743 Nature (2/2)

”I need some time of my own, and I need to forget you first…”

Tie Linglong drew her hand back. ”Are you saying that I'm holding your swordsplay back?”

”No, no, it's me. I…”

”You don't have to explain. You want to forget, so just forget it. I won't pester you any longer. Go practice your dual swords, and may you become invincible as soon as possible! – But don't try to find me ever, ever again.”

”But I love you, I just want to be a swordsman again…”

”I don't love swordsmen!” Tie Linglong yelled angrily, turning and disappearing into the torrential pouring rain.

In the space of a moment, Chu Nanping lost sight of her.

Standing there transfixed in the rain, he felt misunderstood, but another voice in his head was telling him, 'Maybe it's better this way, since you can forget her more thoroughly now.'

As the rain let up, he found the right direction and walked towards his tent slowly with a searing pain in his heart, and yet his will was more determined than ever. He hadn't actually killed the person he cared about the most, but the effect was no less than that. Finally, he knew what it felt like to 'sever love,' which had been the barrier for practicing a higher level of the Emotionless Swordsmanship.

The spacious emptiness was fixed, but the teenager didn't notice that another one had emerged – though it was just a small bubble at the moment.

In his tent, Chu Nanping took out the sword that Gong Ziying had given him as a gift before his death, and recalled the swordsman's last words. ”Take my sword, and if anyone tries to snatch it away, kill him.”

It was the first time that Chu Nanping had contemplated those words. Some ancient, complex pattern was engraved on the blade and there seemed to be some words inscribed on the edge, but he couldn't recognize any of them. He gently stroke the sword with his fingers and it started quivering with a faint sound.

There was still searing pain in the corner of his heart. Chu Nanping gave a sword strike towards the sky and the pain was slightly eased, but that wasn't enough. With a longing for actual killing, he believed that he needed to extinguish a life to console another.

As a result, when it was about noon, and the Dragon King still hadn't returned, all Chu Nanping could think about was killing rather than the results of the competition when he volunteered to fight.

Running through the rainy night, Tie Linglong was also suffering from a searing pain in her heart, and after a while, a sense of great humiliation exacerbated the pain even further.

When the rain abated slightly, she met another runner.

Nie Zeng was practicing his lightness skills, leaping around Han Wuxian's tent.

The two whipped out their sabers at the same time.

”It's you,” Nie Zeng who was soaking wet, said in surprise.

”We agreed to have a kung fu competition. Let's do it now,” Tie Linglong said flatly, swinging at him with her saber.

'His previous words that he would kill for me or something were all lies,' she thought. 'I'll do it myself. I've killed people before and it's not difficult at all.'

Reliving the training she'd received in the Waning Moon Hall, Tie Linglong was growing increasingly murderous, and Nie Zeng was reduced to nothing but a target that served the purpose of improving disciples' courage.

To her surprise, the pain in her heart was slightly alleviated.

Nie Zeng was flustered. He wasn't ready for a kung fu competition, and it seemed that Tie Linglong had just been crying, as even the darkness and the rain couldn't stop him from seeing that her eyes were red and swollen, which made it even harder for him to put his heart into his moves.

His kung fu skill was originally not as good as that of Tie Linglong, so his hesitation and evasion immediately landed him in danger.

Her narrow saber cut his left arm, the wound immediately starting to bleed, but the blood was washed away by the rainwater. Nie Zeng was provoked, believing that regardless of why she felt heartbroken, she shouldn't be taking it out on others.

Nie Zeng pounced on her and began to fight in a self-destructive, lose-lose style which was the exact reason why Hu Shining constantly lamented that he could never be a top killer.

It was like the two were irreconcilable enemies and every saber strike of his was vicious and ruthless.

Before things got uglier, Han Wuxian intervened. She had been sitting in her tent, inspecting Nie Zeng – who was practicing kung fu in the rain – through the open curtains, and giving him a tip or two occasionally, but spent most of her time combing her long hair.

Apprentices as good as the two were not easy to find, and she didn't want to lose either one of them too early.

It was still raining and Han Wuxian didn't want to leave the tent, so she took off one of her embroidered shoes and casually threw it towards Nie Zeng.

Nie Zeng drew back his saber to parry it, but the embroidered shoe turned in midair and dashed towards Tie Linglong. Before Tie Linglong could react, it made another turn and flew back into the tent like a lost bat.

”Alas, it got wet anyway,” Han Wuxian sighed regretfully.

Outside, Nie Zeng and Tie Linglong started staggering after smelling a puff of an unexpected faint fragrance.

”You want to kill someone, huh. Fine. I'll give you a chance,” Han Wuxian said gently. ”There's a traitor of the Waning Moon Hall in my tent. Alas, I'm done with her. So just kill her.”

The knockout powder was not very potent, and part of its effect had been alleviated by the rain, so Tie Linglong recovered in a short time and strode towards the tent, saber in her hand.

Nie Zeng stood where he was, paralyzed with confusion. When he finally raised his head, he found that the rain had stopped.