Nightfall

Translator: Larbre Studio  Editor: Larbre Studio

Ning Que looked at him silently, without any sign of fear.

After a long time, the Butcher put the knife back onto the chopping board. But his hand never left the handle. He said, "I do not care about you killing others, but I care about eternity. You and anyone from the Academy shall not enter the West-Hill again. Or I will have shed blood."

Ning Que said, "I have already come in here, how are you going to kill me?"

The Butcher did not reply. However, his grip on the knife in his hand tightened. The knife in his hand was the answer. The knife was as heavy as a mountain, as sharp as the wind. It was the most horrifying knife ever since the dawn of human history.

It was as though the cyan-steel sword that Ke Haoran had once wielded.

Que Ning"s expression became graver. His right hand did not reach for the iron cutla.s.s he carried on his back. Though his iron cutla.s.s was very strong, there was too huge a gap between his cutla.s.s and the knife on the Butcher"s hand.

"I won"t be able to beat you, but it would be very hard for you to catch me." After Ning Que finished the sentence, he turned around and left the deli with the big black horse.

The Butcher stood behind the chopping board inside the shop. He looked at Ning Que"s back silently. His eyes were as sharp as a knife.

The closer Ning Que moved towards Peach Mountain, the sharper his look became. The further Ning Que moved away from Peach Mountain, the calmer his look became, like an old knife slowly being sheathed.

Ning Que left the town as the eyes of the Butcher continued to chase him.

He turned his head and looked back. All he saw was a few of the Divine Halls among the mountain peaks, under the blue sky and the white clouds. The deli stood in front of Kuxia Town. He was silent as he slid deep in thought for a very long time.

He didn"t stand a chance against the Butcher, and he did not know if anyone from the Academy could even defeat him. With the Butcher guarding Peach Mountain, the Tang Cavalry could not enter the mountain. Nor could anyone from the Academy.

The reason that Ning Que went there that day was to see if there was any way to resolve the problem peacefully. Unfortunately, the Butcher had made his point firm. Then, the Academy would have to think about another way.

There was only one man who could possibly change all these.

At the southern edge of the West-Hill Divine Kingdom, there was the South Jin Kingdom. Further to the south, there was the Great River. There were many small kingdoms on the east side, such as Song and Qi. Every kingdom were gathering their armies and preparing for war.

Near the end of the summer, Ning Que left the West-Hill Divine Kingdom. He headed not to the Great River, but to the east. Many divine priests had died in the Song Kingdom, the Qi Kingdom, the Liang Kingdom, and the Chen Kingdom. The Alliance"s spirit was hanging low.

Right when the West-Hill Divine Kingdom had finally reacted, they sent out their finest and strongest in attempt to kill, or at least temporarily stalled Ning Que. However, no one would have known that he has already arrived at the Wa Mountain quietly.

The town in front of the Wa Mountain was still the same from the last few years. The people were still making their livings on sculpturing Buddhas out of stones. There was no more Ghost Festival and the devotees of the Lanke Temple s.h.i.+ed in comparison to its heyday. But there were still innumerable intricate pieces of stone left after the collapse of the Buddha sculpture. The stones were enough to last for a few hundred years of sculpturing.

In the early morning, rain poured in the Wa Mountain region. The sea breeze had already made the mountain peak colder than the mainland. With the addition of the rain, it felt more like fall, though it was summer.

"Like the old days."

Ning Que stood in front of the fallen pieces of the Buddha. He was looking at the mountain road between the mountains, the vaguely showing the hall behind the forest, and the giant rocks all over the mountains and valleys. He said, "Although the sculpture was made in the image of Buddha, it is still not real after all."

Monk Guan Hai stood beside him, he joined both his hand and prayed. He proceeded to sigh, "Then what is real?"

Ning Que turned around and looked at him, and said, "The South Jin Kingdom is about to be established. Let"s put the Yan Kingdom aside, the Divine Halls can"t even defeat the Great River. Do you still believe that Taoism could prevail? Victory is the only real thing."

Monk Guan Hai was silent for a while, and said, "Don"t you think it"s very weird?"

Ning Que did not answer the question directly. As the cold rain was falling on his face, was.h.i.+ng away all his expression, he said, "When you go to West-Hill, make sure you also go to the Lanke Temple. Take it as your part of the spoils."

Monk Guan Hai said, "The Academy is eradicating Buddhism… and we all are the disciples of the Buddha."

Ning Que said, "You are wrong. Second Brother is eradicating the Buddhist Kingdoms, not Buddha himself."

Monk Guan Hai said, "Buddha, please have mercy on us. Too many have died and you have killed too many people."

Ning Que turned around and looked at him, he said, "You are wrong again, your Buddha had never been merciful. His teachings and deliverance for the people can only cultivate a smaller Nirvana. All he wanted was nothing more than to survive the Ever Night. Perhaps, he was even after more things, more than just eternity. Did the Buddha really ever care about the human world?"

Monk Guan Hai said, "According to what you have said, what really is the purpose for us to cultivate in the way of the Buddha for these few ten years?"

Ning Que said, "The Buddhist scriptures were not written by Buddha himself. Master Qishan had taught me to read them. You have read them yourself too. Cultivating the way of the Buddha was really to cultivate ourselves.

Monk Guan Hai was silent again.

