Nightfall

Ning Que kept quiet and stepped ahead of her. Just a few steps had made him breathless and pale.

He had gone through countless rounds of savage torture. The slow slicing and arm breaking had almost drained him. If it was not for Sangsang, he would have died several times. Although he was still alive and no wounds could be seen on his body, the newly grown flesh was not fully integrated with his mind and body. The fall triggered his previous wounds. With every step he took, his spirit s.h.i.+vered and he suffered from tremendous pain.

Sangsang could feel his pain but remained indifferent.

Ning Que stood on the rotten leaves and rested for a moment. He found a pretty strong stick and crutched on it, then walked in frustration and pain into the thick fog.

Deep down the abyss under the cliff behind Peach Mountain, it was covered by clouds and fog all year round. There was no way out, unlike the abyss at the Back Hill of the Academy. It was isolated from the rest of the world and no one knew what kind of creatures lived there and how dangerous they could be.

They walked in the foul fog without worrying because nothing could ever hurt Haotian. They were the only ones who were able to hurt each other.

Sangsang looked at the back of Ning Que, emotionlessly and quietly.

She could have easily controlled him, chained his Mountain of Snow and Ocean of Qi again and dragged him back to the Divine Halls of West Hill. There he would be her slave until eternity and never to be freed again.

However, Ning Que showed his determination by jumping off the cliff. It would be meaningless to take him back to the Divine Halls. Furthermore, she had her own plan in mind.

Having made up her mind, Sangsang held her hands behind her back and followed Ning Que wandering in the thick and moist fog. She was fascinated by the grotesque vines.

Ning Que was tired and sat on a rock to rest. He looked at the relaxed and cheerful Sangsang and said, "I know you despise my tricks, but I had no choice. You are way too powerful than me. I had to make those embarra.s.sing scenes to get you out of Peach Mountain. It should have been your tricks. I just borrowed them."

Sangsang did not reply to him and walked towards deep into the dark vines. She looked above with her eyes wide open and seemed curious. Ning Que was surprised by her reaction and felt some hope again.

After a while, Ning Que regained some strength and stood up crutching to the stick. He pa.s.sed by the dark vines and called to her, "Time to go!"

Sangsang walked out of the vines still without any expressions. It seemed that she had found nothing interesting, but Ning Que noticed some slightly rosy stains by her lips and several bright red fruits in her hands. Those fruits should taste good, he thought.

Ning Que said nothing but kept walking. The fog thickened in the abyss. In a few steps he could no longer see Sangsang"s face clearly. The surroundings became increasingly vague and there were only random shadows of the vines and weird growls.

After coming down to the abyss, Sangsang was obviously different from her previous self inside the Divine Hall of Light. She showed great interest in the things around her. She wanted to taste the fruits and became curious of the unknown, just like how human beings were. However, she definitely did not feel fear as they did.

Due to her increase in curiosity and her lack of fear, Sangsang found the foggy abyss exceptionally interesting. From time to time she disappeared from Ning Que"s sight and went into the fog. She went somewhere and saw some things then came back to him silently.

Ning Que was not even aware of her being away at the beginning. When he found that she was disappearing, he started to worry instinctively. Then he realized that he was just being absurd.

— In Haotian"s world, who could ever hurt her? He did not need to worry about her getting lost either because no matter how thick or dim the foul fog was, as long as he tried he could sense where she was and knew that she would come back. He also did not worry about himself as long as she was by his side.

For years, the abyss had been under the dark rule for years. The foul fog carried the resentment of numerous former prisoners in the Secluded Pavilion and also poisonous particles from nature. When combined, the two could be very dangerous. Although Ning Que became immune to poison after he practiced Haoran Qi, he still felt dizzy after walking in the foul fog for a long time. However, when Sangsang came back to his side, he became refreshed and restored immediately. Nothing could ever poison him again.

The real danger inside the abyss was not the foul fog, but rather the creatures in it. In order to survive in such a hostile environment, these creatures had acquired brutal vitality and vital killing skills. Ning Que spread his psyche power towards the fog and sensed the vitality from the old moist vines, snakes, and beasts that were hiding among them and even under the rotten leaves. He felt tingled.

