Death Sutra

Monk Lianye allowed the macheteman to strike him with the wooden saber without resistance, before shattering the weapon with his body .

The move created a controversy among the three judges and hundreds of spectators . What if it was a real saber instead of a wooden one? The monk would have been split in half . This was the Machete G.o.d Contest . The monk had somewhat violated the rules for not using a saber in the contest . It was difficult to convince the public that Monk Lianye won the contest just by shattering a wooden saber .

Master Lianye became angry . Only his senior, Lianhua"s chanting could subdue this vigorous force within him . However, he had no qualms restraining himself since his senior had pa.s.sed away . "Bring over a real saber!" His loud voice echoed across the arena like a booming thunder roaring above everybody"s heads . Those timid spectators wanted to cower in fear .

The three judges were still hesitating . Then, someone threw a saber onto the stage .

The macheteman picked up the saber and looked at the monk . He had already suffered a terrible defeat and was thinking of a way to save some face . "You asked for it, monk . "

"Come at me!"

Lianye shouted out every single word . The macheteman was terrified . He wanted to hop off the arena and admit defeat, but he was holding onto a real saber . Hence, he could only bite the bullet and attack the monk .

"Receive my moves," the macheteman shouted . As compared to the monk"s roar, his voice was akin to a child"s squabble .

The monk didn"t budge when the saber came towards him . When the blade touched his body, he suddenly shouted, "Go!"

Although the macheteman readied himself for the monk"s roar, the roar still made him feel lightheaded . Even though the saber landed on the monk"s chest, the move did not have much strength .

Lianye"s internal breath was akin to that of an avalanche and a tsunami . The weak short sword was caught in the powerful force . In a moment, the sword which was made of fine steel was shattered into three pieces, leaving only the handle in the macheteman"s hands .

The macheteman was stunned . Even though he didn"t use much strength, the saber was destroyed purely by the monk"s Internal Strength . He murmured, "Holy monk," admitting defeat in public and exclaimed, "Holy monk!"

This was the contest after Tie Linglong"s defeat . Lin Xiaoshan, the macheteman witnessed the entire process . Like all the other spectators, he was awestruck . "Lianye had mastered the body of Diamond Sutra . Some even said that there was an apparition of Holy Monk Lianhua . The holy monk protected his junior from harm . "

Gu Shenwei did not believe it . He had once stabbed Lianye with his Five Peaks Saber so he was sure that the monk was a mere human .

"All the machetemen are going crazy about it . Dragon King, let"s use real sabers since Lianye is not afraid of them . Five Peaks Saber is a rare weapon . I"m sure it can penetrate the monk"s kung fu . "

Gu Shenwei found himself in a difficult position . Both the Five Peaks Saber and the Dragon Head Sword could penetrate Lianye"s kung fu, but it would portray him as a coward . However, he was not certain if he could win by using a wooden saber .

This time, Lianye caught on to the Dragon King"s weakness .

Gu Shenwei remembered what Mama Xue once said when she was teaching him kungfu . She said that his fists were the foundation, but it could never win against weapons . Killers used sabers to win against both sabers and bare fists . All these made a lot of sense to him at that time . However, he did not expect that there would come a day whereby he had to do away with his ident.i.ty as a killer and resort to fighting with his bare fists .

Fang Wenshi knew nothing about martial arts, so he didn"t think about it much . He simply a.s.sumed that Dragon King would definitely win . The key was how he would win . "You cannot let the Four Truths Temple lose face . You need to achieve a balance . You need to win beautifully and let the monk save his face . Do you know what I mean, Dragon King?"

The military counselor was of no help . Gu Shenwei ordered everyone to leave the room as he tried to come up with a solution .

He still remembered the scene when Lianye fought with the expert from Barren Sect . He knew that once the wooden saber was broken, he had to face Lianye with his bare fists . He would likely lose .

It seemed like the only way to solve this problem was to use the Five Peaks Saber shamelessly .

Gu Shenwei still hoped that he could convince Lianye . Only the monk could explain away the doubts that he had .

Jiang was carefully wiping the cabinet on one side . She was now able to use a cloth and her face did not blush as much as before . Gu Shenwei looked at her and thought of something . He asked, "Do you know kung fu, Jiang?"

Upon hearing Dragon King"s question, Jiang was shocked . The cloth in her hands dropped onto the floor . She picked it up hurriedly and blushed . She then said in a soft voice, "I don"t know . "

Gu Shenwei was somewhat disappointed . He had once recalled seeing women of Great Snow Mountain fighting fiercely with one another in close combat, and their valor was comparable to swordsmen . He was hoping to learn a few techniques, but Jiang appeared bashful and didn"t seem like a person who know how to fight .

