Beyond the Divine States

Chapter 33 The Evil Seed

It was an hour ago.

Since Blood Feather fled, the evil sparrows in the imperial city also went away. A lot of ordinary birds finally flew out of their nests in fear and came to this familiar and yet ruined city.

A sparrow with grey-brown feathers and short tail feathers landed in an unimpressive yard.

A large part of the yard wall had collapsed. Among the broken stones, some smell of blood was still left, but the lamplight in the room was quite stable. The faintly yellow glow coming through the window paper was just like the sky before dusk or the rogue that a young girl applied to her face lightly.

The sparrow stared at the room with its black eyes. It liked the color, which could bring an air of peace as if this city hadn't been rampaged by the evil sparrow.

All of a sudden, the sparrow raised its head agilely and looked under the clouds. In the night sky that just cleared up, the dark clouds were getting lighter. Yet, in the dark blue sky, there appeared a streak of unharmonious red light, which just looked like a long snake wandering across the sky.

The sparrow feared the snake. It shivered and wanted to leave flapping its wings.

Nevertheless, it suddenly saw the snake was coming towards it. It flew up in fear and arrived at the higher and farther beam, looking down carefully.

The red snake was not coming for it. The snake was condensed by numerous sparkling red light spots, which slithered from the sky into the yard stealthily. Very soon, the light in the yard flickered a lot of times visibly and then died out. It was dark then.

The fighting sound came from inside. Then the window was broken and the door was smashed. Even if the roof had a hole.

The sparrow felt an inkling of extreme danger, so it immediately flew away flapping its wings and made a warning chirp in the darkness. However, the people who had just experienced the calamity were still immersed in the joy of the demon being subdued, so they couldn't hear it for sure.

...

While the anomaly happened in the imperial palace, Ning Changjiu had a hunch and felt it.

Now, the water on the stove was boiling. Ning Changjiu lifted the iron heater, stood by the table and made a pot of tea. Because the water was hot, the pot needed to be lifted high so that the hot water could cool down while it was poured down. As such, when the water was poured into the cup over the tea leaves, the temperature of the tea would be just fine.

This was his habit over the past years in Ning Changjiu's memory, so he was quite familiar with it and didn't even spill a drop of water when he poured the water.

"Every act of a person can reveal a lot of information," Ning Changjiu nudged the porcelain cup to Ning Xiaoling and said smilingly. "In retrospect, the day I came around, I poured a cup of hot water for you. It was the way I poured the water that made you suspect me."

Ning Xiaoling hesitated for a while before nodding her head. She raised the porcelain cup and took a sip. Admittedly, the tea Ning Changjiu made tasted much better than the large bowl of tea that she made.

She put down the cup and gazed at the young man in white, asking, "That day you were sitting on the chair, your hand suspended in midair unmoved. What were you doing?"

Ning Changjiu said, "I was fishing."

Ning Xiaoling recalled that when Lu Jiajia asked him what he was good at, his answer was fishing.

"Fishing? For what?" Ning Xiaoling asked.

Ning Changjiu answered, "I don't know. It is only a habit formed when I was little. Back then, the second fellow disciple gave me a stick, asking me to go to the riverside and get a fish without a thread or a bait."

Ning Xiaoling asked in astonishment, "How was it possible?"

Ning Xiaoling said, "Back then, I didn't understand either. Afterward, I realized that there are countless intangible threads, which are connected with everything in the world. As long as we can grasp the threads, we will be able to grasp everything in the world. Those are the fishing threads dangling from heaven to the secular world."

Ning Xiaoling tried to grab something in the air around her and shook her head, saying, "I don't believe it."

Ning Changjiu said with a smile, "I didn't believe it before. At that time, I was sitting by the river for a whole day with that stick. It happened a fish stopped under the shadow of the stick. Splatter! I stunned it, took it out and brought it to my fellow disciple."

Ning Xiaoling giggled and asked, "Your fellow disciple didn't scold you?"

Ning Changjiu also giggled. "Targeting smartly and acting agilely is also my capability. Why would he scold me?"

Ning Xiaoling thought about it and then stopped giggling. She asked, "What are you fishing for now?"

