Chapter 331: Backfire

The Death Scripture swordcraft backfired on Maid Lotus.

Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus had planned to dominate the situation by striking first, but now they ended up placing themselves in jeopardy.

The sword skill from Death Scripture required its practioners to charge forward without hesitation and to kill with only one stroke. During this process, one would have no time to think or maneuver. Maid Lotus had never expected Fayan to have such powerful kung fu until she broke into the tent to attack him. Instead of killing the monk with one blow, she only managed to wound him, and at the same time, she was jarred by his Internal Strength. The monk’s internal strength swiftly rushed toward her Dantian, carrying along her own energy that she had infused her sword with.

As a result, she was now suffering almost the same pain as Gu Shenwei did during his qigong deviation attacks.

“I’m running out of time,” Maid Lotus said in a trembling voice while trying her best to remain calm. Her lips had become white from the chill inside her body.

“You feel so much pain that you’d rather die, don’t you?”said Gu Shenwei, “The pain will grow worse, and at the most painful moment, you won’t get enough strength to kill yourself.” Gu Shenwei did not feel much sympathy for her, as it was Maid Lotus who had caused his periodical paralysis, which would make him feel as if he was continuously stabbed by icicles.

Upon hearing the Dragon King’s cold remarks, Maid Lotus looked up at him, her eyes clear and peaceful. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but she was too weak to do so, as she had to concentrate all her efforts on fighting against the icy energy surging out of her Dantian.

The two of them gazed at each other for a while, and then Gu Shenwei knelt down beside Maid Lotus and whispered, “Focus on guarding your heart meridian and give up on the other meridians. This will increase your pain, but only in this way can you save your own life.”

Maid Lotus stared at him for a moment and then she suddenly stretched out her cold and shaky hands to hold his hands, while saying, “Guan Shang.”

She was unable to say anything after saying this name, but Gu Shenwei immediately understood her meaning and said, “I won’t let Guan Shang get close to you. I’ll always stay by your side and protect you.”

Maid Lotus had once told Gu Shenwei that she did not trust anyone from the New Moon Hall. Upon hearing Gu Shenwei’s promise, she finally felt relieved. She released his hands and closed her eyes. Her pain was becoming increasingly evident on her face.

Gu Shenwei fished out two small clumps of cotton wool and stuffed them into Maid Lotus’ ears.

Maid Lotus had suggested that they work as each others’ protectors before, but back then Gu Shenwei had not made his stand known regarding this proposal. Neither had he expected that it would have been Maid Lotus who needed help first.

As he watched Maid Lotus channeling her Internal Strength with a pained expression on her face, he could not help thinking what a good opportunity he had at this moment. The Great Snowmountain’s alliance with the New Moon Hall was just temporary, and Maid Lotus and he would become enemies again sooner or later. If he did not take this chance to kill Maid Lotus, who had already surpassed him in swordcraft, he would have endless trouble in the future.

Besides, she would never know who murdered her, since now she was suffering from severe qigong deviation caused by her swordcraft backfiring.

Gu Shenwei gripped the hilt of his Five Peaks Saber, while imagining the feeling of cutting her throat with it.

He continued kneeling beside Maid Lotus and gradually suppressed his urge to kill her. He reminded himself that he had to learn to coexist with his foes and that at present, Maid Lotus and the New Moon Hall were still his irreplaceable allies.

Apart from that, there was so much that he wanted to find out about Maid Lotus, such as the reason for her frequent and random use of the Death Scripture swordcraft.

In accordance with Gu Shenwei’s previous experiences, it would take at least 12 hours to recover from such a qigong deviation, and the first four hours would be the most critical period. During these four hours, Maid Lotus had to shut her eyes since she could not be disturbed or interrupted. Nevertheless, after four hours, when the day broke, Maid Lotus did not open her eyes, which meant the backfire caused more damage than Gu Shenwei had imagined.

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At this moment, the other teams in the camp were busy preparing to set out. Lin Xiaoshan and Guan Shang repeatedly came to the Dragon King’s tent to ask for instructions but failed to get any order from him.

After the Golden Roc Fort’s team left the camp, Gu Shenwei finally walked out of his tent and summoned Lin Xiaoshan and Guan Shang, commanding them to go first with the Great Snowmountain’s team.

The two were very surprised. Guan Shang seemed to gather immediately that something was amiss, but she just tactfully bowed to the Dragon King to accept the order and left. After her departure, Lin Xiaoshan could not help but ask, “Dragon King, what happened? Do you want me to leave some people behind for you?”

