Chapter 71: Go Down the Hill
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Tie Hanfeng was lying on a new wicker deck chair. Every now and then he would stretch out his hand to touch the injury on his neck. This wound was so small that it did not even need any medical treatment. However, he still felt somewhat frightened every time he thought of Slave Huan's strange move.
Gu Shenwei was standing a few steps away from his mentor, holding his bandage-swathed right wrist with his left palm. The cut in his wrist was quite deep. If Tie Hanfeng had not let him off at the last minute, he would've ended up like the Eighth Young Master and would've needed to learn saber skills with his left hand from the beginning.
"What's this sh*t you used just now?" Tie Hanfeng took a swig of his liquor and asked. He was a little drunk, but not drunk enough to say something nice.
"I've learned a few sword skills, and this move just came to me all of a sudden in the moment."
"What? Sword skills? Aha!" Tie Hanfeng said mockingly, as if he had heard a joke or an obvious lie. "There're only two kinds of people using swords: the idiots and the gods. Are you a god?"
"No, I'm not."
"So you're not qualified to use a sword. If I find you using a sword skill again, I'll insert a sword into you as*hole and let it stick out of your mouth. Even gods don't know this skill."
"Yes, sir."
Gu Shenwei decided not to use the technique in the Nameless Swordbook anymore, not because of what Tie Hanfeng said, but because of its lack of defense. Just as he had suspected, this sword skill was a nice move for a surprise attack, but if he failed to kill his opponent with one stab, he would expose all his weak points to his opponent. It was just too risky to use this kind of move in a fight.
Compared to the influence of sword skills, Tie Hanfeng was more worried about Slave Huan's mode of attack.
During the past 10 days, when he had been practicing Golden Roc Fort saber skills with his apprentice, he had not spotted this bad habit of his at all. This was because during that period of time, Gu Shenwei had also been trying his best to practice attacking from the back. However, practice was different from a real fight. At that moment of life and death, when Gu Shenwei had spotted his opponent's weak point, he just had struck at it instinctively.
He had never received the 10-month-long basic killer training of the Carvewood Academy, so he lacked many essential qualities of a professional killer.
Tie Hanfeng was determined to help his apprentice make up the lessons he had missed. He started with step training and urged Slave Huan to get behind his opponent all the time. Several days later, he finally lost his patience and got furious once again. "What the f*ck is wrong with you? Did your mum squeeze your legs too hard when she gave birth to you? You're even slower than me, an old cripple. Run light on your feet! Light on your feet! Don't stick to the ground like a piece of sh*t."
Gu Shenwei had never been so savagely reviled by any of his kung fu teachers. His father had always called him his brightest son, and Mama Xue had also praised him as a fast learner. He had even greatly surprised the training tutor of the Carvewood Academy. However, Tie Hanfeng usually described him as absolute rubbish.
For the first few days, Gu Shen had thought this might be the Golden Roc Fort's teaching tradition, but one day when he went to help carry corpses in the Pyrowork Academy, a yellow-belt told him that no killer mentor would insult and abuse his apprentices like Tie Hanfeng.
"You're his first apprentice," the yellow-belt said sympathetically. "In fact, he doesn't really want to train a killer. He became a killer mentor just for the title. You know, this title is very useful."
The yellow-belt did not explain the use of the title, and Gu Shenwei did not ask either. He was too depressed to pry into this matter at the moment.
During his second monthly test, Gu Shenwei killed his opponent, a tall boy, with only one strike again. The boy tried to exchange moves with him directly, but got killed even faster than the stocky boy in the previous monthly test.
Gu Shenwei won the fights easily, not because he had excellent lightness skills or saber skills, but because at present, no killer apprentice could compete with him in internal strength. He had already reached the third level of Yin and Yang Strength, while the other apprentices were just beginners, who had practiced internal strength for only one year.
Tie Hanfeng went to check the dead body and was disappointed again, since the mortal wound was in the tall boy's chest.
Gu Shenwei explained that it was a waste of time to get behind the boy and end him from the back, for the boy had obviously left his chest unprotected at that time.
Tie Hanfeng looked gloomy, but he did not flare up this time. After thinking for a while, he said, "F*ck it. As long as you can survive this year, I won't care about your mode of attack anymore. Maybe you'll become an unusual killer, one of a kind. Do what you're good at. You've a strong killing intent. I like it, but you can make it even stronger in the future."
In order to arouse his apprentice's killing intent, Tie Hanfeng resorted to his unique teaching technique again.
"Come on, brat. Imagine that I'm your father's murderer. I killed him and chopped up him to feed a fat dog, and then I ate that dog. Come here brat, and kill me to avenge your father, otherwise how can you call yourself a man..."
Tie Hanfeng talked on and on, making up stories about how he had barbarously murdered Slave Huan's mother, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and all his ancestors. He enjoyed bragging about everything, even imaginary things.
Those extremely outrageous stories deeply stung Gu Shenwei.
All his family had been brutally murdered. This memory was almost intolerable to him. Hearing Tie Hanfeng use abusive language to insult his family, he felt that his blood began to boil with indignation.
He hated his mentor and wished to kill him. One day, when Tie Hanfeng was heavily drunk, he eventually got a chance to hold a saber to his mentor's throat. He imagined again and again that he would cut this vicious man's throat, turning him into a fountain of blood, but in the end, he still gave up.
