Chapter 753: A Broken Sword

What could happen in an instant? In dangerous circumstances, it could determine whether a bystander was a hero or a coward; in a duel between masters, it could change the destiny of a sure winner to that of a sure loser and determine one’s life and death.

Lü Mian was a typical avenger. He had been secretly practicing very hard, and he didn’t enter the martial arts world until he had built up enough confidence and was sure that his kung fu skill was better than his foe’s.

He believed in his swordsmanship.

Stabbing the giant roc with a throwing knife and fighting 500 cavalrymen alone both further solidified his confidence.

But he still lacked actual combat experience. In fact, other than countless spars with a partner, he had only participated in three face-to-face kung fu competitions. His first opponent was Deng Yuanlei, who had afterwards become a not-so-loyal follower of him. The second one was Liu Qingpu, and he gained the qualification to fight for the position of Sect Leader by defeating him.

His third opponent was the Dragon King.

After his brief interaction with the Dragon King, he knew for sure that the Dragon King’s sabersmanship was not as good as his. Even after realizing that he had consumed a poison, he still believed that he could kill the Dragon King before the poison fully took effect and then force Han Fen to hand over the true antidote.

When the saber and the sword clashed, Lü Mian, for the first time in his life, faced two choices in a life-or-death moment: run the risk of dying with the opponent by continuing with his attack, or dodge first and then strike back?

This kind of experience could be encountered yet could not be sought. Just like a man who had trained to be a hero all his life could still panic like an ordinary people, he could even be scared to the point of breaking down. It was still an unpredictable instant that would determine his behavior: his army comrades’ attitude, the enemies’ attack, the topography, the weather…

Training was not useless. The more prepared he was, the higher the chance of making the right choice – but in the end, it was just a chance. No matter how he behaved outwardly, inwardly he had to fight against his powerful instincts.

LüMian overpowered his instincts, rejected the option of dodging, and decided to keep attacking. His sabermanship was faster and more flexible, which meant that he would undoubtedly hit his enemy and retreat unharmed.

With this experience, the strength of Lü Mian’s swordsmanship would reach yet another great level, and he would never hesitate again in a similar situation. Just like how those new recruits who panicked during their first battle would probably become valiant veterans in their second battle.

Yet, he did hesitate, and his opponent was the Dragon King, who had much of the experience that was hard to acquire.

The ultimate goal of the whole Death Scripture was to rid oneself of this hesitation during a fight, and this goal had almost sublimated to a doctrine.

Gu Shenwei used to accept “doctrines” without any doubts, but as his experience grew richer, he encountered more kung fu experts and also learned more kung fu skills. And this made him start to question those “doctrines” – every advanced kung fu manual claimed their uniqueness and incomparability, so why did the Death Scripture have to be the only correct one?

Gu Shenwei had comprehended something from the story of “sacrificing one’s body to verify the Dao,” and even Old Man Mu’s contradiction and contempt inspired him greatly.

He made a move and stabbed forward, despite how violative the few excessive movements were of the rules. He didn’t choose to retreat like what he had done on the first occasion of his sneak attack, and neither did he choose to dodge like what he did on the second occasion of his being raided.

This saber attack, despite being a little slower than the opponent’s, and despite Lü Mian’s sword already entering his chest, was thrust out without the slightest hint of hesitation.

Lü Mian felt a coldness devour his heart. A thick, chilly flow spread out from the bottom of his stomach and gradually filled his the whole chest, which was the same exactly feeling as when he had learned that Liu Qingpu had taken the position of Sect Leader from him five years ago.

There was anxiety in Old Man Mu’s eyes.

Han Fen appeared confused.

Neither of them could tell who had won or lost.

“This is the Death Scripture’s swordsmanship?” Lü Mian asked, his voice sounding fairly bitter.

“Yes.”

“It’s different from her’s.”

“This is the uniqueness of Death Scripture – everyone can practice it in their own way.”

“I was not defeated under your saber.”

