Chapter 625 Don’t You Have Confidence in Yourself?
As the topic sprang forth, he pointed to the old man and said, “I remember him. He was a famous sword pract.i.tioner in the Sword Province; he’s proficient in the sword Qi ball’s refining method. He’s been famous in Snow Province for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, he has a bloodthirsty and l.u.s.tful nature; his body has been hollowed out by wine and women, and he is nearing the end of his life. He’s been actively searching for precious medicines to prolong his life in the recent years, and for this he has done many harmful things in the Sword Province.”
Ding Hao was even more determined. “In that case, there are even more reasons not to keep him alive.”
Zhang Fan shouted, swung his long saber in the air, and locked the saber radiance on the old man.
The hunchbacked old man was horrified.
He had relied on his glib tongue in the past to persuade his opponents with his eloquence and sophistry to escape from death time after time. He had always believed that as long as he gave enough bargaining chips, he could turn his enemy into a friend.
Ding Hao’s top enemy was the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmans.h.i.+p Sect, so he thought he could persuade him by claiming to know their secret. If he was lucky, he might not only be spared from death but also be able to swindle a precious medicine from Ding Hao to prolong his life.
He didn’t expect Ding Hao to be that stubborn.
With a scream, the hunchbacked old man was no longer as calm as before. He turned into a stream of flowing light and desperately escaped like a whipped dog.
Zhang Fan stamped on the ground and rose into the air like a dragon out of the sea. He followed the old man closely. The saber radiance flashed across the sky, blood splas.h.i.+ng everywhere.
The hunchbacked old man cried out in pain as he sped up.
He was no match for Zhang Fan in a face-to-face confrontation. He had also lost the will to fight and was only thinking about running away when his shoulder was. .h.i.t by the saber radiance. Right after, one of his arms fell. The sword Qi ball in his palm also fell like a raindrop…
But he didn’t have time to collect it.
He drove his Qi with all his strength and tried his best to escape, hoping that he could get out alive.
Zhang Fan had landed one strike but lost the momentum and started his descent. Just as the old man was about to escape, Zhang Fan immediately put away his long saber and took out his bow. Although he was still falling, the longbow was drawn in an instant. A large light yellow arrow was formed; he loosened his fingers, letting the arrow fly.
From the distance, the pale yellow flowing light caught the fleeing figure and pierced through his body. The next moment, the old man was turned into pieces of white bones. Blood was splashed everywhere.
A wisp of rotten spirit escaped from the torn flesh. It was caught up and devoured a few dozens of meters away by a white light, before it flew away. After all of it was done, the light immediately turned into a fat cat who was happily licking its mouth. It was Evil Moon. There was no way that it would let go of such delicious food.
The fat cat circled around in the void and caught the sword Qi ball dropped by the old man. It held the ball in its claws and carefully studied it.
“Little kitty, let me have a look!” said an innocent girl’s voice. Ding Ding, the little girl with goat-horn braids, instantly appeared next to Evil Moon as if teleported. She reached out with her chubby palm to ask for the ball.
Evil Moon squinted his eyes, not taking the girl seriously. “Little kid, go play somewhere else.”
The fat cat thought with pride, “I’m not the same as before. I became a demiG.o.d after having integrated with the small divine fire tower of the Fake G.o.d City. Besides, I’ve had so many adventures, gulped down so many divine materials and precious medicines, and even grew angel wings. I’m no longer afraid of you. I won’t hesitate to fight back if you provoke me again.”
He remembered the times when the little girl had bullied him in the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect.
Ding Ding was angry. She stretched out her hand, grabbing Evil Moon’s tail in disbelief and shaking it hard. “Naughty cat, do I need to teach you a lesson?”
“Meow, don’t provoke me.” Evil Moon was angry. He showed his awfully sharp little claws and scratched Ding Ding’s arms which were white like lotus roots.
The paws of the fat cat were comparable to divine weapons; even steel would be as fragile as tofu in front of his sharp claws.
