Nightfall

Ning Que walked towards the peach tree.

The sound of him walking startled Liu Yiqing. He glanced around confusedly and tightened his grip on the hilt. Previously he said he wanted to fight again. But only until then did he realize that he was badly injured and couldn’t even defeat a normal person, let alone Ning Que.

Ning Que came before Liu Yiqing. Looking at his bloody face, he said, “I know you still don’t want to give in because you think it was very cunning of me to hide my real power.”

Liu Yiqing was trying very hard to restrain himself from yelling or passing out under the great pain. He pursed his lips and his whole body was shaking.

This young powerhouse from the South Jin Kingdom demonstrated his unsatisfaction with his silence and his gesture.

“But you don’t understand what battle is. You think your sword stroke was simple enough, but it was not, because you have been thinking for three months, thinking about how to deal with my arrows and talismans and what you could say or do to distract me.”

“But instead of using talismans or arrows, I didn’t do anything. And I also didn’t think; I didn’t think about Chao Xiaoshu, the sword in your hand or your relations with the Sage of the Sword. I was never frightened of you, and I didn’t want to get more information about you, nor did I want to distract you. All I did was to draw my podao out from the sheath and hack at you.”

Liu Yiqing understood what he meant, his body shaking even harder.

“That is a real simple attack,” said Ning Que.

After being silent for a while, Liu Yiqing said with a complicated expression, “I see.”

Ning Que argued, “No, you don’t. You don’t know that a real simple attack means that you need to have a simple mind.”

“You lost to me because you think too much, and you also talk too much.”

Liu Yiqing nearly fainted, his body shaking heavily.

But Ning Que didn’t stop. He continued, “Before our fight, you said that if I tried my hardest, you would tell me something about Chao Xiaoshu. Your words were very silly.”

He stopped and stared at the red peach flowers. “Because I would try as hard as I can even if you don’t want to tell me anything. Your threat only made me see clearly how important it was to beat you hard. And now that I have destroyed you, it is your turn to tell me something.”

Liu Yiqing finally realized why he lost today. He was still unsatisfied with the result, but he had to give in. He closed his eyes with hatred when Ning Que was insulting him.

After a while, the hatred in his eyes turned into blankness. The young swordsman, who was going to become the leader of the Sword Garret of South Jin Kingdom, knew that he would never be able to take revenge anymore because his eyes were blind forever and he was injured so badly that he couldn’t even hold a sword.

His pride had broken and disappeared after the fight with Ning Que. Staring into the dark world, he imagined how bleak his future would be. Desperation filled his chest and destroyed his strong mind. He sat down next to the peach tree.

The hilt of his sword dropped from his right hand.

He was too weak to hold it anymore, because Ning Que’s remarks had taken away his last straw.

Ning Que picked the hilt up and kept silent for a long time.

It was Chao Xiaoshu’s sword.

Of course he couldn’t have lost to Liu Yiqing.

Then why would the Sword Garret of South Jin Kingdom have his sword?

To keep himself focused when fighting, Ning Que didn’t think about anything. But now that the fight was over, his mind was full of the bad things that might have happened to Chao Xiaoshu and it made his hand shake slightly.

After the fierce fight in the Spring Breeze Pavilion, lots of people thought Ning Que and Chao Xiaoshu were faithful friends and were very close to each other. But Ning Que knew clearly it was not the case.

The relationship between him and Chao Xiaoshu was more like that of a landlord and a tenant, a leader of gangsters and a killer he employed or like what he had told Liu Yiqing, food buddies. For most of the time, they talked about food and money, rather than sharing each other’s feelings and secrets. Therefore, he wasn’t really familiar with Chao Xiaoshu, he had just met him a few times and had not even been to his home.

There were always some people who showed up from nowhere, entered your life and talked casually with you. But after all this, the two were already bosom friends.

Chao Xiaoshu walked into the Old Brush Pen Shop on a rainy day.

And Ning Que met Zhuo Er at a small village in the Yan territory.

They seemed to be not close at all. They might not have gotten in touch for many years, or randomly written to each other. And when meeting on a boat, they would just drink with each other, chat a bit and depart.

But they were actually very close. Even if they hadn’t met for many years, they still could understand each other perfectly well with just a smile and could fight together against their enemy.

And when one knew that the other was in danger, no matter what he was doing, he would not hesitate to help. Even if he was in the most important exam in his life or about to get married to a princess, he would give up all those things and ride a horse to where his friend was.

Ning Que looked at the hilt in silence.

He didn’t know what situation Chao Xiaoshu was facing.

He found it really good that he didn’t know much about his friend.

Because that meant that he didn’t know whether Chao Xiaoshu also believed in the principle of ‘I would only be alive if I still had my sword.’ And it meant he didn’t have to confirm that Chao Xiaoshu was dead.

Ning Que raised his head and looked at Liu Yiqing, who was sitting under the tree as silent as a dead man. He tightened his grip on his podao and pointed it at him.

The crowd screamed, they didn’t expect Ning Que to kill this person from the South Jin Kingdom.

In the crowd, Professor Huang He frowned and shook his head in concern, trying to warn Ning Que to be more careful.