Chapter 45: Wall Climbing
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Shangguan Yushi tried everything to prevent Slave Huan from getting close to the twins. The slave boy could not solve this problem with his powerful kung fu. He had to think of another way to get closer to the twins.
Fortunately, the twins' enthusiasm for the killer training game did not diminish over time. Shangguan Ru announced that she would hold a contest for the three killer teams after a month from now.
Gu Shenwei thought this was a chance for him to regain Shangguan Ru's favor.
To achieve that goal, he needed to know in advance about what kind of program that the young masters would choose for the contest and to make preparations for it. He felt that he had to be extra careful about this matter because Shangguan Yushi was also involved in making decisions about the contents of the competition.
The day after when Shangguan Ru had declared that she would hold a contest, Gu Shenwei seized an opportunity to meet Shangguan Hongye again.
The moment Shangguan Hongye noticed Slave Huan from afar, he sent his young attendant away. He walked to the slave boy alone and greeted him with a nod.
"Do me a favor," Gu Shenwei said straight away.
Shangguan Hongye was rather disappointed that the slave boy did not bring him anything valuable this time. "Do you want me to organize a gambling game again? I can't do that again. Master Yu nearly discovered that it was me who organized the gambling game last time. I can't afford to offend her," Master Hongye grumbled.
"No. It's easy this time. You just need to inquire about what competition program Master Ru chooses for the contest that will be held in a month."
"Hehe, I almost forgot that you're selected as a 'killer' now. Are you feeling anxious about the contest? I'm sorry, I can't help you. Master Ru won't talk to me."
"Master Fei must know something about it."
"Come on, I made him lose money last time. He hates my guts."
"Okay, never mind. Return the package to me. I'll ask someone else for help."
Shangguan Hongye's face changed as he looked around. He dragged Slave Huan to a secluded spot against a wall. "Are you insane? All right. I promise to help you one more time. We had agreed to a 50/50 split of the money, but now I want it all."
"Hmm, okay. It's not a big deal. I can do it again."
Upon hearing that, Shangguan Hongye immediately approached the slave boy and whispered next to his ear, "If you obtain some valuable goods again, I can help you exchange them for silver and keep hold of it for you."
Gu Shenwei smiled without giving an answer. He turned around to walk away, and within a few steps, he stopped and looked back to remind Shangguan Hongye. "Quickly inquire about the matter. I want to know as soon as possible."
After that, he went to visit Mama Xue to ask for her help.
"Master Ru will hold a contest after a month. If I can win the competition, the twins will think highly of me. They'll probably ask Shangguan Yushi to give me back to them. Or they'll consider me their strongest 'opponent'. As long as I can win the game, they'll favor me again. However, I'm not confident in myself because I haven't made any progress in my Internal Strength recently..."
Mama Xue sat in a chair as she examined the humble teenager in front of her. "You're smart. Sometimes I think that you're even smarter than Slave Yao. Maybe you're too smart. I have to keep an eye on you."
"I wholeheartedly work for Mama Xue and Miss Luo. I only hope that one day, Mama Xue and Miss Luo will help me avenge my father's death. Most importantly, Mama Xue, you have the ability to kill me at any time."
He had told Mama Xue that his father was Yang Zheng, who was actually an old servant of his family.
He had secretly pressed on his Xuanji acupoint in his chest several times and felt a burning sensation there, which kept growing stronger over time. Since Mama Xue had stopped helping him improve his internal strength, he had been stuck at the second level of his Yin and Yang Strength. At first, he had thought that he only needed more practice, but gradually he came to realize that it was Mama Xue's interference that stopped him from making any progress in his Internal Strength.
"So you know your place. That's good, that's good." Mama Xue said repeatedly, without giving him an answer.
The next night, Mama Xue came up with a solution to the slave boy's problem. She ordered Maid Lotus to spend two hours each night training Slave Huan. The girl who had practiced kung fu with him in the past now became his teacher.
Although Maid Lotus appeared unfriendly to the slave boy, she still followed Mama Xue's order to teach him everything she had learned during the day, such as fist fighting techniques, saber skills, Lightness Skill and hidden weapons. Gu Shenwei found out that he could master all these kung fu skills except for the Golden Roc Fort's Internal Strength. It was true that anyone who had learned another kind of Internal Strength would be unable to practice Golden Roc Fort's Internal Strength.
Gu Shenwei received his killer training from Maid Lotus at night and continued to serve Shangguan Yushi during daytime. As an unfavored servant of the young master, he followed her orders to complete many small and trivial tasks.
He anxiously waited for Shangguan Hongye's reply. He was eager to know what Shangguan Yushi thought his greatest weakness was.
Half a month passed. Shangguan Hongye had not acquired any information. It was not his fault, as Shangguan Ru herself had not yet decided on the competition program.
When another six or seven days had passed, Shangguan Hongye hastily gave Slave Huan a slip of paper. He had finished his task.
Two words were written on the paper: wall climbing.
Gu Shenwei was confused about it. "Wall climbing?" However, the next moment, he quickly realized that it was a Lightness Skill match.
Shangguan Yushi had discovered that Slave Huan's weakest point was his Lightness Skill.
The Gu family's kung fu featured firm steps and steady moves. The family's Lightness Skill was only just so-so, and thus Lightness Skill became Gu Shenwei's weakest point. Shangguan Yushi had easily noticed this shortcoming of the slave boy since she had watched him fight on many occasions.
There were only seven or eight days left before the contest. Gu Shenwei explained the situation to Mama Xue and spent all the remaining days practicing Lightness Skill and wall climbing skills, hoping to make up for his shortcoming during these few days.
As a beginner in Lightness Skill, he could not rapidly improve his Lightness Skill without a strong Internal Strength. Given that, Mama Xue finally agreed to help him practice Yin and Yang Strength again.
