Death Sutra Chapter 243

Chapter 243 Chill
Gu Shenwei didn’t say anything. With Lotus around, he must not appear emotional, as Shangguan Ru was a perfect example. The lord would suffer from the servant’s betrayal when they became weak.   

Lotus wasn’t his servant, but one of the most important reasons she followed Servant Huan was because he had the calm, ruthless attributes a killer should have. He couldn’t afford to lose that.  

It was a bland farewell as if they would meet again the next morning. Shangguan Ru felt like she had a lot to say in her mind, but was too simple and worthless to put it all words. She just didn’t want him to die. It was like how they had once been cornered in the room and she would rather hold the narrow saber to her neck to protect the people around her, that was all.  

Gu Shenwei put on the complete set of the killer’s attire, wrapped up one saber and two swords, and held them under his arm, ready to go. He stared into her black eyes again and said, “I’m leaving.”

Shangguan Ru nodded and watched her last two killers leave. Suddenly she wanted to cry, so she took a deep breath to prevent her tears from coming out. She was a killer, not a little kid. Even if she could no longer kill, she would not become sentimental. 

They already had the name tags, but it was still not easy to run away from the castle. Gu Shenwei and Lotus had made a plan and didn’t tell Shangguan Ru.  

The two left the inner chamber normally and soon found that they were being followed. Gu Shenwei had lost all of his internal energy and was dragged forward by Lotus. Using their knowledge of the terrain, they circled around the intricate alleys in the castle and finally got rid of their ‘tails’ after a quarter of an hour. 

After making sure that they were alone, Lotus carried Servant Huan and carefully avoided the night watchers hiding in the dark, following the quiet paths to maneuver in a big circle and head towards the Afterlife Cliff on the easternmost side of the castle. 

In order to kill the annoying red-crowned roc, the castle had built a circle of towering arrow towers. Later, the roc disappeared for a long time and the Unique King also secluded himself and didn’t ask about it. So, most of those arrow towers were gradually left unguarded and became deserted. 

Gu Shenwei chose the Afterlife Cliff as his hiding place, partly because few people came here except to dump the corpses, and partly to fetch something

from the nearby Giant Boulder Cliff.

As soon as Lotus placed Servant Huan on top of the arrow tower, she left to carry out the second part of the plan. Someone had to ‘escape’ from the castle to attract the attention of Shen Liang and Madam Meng to Jade City.  

There were still some members of the former Bi Nu gang in the small flag battalion who were loyal to Servant Huan and Lotus. They didn’t know Servant Huan was now in danger, so they were willing to help put on a fake play of ‘running away’.

Gu Shenwei walked out of the tower and went to the Giant Boulder Cliff as soon as Lotus left. He had hidden several items precious to him in the cracks. It was like a child’s trick, but he couldn’t find any other places as safe as here in the castle. 

The Death Sutra and the Daoless Scroll were all there. Gu Shenwei hesitated for a while before he put the Death Sutra back where it was. The Daoless Scroll was originally Golden Roc Castle’s divine power, but the book of Death Sutra belonged to himself. If his plan to hide failed, he didn’t want to leave the secret manual to the Unique King.  

Back in the tower, Gu Shenwei stared into the deep dark night through the arrow mound and touched the Daoless Scroll in his robe. The fake chapter seven given by Shangguan Ru was also there, and Gu Shenwei could no longer restrain the guilt in his heart. He had let his last chance slip through his fingers and made the parting very likely a permanent farewell.   

Shangguan Ru was his enemy. She had betrayed the golden-crowned rocs, which was something that he could never forgive. But she had also paid too much trust, so much that Gu Shenwei could not feel at ease. 

It’s all because I have no internal energy and have temporarily lost the influence of the Death Sutra swordsmanship that I have become so weak. Gu Shenwei made an excuse for himself and slowly hardened his heart. Beside him, against the wall, stood the shortsword that had been given back to him by Shangguan Ru at the behest of destiny, silently reminding him of the mortal hatred born from the loss of his family.  
    
It would take a long while for Lotus to sneak back, so Gu Shenwei emptied his mind to practice the Daoless Divine Power. He was on the fourth chapter this evening. 

After an unknown amount of time had passed, Gu Shenwei uncontrollably shivered a bit from the chill.  He opened his eyes, waking up from the

the meditation.

It was mid-autumn, and although it was colder on the mountain peak than at the mountain foot, it shouldn’t be so cold as to make people shiver.  

An impossible idea popped up in Gu Shenwei’s mind, and as a test, he pressed the baihui acupoint on his forehead and the xuanji acupoint on his chest one after the other but got no reaction, which meant the Desolate Finger Energy had been completely removed from these two places. Finally, he put his finger on his dantian. 

A pain from somewhere deep inside him immediately spread all over his body, Gu Shenwei almost screamed out, and barely resisted by desperately clenching his teeth. 

The killer felt utterly disappointed at heart. The hidden danger of the Qi deviation hadn’t been removed, and the Desolate Finger Energy had moved from the previous two acupoints to his dantian. He hadn’t been able to store any internal energy in the past several days, so it wasn’t until today that he finally condensed a faint strand of internal Qi into his dantian after a few cycles of circulation, which triggered the Desolate Finger Energy again.  

Gu Shenwei felt that this was all too ironic. He was still occupied with the grand plan of defeating Golden Roc Castle, while in fact, he himself might fall apart at any moment.  

