With one blow, he had destroyed tens of thousands of crystal swords.

Feng Qianzhuo covered his bleeding abdomen, his back to the stairs. Terror and anger mixed as he screamed, “Why!”

Most people had not refocused due to the shock of the scene just now. They did not understand the meaning in Feng Qianzhuo’s question.

But Xue Wangxu knew.

He looked with slight contempt and sympathy at Feng Qianzhuo. He said coolly, “Even if someone like you uses a sword move that will take your opponent and yourself to death, you lack spirit and sincerity.”

Gasps of shock and inhales sounded.

Many of the elites of Zhushan District started to understand what happened after hearing Xue Wangxu’s words.

From the very start, Xue Wangxu had not wanted to tangle too long with Feng Qianzhuo. The sword manuals of Ba Mountain Sword Field had many magical traits that outsiders did not know of. So he only used one sword strike.

This was an attack with his lifebond sword. It had hid for many years while accumulating power.

None of Feng Qianzhuo’s sword moves could stop this move so he used the Seven Treasures Crystal Sword to form thousands of swords to face an attack with an attack.

But Xue Wangxu had not changed his sword move.

Feng Qianzhuo did not dare to die with Xue Wangxu. It could be said from when they took out their swords, Xue Wangxu felt that Feng Qianzhuo’s sword essence lacked that spirit.

Feng Qianzhuo did not want to die, so he could only lose.

Feng Qianzhuo covered his abdomen but blood still spilled through his fingers. Feeling the great pain in his abdomen and that terrifying sword essence, he laughed madly as he thought of how his long-held peace and health had been destroyed by this sword. “You won … you think you can safely leave Zhushan District?”

“That attack just now used up almost all your vital energy!”

“Kill him!”

—

“Kill them!”

“Do not let them leave!”

As Feng Qianzhuo laughed, furious shouts came from the crowds filling each street and alley.

Ding Ning’s expression still remained calm.

He looked up at the sky. He saw many black crows circling below the clouds and above the roofs.

With a clang, a middle-aged man dressed in satin robes pulled out of his sword and charged.

His features were similar to Feng Qianzhuo. He should be one of the sons or nephews.

His crimson longsword gave off many burning flames that danced in the air like fire snakes.

Facing such a sword, Xue Wangxu slowly bent down. He picked up a long bamboo broom beside him. Then he stabbed with the bamboo broom like it was a sword.

The end of the broom started to burn.

The charging satin robed man wanted to swing his sword to cut off the burning part of the broom. But for some inexplicable reason, he could not touch the broom due to an odd time and spatial separation.

The burning end of the broom stabbed into his chest.

Poof! The flames went out.

Many small burning sections of bamboo stabbed into his flesh and then were pushed out by the surging blood and energy in his body.

This man stood in disbelief. His sword was still pointed uselessly forward several inches away from Xue Wangxu.

In the next moment, he looked down dazedly. He saw the long bamboo broom handle pressed against his chest. Then he lost all his strength and sat dispiritedly on the ground.

Multiple people charged forward with shouts.

Xue Wangxu stood at his spot and stabbed again.

Blood sprung from the chests of these people as they fell to the ground.

The bamboo broom handle was still a bamboo broom handle. It was made from an ordinary long piece of bamboo. However, because the small branches at the end had burned up, there was a layer of blood at the end and the end had grown sharper under the friction of flesh and bone. At this time, this ordinary bamboo branch was like a branching bamboo sword in Xue Wangxu’s hands.

The surroundings quickly quieted.

Looking at the numerous cultivators who had fallen in puddles of blood under Xue Wangxu’s simple stabs, many of the elites of Zhushan District who had prepared to attack sat down again with pale faces.

Xue Wangxu had not used any vital energy in his attacks just now.

He used this method to tell everyone that, even when he didn’t use vital energy, there was still a great disparity in sword understanding and strength between realm seven cultivators and ordinary cultivators.

One would need a large army to kill realm seven and above cultivators or many realm five and six cultivators.

If Zhushan District wanted to keep Xue Wangxu here, how many people would die?

“I might die. Everyone will die.”

Xue Wangxu casually shook the blood off the bamboo branch. He looked coolly at Feng Qianzhuo who was surrounded and cared for by some people. He said, “But I can promise I will kill you before I die.”

Feng Qianzhuo’s body trembled in pain and terror.

He clearly realized that Xue Wangxu spoke the truth. Just from the other’s attacks, he knew his understanding of the sword was nothing compared to Xue Wangxu.

