Nightfall

There was only Sangsang in the portrait pasted everywhere in the city. But both the Buddhist Sect and the Taoist Sect knew that Sangsang was accompanied by Ning Que and the conspicuous black carriage which was impossible to be disguised.

Since the black carriage was the legacy given by Yan Se, the Buddhist Sect and the Taoist Sect believed that Ning Que would never be willing to leave it. Taking advantage of this thought, Ning Que left the black horse and the carriage outside of the city and went into the city with Sangsang.

He chose to hide temporarily in Chaoyang City in order to wait for the Eldest Brother. In addition, Sangsang’s condition was not stable, so he was worried that she would not last if they kept fleeing for thousands of miles.

Even if he could not meet Eldest Brother, he would still have to go to Chaoyang City. He believed in the theory that one was safer while closer to danger, and was confident about his talent for hiding. Besides, he hoped that Buddhist temples here could help Sangsang’s illness.

Carrying Sangsang in Chaoyang City, Ning Que found his goal very soon. It was a shabby courtyard near the Imperial Palace of Yuelun Kingdom, from where one could see the famous White Tower Temple. But it was located in a noisy and messy rundown area where one could easily hide.

The most important and decisive reason for picking up this small courtyard was because it was so shabby that its door was covered with dust, which displayed that it had not been inhabited for a long time. In addition, it was as quiet as a haunted house.

Ning Que did not inquire about the story of the courtyard. Because any relationship with someone else would lead to an unpredicted result. He snuck into the state office of the Chaoyang City to investigate the record. Just as expected, there was a bloody massacre in the courtyard last year.

After the death of the owner in the massacre, his successor who was obsessed with Buddhism refused to take the courtyard ridden with sin and grievance. So the courtyard became state-owned, although no one would like to buy or rent it, even monks and mercenary officials had no interest in it at all.

Of course, Ning Que would not rent it. When the night fell, he, carrying Sangsang on his back, climbed over the wall in the alley without much effort and went through the main building to the front of the bedroom in the backyard.

It was dim and quiet on his way to the room. The black blood was still on the old bricks on the ground and the walls, which was scalp tingling even for a butcher who was not unfamiliar with blood, not to say an ordinary people. No wonder everyone shrank away from the courtyard and would rather abandon it than accept it.

Having seen so many dead people and much more horrifying scenes since childhood, Ning Que and Sangsang were not afraid of it at all, without even a slight change in their expression.

There was no blood in the bedroom, only a bed and a table covered with dust. After thinking for a moment, Ning Que went out of the courtyard again. When he came back, there were beddings and mattresses in his arms and plaster required by the woodworking in his hand.

After a brief sweep, Ning Que laid the thick and soft cotton bedding on the floor and put the new pillow on it. Then he went to the abandoned well in the courtyard, from which he fetched some water to make plaster. He sealed up the windows with plaster without leaving any cracks and hung a thick black cloth on the window and the door.

When it was completely dark, he dropped the two cloths, then went out of the room and said “Ok.” As a tiny sound of striking fire came from the room, he observed carefully, found no light leaking out from the room and nodded.

This was the ability he had developed when he was ambushing the boar in the snow at night in the Min Mountain with Sangsang. The boar was very sensitive to light and the smell of humans, so he learned how to build a temporary spot in the snow from which no light or smell could leak out. Therefore, it was quite easy for him to do this presently.

The night was dark and the yard was still gloomy. No one dared to approach. Even if someone did, he would see no trace of people but a common shabby scene.

The Buddhism Sect was looking for the black carriage everywhere, trying to find Ning Que and Sangsang. Countless powerhouses of Haotian Taoism were lurking in the woods on the way to the Tang Empire. However, no one would expect that the Daughter of Yama was in a courtyard near the White Tower Temple.

A black crow landed on the tree in the yard and looked up at the star.

Sangsang’s portrait could be seen everywhere in Chaoyang City. People gathered in front of every temple, listening to the stories told by monks about the Underworld, the last words of Buddha and the appearance of the Daughter of Yama. The people of Yuelun had varied expressions, some terrified and others indignant. The instruction of Buddha, to not be angry, was completely left behind by them. Gradually, the crowd became increasingly agitated. They waved their fists and said that they were going to find the Daughter of Yama and burn her to death.

