Death Sutra

Chapter 698: Suicide

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

This wasn’t the first time that Gu Shenwei faced an assassination from a kid. Back at Xiaoyao Lake, the little prince of the Hui Kingdom had also tried once. But this time the means and the outcome were completely different.

The little prince of the Hui Kingdom had gotten a box of hidden weapons from Shangguan Yun and covered himself very well before making a move; in the end, he was a nontrivial threat to Gu Shenwei but his attempt had also cost him four of his fingers.

By comparison, Shulitu didn’t have that many tricks. As the Dragon King approached him, he drew his first dagger which was promptly knocked into the air. Then he immediately produced another dagger, the one left by his father. And instead of stabbing at the Dragon King, he stabbed at himself.

Gu Shenwei grabbed the dagger hilt and coldly looked at this precocious child.

Shulitu was very smart but he had never met real kung fu experts before. His seemingly clever move was very childish in front of the Dragon King. He looked a bit disappointed but wasn’t flustered by his failure at all. Though he was facing with two adults, he neither offered an explanation nor begged for mercy.

Fang Wenshi was astonished and came to his senses after a long stupor. Confused, he asked, “What the hell are you doing?”

Shulitu still refused to open his mouth, but Gu Shenwei had already figured out his intention. “He wants to die here and then have me charged with the crime of murdering the Khan’s descendant.”

Fang Wenshi felt that this boy’s idea was so weird that he almost laughed out loud. Then he immediately realized that if Shulitu really had died here, it would be a serious blow to the Dragon King, who had just managed to win the allegiance of a small group in the Norland. The status of the little puppet was so important that, without the sick child, the Dragon King could only lead the thousand female soldiers and flee from the prairie.

“You… Aren’t you afraid of death?” asked Fang Wenshi angrily. He once thought that Shulitu was willing to accept his fate of being controlled and didn’t expect that this little kid actually harbored such evil intentions.

Strangely, Gu Shenwei found that he actually understood and even agreed with Shulitu’s decision. It was not that he was smarter than the counselor but rather that he had a similar mindset. During his first two years at Golden Roc Castle, if committing suicide could avenge his family, he would not hesitate to do so.

In Shulitu’s eyes, the Dragon King was his enemy. “I’m afraid of death everyday, but not today.”

Fang Wenshi became more and more confused. This kid had too many contradictory qualities: naive and precocious, timid and reckless, easy-going and obstinate, and an eternally mystifying nature. “If you were three or four years older, I would advise the Dragon King to kill you. If you were a few years younger, I would spank you myself. Kid, have you ever thought about how your mother and the rest of your family would be in danger because of your actions?”

“My mother is dead. The Khan’s family is like a towering tree and King Riying is just one of its branches. Even if a whole branch falls off, the tree will still be there, growing well.”

Fang Wenshi shook his head, turned to the Dragon King, and said, “I think we need a teacher, maybe beating his palm is the most effective teaching method.”

“Let me talk to him alone.”

Fang Wenshi continued shaking his head as he walked towards the exit. He was not worried about the safety of the Dragon King. The only thing on his mind was a single question. “Someone must have told him to do this. Children are too simple and easily deceived.” Fang Wenshi had already found and pinned an excuse for Shulitu’s behavior.

When only the two of them were left in the tent, Gu Shenwei returned the dagger to Shulitu.

He stared at the Dragon King for a while before he took the dagger back and carefully sheathed it. “Your kung fu is very good.”

“Have you seen many kung fu practitioners before?”

“No.”

“Then you have no right to judge my kung fu.”

Shulitu was speechless. “All right, everything I said was bullsh*t. I don’t know how good your kung fu is.”

This kid was a bit strange. Gu Shenwei looked at him from another angle and instead viewed him as a strange-looking adult and then felt that he was much more normal. “We need to talk.”

“You’re going to say that you did not kill the Khan and that my father’s death also has nothing to do with you.”

“Hmm.”

Shulitu looked up as if his mind had drifted away earlier and had taken him a long time to return to reality. “Go ahead.”

“I didn’t kill the Khan, and your father’s death also has nothing to do with me.”

Shulitu was stunned and couldn’t help but laugh. He carefully sized up the Dragon King again several times and then looked at the legendary devil again with renewed interest. “You’re not quite like what I expected.”

“And you are more naughty than I thought.” Gu Shenwei took tit for tat. He had found the little lord’s pride and could not back down in this respect.

“It’s because you are being too ambitious. A notorious devil of the Western Regions actually wants to control the descendant of the Khan and honestly expects me to obediently be its puppet. Sorry, but I can’t accept that. Although being a puppet is my destiny, the puppeteer must be from the royal lineage.”

“Do you really care about this kind of thing?”

“It’s not only me. The entirety of the Norland regards the blood lineage of the Khan as sacred. This is the foundation behind the unity and strength of the prairie.”

After hearing this from a twelve years old boy, Gu Shenwei could not help but remark in a sarcastic tone, “Have you met with many people of the Norland?”

