Nightfall

The three northern counties of the Tang Empire, shrouded in bloodshed, were the real main battlefields.

The Golden cavalry below the southern end of the Wilderness never stopped fighting the Tang Empire’s cavalry. The fertile expanse was a battleground that stretched dozens of kilometers. The fighting took place at every moment. And, as such, people died at every moment.

On the battlefield, the priests of the Golden Palace kept fighting with the Tang Empire’s cultivators. The aura of heaven and earth shook the ground. The armored cavalry risked life and death in an assault. The ground was covered in red blood.

In the Pamir Mountains, the General Shu Cheng commanded the Tang Empire’s West Army soldiers. After sacrificing 20,000 soldiers, they finally had a decisive victory against the Yuelun Kingdom on top of the plateau.

Due to the long journey, and even more so due to lack of supplies, the Tang Empire’s West Army could not return to the three northern counties. They instead chose to brave the increasingly cold weather and enter the Pamir Mountains. Their plan was to ambush the Yuelun Kingdom.

There hadn’t been a war on the Eastern Border of the Tang Empire for many years. Now it was filled with fire and blood. Tens of thousands of grassland cavalries were wreaking havoc in the countryside. Eight-hundred cavalrymen were leading tens of thousands of brave soldiers and the Northeast Border Military back from the Yan Kingdom. They were forming the fiercest resistance, gaining momentum little by little.

When fighting a battle on their own soil, the Tang Army could get enough support from both the government and the people. Additionally, the Tang Army at the Eastern Border could turn the tide quickly. More importantly, the grassland cavalry was without command. Prince Long Qing started getting rid of his subordinates several days ago.

Long Qing wasn’t the only one to withdraw from the battlefield. He took almost 1,000 of the most elite cavalryman of Divine Hall, along with 2,000 elite soldiers from the Left King’s Palace most loyal to him.

The world war aimed to cut down the Tang Dynasty had been ongoing for some time. The cool autumn gradually passed, the winter wind gradually rose, and the Tang Empire’s fertile lands were frozen dry and hard. Smoke and dust rose from the ground with the pounding of horses hooves. More than 3,000 cavalries galloped on the field in the middle of the Tang Empire. From afar, it looked like a yellow dragon.

There were continuous raids at all hours of the day and night. The charging cavalry had long before reached the point of exhaustion. Even though Long Qing thought he could no longer hold himself up, he never stopped giving the order to keep attacking.

The Tang Empire’s main forces had been transferred out of the country. In the central counties, there was no defense force other than the basic-skilled Garrison Troops. There was no way to stop the incoming cavalry.

At that moment, Long Qing arrived at Chang’an with his cavalry. There was obviously no time to rest. He knew Chang’an was about to be broken into. And this mighty city had no one there to defend it.

The state highways on every side of Chang’an were covered in dust and footprints. There were abandoned belongings everywhere, traces left by refugees in the surrounding areas.

Thankfully, under the concerted efforts of the Tang imperial court, all of the nearly one million refugees fleeing the war were safely sent to the city within just two days. There wasn’t a single body left on the roads.

The grains had already been received from each county. The surrounding counties and villages had already been abandoned. All of the gates had been closed, except for the south gate facing Vermillion Bird Avenue.

There were only a few pedestrians outside the city’s gate and a small number of soldiers standing guard. They looked out in every possible direction. Chang’an had already been sufficiently prepared for battle. And its soldiers were full of confidence.

The border had already been broken through, but the land was still there.

Both the Tang Empire’s imperial court and the common people thought they would soon face their enemy. They thought the enemy would be the West-Hill Divine Palace’s Army coming from the north side of the Verdant Canyon. No one expected that Prince Long Qing and his cavalry would charge in from the state highway on the east side. Now, no one knew who Chang’an’s real enemy was.

Given the situation, they didn’t understand why the imperial court didn’t close the Southern Gate. They couldn’t grasp why, in this moment of imminent danger, they needed to use their men and their resources move boulders to the Southern Gate.

Only the Academy and the Empress in the palace knew the real reason— the God-stunning Array had been damaged. Even now, Chang’an’s army could deter any army, but it couldn’t hold off the real enemy.

The enemy who put Chang’an City in danger was not the Golden Palace’s cavalry, Long Qing and his cavalry, nor the Divine Hall’s mighty army in the south. The real enemy was but one person.

A terrifying person.

A young girl stood outside the south gate and looked at the boulders all over the open fields. She could smell something familiar. With her ponytails swaying gently in the cold wind, she reminisced nostalgically of her youth.

Ning Que stood behind her. He finally relaxed a little after being exhausted from thinking too much. Though the God-stunning Array was still blocked, it would be much harder to enter the city with these Stone Array Tactics.

The girl was the Academy Third Sister, Yu Lian. She didn’t allow herself to stay in this nostalgic feeling for too long, and said calmly, “In the end, Chang’an will be repaired.”

“Is it still not working?” Ning Que asked.

Yu Lian replied, “Teacher has left this human world. Now there are only four people who are worthy of the ‘Beyond Mortality State’ title. And of these four, two of them do not care about the world. The Chief Preaching Monk’s rules are like the thick soil. The only person who can threaten Chang’an City is the Abbey Dean. This Stone Array Tactics can stop him for a short time. But how can it stop him for the rest of his life?”

Mo Shanshan furrowed her eyebrows, looking somewhat worried.

