102 Swordcraft Practicing (1/2)

To kill and to prevent being killed were once the apprentices' daily routines. However, the former had become very hard after the announcement of the ”ban on killing”. The only chance to kill without being punished was the monthly test.

Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus were eager to practice the new swordcraft more often. Thus, it was not only rare, but also too risky for them to have an opportunity to test it in a duel.

Every day numerous wandering swordsmen rushed into South City. As they had no significant relations, they were the best targets for practicing the skills by the standards of Tie Hanfeng. But since the last fiasco, he had not taken his apprentice down the mountain even once.

Maid Lotus' Master Shifu was a typical killer. He loved nothing except for his sword and would definitely not take his apprentice into the town.

As a result, Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus had to look for their targets inside the Fort.

Just then, strange things successively happened in the Fort, providing them with an opportunity to practice their killing skills.

One day in late February, an apprentice, the winner of his monthly test, carried a corpse to Reincarnation Cliff, which was a precedent that was created by Slave Huan and had now become a ”tradition”.

Nobody in East Castle knew exactly what had happened. They only heard a shrill scream from Reincarnation Cliff. The guards followed the sound and found two corpses with four deep bloody holes in their eyes, and the eyeballs were gone. Even the cruellest killer would also feel frightened at the scene.

There were several extremely deep wounds on each body. It looked like they had been stabbed by a row of daggers.

At first, the guards thought that it was done by external enemies. Soon, someone recognized that the murderer was a long-haired, clawed animal instead of human beings.

Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus were the only two that knew what it exactly was.

The giant red-crowned roc had reappeared. Being an expert flyer in the sky, it took a risk and had landed in a place inhabited by humans. Perhaps it was for the purpose of finding familiar food, avenging its parents, or to find someone who was special.

Its appearance shocked the entire Golden Roc Fort and drew the Supreme King's attention. Shangguan Fa led a team to search for it and set many traps there. He even commanded Lightness Skill masters to climb down the cliff to seek its nest.

But none of the masters came back, and except for their dying screams, no valuable information was heard. At the steep cliffside, no one could beat a giant flying bird, not even the most powerful man.

The Supreme King had to change his tactics. In order to catch the swift giant roc in a smarter way, he laid many traps beside the cliff and sent out the bait.

Slave Huan was the first one chosen for the bait, for he had previously encountered the giant roc. He stayed at the cliff all night and all day, worrying that the roc would suddenly appear and fall into the traps. Being surrounded by top killers, he would have no chance to save it.

The giant red-crowned roc turned out to be smarter than they all had expected. Not falling into the trap, it hovered over the peak to seek the weakest part of the defense and attacked them abruptly. No matter who it was, its first step was pecking at their eyes. None had survived the attacks, and many of them were even thrown down into the abyss from the sky.

The giant roc turned the Fort upside down. No one would go outside the wall except for the bravest killers who wanted to achieve great merits. Even when they went there, they went in groups. They did not want to fight the ”flying killer” alone.

The Supreme King issued an order. The one who could catch the giant roc alive would be awarded thousands of silver as well as a treasured sword of the Shangguan family.

During the first few days, Gu Shenwei was extremely worried about the giant roc's fate. After finding out that the roc was safe, Gu Shenwei came up with the idea of taking this good chance to practice swordcraft.

He and Maid Lotus targeted those men who were by themselves after the black market had disbanded. After killing them, they threw the bodies down from the cliff to make people believe that they were killed by the giant roc.

The first man killed by Maid Lotus was a slave, who knew nothing about martial arts. He came to the black market to buy some stuff and had died there for unknown reasons.

Maid Lotus stabbed the unlucky guy in the heart. As they could not find a sword, they used a saber.

One of the swordcraft disputes between the two teenagers was that Gu Shenwei thought they should strictly follow the instruction in the book to attack the neck. However, Maid Lotus believed that ”neck” was just an analogy of any crucial body part. Otherwise, there would be no need for the Chinese characters to emphasize the significance of Qi.

The Nameless Swordbook attached great importance to the existence of Qi. With Zhang Ji's help, they finally confirmed that Qi was the energy flowing through all living things, rather than Internal Breath. Qi had nodal points, and by cutting off the points, they could make an instant killing. As for where the points were, they could not tell, and neither could Zhang Ji.

Every time they attacked someone, they would check his condition immediately. If the target did not die instantly, it meant they had not performed the swordcraft correctly.

For the first few times, they were too nervous to meet the requirement of killing someone by one strike, and another strike was always needed. Gradually, they became accustomed to practising the moves and performed better and better.