919 A Thick Saber (1/2)
The courtyard was narrow and small, but the walls were very tall, which made the whole courtyard look like the lower half of a giant chimney.
He was a Green-faced killer, and he just stood in the courtyard with his head slightly down and a sword, one the likes of which not many people in Golden Roc Castle would use, in his hand. Occasionally, he would jab out with it, but not once did he seem satisfied.
It had been three full days, but his memories of the swordsmanship of that Central Plainsman didn't blur a single bit. Instead, it became clearer and clearer as he recalled it over and over again.
That Central Plainsman's sword strikes were fast, but not too fast for the Green-faced killer to parry or dodge.
That Central Plainsman's sword strikes were steady, but most Green-faced killers could reach this level if they kept practicing their swordsmanship for over ten years.
That Central Plainsman's sword strikes were very accurate. That last sword strike had gone right through his target's throat. But this was just an elementary level skill for a Green-faced killer.
There was only one thing that this Green-faced killer had seen but was unable to replicate: taking control of the flow of battle after letting the opponent make the first move.
As the best killers, the Green-faced killers were the best at seizing the initiative. Killers were not at an advantage in face-to-face kung fu competitions, and they were usually desperate to take the initiative, and by no means would they let their opponents make the first move. However, the swordsmanship of that Central Plainsman was different from that of any other person – he had actually managed to gain the upper hand after giving his opponent the first move.
The Central Plains was thousands of miles away, so the Green-faced killer had never fought with a Central Plainsman before, but it turned out that that Central Plainsman's swordsmanship could effectively restrain the unique skills of killers of the Western Regions.
”He must have a unique method of anticipating the situation. That's why he can instantly see through his opponent's move,” the Green-faced killer said loudly. His voice reflected off the walls repeatedly before entering his ear, as if there were a second person talking to him.
The courtyard next door was unoccupied. And in the one further away stood another Green-faced killer.
Holding a narrow saber, he suddenly leaped forward and jabbed it at the wooden target seven steps away. After hitting the target, he immediately drew back, seeming also fairly dissatisfied.
This Green-faced killer had an audience, who was almost touching and moving with him simultaneously. She looked feeble, pale due to injury, and her right hand was gone, but she didn't try to conceal it.
Qian Ying shook her head. ”We still don't have it. The Dragon King's saber strike was not just fast. It was incredibly fast. When I was fighting against him, almost every one of his moves made me feel like I wasn't going to be fast enough to parry.”
These chimney-like courtyards were built one by the other, and more than half of them were unoccupied. About thirty or so were occupied. Dozens of Green-faced killers were practicing kung fu in their respective courtyards, with thirteen of them imitating Luo Qikang, seven of them imitating the Dragon King, five Lotus, and three Chu Nanping, Dog Butcher, and the Norlander Mo, Lin respectively. There were also four people standing transfixed doing nothing. Nobody knew why.
The look on Old Man Mu's face gradually switched from surprise to indignation. Finally, after they left the area where those Green-faced killers lived, he said in a low voice, ”The Unique King actually doesn't think that I'm threatening enough! Even a guy like that Old Dog of the Kongtong Sect is worth learning from? What the… this is so annoying.”
Gu Shenwei didn't let his guard down. He signaled Old Man Mu to keep quiet.
These killers were imitating their enemies not to learn from them but to find their flaws which would be helpful to them in both a kung fu competition and an assassination operation, which was one of the Unique King's plans.
In the dark, Gu Shenwei thought for a while before waving at Old Man Mu, indicating that he wanted to go back.
This time, he sneaked into an unoccupied courtyard. Old Man Mu acted as a lookout outside.
The courtyard was dark, and moonlight could barely enter inside. After staying in a half squat posture for quite a while, Gu Shenwei cautiously moved forward and quietly walked into the only room in the courtyard.
The door was half open and it was totally dark in the room. In a room like this, even a killer who was used to moving in the dark would be like a blind man.
But Gu Shenwei was certain that there was nobody in the room. Even compared to that of killers, his hearing could be deemed as extremely acute.
Upon entering the room, Gu Shenwei turned left, moving forward along the foot of the wall.
He walked around the room and figured out the area of the room. To his surprise, the room was semicircular and purely made of stone bricks. The space inside was much smaller than what he had imagined it to be when he was observing it from the outside, which indicated that the walls were very thick.
Then he walked around again, at a slower pace this time, and carefully stroking these stone walls. Finally, he confirmed that the roughness of the surface was not natural. Someone had carved many patterns on the wall, all of which were a person holding a saber. He deduced from the proportions that the saber was much broader and thicker than a narrow saber.
Gu Shenwei recalled a Green-faced killer that he had known before – the mole that the Waning Moon Hall had taken great trouble to plant in Golden Roc Castle, Guan Shang. Her allegiance belonged solely to Han Wuxian, so there was no need for her to keep any secrets for the Unique King. However, she had never mentioned these patterns…
The sound of the external gate being opened was heard. It seemed as if Old Man Mu had failed to alert him. Gu Shenwei had no choice but to quickly climb up the stone wall.
Compared to the small area of the room, these walls were very tall. Gu Shenwei climbed about seven meters up before reaching the ceiling, on the surface of which there were no etchings of human figures. Gu Shenwei abruptly turned around with his back against the stone wall, parted his legs wide with the tips of his feet in the cracks that he had found when climbing up, stretched his arms into a line with his left hand pressing the sheath against the wall and the right hand clutching on to the edge of another crack, and narrowly managed to balance himself.
Gu Shenwei had just steadied himself when two people walked inside. One of them closed the door, and the other lit an oil lamp in the exact middle of a small stone table.
Gu Shenwei finally got a clear view of the shape of this room. It was indeed semicircular. He was on the flat side, directly facing the patterns on the opposite wall.
These patterns had been drawn with simple and unconstrained lines, presenting a sabersmanship that he had never seen. The style of this sabersmanship was very different from that of Golden Roc Castle, which was usually performed with narrow sabers. These moves were bold and unbridled, which was rather similar to the style of Central-Plains sabersmanship.
Both of the two were Green-faced killers. Gu Shenwei was holding his breath, hoping that they wouldn't stay here for too long.
One of them raised the oil lamp, and then they stood side by side, looking directly at the leftmost patterns, which clearly indicated that this was not the first time that they had come here. Both of them were silent, trying to fathom those moves.
After a full quarter of an hour, they finally finished reading the last four or five moves and then put the oil lamp back onto the one-legged stone table. Then each of them pulled out a saber from under the table, both of which were very similar to the sabers in those patterns, and started fighting without saying anything.
It was a typical Golden-Roc-Castle sparring style – every move was ruthless and callous. It looked like they were trying to kill each other rather than sparring. Two sabers clashed constantly, generating showers of sparks as well as gusts of wind, which made the flame of the oil lamp flicker.