Death Sutra Chapter 80

Editor: Xu Xian

Chapter 080 Beat the Disciple

Tie Hanfeng needed the tile of ‘killer Master’ so he could continue his business in Southern Jade City. To achieve this, he postponed his disciple’s graduation time.

According to Golden Roc Castle’s rule, only those who either consecutively killed six opponents with one cut, or injured and won over their opponents twelve times in a row in the monthly tests were qualified to graduate as a killer. Everything would be recounted from the beginning if one failed during this process.

Gu Shenwei was furious with his Master, but he didn’t show it. On the surface he looked accepting, but he made up his mind to kill his enemy with one cut in the sixth monthly test and escape from Lame Tie’s control. He didn't have anything left to learn from his Master

The month-long slaughter finally ended, east castle was back to normal, even the black market gradually became popular again. Several days later, ‘Mouth Sealing Liuhua’ showed up again, surprising everyone including his Master.

Since then, he had been determined to become a lone wolf and had secluded himself from contact with anyone. His Master strongly supported this, claiming that he was a real killer.

Although the two big gangs didn’t exist anymore, they each still had a group of core members. Several disciples from Bi Nu gang came to Servant Huan and asked him to follow through with his promise to avenge Lotus and a.s.sa.s.sinate Liuhua.

Gu Shenwei outright refused. Unique King made the order that ‘private duels are prohibited now’. a.s.sa.s.sinating was tantamount to peris.h.i.+ng together with his enemies. But he promised that he would try his best to make Liuhua his opponent in his sixth monthly test.

Liuhua was not good at sabresmans.h.i.+p and the advantages of a bow and arrow could not be fully realized in the narrow simulation room. Gu Shenwei had full confidence in killing him.

Because of this, they pooled together lots of silver. Even members of their previous rival, the Snow Mountain gang, paid some money to help bribe the yellow-belted overseer into arranging Gu Shenwei and Liuhua as opponents for the next monthly test.

This was the commonly seen ‘business’ at east castle. Shangguan Yuxing had been part of it when he was still alive, but his death didn’t affect the flouris.h.i.+ng business.

Gu Shenwei focused on practising his sabresmans.h.i.+p whilst he also secretly inquired about Shangguan Yus.h.i.+’s next move. At that time, she had retreated out of panic, so would probably plot something against him. He had several loyal allies now, so he was more well-informed.

Shangguan Yus.h.i.+ bided her time. No one knew if she was afraid or just didn’t care about elder brother. In short, she never tried to find trouble for Servant Huan at east castle.

Enough silver had been pooled and Lotus had already recovered. Three days before the monthly test, she went to talk with an overseer by herself and successfully arranged the match between Servant Huan and Liuhua.

Tie Hanfeng seldom went downhill recently, he strictly urged his disciple to practise kung fu instead. Now, when the two of them formally competed with each other, the Master couldn’t block his disciple’s moves sitting down anymore. What the disciple lacked was more practice and experience.

On the morning of the sixth monthly test, Tie Hanfeng personally led his disciple to Lian Huo Yuan. Before entering the yard, he grabbed his disciple’s arm. “You know what I mean, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“Don’t ruin it.”

Gu Shenwei nodded, but all he thought about was how to kill Liuhua with one cut. After today, he wouldn't be Tie Hanfeng’s disciple anymore, and the cripple would have no way to control him.

Then, he would formally become a Golden Roc Castle killer, and probably return to Shangguan Nu as his subordinate. When that time came, he needed to find the green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin and a way to kill the eighth young lord, all before the three-year time limit when Gu Shenwei would die of Qi deviation.

Everything was clear.

He saw Liuhua in the yard. Although everyone masked their faces, Liuhua's traits were obvious: He stood alone near the wall and kept his distance from everyone, including his own Master. A sabre hung at his waist and on his back was the iconic short bow.

Unless this loner had mastered an incredible sabresmans.h.i.+p technique in a month, he would definitely die today.

The monthly test was going to begin, those disciples stood on either side of a row of rooms. An overseer led Servant Huan to one of the rooms, before Gu Shenwei entered, he whispered, “Sorry, someone paid more money, you can take your silver back later.”

The overseer left quickly, Gu Shenwei knew Tie Hanfeng had a hand in it.

As expected, when he pushed the door open, the disciple opposite him was not Liuhua, but Lotus who was taking the monthly test the same day.

They were familiar with each other now, so they could recognize each other even with their faces masked.

“What happened?” Lotus asked.

“Lame Tie paid more money and put us together.”

The two kept silent for a while as they didn’t know what to do next.

Gu Shenwei had once wanted to kill Lotus. She was the stone that tripped him on his path to revenge, if he wanted to proceed, he couldn't be soft-hearted. But he soon abandoned this idea, this move would isolate him again, more  than two months ago. To take revenge, helpers were necessary, he could hide the truth and let these future killers serve him.

“What should we do now?”

“Give me a cut, you win.” Gu Shenwei decided to do Lotus a favour, afterall, he had to partic.i.p.ate in tests for another six months. Win or lose didn’t mean anything to him now, killing the enemy with one cut was his goal.

“Okay.”

Lotus was not a pretentious person. She calmly accepted Servant Huan’s suggestion, walked up to him, and made a light cut on his left arm.

If Gu Shenwei still held suspicions about her, they completely disappeared now.

“I’ll kill Liuhua for you.”

“No, I’ll do it myself in the future.”

Gu Shenwei kept his composure when he walked out of the room and acted leisurely when reporting the result to the overseer. But after he followed his Master back to their living place, he couldn’t help but snap, “Lame, why did you do this?”

