Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
The great black horse galloped onto the street, leaving a cloud of dust while no one dared to stop it. A dozen miles out of the city, a glimmer of haze can be seen with the wind coming from the lake. The Great Swamp was near, but the great black horse did not slow down. Its four hooves continued to step on the grass and the stones, and finally leapt high on the shore. After a few moments, it landed on a South Jin naval warship a few feet away.
Splashing sounds could be heard continually. Seeing the large horse, the South Jin sailors jumped into the lake out of fear, ignoring the cold of the lake in the early summer.
The people who could handle the ship were gone. How can such a large naval warship move forward on the lake? The flailing South Jin sailors and some onlookers from far looked at the great black horse on the deck. The depths of their horrified eyes were also filled with anticipation of what is to happen.
Ning Que came down from the horse and reached out to the bag beside the saddle for a few yellowish paper talismans. He then casually pasted them on both sides of the deck. By flicking his fingers, the talismans gradually faded, like being burned but also like being melted away by the winds of the lake. A somewhat weak but very stable lasting charm immediately shrouded the entire ship. The Qi of the Heaven and Earth surrounding the lake were summoned to blow the sail. With a slight nudge, the hull began to move.
More than ten thousand South Jin soldiers and sailors were shocked at that sight. They did not expect that there was someone in the world that could really start such a heavy ship alone. The next moment, they began to guess wildly on how Ning Que is going to control the draft and direction of the ship. In short, their emotions were wildly conflicted.
Ning Que paid no attention to the depth of the warship draft. The Great Swamp was so deep that if he were to avoid the reeds and sandbanks that could be seen by the naked eye, he would basically have no problem. As for the course, he only needed the ship to go in the general direction of south. He did not mind, as the whole south was South Jin.
In Chang’an, he had already prepared the talismans to summon the Qi of Heaven and Earth. The warship was sailing at its top speed. The heavy sails flailed unstably, shaken by the wind. Fortunately, there was no leakage on the ship. Boarding at the south of Qinghe Prefecture, going through the Great Swamp and finally arriving at the southern shore only took him half a day.
Although South Jin was affected too, it was still the second strongest country in the Central Plains after Tang. The government and the military responded quickly to his arrival. Numerous cavalry gathered around the dock called Taizhi County. There were a hundred more cultivators hidden in the woods on either side of the road, ready to attack on command.
Ning Que knew clearly what was waiting for him, but he did not intend to hide his trace. He continued riding on the great black horse to the south expressionless. Strangely, no one attacked him. Because of his name and the iron bow on his shoulder, the cavalry and the cultivators of South Jin did not dare to make any moves. The fact that they could only watch him move forward demotivated themselves.
A hundred miles to the south, a mountain that looked like a defiant and proud ancient sword could be seen faintly. It was once the holy land of cultivation: the South Jin Sword Garret. Looking at the garret, thinking of the proud swordsmen who were once his enemies, and later, companions, Ning Que reached out his hand to stop the great black horse. After a moment of silence, he looked at the watchful and uneasy South Jin cavalry and cultivators around him and said, “I will stay here for some time.”
When the snow fell, he jumped down from Chang’an City, and disappeared from the world. Few people knew that he secretly sneaked into the North Battalion, and planned to destroy the Golden Tribe with General Xu Chi and Fourth Brother. When he, the Academy and the Tang army finally defeated the Golden Tribe in the City of Wei, he stayed for a few days to write the talismans. After that, he was constantly on the move. To the southern border of Tang, out of the Verdant Canyon, killing Hengmu and onward to Dingqing River in Yangzhou. Counting carefully, he has been killing people along ten thousand miles for over one hundred days without sleeping. His spirit and body has been exhausted to the extreme, but something seemed to be urging him to speed up the pace, as if he was racing with someone.
Today in the South Jin territory, in a place far away from the garret, he suddenly stopped and told everyone in the world he would stay here for a period of time. That was very surprising.
The cavalry and the cultivators of South Jin felt conflicted while they looked at him on the black horse. Looking at his pale face and his haggard appearance, they started to think silently, Is he finally tired? The legendary Mr. Thirteen from the Academy, the demonic one who was rumored to kill for pleasure, was finally tired of killing after taking so many lives?
Anything that lasted for too long, or happened too frequently would eventually make people sick. The only people who were not sick of it were Ning Que and Sangsang, and also Jing Tingshan.
The temperature in the south was relatively higher, and the heat on the fields and hills on both sides of the river was scorching. Even the Divine Halls Alliance and the Great River Kingdom Army, which had been facing each other for so long, were extremely tired to the extent where even the remains of their comrades who had died on the battlefield could hardly arouse their zeal and desire to fight anymore.
A slender and slightly curved sword was carefully wiped with a piece of white silk. The blood and water left by the enemy in the early morning were wiped clean. The blade reflected the green mountains behind beautifully.
