The Sword Dynasty Volume 1 Chapter 4: Just Because You Are So Beautiful

Proofreader: Zhu Yuan

For a city that did not have much rain in the past, the unprepared city this time was full of torrential rain, leaving toppled plantains, leaned fences, leaked roofs, and wetted undelivered goods, which were always irritating.

The Phoenix Tree Lane was a neighborhood of many low-status residents, who planted a lot of phoenix trees as you could tell by the name.

In Changling, low-status residents were collectively referred to vendors, medicine pract.i.tioners, tenants without their own homes, domestic servants and helpers and even jobless idle people. Compared with ordinary streets and lanes, the environment of such a settlement was nothing decent.

In addition to the fallen leaves whirled by the wind and rain, some foam mixed with vegetable leaves and chicken feces was floating in the puddles on the uneven bluestone road.

With his feet soaked by the water, Ding Ning covered with mud seemed to be in a hurry, but the yellow oil-cloth umbrella in his hand was much better and much heavier than the ordinary umbrellas on the market. This was a heavy burden on him. He had to alternate his hand to carry the umbrella with the other hand to carry oil bottle from time to time, in order to prevent the umbrella from being blown aside by the wind and rain. Therefore, he couldn’t walk quickly.

The shops on the street were all hidden in the dark rainstorm and shadows of phoenix trees, and the only thing he could vaguely see was a blue wine flag sign fluttering.

Below the blue wine flag there was a small wine shop, which had no difference from other ordinary home-made wine shops. In the hall of the shop, there were some rough square tables. Besides wine cans, there were coa.r.s.e porcelain jars containing peanuts and pickles, and there were wine dishes on the counter. The inside place of the shop was used for wine making and there were living rooms.

Walking under the eaves of the wine shop, Ding Ning finally breathed with a sigh of relief. He took down the heavy umbrella, stretched his sore arms, sc.r.a.ped the mud on his shoes casually on the threshold and went in.

The wine shop was empty and there were no guests.

Business of the shop was not always like this quiet. The round and shiny corners of the table and chairs could show how many times these tables and chairs were rubbed by numerous guests.

Rich and elegant guests might not be in the mood to go out in this weather, while those who were not so rich and elegant might be busy coping with their leaking roofs in the sudden rainstorm.

“Can't you rub off the mud of your shoes on the stone steps outside? Do you have to rub it on the threshold?” An obviously unhappy voice of a woman came from the inner court, like a flurry of cold autumn wind, rolling over empty tables and chairs.

Ding Ning smiled carelessly, “You don't want to run business anyway. Even the basic steps of brewing, you will omit some of them. Why are you worried about some mud on the threshold?”

The woman was silent for a few seconds, and then she came with soft steps. The curtain that was separating the wine shop front from the inner courtyard was lifted.

“I would never have listened to your idea if I had known there would be so many people coming to our wine shop — even in such a place.” The cold voice of the woman showed her strong anger: “What's more, whether there is mud on the threshold is a matter of personal feeling and has nothing to do with business.”

Ding Ning thought for a moment and said earnestly, “I apologize for my opinion about the mud — it is indeed a matter of personal feeling, but the business being too good has nothing to do with my idea. People are attracted to our shop just because you are so beautiful. Besides, it's safer to open a wine shop than stay in a brothel to pry into information. Speaking of which, have you heard of a decent woman wants to join a brothel initiatively? The only explanation is that she is a born s.l.u.t, but how could a born s.l.u.t insist not trading her body but only perform? The whole thing will be too suspicious… Do you really think people from Jiantian Department and Imperial Secret Service are so foolish that they can’t sense the doubtful point?”

The woman didn't say other things, because she knew everything that Ding Ning said was true, including that sentence that she was so beautiful.

The beauty of the majority of women came from makeup and charm. Most of them had special beautiful parts or unique temperament. Some women's facial features were not good-looking when they were viewed separately, but when they were put together, they could give people a particularly feeling of beauty.