Ding Ding’s chubby arms were too tender to bear such a scratch. Three b.l.o.o.d.y scars instantly appeared on it; her skin was torn, exposing the flesh. However, those three marks were instantly healed, disappearing at a speed invisible to the naked eye, leaving no scars.
She skillfully grabbed the back of Evil Moon’s neck with her chubby little hand and picked it up.
An inch behind the neck was Evil Moon’s most sensitive spot—in fact, it was also true for all felines. After being grabbed, Evil Moon immediately curled up his claws compliantly, freezing altogether. Ding Ding took the sword Qi ball with a smile, scratching Evil Moon’s soft belly with her little hands and saying, “Be a good cat. I’ll give it to you after I play with it for a while!”
In the distance.
Ding Hao couldn’t help but smile once he saw what had happened.
Those two fellas were simply incompatible.
Evil Moon was as fearless as a devil, but he was always at a disadvantage when it came to Ding Ding. He remembered how frightened Evil Moon was when it saw Ding Ding, the very first time they met. He still found that funny even to that day.
Ding Hao had become more experienced and knowledgeable with time, but he still couldn’t pinpoint Ding Ding’s origin and how mature she had become at such a young age. However, he could vaguely feel a strong power hidden in her body, which was as unfathomable as an abyss.
Xie Jieyu smiled like a blooming flower and appeared in front of Ding Hao. “Brother Hao!”
Ding Hao’s eyes fell on the Martial DemiG.o.ddess and a warm smile finally appeared on his face. He said, “You’re here? Are you going back to the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect this time? Or do you have other things to attend to?”
Xie Jieyu shook her head gently and said, “I… can’t go back to the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect just yet.”
Ding Hao nodded, silently accepting her decision.
Xie Jieyu remembered something. She opened her palm and a black iron box appeared in her hand. “By the way, I want to give to you something.”
“What is it?” Ding Hao took the box, opened it, and was stunned by what he saw.
There were four heads inside.
The heads of four demon kings that had at one time dominated the Snow Province.
The Nine-headed Tiger King of the Demon G.o.d Palace, the Green Flood Dragon King of the Heaven Hall, the Six-tailed Demon King of the Evil Heart Valley, and the Wind and Thunder Monster King of the Wind Thunder Palace.
The four demon kings, the once overlords of the Snow Province’s demonic sects. They could make the whole province tremble when they stomped their feet. But they had eventually been killed. Their bodies were lost, only the heads remained. After being stored in saltpeter, the heads were well preserved in the iron box, showing no signs of decay.
He could smell a trace of blood which meant that the four demon kings had just died, in recent days.
Those four had led the invasion of the Mirror Lake’s Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Villa. They were also Ding Hao’s sworn enemies whom he would kill even if he had to chase them to the end of the world.
Ding Hao’s original plan was to take Huang Rong to the Demon G.o.d Palace and the other bases of the Demon Clan to kill those murderers when the battle ended. Then, he would visit the Great Sage in the Deity Phoenix Palace to negotiate and end the feud between the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect and the Demon Clan. He didn’t expect such a turn of events.
Ding Hao asked with a frown, “Did you… kill them?”
Xie Jieyu said softly, “Brother Hao, when the four demon sects attacked the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Villa, the Deity Phoenix Great Sage was completely in the dark. Back then, the Deity Phoenix Palace had yet to unify the demon clan in the Snow Province, to fully control the Demon G.o.d Palace, Heaven Hall, and the others. It was a few days after that she took action and unified them. The Nine-headed Tiger King, the Green Flood Dragon King and the others committed a great crime against you, so they deserved to die. The Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect sheltered me and taught me martial arts in the past, so I could be regarded as a disciple. I had the right reason to kill them.”
Ding Hao nodded.
It turned out that Xie Jieyu didn’t show up during those days because she had been busy with this task.
Ding Hao had wondered why Xie Jieyu had not shown up in the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect to help them kill the enemy after all this time, although she should have heard what had happened in the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect a long time before. That gift explained the whole matter.
