Chapter 84: Pleasure At This Moment
“A pill medicine to enhance cultivation … a sword like this .. how many secrets are you hiding!” Su Qin laughed deliriously.
“This has nothing to do with you. Your sword-wielding hand is crippled. I see that you are innately left-handed. So even if you practice the sword with your right hand, the natural disadvantage will make your swordsmanship mediocre.” Ding Ning said, calmly.
Su Qin’s smile disappeared completely. His face was whiter than a ghost.
A Green Vine Sword School teacher quickly passed through the forest and headed for Su Qin with a medicine box.
“Do not come near me!”
Before he could come close, Su Qin looked at this bloody left hand, and roared on the top of his lungs at the Green Vine Sword School teacher like a wounded beast.
The Green Vine Sword School teacher stopped and frowned.
He was closer to the battlefield than the ones on the viewing platform, so he saw what had happened even more clearly.
“Not mentioning that you have only yourself to thank for this,” he looked coldly at Su Qin who had lost control of his emotions and icily said, “…starting today, you think you are still the genius that many in the sect will hover around?”
After saying this, he ignored Su Qin and his still bleeding hand and turned to walk to where Nangong Caishu and Liu Yangguang were fighting.
Liu Yangguang’s sword was lowered. He was originally able to block many of Nangong Caishu’s moves but when he saw the conclusion of Su Qin and Ding Ning’s fight, he lost the last remaining courage he had.
“I surrender!” Eyes downcast, he declared to Nangong Caishu.
“Little Sect Brother … Su Qin …”
Zhang Yi had not expected such an outcome. In his bid to keep Ding Ning from being wounded, he had channeled his vital energy without reservation, in the hope to break free of Mo Chen as soon as possible. But the kind and benevolent being him, did not wish to see Su Qin in such dire straits either.
He knew that the fall from a genius cultivator to a waste worse than ordinary cultivators was the harshest punishment for a cultivator.
The result of this battle was so surprising that even Mo Chen stopped.
In his eyes, Su Qin, who had been brimming with spirit and controlled everything like it was on the palm of his hand, and the ghastly Su Qin before him now were people of two different worlds.
He looked down at the sword in his hand.
He, when he possessed the Snow Dandelion Sword, was a different person than from the past. The person who had given this Snow Dandelion Sword to him had hoped that he could stop Ding Ning from winning.
Thus, with Su Qin defeated, Liu Yangguang’s surrender, and his own inability to defeat Zhang Yi and influence the final result, he felt that he still had to do something.
He looked up.
While Zhang Yi worried over what to do, and if there was anything to heal Su Qin’s arm, he turned into a wind that rushed past Zhang Yi towards Ding Ning.
When almost everyone thought the result was finalized, even the teacher of Green Vine Sword School was surprised at Mo Chen’s actions.
“You!”
Zhang Yi stilled. He did not understand why Mo Chen would do this.
“You should not do this.” But he would not allow Mo Chen to harm Ding Ning. As he spoke, he also turned into a gust of wind.
As the wind rose, so did the storm.
The jade-like longsword in his hand turned into a storm of sword shadows. It caught up to Mo Chen from behind and wrapped around Mo Chen.
Mo Chen’s eyes dimmed.
He did not attack.
From Zhang Yi’s strike, he knew that Zhang Yi had spoken the truth at the start. Zhang Yi was much faster than him. He could not go around Zhang Yi to harm Ding Ning.
The sword energies landed around him like a thunderstorm and destroyed the surrounding fallen leaves.
Zhang Yi put his sword away and appeared in front of him.
“It is the Ba Mountain Night Rain Sword … Rain On The Banana Tree!”
On the viewing platform, Di Qingmei frowned and turned to look at Xue Wangxu. “This was one of the sword manuals that had to be burned in the first year of Yuanwu.”
Xue Wangxu looked at him and smiled slightly with a hint of undisguised pride. “White Goat Cave’s library cave has many more sword manuals like this.”
“I do not think that your actions are appropriate, but I have to admit that even as an opponent, you are worthy of respect.” Di Qingmei turned and sighed.
Su Qin’s frenzied gaze landed on the countless small holes on the ground. Feeling the speed and power in Zhang Yi’s sword, he finally understood that Zhang Yi’s usual humbleness was true humbleness.
If this was a fair battle, he couldn’t win against Zhang Yi. He laughed once again, his laughter extremely wretched, his expression especially strange.
Zhang Yi frowned. He wanted to say something but the sight of Mo Chen taking off his token rendered him silent. His demeanour returned to its usual gentleness and he did not breach his silence.
But Ding Ning was not as benevolent as him.
Through Mo Chen’s Snow Dandelion Sword and his recent actions, many things dawned upon him.
“Li Lingjun used this Snow Dandelion Sword to bribe you?”
With eyes full of disdain, he looked at Mo Chen. “So, you will die for the person who helps you. Even at such a time, you want to try and see if you can oust me from the top three?”
Mo Chen was silent.
“Snow Dandelion Sword might be as important to you as your life, but for people like Li Lingjun, it is just a pretty decoration. Using such a tactic against a wine shop youth that cannot threaten him … do not think so beautifully of him. He is not as noble as that.” Ding Ning looked at him and laughed in mockery. “I will trouble you to tell him that I will make him regret provoking an enemy like me.”
These words also reached the ears of the person between Ding Ning and Mo Chen- Zhang Yi. His brows furrowed again. He turned worriedly and counselled. “Little Sect Brother, Li Lingjun is naturally not right, but there is no meaning in you drawing pleasure in this moment.”
“When one speaks some words, one feels pleasure. That is the meaning.” Ding Ning said, calmly,
“Little Sect Brother, the logic does not seem right.” Zhang Yi dispiritedly whispered. “But I cannot persuade you.”
“My life has no logic to speak of.”
Ding Ning looked up at the sun which was warm and not blinding in the autumn as he spoke in his mind. He wore a satisfied smile.
The sword trial festival was an important step to him at present for appearing under the light of Changling. He had finally completed this step according to his plan. He could wipe away many of the marks on his wall in Falling Parasol, sooner.
The viewing platform calmed down again.
Buzzing sounded from the wall-like vines behind Ding Ning.
Many thick vines swam away like snakes and others withered. The falling leaves danced and the vine wall disappeared.
Before Ding Ning, Zhang Yi and Nangong Caishu, a flat path appeared. There was a tall platform at the end of the path where the exit to the sword trial valley was. On three sections of thick vine on the platform were three green suet jades.
“Let’s go.”
Looking at Nangong Caishu who had finished taking care of her wounds and the fraught Zhang Yi, Ding Ning stepped towards the tall platform.
Only now did everyone, stunned by his sword on the viewing platform, react. This wine shop youth, who had reached Profound Understanding in half a day and Energy Refinement in a month, was the final victor.
The aureate sunrays illuminated his back. In this moment, his figure, as he ambled along the even carpet of withered yellow leaves, appeared glorious.
For some inexplicable reason, the sight of the remnant sword by his waist and his outrageously calm figure moistened Xie Rou’s eyes. She felt that his thin body struggled with every step.
Beside her, Xie Changsheng did not feel so many things. Thinking that the “brother-in-law” was so accomplished, and so unfathomable, his face shone. He turned and bowed to Gu Xichun who had a strange expression. He could not disguise his smugness.
“In the end, I have to thank you. I hope that you will talk more of how he will fail during the Min Mountain Sword Trials.” He said to Gu Xichun who had turned to stone in the sunlight.
Li Daoji’s demeanour did not change but he felt exceptionally content within.
