Nightfall

A row of prune trees cut the view in the yard into two different halves; one side was summer and the other side autumn.

Ye Hongyu stood still. The bun on her head was loosened, making her hair fall down from her shoulders. Her face was even paler than before, but her eyes lit up.

Ning Que raised his arm to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The fight was drawn, and no one died or lost.

But Ning Que was wearing an expansive smile on his face. He was so satisfied with the result that as if the thread of blood at the corner of his mouth was smiling too.

He didn’t use the Haotian Divine Light disguised by the Great Spirit, nor did he use his podao. Only by using the Martial Arts of Talisman, he had managed to push Yu Hongyu to use her Taoist Fish, which made him really proud.

More importantly, since he met the Tao Addict on the snow cliff in the Wilderness, she had become his deepest fear and his most desired goal. He had always thought that he still had quite a long way to go, but today he broke even with her.

From a young soldier who was unable to cultivate and could only daydream during his meditation, to the person who entered the human realm on behalf of the Academy and broke even with the Tao Addict, it seemed that Ning Que had got everything easily. But only he himself knew how hard it was.

At this moment, he ignored the fact that the Tao Addict had been injured and dropped in the state, and thought that he should be proud. It was the only thing he wanted to do.

However, Ye Hongyu didn’t want him to be too proud. Staring at the ground expressionlessly, she said,”You did improve a lot quicker than the Judical Department has reported. It is unexpected for me. But there is nothing for you to be proud of, because you cannot even force out all my strength.”

Ning Que didn’t get frustrated by her words. He waved his fists excitingly, ignoring the pain in his belly and chest. He said hoarsely, “Don’t copy Chen Pipi, it is not fun to argue with each other.”

Ye Hongyu raised her head slowly and looked at him.

Her black hair fell from her right shoulder, which was long and silky, like a pouring waterfall. It seemed tender, but was actually powerful.

Her face was peaceful, her eyebrows were flat and her eyes cold.

Ning Que’s face suddenly became serious. He pushed his Psyche Power to rotate the dew of the Great Spirit, sending strength to every part of his body.

Ye Hongyu looked at him quietly and said, “Do you want to catch another stroke of my sword?”

Ning Que took a deep breath, and said, “Please.”

Ye Hongyu untwisted the neck part of her taoist robe, revealing the white and smooth skin underneath.

Ning Que was slightly taken back.

When he first met her in the Tianqi Mountains, she was dressed in a red skirt, revealing a pair of straight long legs, so beautiful and attractive. At that time, she never tried to hide her beauty, and Ning Que knew that she must disdain to use it as a weapon.

But why did she untie her collar now?

The next movement of Ye Hongye shocked Ning Que even more.

She reached her hand down inside the collar. As her hands moving deeper, her dark robe opened wider and more of her skin was revealed. The curve on her chest was beautiful and alluring.

She took out a small piece of paper inside her underwear.

It was as wide as two fingers, with a vague line of ink on the edge as if it was damped either by the rain or by her sweat.

Ning Que looked at the thin piece of paper between her fingers. He felt as if he could sense the warmth of it.

“Is this…a sword?”

Ye Hongyu said peacefully, “This is the most powerful sword I have ever used.”

As the expression of Ning Que became more serious, he said, “I want to have a look.”

Ye Hongyu nipped the paper with two fingers and stretched her arm forward.

She was standing at the other side of the prune trees, so there was quite a distance between them. But along with her slight movement, Ning Que felt as if the paper was right in front of his eyes.

Ning Que knew the small wave of her arm was to draw her sword out.

Then he saw the ink line at the edge of the paper clearly.

Then he saw a thrillingly sharp and strong sword.

That sword had no concrete shape.

But it carried a terrifying power. The sword style was like an infinite waterfall pouring down from the sky continuously.

The invisible power was in the yard, on flowers and in Ye Hongyu’s hand. It rushed towards Ning Que’s face.

Ning Que felt the great danger around him and the Great Spirit in his body started rotating madly. But Ye Hongyu’s sword was too fast, and the power it carried was too great. It didn’t take any time to envelop Ning Que in and struck him before he could react.

The sword style of the paper sword didn’t embody in a sharp blade. It was more like turbid waves, tossing Ning Que into the sky. He was like a scared bird, trying to escape backward and was slammed to the wall.

The new paint on the wall was peeled off from the wall, revealing the dark bricks inside.

