Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Chen Pipi and others returned to Chang’an. Ning Que waited for them at the city gate, but found that his Eldest Brother was not back.
“Don’t worry. The Eldest Brother just has to take care of something.” Chen Pipi looked at him and said, “Don’t blame yourself for what happened. My father’s mind is like the Natural Stream Magical Finger, no one can predict where it goes. It’s not your fault.”
They finally met again. Chen Pipi was not angry or disappointed, and just comforted Ning Que. Ning Que was not surprised, but his mind was weighed down, especially when he saw that the Fourth Brother sighed while looking at him.
Ning Que bowed to them and those disciples of the Sword Garret, and then said to Chen Pipi, “It is my fault after all.”
Chen Pipi said, “The Headmaster once said that don’t regret anything that you do. I think the Elder Brother did not regret it when he was gone. We all acquire what we seek, so it is nobody’s fault.”
The Fourth Brother said, “If you really think you are wrong, just don’t make such mistakes again in the future.”
Ning Que turned around to look at the busy fleet on the road outside the city gate and said, “I won’t.”
People who had left home for several years were returning home, and there were also many people leaving home to go to the border area. As time went by, the situation on the mainland became more and more tense, and the Great Tang had a tough time at this point. The country’s resources and spiritual temperament accumulated over the millennium were all revealed at this moment. Whether it was the teacher in the countryside or the prostitute in the brothel, nobody feared the forthcoming war.
Numerous impedimenta and army provisions were shipped from the warehouses of all prefectures, and countless cavalry left the local military camps and sailed to borders. Although the newly-founded Northeast Battlefront Army was not ready for battle, they were also preparing to eliminate the army of Yan Kingdom. Tuyang City was full of soldiers and horses. At the General’s Mansion, many tactical plans were gradually formed.
Yulin Royal Guards came from Chang’an and already arrived at the plain behind Verdant Canyon, joining forces with the South Conquering Army which had been guarding the Verdant Canyon for several years. They were ready to attack the hundreds of thousands of troops of the South Jin and the Papal Cavalryman of the Divine Hall of West-Hill in Qinghe Prefecture.
But the most critical and most dangerous battlefield was still in the northwest of the empire. Golden Tribe Royal Court sent all its soldiers to the south, and a war was impossible to be avoided. Military orders kept sending from the North Camp, and 200,000 most elite Northern Battlefront Army were ready to fight against those barbarians on the grasslands with their blood and life.
But after losing Xiangwan Plain, the Tang army was seriously lacking in war horses. The well-trained cavalrymen could only be used as infantry, which was quite unsettling.
In the coldest days of winter, Chu Youxian and Chen Qi finally returned to Chang’an. Crossing the Great River, passing through the jungle and secretly bypassing the Yuelun Kingdom, they suffered a lot to make their way back to the Great Tang, but fortunately the letter was safe.
Ning Que took the letter stained with sweat. Knowing that Chu Youxian had been hiding the letter next to his skin, he frowned and wondered why Ye Hongyu had to be so sneaky. Doesn’t she know that the oral message is much safer? Unless she doesn’t want anyone to know her message, even though she knows I trust Chu Youxian and Chen Qi.
Crushing the hot stamp and tearing open the envelope, he pulled out a thin paper and saw what she wrote. The letter was short but the message it contained was very important. So he stared at the thin paper for quite a while.
“It’s impossible.” This was the first thought that occurred to Ning Que after he saw what Ye Hongyu wrote.
After that spring rain, he never sensed her presence again. He watched the huge ship driving toward the Divine Kingdom and thought she must have returned to the Divine Kingdom. For him, she was already dead.
But what if Ye Hongyu was right?
That would explain a lot, such as why the Abbey Dean made that unexpected choice. But this was not important for Ning Que. All his strength was swallowed by the words on the letter. Is it true that she never returned to the Divine Kingdom but has been staying in the human world this whole time?
Ning Que knew it was time for him to leave Chang’an. After a long time of silence, he went to the palace and talked with Li Yu for a night, explaining clearly many things to her. Then he wrote a letter to Mo Shanshan but tore it up in the end. He went to the gate tower at last.
He was enjoying the landscape on the gate tower.
When Sangsang came to the world, he watched the landscape at Divine Halls of West-Hill for a long time. Later, when she left the human world, he thought she returned to the Divine Kingdom and watched the landscape for a long time. He looked at those powerful cultivators, looked at the clouds, looked at the beautiful rivers and mountains of the human world and looked at the city and the country. But in fact, he was also searching. He wanted to search for the traces she left with his own eyes.
It was early in the morning, he cooked a pot of vegetable porridge and drank it. He felt warm, and the snowflake melted away the moment it touched his face.
Then he walked to the city wall, facing the world and bowing his arrow.
