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Chapter Twenty Four: Spring Ahead
writer:无罪      update:2022-07-21 15:26
  Ding Ning looked very calm and focused, but even more, he seemed very seasoned to others.

  The moment before he attacked, the life bond sword formed in his hand. His starting position gave people a feeling that he had practiced this many times before, and in the end, he grasped the true meaning, turning it into a part of his life.

  There was no need to follow the paths with a sword move. For example, some artists could copy any small line. Even even if they managed to do the exact same, they still could not get the same aura of a master. Sword moves were the same. Each person was different, each person’s vital energy was different, and their swords were different as well. In the end, what was being pursued was a perfect match.

  So the most perfect sword essence was that the sword move, this cultivator, his sword, and his mind were perfectly fitting at this moment. Each sword could exist in such a state, but most swordsmen could not do this perfectly with even the simplest of sword moves.

  And when Ding Ning attacked now, everyone felt that this was so perfect, to the point that no one could think of a state that was better.

  His lifebond sword gave off a fearsome presence. The sword light spun around his body like grinding millstones. The Nine Death Silkworms in his body all woke up. His figure disappeared in the countless pale white streams.

  Other than Zhangsun Qianxue and the Donghu monk, everyone was in terror. Other than the Nine Death Silkworm, there was also the Stone-Grinding Sword.

  This was Wang Jingmeng’s unique Stone-Grinding Sword.

  Even more important, other than Wang Jingmeng in the past, now, someone was displaying a perfect Stone-Grinding Sword in front of them. Even this sword form could be perfectly performed. So what about Wang Jingmeng’s other sword moves?

  Emperor Yuanwu suddenly felt cold, one that even chilled the bones.

  The black moon and the crystal blade had not yet met the Stone Grinding sword essence, but just as Ding Ning started, he knew the result of them meeting. But he could not interfere right now. The shining staff was in front of him, like a demon killing staff. His bones were even creaking under its enormous power. He could only retreat.

  Afterimages of his feet were left on the ground, and then the ground exploded, like mud flowers blooming. The sky opened again. An enormous silver ray of light fell on the staff. Time seemed to stove and the world within a thousand feet seemed to dim, like the light was devoured.

  The Donghu monk and Emperor Yuanwu grunted at the same time. Both people seemed to lose some spirit.

  The black moon and the crystal blade met with Ding Ning’s sword essence at this time. The spinning sword light gave off countless sparks like numerous stars were forming and dying. Strange sounds like bubbles popping came from Ding Ning’s body. This was his vital energy and blood colliding in his body, tearing apart his flesh and meridian at the same time.

  His sword light shattered the black moon and the crystal blade, but there were still minute powers cutting at his body, and instantly caused many small wounds to appear on his body.

  Yet he was still alive. One against two, with such a word move, he fended off Ye Xiao and Sima Cuo’s attacks.

  “Sima Cuo,” Ding Ning said to Zhangsun Qianxue.

  Of course this was not a sword move, but pointing out the direction of attack. Even though Zhangsun Qianxue had just used all her power to kill a powerful cultivator who may be related to Min Mountain Sword Sect, Ding Ning knew she had such an ability.

  The Nine Hell King Sword had not formed again in the air around the death powerful cultivator, but a gray snow track broke through the air, and fell at Sima Cuo’s eyes as Zhangsun Qianxue looked.

  Sima Cuo shouted. He made a simple slash and slap. These simple moves were not pleasing to look at but were very practical. The gray snow track was cut in half, the power could not keep up, and then it was shattered.

  The gray snow track was just a thin ribbon, but when it was shattered, it was like a snow avalanche. The world in front of him was covered by flying snow. The broad and short sword in Sima Cuo’s hand shook violently. His expression was very ugly. He could not imagine that the former Eldest Miss Gongsun possessed such power.

  But at this time, his hair stood on end. A strong feeling of being in mortal danger caused him to scream like a cat who had its tail stepped on, and he leapt up. A faint golden light flew from the shadow behind him and landed on his back.