During the month, the twins abandoned their studies and concentrated on training their "killers". Gu Shenwei and the other eight teenagers were authorized to enter the restricted area of Golden Roc Fort and had to go to Giant Rock Cliff in East Castle every morning to check in. However, every morning after the check-in, Shangguan Yushi would send her three "killers" away on some "sentry duties".
Finally, it was the day of the contest. All the students skipped school to watch the match. For most students, this was their first time entering East Castle. They were thrilled in the beginning but then felt a little bit disappointed after entering the place. They all became restless while approaching Reincarnation Cliff, but when they arrived at Giant Rock Cliff, they all felt excited again and simultaneously praised that it was such a nice place.
The competition program was wall climbing, just as Shangguan Hongye had informed Slave Huan.
There was a stone wall in the west of the cliff, which was more than 10 meters high. No one understood why Golden Roc Fort built such a high wall near a cliff.
Nine red silk flowers were placed on the top of the wall. The contestants were asked to climb up the wall as fast as possible to snatch the flowers. The one who picked the most flowers would be the winner.
This contest did not look like a match between killers, but it was visually pleasing and easy to understand for the audience.
The three "blademasters" were not included among the contestants. Only their nine "killers" would climb the wall to snatch the flowers.
It was Shangguan Fei's idea. The young master would never want to be defeated by his sister and cousin in front of the public, and he would feel even more humiliated if some servants also outshone him.
However, some children of the Shangguan family, who had received training in the Moonhold Academy, were not satisfied with this arrangement and demanded to join the competition. At their urging, five more contestants were added to the game. Now there were 14 contestants preparing to scramble for the nine red flowers.
The three "blademasters" were the judges, and Slave Qing was responsible for keeping order. As long as the twins were safe, he would be willing to take part in any game together with them.
Among Shangguan Yushi's three "killers", only Slave Huan could climb up the wall. The other two teenagers, who had learned nothing during the past month, dug their fingers into some cracks of the wall but still failed to lift their feet off the ground. Shortly after the beginning of the contest, they admitted defeat embarrassedly and went back to their "blademaster" with red faces to accept the punishment. Shangguan Yushi immediately sent them out on "sentry duties". The audience found this scene very funny and burst into laughter.
Shangguan Yushi did not mind the crowd's mockery. Her eyes remained fixed on Slave Huan.
Gu Shenwei jumped much higher than all the other contestants in the beginning. He worried that the five children surnamed Shuangguan would become his strong rivals since they might have learned some advanced kung fu skills in the Moonhold Academy. However, soon he found out that his worry was completely unnecessary. These five children probably just joined this game for fun. They could not even compete with Shangguan Fei's "killers". All of the five children became scared and started to cry after climbing up less than seven meters. Three of them fell down and the other two climbed down by themselves, which prompted another round of laughter.
Shangguan Fei's "killers" outshone Shangguan Ru's "killers" in kung fu, but Shangguan Ru had trained her teenagers well over the past month. Now, the six teenagers closely followed Gu Shenwei as they crawled toward the flowers like nimble geckos.
Gu Shenwei snatched the first red flower. A great cheer went up from the crowd. He felt that a hand was trying to grasp his ankle and kicked it off without mercy. The next moment, someone fell down while screaming.
After that, the remaining six teenagers all made to the top of the wall. They drew out their wooden sabers to fight each other.
Gu Shenwei was adept at saber skills. He did not need to resort to using his killing desire this time and easily defeated all his opponents. During the fight, the teenagers fell off the wall one after another. Two of them even fell into the place on the other side of the wall and spent quite a while limping back to Giant Rock Cliff.
Gu Shenwei discovered that the six teenagers had not improved very much after having trained for one month. He felt lucky that he had overestimated them and for taking this chance to ask Mama Xue to help him improve his Yin and Yang Strength.
He obtained seven red flowers in the end. While he was fighting with the others, another teenager grabbed two red flowers and hastily jumped off the wall. He was not injured, since some of the audience managed to catch him in time.
Gu Shenwei stuck his wooden saber back into his belt and slowly climbed down the wall with the red flowers. His Lightness Skill was not good enough to ensure his safety when he jumped from somewhere more than 10 meters high.
The first person he looked at when he landed was Shangguan Ru.
Master Ru was also staring at him. Although her "killers" failed to gain any flowers, she did not seem angry at all. Normally, she would lose her temper from only a little frustration.
Gu Shenwei turned to Shangguan Yushi and gave the flowers to her, his "blademaster".
"Master Yu, my blademaster, I picked them for you."
Shangguan Yushi was extremely disappointed and furious at this moment, but she masked her feelings very well. She did not accept the red flowers.
"Keep them. They're yours," she said coolly, with both hands behind her back.
Shangguan Yushi seemed to admit defeat and gave up on trying to drive Slave Huan away, which made Gu Shenwei become more vigilant against her.
The "killer training" was over. Shangguan Ru fired the useless "killers" and only kept Slave Huan and another two teenagers. She told the three teenagers that the "blademasters" were going to form an elite team together with them.
"They think I only did this for fun. I'll give them a big surprise."
Today was the first day of this elite killer team. Now only the six members of the team remained at Giant Rock Cliff.
"We're the strongest children in Golden Roc Fort. Compared to us, those apprentices in Carvewood Academy are just rubbish," Shangguan Ru said solemnly and mystically.
She paused a moment to look at Shangguan Fei. She felt that he could not meet her criteria but she could not drive her brother away.
"Killers can't just play games. We should carry out our duty."
Her tone became more mysterious. She was not influenced by anyone this time. It was all her idea.
"I'm going to organize an assassination," she announced.