Zhangsun Qianxue woke up.

She did not wake up normally. Her consciousness woke up in her energy sea.

She saw herself standing in the energy sea.

The five colored energies in the ocean underneath her had completely frozen. Even the vital energies falling from the celestial aperture were in a frozen waterfall.

She started to realize that she had previously lost control of her body and vital energy. She had walked on the edge of life and death. However, she did not rejoice because she knew the threat of death had not passed.

She saw a hidden red light at the top of the vital energy waterfall where the celestial aperture was.

That was Ding Ning’s energies.

While she did not know what Ding Ning had used to wake up her consciousness, she knew she could only rely on herself to survive.

Her emotions sank into absolute calmness again. She did her best to immerse her thoughts into the jade palace under the frozen energy sea.

The jade palace shook.

With a shudder, countless cracks appeared on the frozen surface.

The frozen waterfall also formed countless cracks and vital energy started to flow.

Like a land coming back to life, small flows of water melted the ice, and then became bigger flows to gather into a sea.

The five colored energies started to flow.

All of the blue cold energies were pushed down by the vital energy to the deepest part of the jade palace.

The sea water underneath her feet became clear, a faint and hard to describe blue.

As the energy sea cleared, a thread of unusual color in her jade sea appeared.

It was a blue-black sword!

She had a blue-black sword resting in the center of her jade palace!

That dark blue-black color that could almost consume people’s minds was ferocious.

Zhangsun Qianxue’s body did not stay cold. Blue ice particles containing terrifying cold energy stopped coming out as she breathed.

Her eyes opened. She finally woke up and returned from the border of life and death to the mortal realm.

Then she saw Ding Ning who was tightly embracing her.

Her eyes filled with shock, anger and murderousness. Her hand raised up slightly and was about to land on the head of Ding Ning who was in her arms.

This hand strike appeared soft, but it contained a profound power, and gave off an indescribable destructive presence.

Ding Ning slept sweetly.

He was extremely weak and tired. The moment he detected Zhangsun Qianxue’s vital energy had started to circulate in her body, he was reassured, and he sank into the deepest of sleep.

He did not feel death coming close to him at all.

Zhangsun Qianxue’s expression grew colder. But staring at Ding Ning’s overly pale face and calm expression, her hand slowed.

In the end, she took a deep breath. Before her hand landed on Ding Ning”s head, the destructive presence became a gentle and warm flow of energy.

The humidity created by the melted frost was pulled out of blankets, and even more minuscule droplets were shaken from the blanket.

She pushed aside Ding Ning’s hands, stood up and walked to the window.

The sky was already light. The storm had ended, and day was about to come.

Ding Ning woke up with the clucking of the chickens and the howls of the dogs.

The window of the bedroom facing a patch of taro was open. Even through a wall covered in gourd vines, Ding Ning could feel the fresh presence emanating from the taro field.

The sound of pots and bowls in the alleyway, the carriages moving, the shouts of merchants, of wife and husband fighting entered his ears.

After the storm, Changling seemed to immediately recover and become even more refreshed.

Zhangsun Qianxue stood at this window.

She did not turn around but she immediately knew when Ding Ning woke up. She said coldly, “You offended last night. Next time, I will not hesitate to kill you.”

Ding Ning looked at her beautiful figure. His expression did not change. He said in a low voice, “You should know that my cultivation is far from yours. To save you, I only had that one method. Also, based on last night’s situation, the power of the Nine Hell Sword is far beyond my imagination. You should be more patient in your cultivation.”

Zhangsun Qianxue turned around and looked calmly at Ding Ning who had just gotten up. “Don’t you feel you are laughable saying this.”

Ding Ning frowned slightly. “What is laughable?”

Zhangsun Qianxue said, “If you do not feel that these things are more important than life and death, why did you find me, why do you conspire to rebel against your emperor?”

Ding Ning shook his head and said serious, “It is not the same.”

“There is nothing different,” Zhangsun Qianxue said back coldly. “To you, getting revenge for you teacher is more important than life and death. To me, this is also more important than my life and death.”

Hearing this, Ding Ning was silent for a moment. Then he said seriously in a low voice, “I told you before I am not his student. Also, if you have an accident like this in the future, I will still choose to save you.”

Zhangsun Qianxue’s brow raised up slightly. A hint of true anger appeared at the corner of her eyes.

“Do not say useless words to me. If you are not that person’s student, you will not know what method I cultivate. If you are not that person’s student, you cannot have learned the suicidal Nine Death Silkworm Divine Skill, nor possess your cultivation and knowledge at this age.”

Her eyes once again became murderous. “I only want to remind you once more that the fact you are that person’s student is enough for me to kill you. I do not kill you because your existence will make my cultivation faster.”

Ding Ning was silent for a long time. He raised his head and looked at her. He asked seriously, “You hate him so much?”

“Who in the world doesn’t hate him? Even you Qin People hate him,” Zhangsun Qianxue said expressionlessly “The people who don’t hate him have pretty much all died.”

Ding Ning looked at that pair of peerless eyes and asked even more seriously, “If that’s so, why did you come to Changling?”

Zhangsun Qianxue glanced at him, her anger disappearing, her face becoming cold and calm again. “You think that I am in Changling because of my past with him? I only feel it is unfair … … I just feel that he did so many things and ended up like that, I feel it is unfair. Because it is unfair, I want to kill your emperor.”

Ding Ning calmed down. He did not argue anymore, only saying, “I’m going to Fish Market today. I will return after killing a person.”

Zhangsun Qianxue frowned slightly. “You have just attracted the interest of the Divinity Bureau again, you are sure this is a very good time?”

Ding Ning nodded. “Zhao Zhan just died. The Astrology Bureau and Divinity Bureau’s more powerful people have more important things to do.”

Zhangsun Qianxue glanced at him and asked, “Who are you going to kill?”

Ding Ning rubbed his face and said softly, “Song Shenshu.”

Zhangsun Qianxue thought carefully. Her memory was not very good. However, the total number of cultivators in Changling was low, and this name was connected to the history library of the Qin Dynasty so she immediately found this person in her memory.

She looked at Ding Ning as though she was looking at an idiot. “A cultivator who just reached realm two third class wants to kill a cultivator who is realm three first class?”

Ding Ning softly responded, “Anyone under realm four is the same.”

” Anyone under realm four is the same?”

Zhangsun Qianxue’s eyes became fierce as she looked coldly at Ding Ning. “You still say you are not that person’s student? Only he would dare to say such a thing. But if other people truly believe this, they are just giving their life away.”

Ding Ning was silent for a moment. He said, “I will be careful. If I have not returned by midnight, think of ways to leave Changling on your own.”

Zhangsun Qianxue turned her head to not look at him and said coldly, “Don’t worry, I’m not so stupid to stay and accompany you to die.”

She said this emotionlessly, yet Ding Ning smiled, looking at her side profile.

He knew, better than the great majority of people in the world, some people looked affectionate, but were actually ruthless, but others looked ruthless, but were affectionate.

Translator Ramblings:

Realms in this story technically go from one to nine, and each realm is divided into first, second, and third class. This somewhat mirrors the nine rank official ranking system used for most of history in Imperial China as outlined here except that system usually has an upper and lower class for each rank and this story has three grades for each realm.

Also, how do people know which suffix to attach to a nationality/group? Canada becomes Canadian, China becomes Chinese, so what does Qin become? Qinese? Qinian? Qinish?