  This was a small golden lotus, perfect in form, like it was made from pure sunlight. At the same time, a golden name lit up on Zhangsun Qianxue’s forehead, like the pure golden flower decoration that many rich women would put on their faces.

  The power accumulated in Sima Cuo’s body surged out as he screamed. The vital energy and primal energies of the universe filled each inch of space in his meridians and flesh. His body swelled up from the inside, like a more true Sima Cuo was going to charge out of his body and avoid that bit of golden light.

  The madly surging power coming out of his body fell down like a mountain, forming criss-crossing gray sword energies with a rotten presence like a cage made from countless dry bones. In the next moment, like two invisible giant ships colliding in front of Sima Cuo, a terrifying wave of energy threw his body even higher into the air.

  Many springs of blood came out of his body, the blood flying through the air as his body shrank back down like a deflating balloon. A bone deep wound appeared on the left side of his face, and even half of his ear was gone, but Sima Cuo only rejoiced right now.

  He rejoiced that he was still alive. It was not that the opponent was far stronger than he had imagined, but after this decade, he had forgotten some things he should not have forgotten. He had forgotten that the other was not just the master of the Nine Hell King Sword, she was also the only heir of the Gongsun Family.

  The Gongsun Family, once the top family of the old nobility, did not just have power, but also some powerful cultivation tactics and secret arts. For example, this “mind lotus” that even now, people did not know whether to describe it was a seal weapon, a sword weapon, or something else.

  Ye Xiao’s body appeared in the sky. He stepped off the top of the hill, and his life bond sword appeared in his hand.

  His lifebond sword was as mysterious as him. Right now, many cultivators present finally saw that his lifebond sword was a deep black, like eternal night. But the blade of the sword was made from nine scaled swords twining together.

  These nine black scaled swords were like nine poisonous snakes. His lifebond sword fell down faster than he did, flying in front of him and splitting into nine in the air. These nine flying swords flew on different tracks in the air, and charged at Zhangsun Qianxue from different directions.

  Using one’s mind to do two tasks at once. A cultivator could not split their mind to control two flying swords at once, but this old nobility leader turned his sword into nine using some secret art.

  Accompanying the arrival of these nine swords were other powerful killing intents.

  Sima Cuo was not the only realm seven in the train of carriages. Zhangsun Qianxue could not fend off such nine swords, much less the killing intent of these grandmasters. But the old monk next to her and Ding Ning could.

  He had some leisure at this time. Many staff shadows appeared in the air.

  Bang bang bang, like a drum. The nine swords of Ye Xiao and the sword essences of multiple grandmasters were blocked and sent back. At this moment, the old monk’s attack was almost perfect. At least, in the several feet around him, his speed was absolutely perfect.

  In the past, no cultivator would believe that a realm seven cultivator could block attacks from multiple realm sevens like they had many heads and arms.

  But right now, Yuanwu also had some leisure. How could Yuanwu’s attack be stopped?

  “Go.”


  Ding Ning knew this. He was covered in wounds, but not blood, his face was very pale. But right now, there was no terror in his eyes, just a viciousness that he usually did not have. As he shouted, he only gripped Zhangsun Qianxue’s hand, and changed at the train of carriages.

  He was seriously wounded right now, and his power too weak to the surrounding realm sevens. He was very slow, but at this time, Zhangsun Qianxue knew the intentions behind him holding her hand.

  Her speed and power surpassed all the realm sevens in the train of carriages, including Ye Xiao descending in the air. Hers and Ding Ning’s figures instantly grew faint, and then sped up in the air, creating a long streak of afterimages.

  With a boom, the carriage that Sima Cuo had been standing in front of was crushed into powder when she and Ding Ning arrived.

  There were two cultivators in the shattered carriage. One of the young people had fallen to the ground dispiritedly, coughing up blood when the carriage was shattered. The other cultivator’s sleeve flying in the wind as a sword light stabbed at Zhangsun Qianxue’s heart.

  There was a soft sound.

