This chapter has been brought to you by me, and larkspur.
Chapter 15: Sword Seal Path
Xue w.a.n.gxu couldn"t help but shake his head. Everything had developed well within the purview of Ding Ning"s words. As expected, he was following Ding Ning.
At times, he failed to comprehend where Ding Ning"s meticulous perception and ability to gauge people"s minds came from. Besides talent,
abilities like this mostly stemmed from life experience.
Ding Ning held his sword across his chest. Whispers reached his ears, they were all laughing at the remnant sword in his hand.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Feng Qianzhuo"s gaze had remained unchanged. His gaze grew colder. This person had indeed been coddled and cosseted for too long to not even recognize this sword.
Feng Qinghan"s gaze had also landed on Ding Ning"s remnant sword.
Even Feng Qianzhuo did not recognize this Last Flower sword that had changed greatly in appearance after being broken. He, who was yet to be born when Ba Mountain Sword Field had its great change, naturally did not recognize this sword.
He stared at the jagged cracks and tiny fractures in Ding Ning"s sword. His smile grew more disdainful.
With a hiss, he pulled out his sword.
His sword was about three feet long and unusually light. At the center of the white blade was a black seal line that stretched from the hilt to the tip; like an inky black line drawn on a white piece of paper.
Ding Ning"s brows slowly furrowed.
He recognized this sword … this was the Painting Sword of Ba Mountain Sword Field.
In Ba Mountain Sword Field in the past, only the person with the n.o.blest of character could possess this sword. Now, a sword like this was in Feng Qinghan"s hands.
Feng Qinghan"s gaze grew even prouder as he saw Ding Ning slowly frown. He thought that Ding Ning felt great pressure due to the sword he held, his movements did not slow at all.
"Please!"
As he spoke in disdainful voice, he turned into an afterimage and cut across several dozen feet.
Boom!
He collided with Ding Ning"s sword. Sparks flew and two hemispherical light shields appeared between the pair. Many harsh sparks of light flew between the two crescents as they released their power. This only continued for a short moment.
In less than the span of a breath, Feng Qinghan"s body paused slightly. His Painting Sword still maintained its forward momentum as light flowed on his blade. But the light in front of Ding Ning had shattered. His right sleeve had been cut up by the sword energy. He stumbled back, his feet slapping on the stone tiles with cracking sounds.
Feng Qianzhuo"s gaze eased slightly and he exhaled softly.
This first blow confirmed that this Changling youth had good swordsmanship but he was far below Feng Qinghan in terms of power.
The elites of Zhushan District who sat on the chairs felt even more disdain.
This was the difference between Vital Energy Realm and Physical Energy Realm.
The commoners of Zhushan District were still immersed in their shock over this blow. It was hard for them to imagine that Feng Qinghan and Ding Ning"s small bodies could contain such terrifying power … No matter what, the other had been thrown back by Young Master Feng"s one strike. Clearly, he was not a match.
Cheers rose.
Looking at Ding Ning who still hadn"t managed to stand still, Feng Qinghan"s expression grew more disdainful.
He did not take the opportunity to give chase. His eyes narrowed slightly, vital energy flowed from his sword and onto that inky line on his paper white blade. He swung his sword with great focus in the air between himself and Ding Ning.
The white sword cut through the air, but a black sword energy stopped motionlessly in midair.
A black line suddenly appeared in the cool air.
At the sight of the black line, the elites of Zhushan District started breathing faster, their gazes grew more serious.
This was clearly a seal line.
Everyone in Zhushan District knew that Feng Qinghan was a talented cultivator but before this, no one knew that he primarily cultivated the sword seal path!
Using sword energy to draw seals, each sword energy would be a line in a seal which would then form all kinds of seals in the end that could gather more primal energies of the universe and exert greater power. This was cultivating the sword and the seal together. This was a hard strategy to master. Even drawing in the air was much harder than drawing on paper. A slight mistake would create seal lines incapable of resonating with the primal energies of the universe.
Feng Qinghan"s cultivation was higher than this Changling youth to start with, and he had now displayed such stunning swordsmanship. What chance did this Changling youth stand to win?
Feng Qinghan"s expression was slightly disdainful but his gaze was focused. He swung his sword again. Another inky seal line appeared in the air in front of him. The two seal lines did not cross but they inexplicably responded to each other. Black smoke appeared.
Ding Ning stopped his retreat.
His right sleeve was in tatters, b.l.o.o.d.y marks had appeared on the back of his hand. However, people were bewildered by how he showed no terror on his face, and just an expression of calm.
Eyeing the two seal lines that were starting to spread black smoke in the air, he swung his sword calmly into the air.
