Death Sutra

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Han Fen concentrated all her attention on disguising herself, taking off and putting on clothes as if there were n.o.body else in the room. Humming a weird tone, she didn"t seem to hate this imprisoned life at all.

Shangguan Yun was lying in a chair, silently watching Han Fen. There was more than one room in this suite, but he"d rather sit here and watch a crazy woman than stay in a room alone. "Han Fen, you know what? You look prettier when you"re naked."

"I know. You don"t have to see my face when I"m naked."

Shangguan Yun raised his thumb and replied, "You can tell what I"m really saying. So smart. But I meant no offence. It"s not your face but rather the Dragon King"s face that I was talking about. That sullen face isn"t worthy of such a perfect body."

"My face isn"t that pretty either. Several men have told me that."

Shangguan Yun knew that he would probably regret it, but he still asked, "And you killed all of them, didn"t you?"

Han Fen turned her head. Her face looked exactly like the Dragon King"s, yet the smile on it seemed as if it"d never appeared on this face before. "I didn"t. I just tossed them into a deep pit in the desert and left them there. Whether they survived or not has nothing to do with me."

"Doesn"t that count as killing them?"

"Of course it doesn"t," Han Fen explained patiently. "Killing someone requires me to do it myself - stabbing, scratching, forcing them to swallow pills, cutting them open, etc. But tossing them into a pit is different. I told them that they "either crawled out of this pit or I drag them up seven days later." You see, they still had a chance to survive. They just failed to clearly seize it."

Shangguan Yun nodded favorably as he replied, "Now I know how to keep my hands clean. Er, can I offer a suggestion?"

"You can. But I may not necessarily accept it."

"Suit yourself. But I think that there"re too many differences between your manner and that of the Dragon King. People might see through the act."

The "Dragon King" widened her eyes, which was yet another expression that had never appeared on Dragon King"s face before. "Are you saying that I don"t resemble the Dragon King? Ha, I"m the best master of disguise in the Waning Moon Hall. Even the Master Commander herself praised me once. And yet you dare say that I don"t resemble the Dragon King? I"ve been observing the Dragon King for quite a long time. All I need to do now is give myself some extra height and then flatten down the chest a little bit."

Shangguan Yun nodded again as he consoled, "Now that you"ve said this, I feel like you resemble the Dragon King much more. You said that you"ve been observing the Dragon King for quite a long time?"

Han Fen raised her head and started recalling the past. "The first time I met the Dragon King was in the Hui Kingdom of Xiaoyao Lake. Back then, the weather was approximately the same as it is now. And then a winter pa.s.sed, then a spring, a summer, and then an autumn. You see, I"ve been observing him for four entire seasons."

"Yeah, that is quite a long time. Er, after such a long time of observation, what kind of man do you think the Dragon King is?"

Han Fen had finished disguising herself. She was putting away the tools on the table, contemplating Shangguan Yun"s question and frowning. "The Dragon King"s a man."

"Your observation is so deep. Ordinary people would never have noticed that," Shangguan Yun teased as he turned the talking into his own source of amus.e.m.e.nt.

"He"s also handsome. Much more handsome than you."

"That"s not fair. I"m sure that I"d definitely be much more handsome than the Dragon King if I were a dozen years younger."

"You want to be younger? Maybe I can help."

"I heard that the secret arts of the Waning Moon Hall are very mysterious, but no thank you. Even if I become more handsome than the Dragon King, I wouldn"t have his status. Let"s talk more about him. What else have you noticed?"

"He"s not happy. He wants to be happy, but he"s not. He keeps everything to himself and never shows anything on his face."

"Hha, I heard that the troops gave a nickname to Dragon King - "Faceless." They say that he puts on the same expression every day as if he has no face."

"Faceless… Has no face… no face. Hha, that"s is pretty interesting. But that"s not the real Dragon King, it"s… The affected Dragon King, just like a disguise. Yes, every day, the Dragon King puts on a disguise."

"And you"ve seen the real Dragon King?" Shangguan Yun asked curiously.