Along their way in the fog, he and Sangsang came across with several grotesque creatures. They were mostly snakes. One of the snakes was covered in mucus and had degenerated eyes, so it used its emerald hiss to sense the environment. Most of the snakes were dazzling and colorful, even in the thick fog.

However, what most horrifying was the sound of swaying vines and branches. They sounded like crying and howling. Ning Que knew that there must be creatures jumping from trees to trees. He sensed their rapid speed even though he was not able to see them clearly. However, he was not aware of one thing. What was the creature that was hiding under the rotten leaves? This made him extremely cautious and scared.

Sangsang had no dreads at all, but she was annoyed by the wretched howling and rustling from under the rotten leaves. As a result, she slightly waved her sleeves.

Upon the waving of her sleeves, blossoms bloomed and innumerable fire flies flew out of the petals. They flew towards the foul fog and burned into countless bright spots, until they merged into a whole lot of brightness. 

Then the brightness took over the abyss and defeated the thick fog. With burning sounds, the foul fog disappeared visibly and everything around them became clear.

Layers and layers of rotten leaves covered the ground. Moss and strange mushrooms surrounded the roots. Vines hung on the branches twisted and tangled, which looked like the clinging plum branches outside their house by the Yanming Lake.

Beasts howled in panic deep in the bushes. This led to intensified rustling sounds under the rotten leaves, and the dazzling snakes raised their heads in fury. Ning Que stayed on alert.

Before he could do anything, the horrifying howl and rustling vanished immediately. Those snakes put their heads down to the ground in no time.

It was because Sangsang walked ahead of Ning Que towards the foul fog. With every step she took, brightness spread rapidly around her and miles of fog cleared up. The dark abyss brightened suddenly. If she were to continue walking, her brightness would clear all of the fog and expose the bottom of the abyss to daylight.

The azure sky was familiar to lives outside the abyss, but rather strange to the creatures living inside. They stared at the blue sky and howled in panic.

Brightness continued to spread out. Countless green ants ran out from under the rotten leaves and clapped their front legs towards Sangsang"s footprints in awe. The colorful snakes crawled to the creeks and wiggled their mucus-covered bodies, hoping to lower themselves to the deepest marsh. Grotesque beasts that were hiding in the foggy bushes finally revealed themselves. Hundreds of ghost monkeys jumped off the vines and repeatedly kowtowed on the wet ground.

Ning Que frowned to these scenes with disgust, but Sangsang showed no interest and walked through the scared creatures with her hands behind her back. It was not like a governor touring around his realm, for she did not even see these low level beings as her subjects.

The abyss covered with foul fog and dwelled by poisoning creatures was like a natural chasm for human beings. It would be extremely difficult even for those at Knowing Destiny State to walk out of the abyss, but for Sangsang it was merely a ditch. She strolled through the foul fog and arrived at the front of the rolling mountains.

Ning Que looked at the rolling mountains and was stunned. Dark clouds covered the sky again and storms enveloped the mountains. A simple abbey became visible in the storm.

Was that the legendary Zhishou Abbey?

If it was in the past, Ning Que would have been extremely interested in visiting the simple abbey. It was not because it was one of the unknown places in the human world but because there were six volumes of the Seven Tomes of Arcane in the Abbey. Now the author of the Seven Tomes of Arcane, Sangsang, was right next to him. It diminished his interest for the Abbey.

...

...

Someone else had also made his way out of the abyss previously.

Instead of declining, the Abbey looked calm and charming in the storm.

Long Qing sat by the lake with his legs crossed and was reading the Arcane Tome of the Opening quietly. He had sat in the storm for so long that the snowflakes landed on his eyelashes had become frost.

All of a sudden, he heard sounds coming from down the cliff. Colors drained from his face as it reminded him of the painful past he went through in the abyss. The frost on his eyelashes disappeared.

The middle-aged man pushed the wheelchair toward the side of the lake. The Abbey Dean in the wheelchair watched the storm and the people coming out of the abyss and sighed gravely.

...

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