Death Sutra Chapter 37

Editor: Cypress Venus Trap

Chapter 37  Lesson

From Shangguan Ru, Gu Shenwei learnt that Death Sutra was the rebirth mantra passed from the ancestors of Golden Roc Castle. As years went by, most of it was forgotten, only these two sentences were left.

Gu Shenwei pondered the words ‘The living suffers in grief; The dead settle in peace’ and felt his heart was twisted by a knife. He is the living who suffers in grief, but those dead, his family, do they really settle in peace? If he could know the truth about the afterlife then perhaps, he would not need to have to bear the heavy burden of revenge.

Ignorance was probably the root of ‘the living suffering in grief’.

The two men who carried the corpse returned empty-handed, and bowed to the little masters as they passed by. They advanced silently with pale faces and soon disappeared into the depths of the alley, as if they had been possessed by ghost spirits.

Shangguan Fei was unwilling to play any longer. The two teenage girls also felt uneasy and didn’t insist, so the expedition was over and the newly started ceremony for ‘Peng Yue Sect’ to take in new disciples ended with an unknown cause.

Gu Shenwei would like to continue playing the ‘game’, as that would be helpful for him to please Shangguan Ru. But Shangguan Yushi seemed to be very cautious, she asked about going back to the inner chamber immediately after they left the east castle. Shangguan Fei, who was frightened, naturally agreed with her. Shangguan Ru, who was unable to dissuade them, had no choice but to agree.

Gu Shenwei and the other footmen were unqualified to enter the inner chamber. After the lords left, Servant Qing scolded Servant Huan harshly in front of everyone before their dismissal.

Xue Niang also became interested in Peng Yue Sect‘s little game when Gu Shenwei reported to her at dusk. She then ordered Servant Huan to prompt Shangguan Ru to continue playing it, “Look, as long as you’re working hard, you can always make it. You should ask Ninth Gongzi to teach you kung fu. She is King Lord’s daughter, if she can teach you some moves, you will benefit a lot.”

Obviously, this was not Xue Niang’s true purpose. Gu Shenwei eagerly said yes, and became more and more curious about this woman, could it be possible that she wanted to secretly learn Golden Roc Castle’s kung fu?

“It is good that you hit Servant Qian. He’s not happy, but it’s OK, he needs to be taught some lessons and has to have some stimulation.”

Gu Shenwei agreed while his heart sank. In order to please Shangguan Ru, he had offended many people today.

After bidding his salutations to Xue Niang, Gu Shenwei returned to the stone hut and quietly thought back about what had happened that day.

He was surprised that he could defeat Servant Qian using just one move. It was also surprising that Murderous Heart could improve one’s kung fu so much.

Lying on the brick bed, Gu Shenwei tried to make the Murderous Heart work again.

It was easier said than done. Murderous Heart was not like a servant who could be 'called to come and waved to go at anytime'. Gu Shenwei first tried facing against the air and then the wall, but it was totally ineffective. Faced with a non-responsive opponent, how could one have a murderous heart to kill it?

He had to find a living person to practise it.

Elder Zhang was sleeping soundly. He slept at the end of the brick bed, and Gu Shenwei was lying on the other end. There were several chi’s distance between them, which was almost the same distance in a kung fu competition.

Gu Shenwei tried to imagine Elder Zhang as Han Shiqi, and it worked. His murderous heart rose gradually, and although he didn’t have a weapon at hand, he believed he could kill this man with a finger. The eyes, throat, and genitalia, there are so many weak but vital parts of a body.

The murderous aura became denser, and Gu Shenwei, almost, couldn’t control his urge to kill. All of a sudden, he realised where his Murderous Heart came from.

The so-called Murderous Heart was actually hatred without fear.

To hate someone always meant to fear him. Only by overcoming the fear could one turn the hate into a murderous heart and siphon its power.

Gu Shenwei had already used this when he competed with Servant Qian, but he only understood it now.

His eyes became bright as a new Martial Arts world loomed a few feet away for him.

The brightness disappeared in the twinkling of an eye, leaving only two frightened and raging eyes.

“What – what the fuck are you doing?”

