Nightfall

Standing on the bank of the lake, Ning Que looked back and saw the towering trees, pink walls and black roof behind the trees. Ning Que thought this would be his own home; he couldn’t help but sigh like Sangsang and said, “In the future, we will live in bigger houses.”

Sangsang was surprised. She looked up and said, “Only the Mansion of the Princess and the Imperial Palace can be bigger than this house.”

Ning Que reached out and held her in his arms, rubbed her head in and said, “We’ll also frequently go to the Princess’ Palace and the Royal Palace. If you really want to live there in the future, I will ask His Majesty.”

Sangsang leaned on his chest and smiled happily.

The light that leaked from the green leaves of old trees suddenly became a lot weaker. Ning Que looked at the sky, and saw that a few big clouds flew on the sky above and covered the blazing sunshine.

He pushed Sangsang away from his arms and said, “Let’s go boating.”

The distinct treatments did not make the little maid too uncomfortable. She answered with an “oh” and walked to the newly built simple dock.

A 30 feet long wooden road stretched into the Yanming Lake,and two boats were tied in front of it. There were paddles on the stern and the boats had a roof. The boats were very new. It was Ning Que who bought the boats.

Wooden paddles cut through the white clouds reflected in the lake. The waves of the lake began to rise and they swayed to the distance. The grass in the clear water was disturbed and the fish among the aquatic plants were scared.

The boat left the dock and sailed towards the middle of the lake.

The center of Yanming Lake was a lotus field.

Ning Que was half lying on the boat and his collar had been untied. He laid in the shade of the boat and sniffed the faint scent from the wind, then closed his eyes to rest.

Sangsang stood at the stern and slowly rowed.

“Close your eyes and feel it,”

Ning Que said.

Sangsang obeyed, putting down her oars and moving near Ning Que. She leaned on him and closed her eyes. The slightly sparse eyelashes moved gently and the yellowish hair was waved by the wind.

“What did you feel?”

“The lake wind is very cool.”

“I was talking about the Qi of Heaven and Earth.”

“It looks like… it’s stronger than on the shore.”

Sangsang opened her eyes and looked at the lotus field not far away. Her thin eyebrows twisted.

Ning Que took a blueprint from his pocket. He pointed at the Yanming Lake which was fingernail sized on the blueprint and said, “This lake is the left eye of the array of Chang’an. The imperial court dredged this lake last year. To the public, it said that doing this was Chang’an Local Government’s request. In fact, it is the daily maintenance of God-stunning Array by the Imperial Center Administration.”

Sangsang asked, “The imperial court agreed to us buying the house beside the lake?”

“I’m now in charge of this array of Chang’an City, so why not?”

Ning Que then said, “The reason why I had to spend every coin, even sell some calligraphy to buy this house is this lake. This large array in Chang’an City has never been triggered, but it is running slowly. Yanming lake is the left eye of the array, the lake must naturally gather Qi of Heaven and Earth. Although the self-uniformity of heaven and earth is too strong, the concentration here cannot be too special, but it is good for cultivation.”

Sangsang nodded, but did not really understand.

“The most critical issue is that if I can really control the big array of Chang’an City, we can connect it with Seventh Sister’s array.”

Ning Que said, “At that time, there is no need to start the God-stunning Array to shock the world. I also have the ability to use the power of Chang’an City to plant someone’s lotus.”

Sangsang said after thinking for a moment, “Sounds very difficult.”

Ning Que was thinking about studying in the palace these days, and said, “It’s harder than hard.”

Sangsang said, “Young master, I believe you can do it.”

“I hope so, but there’s not much time left for me.”

Ning Que looked at the lotus field nearby, thinking that in the autumn, these lush green lotus leaves would turn into dry yellow leaves and that man would return to Chang’an. He became silent.

“Go to the lotus field over there,”

He said.

Sangsang stood up beside him and walked to the stern, rowing again.

“Let’s row together…”

Ning Que started to sing.

…

…

Yanming Lake belonged to the land of the government and was not allowed to be sold. It was impossible for it to become Ning Que’s private property. However, he bought the house on the lakeside. The imperial court knew his identity and naturally would not force him to give up. The Yanming Mountain was not famous, and there were very few tourists. Therefore, Yanming Lake was in fact equal to being the private lake of his house. On the beautiful lake, there was only one boat.

Sealing up such a beautiful landscape, turning it into a private garden that can only be enjoyed by himself, and cutting off the opportunity for the people of Chang’an City to get close to it, of course, they would appear to be somewhat selfish and even morally problematic. However, Ning Que and his servant were upstarts and they had never been the kind who cared much about moral issues.

The more than ten acres of lotus fields in the center of the lake were all planted by people Ning Que hired. Now, after a few days, they were nourished by lake mud and the lotus leaves were already dense and the flowers were in full bloom.

Sangsang rowed the boat slowly entered the lotus field. There was nothing, except green lotus leaves and the pink lotus flowers. It seemed they entered a quiet maze which was entirely different from the hot summer.

The green round lotus leaves were like cattail leaves fanning the boat lying on the surface of the water. They stretched to the air and touched the boat from time to time, making the buzzing sound. The white, soft, tender and smooth like Jade petals were near the two people. They could even clearly smell the light fragrance.

