Nightfall

It turned out to be Youngest Uncle’s words. Ning Que looked at the dim light in Chang’an in the distance and didn’t speak for a long time. Then he asked, “Master, do I have to go to Lanke Temple?”

The Headmaster said, “It is up to you. But if you don’t go, no one can clear the doubts in your mind. I cannot either. And I always thought that this journey to Lanke Temple would be your Lucky Chance.”

Ning Que asked, “What kind of Lucky Chance?”

“I never believed in Lucky Chance in the past,” said the Headmaster, “But after witnessing so many things, I gradually started to think that maybe I am too stubborn and have to change how i think. Lucky Chance like that are not meant to happen, they are influences exerted by some people in the world on the environment and people around them. And in the end, the effect of this influence will become really big to those around them.”

“When one gets to this moment, this opportunity, the thoughts on his mind turn into reality. One day, when he looks back, he will find that he had got exactly what he wanted in the past. I call these ‘Lucky Chance’.”

The Headmaster continued, “Sangsang could heal herself, but it would be better if those young monks in Lanke Temple could help her. And you need to learn some Buddhism skills so that the rage in your body brought by the skill of your Youngest Uncle can be washed off. And if you want to find out whether you really are the Son of Yama, you have to go to the Yue Laan Hungry Ghost Festival. For these reasons, this journey is your defining moment.”

Ning Que was quite bewildered and said, “Your words are as confusing as those of the monks.”

The Headmaster said, “You will understand the monks if you listen more carefully.”

“Will the journey be dangerous?”

“You could be hit by a carriage just by walking on the street.”

“Master, I will take your words as a yes.”

“When did you hear me say that?”

Ning Que turned his gaze from Chang’an City to his knees and said, “If even you think it is dangerous, then how can Sangsang and I deal with it?”

The Headmaster smiled, “Without being cooked for three days, the dish Fo Tiao Qiang could not be made. Without experiencing…”

Ning Que raised his hands and said bitterly, “I have heard the Youngest Uncle’s words many times. Please save it.”

The Headmaster laughed and said, “Go and have a look. Without looking for yourself, you will never know who that is. ”

Ning Que sighed, “What a wonderful world.”

The Headmaster said surprisingly, “That sounds very catchy.”

“Why?”

“You made it sound like a poem.”

“I was just bored.”

The wind on the cliff was so calming, but Ning Que didn’t feel relaxed at all. He asked sadly, “Master, you are so powerful, can you really not see the future?”

The Headmaster said, “Cultivation needs time. Although I have lived longer than the ordinary person, I am not old enough to have experienced the last Underworld Invasion, or have witnessed the things that happened before the Forever Night. And maybe because of that, I can’t understand the ‘Ming’ Handscroll completely. I don’t know how the story will unfold. You are already involved in the story. I can’t see your future, but I hope it will be good.”

Ning Que asked, “Are there still people who have experienced the last Underworld Invasion?”

He never believed that cultivators could live for thousands of years, but now that he had learned so much at the Academy, he started thinking that it may be possible.

The Headmaster said, “I know two people who have experienced the last Everlasting night.”

Ning Que didn’t expect this to be his answer. He asked in surprise, “Who are they?”

The Headmaster’s expression became hard to read. He said, “An alcoholic and a butcher…but they don’t care about the world anymore, and I am not even sure whether we can still call them human.”

Ning Que thought about his weird dreams again.

An alcoholic and a butcher once appeared in one of his dreams. They stood next to him and stared at him. And in another dream, the Headmaster took the wine bottle from the alcoholic and drank from it, and he also took a cooked pig leg from the butcher and ate some. Maybe the Headmaster was talking about them?

Ning Que asked, “Master, do you really not want to hear about my dream?”

The Headmaster looked at him, smiled and said, “You still don’t understand? That is your own dream.”

Ning Que finally understood his Master now.

You could only know the plot of a story when it had actually happened, and you could only understand colors when you had seen them before. To know whether he was the Son of Yama and what would happen in the future, he needed to get involved in the story and make his own decisions; in other words, he was the writer of his own story.

The Headmaster was gone.

Ning Que was alone on the dark cliff. He remembered what Master Lotus had said to him when he was dying and frowned.

“You have already joined the Devil. If you want to practice the Devil’s skills, you’ve got to practice Buddhism first. Only then can you walk into the darkness. Though you have little chance of success, and perhaps you’ll die shortly after you start on this journey, I still wish you luck. And I will curse you.”

