Nightfall

Tears streamed down Ning Que’s face as he looked at the Moon. He could barely stop crying until he found his crying more terrifying than the wolves’ howling far away.

Ning Que had felt nothing but hunger since he woke up. His empty belly had been torturing and haunting him like the Heaven and Earth’s Qi did, in the cliff cave in the back of the mountain of the Academy.

Judging by the hunger, he knew he must have been in an unconscious for days, leading him to the extremely weakened state he was in. He searched for edible grass in the meadow. He put the grass with dew in his mouth and chewed it until it was soft. He managed swallowing it, and then he felt much better.

He looked at the water droplets on the grass and took them for granted since he didn’t know that they were remained from the heavy rain that had arrived after the Headmaster’s passing.

When the Moon disappeared at dawn, Ning Que started to head south under the guidance of the morning sun rays.

He was depressed and confused, and didn’t know where exactly he was going.

Then, head back to Chang’an.

His home was there, and the Academy was there, too. However, the Old Brush Pen Shop and the house by the Yanming Lake were empty now, and the Headmaster would never again return to the Academy.

It didn’t take him long before he walked to where he could see mountains coated by snow. Then he walked towards the mountains till the night came, and the Moon shone in the sky.

For days he walked south through the mountains. At night when he looked up to the Moon, his temper would suddenly turn sour, making him spill curses at it, arms on his hips.

He knew the Headmaster was still alive, but in a different way. He was still fighting against Haotian in the sky now, and the effects of their ongoing struggle produced the shape of the Moon, bright or dim, wax or wane.

But still he felt sad and frustrated.

Because he could see nothing resembling the Headmaster in that Moon.

“Bright like a full moon is what people used to praise a handsome young man, and you’re nothing like that.”

He mocked as he pulled out his podao, to cut the snow hare he had just hunted. Since he had left the Primordial Thirteen Arrows and all other weapons in the carriage by the Sishui River, the podao was all he had. Sometimes he would worry if anything had happened to the Big Black Horse.

Having cleaned the hare nicely, he passed it to the empty air next to him, saying, “Don’t over-toast it.”

He was asking Sangsang to cook the hare.

Yet Sangsang wasn’t there anymore.

Ning Que lowered down his head and was silent for quite a long period. Then he cried out.

“Sangsang!”

…

…

After getting up in the morning, he continued his journey to the south and walked to the foot of the mountains.

The mountain capped by snow was the Tianqi Mountain. Along its was the way to Min Mountain, then to Chang’an, and to the Academy.

On his way, he ran into a small Herdsmen’s tribe.

The tribe was ruled by the Golden Palace. They knew Ning Que was one of the Tangs by his clothes and accent. Instead of treating him to a meal, they tried to kill Ning Que for the nice podao on his back.

So Ning Que killed them all.

After that, he had a filling meal including lamb and kumiss. He found a tent free from blood splatter and there he slept away all his exhaustion and frustration.

He left the dead tribe with a boxwood bow on his shoulder. He rode one of their horses and led another with a rope that carried four gigots on its back.

Several days passed.

Ning Que had finally seen the famous gap of Tianqi Mountain. However, his face turned gloomy before he could even scream with joy.

Before the city gate of Helan City were numerous elite cavalries of the Golden Palace.

And judging by the scene, there must be at least thousands of them.

What had actually shocked Ning Que was the four carriages behind the cavalries.

Ning Que’s eyesight was good enough to see the golden and silver decorations on the carriage. He could even see the steel disks inside the carriage, and the lines crossing on the surface.

Each carriage had a fully armored powerhouse from the grassland standing on it. Ning Que was able to recognize them because their armors were made of rare metals instead of leather!

Yet they were not the protagonists of this war.

They were no more than the submissive protectors of the disks and their users.

On each carriage sat a skinny and old man. Three of them were garbed in shining royal clothes and wore human-bone necklaces around their necks. Only the old man at the very end wore the most common grassland attire, without any special accessories.

“The High Priest!”

Ning Que frowned when he saw him. He had never run into the High Priests of the grassland palace in battles before, but he had heard descriptions of him from General Ma and the other military officials.

These Necromancers manipulated the Qi of Heaven and Earth through the disks, and they were the grassland palace equivalent to the Array Tactical Masters or the Talisman Master of Tang. The Golden Palaces titled them respectfully as “Priests”. The strongest amongst them who could commune directly with the grassland were called “High Priests” and were given the precious golden disks.

Ning Que was trying to figure out why the Golden Palace had summoned three High Priests together at one go. And looking at the old man riding the carriage at the very back, Ning Que was afraid that he ranked even higher than the other three.

“Maybe a bigwig they want is in Helan City now.”

Ning Que didn’t believe that the cavalries and the Priests were here to capture Helan City. As powerful as the High Priests might be, they would find it difficult to capture the city that had been built with talisman adaptations. The city was supposed to withstand the attack of thousands of cavalries, not to mention there were only hundreds of them now.

After the rain stopped, and before the people in Helan City had come to a decision, the four weird carriages of the Golden Palace cavalry had reached the gate of the city before Helan City.

Having been in siege for days, the whole city was depressed.

Others might wonder why the city was sieged by only tens of hundreds of grassland cavalries, for there were thousands of Tang cavalries, Master Huang Yang, and many powerful generals inside the city.

But that was the truth.

The Northern Army tried to breakout when the cavalries of the Golden Palace first arrived. That was their best shot and they almost succeeded. Their later attempts failed horribly.

That was probably because their first shot was when the four High Priests on the carriage weren’t fully prepared.

The grassland was soaked by the heavy rain that had lasted for days. The four High Priests had turned the grassland before Helan City into a muddy and boggy marsh with some spell.

