Chapter 140: Bloodied Body
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Every punch Gu Shenwei exerted possessed mountain-breaking strength. He stuck close in front of his enemy, without a trace of pity or hesitation in his heart.
Kang Wenhui twisted and turned as much as she could, but was unable to evade the youth's fists. She thus released all of her power, including from her ten bloody fingers, to strike at every part of the youth's body.
Gu Shenwei's clothes were torn as a result, and countless more channels of blood were added to his already scarred skin, yet he seemed to not mind at all - as if his body did not truly belong to him. Keeping a straight face, he exerted punch after punch mercilessly. At this moment, it would not have mattered to him if his enemy was male or female, old or young.
Kang Wenhui's facial expression changed before her facial shape followed suit. Her entire head, covered in blood, had turned even redder than her ten fingers. She had never encountered a fighting style like this, which was as adhesive and impossible to shake off as the most shameless of scoundrels. It did not have any pattern or style, yet its strength was sufficient to beat a bull to death.
The Managing Master of Barren Sect would, in time, be beaten to death by the fists of a youth. Her skull was pulverized and an eyeball was sent flying out.
Though Gu Shenwei panted heavily, he was not tired at all. On the contrary, he felt more energetic than ever. If a mountain was standing in front of him, he just might have crushed it into stones using his fists.
The three Barren Sect disciples simply watched in astonishment and were unable to help their master in time. However, they then took a quick look at each other and proceeded to flank the youth from three directions, with Nie Qing taking the lead.
As killers, they often resorted to unscrupulous tactics, but would never run away from a fight. In any case, their bodies had been implanted with Peripheral Forces by Kang Wenhui, and thus even if they did not avenge their master, death would be inevitable when they returned to Barren Sect.
Gu Shenwei bent his body slightly and leaped powerfully off the ground. Every step he took was equivalent to seven or eight steps of a normal person. Like a leopard charging after its prey, he knocked down the enemy on his left side in two quick steps and then rolled several times on the ground while holding on to her.
When he stood up again, the female was already dead, with her ribs entirely fractured.
He proceeded on to the next nearest enemy, and after allowing her to add several more scratch marks to his body with her sharp claws, he knocked her down with a single punch. Kneeling on the ground, he proceeded to wallop her until her flesh and blood could not be differentiated from the grass and soil beneath.
The last of the disciples lunged at the youth and sunk her ten fingers into his pectorals. However, after only an inch in, they could go no further nor be pulled out.
With a backhand, Gu Shenwei grabbed the wrists of the female behind him, then jumped up and landed on the ground face up. Consequently, although he felt some heat in his neck area, the enemy's strength had already petered out, and she had spat blood and died.
After pulling her ten fingers out of his pectorals, Gu Shenwei stood up with his upper body naked. The bloodstains on his body were like meandering brooks that flowed down along his skin. When he clenched his fists, his muscles became taut as if they were iron cast.
The two monks had been standing stupefied by the side all this time, watching the brutal and bloody massacre play out. They had even forgotten to open their mouths and call off the fight. In their minds, they were a thousand percent sure that the youth was the Devil Emperor's reincarnation.
"A... mitabha." Monk Lianhua was finally able to speak.
Although the circulation of his Internal Breath was gradually slowing down, Gu Shenwei's killing desire was still raging. "Monks are also people, what's the point of keeping them alive?" he thought, and thus advanced toward them.
"Why is this... Buddhist incantation no longer effective?" Lianhua muttered puzzledly, not realizing that danger was drawing near.
Gu Shenwei was startled. He knew now that he had indeed been tricked by Master Tiger Monk into learning the thousands-of-words-long Buddhist incantation that was Breaking Obsession , which had the effect of weakening his killing desire. However, at this moment, he could feel that his killing desire was more intense than at any time before and he did not have the slightest hesitation that he usually had.
The brief moment of self-awareness allowed Gu Shenwei to regain his sense of reason. "This monk mustn't die. I think there's something important I need him to solve."
