Nightfall

With the flame on Ye Su"s body getting stronger and stronger, his voice could no longer be heard and his face was disappearing. His whole body was burning, like a bright light.

The light that scattered on the human world suddenly disappeared. Then a holy beam of light, coming from his body, went to the sky above the woodpile and fell in the deepest part of the distant sky.

There was a bright area appearing in the dark sky, which was not as bright as the sun but more real. Tens of thousands of people who were kneeling on the ground could see clearly what was there.

There were a blue sky, gray clouds, darkness, and the true light.

All of a sudden, the bright area dimmed again, but then quickly reverted to the way it was.

The raging fire on the woodpile had risen to the air, as if to burn the sky. The figure of Ye Su could no longer be seen. But the strange thing was that there was no horrible smell but a faint aroma in the air, making people feel extraordinarily peaceful.

Did the beam of light, the bright area in the dark sky, and the faint aroma mean that Ye Su had become a sage?

n.o.body knew the answer. Long Qing didn"t know, neither did tens of thousands of people kneeling on the ground and the cavalrymen, Xiaoyu and the divine priests standing outside the small courtyard. 

The images of sanctification recorded in West-Hill literary canon had nothing to do with today"s story. It was impossible for anyone to know what was going on at this moment, including the Abbey Dean. But it was not important.

Ye Su was sanctified, which had nothing to do with religion or the Divine Kingdom in the sky. His sanctification took place in the human world and also in the hearts of the followers. He had become a sage.

No matter whether the Great Tang and the Academy could win the war or not, the New Stream would inevitably spread in the human world. No one could stop this. Countless people would see Ye Su as a sage.

Therefore he was a sage.

Suddenly it began to snow. The drifting clouds gathered into thick clouds covering the sky. Then ice crystals coagulated in the depths of the clouds and fell to the earth as the form of snow.

The snow fell on the streets of the city, fell on the people who knelt on the square and kept chanting, fell in the small courtyard, and fell on the burning woodpile. Falling into the flame, the snow melted into water, gradually soaking the woodpile. The flame was getting smaller and smaller, and finally extinguished after a long time.

The chanting gradually stopped too. People looked into the small courtyard hopefully and wished that a miracle would happen. But they sadly found that there was no miracle at all. 

The cross had been burned and collapsed, and the man whom people wished to see was already gone. Even the rope that was tied to him had been burned to ashes.

The snowflakes kept falling, some falling on people"s shoulders and some on people"s lips. The flakes melt into water due to the people"s body temperature, moistening people"s lips, which were dry due to anxiety and sorrow. The crowd started to cry, and the sound of sobbing remain unbroken. 

Time pa.s.sed slowly. The clouds in the sky did not clear away, but the people on the square gradually dispersed. Thousands of followers of the New Stream walked out of the square while carrying each other. There was no conflict, killing nor arresting, for Long Qing remained silent this whole time.

Standing in front of the woodpile, he revealed no expression.

After a long time, the snow still kept falling, putting out the last sparks left on the woodpile. The woodpile was gradually covered with thick snow, and the ashes could no longer be seen.

The square was all white and clean.

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A thunder suddenly burst in the sky. Then a second one. The two thunder were chasing each other between heaven and earth.

On the square, the cavalrymen of the Divine Halls and the powerhouses from Taoism all looked up to the sky and seemed to be vigilant, frightened and unsettled, like they heard the anger of the G.o.d.

The two thunder kept changing their locations. It was impossible for these mortals to identify the exact locations and resist the power of the G.o.d. Then what were the thunder?

Long Qing looked up at the sky and the snowflakes which were disturbed by the invisible power hidden in the two thunder. He figured out what the thunders represented but still was as calm as before.

A storm suddenly appeared on the sea outside the Song Kingdom and soon landed. The sea water kept hitting the well-known breakwater, and the storm finally came to the square, turning into a roar.

The clouds above the city gently trembled. A strong power spread from the center of the roar, turning into a horrible wind. Countless cavalrymen fell off the horses, and even the powerhouses from Taoism had to use their full strength to barely keep standing straight in the fierce wind.

