Nine Nether Dragon Emperor-Chapter 16: If one layer doesn’t kill you, then add another layer!
Wuling City Square.
The sun hung high in the sky, fast approaching noon.
Chen Tai grew anxious. "Brother Wang Lin, why haven’t the Wang family’s men returned yet?"
With the Great Elders of the three major families guaranteeing his safety, he had initially been fearless. But as time passed and Ning Xuan still hadn’t been captured, Chen Tai started to panic.
Wang Lin, however, remained confident of victory. "Don’t worry, they’ll be here soon."
Zhao Qian and Zhou Cheng suddenly realized what was happening.
Zhou Cheng said angrily, "You’ve got some nerve, Wang Lin. Are you planning to keep all the spoils for yourself?"
On the high platform, Chen Tai also instantly understood. The Wang family’s capture of Ning Xuan was merely a pretense; their true target was the Chen family’s assets, which had been moved to the Ning family’s estate!
Instead of anger, however, he felt a wave of relief. Wealth can be earned again, but if I lose my life...
Below, Zhao Qian remained silent, but his glare toward Wang Lin was quite hostile.
Wang Lin smiled. "Our three families have always been like branches of the same tree; there is no ’mine’ or ’yours.’ Rest assured, everyone will get a share."
"That’s more like it!" The expressions on Zhou Cheng and Zhao Qian’s faces softened.
Suddenly, a commotion started in the crowd.
"Look! There’s a fire over there!" 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
"That direction... Isn’t that where the Wang family estate is?"
Everyone looked over. A fierce fire blazed, sending smoke billowing into the sky.
Wang Lin’s face drained of color.
At the edge of the square, a roar erupted from within a building. "Ning Xuan, you little brat, you deserve a thousand deaths!"
Someone shot into the air like a great bird, moving toward the Wang family’s estate and disappearing from sight in just a few leaps.
That was Wang Mingfeng, the patriarch of the Wang family!
"Ning Xuan! It must have been Ning Xuan!" Chen Tai cried out from his kneeling position on the high platform.
The faces of Zhao Qian and Zhou Cheng turned ashen, and they prepared to leave. Neither of them had imagined that Ning Xuan would not only be capable of breaking through the Wang family martial artists’ encirclement but would also set their entire estate on fire!
In the shadows, the patriarchs of the Zhou and Zhao families took action at the same time, each rushing back to their own clan’s estate. They had no desire to follow in the Wang family’s footsteps.
As they departed, a murderous order echoed through Wuling City: "Kill them!"
"I’ll trouble you two with things here," Wang Lin said to Zhao Qian and Zhou Cheng. "I’m going to capture that little beast, Ning Xuan!"
Wang Lin then sped toward his home with more than a dozen men, all of them radiating killing intent. They quickly vanished from sight.
"What a crafty feint! Six years have passed, and Ning Xuan has certainly grown. It’s a shame he ever returned to Wuling!"
"He truly is Ning Baizhan’s grandson! But he’s finished now. The fury of the three major families is more than he can possibly withstand!"
"Indeed! Back in the day, Ning Baizhan was hailed as Wuling’s strongest expert, and look what happened to him."
The spectators spoke freely. All the experts from the other two families had mounted the high platform, intent on exterminating the Eighteen Death Warriors. Above them on the platform, the Death Warriors’ formation was already complete.
Chen Tai was surrounded in the center. His efforts were all for naught unless he could break through the Eighteen Death Warriors’ blockade.
「A short while later.」
Zhao Qian and Zhou Cheng realized they had underestimated the formation formed by the Eighteen Death Warriors. As they watched their subordinates get beheaded one after another, they lost all face.
"Useless trash! All of you, fall back!" the two men shouted almost in unison.
Instantly, it was two against eighteen on the high platform.
The Eighteen Death Warriors gripped their sabers, their expressions grim to the extreme. Both of their opponents were Profound Realm experts; facing even one of them alone would have been a monumental test.
"Considering that your cultivation has not come easily, I can make the decision to spare your lives if you lay down your arms now," Zhao Qian offered, tempted by the combined combat power of the eighteen men.
"Pah! Six years ago, we listened to our old master and retreated! Today, we are willing to be pawns, and even in death, we will not retreat a single step!"
"Kill!"
Amidst the thunderous battle cries, they seized the initiative and attacked.
"Stubborn fools!"
With a cold snort from Zhao Qian, the two experts pressed forward.
