Nightfall

All was silent by the side gate.

There was no sound among the crowd of people standing around or among the carriages.

The only sound was the painful screaming from Liu Yiqing.

All the cultivators were shocked and speechless.

In their view, it was impossible for Ning Que to win the fight. After seeing Liu Yiqing’s terrifying power before the fight, they were convinced that there was no way Ning Que could defeat the young swordsman from the South Jin Kingdom, no matter how much he had improved during his penance in the back of the mountain.

The fight was so unexpected; it had such a simple beginning and a very violent ending. And all the audience had closely witnessed Liu Yiqing being thrown out in a horrifying way.

Was Ning Que’s attack the same as the rumor had said? Did he really manage to combine martial arts with talisman skills?

Had he been practicing that during his penance and succeeded?

All the shocked cultivators were standing still next to the road and thinking.

But those among the audience who were ordinary people weren’t thinking about anything because they didn’t understand the fight at all. In their view, students from the Second floor of the Academy were all supernatural beings, so it was natural that they could defeat a swordsman from the South Jin Kingdom.

They were silent because the fight finished too quickly for them to become excited. And their intention of hailing the winner afterwards disappeared when they heard Liu Yiqing’s crazy and horrible scream.

The Tangs always admired strong people and sympathized with the weak. At first, they didn’t like this person from the South Jin Kingdom at all, because he had dared to challenge the Academy. But when they saw his miserable situation and his blinded eyes, they pitied him and were all silent.

…

…

“Why do you know Divine Skills?”

Standing under the peach tree, Liu Yiqing looked up to the sky with dull, glassy eyes, his hand holding on to the hilt of the sword tightly. He was more sober than before and his face was scary and unsatisfied.

He suddenly became angry again and crazily started stabbing everywhere with the hilt. He shouted, “I won’t give in! Where are you, Ning Que? Come here and fight with me again!”

He was very unsatisfied. And after finding out that his eyes were now blind, he was even more unsatisfied with the result and became outraged.

He was Liu Bai’s brother, the Sage of the Sword and the best swordsman ever, and he was predestined to be the leader of the new generation in the Sword Garret of the South Jin Kingdom. Even the Second Brother in the Academy agreed that he was talented enough to catch up with Liu Bai.

His first attack had shown his brilliant state in sword cultivation. In terms of power and state, he was in no way worse than Ning Que. And even though he lost this fight because of carelessness, he shouldn’t have ended up with such a miserable defeat.

Liu Yiqing had always thought that the reason Ning Que could defeat Long Qing, Guan Hai and Dao Shi was not because he was more powerful than them, but because he was lucky and cunning.

He had been preparing for three months for this fight. And no matter whether Ning Que used his iron arrows or the Divine Talisman Master Yan Se had left him, he had prepared different means to defeat him.

But it never occurred to him that Ning Que would use his podao.

From the beginning to the end, he had only used his podao.

And he had only used it for a single hacking!

Liu Yiqing believed that if not for the Haotian Divine Light Ning Que had hidden in his sleeves so cunningly, he would have never been caught so unprepared, and lose in such a tragic way.

In the dark, he reviewed the fight and became both angry and sad. He was so unsatisfied and he knew that if they could do it again, he would definitely win.

He was still holding onto the tree, with his glassy eyes unfocused. He yelled towards the direction of the slope with the hilt in his hand, “Come here! Come fight with me again!”

After looking at him for a while, Ning Que said, “Why should I fight with you again? You have just lost to me.”

Liu Yiqing turned around quickly after hearing his voice. He tripped and stumbled when trying to stare at Ning Que, “Because you cheated! I am not going to give in!” he shouted again.

Ning Que still said mildly, “How did I cheat?”

Liu Yiqing was touching the rough bark of the trunk with his left hand, trying to hold tighter to the tree and stabilize himself, “This is the Academy and you…” he said with hatred.

Before he finished, Ning Que cut in saying, “The Academy? So you think that I had a geographical advantage? And we are in the south of Chang’an, surrounded by the Tangs. So you don’t have people backing you? And I just finished my penance today, so I am in my highest spirit today, so you don’t have the perfect timing? ”

Looking at the angry expression on his face, Ning Que sneered mockingly, “Don’t forget. It was you who had been waiting here for three months. The whole world knows that you were waiting for me to finish my penance, and you also chose the place and time to fight. Then why don’t you give in?”

Liu Yiqing was shaking. His blood, mixed with dust, was dribbling to the ground.

Ning Que never pitied his enemy. Although he didn’t get the thing from Sangsang today, that was like saving the life of his enemy. He had planned to condemn Liu Yiqing to a life of suffering, worse than being killed. And after winning the fight, how could he skip the chance of giving him a mental blow?

“If you are unsatisfied, be unsatisfied with your dumb thinking ability. You should never challenge the pride of the Academy. And you shouldn’t have taken out Chao Xiaoshu’s sword to challenge me.”

Hearing his words, Liu Yiqing started laughing crazily, his tears flowing over his face. He pointed what was left of his sword at Ning Que and shouted hoarsely, “I know you are cold, but I still underestimated how cold you could be. You have seen the sword, the sword belonging to a person who had saved you before. But you couldn’t care less about its safety and were not distracted at all. The cultivation of the sword requires coldness, and I thought I was already cold enough. I really should not be unsatisfied about losing to you, because you are colder than me.”

This proud young swordsman finally admitted his failure for the first time, despite that his voice was still full of hatred and desperate mocking.

Ning Que lowered his head and looked at the dust on the bricks. After a while, he suddenly looked up and said, “Firstly, Chao Xiaoshu and I are just eating buddies, we only talk about noodles with fried eggs and money. We never talk about each other’s personal affairs.”

“Secondly, I don’t know how you got his sword, but I do know that an idiot like you could never defeat him. Then how do you think you can distract me by using his sword? And how dare you not give in?”