212 Decoding the Scripture (2/2)
After reading this part, Gu Shenwei sneered and thought, ”No wonder that book was thrown off the cliff. The one who invented this swordcraft and wrote this book probably had some sinister motives. If he put his suggestion and the side effect of this sword craft in the beginning part of the book, no one would be interested in practicing it. Everyone who learns kung fu wants to improve his skills rapidly. Otherwise, how can he protect himself and kill his enemies during real fights? If he can only slowly upgrade his skill year by year, he'll probably get killed within a few years. What a ridiculous suggestion.”
In the meantime, Gu Shenwei also felt a little sad. He found out that besides the Peripheral Force inside his body, the swordcraft that he practiced could also lead to early death.
He guessed that he might be doomed to perish together with his enemies. ”Alas, that's perhaps the 'Will of the Divine',” he sighed in his heart.
Gu Shenwei continued to read the remaining part of the decoded scripture, but the last part had so many errors that it did not make any sense. Given that, he stopped reading and began to meditate, with each of his hands grabbing a few pages of the scripture.
Towards evening, he suddenly stood up and walked back into Lianhua's meditation room, leaving Lianye standing dumbfounded outside.
Lianhua and the young killer talked for a long time inside the room. Inspired by the notes left by Immortal Peng, Lianhua finally found a way to decipher the last part of the scripture.
Surprisingly, compared to Lianhua and Lianxin, who had studied Death Scripture for years, the dead immortal seemed to have a much deeper understanding of the scripture. Although Immortal Peng had not deciphered the whole scripture, he had written down some notes explaining how to decode it.
Gu Shenwei felt so lucky that he had kept these notes left by Immortal Peng and always carried them with himself.
These notes, which were above the killer's comprehension, enlightened Lianhua.
The young killer was pretty sure that he could not offer any help other than giving Lianhua Immortal Peng's notes, so he left the meditation room to avoid disturbing the monk. He prayed that in the last part of the scripture, he would find another method which could be used to prevent the side effect of practicing the swordcraft.
Seeing Lianhua engrossed in decoding the scripture again, Lianye felt worried. He knew it was impossible to persuade Lianhua to give up the job, so he put all the blame on the killer.
Gu Shenwei gave no response to Lianye. He just paced back and forth, absorbed in thought. ”Is this sword craft really that powerful? Is it true that the one who masters it will find no match for himself in the entire world and thus can only kill himself? All the authors of kung fu manuals like to brag. Maybe the description of the swordcraft in Death Scripture is also exaggerated.”
After a while, the tiger walked out of the meditation room and yawned. Lianye took out some buns from his pocket in the front of his shirt and threw them to it. It chewed and swallowed down the buns listlessly, evidently getting bored with this a kind of food.
”Wow, there's really a tiger in here.”
Wei Lingmiao said while standing at a distance and being followed by seven or eight armed guards who were on full alert.
”Don't make any noise here. Master Lianhua is meditating,” Lianye shouted at Wei Lingmiao. He did not know or care if the young man was the Governor's son.
Wei Lingmiao did not want to make a fuss over such a trifle with a monk. He beckoned the killer to come over and said, ”You've been absent from work for quite a long time.”
”Master Wei, please forgive me. I was...”
”I was kidding. Don't take it seriously. I'll go back to Jade City tomorrow morning. I have to get ready to leave this city. Do you still remember what you've promised me?”
”Yes.”
Wei Lingmiao had permitted the Kun Society to turn in its ”Protective Talisman” late in exchange for Yang Huan assassinating a person for him, but he never said who he was planning to kill.
”Good. Come to find me when you return to the city. You know, you've another option.” With these words, Wei Lingmiao winked at the killer and went down the hill smilingly. Gu Shenwei knew that the other option mentioned by Master Wei was helping him meet Shangguan Ru.
Gu Shenwei felt that he had better leave together with Master Wei to show his loyalty. Besides, he also wished to figure out what Master Wei was thinking. Nevertheless, after a moment's hesitation, he still decided to stay, since his top priority now was to discover the true meaning of Death Scripture.
When it was getting dark, Lianye shooed the tiger back into the room as if shooing a chicken. ”Go back into the room. It's dark now. You coward, even a bird scares you so much. Who says that you're the king of animals.”
”What bird?” Gu Shenwei asked.
”The big bird from Golden Roc Fort. It appeared again and killed many animals. It also ate two monks. It's such a pity that I never got a chance to fight it,” Lianye snorted and said.
Upon hearing that, Gu Shenwei looked up into the night sky searching for the giant red-crowned roc. He really missed his old friend.
To his disappointment, the bird did not show up that night, but the next morning, he received good news from Lianhua. The monk had corrected all the errors in the last part of the scripture last night. When the monk asked Lianye to bring him some porridge while holding the doorframe with shivering hands, Gu Shenwei started to read the last part which had more than 5,000 characters.
After reading that part, Gu Shenwei understood why Kang Wenhui had mistaken Death Scripture for Wayless Book when she heard the last lines of the scripture at Leftslope Vihara. Those lines turned out to be the opening lines of the Wayless Book. He also discovered that besides improving their skills too fast, he and Maid Lotus had made another big mistake in practicing the swordcraft. It turned out that they had started to practice it too early.
The last part of the scripture explained that besides improving the sword skill year by year, there was another way for practitioners of the sword technique to avoid being harmed by their own killing intent. This way was mastering Wayless Qigong, an Internal Strength technique recorded in Wayless Book. Wayless Qigong was the basis of the swordcraft. It would not do a practitioner any harm if he only practiced Wayless Qigong, but it would be really dangerous if he practiced the sword craft before mastering the Internal Strength technique.
Gu Shenwei felt great. Thanks to the Barren Sect, he had already known where Wayless Book was.