Chapter 132: Three Days
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Slave Huan and Maid Lotus felt so defeated. They not only failed to regain their desires to kill but also lost their weapons during the previous fight. This was the biggest setback they had experienced since becoming killer apprentices.
In the past, they had been able to remain calm and emotionless no matter what had happened, but at this moment, they could not help feeling depressed. They reckoned that this change was perhaps also caused by Breaking Obsession.
After riding a couple of kilometers, they finally calmed themselves down and began to discuss what they were going to do to arouse their desires to kill.
According to Lianhua, they just needed to forget about Breaking Obsession to eliminate its influence on them. They tried to mess up their memories by having one of them recite the incantation loudly while the other would frequently interrupt. However, this method did not work at all. By doing so, they even remembered the incantation better than before.
They were so preoccupied with their own concerns that they were not vigilant enough during their trip.
In front of Slave Huan and Maid Lotus were two women, riding sideways on their trotting donkeys. They looked slender and thin, seeming to not know kung fu. However, when they were about to brush past, they suddenly jumped up from their saddles and leapt toward the teenagers. They were fast and agile, just like kung fu masters.
Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus instinctively stretched out their hands to their waists in an attempt to draw their sabers to counter-attack, but they only grabbed empty scabbards.
They immediately remembered that their sabers had already been broken by Monk Lianye, but it was already too late for them to adopt any other move to defend themselves. The two women had already taken the opportunity to poke the Xuanji acupoints on their chests.
The hot Qi in their Xuanji acupoints swiftly ran down to attack their Dantians and then rushed up into their heads to knock them out.
Evidently, these women were also from the Barren Sect like Mama Xue.
When Gu Shenwei woke up, he found out that he was lying on a lawn and Maid Lotus was lying peacefully beside him. He sat up to check himself and was surprised to discover that there was no hot Qi wandering inside his body now.
"Did the women cure my qigong deviation. How is this possible?" he wondered.
Just at this moment, Maid Lotus also woke up from her coma. They heard that someone was approaching and turned around. Ten steps behind them stood two masked women: one was tall while the other was short. They were dressed completely in black like killers from Golden Roc Fort, except for the mark of a Golden Roc on their shoulder, which was replaced by a white crescent moon embroidered on the strip of black cloth tied around their foreheads.
Neither Gu Shenwei nor Maid Lotus sensed anything wrong with their Internal Breath, and the women did not tie them up or adopt any other measure to restrict their movement. However, they still felt somewhat cautious without their sabers. After all, they were not good at unarmed fighting. They stood up but did not launch an attack.
"You killed Nie Qing and his wife and son?" the short women asked Gu Shenwei.
"Yes. Are you his sister?"
"Yes. I have to thank you for killing them. Otherwise, it would be quite troublesome to find you," the short woman sneered and said.
As killers had to be cruel even to their own families, Gu Shenwei was pretty sure that the woman was not joking.
Since meeting the mysterious woman in the desert, he had been waiting for this day without fear. He knew that the Barren Sect would not easily squander its connection to him and Maid Lotus. The sect could not find anyone else in Golden Roc Fort, whom they could easily control with Peripheral Force.
"Now that we finally meet, let's get straight down to business," the tall woman said. She sounded older than the short woman.
"You're Kang Wenmei's disciples, so you're also the Barren Sect's disciples. You have to work for us."
"No. Mama Xue never formally acknowledged us as her disciples, so I'm afraid that we cannot be considered as such," Gu Shenwei retorted.
He still habitually referred to Kang Wenmei as Mama Xue.
"You've her Peripheral Force inside your bodies, therefore you're already considered as our disciples."
"I can never thank you enough, if you could take it out of me," Gu Shenwei said mockingly. Because of this force inside his Xuanji acupoint, he had only one year to live now.
The tall woman found it hard to persuade the teenager by talking, so she decided to do it by action. She dashed to Gu Shenwei and patted his chest to inject a strong current of Qi into him.
The hot Qi mixed with Mama Xue's Peripheral Force in his Xuanji acupoint, and quickly traveled along his eight extra meridians. It did not hurt, but Gu Shenwei suddenly lost his balance and fell backward.
He tried to strike back but he was too feeble to do so at this moment. He started to stagger like a drunk man, while the tall woman circled around him like a phantom, striking occasionally either with her palm or by clawing at him.
Maid Lotus tried to save him, but the tall woman easily struck her down with one strike of her palm. It seemed that her kung fu was much better than Mama Xue's.
Without their weapons, the teenagers' kung fu seemed mediocre.
Half an hour later, the tall woman finally stopped striking Gu Shenwei and went back to stand with the short woman.
Gu Shenwei's face changed, as he heard his joints cracking and popping for quite a long time after the beating. "What did you do to me?" he asked the tall woman.
"You never knew what Peripheral Force was, did you?"
Gu Shenwei was speechless. For him, Peripheral Force only meant one thing: qigong deviation.
"You should feel honored. In the Barren Sect, all masters used this force to help their disciples improve their Internal Strength. We seldom give a boy such a chance."
"Huh, I see. It looks like all your disciples will die young."
"That's not true. If your master keeps injecting Peripheral Force into you, you can live as long as you can."
Upon hearing that, Gu Shenwei realized what the woman had done to him just now. "Did you..."
"I removed Kang Wenmei's force from your body," the tall woman interrupted.
