Nightfall

Tensions were running high. Ning Que had to break Master Boshu’s nine-layer Buddhist defense first, or his opponent Master Boshu would kill Sangsang with his copper bell. At that moment, only Knowing Destiny cultivators could make a difference in the battle. Quni Madi wanted to crush Ning Que and Sangsang with her broken staff, though she knew she couldn’t. Instead she looked anxiously at Cheng Ziqing.

Cheng Ziqing sat in the Buddha’s temple with a sword on his knees. He had been thinking a lot in only a short amount of time but only realized that, if the world was destroyed, relations between Sword Garret and the Academy and the conflict between Tang Empire and South Jin Kingdom would become meaningless. As a cultivator, the most important thing he could do was keep the world intact.

Before Quni Madi’s anxious gaze could wander to him, he had already prepared a Sword Formula, and a sharp sword style burst out of his sword.

Sword Garret had a very different style of swordsmanship than others in the world. Most of the time, sword masters would tightly hold a sword and follow its movement. So Cheng Ziqing immediately grasped the hilt and let the sword lead the way.

His body moved extremely swiftly, as if he had become a sword himself that was on its way to Ning Que’s back.

He was a Knowing Destiny cultivator, second only to Liu Bai, the Sage of Sword, in Sword Garret. At this very moment, he had launched his most fatal attack.

Faced with Cheng Ziqing’s most powerful attack, Ning Que could defend only himself with his strong body after joining with the Devil, and even still he barely survived. If Sangsang were to be hit, she would die at once.

However, Cheng Ziqing’s sword did not hit Sangsang.

Neither did it hit Ning Que’s back through Sangsang’s thin body.

Instead, it hit hard stone.

Cheng Ziqing looked the same. His sword continued to move forward, breaking the stone into pieces.

Another stone appeared at the tip of his sword.

His expression turned fierce. An aura of the world burst out of his sword which vibrated continuously in a very short period time with numerous shadows, trying to avoid the stone.

But he couldn’t.

In the quiet hall, countless stones appeared in the ten-feet space between Cheng Ziqing and Ning Que’s back. The stones were of different shapes and sizes, and were all densely packed in the small space.

Faced with the stones, Cheng Ziqing could hardly move forward, though his sword was quite powerful.

Mr. Ke had once broken these stones with Haoran Sword.

But Cheng Ziqing failed to do so, even though his swordsmanship was uniquely skilful.

Suddenly, he felt as if his mouth was stuffed with stones, and then his throat, and chest, before finally his entire body was full of them. He felt slightly tingly and cool. What made him even more pained were the hard stones with sharp edges, which were cutting his consciousness constantly.

A feeling of hopelessness rose within his chest as his insides throbbed. With a shrill cry, he waved his cyan-steel sword for 120 times without a pause, finally breaking the encirclement of stones and leaving behind their bleak and desperate world. He breathed fresh air again.

Turning to look at Mo Shanshan who was keeping silent at the corner, Cheng Ziqing was pale and shocked.

There were countless notches on his sword, which was greatly damaged as if it had collided with hundreds of thousands of hard stones in only a second.

When Cheng Ziqing tried to stab Ning Que’s back, Mo Shanshan moved immediately.

She took out a paper ball and tossed it on the ground in front of the futon.

It was a piece of talisman paper, which was shaped like a small stone.

The paper stored the talisman power which she had comprehended from the pile of rocks at the bottom of Daming Lake. It had helped her reach the Knowing Destiny State this spring, when she had become one of the youngest Divine Talisman Masters in history.

This was why she named the talisman “Stone Array Tactics”.

The greatest taboo in a fight was hesitation. That was what Ning Que had told Mo Shanshan at the Wilderness. He certainly would not make this mistake now, so when he sensed that Cheng Ziqing was trying to stab his back, he did not stop attacking Master Boshu.

He could deal with a Sword Garret’s attack with the big black umbrella, which would at least buy some time. But he could not stop Sangsang from spitting blood because of Master Boshu’s ringing bell. So he had to kill Boshu as soon as possible.

Six layers of Baoshu’s nine-layer Buddhist defense had been breached by Ning Que’s podao. However, as the bell rang and the Buddhist aura was recovered, the nine-layer Buddhist defense became intact in a flash.

