Nightfall

Ning Que heard the screaming from the crowd, and he knew how unsportsmanlike it was to kill your enemy when they had surrendered.

He glanced at Professor Huang He and saw his worried expression and him shaking his head. He knew what he was worried about. If he killed Liu Yiqing under such circumstances, he would become an enemy of the Sword Garret of South Jin Kingdom as well as the powerhouse Liu Bai, the Sage of Sword.

However, he had never even considered killing Liu Yiqing. Instead, he aimed to make him suffer a fate worse than death. He was quite satisfied with blinding him like this.

But when he saw Liu Yiqing sitting under the tree with that pale face, he placed his podao firmly against his neck, as if he could kill him at any moment.

This was because Ning Que knew very well that even those who saw death as a relief from their suffering in life would still balk in the face of imminent death. The more determined a person was, the more they would desire to live, and this greed for life would only increase as they came closer to the brink of death.

Although Liu Yiqing looked very miserable and desperate, there was no doubt that he was very determined, and he would never actually wish to die.

That was why Ning Que wanted to make him think he was about to kill him, just to get what he wanted.

As expected, Liu Yiqing’s body stiffened when he felt the cold blade and sensed that Ning Que meant it. He said hoarsely, “You want to kill me?”

“He would only be alive if his sword was still with him.”

Ning Que continued, “I guess Chao Xiaoshu is already dead since you have his sword. I have broken this sword, so do you think I would let you live after you killed him?”

Liu Yiqing was scared. After hesitating for a while, he said, “I didn’t kill Chao Xiaoshu.”

Ning Que said, “Your state isn’t high enough to even injure him. But maybe you caught him using some cunning traps?”

Liu Yiqing smiled nervously, “Chao Xiaoshu has entered the Knowing destiny State. Even with the help of some tricks, no one can trap him.”

Ning Que said, “We both agree that Chao Xiaoshu is too strong to be killed by you, but you do have his sword. It seems like there is only one possibility left.”

A thought crossed Liu Yiqing’s mind. He suddenly became very nervous and refused to say any more.

Ning Que asked after a moment of silence, “Was it Liu Bai?”

Liu Yiqing did not answer this question.

Looking at the branches of a peach tree, and the flowers dangling off them, Ning Que said suddenly, “Tell me what happened and what condition Chao Xiaoshu is in now, and I will spare your life.”

Liu Yiqing frowned and hesitated.

A tumult started among the crowd of onlookers. It sounded like someone had started a furious ruckus.

The sound raised Liu Yiqing’s confidence. He looked in the direction of Ning Que. The white fog in his eyes looked even scarier when he became confident and proud again. He said, clenching his teeth, “Do you dare to challenge my brother?”

Ning Que shook his head and said, “Liu Bai is my Second Brother’s rival, not mine. But in the future, I don’t mind stepping on him again once my Second Brother has beaten him into pulp.”

Liu Yiqing’s face twisted with shock when he heard those words.

He had never heard of anyone who dared to talk about his brother in such an irreverent tone.

His brother, Liu Bai, was the best in the world. He was the Sage of Sword.

No matter his friends or his enemies, they always spoke of him with the greatest respect.

Who had ever dared to speak so matter-of-factly like Ning Que, that one day the Sage of Sword, Liu Bai, would be beaten into pulp?

It had been a while since the fight ended. The audience couldn’t hear the conversation between those two. They only saw Ning Que walk over to the defeated Liu Yiqing and draw his podao out to kill the other one, and they exclaimed.

The representatives of the Divine Hall and people from the other parties were all silent. The envoy from the South Jin Kingdom and the two students of the Sword Garret hurriedly tried to run over to them, wanting to stop Ning Que.

But the Yulin Royal Guards had circled the place with a long rope, preventing anyone from getting into the place. An argument quickly started between the guards and the three people of the South Jin Kingdom.

The envoy said with anger, “He has lost and even surrendered. Why do you stop us healing Master Liu? What on earth do you want to do?”

The Tang Empire was the strongest country in the world, and the South Jin Kingdom was the second. So the Jins always saw the Tangs as their rivals. However, the people of Tang had never regarded the Jins seriously, and as the proudest group of people of Tang, the Yulin Royal Guards ignored the envoy completely.

Ning Que and Liu Yiqing hadn’t spoken in a loud voice of Chao Xiaoshu, which was why the crowd and students there couldn’t hear it. But the cultivators standing on the road and sitting in the carriages heard it clearly.

The name of Chao Xiaoshu was once only known in the world of gangsters. However, ever since the fight at the Spring Breeze Pavilion, he had skyrocketed to fame all over the cultivation world, and it was then that the different sects found out about the existence of such a powerful cultivator in Tang who had even entered the Knowing destiny State.