“Mm, your sword was faster than my saber. In terms of kung fu, you are better.”

Lü Mian backed up a step. The tips of the sword and the saber left their targets’ chests, followed by a stream of blood.

“You shouldn’t have had the chance to hit me originally,” Lü Mian complained, still unconvinced.

“If we fight again, I don’t think I would.”

LüMian backed up another step, buckled at the knees, and leaned against the wall. “We won’t have the chance to fight again.”

“No,” Gu Shenwei said more positively.

“You killed my brother Lu Xinghui,” Lü Mian had never mentioned this to Dragon King before, but he recalled it at this moment.

Technically speaking, it was Chu Nanping who had killed Lu Xinghui, but Gu Shenwei ignored the details and nodded.

“He hadn’t mastered the swordsmanship yet. I shouldn’t have let him come to the Royal Court.” Lü Mian’s arms drooped and the sword fell from his hand. “The Luo family will avenge our death.”

“I know that.”

“Very well then.”

Slowly, Lü Mian fell down.

Han Fen studied him curiously. Old Man Mu walked over, kicked him unceremoniously, then turned and calmly declared, “He’s dead.”

Gu Shenwei took out some Jinchuang medicine with one hand. Old Man Mu immediately signaled for him to sit down and started dressing his wound, “Doesn’t the Death Scripture always kill the enemy in one move? Why did you still let him talk so much?”

“It’s the user’s heart that it kills with one move, not the enemy’s.”

Old Man Mu nodded gravely, “Makes sense. So this is what it’s about – we should forget about things like life, death, victory and defeat, and just hold onto our determination to kill the enemy in one blow. Oh, isn’t this what ‘sacrificing one’s body to verify the Dao’ means? It seems that you comprehended it after all, Dragon King.”

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Even Gu Shenwei himself didn’t know if he had really comprehended it, since he still had many question that he hoped would be answered by that old book. He had accepted that it was indeed the Daoless Scroll, and it was a scroll of general principles.

“What did you comprehend, Dragon King?” Han Fen craned her head from behind the statue as if these two were enjoying delicious food without inviting her.

“Something you would never understand with your brain.” Old Man Mu choked out her curiosity with an abrupt remark. Then he started dressing her stomach wound with the rest of the Jinchuang medicine and strips of cloth.

Ever since he had seen the Death Scripture swordsmanship in the desert, Old Man Mu had become obsessed with it, and now he became even more intrigued. “So the Death Scripture is also a kind of ‘Convenient Method’ – the moves and techniques are the ‘boat,’ while ‘the other side’ is instant death. Upon arriving at ‘the other side,’ Dragon King can abandon moves, and even ignore the difference between a saber and a sword.”

“More or less. But about what ‘the other side’ is exactly, different people have different opinions.”

“What’s your opinion?”

Gu Shenwei didn’t answer.

Old Man Mu smiled and said, “Ah, Good Girl is about to become a Bodhisattva. Are you going to become a Buddha, Dragon King?”

Han Fen watched the two people perplexedly, not understanding a single word. She just kept moving the statue close to the Dragon King and saying, “Look, look…”

“Let’s go to the Waning Moon Hall’s room,” Gu Shenwei said as he suddenly stood up.

Han Fen gave a jump excitedly, which worsened her wound. With a wince of pain she ran in front of them and offered, “I’ll lead the way.”

Gu Shenwei looked at the two bodies on the ground, pointed at LüMian, and said, “Take him with us.”

“Why?”

“Could be useful.”

Old Man Mu curled his lips, and understood suddenly. “You want me to carry the body?”

“Yes.”

“I… I don’t have any power.”

Gu Shenwei took out the antidote made by Doctor Sun as he warned, “Its efficacy’s slow, so be patient.”

Old Man Mu swallowed it immediately, then grabbed the legs of the body and started dragging it forward with a glum look on his face. But after a short while his face lit up, and he followed the Dragon King, asking all kinds of questions about the Death Scripture.