Ning Que appeared indifferent without a hint of disappointment. Before his podao blade reached the ground, he bent his knees and chopped at Master Boshu with his clenched left fist.

For ordinary people, a fist was usually their last and most primitive attack during a battle, even if it was a strong one. But for cultivators, whether it was a fist or foot, as long as it was a part of human body, it must be the weakest, if not most laughable attack.

Ning Que’s fist was not laughable, however, because it was the first time that he showed his Dark Methods. More importantly, his had stored unparalleled Great Spirit in this very fist.

There was a loud boom.

The nine-layer bodyguard aura around Master Boshu was destroyed by Ning Que’s fist.

Looked at the approaching fist, Master Boshu was shocked, and then he reached out two fingers with the bell between them.

Ning’s fist hit on the copper bell.

The Great Spirit he inherited from his Youngest Uncle, Ke Haoran, had finally met with the relic left behind by Buddha.

Another loud boom!

Master Boshu was pale and his lips were covered in streams of blood. The bell between his fingers rang loudly as if it was in a storm and would fall at any time.

However, it did not fall.

Ning Que’s attack was over, but nobody had expected his consecutive attacks to be as fast as lightning. He immediately turned and slanted upwards the moment he landed on the ground, with his podao in his right hand.

There was a swooshing sound.

Master Boshu screamed in agony and fell to the ground.

His right arm had been severed from his body, flying toward the top of the hall with bloody water.

The bell was still held tightly in the hand that was cut off.

Ning Que remained expressionless. He grasped the arm and reached for the bell.

Since Sangsang’s power would be suppressed by the bell, it must be cared for properly if it could not be destroyed.

But just as his finger touched the bell, a majestic Buddhist aura suddenly rushed out from his finger to his heart.

Ning Que felt intolerable pain in his finger. Since the aura was too strong, he couldn’t help but grunt, realizing that the Buddha’s relic was beyond reach for both Sangsang and himself.

He released his finger and let the bell fall on the ground.

And then he took out the second iron arrow and shot at Cheng Ziqing who was at the palace gate.

At this moment, Cheng Ziqing had just gotten rid of Mo Shanshan’s Stone Array Tactics and was staring at her in shock. He did not expect that an even worse attack was coming.

Nobody had expected that after a narrow win over Master Boshu and cutting off his arm, Ning Que would continue to attack the swordmaster from Sword Garret.

In the hall, only Sangsang, behind him, and Mo Shanshan, sat in the corner, had expected this.

This was Ning Que’s style of fighting. Once the fight began, he would not stop until he could confirm that all of his opponents were dead or could not fight back.

Cheng Ziqing was a strong cultivator at Knowing Destiny state as well as a threat to Ning Que. Since Mo Shanshan has used her Fu paper to disturb his opponent, how could Ning Que miss this perfect opportunity to attack?

The darkish iron arrow disappeared on leaving the bowstring. Then, it suddenly appeared in front of Cheng Ziqing with a slightly white turbulence.

Just like Master Boshu, Cheng Ziqing was unable to resist Primordial Thirteen Arrows, which had exceeded the time limit. However, he was, after all, a strong swordmaster from Sword Garret and he had become alert after seeing Boshu’s experience. So when he saw Ning Que turning around and bending the bow, he did not hesitate to get prepared in advance.

With a shrill piercing sound, the damaged sword suddenly exploded in Cheng Ziqing’s hand.

At that very moment between life and death, the swordmaster chose to sacrifice his natal sword in exchange for a sword light that looked like a curtain of rain.

The iron arrow appeared in the curtain of rain.

There were countless sounds of clashing. Blades of the sword stuck into the pillars and windows in the hall with a humming sound.

Cheng Ziqing flew backward and was slammed onto a stone statue.

With a whizzing sound, the iron arrow shot into the ground of flagstone in front of him.

( )

It was deeply embedded in the ground without a trace, leaving only a black hole. And because of the friction between arrow and stone, there were threads of smoke around the edge of the hole.

Looked at the hole, a look of fear appeared on Cheng Ziqing’s face, and then he spat out a mouthful of blood.

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