The Sword Manual

Gu Shenwei's Internal Force was completely under Xue Niang's control. He could make progress only through the Internal Force of her Iron Finger. At the same time, that force had gathered in the Xuanji acupoint in his chest, like a dormant parasite ready to break out of its shell and devour its host's flesh and blood at any moment.

Xue Niang's punishment the previous night had given it a powerful push. A night later, the heat within the Xuanji acupoint suddenly broke through the barrier of its own accord and rushed straight toward his dantian.

Gu Shenwei was utterly unprepared. Though his wounds had not yet healed, the early-summer sunlight was so bright and warm, and he had been basking in the feeling of having survived a catastrophe, with Divine Will guarding him. In a daze, his body slipped from his control. He sat bolt upright, his chest unbearably tight. He opened his mouth to scream, but not a sound came out.

Had anyone been watching, they would have been utterly certain that Huan Nu was a ghost.

No one was watching, and no one came to help. In the blink of an eye, Gu Shenwei collapsed to the ground again, his body convulsing and twisting as a string of groans escaped his mouth.

The symptoms lasted only a quarter of an hour, yet he felt as if he had soaked in a basin of hot water all day. Sweat drenched his entire body, his limbs were limp with exhaustion, and he could not move even a finger.

He had thought he could rely on Xue Niang a little longer. Now he understood: the road these two people, each harboring their own schemes, were traveling together in Golden Peng Fortress was nearly at its end.

Gu Shenwei remained lying down, his thoughts drifting from Xue Niang to Shangguan Yushi. Before he knew it, his body could move again. He sat up once more and saw two Great Peng Birds land opposite him.

The two feathered beasts probably felt they had not properly repaid the human who had saved their chick. Since this person did not like wolf eyeballs, they had brought him something even more delicious: two fresh beast hearts, so fresh they seemed almost to be beating.

Gu Shenwei was overjoyed. Seeing the Great Peng Birds again gave him enormous comfort, and even the pain in his body seemed less unbearable.

Since his family had been destroyed, this was the first time anyone had liked him unconditionally. But the gift was also so disgusting that he could only perform another series of complicated gestures, first expressing his gratitude, then politely refusing the feast.

The two Great Peng Birds seemed a little surprised. Together, they lowered their heads to look at this picky human, then suddenly seized the hearts in their beaks and flew away.

Gu Shenwei felt a little regretful. He did not want to offend them. In this cold Stone Fortress, he had to wear a mask even when dealing with a dog. It was rare to find two living creatures he could treat without pretending.

The Great Peng Birds seemed to think they had been snubbed, and did not appear again that day.

After that, things went just as Shangguan Ru had said: "Everything went back to normal." They practiced martial arts together and discussed who their next "assassination" target should be. To show that she had "forgiven" Huan Nu, Shangguan Yushi acted livelier than usual and offered plenty of ideas.

But Gu Shenwei could see it clearly in her eyes: once her fear had faded, her hatred had not diminished in the least.

Gu Shenwei did not tell anyone about his Qi Deviation, not even Xue Niang.

To his delight, the Great Peng Birds did not hold a grudge. They appeared again the next morning, this time bringing two kinds of food. The female bird carried an unfamiliar fruit in her beak, while the male clutched a brightly colored live snake.

Gu Shenwei chose the fruit without hesitation. Whether it was poisonous or not, he wolfed it down, making an expression of great satisfaction as he ate.

The female bird pecked her mate, as if to say its judgment had been right. The male turned its head with an air of dignity, seized the live snake in its beak, and swallowed it in a few bites.

Gu Shenwei was delighted to see the Great Peng Birds again. He approached cautiously and tentatively held out his arm, hoping to touch their ink-black feathers.

The Great Peng Birds clearly did not like being touched by humans. They had only carried him up the cliff last time because they had no choice, so this time they refused him outright: they spread their wings and flew away.

From then on, Gu Shenwei had another secret. This one was no longer oppressive and dark, but filled with joy and light. The two Great Peng Birds had given him the warmth of family. He even had a vague hope that, if these two great birds could help him take revenge...

But the Great Peng Birds probably had little interest in revenge. They deliberately avoided humans, and whenever they came to see Gu Shenwei, they first watched the area carefully, approaching only after making sure no one was around.

Because of the two great birds, Gu Shenwei even put off his plans for revenge. In truth, he still had no real plan. His wounds took more than half a month to heal. Shangguan Yushi stopped openly provoking him, and he could only pretend to hold no grudge.

The Great Peng Birds seemed to feel that no amount of gifts could repay this human who had appeared by chance, so they began bringing him all sorts of things. Once they had a general idea of his tastes, they abandoned the blood-dripping food and switched to all kinds of exotic flowers and fruits.

Gu Shenwei showed his acceptance by swallowing the gifts on the spot. A few times, he thought the flowers the Great Peng Birds had brought were astonishingly beautiful and wanted to keep them to admire at leisure. But they would seize the flowers in their beaks and try to throw them away, so he had no choice but to snatch them back and gobble them down.

Fortunately, most of the time, fragrant flowers tasted pretty good too.

Once, the flower's scent was so rich that it lingered even after he had eaten it. That afternoon, while he was practicing martial arts with the Twins, Shangguan Ru leaned close and sniffed him repeatedly, then asked in confusion, "Did you put on rouge?"

