Translator: Transn | Editor: Transn
Looking at the ruined Lanke Temple in shock, people couldn’t help but stay silent. The surviving monks cried out, and as they stared at the straight high crown all they felt was despair.
Quni Madi, who was carrying Baoshu’s body in her arms, had already lost her only son. Now she suffered the loss of the other most important man in her life, and everything seemed completely hopeless. Looking at Jun Mo’s back, she cried out, “You crazy people! Do you think the Academy is really invincible?”
Jun Mo did not turn around. He took a white, clean handkerchief out of his sleeves, wiped the blood from his lips, and said, “Our Academy is invincible.”
Quni Madi froze, as she had not expected this as an answer. She burst into laughter before saying, “Even if you think you’re invincible, you cannot remain that way for long. Someday the heavens will punish you, just like they punished the madman, Ke Haoran.”
Usually, if Jun Mo heard someone calling his Youngest Uncle a madman, he would go slightly mad with rage. This time, however, he just stood beside Eldest Brother and kept silent.
Qi Nian was silent as he stared at the pile of boulders that had once been the great temple. Suddenly, he remembered the bleeding wounds on his chest caused by the two Divine Talismans and the iron sword. He thought of these arbitrary people in the Academy and bitterly said, “You really are just a group of crazy people in the Academy. I wonder if you’ll ever be able to find true peace.”
Quni Madi thought she was going to be killed, but Jun Mo just ignored her. She could not help falling into a pit of despair and grief.
Then she suddenly saw the Calligraphy Addict, Mo Shanshan who was standing in the crowd, so she bitterly said, “Mo Shanshan! Everyone saw you helping Yama’s daughter to escape from this. I will see how the Great River Kingdom and the Master of Calligrapher will protect you now.”
Upon hearing this, Mo Shanshan changed her face. When she found that Ning Que and Sangsang were in danger, she instinctively helped them without considering any consequences. However, knowing that Sangsang could be Yama’s daughter and was going to ruin the world, she felt ashamed of herself.
“Come here, Shanshan.”
At this time, Eldest Brother’s voice sounded out.
Mo Shanshan looked at the scholar who was not familiar with her and hesitated a little before she remembered the trip from the Wilderness to Chang’an two years ago. She felt comforted and walked toward him.
Eldest Brother looked around and said, “Shanshan is my sworn sister.”
He said it simply but meaningfully. In front of all these people, he declared the Calligraphy Addict as his sworn sister. That was both a promise and a threat.
After today, harming Mo Shanshan or the Black Ink Garden would be considered a provocation to the Academy. Given the damage of Lanke Temple and the heavy blow of the Buddhism Sect today, who would dare challenge the Academy?
Jun Mo suddenly asked Tang, “Why did you come here?”
Tang said, “I came to see.”
Jun Mo asked, “To see what?”
Earlier today, Ye Su once asked him the same question and Tang had said, “I came to see you people of Central Plain kill.”
Now he changed his answer, and said, “I came to see you kill.”
Jun Mo nodded and said, “We, the Academy, are not fond of killing. We only kill when we need to. You don’t have to worry about it.”
Tang knew he was talking about his sister’s education in the Academy, so he nodded in thanks.
Jun Mo added, “If my Younger Brother shows up in the Wilderness, please send him back.”
Tang said, “If Yama’s daughter accompanies him, I cannot promise I won’t kill him.”
Jun Mo frowned and didn’t say anything.
“Let’s go.”
Eldest Brother said to him and went down the mountain with Mo Shanshan.
Jun Mo followed him as well.
Looking at the three figures gradually disappearing in the rain, Ye Su suddenly asked, “Will you sacrifice five years’ worth of cultivation just to ruin the figure of Buddha and protect you?”
Thinking about the scene of Jun Mo wiping his blood, Tang said, “Only a crazy man would do things like this.”
Ye Su said, “Everyone on the Second floor of the Academy barely goes out into world after Mr. Ke, so these ignorant people all forget the stories of the Academy. From today, no one will be able to forget.”
Tang said, “We, the Enlightenment Doctrine, have been considered as the evil in the world in your eyes. Given how the Academy has acted, it is understandable that they didn’t treat us like monsters.”
Ye Su said, “The Buddhism Sect have been doing what they believe is right, and we, the Haotian Taoism, have been doing what we think is right. You, the Devil’s Doctrine, just want to go against us. Only the Academy acts however they wish.”
Walking on the green stone steps on Tile mountain and feeling the warm breath behind her, Mo Shanshan gradually calmed down.
Only then did she realize that she was holding a box in her hands that had been thrown out of the carriage when Ning Que and Sangsang were breaking out of the encirclement.
She opened the box and found a strange object: two connected round frames with two legs, with transparent slices in the middle. She could not tell what the object was made of.
“These are called myopia glasses.”
Eldest Brother looked at her and gently explained, “The slices are made of good crystals. Younger Brother said it was helpful for a person with bad vision. He begged Sixth Brother to make them; it took quite a lot of effort.”
Upon hearing this, Mo Shanshan felt warmer in her heart. She took them out to try them on but had no idea how to wear them.
Jun Mo walked by her side and said, “Put them on your nose. Ning Que customized them for you. He warned us not to tell Sangsang, but I think she already knew.”
Mo Shanshan smiled and said, “In a crisis like that, Ning Que would hardly remember this. It must be Sangsang who threw them to me.”
She placed the glasses on the bridge of her nose.
Then she turned around to looked at the mountain behind her. She found that the once blurry view was now completely clear.
However, it looked unreal and warped, with a sort of nihility to it.
In the distance she saw the ruined temple, but her old friends were not there.
