Chapter Eighty Eight: Close and Distant
When the sword light flew out, the world in front of Ding Ning seemed to be cut out like a piece of paper.
Everyone still maintained their previous position. The Last Flower remnant sword flew over Zhan Moke’s body and landed in the gold tower.
There was a seven colored flower in the gold tower, growing on a pure white pebble. It had no roots but it was beautiful like it had just been rained on.
When the Last Flower remnant sword landed on the flower, the vital energy contained in the sword started to burn and aroused more primal energies of the universe. With a boom, a ball of flame burned on Ding Ning’s remnant sword.
The bright seven colored flower quickly withered, burnt to dust in a flash. When it did, the world in front of everyone disappeared.
Shen Xuan found that he was standing just like before, everything back to usual, except that his face was covered in tears.
“What really happened? Hu Jingjing reached out in disbelief with her hand and shouted when she saw her undiminished hand.
“This is impossible.”
Zhan Moke had not died yet. Time seemed to have stopped, or all of this had happened in a flash. He still had a breath left which he used to speak to Ding Ning.
Then, he died.
He died with unspeakable emotions that even he could not understand.
“What was that?”
Li Xixing looked at the returning Last Flower remnant sword and turned to Ding Ning.
“Two Lifetime Flower.”
Ding Ning coughed softly and said, “In many stories, this is also called the reincarnation flower. This is a flower used on the surface of senses and consciousness. It can make people sleep forever until they die.
“But— ” Hu Jingjing could not help but speak.
“You will see some events that have transpired in life.” Ding Ning interrupted her and said, “This is the magic of the flower.”
“All of this was an illusion? I thought it was real.”
Hu Jingjing thought back in shock to the feeling she had just had and could not help but ask Li Xixing, “Did you also feel like you were growing smaller?”
Li Xixing glanced at her and said, “I beat that person up against and then threw him into the well.”
“Which one?”
Hu Jingjing stilled but then realized Li Xixing was speaking of the person who had killed Li Xixing’s dog in his childhood.
“Thank you.”
To her and Li Xixing’s surprise, and making them doubt their ears, Shen Xuan spoke seriously to Ding Ning. The pair looked in shock at Shen Xuan. To their greater shock, Shen Xuan’s appearance looked very different than before.
The gloom and coldness that had shrouded his brows had disappeared. His expression was still cold, but a layer of dust seemed to have been washed away.
Just because they had survived?
Li Xixing and Hu Jingjing could not understand the meaning in Shen Xuan’s words, but Ding Ning nodded to Shen Xuan and said seriously, “You are welcome.”
Then Ding Ning and Shen Xuan stopped speaking. Their gazes landed towards the same spot. Not the broken gold tower, but the dried spring.
The bottom of the spring was fine clean sand. At this moment, the fine sand was slowly moving down like real water and disappearing.
The power of the restriction which affected cultivators had completely disappeared as the sand disappeared. Even Li Xixing and Hu Jingjing could clearly feel something with an indescribable but powerful presence was being revealed from the sand.
From Ding Ning and Shen Xuan’s gazes, Li Xixing and Hu Jingjing understood what was happening.
The legendary elixir of life was not in the gold tower, but in the spring. Like stone being revealed from water, a dot of light was slowly coming out of the center of the white sand. The light grew until there was more and then all of it. A silver sphere silently floated at the center of the disappearing sand. Other than this silver crystal ball, there were many irregular silver crystals. These silver crystal pieces were like ice, constantly melting, shattering, and then reforming and changing.
“This is like a true world.” Hu Jingjing looked dazedly at the silver crystal sphere the size of a pill and could not help but say.
Everyone felt the same. This was a wondrous feeling as everyone was certain that this was the elixir of life from the legend.
“I have interrogated countless criminals. While I cannot see through to the heart of a person, at least I can see that you are not greedy.” Shen Xuan turned to Ding Ning and asked, “You once asked me my thoughts towards the elixir of life. I said that I would leave it to you. But you are not greedy for this. Is it because your Nine Deaths Silkworm is too strong, far stronger than this elixir of life, or because you cannot agree with the elixir?”
Ding Ning looked calmly at the silver sphere ball. He thought of the Two Lifetime Flower and said after a moment of silence, “If one does not live this life well, what is the use in living forever?”
Shen Xuan gave a rare smile. Because his smile was so rare, it appeared stiff and ugly. But it was real.
“Actually, you are more suitable to be the master of Great Floating Water Prison. No one sees other people’s hearts better than you,” he said sincerely with a smile.
Ding Ning did not answer this question. He looked at the pure silver sphere at the center of the white sand and started to walk towards it.
The moment he started to walk, a rustling sound reached everyone’s ears, like countless silkworms were moving in Ding Ning ‘s body.
“Now, we all know his secret.”
Li Xixing heard the sound and said softly to Hu Jingjing at a moment of silence.
Hu Jingjing only said, “The empress killed my master.”
Hu Jingjing turned to Li Xixing and asked him seriously, “What about you?”
Li Xixing frowned slightly as though displeased and said, “He is my friend.”
Hu Jingjing suddenly laughed sweetly. Some people did not care about right or wrong, just those who were close or distant. She knew, for Li Xixing, all of Changling could not compare to one of his friends.
Li Xixing did not pay attention to Ding Ning and the elixir of life. Regardless of what the elixir of life was, as long as Ding Ning had confidence approaching it, then he must have thought of what to do.
Right now, there was also another person present who knew Ding Ning’s Nine Death Silkworm secret.
Wu Lianzi was leaning against the gold tower. The vitality of the plains youth was strong. He had been injured repeatedly, but had not even gone unconscious, much less died.
He looked with shock and helplessness as Ding Ning walked to the center of the white sand.