"Sure," Han Fen answered as she pointed at her eyes. "They see everything."

"Please, elaborate."

Han Fen shook her head. "I don"t know how to describe it. And you might not be able to understand even if I do explain."

"Indeed, I am a little slow. But I"ve been staying with you for several days, so maybe I got smarter during that time."

Han Fen had a grave look on her face, which made her resemble the Dragon King much more. She walked closer to Shangguan Yun and inexplicably lowered her voice to say, "The Dragon King looks like Master Commander, but he"d actually rather be a little girl - smiling whenever he wants, drinking whenever he wants, and being protected by someone wherever he goes."

"Which little girl… Are you referring to sister Ru?"

"Yep. That little girl"s your younger sister? I don"t see the resemblance. Anyways, the real Dragon King wants to be a woman, so I"m the one that"s most suited to act as him."

It was not specifically a "woman" that the Dragon King wanted to be. But Shangguan Yun didn"t contradict her. On the contrary, he felt that the words this lunatic Han Fen had spoken did have some truth to them.

"What kind of man do you think I am?"

"You are like Han Xuan."

"Han Xuan?" Shangguan Yun could faintly recall that this was the name of a maidservant of some lady.

"Yep, my good friend. She loves chatting with me and she"s interested in everything, just like you."

Shangguan Yun gave out a bitter smile upon realizing that he had become one of Han Fen"s chatting buddies.

Then someone knocked the door. Shangguan Yun glanced at Han Fen, walked to the door, and opened the hole in the door - food was delivered through this hole every day. Then he stepped aside, wondering whether Han Fen could trick the people outside into believing that she was the Dragon King.

Azheba was standing in the middle while Shangguan Ru and one of Prince Duodun"s companions were on the right and left side of Azheba, respectively.

"Azheba requested for a meeting with you. My apologies for the inconvenience, Dragon King," Azheba said respectfully. Although he served under Prince Duodun, he still held a heartfelt respect towards the Dragon King.

Dragon King"s face appeared on the other side of the hole in the door. After contemplating martial arts for many days, the look on his face was colder and more sullen. His eyes swept through the three people"s faces, slightly pausing on Shangguan Ru"s face, before asking Azheba, "What"s up?"

"His Highness ordered me to deliver a message to you. All of the provisions for the 70,000 troops in Heaven"s Pa.s.s were supposed to be from Shu Le Kingdom. Originally, this was supposed to be an obligatory offering of a subject nation, but the Dragon King has been purchasing provisions at a high price, so all of the residents of the Shule Kingdom are hiding their food and hays. Eventually, those selfish residents would will end up as the only beneficiaries, and both of us will suffer losses."

"I understand."

Azheba looked at the face on the other side of the door, "His Highness hopes that the Dragon King will stop the purchasing right away. What kind of response should I convey?"

"I"ll delegate the issue of the provisions to Instructor Shangguan. She"ll answer to the prince."

"Me?" Shangguan Ru asked in surprise.

"This is my decision," The hole closed up, and the Dragon King"s face disappeared.

Chu Nanping walked over from behind and said in a muted voice, "Please."

The three left in great confusion. That companion of Prince Duodun"s kept turning his head to look at Shangguan Ru as if the answer were written on her face.

Back in the room, Shangguan Yun gently clapped his hands but didn"t make any sounds. "You were so good, Han Fen. I think that I"m about to fall in love with you soon."

"With me or the Dragon King?" Han Fen asked with a smile as she switched back to her original voice.

"With you, of course. I don"t have any special interests like that."

"Well, then. I love you, too. I exceptionally love your mouth. When I cut you to pieces, I"ll keep it and put it in a jar, so that it"ll be preserved for many years."

Shangguan Yun stroked his mouth and smiled. "Maybe I"ll love you later."

"Anytime."

At the entrance of the royal palace, Prince Duodun wasn"t very surprised to hear that Shangguan Ru had been appointed as the representative of the Dragon King. What he cared more about was the reaction of his two companions.