However…
Ding Hao asked softly, “Jieyu, are you telling me this because you’re also implying that you’re a member of the Deity Phoenix Palace?”
He glanced over the Demon King with Magical Eyes and the One-Legged Ox King, then he noticed the colorful phoenix feather which had been floating in the void. He realized that perhaps Xie Jieyu chose to appear in front of him like this to tell him something.
Xie Jieyu quietly looked into Ding Hao’s eyes and nodded gently.
There were some hesitation and timidness in her eyes. She had never been this nervous. She looked at Ding Hao quietly, but no one knew how violent her heartbeat was at this moment. She felt like a prisoner waiting for the verdict.
Even a fool knew what her confession meant.
The Human Clan and the Demon Clan were implacable enemies.
Ding Hao was from the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect, and Xie Jieyu was admitting that she was a member of the Deity Phoenix Palace, which meant that she was a member of the Demon Clan.
It was an awkward moment.
As she looked at Ding Hao’s eyes, Xie Jieyu gradually lowered her head. Her heart ached as if it were p.r.i.c.ked by needles. She tried hard to hold back her tears.
Ding Hao was silent for the moment. For Xie Jieyu, it was like a long era, as if she was waiting for the verdict. Although she had foreseen such an ending, Xie Jieyu knew clearly that she couldn’t hide it; she had to tell Ding Hao the truth.
If she could turn back time, Xie Jieyu wouldn’t have gone back to that sunny afternoon by the Sword-cleansing Pond, when she met this handsome man whose smile was brighter than the sun.
In that case, there wouldn’t have been so many entanglements and difficult choices, and she would have avoided the tormenting pain she was feeling right then.
Xie Jieyu felt awfully vulnerable for the first time in her life.
Perhaps she shouldn’t have gone there that day. She shouldn’t have told Ding Hao everything…
She became terribly distraught.
Unexpectedly, Ding Hao slowly raised his hand and gently stroked Xie Jieyu’s cheek. Suddenly, he burst into laughter and said with a smile, “What’s wrong? Am I still looking at the Martial DemiG.o.ddess who didn’t even give in while facing the two Demon Royals, Bu Tianjue and the Ancient Demon Clan of Silver Moon? Why don’t you have confidence in yourself?”
Xie Jieyu was stunned.
She vaguely understood something, but she found it a little hard to believe.
The smile on Ding Hao’s face was as bright as the sun she had seen in that afternoon. He said, “When you have time, take me to see the Deity Phoenix Great Sage. I’m also very curious about the kind of person she is, to have been able to dominate and unify the demon clan in the Snow Province, and to understand how she lured my sister Jieyu to join the Deity Phoenix Palace.”
Disbelief and surprise rose in Xie Jieyu’s heart.
The Martial DemiG.o.ddess widened her eyes. “But… but, you really don’t mind?”
She didn’t know what to say.
Ding Hao gently pulled up a strand of red hair by her smooth-skinned ear, and spoke in the dreamiest voice—
“No matter where you come from, what you do, of what origin, which side you take, whether you’re a human or a demon, all I know is that you’re the one who didn’t hesitate to sacrifice her life to save me from the collapsing Fake G.o.d City, who would never lie to me and would never let me down. Although I’m just an ordinary person, I wouldn’t forsake such a woman who has devoted herself to me, just because of the so-called grievances of the previous generation.”
A crystal clear tear finally fell from Xie Jieyu’s eyes.
Immense surprise and happiness instantly drowned her.
Countless days and nights, the thought had tortured her like a nightmare. Everything had instantly vanished because of Ding Hao’s reply.
She had thought that the story of companions.h.i.+p and commitment would be an illusion and a joke in such a cruel world: when her ident.i.ty was exposed, a love as precious as life to her would come to an eternal end.
But…
It was utterly unexpected.
Xie Jieyu believed that Ding Hao didn’t say that just to comfort her.
