Chapter 80: Savage Beatings
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Tie Hanfeng needed a killer mentor title to continue his private business in South City. To maintain his current title, he intended to postpone his apprentice's departure.
According to the rules of Golden Roc Fort, if a killer apprentice could kill every opponent in the tests with only one strike for six consecutive months or wound every opponent for 12 straight months, then he or she would become a red-belt killer.
Gu Shenwei had killed every one of his opponents with just one strike in the past five monthly tests. If he listened to his mentor and purposely lost the game in his sixth monthly test, he would have to start all over again, which meant that he would have to spend at least another six months to become a red-belt killer. He was irritated by his mentor's request, but he still pretended to agree with him. He secretly made up his mind to kill his opponent with only one strike in the upcoming monthly test. He wished to get rid of this old cripple as soon as possible because he thought that he did not need this teacher anymore.
After the month-long massacre, the East Castle gradually returned to normal. So did the black market. A few days later, Liuhua the Silencer suddenly popped out, which greatly surprised everyone including his mentor.
This lone-wolf killer became even more seclusive than before and refused to make friends with anyone. His mentor strongly supported his decision and openly praised him as a real professional killer.
Although the two major gangs had been dismissed, the core members of the gangs still stuck together. Some Tattooed Arm Gang members wanted revenge for Maid Lotus and asked Slave Huan to assassinate Liuhua.
Gu Shenwei vetoed their suggestion immediately. He explained that since Supreme King had already banned gang wars, they could not resort to assassination to avenge Maid Lotus now. To appease his former gang members, he promised that he would try his best to make Liuhua his opponent in the impending monthly test.
Everyone agreed to this plan. They believed that Slave Huan could easily kill Liuhua in a test room, since Liuhua could not compete with Slave Huan in saber skills and could not find any place to hide and shoot in the narrow test room.
To carry out this plan, the Tattooed Arm Gang members and even some Snow Mountain Gang members all donated money to bribe a yellow-belt, who promised that he would put Liuhua and Slave Huan in the same test room in the upcoming monthly test.
This was normal business in East Castle. Shangguan Yuxing had engaged in this business when he had been alive. Now he was dead, but the business still thrived.
Gu Shenwei practiced hard for the test and at the same time, sent his reliable friends to monitor Shangguan Yushi. She had gotten cold feet and fled in their previous confrontation, but he still worried that she was secretly plotting against him.
So far, she had not made any move to set him up in East Castle. He was not sure whether it was because she was frightened or because she really hated her brother and did not want to avenge him.
Three days before the monthly test, Maid Lotus' wound recovered. She took the money to find the yellow-belt and arranged everything for Slave Huan.
Tie Hanfeng had rarely gone downhill lately. In recent days, he had urged his apprentice to practice and begun to really exchange moves with him. Now, he could not remain in his chair throughout a fight against his apprentice anymore. Slave Huan was much stronger now, although he still lacked experiences and sophisticated skills.
On the day of the test, they got up early in the morning and went to Pyrowork Academy together. Before they entered the academy, Tie Hanfeng grabbed Slave Huan's arm and asked, "Do you remember what I said?"
"Yes."
"Take care of it."
Gu Shenwei nodded, but at the same time, he was thinking about how he was going to end Liuhua with one strike. He felt thrilled because after winning this fight, he would officially become a killer and be rid of his mentor.
According to Golden Roc Fort's tradition, when he became a killer, he would return to serve his master, Shangguan Nu. When that happened, he would be able to see what his master's black-masked assassin could do and then figure out a way to kill the Eighth Young Master.
He was pretty sure that he would have enough time to realize this plan before his Qigong Deviation killed him.
Inside the yard of the academy, all the killer apprentices were in black outfits, but Gu Shenwei still recognized Liuhua at just a glance. With a knife stuck in his belt and a shortbow on his back, he was standing alone by a wall, far away from everyone else including his own mentor.
"You'll die today unless you've managed to make huge progress in your saber skills in the past month," Gu Shenwei looked at Liuhua and thought.
A building inside the yard was divided into a row of test rooms. Before the test, the apprentices were arranged into two lines on opposite sides of the building. A yellow-belt led Slave Huan to a test room and whispered to him at the door, "I'm sorry. Someone paid a higher price. You can come to me to get your money back after the test."
With these words, the yellow-belt hurried off. Gu Shenwei believed it must have been Tie Hanfeng who had ruined his plan.
He pushed the door open and stormed into the room. To his great surprise, he discovered that his opponent was Maid Lotus.
They knew each other very well, so they immediately recognized each other, even though they both had their faces covered by black cloths.
"What happened?" Maid Lotus asked.
"The old cripple paid the yellow-belt a higher price to put us in the same test room," Gu Shenwei replied.
They fell into silence, feeling lost.
For a moment, Gu Shenwei really wanted to kill Maid Lotus, since he wished to carry out his revenge plan as soon as possible. However, he still gave up on that idea in the end. He worried that treating Maid Lotus so cruel-heartedly would make the other killer apprentices isolate him. To realize his plan for revenge, he needed their help, although he would never tell them about his plan.
"What should we do now?" Maid Lotus asked.
"Come over here and cut me. I'll let you win this match."
Gu Shenwei decided to let Maid Lotus owe him a favor. He could not brutally kill her with one strike, so he decided to take another six months to become a red-belt killer.
"Thanks."
Maid Lotus agreed without any hesitation. She went over to Slave Huan and cut a shallow wound on his left arm.
This incident made Gu Shenwei believe that Maid Lotus was a girl without pretense. He trusted her even more.
"I'll kill Liuhua for you," he said.
