Death Scripture

According to Wei Song, Gu Lun became enemies with King Rizhu of Norland very easily.

At that time, the Seventh Prince, who acted as a hostage, was not supported by all the parties of the Imperial Court in the Central Plain. He seemed not to be very king-like. He was like a small beast who was not loved and was forced to leave his mother. Naturally, he would not be welcomed by other beasts.

They had the argument at the wine table. The son of King Rizhu regarded the Prince as a noble of a small country in the Western Region, who had asked for asylum while behaving rudely. On top of that, he had instigated trouble while pouring wine into his guest’s mouth.

If he had done the same thing towards the Norland people, those people would have been friendly. But for the Seventh Prince who grew up in the palace, it was an unprecedented insult.

At that time, Gu Lun was the Imperial Guard of the Seventh Prince, but he was not very calm or cautious. When he saw his master being humiliated, he rushed to rescue him, making King Rizhu’s son very angry.

In the hubbub of the crowd, the dispute had turned into a kung fu competition.

“And then Gu Lun won the competition fair and square. King Rizhu’s son got hurt, but it was nothing serious. But then his wound became infected, and he died several days later, so King Rizhu thought it was Gu Lun’s fault,” Wei Song had said, simply telling the truth and not leaving out the main facts.

Old Man Mu didn’t know about the relationship between the Gu family and Norland, nor did he care about it, so he seemed to ignore the story. He only cared about himself.

In the Land of Fragrance, Old Man Mu thought that he had only his fellow male junior apprentice, Taoist Yu, to ask for help if he wanted to restore his kung fu since he had many enemies in Norland. That was why he had tried his best to ask Shangguan Ru to accept the invitation of the second wife of the Khan, hoping that she and the Dragon King would protect him on his way to seeing Taoist Yu for help.

At the Qianqi Pass, the five fanatics who had made a night attack on the barracks did Old Man Mu a great favor. After some torture and deception, those five promised to send a message to Taoist Yu for him. Unfortunately, they were caught by Naihang Tribe before they could do so.

Taoist Yu was presently just the teacher for the Royal Family of the Naihang Tribe.

“My fellow male junior apprentice said he could help me restore my kung fu, but he heard that you had gotten hold of the Dajue Book of Swordcraft. He was very interested in it, so he wanted to check it, but not to kill you. Dragon King, you can protect me, so I am more eager to see you alive than anyone else. In fact, Wildhorse is not a disciple of Taoist Yu. My fellow male junior apprentice wanted someone to work for him, but feared that others thought that he was not serious about receiving a disciple, so he carelessly omitted several training guides. Wildhorse learned them on his own.”

Old Man Mu planned to tell the truth about how Wildhorse found Taoist Yu, so he continued, “I sent him to find Taoist Yu a year ago. At first, I wanted him to be a spy for me, but I didn’t think that Taoist Yu woud appreciate him or teach him any of the skills of the Yuqing Sect. Therefore, Wildhorse immediately told him of all my plans and was loyal to Taoist Yu. But he’s ungrateful, he will… Well, he has very good kung fu skills, and he knows my weaknesses, so I have to avoid seeing him later.”

Old Man Mu was also ungrateful, but he still felt justified in blaming others.

“Tell me about your weaknesses,” Gu Shenwei said. He realized that Old Man Mu knew little about the plots of King Rizhu, so he couldn’t ask him anything about that.

Old Man Mu blushed. Finally he realized that he’d said too much, but he’d rather speak than die, so he said, “Dragon King … you are killing me.”

“You have kowtowed to me in public, but you are not willing to tell me your weaknesses? How can such loyalty convince me?” Gu Shenwei asked.

