Chapter 9: Begging for your life
There were countless schools of cultivation under the heavens, and the innate constitution of each cultivator was different, so in the past few hundred years, I don't know how many patriarchal figures had been produced who had started their own sects, how many gongfu methods had been created, and how many powerful means of borrowing heaven and earth's yuan qi had been pioneered.
The Minshan Sword Sect and Lingxu Sword Sect of the Great Qin Dynasty had studied the means of sword control to the extreme, while the many sects of the Chu Dynasty, Great Yan Dynasty, and Daqi Dynasty that were eyeing on them were in the artifact refining, talisman, and the way of Yin Qi, which made it impossible for practitioners of other dynasties to reach them at all.
Even the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao, and Wei that have already perished, in addition to hundreds of cultivation sects, the Nanyang Dan Sect of the Han Dynasty, the Sword Furnace of the Zhao Dynasty, and the Yunshui Palace of the Wei Dynasty, in terms of cultivation techniques and means of cultivation, they are the few sects in the world that can only be reached.
However, among all the cultivation techniques, the Nine Death Silkworm Divine Skill was undoubtedly the most powerful and mysterious one.
No one knew the origin of this technique, but it was only vaguely speculated that it was the technique practiced by the invincible Emperor of Yu who established the Great Yu Dynasty hundreds of years ago.
It was even speculated that the reason why Emperor You, who was the strongest cultivator of that year, had collapsed and returned to the heavens at the age of fifty or so was because of an accident in practicing this technique.
The reason for this speculation is that after Emperor You, there have been the most amazing characters in all generations who have obtained this technique, but all of them, including the one who is almost a taboo in the mouths of all the people in the Qin Dynasty, did not dare to cultivate this technique.
No one practiced it, so no one in the world knew what was so powerful and marvelous about it.
It was only from the records of some bamboo slips left behind by the Yu Dynasty that the practitioners of later generations knew that the cultivation process of this technique required the killing of a lot of people...and when it touched the true essence of the rest of the practitioners, it would emit a sound like ten thousand silkworms gnawing at it.
Yet the practitioners at that time were certain that this technique could not directly devour other people's true essence to enhance some of their own cultivation like the several types of demonic techniques of the Da Qi Dynasty.
Then what was the purpose of touching the other person's true essence and making this sound of ten thousand silkworms gnawing at it, and what exactly did it mean?
Just this kind of unresolvable speculation alone made it all the more mysterious and frightening.
However, what made Song Shenshu at this moment ten thousand times more fearful was not because of the technique itself, but because this technique ultimately perished in that person's hands.
That person had once had many disciples.
And Song Shenshu, many years ago, was just one of the humblest car drivers who helped that person's disciples drive their cars.
Now, the Nine Deadly Silkworm Divine Power that should have completely disappeared with that person's death had appeared in front of him in an incomparably real way, carrying with it countless images that had been sealed in his heart and that he had deliberately not thought about, and all of a sudden pressed down on his body like a mountain.
His body became even more unable to move, and his body convulsed violently.
He began to realize that the things that had been circulating in the Changling some days ago were actually true.
......
Ding Ning looked at Song Shenshu, his movements not pausing in the slightest, his fingertips as if he was smoothing out the folds on Song Shenshu's shirt, carefully sweeping over every crimson true essence on the surface of Song Shenshu's body.
Accompanied by countless tiny sounds like spring silkworms eating mulberry, a strip of crimson true essence disappeared under his fingertips.
"How exactly does it taste to sell a friend for glory?" While doing so, he earnestly, as if he really wanted an answer, softly asked Song Shenshu.
Hearing this sentence, Song Shenshu was finally convinced of his deduction, his fear finally returning to his own situation, "Don't kill me!" He was sweating like a pig, vibrating his already stiff throat muscles and letting out a hoarse, unpleasant sound.
"A debt must be paid."
Ding Ning looked at him with the gaze of looking at a wretch, "Tell me, besides this life, what else do you have that you can use to pay off your debt?"
Song Shenshu's eyes were almost glued shut with his own sweat, and he opened them hard, saying urgently, "If... if I tell you some secrets that are more important than my life, can you let me live?"
Ding Ning's brows furrowed slightly as he pondered for a few breaths of time before saying, "Yes."
A flame of hope oiled up in Song Shenshu's eyes, only to hesitate for a moment.
Ding Ning sneered, "You should know the name of his sword."
Song Shenshu's eyes lit up.
"Back then, when Li Guanlan was killed, the person who betrayed him was Mu Zi, and now he has changed his name to Liang Lian."
He controlled his increasingly stiff throat, rubbing it to make an unpleasant sound as he uttered what he considered to be the most important first secret.
Ding Ning's eyes dimmed imperceptibly.
Those familiar names were many, many debts to him.
"Liang Lian?"
"Great General of the Tiger and Wolf Northern Army? The one who has completed his military service and is the next most hopeful to be crowned?"
His brows furrowed deeply as he mumbled to himself.
"That's him." Song Shenshu's desire to survive grew stronger, and although it was more difficult to vocalize, his voice was a bit louder instead.