Then the fierce wind gradually smoothed and dispersed into the streets and houses like water. A circle which was about ten feet long appeared in the square. There was no snow or blood in that circle, just two people.

One person wore an old cotton jacket and held a short wooden stick. He was the Eldest Brother of the Academy. The other wore a gown giving out the smell of alcohol and had a flagon tie to his waist. He was the Drunkard.

The Eldest Brother"s cotton jacket was tattered, and blood kept coming out, soaking the cotton. He seemed to be quite distressed.

The Drunkard was no better than him. His clothes had stains everywhere, and his left shoulder seemed to be hurt. He wanted to take out the flagon but found that his hand shook heavily.

It turned out that the two thunder which were wandering between Heaven and Earth previously were actually these two chasing each other. They kept fighting against each other even in the Distanceless State.

That was the highest level of battle in the cultivation world, and also the hardest to fight against. But in fact, the battle could have been avoided.

Yesterday, the Drunkard returned to the town, said nothing to the Butcher, and just waited for the future silently. The Eldest Brother stayed at a small building outside Linkang City and waited for the result of the negotiation between the Academy and Taoism. Both the Drunkard and the Eldest Brother felt unsettled.

The Drunkard was still unsettled when he sensed that something unusual happened on Peach Mountain last night and Ye Su was sanctified this morning even though he was happy to see that the Abbey Dean was not persuaded by Ning Que.

He thought that the Academy was the source of his unsettlement, and that the Academy would try to save Ye Su at all costs. So he left the town in a hurry and returned to the small building outside Linkang City, encountering Li Manman again.

Just like what happened in the past few years, the Drunkard could not get rid of the Eldest Brother and the Eldest Brother could not completely subdue the Drunkard since they both had reached the Distanceless State. Taoism had lost its most important chess piece, and so did the Academy.

Then they began to fight, from the mountains to the seas. Finally they came to the square, and the Eldest Brother was seriously injured.

He was the one who got injured, for he was the one who wanted to come here.

"The Academy always likes to say that both body and spirit have been decayed. What about you now?" The Drunkard put his trembling hands behind back and said while looking at him, "You have been followed me for so many days. How much longer do you think you can bear the suffering?" 

He was a little pale and his left shoulder was seriously injured. But compared with the Eldest Brother who was covered in blood and had several broken bones, he suffered much less, so he dared to say this.

The Eldest Brother did not respond. Looking at the snow drift in the small courtyard, he sniffed the smell of the embers and remained silent, looking very desolate. He suffered so much to come here, but he was still too late.

There was crying coming from the distance, which might be for the innocent followers who died in the conflict or for Ye Su who was burned in the flame. He listened silently. After a while, he turned around and said to the Drunkard, "Why didn"t you stay in that small town? Why bother coming here?"

The Drunkard replied, "Why don"t you stay in Chang"an? Why bother coming here?"

The Eldest Brother said, "You are committing a crime."

The Drunkard said, "Is it a crime against the human world or the Divine Kingdom? The New Stream has shaken the foundation of the Divine Kingdom, so he must die. I would have killed him if Taoism waited any longer."

Long Qing had kept silent ever since the moment the Drunkard and the Eldest Brother appeared. He stood in the courtyard and looked at the two powerful cultivators to whom he could only look up, and seemed calm and fearless.

Everything was in the palm of the Abbey Dean"s hand. The Drunkard would certainly help Taoism to kill Ye Su from the standpoint of Haotian before he discovered the truth. It was because he and the Butcher were very greedy. They not only wanted immortality, but also wanted eternity. Since they could only get eternity from Haotian"s Divine Kingdom, they would definitely never let the Divine Kingdom be destroyed.

In fact, the Drunkard and the Butcher might have killed Ye Su much earlier if not for the Abbey Dean disapproval. These two Grand Cultivators couldn"t care less about sanctification.

They had long believed that they were sanctified, but they still had to hide in the human world like rats for tens of thousands of years and finally ended up with becoming Haotian"s dogs.

