Chapter 296: Sly Degenerate

A continuous autumn rain fell on Hangzhou that morning, the day of the poetry gathering.

As Ning Yi walked under the continuously dripping eaves, he heard swishing and booming sounds from beyond the wall. He knew these were the sounds of the woman, Liu Dabiao, practicing her blade. This was the one activity she pursued every day, come rain or shine.

After greeting the guards and passing through the side gate, Ning Yi saw the blade practice in progress. In the heavy rain, the vast training ground was occupied by only one young woman. Still wearing her bamboo hat, she wielded the massive blade, running across the field, her movements shifting like a fierce yet graceful dance. The falling rain had soaked her clothes, and almost every swing and spin created an explosive curtain of water in the air.

Having practiced internal martial arts since childhood, she wouldn't fall ill from the rain. Yet, every time Ning Yi watched the young woman wield the massive blade, a strange feeling arose within him. As the giant blade swept, its force was overwhelming and fierce. Wooden stakes and small trees at the edge of the training ground snapped instantly on contact, and sometimes, the blade would powerfully scoop up shattered stones from the ground. Yet, for most of the time, it looked as if the huge blade was carrying the young woman forward. Sometimes her body would be sent flying, and other times she appeared to stumble, her steps unsteady, as if on the verge of falling or being lifted off the ground by the great blade. It made one wonder how she managed to swing such a massive blade, and whether she truly controlled its force or was simply being spun around by its momentum.

However, though from start to finish it appeared as if a young shepherdess was desperately holding onto a runaway, maddened cow while weeping, she never truly let the blade's force slip out of control. As for the blade's true power, perhaps only the many souls who perished under its might could offer a fair judgment. And during the battle in Taiping Lane, he had witnessed it firsthand: when the young woman, with the great blade, spun and launched herself like a cannonball, the momentum and power were indeed overwhelming. Few, if any, could withstand a full-force strike from that blade driven by such immense inertia.

Observing this scene from the edge of the training ground, besides Liu Dabiao's plain-looking maid, was only Liu Tiannan, the estate's steward. Ning Yi exchanged a few words with him about the day's affairs. Liu Tiannan smiled and asked, "What do you think of the Master's blade technique, Young Master Ning?"

"Too much exertion, too many feints. Look at Dabiao's unsteady, stumbling steps. I think... uh, what is she doing?"

From a distance, the blade-wielding young woman seemed to glance in their direction. Then, the blade's momentum suddenly pulled back, and dragging the massive weapon, she charged forward with great speed.

Through the curtain of rain, the ground exploded with splashes, creating bursts of water, as if each step stamped out a lotus flower in the heavy rain. It was bewildering how her small frame could unleash such immense power. The distance between them rapidly closed. The young woman and the massive blade seemed to merge into one. The blade, her body, the blade, her body rotated and enlarged rapidly before Ning Yi's eyes, alternating four or five times in quick succession. Then, her entire form abruptly unfurled right before Ning Yi.

What appeared before Ning Yi was the young woman, holding the blade with both hands, her entire body stretched to its utmost extent. The massive blade pointed straight up at the sky, from bottom to top. Amidst a tremendous roar, stone fragments flew, indicating that the stone railing at the edge of the training ground had been severed. This was followed by a tremor and crash from the eaves.

Ning Yi barely had time to react, feeling only the wind stinging his cheeks. He instinctively leaped to his right. Liu Tiannan almost simultaneously darted to his left, his wide sleeves swishing out to sweep the falling tiles and stones from the eaves towards the wall behind them with a clatter.

When Ning Yi rolled and stood up again, a large hole had been torn in the eaves of the walkway by the training ground. The massive blade was impaled in the ground not far from his side with a swish. Ning Yi turned his head to see the young woman's figure perched on the blade's hilt. In that instant, her figure was tall and gracefully striking, almost dazzling. Her sleeves and skirt, moments ago in motion, now hung still, and the falling raindrops seemed to part around her. Of course, the next moment, the heavy rain still poured down. The young woman, perched on the blade, looked at him, her chest rising and falling, her breathing becoming rapid, clearly exhausted by that last move.

"Dabiao," Ning Yi said, spreading his hands, "I meant, this move will definitely make others underestimate you." The young woman behind the bamboo hat's veil probably pursed her lips and rolled her eyes before lightly leaping down from the blade's hilt. Ning Yi smiled, putting the back of his hand to his mouth, and whispered to Liu Tiannan, "How could she hear that from so far away?" Liu Tiannan, not one to joke in front of the Master, clasped his hands behind his back and looked up with a smile to inspect the severed eaves.

The young woman extended one hand and pressed down on the hilt, tilting the massive blade. Then, she used both hands to forcefully pull the "Overlord Blade" out of the mud where it was embedded. Her practice was essentially complete.

"The Overlord Blade wasn't originally like this," Liu Dabiao began as they walked. "While previous generations of the Overlord Blade were domineering, they still had proper forms. Ah Sha and Ah Chang, for example, practice that way. But I couldn't master that kind of blade technique; I couldn't even lift the blade if I tried. I can only swing it and let its momentum guide me; that's less strenuous. Of course, at first, I couldn't defeat many people because I'd fall after just a few turns. If you're interested, I can teach you the authentic Overlord Blade; it uses controlled force and has few feints, though it's not good for deceiving people."