With the help of God-Stunning Array in Chang’an, his Thirteen Primordial Arrows could do many incredible things, but also had to be subject to many restrictions. It needed many conditions to make the arrows really work. For example, he planned to work with the Eldest Brother to kill the Drunkard in front of the palace of Linkang City in the autumn, but failed because the Drunkard detected his intention.
For these and other reasons, his iron arrows had never been seen in the sky of the human world for many years after the Rite to Light on Peach Mountain. But at this moment, he pointed his arrow to the human world. Who did he want to kill?
…
…
After Ye Su’s death, Long Qing left the capital city of Song Kingdom, and headed north in the wind and snow with two thousand papal cavalrymen of the Divine Halls of West-Hill. Then the Eldest Brother also left to search for Chen Pipi. Just like what happened in the past years, the Drunkard went with him.
To put it nicely, the Drunkard was like a fallen leaf that followed the autumn wind. But actually he was like a virus that the Eldest Brother could not get rid of.
The Eldest Brother found Chen Pipi and his companions and then escorted them back to the Great Tang. But he just watched them entering Chang’an and then left. No one knew where he went.
At that time, the Drunkard might be able to catch up with the Eldest Brother if he reached the Distanceless State like before. But somehow his feet seemed to be frozen and stuck to the cold snow, thus he lost track of his target.
The Drunkard did not really want to chase the Eldest Brother, for he needed time to think the whole matter through and he was getting close to the truth. He had figured out why Li Manman left. So he slowed down and turned to the East.
His footsteps left clear marks on the snow. There was warm air in the footsteps, which turned out to be his sweat. He sweated a lot due to fear and the truth he discovered. The Eldest Brother once said to him in the capital city of Song Kingdom that he would regret what he did. The Eldest Brother was totally right about this.
The small town was in the east of the Great Tang. He walked slowly on the snow, and only approached the town the next day. He did not return to his own home, but went to the only painting and calligraphy shop in the neighboring town, asking Chao Xiaoshu for a fresh pot of tea.
Tea is not as good as wine after all. The Drunkard held the small porcelain cup with his two fingers, looked at the yellow liquid in the cup and savored the slightly bitter taste in his mouth.
Sitting opposite the Drunkard, Chao Xiaoshu looked calm. He held the tea cup high, and then washed the cup with the tea. Some old tea leaves were dancing in the boiling water, giving out a pleasant smell.
The two did not speak and just quietly drank tea. The Drunkard enjoyed the sensation. He felt that Zhao Xiaoshu was qualified to have tea with him. Unfortunately, Zhao Xiaoshu was just an ordinary person, otherwise he might invite him to taste his wine.
There were other two helpers in the shop who were said to be the owner’s relatives. As time went by, these two aggressive teenagers had become adults and looked much calmer than before.
Zhang San and Li Si were playing chess attentively, and they didn’t notice that the Drunkard was staring at them. They were thinking with knitted brows, looking like those divine physicians who were good at playing chess at the Lanke Temple and in the Back Hill of the Academy.
They used to play chess in front of the Drunkard and they were very nervous at that time, for they were the only third generation disciples of the Academy except Tang Xiaotang. If everything went well, they would be the new Jun Mo or Yu Lian in the future. They would die miserably if the Drunkard ever found out who they were. Even though their teacher was very powerful, they would never come alive again. No one could make the dead come back to life, not even Li Manman and Jun Mo.
In the eyes of the Drunkard, Zhang San and Li Si were bad at playing chess. Actually the two were not playing that badly, just the Drunkard was good at playing chess.
People who had lived for thousands of years were easily bored, so naturally they would try all the fun things, such as games.
He and the Butcher had played the games humans favored over and over again, and Grand Cultivators like himself usually were very intelligent, so he was exceptionally good at playing chess. Except a few talented souls in the Back Hill of the Academy and the Lanke Temple, no one could beat him on the board.
After watching the two playing for a while, the Drunkard got bored. And he happened to finish his fifth cup of tea and the tea began to taste weak. He felt calmer, so there was no need to ask for a fresh pot. He stood up, teased Zhang San and Li Si, chatted with Zhao Xiaoshu about the news of the county school, and then walked out of the shop.
He still didn’t go back to the house, and he chose the only butcher’s shop over the wine shop. Actually the wine shop was the only one in the town. Many things in this town were unique, which was exactly what he and the Butcher wanted.
The butcher’s shop was dark and smelled bad. It was the smell of blood mixed with meat and decaying excrement. The Drunkard frowned and blocked his sense of smell, then chose a relatively clean spot to sit.
The Butcher was unhairing pigs’ trotters. Dozens of chubby trotters were neatly placed on the chopping board and prepared to be burned. With a slight burning sound, the faint burned smell gradually spread, and the surface of the trotters became brown.
Seeing this, the Drunkard shook his head. He took the flagon from his waist and started drinking. He knew why the Butcher refused to give up this business or hobby, but he really didn’t like it.