But Long Qing basically figured out what was going on at this moment since he knew what was on the Abbey Dean"s mind and talked with Ye Su before he died. He knew that the Drunkard and the Butcher would regret it in the future, but he wouldn"t mind using them as dogs in the name of Haotian.

Thinking of this, Long Qing smiled and taunted in his heart that even powerful people like the Drunkard and the Butcher would get carried away by greed. Five colors make people blind, and five notes make people deaf. The West-Hill literary canon is totally right. Long Qing suddenly stopped smiling, for he sensed somebody was watching him.

The Eldest Brother looked at him and kept silence for quite a while and asked, "Why?"

He didn"t understand. Neither did the Academy. No one could figure out why Taoism burned Ye Su to death and helped him to become a sage, for destroying the New Stream would not do Taoism any good. Instead, it would split Taoism apart, or at least would make it impossible for the Divine Hall of Judgement to keep its loyalty.

So what was on the Abbey Dean"s mind?

"You can regard all Ning Que"s failed attempts as reasons." Long Qing said, "My elder brother"s death is not just a matter that concerned Taoism. If not for the Academy, maybe he did not need to die, or at least would not die so soon. So your sorrow is pointless."

After saying this, he slightly bowed to the Eldest Brother, and walked out of the small courtyard. In the wind and snow, he mounted a horse and didn"t put the Arcane Tome of the Sand back to his chest until he was quite away from that courtyard.

The Eldest Brother looked at the figure of Long Qing disappearing into the snow.

He once noticed the uniqueness of this person outside Linkang City, and today he clearly sensed that Long Qing was extraordinary. But he had no spirit to think about this at this moment.

He looked back into the small courtyard and looked at the woodpile where the snow kept falling. Then he looked up at the sky, recalling something that happened in the past. 

That year, it was snowing in Chang"an and many people came to the city. Qi Nian was trapped by Yu Lian in the snow forest. Jun Mo sat on the snow bridge for one night. The Youngest Brother and Sangsang killed Xia Hou by the lake. As for himself, he stood on the city wall with Ye Su and watched the falling snow, chatting for the whole night.

They had met several times before that night. In front of a small Taoist temple, in the depths of the snow peak of Tianqi Mountain...

Before that, Sangsang was born in the human world, and there was a black line that appeared in the Wilderness. He was reading by a pond at one end of the black line, and Ye Su was cutting a tree on the other end of the black line. After hearing an interesting Taoist chant, Ye Su began to travel around the world and tried to figure out life and death. It was highly possible that he really figured it out at his last moment.

Was that the real reason why he had to die?

The Eldest Brother looked at the falling snow and kept silent for a long time. Ye Su"s decision for founding the New Stream had much to do with the Academy, for Jun Mo turned him into a useless person in front of the Verdant Canyon, and also for the discussion he had with Ye Su.

Then he remembered that many years ago, even before he became a disciple of the Headmaster, he wanted to be a scholar who could educate people. He imagined to be a scholar who lived in a mean alley and taught the poor children. He lived a poor and plain life but enjoyed it. He wanted to be such a person. Unexpectedly, Ye Su did what he wanted to do in the last few years of life.

After a long time, he reached out to catch a snowflake and turned to the Drunkard. "Abandoning the whole human world to get immortality. Don"t you think you will be very lonely if you succeed?"

The Drunkard answered, "Death is the real loneliness. Ye Su was the one who was truly lonely at this moment since he was sanctified and had no connection with the world."

The Eldest Brother shook his head and said calmly, "You are wrong. He will never be lonely."

Ye Su gave up the faith he wors.h.i.+ped for over a decade, just to let humans believe that they no longer need any faith. He pa.s.sed away, but he left many legacies and believed that his legacies would truly change the human world.

There were still many people who were doing or were about to do the same thing. Jun Mo set a fire at the bottom of the Giant Sinkhole. The Eldest Brother would lead the Academy to the future. How could Ye Su, a sage, be lonely since he had so many companions who shared his faith?

Sages never got lonely ever since ancient times.

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