Nightfall

“Say what?”

Without turning around, the young girl in black hair spoke in a much steadier way. Thus, she looked extremely peaceful in emotion. In other words, no sentiment could be felt from her.

Zhuo Zhihua and Cat Girl had a glance at each other and both felt helpless. Zhuo Zhihua paced a few steps forward and said in a low voice, “I think the Divine Hall won’t be so partial to Yuelun Kingdom if they know Hill Master is here.”

The girl picked up her brush again and silently wrote on the desk. Then she said, “Now that we are summoned by the edict of the Divine Hall to help Yan Kingdom, it’s a natural thing to accept an assignment. How could it be called a kind of partial one?”

Zhuo Zhihua worriedly said, “That palace is deep in the Wilderness. If we meet some Horse Gangs or guerrillas or some people with malicious intentions when we escort the provisions and fodder, what should we do?”

Raising her brush and dipping some ink, the young girl in black hair gently said, “So what?”

Accompanying her in the Ink Lake many years, Zhuo Zhihua knew that was her temperament. She was just addicted to books and calligraphy and cared little about most of worldly things, but not cold and unfeeling. However, the students of Black Ink Garden were facing an extremely dangerous situation right now. As the only person who could redeem the situation, she wasn’t allowed to keep insusceptible like this.

Zhuo Zhihua, slightly grabbing fists and severely looking at her long black hair, said, “If Hill Master doesn’t speak for us, we may die in the Wilderness. Maybe you could survive, but absolutely I will die and so will Cat Girl. If that, those shameless and insidious people would feel happy and joyful about our death. Yuelun Kingdom, which always wants to bully and oppress the people of our Great River Kingdom, may even celebrate it across the country.”

The young girl in black hair beside the desk put the brush with full ink back to the inkstone. After a short silence, she placed her hands into her sleeves and peacefully said, “Why would we be dead?”

Listening to her words which was as usual, Zhuo Zhihua became more anxious and said with a helpless smile, “Because we are unable to rival our enemies.”

The young girl in black hair calmly said, “If all students of Black Ink Garden improve their states and then become cultivators in Seethrough State, or we have another Grand Cultivator in Knowing Destiny State like our master, who dare be so rude to us, even if we are deep in the Wilderness? Who dare frame us with such absurd tricks?”

Zhuo Zhihua was shocked and didn’t know why she said these words at this time.

“The students of Black Ink Garden are not powerful, so we are always bullied by other people and will be afraid of death when facing such kind of situation. If we are strong enough, we won’t feel fear and be bullied by others.”

The sound of the young girl in black hair was straight and smooth like a thin ice on the lake surface, without any fluctuations.

“If one wants to become powerful, it’s necessary to have the guts to face difficult experiences. Why everyone in the world daren’t look down on the Academy of Chang’an? Because even for their common students, they have to take part in the practice in the battlefield and accept the life-or-death test in the most dangerous place.”

“When facing trouble, don’t always count on me to speak for you. In the eyes of worldly people and you guys, maybe I have some reputation. However, you don’t know that in this world, reputation is the most powerless thing. Strength, just like the brush and ink, is only relative to itself forever.”

Standing beside Zhuo Zhihua, Cat Girl looked at the young girl in black hair and confusedly asked with eyebrows frowning, “But Senior Sister, your state has been so high, and is it not powerful enough?”

“The top of Seethrough state…it indeed sounds seemingly powerful.”

The young girl in black hair peacefully said, “Wang Jinglue of Tang is named Invincible prior to Knowing Destiny; Prince Long Qing is just one step away from Knowing Destiny State; Tao Addict Ye Hongyu, could even make Prince Long Qing fear. Compared with them, is the top of Seethrough state something powerful?”

That three persons were the mightiest figures in the young generation. Her calm and placid mention was not only a warning to her fellows, but also revealed her thought that she naturally had a qualification to compete with these three people.

Listening to the word, Cat Girl stretched her tongue out and said, “Senior Sister, your analysis is unreasonable. Even if the three persons are high in cultivation state, they are also similar to you. If speaking of those stronger figures…maybe only those Grand Cultivators of Knowing Destiny State. However, those Grand Cultivators are rarely seen in front of us, because they are Great Divine Priests of the Divine Hall or great masters of different sects. Perhaps a common person has no chance to see one of those people for the whole life.”

What the little girl said was indeed right. The Grand Cultivators of Knowing Destiny State was like celestial dragons in the world, which were known but unseen by common people. Sometimes they would appear in the cloud, and then would suddenly hide in deep mountains. So it was very difficult to encounter them.

If the word was heard by Ning Que, he definitely wouldn’t agree with it. Those people whom he contacted and consulted every day, like Second Brother who wore a wooden club overhead, Chen Pipi who fought for crab porridge with him, his master who stayed in brothel every day, Chao Xiaoshu who had gone travelling, the Master of Nation, younger brother of emperor, Professor Huang He, not to mention Headmaster of Academy and Eldest brother whom he had not seen until now…

Grand Cultivators of Knowing Destiny State? What was the difference between them and those cabbages seen everywhere in the field?

