Wild animals cannot avoid going through the awkward period when they are already strong and independent enough to live on their own but still long for their mother's breast milk and care. During such times, they naively think that life should always be like this. As a result, they tend to spend their days rolling around and playing with insects, waiting for the occasional interesting thing to happen. A leopard, larger than his mother, lies on the grass and enjoys the warm sunshine, waiting patiently for his free lunch. However, the good times never last. Once the mother starts her second conception, the baby will be relegated from being the favored one to the abandoned one and, from then on, has to rove all over the world alone. Every time he hunts, the old memories of innocence fade bit by bit and in the end, he either dies miserably or grows up to be a ruthless killer.
14-year-old Gu Shenwei was going through that same exact period. His name might have been a little bit old-fashioned, but he was still as naive as a child and his family worried about him. However, he had his own thoughts on the matter and refused to regard himself as a grown-up until the day that his sister married.
There were still three months until that day, but his life plans were interrupted by an accident.
One afternoon, a servant, who was looking around the hill behind the house, came back with a strange message that a knight had stopped by the hillside and was observing their manor.
Old Master Gu Lun rode over and found that the knight had already gone. He patrolled around for a bit longer but found nothing.
The family had just moved from the Central Plains to the Western Regions two years prior and the manor was located in an oasis at the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain. This was quite an untrodden place as it was surrounded by the Gobi Desert for hundreds of miles. At the foot of the mountain, there was only a small village where a few tenant farmers were living. Therefore, no wonder the Old Master was so surprised.
Gu Lun was very vigilant as he used to be a military officer. He asked the servant in detail about the knight's dress and behavior. In the end, he ordered the manor servants to be more vigilant and secretly increased the security level.
Gu Shenwei's two older brothers thought that their father was overreacting. They just assumed that the knight was simply a herdsman who had come here for water and grass but found people here and left.
Gu Shenwei would usually make trouble out of nothing, but this time he had the same feeling as his father and took it seriously. He rode his pony, patrolling around prim and proper. If there was any noise, he would dash over to check it out and confirm what it was at full speed, no matter what it was. It was usually a rabbit or a bird.
A couple of days passed, but there were no more strangers snooping around. Everything was quiet and peaceful and it seemed that the days would continue going on like this. The whole family was busy preparing Miss Gu's dowry, as it would be a long journey from the Western Region to the Central Plains and lots of things needed to be prepared.
Everyone had things to do and the youngest Master was going to his sister's room every day, acting like a spoiled child. Such behavior made Miss Gu feel heartbroken and reluctant to leave. Even though she had not left home yet, tears had already gotten a few pieces of clothes wet.
Gu Shenwei had his own thoughts on the matter. The Central Plains and the Western Region were two totally different worlds. After her departure, no one knew when they would meet again. With such "naive" behavior, he wanted his sister to remember him.
However, peace did not last long. 10 days after the knight's appearance, a few masked men sneaked into their house in the middle of the night and made quite a ruckus.
No matter what their purpose was, they did not seem to be able to accomplish it right away because Old Master Gu Lun had arranged for the manor's servants to be on night patrol. The vigilant old servant, Yang Zheng, noticed the intruders immediately.
It was a mess and fights broke out in several different places, but none of the fights lasted long. By the time Master Gu Shenwei woke up and had any idea about what was going on, the masked men had already escaped.
No one had gotten hurt.
Everyone in the manor had woken up by this point and a dozen of the manor servants happily talked about how they fought with the masked men last night. They made it seem like there were hundreds of intruders, but old servant Yang Zheng was pretty sure that there were no more than five masked men.
Gu Shenwei was upset about not having witnessed those masked men, so he kept asking his father and brothers about it. It was not until his eldest brother ordered him to shut up did he reluctantly sit himself down in a big armchair and quietly listen to them discussing where those masked men had come from and why they had come here.
There were quite a few great powers in the Western Region, and the names of those people and places were also complicated. Gu Shenwei got so confused and gradually lost interest in the conversation. Before he finally fell asleep, he heard the word "butcher" used frequently. No matter who the "butcher" was, there was no need to be scared, as his father was a great general.
Actually, his father's title of general was not as great as he thought. Old Master Gu Lun used to be a royal guard in the Central Plains. He wasn't given the title "Brilliant General", a third-class title, until he had retired.
