A Clash of Gods - Chapter 137

Chapter 137 Sword God

At the moment, Yang Ning was close to Chi Danmei, and the fragrance on her body entered his nose, making him feel excited. This charming and fair-skinned woman looked at Yang Ning with a faint smile. He leered at her and thought that this woman’s figure was so sexy. Then he responded with a half-smile, “You want to compete with them? It’s easy. I will take you to have a look someday, and then you can do that.”

“Oh?” Chi Danmei smiled fascinatingly and responded in a soft voice, “It’s a deal. I will go to see you when I am free someday.”

Yang Ning finally realized that he said something wrong. He thought, “This woman is enchanting and sexy, but she is powerful in martial arts, and she is from the Eastern Qi State. She won’t do something good when she gets close to me. It’s better to stay away from her.” Then he didn’t say more.

Chi Danmei chuckled and stopped talking. With a fascinating pose, she left like a fire flame, and the four men dressed in clothes made of hemp followed her out rapidly.

Seeing that the disciples from the Baiyun Island went away, all the monks in the hall sighed with relief, thinking, “If Yang Ning didn’t win, the Purification Building in the Temple of Great Light would be a place that others could enter randomly.” So all of them were scared after the event. Anyway, Yang Ning made a matchless contribution to the temple, so all the monks looked at him in a different way.

However, some people were still pondering about how Yang Ning defeated Bai Yuhe with the sword. Till now, few people could figure it out.

The assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites, Su Luo who kept silent all the time, finally came forward and stated, “Master Jingkong, it was dangerous today. Fortunately, the members in your temple took actions and made the people from the Eastern Qi State go back in defeat.”

Jingneng frowned. “Lord Su, the situation today was dangerous indeed. The people from the Baiyun Island harbor evil intentions. You shouldn’t have brought them here.”

He spoke impolitely. Although Su Luo was the assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites and a high official at the imperial court, Jingneng didn’t show reverence at all while speaking to him.

Su Luo smiled flatteringly. “Masters, you don’t know that now the old Marquis of Loyalty is in charge of the state affairs temporally, and our state wants to ally with the Eastern Qi State. They sent some people to our state this time, which is a good start. The owner of the Baiyun Island is the imperial master of the Eastern Qi State, and his disciples came with the envoys from their state, so we can’t show disrespect to them. They repeatedly asked the imperial court to send somebody to bring them to the Temple of Great Light. The old marquis thought it over and told me to bring them here, thinking that your temple can make them return without accomplishing anything.”

Jingneng wanted to say more, while Jingkong declared, “All the disciples, go back to your places. The Purification Building should be guarded carefully. All of you, go out now.”

All the monks put their palms together and chanted, walking out of the hall in order. Yang Ning grabbed the sword in his hand, preparing to give it back and then go away, yet Jingkong said, “Qi Ning, stay.”

Yang Ning was stunned and then nodded.

All the monks left in rows including Zhenming. In an instant, there were only a few people in the large hall.

“Lord Su, if the state is in need, the members in our temple would surely leave here to help.” After all the monks went away, Jingneng expressed, “But it’s improper to agree to the request of the disciples from the Baiyun Island and bring them here easily. I hope that something like this won’t happen in the future.”

Yang Ning heard that and thought, “The Temple of Great Light is really awesome. Logically, every place in the territory belongs to the emperor. This is just a temple in the state. The imperial court sent somebody here, yet Jingneng can say directly that they can’t do that again. And he is merely the head of the Commandment Hall, not the abbot.”

Su Luo didn’t get unhappy and just smiled. “Nobody dares to make such a demand except the disciples from the Baiyun Island.” He stepped forward and added, “Masters, I came this time for another thing. Please make preparations early.”

“What?”

“His Majesty passed away, and all people in the state feel sad, but a nation can’t live without an emperor. After the funeral, the crown prince will ascend the throne. Then he will come here to worship God and hold a grand ceremony.” Su Luo looked serious. “The Ministry of Rites will handle it inevitably. Please cooperate with us then. In a few days, our ministry will send officials to your temple and make preparations here.”