Gu Shenwei stood up . Jiang knew his habits very well now . Knowing that Dragon King was going to head out in the night again, she quickly pa.s.sed him his black cape .

Gu Shenwei did not alarm anybody in the residence . He sneaked into North City by himself .

There was something that he should have solved some time ago . He had been procrastinating till now . It couldn"t wait any longer .

He came to the small temple where Lianhua was killed . Like always, he would climb over the wall and enter the premises after inspecting the surroundings .

No one was in the west wing . A faint breathing sound could be heard from the east wing .

This was not a wasted trip, Gu Shenwei thought to himself . He took out a dagger, pried open the lock and entered the room silently .

Lying on the bed was an overweight monk, who was sleeping soundly . He was the abbot who Gu Shenwei knocked out the last time .

Gu Shenwei kept his dagger and drew out his Five Peaks Saber . He then tapped the monk"s face with the saber .

The monk waved it off but did not wake up .

Gu Shenwei tapped with more force . The monk then opened his eyes dazedly . He noticed someone holding a saber in front of him, so he sat up straight immediately . He wanted to scream loudly but he did not dare to do so .

"Do you know who I am?"

The monk first shook his head, then nodded, "Dragon . . . Dragon King . "

"I have a few questions for you . "

"Yes . Dragon King, please ask . I won"t hide anything . "

"What did you see on the night when Master Lianhua was killed?"

"I . . . I saw Dragon King fighting with Master Lianye . "

"Before that . "

"I was sleeping at that time, so I didn"t know anything . "

Gu Shenwei pressed the Five Peaks Saber against the monk"s st.u.r.dy chest . "It seemed like you didn"t have a regular snoring pattern . You were snoring really loudly the other time . However, you weren"t snoring this time round . "

The monk"s face changed, "I . . . I . . . Is it . . . I don"t even know when I snore . "

"Master Lianye was grief-stricken when Master Lianhua was killed . He must have made a lot of noise then . Didn"t that rouse you up?"

"I didn"t know . I was sleeping soundly . "

"There are many kinds of machete skills . I can kill people in one blow or hundreds of blows . All of these are considered to be top machete techniques . Which one do you prefer?"

The monk did not understand what Gu Shenwei meant initially . He soon realized what Gu Shenwei meant by using multiple blows . It was used to torture a person instead of killing him . His face turned green as he started sweating profusely . He could not imagine how many blows his fat body had to undertake . "Don"t, Dragon King, don"t, I . . . I will tell you the truth . "

"I want the real truth . "

"Yes, the real truth . That day . . . that afternoon, Liu Qi came to me and gave me 20 silver taels . He wanted me to put something into both monks" food . I refused, but he pressured me . He said that it wasn"t poison and wasn"t deadly . Never did I thought that the drug would cause Master Lianye to lose his sight temporarily and Master Lianhua to be a.s.sa.s.sinated . If I knew that this would harm someone"s life, I would have never done such a wicked thing . As a monk . . . "

Gu Shenwei interrupted him, "who is Liu Qi?"

"He . . . he . . . " The fat monk was trying to think of a way that best describes Liu Qi"s origins . He finally decided to use a simple method . He said, "He was a slave from the castle . His name was Slave Qing . Dragon King would probably know him . "

Gu Shenwei definitely knew Slave Qing .

Slave Qing used to be a companion for the twins . He then came down from the mountain to serve as a butler for Ninth Young Master, Shangguan Fei .

Gu Shenwei was extremely startled . Why would Shangguan Fei kill Master Lianhua, and tried to push the blame onto Dragon King? It didn"t benefit him .

"What did you know about Master Lianhua preaching to the machetemen at South City?"

"I really didn"t know about this . The two masters were only staying here temporarily and didn"t really talk to me . "

Recognising the hidden meaning in the monk"s words, Gu Shenwei raised his head and asked, "What did you hear?"

"Regarding this, there was once when I heard Master Lianye sobbing hard . He said that he had caused harm to Master Lianhua and would punish himself by committing suicide . Master Lianhua didn"t allow it and even reprimanded him . Really, that"s all . Dragon King, that"s all I know . "

Gu Shenwei spared the abbot"s life . As Great Snowmountain was currently in the middle of a peace negotiation, killing someone now would give Golden Roc Fort a cause for objection .

