“You are talking too much nonsense,” Ding Ning said.
A weird smile hung on the corners of Ding Ning’s mouth while he was cutting ceaselessly. Initially, he cut only by the power of his muscles, but he suddenly poured his True Qi into his saber.
Horrifying 1-meter-long rays of light abruptly shot out of this silvery saber. With destructive power, it cut to the man’s face.
The man in the tuxedo suddenly stopped his ceaseless chattering. In great horror, he stared at the saber that threatened his life at this moment and exclaimed involuntarily in disbelief. “You are actually a master in the Sky Martial Arts Realm!”
But at this moment, it was too late for the man in the tuxedo to dodge. Instinctively, he leaned slightly to one side. Meanwhile, the Spiritual Energy around his whole body shone exceedingly and took the blow for him.
“Click!” There seemed to be the sound of breaking glass. With the sound, the man’s cover made of rich Spiritual Energy was shattered like the cheese striking a piece of red-hot iron. His blood splashed around.
“Ow!”
The man in the tuxedo uttered a mournful cry with a face as pale as a sheet. The man repeatedly retreated, grabbing his left arm. He was going to escape.
“How dare you target my young master? You have nowhere to go!”
As an insidious voice was sounded, Xiahou popped up like a ghost and stood in his way of escape. In a very threatening manner as aggressive as that of the man in the tuxedo, Xiahou locked his target firmly.
In an instant, the man in the tuxedo stopped moving. There was despair in his voice. He shouted his question out in a trembling voice. “A master of the ancient martial arts?!”
“You have good eyesight.” Ding Ning praised.
Ding Ning walked up to him at a slack pace, smiling with ease. But in fact, he was horrified in his heart. He had defeated Long Xiaotian, who was also in the Sky Martial Arts Realm within two moves. Hence, he thought that masters in the Sky Martial Arts Realm could be nothing more than this.
However, Ding Ning ignored the fact that Long Xiaotian just entered the Sky Martial Arts Realm. Since his True Qi had not turned into the Spiritual Energy, he didn’t form his Spiritual Energy shield at that time. That was why Ding Ning could easily defeat him. It then gave Ding Ning a false image that a master of the Sky Martial Arts Realm was just so so. Thus, he looked down on this man at first.
But only at this moment did he find out that he had underestimated the strength of this man in the Sky Martial Arts Realm. Luckily for him, this man was so arrogant that he didn’t take Ding Ning seriously. In this case, Ding Ning managed to attack him by surprise and cut this man’s left arm off.
But if they fought open and aboveboard, Ding Ning knew he would have no chance of winning without using the most powerful skill of him. This fact secretly warned him that he must not be eaten up with pride and underestimate the heroes of the world.
No matter it was the Spiritual Energy shield of the man in the tuxedo or Xiahou’s vigorous qi body armor, they all gave him a sense of awe. Ding Ning knew that he should never insult or belittle any masters of martial arts or warriors in the Sky Martial Arts Realm.
“Are you from the Seventeenth Department or the Bureau of Religions? You cannot kill me. There is an agreement between the Bureau of Religions and the ancient martial world.”
The man in the tuxedo shouted fiercely, but his face turned ghastly pale. He was now a bully with a coward’s heart.
“Why didn’t you say that when you wanted to kill me and rob my treasure? Now you remembered the Bureau of Religions and the Seventeenth Department. But it was late,” Ding Ning replied.
He sneered then. The man could kill whoever he wanted to kill. However, he asked Ding Ning to follow the agreement and spare his life now. In his heart, Ding Ning extremely hated to see him operating such double standards.
Xiahou cast a glance at Ding Ning, still with the same calm composure. He knew that his young master’s cultivation always appeared weird. But he never thought that his young master could cut off an arm of the man in the tuxedo.
The aura exuded by the man in the tuxedo before him was even stronger than his. It turned out that the man was actually a great master in the Sky Martial Arts Realm’s middle stage. One should know that when a person reached the middle stage of the Sky Martial Arts Realm, half of his True Qi had turned into the Spiritual Energy. The energy could then become a thin layer of Spiritual Energy cover, which was good at defending.
Under this circumstance, his young master was still able to cut his shield open and cut one of the man’s arms off. It proved that his fighting capacity was appalling. After the initial shock, Xiahou felt relieved.
“You are not allowed to kill me. I’m Chao Xiong, a disciple of the Holy Medical Family. If you kill me, the Holy Medical Family will never forgive you.”
The man in the tuxedo said, trembling all over. Facing the threat of death, he finally thought of his prestige family, which cheered him up instantly. Having his family to back him up, the man had nothing to fear.
