Chapter 83: Crippled Arm
Zhang Yi who had yet to fight, worriedly watched Ding Ning and Su Qin’s fight. When he saw Su Qin channel all the vital energy in his body, his expression had a dramatic change.
His feet shifted slightly as he prepared to float over.
But in this moment, Mo Chen, who had not made a move, took a deep breath and channeled the physical energy in his arm into the Snow Dandelion Sword.
Transparent ripples appeared in the air between him and Zhang Yi.
In the next moment, the Snow Dandelion Sword seemed to burn and emit light and seemingly carried his body with its power. He flew straight and stabbed towards Zhang Yi.
Zhang Yi had a gentle personality. His sword was unusually soft and warm like green jade. But when he felt the true murderousness in Mo Chen’s sword, he did not have his usual warmth.
He gave a deep shout. White sword energy suddenly spread out from the jade-like sword, quickly gathering at the tip looking like a small white mountain. He carried his sword with all his power and levered this small mountain to smash it towards Mo Chen.
This was the ‘White Goat Carrying The Mountain’ move.
A move from the White Goat Sword Manual that was most difficult to master but also one of the most powerful.
Boom!
Mo Chen felt as though he was really hit with a mountain. Pure threads of vital energy invaded his energy sea as the sword vibrated.
Blood oozed from his mouth. He took a dozen steps back.
Zhang Yi turned, but held no expression of joy.
Su Qin had attacked by this time.
As his wrist continued to move minutely, the purple longsword started to curve oddly and formed an empty vortex. The hollow part of the vortex was like a sword scabbard that accurately captured Ding Ning’s sword presence and engulfed Ding Ning’s remnant sword and half his arm.
When Su Qin attacked, Li Daoji on the viewing platform, unconsciously took a step forward as his hand fell on the hilt of the sword across his chest.
All the students on the viewing platform felt a strong wave of cold.
“This disgrace!”
Di Qingmei’s demeanour had a dramatic change. In his fit of fury, he almost lost control of a bolt of green energy in his sleeve.
He, who originally harboured no good feelings towards Ding Ning, was affected by Xue Wangxu’s words that lead him to delve deeper into his cultivation and reflect on his own conduct. His perspective towards Ding Ning, Zhang Yi and the other White Goat Cave disciples had undergone a thorough change.
Su Qin’s move was vicious. The curved blade, and every part of the edges had great damaging ability. His sword move covered half of Ding Ning’s arm. He wasn’t trying to pull Ding Ning’s sword out of his hand. Should this blow land, it would claim half of Ding Ning’s arm.
Su Qin had mustered this blow with all his vital energy. Ding Ning could not compare to him in terms of speed and power. The sword presence covered Ding Ning’s sword and half of his arm … even he could not think of a way to thwart this move.
“Su Qin is evil. This is not a battle between fellow members!”
As Su Qin’s sword move formed, Xie Changsheng started to curse in anger.
Xie Rou felt frigid all over. She had always been stronger than most people, but in this moment, she felt a strong sense of helplessness.
Disdain and contempt appeared on the corners of Gu Xichun’s mouth. He could already see Ding Ning’s bloodied arm, bone and flesh flying. In his view, Ding Ning had brought this upon himself.
Su Qin’s intentions were clear for everyone to see, yet no one could stop him in time.
The spinning sword covering Ding Ning’s remnant sword and half his arm started to quickly tighten like a willow leaf losing its water and curling up. This curl provided the sword a different rhythm in parts of its blade- as if numerous swords at varying speeds were attacking Ding Ning’s arm leaving him no room to move in the tiny space.
As a result, in this space, Ding Ning could neither move his arm nor could he use any refined sword forms.
Even peak Energy Refinement cultivation would not be enough to face Su Qin’s Vital Energy Realm strength.
No one was able to affect the result of Ding Ning’s arm being crippled.
Even so, there seemed to be something peculiar looming in the cold air.
As Su Qin looked apathetically at Ding Ning, he suddenly felt a strong sense of anxiety.
On the other hand, Ding Ning was calm and seemed almost relaxed.
He gripped his sword even tighter, his joints turned whiter.
Ding Ning was even more relaxed than Su Qin had imagined. This dangerous and inextricable strike in the eyes of other people was not much to him. Compared to the truly refined sword moves in the world, Su Qin’s blow was like a child’s.
Of course, with his true cultivation, he had only one way to deal with Su Qin’s blow.
But one way was enough!
