Chapter 687: Learning Through Compet.i.tion
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Silver Condor had taken away the head of the Khan away, hoping that it would inspire the Norland people to take vengeance and fulfill their duty to the late Khan. But it had turned into a fiasco.
The kings and n.o.bles, who had been racking their brains to find a way to meet with the Khan before, were now rus.h.i.+ng even faster than before to take the t.i.tle of Khan for themselves, which was still up in the air. The coldness and ruthlessness shown in this process shocked Silver Condor.
He thought that he had escaped from Jianghu, which was full of hypocrisy and mutual exploitation, but didn’t expect that he had fallen into an even deeper Jianghu.
After reflecting on his limited Jianghu experience, Silver Condor concluded that the kings did not really want to avenge the Khan. Even if a new Khan succeeded the throne, he would only care about getting rid of his opponents and consolidating his own power rather than uncovering and punis.h.i.+ng the real murderer.
As for the common soldiers and ordinary people, they were becoming more and more obsessed with the mystical rumors. No one dared to say that the Khan had been killed by several mortals because that would only cause them to receive angry accusations and even beatings.
The night that Silver Condor took the head away, he had a foreboding feeling. He hid the head, went home, and commanded his wife and children to flee with their valuables, “Just pretend that I’m already dead. You were just a dream to me and now I’m awake. I won’t miss you.”
The cries of his wife and son did not change his indifference. Over ten years’ worth of experience had evaporated into thin air like a dream and what was leftover after waking up was only a pile of incomplete shadows. His little son, who he had loved the most, had suddenly turned into a strange crying child.
Silver Condor summoned the other four wing guards, hid, and watched as the situation of the Royal Court changed. When they realized that they were the only true avenging force left, they decided to launch the operation. Their first target was the Dragon King.
They had failed on the verge of success. The four men could have killed the Dragon King but almost fell into another trap. ‘This is a killer,’ Silver Condor thought. These kinds of people killed through unscrupulous means and would do whatever it took to run away. The reason he had been able to survive through the treacherous Jianghu until now was not purely because of his martial arts skills.
The bigger crisis had come in hindsight when Red Kite was captured and then released. The Dragon King had fulfilled his promise of ‘sparing their lives’ for the first time. The wing guards all found this incomprehensible, “Perhaps the Dragon King is not the real murderer. The key issue is why would he kill the Khan? Not only didn’t get nothing but he was actually badly hurt. And who’s the mastermind behind him? King Riyao Tuosai? He just got lucky and is thrilled and full of joy. It doesn’t seem like he planned it at all.”
In the face of his colleagues’ questions, Silver Condor had only one reply. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
When the other four wing guards asked to have a look at the Khan’s head, Silver Condor refused, saying, “It’s not the right time yet.”
The crisis had been temporarily suppressed but Silver Condor clearly knew in his heart that this was just a moment of calm. It took some time for suspicion to turn to betrayal. In reality, he was already alone now.
Silver Condor and the other wing guards shared no deep friends.h.i.+p but he still decided to take the responsibility for the split on his own. He would rather that Red Kite and others continue to doubts each other than go so far as to betray each other.
So he quietly left without a word.
The circ.u.mstances surrounding the death of the Commandant was well-known, and the one who had found the corpse was the Dragon King yet again. Silver Condor wasn’t surprised at all about how it had turned out.
He devised many plans but none of them were impeccable. Then he suddenly realized that he was not a killer and that he had never been one. Trying to avenge the Khan through a.s.sa.s.sination was no different than from fighting the enemy’s strong points with his shortcomings.
And he wasn’t a bodyguard anymore. A bodyguard must have a lord to serve, and his lord had already been killed.
He was a saberman, so Silver Condor decided to take up the ident.i.ty he had once abandoned more than a decade ago and to openly compete with the Dragon King.
And now he was standing before the Dragon King.
Silver Condor was very familiar with the camp of the Court Attendants Army. The hundred thousand hors.e.m.e.n should have been the strongest bulwark of the Khan. They had indeed deterred the kings and kung fu experts of the Central Plains with ulterior motives yet had not been unable to slow the blow from a familiar hand.
The Khan had believed the wrong person. Silver Condor had reminded him from the very beginning that the Dragon King was an unpredictable figure, and that getting rid of him was more effective than winning his support.
But this did not affect his loyalty to the Khan and his will for revenge.
Some soldiers and junior officers recognized Silver Condor, pointing at him while whispering to each other in amazement. Gradually, they drew near him.
“It’s really him.”
“He’s not dead.”
As a wing guard, Silver Condor was also a part of the Khan’s myth. Many people thought that he had followed his master to heaven and never expected to see him walking on the earth.
The air of joy in the tent was swept away, which happened at the most improbable moment and when it left, everyone felt a sense of loss.
Shangguan Ru hadn’t spoken much the whole night except when she persuaded Lianqing to teach the Dragon King the palm technique in a low voice. She had been watching quietly with a smile on her face. When Silver Condor approached and the killing aura enshrouded the tent, she became the saddest.
She couldn’t change it.
Red Bat understood what was in the instructor’s mind so she held her arm and silently supported her.
Old Man Mu and others responded more slowly and still saw the challenge of Silver Condor as a continuation of the contest. It took them a while to realize that this was a fight of life and death.
Gu Shenwei was ready. The short warm scene had been too strange and too unreal; he had enjoyed it so he was also very determined to abandon it.
The narrow saber and the scimitar were unsheathed at the same time.
This was the third fight between the two and both were confident that they had found the other’s weakness and flaws.
