Nightfall

Ning Que turned back in a flash with his right hand clasping the hilt and the left hand holding the other side of the blade. He firmly stood behind his sword, ready for Xia Hou’s attack.

A sound of cracking!

His left wrist was fractured. The blade heavily fell on his shoulder.

He resisted with the shoulder.

Xia Hou aggravated the attack with his iron spear.

Another cracking!

Ning Que felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder and could no longer resist the huge force. He knelt down on one knee, hitting the hard ice ground with cracks and suddenly grew pale.

The paleness suggested that he was suffering from a huge pain. However, there was not a shadow of death in his eyes but great brightness.

With a roar like a desperate beast, Ning Que seemed to turn the pain into an unexpected power at the moment. While reversing his right wrist, he clenched the injured left hand and heavily hit on the blade!

The two simple actions seemed to vitalize the heavy podao in his hand that crawled up along Xia Hou’s iron spear like a vivid snake. With a series of movements, the spear was pressed under Ning Que’s sword.

The crystal droplet compressed by the Great Spirit in his stomach blasted all of a sudden!

And then it evaporated immediately in the air!

The vapor moved along the meridians into every corner of his body!

The Great Spirit inside him broke out of his body in the shortest time possible!

The blazing Haotian Divine Light again exploded from the blade, reflecting a stronger and more aggressive figure of Ning Que than that of Xia Hou.

The Divine Light shone on Xia Hou’s lean and strange cheek, clearly lighting up his eyes and even the cold mocking expression inside.

Xia Hou knew it was Ning Que’s last shot.

But he did not feel afraid. As he said earlier, that unlike Ke Haoran, Ning Que’s Great Spirit could not be compared with the real one.

He stared at Ning Que’s pale face and cried coldly, "You only have Liu Bai’s sword style, not his sword! No matter how many things you have learned, they are not yours!"

His cry echoed over the cold icy lake, shaking the Divine Light on Ning Que’s sword like a swaying torch flame in the wind. He suddenly lifted his spear and forced the podao to retreat several inches.

"You cannot stab or hurt me again!"

Staring at his opponent’s eyes, Xia Hou said indifferently, "As a disciple of the Academy, how dare you abandon your Natal Item and join the Devil! You’d better die since you don’t understand what your heart wants."

After the words, the Divine Light of the sword shook more violently and seemed that it would disappear at any time. Ning Que’s face was very pale. He spat a mouthful of blood into the light. With the sizzling sound of something burning, the blood vaporized quickly, leaving a slight burnt smell. His eyes were full of calmness.

He uttered two unexpected words.

"Thank you."

Ning Que knew clearly how mighty Xia Hou was and how hard it was for a Seethrough state cultivator to challenge an opponent with a higher cultivation level. So he made many preparations.

These preparations took him fifteen years in total and until he left the House of Red Sleeves and smelled the mutton soup on the street of Chang’an City. He was finally prepared.

These preparations were made to spot any opportunity of killing Xia Hou according to his power and hidden techniques. Some of them were very helpful in the fight tonight, such as the talisman storm and the coordination of iron arrow and kettle, while some were not.

Earlier Ning Que powerlessly fell from the sky in order to induce Xia Hou to enter the dark and cold lakebed and kill him there. According to Zhuo Er’s message, Xia Hou should be very afraid of water. But the fact was he became more mighty in the water.

Some preparations had not been used in the fight. Some were half used. In the beginning, Ning Que wanted to fight Xia Hou face to face because he knew the threat of the Haotian Divine Light to the Devil’s Doctrine cultivators according to Ye Hongyu.

He had two chances and was faced with two choices. The first chance, when Haotian Divine Light exploded from his podao, he chose to coordinate Liu Bai’s sword style with the Great Spirit.

Ning Que thought the Great Spirit inherited from the Youngest Uncle and the recently learned sword style of Liu Bai were his most powerful fighting assets. In fact, they indeed greatly hurt Xia Hou, but did not kill him.

And then the second chance came to him. He could not make his decision until he heard Xia Hou’s arrogant words.

Using the arcane magic of the Devil’s Doctrine greatly consumed Xia Hou. His eyes were sunken and his face seemed to be covered with only a thin layer of skin, making the bones beneath visible. He looked like his teacher Lotus in the Devil’s Doctrine. In the fierce light, he was like a god or a devil.