Although he had been a guard at the royal court, his name was well-known in the martial arts world of the Central Plains because of the style of Kung Fu that had been handed down, generation by generation, in his family. It was also the reason why Yang Zheng had come here. He would be a slave here as long as he could learn the spear technique of Kung Fu. Both the eldest and the second sons of Lord Gu were already Kung Fu masters, but the youngest one barely learned anything even though he was old enough now.
The youngest Master was good-looking, intelligent, and studious, but not persistent. He always did things in the spur of the moment. In addition, as he was the youngest in the family, he was spoiled by his parents and siblings, which made this bad habit even worse.
Later on, Gu Shenwei was sent back to his room. When he woke up, he did not go to his sister's room as usual. Instead, he went around and asked for details about last night.
Those masked men were defeated immediately and everyone in the manor thought it was a victory, ignoring the fact that no intruder was captured. Not even a drop of blood was left after the fight. Despite this, the servants were eloquent and tried to make the scenes pretty thrilling to the young Master.
After hearing their descriptions of the fight, Gu Shenwei was even more upset and blamed his young attendant, Ming Xiang, for not waking him up in time.
Ming Xiang, a boy the same age as Gu Shenwei, was the only one in the family who could be serious with the youngest Master. He threw his hands up in the air while wearing an unconvinced face and said, "Master, you are the one who is learning martial arts. Your eyes and ears are both sharp and keen. I am nothing more than a young attendant who might be killed without even knowing it after I fall asleep, how can I wake you up?"
Being too angry to debate with the young attendant, Gu Shenwei turned around and tried to seek comfort from his sister.
As opposed to the manor servants' attitudes, Master Gu and Yang Zheng were serious the whole day and supervised the manor servants even more strictly than usual. They also sent servants out to find some information. According to Gu Lun, it was obviously not the end of the attacks.
A strong feeling of tension was spreading throughout the whole manor.
Gu Shenwei's interest about the masked men had already faded after half a day. He had great faith in his father, brothers, and some servants with great mastery of Kung Fu. Even if thousands upon thousands of intruders broke in, they would be blocked outside and he could do nothing but stand aside and watch.
The current Western Region was totally different from what it used to be decades before. Back then, big kingdoms struggled for supremacy and small ones were tangled in fights. On top of that, various powers and bandit gangs sprang up over a large area. It was often that robbers realized that the people they robbed were their peers and the ordinary people had no choice but to hide in their houses and pray for God's help. Now, that page of history had been turned and balance had been reached among the three major kingdoms, the Central Plains, Norland, and Shu-lik, through compromise. More than 30 small kingdoms, both old and new, had settled down while bandit gangs gradually decreased and became faded into legend.
When Old Master Gu Lun decided to move from the Central Plains to the Western Region, he carefully considered that the Western Region was quite peaceful. He swiftly decided that the manor and land were perfect for his family.
He was right. The oasis where the manor was located was truly a perfect piece of land.
Gu Shenwei completely believed in his father, so he did not worry at all. He was chatting with his sister, hanging around the manor, and quarreling with Ming Xiang as usual. When it turned dark, his father ordered him to go to bed, and he soon fell asleep.
In a sleep-filled haze, Gu Shenwei felt someone pushing him hard. He opened his eyes unwillingly and yawned, "What is it? Intruders again?"
Ming Xiang, also yawning like his Master, held a candle and said, "It is the Old Master, not intruders."
Gu Shenwei got up reluctantly and saw the thin figure of his father standing in the shadow of the doorway.
"Huan'er, put on your clothes and see your sister off," Lord Gu said.
"Huan'er" was Gu Shenwei's nickname, only close family members would call him that.
"Is she leaving now? But the people from brother-in-law's have not come yet..." Gu Shenwei asked in surprise. There should be two more months until his sister had to depart. He was totally unprepared for this.
"Yes, but things have changed and now she has to leave in advance."
Gu Shenwei was too sleepy to think, so he simply complied and put on his clothes and cape with Ming Xiang's help. Gu Lun tied up some baggage that he had prepared beforehand on his back and inserted a short sword into his waistband.
The Gu family's Kung Fu was famous for its skill of use of knives and spears, but not swords. This short sword was specially made for Gu Shenwei. With a narrow body, it was less than two feet long and only weighed about half a kilogram.