“No. You just need to escort her to the Stone Kingdom safely,” replied Gu Shenwei.

The Dragon King had asked Lin Xiaoshan to secretly bring Xu Yanwei and Jiang, who would work as Xu Yanwei’s maid during the journey, to the Stone Kingdom. These two young women did not know any kung fu, so Gu Shenwei decided to let them stay away from this dangerous place.

Lin Xiaoshan still had some doubts, but he did not inquire further. Instead, he immediately went back to order the swordsmen to leave the camp. Before their departure, they left four horses for the Dragon King and tied them up in front of the Dragon King’s tent.

When the teams packed their belongings and left the camp one after another, many people found it quite suspicious that the Dragon King’s tent was still intact and began to exchange whispers.

The Dragon King was not the only one who stayed behind. Not far away from his tent, stood two tents, which belonged to the monks from Four Truths Temple. The monks could not hit the road today, since Fayan and Lianqing were both seriously injured.

By noon, Maid Lotus had not opened her eyes yet.

Gu Shenwei had stayed by her side for the whole morning and during this period of time, he had only drank two mouthfuls of water. He also kept his eyes closed for all this while to have some rest and get himself ready for the attack that would come sooner or later.

Nevertheless, the first guest he got was a monk from one of his neighboring tents. “Dragon King, my Master Shifu invites you to come to our tent.”

Gu Shenwei walked to the entrance of his tent, and then he looked back at Maid Lotus and said in a low voice, “I’m sorry, I can’t leave this tent.”

The monk outside snorted grumpily and left.

After a while, Fayan came to the Dragon King’s tent and asked, “Dragon King, how’s your friend’s internal injury?” To Gu Shenwei’s great surprise, the monk, who sustained a severe injury in his ribs, sounded very energetic and did not seem to have any difficulties in movement.

Fayan knew for sure that he had injured the assassin. Gu Shenwei was unable to conceal the fact, so he replied, “Well, my friend will recover after a short rest.”

“Although I’m just an old monk, I think I may be able to offer your friend some help,” said Fayan.

The monk’s extraordinary Internal Strength might be very helpful to Maid Lotus’ qigong deviation, but Gu Shenwei did not dare to agree to the monk’s request. Both Maid Lotus and he are extremely skeptical people, and they would never easily accept the help of others. “Thank you, Master. She’s alright. We don’t dare to bother you with such a trifling matter,” said Gu Shenwei.

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“Well, Dragon King, please feel free to tell me if you need my help,” said Fayan.

Fayan had firmly refused to ally with the Dragon King last night, but today he suddenly came over to show his kindness. Such an abrupt change in his attitude alerted Gu Shenwei.

“Well, I’ll inform you if we need help,” said Gu Shenwei. Soon, he heard Fayan leave the place.

Shortly after noon, nearly 20 people came to the camp.

The “businessmen”, who had gotten here first to watch the fight between the Dragon King and Monk Lianqing last night, were also among them. These people had followed the other teams to leave this place early in the morning, and now they returned to this place and no longer concealed their intentions.

The entrance of Gu Shenwei’s tent was covered by a flap. He walked to it, opened it a little and peeped outside. He saw the group of “businessmen” stop at a spot about 100 steps away from the monks’ tents and then he saw a bearded man ride out of the group quickly. “Zhuang Qiang, are you still alive?” asked the bearded man.

“Be quiet. We’re treating his wound,” a monk went out and replied stiffly.

The bearded man snorted and then shouted toward Lianqing’s tent, “Zhuang Qiang, do you still want to avenge your brother’ death? The Dragon King is injured and hiding inside his tent now. What a heaven-sent chance for you. If you don’t want your brother to die in vain, come out like a man!”

Lianqing made no response and continued staying inside the tent. The monk outside the tent took three steps forward, carrying a long staff in hand. He said, “I told you to be quiet.”

The bearded man snorted again, but he did not want to irritate the monk. “Alright, we’ve come here to kill the Dragon King. Masters from Four Truth Temple, do you want to watch our fight or plan to stop us?” asked the man.

“We won’t watch your fight. Neither will we interfere in your affairs,” the monk replied bluntly and then he returned to his tent. He secured the flap of the tent tightly to show their determination to not take part in the entire affair.

Gu Shenwei felt quite relieved as the enemies were not as many as he had expected and apparently they believed that it was the Dragon King who was injured. He believed that he could take advantage of their misunderstanding to win this fight.