The Dragon King’s sabersmans.h.i.+p was especially fast so Silver Condor’s countermeasure was to slow it down. The killer always pursued killing in one blow, so all Silver Condor had to do was delay the duel.
The two previous fight had also made Silver Condor realize that although the Dragon King’s kung fu was strange, it was very unstable, especially in their first compet.i.tion. The Dragon King had hit his opponent but he himself had also stumbled and almost fallen over. Silver Condor felt that as long as he could survive the first one hundred strokes, he would be the final winner.
Silver Condor’s saber technique was unfathomable. Although Gu Shenwei wasn’t defeated in both fights, he hadn’t won an outright victory either. In the previous fight, he had stabbed Silver Condor and instilled a strand of frosty Qi into the other side’s body but still wasn’t able to kill this strong opponent.
So Gu Shenwei decided to use a palm technique this time.
“Can you wait a little longer?”
“I’m not in a hurry.”
Silver Condor did not show any eagerness. Although he had the saberman in his hand, he still possessed infinite patience. Not only had his career as a palace bodyguard changed his character, but it had also honed his sabersmans.h.i.+p and tactics.
Gripping his Five Peaks Saber, Gu Shenwei turned to Lianqing. “Monk, can you teach me your palm technique?”
Lianqing was slightly stunned. “Yes, but… now?”
“There’s no better time than now.”
Everyone was surprised. Silver Condor narrowed his eyes slightly. He knew that the Dragon King had many tricks, but learning the palm technique now and using it against him right away? The Dragon King was acting too arrogantly and carelessly.
Lianqing clasped his hands and saluted. “I’ll pa.s.s the palm technique to you because this is also… my Master’s will.” The monk glanced at Shangguan Ru and believed that Fayan’s soul was looking at him through her. “But you are still my enemy. I can abandon my vengeance, but I can’t accept your thanks. We don’t owe each other anything. And if this palm technique does not suit you, don’t blame me then.”
Gu Shenwei’s heart was slightly moved, but he had other plans, so he simply said, “That’s good.”
“Do you want me to demonstrate it?”
“No, I’ll show it to you.”
Gu Shenwei demonstrated the Formless Prajna Palm in front of everyone while still holding the saber in his right hand.
More and more soldiers gathered around. Most of them felt that the Dragon King was mystifying things deliberately but Lianqing appeared quite panicked. “Have you… Have you learned it before?”
Lianqing clearly remembered that he had only used this palm technique twice in front of the Dragon King and that his first showing of it had been incomplete, but the Dragon King could already almost duplicate it and had even noticed some subtleties. Although the gripping of the saber in his right hand had affected the complete demonstration of some moves, he had clearly grasped the essence of the moves.
“I have only a superficial understanding.” Gu Shenwei wasn’t being modest. Although he could demonstrate almost all the moves of the Formless Prajna Palm, he knew nothing about how he should guide his internal Qi to fit with the moves, which was the core and foundation of the palm technique.
Of course Lianqing knew this but he still admired the Dragon King. After all, he had spent three days learning those moves and from then on he had practiced very hard to be adept at it.
“Alas, my brother was indeed no match for you.”
Lianqing had always held the idea that the Dragon King had conspired his elder brother through devious means. Now he had to admit that the Dragon King had the ability to win fair and square.
“The intricacy of the palm technique is a top secret. Please come over, Dragon King.”
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Lianqing whispered the secret manual into the Dragon King’s ears. Old Man Mu and Shangguan Fei stood guard at the door, full of killing aura. “No one’s allowed to eavesdrop. You’re Silver Condor? Do you have sharp ears? You need better back up a hundred paces.”
Silver Condor ignored the clamor of the two and focused on thinking about countermeasures for the upcoming fight. During last night’s confrontation, the Dragon King had shown that he was capable of using saber and palm techniques at the same time. The reason he was learning the palm technique now was certainly to make up for the weakness of his left hand.
“The Dragon King is taking a risk,’ he thought, and he just needed to stick to his principle of slowing down the other side’s speed and playing steadily but surely. The newly learned palm technique would only become a bigger flaw among the Dragon King’s techniques.
Gu Shenwei finally learned the complete palm technique in less than an hour and his questions had all been answered.
It was from this moment on that Lianqing no longer stared the Dragon King with ferocious eyes.
Gu Shenwei walked right in front of Silver Condor and said, “Sorry to keep you waiting for so long.”
“It’s worth the wait.”
“I said that I’d spare you three times. This will be the second.”
“You can say that after the fight, as I’m not going to go easy on you.”
The two nodded in unison, indicating the beginning of the duel.
This duel was destined to be full of twists and turns. Before the two sabers even moved, a cry came out from a distance, “The election is over and the lords are coming out.”
“Something has happened, something big has happened.”
The excitement was quickly replaced by panic, and the camp was full of people as if another riot was about to break out.
The crowd dispersed, with only the two men ready to fight remaining still.
“Is that what you wanted to see?” asked Silver Condor.
Gu Shenwei didn’t utter a sound. He didn’t want to use his mouth when it was time to use his hands. Besides, he needed more direct evidence to remove the deep-seated doubts of Silver Condor.
The scattered crowd gathered again with more people this time, looking as black as a thick thicket of undergrowth.
“Commandant Gulun was killed,” someone said.
“He wanted to a.s.sa.s.sinate King Shengri but was killed,” someone added.
“The Dragon King is the culprit,” shouted another shrill voice.
“The Dragon King killed the Commandant and then killed Gulun. I saw him sneak into Gulun’s tent,” shouted a louder voice.
The long-acc.u.mulated doubts of the soldiers had finally become an open accusation. Silver Condor felt his power suddenly increase by over a thousandfold.