Nightfall

The further the Empress walked into the grassland, she noticed how the land became mushier, and herself sinking deeper in the mud.

She was taking quicker steps, going faster and faster. Her feet were going up and down on the soft mud so quickly that people could barely see her clearly. All they could see was the shadow she had left behind.

The cool breeze of autumn was blowing on her face, whistling and making her hair ruffle. The hem of her dress now became as hard as iron.

That was the time when the cavalries of the Golden Palace emerged from the astonishment of seeing the Empress jumping off the wall. They tried their best to pull their bowstrings, shooting sharp arrows away.

The arrows arrived like a shower. With accurate prediction, all the arrows were aimed at the spot the Empress would step on.

The Empress’s lips curled, and with a smile, she kept moving forward.

Sharp arrows landed on her heavily.

There were many short cracking sounds; the arrows were all broken right in the middle.

Other arrows arrived like a storm. They cut through her skirt and hair. Then they bounced and shot deep into the ground. Not a single arrow had hurt the Empress.

The weird scene terrified the cavalries of the Golden Palace to no end. Their hands grew numb, and their shooting slowed down.

The Empress was the mother of the Tang Empire in most people’s eyes. She had impressed Chang’an with her gentleness and wisdom, and she was the love of His Majesty for more than 10 years.

No matter how impressive she might have been, she was after all a woman who was labeled as “weak”. However, now she was outside the gates of Helan City, charging into to the enemy’s camp like a courageous general.

Han Qing and the other two generals emerged from their astonishment and looked at Master Huang Yang with complicated expressions on their faces.

They were the senior generals of the Tang Army, and they were martial cultivators by themselves. So now they could clearly see that Her Majesty was a member of the Devil’s Doctrine!

Master Huang Yang looked at them and sighed, “What are you still doing here?”

The other three then emerged from their stupor and walked down to the foot of the city wall.

The Tang Army on the city wall didn’t connect things with the long kept secret, and they wouldn’t care much even if they had known it.

They were only aware that the Empress was charging towards the cavalries of the Golden Palace, and they were greatly inspired. The soldiers of Tang waved the podaos in their hands and roared to cheer Her Majesty on.

“Long live the Empress!”

“Long live Her Majesty!”

Backed by the overwhelming cheers, the thick and heavy gate of Helan City was opened. At the city wall archway, armored cavalries of Tang waited for the command to charge.

The Empress moved very fast, like a ghost.

When she entered the camp of the Golden Palace cavalries, those sharp cutlasses and arrows could barely touch her dress. And she was barely slowed down by the attacks.

She charged toward the Golden cavalry like a long sword, easily breaking through the defensive lines made up by hundreds of cavalries and finally, she reached the luxurious carriages.

Her seemingly frail shoulder shook once, and then all the full armored grassland powerhouses flew backwards and fell on the ground as if they had been hammered heavily.

The old Priest sitting in the carriage appeared expressionless. He was looking at the Empress, with his bloody lips rattling and fingers clicking on the metal disk.

The Empress knew clearly that the Priest was cursing the land with all his spiritual power through the disk. And she surely wouldn’t let him do that.

She stretched out her slender and fair right hand and clenched it.

Her right hand looked small and soft, even smaller when clenched into a fist. It resembled a ripe and tender fruit, appealing and harmless.

Then the fist smashed on the metal disk.

The disk didn’t break.

It bounced back, and hit the High Priest’s jaw heavily.

The High Priest’s neck and jaw were crushed, and he died instantly.

Blood dripped on the disk, dyeing its complicated lines red.

The Empress was surrounded by crowds after killing the High Priest.

The grassland powerhouses who were flung by her had rushed back, bringing more cavalries.

Master Huang Yang was standing on the city wall and looking far into the camp. He was frowning. While he was not worried about the Empress’ safety thus far, time was quite limited.

Because the Golden Nation Master in the very last carriage hadn’t made his move yet.

Huang Yang took out his Buddha Beads which he had kept with him since he was a kid. Then he bit his tongue tip and spit blood on the beads. He lifted his wrist and threw the bloody beads off the city wall.

The Buddha Beads with essential blood swirled and fell on the ground, ten feet away from the city wall.

The land outside Helan City had become less mushy after the death of the High Priest. Although, it was not solid enough. However, when the Master Huang Yang’s Buddha Beads fell on the ground, a merciful and fierce aura spread over.

Master Huang Yang had once traveled with a group of merchants deep in the Western Wilderness. On the way, they ran into a Horse Gang. Except for him, all his companions were slaughtered. The blood splashed on him, and he felt it burning him like fire.

That was his moment of enlightenment.