Jingkong and Jingneng looked at each other and put their palms together, saying, “Amitabha.” Both of them looked gratified.

Yang Ning trembled after hearing that clearly and thought, “I heard earlier that the crown prince went to visit the Eastern Qi State and hadn’t returned to Jianye. It appears that it is not true. It turns out that he has returned to the capital and even prepared to ascend the throne.”

He knew that the imperial court of the Chu State was turbulent, and Duke of Huainan cast covetous eyes on the throne. Many officials at the imperial court supported Duke of Huainan. At the moment, the general situation was quite dangerous.

Since ancient times, the fight for the throne caused much bloody massacre. The brothers hurt each other, and even the father and son killed each other. There were countless examples.

Yang Ning always worried if Duke of Huainan really seized the chance and mustered his force to usurp the throne, no matter who would win in the end, the Chu State would have to face the sanguinary slaughter definitely.

Hearing that the crown prince had prepared to take the throne, Yang Ning thought that they were worried that undue delay might bring trouble. If the throne was vacant for one more day, it would be more dangerous.

The family of the Marquis of Honor was in connection with the crown prince’s followers, so if the crown prince could take the throne successfully, it would be a happy thing for their family.

“Lord Su, after you go back, please tell the old Marquis of Loyalty that the Temple of Great Light will start to prepare for the ceremony to worship God from today on,” Jingkong responded solemnly. “All people in our temple would respectfully welcome the new emperor to ascend the throne.”

Su Luo cupped his hands with a smile. “I don’t dare to disturb you any longer today, Masters. And I will come to trouble you in two days.” Then he said goodbye and left.

After Su Luo left, Jingkong said to Yang Ning, “Qi Ning, come over.”

Before Zhenming went away, he had given the sheath to Yang Ning. Yang Ning sheathed the sword Vairocana and then held it, walking forward. He gave it to Jingkong with both hands. “Master Jingkong, thanks for lending me the sword.”

Jingkong didn’t instantly take back the sword. He stroked his beard and said with a smile, “Qi Ning, I should thank you. If you didn’t defeat Bai Yuhe, the consequence would be unimaginable.” He asked while smiling, “Do you still complain about me as I told you to compete on swordsmanship?”

Yang Ning thought, “It turns out that you know it.” But he still replied with a smile, “I dare not.”

“Qi Ning, how did you launch that strike with the sword?” Jingneng asked doubtfully, “Bai Yuhe is excellent at swordsmanship. How could you defeat him at one blow?”

It turned out that this old monk didn’t understand after seeing that.

Yang Ning sneered in secret, but he recalled the situation just now. Suddenly he realized something and opened his mouth slightly, yet he didn’t speak a word.

He remembered that when he was between life and death, he lay on the floor and waved his sword randomly, yet there was a reason.

He had realized that when he waved the sword, he followed one of the movements in the pictures of swordsmanship unconsciously.

He accidentally got a stack of pictures of swordsmanship in the courtyard with a ghost of the old house in Jiangling and had always thought that it was just a sword dance for performance.

After all, the unimaginably queer movements were totally different from the normal swordsmanship.

One series of the movements was to lie on the floor. There were many movements in the pictures, and Yang Ning couldn’t remember them all, while he personally tried the movement while lying on the floor to stab for several times, and he remembered it most deeply. In fact, he had never considered fighting with the movements in the pictures today. After all, Bai Yuhe was a great master on swordsmanship, and it was like joking if he started some movements in the pictures to compete with such a swordsman.

After he fell on the floor, he used that movement subconsciously in anxiety. He couldn’t even remember if he used it in a proper way then, but the movement he started automatically was really the same as that in one picture in his mind. When he started it under the conditioned reflex, he wouldn’t expect that he could injure Bai Yuhe seriously.

Now he came to his senses yet didn’t feel happy. Instead, he was shocked and wondered if the movements in the pictures were so powerful that even such a great master as Bai Yuhe couldn’t resist one of them.

