Chapter 58
Chapter 58: I Challenge You
Listening to Ding Ning’s words, Jing Liuli did not say anything . She glanced at Daoist Qian who was lying on the ground . Then as she turned around, she said softly to Ding Ning, “Your attitude towards him may be too cruel . You killed a person in front of so many people… you know that most people in Changling do not like the empress because she is too cold . ”
“In the end, the majority of Changling’s people will not like me . ” Ding Ning sat in the carriage, looked at his injured left hand and said seriously, “I am already very tired so I can no longer care about their thoughts . ”
Jing Liuli frowned slightly . She thought of Ding Ning’s cultivation these past few days, and his decisiveness when he had used his hand to block the sword . She bowed her head and started to drive the carriage without speaking .
Palace Attendant Rong was standing under the eaves . The summer sun reflected off the golden rooftops .
She knew that Ding Ning had gone to the Boxwood Temple . When the carriage had left Ink Garden, she knew that something would happen today .
Usually, she did not value Daoist Qian greatly, and had even forgotten him . Like many young people who had left their homes long ago, when they grew older, they would slowly forget their parents and relatives .
But a person could not truly have no emotions .
Before Daoist Qian accepted her as a disciple, she had been an orphan on the streets . There were only two outcomes, dying on the street or becoming a tragic child prostitute in a brothel .
Daoist Qian had not just taught her, but raised her . He had then gradually forgotten her, but when he saw Ding Ning, he still immediately thought of wanting to kill the man for her .
When Ding Ning truly found Daoist Qian, the past favours, the guilt and kind thoughts started to fill her body . She did not hope for anything to happen to Daoist Qian .
The cicadas in the courtyard stopped . Someone was coming .
A middle-aged yellow-robed cultivator appeared at the gates of this courtyard and bowed slightly to her . “Daoist Qian is dead . ”
Palace Attendant Rong’s heart suddenly dropped to somewhere unknown, like it had dropped into an invisible abyss below her .
The middle-aged cultivator slowly straightened . His eyes were brighter than usual . But Palace Attendant Rong’s attention was not on him so she did not detect the abnormality .
The unusual light in the middle-aged cultivator’s eyes quickly faded . He bowed his head and said, “The carriage is not returning to Ink Garden and is heading towards a tea garden . ”
Palace Attendant Rong had frozen when she heard of Daoist Qian’s death . Yet, when she heard the middle-aged cultivator’s words, she looked up in disbelief and exclaimed . “How can it be like this?”
In the eyes of many who knew Palace Attendant Rong, she was a mud puppet with little emotion and as cold as the empress . It was unimaginable for her to gasp like this .
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The middle-aged cultivator hung his head lower and said, “Her Majesty forbids you to leave the palace . ”
Palace Attendant Rong’s body and face froze again . Her face was bloodless like she was a snowman in the winter .
In the tea garden in the south suburbs .
When Jing Liuli drove the carriage towards this tea garden, a man with a bamboo hat and black silk robes was walking towards this tea garden from a small path .
There was nearly a dozen miles between him and the tea garden, a bamboo forest, a small stream . On the small stream was a wooden bridge covered with green vines which even grew down into the water .
There was no one in this man’s sight . But he suddenly sensed something and stopped .
The moment he stopped, the bamboo hat on his head split apart and fell to the ground like it had been cut by a sharp weapon .
Below the bamboo hat was a pampered face . His unusually clean and black hair was tied up with a white jade ring . His features were delicate and his face looked ageless . Even his brows looked like they had been trimmed . He appeared perfect and unusually refined .
“Really like this?” This man’s refined brows rose slightly . As he spoke, a pure black longsword floated in front of him
The blade was extremely strong, but as it slowly flew around him, it felt both nimble and soft . Sometimes, this sword was in front of him, and sometimes behind . But from any angle, this pure black sword and this man made it feel like there was no opening to attack .
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“It does not have to be like this . ” Shao Sharen’s voice sounded .
Before he spoke, there had not been a figure on the vine-covered wooden bridge . But when he spoke, his figure appeared on the bridge .
“If you stop here, and wait for the matters at the tea garden to finish, then it will not be like this,” Shao Sharen looked at this man and said expressionlessly .
“You are very good at killing people . ” The black-robed man narrowed his eyes at Shao Sharen and shook his head . “But you may not be my match . ”
Shao Sharen looked coldly at him and said, “I do not think of who is a match for me… I only know to kill and to be killed . ”
After a pause, Shao Sharen looked at the pieces of bamboo hat at the man’s feet . A faint disdainful and challenging smile appeared on the corners of his lips . “Xu Fenqin, if you really have confidence, your bamboo hat would not have broken . ”
The black robed man smiled with a hint of pride . He said, “Maybe I did it on purpose?”
Shao Sharen’s gaze darkened . He looked at the black robed man’s moving sword and said, “You know I do not like joking so you can try . ”
The black robed man’s smile disappeared . His eyebrows rose up but he did not speak as his black sword remained roaming around without moving forward .
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“Actually, us being here does not have much meaning,” A long time later, the black robed man shook his head and said .
Shao Sharen glanced at him and said, “There really is not much meaning because that carriage will enter the tea garden in the end . Because she is the only person who hopes the carriage will not enter the garden, but many in Changling hope that carriage will enter the tea garden . ”
The carriage was nearing the tea garden .
For Jing Liuli, this carriage had a smooth journey from Boxwood Temple to here without any obstacles .
Just like the last trip to the tea garden, Ding Ning got off the carriage outside the garden, and walked along the fields towards the bamboo hut .
The master of the tea garden, the quiet middle-aged man, Zhang Luyang, was carrying water . Seeing Ding Ning and Jing Liuli walk in, he put down his baggage and nodded in greeting to Ding Ning and Jing Liuli .
Ding Ning nodded in return and then said, “You lied . Daoist Qian is dead . I killed him . ”
“Now I challenge you . ”