“I don’t care whether you are from the Holy Medical Family or any f*cking Medical Family. Anyone who dare rob my alchemy furnace must die,” Ding Ning said.
With a merciless face, he did not hesitate to cut.
“Young master, don’t…”
Xiahou exclaimed without thinking, his face changed drastically. But unfortunately, it was too late. Ding Ning lifted his saber in his hand and cut Chao Xiong’s head off fast.
Chao Xiong’s head rolled on the ground and stopped. His pale face faced the sky, and his eyes were full of disbelief. It seemed he didn’t believe that Ding Ning would kill him even after he told him that he was from the Holy Medical Family.
“Young master… Alas, we are in big trouble now.” Xiahou sighed.
Thumping his chest and stamping his feet in deep regret, Xiahou looked extremely solemn.
“Why? Is this Holy Medical Family very awesome?”
Ding Ning asked, feeling a little curious. But the iron-willed Ding Ning didn’t regret to kill this man at all.
“Awesome is not enough to describe the family. It is exceedingly awesome! Since ancient times, a knight-errant’s taboo has been his martial arts. The Shenzhou Government can live harmoniously in peace with the ancient martial world for so many years. Do you know why?” Xiahou asked.
His face looked ugly to the extreme.
“Isn’t it because the government has signed the “Peace Agreement” with the ancient martial world?”
With a puzzled expression, Ding Ning asked. Then thinking of something, he asked. “Don’t tell me that the government truly signed the Peace Agreement with the Holy Medical Family!” The expression on Ding Ning’s face changed.
“The government didn’t sign the agreement exclusively with the Holy Medical Family, but the Holy Medical Family was one of the organizations that had signed the agreement,” explained Xiahou.
With a bitter expression, Xiahou continued, “When Shenzhou Country was just founded, the founder of the country went to the ancient martial world in person. After surmounting numerous difficulties, he finally managed to sign the Peace Agreement with the Four Holy Gates. And the Holy Medical Family was one of them, which had a supreme status in the ancient martial world.”
“How does the Holy Medical Family compared with the Long family and the Feng Family of the ancient martial world?” Ding Ning asked.
His heart sank, and Ding Ning had realized that he seemed to have made a huge mistake.
Shaking his head, Xiahou smiled bitterly. With slight disdain, the sides of his mouth dropped, and he answered, “The Long family and the Feng Family are the ancient martial families that have just risen recently. There is simply no comparison between them and the Four Holy Gates, which have prospered for thousands of years. As it were, ancestors from either the Long family or the Feng Family have to take any disciples from the Four Holy Gates as their distinguished guests and greet them with great courtesy.”
Bursting with curiosity, Ding Ning looked narrowly at Chao Xiong’s headless corpse and grinned. “I didn’t expect that I would kill a guy with an influential background.”
“Young master, aren’t you worried about it at all? The Holy Medical Family is one of the Four Holy Gates,” Xiahou asked.
Xiahou looked at the carefree Ding Ning, did not know whether to cry or to laugh. On his mind, this kill weighed heavily.
“Is it useful to worry? No big deal. According to the actual situation, we can adopt appropriate measures anytime. Besides, no one knows who killed this guy except you and me.” Ding Ning comforted him.
Eyes enlightened with excitement, Ding Ning squatted on Chao Xiong’s corpse, groping. He looked just like a greedy moneygrubber. After a while, he frowned with doubt. Then he fixed his eyes on an antique ring on Chao Xiong’s finger. With a cheer, Ding Ning slipped the ring from his finger and murmured, “I didn’t expect you to carry treasures. What a great windfall bonus for me!”
Xiahou scratched his head and said anxiously, “Ancient sects like the Four Holy Gates are extraordinarily wicked. Who knows if there is any way for them to find the killer.”
“If they know how to find me, I can only admit my fate. Anyway, I have no choice but to kill Chao Xiong. Do you think he will not take revenge on us if we let him go? We will bring ruin upon ourselves.”
Ding Ning’s careless answer got to the point directly. Xiahou was suddenly enlightened. From the moment that Chao Xiong made up his mind to kill and rob, a life-or-death struggle between them began. To all of them, there was no way back. Thus, Xiahou immediately said shamefully, “You knew much better, young master.”
“It’s very simple. You must have been misled by the Four Holy Gates’s awe-inspiring reputation, so you didn’t see through this matter at that time,” Ding Ning said.
He sprayed some Corpse-decomposing Water on Chao Xiong’s corpse while thinking. “It is indeed a must for people to destroy the evidence after murders on any occasion. It seems that I should find some time to make more.”
