Nightfall

Haotian wanted to eat, but what to eat was a problem. But no matter what Haotian consumed, there was no need to pay. However, when humans ate, they had to.

The Headmaster had Ning Que settle the bill before bringing him and Sangsang downstairs. They walked around the capital of the Kingdom of Song and went to a Chenjinji Cosmetics Store branch to buy Sangsang some cosmetic powder.

Ning Que felt that his teacher was too good to Sangsang and was unlike the teacher he knew. However, he was entirely occupied with the question and did not think too much about it.

The black horse carriage left the capital of the Kingdom of Song. Moments later, it returned to the verdant Wilderness.

Ning Que looked at the wild grass and sheep on the Wilderness. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Teacher, can you make it simpler?”

The Headmaster got off the horse carriage and looked at the endless meadow. He said, “Grass grows in the wild and is nourished by the sun, rain and dew. They take in the essence of the earth so they can grow. This is what they consume.

The Headmaster looked at the sheep in the distance and said, “Sheep eat grass.”

Then, he pointed at a spot a few dozen miles away and said, “Look, the wolves there are eating sheep.”

“Then what does Haotian eat?”

Ning Que suddenly thought of Master Lotus’ angry tirade at the Front Gate of the Devil’s Doctrine. He thought of Master Qishan’s lament in the autumn rain at the Buddhist temple and of the confusion of many elders and asked with a trembling voice, “People?”

“Sheep cannot eat mud and sunlight directly, so they have to eat grass. Wolves cannot eat grass directly, so they eat sheep. Humans are relatively more capable. We eat almost everything. But in general, when you look at food in layers, each layer has a higher energy and the utilization efficacy of energy increases. So the layer above can only eat the layer of life below it.”

The Headmaster shook his head and said, “I reckon Haotian replenishes its vitality through the Qi of Heaven and Earth. It cannot consume Qi directly, just like how sheep cannot consume mud and sunlight directly and how wolves cannot eat grass. That is why it needs an intermediary, and that is man.”

Ning Que said, “That’s what I said earlier.”

The Headmaster said, “Ordinary people don’t even know what the Qi of Heaven and Earth is, so how can they change it? That is why we need cultivators to cultivate and raise the Qi of Heaven and Earth to become what nourishes Haotian.”

Ning Que said, “Do you mean that the Qi of Heaven and Earth is grass and cultivators are like sheep that eat grass who turn the nutrients into something the wolf that is Haotian can absorb?”

The Headmaster said, “Yes, that’s about it.”

Ning Que said, “The Haotian Taoism classics say that cultivation is a gift to mankind from Haotian. According to your explanation, this gift is a little dark and scary.”

The Headmaster said, “Of course, Haotian is more picky about food than wolves in the wilderness. After all, it is the highest set of rules in our world. In its eyes, ordinary practitioners are sheep that are tasteless. Those cultivators who have crossed the Five States begin to have their own world and create their own rules. They purify the Qi of Heaven and Earth in nature into their unique essence. By this time, they have become a delicacy in Haotian’s eyes.”

Ning Que looked into the Headmaster’s eyes and asked, “What about you?”

“At my stage, I’m of course a delicious sheep.” The Headmaster said smilingly. He continued, “But just like the relationship between lions and wild cattle, when some bison are too strong, or the herd of bison is too strong, lions would also feel threatened.”

Ning Que had remained calm and had looked at the grass below his feet and the sheep that looked like clouds leisurely while talking with the Headmaster. However, his mood was actually oscillating from one extreme to another. He felt like the boiling mutton hot pot one moment, and then like frozen mutton in the next. He was close to break down and had to keep telling himself that they were having an academic discussion that did not reach into reality before he could continue the conversation.

Academic discussions would eventually lead to reality. After a long silence, he asked the most important question of their discussion so far. “Teacher, do you have any evidence?”

If there was no evidence, then this was just an academic discussion. He could spread his thoughts to the deepest, most incredible and most eerie places without any psychological burdens. If there was evidence, then this was a cruel and sad story that one cannot bear to listen to, let alone to discuss.

The Headmaster knew how he felt, so he said with a smile, “This is not a sad story, and it is neither eerie or scary. Over the last thousands of years, the number of the cultivators who could cross the Five States is not as many as the number of sheep humans eat in one day. Humans are scarier than Haotian if we were to discuss eerie or terrifying things.”

