Chapter 31: In My Dreams, I Love to Kill

After seeing Xiang Huchen off from her courtyard, Xiao Yu did not immediately lie down to sleep.

The Purple Mansion’s deduction of “methods to kill Guan Huchen” had drained too much mental energy; her head felt hot and stuffy, and her stomach was hungry.

Xia Zhi had prepared her a late-night meal: one pot of bone-strengthening soup, one pot of spirit-nourishing porridge, not to mention chicken, duck, fish, and meat.

Yong Xue had prepared a wooden tub and hot water for her.

As she soaked in the bath to dispel fatigue, the two maids massaged her while feeding her food.

Hmm, Xiao Yu had never entertained the idea of befriending her maids, loving them like sisters, or treating them as equals.

Though she had only been a young lady for two days, she commanded servants better than any true aristocratic daughter—anything others could do, she would never do herself.

She still respected them inwardly.

Because she respected their personhood, she respected their work. They earned their own living, worked hard to support their families—what was wrong with that?

When Xiao Yu finally climbed comfortably into bed, she regained her energy and spirit, and lay there continuing to deduce the “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” in her Purple Mansion.

Guan Huchen had only taught her the heart mantra of “Tiger Soul Seven Kill,” so she used only her spiritual force to cultivate the Fierce Tiger Divine Intention and the Seven Kill Mysteries.

While explaining the heart mantra, Guan Huchen also told her that “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” was an extremely refined immortal martial art, encompassing five aspects: heart, intention, spirit, qi, and body.

“Heart” is the true self, the original mind—guarding one’s nature, seated at the center, stabilizing all directions.

“Spirit” governs transformation—refining a portion of one’s spiritual essence (a part of the soul) into a ferocious, savage tiger, positioned above.

“Intention” is the soul—not the human soul, but the soul of the technique. “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” has seven killing techniques; each technique’s unique essence is its soul—the Seven Kill Mysteries. “Spirit” governs “Intention”; spirit is above, intention below.

“Qi” is internal qi, true qi—only cultivable through the “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” breathing method. Qi is the root, located behind.

“Body” refers both to the powerful physique that wields “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” and to the actual techniques themselves. Qi relies on the body; the body manifests qi. Qi is hidden behind, the body reveals itself ahead.

Heart, spirit, intention, qi, and body are positioned at the center, above, below, front, and back respectively.

The center controls all that is changeable and unchangeable; spirit and intention are linked; qi and body are inseparable; “spirit-intention” and “qi-body” mutually influence and connect. The five correspond to the Five Elements—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—forming a harmonious whole.

This was Guan Huchen’s instruction to Xiao Yu.

Put simply: cultivating “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” means imitating the killing techniques of a savage tiger.

Separate a portion of the human soul, simulate a savage tiger (tiger demon), transform one’s spirit into a ferocious tiger—this brings one closer to the origin.

This is the Fierce Tiger Divine Intention.

But humans are humans; one cannot cultivate one’s soul into a tiger and lose one’s true nature.

Therefore, place the “heart” at the center and guard one’s true self.

Or rather, the “heart” uses human will to command the Fierce Tiger Divine Intention.

Humans consist of flesh and soul; with soul comes spirit and infinite potential. If a technique is given a soul, it too gains powerful spirit and boundless power.

Sword manuals can only produce techniques without souls; the Seven Kill Mysteries are seven souls of techniques.

Infusing each of the seven technique souls into the seven killing techniques is the true “Tiger Soul Seven Kill.”

To integrate the Seven Kill Mysteries into techniques, one needs the Fierce Tiger Divine Intention to command them.

The Fierce Tiger Divine Intention itself transforms human spirit-soul into a savage tiger—naturally, the “savage tiger soul” is easiest to imbue into techniques.

In summary: use one’s own will to master the portion of spirit-soul transformed into a savage tiger, then use that tiger soul to imbue techniques with soul—thus heart, spirit, intention, and body form an organic whole through mutual generation and restraint.

Finally, qi.

