Nightfall

　The Drunkard stared at the starry night and pondered for a long while. He was having some subtle sentiments as if he had been drinking too much and found himself amidst an ocean of stars. He was either too drunk or unwilling to look for a way out.

“Perhaps it will indeed be beautiful.”

He stared at the stars and suddenly seemed scared. He was like a kid who had been exposed to a whole new world out of his mountain village, and he was filled with fear and restlessness. His voice trembled, “Yet also scary.”

The sweetest candy was probably the most poisonous drug. The best hope was sometimes the worst fear. It could be alluring to be free, but dreadful to be independent. It was just a matter of choice.

The Eldest Brother sighed gently, as he knew the Drunkard was already sober and had made up his mind.

The Drunkard turned to him and said solemnly, “To me, being alive is always more important than anything else. I can give up a lot for it.”

The Eldest Brother said, “It’s not conflicting to be alive and to pursue.”

The Drunkard said, “But the pursuit of the Academy is conflicting with Haotian’s will.”

The Eldest Brother asked, “Why does Haotian’s will matter to you and me in terms of being alive?”

The Drunkard said, “The reason for me being able to survive throughout these years is because I would never fight for a losing battle. Your Headmaster could not defeat Haotian. How could I?”

The Eldest Brother pondered for a long while then asked suddenly, “What about the Academy?”

The Drunkard frowned slightly.

The Eldest Brother looked into his eyes calmly and said, “If you won’t stand against Haotian, then you will be against the Academy. You lack the confidence to defeat Haotian, then are you sure you can defeat the Academy?”

The Drunkard frowned further and his eyebrows seemed like two steady strokes in the dark wind.

The Eldest Brother said, “If I cannot talk you into treachery, then we will have to fight against you.”

The Drunkard asked, “What will the Academy do?”

The Eldest Brother said, “The Academy … we will fight with our lives.”

Years ago in Lanke Temple, the Academy fought with their lives in the autumn rain. Later in Chang’an, in the Verdant Canyon and the Wilderness, they fought with their lives too. They fought desperately to kill their enemies. Everyone in the Academy was proud, or even narcissistic. Their lives and the lives of their fellows were the most important to them. Therefore whenever they fight with their lives, it must be a desperate situation and they would definitely bring about an unimaginable power.

It did not matter if it was Liu Bai, the Sage of Sword, the Chief Monk of Scripture, or the Abbey Dean. The Academy had defeated every one of their most powerful enemies by fighting with their lives even it was Heaven.

Would the Drunkard and the Butcher be exceptions?

“Interestingly, in the Academy those who would fight with their lives cannot catch up with me, such as Lin Wu, Jun Mo or even Ning Que. The one who could catch up with me won’t fight with his life.”

The Drunkard looked at him and said calmly, “If the Academy were to fight against me, then you are probably the only match. We are both Distanceless. We walk the same way and see the same sceneries. Being able to catch up is the premise. But are you sure you know how to fight with your life?”

The Eldest Brother said, “Everything can be learned. And I’m a good learner.”

The Drunkard said, “When we were at Xuankong Temple, I said that you have made a lot progress. You are much stronger than when you fought against the Abbey Dean… To be enlightened overnight, you are indeed the best student of the Headmaster, and you are indeed good at learning, much better than Jun Mo or Lin Wu. But are you sure you can learn to fight with your life?”

The Eldest Brother sighed, “It’s easy to risk one’s own life instead of the ones of others.”

The Drunkard said, “That’s what I proved last night. You’ve learned to fight, and you took over the cudgel. However… you still cannot kill because it’s not in you.”

The Eldest Brother said, “Perhaps I’ll bring someone who can.”

“You could carry a Bodhi tree back to the Academy from thousands of miles away. But you could never carry a man for thousands of miles to a fight. When you carried Jun Mo, how far did you make?” The Drunkard continued, “That was actually what scares me. If you could really carry Lin Wu for a thousand miles to kill me, then what can I do except for to head back to my little town and stay with the Butcher?”

The Eldest Brother said bitterly, “If you were to go back to the little town, then so my Youngest Brother’s arrow.”

The Drunkard was slightly shocked. He realized that the Academy had planned for such a possibility but it was never executed. That was why they could talk about it right now. The autumn wind arose and raindrops fell from the leaves while he disappeared.

The Eldest Brother was slightly angry. The raindrops fell intensively on his cotton-padded gown as if they were falling on a sandy beach. The gown was slightly wet but became dry immediately.

The raindrops fell on the ground. They could not penetrate into the rocky ground and formed a shallow puddle in front of him. An ant was struggling in the puddle. He looked at the puddle silently and flipped a golden leaf onto the puddle. Within a short while the ant managed to climb onto the edge of the leaf and was saved.

The surface of the puddle shivered when a shadow appeared above it.

The Drunkard was back to the woods. He covered the starlights and seemed gloomy.

The Eldest Brother raised to ask, “Why did you kill again?”

There was no new blood on the Drunkard’s gown, but someone had indeed been killed.

“I’ve told you. The Academy should not try to kill me, or even come up with the slightest attempt because that will make me afraid and suffer. When I suffer, I will make sure you suffer and fear even more.”

“Who … was it this time?”

“I have no idea. Probably an ordinary?” The Drunkard said emotionlessly, “Perhaps it was a Tang soldier, or someone from Yan. I just kill. I do not pick. Perhaps next time I will kill someone from the Wilderness.”

The Eldest Brother said nothing.

The Drunkard looked at him sympathetically and said, “The virtuous has compassion. You do not want to kill, or see me kill. If you cannot fight with your life, then you have to learn to accept it. From now on, the Academy should stay quiet. When the Divine Halls have burned the tens of thousands of followers of the New Stream, and cleared every region around the Tang Empire, they will come for the Academy.”

The Eldest Brother gazed at him and asked, “What does killing mean to you? Are you seeing yourself as a divine existence so it never bothered you? Or are you even enjoying it?”

“It doesn’t bother me indeed. But I do not enjoy it either.”

The Drunkard walked to the cliff and looked at the human world in the darkness. He watched the very few lights in Linkang and said calmly, “I don’t like to kill blindly. But to me, all human beings are merely animals… If I were crazy, I might find it interesting to kill my own kind. But since I’m killing some animals like fish or chickens, why should I feel excited?”

The Eldest Brother came to his side and looked at the human world in the darkness. He watched the lights and shades in Linkang, and put his right hand on the cudgel quietly. “Is it impossible to change anything?” he asked.

The night lasted long, but disappeared in a blink. The warm red sun jumped out of the horizon and brightened the mountains in the autumn rain.

The Drunkard said, “The sun will rise again and the daytime will never be dark. It’s Haotian’s world. No one but Haotian is eternal. You can never change the rules.”

The Eldest Brother said, “We, Tang people, never give up. Neither will the Academy. I might not be able to change the rules of this world or you, but I can change myself.”

The Drunkard looked at the cudgel in his right hand and asked, “You want to kill me?”

The Eldest Brother said, “I cannot kill you. But I can kill someone else.”

The Drunkard frowned and asked, “You want to make a change, even if it’s a disgrace?”

The Eldest Brother answered, “Yes. Even if it’s a disgrace.”

The Drunkard asked after a pause, “Who are you planning to kill?”

The Eldest Brother said, “I will go to the little town and find the girl who sells liquor. I’ll see if she is pretty and ask for the age of the liquor she sells, and that if you ever owed her any money.”

The Drunkard paused for a while then said, “Do as you wish.”