Chapter 707: Rule
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Silver Condor was very weak right now. Besides being affected by the Indra Fragrance, he had also suffered serious internal injuries and needed help just to stand up. As he observed the fierce duel taking place on the field, he softly said, “That old woman is going to lose first.”
Silver Condor had barely escaped with his life, but he wasn’t grateful to his saviors at all. Both the Kongtong Sect and the Qingcheng Sect were factions from the Central Plains and the first thing they had done after he landed in their hands was to question him about the whereabouts of the late Khan’s head.
The secret couldn’t be hidden any longer. The fact that he had left without saying goodbye must have already aroused some suspicion in the other wing guards. And the Dragon King also didn’t have to keep his secret either. Silver Condor knew that he would be a very popular person before he handed over the head to someone, so he had to force the other side to restore his power first before he would even consider telling them about the head.
What made him feel a little sad and also a little like laughing was that none of the three parties fighting for his knowledge was from the Norland. So he could easily observe the duel coldly, completely detached from any emotional or mental attachments.
“Impossible.” The disciple of the Qingcheng Sect beside him had been staring at the duel for a while and completely disagreed with Silver Condor’s judgment. “Tu Pianpian is the head elder of the Kongtong Sect and also a venerated old master of the Central Plains’ martial arts world. Although she will be defeated by our Qingcheng Sect in the end, she definitely won’t be the first to lose.”
“I’d bet that the first one to lose will be that little girl and that the second will be the Dragon King. Then our two Martial Uncles will compete with the elders of the Kongtong Sect for the win,” another disciple of the Qingcheng Sect speculated.
These two men, who were responsible for looking after Silver Condor, were completely entranced by the duel and didn’t even look at their captive’s expression when they spoke.
Silver Condor revealed a faint smile. The t.i.tle ‘wing guard of the Khan’ carried no weight to the people of the Central Plains and what he said similarly didn’t carry much weight in their eyes, but he knew he was right. His internal energy was gone and while all his kung fu skills were affected, but his eyes were as sharp as ever. He believed that Tu Pianpian was truly the weakest of the six.
Her internal energy might be more powerful than anyone else’s and she might be very adept at the Warp and Weft Staff Technique, which combined meant that she rarely had a worthy opponent in the Central Plains, but she was not good at life-and-death fights.
Most people couldn’t tell the difference between a normal kung fu compet.i.tion and a life-and-death fight, but Silver Condor, who had wandered in Jianghu before and had also served in the imperial court, understood the difference very well. The former was decided purely by the level of one’s martial arts while the latter depended on many factors. Patience, intuition, courage, and many other things that didn’t normally surface in ordinary times would play an important role at a critical moment to decide life and death.
The Warp and Weft Staff Technique of the Kongtong Sect and the Harmonious Sword of Wisdom of the Qingcheng Sect were both advanced kung fu skills that combined both offensive and defensive moves while requiring two people to cooperate with each other and therefore, had very little flaws. This was their greatest advantage but was also a fatal flaw. Because of the strong confidence they had in these unique skills, the performers tended to strictly follow a set pattern, which made them fight more conservatively and constricted them from improvising.
The Khan was dead, his family had fled, and Silver Condor was no longer a wing guard. His old mindset of a Jianghu wanderer, which he had forgotten for a long while, was growing in strength with every pa.s.sing moment. If it were in the past, he would not have cared about the contempt of these two disciples from the Qingcheng Sect, but now he had an impulse to prove his correctness.
“Tu Pianpian is too impatient and is dragging down the entire structure of the staff technique. Dog Butcher is trying to accommodate her, but the more he does so, the more obvious its flaws become. So, the old woman will be the first to lose.”
The two disciples looked at Silver Condor in amazement. They were only following orders and knew very little about this Norland captive. One of the two said, “I didn’t expect that a man of the Norland would actually have such sharp eyes and know that our Harmonious Sword of Wisdom is very powerful.”
Silver Condor shook his head because the other side had misunderstood him. “It’s the Dragon King who will defeat the old woman. The Harmonious Sword of Wisdom is powerful, but that young man’s usage of it isn’t right. He’s so absorbed in pus.h.i.+ng the sword that he has forgotten that his sword’s target is a person.”
The disciple’s eyes changed from surprise to disdain, “You are boasting without shame. Martial Uncle Liu is the son of the Sect Leader and has been personally taught by the Sect Leader. Although he’s young, his sword technique is unparalleled among his peers and he has never lost a kung fu compet.i.tion. Even Martial Uncle Deng admits that he’s somewhat inferior to him.”