It took only one exchange. All Eighteen Death Warriors spat blood. Although they had mastered the complete formation, withstanding a combined assault from two Profound Realm experts while keeping the formation from collapsing was the absolute limit of their ability.
"Pathetic curs!" Zhao Qian scoffed with disdain.
"You two, the appointed hour is almost here! Please, just kill them first!" Chen Tai pleaded from the center, a terrible premonition creeping into his heart.
Ning Xuan hadn’t appeared, these eighteen men were far too composed, and the fire at the Wang family estate was burning ever brighter. All these signs made his hair stand on end.
"There’s no rush. Let’s wait for Ning Xuan. We want him to witness with his own eyes the consequences of angering us!" Zhou Cheng said with a cruel, mocking smile.
If he had known what was happening to Wang Lin, he would never have said such a thing.
「Meanwhile...」
Wang Lin was leading more than ten men toward the Wang family estate when, just two alleys away, he ran headlong into Ning Xuan.
"You little beast! What have you done?!" Wang Lin roared, though his anger abated slightly when he saw that Ning Xuan’s white robes were unstained by blood.
Ning Xuan offered a faint smile. "Not much. I just killed over a hundred of your Wang family’s martial artists and then started a fire."
"What did you say?!" Wang Lin’s breath hitched, his eyes looking as if they would split with rage.
Ning Xuan merely smiled and said nothing more.
"Kill him!"
At Wang Lin’s command, the dozen or so martial artists moved as one.
However, Ning Xuan was even faster.
By the time Wang Lin processed what had happened, he was the only one left standing. His eyes fixed on the sword in Ning Xuan’s hand, and he instinctively took a step back, his voice trembling. "What kind of swordsmanship is that?"
The men he had brought were all in the Spiritual Realm! He hadn’t even sensed a significant fluctuation of Element Force from Ning Xuan, yet all of them were dead. More terrifying still, he saw that each corpse bore only a single, fine line of blood across the throat.
Ning Xuan answered frankly, "Without form, there is Impermanence. With Impermanence, there is invincibility. This is the Impermanence Swordsmanship."
"Impossible!" Wang Lin refused to believe it.
The Sword God Xie Daoyi had meditated on it for fifty years to no avail. Ning Xuan was so young; how could he possibly have grasped the secrets of the Impermanence Swordsmanship?
"Believe it or not, a swordsmanship that kills is a good swordsmanship. Wouldn’t you agree, Elder Wang Lin?" Ning Xuan’s smile was radiant.
"You want to kill me?" After a moment of shock, Wang Lin laughed out of sheer rage. "Little beast, I am at the First-Layer Heavens of the Profound Realm. Even if you’re a genius, you’re at best at the First-Layer Heavens of the Spiritual Realm. I’d like to see you try to kill me! I am not Chen Tai!"
Ning Xuan stroked the blade of his sword. "Sometimes, a Cultivation Realm does not represent true strength."
As his voice fell, a cold light flashed.
Wang Lin had not let his guard down; he remained completely vigilant. He retreated explosively for several dozen feet. Staring at the drifting strands of his own hair that had been severed, he let out a sharp breath. "What a swift sword. A pity you can’t kill me!"
Despite his words, Wang Lin was soaked in cold sweat. If he hadn’t sent his men to attack first and witnessed Ning Xuan’s swordsmanship for himself, that single strike might have turned him into a corpse.
His attack having missed, Ning Xuan was not discouraged. His opponent was a genuine and cautious Profound Realm expert. If he could be killed that easily, his decades of cultivation would have been for naught.
"It seems I’m still not fast enough," Ning Xuan murmured. "If the first layer of the Spiritual Realm can’t kill you, then I’ll just have to ascend another layer!"
Wang Lin scoffed. "Haha! What do you think cultivation is? Cabbages sold on the street? Something you can just increase at will?"
Ning Xuan didn’t answer, a piece of Elemental Spirit Jade Marrow appearing in his hand. As he circulated the Chaos Ancestral Dragon Scripture, a torrent of pure energy surged into his body.
This is bad! Wang Lin thought. With a thunderous shout, he vanished from his spot.
A golden light flashed in Ning Xuan’s eyes as he flicked his wrist.
The cold light flared again!
Sword Qi shot toward the heavens!
Amidst the raging Element Force, Ning Xuan shattered his bottleneck, and his Cultivation Realm rose once more.
Wang Lin appeared before Ning Xuan, his body frozen in a forward lunge, unable to advance another inch.
