Death Sutra

Editors: Cypress Venus Trap, Savage Bunny, Moonclipse

Chapter 33  The Xuanji Acupoint

That was a very disappointing and embarra.s.sing moment, especially for the twins of the Shangguan Family. Among all who were present, only these two were Unique King’s children; because their father and brothers hadn’t shown up, they could be considered to have become Golden Roc Castle’s ‘face’.

Shangguan Fei lowered his head like he was bashful and worried, while Shangguan Ru bit her lips, her face a rare fiery red jade and her big black eyes revealing her unquenchable anger.

For a moment, even Gu Shenwei believed that she would rush forward to scold those killers and personally fight against the Marshal Yang who had killed nine killers in a row.

Drumbeats suddenly started resounding continuously from the castle—sometimes fast, sometimes slow.

To the outsiders, it seemed to be a sound signalling an attack, but for Golden Roc killers, it held a different meaning.

The remaining 10 or so killers in the forefront retreated, one step at a time. They dared not to be careless, only turning around and walking towards Golden Roc Castle when they were more than 20 steps away from Marshal Yang.

The killers were retreating.

Marshal Yang stood there, just looking on. He didn’t have any intention to block them. His objective had never been these p.a.w.ns of Golden Roc Castle, and the 9 corpses laid in front of him were just a visiting card he had sent to Unique King.

If Golden Roc Castle had two commandments for a killer, then he, Marshal Yang, had his own rule.

The killers’ steps were steady and didn’t show any sign of disorder. The teenagers" frustrations weren"t comforted, however. The twins watched their killers retreat with disbelief, then looked back at the castle, thinking that there would be more powerful figures replacing these useless fellows—sabrelord, young lord, green faced a.s.sa.s.sinator. Golden Roc Castle hadn’t used its full strength yet.

The unchanging drumbeat had ordered everyone to retreat, but no one had come to replace them.

Servant Qing sighed silently. He moved half a step forward, saying, “Gongzi, let’s go back. The young lords will deal with it.”

The twins were still young and hadn’t yet gained the t.i.tle of ‘young lord’.

Shangguan Ru ignored him and stubbornly continued to look at the distant Marshal Yang as if she wanted to kill him with her stare. Shangguan Fei had already turned halfway, but upon seeing that his littler sister hadn"t moved, he turned back to his position and also didn’t leave.

Wearing a wry smile, Servant Qing shook his head. The killers had almost entered the castle. Not only would the group of kids be unhelpful by staying here, they would also be in danger. He turned to look at Shangguan Yushi for help.

Usually, Shangguan Yushi was the most daring amongst the teenagers. The whimsical behavior of the twins were probably due to her encouragement; but during critical moments, she was more mature. She gently placed her hands on her cousin"s shoulder, whispering persuasive words into her ears.

Whatever it was that she had said, it was very effective. Shangguan Ru’s anger diminished a bit and turned to walk back the castle.

The ‘Ninth Gongzi’ didn’t insist on staying, so the other teenagers released a breath and hurriedly went back to the castle, safe and sound. Previously, this had just been something fun to watch, but now there was some danger involved.

Behind them, the killers also walked in. The thick wooden gate slowly closed.

Cough cough. Servant Qing had wanted to say something to comfort his little lords, but no one spoke along the way. The surroundings filled with an awkward silence.

Shangguan Ru wasn’t in the mood to listen to her servant’s nonsense. she suddenly started running into the inner chamber. She wanted to personally ask her father, the fearsome Unique King in Western Regions, why he hadn’t sent his most powerful men to kill the challenger with one move instead of suffering this humiliation.

Shangguan Yushi, Shangguan Fei and several other bookkeepers followed closely behind. Helpless, Servant Qing shook his head and discharged all the footmen. Perhaps they wouldn"t be used for the rest of the day.

Gu Shenwei had used his utmost perseverance to control the joy and excitement inside his heart, but he just couldn"t control his own pace and had started running unconsciously.

Elder Zhang wasn"t there in the hut when he entered. Except for sleeping, he seldom came back to the stone hut. This eccentric old man would rather stay with the horses than talk to a living human being.

Too excited to sit quietly, Gu Shenwei paced back and forth in the hut. He had held his emotions back in front of others for a long time, but now, he could finally release them.

He would compare his family’s sabresmanship and spearsmanship for a while, then want to practise balanced power. He couldn’t focus on any of them for a long time, the many ideas pouring into his mind like a tide making it difficult for him to think clearly.

He had vaguely learnt many nuances and subtleties of the Gu family’s martial arts from Marshal Yang. He could also vaguely envisage the future scene of revenge. He wanted to test the power of the sabresmanship and spearsmanship immediately and also wanted to create a perfect escape plan to meet with Marshal Yang.

Marshal Yang was highly skilled in martial arts and was just outside the castle. Was it still necessary for him to stay in the castle?

But he didn’t implement any of his ideas. He was inside Golden Roc Castle and must be extra careful. Even the slightest bit of negligence would cause him to die before he met Marshal Yang.

He had to conceal his real emotions, but it puzzled him why the surrounding people weren"t panicking at all. The Marshal Yang who had killed 9 killers in a row was right outside the castle, shouldn’t the people inside be feeling imminent danger?

Elder Zhang apparently hadn"t heard about the challenger and was still focused taking care of the horses. During supper time, Gu Shenwei couldn’t help but mention the fight outside. Elder Zhang only made an ambiguous Mm sound before lowering his head to continue eating. It seemed that the death of several killers weren"t even as important as the meat in his bowl.

