Death Sutra

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Having been in the martial arts world for so many years, Deng Yuanlei had been wounded before. But never once had he been like this: feeble, a sword stuck in his shoulder, and left unattended for such a long time.

"Miss Han," he yelled. Yet Miss Han was busy sticking her tongue out and smiling at the Dragon King as if she didn"t hear him. So he yelled out another four or five times consecutively.

Finally Han Fen turned around and asked, "Were you calling me?"

"Yeah…"

"But let me tell you something. Everybody in the Waning Moon Hall is called Miss Han, so I don"t know who you"re talking to."

Deng Yuanlei didn"t dare to say that there was only one disciple of the Waning Moon Hall here, and after pondering for a while he cautiously said, "Miss Fen?"

Facing Gu Shenwei, Han Fen said, "Dragon King, you"re so smart. I knew that I couldn"t keep that from you for long. I even had a bet with myself that you would undoubtedly guess it by the next midnight at the latest. Haha, it"s not even dawn yet and you"ve already…"

Deng Yuanlei felt that his back was slick with some liquid, and he could indistinctly tell that his shoulder was still bleeding, so he yelled out again, "Miss Fen!"

"Were you calling me again?"

"Yes. And I think there"s only one "Miss Fen" in all of Waning Moon Hall, and that"s you, right?"

"Well, there"s no "Miss Fen" in the Waning Moon Hall. I haven"t been a Miss since my teenage years."

"So… how should I address you?"

"You know already, don"t you?"

"I do?"

"You do! My name is Han Fen. What else could it be?"

With Lu Mian as their main go-between, Deng Yuanlei hadn"t had much contact with the Waning Moon Hall. Upon hearing Han Fen"s words, he became furious, and yet he had to put on a smiling face. "Han Fen, Sect Leader Lu and I are friends of the Waning Moon Hall. Could you please give us the antidote so that we can treat our wounds?"

Carrying the lamp in one hand, Han Fen patted the front and rear side of her dress with the other hand. "I"ve already told you all. I don"t have any more antidotes. The Master Commander"s very strict about distributing antidotes."

Deng Yuanlei kept suppressing his indignation. "Then, for the Master Commander"s sake, could you please pull the swor- "

Before he could finish his sentence, Han Fen pulled out the sword. Deng Yuanlei had no time to prepare himself, and with a shrill scream, he instantly fell into too much pain to speak anymore.

Han Fen gave two light swings. "The sword of the Dragon King feels pretty good." After looking at it from left to right, she tossed the sword onto the ground, picked up the Dragon King with one hand, dragged him to the foot of the wall, and put him down by Old Man Mu. Looking at the two, a tall one and a short one, Han Fen was very pleased.

Bottles and pills were strewn everywhere, but she didn"t care much. After a careful search, she picked up a few important ones, put them away close to her chest, and asked Old Man Mu, "Did you touch me?"

"What?" Old Man Mu acted dumb. He knew the temperaments of the Waning Moon Hall"s disciples very well. The more friendly they seemed, the more cruel they actually were.

Gu Shenwei dismissed that topic for Old Man Mu by asking, "Where did Lotus go?"

"Well, take another guess." Han Fen was animated.

"She returned to the Western Regions."

"Wow!" Han Fen gave a heartfelt compliment and clapped her hands, the lamp swinging around.

"Has she recovered from her injury?"

"Not completely, but the Master Commander has to leave. Dragon King, that palm attack you gave was so heavy. Eek, why do I feel that there"s an icy rat running around in my body? It"s interesting, but I"m also a little afraid."

"Don"t worry. It"ll disappear over time."

Deng Yuanlei groaned consecutively, this time asking, "Stop the bleeding… Han Fen… Help me stop the bleeding."

Han Fen raised the lamp to illuminate her face and asked in a low tone, "This guy"s so annoying. Should I help him?"

"Don"t do that," Old Man Mu replied immediately, but he couldn"t find a good reason to back up his answer, so he changed the subject. "What is this place? It"s so dramatic. How on earth did you find it?"

