The Yao Emperor and His Human Doctor.

Chapter 52 - Investigating the Past (3)

"Quánmiè?" Qiang Yong frowned in astonishment. Lai Guen nodded.
"Quánmiè. This is a fact that no one knows other than me and Su Ning." The old master confided.

"When Tung Shiu first used his creation, just as a practice, he made a small cut in a tree. The next day, not only was the tree cut down but several were cut down around it. Day after day, more trees were cut down until There was a huge clearing with no trees in the region. When he saw the name, he understood."

"In the past, his father was an official in the court of the Southern Prince. Because of a mistake, he and several ministers were sentenced to death. They and their families were annihilated. Tung Shie only escaped because he was the son of a concubine and the latter expelled him from the residence before the imperial guard caught him. But that did not exempt him from seeing the massacre. More than a hundred people beheaded..."

Ren Loo could feel his stomach turn just imagining the scene.
"Tung Shiu finally understood what was happening. The weapon creation technique takes out a fragment of the soul that contains great stored anger. It seeks this feeling to infiltrate the sword blade. It is its dark side. He has seen countless people being killed with a single blow of a sword. Quánmiè reproduced this killing on trees. With just one cut, its effect did not affect just one, but an entire forest and lasted several days. Exactly like the killing that Tung Shiu witnessed as a child... "

Qiang Yong felt a chill run up his spine. "But if all the anger and resentment is taken away from the user, that should be a good thing, right?"
Lai Guen sighed. "That's what he thought. In possession of their true names, the swords responded well to his commands. He still wanted to do more tests and see if it was possible to choose the soul fragment. He asked Su Ning to make his own sword, without his help, to see if he was not the one influencing the choice of the fragment."

"I understand." Qiang Yong reflected. "That's how he was the only disciple to know the technique in its entirety."
"Yes. After all, he was very trustworthy. He would never tell anyone about this knowledge. Dr. Su did as Master taught and started to help him with this research as well. In fact, Su Ning was suspicious of this technique, he thought the swords too mischievous to use."

"He had a bad feeling and asked Deng Choi to avoid using his. Of course, he didn't listen to him. Gradually, Deng Choi started to become more and more greedy and petty. Then his behavior became more violent and proud. When war broke out, it was a great opportunity for him to excel. He immediately volunteered to go fight."

Lai Guen sighed. "The rest you already know, Chen Doi's sword feeds on the victim's soul and his body remains like an empty shell, injured people agonized for at least a day until the entire soul was consumed. And he achieved many military victories. His dark part was the greed for power, which consumes everything in front of him."

Ren Loo was white. Hearing this story was like boiling water in a covered cauldron.
"Well, observing the evolution of his shixiong, Su Ning realized that as the soul was still linked to the fragment in the sword, the more it was used, the greater the weapon's power grew over its owner. In other words, this dark part of Deng Choi came to dominate over the main soul."

"As he killed, the stronger and more powerful the sword became and the greater its power to subdue him. He rushed to warn the master and ask for his intervention. Then Tung Shiu destroyed his sword and handed over all his research documents to Su Ning save. After that, he called Deng Choi to convince him to destroy his sword as well."

Lai Guen lowered his head, pausing, and the dragons felt that the climax of the story was approaching. Lai Guen's eyes were slightly red. "Deng Choi refused to get rid of the weapon and he used it to kill his own master."
The following silence in the cabin seemed even heavier with the gloom.

Qiang Yong and Ren Loo were in shock. This was unexpected.
"Su Ning was working as a doctor in the war, but he was constantly going back and forth as he needed to replenish medical supplies. He found the body after four days... He buried it and came looking for me to tell me what had happened."

"He was sure that the soul in Deng Choi's sword had already taken control of him and promised to destroy everything about this cursed technique. That's what he did, he burned all of Tung Shie's research in front of me and went after exterminating the sword by Deng Choi."
The attention of the two listeners was total, they barely breathed to hear more.

Lai Guen continued. "I went along because I had already seen how Deng Choi was and how lethal the sword was. I was afraid for Su Ning. Until then I had never seen his sword. He never used any weapon. He went somewhere place before he left with me and when he came back, he was with it. Tung Shiu's weapon and Deng Choi's were frightening, it made one's spine freeze just by seeing them. But when Su Ning came back with his... ah! I really saw what it was like to be truly afraid."

"It was overwhelmed, but as soon as he arrived, my entire body sensed danger and I looked directly at it. Of course, he couldn't face Deng Choi on equal terms without having power on the same level."
"What... what was the sword called?" Qiang Yong asked hoarsely.

"Hehe, it was the first thing I asked. The sword's name was Hēi'àn de dīyǔ, (Whisper of Darkness) [1]. It wasn't an inauspicious name, right? When those two met, Su Ning even tried to dialogue, but Deng Choi didn't hand over the sword. He was a completely different person from the one I knew. I realized what Su Ning had to do with his soul being consumed. There was nothing left of Deng Choi from before. The Soul Eater exterminated even his old self."

Lai Guen took some tea to clear his throat. "However, Su Ning did not kill him, he intended to take Deng Choi into custody for the Sect. He used the sword little and had complete control over it, so he concentrated the attacks only to destroy the sword."

"Deng Choi had just attacked a division of the yao army and he was about to chase after their general, who had managed to escape. At that moment Su Ning appeared and blocked him, preventing him from going after him." Lai Guen told. Qiang Yong knew this. He was the one who had run away, when he could not face Deng Choi head on nor save his comrades.

Su Ning had blocked shixiong's advance and tried futilely to talk to him, while the yao escaped. This only increased Deng Choi's fury and he shouted hysterically: "Do you know who you let get away?"
"You've already killed Deng Choi too much! That's not what the shifu taught us!"

Deng Choi attacked him bluntly, his sword lunged at the victim like an insatiable mouth, sucking the essence of everything it hit. Su Ning had no choice, his blocks were consumed by that ravenous return and he unsheathed Hēi'àn from dīyǔ.
Everyone present trembled at the evil pressure that the weapon released when wielded.

Author's Note

Our! What a tragedy! Tung Shiu's death was so sad, killed by his own disciple...😢.

[1] Hēi'àn de dīyǔ (黑暗的地狱), "Whisper of Darkness" or even "Dark Hell". These swords only have beauty in name.