Death Sutra

Chapter 592: Manipulation

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Shangguan Nu’s instinct as a killer kicked in. He turned and jumped to one side as his iron hook pulled up his trousers and his left hand reached out for his saber.

But the saber was not there.

It lay on the table a few steps away, next to which stood a woman, another woman.

Shangguan Nu did not foolishly ask ‘who are you’ or ‘how did you come in.’ He was instead preparing to attack. Thanks to his father who had cut off one of his hands and replaced it with a weapon, the hook did more than just hook his belt.

Luo Ningcha coughed violently a few times with her chest in her arms before she grabbed the collar of her dress to cover herself. Although she hadn’t broken free from the shame and anger, she angrily stared at her husband. It took her a long time to notice there was another strange woman in the room who had shown up from nowhere. Although she had no feelings for her husband at all, she still felt a strong feeling of jealousy. “Who the hell are you? How did you get in?”

Han Fen looked at the couple with great interest. “I’m Han Fen. I walked in. You guys … want some help?”

Luo Ningcha was stunned, exclaiming, “What?”

Han Fen lowered her voice a little bit and as if she were peddling some mysterious merchandise, said, “I can make you feel like a fish in water, full of joy and happiness. Seriously, just a few pokes…”

Luo Ningcha could barely believe what she was hearing. Not only did Shangguan Nu want to rape her but he had also found a crazy woman to add to the fun.

“You are a disciple of Waning Moon Hall.” Shangguan Nu finally realized who this inexplicable woman was.

“Yes, now you believe me?” Han Fen raised her right hand, her fingers squirming like the legs of a spider. “It’s very easy.”

“The Dragon King sent you here?”

“Mm. What you just did wasn’t right. You were acting like you were enemies fighting. Caressing, loving… You two didn’t have those emotions at all …”

After hearing that this mad woman was sent by the Dragon King, Luo Ningcha finally realized that she was safe, so she loudly said, “I’m not gonna make love to him. He’s … He forced me to do it. Quick, kill him.”

Luo Ningcha regarded Han Fen as the Dragon King’s servant, so naturally, she treated her as her servant too. She finally remembered that this woman wasn’t as obedient as her maidservant after she blurted out the order, so she immediately added, “He’s the enemy who killed the Dragon King’s father.”

Han Fen didn’t think it was a serious matter, shaking her head and saying, “The Dragon King only told me to keep you safe. He didn’t ask me to kill anyone.”

“How did you protect me when he nearly succeeded in attacking me?” Luo Ningcha indignantly questioned. She had been nearly killed by Shangguan Nu, but this woman did not worry at all.

“You were safe. I saw it clearly. He wouldn’t strangle you, some men are just like that. It’s nothing. If you don’t like it, just tell him.”

Luo Ningcha was speechless. She even suspected that this woman had not been sent by the Dragon King to protect her, but rather was a trick Shangguan Nu was deliberately playing to tease her. She moved back a bit and held the collar of her dress more tightly.

Shangguan Nu didn’t find the opportunity to make a move. The disciple of Waning Moon Hall was good at using secret techniques, and he wasn’t able to figure them out in a short time.

Han Fen smiled, “This is your saber?”

Shangguan Nu nodded with caution.

Han Fen gripped the saber hilt as if holding a dirty branch and handed it to Shangguan Nu, “Here you are.”

‘Pointing the saber tip at me while returning it so she can draw the saber and attack when I grasp the scabbard. The disciple of Waning Moon Hall has used such a naive trick.’ Shangguan Nu snorted with disdain in his mind. He stuck out his left hand to take his narrow saber while preparing the iron hook of his right hand to attack.

As soon as Han Fen moved, Shangguan Nu swung out his iron hook.

Han Fen had not drawn the saber out to attack. On the contrary, she stuffed the narrow saber into Shangguan Nu’s hand before she bounced back to avoid the iron hook. Then she stared at Shangguan Nu’s crotch and nodded with satisfaction.