His approach to enlightenment was the Fire of Blood and Fury.

The blood of dead Tang soldiers had soaked the muddy grassland before Helan City. Master Huang Yang quit easing his fire of fury with buddha dharma, and the fury had turned into Buddhist Fire.

Wherever the fire passed by, the water evaporated. Thus the mushy mud turned as tough as bricks.

The grassland was dried up in unbelievable speed, and at last, it became solid.

General Han Qing roared when he saw the changes taking place. He held his podao high up and pressed the horse’s belly with his leg. With hundreds of Tang cavalry soldiers following, he rushed out of Helan City, and into the camp of the Golden Palace. There were still thousands of armored cavalries of Tang waiting in the mountain gap for the command to charge.

The Northern Army had been trapped in Helan City by the heavy rain at first, and then they were sieged by grassland barbarians. However, when they picked their podaos and mounted their horses again, their military spirit had instantly returned.

The hooves were thundering. The Tang cavalry was charging overwhelmingly.

Han Qing divided the cavalries into three groups, each of them charging at a carriage protected by grassland cavalries. Han Qing himself rushed towards the south with his subordinates.

The carriage in the south had been captured by the Empress. It might seem meaningless to charge over there. But the carriage meant a lot to Han Qing now.

Because the Empress was still there, and she was being attacked by the grassland cavalries.

He no longer cared about whether the Empress was from the Devil’s Doctrine. He simply had in his mind that he had vowed to serve the Emperor, and Her Majesty was the love of His Majesty, and he would never let Her Majesty get hurt on his watch.

The Empress’ escape route had been blocked by grassland cavalries coming forward.

She had not cultivated the scriptures of the Devil’s Doctrine since she married the Emperor. As the former Saintess of Diabolism, the Qi stored inside her could bail her out temporarily, but not for long.

Her two small and fair fists were waving like two mountains, punching all cavalry soldiers off their horses. They kept falling with horses neighing, some of them died of bone-breaking, and others flew far backwards.

Only the real grassland powerhouses could resist for a while.

Yet the Empress wasn’t satisfied. She looked toward the luxurious carriage deep in the camp. There, an old man who was frowning at the cold breath of the Wilderness.

All their efforts would end up in vain if she failed to kill the Nation Master of the Golden Palace, or to force the army to draw back.

The Empress waved her right hand. A cavalry soldier with a cutlass in hand was hit, being thrown into the air. Then the Empress walked towards the carriage quickly. She looked calm, with a slight smile on her face.

The old man dressed in ordinary clothes was the Nation Master of the Golder Palace, who had lived in seclusion for many years.

The old man had already known that the Empress was coming for him. He wasn’t in panic but instead, he curled his lips and smiled mysteriously just like she did.

Then he reached out for the curtain hat on his back. He put the curtain hat on, which covered his face.

And when the curtain hat was lifted, his face turned dark and withered.

Nobody noticed that the Nation Master was becoming older, more than ever, his body thinning down at an unbelievable speed.

Yet his eyes remained shimmering, peaceful and quiet as ever.

He watched as the Empress approached.

When they looked into each other’s eyes, the queen suddenly felt as if she were falling into an abyss. She immediately paled and moaned, trying to suppress the waves in her sense of perception and moved forward.

But at this point, she was feeling too weak to continue approaching.

The Nation Master finally took off his red curtain hat. He smiled as he saw how the Empress was once more trapped in the crowd. He then worried no more about what was happening in the south. He nodded to the two High Priests near the city wall, telling them to go on.

The two High Priests sped their enchantments. Their skinny fingers kept clicking on the metal disks faster and faster like beating drums. The bone necklaces around their necks were shining brighter and brighter.

The blood on the Buddha Beads on the ground was fading.

Master Huang Yang, who was standing on the city wall, suddenly spit out blood and paled.

His Buddha Fire had been extinguished by the two High Priests and the Nation Master, and he suffered from internal injuries.

When the essential blood on the Buddha Beads finally disappeared, the grassland quickly changed again from solid ground into mushy marshland.

The Tang cavalries had noticed the change, but they had no other choice except to charge forward, because they would be crushed by those behind them if they stopped abruptly; that would be much more fatal than sinking in the mud.

They had no other choice but to charge. Hopefully, they could reach the enemy’s camp before the terrain became impassable. But they also knew that this was barely possible.

It looked as if the breakthrough was going to fail again, at the cost of the Empress and the elite cavalries’ lives. However, something unexpected was happening outside the battlefield.

Ten more grassland cavalries rolled off their war-horses in succession with their hands covering their throats.

And in their hands, they clutched on tightly to arrows dripping with blood.