The two met in the air and collided like the legendary mountain in the air in the west of the Wilderness. The terrifying clash from the collision reverberated in the air.
The sharp blood-color huge blade buzzed vibrantly in the air. It looked as if it was about to cleave the blue skies. However, most of the blade attack was blocked by a pair of iron fists.
When the blade broke Xia Hou"s iron fists and landed on his body. A golden glint would s.h.i.+ne from Xia Hou"s war robes, and the blade would be blocked.
The blood-color huge knife was an invincible weapon belonging to the Front Gate of the Devil"s Doctrine. Even so, it could not pierce through Xia Hou"s flesh. Its weight and impact made it into a terrifying hammer, and it landed on Xia Hou in heavy blows.
Xia Hou"s iron fists were iron hammers by themselves, and they pummeled incessantly into Tang"s chest.
The two powerhouses of the Devil"s Doctrine exchanged many bows within a split moment.
They parried many times.
And they collided many times.
They collided once more.
The two mountains suspended in mid-air collided, and then tore apart before colliding again. The thunderous sound from their collision rang across the Wilderness.
The roars of thunder were so close that the flock of sheep lying on the gra.s.s stiffened in terror. They clambered up on four feet in fear and sprinted in all directions.
The girl from the gra.s.sland who fell off from horseback laid on the gra.s.s and stared at the two figures in the skies who looked like deities. She had long been shocked silly and had forgotten about her scattering sheep.
The Tang soldiers who were carrying out their orders held their hands to their ears. They knelt on the gra.s.s with pale faces.
Three lucky soldiers who were awaiting punishment by beheading could not cover their ears as their hands were tied up. They began to bleed from their eyes and noses and died due to the thunderous roar that was the collision of two powerhouses in the sky.
The horses on the meadow clattered in panic.
The loudest roar yet rang on the gra.s.sland, and a strong gust of wind fell upon earth from the sky. Gra.s.s was torn up and blown about. The two figures in the sky broke apart, and each of them retreated ten feet, landing on the gra.s.sland.
There were two clunks that rang at about the same time on the gra.s.sland.
The aggressive aura of both Xia Hou and Tang spread out as they landed on earth. The gra.s.sland beneath their boots caved in and became two pits. The gra.s.s in the pits withered, making the pits look like newly dug graves.
"Enemies attack!"
""There are a.s.sasins!"
The well trained Tang armies were fl.u.s.tered upon facing a powerhouse like the World Wayfarer of the Devil"s Doctrine"s Front Gate. They emerged from their daze and began to form a defensive line.
The clopping of horse hooves and the sounds of armor could be heard constantly.
Hundreds of Tang elite soldiers donned their armor and rode on their horses in the military camp below the meadow and gathered quickly. They split into two groups and sped out of camp. They quickly gathered around the meadow as they rode out with gra.s.s and dust at their heels.
Along with the sounds of wheels thudding on hard ground, ten heavy crossbow arrows were wheeled out of the camp and aimed at the man on the meadow. A tactical array master began to lay the tactical arrays under the protection of his strong escort servants.
The expression of the Tang cavalry was grave as they looked at the man on the meadow.
They only had one enemy. The Tang army was well-prepared. But they could still sense the danger ahead. The atmosphere on the meadows was heavy with unusual apprehension.
Tang stood in the slightly concaved pit on the meadow. He stood before hundreds of elite Tang riders and numerous crossbow arrows. His expression remained calm and he remained silent as if he did not see anything.
He only had eyes for Xia Hou standing not far away.
Tang still wore his ordinary leather robe. However, the robe was obviously more torn up as compared to those in the past. Some places had already worn away.
His expression was calm, but his face was haggard.
He had helped the senior statesman to lead a tribe to the Central Plains, killing the allied armies over several days. In the recent days, he had attacked Xia Hou for a number of days and fought against the Tang army. He was exhausted even if he was made of steel.
The battle with Xia Hou might have been short, but he was severely injured. There were several tears in his leather robe at his chest and one could vaguely see the blood in them.
The blood-color huge blade in his hands looked a little bit dull.
The Tang army was, without any doubt, the strongest army in the world.
They had conquered the Yan Kingdom in the East and the Wilderness in the North under the direction of General Xiahou in the past few years. They had never failed and were very proud of themselves.
However, they could not be proud before this man.
