937 Half a Move (2/2)

The Dragon King had taught him another lesson, but Wild Horse wasn't discouraged. Both Old Man Mu and Shangguan Hong's moves could be only used once. Although he had failed, his understanding of his swordsmanship had deepened. If they fought again, he was sure that he would kill the two of them in one attack shot regardless of how many weird moves they made.

He had failed to kill his targets but his swordsmanship had still improved. Wild Horse was even a bit grateful to the Dragon King.

Gasping, Old Man Mu looked up at Shangguan Hong and slapped him hard on the leg. ”Good boy, how did you figure it out? You actually dared to stab yourself.”

Shangguan Hong's legs softened and he almost fell onto his knees, ”Every move that the Dragon King demonstrated was targeted towards a specific training method. So, I thought that this move must have something to do with the Sword of Survival. And then he told me not to remember the move, so…”

”So what?” Old Man Mu eagerly asked. As clever as he was, he wasn't able to figure it out himself. But the stupid Shangguan Hong had seen through it, which really annoyed him.

”Actually, the Dragon King only displayed half a move…”

Old Man Mu slapped his thigh and cried out, ”I got it. The Dragon King's move was both offensive and defensive, which was what confused me. It wasn't like the style of the Death Sutra Swordsmanship. It turned out that he only showed half of it. The complete move is to cooperate with the enemy's weapon to stab oneself at full strength. Haha, the Dragon King didn't want to stab himself and also didn't want Wild Horse to be prepared in advance, so he talked in riddles so that only those skilled in the training methods of the Sword of Survival could understand.”

At this point, Old Man Mu was talking to himself. It solved the doubts of the crowd, but he himself seemed to be even more confused. ”Dragon King, please do not blame me for talking too much. I really want to know one thing. What's your training method? Could it be that you've mastered all of the training methods?”

The crowd's reverence for the Dragon King suddenly doubled. By contrast, Wild Horse seemed much more ordinary now.

Gu Shenwei's training method was indeed different from everyone here. Long before he had practiced the Death Sutra Swordsmanship, he had made up his mind to take revenge at any price, even at the expense of perishing with the enemy. Thus, he had adopted the way of 'Killing Oneself.' The better his swordsmanship was, the weaker his killing aura. The only person who knew this was Lotus.

On the wall of the stone chambers of Golden Roc Castle, Gu Shenwei had found six other training methods similar to 'Killing Oneself.' He had tried each of them, but had been unable to integrate them into his swordsmanship. Although they were based on the same idea, each training method was extreme in its own way and forcefully combining them would be counterproductive. Only the Dragon King himself knew about this.

So instead of answering Old Man Mu's question, he turned to Wild Horse and shook his head as he said, ”No, your swordsmanship is not strong enough. It's still far away from ”sacrificing the body to achieve enlightenment.” Do you still have doubts about your sword technique?”

The Dragon King sounded like he was lecturing a novice disciple. Wild Horse couldn't stop himself from becoming furious. The person in front of him was the only person who he couldn't maintain the mentality of 'Ceasing and Arising' towards. Perhaps this was the only doubt he had about the swordsmanship. When he thought of this, he became even angrier because the Dragon King was actually right.

Sacrificing the body to achieve enlightenment? Wild Horse took a step forward. Did the Dragon King really think that he was a god and that he could persuade a person to commit suicide with just his fancy words?

A fierce killing aura filled the hall. Many of the disciples were tormented as they were stuck between awe and fear. No one dared to escape. They all stood against the wall, huddling together. Their killing desire had long since dissipated.

”'Impermanent are all material things. They arise and cease; that is their nature.' I remember that that's how the scripture describes the Ceasing and Arising Swordsmanship. Old Man Mu, what does it mean?”

Wild Horse's killing intent was stirred up while the Dragon King was still dwelling on the scripture. Stunned, Old Man Mu mechanically replied, ”That's the nonsense of Buddhism. Whatever has the nature of arising also has the nature of ceasing, which is the so-called 'impermanence.'”

”Then what does the opposite—'Ceasing and Arising' mean?”

”Well, the opposite. If everything you see, hear, feel, and so on and so forth ceases, then your pure, true self will arise. Then it will transcend impermanence. That's probably what it means, but little Wild Horse doesn't read much and may not be able to understand it.”

Gu Shenwei asked Wild Horse, ”Now you understand?”

Wild Horse was enraged. Of course he understood, but what he understood was the Dragon King's tactics. This cunning lackey of his was infuriating him and forcing him out of his current state of mind of Ceasing and Arising so that he was unable to perform his most powerful swordsmanship.

What he practiced wasn't the Sword of Fury so anger wouldn't provide him any strength and it would only disturb his mental state.

Wild Horse tilted his head and glanced at his broken arm, and put out the anger in his heart. It was all because of Servant Huan that he had lost his arm. Servant Huan was, after all, a life. Even if he was ten times smarter, he was still just a life like everyone else.

Wild Horse regained the familiar old feeling.

Old Man Mu chuckled. ”Dragon King, it's not looking good. Little Wild Horse doesn't seem to have been fooled. Do you have a backup plan?”

Gu Shenwei didn't have any backup plans. All his efforts had been made in the hopes that Wild Horse could improve his swordsmanship faster. This was an 'open stratagem.'

He turned to Lotus, who was sitting in the chair, and asked, ”Does the Master Commander have any more strength to fight?”

Lotus nodded and stood up, her body swaying slightly. Obviously, she hadn't fully recovered from the injury yet as a trace of red could be seen flushing across her face.