Shortly afterwards, Gu Shenwei went to report to Xue Niang about what had happened during daytime as usual. She had already known about the challenge, and even knew about Marshal Yang. “This old fellow hasn’t come out for a long time.”

With just one sentence, Xue Niang’s comment about the challenger was over. As usual, she was more concerned about the behavior of the twins. The fact that Gu Shenwei still hadn"t gained the favor of the two made her very dissatisfied.

“You have to work harder. Haven’t you learnt tricks about pleasing others from Servant Yao? Use them all! Miss has great expectations on you.”

Once again, Xue Niang used the Miss to get tasks done. Gu Shenwei was very clear that this was a fox wearing a tiger"s skin. He hadn’t seen the Miss for several months; he even doubted that the Miss still remembered Servant Huan.

“I have already worked very hard.” Gu Shenwei argued with low voice. Because Marshal Yang had come, he had some difficulty controlling his temper.

Xue Niang looked at him with slight surprise, before realising, “I almost forgot, this Marshal Yang is Yang Zheng’s elder brother. It’s really weird, why didn’t you go to him for help, or…”

Gu Shenwei’s heart thumped. He had already forgotten that when he had confessed his origin in front of Xue Niang and the Miss, he had impersonated Yang Zheng’s son. How could he explain that he hadn’t heard about Marshal Yang before the extermination?

“I… I’ve never heard of my father mentioning elder uncle.”

Gu Shenwei decided to tell the truth. Originally, Xue Niang hadn’t taken his confession seriously. Making up new lies would only arouse her doubts.

“Did they not have a good sibling relationship? If they were not close, then why is Marshal Yang taking revenge for his younger brother?”

“Marshal Yang… elder uncle probably wanted revenge for the Gu family, not for my father. I saw that he had used the Gu family’s inherited martial arts. He had learnt even more than my father.”

Xue Niang searched Servant Huan"s face for some clues, trying to find any lies. She soon changed her mind,however; this teenager’s true ident.i.ty wasn"t that important. As long as she could control him and have him work for her, it didn’t matter even if he was Unique King’s illegitimate child.

“How is your internal energy?”

Xue Niang suddenly changed the topic. Gu Shenwei’s heart calmed a bit. He was also surprised; Xue Niang had only taught him fist and foot techniques, not asking for his progress in balanced power for a long time.

“It… it’s okay.”

“Nothing uncomfortable?”

“No. Er, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t want your qi to deviate like Servant Yao.”

“Oh, I’m good. It shouldn’t happen.”

“Really? Press the xuanji acupoint in your chest. Do you have any special feeling?” 1

Xue Niang’s request was weird and her tone was casual, but Gu Shenwei still used his right thumb and pressed the xuanji acupoint.

A current of hot qi went straight to the dantian, as if one had inadvertently swallowed a big mouth of extremely hot pepper. He felt the heat from his throat all the way to his stomach.

This feeling came so suddenly that Gu Shenwei seemed to have returned back to several months ago when Xue Niang had used her iron-like finger to poke all of his key acupoints in order to help him improve the internal energy.

He cried out  ahh and almost fell down. When he was finally able to stabilize himself, his facial color had already changed. “What, what have you done to me?”

Xue Niang’s sallow face showed no expression. “And here I was wondering where it was;, it was about time.”

“What, what time?” Gu Shenwei’s voice trembled. he thought that he had already tricked Xue Niang successfully, but he was unknowingly plotted against.

“Did you think that only you can make others have a qi deviation?”

Xue Niang’s words was like a basin of cold water pouring over the Gu Shenwei’s body. He secretly guided his qi and didn’t find any problems. Everything was normal, but the hot qi appearing from nowhere was real. Xue Niang’s words would never be empty threats.

“Xue Niang, I… this little servant has always been loyal and has never had any thoughts of betrayal. This little servant has always put Xue Niang’s tasks on mind, and the two gongzi both trust this little servant very much.”  

Gu Shenwei kneeled down heavily and blurted these words out. This was something Servant Yao would do, so Servant Huan did the same. That triangle-faced teenager had died because he knew nothing about internal energy, but on other aspects, he was qualified for being Gu Shenwei’s master.

“It’s far from enough. You have to let the two gongzi be intimate with you and talk about everything with you.”  

“But, but……”

There were some things Gu Shenwei didn’t know how to explain. He was just a low-level footman, he didn’t even have the qualification to be in the inner chamber. No matter how high the twins felt his kung fu was, they couldn’t treat him as a friend.

“As long as you work hard, there will be a way.”

Xue Niang said coldly, then waved her hand, indicating for Servant Huan to leave. When he retreated to the door, she casually said: “You don’t have to worry about qi deviation for now; it will not occur for several months.”

“Yes. Thanking Xue Niang’s kindness for postponing it.”

Gu Shenwei’s excitement over Marshal Yang’s arrival dissipated completely., Things weren"t that bad though; Marshal Yang’s balanced power seemed to be even stronger than his father Gu Lun. If he could meet him successfully, Marshal Yang probably would have a method to guide his internal qi in the right direction.

Marshal Yang…

Why was it that except for the onlooking dozens of teenagers, there were no tension at all in the castle?

Gu Shenwei had just learnt what bad luck was and really didn’t want the bad luck to entangle with him, so he deliberately suppressed the ominous premonition.

But he almost didn’t close his eyes that night. He either tried to guide his qi to find the sign of qi deviation or thought about the Marshal Yang outside the castle; he had heard screams outside several times and had thought Marshal Yang had broken in. When he listened carefully though, it had all become quiet again.