The Tang army was not afraid of cultivators. They felt that even the strongest cultivator was no different from an ordinary person when attacked by armored cavalry and crossbow arrows.
However, they have never seen a cultivator as powerful as Tang.
The cavalry commander stared at the man in leather robe afar. He said coldly, "How can we call ourselves the Tang cavalry if we don"t kill that freak?"
The hundreds of cavalry below the meadow heard these words and looked grim. They pulled out their podaos from their sheaths and yelled in unison, "Aye!"
The sound of hundreds of podao pulled out from sheaths at the same time was a majestic song that sung heroically and tragically.
In the days after the war between allied soldiers of the Central Plains and the Desolate Man, the man in leather robe on the meadows appeared by the Tang army seven times.
The Tang cavalry surrounded him and tried to capture him seven times to no avail. Instead, many of their men were killed and the man in leather robe even managed to sneak an attack thrice and ended up before General Xia Hou.
If the General weren"t so powerful, he would have been killed by this man.
An ordinary man couldn"t be compared to a cultivator, and an ordinary cavalry couldn"t be compared to a cultivator either. The Tang army could accept this fact, but they could not accept that they could not even stop this man. They could not accept that they had to depend on the Tang General to defend their camp.
To the proud Tang cavalry, this was the greatest shame.
The sorrowful tune of the military flute rang in the meadows. Almost 800 armored black cavalry got into position slowly. The crossbow arrow and the Tactical Array Masters at the camp moved ten feet forward.
The battle between the strongest cavalry and the strongest cultivator had begun.
"You have become a cowardly villain after betraying the Front Gate. You only know how to hide in your military camps and you only know how to send your men to death."
Tang said to Xia Hou.
Xia Hou placed his fist before his lips and coughed twice. He held out a hand to stop his subordinates. Then, he raised his head to look at Tang. "My army has never partic.i.p.ated in the war between tribes. You know why this is so. So I do not understand why you have tried to kill me since last year, and that you"d risk death just to do that."
Tang took off his fur cap and threw it at his feet. Then, he walked out from the dipped-in spot on the gra.s.s and stood a distance away from Xia Hou. He said, "Because there are many in the Front Gate waiting for your return."
Xia Hour furrowed his brows slightly.
His brows looked as if they were carved from steel, and when they furrowed together, they seemed even colder and harder.
There wasn"t anyone living left in the Front Gate of the Devil"s Doctrine. There were only white bones and dried corpses. Those waiting for him were not people, but their vengeful spirits.
"Your teacher and I had already left when Mr. Ke broke through the Front Gate. It had nothing to do with me, so you cannot blame me."
"But you became a visiting professor of the West-Hill Divine Palace after heading south."
Tang said, "A traitor is a traitor. The ancestors of the Enlightenment Doctrine are all waiting for you back in the Front Gate. Senior Sister Murong is waiting for you in the steamer."
Xia Hou"s furrowed brows dimmed when he heard Murong"s name. After a long silence, he said, "It is not that easy to kill me."
Tang said, "If I reveal your ident.i.ty to the world, who in the world would accept you?"
Xia Hou said, "The West-Hill, His Majesty and the Academy. Their acceptance is enough. Because it means that the world will accept me. And as long as the world accepts me, the people in the world would not dare not to."
Tang said, "The Tang Empire might have accepted you because of your war efforts. He might have wanted to get rid of you long ago, but he did not want to enter into a conflict with the West-Hill. He did not have any evidence, which was why he asked you to stay at the frontiers. The Academy did not kill you because those in the Academy had long forgotten how to kill."
"You may be right."
Xia Hou looked at him emotionlessly and said, "But you are not the Haotian Taoism Sect. You are not the Emperor of Tang or the Academy either. So you cannot kill me. And in this entire world, only you want me dead."
Tang said, "Why can"t I kill you?"
Xia Hou looked at the blood-color huge blade in his hands. He looked at the blade piercing deeply into the ground and said, "Because the divine blade has dulled in your hands."
Tang said, "And your armor has been torn."
Xia Hou had changed into the war robe he was wearing in the morning. It was torn to shreds by Tang"s blade and the golden sheen of his armor could be seen from beneath.
He was the great General of the Tang Empire. His armor was designed by Professor Huang He of the Academy and made under the supervision of the Academy. There were numerous talisman lines engraved on the surface that looked like it could provide him with unlimited protection.
