143 Killing the Master (1/2)

Tie Hanfeng had a good dream: he lived in a villa of the North City and was surrounded by countless gorgeous beauties. One bloke who looked like Slave Huan called him ”dad”.

As he was still immersed in his dream at the moment when he opened his eyes, he did not immediately recognize where he was.

”It really wasn't my house...”

Tie Hanfeng rubbed his eyes and observed his house thoroughly. This was the exact same stone cabin in the East Castle, and he was lying in his recliner, but everything was so... so clean.

Everything, including flagons, cups, spitballs, broken daggers and fallen chairs were all gone. It seemed like a hurricane just swept over this place.

The beddings were neat and the closet was sparkling.

Tie Hanfeng could recall a servant cleaning his residence in his dream. But who would do that in reality? He only had one apprentice, who was once a servant but knew nothing about cleaning.

He stood up and walked out his room.

The yard was neat. There was a weapon rack standing by the wall, with some sabers placed on it.

The whole yard seemed to be two or three times bigger than before, which surprised Tie Hanfeng. He gave his arm a pinch to ensure he was not still living in his dream and then asked his apprentice, who stood in the center of the yard. ”What's the hell is going on? You don't need to drive me away like this!”

”We'll have a duel.” Gu Shenwei said coldly. He clutched his saber with one hand and held a black mask with the other hand.

”What? Are you mad? Or do you want to die?”

Tie Hanfeng thought his apprentice was kidding, but soon his instinct told him it was not a joke.

Gu Shenwei could kill him when he slept deeply, which was also in line with the protocol of a killer. Though Tie Hanfeng could defend himself during his dream, he would be much weaker than when he was awake. Besides, Gu Shenwei had progressed a lot.

This was a ceremony. By killing Tie Hanfeng face to face, Gu Shenwei could pay all his debts. Also, it would be a test of his swordcraft of the Death Scripture. If he was even unable to cut off Tie Hanfeng's head, then his quest of vengeance against the whole Shangguan family would be ridiculous. In that case, it might have been better to die from his master's saber.

”I'm not Yang Huan or Slave Huan. My family name is Gu, and I'm Gu Shenwei. The woman you raped is my sister if you still remember.”

Tie Hanfeng's face twitched, seemingly wanting to frown and mock at the same time. ”Gu Shenwei? You've already died. I've seen the skull.”

”That's a wrong skull. The Eighth Young Master brought the wrong skull both times. He had fooled the Supreme King as well as everyone else.”

Finally, the mist around the truth cleared up. As Tie Hanfeng now understood what had really happened, he became a hard-hearted killer again. ”Well, you're bold, and I'll give you that. But you're too stupid. You gave up your best opportunity to kill me and then you challenged me to a duel, like those ridiculous machetemen.”

Gu Shenwei unfolded the black veil, and covered his eyes with it by tying a knot behind his head. ”There're always some exceptions.” He pulled out the saber and threw the scabbard to the ground.

Tie Hanfeng limped away to his house, grabbed his saber beneath the recliner, and went back to the yard. He was ready to kill his apprentice with one stab. He was not even thinking about how to stab, but how to deal with this the aftermath of this incident.

He was not prepared to publicly reveal Gu Shenwei's identity, for it would not only cause troubles for Shangguan Nu, but also pull him into the vortex that surrounded the Shangguan family. Now he was a man ready to enjoy his remaining years, so there was no need to have a loose tongue.

Killing this bloke would put an end to all of this.

He carried the saber and watched the teenager ten steps away from him, who held his saber while blindfold. His apprentice must have been driven mad by the hatred, otherwise, why would he strike such a pose? Killers should act like a craftsman, being serious and cautious at all times.

But he could not attack.

There was not even a hint of the killing intent in the youth.

The killing intent was not stable. It could change slightly with one's breathing, Internal Breath and strength of will. The experts could always sense this slight change and found a loophole. This kind of kung fu was hard to teach to others, and one had to learn it by himself.

But Gu Shenwei had no killing intent. Tie Hanfeng could not find any weakness in him.

Some superiors did know about how to hide the intent and would not unveil it until he moved. But would his apprentice be a superior? Tie Hanfeng doubted that, yet soon he confirmed it. During these several days, something inside this teenager was totally different. He should have noticed that earlier if he was not blinded by that robbery.

Gu Shenwei could only see darkness, and he felt like he was staying at an underground crypt.

This was the first time that he was using a sword to kill a man. He learned from Death Scripture that one could not predict the process of killing, nor could he practice the killing skill. One should put all his trust on this swordcraft.

The swordcraft was beyond a kung fu. It was a belief. Gu Shenwei would not comprehend it until he believed in it.

Now he was more convinced, more than any time in the past, that his insights about the scripture were right. Only by going through ”self-destruction” could he entrust himself to the sword, which could reveal the flow of the ”living energy”.