“Heh, I’m afraid that his unique skill is solely that he’s ‘the son of the Sect Leader.’” Unconsciously, Silver Condor had already abandoned his habit of speaking and acting cautiously.
The conversation of the three was heard by the surrounding Central Plains’ disciples. Two disciples from the Qingcheng Sect turned to their fellow brethren and laughed. “He’s saying that the Dragon King will win in the end, but why do I think that the Dragon King’s hardly able to protect himself?”
The laughter of the crowd had just started when the Dragon King brazenly rushed into the sword formation of the Qingcheng Sect and targeted Liu Fangsheng, completely ignoring Deng Yuanlei who was behind him.
Shangguan Ru knew what she needed to do. Aiming towards the east while striking the west was one of the most common tricks taught in Golden Roc Castle, and she had practiced it many times with Servant Huan when she was little. The Dragon King had launched an attack at the dual swords of the Qingcheng Sect, so his real target must be one of the two elders of the Kongtong Sect. She should lead the target to the right place so that the Dragon King could strike a deadly blow.
In terms of martial arts, the Dragon King was still not as good as the kung fu masters from the famous sects of the Central Plains. The only way for him to win was to gamble on a sudden and dangerous move.
In Gu Shenwei’s opinion, worldly wisdom was also a part of one’s kung fu. Liu Fangsheng was the son of the Qingcheng Sect’s Sect Leader. As such, though Deng Yuanlei wanted to make him famous, he also had to guarantee his safety. Gu Shenwei decided to take a risk and completely expose his back to Deng Yuanlei, betting that the other side would choose to save his ally over killing his enemy.
Deng Yuanlei was faced with this choice. This was the best moment to kill the Dragon King. However, it was unknown if his junior brother would survive unscathed or come out badly wounded. But he didn’t have time to dwell on this, and he could only act out of instinct and push the sword forward to parry the Dragon King’s narrow saber.
He had to save his ally.
Shangguan Ru also had no time to consider it. The ideas she had about killing intent or possible casualties could not even form in her mind before she had already followed her instinct and habit and made a move.
She also had to save people, regardless of if that would result in someone else’s death.
Shangguan Ru had been swinging her sword in the gap. The moment the Dragon King broke the sword formation apart, she could move more freely and suddenly slashed open the staff Qi formation like it was paper and dashed at Dog Butcher.
Tu Pianpian had no hesitation at all. She didn’t care about the double swords of the Qingcheng Sect or the Dragon King’s life, and neither did she care about Dog Butcher’s safety. All she could see was that with one blow of hers, Shangguan Ru would be out.
Gu Shenwei used the sabersmans.h.i.+p of his own family, but the tactic he had resorted to was that of a golden roc killer’s. So to an outsider, it was an incredible moment, where the duel, which had previously had a very clear course of victory and defeat, had suddenly reversed in on itself. Everything had happened so fast that few could believe their eyes as to what they were seeing.
There were no cheers or cries of surprise; everyone was struggling to accept what they were seeing.
The duel was not over yet, but the first loser had appeared.
With a loud cry, Tu Pianpian flew dozens of feet away and fell heavily to the ground.
She had been hit by a palm. When Deng Yuanlei drew his sword to block the saber, Gu Shenwei made use of the rebounding force and had turned to attack Tu Pianpian. His target hadn’t been Liu Fangsheng at all.
When the strike was made, Tu Pianpian had been in pursuit of Shangguan Ru. Gu Shenwei had happened to appear on her way as if he had b.u.mped into her by accident rather than deliberately so. He rammed into her with full strength, his frosty Qi and normal yin and yang energy hitting the unprepared target at the same time.
The stunned disciples of Kongtong Sect stood still for a moment before someone ran over to check on the situation of the Aunt Master. And in just a moment, the second defeated person showed up.
The opportunity was fleeting. The two sects were in disarray, and once Gu Shenwei launched a deadly blow, he was ready to end the fight quickly.
The move Shangguan Ru had used was also a feint. Before her wooden saber could touch Dog Butcher’s crutch, she had suddenly turned around to attack Deng Yuanlei.
This was a desperate move, a move that would bring destruction on herself. Not only would she be unable to hit Deng Yuanlei, but they also exposed her to Liu Fangsheng’s long sword and Dog Butcher’s crutch.
