Strongest Counterattack

But today, his situation was even worse than last time. He never expected that one of his brothers, who he had been trusting, would betray and try to kill him. Qin Sheng was in a terrible mood because of this.

Fortunately, the Heaven had yet to give up on Qin Sheng. Instead, it let him lose something and also gain something. Gu Xiaobo had betrayed him, but Gu Qingyang had moved him. But Gu Qingyang had done so much that Qin Sheng might never do enough in return.

It was easy to say, “Don’t be afraid of death.”, but difficult to do it. After all, people only had one life. If one died, then all he owned and who he was would be meaningless. Gu Qingyang was faithful and righteous enough to die for Qin Sheng. Or maybe he was trying to make up for the pain Gu Xiaobo’s betrayal had caused to Qin Sheng.

Qin Sheng finally made his decision to leave. As Gu Qingyang had said, if he stayed, then both of them would die here. They were not powerful enough to fight against Gu Xiaobo, Feng He and his underlings. Now that they had come to kill Qin Sheng, they must be fully prepared. Feng He never made the same mistakes twice since he knew Qin Sheng’s ability.

When Qin Sheng left, Gu Qingyang felt relieved and walked toward the opposite direction, where their enemies were approaching. It was hard since he knew that he was walking step by step to death.

As he expected, Gu Qingyang met the three men. They looked at each other to communicate and made the wisest decision—one would deal with Gu Qingyang, while the other two would go to catch Qin Sheng.

As the other two men were about to pursue Qin Sheng, Gu Qingyang blocked their way. The one, who was appointed to deal with Gu Qingyang, rushed at him and started a fight.

Gu Qingyang was not as excellent as Gu Xiaobo in martial arts, but it was not hard for him to beat that man. Gu Qingyang was very careful on every move, giving the man a chain of punches. The man felt it difficult to defend and stepped back. Finally, he struck back Gu Qingyang with a sweeping leg.

Gu Qingyang wanted to chase the other two men in case that they caught Qin Sheng, but he couldn’t get rid of the one he was fighting with. This man had understood Gu Qingyang’s strategy, dealing with it cleverly.

Gu Qingyang was raged for what had happened today. Gu Xiaobo’s betrayal had astonished and hurt him more enormously than anybody else had done. Except for his Master, Gu Xiaobo was the closest person to Gu Qingyang, for they had grown up together.

Today, Gu Xiaobo had betrayed them. Of course, he had not only betrayed Qin Sheng but him as well. Gu Qingyang couldn’t understand this, nor could he bear it. He thought he knew Gu Xiaobo, but now he found his impression was wrong. Gu Qingyang had been taught that people would change a lot in their life, especially when they moved from the suburb to the urban area. But he never expected that Gu Xiaobo would have changed so quickly.

Nobody could tell people’s heart and mind.

That was why Gu Qingyang, who used to be always calm, was in a mess in his mind. As a result, he was trapped by that man. Thinking that Qin Sheng was in a more and more dangerous situation, Gu Qingyang broke out, swooping down toward the man all of a sudden. He bore the kick from the man and grabbed his rival’s shoulder, throwing him out with all his power. The man was sent flying to a tree and fell on the ground.

Gu Qingyang wanted to follow the other two men, but his rival quickly stood up and rushed toward him at once. The man seemed to become even stronger, giving Gu Qingyang no chance to escape. The two started another round of battle then.

When Gu Qingyang finally got a chance to beat that man down, Feng He and Gu Xiaobo arrived. Feng He threw a dagger to Gu Qingyang, who was drown in his rage too deep to realize the danger behind. Thus, the dagger was stabbed into Gu Qingyang’s back.

Gu Qingyang was violently raged by the sneak attack. He hit his rival down on the ground with his elbow and turned his head around slowly to gaze at Feng He and Gu Xiaobo. The man that he used to be most familiar with felt most foreign now.

Gu Qingyang’s eyes and smile betrayed irony, laughing at Gu Xiaobo. He shouted at the betrayer, “You want to kill me? Come on! Do it!”

Feng He squinted, feeling annoyed. His target was Qin Sheng, and he didn’t want to waste his time on Qin Sheng’s underling. Feng said to Gu Xiaobo directly, “Kill him.”

Gu Xiaobo had mixed feelings, mainly sadness. It was relatively easy for him to kill Qin Sheng since they didn’t know each other long, adding that their friendship was tainted by interest relationship. But it was still hard for him to kill Gu Qingyang, a good friend as close as his real brother.

Anyway, Gu Qingyang was different to him. They had learned from the same Master, growing up together like real brothers. It took incredible determination to make up his mind to kill Gu Qingyang, which would be a nightmare during all his later life.

“You changed. You really changed. You’re not the person I knew before. Anyway, remember. I’ll get mine and you’ll get yours. I believe Brother Qin will take revenge for me,” said Gu Qingyang, laughing like he was afraid of nothing.