Cat Girl wiped the sword quietly. That charming happy-go-lucky girl had become a wife. She then became the calmest or rather, the most cold-blooded swordswoman on the battlefield. In a terrible place like the battlefield, in addition to making people sick and tired, it could easily refine, or change people.
Zhuo Zhihua stood behind her, looking at the Divine Army a few miles outside, and frowned slightly. She didn’t understand why the Great Divine Priest of South Sea would set up the troops with their backs to their river. Even if he was fishing in the South Sea all year long with no military experience, the Divine Halls had many other military officers.
The light reflected by the sword pierced her eyes. She could not help squinting as she looked at Cat Girl with a little pity. The man who was newly married by Cat Girl died in the raid by the Divine Halls aces more ten days ago, turning her from a bride to a widow. Although the girl exuded calmness, everyone could see her hidden pain and anger.
The guardian of the Great River Kingdom had changed from the Sage of Calligraphy to a queen and the women of the Black Ink Garden wearing swords in their waists would always be the symbol of courage and virtue in this country. In this tragic war, the disciples of Black Ink Garden always rushed to the most arduous and fiercest battles. Without their support, the Divine Halls of West Hill would have successfully broken through the line of defense to the Great River Kingdom.
Of course, the main reason why these women could fight so confidently was the two great chariots sitting side by side, just ten feet behind him.
A king’s chariot covered in snow white veil and a divine chariot in a blood-red veil. In the king’s chariot was, of course, the Queen of the Great River Kingdom, Mo Shanshan. While in the divine chariot sat the Great Divine Priest of Judgement, Ye Hongyu.
There was also a chariot on the hills of the Great River south bank. It belonged to Zhao Nanhai. The seat of the Divine Halls of West-Hill Great Divine Priest had been vacant for a long time. Many people thought that Zhao Nanhai, who was deeply trusted by the abbey dean would take over the position. However, the war came so fast that the handover ceremony was not held in time. Hence, Zhao Nanhai could only lead the army with the false title of the Great Divine Priest.
Zhuo Zhihua was very puzzled as to why the Divine Army would deploy facing away from the river. Zhao Nanhai, the Great Divine Priest did not seem afraid to show his terrible military decisions to the entire southern continent. In fact, the fisherman’s performance on the battlefield was shrewd. Some time ago, he succeeded in dragging the army of the Great River Kingdom into a trap. If there were not more than a hundred Divine Halls Cavalry loyal to Ye Hongyu suddenly rebelling on the battlefield, the Great River Kingdom would have received disastrous damage.
The news of the two battles in the City of Wei and Yangzhou had not reached here yet, but the role of the true aces in the war had become more obvious, even gradually becoming an indisputable fact.
If the Great River Kingdom wanted to survive under the frightening pressure of the Divine Halls Alliance, then they must kill Zhao Nanhai somehow, or at least to threaten him and shift his focus away from the battlefield.
Thinking of that, Zhuo Zhihua turned back and looked at the two chariots. The queen cannot enter the battle lightly, but how about the one in the red chariot? The divine chariot beside the king’s chariot was as bloody as it was in that year. The Great Divine Priest of Judgement was still a priest even if she wasn’t on Peach Mountain. Even the Hierarch could not deprive her of her status. Her temperament would never ever change. According to her usual style, she would have thought about killing Zhao Nanhai long ago. But why has she been only sitting in the chariot for so many days?
“Great Divine Priest of Judgement has yet to act, it seems that she has guessed something…”
In the hills beside the Great River, before the divine chariot which was heavily guarded by the Divine Halls Cavalry, Zhao Nanhai put his hands together behind him and looked at the two chariots in the military camp of the Great River in the distance. He frowned a little and said, “If she has already guessed what I am thinking, so might have Ning Que. They are similar after all.”
The Great River was dangerous, and his situation was crucial too from the very beginning. With Ye Hongyu’s crazy fighting abilities, and the Queen of the Great River who was an expert in Fu Tao, if the other side really fought with their lives, then he would most likely die in this angry yellow river.
So he deployed the Divine Halls Alliance with their backs facing the water. While it seemed desperate, it also seemed to be a result after judging the situation, to invite Ye Hongyu and Mo Shanshan to kill himself. But that was not the case.
The Great Divine Priest of South Sea who bore the responsibility of the Divine Halls campaign to the south looked as thin and dark as in the past, silent, like the Yellow River flowing under the hills behind him, his need not words to show his thunder.
He seldom talked to himself. At that time, he was not talking to himself, but to someone else. “Ning Que didn’t go further south. It seems that he really guessed something.”
There was a dull voice in the divine chariot and the river wind stirred the veil. A curtain of light could be faintly seen, behind which was a figure. It belonged to the Hierarch of the Divine Halls of West-Hill, Xiong Chumo.