The bearded man turned to the Dragon King’s tent and said in a loud voice, “Dragon King, I think I’d best tell you the reason before killing you. We’re friends of Hearteater Chipo, and today we’ll kill you to avenge his death. I’m ‘Flying Machete’ Ma Teng. Come out and face your death.”

Gu Shenwei remained in his tent and unsheathed his Five Peaks Saber silently while thinking, “Haven’t these bandits discovered that Chipo faked his own death? Or, do they just intend to use his death as an excuse to kill me?”

Emboldened by the Dragon King’s silence, Ma Teng began insulting the Dragon King.

Gu Shenwei never responded to such verbal provocation, but the monks in the nearby tents could no longer stand it. The monk, who had talked with the bearded man just now, poked his head out of his tent and shouted, “Be quiet! Just fight if you want to kill the Dragon King. If you don’t want to fight, just leave.”

Ma Teng blushed and snorted loudly, but he did not have the courage to offend the monks. He looked back at his comrades and upon receiving their encouragement, drew out his scimitar and charged toward the Dragon King’s tent.

Just as Ma Teng’s horse was about to crash into the tent, Gu Shenwei opened a crack in the flap and dashed out with the Five Peaks Saber in his arms. His right shoulder struck the side of the horse’s chest and he stabbed at Ma Teng with his saber at the same time. After that, he quickly retreated back into his tent.

The horse stumbled and fell, but it was not injured. It struggled to stand up while neighing continuously. It then carried Ma Teng’s dead body all the way back to the group of bandits.

The bandits were shocked when they found out that Ma Teng was stabbed in the neck. This fatal wound must have been inflicted by the Dragon King, but none of them had seen the Dragon King appear.

“Then it must’ve been that woman,” Someone bandit whispered and the others simultaneously nodded their heads in agreement.

The Dragon King had once been paralyzed in Jade City, which was a story known to all the people in the city. Prejudiced by that incident, all the bandits firmly believed that now Dragon King was paralyzed again and protected by Maid Lotus, whose sword technique looked very similar to that of the Dragon King.

“She can only rely on herself.”

“We have enough manpower.”

“We can’t wait any longer. Once the Dragon King recovers, we won’t have a chance.”

After some deliberation, the bandits split into two teams, which consisted of 8 and 9 people respectively, and planned to besiege Maid Lotus and the Dragon King. The nine-person team set out first and took a detour to approach the back of the Dragon King’s tent.

Gu Shenwei observed his enemies inside the tent. When the nine-person team was halfway down, he rushed out and mounted one of the steeds tied to the front of his tent. He severed the reins tethering the horse and kept his upper body down and close to the back of the horse while charging toward the eight-person team.

He moved so fast that the bandits did not have much time to react. Before they realized what had happened, the Dragon King had already got close to them. He quickly leaped up and killed a person with a slash of his saber.

“The Dragon King. It’s the Dragon King!” The bandits all turned pale with fear and hurriedly rode away.

Gu Shenwei leapt up three more times to kill three more bandits, and then he mounted his horse and galloped back to his tent.

Upon seeing that the Dragon King was not injured, the bandits panicked. The nine-person team gave up their plan and withdrew nearly 1.5 kilometers to meet up with their comrades. All of them had no idea what to do at this moment.

Gu Shenwei went to check Maid Lotus. She still could not open her eyes. That meant she was still in the most painful first stage of suffering.

Gu Shenwei was pretty sure that the bandits would not easily give up their attempt to kill him. Once more enemies or more powerful opponents came here, he would get into real trouble. Given that, he began to consider how much he really cared about saving Maid Lotus’ life.

The answer seemed obvious. Gu Shenwei would never want to die in vain in this desert, as his campaign of revenge had just begun. Nevertheless, when he looked at Maid Lotus’ colorless face, he felt hesitant.

“If I were the one sitting there and fighting against a qigong deviation, what would she do?” thought Gu Shenwei. He recalled what had happened at the Ghost Cliff a few years ago—Maid Lotus was determined to protect Slave Huan at any price, even when she was confronted with a crowd of Golden Roc Fort killers.

Gu Shenwei quickly banished those thoughts and decided to act according to the changing circumstances. In any case, he would not let himself die in this place.

A moment later, he heard the trampling of horses’ hooves and peeped outside again. This time, he discovered that he was surrounded by nearly 100 people. They were 7 or 8 gangs of bandits, and the gang who had been driven away by him in the previous fight was also among them.

A short fat man announced loudly. “The Dragon Slaying Contest begins. The one who kills the Dragon King will be recognized as the Bandit King, and all bandits in Western Region will have to obey his orders!”