Jingneng didn’t know what Yang Ning was thinking about since the young man kept quiet. Then Yang Ning frowned, and Jingneng thought that he didn’t want to answer, so the old monk couldn’t ask more.

Jingkong asked, “Qi Ning, although you still haven’t had your head shaved, you are a disciple in our temple now. Are you willing to enter the Bright Building?”

Jingneng glanced at Jingkong and wanted to say something but stopped himself.

Yang Ning felt a headache in an instant and replied, “Master, I… Alas, it is not my destiny to be a Buddhist and I never consider being a monk. Would you force me to be a monk?” He thought, “You told me to enter the Bright Building just to force me to be a monk. I don’t care about the Bright Building. I finally came to another world, and I don’t want to be a monk for a lifetime.”

“In fact, it would be greatly helpful to you if you stay in the Temple of Great Light.” Jingkong advised him patiently. “You can stay away from the fights in society and cultivate your mind here, and you can practice martial arts to build your body in the Bright Building…”

Yang Ning interrupted him, “I have to end the conversation. Master, it’s dark outside. Can you let me go back and have a good rest because I helped you win a round? Didn’t you say that somebody else would be a monk for me? When will he come? Can I leave here only after he comes? How about you send somebody to the marquis’ mansion and push them? I have many things to do and can’t delay here.”

Jingneng furrowed his brows and finally said, “Go back first.”

Yang Ning thought, “Didn’t you want to take me to the Commandment Hall when I was in the Five Cereal Hall today? I helped you out of a predicament. I will see if you have the face to get me into trouble.”

He put the sword Vairocana on the floor and stretched himself lazily. “Masters, good night. I am going back to have a rest now.” He turned to leave. After taking a few steps, he thought of something and looked back. “Master Jingkong, can I make a suggestion?”

“Go ahead!”

Yang Ning explained, “Here is the thing. I think that the people in the Five Cereal Hall are badly-behaved, and you need to discipline them. If the news spreads that somebody starves to death in the Temple of Great Light, it would be unpleasant to hear.” He waved his hand. “I am off now. Good night, Masters.”

Seeing Yang Ning walk out of the hall, Jingneng asked in a low voice, “Jingkong, why didn’t you ask about that person’s whereabouts?”

“Since he doesn’t want to say, we can’t ask more.” Jingkong looked solemnly. “From the beginning, Qi Ning concealed his strength, so he must be determined to keep it a secret, and he started it just because he had no choice.” He sighed with emotion. “But it seems that Qi Ning’s foundation is not deep. Probably because of that, that person taught him the movements of the footwork.”

Jingneng asked at once, “Do you mean that Qi Ning’s mysterious footwork was also…taught by that person?”

“It would be nobody except him,” Jingkong responded in a low voice. “Qing Ning’s movement of swordsmanship is ingenious, but he can’t perform it skillfully. If there is no accident, he must practice it lately and that person may be in the capital city now.”

Jingneng looked serious and asked, “Did that person want to teach Qi Ning all his skills?”

“Not necessarily. Maybe he just taught Qi Ning some movements to make him protect himself.” Jingkong was lost in thought and then continued slowly, “Even if he really teaches Qi Ning all his skills, Qi Ning can’t reach his stage. Those people’s stages are beyond the limit of the human body and they are close to demons. Ordinary people can’t be put on a par with them.” He sighed and then added, “Bai Yuhe’s swordsmanship is one of the top five in the world. He knows Qi Ning’s background, so he wanted to compete on swordsmanship with him. Of course, he did that not for Qi Ning but that person behind him. Bai Yuhe always wanted to compete with that person, yet the latter doesn’t need to take actions in person. He just borrowed Qi Ning’s hand, with only one movement and then defeated Bai Yuhe. It can be seen that that person’s swordsmanship is not only at a great master’s stage, but he can do whatever he wants and is close to a god. His name Sword God is equal to his reputation.”