As Ning Que went through the street, he was not influenced by the angry discussion and the vicious curses of the crowds. Soon he arrived at the concierge.

The Tang Empire’s diplomatic envoys to Yuelun Kingdom were all in the concierge. He did not go inside but stood in a quiet alley, listening intently to what happened inside the walls, and made decisions later.

“This is not a matter of self-preservation, nor surrender, but right or wrong. As the leader of the world, the Tang Empire has no need to care about the pressure of the Yuelun Kingdom. Even the West-Hill Divine Palace could not force us to give in. I will never stand by to watch the world going to death. This is the duty we Tang Empire should shoulder.”

Standing outside the wall quietly for a long while, Ning Que heard the most valuable words, which were said by the Tang Empire’s envoy to Yuelun. He slowly lowered his head, and then turned away.

The look on Ning Que’s face told Sangsang that the situation was not good. As she held his hand, Ning Que managed a smile, “It’s ok. I’m just a little surprised at something I heard.”

Sangsang asked, “What is it?”

“Guess how long has it been since we left the Lanke Temple?” Ning Que asked.

Sangsang thought for a moment and said, “More than one month at least.”

“No. It’s been a year.”

Ning Que caressed her little cool face and said, “One year has passed before we’ve known it. So I am patient enough to get through another half year. I’m going to take you to read Buddhist sutras in the White Tower Temple tomorrow.”

For the first half of their lives, they led a vagrant life, full of hardships and misery. However, it was due to those hard days that they could become who they were today, with courage, persistence, indifference, and patience unimaginable for ordinary people.

In the depths of the snow-covered Min Mountain ten years ago, when Ning Que was ambushing the boar in a snow cellar with Sangsang, a winter bear which woke up with alert appeared unexpectedly. After a dainty repast of a boar, the winter bear seemed to find that there was other food around, thus it refused to leave the snow cellar and stayed there for several days by eating the remaining flesh of the boar.

At the time, Ning Que was not strong enough and Sangsang was still a six-year-old little girl, so it was impossible for them to beat a greedy bear. They could do nothing but hide in the snow cellar, waiting and praying.

The prayer to Haotian would never be answered, but the unusual endurance of waiting eventually succeeded. In the end, the bear left sulkily, unable to endure hunger anymore. Ning Que climbed out of the snow cellar with Sangsang who was on the brink of death on his back. They had stayed in the snow cellar for four days and nights.

Since Sangsang and he could survive in that case, how could they fail to live now? Ning Que thought to himself while looking at the increasingly thicker clouds in the clear autumn sky outside the window.

A black crow cawed on the tree in the small courtyard. It was extremely unpleasant to hear.

Ning Que and Sangsang disappeared again from the world. They had disappeared once for a whole year. At the time, the two sects guessed that they might either be dead or were in the chessboard world left by Buddha. No one felt shocked by their disappearance, nor would they think it was incredible.

However, they had disappeared again after they leaving the Chessboard world of Buddha and returning to man’s world. The powerhouses from the Buddhist Sect and the Taoist Sect and countless people in the world failed to find them despite all their efforts, which made them extremely shocked and vigilant. It was known that even the Academy was being watched by many now.

An old monk walked slowly out of the basin in the depth of the Western Wilderness and went forward.

The old monk wore a bamboo hat, covering his face. With a monk’s staff in his hand, he walked very slowly. It was not the deliberate slowness to show calm and indifference, but a natural one as if his foot were so tightly connected with the desolate vast land that every step was extremely hard.

The cane in his hand kept beating the ground, as if the monk was looking for something or somebody. Who could he find at such a slow speed?

However, at the moment when he stepped out of the basin, he seemed to find something and said, “The Palace.”

A distant bell came from the yellow temple among the huge mountains at the center of the basin.

In the Right King’s Palace tens of thousands of miles away, a dusty scholar looked at Chanyu and a dozen or so palace priests who looked like confronting a powerful enemy and bowed to them. “Could you please tell me whether you have seen my Younger Brother?”

