Beyond the Divine States

Chapter 26 Before Night Fell

The hand that gripped Lu Jiajia's neck also loosened in desperation. Kneeling on her knees, she covered her throat, gasped for air heavily and saw the headless body, unable to tell whether it was reality or hallucination.

The body was beheaded. Even the old fox's soul was also affected. It had to break out of the body. When it left, a flaming claw reached out to grip the broken saber that dropped.

The figure holding the sword also came within an instant. The saber and the sword clashed again.

The sound of clang was extremely fast just as a woman played the flute with her fingers.

Every movement--stab, tap, tilt, stir, block, strike, hack and chop, was extremely simple and not fancy at all, just like the move that cut the head, which was neat and as fast as a flash of lightning.

Lu Jiajia turned her head with difficulty. Staring at the back of the one charging forward like a clap of thunder, she was taken aback.

Never had she seen such a fast sword move. The vibration of the spiritual power for every sword move was extremely subtle. He concealed the spiritual power to the extremity without any waste. In return, he could wield the sword extremely fast!

That was not the fast speed of random hacking or chopping. Every stab or strike, every hack or chop, every turning of the sword move, followed the simplest and fastest route without any flaw.

Everything was too simple so it appeared rather beautiful.

"Run!"

That man suddenly shouted. The voice sounded somewhat familiar.

Lu Jiajia had no time to identify the voice. She didn't remember that she knew such a master.

However, she knew that she would only be an encumbrance if she stayed here.

Without hesitation, she got up with all her strength and ran towards the imperial palace, dragging her seriously injured body.

Before leaving, she took a glance at the back again.

In the storm, the black clothes swelled in the cold wind and the sword humming sound was just like bells chiming together.

...

...

The sound of sword and saber clashing together was the most beautiful music in the world.

Because the music was based on the strings of life and death. Every strike entailed the ultimate horror and beauty of the life-and-death moment.

Now, the old fox disliked the sound very much. It wanted to strike a s***h to end the annoying sound.

But it couldn't.

Its saber was forcibly suppressed by his sword.

It would take a short time to urge the spiritual power or cast a spell, but the man just hindered it from urging the spiritual power with the sword overwhelmingly.

It could feel that his realm was far inferior to its.

Yet, it could only be made to fight against him with the saber.

They both slashed too fast without any thinking. All the attacks were made instinctively within an instant.

The old fox forcibly stopped retreating after taking the moves hastily.

The two of them stood face to face, acting swiftly and extremely subtly, without moving violently, because they were both afraid that the other party would take advantage of the weak point if making any unnecessary movement.

The air between them was hit by the saber and the sword, blasting clusters of bright sword sparks. Those were fireworks that came to being suddenly and then vanished. Amidst the flashes and shadows of their weapons, sparks burst out and then faded away within an instant.

The old fox was aware that they were both holding a breath. Whoever exhausted the breath first would be defeated.

It believed that its realm was even higher, which made his breath surely last longer.

That man still kept slashing desperately, just like a dragonfly fluttering its wings with all its strength.

That was a pure speed.

When the man's breath was finally coming to an end, the broken saber was also overwhelmed and broken again.

The saber was broken once and now it was broken again. Thus, it could hardly be used to s***h again. This was pure oppression in terms of material.

The sword finally cut through the saber wind. At that moment, the sword suddenly became red, as if all the accumulated spiritual power was waiting for the moment to come.

It also reddened just like being injected with blood within the groove along the axis of the sword,

That was not real blood but the burning sword flame.

Meanwhile, the long sword hummed just like the broken string, the torn silk or the cuckoo crying blood.

That was the sword rage.

The old fox was gravely shocked. It didn't understand why the man could make the sword spirit vibrate when he just held the sword. Without thinking much, it decided not to conceal its power anymore. It started to make finger gestures and meanwhile, the brighter evil fire wrapped itself up. There was also a gust of fierce wind roaring from its bones. Instantly, it disappeared in situ.

When it showed up again, its body with the evil fire unextinguished had been tens of meters away.

Yet, it didn't get to avoid the sword attack.

On the body condensed by the fire, there was a clear sword mark neither too long nor too short, which didn't heal for long.

In fact, if it would like to retreat, it could have hidden away with bodily movements and then fought back after accumulating enough strength.

It was simply unreconciled. Given the realm that the man had revealed, it didn't believe that the man could wield the sword faster than it.

The sound of the saber and the sword clashing together still reverberated in its ears. The old fox gradually calmed down and then found an even more irritating thing. The young man before the old fox was a resident of the state of Zhao.

"Who are you?" The old fox asked coldly.

The young man also seemed exhausted, whose face was a bit pale. Hearing the old fox ask the question, it subconsciously frowned and asked, "You don't know?"

The old fox also felt confused. "How can I know you?"

The young man suddenly laughed.

The old fox didn't know why he was so happy and then it said, "You let the woman run. Do you really believe I don't dare to kill you?"

The young man in black said, "Your other souls are outside the imperial palace and you seem to fear something. You need to watch Zhao Xiang'er all the time."

The old fox was horrified. Its souls outside the imperial palace were watching Zhao Xiang'er indeed. Of course, it couldn't directly see her through the formation of the imperial palace but it could feel the spiritual power on the Rosefinch Flame Wand. With that, it could confirm where Zhao Xiang'er was in the imperial palace.

It was taking precautions against something.

Yet, on what ground did this young man know? It was his guess, or...

With its countenance still unchanged, the old fox said, "So what?"