Ning Que sat against the wall and vomited a mouthful of blood. His face was covered with the mixture of blood and the paint and his clothes were stained with his blood. He looked terrible.

He raised his hand to wipe away the blood on his chest with great difficulty. Then he looked at the thin paper between her fingers and asked with a horrified expression, “What sword…is that?”

Ye Hongyu didn’t answer.

Ning Que didn’t know that the paper between her fingers was actually the embodiment of the sword style of Liu Bai, the Sage of Sword, who poured half of his power into the ink and left it on the paper.

Everyone in the world agreed that the Tao Addict was unexceptionally talented in cultivation. But she still couldn’t understand the paper sword completely after pondering over so many days. However, only a little bit of studying of the sword was already powerful enough for her to blind Chen Bachi, who was at the upper state of Seethrough State. How could Ning Que fight against it?

Ye Hongyu walked across the line of prune flowers and nodded towards the corner where Ning Que was. She said, “Thanks.”

She walked back to the guest’s room after finishing these words.

Ning Que held on to the wall to stand up. He looked at the closed door and thought for a while. He was confident to say that Ye Hongyu’s secret was that tiny paper sword, and she said “thanks” to him because during all these days’ penance, she finally made some progress when fighting with Ning Que.

But he was still confused. Ye Hongyu was at the lower state of Seethrough State, but the paper sword she was hiding in her underwear could improve her power to the threshold of Knowing Destiny State or even further. Then why were those people in the West-Hill Divine Palace, who admired power more than anything still against her? Was it because she hid her real power? Then what was the reason for it? Why was she so anxious to become more powerful? Was there someone in the Palace that she wanted to defeat?

He thought about a possibility and it shocked him so much that he forgot about his pain. He thought to himself, the Tao Addict was not called this name for nothing. The thing she wanted to achieve is much more difficult and exciting than the things he wanted to do.

…

…

After the fight, Ning Que and Ye Hongyu discussed or fought many times. These two young people, who were the best fighters among cultivators, fought in the yard, at the lotus land, under the shadow of willow trees and on the cliffs. The more they fought, the more absorbed they became. They felt like fighting against another self in the world.

But during these fights, Ye Hongyu never used the thin paper sword, and Ning Que never won any fight. It was fortunate that the so-called life-and-death fights were only said to stimulate them, or he would have been long dead now.

Even without the help of the paper sword, the Tao Addict could still defeat Ning Que. After so many times of loss, a normal person would have become so frustrated and gave up. But Ning Que didn’t. Instead, he cherished the chance to fight with the Tao Addict and kept learning from it.

Ning Que really wanted to see the paper sword again and he was also amazed at the different Taoists Laws Ye Hongyu used. It was already very challenging to learn so many different Taoists Laws, what made it even more difficult was to choose which one to use quickly and decisively. It was as if she had known what he would do before he did anything.

Except from the Primordial Thirteen Arrows, Ning Que had tried all methods he knew. He had even used the Haotian Divine Light made of his Great Spirit, but that didn’t save him from losing the fight either.

Ning Que recollected the fight they had last year at Daming Lake and he remembered how Ye Hongyu removed the threat of his Primordial Thirteen Arrows. He was sure that she never tried to guess what he would do. It was her instinct to make her act that way, which made him even more scared. This instinct could make a person a lot more powerful than his enemy, even though they were on the same state.

In a morning, after losing another fight, Ning Que couldn’t help but ask Ye Hongyu, who was standing under a willow tree, “How did you do that?”

Ye Hongyu also learned a lot from the fights with Ning Que. She felt much better and she understood even more about the paper sword now.

And she confirmed once again that although Ning Que was not the most powerful enemy she had ever had, he was definitely the hardest to defeat. Unlike other normal cultivators, who could only fly on their silly flying sword or attack with those useless Fu paper, Ning Que knew how to fight.

And because of this, she also confirmed a list of people on the Second floor of the Academy, who she would definitely kill. Ning Que was the third one on the list, only after Mr. First and Mr. Second.

But it was her plan in the future. She didn’t care whether Ning Que can become more powerful now, and she even decided to teach him something, for she was very confident that she could still kill him anyway.

“Do you what Knowing Destiny State is?”

Her face was rosy, and she looked glorious. The refreshing shadow of the tree made her emotionless voice become refreshing too.