Ding Ning and Jin Liuli walked down Happiness Tower and boarded the waiting carriage. Ding Ning sat in the cabin while Jin Liuli sat at the front and drove.
She had left Min Mountain Sword Sect in order to learn from Ding Ning, and thought of herself as his student. Her attitude was like so, and she appeared natural when she did a job like this.
While she did not disguise herself and looked the same as she did during the Min Mountain Sword Trials, only a few people had seen her during the event. She was so natural as she drove Ding Ning’s carriage that it became the best disguise for her identity.
No one would think the next master of Min Mountain Sword Sect, the legendary genius Jin Liuli, would drive a carriage for Ding Ning.
The passersby who saw the person at the front of the carriage would only think that this young woman was an attendant that underground leader Wang Taixu had arranged for Ding Ning, or one of Ding Ning’s junior sect sisters at White Goat Cave.
Jin Liuli was not familiar with the streets of Changling but Ding Ning knew this city’s streets like the back of his hand. Under Ding Ning’s directions, she drove the carriage. Hearing Ding Ning introduce the alleys along the way, she frowned slightly. She thought, if she fought Ding Ning in the streets, she was already behind him and lost the advantage of the land.
Seeing her frown and sensing the change in her presence, Ding Ning knew that her mind was completely occupied with cultivation. So he could not help but lament. “Only the savants can reach the limits. You are a natural savant in cultivation and everything you see is cultivation. Even if your talent is not as good as you are, it will still be unrivaled by ordinary people.”
“But I fear I cannot catch up to you.” Jin Liuli responded calmly. When she spoke, she did not lift her head and cooly looked ahead. But then, she abruptly lifted her head. Thunder roared on the stone street ahead. A horse dragged a carriage as it sprinted towards their carriage.
The carriage was not an ordinary one, but one full of waste buckets.
From hearing the sound until the actual collison, there was enough time to react for a cultivator.
Jin Liuli”s eyes just started to narrow when Ding Ning said softly behind her, “Palace Attendant Rong’s tactics.”
Jin Liuli’s eyebrows rose slightly. Ding Ning said, “Stabilize it… otherwise, the waste will fall all over the ground. When our carriage passes, it will stink.”
A breeze seemed to blow by Jin Liuli’s body and the carriage lightened. Ding Ning’s figure had floated out of the carriage as he spoke.
Jin Liuli naturally thought that Ding Ning spoke correctly, but when he flashed by her side, she still had not thought of a solution.
It was easy to kill the horse, and separate the horse from the carriage. But the waste buckets were wavering. Any of the solutions would be difficult to achieve if one did not want the heavy horse and carriage to turn over.
At this time, Ding Ning pulled out his sword.
The passerby along the two sides of the road dodged. While they appeared to be in chaos, there were actually many pairs of eyes solemnly focused on Ding Ning’s performance.
When Ding Ning pulled out his sword, these calm pairs of eyes filled with shock and puzzlement.
Ding Ning’s Last Flower remnant thrust forward. Fine white flowers immediately bloomed along the blade, then the tip of the sword split into numerous sword threads. The fine sword threads flew like white hair, each thread having multiple fine white flowers. There were more flowers flying in the air, each of them brimming with unique primal energies of the universe.
This was no longer a pure vital energy presence. The vital energy had absorbed some primal energies. This meant that this was at least the second class of realm four, Energy Fusing.
How long has it been since the Min Mountain Sword Trials?
At that time, Ding Ning had just entered realm four, and he had been seriously wounded during the trials. Now, he had recovered from his injuries, and his vital energy cultivation reached realm four second class.
How was this possible?
But their shock and puzzlement did not stop there.
When the threads of the Last Flower remnant sword spread apart in Ding Ning’s hand, a crystal clear flow of water appeared at the tip of each thread. Every thread seemed to be like a willow branch that had been soaking in the pond. The moment the wind blew, they scattered water.
The flow of water stabbed into the rampaging horse. The horse was still madly sprinting, but its momentum slowed.
Ding Ning swung his sword.
