Chapter 30: Truth
The stump of Forefather Zhou’s arm was performing a sword move. He pushed the last thread of his vital energy through the broken meridians and broken bone. The stump cut through the surrounding air and created vortexes.
His power was less than a tenth of his usual, but it still far surpassed realm three.
The blind dragon sensed Forefather Zhou’s attack presence. It could sense the real and warm sunlight falling down through the shattered blue cage, and hesitated.
In a situation like this, it felt that if it helped Ding Ning block Forefather Zhou’s attack, it would receive serious injury.
The cage was broken. If it was seriously injured, it might not be able to leave this place.
But just as it hesitated, Ding Ning stepped out with a bang and came in front of it.
His calm eyes suddenly shone, the fine sound of silkworms coming out of his body. Countless threads of living presence appeared in his flesh at unimaginable speed, gathering between his meridians and charging into each part of his body. His flesh, bones, bone marrow, and even his hair started to tremble inexplicably and gave off an odd and strange presence.
The blind dragon sensed Ding Ning shielding it. Immediately, it felt ashamed. In the next moment, when it sensed Ding Ning’s presence, it felt great reverence.
Forefather Zhou heard the fine sounds coming out of Ding Ning’s body. His crippled body suddenly shook. He thought of a certain possibility and he gave a strange inhale.
But the sword move could not be changed at this moment. The stump of his arm was less than ten feet from Ding Ning.
Ding Ning’s features suddenly showed unimaginable majesty.
His left hand moved according to the sword art as he first swung forward, creating several vital energy waves in the limited space. At the same time, the Last Flower remnant sword in his right hand stabbed forward. The sword energy coming from the sword passed through the vital energy waves from his left hand. The waves of sword energy started to spin and rapidly absorb the surrounding primal energies of the universe.
Clean white lotuses formed in the inches of space in front of Ding Ning.
This was an unimaginable scene. The white lotuses gave off a holy presence, a gentle light that was perfect and aloof.
Compared to those lotuses, Forefather Zhou who was crippled and had used the stump of his arm as a sword was like a demon out of hell.
Looking at these lotuses, the demonic Forefather Zhou seemed to seeing a ghost.
Pew!
The lotuses in front of Ding Ning scattered.
He shouted, his left hand gripping his sword hit. He trembled like a string under great tension but he did not take a step back.
The sound of little silkworms feeding in his body grew stronger. Dots of pale white light came out of his skin. Those invisible little silkworms seemed to become tangible and burrowed out of his body.
At this sight before him, Forefather Zhou’s astonishment turned into absolute terror.
Ding Ning gave a muffled groan, blood once again seeped through his teeth. Yet, he did not delay in swinging the vibrating Last Flower remnant sword.
The strong blade appeared extremely soft at this moment, the sword light wrapped around Forefather Zhou’s stump like bolts of cloth.
Forefather Zhou had expended his energy through the arm stump to fight Ding Ning’s sword light. But this seemingly sword light was like an unusual millstone that ground the powerful energy away.
“Stone-grinding …”
Forefather Zhou screamed. His great terror caused him to lose control over the powers in his body which shuddered and collapsed to the ground.
Ding Ning’s hands trembled as they gripped his hilt, but he knew he could not show any weakness at this time.
He took a deep breath as he showed even more murderousness in his features.
The sword in his hand left Forefather Zhou’s stump. He stared at Forefather Zhou’s face just inches away, and used all his power to stab towards Forefather Zhou’s neck.
While the flesh bodhi was a legendary item and it surpassed his understanding that Forefather Zhou had not yet died in a state like this, but a person’s range of motion could not exceed their body. If he cut through the other’s spine, and chopped the head off, he did not believe Forefather Zhou could continue to survive.
Crack!
The cold blade cut into Forefather Zhou’s spine with a piercing crunch. However, as Ding Ning twisted his wrists, he was unable to completely cut through Forefather Zhou’s spine. The blade was slightly stuck.
