Chapter 144

Affection

The Old Devil had kicked all the sword cultivators out of Si Fan Palace right after they left the underground. He had already promised that he would return to the sword world with Xiao Mei and Little Dugu.

In the end, Little Dugu must leave, her sword soul had already left her body for too long…

The night was filled with thick snow, and in the midst of the raining snowflakes, Ning Fan stood in the courtyard of the palace he had once lived. He was looking at the Apricot tree, the bluestone and the grave.

His heart felt something was amiss and raised his hand. His heart raised an intention and the One Heart Sword Seal appeared at the back of his hand, the seal shone a dim sword light.

The One Heart Sword Seal was a seal of oath for the men and women of the Sword World. Once the seal was sown, their hearts would forever be tied, together forever… Ning Fan had no qualms on being sown by such a seal, since he did not have to swear on his heart devil. However, this would trouble Little Dugu because she could only be married to him in this life… If she were to have sexual intercourse with other men, the seal will be destroyed and death was the only thing that awaited her…

“Lady Dugu… I say… Shouldn’t we have a proper discussion on this matter… It looked like you have just become my wife, now that the One Heart Sword Seal has been sown…”

“Bullsh*t! Little Devil Ning! Who is your wife! Also, my name is Dugu, it is not my surname…” Little Dugu’s voice that was both ashamed and angered could be heard from within the grave mound. Her voice suddenly stopped when she talked about her surname…

The women of the Sword World have no surname, they would only have it after inheriting their husband’s surname after they get married.

For example, Dugu’s sister Xiao Mei only had the word “Mei” in her name. Hence, after she privately made a pledge of marriage with the Old Devil (without the approval of her parents), Xiao Mei then called herself ‘Han Mei’ which she liked very much because the name had the meaning of an apricot tree that stood upright and proud even in the winters.

If Little Dugu were to get married to Ning Fan in the future, wouldn’t her name be called Ning Dugu…?

The women of the Sword World had to follow their husband’s surname after marriage. If they never get married, they would never have a surname for their whole life… The Old Ancestor of the Sword World in the past was a woman. She stayed alone her whole life, vowed to never love, and in the end did not have a surname until her death…

There was a saying that described this girl… White bones as tall as a mountain but the surname was forgotten…

The topic at hand mystically diverted towards the surname of Dugu, and Ning Fan surprisingly asked,

“Your surname is not Dugu, so what is your surname…? What is your clan’s surname?”

“It is “Ling” but I do not have the surname “Ling” because my father did not allow it… and it is the tradition of my world…” Dugu said with a dissatisfied tone.

“Then… When you’re married to me in the future, you can have whatever surname you want, it could be Ling, Little Pig, and Little Dog too. As long as you like it, isn’t that great?” Ning Fan teasingly said.

“Pooh! Why should I marry you?! Little Ning Devil, I am warning you! You better stay away from me as far as possible!”

“Okay… Let’s talk about serious business…”

Ning Fan stopped teasing her and became serious. The One Heart Sword Seal was obviously a method for Little Dugu to get away from the wedding arrangement back in her world. Ning Fan would not be shameless as to force Little Dugu to marry to him with just a sword seal.

His teasing was just a way to warm up the awkward atmosphere between them. But most importantly, he had a request that he wanted to ask.

“What serious matter did you want to discuss with me…” Little Dugu felt slightly weird.

“My master will follow you and return to the Sword World… Could you help me take care of him? Do not let him be harmed by others… This is my request. As for compensation, if you have any trouble in the marriage arrangement you once had, please let me know and I shall go to your world and solve the problem for you. However, I could only help you a hundred years later…”

This was perhaps the first time Ning Fan treated a matter so seriously with Little Dugu. His gaze made Little Dugu’s heart shook, her face blushed and secretly thought,

It was rare for Ning Fan to ask a favor from me…

When she heard that Ning Fan was willing to assist her in acting as her fiance and solve her troublesome marriage arrangement, Little Dugu was relieved yet also had a shred of disappointment which she did not realize.

It would’ve been great if Ning Fan were to marry me because he liked me, and not just for the sake of helping… No… Father would definitely not approve of this.

Her wisp of soul gently fluttered out of the grave and stood below the apricot tree. Her cold eyes showed a faint smiling expression.