Early in the morning, the disguised Lotus returned to the castle with the disciple who had impersonated Servant Huan. The disciple still didn’t understand the purpose of this bizarre mission but was very excited. Lotus had no choice but to stab him in his back and then discard his corpse in East Castle, making people believe that he had died because of the slaughter amongst disciples. 

This wasn’t a perfect plan, but as long as the pursuers thought that Servant Huan and Lotus had escaped from the castle, they would not ask the gatekeeper about the comings and goings in detail. The two killers would be safe for a period of time.  
 
Lotus snuck back to the arrow tower at the Afterlife Cliff when there were few people in the morning, and happened to see a Servant Huan, who had been battered out of his senses.

“What happened?” Lotus asked as she wiped the makeup off her face.

“The Desolate Finger Energy has moved to my dantian.” Gu Shenwei had been waiting for Lotus’s return. The two had a similar situation, and if Lotus also hadn’t removed the finger energy, then it meant that they had completely failed. 

Using the Daoless Divine Power to remove the Desolate Finger Energy had only ever been a conjecture of the two, so the possibility of ineffectiveness had always existed. 

Lotus walked to Servant

to Servant Huan and pressed against his abdomen for a while. “I think it’s temporary. It can be completely eliminated when the Daoless Divine Power is strong enough.” 

“Are you the same?”

“No, I’m not. But I also didn’t disperse my internal energy, so I think that’s the problem.”

Gu Shenwei lost his presence of mind at the moment and wasn’t considerate enough. He felt much better after hearing Lotus’s reminder. Right, it must be due to the dispersion of his internal energy. He should not give up on himself, but rather continue practicing hard until his internal energy was restored. 

“I was a bit scared,” Gu Shenwei embarrassedly admitted.

“It’s nothing. I wasn’t able to sleep for a long time before I got the Daoless Scroll.” 

Gu Shenwei smiled. Lotus was always calm, and it was hard to imagine that she would lose sleep from being afraid of Qi deviation.”

The day passed safely. A disciple came to dump corpse at noon, but he didn’t know that someone was in the arrow tower. After dropping off the corpse, he knelt down at the edge of the cliff and trembled for a while as if he were crying. Then he barely got up and returned, pretending to be tough and cold.

The killer coming to discard the corpse by himself was a tradition pioneered by Gu Shenwei, which had continued in the East Castle. 

Beyond that, the two knew nothing about what was going on in the castle. 

During the night, Lotus went out to scout around and saw many killers hurrying away from the castle. The two’s diversion tactic worked. Both Shen Liang and Madam Meng thought that Servant Huan and Lotus had run away from the castle and had sent out people to capture them.  

Lotus stole some food from the kitchen. After eating, the two of them started practicing the Daoless Divine Power on their own.

Gu Shenwei became a bit anxious. Without internal Qi, he couldn’t kill the enemy with the Death Sutra swordsmanship like lighting in a single shot. To resist the pursuit of the enemy, he had to restore his internal energy to regain his martial arts skills. 

Lotus was a good killer and helper, but he couldn’t entirely rely on her protection. They were partners and had to help each other.

For five days in a row, the two had been hiding in the arrow tower. They did nothing during the day, only practicing kung fu at night. And every night Lotus would go out to scout around, bringing back some food and sporadic bits of news. 

The atmosphere in the castle was becoming tenser. What the tenser. What the Unique King cared about was not who should be responsible for the matter of Servant Huan, but rather how could two ordinary killers escape from the castle and disappear without a trace. 

Gu Shenwei was also very anxious. Sooner or later someone would think of searching the escapees in the castle, so he had to recover his internal energy as soon as possible. 

He felt that that moment was drawing closer. 

Although Immortal Peng was a liar, he was talented and knowledgeable. The training method of the Essence of Perceiving Passion, which could collectively improve people’s internal energy after they were hypnotized, was unique. It had helped Gu Shenwei break through and expand his meridians, which was of great help in practicing any kind of internal energy henceforth.  

After he finishing practicing a chapter, Gu Shenwei would feel the internal Qi in his body increase. Although it would still disappear after circulating for a few cycles, it lasted longer and longer and a very small part of it would always remain in his dantian. 

The only thing that worried him was the increasing chillness in his body and the waves of pain that came from the innermost part of his dantian. He even fainted once and found Lotus was wiping sweat off him when he woke up. He was shivering with cold, but his forehead was wet. 

This was a battle for time against the Qi deviation. He had to practice assiduously to improve his internal energy faster so that he could suppress the Desolate Finger Energy inside his dantian earlier. 

On the sixth evening, Gu Shenwei felt especially good. He had not even started practicing kung fu before he vaguely felt the flow of internal energy inside his meridians. It was a good sign, which meant that he would gain part of his power back soon and might also be able to remove the hidden trouble. 

As usual, Lotus went out to steal food and seek information. Gu Shenwei stayed alone in the arrow tower and silently recited the seventh chapter. Once again, he felt that the Daoless Scroll was incomplete and that there must be more chapters missing.  

This was probably the secret of the Unique King. Gu Shenwei let go of the thought, turned around and saw a man standing on the ballista staring at him, not knowing how long he had been there.  

“Liuhua!” Gu Shenwei cried out in surprise. Liuhua should have been staying in Southern Jade City and managing the Kun Society for Shangguan Ru, so how could he show up here?

“Are you ready?”

“What?”

“Ready to die. I’ve nearly gone mad waiting for this day.”

Chapter end