Nightfall

“Oh!”

The blood flowed out from Guo Yan’s neck and splattered, finally landing on the bonfire where a slightly burnt smell arose. He collapsed on the ground, stretched out his legs desperately, and kicked up a pile of mud time and again. Still, he could not prevent death’s arrival nor prevent the crotch of his pants from getting soaked with urine.

The retinue from the periphery of the bonfire stood up in shock, but with many years of accumulated majesty, no one dared to move.

Zi Mo’s face emerged from the darkness of night. He used his hand, which was no longer strong but still stable, to retrieve the wire around Guo Yan’s neck and wipe away the blood and flesh that was left on it.

He looked out at the bewildered retinue outside the bonfire and said with a poker face, “Even if he is disabled, he still deserves your respect. Never underestimate the methods that we have learned in the Judicial Department. So, if you want to live, then you’d better stay calm.”

The retinue slowly sat back in their original places with their heads lowered down, and no one knew what they were thinking about, nor did anyone know if they had really calmed down.

The current crisis was solved for the time being, whereas the faces of the commanders in front of the bonfire were all still extremely pale and ugly, just like their moods. Their hopeless future accounted for one of the reasons, however, the most crucial point was that even today they still could not accept the reality because they used to be respectable cavalryman of the Divine Hall. Even the military generals of the South Jin Kingdom would give them enough respect. Now, however, a random state army in the South Jin Kingdom dared to encircle them, and to such a miserable extent. Even their retinue dared to be disloyal to them!

“General, what… what should we do?”

one of the commanders asked in desperation with his voice slightly trembling.

Zi Mo was the most senior man with the strongest abilities among these fallen cavalrymen of the Divine Hall commanders. He was elected as the leader, so it was natural for people to count on him to come up with a solution.

Zi Mo did not know what to do or where these disabled soldiers could go. In fact, if it was for not the punishment of the verdict of the Divine Hall, they could still become guests of all nations with their wisdom, strategies, and the ability of operation on the battlefield. However, the verdict of the Divine Hall had already cut off this possibility in advance. At the thought of this, his hatred for and fear of the Maiden God would grow stronger.

The only person that one could rely upon was oneself. Only by restoring one’s ability and regaining strength could one survive in this world.

However, how could he regain his strength when his cultivation had been abandoned?

The legendary panacea was only a legend.

Zi Mo laughed at himself and then whispered, “Get cleaned up and go to sleep.”

How could anyone get hot water in the wild mountain forest? During their escape, they had no time to enjoy life but could only sleep directly. Someone extinguished the bonfire with dirt and the forest suddenly became dark. The thick clouds in the night sky covered all the stars, indicating that there might be a torrential rain tomorrow.

Some of them could not stave off the exhaustion brought on by their escape and they fell asleep.

While others were unable to sleep, thinking about their desperate future.

Zi Mo looked at the gloomy night sky overhead, thinking about the heavy rain that would come tomorrow with an increasingly heavy heart. He slowly clenched his hands, which had been trembling quietly, and was in great pain.

He thought with desperation and unwillingness, “If I can regain my strength and become as powerful as before, then I would be willing to sacrifice my entire life and everything to Yama.”

There were still many people praying in desperation in the silent night forest.

The sky was gloomy, but it did not rain, let alone rain heavily. However, it was cloudy, so the summer journey became much cooler. Since there was no sun, Sangsang did not need to bask in the sun through the skylight of the horse carriage, and Ning Que took that position for granted. He stepped onto the soft couch and leaned his upper body out of the skylight to meet the wind blowing on the state highway. He looked at the surrounding scenery and gave birth to such kind of pleasure as if he were a millionaire.

It had been a few days since they left Chang’an. The black horse carriage was following the mission in front of them from a distance. Although they had taken a few trips to the county road as they went ahead, he never feared that they would get lost. Because there were government officials, especially the secret guards of all areas, to inform them with intelligence. It was still the same case as they left the wilderness and entered the southern mountains.

A vast expanse of mountains emerged in the middle of the southern region of the Tang, dividing the territory into two regions. Maybe those mountains had a certain impact on the climate—the same fertile soil to the south of the mountains and the west of the mountains could produce quite different crops. But Ning Que and Sangsang had no special feelings as the black horse carriage progressed among those mountains.

Compared with the familiar Min Mountain, the mountains in the south of the Tang were not so lofty. However, due to the special water-soluble rocks, there were collapses and landslides occurring throughout the years, making these mountains strange and extremely steep. Therefore, they were difficult to climb. Fortunately, there was a canyon among these mountains that was densely planted, and at the bottom of the valley, there was a natural passageway. Otherwise, if you wanted to connect the north with the south, regrettably you would have to go more than a thousand miles away.

Hundreds of years ago, the Tang used a lot of labor and resources to widen the canyon again, and used a Talisman Master and Array Tactical Masters to reinforce the dangerous precipices on both sides of the valley, and planted numerous trees with prosperous root systems. Eventually, the natural road in the valley was turned into a very flat state highway.

The black horse carriage progressed along the flat state highway and the quiet canyon. Ning Que craned out of the skylight, squinting at the scenery on both sides of the state highway. He looked at the quiet green cliffs, imagining the great transformation of nature by the Tang people hundreds of years ago. At the thought of those Talisman Masters and Tactical Array Masters who had their hair turn grey because of the exhaustion of Psyche Power, as well as soldiers and craftsmen who fell down the cliff, he gave birth to a kind of heroic feeling involuntarily. This heroic feeling had nothing to do with the skylight of the black carriage, nor with the millionaire, so it appeared to be more promising than his previous thoughts.

The Tang Empire had spared no effort to get through this mountain, allowing the central and southern borders to be united. It was natural to imagine the strategic significance of this verdant, beautiful canyon.