After all, Tie Hanfeng was not his family's murder.
During the third monthly test, Gu Shenwei, who had put up with his mentor's emotional abuse for a whole month, gave full vent to his anger and hatred. He cut his opponent in half as soon as they met. After that, he felt much better.
Among all the killer apprentices, only a few had killed every opponent in the tests with only one strike three times in a row. Gu Shenwei was such an apprentice and thus won many people's recognition. The yellow-belt started to treat him as a real killer apprentice and told him that he did not have to come to the Firewood Yard to carry corpses anymore.
"No, I want to come. I need to get used to the smell of dead bodies."
Gu Shenwei refused the yellow-belt's suggestion because he wanted to throw food to feed the nestling. But beyond his expectations, the yellow-belt was deeply impressed by what he said and spread his words to everyone. As a result, more and more killer apprentices began to copy this behavior. Once an apprentice killed his or her opponent in a monthly test with only one strike, he or she would personally carry the dead body to the Reincarnation Cliff. Everyone now took this thing as a mysterious ceremony and a symbol of strength.
The Pyrowork Academy was happy with this new trend among the apprentices, for it greatly reduced the yellow-belts' workload. However, it made Gu Shenwei a little worried, since he could not find that much food for the nestling anymore. He had thrown corpses to the birdie every three days in the past, but now he could only find food to feed it every six or even nine days.
Tie Hanfeng was not pleased with Slave Huan's performance. He felt pissed off and also confused. He checked the wound on the dead body carefully, and asked Slave Huan for details about the fight and went to many different people to ask for information. Sometimes, he would stay out all night.
On the fifth day after the third monthly test, he asked Slave Huan again.
"Did you offend someone in the fort?"
"No."
Gu Shenwei replied with finality, but he felt a jolt in his heart. He wondered if his mentor had already heard some rumors about him.
"Why did all your opponents want to kill you so badly?"
"I don't know. Doesn't everyone want to kill his opponent in a monthly test?" Gu Shenwei said. He had killed all the three opponents easily and had not found anything special about them.
"That's not what I'm talking about. All the three boys exchanged positions with others to fight you in the tests."
"The one who arranged this thing was so stupid. Every apprentice he chose was weak," Gu Shenwei thought to himself.
"I've been here for just one year. I don't know many people in the fort," he further explained this matter to his mentor.
He had some suspects in mind, but he would never tell his mentor. Tie Hanfeng seemed to believe his apprentice this time. He thought for a moment and said to himself, "Well f*ck, was this directed against me?"
Tie Fengfeng became even more concerned about this matter and spent three more days investigating it secretly. One day, at noon, he suddenly stood up from his chair and said, "Apprentice, let's go down the hill."
Gu Shenwei was practicing saber skills at the moment. He was really surprised to hear this suggestion, since Golden Roc Fort did not allow killer apprentices to go down the hill freely.
Tie Fengfeng was not a punctilious fellow and did not care about those unimportant rules at all. He ordered his apprentice to leave with him immediately and then murmured to himself, "I've stayed here for over three months. I feel so horny." When he turned around, he found that his apprentice was watching him with a puzzled look on his face. "Why do you stare at me? If you dare to look at me like that again, I'll f*ck your ass. That's how the apprentices in the fort repay their mentors," Tie Hanfeng shouted.
Gu Shenwei finally understood what his mentor was talking about. He felt so offended that he nearly threw his saber at him.
Tie Fengfeng did not mean it. He did not like men at all.
Knowing that besides drinking and swearing, Tie Hanfeng had another hobby, prostitutes, Gu Shenwei disdained him even more.
Since they had left the fort, Tie Hanfeng had been bragging about his sex experiences to his apprentice, a 15-year-old inexperienced boy.
Like all the other stories he had told, his sex stories were full of falsehoods and exaggerations, such as sleeping with ten women at one night or waking up in a bed inside a palace.
Their journey was quite smooth. Gu Shenwei was amazed to discover Tie Hanfeng had lots of friends outside the fort.
Before they entered North City through the north gate of Jade City, their sabers were taken away by the gate guards. When they walking together on a wide and clean street, Tie Hanfeng said triumphantly, "This is the safest place in the whole Western Region. Even a dog can live safely and comfortably throughout its whole life at this place."
Gu Shenwei had been here twice. Once when his family had just moved to the Western Region and once when he had escorted his sister to her wedding. He had never carefully observed this place, but he had a good impression of its exquisite buildings and elegant pedestrians.
Protected by the largest killer organization, North City, the northern half of Jade City, thrived and flourished.
But this place was not Tie Hanfeng's destination. He led his apprentice across North City and into South City, which was the most famous--or infamous--part of Jade City.
The streets here were muddy and twisty. Many weird-looking pedestrians were hustling and bustling around. The buildings along the streets were quite shabby and looked as if they were about to fall apart at any minute. Compared to the paradise-like North City, South City looked like hell.
However, Tie Hanfeng felt at home at this hell-like place. He squinted his eyes and took a deep breath of the turbid air, enjoying himself for a moment.
After that, he said, "Let's go to kill a jerk. He plotted against me, trying to kill my only apprentice."