Elder Zhang was sleeping soundly before he was suddenly woken up, panic stricken, feeling the danger from behind. He opened his eyes, and happened to see the teenager Servant Huan looking murderous.

Gu Shenwei suddenly woke up from his trance, his murderous heart was like a little shy beast which immediately hid in the darkness after being scolded and never showed itself again.

“Nothing, I – I can’t fall asleep.”

“Can’t fall asleep? Go out to see the moon if you can’t fall asleep, why are you staring at me?”

“Sorry, Elder Zhang, I didn’t mean it.”

Elder Zhang seemed to really be frightened. He turned over while cursing, trying to sleep again with his back towards Servant Huan. But he didn't dare to close his eyes so he cursed again, rolled out of bed and walked out after putting on his clothes. He had no mood to see the moon, so he went to the stable to tend his treasured horses.

“A man is indeed not as reliable as an animal.” Elder Zhang muttered.

Gu Shenwei had offended one more person by the end of the day. But it was Elder Zhang’s reaction that reminded him that he’d better not practise murderous heart casually because it was too conspicuous. Even a man like Elder Zhang who didn’t know kung fu was aware of it, the kung fu instructor in Diao Mu Yuan also changed his attitude when he experienced it.

This was not a good thing for a man who wanted to conceal his identity and enact his revenge sneakily.

On the next day, Gu Shenwei’s plan for pleasing the Shangguan Ru further remained unrecognised as the twins didn’t show up. Servant Qing was not surprised about this, he yawned and said: “The new year is coming, Madam will keep the two gongzis around, perhaps we’ll be idle for a while.

Shangguan Yushi came, however. This was the first time Gu Shenwei saw her attend the school just by herself

She appeared to be more apathetic and imperious than usual without Shangguan Ru around. One student was cracking jokes with his buddy at the door, she pushed him to the ground and continued walking straight ahead without even glancing at him.

The kid’s face turned purple with anger. He clenched his fists and was about to curse before he recognized that the receding figure was Yu Gongzi and swallowed his words. Although, both of them were Shangguan family’s descendants, their statuses were completely different.

Gu Shenwei would ask for a snub if he approached and called her Aunt-master Yu right now, so he stood far away and didn’t want to bother that little devil.

But trouble was always like this: the more one tried to avoid it, the closer it ran after.

The twins didn’t come to school, so their footmen would scatter and do their own business as usual. As expected, when the disordered reading sound came from the school, Servant Qing allowed most of them to leave and only kept 7 or 8 teenagers who used to be fighting partners.  

Servant Qing walked to the side to talk with other footmen and the fighting partners stood at the corner, one of whom suddenly said:

“You shouldn’t do that.”

It was after a long while before Gu Shenwei realized these words were said for him. But the one who spoke didn’t mention his name nor looked at him.

“What?”

“You should not call Ninth Gongzi master.” Another teenager said.

Gu Shenwei was confused. Shangguan Ru had been very happy the previous day when he had bowed to her as his master. And another thing puzzled him was that how the news had spread so quickly.

“Mm.” Gu Shenwei casually replied. He had gotten used to the servants’ jealousy and competition. Because of the fact that he had gained the two gongzis' favour without listening to Servant Qing, Servant Qing had not been kind to him, which resulted in none of the footmen in front of the school gate giving him good face.

“Do you still not understand?” A third tenager said.

Gu Shenwei was puzzled; these fighting partners seemed to truly remind him with goodwill and not due to jealousy.

“Understand what?”

On the other side, Servant Qing was chatting happily and laughing loudly and the teenagers all shut their mouth nervously. Amongst the footmen, the fighting partners’ status were relatively low and, therefore, were very fearful about Servant Qing.

But from another perspective, Servant Huan was their ‘lifesaver’. Their life became much better after the coming of this servant who was Ninth Gongzi’s match. Some of them didn’t even get hurt in the past several months which was a miracle. So they hoped that Servant Huan will not have a stroke of bad luck.

Servant Qing’s laughter gradually died out, the teenagers who stood most close to Gu Shenwei lowered his voice and said: ” You shouldn’t be too close to Ninth Gongzi, Yu Gongzi will definitely not be happy about it.”

