Nightfall

There was a hole on the stone window of the Wanyan Tower. The hole was made by a sword, but now the sword was missing. Snow floated inside through the broken window, falling on Master Huang Yang’s blood-soaked kasaya.

Yu Lian could feel that the sharp sword style behind her was coming back. She frowned and waved her hand to roll up the snow in the air, as a means to resist the continuous falling light of Haotian Initiation, and finally, she took a step forward.

She might have looked like a cute little girl in that moment, but after the step, her aura totally changed and became as overwhelming as an army.

Instead of stepping on the shallow snow on the street, it looked more like that she was stepping on the vast Wilderness. She stepped as if she was drumming, and the ground was her drum. As she stepped, the ground in the Southern City started to shake.

When the storm and snow stopped, with a trace of wind and snowflakes behind her, Yu Lian took just one step forward to reach the Clean Water Agency yamen which was more than 100 feet away.

Her fists looked tiny and as lovely as cotton candy, but the Abbey Dean had become quite serious by them, an even graver gesture than when he was when seeing Yu Lian exerting the Divine Demon Realm which was beyond the Five States.

Yu Lian was now more than the Academy Third Sister; she was back on the throne as the Grandmaster of the Devil’s Doctrine. Her fists represented the foundation of the Devil’s Doctrine, namely power.

As the most gifted Grandmaster of the Devil’s Doctrine in history, she was definitely qualified for the name of Grandmaster, and she was qualified to challenge any powerhouses at any state.

The Abbey Dean clearly knew that the little fist coming out of the snow might seem harmless or even weak, but it could definitely crush a mountain as long as it smashed on it.

A palm was raised silently, soft like thin snowflakes falling into the lake.

The Abbey Dean reached out his right palm to parry Yu Lian’s fist.

He wasn’t crushed by the little but scary first because he was no mountain, no river. He was an ocean that could hold hundreds of rivers, and he was the air that filled Heaven and Earth.

Looking at the palm before her fist and the Abbey Dean who was closely before her, Yu Lian’s young face remained expressionless. She looked so peaceful and calm that it gave an odd feeling.

After a cracking sound, the shallow snow layer covering the ground of the long street was shaken off, revealing numerous cracks on the green stone intertwining like spider webs.

Yu Lian’s back foot stepped right at the center of the spider web. The power stored in her tiny body for 23 years flowed out into the long street endlessly.

Her black ponytail was disheveled, dangling and dancing behind her like a whip, striking those miserable snowflakes. The whip was as sharp as a knife, leaving deep marks on the wall.

She didn’t use the Divine Demon Realm, nor did she create a tiny world. She used no enigmatic skills, and she smashed over in her simplest and most reliable way.

That was power. The greatest, and most absolute power.

Nothing but the power was roaring on the Snow Street. At this moment, even the Qi of Heaven and Earth born from nature had to escape due to the fear for the shocking power given out by the tiny body.

In this case, the Abbey Dean had no choice but to face her fist and resist her directly because he couldn’t enter the Limitless State even if she had canceled the tiny world of cicada wings.

She was the current Grandmaster of the Devil’s Doctrine. As small as she might look, she owned the greatest power in the world. And even the Abbey Dean had to avoid facing her power.

Because no matter how similar he was to the ocean, he was by no means the ocean.

And what could he do if he couldn’t avoid the power?

On the Snow Street, the absolute and pure power was soaring and roaring. The Abbey Dean’s Taoist bun was undone; his long hair was dancing behind the black Taoist robe, making himself look extremely flustered.

Yu Lian looked at him, and she wanted the answer eagerly.

She would get to the answer in no time.

The Abbey Dean’s hair fell before his eyes. His peaceful, silent eyes were like ancient water wells.

Then a snowflake floated over him. It narrowly passed his eyelashes and flew into his black pupil.

It looked as if the white snow had entered his black pupil.

The black pupil started fading.

Or in other words, the white snowflake that coincidentally ran into his pupil was turning darker.

It turned grey.

The eyes of the Abbey Dean turned grey.

The ancient water well had gone through storms and rain, revealing the old skeleton at the bottom.

The eyes of the Abbey Dean were turning grey.

By then, Yu Lian felt her power was draining up as fast as the wind, so she paled.

In that very moment, she thought of a rumor and her eyes turned cold. An uncontrollable anger rose inside her.

She wasn’t going to withdraw her fist.

The Headmaster taught her one thing after she was admitted by the Academy, namely how to write.

Writing was used to create a self-contained world, and it brought peace as well as fury. Because the Headmaster knew she was easily angered. She hadn’t been angry in the past 23 years.

But she was very angry at this time.

She had always resented all the Haotian Taoism trash.

There was no doubt that the Abbey Dean was the worst trash in Haotian Taoism— when this Haotian Taoism trash used the skills of her own Enlightenment Doctrine to counter her, she grew extremely angry.

The Abbey Dean looked at her in the eye silently.

Yet his eyes were so grey, so peaceful, with all the quietus inside.

Without the support of the airflow, all the floating snow flakes fell on the ground miserably.

Like the winter cicadas whose wings had been torn.