Qi is the foundation of all transcendence; without qi, heart, spirit, intention, and body cannot grow or flourish.

At the same time, qi arises from the body and is guided and controlled by heart, spirit, and intention.

When heart, spirit, intention, body, and qi unite as one, forming the “Great Five Elements,” true perfection is achieved.

Even as a novice with little experience, Xiao Yu felt that “Tiger Soul Seven Kill,” cultivating heart, spirit, intention, body, and qi simultaneously while mapping them to the Five Elements and interlinking them through generation and restraint, was an extremely refined immortal martial theory.

She merely thought the theory of “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” was brilliant—not that she acknowledged its power.

In fact, its upper limit greatly disappointed Xiao Yu.

Forget “can it grant immortality?”—can it kill immortal demons, gods, or buddhas? The answer is definitively no.

Xiao Yu could be so certain not only because Guan Huchen proudly told her: “Tiger Soul Seven Kill,” when perfected, can slay ghosts and gods—but ghosts are ghosts, not gods, let alone immortals.

Only “ghost immortals” barely qualify as “immortals.”

After receiving Guan Huchen’s heart mantra, Xiao Yu herself mastered the Tiger Soul Intention and the Seven Kill Mysteries.

Put plainly, she had essentially seen through the essence of “Tiger Soul Seven Kill.”

She was 99.9999% certain it was not the legendary technique of the ancient savage god Chiyou.

She believed “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” was merely the ultimate technique of some tiger demon—likely a reduced and modified version.

Worse still, the tiger demon who represented the manual’s upper limit was not powerful at all.

It was merely extremely ferocious, cruel, and vicious.

In summary: weak but poisonous.

Its upper limit was already low, then it was cut down, then modified toward even weaker directions to suit human martial artists... sigh!

Of course, Xiao Yu thought “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” was weak because she knew how strong the top-tier combatants in this world truly were.

Weak only in comparison to top-tier immortals like Sun Wukong and Yang Jian.

In the mortal martial world, it could still dominate a region.

Even if one perfected “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” and trained internal force for decades, it still couldn’t withstand Sun Wukong’s golden hoop staff with a single light tap; give Xiao Yu a few months to nurture internal qi, and she might just overthrow Guan Huchen.

This wasn’t Xiao Yu being arrogant.

The Purple Mansion’s deduction, previously stalled, was now nearly completing the “method to kill her adoptive father, Guan Huchen.”

She no longer needed to deduce a method to counter Thousand-Mile Eyes.

Because she didn’t need to find a weak point or sneak attack—she didn’t need to evade Thousand-Mile Eyes’ surveillance during stealth approach—which left her slightly frustrated, as she had truly wanted to learn the stealth technique to counter Thousand-Mile Eyes’ detection.

Overall, once Guan Huchen fully transmitted the sword manual and breathing method to Xiao Yu, she could shed her helplessness and lack of control over her fate within months.

At that point, she could advance, leveraging Guan Huchen’s influence to scheme further; or retreat, leave calmly, change her identity, wander the martial world, seek immortals and the Dao, and play among mortals.

Guan Huchen was no good man—but he was the greatest benefactor she had ever met in her life!

With anticipation for the “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” breathing method and a sense of liberation as her fate grew clearer, Xiao Yu fell asleep, weary yet content.

Even in her dreams, her subconscious remained in the Purple Mansion, quietly cultivating the heart mantra, nurturing the Fierce Tiger Divine Intention, and practicing the Seven Kill Mysteries.

At some unknown moment, a hazy mist suddenly appeared before her eyes; no buildings were visible—she seemed to be in an open field.

“Guan~~ Yu~~ Guan~~~~ Yu~~~~”

Someone called her name from the thick mist, voice strange, drawn out, with a faint tremor.

As if accompanied by an eerie, sinister background melody.

Hmm—it was exactly the little tune played in Chinese horror films when a malevolent ghost is about to appear.

In fact, at that moment, Xiao Yu felt as if she were haunted, trapped in a terrifying nightmare.