After unhairing the trotters, the Butcher picked up the oily kitchen knife to cut them open. His arm suddenly became stiff, because he noticed that the Drunkard was awfully quiet today, which was very unusual.
The Butcher turned to look at him and asked, “What’s wrong?”
He and the Drunkard had lived in this town for many years. And earlier they had lived together in others towns. They knew each other very well.
For many years, they just hid and enjoyed the fun stuff that began to bore them since they had enjoyed them for so many times. It was not until recent years that they started to meddle with the matters of the human world.
More precisely, the Drunkard began to meddle with the matters of the human world, for he was faster. The Butcher was still in the butcher’s shop, slaughtering pigs and sheep. But if the Drunkard needed help one day, the Butcher would naturally stepped out of his shop to kill people for him.
He knew what the Drunkard was doing lately. He had kept his eyes on Li Manman, the Eldest Brother of the Academy, and went to the capital city of Song Kingdom. He also knew that Ye Su was already dead, and even moved by his sacrifice while sensing the divine light from the East Sea.
The Drunkard did not directly answer his question, but continued to drink alcohol. He did not put down the flagon until he finally drank it up half an hour later.
The flagon had never really been emptied except when Sangsang finished it one time. But today it was empty. The Drunkard drank it up although the alcohol in the flagon could never be finished.
The Butcher became solemn, for he had not seen the Drunkard like this for many years. Last time he was so nervous was when Haotian came to the small town. And before that was when an old ox came to the small town with a broken carriage.
The Drunkard put down the flagon and looked up at him.
All the alcohol he drank turned into sweat and came out of tens of thousands of pores on his body. His body became the source of a waterfall, and water kept flowing around, washing the mince meat and blood on the floor of the butcher’s shop.
His body was like a flagon, being emptied at this moment. The water on the floor suddenly disappeared when the cold wind blew from outside. A powerful airflow rushed around the shop and made the shop sign rumble.
Looking at the Drunkard’s pale face, the Butcher held the knife tighter.
“I may have done something wrong.” The Drunkard looked at him and murmured, “Li Manman said that I would regret it. Now I think of it, I indeed regret it. I don’t know if I can fix it.”
The Butcher frowned slightly and put the knife back. Then he walked up to the Drunkard and said, “It’s a good thing that Ye Su died.”
The Drunkard replied, “Now it seems that both the Academy and Taoism want to weaken Haotian. Then it might not be a good thing that Ye Su died.”
The Butcher, “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t understand at the beginning, but I thought of one possibility when I saw Li Manman didn’t go back to Chang’an.” The Drunkard said with fear in his eyes, “He just ignored Chang’an and disappeared. The Abbey Dean also left Peach Mountain, and nobody knew where he went. What do they want to do? What is more important than the human world?”
The Butcher usually didn’t talk much and seemed to be foolish and timid. But actually he was very wise. It didn’t take long for him to figure out that the one thing which was more important than the human world was the Divine Kingdom.
He looked up at the dark sky, as if to see clearly what was going on in the Divine Kingdom at this point.
The Headmaster had been fighting against Haitian in the Divine Kingdom for several years, and no information had been sent to the human world. There was no thunder, no rain, no hurricane and no revelation.
But it was destined to be the most important battle in the world since its birth, for it would determine where the world went.
The Butcher and the Drunkard both knew that the Headmaster was no match for Haotian. Besides, the moon was gradually dimming.
He sat down in front of the Drunkard, picked up the bucket from the side and began to drink water. Only water could ease his irritation at this moment.
His irritation was caused by anxiety.
The Abbey Dean and Li Manman both disappeared, and they were looking for something in the human world. What they were searching for was even more important than the whole world, which was the Divine Kingdom. Or to put it more precisely, they were searching for a person whom everybody thought had gone back to the Divine Kingdom.
What would the Abbey Dean do when he finds her? After all he never did anything good.
The more the Butcher thought, the more scared he was. Does anyone in the world actually dare to kill Haotian? The thought tortured him, making him feel itchy, hurtful, horrified and unsettled to the extreme.
After a long time, he finally put down the bucket. All the water he drank turned into sweat, wetting his clothes and the leather apron and then falling on the ground. Just the sweat fell on the ground gave out a faint bloody smell.
“Even if Haotian didn’t return to the Divine Kingdom, why would he want to kill her? How dare he kill her? How does he plan to do it?”
“I don’t know how he plans to do it. Even though the New Stream would weaken her, how could he defeat her? His arrogance unsettles and puzzles me.”
The Drunkard answered looking pale, “As for why he wants to kill her, I dare not to think about it. I bet even the Buddha dares not to think like that.”
The Butcher turned solemn and shouted, “He is indeed bold!”
The Drunkard said with a slight voice, “Have you ever seen him being not so bold?”