When golden roc killers cooperated, there always had to be a person that acted as bait. But in most cases, the situation was under complete control. One person lay in wait while the other lured, and the target was completely unaware of them. It was very rarely like the current situation, where without any prior discussion, one had executed this risky move only through tacit understanding during a life and death duel.
The two had developed a tacit understanding through the games they had played several years ago, but that was just one of the reasons. Shangguan Ru blindly trusted the Dragon King, which gave her the courage to act as bait twice in succession without the slightest hesitation.
Liu Fangsheng, however, hesitated. Shangguan Ru was full of flaws but he didn’t know whether he should kill or seriously injure her. The rules of Jianghu and the unruly silence of the Dragon King had left him quite confused.
Liu Fangsheng’s sword did not slow down, but it did lose its invincible spirit.
Gu Shenwei finished colliding with Tu Pianpian and bounced back. Meanwhile, his right hand swung around to his back and stabbed at Liu Fangsheng while his left palm lifted up to deflect Dog Butcher’s crutch.
Liu Fangsheng didn’t even notice where the saber had come from. He felt a chill in his abdomen, suddenly lost all his strength, and his long sword fell from the sky, only several inches away from Shangguan Ru.
Dog Butcher was alright, but he had no desire to continue fighting. He stabbed the crutch into the ground and leapt to Tu Pianpian, shouting, “Senior sister!”
Only Deng Yuanlei was left now, who lost his composure and pounced on the Dragon King with ferocious eyes, and therefore, made a huge mistake.
Shangguan Ru struck his acupoint from the back with the Heart Stopping Finger and then flashed in front of him to block the Dragon King. “No more killing,” she said.
Although Shangguan Fei and others believed that the Dragon King would win, they were still speechless with astonishment. Only Doctor Sun frowned as though he were stumped by a tricky patient, and kept whispering, “It’s impossible.”
It was even harder for disciples of the Qingcheng Sect to accept the result, “Martial Uncle Deng… Martial Uncle Liu… How can the Harmonious Sword of Wisdom lose?”
Silver Condor knew the reason. “The Dragon King is more ruthless than they were so he won.”
Battle favors the strong. Sometimes even a little ruthlessness could turn the tide. An ordinary novice saberman might be able to defeat or even kill a well-known master because he dared to take risks and could only risk his life with every move, forsaking the rules of Jianghu. There were no tentative moves, and a deadly blow was a deadly blow.
The Dragon King was full of ruthlessness, though it was normally concealed by his pale cold face. But Silver Condor, who had fought with him three times, knew the power of that ruthlessness very well.
Dog Butcher lifted up the lifeless Tu Pianpian and surprisingly cried. “You killed my sister. You might as well kill me too.”
Gu Shenwei was walking around Shangguan Ru and Deng Yuanlei with his saber in hand when he heard his cry. He stopped and said, “She’s not dead.”
“What?”
“I just used some knockout drugs.”
Lotus had left a lot of things. When it was time to use them, Gu Shenwei simply used them.
Gu Shenwei turned around. Deng Yuanlei was freezing on the spot while Liu Fangsheng was covering his abdomen, swaying but not yet fallen down.
“Doctor Sun is here so his wound can be healed.”
Though Deng Yuanlei’s body couldn’t move, his mouth could, and he immediately said, “We admit defeat, so please heal Brother Liu now.”
Dog Butcher smiled through tears. “I admit defeat, too. I can’t defeat you two anyway, give me the antidote.”
Doctor Sun took a step forward, thinking that he was finally going to come in handy. Then he turned to exchange a glance with Fan Yongda of the Kongdong Sect, silently communicating, ‘See, the Dragon King also knows about the rules of Jianghu.’
Of course Gu Shenwei knew them. His father Gu Lun wasn’t well versed in it but his Master Yang Zheng had been a veteran in Jianghu and was full of stories and the rules of the martial arts world of the Central Plains. Although Gu Shenwei did not agree with these things, he still remembered them.
But even now he still didn’t think the Jianghu rules of the Central Plains were useful to him.
Gu Shenwei stuck out his hand and stopped Doctor Sun before he said to his defeated opponents and the disciples of the two famous sects, “I am the Chief of Dragons and the Lord of the Five Peaks of Big Snow Mountain, not a saberman of Jianghu. He who surrenders lives and he who disobeys dies. This is my rule.”