Nightfall

Sangsang cried out, her tears slipping down her tanned face. Some of her tears fell on Ning Que, suddenly making his black clothes hard; some of her tears fell on the ground and turned into ice beads, each one was crystal clear and of the same size.

An extremely fuzzy sound arose from her body, which sounded like bones being crushed into thousands of chippings or like flesh and blood disintegrating, or much more like hard ice being compressed incessantly.

The gloomy and cold aura inside her body finally emerged completely.

A dark ball, centered on her body, spread in all directions. Ning Que, who was holding her, was instantly struck by the ball and thrown hundreds of feet away. Wherever the aura went, the ground froze; the grass was covered with frost, and all creatures ceased to live!

Ning Que fell on the ground heavily and spat out a mouthful of blood which froze immediately. He kept spitting blood and finally the blood began to heat up in the air.

He was shocked by that gloomy and cold aura, leaving the Big Black Umbrella right beside Sangsang’s feet.

Sangsang squatted down, picked up the Big Black Umbrella, and opened it.

The cold aura came out from her body and kept spreading into the Wilderness. After meeting the real nature, this shapeless and invisible aura became a cold black cyclone and rolled up dust and grit from the ground. Roaring and tossing around Sangsang, the cyclone looked like a cloud of black smoke.

Having been following Sangsang since she was in a small yard at Chaoyang City in the Yuelun State, the black crows were hovering above her in the sky. At this moment, when this change happened to Sangsang, it seemed that the black crows perceived something. They kept flying up to the dim cloud layer, screaming and fluttering their black wings, trying to get as far away from her as possible.

That layer of cloud had been following Sangsang even longer since she was in the southern Wilderness. That cloud became thicker and thicker, which made it harder and harder for sunlight to go through. Finally, the cloud became darker and darker.

After flying into the cloud layer, the dozen black crows looked like black dots, just as if someone had put several drops of ink into the urn filled with water. The cloud layer grew darker and darker.

On the ground, the black smoke was still rolling and squirming around Sangsang, while that gloomy and cold aura went up to the vault of the heavens along with the Big Black Umbrella.

If the Hierarch’s rod in the West-Hill Divine Palace was the wick and the light and heat which was released by the Divine Skill was the real flaming fire that had lit up the southern sky; then, the Big Black Umbrella in Sangsang’s hand was like a writing brush, dipped in her cold aura and dyeing the northern cloud layer black.

The dozen black crows were only ink drops of the writing brush, while the real darkness came from Sangsang herself.

The dim cloud layer began to roll drastically and suddenly stopped, calmly receiving the gloomy and cold aura from the ground through the Big Black Umbrella. It quickly became darker and darker, looking more and more like a piece of paper filled with ink, until it turned into solid ink. Nothing but pure black.

What was black? Black meant there was no light. At this moment, the sky above the northern Wilderness was black, without a single ray of light. There were no stars, either, so it looked like night.

Night would not appear during the day time, and there would be stars on the sky at night. Therefore, the starless night which appeared during the day was obviously not the regular night, or it might have another name.

“What is happening?”

“Why is it getting dark over there?”

“Is this the Everlasting Night?”

People in the Wilderness, looking at the sky separated by light and darkness, did not cry out and scream. Instead, they muttered to themselves, for they were so astonished that they forgot their shock and fear. Everyone seemed numb and confused, as if they had lost their souls.

Standing under the bright southern sky, the West-Hill Divine coalition army was also looking at the northern dark sky.

After a long time, people finally regained consciousness and began to scream and cry bitterly. Some people tried to escape but all the war-horses were all paralyzed by fear, causing a scene of chaos.

The Desolate Men, standing beneath the dark northern sky, looked at the bright southern sky. Everyone kneeled again, eyes closed, holding their fists in front of their chests, praying peacefully and devoutly, and waiting for the appearance of Yama.

Ning Que got up with difficulty and walked towards Sangsang again.

He knew what would happen to Sangsang before he decided to leave the Desolate Man’s tribe and go south. Something horrible, and even more terrifying than death would happen to her, for she would awake and be seen by Yama.

He did not mind the Underworld Invasion and the Everlasting Night. He only cared about Sangsang at that time.

Sangsang was fine.

The light from the southern sky could not fall on her ever again. Those rays of baking-hot light would be strangled by the gloomy and cold aura before they got close to her. Besides, the cold aura inside her would never hurt her anymore.

Sangsang was not fine.

She was looking at the south. Though the south was very far from here, she could clearly see every detail of the West-Hill Divine Palace coalition army, including their facial expressions.

From people’s faces, she saw fear, nervousness, cowardice, hatred, sadness and every other negative expression. She saw everything except affection.

At present, no one in the human realm liked her anymore.

Sangsang looked down at the tips of her toes beneath her dress and the two blooming ice lotus flowers beneath her feet, and said, “Teacher kept looking at the north before he died. I finally understand now. It turned out that what he was looking at was what I am now. It turned out that he already knew I was the shadow of the Nightfall.”

Ning Que walked up behind her and held her hands.

Sangsang stepped on the ice lotus flowers, not really touching the ground. At this moment, her body was a clear and massless existence.

Ning Que asked, “How do you feel right now?”

Sangsang said in a low voice, “I feel… I kind of feel powerful.”

Ning Que said, “Do you like it?”

Sangsang shook her head, and said, “No.”

Ning Que said, “Endure it.”

Sangsang said, “I can’t.”

Ning Que asked, “Why don’t you like it?”

Sangsang looked up to the south and said, “Because people don’t like me anymore.”

Ning Que said, “Pull yourself together. At least try to keep a clear head.”

Sangsang asked, “What is a clear head like?”

Ning Que said, “You look so ugly, and you have a bad temper. No one liked you from the beginning, except me. Right now, even if no one likes you, as long as I like you, there is absolutely no difference between the present and the past.”

Sangsang thought for a moment and said, “That seems to be the case.”