Ning Que leaned on the bow of the ship, and looked at the lotus leaves around him. He was holding a cattail leaf fan and slightly squinted his eyes. He looked at the beauty of the lotus field while practicing meditation and used the magic that he learned in the cliff cave to build Qi. He kept breathing in and out the aura of heaven and earth to nourish the Great Spirit.

The drop of liquid of Great Spirit, which was formed in his body, was now more round and plump, and it looked liked water droplets rolling on the lotus leaf that would fall into the lake at any time.

The boat went deeper into the lotus field. The lakeside house and even the Yanming Mountain on the south bank were blocked by lotus leaves. Sangsang put down the paddle and sat down beside Ning Que, reaching out to the side of the boat and picking up a lotus’s fruit between the leaves.

Her little hand pressed hard and tore the fresh lotus, then picked a green seed from the inside. She carefully peeled off the lotus seed, picked out the thin lotus core, and sent it to Ning’s lips.

Ning Que did not opened his eyes, and ate the core of lotus seed between her fingertips. He felt a mouth full of fragrance; suddenly he opened his eyes and said, “The fresh lotus core is not bitter, so why bother to pick it out.”

Sangsang had already dealt with several lotus seeds, all fed into his mouth, and she did not listen to what he said. She still carefully picked out the lotus cores.

“I heard that lotus cores can be used as medicine, so don’t waste them.”

She said with her head down.

Ning Que was speechless and said, “We are rich now. We don’t need to be so frugal. I should use the effort to write few more calligraphies.”

Sangsang thought for a moment and agreed. She looked at the lotus core on her knees and made up her mind to toss it into the lake, and washed her hands with the lake water. Then, she walked back to the stern.

“Where are we going?”

Ning Que looked at the boat moving and asked.

Sangsang said, “Going back to let you write a few more calligraphies. Buying this house has cost a lot of money. Though you have a lot of things in the palace, I counted the debt last night and found that we owed plenty of money to Mr. Qi.”

Ning Que said, “We are not in such a hurry, right?”

Sangsang laughed and said. “I tricked you for fun. Come on, say where you want to go.”

Ning Que said, “Anywhere.”

The boat moved freely in the lotus field.

Ning Que opened the parcel next to him, and took out the iron can and carefully touched the straight stripe on it, finding that he did not have Sixth Brother’s ability.

He threw the iron can into the lake very casually.

In these days, Sixth Brother made a total of 30 small iron cans. He continued to make them in the back of the academy. As long as he had time, he would continue to supply.

The small iron can was filled with enough iron scraps. The power was increased during the test, and it was ensured that it would not float when thrown into the lake.

The relatively troublesome thing was the Fire Fu in the can.

Although Ning Que’s Psyche Power was much richer than ordinary cultivators, it was still hard for him to use more than 30 Fu papers that were full of power.

Sangsang was rolling his paddle.

He leaned against the bow, throwing the tin cans into the lake from time to time, ignoring the shocked fishes.

The boat moved, and Ning Que throwed the cans arbitrarily. It seemed that he didn’t pay any attention, but in fact, he tossed the small iron can into the lake and kept its location in mind.

The boat crossed the lotus field.

It caused a wave and made pleasing sounds.

Just like there were frogs jumping from the boat into the lake.

…

…

When the boat sailed out of the lotus field, the small iron cans had also been fully submerged into the lake. At this time, the sky was covered by rain clouds. They did not know the time.

Ning Que standing on the bow, looked at the lakeshore that was getting nearer and nearer. The Yanbian Mountain, which was steep but not so high. He squinted his eyes. It was cooler than yesterday. Lake winds blew against his cheeks. It was very comfortable.

The boat moved to the south bank. The two people landed and went into the forest, walking through the grass. Finally they climbed to the peak of Yanming Mountain. The peak was not high, but was a good place to overlook the lake.

Ning Que looked at the courtyard on the northern bank of the lake. They looked at the lines on the wall which were partly blocked by the trees. He compared them silently with his seventh sister’s array to make sure there were no deviations.

“If Haotian can give me enough time to let me connect these lakes and mountains with the God-stunning Array, then I believe I can kill anyone I want to kill in this place.”

Just after he finished this sentence, it seemed that Hao Tian could no longer tolerate his arrogance. A bright flash shone in the cloud far away, and then thunder came rumbling.

The heavy rain fell without warning, and it instantly turned into countless water curtains, covering the entire Chang’an City. Yanming Lake and Yanming Mountain were silent in the rain.

At the moment when thunder and lightning struck, Sangsang opened the big black umbrella at the fastest speed.

Ning Que looked up at the black umbrella, and said, “It’s easy to be killed by thunderstorms when you’re holding an umbrella.”

Sangsang said, “You said that when you were young, but we were not killed.”

Ning Que sighed and said, “It really is a very magical world, then close your eyes and feel it.”

It rained cats and dogs down.

Thunder and lightning were combined with the rain.

Sangsang stood at the edge of the cliff, facing the turbulent lake, closing her eyes and holding the handle of the big black umbrella tightly.

Not knowing how much time passed.

Ning Que asked seriously, “How do you feel?”

Sang Sang opened her eyes and the light in her eyes was brighter than the lightning.

“I can feel everything.”

…