Chapter 103: Butcher

Ning Xiaoling stared at him, a chilling dread turning into full-body paralysis, making her grip on her sword almost falter.

Her awareness only gradually returned when Ning Qinshui spoke.

In the past, when she was Ning Qinshui's disciple, she never dared to fight back or talk back against his disciplinary beatings and scoldings. At most, she would grumble to herself behind his back about the old geezer being inhuman.

Now, this old man she detested and loathed had reappeared, and just as she had cursed, he truly was no longer human. Her curse had come true, yet she felt no joy, only a sudden surge of shock and terror that made her scalp tingle.

She turned her head to glance at her senior brother, Ning Changjiu, and found him exceptionally calm, which helped her regain some composure.

Ning Changjiu looked at him, tightening his grip on his sword.

On the day he was resurrected, he had pointed at Ning Qinshui with a finger imbued with the true essence of Dao. At that time, he had just awakened; his cultivation should have been extremely weak, yet that single touch had torn the opponent apart. This had been unbelievable to him then. Now, he realized that Ning Qinshui's soul must have already been taken by Lady Bai, leaving behind only a decaying corpse, devoid of consciousness, with spiritual energy constantly leaking out.

At that time, Ning Qinshui himself also thought he had died. His soul had been devoured and shattered, almost turning to ash, until Lady Bai nourished it in a green porcelain vase. Only now, with the red moon overhead in Linhe City and all things manifesting the netherworld, did he finally emerge from the bottle and coalesce into form.

Because evil spirits are immortal tonight, no one in the city, except for Lady Bai who holds power, can kill him.

He looked at his two former disciples, still alive, with a complicated expression. Had Lady Bai not informed him beforehand, he would certainly have been greatly astonished at this moment.

"I didn't expect you to still be alive," Ning Qinshui remarked, sighing. "If you commit suicide today and become spirits, I can still take you as disciples. All will be forgiven."

Ning Xiaoling silently pictured Lu Jiajia's appearance, using it to suppress the fear in her heart. Despite her terror, she stubbornly stared at his face and scoffed, "What a great protective charm, and what magnanimity to 'forgive all past wrongs'!"

Ning Qinshui held a cinnabar brush for drawing talismans. He looked at the young man and woman and said coldly, "There's no point in witty remarks. When the Underworld Lord descends, all things will turn to ash. It's better to die early than to live."

As he spoke, he looked at Ning Changjiu and said, "You seem to have changed a lot?"

Ning Changjiu did not reply.

Ning Qinshui continued, "Though you were a bit dull on weekdays, you were far more obedient than your junior sister. Today, you commit suicide first to set an example for her."

Ning Changjiu looked at the young woman beside him, raised his sword, and said, "Master wants me to demonstrate for you. Watch carefully."

"Huh?" Ning Xiaoling paused, slightly startled. Before she could grasp the hidden meaning in her senior brother's words, a subtle, almost imperceptible sword intent emanated from Ning Changjiu.

The white snow on the ground, fine as sand, swirled up with the radiance from his sword's edge, rough and chaotic, like countless white mosquitoes dancing.

Ning Qinshui's expression tightened slightly. The moment that murderous intent appeared, he abruptly sensed it, a chill seizing his heart. He couldn't understand what had happened to this formerly dull young man, or why he now possessed such sharp, sword-like killing intent.

Before Ning Qinshui could ponder further, the white snow on the ground surged up, and Ning Changjiu's figure vanished from his spot. Almost simultaneously, a sword light flared, cutting through the dense night. Like a white dragon spitting a rainbow from a cliffside waterfall, a single sword strike cleaved through the air, instantly illuminating the night and dimming even the red moon.

Although Ning Qinshui had been resurrected, he had not seen daylight for a long time. When this sword light flared, an innate tremor arose within him.

Ning Qinshui immediately drew a talisman in the air with his ink brush, and the accumulated snow on the ground rose up, forming walls to block the path.

The long sword advanced, and the snow walls, barely formed, were swept away by the sword light. Although the sword's momentum was slightly slowed, its intent grew even stronger. As he approached Ning Qinshui, the sword's intent was as desolate as the autumn wind sweeping across the sky. The long sword descended again, a white rainbow striking the ground. Amidst the thunderous roar, everything around was torn to shreds. Ning Qinshui was greatly alarmed, his body instinctively wanting to retreat, but his thoughts were a beat slower than the sword light.

After the sword descended, his body was sliced into two halves from head to sole!

"You..." Ning Qinshui, with his soul split open, looked both horrifying and grotesque. He reached out to grab his other half, trying to put himself back together. "What kind of swordsmanship is this?"

Ning Xiaoling stared at her senior brother's back. She recognized these sword moves, of course: Sand Snow, White Rainbow Pierces the Sun, and Autumn Visage, three stances from the Heavenly Decree Sword Manual. During their morning lessons, her senior brother had read the manual with her, and she knew he was familiar with its cultivation methods and incantations. She just didn't know when he had mastered the Heavenly Decree Sword Manual to such an extent.