Han Fen was self-satisfied, "It"s amazing, isn"t it? This is a trap right outside the Khan"s mausoleum and it was build many years ago. It"s said that they would kill all the craftsmen and replace them with another batch every year. I"ve been trying to find their bones for a long time but still haven"t succeeded. I wonder where they were buried."

"So this place is connected to a mausoleum?" Old Man Mu asked happily.

"Yeah, and it"s a huge mausoleum…"

"It has exits, right?"

"Yes."

"Then get us out of here."

"I can"t."

"Why? You and the Dragon King… aren"t you friends?"

"But I have to follow the Master Commander"s order, and she ordered me to capture the Dragon King."

"And then what?"

"And then leave him in the mausoleum. I"ve prepared food and water. Enough for a month."

Old Man Mu turned and asked the Dragon King, "What kind of trick is the Waning Moon Hall playing?"

"They want to announce my missing status to King Shengri, split Shulitu"s army, and let the Court Attendants Army continue killing."

After pondering for a while, Old Man Mu realized that if the Dragon King went missing, the consequences would turn out exactly like that. "Sly, so sly. However… you came here without any prior planning, so how did Lotus know that you would be tricked?"

Of course Lotus knew, as she had almost antic.i.p.ated Gu Shenwei"s every move. She told Han Fen to stay, tricked the Dragon King into believing that she was still in the Royal Court, and then lured him to this improvised camp with a simple tactic.

"Lotus taught Lu Mian some simple moves of the Gu Family kung fu. She knew that I would fall for it."

Lotus was the first one to know the Gu Shenwei"s true ident.i.ty - although she was no longer the only one, she knew the most details and was also the most interested in it. Having dug into Marshal Yang"s previous experience in the Central Plains, she was now able to using it to captivate the Dragon King"s interest.

And she did exactly that.

A laughter came over from the other side in the darkness, and it was Lu Mian who spoke up. "You had a lucky guess, Dragon King, but it"s too late. I was wondering whether tricks as simple as these would work, but the Master Commander truly has a divine foresight."

"Divine foresight," Han Fen repeated his words, planning to memorize them so that she could say them to the Master Commander later herself.

Old Man Mu got the point and swore, "You sleepwalking b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Laugh while you still can. Lotus didn"t leave any antidote, so we"re all going to be stuck here in the mausoleum. Yet we… Heh-heh, Lotus"s in love with Dragon King. It"s only a matter of time before she lets him… and me go. You two will stay here and die."

Lu Mian snorted. "Han Fen, what"re the Master Commander"s instructions? The Waning Moon Hall won"t cut the rope so soon, will they? The Qingcheng Sect can still help you with a lot of-"

"Well, the Master Commander didn"t give me any instructions," Han Fen said honestly. "She didn"t expect that you two would fall in as well. So, it depends on your choice. If you want to die, I"ll give a sword strike to each of you. If not, I"ll lock all of you in together, but in that case the food might not be enough."

"I don"t want to die," Deng Yuanlei said in great pain. "Listen to me. Lotus… the Master Commander, in no case would she want me and Sect Leader Lu dead. You would be doing her a great favor by helping us out of here, and she will also give you a handsome reward."

"Heh-heh, it seems that you don"t know the Master Commander enough. She hates it most when people make decisions without her permission, and I wouldn"t dare to do that. Let me ask her first."

"She, she"s… in the Western Regions. It"d take you at least a month to go there and come back, wouldn"t it?"

"Give or take. But I"ll make it sooner."

"Yet there isn"t enough food?"

"Eat sparingly, and if it"s still not enough, kill the fattest one among you. Then you should be able to hang on for a few more days."

Deng Yuanlei was running out of patience - the way the Waning Moon Hall treated their allies was horrible. "Sect Leader, please have a talk wi-"

"Shut up!" Lu Mian reprimanded him abruptly.

Old Man Mu let out a loud laugh. "If you want to be a sycophant, then other than shamelessness, you also need a bit of cleverness. Your Sect Leader has already told you that someone will come soon, and yet you are still nagging. So stupid."