More than a dozen miles away, the deputy of the Hall of Respect of Xuankong Temple rushed to the palace, followed by thirty ascetic monks.

The old monk continued his slow walk and stopped again after walking for half a day. “Liuguan,” He said.

Again, a distant bell came from the yellow temple among the huge mountains at the center of the basin.

The scholar appeared in Liuguan, a famous trade center on the edge of the Wildness.

A thousand of grassland cavalries and cavalries from Yuelun Kingdom rushed to Liuguan under the military’s order.

The old monk went on walking and stopped again after one day. Then he said another place.

The chief monk of the Hall of Respect of Xuankong Temple quietly looked at the scholar under a poplar that was not far away.

Looking at the coarse bark of the poplar, Eldest Brother came to realize what happened.

He kept looking for his Younger Brother everywhere by virtue of Limitless State regardless of the danger of falling into a lower state. But the two sects kept tailing after him. So even if he found Ning Que, he could not take him away without others’ knowing. He would definitely face the continuous deadly attack from the two sects.

No cultivator could keep pace with the Limitless State. In order to find where he was accurately, two conditions must be met. Firstly, his opponent must have enough number of powerhouses and armies to be prepared around every place he could possibly arrive. Secondly, the opponent had to know his location as soon as possible.

In principle, it was utterly impossible to meet these two conditions at the same time. However, if all the people in the world were looking for Sangsang and the if Buddhist sect and the Taoist sect worked together, they could really dispatch enough powerhouses and armies and the second condition could also be met by someone.

Although Eldest Brother looked gentle and dull, he was actually a wise man. It did not take him long to understand all things and confirm his own guess: the chief preaching monk from Xuankong Temple had finally come to the world.

He looked at Qi Mei and smiled. Then he sat down with his back against the poplar and took out the old book from his waist and started reading. There was no pond beside him to drink with a scoop, but he still looked calm and unhurried.

Since the two sects tried to find Ning Que and Sangsang though him, he decided to do nothing except for reading, eating, and sleeping from this moment.

Doing nothing was the best method of hiding. On the contrary, the more you did to conceal, the easier you would expose. Though he did not know this truth, he made the right choice by following his heart.

Being experienced in hiding and fleeing, Ning Que knew the truth and did follow it. Except taking Sangsang to read and heal in different temples, Ning Que never went out of the courtyard and did not even go to find Eldest Brother.

Sangsang’s illness improved slightly, and at least did not worsen anymore for now. She was still weak and weary and sank into a deep sleep just after noon.

Ning Que sat by the bed and started reading.

The book was the handwritten copy of Buddha’s notes written by himself in the Lanke Temple. He made the words in the “Ming” Handscroll of Tomes of the Arcane correspond to the sidenotes of Buddha in order to get a more clear insight. But he failed to find more things in it.

Ning Que came to have a vague idea of the book after taking Sangsang to different temples in these days. When he read it again, he talked to himself with a slight frown, “The night falls for the moon… Doesn’t this reverse the cause and effect? The shadow of nightfall will never be washed away once it falls on the moon. What does it mean?”

Then he turned to Sangsang who was in deep sleep. Looking at her little pale face, he reached out his hand and touched it, thinking that “the dark shadow” in the “Ming” Handscroll was naturally the Daughter of Yama, Sangsang.

“The shadow of nightfall will never be washed away once it falls on the moon… ” As to the literal meaning and the current situation, “the moon” referred to himself for he was the only one in the world who had seen the moon.

Ning Que looked thoughtful and inspired, but was still confused.

Several terrible caws came from outside the window. After making sure that no one was in the courtyard, he opened the door and went outside. Looking at the several black crows in the tree, he knitted his brows.

A crow came here at the first night when they came. In the following days, one more crow came every day. The number of crows gradually increased that the branches now could hardly bear their weight.

It was weird no matter what.

He looked up at the sky and found that the clouds above Chaoyang City increased. They kept moving and merging at a low speed, gradually forming a thick cloud that could cover the sky.

With the clouds getting thicker, people in the city felt a little chilly. The autumn was going to end at last.

For Ning Que and Sangsang, last fall was related to this fall. In these two falls, they had gone through too many things. How lamenting it was!