100 Education (1/2)

Tie Hanfeng had lived a long and glorious life as a killer. When he was immersed inside the world of blood and sabers, he had learned on his own about how to survive.

Slave Huan was his first apprentice, and will most likely be his only apprentice. From the beginning, he intended to teach Slave Huan his life experiences at a suitable time. Now he thought the time had come.

He did not drink today, nor did he say anything uncooth.

”Do you remember the one I made you kill?”

Gu Shenwei nodded. Of course he did. The horse-faced man had been talking to Tie Hangfeng a second before, but then he became the killing target.

”He used to be a famous man in the South City, and have countless ties with both Stone Castle and Meng's residence. But killing him did not cause any problems for us.”

Gu Shenwei remembered that, the horse-faced man seemed as if he had never existed before. No one wanted to take revenge for him.

”But when you killed Pot-bellied Buddha, you made a problem. What's the difference? Think about it.”

Gu Shenwei shook his head. Even though he thought of something, he was too shy to say it.

”This is what I'm gonna tell you: killing a man is different from killing a man safely. Killing a man is easy, you can do that with your bare hands. But killing a man safely? Making him bleed is not the first concern, you should first cut off his relations.”

Tie Hanfeng talked excitedly. Although Gu Shenwei could not remember the other things he was taught, he was enlighted by this theory.

He thought of his Master Shifu's conversation with quite a few men before he killed the horse-faced man. At that moment, he thought those were nonsense. Now he knew what was Tie Hanfeng up to: the promise he made was an exchange for making those men withdraw their protection of the horse-faced man.

Before Tie Hanfeng had even given the command, the killing target was already dead.

Pot-bellied Buddha was no more important than the horse-faced man. If given enough money, Fifth Elder Meng would also abandon this subordinate. But Gu Shenwei broke the rule. He killed the man before his relations were cut off and he did not offer any compensation. This made Meng Mingshi want to take revenge for his lost face.

Although the Xu siblings were the ones who started this issue, they were forgiven because they gave a bunch of taels and had taken on a lot of debts.

Tie Hanfeng also mentioned Mister Guo, ”Now do you understand why you can't challenge Mister Guo? He has a strong relationship with the Lord. Before you can even cause any trouble, trouble will come to you at the moment when you show up.”

”So what should I do? Wait for him to kill me?”

Tie Hanfeng smiled complacently, like a child who finally had a chance to share his secret. ”This is another side of 'relation'. The more relation one has, the harder he is to kill. So increasing the number of relations will surely make you safer.”

Gu Shenwei was stumped. He still did not know what to do. The only two relations he had were his Master Shifu, who was popular inside the South City, but back in the fort, he was only a pickthank; another one was Shangguan Ru, but between them was Shangguan Yushi, who saw him as an enemy.

Tie Hanfeng seemed to have already prepared a solution, but he kept silent. One month later, Gu Shenwei had finished his affairs in the Archives Library and returned to Pyrowork Academy. Tie Hanfeng led him to complete the last task of a killer: to pledge allegiance toward a Young Master.

This was not the joke-like pledge Luo Ningcha came up with. It was the blood oath, which could never be broken. In the history of Golden Roc Fort, things happened like a bother killing his sibling, but a killer can never betray his master. Because regardless of whether the killer was loyal or not, once his master lost their power, every subordinate killer will be slaughtered and buried with him.

Gu Shenwei figured out his Master Shifu's intention. During this month, the surviving apprentices of the East Castle had pledged their allegiance towards different Young Masters, because the Young Masters had begun their scramble a year ago. The best chosen apprentices had already established relations with their masters.

Tattooed Arm Gang skipped this step. They had their master before they entered into the East Castle. No one scrambled for them, because thier master had the unalterable right.

Maid Lotus made her oath to Eighth Young Master already, and Gu Shenwei would do the same thing she did on the first day upon his return to Pyrowork Academy.

Pledging allegiance toward the enemy who slaughtered Gu Shenwei's family. It took him a whole night to comfort his complex emotions before he could make the oath.

Among all the sons of the Supreme King, the only two adult sons who stayed in the fort were the eldest son, Shangguan Chui who, following the usual customs, stayed behind to take care of things; the Eighth Son, Shangguan Nu, who had not built his own family for numerous reasons, stayed in the fort to assist his father, and took control of the External Affair Academy.