What was more serious was that Lu Pengfei seemed to have hated Ding Hao to the core. In the past six months, that upstart had done a lot of things against Ding Hao’s friends one after the other. There would be an inevitable collision between them.
That was everyone’s thought.
People rus.h.i.+ng to the Eastern Academy of Green s.h.i.+rts, including nominal disciples, both from the outer core and inner core, and even curious people from business districts; all of them had the same goal—they all wanted to see the result of an inevitable collision, like Mars against the Earth.
Would the former king regain his glory?
Or could the new powerful chief defend his elegance?
…
Ding Hao did not hide his whereabouts.
In fact, during the half-day period before coming to the Sword-cleansing Pond under the mountain gate, he encountered a total of eleven killing attempts by superiors. Some of them were unknown rogue cultivators, some of them were disciples of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect who had been missing for a long time, and some were famous killers in the Snow Province.
And those people’s ends were the same: they were all killed by a single sword slash on the throat.
Ding Hao did not have the slightest mercy.
When he reached the Sword-cleansing Pond, the rusted sword was covered with blood stains.
Ding Hao deliberately stayed at the Sword-cleansing Pond for half an hour and cleaned the blood stains on the rusted sword.
It was only after that odd-job disciple recognized Ding Hao and spread the news, causing a sensation in the mountain gate, when Ding Hao slowly got up. Ding Hao slowly walked along the main road beside the Sword-cleansing Pond, enjoying the long-lost beauty and headed toward the mountain gate.
When he met acquaintances, he even smiled at and said h.e.l.lo to them.
Then those people would show dumbfounded expressions of surprise and embarra.s.sment.
As Ding Hao walked deeper and deeper toward the mountain gate to the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect, more and more people showed up around him. They dared not come close to him, but simply followed him at a distance, like a long tail. When Ding Hao finally arrived at the square in the area for nominal disciples of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect, there were more than three or four hundred people following him.
“Senior Brother Hao, are those people your friends?” Gao Xue’er looked at everything around her with curiosity and focused her eyes on the people following them like a tail.
“They used to be my friends. Now I don’t know whether they are or not.”
Ding Hao smiled and touched the little girl’s head.
He looked at the crowd calmly.
In the crowd, there were some disciples of the Eastern Academy of Green s.h.i.+rts. They used to talk about martial arts and exchanged cultivation experiences at their leisure, but at the moment, those people’s eyes were full of hesitation and none of them dared to approach and say h.e.l.lo to Ding Hao decently. When Ding Hao went to them, the majority immediately bowed their heads in shame; they didn’t even have the courage to look at Ding Hao.
So, a great change had happened there in the past half a year after he left.
The present Eastern Academy of Green s.h.i.+rts was no more the one he knew in the past.
“Senior Brother Ding, the disciples of the Eastern Academy of Green s.h.i.+rts, who had the best relations.h.i.+p with you, have been suppressed with various excuses. Some of them were forced to do hard jobs and many of them could not come here the first time. Most of the current disciples are those who went to Lu Pengfei for shelter in the past half a year.”
Fang Tianyi whispered in Ding Hao’s ears.
He worried that the scene in front of him would make Ding Hao feel sad.
Ding Hao regained his gaze and his face was extremely calm. He lifted his foot and walked toward the area where he remembered where the disciple’s cell was. He smiled and said, “This time I went down the mountain, and I suddenly understood one thing.”
“What?” Fang Tianyi tried to ask.
“In this cold world, we don’t need too many real friends. We should not ask for too much and a few intimate friends are enough.” Ding Hao shook his head with a smile and added, “I am not a US dollar bill and I cannot ask all people to follow me willingly.”
“A US dollar? What’s that?” Fang Tianyi felt stunned.
Ding Hao also felt dumbfounded and then he laughed and said, “Oh, you don’t know it? It’s a mysterious metallic material with a legendary magic power. Emperors and immortals of martial arts go crazy for it.”
Fang Tianyi thought hard, but he had never heard of that material. However, when he saw Senior Brother Ding’s familiar smile, he knew that he was not affected by those who left him and he was relieved.
In the twinkling of an eye, the three of them went to the cell for nominal disciples.
Of course, the people who went there together included more and more people behind them.
…
“Did Ding Hao go to the cell?”
Lu Pengfei quietly sat on the rush cus.h.i.+on and nodded slightly.
“And I guess, Ding Hao is still that Ding Hao. His character has not changed at all, putting those so-called friends in his heart too much. After all, he is still unable to transcend while bound by these useless secular feelings.”
“For such a person, no matter how powerful he is, he will still have a fatal weakness.”
Ding Hao went to the mountain gate alive.
“It means that those killers who were hired at a higher price were all killed by Ding Hao.”
“Hehe. It’s all right for those people to be killed. They had not originally been expected to really kill Ding Hao; they were just cannon fodder. Their sole use was to let Ding Hao air his killing intent and stave the momentum in his heart.”
“Once the long-standing enthusiasm and anger in Ding Hao’s heart are worn away, it will help me take a little advantage in the next showdown.”
“Everything that follows is easy to handle.”
It was terribly quiet in the main hall.
Zhang Wenzhao looked at Lu Pengfei. Lu Pengfei was hiding himself in the dark of the main hall, just like a ghost in h.e.l.l. After having hesitated for a while, Zhang Wenzhao finally continued, “I suppose that w.a.n.g Xiaoqi and Li Yunqi have been set free by now. Ding Hao is absolutely lawless. Hum, does he still think that it’s his kingdom as in the past? Senior Brother Lu, what shall we do next? Will Ding Hao come here directly to carry out his killing…?”
The last words revealed his fear of Ding Hao in his heart.
Deep in the shadows of the main hall, Lu Pengfei screamed faintly, sounding extremely gloomy. “Will he come to directly carry out his killing? Hehe. That’s what I have been expecting.”
…
“Senior Brother Ding, you… finally came back.”
It was hard for w.a.n.g Xiaoqi to hide his joy.
He felt that his eyes were hot, and he quickly bowed his head and pretended to rub his eyes, saying, “There’s sand in my eyes, and I feel sour… Hehe, I’ve always known that Senior Brother Ding would definitely come back… Yes, What about Xiaofan?”
w.a.n.g Xiaoqi looked up and did not see Zhang Fan behind Ding Hao. He was shocked. Was it…?
“Xiaofan is fine. Don’t worry.” Ding Hao slammed a punch on w.a.n.g Xiaoqi’s shoulder, and then slammed a fist on Li Yunqi’s shoulder. “Ding Hao’s brothers are not many. From now on, you are among them.”
Li Yunqi almost s.h.i.+vered all over as he felt excited.
That simple action and those words made him want to scream to the sky, and the tortures that he had suffered in those days had vanished.