935 Suicide (1/2)

When Wild Horse had agreed to become a part of 'Immortal Peng,' he had never expected that he would one day have to kill his dual cultivator.

In fact, he had every reason to thank the disciples of the Essence Pavilion. If it were not for their reception and help in the Norland, Wild Horse could have only practiced his one-armed sabersmanship quietly and would never have had access to advanced martial arts skills.

Before he joined the Essence Pavilion, Wild Horse's 'Masters' solely consisted of the golden roc killer and Old Man Mu. The former wasn't much of a kung fu master himself while the latter was too clever and had sharp eyes. Old Man Mu didn't care at all for how much Wild Horse wanted to be a kung fu expert. During their two years together, although Old Man Mu had made all sorts of promises, he had never taught Wild Horse any real unique skills. He would rather pass the Five Hole Punch to Shangguan Fei than teach Wild Horse a single move.

The disciples of the Essence Pavilion, however, liked Wild Horse. This young man's unique appearance and physical disability were like a voucher to enter this new group. He was not at all weird among a group of weirdos. Besides, his perseverance, his desire, and his unconditional acceptance for advanced martial arts skills were highly appreciated by his new Masters.

As soon as Wild Horse received the Essence of Perceiving Passion, he was fascinated by the various techniques in it and volunteered to be that old man's training partner. When he realized that he couldn't surpass the Dragon King alone no matter how hard he practiced, he decided to give up his own mind and become the 'Immortal Peng' who had two bodies and one mind. His only requirement was that the Immortal Peng had to inherit his hatred for the Dragon King.

This wasn't a problem because the disciple of the Essence Pavilion hated the Dragon King no less than him.

The hardest thing was to give up his own thoughts, not it wasn't as hard as it was to empty them. Wild Horse had to keep his mind away from things while also trying to grasp the intentions of the old man of the Essence Pavilion with all his heart. Any delay would interrupt the connection between them.

Wild Horse gradually lost himself. Occasionally, he would recall his original name and feel that the name 'Immortal Peng' was very strange. But on the whole, he seldom resisted. The old man of the Essence Pavilion was very satisfied with him.

Their mysterious connection wasn't interrupted even when he began practicing the Waning Moon Swordsmanship taught by Lotus. And he even benefited a lot from the many insights of the old man of the Essence Pavilion in the process.

In the peach grove of the Gui Garden, Wild Horse had frustratedly found that he was still no match for the Dragon King even with the Waning Moon Swordsmanship. His chagrin also affected the old man of the Essence Pavilion who had re-examined the swordsmanship taught by Lotus alone and finally concluded that the swordsmanship was incomplete. Lotus had hidden something, but he could break through the limitation.

It was the old man of the Essence Pavilion who had thought up a new training method and named it 'Ceasing and Arising.' Then, he had instilled it into 'Immortal Peng''s mind. Wild Horse had successfully accepted it and thought that it was his own idea.

Wild Horse started killing people. As time went by, it became harder and too time-consuming to find a close rival. So, he had gathered all the disciples of the Waning Moon Swordsmanship as well as the Essence Pavilion in the underground chamber of Bodhi Garden and improved his swordsmanship through their lives.

And he had succeeded. Wild Horse could feel the changes in his swordsmanship. Killing became easier and easier for him, and he had finally become bored with it. When he found that he had no rival around him and that the only person he could kill was 'himself,' he had acted without hesitation.

The one who fell was the old man of the Essence Pavilion and it was only then that Wild Horse felt the foul Qi that had accumulated in his body for years be released, and that killing had become as easy as cutting the grass.

But it was the Dragon King. It was the Dragon King again who had just shown three incredible moves and proved to Wild Horse that he hadn't reached the peak of the swordsmanship.

Lotus didn't know this much, but she had indeed pointed out the truth: Wild Horse had also suffered the backfire of the swordsmanship. But after killing the old man of the Essence Pavilion, he had become the closest to perfecting the swordsmanship in the hall, even closer than the Dragon King and Lotus.

Old Man Mu seemed enlightened. ”See? Now do you understand? Wild Horse has fooled all of you. He taught you the Death Sutra Swordsmanship and asked you to improve it quickly so that you could become a stepping stone for him. He has led you to a dead-end while he himself has already figured a way out.”

Old Man Mu's accusation wasn't entirely correct. Of course Wild Horse didn't care about the disciples' lives. But when he had decided to improve his swordsmanship at all costs, he had no premeditated intent to kill his partner. The idea had naturally occurred to him. He had neither planned it out beforehand nor had he felt guilty after doing it.

Wild Horse couldn't argue, and he didn't want to argue for himself either. Even if he were facing with enemies numbering ten times more than the current situation, he would only wish that there were more of them. As his eyes swept across the crowd, he was looking for an opponent who could help improve his swordsmanship.

There were very few people left. Wild Horse suddenly felt the same boredom that he had when he had 'killed himself' for the first time.

The people in the hall gradually woke up. Some people threw away their swords while more hesitated to do so. They had spent too much effort on the swordsmanship and it was really difficult for them to give up on it.

Han Ling was the first to experience the power of the backlash, so her mind was also the clearest. Old Man Mu's accusation was flawless, but she still had more doubts. ”Master Commander, you knew about this long ago, but instead of stopping it, you watched the disciples fall into the trap?”

Her question led the crowd's resentment to focus on Lotus and it also angered Han Fen.

”Hey, Han Ling, and all of you, come on and be reasonable. You betrayed the Master Commander and obediently let yourselves be deluded by Wild Horse. Now that you find that you were fooled, you blame everything on the Master Commander? Don't forget the vows that you made.”

A female disciple in the crowd sneered. ”Everything that Wild Horse has done was done under the banner of the Master Commander. We all thought that the swordsmanship was taught by Master Commander. You call this a betrayal?”

”Of course it's a betrayal. It's so obvious,” Han Fen said with certainty, but she couldn't come up with more evidence, which only caused more sneers to emerge.

Compared to Han Fen, Old Man Mu was more skillful at verbal fights. Although he didn't like Lotus, he still stepped out and argued for her. ”Do not sneer. You think that you are loyal, but when that girl said Lotus' training method was wrong and that Wild Horse was right, I didn't see any of you stand out and speak for Lotus.”