Death Sutra

Chapter 50: Saber Manual

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

Gu Shenwei's Internal Strength was completely controlled by Mama Xue. He could only improve his kung fu with the help of her Iron Finger. Meanwhile, the inner force passing by her was gathering in his Xuanji acupoint, like a dormant parasite in his body, which could wake up at any time and eat its master's flesh.

Mama Xue had punished him last night by her Iron Finger. The punishment was a powerful incentive for his kung fu practice. The next day, Gu Shenwei felt that a surge of hot qi breaking out in his Xuanji acupoint and rushed to Dantian. He had not prepared for it yet.

The sunshine in early summer was so bright and warm while Gu Shenwei was seriously wounded. He was immersed in the feeling of escaping from the hand of Death under the protection of the Will of the Divine. Suddenly, he lost control and sat up in great pain. Gu Shenwei felt his chest tighten. He wanted to cry out but could not utter a word.

If someone was watching him from aside, he would think that Slave Huan definitely was a ghost.

Nobody watched and nobody helped him. In a moment, he fell down on the ground, groaning with pain, his body convulsing.

The situation lasted about a quarter-hour. But Gu Shenwei felt like he had bathed in a hot tub for a whole day and became sweaty and fatigued. He was too weak to move his little finger.

He once thought Mama Xue was his protector. But now, he realized that both of them had their own plans. Their cooperation would come to an end soon.

Still lying on the ground, he thought about Mama Xue and Shangguan Yushi. For a while, unconsciously, his body could move again and he sat up straight. At this moment, he saw the two giant rocs land in front of him.

The two beasts perhaps thought that they had not fully paid back what they owed to their son's savior. Since Gu Shenwei did not like eating the wolve's eyes, they brought more "delicious" food for him—two fresh beasts' hearts, which were still beating.

Gu Shenwei was too delighted to see the giant rocs again. Their appearance comforted him a lot, and even the pain did not seem so unbearable to him.

It was the first time he had felt the unconditional love from others, but he also felt sick because of the disgusting beasts' hearts. Therefore, he had to gesture for them in a complex way, not only to show his gratitude, but also to tactfully refuse the "fine cuisine".

The two giant rocs were a little surprised and looked down at the picky human boy. All of a sudden, they picked up the two fresh hearts and flew away.

Gu Shenwei now felt regretful because he did not want to offend them. Staying in this cold stone fort, he still felt he must always disguise his true self, even when facing a dog. Luckily, he did not need to wear the mask when getting along with the two living creatures.

The giant rocs might have felt as though they were treated rudely. They did not show up again this day.

During next days, everything was, as Shangguan Ru had said, "back on track". They practiced kung fu together and planned who would become the next target of their "assassination". In order to show she had "forgiven" Slave Huan, Shangguan Yushi performed more actively than before and made numerous proposals.

But Gu Shenwei understood clearly: although her fear of ghosts had disappeared, Shangguan Yushi's hostility to him never faded. He could tell from her eyes.

Gu Shenwei never mentioned his qigong deviation to anyone, including Mama Xue.

To his surprise, the giant rocs did not hate him for his rude behavior. They appeared again the next morning, bringing two kinds of food—an unknown fruit in the female giant roc's mouth and a colorful serpent under the male giant roc's claw.

Gu Shenwei chose the fruit without hesitation. He did not care if it was poisonous or not, in any case it was better than a snake. He ate it and showed his "satisfaction" by with his face at the same time.

The female roc pecked at its partner as if to say "I told you so," while the male roc regally turned his head away. It picked up the snake and swallowed it quickly in three bites.

Gu Shenwei felt very happy to see them again. He cautiously walked towards them and tried to pat their ink-black feathers.

The giant rocs evidently did not like being touched by a human. Last time, they had to fly with him, in order to bring Gu Shenwei to the cliff top. Hence, this time they firmly refused the intimate behavior—the two giant rocs just flew away.

Now Gu Shenwei had another secret in his mind. It was between him and the two giant rocs, which was not related to darkness and depression, but happiness and brightness. He gained a sort of family-like love from the two birds. He also had a fuzzy hope—if the two giant rocs could help him take his revenge…

But the giant rocs may not be interested in revenge, because they intentionally hid from human beings. Every time they visited Gu Shenwei, the two birds would first look around and made sure there were no strangers around them.

Due to the two giant rocs, Gu Shenwei even delayed the revenge plan, and actually, he had not perfected the plan yet anyway. After half of a month, he recovered slowly. Shangguan Yushi stopped challenging him in public, so Gu Shenwei had to pretend that he had let bygones be bygones.

The giant rocs seemed to think that no matter how many things they gave him, they remained indebted forever to their son's savior. They brought all sorts of things in order to reward him. After learning about his preference, the two giant rocs abandoned fresh and bloody "food", but brought more colorful and unknown flowers and fruit instead.

The way that he expressed his gratitude was to gorge on the fruit and flowers they brought him. Sometimes, he thought the flowers were too beautiful to eat, so he kept them to admire their beauty. But the rocs began to think he disliked the flowers, and was going to throw them away. Gu Shenwei had to snatch the flowers from their claws and swallow them quickly.

Luckily, in most cases, the aromatic flowers were tolerable.

Once, the flower brought by the two rocs had a heavy fragrance. After swallowing it, the smell still lingered. That afternoon, when Gu Shenwei was practicing kung fu with the twins, Shangguan Ru sniffed at him and asked, "Are you wearing rouge?"