Shulitu’s sore point was hit again. He understood many things, some of which were taught by others, and some of which he had figured out himself. But nearly all of it was empty talk. His emaciated body had greatly limited his movements and gave him have little opportunity to prove his ideas.

“Even if the whole Norland is tired of the Khan’s family, I will not let a foreigner rule the prairie through my hands.”

“You seem to think quite highly of me. Since you believe in the Norland people’s loyalty to the Khan, you should know that I can never truly take over the prairie.”

Shulitu felt tired and sat down on a chair with his legs closed and hands on his knees like an obedient little slave girl. “Times change. I knew that this succession for the throne was different from normal the night that the Khan was murdered and the kings started their scuffle.”

“Oh? What’s the difference?”

“At first I assumed that one of the kings had planned the assassination of the Khan. It had happened before, but it turned out that none of the kings benefited from it; on the contrary, King Rizhu and King Kuari, who were the most powerful kings, died in the same night. So I realized that the real assassin was definitely not a man of the Norland, at least not from the royal family. That is a critical difference from prior successions. For the first time in hundreds of years, an external force is manipulating the succession of the Khan.”

Shulitu looked up at the Dragon King. He might not have had much personal contact with other people but sometimes the truth could be figured out by one’s own solitary logic rather than by asking others.

Gu Shenwei almost admired this kid at this point, so once again he forced himself to treat the other side as an adult. “So you think that I am the external force.”

“Either you or Golden Roc Castle. I haven’t heard anything about Golden Roc Castle, so you are the only one left.”

This was a simple but reasonable deduction, and Gu Shenwei couldn’t find any loopholes in it. At least, he couldn’t think of any evidence that could force the reclusive kid into believing in the existence of the Waning Moon Hall and Lotus’s mad plan, especially when the other side didn’t believe what he said at all.

“You can’t die.”

Shulitu revealed a smile. “Maybe I can’t frame you but I can still control my own life.”

“You should go out for a walk more often. The world is often not what you think it is.” Gu Shenwei slightly raised his voice and called out, “Nie Zeng.”

Nie Zeng came in and bowed to the Dragon King, looking at Shulitu as if he were nothing.

“From now on you are the bodyguard of King Riying. Do not let him be killed by an assassin, and especially do not let him kill himself.”

“Yes.” Nie Zeng didn’t show any surprise to the strange order as if this was his normal daily job. He looked up at Shulitu after receiving the order.

The two looked at each other for a moment, and both realized that neither of them liked each other.

“Go invite Hall Leader Han here.”

Nie Zeng’s killer temperament vanished in an instant, and anyone could see the reluctance written on his face. “Her again? Dragon King, I can do this by myself…”

The Dragon King wasn’t someone to be argued with. Nie Zeng left in frustration, suspecting that the Dragon King was testing his endurance in this way.

Shulitu was full of confidence. For years, he had carefully kept his life and played the role he should play under the fierce gaze of his elders. Today he do so in the opposing role and it would be very easy.

The two had nothing more to talk about.

Shulitu was slightly startled when Nie Zeng carried Han Wuxian into the room but when the woman on the teenager’s back turned around and revealed a tender smile, he could not help but smile back.

“I heard that you tried to kill yourself?”

“Hmm,” Shulitu calmly replied, feeling that this woman was as affectionate as the mother in his memories and he even felt a desire to throw himself in her arms.

“Oh, that’s not easy.”

“It’s hard to live for me but it’s easy to die.”

“Hehe, I thought so too when I was little. Honestly, I tried seventeen times and every time I used a different method. I took nine different types of poisons but still wasn’t able to die. When I was finally in charge and could decide the fate of other people’s lives, I did not want to commit suicide anymore.”

Shulitu was taken aback and broke free from his affection towards this woman. “Who are you?”

“I am a woman named Han Wuxian, the Hall Leader of Waning Moon Hall. Many people betrayed me and I’ll kill them all. But you can rest assured, I’m as good at keeping a person alive as I am at killing them. You will like me.”

After being assured, Gu Shenwei left the tent.

Fang Wenshi saw Han Wuxian and habitually shook his head. “The Dragon King’s move is really… excellent. Alas, this little puppet isn’t particularly ideal. Should we continue to look for a new one?”

“No need, this’ll be enough. Change his identity if he doesn’t want to be a puppet.”

“He’s only twelve years old.”

“Hmm, I’ll make him understand.”

Fang Wenshi smiled. This was what he admired most about the Dragon King. He could always find a useful value in a person.

Gu Shenwei had to do so. He had little choice. Even if he had a stone in his hand, he would use it as a flintstone.

Fang Wenshi put Shulitu out of mind and walked closer to the Dragon King to give another report in a low voice. “I think that I should tell the Dragon King that Instructor Shangguan has left the camp again. The Court Attendants Army is in such a mess that I don’t know where she went.”

“Counselor Fang did the right thing in telling me this.”

Gu Shenwei very much disliked the people around him hiding things from him because he had suffered a great deal from it before. Shangguan Ru refused to reveal her secret, and so he must dig it out.

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