Nightfall

Xu Shi squinted.

He had experienced many battles in his life. He had seen blood flow and thousands of corpses. He had seen many terrifying and horrible things. But the gentle smile and calm expression on Ning Que’s face was startling and scarier than anything he had ever seen.

In a flash, he thought highly of Ning Que and grew wearier of the danger that Ning Que represented. The pity that he had for Ning Que earlier disappeared without a trace.

Ning Que continued, “Of course, the hunter and his family burning to death have nothing to do with me. I have only heard of this incident. I am curious, general, what would you choose under those circumstances? I have some other questions as well. Is there someone who is as innocent as a lotus in the world? Have you killed your foes in battle? Is killing your foe considered breaking the law of Tang Empire? Have your subordinates killed any barbarian women and children in the grassland? If so, is this considered breaking the law of Tang Empire?”

Then, he looked at the general’s wizened face and asked, “General, you are an important official in the military and should of course stand behind the Tang. However, when powerhouses of our enemy countries entered our borders, you did not grow vigilant but revealed my location to them. I would like to ask if this is considered breaking the laws of the Tang Empire? Did you go against your own conscience?”

Each question was like a blow to the general’s heart. However, Xu Shi was not so easily affected by Ning Que’s words. He smiled in anger and said, “Since you want to represent the Academy in entering the human realm, you have to face the challenges of other cultivators in the world. Why are you unwilling to have them known of your location? Unless you’re afraid, or you do not have confidence and are afraid that you’ll be a disgrace to the Tang Empire and the Headmaster of the Academy?”

The general did not wait for Ning Que to speak. He wiped the smirk off his face and looked at Ning Que coldly. “Even if there was a viable reason for your cruel acts as a child, what about what happened after you came to Chang’an from the City of Wei?”

After he came to Chang’an? Ning Que’s brows slowly rose.

There was a sudden gust of wind in the gardens. It was slightly chilly and the sky darkened as if it was about to rain.

“Where were you in the 14th year of Tian Qi, when the censor Zhang Yiqi died?”

“Where were you when the metalsmith in the east of Chang’an died?

“Where were you when the tea master Yan Suqing died?”

The general looked at him and asked indifferently.

Ning Que’s expression did not change, but his body stiffened. If his questions to the general earlier was but just a little trick, then the three questions that the general asked him were a sharp blade that could cleave off the head of a person.

He finally understood why Xu Shi was so vigilant against himself and even tried to investigate and beat him down secretly. There were many people who were aware of those three incidents, from Lin Ling, to this general today. They could even sense what had happened behind those incidents.

Today, the conversation between the general and himself in the General’s Mansion.

Was checkmate.

“You were at the House of Red Sleeves when censor Zhang Yiqi died. You were in the Eastern City when Chen Zixian died. No one knows where you were when Yan Suqing died. But that was the day of the Academy’s exams. You had a bet with Xie Chengyun of the South Jin Kingdom, but did not turn up for the exams and even took two days of sick leave after that.”

The general stared at him, and there was an undeniable pressure in his gaze. He said slowly, “Do not think that you are really strong. Do not think that you can really hide from everyone. Do not think that you can erase the past just because you have become a core disciple of the Headmaster of the Academy. I have said that I know everything about you, and that is everything and not anything less.”

Not anything less. He could not miss anything.

This was the spirit of the greatest person in the Tang military.

This was the third time Ning Que had heard the general said something like this. He had fallen silent for many times today.

All was silent on the platform. The trees in the garden trembled in the winds that came before the rain. The leaves that should have been living further up north rattled in the wind as if they would fall to the ground anytime.

After some time.

The general said, “The Headmaster of the Academy had once said that the laws of the Tang Empire came first. This is the highest belief of not only the Academy, but the entire Tang Empire. I will continue to investigate into the past. And if I find that you have broken the laws and interfered with the court in an attempt to stir up something, I will condemn you using the laws of the Tang Empire.”

Ning Que reached out suddenly to pile up the dirty plates before him.

Then, he stood up and looked at the General, “The laws of the Tang Empire places emphasis on evidence. If you can gather evidence on these cases, I will wait for you in the Chang’an Local Government.”

With that, he bowed and left.

The Vermilion Bird Avenue was not far from the General’s Mansion. Ning Que walked on the bluestone tiles on the street calmly. Very calmly.

Someone had still found out the link between him and those cases. This made him very nervous, but he was not surprised by the conversation in the General’s Mansion.

Even if Xu Shi ruled the world as he represented the Tang Military, he could not arrest Ning Que without evidence and could not harm him.

Because he was no longer a little soldier in the City of Wei or an outsider like he once was when he first came to Chang’an. He was now a student of the Second floor of the Academy and a calligrapher that His Majesty trusted.

Those who wished to harm him would have to first persuade the emperor and most importantly, the Headmaster of the Academy.

Ning Que could not guess how the emperor would react. But he knew that the Headmaster would not care how many people his student killed. The Headmaster did not bother himself with things of the secular world.

But the conversation in the General’s Mansion had done something to his psyche.

Xu Shi was right.

From his fleeing from Chang’an to traveling thousands of miles and into the dangerous Min Mountain. Ning Que had done many abominable things in those days when they drifted from place to place.

He had committed those abominable acts due to the many kinds of evilness in the world he lived in.

He had to do that to survive in a world of many evils.

After coming to the City of Wei, and then to Chang’an, he came to a peaceful world. There, he realized that there were still many good people in the world, and so, he tried to become a good person in the general sense.

There wasn’t anyone who didn’t want to be a good person.

Ning Que wanted to be a good person too.

That was why he had been learning how to become a good person since he entered the City of Wei. He had been learning since he entered Chang’an.

This sort of learning could be called a pretense, or the forming of a second personality.

This personality was unstable. Sometimes, it was sharp and cruel, sometimes, it was silly and happy and naggy. Sometimes, it would be shameless and adorable. It was refreshing and lovely.

However, his true character remained the way it was when he was four. It remained in that moment when he held that chopper dripping with blood in the woodshed of the Official of Counsel’s Mansion.

If faced with external pressure, if faced with death again, he would not hesitate to unleash that grim and cold personality.

He had done so on that night he ascended the mountain to the Second floor.

It was so when he met with the Horse Gang in the Wilderness.

It was so when he shot Prince Long Qing by the Daming Lake.

It was so, and it wasn’t so.

This was Ning Que.

He had reached the statue of the Vermilion Bird unknowingly.

It was then, when the rain that had been brewing began to fall.

…