At the sacrifice of his blood, flesh and even his life, Xia Hou completely dominated the fight on the icy lake. Ning Que did not stand a chance in front of the mighty opponent. The Haotian Divine Light could help but could not change the situation.

Ning Que was about to lose the fight. However, at this very moment, he thanked the man who was going to kill him.

It came out of the blue.

Xia Hou thought Ning Que was crazy. He could not understand the words and sensed some strangeness and uneasiness in them.

Ning Que stared at his horrible cheek and said, "But I do have my own Natal Item. May I show you?"

With his words, a streak of enriched Psyche Power was released from Ning Que’s body. And then it left the blood and ethereally floated towards the sky.

The ethereal Psyche Power did not move slowly. The impression of being ethereal was because the Psyche Power was extremely refined. But it did not move to a certain direction, instead it diffused in the Qi of Heaven and Earth over the icy lake.

Before the gate of Daytime Snow Palace, Xia Hou had evaluated Ning Que’s refined and pure Psyche Power which was poorly operated.

And this was exactly what he expected right now.

However, his eyes suddenly became cold.

He clearly sensed that Ning Que’s Psyche Power had captured a strand of Qi of Heaven and Earth which immediately appeared on the cliff of the south bank. Once it fell on the cliff, the Qi of Heaven and Earth was stabilized in a flash and then expanded at a terrifying speed like being fueled by something.

Holding the hilt with both hands, Ning Que’s face grew pale, but his eyes were very bright.

At the risk of destroying his cultivation, Ning Que dissipated the crystal droplet in his stomach and absorbed all the Great Spirit to suppress Xia Hou’s spear for a while.

He had to hurry up.

His Psyche Power left the sense of perception, crossed through ten intangible Qi orifices and stagnant Ocean of Qi, finally composing a low and clumsy song.

He hoped the song could be heard and understood.

Because he was calling his Natal Item with the song.

Cultivators did not control objects directly through controlling the Qi of Heaven and Earth. They took it as a bridge and passed their Psyche Power to the object, triggering the resonance of Qi of Heaven and Earth inside the object. The Natal Item was the one that could resonate in the most harmonious and easiest way.

This was what Chen Pipi had said. He thought it was very hard for cultivators to find their own Natal Items which were perfectly matched with the cultivators’ aura. At the night in the old library, he talked a lot with Ning Que and gave the example of tonality. So Ning Que could know that a Natal Item was the one who could understand his song.

A soulmate.

Sword Masters took a sword as their Natal Item like Liu Bai’s Dahe Sword. As the mightiest Sage of the Sword in the world, he could draw his Natal Sword on a paper.

Talisman Masters took talisman as their Natal Item like Master Yan Se’s Jing Fu. It was the master’s closest companion which fought with him until the end of his life.

Ning Que was a rare cultivator who practiced sword and talisman at the same time. His Natal Item was no sword, talisman, calligraphy stationery or even his favorite taels of silver.

His Natal Item was a little handmaiden.

A handmaiden who had a little bit dark face and yellow hair.

On the icy lake, Ning Que’s Psyche Power controlled the Qi of Heaven and Earth and came to the Yanming Mountain.

The song was soundlessly played at the edge of the cliff.

Chen Pipi once said Ning Que’s song was rather bad and elusive. Due to the distance, the sound was particularly obscure and incoherent.

But Sangsang felt the Psyche Power.

She heard the song and understood it.

Although there was no real tonality at Yanming Mountain, she clearly heard a song which Ning Que used to hum when carrying her on his back and climbing in the deep Min Mountain many years ago.

Ning Que knew nothing about music. The reason why he did not feel shame to hum the song was that Sangsang liked to hear it when she could not fall asleep.

The song was her lullaby.

Sangsang doubtfully stood at the cliff with the big black umbrella.

Looking down at the light in the icy lake, she did not quite understand what happened, but she understood the call in Ning Que’s Psyche Power or perhaps one could say, an invitation.

Ning Que was inviting her to the closest connection which meant a complete obedience that could not be parted by the shadow of death or the threat of Yama.

Any conscious life would instinctively turn down this dominant connection. And even in acceptance, they would go through a long time struggle.

But Sangsang did not hesitate or struggle at all. She agreed to the invitation immediately.

Because she was his little handmaiden.