Thinking of something, Ding Ning said, “By the way, Brother Xiahou, tell me about the Four Holy Gates. As the saying goes, if you know yourself and your enemy, you will never lose a battle. Since I am bound to be the enemy of the Holy Medical Family, it will always be good for me to know more about the family.”
Ding Ning looked relaxed, but he bore a lot of pressure in his heart. When he was all alone, he certainly could be fearless. If the worst came to the worst, he could run away.
No matter how extraordinary powerful the Holy Medical Family was, Ding Ning didn’t believe that they could still hunt him down with his biological simulation skin.
But now, Ding Ning had to take the safety of his sister, lover, and friends into consideration. He was no longer alone. Therefore, he had to plan for the future.
“I don’t know much about the Four Holy Gates. Much of what I know was hearsay. In their names, no ordinary sect or family is allowed to use “holy,” a word of special meaning. It is said that only with elders who have surpassed the God of Martial Arts in place can these sects or families add “holy” in their names.”
Xiahou did his very best to explain. “The Four Holy Gates are the Holy Medical Family, the Holy-saber Ancient Tribe, the Holy-goddess Tribe, and the Holy-sword Villa. As the name suggests, the Holy Medical Family is famous for its extraordinary medical skills that can even make the dead come back to life. It is said all its disciples are all pills-making alchemists with extremely powerful combat effectiveness who are also proficient in controlling fire. The Holy-saber Ancient Tribe is the most mysterious one. Usually, there are few disciples of this family coming into the world. But any of their disciples who come into this world are definitely distinguished talents. They say that the Holy-saber Ancient Tribe can never get along with the Holy Medical Family. The Holy-sword Villa is an ancient sword sect that accords with Taoism by swords, which can be said to have reached the highest level of sword arts. A century ago, Miyamoto Musasi, the chief disciple of Sword God Yagyuu who is Fuso’s sword saint, crossed the sea with his sword and came here alone to challenge Shenzhou’s masters. He defeated 17 Shenzhou Sword Masters in succession, exclaiming wildly that he was invincible in Shenzhou. Miyamoto Musasi disgraced the martial arts world of Shenzhou. Then a 20-year-old man from the Holy-sword Villa invited Miyamoto Musasi to fight with him by the seaside of Shenzhou’s East Sea. By merely one sword strike, this young man cut Miyamoto Musasi’s head off, which shocked the entire world. As for the Holy-goddess Tribe, it has a great many spiritual masters. Among each generation of this tribe, there will always be one disciple coming into this world to experience. The disciple of this generation was named Night Lone Ranger. I heard that she, who was called the greatest genius of the ancient martial world, had broken through to the level of the celestial spiritual master at the age of 25. Though the Long family’s Long Xiaotian was also known as the greatest genius of the ancient martial world, he was overshadowed by Night Lone Ranger.”
Ding Ning listened with great interest. Seeing that Xiahou stopped with a weird face, he hurriedly questioned, “Anything else?”
“Young master, I was thinking that you defeated Long Xiaotian, who is called the top genius in the ancient martial world within two moves. It means that you are not even inferior to Night Lone Ranger, who is three years older than you after all. If you can break through to the Sky Martial Arts Realm, you will be the greatest genius in name and in fact.”
Xiahou gasped in admiration as he suddenly remembered the marvels of Ding Ning.
At this moment, his praise satisfied Ding Ning’s little vanity. However, standing with his hands clasped behind his back, Ding Ning said proudly, “A bubble reputation is not worth mentioning at all. I must always keep a low profile.”
His response amused Xiahou who burst into hearty laughter. Then he teased, “A low profile of yours indeed. You even killed the Holy Medical Family’s disciple.”
“Hehe, I will not attack unless I am attacked; if I am attacked, I will exterminate my enemies’ entire family or sect.”
Ding Ning gave an overbearing reply. But together with his wicked smile, he didn’t look domineering at all.
Xiahou seemed to be relieved for he did not think that Ding Ning was bragging.
He knew that his young master looked harmless. Always, he behaved like an easy-going person who could get well along with anyone. But once he came across anyone who could threaten him, his families or friends, he would definitely show his extremely aggressive and bold side.
His young master could make prompt decisions at the right moment decisively. Never would he hesitate to act because of any fearful or tender feelings that would leave him endless future trouble. He was no less ruthless and decisive even compared to those formidable persons who had gone through numerous hardships of the world for decades. Xiahou firmly believed that his young master was sure to achieve great things in the future.