"And then you injected your own force into me," Gu Shenwei added. He was 100-percent sure that this woman was not helping him out.
"Of course," the tall woman replied. "My Internal Strength is stronger than hers, so congratulations, now you have more Peripheral Force in your body. It doesn't only dwell inside your Xuanji acupoint now. You also have my force inside your Baihui acupoint on top of your head and your Yongquan acupoints on the soles of your feet. You will be able to increase your Internal Strength rapidly as long as I keep injecting Peripheral Force into you. However, you still have to thank Kang Wenmei. Without her force leading the way, I can never inject my force into you."
When she was talking, Gu Shenwei secretly channelled his Internal Breath and discovered that the Qi in his Dantian was much stronger than before. Restricted by Mama Xue's Peripheral Force, he had not made any progress in his Internal Strength for a long time. He was really impressed that this tall woman could enhance it in such a short time.
"Mama Xue gave me three years to live. How much time do you give me?"
The woman raised three fingers and said, "Three days."
Gu Shenwei was speechless and complained in his heart, "Why do I always get used by others? How can I get rid of such bad luck?" A moment later, he thought of Tie Hanfeng's remark that an ambitious person like himself would cause obstruction to some, while gaining 'recognition' and getting used by others. He had to admit that his Master Shifu was right. If he had never thought of becoming a killer and murdered Slave Yao, Mama Xue would have never sent him to East Castle.
"You have three days to prove your loyalty to the Barren Sect."
"What do you want me to do?" Gu Shenwei asked, feeling a little diffident. He guessed that it would be a difficult task.
"Return to Golden Roc Fort, and cast a rope down for me."
"Are you really going to climb all the way up to Golden Roc Fort?" Gu Shenwei blurted out.
The tall woman turned to the short woman and whispered, "I told you those pitons would divulge the secret." After that, she continued to talk to the youth, "That's none of your business. You just need to fasten a rope to the top of the cliff outside Firewood Yard before midnight the day after tomorrow. Remember to tie the knot as tightly as you can. You'll meet me again on that night, and if everything goes well, l'll officially acknowledge you as my disciple."
The Barren Sect used Peripheral Force to control their disciples and prevent them from betraying the sect. If Gu Shenwei declined to cooperate with her, she would refuse to inject any of her force into him.
She handed a specially-made rope to the teenager. The rope was more than 200 meters long and very strong. One end of it was tied to a black thing, which looked like a piece of iron. It was small in size but very heavy.
Gu Shenwei had no other options. Besides, he was not particularly loyal to Golden Roc Fort. If he found that through this battle the Barren Sect was powerful enough to resist Golden Roc Fort, he would not mind openly betraying the Fort to join the sect.
He received the rope.
The two masked women held Maid Lotus behind as hostage and the tall woman threatened Gu Shenwei, "If you fail, you'll die after three days. So will she."
"Killers don't care about anyone else. You must know that. Let her leave with me - she can help me complete the task."
"No," the tall woman shook her head and said smilingly. "All people in the world, including killers, won't know what they really care about unless it's in a life-and-death situation."
Gu Shenwei rode back to Jade City alone. He felt bewildered. "These two women talked and behaved like normal people. They did not look like those crazy women I met during my trip to the Iron Mountain Gang's camp. What do they intend to do after climbing up to the fort at midnight? It seems that they don't plan to assassinate anyone in the fort."
Gu Shenwei racked his brain but still could not figure out the true intention of the sect. Given that, he decided to focus on completing the task that the tall woman had given him.
However, he quickly ran into trouble again.
Shangguan Hongye found him in the city and gave him a letter, which was from the Eighth Young Mistress. In the letter, Luo Ningcha ordered Slave Huan to make up with Meng Mingshi as soon as possible.
Although Shangguan Hongye was a young master and the Supreme King's nephew, his status in the Shangguan family was very low. Back in the school, he used to work for Slave Huan in exchange for some silver and gold. He had quitted school recently and now he decided to work for the Eighth Young Mistress before he could get a post in the fort.
Before leaving the fort, Gu Shenwei had mentioned to Luo Ningcha that she could try to bribe Shangguan Hongye and his mother to win their support, since they were leading a hard life in the fort. He had never anticipated that she would have taken this suggestion seriously.
"Slave Huan, wow, look at you. You're wearing a brown belt now. I'm sure that you'll get your red belt very soon," Shangguan Hongye tried to flatter the slave boy.
"And you have such a good taste, Slave Huan. That woman is amazing." Upon hearing this, Gu Shenwei knew that Shangguan Hongye had already visited his brothel in Pleasure Alley.
Not long ago, Shangguan Hongye had been to Xu Yanwei's place to deliver the Eighth Young Mistress' order to Tie Hanfeng.
When Gu Shenwei entered Xu Yanwei's brothel, Tie Hanfeng greeted him warmly. "The Eighth Young Mistress is right. You have to apologize to Mr. Meng Mingshi. It's no good to offend such a wealthy young master. I've arranged everything for you. Mr. Meng has already promised to dine with us here tomorrow," said Tie Hanfeng, beaming.
Gu Shenwei felt overwhelmed. He had lots of things to do, but he had only three days.
He decided to attend to the most urgent matter first, so he immediately ran out of the brothel, mounted his horse and chased after Shangguan Hongye. Gu Shenwei gave him an ingot of gold and passed a mission on to him.