Nightfall

Sangsang’s right hand felt the chilly wind at night.

A ray of light appeared on the tip of her forefinger. It gradually became brighter and turned into a dim flame, the color of which was pure white. There was no trace of any impurities in the flame and it looked holy.

Then the same holy flame also appeared on the tips of her other four fingers and illuminated her dark little hand to an extremely white color.

The holy flame was the Haotian Divine Light.

The Haotian Divine Light between her fingers flashed as the wind started blowing.

More pure flames poured out from the seams of her new clothes, her dark face and the end of her yellowish hair. The light soon enveloped her skinny body in. The big black umbrella held in her hand seemed to have felt something, so it slowly closed itself even though there was no wind at all and leaned against her legs.

The cliff next to the Yanming Lake was very bright.

Sangsang was very bright.

Countless infinite rays of Haotian Divine Light poured out from her thin body. It lit up the snowy cliff in front of her and the messy lake below the cliff. It shone on the ruined walls across the lake and the bridge hidden in the bushes on the west shore. It also shone on the monk in the Winter Forest at the east shore and illuminated the whole Chang’an City.

The pure and hot light shot from the lake into the sky and spread to every corner in Chang’an City. As if there was a majestic dawn coming, the quiet night became as bright as daytime.

It was on the cliff next to the Yanming Lake.

It seemed that the Haotian Divine Light was not hot at all, because neither Sangsang’s hair nor her clothes were burned. But it was hard to believe that, because the flames were so tense and hot.

The bloodstains on her clothes were cleaned up by the flames, so were the dirt and snow on her shoes. They were so clean that they even looked transparent.

They were as transparent as her.

On a normal day in the fourteenth year of Tianqi era, an old man who escaped from the West-Hill Divine Palace, arrived in Chang’an City. He bought a bowl of hot and sour noodles, but half of it was spilled on him and dirtied his clothes. He met a dark and skinny girl in the Old Brush Pen Shop at Lin 47th Street and since then, he never wanted to leave her again.

That old man looked at her and followed her. He told her that it was the right time and taught her everything he had learned in his lifetime. And he once exclaimed that he had never met anything cleaner and more transparent than her.

Therefore, Sangsang was transparent.

Therefore the Haotian Divine Light spread out from her body would not reflect or dissipate. It was just as holy and clean as the original Divine Light.

There were other people who worked hard and learned the Divine Skills of Haotian such as Ye Hongyu, who excelled at it. But no one could spread Haotian Divine Light that was purer than that of Sangsang.

Because she was the successor of the light.

She was the daughter of light.

The reed on the western shore looked like white jade under the pure light.

Ye Hongyu held on to the railing tightly. She was shocked by the dazzling brilliance on the lake and became speechless. She knew Sangsang learned the Divine Skills and she had even discussed it with her. But she had never realized that her ability in the Divine Skills should be so powerful.

It was midnight, which made it impossible to get the light of Haotian. So she didn’t understand how she was able to spread so much light. Even if Sangsang was the only successor of the God of Light and the West-Hill Palace really wanted her back to the Peach Mountain, Ye Hongyu still did not understand how she had done it.

No one could understand the light on the lake. Ye Su, who was standing on the city wall, could not understand it either, but unlike his sister, he did not even try to.

Looking at the light in the sky and feeling the aura on the lake, this successor of Zhishou Abbey was full of shock and admiration. He murmured, “How pure the light is.”

Eldest Brother was standing next to him and looking at the direction of Yanming Lake. He was not impressed by the light and he did not smile either. He looked rather serious and it seemed that he was worried about something.

Under the snowy bridge outside the military camp, soldiers from the Yulin Royal Guards and cultivators from the Imperial Center Administration were looking at the direction of Yanming Lake with shock. The shiny light revealed their expression.

Xu Shi looked up slowly at the beautiful rays in the black clouds. His wrinkly face was full of confusion.

Second Brother was sitting on the bridge. He had lowered his head during the day and most of the night. But now he also looked up at the light on the lake and a sincere smile flashed across his face.

He looked at Xu Shi and said, “This is a miracle.”

Although it was not created by the Academy, it was still a miracle. When Second Brother climbed to the top of Wuming Mountain after the death of Master Yan Se and the Great Divine Priest of Light, he saw the little handmaiden scooping the ash into the urns with her hands. And apart from pity, he also felt somehow that one day she would create a miracle.

He even argued with Eldest Brother, who he respected the most, because of his feeling.

After seeing that the miracle was really happening, he started smiling.