“Well, both Wildhorse and Taoist Yu know them, so I guess I can tell you. There is a set of instructions for the Internal Strength in the Yuqing Sect called the Amber Qigong, which is the foundation of all kung fu in this school. In the Land of Fragrance, you set a fire… which was really serious. I hid myself underground to save myself with the Amber Qigong. I saved my life, but I lost my kung fu skills, and the worst thing was-”

Old Man Mu shook his head, sighed, stamped his feet and beat his chest. After a while, he said, “Now, my Internal Breath always stagnates for a while after woking for a day. It seems that I can use all my kung fu normally. However, if I ever meet a kung fu master who forces me to fight with Internal Strength, it will be enough to kill me many times over.”

After saying that, Old Man seemed depressed. He had been pursuing unlimited freedom his whole life, but his Internal Strength had became his one weakness, which kept him trapped inside, due to fear of death. If the only people he could bully were the incompetent people with weak kung fu, how could he have his freedom or fun?

“Wildhorse used a saber to fight you, because he wanted to conceal the secret for you, right?” asked Gu Shenwei.

Old Man Mu spread his hands and then said, “Yes. In fact, I don’t know what happened between you and Wildhorse before, but Wildhorse hates your guts now. I have never seen how strong a person’s hatred is until now.”

If the hatred could be seen by others, it was not strong enough, so Gu Shenwei didn’t take Wildhorse’s kung fu seriously. Over the past year, Wildhorse had enhanced his kung fu, but it was far from perfect. He wanted to test the Dragon King, but revealed his own background by doing so.

Gu Shenwei was still holding the Dragon Head Sword, and suddenly stabbed Old Man Mu without any warning.

Old Man Mu was so stunned that he jumped to the left, but he only ran into the Dragon King’s fist. As a result, he had to use both hands to fight the Dragon King.

Gu Shenwei had never learned advanced kung fu punches, so he intended to force Old Man Mu to fight him with his saber.

“Dragon King, you are fighting dirty…” Old Man Mu said.

Old Man Mu didn’t finish his words. The Dragon King was using his Internal Strength to fight, so he needed to do whatever he could. Talking was useless at this time.

Gu Shenwei wanted to see if what Old Man Mu had said was true or not.

When he drew back his fist, Old Man Mu fell to the ground and almost died. He gasped and said, “Dragon King… you, you are malicious. I have never seen anyone use the Internal Strength like you. You are so surprising. However, if you meet an expert in this field, you will get into trouble. Let me teach you something.”

Upon hearing this, Gu Shenwei was stunned.

The Gu family in the Central Plain was famous for “excellent use of saber and spear”, which depended on Yin and Yang Strength. The Internal Strength was divided into Yin and Yang, which was also reflected in the use of the machete and the spear. It focused on strength.

Gu Shenwei was practing the techniques in the manual of the Golden Roc Fort, but had abandoned his original kung fu and almost forgot the benefit of strength.

Suddenly, Gu Shenwei realized that what he did was wrong. In fact, he just combined Wayless Qigong with Sumeru Mustard Divine kung fu. Yin and Yang Strength was a way to practice kung fu, and would be useless after he finished this step. He thought that it was a huge waste, because the martial arts and strength skills of Yin and Yang Strength were of great use.

The Internal Strength of the Gu family was difficult at first, but then became easy. Shangguan Fei had learned it very smoothly and made very good progress. On the contrary, Gu Shenwei had worried about it and dared not to try it. In fact, it taught how to slow down the practice of kung fu and find strength in the foundation of Yin and Yang Strength, which was separated elsewhere. Gu Shenwei had never connected any of this.

Gu Shenwei began to realize the value of Old Man Mu. The old man could not only help the disciples of the New Moon Hall improve their kung fu, but he also may be helpful to him.

Gu Shenwei had the idea of three-in-one Qigong on a whim. If he had been the disciple of a large sect or was taught by a serious-minded master, the idea would have been refuted as soon as he put it forward.

Every sect had its own unique system and training method in Internal Strength. Even if one practiced kung fu according to the normal process, he could still be hit by the Qigong Deviation at any time. Therefore, it was almost suicide to combine three kinds of Internal Strength into one kung fu.