However, the woman standing quietly in the wine shop was beautiful everywhere, both her appearance and her aura.

Her facial features, posture and deportment, whether they were viewed at a certain part alone or at all the parts as a whole, were both extremely beautiful.

Her age was not too young, but she was just of the transition period between juvenility and maturity, which gave her both charms. Although there was anger in her eyes at the moment and her facial expression was too cold, and she was just wearing the most common plain linen clothes, she would still give people the impression of beauty.

The ordinary linen clothes looked like the most beautiful and valuable clothes on her.

Anyone who saw this woman would believe that the kind of beauty that overshadowed all other women’s appearances really existed.

She just stood there in silence, dressed in the most ordinary clothes, but every part of her body seemed to be glowing, and could tantalize any man.

Her face was unusual, and her conversation with Ding Ning was also very unusual.

According to Imperial Secret Service’s file, her name was Zhangsun Lightsnow, and her ident.i.ty was recorded as Ding Ning's aunt — younger sister of Ding Ning’s mother. However, the tense atmosphere was nothing like that between an aunt and a nephew.

The wine shop was quiet and cold for a while.

Ding Ning's face gradually became stern, and he began to recall the five officials of Jiantian Department who killed Zhao Zhan. When he thought of the moment of the destroyed courtyard, his clear eyes revealed a lot of complex feelings.

“Zhao Zhan was killed, and Ye Celeng came back.” He said softly.

After a long period of silence, Zhangsun Lightsnow frowned slightly and asked coldly, “Ye Celeng killed him alone?”

Ding Ning knew what was in Zhangsun Lightsnow's mind and said earnestly: “She was alone, but the five officials besieged Zhao Zhan, which made his power leak out. What’s more, she was injured.”

“Injured?” Zhangsun's slightly frowned.

“I can't see how severe the injury was, but she was definitely injured.” Ding Ning looked into her eyes and said: “Ye Celeng is from Tianyi Sword Pavilion and majors in Water Sword. In such stormy weather, she is much stronger than usual. Although she killed Zhao Zhan alone, considering she was injured, it only shows that her power is almost the same as Zhao Zhan's.”

Zhangsun Lightsnow thought for a moment and said: “That tells us she is in the bottom level of the seventh realm.”

The tone of the dialogue between her and Ding Ning at this time was very calm, just like a casual chat. However, if the previous official of Imperial Secret Service could hear it, they would definitely be shocked.

Today there were dozens of spiritual pract.i.tioners in that shabby lane at one time. Although today several of them were even shaken to squirt blood and looked extremely desolate because of a burst of power, in normal days, any one of them could easily wipe out more than ten lanes like that within the time of a joss stick burnt.

Only those with talent, fortune and unique physique could the spiritual pract.i.tioners make it on the ranking list.

Spiritual practice was unreachable for ordinary people. Those who could reach above the sixth realm were bound to leave a strong mark in the history books for later generations.

Especially for the talented pract.i.tioners like Head Officer Ye, who was like a fairy character, the background and practicing method was extremely mysterious, and even officials from Jiantian Department might not know. However, for Ding Ning and Zhangsun Lightsnow, it unexpectedly seemed nothing secret!

If the old man and the elegant young man in the turret could hear the conversation between Ding Ning and Lightsnow, they would be shaken to the core.

They were the most discerning people of the city, but if they could hear the conversation, they would find that in terms of estimating pract.i.tioners’ power, those two people actually saw more clearly than they did!

The wind blew into the wine shop, swaying Lightsnow's long hair.

Lightsnow casually combed her hair and said in a serious and commanding tone: “You go to take a shower and then go to bed to wait for me. I'll close the shop door.”

Ding Ning was speechless for a moment, and then he jokingly pulled a long face: “It's too early … isn't it?”

Lightsnow saw him in the eye, saying coldly: “Perhaps the cold air of this rainstorm is too strong, and my Power Core is a little unstable.”

The joking expression on Ding Ning's face faded away and he said solemnly, “This is a very urgent matter.”