Golden Roc Castle forced female killers to give up all senses of shame but had not taught male killers how to face these kinds of awkward situations. Out of instinct, Shangguan Nu held back his moves and pulled up his trousers with the hook.

“Wow, you’re really good with that iron hand, not hurting yourself at all,” said Han Fen, turning to the shocked and puzzled Luo Ningcha. “I really don’t know why you’re unwilling to, he’s not bad.”

Shangguan Nu and Luo Ningcha both had the same idea in their minds for the first time, and perhaps only time in their whole lives, blurted out the same word in unison, “Lunatic.”

Han Fen smiled as her expression grew even happier. “Let me try a little trick. I’m sure you two will be even crazier than I am.”

Shangguan Nu’s left hand shook once and like magic, the saber was now unsheathed. “Get out,” his voice echoed with the clash of the scabbard falling on the ground.

Han Fen seemed to finally understand that she was an extra person here. After all, she might not be the eighth young master’s match if they competed for saber or sword techniques. So she retreated while smilingly saying, “All right, I won’t meddle in your business, so you guys can continue.”

The ‘bodyguard’ sent by the Dragon King was going to leave. Luo Ningcha could not believe her eyes, “Hey, do not go … take me with you.”

Standing in the doorway, Han Fen responded, “Women are all like this. Resisting at the beginning and pestering afterward. Relax, you’ll be happy. He’ll be at your mercy. You can do it.”

Without waiting for Luo Ningcha to speak again, Han Fen had disappeared as fast as the wind, like she was never in the tent.

Luo Ningcha felt that she had fallen into the clutches of the evil again, but this time she was a lot more sober than before. “I am a noble guest of the Second Consort, while you are just a dog of King Rizhu. As long as I say something, I can decide your life and death.”

Shangguan Nu’s desire had actually died out but his wife’s threat just now revived it. It had nothing to do with lust. It was pure revenge and conquest as if all his dignity would come back to him afterward.

This time, instead of throwing away the narrow saber, he pointed it at Luo Ningcha and ordered, “Right now it’s up to me to decide whether you live or die. Take off your clothes.”

Luo Ningcha hesitated. She loathed being forcefully commanded but was more afraid of death. Struggles and threats were of no use now, and a voice in her heart rose to comfort her: This was your husband, and won’t be the first time doing it, so why suffer a loss right now?

Although she had persuaded herself to not resist, she didn’t want to undress in front of him, wasting her seduction skills.

As he felt his wife’s submission, Shangguan Nu’s desire miraculously flared up again. The fire of lust was getting hotter and hotter, so hot that his hand was sweaty as if he had never touched a woman in his whole life.

Shangguan Nu took a step forward before he suddenly retreated two steps and threw away his narrow saber as if he had stepped on a hot brazier or been stung by an insect.

The center of his palm was frighteningly red as if he was holding a pool of blood.

‘Waning Moon Hall.’ Shangguan Nu’s heart trembled, realizing how foolish he was. Ever since he was a child, he had heard of the wicked means of Waning Moon Hall. He had even led the army to destroy those crazy women before, how could he have been so careless and come into contact with the things that Han Fen had touched?

In fact, what he had destroyed was only the Great Desolate Sect, a branch of Waning Moon Hall. Han Fen was the first kung fu expert he had ever met from Waning Moon Hall.

“Ho …” Dry-mouthed, Shangguan Nu could not help but squeeze out a strange sound from his throat and then start swaying like a drunkard.

Baffled, Luo Ningcha asked, “You, what are you doing?”

Shangguan Nu was unable to speak. The paralysis together with the burning sensation was spreading quickly from his left arm to his whole body. Soon, his right arm was not at his beckoning, the iron hook trembled, and his trousers dropped to the ground again.

Luo Ningcha let out a scream while turning away her face and closing her eyes. She accepted her fate. She was in no hurry to get revenge. Servant Huan had waited for so many years, so she herself could also wait. As long as she was still in the Royal Court, she had the ability to persuade many powerful men to kill for her.