Feng He was annoyed. He said coldly, “Go and get him. If not, and if he leaves alive, he’ll absolutely come to kill you.”

Gu Xiaobo squinted, approaching Gu Qingyang slowly. Gu Qingyang pressed the dagger stabbing it into his lower back. He didn’t take the dagger out for fear of massive bleeding.

“Come on. Kill me.” Gu Qingyang stared at Gu Xiaobo, looking down upon the betrayer’s behavior. Gu Xiaobo was upset.

Gu Xiaobo cried out loud and cared nothing then. He rushed toward Gu Qingyang without hesitation, letting off his rage and indignation. He hadn’t expected that a simple choice would lead to such a situation. He didn’t want this. He just wanted to stay in Hangzhou for he didn’t want to leave the lifestyle in big cities and the lady that he had fallen in love with.

Why did things become so hard? Why?

Once one chose a wrong path, then he might have no other choice but to stick to the wrong path until the end for fear of the cost of choosing a new path. This was what happened to Gu Xiaobo.

Gu Xiaobo rushed to the back side of Gu Qingyang, kicking him at his shoulder. Gu Xiaobo was much better at martial arts than Gu Qingyang. Obviously, Gu Qingyang felt difficult to defend and was kicked into the air and fell to the ground.

Gu Qingyang was not afraid of death, but being tortured by his enemy. Hence, he laughed loudly and tried to stand up. He gritted his teeth, rushing toward Gu Xiaobo with all his energy left, which was his condemning to Gu Xiaobo.

Feng He felt a lot of relief when he saw the two brother-like good friends fighting so fiercely. Thus, he followed Qin Sheng with his only underling left. This meeting didn’t take much time. Provided that two powerful men had gone to catch Qin Sheng, it was impossible for Qin Sheng to escape alive.

But was that the only ending of this story? Nan Gong and Zhuang Zhou had caught up with them. Now Feng He was actually in a difficult situation, which, however, he had no idea of.

In the forest, Gu Qingyang, who was hurt seriously, was still struggling to kill Gu Xiaobo, wanting to eradicate this bastard for his Master. He might not make it today. But he believed that even though Gu Xiaobo would live on, there would finally be somebody taking revenge for him, killing Gu Xiaobo. If Brother Qin died, his Senior Uncle would do this. If his Senior Uncle died, his Master would do this. If his Master died, then other disciples of his Master would do this. He was sure that Gu Xiaobo would never get a good ending in this life.

However, now he was almost breaking down as it was impossible for him to beat Gu Xiaobo. Let alone he was seriously hurt. The only thing he could do was to rush, attack, and fall on the ground, again and again.

Gu Xiaobo didn’t care about Gu Qingyang anymore. Since he had made his choice, no matter if it was right or wrong, he had to stick with it, killing Gu Qingyang and then, Qin Sheng. Only in this way could he hide the truth of what had happened today. If others got to know this, there would definitely be someone coming to kill him.

Selfishness was part of human nature. When there had to be someone dying, most people would let others die, rather than themselves. Let alone Gu Xiaobo, such a coward.

Hence, when Gu Qingyang rushed to attack again, Gu Xiaobo pulled out the dagger on Gu Qingyang’s lower back without hesitation. Then, he stabbed it into his back, with a heavy punch following. As a result, Gu Qingyang was beaten on the ground.

Gu Qingyang almost kneeled on the ground and was not able to fight any longer. He never expected that his life would be so short, and he would be killed here, by Gu Xiaobo, the most unexpected person.

“Why? Why are you so eager to die? Why are you willing to sacrifice your life for Qin Sheng? I don’t want to do this, but you forced me to do this. If you don’t die, I’ll die. I have no choice. Don’t hate me. Please.” Gu Xiaobo began to laugh crazily. His eyes had lost the light belonging to him before. Now, he had finally lost his ego. The nice young man had disappeared. Now, Gu Xiaobo was no more than a cruel killer.

Gu Qingyang giggled and said, “I’ve already got mine, and you’ll get yours one day. We’re born to be different people and will make different choices. You’re destined to be a coward, an evil bastard. I dare say you’ll regret what you’ve done today.”

“No. Definitely not. I’ll never feel regret for what I’ve done,” shouted Gu Xiaobo at Gu Qingyang. He pulled the dagger out, and then stabbed it into Gu Qingyang’s heart over and over again.

One, two, three...

Gu Qingyang finally fell on the ground. His brother-like good friend had killed him.

This time, however, he was not able to stand up and fight any more. He was totally beaten to death by such a good friend, who was even closer than his real brother. He would never rest in peace for he still couldn’t understand why this happened.

Gu Qingyang died, but Gu Xiaobo didn’t feel happy about this end. He was astonished by Gu Qingyang’s eyes the moment he was dying. Gu Xiaobo kneeled on the ground, with his hands holding his head. He cried out loud hopelessly. How could he do this? To kill his brother?

Gu Xiaobo finally realized that this would be his nightmare for the rest of his life. He would never sleep soundly again...