It just looked like that it could provide unlimited protection. In the end, there was still a limit.
Tang"s blood-color huge blade had left a deep gouge in the armor last year by the Hulan Sea. The battles in the past days had caused the armor to dim significantly. The chest area had dimmed significantly and had several cracks, signifying the breaking down of the armor.
The armor would not last for long.
"You have been injured."
Xia Hou looked at the fist imprint and blood on Tang"s chest. He said, "And you are badly injured. We would need 4000 armored black cavalries to trap you at your peak. But you might die anytime now. If you want to kill me, you have to be prepared to be killed by me anytime."
"Your cavalry will not be able to trap me unless you break my legs."
Tang said, "But you know, my legs are not so easily broken. You wanted to do this three times in a row, but you did not succeed. You will never succeed."
There was a momentary pause. He continued, "And you will never stop being injured."
Xia Hou said, "Your injuries are worse than mine."
Tang said, "But you"re older than me."
Xia Hou said, "We are all disciples of the Enlightenment Doctrine. Do you really believe in the nonsense that we weaken with age?"
Tang said, "You might not get weaker as you age, but your spirit is not as strong as it used to be. For example, you are more afraid of death now than you were then. Of course, you have always been afraid of death after boiling Murong to death."
Xia Hou did not say anything.
"The older you get, the more afraid of death you get. The more cowardly you are, the more afraid of death you are. The one who fears death the most, dies most easily."
Tang looked at him and said, "I will follow you as long as you don"t return to Chang"an. I will continue to fight against you and I want to see you die before me."
Xia Hou did not say anything else but turned to walk down the meadow.
The flute rang, and horse hooves thundered on the meadow. Hundreds of armored black cavalry rolled forward towards Tang, who stood quietly on the meadow, like a wave.
Xia Hou walked towards the military camp a distance away from the meadow and did not turn back.
He listened to the whistling flames and the thundering clashes on the meadow behind him but he did not turn back.
They had fought thrice, but Tang did never lose his legs, and he did not find an opportunity to hurt his opponent"s legs. Tang would not allow himself to die at the hands of the cavalry.
Xia Hou knew this day would come since he betrayed the Devil"s Doctrine.
He had not expected that the person who would come to rid the Devil"s Doctrine of its betrayer would be the disciple of the Twenty-Three-year Cicada Cultivation instead. He admitted that Tang was right. He was more afraid of death now than he had been. But he had never been worried that he would die at Tang"s hands, or legs.
Because Tang was one of the world"s powerhouse, so was his.
If it had been the Twenty-Three-year Cicada Cultivation, he would have no other choice but to return to Chang"an.
Xia Hou thought to himself.
Over ten houses by the Yanming lake under the Yanming mountain had their new owners.
New owners did not make much changes to the houses. They did not demolish and rebuild them, but they still spent a large amount of money to refurbish the area.
Hundreds of workers and over ten large carts were gathered by the lake. They began to get rid of the mud by the lake. The gardeners from the Scholar"s Mansion began to instructs the boatmen on which to plant lotus flowers in the lake.
Those who had moved out of the houses heard of what was happening, and brought their old and young to the Yanming Lake to watch the show. They watched the mud being carted away and the boat that was planting lotus flowers in the lake. They thought about how this would look amazing next year, and couldn"t help but feel envious.
They might feel envy, and perhaps a little regretful. But they were not jealous or resentful. The people of Chang"an had always been praised for their good disposition. Since that person had spent so much money in refurbis.h.i.+ng the area, he had the right to enjoy it.
Mr. Qi"s Fish-dragon Gang was in charge of putting together the restoration of Yanming Lake. Ning Que"s only request was for them to not move the structure of the houses and to plant some lotus flowers. Ning Que did not know much about the project and did not want to partic.i.p.ate in it. That was why he still stayed in the Old Brush Pen Shop on Lin 47th Street.
"Darkie reminded me before that Xia Hou was afraid of water."
Ning Que sat by the well, peering into the deep and calm well water. He said, "But I do not understand why a cultivator at the Peak state of Martial Arts would be afraid of water. Perhaps Xia Hou said it as a bluff. So I will not try to drown him. I have decided to beat him to death before planting him as a lotus flower."