Mine

The Twins had begun to tire of the "assassination" game. By the time they returned to the schoolroom, the season had reached early summer. Thick green moss had sprouted from the cracks between Golden Peng Fortress's stones, and the air was heavy with the rich fragrance of unknown flowers.

For some reason, Xue Niang had grown impatient. She constantly pressed Huan Nu to work harder at currying favor with Shangguan Ru, until he could follow her into the inner residence. This was the first clear goal Xue Niang had set.

Gu Shenwei could only do his best to agree. As an attendant, entering the inner residence was harder than scaling the heavens. Shangguan Ru might spend most of her time playing with him, treating him no differently from an ordinary friend, but once she grew tired, she would calmly become the "Ninth Young Master" again and pass through that red door dividing their stations. Inside were the masters of Golden Peng Fortress and their trusted followers; outside were slaves to be ordered about.

His main duty now was cleaning Giant Stone Cliff.

Giant Stone Cliff had become one of the Twins' strongholds. Over time, all manner of little things had filled every crevice in the Stone Wall and every hidden hole beneath the boulders: wooden weapons, small targets, ropes, flags, books, and more lay scattered everywhere. Gu Shenwei had to put them all in order and remember where each item was, so the two young masters could find whatever they wanted at once.

This work had originally been shared among several attendants, but ever since the Twins returned to the schoolroom, the others had begun to slack off. They only came by near noon to show their faces, lest their young masters suddenly appear.

Gu Shenwei rather liked it this way. Every morning, he no longer had to wait at the schoolroom entrance for orders. Qing Nu disliked him, and the other attendants followed suit in excluding him. So he went straight to Giant Stone Cliff. The small gate of East Fortress was always open to him. Once he had finished tidying the clutter alone, he could focus on martial arts training without worrying about interruption.

In the afternoons, the Twins would usually come play for a while. Besides Shangguan Yushi, who was inseparable from Shangguan Ru, they would occasionally bring along other children of the Shangguan Family. Those granted this "honor" were immensely proud. In truth, the youths within the fortress measured one another's status by how often they visited Giant Stone Cliff.

The sparring matches between Shangguan Ru and Gu Shenwei were always a regular feature. They no longer competed with fists and kicks, instead switching to wooden sabers. Their saber techniques surpassed everyone else's by a great margin, to the point that no one dared challenge Huan Nu anymore. Even the young master Shangguan Fei always refused a match with a disdainful air.

Shangguan Yushi was perhaps the only one whose strength could rival theirs, yet she too refused to spar with Huan Nu. There was no reason given; anyone could see her loathing for this slave.

There were inevitably whispers among the youths about the three of them. Gu Shenwei never took such talk seriously, but he remained on guard at all times. The longer Shangguan Yushi waited, he feared, the more viciously she would strike.

That morning, Gu Shenwei headed straight for Giant Stone Cliff as usual. East Fortress was as silent and deserted as ever. At several intersections, he could sense guards hiding nearby. But as he neared Rebirth Cliff, that sensation vanished. The cliffside was always one of Golden Peng Fortress's weakly defended areas.

Yet the instant he turned into Giant Stone Cliff, Gu Shenwei immediately detected someone lying in ambush to either side. That person tried hard to hold their breath, but they were no match for the experienced guards.

Gu Shenwei assumed the Twins had skipped class to play here and wanted to play a prank on him. Like all the previous "assassination" targets, he pretended not to notice and continued gathering the scattered clutter as usual.

The ambusher was evidently a little impatient. The first time Gu Shenwei bent down, she launched her sneak attack.

To indulge this attacker, Gu Shenwei decided to take one blow. But in the instant the weapon touched his body, he abruptly changed his mind. It was already too late to strike back. He could only roll forward, barely evading the fatal blow, though a sharp pain still tore through his back. He had been hit after all.

Gu Shenwei rose to his feet. Before him stood not the Twins, but Shangguan Yushi, her expression cold and sinister. What she held was not a wooden saber, but a gleaming, icy steel dagger.

He understood at once. Shangguan Yushi was not joking. She truly wanted to kill him!

Gu Shenwei had been prepared, yet he was still profoundly shocked. Shangguan Yushi had endured in silence for months, only for her final means of revenge to be a genuine assassination. She was only fourteen, a year younger than him, and before this, nothing had suggested that her hatred had reached such an extreme.

But he understood immediately afterward. At fourteen, he himself had already been involved in two killings—one was Yao Nu, the other Han Shiqi.

Still, to desire sole possession of someone with a fervor equal to the hatred of a family-destroying vendetta—Gu Shenwei felt she must have gone mad.

Shangguan Yushi had not gone mad. She was calmer than ever. Huan Nu thought he had squeezed into their small circle, turning their world of two into a world of three. She would kill him precisely when he was drunk on his success!

When her first strike failed, Shangguan Yushi immediately pounced, pressing forward step by step and giving her opponent no chance to catch his breath.

Gu Shenwei retreated again and again until he reached the cliff's edge, his heels already braced against the protective iron chain.

He had been yielding all along, but suddenly rage blazed in his chest. He had paid too great a price for revenge: changing his name, selling himself into slavery, humbling himself to serve others, twisting himself into shape to flatter them. Things he once would have believed he could never do even in death, he had now done—and would have to keep doing.

He would never show mercy toward obstacles on the road to revenge. Shangguan Yushi wanted him dead; he would return the favor in kind.

But Shangguan Yushi's martial arts were not much inferior to his, and she held a sharp dagger in her hand. Xue Niang had been right: fists and feet could not stand against blades.

