodded approvingly. “But there are exceptions. Our younger sister doesn’t fear the King Lord. She has dared to act cute in front of him ever since childhood. Even now, when she is already an adult, she still gets to do whatever she wants, and she will always be forgiven as long as she shed one or two teardrops – that little bitch.”
Shangguan Fei cursed his twin sister. Shangguan Hong nearly started liking him. “That’s because she is just as cruel as the King Lord. Do you remember? She dared to kill people when she was still in school, and she beat up the other kids on a regular basis. She bullied us both. Isn’t she just pretending to be merciful because she wants to gain the support of the Four Noble Truths Temple? I suspect that this is actually a conspiracy that she and the King Lord has come up with.”
“That’s right,” Shangguan Fei slapped his leg. “I share your opinion. It’s a pity that the Dragon King has been bewitched by that little bitch and that he can’t see the truth.”
The two brothers were getting more and more intimate as their conversation went on. Shangguan Hong still hated his brother, but the impulse to immediately kill him was gone.
“The King Lord hates his sons,” Shangguan Fei said in a sad voice. “Especially me. He thinks that I’ve brought shame on him and the stone castle, but actually, he himself is just another lecher. He is only… slightly different. It’s not like I can’t have sons. I’ll have a hundred sons if I have to.”
“Heh. You think that the King Lord hates you more than he hates me? Madam Meng and I once… ” Shangguan Hong shut up in time. He had gotten carried away and had almost forgotten that Madam Meng was Shangguan Fei’s natural mother.
Shangguan Fei didn’t get angry over this sensitive issue, which was very rare. “Living in the stone castle with a father like him, we can be forgiven for anything.”
Shangguan Hong said nothing. He had just grown fond for Shangguan Fei and he didn’t want to ruin this precious kinship because of Madam Meng.
“In all seriousness, I was very, very surprised that the King Lord didn’t kill my mother. That was definitely not like him.”
“I think that I might know part of the reason.” Shangguan Hong had barely had any communication with his father, and neither was there any mutual trust between him and Madam Meng. However, when they had been in bed, they had still disclosed some secrets that others would never know about. “The King Lord still loves your mother, and your mother also loves the King Lord. Their proof of love is them torturing each other, which is hard to understand for outsiders. Your mother wants to bear the King Lord another son because the King Lord believes in the prophecy that says that ‘the man with ten sons will become a king.’ I don’t count, and Shangguan Ru will never become a son no matter how much the King Lord favors her.”
Shangguan Hong’s tone was pained and sad. He was the Unique King’s son, but he was unable to attain his father’s acknowledgement.
Shangguan Fei also felt pained and sad. He believed that he was the only one that his mother could rely on, but unexpectedly, she wanted to bear him a younger brother. “Judging from what you said, the King Lord definitely hates you more.”
“Tell me about it. Actually… I kind of implicated you too.”
Both of them were unwilling to make any explicitly apologetic remarks.
“You saw the King Lord in the Four Noble Truths Temple that day?”
“I did.”
“How did it go?”
“He hated me. I could feel it. He wanted to cut me to pieces.”
“Did you hear that the King Lord killed your mother a few days ago?”
“What?” Shangguan Hong had barely had any contact with the stone castle, and his mother was not an important person, so he had not heard nothing about her death.
“I wasn’t going to tell you this, but you would find out sooner or later. Maybe it’s better if you prepare yourself earlier.”
Shangguan Hong stayed silent. He had little affection for his mother. It was just that he felt a hatred towards his father when he heard about his mother’s death.
“It is said that the King Lord tortured your mother for three days and three nights before he killed her himself. And after that, he said that you would be tortured even more cruelly someday.”
Shangguan Fei’s voice was gentle, as if he was afraid that his brother would be scared. But Shangguan Hong was even more frightened. He took two steps backwards, fell onto the bed, and buried his head in his hands. “I don’t want to go back to the stone castle. I’ll ask the Dragon King to let me go back to the stone kingdom – or to the Land of Fragrance. That’d be for the best. Shangguan Fei, you’re closer to the Dragon King than I am. Can you-”
Shangguan Hong raised his head. To his surprise, Shangguan Fei had stood up. It was dark in the room, but from the moonlight falling through the window, he could still dimly see the smug smile on his face.
“Shangguan Hong, I came here to tell you one thing. The King Lord does hate you. He hates you even more than he hates the Dragon King. He’ll torture you until you yearn for death. All those torture devices are waiting for you in the stone castle. Tomorrow, the Dragon King will ask the King Lord for someone. Maybe he’ll trade you for that person.”
With a laugh, Shangguan Fei left. He had finally managed to shift part of his fear to Shangguan Hong.