Ning Que found it hard to find comfort in his words because he was a human and not a sheep. He opened his eyes wide and looked at his teacher innocently and pitifully, trying to hear the answer from him.

“There is of course no evidence for this kind of things.”

The Headmaster said. Then, he continued without waiting for Ning Que to have a sigh of relief. “But your Youngest Uncle and I have already proved that Haotian is conscious. It is a form of life similar to and superior to human beings. Therefore, it needs to eat and it is hard for you to deny this conjecture.”

Ning Que looked revolted, similar to a pig to being slaughtered during the new year.

“Cultivation is indeed very difficult, but it is not too difficult considering how many people there are in the world. There would always be some who could cultivate and some who could cross the Five States.”

The Headmaster looked at him and said, “No matter how rare cultivators who can cross the Five States are; there must be plenty of them over the past millennium. Then, can you tell me where they have gone?”

Ning Que answered, “Birth, aging, illness and death are common. It’s not surprising that they might have died of old age.”

The Headmaster smiled and said, “I have lived for more than a thousand years. And if I am willing, I can continue to live on. Birth, aging, illness and death are unusual for those of us above the Five States.”

Ning Que felt his mouth dry out and bitterness filled his mouth. After a moment, he asked, “In the Buddhism Sect, there is Nirvana. In Haotian Taoism, there is the ascension to heaven and becoming immortal. In these stories, have all the people become deities in heaven?”

The Headmaster smiled and said, “Heaven? Where is that? Where is the divine kingdom of Haotian? Are you still yourself after returning to that world? If you can’t be yourself, are you still alive?”

This was a problem Ning Que and Master Qi Shan had discussed before in the Lanke Temple. He knew that there was no solution to the problem. If one thought about it deeply, the answer they would receive would probably point only at the negative aspect.

“Nobody has been to Haotian’s divine kingdom and returned. Your Youngest Uncle might have caught a glimpse of it back then, but forgot to leave any message behind. That is why I had no answer to this problem in the past.”

The Headmaster looked at the blue sky and white clouds of the Wilderness, then and said slowly, “I only saw the answer when I saw the Divine Guard of Light on the golden chariot.”

Ning Que asked, “Where was the answer?”

“The answer was on his face.”

The Headmaster said, “His face was too perfect and there is nothing perfect in this world. That is why he is not real. His perfection comes from tens and thousands of people I used to know. So he is not them.”

The Headmaster seemed a little depressed and regretful. He seemed to be thinking of many things in the past.

Then he looked back at Ning Que and said, “I saw the unified consciousness of Haotian in his face but not one of a human. I saw eternity and as such, also death.”

This was a simple world and these were simple truths. However, before the Headmaster had spoken, Ning Que would not have been able to think of these issues even though he had lived two lives and seen the most bizarre things in the world.

After a long silence, he said, “Have other cultivators not thought of these problems?”

“Back then when we were at the back of the Academy’s mountain, you once told me that Haotian would laugh once humans started thinking. However, there were many before me who did not mind being laughed at by Haotian and there will be many after me who won’t mind. Many cultivators would continue to think and come up with suspicions similar to mine.”

The Headmaster walked down the meadow and said, “Why did that kid Liu Bai not dare to make that step after so many years? Why had he been hiding in the Sword Garret all these years and not dare to step out? Why did the Great Divine Priest of Light of a thousand years ago betray the West-Hill Divine Palace and set up the Devil’s Doctrine in the Wilderness? These were all linked to these suspicions.”

Ning Que could not help but think of the West-Hill Divine Palace when he heard of the Great Divine Priest of Light who started the Devil’s Doctrine. He asked, “Haotian Taoism is the closest to Haotian. The sublime beings in the sect should have a deep understanding of this. Is there no one other than that Great Divine Priest of Light who have suspected Haotian in all these tens and thousands of years?”

“Haotian Taoism pursues the ascension to heaven and becoming immortal. Being led to the kingdom of Haotian and returning to the original world is their greatest happiness and their ultimate goal of their survival and struggles. This is their aspiration, so why should they doubt it?”

The Headmaster looked at him and said, “However, to other cultivators, to live eternally with Haotian or to die alone, that is a question.”

To be or not to be, that is a question. To stay with Haotian forever or to die alone was also a question. However, was it possible to find answers to all questions?

Ning Que thought of what Master Lotus had said at the Front Gate of the Devil’s Doctrine once more.