Azheba nodded his head slowly, indicating that the Dragon King inside was real. The other companion hesitated and didn"t give a definite reply - clearly, he wished to communicate with the prince in private.

"Now that the Dragon King has delegated the provisions issue to Instructor Shangguan, what"s your reply?" Duodun looked at Shangguan Ru, a shadow of a reserved smile on his face.

"I have to figure out the context first. The Dragon King"s provisions are being held at Heaven"s Pa.s.s anyway, so we might as well go back first." Shangguan Ru tried to delay her response for as long as possible, hoping that the Dragon King would give her some indication soon.

Duodun and the others returned to the Heaven"s Pa.s.s at dusk. Shangguan Ru, however, made an excuse that she needed to check on her troops and delayed the response until the following morning.

Xu Xiaoyi informed Shangguan Ru of the amount of provisions and money that they had left behind, but he said that he didn"t have any news of the Dragon King.

Shangguan Ru worked for half a night, and then finally she believed she was ready. It was nearly the third night-watch cycle when she returned to her bedroom. After Red Bat put out the lamp and left, Shangguan Ru sat beside the window, not sleepy at all. She wanted to drink, but there was no wine in the room.

A faint sound came from behind. Shangguan Ru smiled and calmly said, "You don"t knock on windows with stones anymore?"

Gu Shenwei had been staring at her figure for a while, ruminating on the intelligence that Xu Xiaoyi had pa.s.sed along to him.

Three nights ago, one of Xu Xiaoyi"s men had accidentally received a jar of good wine and he had excitedly given it to Shangguan Ru. Everybody knew that she always slept late, so n.o.body thought that it would be inappropriate to do so.

Shangguan Ru accepted the wine and thanked him for his generosity, but didn"t invite him to have a drink with her, which was not what she would usually do. That man was confused, so he reported it to his superior.

Xu Xiaoyi then a.s.signed some men to monitor her house for the rest of the night, but there was no sign of anyone coming or going from her house. However, the door and all of the windows of Shangguan Ru"s house were shut tight, and the house was exceptionally quiet. All the men who monitored the house unanimously believed that she had met a mysterious guest that night, and that she had just so good at camouflage that n.o.body had discovered it.

As to why he hadn"t reported this to the Dragon King earlier, Xu Xiaoyi had an excellent excuse. "I thought… hha… that guest was the Dragon King…"

Three days ago, Gu Shenwei was still traveling. Even if the red-crowned giant roc had carried him to his destination, he couldn"t have made it to Heaven"s Pa.s.s that quickly.

Shangguan Ru didn"t turn her head around, as if she had antic.i.p.ated his midnight visit.

Gu Shenwei let out a slight cough as he apologized, "Sorry. I don"t want to attract any attention."

The smile on Shangguan Ru"s face disappeared. She had just remembered that neither she nor the Dragon King was a child anymore, and that they would never play the window-knocking game again. "You arrived just in time. There are a lot of issues for you to deal with."

"Tell Duodun that I"ll stop purchasing, but the provisions that are already in Heaven"s Pa.s.s can"t be returned. I hope that he will let them through."

"I think he"ll agree, but are you really willing to compromise just like this?" Shangguan Ru still didn"t turn her head around.

"Compromise? No. There aren"t that many provisions in Xiaowan Kingdom left, so I"m going to build a granary in the southern part of the Shu Le Kingdom and keep purchasing supplies. I won"t have to go through any checkpoints any longer."

"Duodun"s not going to be happy about that, and you also seem to be running out of money."

"I"ve raised money. It"ll arrive soon."

"No wonder everybody keeps saying that Xiao Fengchai"s in Heaven"s Pa.s.s. It turns out that she came here to deliver you money. So the Meng family has taken your side?"

But Shangguan Ru soon guessed the truth.

"Meng Yuzun was killed," Gu Shenwei said.

Shangguan Ru sighed. Both of them had something to say, but neither of them knew what to say, so they both fell into an awkward silence.

"The Unique King paid you a visit," Gu Shenwei said abruptly.

Shangguan Ru was numb for a brief moment, and then she slowly nodded. "He did."