Chapter 196
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Chapter 40: Rethink (1)
No life! Only death!
In that instant, the ultimate defensive mechanism activated.
Discard everything that can be discarded. If limbs must be severed, offer them willingly. If the body must be torn apart, surrender it without hesitation. Give up everything.
The defensive mechanism focuses on one thing alone: preserving life.
All of Four Thousand Four's internal energy, defying his own intentions, converged not on attack, but on defense.
Such a thing could never be done with a sound mind.
That was why it chose mental derangement. Or, to be precise, it wasn't derangement at all—it was a diversion of attention. It induced excruciating headaches severe enough to make it impossible to think of anything else, anything happening outside.
Then who was carrying out this act? If not Four Thousand Four himself, who was controlling his mind and body? Was there some spirit at work?
It was Four Thousand Four. Four Thousand Four himself.
Over long years, the precepts had been etched into his instincts, activating independently of his will.
The assassin prioritizes safety above all.
Some assassins value mission success as paramount, but the precepts place safety first.
If there's any risk of identity exposure, halt all action.
Kill without anyone knowing—not even the killer themselves. It must be that secretive.
Four Thousand Four had internalized these mantras for years.
They activated at the final moment, seizing control of his will and body with overwhelming force.
"Heh heh heh."
Four Thousand Four let out a low chuckle.
No one... not a single soul had ever experienced this.
Neither Green Killer nor Blind Killer had gone this far. They'd only imagined it in their minds.
Suppose the precepts harbored a spirit.
The spirit could regulate its host body and mind. It could restrain the body from moving freely. Even if the body was shredded, it could remain calm—because the shredded flesh wasn't the spirit's true vessel.
When the host body dies, the spirit simply departs to find another.
There is the body, and there is the spirit.
Viewing the precepts this way, one might think the killing path and warmth combine to birth a spirit... and the body that nurtures it loses its free will.
It becomes the spirit's slave.
Green Killer and Blind Killer saw this state as enlightenment.
But in truth, there is no spirit. It never existed.
Four Thousand Four withstood Grandmaster Jigong's One Hundred and Eight Great Beads of Scattering Heaven's Wrath with his entire body.
He had walked calmly into certain death. Why? To deliver a fatal blow with death resolved. To execute mutual destruction faithfully.
Yet it was not mutual destruction.
The opponent died, but Four Thousand Four lived. The spirit protected his body. It would never let him die completely. But even so, charging into what appeared certain death required a sound mind? Impossible. Thus, it induced madness.
Truthfully, this wasn't it either.
It wasn't about driving the body into death for mutual destruction.
No life. Only death. Despair.
In such a state, instinct activates. It clings to life with the resolve that becoming a cripple is fine, so long as survival is possible.
With the resolve that becoming a cripple is fine... therein lies the answer.
The act that seemed to throw away his life using the enemy's hand was, in fact, the ultimate choice for preservation.
A choice he would never have made if even a shred of hope for life remained.
He couldn't move his body.
Grandmaster Jigong's beads, infused with condensed energy, had ravaged his entire form.
Four Thousand Four's energy focused on protecting vital organs.
Shield the heart, shield the lungs... evade only the absolutely lethal blows that guaranteed death.
The head? It could take hits, so long as the skull didn't shatter. But against the One Hundred and Eight Beads, a head strike would shatter it outright—punching holes wouldn't suffice. So the head couldn't be hit either. Protect it too.
These were choices Four Thousand Four himself made.
Not some precept spirit, but the safety instinct compressed into his core over countless hours.
It wasn't madness. It only appeared so.
The ringing headaches—ding! ding!—were self-induced by Four Thousand Four. Without them, he wouldn't charge into death. He'd fight Grandmaster Jigong, and as expected, surely die.
"Heh heh heh."
Four Thousand Four only gave a bitter smile.
Green Killer bound himself to avoid such a fate.
Blind Killer sought to dive in deliberately. He believed he could enter without madness and control the spirit. Becoming invincible.
Heavenly Commander thought differently. Gain a body tamed by the spirit, an invincible madman under his command.
All were wrong.
To reiterate, no spirit exists. No descent into madness, no "bow path" as Grandmaster Jigong claimed. Combining killing path and warmth yields no invincibility, no threat to the world.
Or perhaps Grandmaster Jigong was right.
Ascend to the bow path, and safety instinct maximizes.
Sense safety or danger by feel alone. Always sense it before killing. And kill only in safety.
Who could stop such a killer?
Even if a murder occurs, if no one knows who did it, how to punish them?