"No, I'll kill him by myself," she replied.
Gu Shenwei managed to calm himself down and walked out of the room to report the result to the yellow-belt. But when he returned to the yard with his mentor, he could not hold his anger back anymore. "You old cripple, why did you do this to me?" he shouted.
Tie Hanfeng reacted coolly to his apprentice's anger. He lay on his deck chair and said, "I did that for your own good."
"You did that to keep your title, so you can continue your private business."
"And still for your own good."
Gu Shenwei got so furious that he began to feel as if he was burning with anger. He gave full vent to his frustration and his hatred toward Golden Roc Fort and started scapegoating his mentor. "From now on, you're my enemy."
"Huh, it really took you long enough to see this point, dumb*ss. We've been enemies from the very beginning. Look, here's my belt. If you can kill me and hang this thing on the gate of the yard, you'll immediately become a red-belt killer. How about it? Kill me and you won't need to take the monthly tests anymore. You little bastard, do you want to try?"
Tie Hanfeng gave his apprentice a provocative look, feeling no shame at all.
Gu Shenwei regretted that he had not killed Master Shifu when he had gotten completely drunk the last time. He decided to find an opportunity to assassinate him within six months.
This decision still failed to appease his anger. He had only two years and a few months to live and to get his revenge, but now he had to waste probably six months on a semi-retired killer.
Tie Hanfeng noticed Slave Huan's anger and thought it was time for the lesson he had been preparing for a long time. "Training killers is like training dogs. First, you let them bite each other and fight against each other to fill their hearts with anger and hatred. When they become fierce dogs that want to swallow the whole world and bite everyone they meet, they can move on to the next step. Do you know what the next step is?"
Gu Shenwei shut his mouth tightly, refusing to respond to such nonsense.
"The next step is to keep every dog on a leash to prevent it from biting its owner. A disobedient dog is a useless, crazy dog, like a piece of sh*t."
Although Gu Shenwei was extremely angry now, he still understood his mentor's meaning. A killer relied on hatred and anger to maintain a strong killing desire, but once he failed to control his own emotions, he would end up destroying himself.
At this moment, Gu Shenwei was not sure whether he should suppress his anger or give full vent to it. Suddenly, he felt tightness in his chest and passed out.
His Qigong Deviation caused by Mama Xue had struck him again. This time, it was much more severe.
However, Gu Shenwei did not suffer a lot because he fainted and became unconscious. His only regret was that he did not get the chance to repeat the words in the Nameless Swordbook in his mind to turn the hot energy into his own Internal Strength.
When he woke up, he found himself lying in his mentor's chair. This was the first time that he enjoyed this privilege. He had never touched this chair even when his mentor had been away.
Tie Hanfeng was standing with his left leg three steps away from Slave Huan and looking at the slave boy with gloomy eyes.
Gu Shenwei's heart skipped a beat. He had successfully concealed three Qigong Deviation attacks since he had become Tie Hanfeng's apprentice. But now, he could not hide this from his mentor anymore.
"Hey, there's my little apprentice, who's bent on becoming a killer. What's going on? Did you faint with excitement? Or, do you have some f*cking secret?"
"It's none of your business."
This time, the Qigong Deviation struck suddenly and also ended abruptly. Gu Shenwei jumped out of the chair and began to consider how he would kill his mentor before he gave his secret away.
In the next moment, Tie Hanfeng approached Gu Shenwei and punched him all of a sudden. Gu Shenwei was on high alert but still failed to stop the punch to his lower abdomen.
It hurt a lot, but he still swiftly drew out his saber to attack Tie Hanfeng's back. As they were too close to each other now, he planned to use a backhand attack, a new technique that he had mastered during real fights.
He had never told his mentor that he had already gotten used to attacking from behind.
Beyond all his expectations, his killer mentor, a semi-retired killer, turned out to be a really tough opponent.
Tie Hanfeng did not dodge aside. Nor did he adopt any defensive move to block Gu Shenwei's saber. He just took one step forward and used his head to hit Gu Shenwei's nose hard. Gu Shenwei had never expected his mentor to use such a common street fighting trick to beat him.
Now, with a dizzy head and blurry vision, he could not steadily hold onto his saber, not to mention use it to kill someone.
Tie Hanfeng carried the momentum into his next rounds of attacks. He grabbed his apprentice by the neck and kept battering him from his head to his waist until he blacked out again.
When Gu Shenwei woke up again, he found himself lying in the yard with his hands and feet tightly tied by leather cords.
A month ago, he had been the leader of a gang, but today, he ended up lying in a pile of rubbish, with a mass of bruises all over his body and face. He thought that up until now god had played many jokes on him, but this one was definitely the cruelest.
Now, Tie Hanfeng was a little tipsy but not in a good mood. He was lying in his chair, saying, "I'll kill you unless you get killed by some absurd Qigong Deviation someday. I can't let you disgrace me."
Tie Hanfeng cast a cold eye on Gu Shenwei, who remained silent but continued to struggle on the ground all the while. After that, he just kept drinking his liquor until he finally fell asleep in his chair.
Gu Shenwei tried everything he knew but still failed to untie himself. In the end, he got exhausted and could only sleep on the cold ground. It was winter now, so he shivered all night long and nearly froze to death.
Tie Hanfeng was not afraid of the cold. He had a sound sleep in his chair in the open yard and woke up late the next day. The moment that he woke up, he poured all the remaining liquor into his mouth. After that, he turned to look at his apprentice, who was blue in the face because of the cold weather. "You little bastard, you're still alive? Go down the hill with me. If I can't find someone to heal you, I'll chop off my only good leg to feed a f*cking dog."