He repeated these words to himself, and stood up to wave into the darkness. He said, “If you are really Yama, and I am really your son. Remember to protect me when my Master can’t.”

The Peach Mountain on the West-Hill was very spring-like. But the darkness of the Divine Hall on it was cold and awful. The Palace was spacious, and inside there were hundreds of priests in red and deacons in black kneeling down on the smooth ground. It looked as if a red flower which was blooming at night had been pinned on the ground.

These priests and deacons had been kneeling down for a long time and their knees were in great pain. But no one dared to stand up or to look up. They had to look at their own reflections on the ground and could only see the humble expression on their faces. Even they themselves couldn’t understand why they were so scared. A great fear rose from deep within them and stiffened their bodies. The red flower was shivering in the darkness; it didn’t look beautiful at all, it was cold and bloody.

For thousands of years, this was what the Judicial Department was like. People there dealt with horrible penalties and believed in power. No one was unfamiliar with the horrible feeling in the palace.

The verdict of the Divine Hall didn’t change much. It was still huge and cold. The black jade throne was still there, dark like blood. But the bead curtain in front was crushed to powder in the previous fight and could never be repaired anymore. In the end, some servant put it into the trash pile and it disappeared.

The bead curtain had been in the verdict of the Divine Hall for many years, adding lots of terrifying and mysterious aura to the man behind it. People had become accustomed to it, but now they had to get used to its disappearance, as the powerful man there was already dead.

It was a young and beautiful girl sitting on the black jade throne now. And in the subordinates’ eyes, her body was too divine for them to look at. Because of that, they couldn’t really see how beautiful she was; they only knew that she represented power and horror.

Ye Hongyu had been sitting silently on the black jade throne for a long time. Her face was expressionless and peaceful, so much so that she looked cold.

Since she didn’t say anything, all the people in the Palace didn’t dare to say anything either. All the priests and deacons who were kneeling down did not dare to look up at her. The timid ones clenched their teeth and almost fainted when they found that their teeth had made a sound.

Their humble expression and nervous, scared breath reminded Ye Hongyu of the things she had experienced and seen. Her beautiful face was mocking, and she felt tired and disgusted.

A priest walked out from the side of the Divine Hall and bowed in front of the black jade throne.

Ye Hongyu waved her hand impatiently.

The priest opened a thick document and read it out whilst looking at the people expressionlessly. “The kind and strict Haotian had guided people out of the dark Wilderness. His believers had their sharp swords in their hands and treaded on the broken ice in the river. They stood in front of the bonfire and announced to his people…”

Similarly to the secular world, a shift in leadership here often led to bloody wars. Whilst the cold voice of the priest continued, 14 other priests in red and deacons in black would be dragged out of the verdict of the Divine Hall. Outside the palace, as the axes swung, crying and yelling could be heard.

These 14 people were the determined supporters of the former Divine Priest of Judgement, and so had to be punished. Some of them would be killed, but others could continue to contribute to the West-Hill Divine Palace. The dead were perhaps luckier, as they didn’t have to spend the rest of their life regretting their actions to the Tao Addict when she was downtrodden.

The voice of that priest drifted in the empty verdict of the Divine Hall. As the names were called one by one, the subordinates became more and more scared, until only the commanders of the cavalrymen in the middle looked calm.

The Judicial Department was in charge of the commanders of the cavalryman of Divine Hall. But after the death of Prince Long Qing two years ago, the administration and penalty of the cavalryman had been transferred to the hands of Luo Kedi, the commander of the guards. And although these commanders were not respectful to the current God, they were not those priests who only knew to read the classics and were not powerful at all; they were powerhouses in the Seethrough Realm.

The Judicial Department was practical. As long as one was powerful enough, his past crime could be erased completely and he would qualify to survive. After all, they were the reason why the West-Hill Divine Palace could rule the world.

But unexpectedly, the priest looked at the gorgeous gold and black armor of the commanders of the cavalry and he read their names slowly.

“Zi Mo.”

“Yuan Jun.”

“Liu Xiao.”Hearing their own names being read, the commanders of the cavalryman of the Divine Hall couldn’t help but raise their heads and look up at the black jade throne. They were extremely surprised and afraid. But the girl sitting on the throne seemed to be asleep; her eyes were closed and her head was in her hands.

The commander called Zi Mo was the most experienced and most powerful of all of them. He looked at his horrified peers and shook his head. He stood up and dusted his knees before asking the girl sitting on the throne, “Why?”