"Only these? You should understand that as long as you say these are true, I will be able to find out in the future without you saying anything." Ding Ning raised his head and looked at him indifferently.
Song Shenshu swallowed hard, his heart beating violently.
He knew that this secret that he was going to export next would definitely satisfy the other party, however, he was also very clear that if he let it be known that this secret had been uttered from his mouth, then his future outcome would definitely be even more miserable than it was now.
"Lin Boiled Wine isn't dead yet." With a begging gaze, he looked at Ding Ning and hissed.
Ding Ning's body shook as his face lost its calm for the first time, and he said in a shocked voice, "What did you say!"
"He's locked up in that cell in the deepest part of the water prison."
Song Shenshu felt like his heart was going to jump out of his throat, "Yan Xiang wanted to obtain some cultivation secrets from him, so he never killed him... Everyone in the outside world thought that he was dead, and even Li Xiang and the Head of the Night Sectors and the others didn't even know about this secret."
Ding Ning's face regained its calmness as he remained silent for a moment before asking seriously, "Then how do you know this secret?"
Song Shenshu didn't dare to look him in the eye, "Because he couldn't dig anything useful out of his mouth, Yan Xiang thought of some methods... He once had someone stage a fake prison robbery, and among the people who robbed the prison, some of them were the people Lin Boju used to know."
"You are also one of the people within the people Lin Boiled Wine knew, it's just that he didn't know that you were all already Yan Xiang's people." Ding Ning's countenance was monotonously calm, "What happened afterward?"
Song Shenshu said with difficulty, "I don't know which part of the story went wrong, but Lin Zhujiu simply did not fall for it."
"His mind itself is even more prudent than Yan Xiang's, how could those small tricks possibly fool him?" Ding Ning hung her head slightly and said softly, "He must be having a very uncomfortable time right now."
Song Shenshu didn't know how to answer this, and he didn't make a sound.
Ding Ning did not look at him, but softly said again, "No more?"
Song Shenshu's heart once again beat violently.
He could hear that the other party wasn't satisfied yet.
"I..." so he trembled and spoke the last extremely important secret he knew, "The legendary Lonely Mountain Sword Collection should exist, and most of the clues to it are probably in the hands of Cloudwater Palace's Bai Shanshui."
"Lonely Mountain Sword Collection?"
Ding Ning's breathing gave a slight lurch, this was yet another piece of news that he had not expected at all.
Legend had it that the Lonely Mountain Sword Sect was a very mysterious and powerful sect that did not know when it originated or when it died out, but there had always been a rumor that the sect had left behind a secret stash that contained many supreme treasures.
Apart from some lost cultivation techniques, what made all cultivators even more excited were some extinct spirit medicines and weapon refining materials.
As more and more things related to the Lonely Mountain Sword Sect were discovered, the cultivators of the world were now certain that the Lonely Mountain Sword Sect and the secret stash did indeed exist, but there were no exact clues as to where exactly this "Lonely Mountain Sword Stash" was.
"How do you know?" Ding Ning's gaze flickered for a moment as he raised his head to look at Song Shenshu and asked again.
"The Divine Capital Supervisor once had someone bring several pieces of jade residue to the Scripture and History Depot for identification, and the writing on that residue was very peculiar, and after we thoroughly investigated the classics, we discovered that it was the unique writing of the Solitary Mountain Sword Sect."
Song Shenshu breathed in sharply and said, "And I secretly checked that the people from the Divine Capital Supervisor had fought with the remnants of the Cloud Water Palace. They are certain that there are more of these jade slip fragments in the hands of the remaining members of the Cloudwater Palace."
Ding Ning did not speak for a moment.
Even if the cultivators of the Cloudwater Palace were now as deeply hidden as the cultivators of the Zhao Sword Furnace, as long as one was willing to spend the time, it was always possible to look for some clues.
"Is there any more?"
After ten or so breaths, he looked at Song Shenshu and asked again.
Song Shenshu looked at him helplessly, his brain gradually going blank.
He really couldn't think of any secrets of sufficient weight anymore.
"Very well."
Ding Ning looked at his face and seemed satisfied as he nodded, bending his body down and coming to his ear, "In that case, you can go to hell."
Song Shenshu's eyes widened incredulously to the extreme.
A forceful qi easily pierced into his heart vein at that moment, severing several blood veins that were most important to a person's life.
"You..."
How could he not believe that his life was about to end, and a stiff hand, not knowing where the strength came from, grabbed the corner of Ding Ning's coat.
"It's strange why I would kill you without keeping my word, isn't it?"
Ding Ning looked at his gradually dilating pupils and softly said, "He was the most monogamous character in the world, so you'd think that the disciples he took under his tutelage would definitely keep their word as well."
"It's just a pity that he's all dead, and that set of rules under his disciples, can they still be used now?"
Ding Ning calmly broke Song Shenshu's fingers and continued.
Song Shenshu heard this sentence clearly, and he felt the anger of being deceived, but in the next instant, all he could hear was an odd sound coming from his throat.
That was his last breath.
He died of breath with endless remorse.
