911 Sons (1/2)

Shangguan Hong pushed the window in front of him slightly open and the icy wind immediately blew in, but he didn't care at all. Through the narrow crack of the window, he peeped sideways at the house opposite of him, in which a lamp was still ablaze. He held the hilt of the soft sword wrapped around his waist with his right hand, picturing himself thrusting the soft sword into his target.

This was the night before the Dragon King was to go to the top of the mountain and visit the Golden Roc Castle. The Dragon King had taken four bodyguards and a large number of guards to southern Jade City to spend the night there, and Shangguan Hong was one of them.

After being away from home for so long, he was finally about to come back to the stone castle, but his identity had changed. Now, he was an enemy of Golden Roc Castle. Shangguan Hong was in utmost horror. The few glimpses that the Unique King had given at him in the Four Noble Truths Temple would be forever engraved into his heart. His father's eyes could scare him halfway to death just like how an experienced executioner could do the same to a criminal with his instruments of torture.

Shangguan Hong felt like he was like a criminal who had escaped from the stone castle. Even if he was going to return as an attendant of the winner, he still couldn't suppress the horror in him.

The short soft sword wrapped around his waist was the only thing that could offer him some semblance of comfort and confidence.

Staring at the Dragon King's room, he pictured the man in that room, who never slept at night, as an opponent who was standing right in front of him. He was also afraid of the Dragon King, though to a lesser extent, which made the Dragon King a perfect target for him with which to improve his will and courage.

There was an entire courtyard between them, and the Dragon King wouldn't discover that he was peeping on him. In this self-deceiving and absolutely safe way, Shangguan Hong gradually felt the heavy pressure of a life-or-death situation, and he also found some kind of confidence as well as gained a deeper understanding of the Waning Moon Swordsmanship imparted to him by Lotus: the desire for survival was the most potent source of power. Wasn't the purpose of this so-called killing just to survive?

Shangguan Hong was eager to survive. Even if his body was badly damaged and covered in wounds, he still cherished what he had left.

The pressure from the Dragon King was moderate and it was not as heavy and direct as the Unique King's. Shangguan Hong believed that he could gradually acclimate to it. The grip of his right hand on the sword hilt was tightening. The impulse to whip out his sword was just as intense as when he had been in an affair with Madam Meng back then. He knew very well that there was humiliation and danger ahead of him, but he still couldn't help himself from rushing forward.

He was no longer able to experience sexual pleasure, so he wanted to find a substitute for it on the sharp blade.

He wanted to whip out the sword. He urgently wanted to do it, as if an intangible weapon would sink into his body if he hesitated even a moment more. He had to make the first move if he wanted to keep himself safe.

Another pair of eyes suddenly appeared outside the window, coldly staring back at Shangguan Hong, who was about to make a move.

Shangguan Hong couldn't have been more scared even if a ghost had just passed by the window. For an instant, he felt like all of his blood had been frozen, and that something had exploded in his brain. His mind instantly became empty, but his internal Qi started circulating madly like a waterfall.

Shangguan Hong finally whipped his sword out and thrust it forward.

The owner of that pair of eyes seemed to sense the inherent danger and dodged aside while Shangguan Hong was stunned. ”Eek, your kung fu has really improved.”

At the last moment, Shangguan Hong changed his mind. He didn't use his full strength in this sword strike. He felt as if he had been hammered hard in the chest. A stream of Qi which had previously been blocked rushed upwards from his abdomen, and then something sweet welled up to his throat and he nearly spat out blood.

Shangguan Hong was startled. When Lotus had been imparting the Waning Moon Swordsmanship to him, although she had told him that the more strength he gathered, the better, she had never said that there would be fatal consequences if he didn't use his full strength. Previously, he had performed this swordsmanship with varying levels of strength and this kind of thing had never happened. Why had he hurt himself this time?

Shangguan Hong couldn't think of an answer no matter how hard he tried, but he also dimly felt that if he had gone through with the full power sword strike just now, it would have been far more damaging than the current outcome.

”It's you.” Shangguan Hong uttered these two words through gritted teeth, regretting that he hadn't used his full strength just now.

”Of course it's me.” Shangguan Fei's eyes reappeared outside of the window. He was also among the four guards that the Dragon King had selected. ”Why are you staring at the Dragon King's room with a murderous look instead of sleeping at this time?”

Shangguan Hong shut the window, refusing to answer Shangguan Fei's question. Unless the Dragon King himself asked him, he didn't have to explain his actions to anybody.

Shangguan Fei pushed the door open and entered the room, leaving himself an escape route. ”I know what you've been thinking about. You're afraid of going back to the stone castle, and you hope that the Dragon King will cancel this visit. However, you don't dare tell him this, right?”

Shangguan Hong stared at this foe of his that he hated the most. ”What I'm thinking about is none of your business. Golden Roc Castle is nothing to be afraid of. For the Dragon King, it's like an ant.”

Actually Shangguan Fei was even more scared of this trip than Shangguan Hong was. He had privately implored the Dragon King to not go, but had been flatly rejected. He had then asked his mother for help, but unexpectedly, she supported the Dragon King and had demanded that her son walk into the stone castle like the future Unique King.

Why couldn't his mother understand that he wouldn't need the Dragon King's protection if he were able to face his father without fear? Shangguan Fei really hoped that he would fall seriously sick, so that he could evade this disaster. He had tried to circulate his Qi in a risky way, hoping to agitate himself and form some symptoms of Qi deviation, but he had given up the moment the frosty Qi in him had been activated. He would rather venture to face his father than try to endure the unbearable pain.

He had decided to find another way to alleviate his fear, so he had come here to visit his half-brother.

”Alas.” Shangguan Fei sighed deeply, turned around, closed the door, and sat down in a chair. ”Actually I'm very scared. It's not just the stone castle. it's a nice place, but… but the thought of the King Lord makes my legs buckle.”

Shangguan Hong didn't light the lamp. He just stood there while Shangguan Fei sat down in a chair. Shangguan Hong was still vigilant. He didn't understand why Shangguan Fei had come here to spill his troubles to him. ”Everybody is afraid of him,” he replied perfunctorily. If it were another person that Shangguan Fei was afraid of, then he surely would have mocked him. However, the Unique King was an exception.

Both of them were the Unique King's sons, and both of them were not favored by their father. Almost all of their elder brothers were dead, which made them the only people who could understand each other's fear of their father.

”I've been afraid of him since childhood,” Shangguan Fei continued. ”Every time he appears in my dreams, there is always a killing scene as well as limbs flying around and blood splattering everywhere. I don't care if you laugh at me about this, but I was a bedwetter until I was ten years old because of those nightmares.”