Chapter Thirty Five: Invincible
The most elite armies of the former You Dynasty had a kind of pill called the “Marching Pill.”
The name of the pill sounded normal, but in reality, the effects were terrifying. The armies who used such a pill had stunning endurance and energy, and could be in an excited state without resting or sleeping for days.
This kind of state allowed the You armies to reach the battlefield ahead of when their enemies expected. If the enemy armies were retreating, and the You elite armies came chasing, no enemy could escape. In the next few days, even the remainder would be killed.
After the You Dynasty was destroyed, the recipe for the Marching Pill was lost, but the Chu Dynasty successfully found one of the main medicines, the Dragon Blood Gra.s.s.
The effects of the Dragon Blood Gra.s.s was not as stunning as the Marching Pill, but it could stimulate people’s potential for many days. The Dragon Blood Gra.s.s was a great secret for the Chu Dynasty, and could only come from the imperial family.
The outside world did not know where the Dragon Blood Gra.s.s came from, how to grow it, or how much existed in the world.
Even though Ding Ning knew that there must be a secret agreement between Li Lingjun and Zheng Xiu, the person in true control of Chu Dynasty was his mother-empress Consort Zhao Xiang. The Qin Dynasty armies could not silently cross the Donghu and Chu border, and come here, much less get the support of large amounts of secret medicine.
He possessed experience and intuition that other cultivators did not have in terms of military and war. He was certain that these were armies that came from the Chu Dynasty. What was important was how this army could go against Consort Zhao Xiang and appear here. Why did this army pose as though they would stop any cultivators who came here, even upon pain of death.
Other than the few people he trusted, everyone else in the world thought he was dead. Zhangsun Qianxue had not attacked. The two had changed into thick fur, and their bodies were obscured by thick cloth. Before they came, the army could, at most, judge the ident.i.ty of the old monk. The old monk had killed the Donghu emperor before, and caused Donghu and Wuzhi to ally. He naturally was on the other side facing the Qin Dynasty.
Then what kind of Chu army would want to kill a monk like this?
These were all puzzling questions, but they seemed meaningless right now.
The other snow hou that had charged down on the flanks came back again.
The old monk did not hesitate. He raised his wood staff, and thrust steadily in all directions. In his perception, the claws, teeth, and bodies of the beasts as well as the arrows and blades became shadows of varying thicknesses and speed. His wood staff moved among the shadows. With each thrust, the shadow most close to him and the others would disappear.
There were not many sounds of violent crashes, only hissing sounds in the air.
The sound came from the blood surging out of the holes created by the wood staff that froze into ice when they touched the ground. When the flying riders and the beasts landed, they were already frozen.
The scene was very calm.
The old monk’s movements caused Zhangsun Qianxue to think of an old farmer planting rice seedlings in Changling’s fields. But this simple and dull scene of repeated kills caused her to feel slightly sick.
It was simple and dull but very efficient. The farmers were also like this. The old monk was very efficient at killing.
On a distant glacier, there was an ice cave with an army within. From the entrance, the cave was lightless, and packed with an unknown number of people. Yet these people had calm presences, and they were even silent in their breathing, like ghosts that lived here.
There was a general at the entrance in black robes that did not reflect light. His eyes were slightly narrowed as he looked down at the old monk’s slaughter from afar. But the old monk and the others did not sense him at all.
He stood at the cave entrance. It was like a barrier that did not let any of the army’s presence to escape.
The old monk panted slightly. He was very efficient at killing.
All of the snow hou and their riders had died. Then they were quickly frozen into ice. The bright red blood were like eerie flowers blooming on the blue black ice glaciers. They were bright when they appeared, and then they quickly dimmed, turning into a shocking purple-black color.
The old monk could not avoid feeling a bit of tiredness, killing people like planting seedlings. The farmers of Changling were not tired when planting a bunch, but after a row of fields, any farmer would be tired.
“No one is invincible.”
He shook his head, and turned around, looking at Ding Ning with a complicated gaze.
What the old monk thought of now was naturally the battle he had seen back then in Changling.
That battle in Changling had profound meaning for the entire cultivator world. For the cultivators of the time, the difference in cultivation had only existed in records. The battle where w.a.n.g Jingmeng fought his way to Changling let many cultivators witness the true difference between each realm.
Yes to the entire cultivation world, the more profound meaning was… the battle let the people of the world know, even the truly invincible cultivator could still get trapped and killed.
Before this, there had been many powerful cultivators that died at the hands of the army and other cultivators. Yet no one knew of an invincible cultivator who had been killed.
In the past, those ultimate experts were killed due to the appearance of new experts, and were not killed by a group of cultivators who were much weaker. So, in a sense, that battle had been a great gamble by Yuanwu and Zheng Xiu. They were gambling whether they could kill an invincible cultivator.
The end of the battle had actually given the world of cultivators very bad results.
Ding Ning and Zhangsun Qianxue understood the meaning of these words, and what he felt.
But Ding Ning looked calmly at the old monk and shook his head seriously. He said, “When one is killed like this, that means they are not truly invincible.”
The old monk shook.
“At the Deer Mountain Conference, Yuanwu only proved one thing, realm eight is not invincible.” Ding Ning said, “Realm eight is not enough to be invincible, so realm nine is needed. True invincibility does not come from how great someone’s cultivation is, but how much stronger they are than the other cultivators in the world.”
The old monk seemed to realize, and was stunned at this.
A moment later, he looked at Ding Ning and said, “I heard people say that in the past, your wish was to become the first sword of the world. The first sword of the world you speak of is to surpa.s.s all the people in the world, and even tens of thousands of people cannot kill you?”
Ding Ning nodded, and said, “Then I will truly be the first sword of the world.”
The old monk was silent for a moment. “But I heard that you later changed your mind?”
“Back then, I was young and arrogant, so I felt that I had surpa.s.sed all the people in the world. It was easy to conquer the world, but it was difficult to unite the world, and convince everyone. But that was a young and immature idea. In the end, I am back on my old path,” Ding Ning sighed softly, and said.
Translator Ramblings: I feel there are words other than arrogant to think you could conquer the world …