“Your bones are really hard.”
Ding Ning sneered. He pushed again, and started to saw at Forefather Zhou’s spine with his sword.
Forefather Zhou’s body convulsed violently. He wanted to grab the blade stabbing into his neck, but he had no hands at this point. On the ground, his body could only wreath in pain, like a worm nailed down.
“Nine Death Silkworm …”
After a long moment, Forefather Zhou gave up struggling. He looked perplexedly at Ding Ning’s face and forced out the three words.
Ding Ning could sense that his power was truly dissipating now. He coughed softly, relaxing slightly but still continued to saw away at the spine without responding.
“You are his heir?”
Forefather Zhou muttered to himself with grief: “He left an heir?”
Ding Ning remained silent.
Crack!
Forefather Zhou’s spine was finally cut through. Ding Ning’s Last Flower sword cut coldly through the remaining flesh in his neck.
“You …”
Looking at Ding Ning’s cold eyes, the moment his head was cut off, Forefather Zhou thought of the authoritative presence Ding Ning had just emanated, and the multiple sword essences he possessed.
He suddenly found something amiss.
“Even if you are his heir, you will not know Zheng Xiu’s White Lotus Cleanse … you …”
Great shock surged his body and ths shock even surpassed his looming death.
“You are correct,” Ding Ning said, and put his sword away.
Forefather Zhou’s voice cut off. His head rolled down the uneven ground.
Forefather Zhou, who should have died before Emperor Yuanwu’s ascension, had finally died.
Ding Ning coughed softly and spat out blood clots. He fell to the ground, and did not feel much joy as he looked at Forefather Zhou’s corpse.
Even this enemy … this person’s death meant that another person from that time was gone.
“You go.”
Ding Ning tiredly turned to look at the blind dragon. He pointed at Forefather Zhou’s corpse and then started to signal with his hand. “The formation here is destroyed, you can leave. But before you go, take care of his body for me.”
“Also, there are some people outside the mountain valley you cannot defeat. But your senses should be stronger than them, so if you are careful, you should be able to escape.”
“There will be many powerful cultivators coming to the Wu Mountains soon. Try your best to hide. Otherwise, I do not know what will happen.”
The slightly shrinking blind dragon slowly understood his meaning.
It remained motionless for a long time, and then its tentacles started to move.
A powerful presence exploded Forefather Zhou’s body and then sank it into the earth below. Its body also started to sink. The earth turned and it completely disappeared from Ding Ning’s sight.
With a boom, a distant wall of the blue structure collapsed. A wave of dust slowly drifted over.
The surrounding was engulfed by utter silence.
There was only the unconscious Fu Su and the half-withered flesh bodhi left on the ground.
Ding Ning adjusted his breathing, ignoring his exhaustion and rose to sit down next to the flesh bodhi.
His finger lightly touched this flesh bodhi. Countless invisible little silkworms came out of his palm and attempted to consume some energy.
He frowned deeply.
The nature of the energy was very strange. Even his Nine Death Silkworm could not dissolve it. If he really refined these energies, and they entered his body, his entire body would not be able to avoid changing like Forefather Zhou had.
If he successfully became a spirit body similar to a living tree, it would cut off countless possibilities for his future cultivation. This flesh bodhi was of no use to him.
But after a moment of thought, he still reached out and gripped this flesh bodhi.
The terrifying sound of thousands of silkworms feeding once again sounded.
The flesh bodhi quickly withered in his palm into grey dust.
None of the flesh bodhi energy the little silkworms had consumed entered his body; as the little silkworms hid away, it too disappeared.
The king of Chu was still waiting patiently.
Suddenly, his brow furrowed slightly.
Gusts of wild wind blew the mist in front of him outwards.
Like a balloon that was leaking, the primal energies of the universe that maintained the formation completely disappeared.
The formation disappeared, and the mists opened up.
Translator Ramblings: Ding dong, the witch is dead!