Ning Que could faintly see that there were extremely steep mountain paths in the distance of the valley foothills, and beside those mountain paths, there was a shabby sanctuary several miles away. From the scale of the sanctuary, one could guess that there were no more than 10 Tang soldiers. At the thought of the Tang army having been guarding there for so many years, even such an indifferent person as himself could not help giving birth to some admiration.

People would get a little bit tired when they looked at the green valley time and again, and would calm down after they had had a heroic feeling for a long time. And the vicissitudes of history would become uninteresting when you experienced them too much. Ning Que sat back down in the carriage, picked up the herbal tea on a short wooden block, and drank it to the bottom. He picked up a pen and started to write after his mind had calmed down.

This time, they were going to the Lanke Temple for treatment, as well as for greeting the Buddha, so there should not be any danger. But Ning Que still maintained his previous habit and was always ready to face a battle of life and death. Thus, what he was currently writing was definitely not a signature, but a talisman. What he wrote over the past two years had all been used up on Xia Hou in the battle of the lake in winter, so he had to prepare more of them right now.

Ning Que raised his head after a long time and paused to take a break. He rubbed his eyes and looked out of the window, only to find that he was still in the canyon. He could not help being amazed at the length of the canyon.

When he was writing the talismans, Sangsang was packing up their baggage. Suddenly, she touched something, and it took her a long time to guess what it was. She frowned and asked, “How did it become like this?”

She held a small iron kettle in her hand and saw the deep lines on the outside of the kettle. It should have been the same type as the small iron kettle that had exploded in the snowy fields of the snow lake, but the volume was much smaller and the shape was quite different. The most obvious difference was that there was one more bayonet on the bottom of this small iron kettle.

“That is the whimsical thought of Fourth Brother. No one had expected that Sixth Brother had really done it. Before we left the Academy, we had tried once, but that day you went to the back of the mountain with Xiaotang to pick purple wisteria for boiling the meat, so you didn’t see it.”

Ning Que took the little iron kettle that looked quite delicate—but now it seemed more accurate to call it a small metal pail. He took a talisman arrow from the iron box and inserted it into the bayonet on the bottom of the small metal pail.

After a click, the arrow bunch and bayonet of the small iron pail were tightly locked. Actually, it was so tight that one could see no trace of cracks, and it appeared to be very stable.

Sangsang used her hand to test it and said, “It won’t fall.”

Since Sangsang had grown up a little bit, all of Ning Que’s side arms were handled by her. She was very experienced, whether it was sharpening a knife or repairing a string. If she said that it would not fall, then for sure it would not.

Ning Que picked out an iron bow and assembled it. He put the talisman arrow on the string, aiming at the Qingxia cliff trees smoothly, as he gradually quieted his breathing.

The Primordial Thirteen Arrow had already been a terrifying weapon. Now the people of the Academy in the back of the mountain were forcibly adding such a thing to it. It was imagined that once it was launched, it would certainly create a great deal of noise. This place was not on the back mountain of the Academy, so Ning Que could not really shoot it outside. Otherwise, if he were to destroy the reinforced cliffs that had been strengthened by the previous generation of Talisman Masters and Tactical Array Masters, even the Headmaster would punish him, let alone His Majesty.

After a moment, he put down his iron bow and spoke a few words. Sangsang shook her head, took the iron arrow from his hand, and said, “Although there are no big problems, the tail of the arrow had to be adjusted… The original talisman arrow could ignore the resistance of wind, and could even use the wind as a boost. However, now the weight of the talisman arrow has increased, and the most troublesome thing is that the arrow bunch have such a large windward area. If you want to ensure its accuracy, the shooting distance should certainly be greatly shortened.”

Ning Que put the bow in her arms, grabbed a summer radish, and started to eat. He lay comfortably and said in an irresponsible manner, “It’s up to you.”

The black horse carriage finally pulled out of the verdant valley and arrived at the southernmost plain of the Tang. The scenery on both sides of the state highway widened suddenly, but the wind became more gentle because there was more water.

Ning Que’s attention was still on the vast mountains behind. When they were about to get out of the valley, he suddenly thought that there were innumerable tactical arrays of talismans set by predecessors in the canyon. If strong enemies came to invade from the south, what they needed was only a great divine talisman master like Yan Se who could clear up these tactical arrays of talismans so that the valley would be blocked. Then, even if over 10,000 cavalrymen came to invade, it would still be impossible for them to reach the hinterland of the Tang in a short time.

But soon after, he changed his mind.

There were so many tactical arrays of talismans in this canyon that it was impossible for a single person to destroy them all, even if the master’s rebirth was not good. Perhaps the empire had already done something with the tactical arrays when they opened up this canyon.

And even if the cliffs were blocked, the mountains that blocked the enemy could also block the Tang’s reinforcements to the south. In a war, what they needed was only a simple road. Those strong armies that had the guts to aggress into the Tang would certainly have had enough Tactical Array Masters and Talisman Masters, which could definitely force to create a path for the cavalry to drive. Then, however, the initiative on the battlefield might fall into the hands of these enemies.

Therefore, in his deduction of the war, they still needed a peerless powerhouse to defend the exit of Qing Gorge.

That powerhouse had to be strong enough to such a degree that he could kill the Buddha if the Buddha were to come, kill the devil if the devil appeared, and kill a Taoist priest no matter how many of them would come. In addition, he could not have any rest, let alone sleep. He had no time to eat or drink, and maybe even needed to fight with strong opponents for three days and nights in a row.

Thinking of this, Ning Que could not help laughing. He thought there were no such strong people in the world, and even if such kind of people did exist, why would they be so stupid as to put themselves into a mortal situation?