Then, on such a grand occasion, under the gazes of countless experts and the many disciples of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect around the Ice Peak, Ding Hao was openly able to say those words. It showed how determined he was.
Looking at Ding Hao’s sincere smile, Xie Jieyu suddenly felt that everything she had done was well worth it.
She opened her arms and gently embraced the beautiful young man with a heart-warming smile in front of her. She pressed her fiery red lips on his without any hesitation. Xie Jieyu kissed him affectionately, hoping that time would stop at this moment.
Ding Hao responded enthusiastically.
He was a pa.s.serby who came from Earth. The grievances between the Human Clan and the Demon Clan on the Land of Infinity weren’t something that affected him deeply. He had struggled in this cruel jungle world; his only hope was to protect every relative and friend around him from being hurt. He didn’t want to become a hero who ruled over the world, neither he wanted to be a king to dominated it. All he wanted was to be free.
Frankly, he didn’t care much about the hatred between the Human Clan and the Demon Clan.
Therefore, he would not give up nor hurt the amazing girl in front of him, who genuinely loved him, over those illusory things.
Xie Jieyu regained the poise of a Martial DemiG.o.ddess. “Brother Hao, I’m leaving. I still have a lot of things to do. I’ll be waiting for you.” She looked at Li Lan, Li Yiruo, and Ximen Qianxue who were among the distant crowd and waved goodbye.
Ding Hao nodded.
Xie Jieyu left with no hesitation. She turned into a stream of flaming light, flas.h.i.+ng across the sky and disappearing in an instant.
The Demon King with Magical Eyes had remained silent but before he turned to leave, he suddenly opened his mouth and said, “Ding Hao, I have never admired anyone except the Deity Phoenix Great Sage, not even the supreme existence in the Northern Region… Hehe, but you really impressed me today. You’re a hero who is worth the deep affection of our young lady. She has paid a dear price just for your sake!”
Ding Hao’s heart skipped a beat. “What price?”
“You’ll find out sooner or later. Ding Hao, she really loves you. For a second time, I beg you, don’t let her down.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the Demon King with Magical Eyes and the One-legged Ox King turned into rolling demonic light and disappeared into the distant sky.
“Brother-in-law, you’re amazing!” The little girl Ding Ding threw the sword Qi ball back to Evil Moon and moved closer to Ding Hao in a flash. She gave Ding Hao a thumbs-up with a childish voice. “For you, my sister has caused more trouble than the actual affront to the four great demon sects in Snow Province, like she did in the Demon G.o.d Palace. Brother-in-law, don’t let my sister down!”
Before her voice died away—
The little girl swung her goat-horn braids and disappeared into the void in an instant.
As he looked at the direction in which Xie Jieyu and the other two had disappeared, Ding Hao suddenly became worried in his heart.
“Ding… Ding… Ding Hao, how dare you collude with the Demon Clan…?” Feng Chao, the leader of the Mysterious Frost Holy Guard, seemed to have realized something. He stammered an accusation, thinking that he had finally caught one of Ding Hao’s wrongdoings. After all, for so many years, the Holy Palace of Mysterious Frost had hated human and demon collusions the most. Once it was discovered, it would be severely punished.
With this accusation, he could at least use it to work around some deals with Ding Hao.
But—
Without looking back, Ding Hao threw a backhand punch. “Get lost!”
A purple dragon-shaped light column formed by fist force whistled through the air. The roar of a dragon resounded through the sky.
Feng Chao was petrified and defenseless in the face of such power. Blood spurted out of his mouth. He was sent flying, disappearing into the distant sky.
“Well…”
The remaining Mysterious Frost Holy Guards looked at each other in dismay.
They had never been treated like this, given their special ident.i.ty. It was simply outrageous. However, Ding Hao’s strength was terrifying. They remained stunned for a few seconds, not daring to say a word. Then, they fled in the direction Feng Chao had been ousted with their tails between their legs.
After all, the Mysterious Frost Holy Guards were of special status; Ding Hao would rather let him live.
Otherwise, it would easily bring disaster to the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect.