If the situation was allowed to continue, it would end up with either the Abbey Dean winning with the Grey Eyes or Yu Lian killing the Abbey Dean before her power drained completely.

The probability of the latter to happen was no more than 20 percent.

But after all, Yu Lian had the anger that had been quelled by the Headmaster for 23 years, and once it burst into flames, it would start a prairie fire.

So she wanted to gamble on the 20 percent.

Moreover, she knew she had won the 20 percent chance mostly because she was following her own wish, and because the 23-year anger was popping out. She doubted if she would ever have the opportunity again if she missed this one.

Yet someone out there was unwilling to give Yu Lian the 20 percent opportunity.

Because he was the Eldest Brother and should face the fatal situation where a life had to be gambled. He insisted that it should be his life rather than his junior sister’s.

The snow was drifting slowly, and the old cotton jacket came into Yu Lian’s sight.

It had also come into the sight of the Abbey Dean’s Grey Eyes.

The cotton jacket used to be stained with blood, but it was clean once again.

Like the scholar in a cotton jacket. He used to travel amidst mountains and rivers with dust from head to toe, but he came back clean.

The clearest and purest things without any color could never be dyed or polluted.

The old cotton jacket rustled against the wind, and Eldest Brother’s aura was so steady that not a hint of it had leaked out.

He raised the wooden rod in his hand.

The Abbey Dean took a step backwards.

Eldest brother picked up the rod and struck the street floor covered by light snow.

Each strike made a wooden fence.

He was the First disciple of the Headmaster, and he knew the God-stunning Array better than anyone else in the world.

He attached the Qi of Heaven and Earth of Chang’an in every stroke of his.

After several strikes, a tough and aged city wall had appeared on the Snow Street.

The Abbey Dean was at one end of the city wall.

He and Yu Lian were at the other end.

The Abbey Dean reached out to the snowy sky, and seized the Taoist Sword flying back from the Wanyan Tower.

Then he raised the sword and stabbed the wall before him.

His sword was just like the former fist of Yu Lian’s.

It was the purest and most powerful strike.

There was no force in it, all it had was Taoism.

The Taoist Sword carried the Sword Taoism he had devoted his life to.

The city wall was suddenly broken.

A clear sword mark appeared on the wooden rod.

The sword point rolled like the storm and snow; it passed the rod and lunged into Eldest Brother’s left shoulder.

The point of the sword lunged into the cotton jacket by three inches, and blood came out.

Yu Lian caught Eldest Brother by his waist, just like holding up a cat.

She was very strong, so her speed was extremely fast.

The sword point was going forward.

While the sword was being drawn out of the cotton jacket.

Becase her hand was now quicker than the sword.

Eldest Brother’s straw sandals were sliding on the snowy ground.

He raised the rod and struck again.

The Abbey Dean’s expression remained peaceful. He raised his sword and lunged again.

Yu Lian screamed and the snow on the eaves fell down.

The scream burst out of her tiny body like thunder in the sky.

She held back all her strength and concentrated it on her right first, then she punched forward.

The snowflakes in the sky were like the wings of cicadas covering the scar on the God-stunning Array. They reflected the sunshine and gave out a golden glimmer, like thousands of golden leaves.

As Yu Lian held back her aura, the world she created naturally collapsed.

The golden snowflakes above Chang’an City started to burn fiercely, creating a breathtaking scene.

The snow was burning.

Eventually, the snow melted and a crack appeared.

The overwhelming power coming from heaven finally fell on the Snow Street.

The endless brightness covered everything.

With invincible strength, or overwhelming Qi of Heaven and Earth, three auras clashed.

The storm and snow roared. The walls and eaves were all broken. All the houses alongside the street were shattered into ruins.

The storm and snow finally settled. Both Eldest Brother and Yu Lian had retreated back into the Northern Street which was thousands of feet away.

Eldest Brother had blood all over his body, and the sword wound on his shoulder looked particularly frightening.

Yu Lian was rarely injured, but she was a little pale.

Suddenly, raindrops fell down.

The two were soaked all over.

It was winter now and the first snow had fallen last night.

But it rained in Chang’an on that day.

The rain was strange.

It rained at an odd time and in an odd way.

It rained nowhere else.

Other places in Chang’an were still snowy like before.

Only the southern part of the Vermilion Bird Avenue was slowly soaked.

Because the rain did not come from the clouds; it came from the air.

The burning snow melted and fell down as water, drenching the long street.

Yu Lian looked at the opposite end of the street. She felt the winter rain was somewhat cold.

The rain was suppressing the smoke and ashes that rose amongst the house ruins.

The Abbey Dean appeared once more.

He tossed the hilt into the snow pile on the side of the street.

Because moments earlier, his Taoist Sword had been shattered by the Eldest Brother’s wooden rod.

Aside from that fact, he was not injured at all.

His turquoise robe had been soaked, but not by blood.

The Abbey Dean walked on the light snow.

He walked in the storm and rain.

Every step he took left a footprint on the snow.

The rain falling from heaven accumulated in the footprints and became tiny oceans.

Those tiny oceans were calm, reflecting the sky like mirrors.

Above Chang’an City, the line of snow in the sky was still burning.