“Guan~ Yu~~ you~~ come~~ over~~ Guan~ Yu~~ you~ come~ quickly~~”

Xiao Yu knew she shouldn’t go, yet couldn’t help drifting forward—then forcibly restrained herself from moving...

It sounds contradictory, but many people have had similar experiences.

Like dreaming you’re climbing stairs to a rooftop, the building swaying violently as if collapsing—you feel dread, yet know you’re dreaming, shouldn’t be afraid, yet still can’t control your panic.

“Old Luo, hey, Old Luo, are you really drunk?”

It seemed like a long time had passed—or perhaps only the next instant—Xiao Yu heard a different voice.

“Oh, I’m not drunk, I can still drink... burp, sheep wine is rare, must drink heartily...”

“Old Luo, wake up, Master is waiting for us.”

“Master is waiting for us... then let’s hurry back~~~”

“Hey hey, Old Luo, don’t go! Master told us to bring back Guan Yu—haven’t you forgotten?”

“Oh, Guan Yu—then take her back.”

“I called, summoned her soul, but it didn’t respond. Her soul is too strong, too stable—I’ve nearly exhausted my spiritual power, barely any reaction. You and I, brothers, combine our strength.”

Just like in a dream—seemed clear, but remembered little.

Xiao Yu felt she had heard much, yet vaguely, indistinctly.

Until a rustling sound—“Guan~ Yu~~ Guan~ Yu~~ come, Guan Yu, come quickly~~”

Again—it was clearer, more seductive than before.

Xiao Yu nearly lost control—but as a thread of spiritual awareness entered the “Purple Mansion,” her mind grew sharper.

“Master Chi, didn’t we call the wrong name? We’ve been calling for ages, no response.”

“No, it’s ‘Guan Yu’—not no response, just weak resistance.

Strange—our ‘soul-calling technique’ has always worked flawlessly, never failed.

Even cultivators of Daoist arts only needed a few more calls before their true spirit grew dim and their soul slipped from their body unnoticed. Why is Miss Guan so ‘resistant’?”

“Master Chi... burp, my throat’s dry, I can’t call anymore—you do it yourself.”

“Use the Soul-Chain?”

“Use the Soul-Chain!”

“But she’s not a murderous ghost...”

Though he said so, Master Chi’s tone held clear hesitation.

“Master Song is waiting for us, her father has waited long enough—he won’t blame us.”

Master Chi was convinced. “Don’t blame us for being rough—it’s just that Miss Guan’s soul is too strong, too firmly anchored. Your father is calling you!”

“Swoosh, swoosh~~”

As Xiao Yu pondered the dream’s strange words, two iron chains pierced the mist like venomous snakes, wrapping around her body, while an irresistible, immense force surged from the other end—she stumbled helplessly.

She grew furious—the Fierce Tiger Divine Intention erupted instantly.

“Roar~~” She suddenly transformed from a tiny human into a black tiger as large as a house, over a zhang tall and more than three zhang long, her entire body wreathed in solidified crimson malevolent energy.

The black tiger instinctively slashed forward with one claw—the Seventh Killing Mystery’s “Rip the Sky.”

Her sharp claws resembled five curved blades, unleashing a vast sickle-shaped “blade aura” composed of black-red malevolent energy.

The thick fog ahead instantly scattered, the chains clanging as if slashed by countless knives.

Behind the chains, one of the ghost envoys was completely engulfed by the sickle blade aura; after a brief scream, his ghostly form vanished, leaving only scattered yin energy and black mist.

“Aaaah, Old Luo, aaaah, my leg, Great Immortal, spare me~~~ Master Song, save me!”

Xiao Yu had never heard such a piercing scream—it was beyond anything a normal person could utter.

But before she could recover her wits, the scream had already faded rapidly into the distance.

“What happened? Could it be that what I think about during the day appears in my dreams—that I practiced too long before sleep, and even in my dream I was pondering the divine meaning and mysteries of the ‘Tiger Soul Seven Killings’...”

Xiao Yu mumbled a few half-asleep words, rolled over, hugged the quilt, and prepared to fall back asleep.