There was not enough time to find Slave Qing . Gu Shenwei returned to the Residence of Dragon King and pondered what Lianye had done to implicate Master Lianhua .

It was already late at night . Other than Jiang, there was someone else in his room .

Xu Yanwei was determined to pester Dragon King . She did not persuade him to do something directly . However, as long as she found a chance, she would beat around the bush and mention Shangguan Ru . Gu Shenwei once forbade Xu Yanwei from entering his room . Her ability to please people was further honed after serving Luo Ningcha for a few years, hence Dragon King"s orders were often not executed .

This was the case tonight .

Once Jiang noticed Dragon King, she stood up immediately and spoke fearfully, "Dragon King, it was my fault . I shouldn"t have let Sister Xu come in . . . "

Xu Yanwei smiled and said cheerfully, "Don"t blame her . I insisted on coming in . She wasn"t as strong as me so she was unable to stop me . "

Xu Yanwei might be slightly older, but she was as pet.i.te as her brother . All her strength would not even measure up to an arm strength of a girl from Great Snowmountain .

Gu Shenwei did not bother entertaining her, nor did he drive her out . He removed his cape and pa.s.sed it to Jiang . He then leaped onto the bed and closed his eyes .

"Would you like to enter Stone Castle, Jiang?" Xu Yanwei took the Great Snow Mountain girl by the arm and continued chatting .

"I had never thought about it . " Jiang lowered her voice .

"Just look for me if you want to enter Stone Castle . I can guarantee that you can enter and leave the castle safely . You can even bring someone out . n.o.body will suspect anything . . . "

Jumping off the bed, Gu Shenwei carried Xu Yanwei from the small bed and threw her out of the room .

"That person weighs about the same as me . " Xu Yanwei kindly reminded him from the outside . "And she knows how to leap onto roofs and vault over walls, so you won"t have to carry her . "

Gu Shenwei blew the lights out and slept . Jiang helped tuck his blanket corners and went back to sit on her small bed before lying down to sleep .

The next morning, Gu Shenwei brought ten swordsmen, ten machetemen, along with Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong to the Rouge Forest .

The spectacular occasion had reminded him of the duel that he had with Sword Sacrificer Ye Silang a few years back . That match was fought according to the ways of killers . The entire forest was the fighting ground . Today, he would be following the rules, which were laid out by the machetemen and would battle it out, face to face against a strong rival in a small arena .

Gu Shenwei did not sleep much last night, but he was quite refreshed . He had thought through several important matters and that gave him much more confidence in today"s match .