As the streams of water snapped, this horse had almost stopped, its limbs powerless as it fell forward.
Ding Ning’s swing cut through the reins, the carriage shaft and all other items attached to the carriage itself.
The horse fell to the ground with a crash. The carriage behind it swayed slightly, and then as Ding Ning’s sword slapped it, it completely quieted.
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Jin Liuli had stopped the carriage and was several dozen feet away from the waste carriage behind the horse.
“It is not easy to raise a horse. This was not its fault. Since you have the ability to stop the carriage, why kill the horse as well?” she asked softly but seriously.
Ding Ning turned to walk back to the carriage and said, “It’s been fed Crimson Rock Powder. It cannot live long, that will just add more pain.”
Jin Liuli frowned deeply. “You made so many judgements in an instant. I should learn from you.”
Ding Ning looked calmly at her and then reached out to point at an alley beside the carriage. He said, “Go here, if you go around, it will notwaste much time.”
Jin Liuli’s expression was solemn but calm.
She drove the carriage into that path without any more words. A sweet and clean fragrance reached her nose. There were many jasmine flowers planted along the side of the alley, and the snowy white flowers were in full bloom.
Thinking of the distance where the horse had fallen, Jin Liuli knew that it was a result of Ding Ning’s deliberate control. She took a deep breath and said, “Even if I thought of a sword move as fast as you did back then, I still cannot match you in using a sword move so well.”
“In my view, sword moves just have to be used well, you do not have to be concerned with perfection,” Ding Ning looked at her back and said, “There is no absolute perfection in the world. Also, your opponent cannot perfectly respond to you.”
“Used well, and not absolutely perfect?” Jin Liuli thought of the meaning of the words, and frowned even more. She felt that the truth in the words was profound.
The carriage gradually left the sight of the eyes focused on Ding Ning. The shock in those eyes was still expanding.
Terrifying to think about. That was what these people were thinking.
Other than the realm four second class cultivation, that first blow was the Thousand Winding Waters of the Cloud Water Palace. This sword move originally needed many preliminary moves to be used. It was one of those moves that was similar to a sword formation. Yet Ding Ning used the traits of the Last Flower sword to use it in one move.
This kind of performance was not just an excellence performance of a sword move, but a kind of new creation. Also, his following slice and slap with the sword used a perfect amount of force. He could use his sword moves so well. This was more terrifying than his cultivation advancement.
Realm four second class challenging a realm six was an action of seeking death. But inexplicably, many of these people started to worry for Palace Attendant Rong’s safety.
The fragrant alley was quiet and washed away all murderousness. The passersby were few. But Jin Liuli’s hand was unconsciously by her side.
That was where her sword hilt originally was, but she touched empty space now. Her sword was not there.
“Do not ever have any habitual actions. Especially towards your sword. Any habitual actions will be a fatal weakness,” Ding Ning said calmly and softly as he looked at Jin Liuli, who had realized some problems.
Jin Liuli and his gaze both landed on a porter near a well at the entrance of the alley.
That porter looked normal, and was just washing himself with cold water. But he and Jin Liuli seemed to know at the same time that this person was not an ordinary porter.
“The cloth he holds has problems.”
Jin Liuli nodded minutely to show that she had learned. At the same time, she turned slightly to ask Ding Ning, “How did you see it?”
“The worn parts on his carrying pole do not match his figure.” Ding Ning glanced at her and said, “There are many porters from Falling Parasol. A shoulder like his cannot make a waer patterson like that on his pole.”
So this was finding oddness in the ordinary?
Thinking of the advancement Zhang Yi gained in the common streets, Jin Liuli grew thoughtful.
“He has no killing intent,”
Ding Ning said softly, “Just go past him.”
Jin Liuli was puzzled.
Any cultivator who wanted to make an ambush, especially a kill, would conceal their killing intent. Why was Ding Ning certain right now the other had no real killing intent?
At this time, a soft but focused voice reached her and Ding Ning’s ears.
“Palace Attendant Rong only has a few weaknesses. What she lets you see are not her weaknesses.”