Ning Que hadn’t yet met the legendary Abbey Dean. He thought to himself that his Eldest Brother had been delayed by this Abbey Dean for a few days now, but he didn’t think this person had that much power. When he heard Yu Lian say this, he couldn’t help but wrinkle his brow a bit.

Yu Lian said, “The God-stunning Array has already been broken. If not for Eldest Brother defending it with his life, all of us would have been killed by the Abbey Dean by now. The war would have been over long ago.”

Ning Que said, “Eldest Brother and you, my Senior Sister, have already broken through the Five States.”

Yu Lian replied, “The Five States are the threshold of Haotian Taoism. Breaking through them doesn’t mean we are absolutely powerful. Just like how I might not necessarily be able to beat Liu Bai even though I have broken through the Five States. But the Abbey Dean is different.”

Ning Que asked, “What’s the difference?”

Yu Lian asked, “Do you know who the youngest cultivator ever to break the Five States is?”

Mo Shanshan thought for a moment, then offered “My brother?”

Yu Lian said, “Eldest Brother was in the Limitless State for three days. At the time, he wasn’t young. Both the Grandmaster of the Enlightenment Doctrine and the Great Divine Priest of Light, from 600 years ago, are older than him.”

Ning Que thought of one possibility, but he did not say it.

Yu Lian continued, “The youngest cultivator to break through the Five States carries the surname Chen.”

Ning Que looked at the rocks in front of the South Gate, which were still wet with water. He stood there shocked, speechless.

Yu Lian continued, “That is why I was not surprised that Chen Pipi was the first to enter the Knowing Destiny State.”

Yu Lian said, “His name is also Chen because he is the Abbey Dean’s son.”

Ning Que kept silent for a moment before asking, “So what is the Abbey Dean like?”

Yu Lian said, “At that time, the Abbey Dean was just a normal Taoist in a Taoist temple in the Kingdom of Song. At first, the Abbey Dean showed no special talent for cultivation. As such, he never entered the West-Hill Divine Palace. So, he gave himself the most ordinary name.”

The Kingdom of Song was a small kingdom on side of the East Sea. They offered nothing in terms of historical studies, culture, or military accomplishments. But many famous people and extraordinary bigwigs came from that kingdom.

The Great Divine Priest of Light came from the Kingdom of Song 1,000 years ago. Wei Guangming came from the Kingdom of Song. Master Lotus also came from the Kingdom of Song. Even Second Brother spent his childhood in a little town there.

Ning Que had just connected the dots. The Zhishou Abbey Dean came from the Kingdom of Song. And it turned out he had a strange name.

He said, “Chen Mou… since he’s so great… why…?”

“He didn’t have a reputation, and was seen as ordinary. For such an extraordinary person to not give people an extraordinary feeling? This is what Chen Mou fears the most.”

Yu Lian said, “As far as objective reasons, apart from the unfathomable concept of the Zhishou Abbey, Chen Mou has been quiet as of late. This is mainly due to the differences in history over the past decades.”

Ning Que asked, “What’s the difference between the history of these years and that of the past countless years?”

Yu Lian said, “The biggest difference between recent history and the history books is that the Academy has started entering the human realm.”

In the mountain behind the Academy, she was the only one who didn’t say “Youngest Uncle”. Instead, she called him Mr. Ke. This was because she was the Grandmaster of the Devil’s Doctrine and it was later extinguished by Ke Haoran.

Mo Shanshan said softly, “After that year’s trip to the Wilderness, I asked my teacher. My teacher realized Master Lotus was still alive, so he told me some stories from those times. He said the Abbey Dean once fought Mr. Ke.”

“That’s right.”

Yu Lian said, “There were no witnesses to the fight between Mr. Ke and the Abbey Dean except for teacher. To this day, no one but teacher knew that Mr. Ke won the fight in the end.”

“Then, many powerhouses from Haotian Taoism attacked Mr. Ke. He cut down his enemies, not content to stop after breaking through many states. He drew his sword and pointed it to the Heavens, but was killed by Haotian.”

“Because of this, teacher was extremely saddened and angered. He went to the West-Hill Divine Kingdom, atop the Peach Mountain, and chopped down all of the peach blossoms. He killed countless Haotian Taoism powerhouses. The Abbey Dean invited the Chief Preaching Monk from the Xuankong Temple to form an alliance but they lost.”

Yu Lian continued, “The Academy has entered the human realm. So the Abbey Dean’s name has been obscured.”

Ning Que understood what his Senior Sister was saying.

As the youngest person to break the Five States, Chen Mou was without a doubt entitled to leave his name in the history of cultivators. But there were two more names in these years’ history. So his achievements in comparison were not as grand.

One man was the Headmaster.

One man was called Ke Haoran.

But on the other hand, this also showed Chen Mou’s strength.

Because he lost to the Youngest Uncle and the teacher, but he didn’t die.

He was forced to drift about in the South Sea, but he didn’t die.

Maybe the teacher cherished talent, maybe the teacher really couldn’t kill him.

Either way, it proved his strength.

Youngest Uncle passed away long ago. Their teacher had also left this world.

There was no one left in this world to rival the Abbey Dean.

The man who had been suppressed for all these years would get the chance to bloom.

The enemy Chang’an will soon face is such a man.

Everyone knew he was coming, but they didn’t know when he would come.

Ning Que felt his shoulders become heavy.

His sight crossed the jagged boulders and landed on the woods near the state highway.

Chang’an had already entered winter. There wasn’t much vegetation left, and the storm and snow were approaching.