"Maybe it's something related to Death Scripture ?" Gu Shenwei tried searching his memory. The pronunciations found in Breaking Obsession were mostly referenced from the former, which originally did not have the effect of reducing killing desire. As the saying went, "Water holds up a boat, but can also sink it." Not long after he was able to overcome the restrictions of his Internal Strength, he also made a huge psychological breakthrough, which explained why his killing desire increased instead of reducing.
Monk Lianhua also thought similarly. His face ashen pale, he involuntarily let out a long sigh. He and Master Tiger Monk had dedicated their lives to this. If it was ineffective, it would not only mean that the latter had died for nothing, but also that the vows they had made in front of the Buddha statue were false and could never be fulfilled.
"Everything stems from Death Scripture and shall be resolved by it. Back then, when you composed Breaking Obsession together with Master Tiger Monk, you did so only with fragments of Death Scripture . Master Tiger Monk was able to read the entire scripture but passed away too early. I'm willing to rewrite the scripture and hand it to you, hoping that you can use it to amend Breaking Obsession , and thereby dispel all killing desire in the world as you have long wished."
"Really?" Lianhua's sorrow turned into joy, such that he was no longer much distressed by the four corpses lying on the ground. "Little benefactor's virtuous deed will be greatly appreciated."
"Bring me pen and paper."
Lianye, who was still able to move about despite his internal injuries, hurried into a hut and brought out a brush, ink, paper, an inkstone, as well as a short stool. He laid out the paper and was about to grind the ink when Gu Shenwei grasped the brush and said, "No need." He repeatedly dipped the brush in the spots of fresh blood on his body while writing, and when he had used up his own blood, he began to use that of the corpses next to him.
He had long memorized Death Scripture , which was of more than five thousand words, until he knew it backwards. As such, he completed the writing in a short time. Tossing the brush down and standing up, he handed the blood-written stack of paper to Monk Lianhua.
The latter did not know what to say upon receiving the blood-written scripture. There were certainly precedents of Buddhist practitioners writing in blood, but they were always in the person's own blood. He had never killed a living thing in his life, yet the scripture he was holding was written in the blood of both living and dead people - certainly worthy of the name "Death Scripture".
"I need Master to agree to two conditions."
"Speak, little benefactor."
"Firstly, I hope that you'll teach your students the correct pronunciation of the entire scripture instead of imparting a fake version. And secondly, I hope that you'll try to decipher its real meaning."
As pedantic as Monk Lianhua was, he was not a foolish man. While holding up the papers and revealing an expression of reluctance, he said, "The killing desire of little benefactor is already inordinate. Are you still looking to use the scripture to increase your killing desire further?"
"After deciphering it, you can decide not to impart it if it's about kungfu."
Only now did Monk Lianhua nod his head and agree. He then turned to look at the four corpses on the ground and chanted a few lines of scripture. With that, he and his junior brother swiftly descended the mountain. Having become a place of killing, Leftslope Vihara was no longer a suitable place for their practice.
Gu Shenwei unsheathed his saber and cut off the heads of the four disciples. He then found his way downhill to where his horse was and rode it back towards the city. Though Death Scripture was by no means a secret kungfu manuscript, it had a definite connection with Wayless Book , which Barren Sect was preoccupied with.
By the time it was evening, there were very few people out on the roads. As he neared Jade City, he ran into ambushers.
The ambushers emerged one-by-one and peered silently at the bloodied Slave Huan.
They were brown-belt assassins of Little Flag Battalion. The archer Liuhua and the saber-wielding Wildhorse were both present. Shangguan Yushi was the last to appear, and with some surprise and disappointment in his voice, he said, "You've returned late."
While Gu Shenwei was engaged in a life and death struggle with the four Barren Sect disciples, a huge battle was also taking place in Jade City.
Shangguan Ru had managed to convince her father, the Supreme King, to replace the Sacred Master guarding Six Kills Temple. The most capable "black-masked" assassin was dispatched overnight to keep watch at the exit of the valley and follow the Barren Sect disciples back to Jade City. At the same time, another killer was sent to follow Slave Huan from a distance.