…

…

The young girl in black hair had made up her mind, so other girls of Great River Kingdom only had to keep their many thoughts to themselves and got ready to set off. However, Zhuo Zhihua, standing beside the river lake, unavoidably showed worrying expression, as she looked at the distant and more mysterious and dangerous Wilderness where there were gathering clouds and flying winter snow.

They came from southern continent and had never been to the Wilderness before. They experienced nothing about the food, climate, geography and culture of the Wilderness. Though united army of assisting Yan sent tour guides to them, yet how could they be reliable? Who wouldn’t feel scared when they had to enter a totally unknown world without any assistance of external force and their own sect?”

Cat Girl, who was still very young, cared less about the thing. She was angry at the unfairness of the Divine Hall and the impudence of Yuelun Kingdom, but she didn’t be afraid of entering into the Wilderness. She believed that there wasn’t a real danger as long as her Senior Sister was with her, so she still had the mood to remember the Osmanthus Cake of Lotus Store of Chang’an. In addition, she trotted along the river and said goodbye to Ning Que on such a snowy day.

After listening to her about what the students of Black Ink Garden faced, Ning Que kept silent for a while and then smiled at the little red-faced girl. His soft smile was filled with many hidden emotions, such as a kind of self-praise.

Cat Girl looked at him and suddenly said, “Senior Brother, you smile so horribly.”

Ning Que was shocked and asked, “I am not gentle, honest, kind and natural?”

Cat Girl laughed with “GeGe” sound, which went along the river lake and caused several snowflakes fall down.

Ning Que looked at him, trying to make his smile sound more casual and kind. Then he said with an even more casual and kind tone, “It is such a coincidence that I also need to enter the Wilderness for some affairs.”

With her eyes glistening, Cat Girl looked at him and said, “Senior Brother also needs to enter the Wilderness?”

“Yes.”

Cat Girl exclaimed with worship, “You go alone? You are so excellent!”

“I am familiar with the Wilderness.”

Ning Que, who succeeded in winning the little girl’s trust with Osmanthus Cake, slightly smiled. He recalled his experience as a travel guide in the Wilderness last spring. It seemed that this winter he would be a guide again in the returning to the Wilderness.

…

…

Ning Que successfully guessed that the young girls of Great River Kingdom might be discriminated and suppressed, but the guessing actually relied more on luck, rather than analysis. He wasn’t a celestial in the heaven, so it was impossible that everything went on as he thought.

Cat Girl took him to the camp of Black Ink Garden and told Zhuo Zhihua about the thing. Zhuo Zhihua slightly frowned and confusedly asked Ning Que, “It seems inconvenient because Senior Brother Zhong is a student of the Academy.”

In most novel stories, when you intended to go somewhere and suddenly encountered someone who happened to have the same route as yours, the person was perhaps an evil guy or a fugitive. As long as you had some life experiences, not like naive and innocent Cat Girl, you would certainly feel that something wrong was hidden behind this kind of coincidence.

Ning Que was a Tang man that Great River Kingdom people liked, and he was a student of the Academy. In addition, the relation between the young girls of Great River Kingdom and Ning Que gradually became close after they gave food to each other these days. What’s more, he saved them by attacking a monk from White Tower Temple. Considering these things, Zhuo Zhihua wouldn’t like to connect anything evil with Ning Que, so she chose a euphemistic way to refuse him.

Ning Que asked, “Why inconvenient? You are worried that the Divine Hall would be displeased if they know a Tang man was in?”

Zhuo Zhihua slightly lowered her head, which meant ‘Yes’.

Ning Que laughed and said, “It could be solved if I dress up as a student of Black Ink Garden.”

Looking at the students of Black Ink Garden who were packing up their luggage not far away from him, Ning Que couldn’t believe that the Master of Calligrapher would be at ease to send a group of inexperienced young boys and girls to frontier fortress for practice.

“Because you just send provision to the Wilderness, I think no other people would care or inspect me in the group during the journey. If my identity is exposed…yeah, I think the younger brothers and sisters of Black Ink Garden are worth trusting.”

His tone was peaceful and gentle, but it had an irresistible force. This was the power of words. He directly skipped the reason why he went there, and just talked about something in the joint journey, leaving the discussion core behind.

Zhuo Zhihua couldn’t say a word and didn’t know how to answer it. She thought if she refused the seemingly warm-hearted senior brother of the Academy in a tough voice, it might offend him.

Ning Que smilingly looked at her and said, “Is there other problem?”

Right at that moment, a peaceful but tough voice was heard from behind a yellow cloth curtain.

“The problem is why you need go to the Wilderness.”

The yellow cloth curtain raised, that young girl in white slowly walked out. Her white clothes, black hair and that wide blue cotton belt around her waist made the whole dressing more plain and neater.