The inky green blade seemed to follow the same sword move he had showed Xue w.a.n.gxu in the carriage. As the inky green blade moved rapidly, multiple white seal lines appeared in the air!
The elites of Zhushan District, who had thought that Ding Ning had no chance of victory, froze. Feng Qianzhuo"s expression also grew stiff and his eyes contracted.
This was clearly the sword seal path!
Feng Qinghan felt a strong wave of disbelief fill his body when he saw the numerous white seal lines. He primarily cultivated this sword method and knew how difficult it was to practice the sword and seals at the same time. He had started drawing seals from the age of three, and had held a sword from the age of six. He had only shown some mastery half a year ago … but this Changling youth, who was about the same age as him, had evinced such moves. He also seemed to be more adept and swifter!
Ding Ning"s expression did not change. His remnant sword smoothly pa.s.sed through the air. In the span of a breath, dozens of white seal lines appeared in front of him. These dozen white seal lines criss-crossed with the previous seal lines to form a square seal.
In the next moment, this seal suddenly shattered. Numerous flows of cold energy converged forward at unimaginable speed. White flowers of ice connected together in the air to form multiple trees of ice that pressed towards Feng Qinghan!
Feng Qinghan paled slightly. He shouted, and swiped multiple times with the Painting Sword.
As multiple black seal lines formed, the sword seal in front of him finally formed. With a boom, a wave of black smoke charged forward like a dragon. There seemed to be countless black bats that were hissing and screaming from within the smoke.
The unusually pretty ice trees were immediately shattered, shards of ice spurted backwards.
They both were the sword seal paths. But due to the difference in cultivation, there was a marked difference in strength.
No one from Zhushan District cheered.
Ding Ning"s sword moves were rapid.
In the sword seal path, the most important thing next to accuracy was speed.
In this brief moment, a path of white sword light appeared in front of Ding Ning. A square white sword seal formed. The glowing ice shards flying back to him were pinned in midair by this newly formed power. Then they were reduced to tiny ice crystals.
Even vaster power exploded. The ice crystals and the newly formed ice trees gathered and advanced.
With a scream, Feng Qinghan hurriedly retreated as he swung his Painting Sword in front of him.
The presence of the inky dragon-like smoke disappeared. The blades of ice shot through the black smoke. The ice collided with his Painting Sword as screeching sounds followed.
As he retreated, ice fell onto the ground in front of him. Pieces of snowy white ice covered his hair and the front of his robes. They quickly melted.
Ding Ning calmly started to advance.
In Feng Qinghan"s sight, his figure appeared through the dissipating inky dragon, and came with a new sword seal.
The white seal that flickered in and out of sight gave people the feeling that it was a white seal stamp that Ding Ning picked up with his sword and threw towards Feng Qinghan.
Feng Qinghan shouted again. He channeled his vital energy without any restraint into the inky line in his white sword.
At the head of the blade, a black ball of light dramatically expanded into an inky black swamp.
Boom!
The power carried by the white sword seal was shattered. Feng Qinghan"s retreating body immediately stopped. However, when he saw Ding Ning had also stilled and yet another white sword seal had appeared before him, he felt a hint of powerlessness.
They had both used the sword seal path. But the other"s maneuvers were so swift that he didn"t even have a chance to display his sword seals!
It was an ugly picture that the faces of the elites of Zhushan District created.
"Have you ever seen a cultivator being able to use the sword seal path so well at such an age? If I am not mistaken, this should be the Ice River Sword Seal Manual of White Goat Cave. The difficulty of this sword manual is not any less than Feng Qinghan"s Ba Mountain Ink Dragon Seal Sword Manual," one important person said, in a slightly cool tone to the person beside.
"Before this, I could see this Changling youth was slightly exceptional from his calmness, but not this much. In history, it is rare to find someone who is able to use the sword seal path so well." That person took a deep breath and said, "A whole realm away from the other in cultivation, and fighting like this …he should admit defeat."
While everyone in Zhushan District hoped that Feng Qinghan would win, the conversation between this duo could represent the att.i.tudes of the majority of the elites here.
But Feng Qinghan was still unwilling. He did not want to admit defeat.
I hadn"t expected you to have such strength … but from the start, I did not want to defeat you, but cripple you! As he thought to himself, he glared hatefully at Ding Ning.
A hint of malice appeared on the corners of his mouth.
He, once again, urgently channeled vital energy into the Painting Sword. His left hand moved slightly. A purple gold seal slid out of his sleeve and landed in the palm of his left hand.
Translator Ramblings: If only people could create energy beings in real life … think of how much money we would save.