Gu Shenwei hurriedly denied it, blushing, but only earned the laughter of everyone around him. "Huan Nu secretly put on rouge" became the boys' favorite topic for several days, though no one seriously looked into it, and the matter gradually passed.

A month later, the Great Peng Birds decided that bringing only food was not enough. They began looking for things that birds and beasts had no use for but humans might value.

It was not only Golden Peng Fortress Killers who had fallen from Jue Peak; other people had fallen too. The Stone Fortress had stood for a century, and over the years, power had changed hands many times. Whenever a new master took over, he would habitually throw the previous master's belongings off the cliff.

The Great Peng Birds picked out gifts for Gu Shenwei from among the things scattered at the foot of the cliff.

The gifts included rusty armor, broken knives and swords, scattered jewelry, and half-rotted clothes. Most were worthless. Gu Shenwei always accepted them on the spot and hid them in a hollow beneath a boulder, then found a chance to throw them away, keeping only a few pieces of jewelry that looked decent.

Now and then, the Great Peng Birds brought something that made his eyes light up. One was a long sword that had lain at the bottom of the cliff for who knew how many years, yet still gleamed with a cold light, as if it had only just left the swordsmith's hands.

Gu Shenwei accepted it and played with it for several days, but in the end, he reluctantly threw it away. The Giant Stone Cliff was full of the Twins' wooden weapons, and this sharp sword stood out far too much. If it were discovered, he would have no way to explain himself—and Shangguan Yushi was only too eager to find trouble with him.

Shangguan Yushi had returned to normal, which meant she was full of jealousy toward Huan Nu, though she hid it in front of Shangguan Ru. She still believed the Ninth Young Master belonged to her alone, and no one else had the right to get close. Even the little young master, Shangguan Fei, would have drawn her jealousy if her younger sister had not so plainly looked down on her brother.

Gu Shenwei carefully maintained the calm between them. Unless he had a flawless plan, he did not want to risk taking revenge.

The Great Peng Birds' trust in this human grew day by day. Gu Shenwei could now gently stroke their feathers, with their permission. Some of the feathers were soft, others stiff. The dozens of long feathers at the tips of their wings and tails were especially striking. When the Great Peng Birds got angry, they stood straight up, making the birds look a whole size larger.

Once they felt completely safe, the chick was brought up too. It still had not grown a single feather, gained much flesh, or gotten any taller. As soon as it arrived, it began searching everywhere for food, as if it had never eaten since the day it hatched.

Perhaps because its parents found food so easily, its infancy lasted much longer than that of ordinary birds and beasts. Nearly two months had passed, and it was still just as it had been when it first hatched.

At least it still remembered Gu Shenwei. It chased after him and pecked at him furiously, so it was taken away by the female bird not long after arriving.

Perhaps the Great Peng Birds thought the chick was too rude and too ugly to be seen. They never brought it back, though Gu Shenwei found himself missing the ugly beast a little.

Midsummer arrived. It was almost a year since the Gu Family had been brutally wiped out, when the two Great Peng Birds brought Gu Shenwei an unusual gift. It was neither food nor a useful object, but a book.

They had probably hesitated for a long time before bringing it, so they also brought plenty of delicious fruit to make up for the gift's "insignificance."

The book was made of sheepskin but bound in the style of the Central Plains. It was extremely worn and had no cover. It had probably fallen into a crack between rocks, which was why wind and rain had not destroyed it.

Each page bore a simply sketched picture, with several lines of obscure, poem-like writing below it. Along the sides, smaller characters in a completely different hand offered explanations and annotations.

After the Great Peng Birds left, Gu Shenwei skimmed through the book. He understood almost none of it, but the pictures were clear enough to show that it was an unnamed sword manual.

Before the Twins arrived, he hid the book in a crack in the Stone Wall.

The Giant Stone Cliff was the Twins' base, and no one knew it better than Gu Shenwei. Unless someone searched every inch, no one would find what he had hidden.

It took Gu Shenwei three days to get a general idea of the sword manual. He found it both terrifying and ridiculous, and nearly threw it away.

The first page of the manual began with several baffling lines: "To make another die, first die yourself. Let the body wither, the heart turn to ashes. Sit and forget your own form. The killer does not die; the one who lives on does not live."

Some of the lines had been borrowed from the Zhuangzi. Gu Shenwei had barely understood them when he studied the book before, and now they made even less sense. The explanations in the margin were just as clouded, full of talk about "dying again and again."

The pictures, however, were simple: a sword thrust toward someone's neck. Most of those struck wore faces twisted with pain, like evil spirits who had come straight from hell.

Every picture showed the same thing: a sword thrusting at the neck. The only difference was the sword's angle.

What kind of sword manual was this? A Throat-Stabbing Sword Technique? Gu Shenwei thought it was a book of lies, some prank someone had made up. If such a technique really existed, it would be easy to counter: just wear a sturdy gorget. If it could turn aside blades and spears, no matter how skillful the sword technique, it would be useless.

Several times, Gu Shenwei stood at the edge of the cliff, intending to throw the book away, but he always felt that a few of its lines seemed to make some sense. Fortunately, it was not a thick book, so he hid it away again.

But he did not look at the book again for a long time. Especially after something happened that caused him unbearable pain, he almost forgot it entirely.