Nightfall

“His Majesty is far away in Chang’an City. It would take a long time to go there and back to ask for instructions and the black horse carriage is already at our gates.” These words from General Han Qing seemed incredibly irresponsible, however, the people in the room didn’t show such an expression but only shock.

The Tang Empire’s army had three Fu character transmission arrays along the border that could transmit extremely short fragments of information. One of them was in Helan City and could reach the palace of Chang’an City directly.

The information that could be passed by a transmission array was incredibly little. Activating it once would use up an unimaginable amount of energy. Especially the one in Helan City, as the transmitting distance was too far, the price to pay was much higher. According to the calculations of the designer, using it once would cost as much as 10 years of Helan City’s supplies.

According to the Tang Empire’s military regulations, unless it was an invasion by the Golden or a dangerous event where the Left King’s Palace tried to threaten the Tang Empire from the Eastern Wilderness, the transmission array couldn’t be activated.

Since a sage from the Academy had laid down this transmission array, for hundreds of years, it had only been activated twice. However, today, it was activated again because of a lone carriage.

There was silence in the towers. Besides the small buzzing sounds of Heaven and Earth’s Qi condensing on the Fu array, there were no other sounds. General Han Qing and the other high-ranking officers stared silently at the pristine surface of the Fu array. They had no idea what reply they would see and were incredibly nervous.

After a long time.

A faint yellow light flashed past, revealing an extremely small piece of paper on the floor. The palace must have considered the amount of resources used up by the transmission array when replying and had reduced the weight as much as they could.

General Han Qing walked towards it and picked up the paper. He gave a solemn military salute and showed it to the crowd.

There was no seal on the paper, only three clear words. The handwriting wasn’t scrawled and was serious but it wasn’t outstanding. The various officers took a look and it was indeed His Majesty’s writing.

“Let him go.”

After a moment of silence, the officer who previously had strongly suggested starting an attack said, “There is no imperial seal nor is there the seal of the Military Ministry. This paper is useless.”

Han Qing looked at this man and said in a slightly cold voice, “According to the military rule of Helan City, the paper transmitted by the palace through the Fu array is the calligraphy of His Majesty himself. It is the same as an imperial edict.

The lieutenant was a little nervous but insisted on his opinion. He said in a low voice, “Ning Que is a Grand Cultivator of the Knowing Destiny State. He can still be dealt with outside of the city but once he is in, how many people will it take to suppress him if he brings trouble? By then, if something were to happen in Helan City, who will take responsibility?”

General Han Qing rebuked coldly, “As a militant of the Tang Empire, military orders are sacred. The imperial edict of His Majesty is the highest order. If His Majesty says yes, then it means yes. As for responsibility, it is the responsibility of the entire country’s military!”

The array was activated and the giant wooden plate started rotating. The twisted rope rubbed and squeezed at the tung oil and gave off a slight sound. The heavy castle gates started opening slowly.

The black horse carriage drove into Helan City. Following the narrow mountain path at the bottom of the cliff, it headed east. Both sides of the path were steep cliffs and at the top of it were dozens of strong mountain forts. There was a small camp in each fort with countless numbers of arms and weapons stored inside. It made one afraid.

There were numerous bows that were already strung between Helan City and the cliff. Dozens of crossbows were slowly adjusting their angle and started aiming towards the black horse carriage. Over ten trebuchets were wound even tighter under the command of the officer. This was to ensure that once fired, the giant rocks would be thrown out at the first moment and bury the horse carriage.

“Whoever dares to ignore the military order and moves first shall have his head cut off!”

General Han Qing said sternly as he commanded the lieutenant to bring his personal army to watch over the most powerful crossbows and trebuchets. Then, under the protection of the soldiers with shields, he came to the wall on the Eastern City and looked at the black horse carriage. His eyes were slightly narrowed.

After a moment, the lieutenant came rushing back. He said something in a low voice beside his ear. Han Qing’s face turned ugly in an instant, as he didn’t expect someone to really do anything.

“Where is he?” General Han Qing asked coldly.

The lieutenant replied in a low voice, “Adjutant Xiao and his soldiers have been disarmed and locked up.”

“Execute him.” General Han Qing said with a deadpan expression.

The lieutenant’s expression changed slightly. Even though a military order was too important not to follow, it was understandable that Adjutant Xiao wanted to kill the Daughter of Yama. Moreover, he was a close confidant of Her Majesty.

General Han Qing knew what he was thinking about as he said with a cold expression, “I do not care if he is Her majesty’s person or the Princess’. Anyone who dares to question or go against the orders of His Majesty does not have the right to continue living. Moreover, he was very clear that if the horse carriage was attacked, how many people in Helan City would have to die today.”

…

…

Thousands of Tang Army troops stood on the walls of Helan City, in the fortifications of the cliff and behind the barracks between the slopes. They stared quietly with complex emotions at the black horse carriage below them, almost as if they were sending it away.