Had Chao Xiaoshu really been killed or locked up by the Sword Garret of South Jin Kingdom?

All of the cultivators here knew the story of what had happened at the Spring Breeze Pavilion. They understood why Ning Que was so angry, and why he wanted to kill Liu Yiqing.

However, no one felt it would be the right decision to kill him.

Liu Yiqing was the only person who claimed to know what had happened to Chao Xiaoshu. Therefore, the Sword Garret of South Jin Kingdom could just deny his story, as there was no solid proof.

On the other hand, everyone here could see that Liu Yiqing was badly injured. No matter how unreasonable the Tangs were, they couldn’t justifiably stop the people of the South Jin Kingdom from healing Liu Yiqing and taking him away.

However, it was obvious that Ning Que didn’t want Liu Yiqing to leave the Academy alive.

The podao remained steady in Ning Que’s hand.

Liu Yiqing lowered his head. On the outside, it seemed like he had resigned himself to his execution. In reality though, he was keenly listening to the sounds around them carefully.

The envoy from the South Jin Kingdom was still shouting at the soldiers of the Yulin Royal Guards, and the two students’ faces looked so enraged that it seemed they might draw their swords out any minute now and fight their way through.

The atmosphere tensed because of the confrontation.

At this time, a voice rang out from the side gate, which had been quiet for a long time.

The sound was peaceful, but also serious, as if no one was allowed to argue with it.

“This person has been sitting here for three months and has shown his great determination. It was very impolite of us to not invite him in. And now, he has been seriously injured, even his eyes are blind. Judging by this situation, it would not be a good idea to force him to travel the long distance home. And it is certainly not acceptable to just leave him there to let him die. This isn’t how our Academy treats our guests. Youngest Brother, why haven’t you brought him into the Academy to heal him?”

Listening to the wordy nonsense he said, the crowd was initially confused at the message he wanted to deliver. But when they heard him say that they were going to take Liu Yiqing into the Academy, everyone became shocked.

There were many amazing people in the Academy.

But only one could talk so much rubbish in such a serious tone. He could be a bully and lock Liu Yiqing into the Academy.

Of course it was the Second Brother.

Ning Que smiled and sheathed his podao.

Professor Huang He smiled bitterly and shook his head, wondering to himself how this had turned into such a troublesome matter.

The fight between the brother of the Sage of Sword, Liu Yiqing, and Mr. Thirteen of the Academy, Ning Que, was finally over. The audience cleared away with unsatisfied expressions on their faces. Unable to understand what had really happened during the fight, those ordinary people were left amazed at how quickly the fight had ended. In their eyes, the entire fight was just a single stab of a sword from one person towards the other, while the other one hacked back.

However, not understanding it didn’t mean they wouldn’t discuss it. This well-known fight would definitely transform into a completely different story after being retold many times by them, quickly becoming a legend that was far more exciting than the real fight had been.

Long after this incident, there would still be lots of people crowding around in a tavern or a temple, discussing the simple but powerful hack. For ordinary people in Chang’an, it would be talked about even longer.

The several carriages also left. Only the carriage that belonged to the mission from the West-Hill Palace remained there, standing alone.

Cheng Lixue didn’t leave. He walked out of his carriage and came over to He Mingchi. He glanced at the side gate with a confused look.

The side gate was closed. On the brick ground in front of the gate, there remained some blood stains and some ridges made of dust. In the beginning, they had been a testament to Liu Yiqing’s power, but now, they seemed like nothing more than a farce.

“Is combining martial arts with talismans really possible?”

With his brows furrowed, Chen Lixue was buried in his thoughts. As a Priest of the Revelation Department of the West-Hill Divine Palace, he was a knowledgeable expert of cultivation. Yet he had never read or heard of anyone who had succeeded in such a technique.

“Even if you had really combined martial arts with talismans during your three-month penance, why did you still use our West-Hill Divine Skill in your last attack?”

Chen Lixue asked himself a question.

This was the same question asked by Liu Yiqing, right after he found out that he was blind.

“Why does Ning Que know the Divine Skill? Who taught him?”

As if hearing him echo his thoughts, He Mingchi, who had been silent till now, answered quietly, “Ning Que is a student of the Headmaster, that alone means that anything is possible.”

According to the classics in the West-Hill Divine Palace and the prestigious Gods, the Headmaster of the Academy was capable of practically any feat.

Just when Chen Lixue was about to agree with this conclusion, he realized that it might not be as simple as that.

He remembered the young girl he had seen just then.

The young girl who had been quietly standing under the big tree.

He understood.