The young man in black said, "If I guess it right, Zhao Xiang'er is also waiting for you to kill people. As long as you kill any people of the state of Zhao, she will immediately come at you while you are backlashed. I'm only an irrelevant person. It's not worthwhile to kill me."

"Irrelevant... Humph." The old fox got even more curious. "What else do you know?"

The young man in black said, "Isn't it enough?"

The old fox couldn't conceal the killing intent in its eyes. "Who on earth are you?"

The young man did some estimation and figured that it should be about time. He directly threw the sword on the ground and made a gesture of surrender. "Sir, please spare my life. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ning Changjiu."

The young man in black was Ning Changjiu.

"Ning Changjiu? You are Ning Changjiu?" With its soul shaken, the old fox was shocked.

Ning Changjiu said with a nod, "You know me?"

Instead of answering the question, the old fox reached out its claws from the flame, with the killing intent reflected in its eyes even richer. "I won't kill you for now but I didn't say I would let go of you."

Ning Changjiu said innocently, "I've thrown away the sword. Is it too despicable of you to bully a junior? How about me picking up the sword?"

Then, he really bent down to pick up the sword.

Before he reached the sword handle, the old fox had pawed at him. It had made up its mind to cut off the young man's right hand that could hold the sword, even at the cost of being backlashed.

They got into a dogfight.

Splash. Three deep finger marks were left on the blue bricks.

The sword was dropped on the ground but Ning Changjiu just vanished into thin air.

In the water on the ground, there was a black new talisman.

The new talisman was stuck to the sword. Leveraging the sword Qi of the immortal sword on the ground, the talisman that should be not strong enough was forcibly magnified, which allowed him to get away within an instant.

The old fox picked up the talisman in astonishment. "Taoist Switching Talisman? Who...on earth is he?"

Outside the side yard, Ning Changjiu crossed the gate smashed into debris, patted his chest and grinned with a lingering fear. "Master Ning Qinshui, what you accumulated over your lifetime of cultivation is too little. I've easily used half of it after such a fight. If anything similar happens again, I will meet you down in hell then."

Amidst muttering to himself, he returned to the room and called Ning Xiaoling's name several times.

No one replied.

Ning Changjiu heaved a sigh and muttered to himself, "I've told her not to run about..."

He took off the dampened black Taoist robe and put on a snow-white gown with the crossing on the right side. The collar of the gown was embroidered with the light bolt rope in the pattern of plum blossom, which made the young man look even colder.

The bell tolling the hour rang again.

It was the period from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. now. The sun set and the night would fall.

"What a bummer!" Ning Changjiu groaned.

...

Lu Jiajia finally arrived at the city wall. She sensed the existence of the blue-and-white sedan. As she urged her consciousness, the sedan flew out of the temple on the side of the main hall and went across the city wall to pick her up.

The old fox appeared behind her, which she had felt. Then she just looked back.

Before she could feel panicked, she had heard the bell.

The old fox heaved a sigh. "What a bummer!"

...

Then it let go of the woman nearby and then its soul just flew towards the gate of the imperial palace to join up with the other two wisps of souls.

Lu Jiajia finally realized that Zhao Xiang'er must have taken action, so the soul had to integrate with the other two wisps of souls rather than take any risk.

This time, the old fox came fast and left fast too. She didn't have time to take delight in surviving a close call. Now, she only wanted to get into the blue-and-white sedan to have her body and soul rest.

"I wonder how the swordsman who just helped me out is..." Leaning against the city wall, Lu Jiajia closed her eyes to recall the fierce sword light and had mixed feelings in her heart.

The old fox clearly had no time to kill her. Why did it still come to take a glance at her? Did it want to indicate that the swordsman had...

With a flash of the idea, Lu Jiajia felt pain in her heart and even wanted to run back to the long street.

She shook her head and thought that the swordsman she hadn't met should be not inferior to her since he could wield the sword that fast. If the old fox was only a wisp of soul, it could never kill him. Moreover, what could she do now...

Despite the thought, she still felt rather worried.

Splatter.

Something suddenly dropped.

Lu Jiajia bent down and found a folded note. She picked it up and recalled that it was the prescription given by Ning Changjiu.

Thinking of the young man, she couldn't help recollecting something, which made her have even more fixed feelings.

"This young man is quite weird." Lu Jiajia unfolded the note and muttered to herself. "Doesn't he know that for cultivators, the herbs in the secular world can barely work?"

The blue-and-white sedan had flown over across the city wall. The formation seemed to permit it to travel around. It didn't encounter any hindrance.

Lu Jiajia looked at the prescription and found that the herbs marked down were quite ordinary.

Suddenly, her gaze paused.

A row of words appeared quite eye-catching. They seemed to be written backward?

She turned the prescription upside down and read it lightly against the light. Then, her pupils suddenly shrank and her back straightened up. It clearly read...

"Be wary of Ning Xiaoling!"

She couldn't tell whether it was a prank or something but the moment she thought of it, her hair was made to stand on end and panic just welled up inside her. Now, a sound that came from behind her even made her blood run cold for the moment.

"Jiajia, there you are. I don't know where Changjiu has gone. I've been wandering in the city for quite a while but I still can't find him. Unexpectedly, I ran into you... Wow. This is so great. Is this the blue-and-white sedan you mentioned before? How pretty!"

Lu Jiajia only felt her body was getting stiffer and stiffer. She looked back and met with Ning Xiaoling's innocent beaming face.