Chapter 10 Her Insistence

Ning Changjiu said, “A person, a familiar person. I have an inkling that he is in the imperial city. I feel that as long as I meet him, a lot of puzzles in my mind will be solved then.”

Ning Xiaoling became more and more confused as she listened. Then she asked, “What puzzles...do you have?”

Ning Changjiu said, “Who am I?”

Ning Xiaoling felt cold and still smiled with an unchanged countenance, “Changjiu, don’t scare me... By the way, who are you looking for?”

Ning Changjiu said uncertainly, “It may be a junior brother disciple or a cute junior sister disciple like you. Anyway, he is in this imperial city now. I can’t locate where he is but I can vaguely feel it.”

Ning Xiaoling puckered her lips. “Oh, you want to find a junior sister disciple.”

Ning Changjiu smiled, rubbed her head and said, “Have a good rest. Your innate spirit has been broken again, which needs to rest in recuperation.”

Ning Xiaoling was slightly startled and asked, “You’ve known it?”

Ning Changjiu said with a smile, “Being able to foster a spirit is something to be proud of. Now that Master is dead, you don’t need to hide it from anyone.”

Ning Xiaoling mumbled, “It’s a pity that my little fox now looks like a little mouse. Besides, it was born without a tail.”

Ning Changjiu said, “Except for those twelve beings, all spirits in the world are inherently imperfect.”

Those twelve beings... Ning Xiaoling’s heart skipped a beat.

People were always in fear and awe of the unknown things and meanwhile couldn’t help feeling curious. She was a 13-year-old girl only. Since she fostered the spirit, she had grown substantial curiosity about this kind of matter. Hence, she finally asked, “Do the twelve gods and their state of Yin really exist?”

She looked at her senior fellow disciple expectantly with her watery eyes open.

Ning Changjiu rubbed her head and said with a smile, “I am your fellow disciple, not a god. How can I know?”

“Er...”

She looked at Ning Changjiu in astonishment, only feeling that the current senior fellow disciple’s temperament became too different for her to adapt to.

She still didn’t want to give up and then asked, “What do you know then?”

Ning Changjiu thought for a moment and then said, “I have read some legends about the twelve masters of the state of Yin. Now, sleep as told. I will tell you about them if possible.”

Ning Xiaoling puffed out her cheeks and said angrily, “Oh.”

Ning Changjiu chatted with her again and then rubbed her eyebrows to soothe Ning Xiaoling’s nerves and stabilize her soul. After she fell asleep, Ning Changjiu swept the broken pieces of porcelain and sawdust on the ground before going back to his bed. Staring at the slightly red lamplight shone from outside the window, he stayed silent for a long time.

After a long time, he wiped the corners of his mouth.

That was blood.

He broke the woman’s formation in one breath and then rescued Ning Xiaoling at an extremely fast speed. Before the assassin left, he pushed the assassin’s sword into the sheath and also shattered the sword to pieces.

After doing that, he felt tremendously exhausted.

His pointing of that night not only killed the walking corpse Ning Qinshui but also absorbed his lifelong cultivation base.

These days, he often wondered to what extent he could do at one fling.

Hence, tonight, he took this opportunity to give it a try, but the answer was not satisfactory to him.

This was so different from the self in his memory. His power should have been like a big lake but now it had shrunk into a small pool.

As to whether he could retreat unscathed from this turbulent imperial city, he gradually became less confident.

However, he must find the person and resolve the doubt in his mind, or his Taoist mind wouldn’t be eased.

He had been a part of the game. Of course, he couldn’t pull back. However, it was difficult for him to cultivate now. His cultivation capability was not renewable. From now on, he couldn’t waste any at random.

At the thought of it, he looked out of the window.

“It is about time.”

As expected, just as he finished saying, a cry for help came from a small courtyard across two long corridors. It was from that woman’s boudoir.

It was Zhao Shisong who was calling for help.

...

...

The lights of the imperial preceptor’s mansion were not extinguished and the guards on patrol looked at the sky with fear.

They knew who was in the mansion at this moment.

Three years ago, when the bloody event happened before the steps of the Qianyu Palace, Zhao Xiang’er gained a certain notoriety as a fierce woman. Now that the towering hall had been destroyed and her closest relative was gone, how crazy would the girl in the blood-stained clothes under the sunset become?

Since Zhao Xiang’er entered the mansion, nothing special happened. Even the luminous lights in the mansion appeared rather quiet.