In the moment Su Qin’s blade quickly tightened like a dried willow leaf, he channeled his physical energy into the seal scripts on the Last Flower sword. They inundated those minuscule cracks that stretched along the blade.
The myriad small white flowers on his inky green sword flew forward with a kind of tragic beauty. Then they disappeared.
The blade of the inky green sword truly split open and spread.
The sword opened like a giant flower and into innumerable sword threads that quickly expanded and protracted in the air.
Every being on the viewing platform stopped breathing.
Everyone, including Di Qingmei, was shocked and some even seemed to lose their souls. How could something like this occur?
Ding Ning’s arm remained taut and did not move within the tightening purple sword. But the sword threads had landed on Su Qin’s hand, his wrist and his arm.
Su Qin’s purple sword was now only a small distance from Ding Ning’s arm but Ding Ning’s face was calm and his breathing unchanged.
He only maintained the output of physical energy and allowed those sword threads to randomly stab and cut the sinews in Su Qin’s flesh before eventually piercing into his bones.
In this moment, small bloody flowers appeared on Su Qin’s hand that was wielding the sword!
His proud face turned pale and twisted. He gave off a fierce howl and flew backwards like a wounded bird. The purple longsword was just a thread away from cutting into Ding Ning’s arm. With all of his tendons were cut, and even his bones wounded, he could not muster any strength.
Crash!
The curling purple sword spun uncontrollably in the air and collided with many sword threads in the air, creating small sparks.
To the astonishment of everyone on the viewing platform, the edges of this Perilla sword slashed at the seemingly thin threads but was unable to cut even one.
After that flash of softness, those sword threads quickly turned hard and straight again as they spread. They rapidly gathered to form an inky green remnant sword.
Su Qin withdrew with a scream. His rushed retreat excoriated more flesh and fragments of bone out of his arm. His left hand twisted as though it was boneless. As he screamed, he shouted out the question many had.
“What sword is this?!”
Ding Ning’s gaze landed on the inky green remnant sword in his hand. He remained silent and didn’t answer Su Qin’s question. He wasn’t even focused on Su Qin’s hand for mind had wandered off to the stories of this sword and its master.
From the deathly silent viewing platform, Duanmu Lian’s gaze landed on the inky green remnant sword. The scene of the sword spreading was still fresh in his mind. At last, the image of this sword overlapped with a renowned sword from a long time ago.
“Only care about what is ahead and not behind, each strike as if it were the last; this is the Last Flower Sword. This is Ba Mountain Yan Xinlan’s Last Flower Sword!” He said, in disbelief.
Some of the students on the platform had not heard of the sword’s name, some had. But because they had not experienced the time before Emperor Yuanwu ascended the throne and that era when many stunning Qin cultivators had disappeared, they weren’t impressed by the saga of this sword.
But the same couldn’t be said of Di Qingmei and many of the teachers of Green Vine Sword School.
This sword was a legend by itself. It represented a resolve to break rather than bend … an attitude that was insensible in the eyes of many people.
Little had they expected that Ding Ning’s unremarkable broken sword was the remnant of that remarkable sword and would still possess such power.
Had Li Daoji observed that Ding Ning has such comprehension of the Wildfire Sword Manual back then? Ding Ning had just started studying the Wildfires Sword Manual back then … had Ding Ning already comprehended the true meaning of the Wildfire Sword Manual back then?
As he thought, shock expanded in Di Qingmei’s eyes.
Being one of the rare great cultivators in Changling himself, he knew that Wildfire Sword Manual’s true meaning was not ‘wildfire burning the plains’, but that the wildfires could not burn all the way and the grass would turn with the spring winds. Even after all the sword moves were exhausted, there was always another sword move that could return hope.
Ding Ning’s strike just now had relied on the ability of the Last Flower sword but the sword essence of the Wildfire Sword Manual contained within was enough to instill shock in every swordmaster.
Now he understood why Li Daoji, who had not left White Goat Cave for a long time, would leave and seek this remnant sword for Ding Ning even at the risk of a battle.
“This sword can spread like that …”
“You have been so confident all this time because you have concealed something like this?!”
Pain and terror finally took over Su Qin’s mind. He looked at his bloodied left hand that was crippled and beyond help. He broke into maniacal laughter. “You crippled my hand!”
“You wanted to cripple mine, so I crippled yours instead.” In response to his frenzied laughter, Ding Ning looked up and stated softly, nonchalantly and disdainfully. “This was your choice.”