In the Winter Forest on the western shore, Qi Nian was covered by thousands of snowflakes, which were as thin as the wings of cicadas. He looked like a statue made of ice and no matter how intense the fight on the lake became, he, the World Wayfarer of Buddhism Sect was still silent. He was fighting against the person behind the sound of the cicadas and waiting for the result of the fight peacefully.

But he opened his eyes suddenly when the Haotian Divine Light appeared on the cliff, making the snowflakes fall from his eyelids. His mild and determined eyes were full of complicated expressions.

Those expressions were kindness, peacefulness and hesitation. But in the end, they gave way to amazement.

The faint sound of cicadas that was haunting the forest also changed. The rhythm sounded very cold and even full of disgust, but the tone was satisfying.

It was under the pavilion out of the snowy palace in the Imperial Palace.

Li Qingshan, the Nation Master of Tang, suddenly stopped stroking his beard and even pulled a few strands of his beard up out of shock. He looked so shocked when the light lightened the dark sky.

Master Huang Yang, who was standing next the snowy bell, looked at the direction of the lake and opened his mouth slightly. His exclamation was intoned as a Buddhist word and his palms were patting the surface of the bell subconsciously.

The thin snowfall on the surface was broken and fell to the ground.

The selomn and melodious sound made by the bell drifted into the distance in the lighten night.

The world in Sangsang’s eyes was white.

It was a pure and impeccable white.

It was the color of light.

But her eyes did not linger about in the world of pure light, they were watching the figure on the lake and feeling the message that person’s Psyche Power was sending.

His Psyche Power was summoning something desperately. It was so greedy, so hungry and it was even panicking. It was like a demon who wanted to eat her blood and flesh.

Sangsang felt it, but she was not horrified. In the flame of Haotian Divine Light, she opened her mental world peacefully and showed it to Ning Que.

Some thoughts already became her instincts. Everything she owned, her mind, her flesh, her Divine Light and her life all belonged to Ning Que. She could share it or even sacrifice it without any hesitation. If so, then why did she even need to panic?

She was the Ning Que’s life and Ning Que’s life was hers. No matter how much he wanted, she would always give it to him, even if he wanted all of it and even if he wanted her life.

If the relations between a cultivator and his life were like bosom friends, then Ning Que and Sangsang were the best friends in the world. They did not enjoy music together, but they shared their daily life. They shared happiness and sorrow, they shared views and thoughts and they shared life and death. They never needed to try to understand each other, because they were naturally able to.

If a cultivator and his life were close, then Ning Que and Sangsang were the closest people in the world. They had been living together since they were young. They had been sleeping on the same bed for all these years. If he raised an eyebrow, she would know that he was proud of his beautiful calligraphy written by a branch; if she gave a silly smile, he would know she had injured her finger when doing the washing up.

If there should really be the Heaven’s Way and Destiny, then the fact that they met fifteen years ago at Heibei county in the famine was what Destiny had set up. They started to share their lives with each other since then and would do it forever, this was their destiny.

It had long been set up.

It seemed that everything could be connected somehow.

And Sangsang, who used her life as fuel to spread the Divine Light, was passing the light through an invisible passage to him.

The aura was suddenly cleaned.

Sangsang looked very pale in the light. Her brows frowned and she seemed to bear a great pain. But she was still smiling.

The Divine Light that was burning on her suddenly turned into a bundle of light and shot down the cliff, connecting the Yanming Mountain and the Yanming Lake.

Endless Haotian Divine Light was sent to Ning Que’s body through the light bridge and the chilly wind. It made his podao shiny.

The Haotian Divine Light on his face made Xia Hou’s pupils tighten and burn. In the next moment, they were charred and he looked shocked and scared.

He could feel that it was not the Haotian Divine Light disguised by the Great Spirit, it was the true Haotian Divine Light, the power he feared the most. Although he had betrayed Devil’s Doctrine and joined the Taoism sect, the fear was still buried deep in his heart.

Thousands of rays extended from the blade of the podao and enveloped Xia Hou in them. Those rays should have been holy and kind, but they were not. They were cold and burning his body and mind mercilessly.

These light flames belonged to Ning Que, so he was not affected by it. His blade, together with the blinding light flame, hacked forward at a fast speed.

He used his most familiar sword skill. It was also the easiest skill. Without any fancy styles, it was just a hacking. But it was the most powerful hacking he could do. At Shubi Lake, he used it to cut countless heads of the Horse Gang and at the side gate of the Academy, he destroyed Liu Yiqing with only one hack.

The long steel spear in Xia Hou’s hand couldn’t bear the Great Spirit on it and the burning of the Haotian Divine Light anymore. It snapped into two parts.

The blade did not stop.

Xia Hou roared. His hands moved fast forward and caught Ning Que’s podao.