Normally, his father took care of the short sword, Gu Shenwei hardly ever got a chance to use it. Now that he had it, he was delighted and no longer sleepy. He could not wait to pull it out in appreciation, but Gu Lun held up his hands immediately and said in a low voice, "You're now a man of the family, use this short sword to protect your sister and yourself but don't show it off."
"Sure." Gu Shenwei promised seriously. He began to picture a scene in his mind about how he would wield this short sword to protect his sister from those masked men's attacks.
Gu Lun took the two kids out with him through the back door. Everything was quiet and peaceful along the way, not even a shadow of a man could be seen. Three people were already waiting for them outside: Miss Gu Cuilan, the maid Chrysan, and the old servant Yang Zheng.
Yang Zheng was not only Gu Lun's servant, but also his friend and apprentice. He tutored Gu Shenwei with some basic Kung Fu skills for a few years, so Gu Shenwei always called him "Master Shifu Yang".
Gu Lun lifted his youngest son onto the horse. Under the cover of night, he looked even more like an old-fashioned teacher than usual.
Ming Xiang groggily mounted a horse on his own as he was not completely awake just yet. He was unhappy to take this unexpected safeguard mission, as he would rather stay in the manor forever than walk into the desert again.
There were only five horses and five people. Miss Gu Cuilan covered herself in a cape and had nothing with her. Only one of her four personal maids and a little luggage were with her now.
"What about mother and my brothers? Dad, aren't you coming with us?" Gu Shenwei asked with his eyes wide open. The sleepiness had already gone away. They were more like refugees than people who were going to escort a bride.
"You go first and we will follow soon," Gu Lun answered easily. Then he slapped the horse and urged them to leave.
Gu Shenwei grabbed the reins lightly and tried to figure the situation out. Yang Zheng passed by and said in a muffled voice, "Keep going."
Gu Shenwei's horse ran ahead quickly after being slapped by Yang Zheng. When Gu Shenwei grabbed the reins again, his father had already disappeared. Gu Lun did not even say goodbye to his daughter, who was about to get married.
The night was pretty dark with the moon hanging in the western sky. Gu Shenwei was very upset as leaving at midnight was not how he had pictured his sister's departure for the marriage.
The old servant, Yang Zheng, led the way. During the night, the group crossed a meadow, climbed over a hill, then turned to the only road without lush grass near the manor. After taking another step, they entered a totally different world that was full of hard clay and rubble. Ming Xiang groaned in fear.
Gu Shenwei was still only half-awake the entire time. The march in the night, elder sister's marriage, and the short sword at his waist were all so surreal. It was not until the sky began turning bright that he came to his senses and surprisingly found that the sun was coming up from behind them.
"Um, are we going west?" Cuilan's husband's family lived in the Central Plains and the marriage was arranged when they were very young. They should be going straight eastward to get to the Central Plains.
Yang Zheng mumbled a little as if the young Master's question was not worth a reply. After a while, he said, "We will go to Shu-lik City first where the officers and soldiers will escort us."
"Shu-lik City!" Gu Shenwei exclaimed with surprise. Shu-lik was the largest kingdom in the Western Region. Strictly speaking, the Gu's manor was located in the same kingdom. Its capital, broad and densely populated, was one of the most prosperous places in the Western Region. Gu Shenwei had heard of it before but had never seen it in the two years since they moved here.
Gu Lun had been a senior officer in the Central Plains, so Gu Shenwei did not think it was strange to be escorted by the soldiers of Shu-lik. He only thought that their procession was not majestic enough.
Miss Cuilan had been sitting on the horse, seemingly having no objection to this arrangement. Gu Shenwei recovered and kept pace with his elder sister, talking about if there would be something interesting to see in Shu-lik City. He pulled out the short sword and waved it around like a master. Cuilan kept quiet and only said a few words to occasionally remind her brother to be careful.
Although she was only three years older than him, Cuilan had been nursing her naughty brother like a mother.
Because there were two girls, they moved slowly. The midday sun was blazing and Yang Zheng did not want to stop to rest. Cuilan and the maid already felt tired, but they tried to hang on. Caring about his sister and being unable to endure the head-on exposure of the sun any longer, Gu Shenwei yelled out for water and a meal.
Just then, the faint sound of hooves came from behind them.
Yang Zheng jumped down from his horse and listened carefully for a moment. He unfastened his frequently used lance from the right side of the horse and stood in the middle of the road, looking majestic with his white hair fluttering in the wind.