  What was penetrated was not Zhangsun Qianxue’s heart but the heart of that cultivator.

  The Donghu monk’s figure appeared at Ding Ning and Zhangsun Qianxue’s side. His hand was extended straight, and his staff was also straight, piercing that cultivator’s heart.

  Emperor Yuanwu had steadied himself as well, but even though the Donghu monk had killed an expert, he still did not attack.

  Gasps sounded in the train of carriages, but no killing intent fell at Zhangsun Qianxue and Ding Ning.

  This reason was of course because of the young person in the carriage.

  Volume 4 24 - The Same Morning

  At the end of summer in the twelfth year of Yuanwu, a conflict arose on the border of the Qin and Wuzhi. The reason for the conflict was a bucket. Because of this bucket, a Qin soldier died.

  That night, the Qin border arm requested the Wuzhi country to hand over the Wuzhi warrior who killed the Qin soldier. Yet the Wuzhi emphasized the Qin soldier had crossed the border.

  The Qin border army thought that it was a bucket from the Qin military, and that soldier’s proper request had not received a response. So after the request was refused, the Qin border army quickly chose a decisive measure.

  An army launched an attack at the base the Wuzhi warrior was located at. This conflict escalated over the next few days. As the Qin continued to pump in more troops, it quickly turned into a war.

  Yet, if future generations were willing to calculate, they would easily discover the same day the soldier died because of a bucket, many of the Qin troops had crossed the Yin Mountains and moved towards the Wuzhi border. Many Changling cultivators had departed that night and headed towards the place that was a desolate plain for Qin people. And in the views of those who later studied the war, the Qin Dynasty had chosen a great time.

  The Yuzhi and Western Qiang were the closest to the Wuzhi. After the Yuezhi became a subordinate country of the Qin Dynasty, as the war started, the armies of the Yuezhi directly entered the campaign against the Wuzhi.

  Western Qiang itself had just recently endured internal strife. Multiple princes worked together to kill the old king but then their mother, leading the subordinates of the old king, defeated them. Their powerful mother became the true leader of the Western Qiang, but they did not have any forces to spare to help the Wuzhi.

  **

  In the summer of the twelfth year of Yuanwu, Ding Ning was among the many cultivators who travelled towards Yin Mountain from Changling. The cultivators who had never been in war, regardless of their cultivation strength, were newly enlisted and escorted by the conscription officers of the Warden’s Office.

  The military orders of the Qin were very strict. If they were delayed, the conscription officers would lose some of their military merit and be demoted as labourers. If they delayed war, they would be executed.

  So escorting new soldiers was not just for protection as they had to deliver these troops like they were prisoners. Because this was wartime, the conscription officers who left Changling were themselves generals on the borders. The troop that Ding Ning was part of was originally stationed a hundred and thirty miles outside of Changling as part of the Imperial Guard Army.

  This army was two thousand people, but carried large amounts of iron and bronze tools used for daily military use and for pioneering land. Like many past dynasties, the Qin Dynasty had strict controls over the production of tools and powerful metal weapons. Most workshops were gathered in Changling. When it was wartime, the items would flow outwards like water along the armies. While this would cost great amounts of manpower and money, this had a benefit — the orders would definitely arrive, and the Qin armies would respond quickly.

  The highest officer of this army was Guo Feng, from Guanzhong. He was old acquaintances with Nangong Caishu’s father and respectful towards Ding Ning. When they received Ding Ning and the others outside of Changling and they officially set off, he immediately invited Ding Ning and Nangong Caishu onto his own chariot.

  “Many people in Changling have heard of your affairs.”


  This general was not tall, and even slightly hunchbacked. His head was bald, but he emanated the hardened bloody tang unique to soldiers who had experienced countless battles. He bowed slightly to Ding Ning, his voice humble. “Especially I heard how you refused Li Lingjun, and helped that gangster called Wang Taixu become the head of the Changling underground. I know you are not just strong in cultivation and your abilities to fight above your level, but your foresight and strategy.”