All Deng Yuanlei had been worrying about was his wound, and he had forgotten that remark of Sect Leader Lu"s. Greatly relieved, he said, "I"m such an idiot. It turns out that Sect Leader had it all planned out."

But this remark also reminded Han Fen. "Right, I have to take you away from here, so they won"t find you when they come."

Han Fen took a few steps to the right, bent forward and pressed down hard on a brick close to the ground. Slowly, a stone door opened, barely making any sounds. She pondered for a while. Then she walked to Lu Mian"s side, grabbed one of his arms, and started dragging him away.

Lu Mian panicked slightly, "The Master Commander didn"t give you any instructions?"

"No."

"Then you can just leave us here. You don"t have to move us."

"Humm - No, what if you tell?"

"We"re enemies of the Dragon King. Why would we do that?"

"I"m not sure. "The right tactic gives you all the secrets." Have you not heard of it? Especially that nuisance in the middle. I don"t think he"ll keep any secrets."

"Then take him away and let me stay," Lu Mian said without the slightest hint of hesitation.

"Sect Leader, I"m completely faithful to you…" Deng Yuanlei stopped himself in time as he thought, "Han Fen is a fool. Sect Leader"s clearly playing a trick. I shouldn"t speak anymore nonsense."

Han Fen raised her head and thought for a while. Then without giving a response, she grabbed Lu Mian and started walking. When she reached Deng Yuanlei, she put the lamp on her head, grabbed his injured arm and dragged the both of them into the pa.s.sage.

Deng Yuanlei"s screech - which sounded like a pig being butchered by a knife - resonated in the underground chamber, drowning out Lu Mian"s talking.

Old Man Mu struggled to twist his head and look at the Dragon King"s position. "You"re pretty composed."

"Hmm."

"Do you know why Lotus went to the Western Regions?"

"To control Prince Duodun before I do, and split the Dragon Army as a distraction."

Lotus still had the posthumous edict which doc.u.mented Duodun"s right to the throne, and this was her best advantage.

"You don"t seem anxious at all."

"It won"t help if I am."

"Was this reason why you sent the good girl and the others back to the Western Regions?

Gu Shenwei did not reply.

Old Man Mu wanted to nod, but he didn"t have the strength, so he just blinked. "Lotus knows the Dragon King well, and the Dragon King knows her no less. Heh-heh, this could make quite an interesting show. Uh, we will still have a chance to see it, won"t we?"

"We should."

Old Man Mu"s eyes lit up, and in a whisper he said, "I knew that the Dragon King wouldn"t have come to this camp without a contingency plan. You do have a contingency plan, right? Come on, tell me. Just a small part will be fine, so that I can prepare myself."

Gu Shenwei shook his head. "It"s impossible for me to have guessed that the Khan built an underground mausoleum, let alone that we would fall down here, so how could I have prepared any contingency plans?"

"Ah? No. So all we can do is wait here? Dragon King-"

Han Fen came back, with the lamp still on her head. She picked up Old Man Mu with one hand and pinned the Dragon King"s waist against hers with the other arm. "Between "visionary" and "sly," which one suits the Master Commander better?"

"The latter," Old Man Mu responded. "I"ve never met any women slyer than her. Even Han Wuxian is no match for her."

Upon hearing the three words "Han Wuxian", Han Fen trembled and the lamp nearly dropped. "Please don"t mention Hall Leader"s name. It scares me. I hope that she dies in the Royal Court."

Old Man Mu sneered, "Han Wuxian"s an old monster. She"ll be fine even when all the others are dead."

In an atypical silence, Han Fen walked into the pa.s.sageway and kicked something with her heel, which made the stone door close quietly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Old Man Mu was not sure whether it was because of his dim eyesight or the flickering lamp light, but he thought that he saw the Dragon King"s drooping arm make a small movement.

"So the Dragon King did have a contingency plan!" Old Man Mu couldn"t help but giggle at this thought.