For a moment, a guard glanced at the darkness suddenly.

He just heard a faint chirp just now.

The guards around him heard it too but they didn’t take it seriously. “Recently, various kinds of strange birds have emerged in the city. It is said to have something to do with the sparrow ghost. Rumor also has it that blood crows will hover above those mansions haunted by the sparrow ghost at midnight, making noises all night long.”

After hearing this, the man sighed and said, “I heard that Lord Wizard Patriarch has been out of the training. Hopefully, His Lordship can be capable enough to put an end to this in case that we have to be worried every day.”

In the imperial preceptor’s mansion, the window was slightly opened.

A small red sparrow rested on the white and slender palm of the young girl and spat the note out of its beak.

Zhao Xiang’er stretched out her fingers to play with its feathers. The red sparrow chirped a few times with satisfaction and then fluttered away.

She walked to the table and opened the note. As she read the note, she slightly frowned.

“A young Taoist priest?”

After drinking the decoction, the imperial preceptor in a large robe slowly calmed down. He sat cross-legged in meditation. When he saw the surprised look on the young girl’s face, he couldn’t help asking, “What has happened?”

Zhao Xiang’er rolled up the note and threw it into the brazier.

“Nothing.”

She thought of the young Taoist priest, whom she once saw in the junior general’s mansion today. At that time, she noticed that he met her gaze without avoidance and only thought that he was bewitched by her. She didn’t think too much.

Now, it seemed that the man who could make Tang Yu risk her life asking the red sparrow to deliver a message couldn’t be belittled.

However, if the general trend really arose, even she had to be forcibly pushed forward to find a glimmer of hope.

What could a young Taoist priest change no matter how talented he was?

She suppressed the anxiety in her heart, silently recalling the young Taoist priest’s face. Then she decided to take more precautions in the future.

All she needed to do now was to heal her wounds well in the imperial preceptor’s mansion.

“Nowadays, various talents have gathered in the imperial city. Many people have snuck into the city. Not only the people of the state of Jin but also the disciples of the Sword Saint in the state of Rong are coming to seek revenge for their senior fellow disciple. Many assassin organizations even have sallied forth in full strength. Are you really confident to handle the situation?” The old man said with a sigh.

Zhao Xiang’er said, “Of course I can’t do it alone.”

The old man became more puzzled. “The Qianyu Palace has been destroyed. Although you are controlling the formation of the imperial preceptor’s mansion, which can be your shelter for the moment, it is only a turtle shell. Hard as it appears, it will break if it hits a rock.”

Zhao Xiang’er looked at him and said indifferently, “Sir, do you really not know it or just not dare to think that way?”

Her question was like a knife crashing the last hope in the old man’s heart. Very soon, blood streaks quickly appeared in his turbid eyes but under the suppression of the decoction, the surging spiritual power in his body, just like the rootless water, couldn’t support his body at all.

He stared at Zhao Xiang’er and shouted with a slow and hoarse voice, “You want to destroy the country? Don’t forget that you are not an imperial family member. Neither do you have the imperial blood in your veins. Even if you’ve got the Rosefinch Flame Wand, how can you harness it? The current emperor won’t listen to you. Besides, he is too weak to withstand the backlash of the Flame Wand.”

“Let go... What you are doing is in vain.” The imperial preceptor heaved a long sigh, seeming to have exhausted all his strength.

Zhao Xiang’er looked at him quietly with a smile on her elegant and childish face.

“Very soon, the world will be overturned, the phoenix flames will burn the city, and the Rosefinch Formation will devour all. Sir, please wait and see.”

...

...

Dawn was approaching. When the thin window paper began to let in the light, Zhao Shisong touched his neck and still didn’t believe that he had survived.

A young man in a black Taoist robe stood in front of him, watching him calmly. “I have reached a deal with her. She promised to spare your life, but no matter what will happen in the imperial city next, you can’t let your people intervene. Besides, you must take Her Highness’s side if necessary.”

“If you agree on this, drink this bowl of talismanic water. Once you regret it, the water will show its effect,” Ning Changjiu passed him a bowl of water and said. “This is the chance I’ve earned for you. If she wants to kill you, no one in your mansion can stop her except me.”

Zhao Shisong was still in shock. Having struggled for a moment, he finally took a deep breath, fetched the bowl of water and drank it.

He leaned against the wall with a sullen expression. “Thank you for saving my life.”

Ning Changjiu asked curiously, “Your mansion is so big but you don’t even have a few capable masters here?”