  Ding Ning was not a humble person and would nott say polite courtesies. He listened to this general’s words and bowed respectfully, saying, “I am seriously injured. I fear I cannot be of much help in battle. If General needs my help in any matters on the trip, please ask.”


  Guo Feng was satisfied with his attitude and admired Ding Ning more. He laughed and said, “You should be my military counselor …… Of course, just help me along the way.”


  After a pause, he put away his smile and said, “The trip is long. You are too famous, and I fear the trip will not be peaceful.”


  Ding Ning looked at the seemingly ordinary general and said, “General is a smart person.”


  “What do you think about the Qin fighting the Wuzhi?” Guo Feng asked Ding Ning without any extra words.

  “The key is the attitude of the Chu Dynasty, separated from the Wuzhi by Yin Mountain. Western Qiang or Donghu cannot change Wuzhi’s fate.” Ding Ning smiled mockingly and said, “So much noise, and even your Imperial Guard Army has been dispatched. Countless cultivators have been sent out of Changling. If Wuzhi is not defeated, will they be content?”


  Guo Feng nodded and said, “I agree with your view.”


  Ding Ning looked at him and continued. “Donghu will of course send troops. Donghu is not just neighbors with Wuzhi, most of Donghu’s metal and bone tools come from Wuzhi. If Wuzhi becomes a part of the Qin and does not need to make cross-border trade, Donghu likely will not even have military weapons in a decade. But whether it is Donghu sending troops or Chu crossing the Yin Mountain, the trip will be long. So Wuzhi will not immediately have a final battle with us Qin, they will delay. We only need to set up a border city behind Yin Mountain. The reason is Donghu was previously called the desert barbarians as they are most skilled in their cavalry. If we chase, us Qin soldiers cannot catch up. After Yin Mountain, I fear that it will snow in a month. They will delay until snowfall no matter what.”


  Guo Feng’s gaze flashed violently. Some of these things he had thought of, but not as thoroughly as Ding Ning. Even more importantly, he felt Ding Ning spoke correctly.

  “I think the empress has considered this, so all the armies have brought along so many things.”


  Ding Ning slowly turned around to look at the vehicles and said, “She will not be in a hurry and will let the opponent delay until snowfall before the final battle. This choice will avoid many deaths, but the time will be hard to pass. For a small army, there are too many variables.”


  Guo Feng took a deep breath and looked seriously at Ding Ning. “We will go towards Donghu in the end. There is a small army we will all belong to.”


  Ding Ning smiled and said, “It will be so after we reach Donghu. But in the process of reaching there, I fear we are as General thinks, bait.”


  Guo Feng was not surprised by the words. His expression just turned colder.

  “General said I am too famous and cultivate too quickly. For the other three dynasties, I am a great threat.” Ding Ning said coolly, “There are not enough powerful cultivators in General’s army. So for people who want to assassinate me, they do not have to pay too great a cost.”


  “Since you see more clearly than I do, this means you have the ability to warn me in time to deal with changes.”


  Guo Feng looked at the path ahead and said slowly, “My duty is not just to deliver you all in time, but for these men who have come with me to return home as best as I can.”


  Volume 2 24 - Not For Grudges, Just For Pleasure

  This chapter has been brought to you by me, and larkspur.

  No one answered his question. Once the astounding wave had passed and the dust settled, the figure of a youth slowly appeared.

  "Ding Ning?"

  Fu Su’s dislike immediately turned into an expression of joy as he shouted in surprise.

  Ding Ning’s demeanour was still calm. Those invisible little silkworms had hidden back into his body and his presence was as normal as usual. However, in Forefather Zhou’s thoughts, he should have died long ago.

  But, he was still hale and unharmed.

  Just from this, Forefather Zhou felt terrified of Ding Ning’s figure, as if he were a ghost.

  !

  Almost unconsciously, a black sword light appeared in front of Forefather Zhou’s body and then accelerated to charge at Ding Ning.

  The sword light was extremely thin, but had the power to subdue ordinary realm sevens. All the green crystals along the path cracked in the ground, their surfaces covered in black frost. The sword light was like a black comet carrying an unauspicious presence.