Gu Shenwei blushed and repeatedly denied it, but all people around him start to laugh at him. "Slave Huan secretly powdered his face." It became a hot topic during the next days among the youth in Gold Roc Fort, though no one took it seriously. People just slowly forgot about it.

One month later, the two giant rocs felt it was not enough to bring food to him only, so they started trying to find something that may be useless to them but valuable to human beings.

Not only the killers in Golden Roc Fort fell off the cliff, but other people too. The Stone Castle had been built a century ago. It had witnessed so many historical changes. Every time a new lord came to power, people would throw the former lord's posessions off the cliff.

The giant rocs picked up their presents for Gu Shenwei from the items scattered at the bottom of the steep cliff.

These presents included rusty armor, fragmentary blades, scattered jewelry and half-rotted clothes. Most of them were useless, but Gu Shenwei always accepted the presents in front of the giant rocs and hid all things in the hole under the giant stone. Later, he would find a chance to cast most of them back down, keeping some of the jewelry that was beautiful and perhaps valuable.

Occasionally, the giant rocs carried something amazing to him, for example, a long and sharp saber. He did not know how long the saber had been lying at the bottom of the cliff, but it was still extremely dazzling, as if it were only just forged.

Gu Shenwei took the present and played with it for a few days. Eventually though, he decided to abandon it reluctantly. In Giant Rock Cliff, all the twin's weapons were wooden, so this iron saber was out of place. Once it was found, he would not be able to explain where it was from. Besides, Shangguan Yushi now was now eager to niggle him at him at any time.

Shangguan Yushi returned to her normal attitude, though she was still jealous of Slave Huan. But she concealed her emotion very well in front of Shangguan Ru. She insisted the Ninth Young Master belonged to herself and that no one had the right to be close to her. If Shangguan Ru did not look down upon Master Fei, she would also envy him.

Gu Shenwei gingerly maintained the peaceful relationship with Shangguan Yushi. He would not take the risk to avenge his family until he had formed a perfect plan.

With time going by, the giant rocs trusted in him more and more. Gu Shenwei now could gently stroke their feathers with their permission. Some of the feathers were soft but others were very tough, especially the feathers on the tips of their wings that would flare up when they were angry, making them look larger.

The giant rocs felt totally safe. Once, they brought the squab little roc with them. It still did not have too many feathers and was rather diminutive. On arriving at Gaint Rock Cliff, it continued looking for food, as if it had never eaten anything since it was born.

Maybe its parents hunted quite easily. Although it was almost two months old, this little roc was still the size of a hatchling.

At least this little roc remembered Gu Shenwei who had saved it and continuously chased after him. Later, the female giant roc caught it and took it away within minutes.

The giant rocs probably thought the little roc was too naughty and impolite, so they did not bring it to meet Gu Shenwei from then on. In fact, he sometimes missed the ugly little beast.

When midsummer came, it had almost been a year since the Gu family members were slaughtered. On one day, the two rocs brought a special gift for Gu Shenwei, which was neither food nor containers, but a book.

Perhaps they had hesitated for a while to give this book to him. At the same time, they brought lots of palatable fruits to compensate for the "unimportance" of this gift.

This book was made of sheepskin. However, it was bound in a volume like the most books in the Central Plain. Perhaps it had dropped into the stone crack, so the wind and rain did not ruin it.

There was a simple sketch on every page. Some might have obscure poems or sentences written beneath. In the margin, someone had scribbled some notes in a different style of handwriting.

After the giant rocs left, Gu Shenwei skimmed over this book. He almost could not understand a single phrase, but the pictures were clear and easily understood, which indicated this was an anonymous saber manual.

Before the twins arrived here, Gu Shenwei had hidden the book in the stone crack.

The Giant Rock Cliff was the twins' stronghold, and nobody was more familiar with it than Gu Shenwei. Unless there was an inch-by-inch search, no one would find the book he hid.

Gu Shenwei spent three days reading and generally understood it. He thought the sword manual was ridiculous and frightening. He almost abandoned it.

On the first page of this book, some puzzling words were written: "If one wants to kill others, he must die first. His body should be like the skeleton. His heart should be like the ashes. His mind should be self-forgetting. If one eliminates both life and death, one shall live forever; if one keeps one's persistence, one shall perish sooner."

Some sentences in this book cited the context from Zhuangzi , most of which he could not completely understand when he had studied it. Even the explanations in the margins were perplexing, but all of it seemed to be saying "death comes and goes."

The sketches were very simple. One showed a saber stuck in a person's neck. People in these pictures mostly looked fierce, like devils running from hell.

Every picture had this similarity: The saber stuck a neck. The only difference was the angle they were sticking.

"What kind of manual is it? Stabbing-neck manual?" Gu Shenwei was beginning to think the book was a complete farce. Someone must have written it for fun. If these movements really existed in this world and were practiced by kung fu learners, then the way to defend against the movements would be easy, simply protect one's neck with a hard camail. Then he would be invulnerable, no matter how skillful the saber manual demonstrated the movements.

Gu Shenwei stood on the edge of the cliff. Several times, he wanted to discard it, but he felt that a few sentences in this book made some sense. Meanwhile, it was very thin, so he decided to hide it again.

But for a long time, he did not reread the saber manual. When a heartbreaking accident happened, he nearly forgot the book altogether.