Ning Changjiu said banteringly, "Of course I am fishing for a little fox hiding beneath the surface."

Ning Xiaoling sighed, "You are not good at joking."

Hence, Ning Changjiu really stopped smiling. Only the faint steam of the two cups of tea was floating between them.

Ning Changjiu suddenly took a glance at the window, whose eyes seemed able to see farther through the window paper.

"The old fox was defeated," Ning Changjiu suddenly said.

Ning Xiaoling widened her eyes. Feeling the evil seed that was deeply connected with her innate spirit, she found it unbelievable but the reaction of the evil seed couldn't be lying. The original being of the evil seed had been destroyed so the evil seed became the rootless duckweed.

Every monster could foster its own evil seed like a tree blossomed and yielded fruit when it reached a high enough realm.

The evil seed was equal to its other heart.

It could only be transplanted to the receptor of the same origin, or the receptor would go mad and die violently. Yet, the evil seed also represented rebirth. Even if the original being died, the evil seed would be very likely to take root, sprout and revive with the undispersed souls.

The stronger and rarer the evil was, the harder it would be to find the receptor of the same origin. Therefore, when the young girl with her innate spirit of the fox appeared in the imperial city, Old Red-tailed Lord awoke immediately and cast the intangible evil seed with almost all its power that could affect the whole imperial city.

That night, Ning Qinshui opened her acupoints and let the ghosts flood into her body. With the ghosts as the wind, the seed cast by the old fox was the dandelion seed blown by the wind.

The seed landed in her body, took root, sprouted and then became closely linked with her innate spirit. It would difficult for them to be severed again.

As long as the seed was within her body, Ning Xiaoling would become a demon sooner or later.

Therefore, the night when she was assaulted by the assassin, if Ning Changjiu didn't make it in time, the evil seed would be activated in advance and the consequence would be unimaginable.

If the old fox really fled out of the underground palace, it would recycle the seed and swallow the evil power within as well as the innate spirit that the evil seed attached to. If the old fox died, the evil seed would take the body as the new soil.

Therefore, in either case, Ning Xiaoling had to die.

On the first night, when she heard the old fox talk to her via the evil seed, she could hardly fall asleep, but in order not to let Ning Changjiu sense anything wrong, she still pretended to be carefree on the surface.

Actually, these days, the evil seed had been affecting her subtly and even wanted to take over her body completely.

The evil seed had penetrated deep into her body. This was a doomed standoff.

Leaning against the back of the chair, Ning Xiaoling looked as if being drained of all the strength. Her casual laughing and chatting seemed to be the dream she made for the last time. She said feebly, "Changjiu, we are so ill-fated."

Ning Changjiu said, "Sometimes as to a talisman that can summon ghosts, when you alter a few strokes of it, it will become an evil-subduing talisman. In the world, a lot of things can be changed to create totally different effects. Demon is transformed by a spirit. Surely, it can be reversed."

Ning Xiaoling said, "I cannot alter talismans..."

"It's okay. I'm good at this," Ning Changjiu looked at her face and said calmly. "Have a sleep and you will be okay when you wake up."

Ning Xiaoling cupped her own face and said regretfully, "If I told you about this earlier, could it be very different?"

Ning Changjiu said, "I've known it earlier, so you don't have to think too much."

Ning Xiaoling noticed something was happening outside, saying, "Changjiu, actually, I know you may not be you but somehow, I feel you are still my fellow disciple."

Ning Changjiu rubbed her head. "I'll always be."

Outside the window, the sparrow was chirping.

A long red snake crept inside through all the obstacles, rushing towards Ning Xiaoling's body like the river flowing towards the valley.

Ning Changjiu couldn't stop it. In fact, he didn't mean to.

He had been waiting for this moment.

Only when the old fox was truly lured out, he could have a chance to rip the evil seed off Ning Xiaoling without hurting her life.

The long red snake was the last condensed soul of the old fox.

Now, the red long snake wrapped around her body like the soul worms. Ning Xiaoling looked ahead in desperation and shed tears. Within an instant, within her bright eyes, the pupils could be hardly seen. Her eyes just turned white.

A snow-white tail got out behind her, swinging with a huge and illusory shadow.