Zhao Shisong sighed, “Twenty days ago, the two cultivators I supported were sacrificed in the Qianyu Palace, so...these days, I’ve been panicked.”

Ning Changjiu asked, “Why did you have to kill the goddess?”

Zhao Shisong said resignedly, “There is a lot of pressure from various parties, including the state of Jin, the war at the border, the state of Rong and the emperor. Even in the folks, tens of institutions are established in the name of killing the state-wrecking enchantress... This is the grudge accumulated over the past decades. The Qianyu Palace was enshrined by the state of Zhao for 12 years but the goddess didn’t give any response. Worse still, the cordial relationship between the state of Zhao and the state of Rong was even broken by Her Highness three years ago. Besides, this time...”

Ning Changjiu asked, “What happened this time?”

Zhao Shisong hesitated for a while and still continued, “Actually, we wouldn’t have the courage to execute the action this time. It was because the god of the state of Jin appeared and claimed that the state of Yin gave the order to kill the state-wrecking woman.”

Ning Changjiu was slightly startled. “The state of Yin? According to the law of the universe, how can the state of Yin interfere with the affairs in the secular world?”

After saying that, Ning Changjiu suddenly recalled that a cultivator couldn’t reach the law of the universe unless he cultivated to the extremity of the mortal world.

There were countless powerful and mysterious beings in this world, including the one protecting the state of Jin, as Zhao Shisong mentioned.

However, the truly ultimate divine beings were only the twelve masters of the state of Yin.

Ning Changjiu asked again, “What else did the god say?”

Zhao Shisong said, “He said that if the state of Zhao cooperated with him to kill the goddess, he would be willing to stop the war. Besides, from then on, the state of Zhao would be an affiliated state of the state of Jin and in return, the state of Jin would protect the state of Zhao.”

Ning Changjiu asked, “Did the god take action when you killed the goddess?”

Zhao Shisong closed his eyes, reminisced the scene of that day and nodded with lingering fear, saying, “On the night before that day, a painted humanoid puppet was smuggled into the city. It was a container for the arriving god. On the day when the Qianyu Palace was besieged, the puppet was brought to life. At that time, we were ordered to set fire. Then we just watched him floating in there.”

Ning Changjiu asked, “It turned out that the one who went in there to kill the goddess was a puppet that the god took up?”

Zhao Shisong nodded and said, “Of course! Since the goddess can foster a talent like Her Highness, she must be really capable! Even if the top ten masters of the state of Jin launch the attack together, they may not be able to defeat her. In the world, only a god can kill another god.”

Ning Changjiu said, “What happened in the end? What about the puppet?”

Zhao Shisong laughed bitterly. “Even when the fire was extinguished, we hadn’t got to see the goddess and the puppet. What we did was only a matter of prearrangement.”

Ning Changjiu nodded thoughtfully. He was not sure how the so-called god and the legendary goddess had any connection with his resurrection. Yet, the complicated puzzle vaguely took shape in his mind.

Ning Changjiu asked again, “In your hearts, what kind of person is Zhao Xiang’er?”

Zhao Shisong was stunned for a moment, and then smiled bitterly, “Her Highness Xiang’er is unparalleled, but even the goddess couldn’t survive. She is so young. Even if she is capable of killing us all, how can she have the ability to control the general trend?”

Ning Changjiu nodded. No matter how capable Zhao Xiang’er was, she was still too young. She was only an ordinary cultivator. Only when she trained her innate spirit to the ultimate level could she have the power to override the secular dynasty.

Ning Changjiu suddenly thought of something and then asked very quickly, “Is Zhao Xiang’er...married?”

Startled, Zhao Shisong stared at Ning Changjiu, stroked his beard and smiled profoundly, “No wonder you are messing with this...”

Ning Changjiu shook his head and said, “I was just asking. Not out of admiration.”

Zhao Shisong said with a grin, “Tsk, young people love beauties. Moreover, Her Highness is a girl of unmatched beauty. You are around the same age. Of course I won’t laugh at you having such feelings.”

Seeing that the young Taoist priest in black just looked at him calmly without any distracting thoughts, he didn’t continue talking. Instead, he coughed twice in embarrassment and shook his head.

“There were some sayings more than ten years ago, but nothing has happened these years. They should be rumors.”

Ning Changjiu looked at the gradually luminous light outside the window and said, “Mr. Zhao, please show me around the imperial city.”