But the fate that she was imagining didn’t come. Luo Ningcha closed her eyes for a while, and nothing happened except for the gruff gasping of Shangguan Nu.

She opened her eyes.

Shangguan Nu was lying on the ground and twisting like a live fish waiting to be slaughtered. The thing under the crotch, however, was as straight as a serpent with its head held high on guard.

Luo Ningcha was stupefied, and suddenly she recalled what Han Fen had said when she left, ‘He’ll be at your mercy.’

Han Fen had kept her promise.

“She’s really a lunatic,” Luo Ningcha muttered, thinking that Han Fen was a formidable lunatic.

Luo Ningcha was free now. She could either summon the maidservants to punish them for betraying her at a critical moment and then let them punish Shangguan Nu, or she could just go out and ask the guards to send her to the Flower Camp immediately. She would cry to the Second Consort and also find a chance to complain to Tuo Sai, the son of King Riyao because the two of them were able to avenge her.

But none of these means could satisfy her desire for revenge right away.

Luo Ningcha cleaned up her clothes and jumped out of bed. She took a glance at Shangguan Nu’s blood-red left hand and understood how he was poisoned. Then she looked around, found some outerwear of Shangguan Nu’s, and tore off a small piece before crouching down, carefully wrapping the hilt of the saber and lifting it up.

Though she had heard many people say that Golden Roc Castle’s narrow saber was light, she felt that the saber in her hand was rather heavy.

Shangguan Nu’s face turned red, mostly out of humiliation. He had not only fallen in front of his wife but was also behaving in such a disgusting manner. Even all the contempt he had received from the Central Plains and the Norland added up couldn’t make him feel as embarrassed as he was now.

Luo Ningcha held the saber out towards Shangguan Nu’s chest and abdomen. Looking at the thing between her husband’s legs, she laughed out contemptuously. “That mad woman is really inexperienced. She called this ‘not bad’? It’s just a stiff little earthworm. It must take a rather long time for you to pee, since the passageway is so thin.”

Shangguan Nu’s breath grew louder and his eyes fiercer. If he could stand up, he would definitely not hesitate to kill his wife.

Luo Ningcha felt the rapture of revenge so she was not anxious to make a move. When stabbing an enemy, words were just as effective as sword or saber, sometimes even more so.

“You didn’t expect this day would come when you killed Big Head God, did you? Shangguan Nu, you treacherous wretch, my father protected you, helped you, and even wanted to pass the Iron Mountain to you one day. But instead of repaying the favor, you stabbed him in the back. Huh, the Heaven has eyes, and you got nothing in the end. The Iron Mountain fell apart and your lord, the Central Plains, hasn’t even given a bone to you.”

Luo Ningcha missed her childhood in the Iron Mountain camp, when she could have done whatever she wanted under Big Head God’s protection. But she had little enthusiasm for getting revenge on behalf of her father, and she found it really hard to understand Servant Huan’s obsession with revenge.

Her sole purpose of raking the past was to humiliate Shangguan Nu, her husband, whose right palm was broken. She was disgusted with him long before the marriage, and after more than a year’s of conjugal life, not only had her disgust not abated but it had even turned into hatred.

“You’ve always treated me as the daughter of a bandit, but look at you. You’re not even as good as a bandit. Although you are thick-skinned enough to work to the bone for your lords, you are still given the cold shoulder.”

Luo Ningcha’s saber swayed to Shangguan Nu’s crotch. With disdain, she curled her mouth and then smiled smugly. “The King Lord is so old but his thing is still better than yours. Just look at that father and son pair; the people of the Shangguan family are getting weaker and weaker with each generation.”

Shangguan Nu’s face was even redder than his palm now.

Luo Ningcha bent down and whispered, “Even Servant Huan is better than you. He was a hundred times better than you even when he was a kid. Now he’s the Dragon King, you are only fit to eat his dust.”

In a fit of rage, Shangguan Nu spat out a mouthful of blood. Then he suddenly found himself able to move again.