The young woman, still intentionally lowering her clear voice as she put the massive blade into its wooden case, said with a smile, "Anyway, your 'Six Paths Breaker' martial arts also follow an overpowering and fierce path, which perfectly matches the Overlord Blade."

"'Six Paths Breaker'?"

"Your internal martial arts skill. You didn't train in martial arts when you were young, missing the best opportunity. This 'Six Paths Breaker' is considered the most supreme technique suitable for you to practice, meaning it breaks the limitations of the Three Realms and Six Paths... I only heard about it when I was little, so I can't be sure. Isn't that right?"

"No, I heard it's a second-rate technique..."

Ning Yi frowned, and the young woman watched him from her spot. A moment later, she turned her head and muttered, "A scholar, going off to practice some haphazard martial arts..." She likely felt that Ning Yi wasn't very focused on anything, and his martial arts practice was probably just a hobby, so taking him seriously would be foolish of her.

As she was a woman, and the heavy rain had soaked her clothes, she walked towards a nearby door. Ning Yi and Liu Tiannan took another door. Before long, Ning Yi waited for the young woman in the study where he handled affairs. There wasn't much to do today, so they chatted for a while. The young woman asked, "I heard you're attending a poetry gathering at Four Seasons Pavilion tonight?"

"Yes, I heard the place is nice, so I'm going to join the fun," Ning Yi replied with a smile. "Interested?" He knew that the young woman sometimes dabbled in refined pursuits, enjoying books and then speaking in a rather amusingly refined manner. However, she had never attended gatherings of this type before, and since she didn't usually participate, there was no harm in inviting her.

Sure enough, after he spoke, the young woman behind the curtain shook her head with a troubled expression. "No, I can't. I have something to do tonight... Besides... I don't know how to write poetry, mmm, I don't know how to write poetry..."

"Why don't you copy one? Let another scholar write a poem, and Dabiao can copy it... just say you wrote it yourself."

The young woman thought for a moment: "Is that... permissible?"

Ning Yi replied, "It is."

If other scholars heard this conversation, they might burst into laughter. But between these two, such an exchange felt perfectly normal. Liu Xigua nodded and said, "All right, then write one for me."

"Huh?"

"You can use it to make an appearance next time. You are Jiangning's foremost scholar, aren't you?"

"Mine's a fake..."

"I know your martial arts are what you're best at, Brother Slaughterer. We're friends, and friends should help each other out. Consider this my thanks in advance..."

"...All right."

Even though Fang La's court was largely composed of martial artists, there was still a significant number of literati, and it must be said that in this era, scholars still held a considerable sense of superiority. While Liu Dabiao generally maintained a rather unrefined image in public, she occasionally wished to appear elegant. After all, she didn't genuinely disdain poetry and literature. The two discussed for a while in the room, and Ning Yi wrote several poems of different styles for her to copy. She didn't like the subtle style of Li Qingzhao, finding it somewhat incomprehensible. The poem "The rolling Yangtze River flows east, washing away all heroes" felt too bleak and profound. Although Liu Xigua liked it, she felt it didn't quite suit her.

After writing several, there was one she particularly liked: "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer." This one was easy to understand and seemed very imposing. However, one line, "Emperors' grand designs settled with a laugh," Ning Yi changed to "great ambitions settled with a laugh," reminding her that it might still be a bit presumptuous. The young woman, however, didn't seem to mind. Then, he casually picked another one she somewhat liked, "The Knight-Errant's Song" – though she only truly liked one line: "To kill a man in ten paces, and let no one pass for a thousand li." The rest, mainly because the poem was too long and contained too many allusions, she found confusing. The first time she read it, she even mispronounced a character and asked Ning Yi, "This poem of yours doesn't seem to rhyme very well, does it?"

After picking two poems in this manner, Ning Yi also gave her a pair of incomplete lines, very fitting for people of the martial world: "A cup of wine in the spring breeze with plum and peach blossoms, ten years of lamps in the jianghu's night rain." These lines actually came from an original poem, but Ning Yi couldn't recall it. He felt they sounded like a couplet... too bad he couldn't remember the horizontal inscription. He told Liu Dabiao that after reciting the two poems, she could mention having a couplet and challenge everyone to come up with a suitable horizontal inscription. The young woman thought this was an excellent idea.

Neither of them felt any psychological pressure regarding what they were doing. However, the young woman, Liu Xigua, couldn't help but glance at Ning Yi several times more. She knew, after all, that these were indeed good poems.

"Tonight... might not be peaceful," she said after thinking for a moment. "If you go out, try to come back early, or you could ask Ah Chang to go with you..."

"Tonight..."

"It's hard to say," she replied, shaking her head as she picked up the poems. "We'll know when the time comes. I don't know what will happen yet. But... perhaps these poems will come in handy, hehe..."

Although she was smiling, it was clear the young woman across from him wasn't truly anticipating anything. Something significant might happen, but Ning Yi hadn't received much information. After they discussed these things, everything returned to normal. After lunch, Liu Dabiao's carriage left from Willow Lane. What was to happen wasn't something Ning Yi thought he was heavily involved in. An hour or two later, before dusk, the Lou family's carriage arrived from the street corner. Ning Yi took his blade and musket, tidied himself up slightly, and then left for the poetry gathering.