The horrifying power of his palms was pressed to the blade and to Ning Que, which made him lower his head and press his lips together. But as if did not feel the pain, Ning Que continued hacking his podao forward.

The Haotian Divine Light on Ning Que’s blade was burning Xia Hou’s fists. It moved slowly and steadily down and drew nearer and nearer to his pale and thin face.

Xia Hou roared again when he felt the threat of death. He spared no effort in raising his injured foot up and kicked towards Ning Que’s waist.

Even if he could hurt Ning Que, it would still be impossible to stop his blade and the Divine Light on it. But he did it anyway, because he wanted Ning Que to die with him.

But he could not make that happen either.

When his foot was about to touch Ning Que’s waist, an aura moved along his legs and entered his body. It went into his sense of perception and created a smell of blood in his mouth and nose.

Xia Hou was very familiar with that aura, because he had felt it before.

But it was also very strange to him, because he hadn’t felt it for many years.

That bloody aura was so cold and so far away from him. It was like the aura was standing up in the sky and looking down to him.

Then Xia Hou heard the sound of cicadas.

He had heard it during the daytime in the Palace, but he thought it was just his hallucination.

He had also heard it in the afternoon when he walked past Yanming Lake, and he couldn’t tell whether it was real.

And now he had heard it again when he was about to die, and this time he was sure that it was real.

Ning Que was kicked to the air and he landed heavily in the snow. He tried really hard to pull himself up and hack Xia Hou again. But no matter how hard he tried, it was in vain. He had to sit in the snow and pant heavily.

At this time, a cut appeared on Xia Hou’s body. It started on his forehead and spread downwards to his nose, lips, chest and belly.

Blood oozed out from the cut. He had lost too much blood in the fierce fight tonight and that was why the blood in his body could only ooze rather than flow. He looked rather miserable now.

Xia Hou didn’t lie down. He looked at the deep cut on his chest. It was not something serious for him if he was at the prime. But it was not something he could bear right now.

The Haotian Divine Light around him didn’t die out for some reason. Instead, it continued burning as if the cold lake was the fuel for it and the ice was coal. The whole lake was burning and disseminating dazzling light. Everything looked rather clear.

Under the light, Xiahou looked at the cut on his chest. He knew he was going to die soon and loosened his hands. His long spear which was already splitted into two parts fell to the snow and splashed into the snow.

The sound of the bell in the Imperial Palace spread to the lake.

Xia Hou looked up when he heard the sound. Maybe he just thought of his sister.

The bell was sounded again.

A buzzing sound started from his body and then countless sand spewed out. It was as if he had been storing sand for decades.

The melodious bell sound kept ringing in the city.

Thump! Thump!

His body made several muffled sound. Some part of it sank in, while other parts bulged out. His bones were broken and his skin was bruised, it looked like he was beaten hard by someone’s fists.

It was Tang.

During the several assassinations in the Wilderness, Tang risked his life and resisted the great pain from his injuries to break into the Xia Hou’s corselet and left a few fist marks on him.

In the past days, with the help of his deep power and his terrifying state, Xia Hou had restrained the injuries caused by the marks. But now the Haotian Divine Light had melted the barriers between the meridians in his body and made it impossible for him to restrain it any longer. And the marks burst out.

Those injuries restrained by the secret skills of the Devil’s Doctrine also burst out, leaving thousands of new injuries on his skin. It looked really scary.

It was very cruel to him that he had to experience all the injuries and the pain he had suffered before.

His organs were all completely broken and became a mash.

The blood in one’s muscle was not as much as that in his organs. So when his organs broke, Xia Hou started to cough blood out. Black and thick blood flowed along his gullet to his mouth and spilled out of his lips.

Xia Hou was standing in the snow, coughing while laughing.

Ning Que was sitting in the snow. He also started laughing after a long time of silence.

Their laughter was completely different.

Sangsang was sitting in the snow on the cliff. She looked very pale. She saw the lake and knew that Ning Que didn’t want to laugh at all, he only wanted to cry.

She felt sad when thinking about his feeling and started shedding tears.

Cold tears flowed down her dark cheeks, but they didn’t cover up her smile.

But it was a happy thing, so she started singing softly.

“We come from the mountains to kill you.”

“We come from the rivers to kill you.”

“We come from the grasslands to kill you.”

“We come from a deserted village in Yan to kill you.”

“We come from the deserted General’s Mansion in Chang’an to kill you.”

The lyrics of the song was the same as the little poem about revenge that she had written for Ning Que.

And the melody was the cradlesong Ning Que used to sing to her when they were children.

Sangsang’s voice was soft and babylike. It was not very good.

But the song she was singing was very moving. It echoed across the lake for a long time.