“I will help you since you’ve helped me. Even if I do not like Han Yuanji, but he was passionately devoted to my sister. She wouldn’t be willing to see him get hurt if she were to wake up in the future. No small fries would dare to hurt Han Yuanji in my presence. His status as the Deacon of the Four Oceans is enough to keep the Divine Emperor experts at bay… The only thing that we need to be wary of is the assassins from the Demon World. I will request father to pay attention on this matter…”

Little Dugu did not explain what the ‘Deacon of Four Ocean’ was, but it did not stop Ning Fan in understanding it. It looked like the Old Devil had another status in the Four Heavens. Other than the sect leader of the Black Demon Sect, his other status was enough to make the Rain World’s Divine Emperors treat him courteously…

The status of deacon may not be high in the Four Heavens but it was enough for the Old Devil not to be plotted against in the lower realms.

Ning Fan’s gaze of gratitude fell upon the face of Little Dugu. He then carefully looked at the cold and lonely girl that stood in front of him.

No matter if it was fake or genuine, or to deceive others, this girl had already become his wife.

She was just like a fairy in a painting, yet this fairy had mingled with a barbaric fellow like him.

But now that he was faced with such a beautiful fairy, he did not blush and panic like he before.

He still remembered when he was still a young boy in Hai Ning. He once accidentally saw a young lady from the main family bathing in the lake. He panicked and shouted because the lady was too beautiful… yet the young lady did not blame him. However, the fact that he peeped made a few young masters from the main family quietly made things difficult for him.

Everything had changed… Ning Fan’s fate had changed, his heart too had changed. The feelings of an immature youngster had disappeared. The experience of those bloody battles, killings and the fifty-year dream of the Ming Luo fruit had made Ning Fan’s heart become mature, calm and collected.

His spying gaze made Little Dugu’s cold expression become both ashamed and angered. She then averted her gaze and secretly blamed Ning Fan’s gaze to be frivolous.

He clasped his fist and saluted towards Little Dugu.

“Thank you so much. Your sword qi had saved me on many occasions… And now you even promised to protect my master. Hence, I owe you two favors!”

“Is it…” Little Dugu turned her back and lightly pressed her pale lips together as if she was in a dilemma.

She took out an ancient scroll from her clothes then turned around again.

“For you…” she said, but her eyes showed a faint nervousness. Then she immediately added on,

“I am only loaning it to you to have a look. It is not a gift… Do not think too much…”

The ancient scroll had a lingering human warmth and a peck of virgin fragrance when Ning Fan received it.

However, Ning Fan only cared about the content of the scroll and not the fragrance.

He had a shocked expression right after flipping a few pages of the ancient scroll. He then immediately closed the ancient scroll and returned it to Little Dugu.

“I could not accept such an expensive gift!”

“I told you that I am only loaning it to you to have a look. You do not need to tell others. I accidentally got this scroll from the Trial of the Sword Ancestor, no one had ever seen this scroll except for me, not even father! I’m just loaning it to you to have a read, you read! Why are you being so long-winded!” It looked like Little Dugu was angered, she did not know why, but when she sensed Ning Fan was being so distant, she became extremely angry without reason.

She stomped her foot and her wisp of soul scattered, it looked like she had returned to the grave.

“Go away! I do not want to see you!” She gave an expulsion order.

Ning Fan sighed while holding onto the scroll, and looked at the grave mound.

He could only stay silent under Little Dugu’s voice of expulsion.

The ancient scroll was an expensive gift…

The ‘Sword Finger’ was said to be one of the Sword Ancestor’s secret sword inheritances. The key to it was to refine the cultivator’s body like how one refined a sword.

This was a lost divine ability, an Ancient Fiendgod Body Refinement Technique! Little Dugu was really fortunate that she unexpectedly obtained such item.

The sword body technique was separated into ‘Sword Finger’, ‘Sword Bone’, ‘Sword Eye’, ‘Sword Heart’ and ten other volumes. The ‘Sword Finger’ volume recorded the divine ability of cultivating the finger into a sword.

Cultivators have ten fingers and if all ten fingers became swords, it could even cut down a fiendgod in a flash. This technique was from an incomplete volume, and the process of refining one’s finger into a sword was extremely difficult and painful. The most important thing was to refine the fingers via Earth Spirit Vein.

Ning Fan still remembered the day when the 30,000-meter white bone body of Emperor Moksha descended. A single finger of his had a devastating aura that could destroy both the heavens and earth.

With the Fiendgod Body Refining Technique, as the user’s body grew stronger, its power will become increasingly terrifying as well.

Ning Fan who had the body of a First Realm Silver Body only knew the ‘Eighteen-Meter Body’ body refinement technique. Whereas the ‘Colossal Bone Secret Art’ was yet to be cultivated, and its divine ability was incomparable to the power of a single finger from the ‘Sword Finger’.

One could vaguely understand from the words of Little Dugu, that she obtained the technique from the Trial of the Sword Ancestor.