Tie Hanfeng lay on the deck chair, indifferent to his disciple’s anger and disdain. “For your benefit.”

“You’re just using the t.i.tle of killer Master to dredge money for yourself.”

“It's also good for you at the same time.”

Gu Shenwei felt like his whole body was on fire, he hadn’t been so furious in a long time. It seemed like he had transferred all his hatred towards Golden Roc Castle to his Master. “From now on, you’re my enemy.”

“Huh, for you to only think of this now, you really are too stupid. Master and disciple are supposed to be enemies. Look, this is my belt, if you can kill me and hang it over the door, you can graduate without having to partic.i.p.ate in the monthly tests. How about it? Little b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you wanna try?”

Tie Hanfeng looked at his disciple aggressively, not ashamed about his behavior at all.

Gu Shenwei really regretted not killing him when he was dead drunk. There was still a great gap between the two’s kung fu skills. Gu Shenwei couldn’t openly win in a fight, but he could scheme in secret. In six months, he would definitely have a chance to stab the crippled man’s heart.

But it was difficult to hold in his anger. Six months, what a long wait. He only had two more years in total, but he had to waste six more months on an unimportant, half-retired killer.

Tie Hanfeng felt the change in his disciple’s mood, so dished out a lesson he had prepared a long time ago. “Training a killer is like training a dog, you have to let them bite, compete with each other, fill their hearts with anger and hate until they can't wait to swallow the whole world and bite everyone they meet b.l.o.o.d.y. This is the first step, do you know what’s the next step?”

Gu Shenwei’s lips were tightly sealed, he didn't care at all about his Master’s boring metaphor.

“The next step is to put them on a rope, can't let the mutts swallow their lords. A disobedient dog is, afterall, a mad dog. A pile of f.u.c.king dog s.h.i.+t.”

Although he was disgusted at heart, Gu Shenwei understood his Master’s meaning. A killer relied on hatred to keep one’s murderous heart strong, but if one couldn’t control the hatred, one would only destroy oneself.

Gu Shenwei swung between controlling his hatred, and releasing his hatred when he suddenly felt a strand of stuffy Qi stuck in his chest. Then he blacked out and fell heavily to the ground.

A Qi deviation more severe than ever before had broken out.

But Gu Shenwei wasn't tortured, he pa.s.sed out, unconscious. He couldn’t even recite the words of the mysterious sword manual to turn the hot Qi into his own internal energy.

When he awakened, he found himself lying on his Master’s deck chair. This was the first time he had this honor, even during the month his Master was absent, he hadn’t touched this chair.

Standing three steps away, Tie Hanfeng supported himself with his healthy, left leg, looking at his disciple darkly.

Gu Shenwei was startled. He had had Qi deviation three times after taking Tie Hanfeng as his Master and hadn’t been found out by him. This time, he couldn’t hide it anymore.

“Hey, isn’t this my little disciple who wholeheartedly wants to graduate and become a killer? What happened? Too thrilled to be unconscious, or f.u.c.king hiding something?”

“None of your business.” Gu Shenwei spoke awkwardly, jumping off the deck chair as he thought of how to kill his Master before he snitched on him.

The Qi deviation had come fiercely and went away quickly.

Tie Hanfeng approached Gu Shenwei and punched him unexpectedly. Gu Shenwei was on full alert but still couldn’t block his fist. His abdomen got hit and he immediately felt overwhelming pain in his stomach.

Gu Shenwei took the chance to pull out his sabre. The two of them were very close, but he still held the sabre in a backhand position and stabbed his Master’s back lightning quick. This was sabresmans.h.i.+p he had mastered from real fights.

There was one thing he hadn’t told his Master, he was used to attacking from the side or back now.

But Gu Shenwei’s opponent was a killer Master. Although he was not at his peak state, his killing techniques hadn't deteriorated at all.

Tie Hanfeng neither dodged nor blocked the sabre that stabbed his back. He stepped forward instead and hit his disciple’s nose with his head. This was how rascals fought on the street, he was punis.h.i.+ng his disciple this way.

Gu Shenwei dizzy from the hit and his nose was bleeding. He couldn’t even hold his sabre firmly, not to mention use it to kill.

Tie Hanfeng was unforgiving after he got the upper hand. He grabbed his disciple’s neck and beat him like he hated Gu Shenwei deeply. He beat his disciple from head to waist and didn’t let go until the disciple fainted again.

When Gu Shenwei woke up again, he found himself lying in the yard with his hands and feet tightly bound with leather rope.

One month ago, he was still the leader of a gang, now, he rolled in a pile of garbage, his body full of bruises and his face black and blue. Amongst all the jokes the heaven’s will had played on him, this one was the most ironic.

Tie Hanfeng had lain back onto his chair, he had already drunk a lot, but his temper still wasn't good. “I’d better kill you, in case you die strangely of Qi deviation in the future and lose me face.”

Gu Shenwei did all he could to struggle and didn’t speak. Tie Hanfeng looked at him coldly, he kept drinking and finally fell asleep.

Gu Shenwei spent a lot of time and effort trying all kinds of methods, but still wasn’t able to untie the rope. He was so exhausted that he fell asleep on the ground. At night, he s.h.i.+vered because of the cold, early Winter air and almost died.

Tie Hanfeng wasn’t afraid of the cold, he slept comfortably on the outdoor deck chair. The first thing he did after he woke up the next morning was grab his wine pot and pour the remaining cold wine into his mouth. Then he said to the purple-faced disciple, “Why haven’t you died? Little b.a.s.t.a.r.d, follow me down the mountain, if I can’t cure you, I’ll feed my other f.u.c.king leg to a dog.”