Watching Ning Qinshui, who had been jovial moments before, get cut in half by a single sword strike, most of the fear in her heart dissipated, even though she knew that no ghost in the city could truly be killed right now.

Ning Changjiu, of course, did not answer his question. His gaze was so cold that even Ning Qinshui, who was already a ghost, felt a chill to his core.

Ning Changjiu raised his sword again, and sword light poured down like a torrential rain, riddling Ning Qinshui's soul until it was unrecognizable and full of holes.

That was the "Ink Rain Overturning Basin" style.

In fact, Ning Qinshui, now dead and a ghost, had advanced his cultivation even further. However, he had never expected his formerly dull-witted disciple, who seemed to be just a shell, to possess such exquisite swordsmanship now. That sudden strike caught him off guard, leading to a cascade of delays. Even if an evil spirit cannot be killed, how could his current speed of soul restoration compare to the speed at which Ning Changjiu's sword destroyed it?

The hand holding the brush fell to the ground. Just as it was about to draw a talisman, Ning Xiaoling's eyes sharpened. Her flying sword instantly arrived, stabbing into its palm and twisting, severing all five fingers.

"Do you think you are Lady Bai, to dare appear so brazenly?" Ning Changjiu looked indifferently at the soul shattered into hundreds of pieces. He formed a sword seal, setting countless sword locks to temporarily trap the main parts of its limbs and body.

Even with his soul shattered, Ning Qinshui could still speak: "I don't know what fortune you stumbled upon to become so powerful in such a short time. It seems your talents were truly hidden when you followed me before. But you're wasting your effort; you can't kill me, nor can you leave this courtyard. I originally intended to offer you a way out, but since you're so reckless, once Lady Bai completes her ritual, I will slowly torment you to death!"

"Noisy." Ning Changjiu looked at the young woman beside him and said, "Junior sister, it's rare to have someone who can't be killed. Practice your swordsmanship well. I'll go find a way out."

Ning Xiaoling's spirits lifted. "Yes, senior brother."

She raised her sword, recalling the exquisite moves from the sword manual. Just as Ning Qinshui's soul was about to coalesce, she decisively struck, shattering it into pieces once more.

Ning Changjiu, meanwhile, carried his sword and walked towards the main hall.

He believed this old house was key to controlling the illusion in the alley, and perhaps even akin to the Yama's palace in this dead city in the future.

He entered the hall, activating his sword-eye to scan around.

Everything in the hall was exactly as it had been when he left. The fragments of porcelain figures were still scattered on the ground. He went to the compass, felt around for a moment, and opened a secret compartment, finding that two bags of money were indeed missing from inside.

Everything seemed normal; this was the old house where they had once lived.

Ning Changjiu tried to ignite a ball of sword-fire and threw it into the pile of dry firewood, but the sword-fire quickly extinguished, and the firewood seemed to not exist, completely refusing to burn.

In the courtyard, although Ning Qinshui had been hacked to pieces, his lingering ghostly voice continued to echo: "This place is now the Judge's Residence, between the human world and the netherworld. Unless you have the power to shatter space, you cannot destroy it."

Ning Xiaoling once again chopped off his right hand, which he was attempting to re-form to hold the brush. She wiped the sweat from her brow, her expression intensely fervent. The sword moves, initially quite unfamiliar, now became increasingly fluid with each use, as if she were slaying a real person.

"Shut up! Does my senior brother need your commentary on everything he does?" Ning Xiaoling pierced his heart with a sword.

Ning Qinshui sneered, "This young man is not your senior brother at all. Haven't you noticed all this time?"

Ning Xiaoling sneered back, "Are you so blind that you expect others to be blind with you?"

After failing to destroy the house, Ning Changjiu turned back to push open the main gate.

Ning Qinshui said, "This house holds the imprints of your life here for several years. These are karmic ties strong enough to bind you for a lifetime. If you cannot break free from this karmic thread, you will forever be trapped here. This is one of the Underworld Lord's authorities. Don't waste your effort."

Ning Changjiu's hand on the door paused slightly. After a moment's thought, he said, "Life and death are the greatest karma."

With that, he unlatched the door, and to Ning Qinshui's utter shock, he pushed it open and walked out.

He stood on the long street, turning to look.

At the end of the long street, a bearded butcher held a pig-slaughtering knife in one hand and a still-bloody horse head in the other. A colorful ribbon was still tied around the horse's neck, clearly the tall, magnificent steed they had seen on their first day entering the city.

He swaggered along, muttering curses. When the main gate of Ning Qinshui's house opened and the white-robed young man stepped out, the butcher stopped, eyeing him with a murderous gaze.

"Are you human or ghost? Have you seen my lost ox? If you have, I'll spare your life."