However, he would sooner or later take revenge in other ways.
Ding Hao thought of what the Demon King with Magical Eyes and the little girl Ding Ding had said before they left, without being aware that he had reached the place where his friends were.
Li Yiruo, Li Lan, and Ximen Qianxue reacted differently. No one knew what they were thinking.
The little dolphin Adorable seemed to be a little confused. She stared at Ding Hao with her round and black gem-like eyes. Evil Moon, on the other hand, had a gloating smirk on his face. He landed on Ding Hao’s shoulder and snored comfortably.
Song Que and Bai Quanshui were not with the group, but they were both shrewd, so they naturally saw some clues.
However, they would never intervene in this kind of matter.
The fat man even secretly gave Ding Hao a thumbs-up and secretly transmitted a voice message to him, “Brother Ding, you are amazing. I didn’t expect to witness how such a beautiful and valiant Martial DemiG.o.ddess was also unable to escape from your charm. So impressive!”
Ding Hao almost fell from the void.
Ding Hao secretly transmitted a voice message, “Song Que, stop the nonsense. It’s not what you think…”
Song Que secretly responded with some mockery, “There’s no need to explain. The more you explain, the more you seem like you’re covering things up. Haha, to be honest, I’ve always wanted a chance to court a female demon. Brother Ding, why don’t you teach me some tricks later? How should I pursue the women of the demon clan?”
“d.a.m.n you!”
“It was a mistake to make friends with him!”
Ding Hao’s face darkened and decided to ignore the dissolute fat man.
Right at this moment, a delicate hand quietly reached out and held Ding Hao’s hand. He looked back and saw Li Yiruo looking at other places. She seemed calm but she squeezed with her little hand without saying a word.
Song Que, who was standing next to them, witnessed this and was immediately stunned. He opened his mouth as wide as it would go.
“Brother Ding, what a romantic. Even Yiruo was attracted by you. Have you practiced some special magic to seduce women?
“I must ask him for advice in the future.”
“He has a Supreme Weapon a trump card in his hands. Fortunately, today is not the day for the final battle.”
Just after Ding Hao and everyone else left the Frozen Peak, a black figure slowly appeared like a ghost on the nearest ice peak, displaying a fierce smile with the corner of his mouth which made him look like a devil.
The black figure said, “It doesn’t matter. It’s just an incomplete Supreme Weapon. There’s a way to deal with it.”
It was as if there were two souls hidden in one body.
“Master Devil, what should we do next?” asked the black figure.
“You haven’t reached the Minor Completion Realm, so it’s not a right time for you to fight with Ding Hao at the moment. Let him be proud for a while. You can take your time to settle and practice martial arts. Wait till you reach the Minor Completion Realm before challenging Ding Hao. At that time, not to mention Ding Hao, you’ll be able to do whatever you want in the entire Land of Infinity!” another voice said sinisterly.
“I am truly blessed to be able to receive Master Devil’s guidance,” said the figure with genuine grat.i.tude.
The Master Devil laughed loudly. “Hahaha, it’s good that you know. Back when I roamed the world, who could be a match for me in the Land of Infinity? Don’t worry. As long as you listen to me, sooner or later, you’ll become the overlord of this continent. The only thing I want you to do is to help me find the pa.s.sageway to the Divine Realm and help me return there.”
The figure couldn’t help but ask, “Is there really a Divine Realm? Is it really where deities live?”
“There is more than the Land of Infinity in this world. The so-called Divine Realm is a name that I am accustomed to calling it. In fact, it’s just another continent. However, it is many times vaster and more fertile…” the person who was called Master Devil sighed and said, “Back then, only a wisp of my soul remained when I fled from the Divine Realm. That was why I had no choice but to stay in your consciousness to rest and recover… Don’t worry. As long as I can return to the Divine Realm, I will teach you even more things.”
The figure nodded. “Thank you very much, Master Devil.”
This figure then turned into a flowing light and rose into the sky, disappearing in the blink of an eye.