Chapter 299 SnoresTranslator Transn Editor TransnMonk Lianye allowed the macheteman to strike him with the wooden saber without resistance, before shattering the weapon with his body . The move created a controversy among the three judges and hundreds of spectators . What if it was a real saber instead of a wooden one The monk would have been split in half . This was the Machete G.o.d Contest . The monk had somewhat violated the rules for not using a saber in the contest . It was difficult to convince the public that Monk Lianye won the contest just by shattering a wooden saber . Master Lianye became angry . Only his senior, Lianhua s chanting could subdue this vigorous force within him . However, he had no qualms restraining himself since his senior had pa.s.sed away . Bring over a real saber His loud voice echoed across the arena like a booming thunder roaring above everybody s heads . Those timid spectators wanted to cower in fear . The three judges were still hesitating . Then, someone threw a saber onto the stage . The macheteman picked up the saber and looked at the monk . He had already suffered a terrible defeat and was thinking of a way to save some face . You asked for it, monk . Come at me Lianye shouted out every single word . The macheteman was terrified . He wanted to hop off the arena and admit defeat, but he was holding onto a real saber . Hence, he could only bite the bullet and attack the monk . Receive my moves, the macheteman shouted . As compared to the monk s roar, his voice was akin to a child s squabble . The monk didn t budge when the saber came towards him . When the blade touched his body, he suddenly shouted, Go Although the macheteman readied himself for the monk s roar, the roar still made him feel lightheaded . Even though the saber landed on the monk s chest, the move did not have much strength . Lianye s internal breath was akin to that of an avalanche and a tsunami . The weak short sword was caught in the powerful force . In a moment, the sword which was made of fine steel was shattered into three pieces, leaving only the handle in the macheteman s hands . The macheteman was stunned . Even though he didn t use much strength, the saber was destroyed purely by the monk s Internal Strength . He murmured, Holy monk, admitting defeat in public and exclaimed, Holy monk This was the contest after Tie Linglong s defeat . Lin Xiaoshan, the macheteman witnessed the entire process . Like all the other spectators, he was awestruck . Lianye had mastered the body of Diamond Sutra . Some even said that there was an apparition of Holy Monk Lianhua . The holy monk protected his junior from harm . Gu Shenwei did not believe it . He had once stabbed Lianye with his Five Peaks Saber so he was sure that the monk was a mere human . All the machetemen are going crazy about it . Dragon King, let s use real sabers since Lianye is not afraid of them . Five Peaks Saber is a rare weapon . I m sure it can penetrate the monk s kung fu . Gu Shenwei found himself in a difficult position . Both the Five Peaks Saber and the Dragon Head Sword could penetrate Lianye s kung fu, but it would portray him as a coward . However, he was not certain if he could win by using a wooden saber . This time, Lianye caught on to the Dragon King s weakness . Gu Shenwei remembered what Mama Xue once said when she was teaching him kungfu . She said that his fists were the foundation, but it could never win against weapons . Killers used sabers to win against both sabers and bare fists . All these made a lot of sense to him at that time . However, he did not expect that there would come a day whereby he had to do away with his ident.i.ty as a killer and resort to fighting with his bare fists . Fang Wenshi knew nothing about martial arts, so he didn t think about it much . He simply a.s.sumed that Dragon King would definitely win . The key was how he would win . You cannot let the Four Truths Temple lose face . You need to achieve a balance . You need to win beautifully and let the monk save his face . Do you know what I mean, Dragon King The military counselor was of no help . Gu Shenwei ordered everyone to leave the room as he tried to come up with a solution . He still remembered the scene when Lianye fought with the expert from Barren Sect . He knew that once the wooden saber was broken, he had to face Lianye with his bare fists . He would likely lose . It seemed like the only way to solve this problem was to use the Five Peaks Saber shamelessly . Gu Shenwei still hoped that he could convince Lianye . Only the monk could explain away the doubts that he had . Jiang was carefully wiping the cabinet on one side . She was now able to use a cloth and her face did not blush as much as before . Gu Shenwei looked at her and thought of something . He asked, Do you know kung fu, Jiang Upon hearing Dragon King s question, Jiang was shocked . The cloth in her hands dropped onto the floor . She picked it up hurriedly and blushed . She then said in a soft voice, I don t know . Gu Shenwei was somewhat disappointed . He had once recalled seeing women of Great Snow Mountain fighting fiercely with one another in close combat, and their valor was comparable to swordsmen . He was hoping to learn a few techniques, but Jiang appeared bashful and didn t seem like a person who know how to fight . Gu Shenwei stood up . Jiang knew his habits very well now . Knowing that Dragon King was going to head out in the night again, she quickly pa.s.sed him his black cape . Gu Shenwei did not alarm anybody in the residence . He sneaked into North City by himself . There was something that he should have solved some time ago . He had been procrastinating till now . It couldn t wait any longer . He came to the small temple where Lianhua was killed . Like always, he would climb over the wall and enter the premises after inspecting the surroundings . No one was in the west wing . A faint breathing sound could be heard from the east wing . This was not a wasted trip, Gu Shenwei thought to himself . He took out a dagger, pried open the lock and entered the room silently . Lying on the bed was an overweight monk, who was sleeping soundly . He was the abbot who Gu Shenwei knocked out the last time . Gu Shenwei kept his dagger and drew out his Five Peaks Saber . He then tapped the monk s face with the saber . The