Chapter 544: The Divine Palanquin Moves North
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Ye Hongyu did not say anything but looked at him silently.
Ning Que looked at her and continued, “Long Qing’s continued survival is a threat to the West-Hill Divine Palace and the Tang Empire. I can’t kill him, so you need to do it.”
Ye Hongyu said suddenly, “Since he had betrayed the Divine Hall, he would not be able to continue living in Haotian’s world. He would definitely leave the Central Plains and go to the Wilderness.”
Ning Que said, “That’s exactly what I am worried about. The Wilderness has no boundaries. Who can find him and his fallen knights if they hide in the Tianqi Mountain?”
“But to leave the Central Plains for the Wilderness, he has to either cross the Tang Empire or the Yan Kingdom. I don’t think that Long Qing or his subordinates can do that.”
Ye Hongyu said, “Because you have forgotten that there is someone that Long Qing wants to kill the most in the Yan Kingdom. Conversely, that person wants Long Qing dead the most.”
“Are you talking about Crown Prince Chongming?”
Ning Que only realized now that the West-Hill Divine Palace had already made arrangements. However, he still felt uneasy and frowned, “Even if Crown Prince Chongming could control the cavalry of Yan Kingdom, they are just ordinary folks. I don’t think they have the ability to kill Long Qing.”
Ye Hongyu said indifferently, “Even if they can’t kill him, they can hold him back for some time.”
Ning Que had an epiphany and said, “We are holding him back to wait for someone.”
Ye Hongyu said, “Indeed.”
Ning Que looked at her in the eye and said, “You will go.”
Ye Hongyu looked at him serenely and said, “I will go.”
Ning Que heaved a sigh of relief and said, “Goodbye.”
Ye Hongyu’s brows picked up. She said, “You seem like you don’t want to see me.”
“If this was any other time, I would love to make some good tea and serve up platters of beef to have a long chat with you till the night falls and the candles flicker out, Great Divine Priest… But I am really worried now.”
“Not even the best tea can be paired with beef. You should pair it with alcohol. As a disciple of the Headmaster, how could you make such a mistake on food pairing? It seems that you are really worried.”
Ning Que looked down at his boots and thought of the blood that these boots have stepped in yesterday. He said, “Long Qing said that he might be the Son of Yama yesterday at the Red Lotus Temple.”
Ye Hongyu smiled when she heard that. It was a smile that contained many hidden meanings. She looked at Ning Que and said, “Everyone in the world is speculating that you are the Son of Yama. However, the Haotian Taoism Sect and Buddhism Sect have not acted because they do not have evidence. And now you’re saying that Long Qing is the Son of Yama?”
Ning Que looked up and splayed out his hands with a slight smile. “From what has played out in the last few years, Long Qing seems more likely than me to be the Son of Yama. He is darker and more pathetic than I am.”
Ye Hongyu said, “This doesn’t prove anything. Everyone is guessing that you are the Son of Yama because the previous Divine Priest of Light had found you in Chang’an with his eyes.”
Ning Que said, “But what he saw might not necessarily be the truth. The West-Hill Divine Palace had denied his views and the abbey dean had personally sealed him in the You Prison.”
Ye Hongyu looked at him silently. After a long silence, she suddenly said, “But you have never considered why the Haotian Taoism sect would have such a strong reaction if the Divine Priest of Light had seen wrongly back then. Why did the abbey dean return to the world and seal the Divine Priest of Light in the prison himself? I don’t know what happened then, but I feel that it can’t be this simple.”
“There are many things in the world that are simple only if you think simply and are complicated if you think make it out so. The abbey dean might have personally sealed Wei Guangming up because Wei Guangming was obsessed and wanted to cause a massacre in Chang’an and kill who he thought was the Son of Yama. The abbey dean might have been worried for the world and the Haotian Taoism sect and done that. Would he have allowed Wei Guangming to cause a battle between the Haotian Taoism sect and the Academy?”
Ning Que said calmly, “I have thought about this, but perhaps you have not. Even if Wei Guangming was the most incredible Divine Priest of Light the West-Hill Divine Palace had seen in a hundred years, light and dark are still fields that are beyond the human realm. How could Wei Guangming see through Yama’s plot?”
“Perhaps Wei Guangming had seen the truth then, but just the truth in a mirror that he treated as reality. I am just a fake illusion Yama has placed on earth, a fake person in the mirror. Long Qing is not in the mirror because he is in reality.”
The doors of the temple slowly opened. The flaming torches wavered due to the fluctuating wind. The lights by the stone steps flickered.
The blood-colored Judicial priest robes fluttered in the wind as Ye Hongyu walked out indifferently. Everyone, including the priest in red, bowed in salute when they saw her.
Ye Hongyu did not speak with other priests in the temple or go to the palace to accept the greetings of the Emperor of the Kingdom of Qi. She left with her 500 Divine Hall guards and dozens of subordinates from the Judicial Department.
The divine palanquin came in the twilight and left shortly in the night. Ye Hongyu had left the West-Hill Divine Palace and came to the capital of this kingdom in the human realm seemingly just to meet Ning Que and heal Sangsang.