Gu Shenwei suddenly realized the reason why Shangguan Yushi had started behaving weirdly, and, had always tried to avoid him intentionally after he spoke the word master outside Peng Yue Yuan the day before. It turned out to be because she was jealous of him!

Gu Shenwei couldn’t help but smile and shake his head. It was understandable if a servant was jealous of another servant, but it was hard to understand when a lord became jealous of a servant.

“He doesn’t know!” A teenager cried out with surprise, then he quickly covered his mouth using his hands.

“Doesn’t know what?”, Gu Shenwei was a bit annoyed. If these people wanted to help, why wouldn't they make it clear?

“Yu Gongzi… had killed someone before.”

After a long while, someone said with an extremely low voice. Nobody spoke anything more after that.

Although Golden Roc Castle was full of killers who had killed countlessly, the teenagers were very scared about a girl who had killed someone. Gu Shenwei didn’t put it on his mind because he had also killed somebody, and one of them was even killed directly by himself.

But he had indeed witnessed Shangguan Yushi’s atrocity. Once, when she had won, she stepped on a fighting partner’s arm to break it. That teenager was standing by Gu Shenwei’s side right now and his face became dreadfully pale after he heard those words.

Shangguan Yushi didn’t call them to fight during the class breaks. It was noontime, when all the school kids had scattered and the old teacher had also left slowly, that a bookkeeper came out and ordered the 8 fighting partners waiting outside to enter the room together.

Strictly speaking, these teenagers didn’t belong to Shangguan Yushi. They were servants assigned to the twins. But there was no difference between Yu Gongzi‘s words and Ninth Gongzi, so no one dared to disobey.

Servant Qing didn’t follow them, and remained staying outside the gate.

The school yard was empty, the bookkeeper led them to a room on the east side.

The desks had been moved to the corner to create a vacant area in the center. Shangguan Yushi was sitting on a chair, her bookkeepers were standing behind her and several descendants of Shangguan family were standing at her sides.

This does not look like a kung fu competition, Gu Shenwei’s heart jumped a bit, he understood that this was a game made for him.

Shangguan Yushi didn’t like if someone gained too much of Ninth Gongzi‘s favour, especially, if the said person was just a servant.

“Hey, brat, why don’t you call me Aunt-master?”

“Little servant dared not.” Gu Shenwei kneeled down.

For his revenge, he was willing, and tried, to behave like a servant. Facing with the lord’s humiliation, the first thing he thought of was what Servant Yao would do.

The triangle-faced teenager, who was murdered by him, had still influenced, and taught him things along at some point.

“Don’t dare? I saw you were very bold yesterday. Is this the first day for you as a servant? You have only served the lords for several days and had dared to break the rules. To call Ninth Gongzi master, do you think you are qualified?”

“He was the kid brought by the eighth mistress from the robber’s camp.”

One of the bookkeepers behind Shangguan Yushi approached and said, which increased Shangguan Yushi’s resentment. The eighth mistress was not getting along well with Madam and the twins was precisely the Madam’s own children. The ones around them, naturally, didn’t like Big Head God’s daughter, and also anyone brought by her.

“I’m sent by the eighth young lord to…”

Gu Shenwei still wanted to argue for himself. Shangguan Yushi raised her eyebrows, suddenly stood up and kicked at him, “You audacious dog slave, you’re as annoying as your bitch lord, you’re not qualified to live in Golden Roc Castle.”

Gu Shenwei only hesitated a bit, and was kicked at the chest. His balanced power was actually not too bad but he still couldn’t stand the teenage girl’s kick. He turned a somersault backwards and felt bouts of pain in his ribs when he kneeled down again,

Shangguan Yushi was still angry, she turned to the other 7 fighting partners and ordered coldly: “Slap his face, teach him the rules of a servant.”

Gu Shenwei’s blood pumped. No matter how hard he tried to imitate Servant Yao, he was not a real servant. Humiliation was even more unbearable than death, his murderous heart hidden in depth was eager to pop up again.

Chapter end