The wooden chair under Ning Xiaoling was suddenly broken. She got up dully and looked ahead with a blank expression, giving off an air of extremely weird Qi similar to the demon or the god.

Ning Changjiu's gaze met the snow-white eyes' for a moment.

Ning Xiaoling looked at him and thought for a moment, saying with uncertainty, "Changjiu?"

Her voice became extremely cold and aloof. There was not any emotion contained in her voice, which was more of the slowly melting ice held on her chest.

The young girl's evil Qi surged within a few breaths. After all, that was the essence of the six wisps of the old fox's souls. Now that the souls were combined, if it were not for the limitation of Ning Xiaoling, she would be able to reach the realm of Purple Court instantly.

However, even at the peak of the realm of Long Life, as the four keys lost their aura temporarily, the immortal sword was sealed and put into the Jiazi Hall again, the killing formation of the imperial palace was ruined and Lu Jiajia hadn't recovered, what else in the city could hinder her power?

Ning Changjiu looked at her eyes and asked, "You are here?"

Ning Xiaoling looked at him indifferently, saying, "Sometimes I really can't tell whether you are pretentiously calm or truly calm."

Ning Changjiu replied, "Neither can I tell who you are."

The evil power around Ning Xiaoling was surging, billowing the Taoist robe like the wind. Putting one hand behind her back, she made a finger gesture with the other hand, still poker-faced. "The old fox is dead. So will your fellow disciple. I'm just me. I haven't come up with a name for myself."

She was the innate spirit of Ning Xiaoling, the snow fox without a tail. Now with the help of the evil seed, she took over the residual evil power of Old Red-tailed Lord after it was dead, her realm suddenly got elevated and directly took over Ning Xiaoling's consciousness.

Ning Changjiu nodded his head and said, "It's great that you are not Xiaoling. Then I can kill you without any scruples."

Unswayed at all, Ning Xiaoling had more and more illusory shadows of the snow-white foxtail. Staring at Ning Changjiu, she said, "I know there are a lot of extraordinary people in the world. You may be one of them but you haven't even reached the Profound Realm. How can you kill me?"

Amidst talking, Ning Xiaoling suddenly retreated and a snow-white finger was coming for her unhurriedly. The tip of the finger was surrounded by a halo as if burning the purest holy fire in the world.

Ning Changjiu was still calm and serious. This was the same pointing move he made that night. It was the Demon Subduing Finger.

After Ning Xiaoling took three steps back, several thin and long tails spread out like the peacock and then gradually condensed into two relatively thick and furry long tails.

This was her first battle. Although the old fox's soul contained a lot of fragments of fighting experience, she still had no time to digest them quietly. Now, she felt kind of nervous.

However, the nervousness just lasted for one moment. The confidence brought by the predominant realm quickly calmed her down.

She also pointed one finger out which was burning the foxfire. Therefore, the whole room was illuminated with some scarlet light, as if the sun was hidden within. Ning Changjiu's faint light seemed to be overwhelmed anytime.

Nevertheless, within an instant, when the foxfire collided with Ning Changjiu's finger, the two flames just offset each other and vanished together. The light in the room lasted too transiently and then got devoured by darkness instantly.

After a moment, the beams were shattered and the tiles dropped with the wooden windows and the wooden door all broken. Ning Changjiu was thrown into the yard with three claw marks on the white clothes of his back.

Ning Xiaoling also arrived. She broke out of the roof, leaped up high and landed agilely. When she was dashing towards Ning Changjiu, her feet were suddenly tripped by something.

A streak of golden light twined around her ankles like the threads. The thin threads were deeply buried underground. Now, the threads all emerged and wove densely in the yard as if a fishing net was lifted from the water. They rose and fell silently, which looked like thousands of crisscrossed strings.

"A formation?" Ning Xiaoling immediately came to her senses but her feet still couldn't get out.

Ning Changjiu pointed his fingers at the middle of her eyebrows and shouted, "Zuo Wang Zhai Xin."

Those were the first four words on the tablet along the mountain path.

As the mantra was uttered, the dust all landed; the shattered grass clippings dropped quietly; the stars, the moon, the tall buildings and the birds were all like sitting on the cattail hassock in meditation. Everything was deadly silent.