The subordinates from the Judicial Department had stayed silent throughout. However, they could no longer suppress their shock and gazed at the dark windows in the temple bewilderedly. They imagined that the relationship between the Academy and the Great Divine Priest must be really close to have the Divine Priest of Judgment come and go at his will.
The hulking Luo Kedi walked silently behind the palanquin. He looked at the figure hidden behind the yards of satin indifferently. However, a wild passionate greed danced in his eyes.
The Tao Addict was called the Tao Addict because she was addicted to Taoism. However, was she really the addict, like believers believed, who only had eyes for cultivation and nothing else and knew nothing of the world? He thought silently and wondered if this person who had used the Academy to solidify her position in the Divine Hall really cared naught for the world.
The autumn winds on the continent grew stronger. Capital Cheng, the capital of Yan Kingdom located in the extreme north had already welcomed winter. Withered yellow leaves rolled on the ground of the quiet streets and were crushed to powder accompanied by crisp sounds.
A martial law had been put in place on most streets of the capital since dawn. The streets were devoid of anyone else other than weapon bearing troops. Even so, the soldiers were exceptionally vigilant as they stood with their backs against the streets. They stared at every moving object, including the leaves.
All of this was because of the giant divine palanquin that moved slowly on the streets. The palanquin had just entered the capital through the Southern City gates. It passed the imperial palace without stopping and headed to the Nothern City gates.
The palanquin was extremely large and luxurious, it looked like a moving temple. It should move extremely slowly due to the hundred papal cavalryman and dozens of powerhouses from the Judicial Department surrounding it. And it was indeed moving very slowly, but what was amazing was that the palanquin was still in the capital of the Kingdom of Qi in the south a few days ago and it was already at the capital of the northmost Yan Kingdom now. It was practically a miracle.
The several layers of satin surrounding the four sides of the palanquin were extremely thin. However, like the winter willows by the lake enveloped in mist. they did not block out light nor the cold winds.
It was cold within the palanquin and mist would appear if one breathed. Ye Hongyu still wore her thin blood-red Divine Priest robes. Her bare feet stepped lightly on the rug as if she could not feel the cold at all.
Crown Prince Chongming wrapped his robes around him tightly. He tried his best to sit regally and respectfully, trying his utmost best not to look at the beautiful girl’s naked feet. He knew that while the girl was beautiful, her body, beneath the blood-red robes, and her beauty belonged to Haotian. Mere mortals like him could not get close to her.
Ye Hongyu looked at the weak man seated a few feet away from her. She said coldly, “You have disappointed me.”
Crown Prince Chongming smiled bitterly, saying, “Great Divine Priest, even though I really want to kill my younger brother, he is still my father’s son. He has many loyal subordinates in Yan Kingdom. The crux of the matter is, he is already a Grand Cultivator in the Knowing Destiny State. The Yan Kingdom is weak and is powerless to stop him.”
Ye Hongyu said with a blank expression, “Even the weakest country cannot be defeated by a cultivator. I have said in my letter that you just have to hold him back for some time if you can’t stop him.”
“It is my fault for disappointing you, Great Divine Priest.”
Crown Prince Chongming looked to the northern wilderness outside the city gates. An extremely complicated emotion appeared on his face and he muttered, “Once he goes there, nobody can stop him.”
Ye Hongyu looked at his expression thoughtfully.
Prince and Long Qing and his fallen knights have successfully beaten several lines of defense placed by the West-Hill Divine Palace. After entering the lands of Yan Kingdom, he seemed to have melted into the lands and crossed the capital silently before entering the Wilderness.
To many, the West-Hill Divine Palace’s pursuit of the betrayer had to end here. That was because the Haotian Taoism sect had not tried to enter the Wilderness in pursuit of the Great Divine Priest of Light who had betrayed them a thousand years ago.
Because the seemingly barren piece of land which was actually fertile did not belong to those from the Central Plains.
Haotian’s Divine Light did not extend there.
However, unexpectedly, the Great Divine Priest of Judgment’s palanquin did not turn back south at Capital Cheng. Instead, it continued towards the Wilderness.
The chilling autumn wind became stronger in the Wilderness. There was a moment when the heavy veil around the palanquin was lifted by the wind. It was only then that a priest discovered that the Divine Priest of Judgment was gone.
In the Wilderness on the northwest border of Yan Kingdom was a mountain that did not seem too dangerous. There was a hot spring in the mountain. By the mountain, was a slender, blue, sea-like lake in the shape of a beautiful woman’s waist.
The autumn wind blew on the cliffs, Ye Hongyu’s blood-red robes billowed, outlining her captivating silhouette. Just like the slender blue lake below the cliff, many in the world would willingly drown themselves in it.
Ye Hongyu’s expression did not falter as she looked at the bonfires by the blue lake. Just like her ascension to take the place as Divine Priest of Judgment, it seemed natural to her.
Since she had promised Ning Que to kill the mad dog personally, she would do it no matter whether she had to chase him down to the corners of the earth or to the Central Plains or Wilderness.