Gu Shenwei's sole advantage was that he possessed a true intent to kill. For revenge, he did not even care whether he lived or died.

Shangguan Yushi wanted to kill, but she had never understood what "intent to kill" was. Thus, she lacked the will to pay any price for murder.

She also lacked certain experiences indispensable to an assassin. For example, once one had gained the upper hand, one must never stop attacking. Yet she stopped, because she believed she had forced her opponent into a Desperate Situation. Huan Nu's back was wounded, and one step back meant a bottomless abyss. There was no room left to maneuver.

Like most avengers, she wanted to say a few words before her enemy died.

People rarely realized that words and blades were both vital tools of revenge, and words could sometimes be even more important. The thrill of successful vengeance often lay in the torrent of condemnation poured forth. When Gu Shenwei killed Han Shiqi, his greatest regret had been that he could not reveal his true identity or force him to disclose his sister's whereabouts.

"She is mine."

Shangguan Yushi spoke viciously, the venom in her words chilling to the bone. In that moment, she was no longer a fourteen-year-old girl. She had crossed a subtle line into the world of adults, a world where possession was everything.

Gu Shenwei did not answer. Words could not stop this Mad Woman. He used the opportunity to steady himself, regulate his breathing, and seek a way to save himself.

"You stinking slave, what gives you the right to compete with me?"

Gu Shenwei felt Shangguan Yushi ought to ask Shangguan Ru that question. He had never believed himself to be any threat to her. No matter how hard Huan Nu tried, he was still only a slave in the Ninth Young Master's eyes. The Ninth Young Master's only friend was her female cousin.

At most, Huan Nu had wandered around the edge of the small circle Shangguan Yushi had drawn. Yet she was like a lion king whose authority had been challenged, determined to kill him before she could rest easy.

"Go die!"

Before the words had faded, the dagger stabbed forward. Gu Shenwei did not retreat again. He merely twisted slightly aside, avoiding the vital point and taking the blow squarely in his left shoulder. At the same time, he leaped forward, seized Shangguan Yushi in his arms, and slammed her hard to the ground beneath him.

He had no other choice. He could only break through this dead end by fighting to mutual ruin.

This was the grappling technique Xue Niang had taught him. Once a move succeeded, what followed were all vicious techniques for wrenching tendons and dislocating bones. But as the two fought at close quarters, most of their moves lost their form. The fight for life and death finally became a pure contest of strength.

Gu Shenwei finally gained the upper hand. Since Xue Niang had helped him improve his Internal Force again, his Hehe Jin had progressed rapidly and was already nearing the level of the third layer of Yang Jin. He was also a boy and held the advantage in raw strength. After several moves, he seized Shangguan Yushi by the throat.

Her dagger was still embedded in his left shoulder. Blood dripped from before and behind him, yet Gu Shenwei felt no pain. His heart was filled with the urge to kill, and all his strength poured into his hands.

Shangguan Yushi struggled desperately, her face flushed crimson and fear surfacing in her eyes. She was afraid. This Youth was as savage as a beast, endless killing intent radiating from his entire body. That killing intent utterly defeated her.

"Let go! What are you doing?"

Gu Shenwei raised his head and saw Shangguan Ru beside a boulder, frantic with alarm. She seemed too terrified to move, only shouting without coming forward to stop them.

In that instant, Gu Shenwei even wanted to kill Shangguan Ru as well. Her martial arts were about equal to his, perhaps even stronger in technique, but this little girl, like Shangguan Yushi, lacked a true "intent to kill." Those game-like "assassination" missions trained only skill, not the will to kill without fail.

At the last moment, reason returned and pulled him back from the brink of collapse.

His grand plan of revenge had only just begun. Acting now would be no different from abandoning the journey halfway through. No matter what, he could not possibly conceal this killing afterward. Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi were not ordinary slaves or disgraced assassins. If the two died at Giant Stone Cliff, he would have no way out except to die with them.

Gu Shenwei released Shangguan Yushi's neck and rose blankly to his feet, not knowing how to explain what had happened. Shangguan Yushi had struck first; the dagger in his shoulder was proof enough.

Shangguan Yushi sprang up as well. Before Huan Nu could speak, she pressed one hand to her bruised, purpling neck and pointed the other at her enemy. "He tried to kill me!"

"No, I didn't..."

Gu Shenwei hurriedly tried to defend himself, making the same mistake as Shangguan Yushi: hesitating after gaining the upper hand. And he made an even greater mistake—forgetting that he was standing at the edge of a cliff.

Shangguan Yushi looked as if she had exhausted all her strength, but it was only a deception. To Shangguan Ru's astonishment, she launched another sneak attack, suddenly kicking him squarely in the lower abdomen.

To get rid of her opponent, she was willing to risk everything.

Gu Shenwei had no way to dodge and could only take the blow head-on. Shangguan Yushi had put Ten Successes Power into that kick; even an adult could not have withstood it. He staggered back a step, catching his foot on the waist-high iron chain.

Even then, he could have barely kept his footing, but Shangguan Yushi showed no mercy. Ignoring Shangguan Ru's cry behind her, she sent out a second kick.

Gu Shenwei tumbled over the edge, his hands flailing futilely, unable to reach the iron chain as it vanished farther away in an instant.

"How ironic." As he fell through the air, Gu Shenwei's first thought was unexpectedly one of self-mockery. "In this string of 'assassinations' within Golden Peng Fortress, I'm actually the only one who dies."

Shangguan Ru's cry came faintly to him, then quickly faded beyond hearing.