The land Helan city sat on had been adapted by Array Tactical Masters. The adaption could prevent the land area from being influenced by the High Priests. However, the land around the city area had been turned into a swamp.

The cavalries of Tang, as strategic or brave as they might be, had no way to rush into the camp of their enemy with the hooves of their horses stuck in the mud. They were shot by arrows and died helplessly.

“The Priests of the Left King’s Palace have played this card when the Desolate first came south. The Military Ministry asked generals what to do. The generals believed that our Tang cavalries were too flexible to be trapped by a stretch of marsh…”

Said Han Qing, who looked quite severe as he was standing on the city wall, looking down to the dense grassland cavalries and the four carriages behind. Then he continued, “But we forgot one thing— this is the perfect way to siege Helan City. And the four Priests from the Golden Palace are much more powerful than those from the Left King’s Palace back then.”

In the old days, Helan City would never fear the siege of the Golden Palace because it had enough food stored away. Now that the Northern Army was also stuck in the city, the food supply was running out. The city now was too weak to take any attacks from the enemy.

“As far as I am concerned, we should make a quick decision and march to the Eastern Wilderness through the mountain gap. Then we should make a detour around the North of Yan Kingdom, then return to Tang. That’s the only way we can avoid ending up dying here.”

Han Qing suggested as he looked at the Empress who was standing on the city walls.

The Empress then shook her head and said, “Now that the Golden Palace is attacking me with its Nation Masters who have been long missed, I believe it has let the main force of its cavalries march south to attack Tang.”

“I am now worried about Chang’an.”

Yet, the Empress still looked calm, and she said softly, “The Chanyu of the Golden Palace wouldn’t dare to go south alone. The situation Tang is facing now must be tougher than that we’ve seen. I’m afraid other countries have joined together to go after Tang.”

Han Qing then argued, “Then that’s one more reason why we should attack Yan Kingdom.”

“Detouring around the North of Yan Kingdom will cost too much time. And attacking Yan carries little weight to other attackers of Tang. We can’t afford to waste that much time. The Northern Army should be brought back to Tang as soon as possible, for the Empire needs the cavalries now more than ever.”

The Empress turned over and looked at Han Qing and the other two generals of the Nothern Army. Then she smiled and said, “I know what’s on your mind now. The Northern Army is running out of food supplies, so it won’t make any difference even if we can go back to Tang in time.”

“But you’re wrong. Without food supply in Helan City, the Northern Army might be the biggest burden of the Empire. But if we go back to the south and find food, we will be the most fearsome force of the Empire.”

She then continued slowly, “I’m not sure if Chang’an has the same idea as me. And I don’t know if the food supply from the Northern Military Camp has been burned by the palace or not. But obviously, the Golden Palace knows that we’ve run out of food, and that’s why they are trying their hardest to besiege us here.”

Han Qing asked after a moment of silence, “Then what should we do, Your Majesty?”

The Empress then said, “While we still have food, we should break out of the city as soon as we can.”

Han Qing frowned, and the other two generals became frustrated. The Empress was right, and they agreed with her. The problem was that the idea was too hard to realize, considering how many dead Tang cavalries were now lying outside the city wall.

“Only if we could kill the three Priests.”

The Empress squinted, and looked down to the four luxurious carriages behind the grassland cavalries. Her tone turned colder than ever.

Master Huang Yang, who had kept silent for long, smiled and said, “I should try it.”

The Empress shook her head and disagreed, “The grassland cavalries’ arrows are too sharp. You can’t take the risk.”

One of the two generals of the Nothern Army gritted his teeth and said, “Your Majesty, I’ve got several Martial Arts powerhouses. I’ll let them try again if the weird and shining thing in the sky could be clouded tonight.”

The Empress shook her head and disagreed again, “We have already failed twice, so we shouldn’t try again. The lives of these generals should be saved for something greater in the future, instead of dying for nothing here.”

The people standing on the city wall of Helan were all silent.

What should they do? Her Majesty was the most respected person in the city. His Majesty’s last edict was to let the Sixth Prince be the new Emperor, so all the generals had to listen to her. However, in the eyes of everyone, how is it possible that a woman can come up with any great strategies?

The Empress then smiled as if she had recalled something.

Then she said softly, “Let me have a try.”

Both Han Qing and the other two generals thought they had heard it wrong.

And before they could react, they heard a breeze. A skirt was dancing on the city wall. In mere moments, the Empress had jumped off the city wall!

Han Qing wailed and tried to grab the corner of the skirt, but it was too late. The other two were totally stunned and they only rushed to the edge of the wall to look down moments later.

All of them were too terrified to see the miserable scene of the Empress’ death.

Han Qing wailed and said, “I knew it! His Majesty’s sudden death was too shocking for Her Majesty to take! Her Majesty must have been planning to go with His Majesty for a long time! But Her Majesty…”

The wailing suddenly stopped. He rubbed his eyes until they were red. Still he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

The other two generals were staring at the scene with their eyes wide open. Their hands, which were on the brick wall looked as if they were about to crumble the rocks beneath them. Master Huang Yan was the only one who was calm.

…

…

The Empress had jumped off the very high city wall, but she didn’t die.

And she was still floating in the air.

She reached out her hands to press on the hard wall at intervals, and every time she pressed, she fell slower. Her skirt hem was lifted up, looking like a floating flower dancing in the air.

The Empress has been wearing white after His Majesty died, so she looked like a white flower now.

Finally, her feet settled on the ground, as did her skirt.

The land outside Helan City was like a swamp.

Her shoes were slowly sinking.

The grass roots around her shoes were sinking as well.

She kept walking towards the cavalries of the Golden Palace, calmly and peacefully, as if she were inspecting a military parade of Tang.