“Don’t you see many pigheaded people living in this dirty world? Don’t you think the air you’re breathing is also so pungent? Don’t you feel it uncomfortable to breathe under a dirty silent sky for years? It’s natural for people living between heaven and earth to eat meat, including pigs, dogs, chicken and others. They have every reason to do so!

“In my opinion, the way in which you and I exist in this world is a collection of our own methods of knowing the world. After the rainy night beside the grave, I’ve been struggling to find the true essence of the real world and eventually I changed the way I exist in the world. I expected to change the world and searched for the world that was already impossible to return to.

“I only sought for strength and ways to change the world. I didn’t care about whether it was Taoism or Diabolism and who won or lost. The reason why I was willing to come to the Devil’s Doctrine was that I wanted to have a look at the lost Tomes of the Arcane.”

“I went to the Grand River in the South Jin Kingdom and the Yuelun Kingdom. Finally, I went westward to the distant Unknown Place. In that Xuankong Temple, I finally heard the preaching of the chief monk; I saw the brilliant Buddism lights and heard the Buddism language under the lights. After a few years, however, I found that the monks in the Xuankong Temple were nothing but some common people. The so-called Buddha’s language was deliberately mystifying and the monks were no different from the fortune tellers in the street of the Kingdom of Song. What was more abominable was that the Buddhism Sect proposed penance and introspection. They could only humbly wait for the rotation of life, so how could they reach the ideal world?”

“I thought I had finally found a right place and a good opportunity to understand the real world. But after I had spent some time in the Peach Mountain, I found that all the people in West-Hill Divine Palace were a group of cowardly idiots. That damn temple is full of lap dogs raised by Haotian! Haha…They’re all subservient lap dogs!”

In the past, Ning Que had thought that these were the mad ramblings of Master Lotus. It was only at this very moment that he finally understood how amazing the Devil’s Doctrine sublime being who studied both Buddhism and Taoism was.

Master Lotus had always stood on the highest spot in the cultivation world. His goal to survive was to destroy the old world and to create a new one. he was not much different from the Headmaster and Youngest Uncle except that the methods that he chose were more bloody and bleak.

Ning Que knew that he would never be qualified to make a decision like that because he would never be able to reach Master Lotus’ cultivation state. But when he thought about it carefully, he thought that he might choose the same solution as Master Lotus should he really encounter such a problem.

Master Lotus was amazing, and his teacher was even more so. He already knew what Lotus would choose and guessed what his teacher would. But he did not know what his teacher would actually do.

“Teacher, what would you do?” He asked.

The Headmaster asked, “What did Lotus intend to do back then?”

Ning Que said, “He intended to destroy the old world and to create a new one, then to go against Heaven’s Way.”

The Headmaster shook his head and said, “In the end, it is a relationship between eating and being eaten. Since Heaven’s Way does not eat people, why should hundreds of millions of ordinary people get dragged into the war?”

By this time, the Headmaster and Ning Que had reached the bottom of the meadow. The clear water in the pot had boiled, and the chopping board was filled with freshly cut fresh mutton. Sangsang looked up and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She said happily, “We can eat now.”

The three started to eat mutton hotpot.

“Mutton cooked in the hotpot has to be fresh; frozen meat is much worse.”

The Headmaster found some sweet garlics and munched. He then rubbed his stomach in satisfaction and looked at Ning Que. “I am a person who likes to eat,” he said.

Ning Que thought that if he were to describe that in simpler terms, the Headmaster was a glutton.

The Headmaster swirled his chopsticks in the pot of clear water. He felt a little regretful to find that there was not any lamb in it left. Then, he pointed the chopsticks at the sky and said, “Since I like to eat, I don’t like being eaten by others.”

“Why do I fight with the Heavens? Because it wants to eat me. So, I have to think of ways not to be eaten.”

“How can we prevent ourselves from being eaten?”

The Headmaster delivered a piece of frozen tofu into Sangsang’s bowl with his chopsticks. He watched the little girl who was eating meat with her head lowered and sighed. Then, he said, “This is indeed a bothersome problem.”

Ning Que pushed the Big Black Horse who had squeezed up to him to steal meat. Then, he suddenly thought of a possibility and looked up at the rounded sun above them. He said, “If Haotian needs to eat, then he can just eat sunlight. Why does he have to consume the Qi of Heaven and Earth?”

It was cold in the north of the Wilderness. Even though it was already spring, the sunlight was not scorching but was faint like a fake one in a painting.

The Headmaster pointed at the sky with his chopsticks once more and pointed them to the sun. He said, “What if this is fake?”