  The sword move was fast. Black ice formed on Ding Ning’s brow, but he did not move.

  More than a dozen black tentacles suddenly appeared from the dried leaves under him. It appeared like he had suddenly grown more than a dozen black tails.

  These tentacles seemed to fear the cracked green crystals in the surroundings, their movements slightly hesitant and timid, but the energy they gave off was powerful.

  A string of cracking sounds occurred in front of Ding Ning.

  A dozen straight marks appeared in front of him, with a dozen dirt yellow waves of energy forming and easily shattering the black comet heading towards him. In the next moment, the energy even easily destroyed the black fiendish sword within.

  Forefather Zhou’s body convulsed in pain.

  He saw a mountain-like black head slowly rise from behind the dozen black tentacles.

  He had undoubtedly seen this before!

  "How is it possible? It has been starving for so many years. Why did it not eat you and fight for you?" Forefather Zhou couldn’t help but shout.

  Although that was his thought, but Ding Ning did not feel the need to explain anything. So, he only looked coldly at Forefather Zhou while keeping his silence.

  Ding Ning’s silence made Forefather Zhou feel even colder. He seemed to feel that Ding Ning’s gaze was slightly familiar. Suddenly, he thought of the scene where a sword had cut into his abdomen and he had fled in tears.

  With the medicinal power of the flesh bodhi he had just absorbed into his body, his body had some feeling. An enormous pain charged into his mind causing him to scream uncontrollably.

  In this moment, Ding Ning acted. His body accelerated and charged towards Fu Su.

  Forefather Zhou was hallucinating, he felt his body was sinking. The people he had once killed all appeared under him, reaching out and pulling his nearly numb body into hell.

  "Even if I have to go to hell, you have to come with me."

  He screamed, his body flying backwards. The remaining fiendish swords in his body all came through his body and shot towards Ding Ning and Fu Su.

  Xue Wangxu might not be able to even block one of Forefather Zhou’s swords made with his cultivation and the fiendish energy, much less Ding Ning. Yet, looking at these countless fiendish little swords, Ding Ning’s eyes flashed immense scorn.

  For oft, one’s opportunities are not due to luck, but one’s own personality and choice.

  In the past, Forefather Zhou wanted to force surrender through abusing and killing women and children. That caused him to receive a sword in his stomach.

  Today, if Forefather Zhou had just wanted to escape, the blind dragon might not have chased him. But he wanted to kill Ding Ning, so the blind dragon would fight at full power. After all, it needed to rely on Ding Ning to escape this cage.

  The entire top of the blue structure started to vibrate. This kind of vibration was caused by the terrifying presence vibrations of the blind dragon.

  The blind dragon suddenly dropped to the ground like a hammer.

  The purple fig tree also shuddered, and at the same time, pieces of earth levitated.

  These pieces of earth did not have any great power and did not attack Forefather Zhou. They only concealed the energy movements of the blind dragon.

  At the same time, the blind dragon’s blind eyes suddenly shot out deep yellow rays of light. These rays of light gathered into one big ray that swept towards the fiendish swords and Forefather Zhou’s body.

  The air suddenly blossomed with minute rays wherever the ray of light and the black fiendish swords made contact. In the next moment, the black fiendish swords completely collapsed, shattering into countless pieces like exploding black stars.

  The black light and the dark yellow lights wove together, forming an enormous red ball of light in the air.

  Ding Ning had reached Fu Su’s side. Sensing the terrifying power in the air, he immediately frowned. With Last Flower remnant sword, he drew a sword seal in the air in front of him.

  He gave a muffled grunt. The powerful force directly crushed the power of his sword seal and sent him and Fu Su flying out.

  Once again, blood dripped from Ding Ning’s mouth, but his gaze was still extremely calm.

  His elbow hit Fu Su in the chest without the other even being aware of it.

  Fu Su’s energies had already been restless, and his sight filled with golden light. At this blow from Ding Ning, he felt suffocated, and immediately plunged into unconsciousness.