Ning Que recognized that she was the young girl who stood by the lake and quietly viewed the lake scenery in that morning. Without saying more, he just smilingly greeted a bow with hands folded in front.

The black hair of the young girl in white randomly but neatly spread on her shoulder. Below her long and slightly sparse eyelashes, her peaceful eyes seemingly looked at somewhere without a precise focus. She looked a little indifferent, with no expression on her round white face. Her thin and red lips were like a straight line, as if there was something in her mouth.

No matter in eyes, complexion or expression of the young girl, none of these could be called unrivalled beauty, but she looked very beautiful when all these features were combined together. Ning Que, whose adjective stock was scanty in his brain, only could quietly looked at her and highly praised her in his deep heart after failing to think of more precise words.

The most attracting part was her eyes, which didn’t shift or move but no one knew the point she looked at. Therefore, she appeared a little dull and indifferent. Ning Que spent lots of time retracting his eyes from her eyes, and then paid attention to other details.

There was a lovely pink hairpin in her black hair. Due to the cold weather, her nose was slightly red. This kind of loveliness, after all, diluted her dullness and indifference to a certain degree.

He repeated the girl’s question, “Why goes to the Wilderness?”

The young girl in white was waiting his answer silently, with her eyes seemingly on him or the tree behind him.

Ning Que felt a little displeased due to her scorn which seemingly hid behind her eyes, and then he said, “Why go there? Because I was very bored in Dongsheng Stockaded Village. What about this reason?”

Obviously, it was a kind of pique.

However, the young girl in white wasn’t irritated, and still kept staring at him or the tree behind him.

Ning Que suddenly felt it seemed that, except Sangsang, there was another girl who could defeat him in this world. He just helplessly shook his head and self-mockingly laughed, “I admit it certainly wasn’t a good excuse, but I believe you should also believe that I won’t hurt you.”

“I am familiar with the Wilderness, so I can give you some convenience to a certain degree if I go with you. For me, I need you to help me cover my identity. Therefore, a joint travel is a win-win choice.”

The young girl in white finally said the second sentence, but it was the same as the first one in essence.

“Why?”

Ning Que gently said, “Our two countries have maintained a good relationship for generations, so it was a natural thing to join hands between the Academy and the Black Ink Garden.”

The young girl’s third sentence was the same question, without any change no matter in expression or tone.

“Why?”

After seeing her keeping silent for a long time, Ning Que was defeated in the end, and then he hinted Zhuo Zhihua to take Cat Girl away. When only he and the young girl in black were there, he carefully explained, “The Divine Hall was interested in the Wilderness and Desolate Man, so was my country Tang. In this thing, the Academy needs to utter its voice after all.”

The young girl asked without any expression, “Why do you hide your identity?”

Ning Que explained with a sigh, “Because the Academy just wants to have a look. Besides…I am a senior secret agent of the imperial court. A secret agent of course should execute tasks in secret.”

The latter part of the sentence was obviously bullshit, but for some unknown reasons, the nonsense unexpectedly made the girl in white believe his words. With her long and sparse eyelashes slightly blinking, she continued asking, “What’s the advantage for my group?”

“I represent the Academy, so no matter for the Divine Hall and Yuelun Kingdom, they will restrain themselves more or less if they want to oppress or bully your team.”

The young girl slowly shook her head and said, “They won’t be afraid of it when you hide your identity.”

After thinking for a while, Ning Que looked at her eyes and said, “If we are in a deadlock situation, I naturally won’t keep concealing my identity. In addition, I believe for the self-esteem of Black Ink Garden, only in that situation would you want my assistance.”

The young girl slowly removed her eyes and looked at the trees by the lake or the thin ice on the lake surface. Then she said, “Why should I trust you?”

Ning Que replied, “The Academy is worth trusting.”

The young girl turned around and quietly looked at his chest and said, “OK.”

…

…

“What’s your name?”

“Mo Shanshan.”

“Mo Shanshan from Mogan Mountain.”

Ning Que thought was that mountain behind Black Ink Garden named Mogan Mountain? (‘Mogan’ means ‘Ink was dry’ in Chinese.) If the ink was dry, how could Lord Wang, the Master of Calligrapher, practise calligraphy? Wouldn’t that famous Calligraphy Addict cry due to worry?

“The Academy Zhong…” From some unknown reasons, he didn’t want the name ‘Zhong Dajun’ to be called from the lips of the young girl in white. So he added, “I ranked at the thirteenth. You can call me ‘Thirteen’.”

The young girl Mo Shanshan made a step forward and looked at his face at a very near distance.

Looking at the nice little face near him, Ning Que felt very embarrassed.

After observing the slightest expression on her face, Ning Que was sure that she really didn’t know who he was…

The young girl Mo Shanshan nodded and patted him on the shoulder like an elder, and then turned around to leave.

He had no idea that whether she was satisfied or not.