Everyone retreated to the side of the road except for Gu Shenwei, whose eyes twinkled. He pulled out his short sword and stood shoulder to shoulder with Yang Zheng.
"Sister, don't be afraid. I'll fight the bandits!"
"Don't stand in my way." Yang Zheng raised the lance and put the young Master behind him with the lance rod. He had a high status in the Gu family and was unkind to everyone but Old Master Gu Lun. Moreover, Gu Shenwei was technically his apprentice.
Gu Shenwei waved his short sword around and tried to fight for a chance to kill the enemy. He saw a cloud of dust in the distance and knew that their pursuers had arrived.
Three men in black stopped their horses about 20 paces away from Gu Shenwei and pulled out their broadswords together.
"The Gu's should go back home," said the man-in-black in the middle, whose voice was as chilling as rusty iron.
"Nobody is going back home." Yang Zheng stood up with the lance.
The Gu family were good at both knives and spears, with the knife skills having been practiced before the spear skills. Being especially proficient in spear skills, Yang Zheng was not frightened at all to face three enemies.
The man-in-black on the left rode toward Yang Zheng, waving his blade.
Yang Zheng made the lance point upward and squatted slightly with his legs apart, just like a farmer holding a pickaxe to fight an evil wolf.
When the man-in-black approached with his broadsword high up in the air to chop Yang Zheng to pieces, Yang Zheng stabbed the lance out suddenly.
The stab was simple and smooth with no tricks and seemingly so weak that a child could dodge it, but the man-in-black was hit right in the chest. He fell down with his broadsword without a sound while his horse kept running for a while and eventually stopped on its own.
The other two involuntarily urged their horses to take two steps back.
Gu Shenwei ran forward excitedly. He had never thought his Master Shifu was this powerful and even actively complained about the family's spear skills. Yang Zheng had been practicing the same movements every day for many years and never practiced any other movements. Gu Shenwei never expected such a simple stab to be so powerful, and now he had a new appreciation of his Master Shifu and the family's spear skills.
The remaining two attackers glanced at each other, then raised their broadswords and rode toward Yang Zheng, attempting to launch a double-pronged attack.
Gu Shenwei came forward as he wanted to test the power of his own short sword. In fact, he had never learned swordsmanship and had only practiced some knife forms absent-mindedly. To him, there was no difference between swords and knives.
Again, Yang Zheng put the young Master behind him with the lance rod and squatted slightly with the spear pointing forward as though he only knew this move.
Sometimes, one move was enough. Yang Zheng had been immersed in the ways of the Gu Spear Form for several decades. No matter if it was raining or snowing, he practiced stabbing at least a thousand times a day and never stopped. Although seemingly to be an ordinary movement in the eyes of others, it could form 10,000 movements in his mind. More practice would only make it more beautiful.
Old Master Gu Lun was the only one who understood his mindset. After all, Gu Lun taught this spear form to Yang Zheng. Gu Lun often sighed and said that the Gu Spear Form skill could only be inherited by someone with the family name.
Therefore, Yang Zheng was loyal to the Gu family and would not allow anyone to hurt the young Master and Miss as long as he was alive.
The two men-in-black came at him.
Yang Zheng stabbed two times so quickly that it seemed to have hit the two men at the same time.
One man silently fell off his horse while the other screeched and shook a few times without falling off the horse. He squeezed his legs and lowered his body to make the horse run westward.
Yang Zheng turned around and raised the lance in one hand, aimed for a moment, and threw the three-meter lance. It flew as steady and fast as a javelin.
30 paces away, the man-in-black was speared straight through the chest and fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Master Shifu Yang!" Gu Shenwei exclaimed both happily and respectfully, "Teach me those lance skills, please!"
"Poke the target 500 times a day and you will get initial success in three years. Then after that point, do it 1,000 times per day and in 10 years, you will get it."
"Then it would be better to practice 'Yin and Yang Strength', which will make me stronger in 10 years."
"Ah, okay." Yang Zheng walked over to the body, pulled out the lance, wiped the blood on it with the clothes of the fallen man, rode on his horse, and hurried on with the journey. He would not keep in mind the young Master's enthusiasm, nor the three dead bodies left on the road.