The area below the Peak was surrounded by large rivers. As such, there was only one exit which everyone had to pass through to get in or out.
Barren Sect's hiding spots within the city were thereby successfully found out. There were three of them - two in South City and one in North City.
Past noon, the assassination campaign in the two cities began. 31 disciples of Barren Sect were discovered and no one was spared. Every one of them was a top-level expert, and as such, the campaign reduced the strength of Golden Roc Fort's old enemy by more than half. For many years thereafter, it would not be able to mount a comeback.
The assassination campaign was personally commanded by the Supreme King. It did not attract any attention in either city, and rumors only began to spread several days later.
Shangguan Ru had remembered her promise to protect Slave Huan's life. She pestered her father not to intervene before Slave Huan negotiated with Barren Sect, and informed him that she would personally protect the slave.
As she had made great contributions, the Supreme King was agreeable to anything she wanted. However, he forbade her from leaving Stone Castle. She thus had to entrust the job of protecting the slave to Shangguan Yushi. Overnight, a messenger was sent to inform Master Yu to contact the killer following Slave Huan.
The dozens of brown-belt assassins from Little Flag Battalion were sent out in nearly full force. They had thought that no matter the outcome of the negotiation, Slave Huan would return to Jade City together with the Barren Sect disciples. Nobody imagined that Slave Huan would return late in the evening, covered in blood and carrying four human heads.
It was only for show that Shangguan Yushi had brought out so many men. She had hoped that Slave Huan would be killed and she could thus ambush the Barren Sect disciples to "avenge" him. Unfortunately, things did not play out the way that she wanted.
Maid Lotus was found locked up in a stronghold in North City and was subsequently rescued unharmed.
The flaws in Stone Castle's defenses were also discovered. A semi-circular platform had been dug out at an unknown time in the walls of Firewood Yard's Ghost Cliff. Dozens of deity figures were also carved into the walls. Barren Sect had formed a ladder out of iron nails to get on to the platform and then forced Slave Huan to abseil down a rope.
It was unlucky that the one place where Golden Roc Fort had not set up an arrow tower was Ghost Cliff.
Subsequently, more arrow towers were built to guard Stone Castle. They now had two purposes: one was to shoot down giant rocs, and the other was to prevent foreign enemies from entering.
In the following days, Golden Roc Fort made use of clues and confessions to track down the remaining disciples of Barren Sect. It became widely believed that there were no more lurking enemies within Jade City and that once Eighth Young Master Shangguan Nu wiped out the survivors in the desert, Barren Sect would be no more.
The only thing that caused Supreme King some consternation was that the arrestees were only Barren Sect disciples. New Moon Hall, meanwhile, had revealed itself fleetingly but then seemed to disappear entirely.
No matter how one looked at it, this was overall a huge victory, and Supreme King Shangguan Fa was elated. His own daughter, Shangguan Ru, was considered the top contributor to the cause, and rumor even had it that he praised her as "the 'son' he was most proud of" in front of many people.
Eldest Young Master Shangguan Chui lost all face. He had personally directed Commander Guo of South City, yet after a few days of struggle, they knew nothing about the final decisive battle. By the time they heard about it, Barren Sect was already destroyed, and they were left with the task of wrapping up the victory.
Shangguan Ru even complained about Commander Guo to her father, claiming that out of prejudice he deliberately did not heed the intelligence gathered by his subordinates, and thus nearly held up the matter.
On the surface, he received neither admonishment nor punishment. However, after the manhunt ended, he was appointed as chief of the document library in Whiterobe Academy. As such, although he seemed to retain his power and influence, he was, in fact, kept far away from Golden Roc Fort's core circle.
Gu Shenwei thereby succeeded in puncturing a huge hole in Commander Guo's web of relations, and furthermore, deepened the conflict between himself and the latter. Soon, he would have to find a way to eliminate this particular counselor of the Golden Roc Fort, and in doing so, become heavily drawn into the Shangguan family's infighting.