Chapter 92

"Eh? Junior Brother, you're crying?"

Seeing Feng Mu weeping silently, Hong Ya seemed to recall her former self, and she said with a grin,

"When Master picked me up back then, the first time I ate Wei Yi's cooking, I also cried my eyes out for no reason. Probably because I'd never eaten such delicious food before."

While reminiscing about her own embarrassing state, Hong Ya added, "Senior Brother said Second Senior Sister and Sixth Senior Brother cried too. Especially Sixth Senior Brother — he cried so hard he vomited up his food. The other senior brothers didn't seem to cry, and instead got scolded by Master as rotten lives who'd even forgotten how to cry."

Feng Mu wiped away the tears at the corner of his eyes, staring blankly at Hong Ya, deep in thought.

Hong Ya's face reddened under his gaze; she bit her lip, picked a chicken leg from her bowl, and placed it into Feng Mu's bowl.

Feng Mu picked up the chicken thigh meat, and under Junior Sister's watchful gaze, tore off a mouthful in one bite; oil and juice filled his lips and teeth. The latter swallowed hard, only then managing to tear her eyes away with difficulty.

While chewing the chicken leg, Feng Mu asked casually, "Did Master say anything else?"

Hong Ya buried her head eating, replying with unclear speech, "Oh, Master seemed to have said something else, I didn't understand too well, just remember one sentence."

"A living corpse soaked too long in a stagnant pool — the flesh was saved, but the spirit has already rotted away, a walking corpse, pitiable and hateful!"

Listening to Junior Sister speak words he didn't quite understand, Feng Mu nevertheless understood, and a sudden chill ran through him.

"Walking corpse, walking corpse, walking corpse."

Feng Mu repeated it several times haltingly; before his eyes a horrifying scene seemed to appear.

In a massive city, high-rises stood dense, packed houses arranged like ant nests.

And inside these houses lived rotting corpses; corpses looked down from the buildings, and the streets teemed with equally rotting corpses coming and going.

These corpses walked, stood, sat, cried, laughed, greeting each other loudly, some even snuggling and embracing, letting their own rotting corpse fluid drip onto each other.

In the vehicles driving or stopped on the road, faces appeared that were sunken, nothing but skin and bone — like ghosts, like corpses, in short, not like living people.

"So the truth is, we're all living corpses?!!" Feng Mu shuddered with cold; he hadn't dared look in a mirror for days.

"Oh? Eighth Junior Brother, not only did you cry while eating, you even scared yourself. What interesting scene did you think of? Tell Master."

Li Guishe, a smoke pipe in his mouth, suddenly appeared before Feng Mu, watching him with deep meaning.

Hong Ya ran off to serve Master rice.

Feng Mu looked at Li Guishe with his turbid old eyes; honestly, he still felt a bit of dread toward this Master in his heart.

But he truly wanted too badly to know whether the scene that had surfaced in his mind just now was actually the truth.

So Feng Mu answered honestly: "Master, disciple's mind was in a trance, as if seeing an illusion — as if I saw countless living corpses dancing gracefully around the world?"

Li Guishe's eyes shone with a greenish light; he said strangely, "Blood deficient, spirit abundant — the spirit in your body doesn't look like someone who's been fed poison for eighteen years."

Feng Mu's heart clenched; he almost thought his greatest secret was about to be exposed.

At the same time he realized that a crucial reason he could now detect his body's distress signal was because the soul in his body had already been swapped.

If it were the original owner's soul, deceived and corroded for over a decade, it would probably have long forgotten how to cry as well.

Fortunately Li Guishe didn't probe deeper into Feng Mu's secret, but coldly laughed: "That scene of yours — your Second Senior Sister and Sixth Senior Brother have seen it too."

"After seeing it, one's heart turned vicious, feeling that killing wasn't killing, but collecting corpses for them was doing good deeds for free."

"One's eyes went bad, feeling living people's faces were hard to paint, only dead faces would be clear."

Li Guishe paused, knocked the ash from his pipe onto the stone table, and asked Feng Mu: "What about you? What's in your heart right now?"

Feng Mu froze for a moment, pondered briefly; the anger and terror from being deceived faded somewhat. He replied: "I didn't think anything, just thought that from now on I'll eat this food, and every time I'll add several more bowls."

Li Guishe neither confirmed nor denied, laughing: "You're quite down-to-earth."

Feng Mu asked again: "Master, so what I saw was an illusion?"

Li Guishe took a drag of smoke, blew out a smoke ring; the smoke ring made his old face turn blurry: "Of course it's an illusion. How could the whole world possibly be all living corpses, and dancing at that?"

Feng Mu relaxed slightly, then heard the next line: "Half would be about right!"

Half, about right?!!

Feng Mu's scalp went numb and felt like splitting in an instant; the illusion hadn't become reality, but turned into half-reality — should he cry or laugh?

Feng Mu's fingers gripping the rice bowl stiffened; his expression froze: "Why?"

He was asking why this situation would arise, and also asking what purpose this situation served.

This time Li Guishe didn't answer; not answering might be because he didn't want to say, or might be because he didn't understand the reason behind it either. He just said indifferently: "Eat."

The enormous shock obviously couldn't be digested in a moment, but what else could be done? Only eat.

Feng Mu nodded, shoveled rice into his bowl with force, eating every last grain clean.

Call him selfish, call him cold — in short, Feng Mu didn't have a shred of thought about saving the world.