If he hadn’t had the famed sword of Ba Mountain Sword Field, he would have lost even worse.

He did not know how to answer so he shouted furiously. “You are intolerable!”

Xue Wangxu smiled coolly.

From the start, he said to Feng Qianzhuo that they did not agree and needed to speak using their swords.

If he hadn’t feel pleased over at defeating the raging waves with a strike, he would not have said a word after defeating Feng Qianzhuo.

Right now, he did not want to speak. He turned and motioned for Ding Ning to follow him.

Ding Ning turned and closely followed him.

But at the same time, Ding Ning said calmly, “Where were we intolerable? From the start, we only wanted the appearance fixing orb back. You set all the rules. When you were shouting and cursing, we didn’t even say an extra word. In the Qin Dynasty, fair battles when the rules are decided beforehand will occur many times in a day. But not admitting defeat after losing and wanting to kill us like Zhushan District is doing now … the Qin Dynasty doesn’t have many places like this. Don’t you feel embarrassed?”

“And the Feng Family.”

Ding Ning paused. He didn’t turn and continued to follow Xue Wangxu through the parting crowd. “This was a matter that could have been decided by a fair fight before the festival. But you used the empress’ painting to make a threat. You lost the fight, and wanted to stir up all the people of Zhushan District to try to kill a realm seven cultivator. Even if your Feng Family doesn’t admit this, when the news spread, what do you think the elites of Changling will think? Would they feel the Feng Family had acted well?”

Listening to Ding Ning’s calm cold words and thinking about the meaning, Feng Qianzhuo felt even colder. His terror grew. In the end, his clothes were soaked in a cold sweat. Watching as Ding Ning and Xue Wangxu disappeared from his sight, he gave a despairing and animalistic roar.

The crowd continued to part in front of Xue Wangxu like the sea parting the way.

“How do you feel?”

Ding Ning asked softly as he followed Xue Wangxu like a shadow and looked at the Zhushan District people on the two sides who had complicated expressions.

Xue Wangxu glanced back at him and smiled like a child. He said, “I feel very good.”

Then he asked Ding Ning, “How do you feel?”

Ding Ning responded seriously, “I also feel very good.”

Xue Wangxu said, “I do not mean that… I mean how do you feel after consuming the appearance fixing orb?”

Feeling the pure medicine power the appearance fixing orb was slowly releasing into his body, Ding Ning’s expression grew serious.

Other than the legendary Emperor You who left behind this method, no one else knew about the secrets of the Nine Death Silkworm. He, who already cultivated the Nine Death Silkworm, would only detect the special traits of this method as his cultivation increased.

The moment he had swallowed the appearance fixing orb, he discovered he missed a truth.

The pill medicines that influenced physical energy and vital energy were not the only way to speed up his cultivation.

The medicines that could nurture his body and organs could also speed up his cultivation.

The greatest weakness of the Nine Death Silkworm was that it used up too much of the body’s energy.

The Nine Death Silkworm used up energy too fast so one had to control their cultivation speed to avoid their organs quickly aging.

Medicines that healed the organs and the body would mean there was more energy for cultivation while the aging rate of the organs remained constant.

In the simplest terms, Nine Death Silkworm’s cultivation speed could be faster but his organs were not strong enough to withstand a faster speed. So he didn’t just need the pill medicines for physical energy and vital energy. If he had nurturing pill medicines for strengthening the organs, his cultivation would be faster.

This appearance setting orb’s medicinal power made him feel as though new life was flooding him. Even more importantly, he had some new comprehensions of cultivation.

“I feel very good.”

He looked with unusual gravity at Xue Wangxu and said, “This will win me several years of time.”

Xue Wangxu did not know Ding Ning’s true thoughts but he could feel Ding Ning’s sincere gratefulness. This made him feel even more satisfied. He brushed his sparse long white beard and smiled contentedly. “This is good.”

Looking at Xue Wangxu’s smile, Ding Ning’s heart, filled with countless grudges and death, was filled with warmth.

He wanted to see Zhangsun Qianxue. He wanted to see the old woman in Fish Market … He thought of how he had never interacted with anyone else in Changling other than those two for such a long period.

Thinking of how this old white-haired man did not have much time left, his heart grew even softer. He suggested softly, “How about we go drink wine? Do you want the company of a girl?”

Xue Wangxu suddenly turned his head and stared in disbelief. He pulled out several more strands of his beard. “What are you joking about?”

Translator Ramblings: Why are people so wordy in fights …