  Ding Ning coughed softly and caught Fu Su from falling to the ground.

  A furious and deep roar sounded in the air.

  The blind dragon, who had sensed that Ding Ning was injured again, became furious.

  The yellow rays from its blind eyes fell to the ground. More than a dozen straight tracks appeared on the ground and reached the rapidly retreating Forefather Zhou.

  Forefather Zhou was powerful in cultivation, but his energy sea was almost frozen. His slowness in releasing vital energy was his greatest weakness at this moment.

  Facing the terrifying cutting force heading towards him, he could not gather the power to defend in time.

  More than a dozen cracks immediately appeared on the surface of his body. The strong forces cut deep into his body. Forefather Zhou heard the sound of tearing inside his body. He felt that several organs and important blood vessels in his body had been cut.

  He sank into great pain.

  Yet, in the next moment, he discovered he had not died.

  He sensed something. The despair and unwillingness in his mind disappeared as he looked down in shock at his body.

  The cracks in his body flashed with purple light. Those cracks made people think of newly harvested purple carrots. They flowed with a strange glowing liquid, and not the blood he was familiar with.

  "Already? ……"

  His gaze instinctively turned to his left hand.

  In the next moment, he saw the flesh bodhi in his hand had withered halfway. Just half was enough to cause such a change in his body.

  His perception sank into his body. He sensed that his energy sea had split under the blind dragon’s attack but the vital energy in his energy sea was no longer frozen.

  In the time of a thought, vital energy and scattered primal energies of the universe surged through the cracks in his body flung his body into the air. Under the impact of the vital energy and primal energies, the cracks in his body grew larger, but he had a loony smile on his face.

  He sensed a long-missing feeling of pleasure and power.These cracks in his body seemed to have opened new energy flow pathways in his body.

  "One step into hell, one step into heaven."

  Forefather Zhou burst into delirious laughter as his gaze landed on Ding Ning.

  "Who would have thought something like this would happen?"

  "Since I am not dead, then you are the one to die," he said, as he looked at Ding Ning.

  Ding Ning also looked up.

  His calm face wore a strange expression.

  He then gave a low shout towards the blind dragon next to him and attacked with his sword again.

  The Last Flower remnant sword bloomed into flower again.

  In the next moment, the blades turned into threads going along minuscule paths.

  The blind dragon reacted, and its tentacles flew again. Waves of energy surged out of its body and entered those paths.

  The seal scripts on the blue structure suddenly shone with light. Blue lightning immediately covered the ceiling and started to flow.

  Forefather Zhou, who had survived the calamity and whose body had transformed, had originally reached his proudest moment. Yet, when he saw this terrifying lightning, and saw that the inside of his body was illuminated blue by the lightning, his eyes filled with terror. He screamed once again.

  "No!"

  The blue lightning landed in a curtain.

  Ding Ning frowned deeply as he moved in front of the blind dragon.

  The pillars of blue lightning landed less than a foot in front of him. No lightning came down on the half where he and the blind dragon were at. The two sides were completely different worlds.

  Countless pieces exploded out of the lightning.

  One of them was a seductively purple piece, the half withered flesh bodhi.

  At the same time, all the seal scripts in the blue structure gave off cracking sounds. Dust fell down like snow.

  The blind dragon, almost out of strength, sensed something. It suddenly looked up.

  A blue piece of stone fell.

  Then a second piece, a third piece.

  The ceiling of the blue structure collapsed and exposed large patches of sky.

  "Go die as well!"

  An unusually shrill scream came out of the lightning at this moment.

  Forefather Zhou’s figure charged out.

  His body was broken to an unimaginable degree. His limbs were all broken and he had countless holes from the lightning, but he had not died.

  With power that seemed to come out of nowhere, as he screamed, the stump of his arm aimed towards Ding Ning’s chest.

  Translator Ramblings: There’s no cultivator police in the world …… otherwise, Forefather Zhou would be sentenced to life.