The world was too big; his heart couldn't hold it. His heart could only hold himself.

Seeing Feng Mu so obedient, Li Guishe felt slightly surprised; you should know that back then Second and Sixth, one locked himself in his room for days, the other cried his eyes out and wouldn't even eat.

A flash of appreciation flickered in Li Guishe's eyes; he thought to himself: "Worthy of being the seedling the Ancestral Masters sent — cold-hearted disposition, perfectly suited for our sect's path."

Feng Mu set his bowl on the stone table, looking toward Master.

Hong Ya bounced back, handing Li Guishe a heaping bowl and chopsticks.

Li Guishe ate a mouthful of rice unhurriedly, and said: "Whatever you want to ask, hurry up and say it."

Feng Mu then opened his mouth and asked: "What is the 'spirit' Master just spoke of?"

Li Guishe: "If life is a sea of suffering, the body is a raft, then the spirit is the oar that rows the boat, the single thread of light in the boundless darkness — that's what the ancients said, sounds very abstruse."

Li Guishe coldly laughed: "But in my view, the spirit is just like the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys — it's also one of your own organs."

Feng Mu: "The spirit is an organ?"

Li Guishe nodded: "Yes, only it's an invisible organ. The heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys need food to nourish them, while the spirit doesn't need food — it needs the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, body, the nourishment of the five senses."

"So when the five senses deceive you, the spirit loses nourishment, withers. Long-term withering, the spirit dies. The body may be alive, but can no longer see itself clearly — a pile of rotten flesh without knowing it."

Feng Mu seemed to half-understand, and asked again: "If the body dies, can it still be saved?"

Feng Mu understood that the 'death' in Li Guishe's mouth wasn't true death; otherwise death would be death, it should just be a kind of approximate metaphor.

Li Guishe ate a mouthful of rice: "Eating can sustain life. If blood and flesh are gone, just eat them back."

Feng Mu asked again, "If a god dies, can it still be saved?"

The appreciation hidden in Li Guishe's eyes grew even deeper — appreciation for Feng Mu's keenness, appreciation for Feng Mu's agile mind, able to grasp the crux.

Back then, Second Brother and Sixth Brother, even Third, Fourth, and Fifth Brothers, took several months to awaken and come ask about the questions he had deliberately thrown out.

As for Boss, Boss was an abandoned infant, raised by his side since childhood; this confusion did not exist for him.

Seventh Brother was even simpler; she never even realized this problem existed, but had already been led onto the correct path by her Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters.

Li Guishe answered blandly, "A god dies; relying on oneself it cannot be revived; one must rely on others."

Feng Mu felt he was about to touch the answer; he repeated, "Rely on others, how to rely?"

Li Guishe set down his bowl, let out a loud burp, like a master imparting the Dao and teaching a disciple, guiding him patiently: "What you don't have, if someone else has it, what do you do?"

Without hesitation, Feng Mu blurted out, "Naturally, snatch it over!"

The words barely left his mouth, and Feng Mu understood.

Li Guishe revealed an expression of "a teachable child," laughing heartily as he asked, "What do you think martial arts are?"

Feng Mu pondered for a moment: "Martial arts are killing techniques."

This time Li Guishe's appreciation spilled over in his words; he laughed loudly, his face fierce and terrifying: "Exactly. Killing is seizing the divine; killing techniques are divine-nurturing arts. That is why those Martial Artists who kill more have sharper Five Senses, and their martial arts become more formidable — this is the principle."

Although he had already guessed the answer, truly hearing it still made Feng Mu feel a chill run through his whole body.

Li Guishe's smile grew even more wanton, his face full of ferocity that chilled the heart: "So-called 'Martial Dao can reach the divine' — isn't that just saying the one who kills the most, plunders others the most, ultimately nurtures a true god within his body?!!"

Feng Mu knew in his heart that this was his Master instilling into him the 【Rong Gui Pai】's Martial Dao general outline.

This is his own school of thought; Martial Dao may not truly be interpreted this way; most likely it is a heterodox, evil doctrine. But what is terrifying is that Feng Mu truly feels Li Guishe's words, though cold and shocking, cut to the marrow, and forcibly carry seven parts of reason.

The missing three parts are because it is too naked, lacking a bit of embellishment and decoration; it is inevitably difficult to become a mainstream interpretation.

Additionally, there is one more point: Feng Mu feels that the 【god】 in his Master's mouth, if swapped for another word — 【Resentment】 — might be even more accurate!

"The human body contains 【Resentment】; killing is plundering 【Resentment】. But in the Lower City, most are living corpses; the 【Resentment】 in their bodies has withered and died. Only by killing other living corpses can one revive one's own 【Resentment】?" Feng Mu thought to himself.

Li Guishe waited a few minutes, letting Feng Mu digest the reasoning in his words, then put on a benevolent, kind-faced expression and said in a deep voice: "This school's martial arts philosophy, as your Master, I have already told you. Do you resist it?"

In his heart, Feng Mu naturally did not resist; on the contrary, he felt a hint of joy. After all, killing people and killing living corpses — the guilt in one's heart is completely different.

Feng Mu shook his head: "Disciple does not resist. Disciple feels Master's words are pearls and jade, thought-provoking."

Li Guishe was greatly satisfied, and thus said: "Since it is so, today as your Master I will transmit to you this school's true art."

……

(End of Chapter)