Gu Shenwei only answered a few of them, and he eventually said, “I’ll never give you the Death Scripture.”

“I know ,I know.” Old Man Mu actually didn’t have such unrealistic expectations. “But even if I can’t have it, there’s no harm in asking, right? Actually, if you’re willing to tell me more about it, I might be able to offer more help.”

Old Man Mu did have an exceptional deep martial arts prowess many times deeper than that of Gu Shenwei and Lotus. Gu Shenwei had consulted many masters about other kung fu manuals, but when it came to the Death Scripture, he shared Lotus’ opinion – never tell anybody anything about it. He was willing to give some guidance to his subordinates, but he would never reveal the contents of the Death Scripture.

After rounding a turn, they saw that Han Fen was waving at them.

The room for the Waning Moon Hall was not very big, and there were not many items, most of which were bottles and pots labeled with the contents’ name and general effect.

Han Fen had been holding the statue all the way, and she didn’t even care about her bleeding wound. She sniffed those bottles and pots one by one, muttering “fake, fake, real, fake…” She took this chance to conveniently restocked her medicine reserve – Old Man Mu had ruined a lot of her medicine.

Gu Shenwei lost interest very soon, and yet Han Fen only became more and more excited. Eventually she even pulled out the stone coffin in the lower part of the platform and said, “It’s empty. After the Master Commander… Eek, something’s in here.”

Han Fen stretched her arm and took out a sword. After hesitating for quite a while, she finally put the statue on the platform and whipped the sword out of its scabbard as she remarked, “I’ve seen it before. It belongs to the Master Commander.”

A broken sword.

Han Fen inverted the scabbard and dumped the other half of the sword out, and then investigated the broken sword. “Ai… quan… huan… what’s the pronunciation of this character?”

Gu Shenwei didn’t answer. Old Man Mu craned his neck and glanced at it before answering, “Huan. How do you not even know this? They don’t teach you how to read in the Waning Moon Hall?”

“They do,” Han Fen replied as she scratched her head in embarrassment. “I’m not a good learner.”

Old Man Mu raised his head and looked at the Dragon King meaningfully. He knew that the Dragon King’s name was “Yang Huan,” but he didn’t remember that he was the reason why this sword was broken.

“You should leave the sword and the statue here,” Gu Shenwei said.

“Why?” Han Fen held the sword with one hand and stretched the other hand to clasp the statue, her eyes widening with a determined look.

“Because the Master Commander wants them to be here.”

“Really?” Han Fen was confused.

Old Man Mu backed Gu Shenwei, saying, “Sure she does. You see, Lotus took all the gold away. If she didn’t want the statue and the sword to be here, she would have also taken them away already, right? You said it yourself that Lotus hates it when people make decisions without asking her…”

The last sentence was very effective on Han Fen and she obediently put the two parts of the sword back into the scabbard right away. Then she carefully placed the sword in the coffin, pushed the coffin back to where it was, returned the statue – she worried that the position was not exactly the same as where it had originally been one and spent quite some time adjusting it, and at last she took out the medicines next to her chest, saying “These can’t be taken either.” And then she returned all the medicines one by one into those bottles – it was amazing that she remembered it all so accurately.

“The Qingcheng Sect guys said that Khan’s head is here. Where is it?” Old Man Mu cared about “treasure” very much.

“The opposite side.”

The room on the other side belonged to wing guard Silver Condor and there was a lifelike wooden statue as well as many personal belongings there. A transparent crystal was mounted in the innermost wall, and through the crystal they could see the center of the mausoleum.

This was a privilege that the Khan had granted Silver Condor.

The center was like a huge tent and in there, the Khan’s body was lying in a crystal coffin. Though the scene was not very clear, both his trunk and head were obviously there.

“It turns out that Mo Lin was really lying,” Old Man Mu indignantly shouted. “Dragon King, smash the crystal, take the head, and confront Mo Lin face to face.”

“No,” Gu Shenwei turned. “I’m afraid someone might not agree.”