Yin and Yang Strength, the Internal Strength technique handed down through the generations of the Gu family, was the foundation for the martial arts of the Gu family. It was not taught to daughters or people outside of the family. Although being deeply trusted by Gu Lun, Yang Zheng had not been entitled to learn it.
Gu Shenwei had been doing Yin and Yang Strength for about 10 years now, but he was still stuck at the first rudimentary layer. This made him the slowest among all the descendants of the Gu family.
As the group moved on, Gu Shenwei grew very interested in the origin of the bandits. Yang Zheng said nothing and so Gu Shenwei could only discuss the topic with Ming Xiang. His sister, Cuilan, and the maid, Chrysan, slowly recovered from the shock of the attack and chimed in occasionally.
After talking for about two hours, Gu Shenwei's enthusiasm was running out, but Yang Zheng suddenly said,
"He was a great Kung Fu master."
"Who was?" asked Gu Shenwei.
"The one who almost got away."
"Him? I thought he was pretty average because he was stabbed by you without applying any skills. No, he was strong, but our family's spear form is more powerful, isn't it?"
"Haha."
Yang Zheng did not argue anymore. Contests between masters often came down to a few tricks. The one beaten by one movement might not be much worse than the winner. The situation might be reversed if the location or the timing was different. It was hard to clearly explain the subtleties of fighting to outsiders. Although Gu Shenwei had the surname Gu and had been studying Kung Fu for a long time, he was still regarded as an "outsider".
After a long ride, Yang Zheng finally stopped to rest when it was getting dark. There were neither villages nor shops around, so they could only sit on the rocks along the roadside to rest.
After a hard day's journey, Gu Shenwei was exhausted and sat down close to his sister. Ming Xiang and Chrysan found some food and water from the packs and served their masters.
Yang Zheng had a couple of bites and kept looking eastward vigilantly.
Gu Shenwei was a little dismissive of Master Shifu Yang's excessive caution. Master Shifu Yang not only learned the spear skills from his father, but also his inflexible nature. Who dared to chase them when there were three bodies lying on the road?
"Master Huan, there is an important task that needs to be done. Would you like to do it?" Only Yang Zheng called Gu Shenwei "Master Huan".
"Sure. Is it related to the bandits?" Gu Shenwei sprang to his feet in excitement.
"Yes, but this is not an easy thing to do, so you don't have to."
"The harder the better," said a proud Gu Shenwei, holding the handle of his sword.
"I want you to ride to Shu-lik City to get reinforcements."
"Reinforcements? Aren't the bandits dead?"
"There may be more bandits."
"You can kill one with one movement, and I can kill one with... two, and by doing so, we can kill them all."
"But there may be too many bandits for the two of us to protect the Miss."
Gu Shenwei glanced at his sister, Cuilan. "Good idea. I'll go. Who should I look for? The king?"
"No, go to Shu-lik City and find Marshal Yang. Just tell him that Yang Zheng needs his help and he will understand."
"Ok."
Gu Shenwei stood up and went to mount his horse, but was stopped when Yang Zheng grabbed him. "Change clothes with Ming Xiang, yours are not suitable for riding."
The more serious Yang Zheng was about the situation, the more excited Gu Shenwei was. However, Ming Xiang, who was pulled by the young Master and asked to change clothes, seemed somewhat reluctant.
The only thing that annoyed Gu Shenwei was that Yang Zheng confiscated his short sword and told him that he would not need it on the way. "Ride straight west at top speed and you can arrive in Shu-lik City within one day and night."
Gu Shenwei jumped onto his horse and all his fatigue disappeared without a trace. He gave his sister a big smile as he said, "I'll be back!"
He was so excited that he did not ask for any more details. He did not even realize that he carried nothing and would have to solve the problem of eating and drinking along the way.
The young Master rode as far as he could and became a small black dot on the horizon. Looking at her brother's figure, Cuilan suddenly said with a sigh, "I hope the horse can run fast enough and he won't turn around."
Yang Zheng's face softened slightly. Although the Miss was young and gentle-natured, she also had good insight and was capable of understanding what this meant.
"Pardon me, Miss. I've thought it over and over in my head, and I can only save one of you," Yang Zheng said sadly, getting down on one knee.
"Uncle Yang, please rise. To save my brother is to save the whole Gu family. How could you feel guilty?"
Ming Xiang and Chrysan did not understand what the Miss was saying, but felt uneasy.
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