At that moment, a ray of golden morning sun shone through the mountains and the fog, casting Ding Hao in its golden glow. This highlighted the lines of his muscles, his tall body and the sculpted features of his handsome face. He looked like a perfect piece of work sculpted by a master sect master.
“Phew…”
Ding Hao breathed out a breath of murky air and felt his whole body relax.
He had not expected his comprehension ability to be so astounding. He had been able to mimic Song Jiannan’s swordsmanship technique just after watching Song Jiannan display it. Not only that, he had managed to grasp this swordsmanship technique’s nuance and essence in after just practicing three times.
Ding Hao reckoned that although that encounter at the cave cliff stone cave had caused his body to undergo extraordinary changes, Song Jiannan was far too weak and his swordsmanship technique of a lower level, which was why he managed to mimic it so easily.
If he had faced a true expert, he would not have been able to do secretly learn via mimicry so easily.
Ding Hao was pleased that other than his lowly basic-level swordsmanship technique, he had finally managed to grasp a full set of swordsmanship techniques. This made him even more confident of passing the sect entrance exam of Swordsmanship-seeking Sect in two weeks.
Zhao Xing and the rest were scared speechless.
Their faces turned pale as they had a premonition that things were about to turn bad. They glanced surreptitiously at each other, then turned around to attempt to escape furtively, ignoring Song Jiannan who was still sprawled on the ground like a dead dog.
“It is too late to even think about escaping!” Ding Hao said with a cold laugh.
He would make sure this group repaid all the torment and beatings that this body had suffered through with interest today.
Zhao Xing stood rooted to the spot speechlessly, as though he had been struck by lightning or had been hit with a paralysis charm.
He slowly turned around and fell to his knees with a loud thud. His face turned downcast as he begged grovelingly, “Ding…Ding…Ding Hao, Brother Ding…Master Ding…I…I’ve made a mistake… I’m not human, please..spare me!”
“You, are indeed not human.” Ding Hao said and gave him a hard slap.
Zhao Xing did not dare to dodge this blow, neither did he have the time to do so. He felt like he was hit by a sledgehammer and cried out as he was thrown backward like a retard. Half his face was bright red and the remaining half of his teeth flew out from his mouth. Blood and water flowed freely and he passed out from the ordeal.
“Ding Hao, Master Ding, spare us…”
“Don’t do this. We will never dare to do such a thing again. We’ll recognize you as our leader from now on…”
Once the remaining lackeys figured out where this was heading, they knelt down and begged for mercy with tears in their eyes.
Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!
Ding Hao remained unmoved and did not hold back as he slapped out dozens of times to send everyone else flying from the fenced yard.
“Wh…where did you learn this ‘Cross Fast Sword’ swordsmanship technique?” Song Jiannan asked resentfully, his eyes filled with hatred.
“None of your business,” Ding Hao replied succinctly.
He slapped out with his palm once again, without care for Song Jiannan’s status and sent Song Jiannan who just barely got to his feet flying again.
After his miraculous encounter at the mountain cave and his training while climbing the cliff, Ding Hao’s strength had increased tremendously. All those who were slapped by him felt like they were hit by a sledgehammer and immediately fainted without a sound.
Ding Hao stood in the yard and thought for a moment. Then he brought his rusty sword outside and started searching the bodies of those unlucky bastards who had fainted earlier.
He obtained a few hundred silver taels from Zhao Xing and the rest and even managed to retrieve huge amounts of silver and golden notes from Song Jiannan. After some thought, he only kept a few spare silver taels and golden leaves from Song Jiannan and left the silver and golden notes behind.
After he finished collecting his loot, Ding Hao threw these people who had been knocked out cold into a rubbish heap far away, to stop them from being an eyesore.
He finally returned to his straw hut.
He did not kill anyone.
Although his memories had merged, truth be told, someone who had traveled from a society governed by laws and rules to this place had still not gotten used to this world where anyone could raise a sword to spill blood. He was not mentally prepared to kill.
Perhaps he would one day get used to this.
The straw hut’s walls had been damaged from the earlier commotion and was now letting in the wind from outside. The floor was also in complete disarray.
Ding Hao sighed and spent some time cleaning up and repairing this place.
At least he would not need to live here in the remaining days leading up to his induction to the Swordsmanship-seeking sect.
After his miraculous encounter at the mountain cave, his body had undergone a tremendous transformation. Therefore, Ding Hao was not in a hurry to use his six ‘Dragon Heart Seedling’. Instead, he decided to keep them on hand, for they might one day be of great help to him.
After he finished all that he set out to do, he looked up and noticed that it was almost time for him to perform his duty of cleaning the mountain gate.
Ding Hao went outside and closed the door, then turned to leave the fenced small yard.
Zhao Xing and the rest who had been thrown to the far away rubbish heap slowly regained their senses. They did not dare to utter a sound but secretly made their escape, only leaving their bloodstains behind.
Ding Hao smiled for he knew that those people had been scared out of their wits and would not dare to cause trouble for him in the future. He did not need to care about them anymore.
…
The rising sun in the east climbed higher, its warm rays spilling onto the earth.
A new day had begun.
As usual, Ding Hao strode out with a warm smile on his face and exchanged greetings with those in the civilian enclave as he made his way out of the dirty poor people enclave.
After he entered the wide, clean and beautiful mountain gates of Swordsmanship-seeking Sect, he ignored the hustle and bustle of the crowd and followed a small path down the mountain to arrive at the ‘Sword-cleansing Pond’ at the foot of the mountain.
‘Sword-cleansing Pond; was an extraordinarily beautiful small lake at the foot of the mountain where Swordsmanship-seeking Sect was located.
It was said that over a thousand years again, the founder of Swordsmanship-seeking Sect had washed his sword at this very pond, which was how this pond got its name.
As for the ‘Ding Hao’ from before, his main responsibility each day was to clean the surrounding field around ‘Sword-cleansing Pond’. His duties were very easy to complete and he only needed six hours to finish his duties for the day. He could then spend the remainder of his time however he liked. He would receive a pathetically small sum of one to two silver taels for his daily needs.
The sun was shining bright today; it was a lovely day.
Ding Hao did not busy himself with cleaning. He first jumped into the river and gave himself a thorough cleanse, making sure every scrap of dirt was removed from his body and only came back to shore once he felt refreshed. He then picked up the broom and started sweeping.
Due to the changed nature of his body, he moved quickly.
He took less than two hours today to finish his chores.
Then, Ding Hao started to practice swordsmanship by the riverside.
Just as the boxer’s fist must stick to its task, and the singer’s mouth no rest must ask, the practice was just like a moving boat going against the current. One must go forward or get left behind.
The only two swordsmanship techniques he had mastered were his basic swordsmanship and the ‘Cross Fast Sword’, and these were his greatest advantage to passing Swordsmanship-seeking Sect’s entrance exam. Naturally, he could not relax for even a second.
Other than swordsmanship techniques, it was even more important to cultivate his internal mental techniques.
According to his merged memories, he knew that the humans of this world gained supernatural strength from the cultivation of their meridians and acupoints.