monk waved it off but did not wake up . Gu Shenwei tapped with more force . The monk then opened his eyes dazedly . He noticed someone holding a saber in front of him, so he sat up straight immediately . He wanted to scream loudly but he did not dare to do so . Do you know who I am The monk first shook his head, then nodded, Dragon . . . Dragon King . I have a few questions for you . Yes . Dragon King, please ask . I won t hide anything . What did you see on the night when Master Lianhua was killed I . . . I saw Dragon King fighting with Master Lianye . Before that . I was sleeping at that time, so I didn t know anything . Gu Shenwei pressed the Five Peaks Saber against the monk s st.u.r.dy chest . It seemed like you didn t have a regular snoring pattern . You were snoring really loudly the other time . However, you weren t snoring this time round . The monk s face changed, I . . . I . . . Is it . . . I don t even know when I snore . Master Lianye was grief stricken when Master Lianhua was killed . He must have made a lot of noise then . Didn t that rouse you up I didn t know . I was sleeping soundly . There are many kinds of machete skills . I can kill people in one blow or hundreds of blows . All of these are considered to be top machete techniques . Which one do you prefer The monk did not understand what Gu Shenwei meant initially . He soon realized what Gu Shenwei meant by using multiple blows . It was used to torture a person instead of killing him . His face turned green as he started sweating profusely . He could not imagine how many blows his fat body had to undertake . Don t, Dragon King, don t, I . . . I will tell you the truth . I want the real truth . Yes, the real truth . That day . . . that afternoon, Liu Qi came to me and gave me 20 silver taels . He wanted me to put something into both monks food . I refused, but he pressured me . He said that it wasn t poison and wasn t deadly . Never did I thought that the drug would cause Master Lianye to lose his sight temporarily and Master Lianhua to be a.s.sa.s.sinated . If I knew that this would harm someone s life, I would have never done such a wicked thing . As a monk . . . Gu Shenwei interrupted him, who is Liu Qi He . . . he . . . The fat monk was trying to think of a way that best describes Liu Qi s origins . He finally decided to use a simple method . He said, He was a slave from the castle . His name was Slave Qing . Dragon King would probably know him . Gu Shenwei definitely knew Slave Qing . Slave Qing used to be a companion for the twins . He then came down from the mountain to serve as a butler for Ninth Young Master, Shangguan Fei . Gu Shenwei was extremely startled . Why would Shangguan Fei kill Master Lianhua, and tried to push the blame onto Dragon King It didn t benefit him . What did you know about Master Lianhua preaching to the machetemen at South City I really didn t know about this . The two masters were only staying here temporarily and didn t really talk to me . Recognising the hidden meaning in the monk s words, Gu Shenwei raised his head and asked, What did you hear Regarding this, there was once when I heard Master Lianye sobbing hard . He said that he had caused harm to Master Lianhua and would punish himself by committing suicide . Master Lianhua didn t allow it and even reprimanded him . Really, that s all . Dragon King, that s all I know . Gu Shenwei spared the abbot s life . As Great Snowmountain was currently in the middle of a peace negotiation, killing someone now would give Golden Roc Fort a cause for objection . There was not enough time to find Slave Qing . Gu Shenwei returned to the Residence of Dragon King and pondered what Lianye had done to implicate Master Lianhua . It was already late at night . Other than Jiang, there was someone else in his room . Xu Yanwei was determined to pester Dragon King . She did not persuade him to do something directly . However, as long as she found a chance, she would beat around the bush and mention Shangguan Ru . Gu Shenwei once forbade Xu Yanwei from entering his room . Her ability to please people was further honed after serving Luo Ningcha for a few years, hence Dragon King s orders were often not executed . This was the case tonight . Once Jiang noticed Dragon King, she stood up immediately and spoke fearfully, Dragon King, it was my fault . I shouldn t have let Sister Xu come in . . . Xu Yanwei smiled and said cheerfully, Don t blame her . I insisted on coming in . She wasn t as strong as me so she was unable to stop me . Xu Yanwei might be slightly older, but she was as pet.i.te as her brother . All her strength would not even measure up to an arm strength of a girl from Great Snowmountain . Gu Shenwei did not bother entertaining her, nor did he drive her out . He removed his cape and pa.s.sed it to Jiang . He then leaped onto the bed and closed his eyes . Would you like to enter Stone Castle, Jiang Xu Yanwei took the Great Snow Mountain girl by the arm and continued chatting . I had never thought about it . Jiang lowered her voice . Just look for me if you want to enter Stone Castle . I can guarantee that you can enter and leave the castle safely . You can even bring someone out . n.o.body will suspect anything . . . Jumping off the bed, Gu Shenwei carried Xu Yanwei from the small bed and threw her out of the room . That person weighs about the same as me . Xu Yanwei kindly reminded him from the outside . And she knows how to leap onto roofs and vault over walls, so you won t have to carry her . Gu Shenwei blew the lights out and slept . Jiang helped tuck his blanket corners and went back to sit on her small bed before lying down to sleep . The next morning, Gu Shenwei brought ten swordsmen, ten machetemen, along with Chu Nanping and Tie Linglong to the Rouge Forest . The spectacular occasion had reminded him of the duel that he had with Sword Sacrificer Ye Silang a few years back . That match was fought according to the ways of killers . The entire forest was the fighting ground . Today, he would be following the rules, which were laid out by the machetemen and would battle it out, face to face against a strong rival in a small arena . Gu Shenwei did not sleep much last night, but he was quite refreshed . He had thought through several important matters and that gave him much more confidence in today s match .