The reason why Shangguan Fei didn’t die was that he had good luck and practiced the kung fu for only short times.

“Well, you can teach me something,” Gu Shenwei nodded.

Hearing that, Old Man Mu stopped his heavy wheeze immediately and said, “Are you … are you kidding me? I only made fun of you just now. I’m not qualified to teach you, am I?”

“I can teach you, then. You tell me your manual and then I will tell you the weaknesses in it,” said Gu Shenwei.

A bitter smile appeared on Old Man Mu’s face. The Yuqing Sect had a longer history than the Golden Roc Fort. But Gu Shenwei, an inexperience boy, thought that he could teach him something.

He couldn’t bear that Gu Shenwei was as shameless as he was and was even more arrogant that him, so he said, “Dragon King, you must be kidding. If anyone can find flaws in the kung fu of the Yuqing Sect, I promise to kowtow to him and call him father.”

“Nobody wants you to be his son. However, I did find a flaw of the Yuqing Sect. Your Amber Qigong is one example, isn’t it?” said Gu Shenwei.

“That’s different!” Old Man Mu retorted. He didn’t care about much, but he wouldn’t allow others to challenge the kung fu of his sect. Surprisingly, he pulled his body up from the floor with his arms, and stood up. “The flaw belongs to me rather than the Amber Qigong. You can beat me, but you shouldn’t ignore the power of the Amber Qigong. If you don’t believe it, you can challenge Taoist Yu. His skills are worse than mine, but you will still lose,” he said.

“I won’t challenge anyone, because I’m only good at assassination,” said Gu Shenwei.

Old Man Mu immediately woke up. What he needed to do now was to play up to the Dragon King, but not offend him. Besides, Taoist Yu should not die, because Old Man Mu placed all his hope on Taoist Yu to help him to restore his kung fu. He pretended to smile and then said, “You needn’t assassinate him. After all, Taoist Yu seldom fights with others, so he couldn’t avoid being hurt by the Dajue Book of Swordcraft’s invisible techniques. It’s mine and the Yuqing Sect’s honor for you to be interested in the manual of our sect. Where do you want to start? The Amber Qigong, the Five Hole Punch, the Heart Stopping Finger, the Moon Seizing Machete Technique…”

Old Man Mu named more than ten kinds of kung fu, and then asked the Dragon King to choose one.

However, Gu Shenwei wasn’t interested in that. His purpose was not to learn the kung fu of the Yuqing Sect, but to perfect three-in-one Qigong using the experience of Old Man Mu. He couldn’t tell his idea directly and said, “Well, you learned the Amber Qigong before, and then practiced the Seven Rotation Skill in the New Moon Hall. Is there anything strange in your body?”

Old Man Mu nodded seriously, “You are really extraordinary and can be called a prodigy of martial arts. You have pointed out the main question. As we all know, if one practices two sets of completely different Internal Strengths, he disobeys the taboos of martial arts. One Internal Strength asks people to close their eyes for rest, while the other wants people to stay awake. One allows people to absorb the essence, but the other wants him to vomit foul air. There are a lot of contradictions between them,” said Old Man Mu.

Speaking of this, Gu Shenwei thought for a while and then said, “It’s too complicated to make it clear to you in a short time. Shall we have a rest? I’ll organize my thoughts and then speak to you, ok?”

In fact, Old Man Mu wanted to have more time to come up with a perfect lie. The instructions of Internal Strength were precise and complex, so he was unable to immediately respond to the Dragon King without looking suspicious, even though he was good at telling lies.

Gu Shenwei continued to ask questions until Long Fanyun said from outside the tent, “Dragon King, the military has arrived and wants to report to you some emergencies.”

After finishing speaking, Fang Wenshi opened the curtain to come in. He was sweating heavily and looked really worried. He had ridden very quickly to meet the Dragon King, but he had not come just to please him.