As Xie Lianying looked at Chen Tunyun who had collapsed slowly to the ground and died, he asked in a sympathetic tone, “The Chen Family was established in Guanzhong since the last generation. I really want to know why he is a member of the Chu?”

The grey-robed cultivator said coolly, “The son is the own son, but the mother is not the own mother.”

Xie Lianying was surprised. “Adoption?”

The grey-robed cultivator did not refuse to answer and coldly said, “A Chu orphan was adopted by a benevolent mother of Guanzhong, treated as one of her own, so he naturally is grateful.”

Xie Lianying said in scorn, “I think it must be your arrangement that a Chu orphan could enter the Chen Family.”

The grey-robed cultivator raised an eyebrow. To him, a matter like this did not need to be explained.

Xie Lianying sneered. “Any person knows to repay favors, much less their mother that raised them? It is normal for Chen Tunyun to be filial to his mother. Even if you had other intentions, you could have waited until he traded the hostages. If this time you failed, the next time, you could speak of honor. You could say that you feared we would scatter and flee after he had released the hostages. However, your conspiracy will see the light, as you cannot kill all of us. You killed Chen Tunyun out of haste to accomplish your goal. A person like you is a beast and doesn’t qualify to be a grandmaster.”

The grey-robed cultivator was not angry. Nonchalantly, he said in scorn, “Our failure came from underestimating the Xie Family’s abilities.”

“You are stronger than other people’s opinions of you …” The grey-robed cultivator raised his head slightly, glanced coldly at all the people around. Eventually, his gaze landed back on Xie Lianying. “But do not think to use lowly tactics to stir chaos among the people around me with your speech. You should understand that since I have displayed my strength, everyone around me knows; if anyone attacks me, they will immediately die.”

Xie Lianying did not speak and narrowed his eyes slightly. He was fat, but he was like a tiger that had just awoken.

“I will not kill these people. They will stay here. I think you will not leave them and flee.”

The grey-robed cultivator turned slightly to the side and nodded towards the dozen Xie family members surrounded in the distance. Then his body moved slightly as he floated off the carriage. He started to walk slowly towards the Xie Family caravan. At the same time, he looked at Xie Lianying and Xie Rou, saying calmly, “While I killed Chen Tunyun out of helplessness, right now, the situation is simple. Either the Xie Family has enough power to kill me, or I kill you all.”

At these words, Xie Rou felt an inexplicable wave of emotion and instinctively turned to glance at the three black carriages behind her.

Ding Ning suddenly grew nervous.

His gaze remained on Xie Lianying and Xie Rou. Just from this small action, he realized that while the Xie Family were prepared. In order to make the Chen Family less wary, they had not brought realm sevens.

The Xie Family probably had not expected such a powerful Chu Dynasty cultivator hiding among these horse bandits. In other words, the Xie Family might not be able to withstand this cultivator’s strength.

Forefather Zhou should be a match for this Chu Dynasty cultivator. He also wanted to use this matter to form a relationship with the Xie Family, but he seemed to only desire to try against the Chu Dynasty cultivator.

This showed that the Chu Dynasty cultivator likely had the ability to assassinate his enemy at an extremely long distance. If that were true, Forefather Zhou might not be in time even if he acted. Also, he was certain that Forefather Zhou would not be in a hurry to act and against such a cultivator, may not be able to come out completely unscathed.

Even if Forefather Zhou could defeat this Chu cultivator without any harm, based on his understanding of Forefather Zhou, the other would not act before the Xie Family used all his power. He would wait until the Xie Family was in dire straits and at a dangerous time before he acted. In this battle with the Chu Dynasty cultivator, he would go so far as to feign serious injuries even if he was not injured.

This way, naturally, the Xie Family would feel more indebted to him.

Ding Ning was almost certain that he would only act after Xie Lianying was killed.

Xie Lianying had showed a powerful ability to judge and respond that others could not imagine. Compared to Xie Lianying, a greenhorn like Xie Rou was easier to fool and control.

When Xie Rou turned to look at where Ding Ning was, the grey-robed cultivator from the Chu Dynasty also glanced at the three black carriages in the distance.

These three black carriages that had been following the Xie Family caravan all this time had long been in his sights.