Ning Que, then spoke, "You are a Buddha, and so am I. So is everyone else in the world. Like what Ye Su said ambiguously in the New Stream literary canon, everyone is Haotian. Then, the human world would be the Buddha Kingdom and also a Divine Kingdom."

Monk Guan Hai sighed again. He looked at Ning Que"s pale and slender face, and said, "Then how about you? Are you going to continue your killing? You won"t be able to keep it up for too long."

There were wildflowers inside the ruins of the Buddha sculpture. The flowers were yellow, it looked a lot like that flower in the past.

Ning Que looked at the flower and the mountain roads in between the forest. He thought about what Sangsang said in the temple. He slightly closed his eyes, there was no way of telling whether he was happy or sad.

He was willing to go around the human world, continue his killing and finding people at the cost of his state and longevity. Like what the Butcher had said, he wasn"t as fast as the abbey dean and the Drunkard, but he felt that he knew what was on her mind. He knew that what she treasured most was the past. Although he could not sense her actual location, there was still a chance to find her. Perhaps she was even living inside the temple of the Wa Mountain.

Unfortunately, she was not there.

He said, "I will stay here as long as I can."

Monk Guan Hai spoke, "And prove your way with murder?"

Ning Que shook his head and said, "Only people like Lian Sheng could do such a sick act. Although I have killed fewer than Lian Sheng, I am no less evil than him. After all, we have different thoughts. I don"t know what will become of the human world. I do not actively engage in thoughts of destroying the world. All I do is just preparation."

Monk Guan Hai sighed. "It looks like that you noticed that something is wrong too."

That was the second time he mentioned that.

Although the reason why the Tang and the Academy were on the winning side seemed to be the result of Ning Que roaming around and killing people, the truth was that they were already winning to begin with. He was only speeding up the entire process through that terrifying method.

Taoism had ruled the world for so many years, so the Divine Halls of West-Hill had acc.u.mulated unimaginable resources. For these reasons, they won"t be losing as quickly. The undermining reason of all was… the death of Ye Su.

Because of Ye Su"s death, the New Stream had sprung up like mushrooms after a rain in the spring. They spread and grew everywhere. The impact was so devastating that it shook the roots of Taoism"s rule. Because of Ye Su"s death, the Divine Halls of West-Hill had split and the internal fight never stopped.

All of these occurred seemingly due to one irrational decision of the abbey dean. But how could an abbey dean make such an irrational decision? Even the most irrational of all would not do that.

However, Monk Guan Hai did not think so, and Ning Que did as well. He almost even guessed what was the truth, but he could only play the game pa.s.sively as he has no other way. Guessing the Abbey Dean"s thoughts correctly did not mean he could see through the situation. Ning Que could only use the simplest way to resolve the complicated situation.

The simplest thing that is life and death. A blade can sever one from this world.

His only wish was that he could be faster, so fast that the human world could change before the Abbey Dean could succeed. If he did, the success of the Abbey Dean"s trap would mean nothing.

There were a lot of people that wanted to change the human world. The Headmaster of the Academy, the Buddha, Ke Haoran, and Lian Sheng had all tried to do so. Some of them failed, some were still trying. People like the Drunkard and the Butcher would not want any changes to the human world. But that will by itself was some kind of influence and change. But what"s important is, all these people were very strong.

Some of the people were not as unpredictable as the Butcher in terms of state cultivation and strength. However, there was one thing that could change the world, that was his unpredictability and strong will.

In the deep part of the West Wilderness, someone had already changed the gloom underworld that was surrounded by the prison wall of cliffs. The widespread wildfire lightened up Heaven, Earth, and the Prajna Peak. It also lightened up the way.

The rebellion war of that few years had changed the order in the underground Buddha land entirely. Especially during the beginning of spring, where the reinforcement of the Right Royal Court was ambushed by the Tang army who sneaked out of Cong Ridge. That battle cost them many food resources. No one was able to change the outcome of that battle after that.

The fire was everywhere in between the Giant Peak that grew out of the Giant Sinkhole. It obstructed the yellow temples in the green forest. Many of them were devoured by the flame. Many burns marks were put on the continual forest. No path and trees were spared in the marks. Numerous mountain roads were naked in the view, as if threads that were trying, yet failing, to repair whatever was left.

Jun Mo was holding an iron sword in his hand at the frontmost part of the mountain road. He looked at the severely injured Qi Nian expressionlessly. He found some monk robes to wear as the clothes that he had always worn was destroyed in the battle. His newly grown hair was gray and short. With the light emitting from the fire afar, he looked like a Buddha statue.

Not far away, under a Bodhi tree, Master Huang Yang had already closed his eyes and pa.s.sed away. As a Tang, he did not know what to do with both the Academy and the Buddha land. Although no one knew if he had figured the answer out in the end after all the years of thoughts, no one was to qualify to say that what he did was to escape. It perhaps tended more to a relief.

Qi Nian was drenched in blood. His kasaya was torn. He could not look worse. He was pointing at the wildfire over the mountain and the temple that was gradually turning into ashes. He said, "Is killing of mortals and eradication of Buddhism the way of the Academy?"

Jun Wu declared, "Eradicating Buddhism is my way."

Qi Nian said, "I have once heard there"s a saying in the Academy, existing is the way."

Jun Yang said, "What Youngest Brother said was extremely wrong."

Qi Nian said bitterly, "There"s really no way to argue with Mr. Second."

Jun Yang said without changing his expression, "I"m right, and that"s why you all couldn"t argue with me."