Ning Fan did not know what was the Trial of the Sword Ancestor, but he could imagine it being one of the grandest trials of the Sword World. There was even a possibility in obtaining the inheritance of the Sword Ancestor, and it was surely extremely sought after by all the old monsters.

The Sword World’s old monsters’ greed would have been ignited if they knew about the ‘Sword Finger’ technique’s existence.

Little Dugu had given him such an expensive gift so easily… Ning Fan’s heart turned chaotic.

This girl had a feeling towards him… he would’ve lived in vain he did not notice it.

“I will certainly go to the Sword World a hundred years later, if I am not dead…”

After Ning Fan finished his sentence, an escaping light flashed and he disappeared from the snow.

Little Dugu heard those words within the grave mound, she became silent for a long time then suddenly revealed a joyful voice.

“Hmmph, Little Devil Ning, luckily you still have a conscience… I will hate you forever if you do not come…”

“…”

Three days later, Ning Fan stood under the snow and watched Little Dugu leave with the Sword World cultivators riding on their swords.

The Old Devil left with ease, laughing loudly. However, he was carefully protecting his storage pouch, within the storage pouch stored the Fire Coffin which he deemed to be the most important.

Quite a number of Yue Country’s cultivator heard the news and came to spectate such a rare scene. Some of them recognized the Old Devil, while some of them recognized the cultivators of the Sword World. Whereas some of the old monsters recognized Little Dugu who had single-handedly defeated the cultivators from Yue Country with just a single blade in the past ten years.

Every one of them did not dare to speak and just silently thought, how did Han Yuanji established such a relationship with the big shots of the Sword World.

Those that were observant could faintly see that the cultivation base of the Old Devil was unusual. But with Ning Fan now in the spotlight of Yue Country and being the disciple of the Old Devil, only fools would dig on the details of the Old Devil…

Outside of the snowing Seven Apricot city, Ning Fan and four Harmonious Spirit cultivators watched the Old Devil leave. Each of them sighed when the Old Devil could no longer be seen.

The four clan leaders’ hearts felt empty with the Old Devil gone. Plus Ning Fan would also leave Yue Country soon… Seven Apricot city felt like an empty city without the rowdy Old Devil.

“Young lord, what should Seven Apricot City do from now on…” Mo Rushui saluted and asked respectfully.

“The four clan leaders had followed the Old Devil, and had worked hard half of their lifetime. Isn’t it now the chance to put down official matters and concentrate on cultivating. These medicinal pills, cultivation methods, cultivation records, treasure refining and pill concoction records, were what I’ve been preparing these past three days. It may have been somewhat rushed, but I believed that each one of you would find it helpful.”

Ning Fan passed a storage pouch that was filled to the brim to Mo Rushui, his gaze swept upon Seven Apricot city and left with a faint smile.

The four clan leaders opened the storage pouch after he had left, and each of them showed a shocked expression.

Spirit Raising Pill! Spirit Consolidating Pill! There were even many medicinal pills that could help in breaking through to the Gold Core realm!

The highest grade of pill that was within the pouch was a Fourth Revolution!

There were explanations from Harmonious Spirit towards Nascent Soul within the records, and each process was thoroughly explained. The four of them could make lesser mistakes in their cultivation with these records!

These four people’s talents were not weak, but they had put their effort into treasure refinement, formation setting, cloud refinement, and spirit augmentation. With the help of these cultivation records and medicinal pills, they could easily cultivate towards the realm of peak Harmonious Spirit within ten years!

These records could even assist them towards their gold core formation. If they were lucky… they could even have a chance to become a Nascent Soul!

This storage pouch was just a small gesture from Ning Fan, but to them, it was a big gift!

However, what the four clan leaders really care was how easily Ning Fan prepared such an expensive gift. What was his real cultivation realm? What level was his pill concoction technique?

“Unfathomable!” The four clan leaders sighed. The jade slip shattered into ash after their spirit sense swept through the jade slip.

There was a special formation set in the jade slip. After their spirit sense  had swept through it, it would automatically self-destruct.

Ning Fan seemed to be worried that these records would cause some Gold Core old monsters to spy upon it and bring forth unnecessary troubles to Seven Apricot city. Hence, he made it self-destruct after the four of them finished reading.

The four clan leaders sighed once again.

The young lord is really extremely intelligent… Such outstanding talent would certainly create a storm in the Endless Sea that was also dubbed as the ‘Grave of Cultivators’.

“Thank you, young lord! With us here! Seven Apricot city will surely be safe for a long time!”

Their voices were filled with magical force, and it resounded throughout the clouds.

Ning Fan who was already several hundred li away retracted his spirit sense and faintly smiled.

Such is well….

Seven Apricot city could finally be considered safe.