When he saw Xie Rou look back but the three black carriages remain motionless, the wariness in his gaze faded slightly. A wave of vital energy silently poured into the ground through his feet.

In the world of cultivators, life and death were only just the difference of a moment.

Fu Su’s breathing grew faster. He could sense the carriages that he was on, and the ones around him were not moving. He couldn’t help but open his mouth, wanting to say something.

Ding Ning’s gaze flashed.

He decided what he needed to do.

Just as Fu Su opened his mouth, he shouted urgently at Fu Su. “Do not be rash!”

Fu Su stilled. He did not understand why Ding Ning would yell like this.

Even if he did not want a relationship with Xie Rou, was he not concerned about Xie Rou’s life?

But during this moment, he suddenly felt an erupting volcano appear next to him. His eardrums rang slightly. Before he could react, vital energy exploded out of Ding Ning’s body.

Ding Ning turned into a gust of wind that surged out of the carriage.

Zzt zzt.

Two sharp sounds of the wind tearing.

Two black sword lights flew out of the fingers of his hands and cut through the tack on one of the carriage’s horses. Without any hesitation, his foot tapped on this horse’s back. The horse whinnied in pain, and in a frenzy, along with him sprinted forward.

This series of movements was absolutely a smooth flow. By the time Fu Su realized that Ding Ning had only shouted for him not to move, the horse had already crossed dozens of meters with Ding Ning.

When the carriage suddenly lost one of its two horses, the black carriage could not avoid tilting. The Zhou Family driver at the front was naturally an extraordinary cultivator. His body remained steady as a nail at the helm of the carriage. Yet even he had not been able to stop Ding Ning in time and couldn’t help but shout.

What does he want to do?

Fu Su looked at Ding Ning who was standing on the back of the horse rushing towards the Xie Family carriage. He could not grasp Ding Ning’s intentions.

In his view, with his level of strength, Ding Ning was charging to his death.

In the carriage at the centre, Forefather Zhou’s expression suddenly grew dark.

His hands rose slightly. Two terrifying presences seemed about to come out of his arms. But then his gaze flashed. He seemed to think of something, smiled coldly and then, without a word, his hands landed back on his knees.

He did not speak, and the three black carriages naturally did not move.

Xie Rou looked with shock at Ding Ning who was charging up the path. She could not understand what use was there in Ding Ning charging up by himself. As she saw Ding Ning’s calm but burning gaze, the hoofbeats seemed to hammer at her body.

The grey-robed cultivator paused slightly.

He was already attacking, yet was unable to understand the two strange black sword lights that Ding Ning had shot. So he stopped.

Ding Ning was not an ordinary cultivator. He was certain where the hesitation of the grey-robed cultivator came from.

So, he immediately raised his hand, with a hiss, another black sword light charged towards the sky in front of him.

Before him were the Xie Family caravan and the grey-robed cultivator.

The black sword light tore the air from such a long ways off. Countless possibilities flashed through the grey-robed cultivator’s mind. The names of numerous powerful cultivation methods and sword manuals appeared in his mind.

He couldn’t help but look up and narrowed his eyes at this black sword light that seemed to melt under the sunlight. He feared this black sword light having some astounding change.

Yet as the black sword light came closer; in his perception, the power of this sword grew weaker. It started to fly slower, and then he sensed the great coldness.

“Star fiend condensing method.”

He could not help but murmur to himself, his brows furrowed.

He was sure of what method this was and also certain that Ding Ning’s cultivation was very weak in comparison to him. But he was still slightly anxious … this youth who was approaching on horseback seemed to be able to read his mind and control the rhythm of this battle.

Of course he did not hope that anyone would control the rhythm of the battle.

He took a deep breath and did not hesitate; two surges of vital energy swelled under his feet. Two light blue jade pieces appeared under his shoes.

These light blue jade pieces were completely transparent and thinner than a hair. They seemed to have been cut and sanded with an unknown method where they were so thin, but also had so many dense seal scripts on the surface.

As his vital energy was injected in, with a pop, two rays of blue light surged under his feet.

His body disappeared into these two pillars of blue light.

He truly disappeared.

In this moment, he had vanished from everybody’s sight.

Translator Ramblings: Poor Chen Tunyun … being a spy is not fun.