The bow path signifies the birth of a perfect assassin.
"Bow path" was likely Blind Killer's term. To precept successors, it's explained as warmth, but externally, perhaps bow path. Blind Killer's version still fell short of the true bow path.
Be that as it may... how does he move now?
Life preserved, yet every nerve feels severed strand by strand. Can't twitch a finger. Lie staring at the sky until death? Then,
Sss...
Someone approached from the side.
No警戒 arose. The instinct sensing safety in every moment, every situation, signaled no danger.
Four Thousand Four knew who it was.
Couldn't turn his head. Couldn't see the face. But he could hear. Hearing still worked.
The rustle of clothing, the distinctive scent... Zhuge Soso.
"My god!"
Zhuge Soso let out a gasp.
"How... how are you still alive like this?"
She came closer, inspecting the wounds.
"Couldn't... find... me... but you... did... well."
Four Thousand Four forced out the words with a bitter smile.
Speech was arduous in this state. But his location was safe. No one could find it. The safety instinct had selected the optimal spot nearby.
"I have ways to locate you. You know that."
"Heh! Is that... so."
Four Thousand Four muttered to himself.
Zhuge Soso stared at him silently for a long while, then spoke heavily.
"Shall I be honest?"
"...?"
"Your condition right now... it's hard to survive. You might hold on a bit longer, but in the end..."
Zhuge Soso paused.
Four Thousand Four instantly grasped her intent.
Killing path. She spoke of the killing path.
For those certainly dying, hope severed, enduring pain... granting them rest is the role of precept successors.
She meant the killing path now. Should she end it?
Four Thousand Four smiled faintly.
"Blind Killer called it warmth, Grandmaster Jigong the bow path, Green Killer the mad path."
"..."
Zhuge Soso listened without interrupting.
"Now I understand... and thanks to it, I survived. Barely breathing, perhaps. But I want to see where it leads me."
"You want me to save you? As I said, your state..."
"Not asking to be saved. Just... please leave me be."
"You think you can survive alone?"
"..."
Four Thousand Four had no reply. Not that he chose silence—nothing came to mind.
From the moment he took Grandmaster Jigong's One Hundred and Eight Great Beads... no, from preparing to receive it, he trod an uncharted path. No one knew what lay ahead. Not even him. But it wouldn't be an ordinary death.
The safety instinct saved him.
By devoting all to preservation in a moment of pure death.
And so he lived, like this.
What now? Body too wrecked to move, and Zhuge Soso offering to end it mercifully—what more could he do?
Truly die like this?
Then what meaning in preserving life at the last moment?
Mere survival... violates the killing path.
Clinging to life at any cost isn't the precept successors' way—comfortably to the afterlife. Then how explain the countless murders committed? Hasten others' deaths while maximizing one's own life? Hypocrisy.
That's why he wanted to see the end.
Die like this, or survive... but dying now makes the precepts a glaring lie.
"Water?"
"No need."
"Drink some water. Your lips are parched."
"Hole in my gut. Drinking now..."
"You still think you can live."
Sss!
Movement detected. Zhuge Soso stirred.
Killing him? No way to stop her.
"Feel nothing?"
Zhuge Soso said something odd.
"I know you moved."
"I'm holding your hand."
"...!"
"No reaction at all. Sensation's gone too. Now do you understand? Enough. Let it all go and pass peacefully."
Four Thousand Four wore a serene smile.
Didn't even feel her grasp. Truly as she said—destined to await death.
Srck!
Zhuge Soso stood.
"Don't want to die, huh. Fine. I'll go. Maybe this is a good chance for you. On your final road, compare the precepts you chased with your current will to live. And others too. Honestly... I thought you'd beg for death. Surprising."
She turned away.
He harbored no attachment to life or death.
Like falling asleep, close eyes, lose consciousness—that's death. Open them again, and live; never open, and dead forever.
Life and death flicker in an instant.
Having guided countless dying bodies to the afterlife, he knew death's meaning well.
No lingering regrets over living or dying.
Only curiosity: what did the safety instinct—the root of the precepts—seek?
What purpose in saving the body like this?
That alone he wanted to know.
"Heh heh heh! Heh heh heh heh!"
Four Thousand Four gazed at the blue sky, chuckling bitterly.
With a sound mind, he'd have unleashed the Cataclysmic Infernal Blaze Formation. Grandmaster Jigong wouldn't have escaped.
Headaches too severe to even recall it.
Body preservation trumps mission success.
'Fine. Let's see where you take me.'
With calm resolve, he closed his eyes.