When Doctor Ai was speaking, the primal energies of the universe around him suddenly changed and grew sharp.
Jing Liuli had just sunk into sleep in a few breaths, but at this time, her eyelashes fluttered and she opened her eyes. She had experienced many unimaginable hardships to accomplish something like sinking into a deep sleep instantly and using this brief moment of rest to eliminate some exhaustion. With her will, she could not sleep or rest for a long time. She wanted a brief sleep to keep her mind clear and not miss any part of Ding Ning and Doctor Ai’s battle.
But she had not expected this to be so short… In her imagination, Ding Ning and Doctor Ai would converse, and Ding Ning may even have to do some things to force Doctor Ai to fight.
A deep sleep which was too brief was like passing through different levels of consciousness. Her head felt heavier and her thoughts were confused. But she still perceptively felt something was odd.
She had grown familiar with Ding Ning. She felt when Ding Ning was facing Doctor Ai, he was not as sharp as he was against Palace Attendant Rong and her old lover.
When she looked with narrowed eyes at Doctor Ai against the sunlight, she felt that Doctor Ai was not being forced, and was actually facilitating this battle.
Ding Ning did not give her enough time to clear her mind and think. As Doctor Ai finished talking, he nodded and held the Last Flower Sword across his chest, saying calmly, “Then let’s start.”
Doctor Ai gently shook his head as though he was lamenting.
His expression was extremely gentle. Since he was a famous doctor, he usually faced patients who had difficult and incurable illnesses. His expression and tonal habits were used to give patients comfort so people felt he was friendly as he spoke now.
But as he shook his head, his right sleeve already tore apart.
A black sword light, colored like the accumulated tea stains of an old teapot, tore apart his sleeve with a violent presence completely inconsistent with his expression. It fell towards the ground, but when it was a foot off the ground, it gave off a low hum and flashed like lightning towards Ding Ning’s feet.
Gasps sounded in the surrounding streets.
Ding Ning and Doctor Ai’s battle started so quickly the passersby around had not realized what was happening. Especially those people who knew Doctor Ai before. They had not thought that Doctor Ai would be a swordsman, and would attack first with a flying sword!
Only cultivators above realm five could control flying swords. The flying sword was separated from a cultivator’s body yet it could still express a cultivator’s will and sword essence. In the eyes of the world, swordsmen who could use flying swords were already above the level of an ordinary swordsman.
In battles between armies, there were many swordsmen who could use flying swords on the battlefield. But each of these swordsmen would be protected by many powerful soldiers.
Ding Ning had once won against an opponent with a flying sword during the Min Mountain Sword Trials. But in Changling, and even the entire world, most ordinary people and cultivators had never seen someone who could not control a flying sword challenge a swordsman who could.
Any movement, to a flying sword that moved like lightning, was too slow.
When the dark sword light was falling towards the ground, Ding Ning had started to move his feet. His left foot stomped heavily on the ground, and he accelerated forward.
He could not use a flying sword and had to get close. He could only pose a true threat in close range combat, and affect the other’s control of the flying sword.
Yet just as his left foot stepped on the ground, the dark sword light was less than three feet away!
A tearing sound occurred at this moment.
A sword light with thick fiendish energy fell in front of the dark flying sword.
The flying sword, controlled mentally, was not able to dodge in time, and hit the sword light directly.
There was no metallic clang. Only the sound of ice cracking softly.
Countless crystal pieces visible to the naked eye sprayed in front of Ding Ning’s feet. Ding Ning’s body had left the ground already. The pieces spread under his feet, and then produced countless blue-black flames like an evil flower.
Doctor Ai’s eyes trembled slightly. He knew Ding Ning was very strong, but not this strong.
His flying sword did not dare to attack any part of Ding Ning’s body and flew to the side to create a distance.
A thin layer of frost had formed on his flying sword. The starry fiendish energy, which repelled other primal energies of the universe, threw the energies in his sword’s seal scripts into instability.
A bloom of dust appeared under his toes. He retreated steadily.
Ding Ning advanced, he retreated.
But Ding Ning had not truly attacked with his sword. He had just used one of the small swords made from star fiendish energy accumulated in his body.
The Last Flower remnant sword held across his chest stabbed forward as his body rose and the black flower bloomed under his feet.
The sky was clear and sunny. But the moment he moved his sword, rain suddenly appeared in the sky above Doctor Ai.
The crystal rain fell, appearing soft, but immediately exposing their violent nature when they landed on the roof tiles behind Doctor Ai. A string of explosions occurred, and the tiles shattered.
Doctor Ai’s figure suddenly stopped.
Many of the people who had followed the carriage Jing Liuli drove did not dare to believe their eyes.
Right now, Ding Ning’s figure had gotten close to Doctor Ai and the tea-colored flying sword was behind Ding Ning. With one blow, he had forced away Doctor Ai’s flying sword and sent him into retreat.
Most of the spectators had not closely perceived Ding Ning’s cultivation advancement, but just the fact that a realm four cultivator could gain the upper hand on a realm five swordsman who could use the flying sword in one attack was shocking.
Just after one attack, the people present did not have an optimistic outlook on Doctor Ai.
At this time, the atmosphere suddenly changed. Uncontrolled gasps sounded.
Doctor Ai stopped and he glanced at Ding Ning.
The sleeve of his left hand split at this time. He held a dark gold round disk in his left hand which looked like a shallow bowl families in Changling would use to hold their vegetable dishes. But as Doctor Ai’s vital energy flowed without any constraint into this dark cold round disk, golden sparks started to fly out of the round disk.
These sparks seemed to be tangible dust that surrounded Doctor Ai. The sparks formed a bell-shaped shield around his body.
“Chaos Metal Shield!” Someone shouted the name of this item in shock from the street.
This was a famed seal weapon which came from a famous workshop of the former Han Dynasty. It had appeared multiple times in the battles of the Qin and Han dynasties. When the Han Dynasty armies were completely defeated, and the dynasty gone from history, this seal weapon which was equivalent to a loyal sword attendant now appeared in the hands of a famed Changling doctor. Even more importantly, this was a seal weapon cultivators below realm seven could control, and its strength would correspond to the vital energy strength of the user.
Doctor Ai was realm five. So the power of the Chao Metal Shield was akin to a realm five cultivator protecting Doctor Ai.
Ding Ning only had realm four strength. How could he break a realm five’s defense?
Based on the common sense of the cultivation world, Doctor Ai was in an invincible state.
Even Jing Liuli started to doubt now. Had her judgement been erroneous because she had gone into a deep sleep just now and then immediately woken up.
Even now, Ding Ning did not give her time to think.
As the golden sparks fell down, he had raised his left hand straight.
There was a string of terrifying explosions.
The explosions were ear-piercing. Blue-black cold fiendish little swords collided with the golden shield. All of the fiendish swords, one after another, all hit the same spot!
The energy inside the shield shook violently. Doctor Ai grunted, and his face paled.
Blue-black flames exploded and overlapped, creating countless transparent ripples. The shield shook innumerable times but still did not break.
Before people could even gasp, another sword stabbed the shield.
Ding Ning had reached the exploding flames. His Last Flower remnant sword was covered in fine white flowers as it was stabbed forcefully at the shield.
Doctor Ai knew this was the moment of victory. His pupils contracted and his eyes flickered. The flying sword fell like a meteor towards Ding Ning’s back.
Ding Ning ignored that flying sword.
He just stabbed forward with all of his strength. With a boom, the part of the shield at his sword tip suddenly became empty.
The Chaos Metal Shield was defeated.