The lieutenant returned to General Han Qing’s side. There was a faint blood smell from the sword beside his waist. He followed the gaze of the general to the black carriage. His feelings were complex too.

“From a soldier in the City of Wei to where he is today, how many of us are there since the Tang Empire started? All these years, who isn’t proud of him in the Northern Army? Who in the Nothern Military Camp does not take him as a fighting symbol and a role model?”

General Han Qing looked at the black carriage as he reminisced.

The lieutenant sighed and said, “It is a pity that pretty women are the cause of all problems; a hero cannot get over lust. Ning Que is here today because of His Majesty and the Academy’s nurturing. However, he doesn’t care about the safety of the Tang Empire and the world. He insists on his own ways, being completely heartless and outrageous.”

At this moment, a gust of wind blew in Helan Mountain. The horse carriage’s windows started billowing as the curtain danced, revealing a young girl’s face. She looked incredibly normal with her short hair in a mess from the wind, just like a ball of wild grass.

General Han Qing looked at her and said, “How is she a pretty woman, how is that a beauty?”

The lieutenant also saw the girl’s face and was a little shocked. He kept silent for a moment before saying, “It seems like Ning Que is a righteous person after all. Even though he chose the wrong person, he is deserving of admiration.”

General Han Qing said, “Whoever can impress His Majesty is naturally something.”

Just as they left the defense perimeter of Helan City, Ning Que let the big black horse accelerate. They stepped on the cold floor and followed the narrow mountain range of Helan and traveled towards the east.

The snow-capped peaks of the mountain range didn’t pass by quickly through their vision. The cliffs near them had already become a grey line that swept past them. One can only imagine how fast the black horse carriage was moving.

Sangsang was a little shocked and had no idea why they were suddenly accelerating. Ning Que saw her expression but didn’t reply. He concentrated on steering the horse carriage in silence, pushing its speed to the limit.

Ning Que needed speed now.

From the start of Shubi Lake, the black horse carriage had entered the range of the Tang Empire’s traditional sphere of influence. The cultivators from the Buddhism and Taoism Sect were not able to chase and kill like they did at the start due to various fears.

But no one would give up. There were countless forces that were watching them, guessing the route of the black horse carriage. The patch of dark clouds in the sky and the dozen or so black crows were reporting their locations at every moment. When the black horse carriage had arrived in Helan City, many people would have already guessed where they were heading.

After the mountain range of Helan City, they would enter the Eastern Wilderness and away from the Tang’s sphere of influence. There were countless forces in the Wilderness. Left King’s Palace, the West-Hill Divine Palace coalition army, the Desolate Man’s tribe. They were all gathered together.

Ning Que had no idea who would be waiting for them in the Wilderness after they cross this mountain range. Hence, no matter how quickly the black horse carriage traveled, it seemed pointless. So, why did he choose this way?

The dark clouds landed on the silver mask, making it seemed even darker.

Long Qing looked at the dark heavy cloud in the sky that was coming from the west. The mask left his mouth exposed; its corners were slowly lifted and said, “The ending of your story should of course be written by me.”

After that, he lowered his head and continued writing his letter. The soft pen tip didn’t stop moving on the paper. He drew a map, almost like an attacking blueprint for the city gates of some big city. He then wrote a few simple lines.

Using lacquer to seal the letter, he handed it over to a cavalry commander of the West-Hill Divine Palace and said calmly, “When you reach the capital city of Cheng, hand him this letter personally and tell him if the chance presents itself, we need to grasp it.”

The fallen knight commander accepted the orders. He turned and mounted his horse to speed towards the south.

As the henchman of Prince Long Qing, he had only found out this secret a few days ago. Thinking back to the discussions in the world back then, he couldn’t help but think it was a little cold and his admiration for Prince Long Qing increased.

Prince Long Qing looked at the horse riding away and kept silent for a long time. He realized he had a strange distant feeling for his birth country and couldn’t help but shake his head.

His journey was the field of light and darkness, as it was in the mortal world.

He walked slowly to the edge of the cliff. Looking at the exit of the mountain that was around 10 feet wide, his expression slowly calmed down.

Behind him were over ten cultivators that were at the peak of the Seethrough state. There were 2 other old men that were dressed in ordinary clothes and looked ordinary. On the Wilderness not far away, there were also over 3,000 cavalry troops from the Left King’s Palace.

Moving so many people to write the black horse carriage’s ending. Prince Long Qing felt he was showing enough respect to the two people in the horse carriage.

The dark clouds in the skies were already higher than the snow-capped peaks. They penetrated deep into the center of the Wilderness.

The hoofbeats were hurried as the black horse carriage under the clouds finally made it out of the mountain ranges of Helan. It reached the Wilderness, right into Long Qing’s view, before coming slowly to a stop.

Long Qing sat atop his horse and looked at the black horse carriage at the foot of the slope. He extended his hand and took down the silver mask, showing off his burned cheek. He smiled slightly, looking extremely ferocious.