Nightfall

The figure of the Abbey Dean vanished into the storm and snow.

Shaking slightly, Eldest Brother seemed to be falling and to want to get going at the same time. More and more blood oozed from his old cotton jacket all at once. It was at that exact moment that Yu Lian stretched out her hands to hook the belt strapped around his waist and shook her head.

“He was right.” Yu Lian continued, “Even if you risk your life to catch up with him, it makes no sense if I am not capable of that. Not to mention that even if you want to leave Chang’an along with him, you can’t achieve it.”

Eldest Brother said wearily, “Then what shall we do?”

Yu Lian replied, “Since we cannot catch up with him, we can only wait for him to be stopped by others.”

Eldest Brother said, “Who else can stop the Abbey Dean now?”

Yu Lian answered, “Chang’an City.”

Looking towards the cloud gap hanging on the sky above Vermilion Bird Avenue, Eldest Brother said, “The city is broken.”

“It is only a hole that was cut out.”

Yu Lian continued to say, “When we are done with stitching up the hole, we will come together once again.”

Eldest Brother said, “It is inappropriate of us to let Youngest Brother bear that heavy pressure all on his own.”

Yu Lian replied, “Though still weak now, he is the one who should defend this city since that the Headmaster had handed him this city. This is a pressure that he needs to undertake.”

Eldest Brother said, “Then, shall we wait?”

“Let’s take a rest.”

Loosening Eldest Brother’s belt and holding his arm, Yu Lian supported him to walk toward the sides of the road. Meanwhile, Chen Pipi crouched on the tile debris with his two eyes as red and swollen as the rotten peach on the West-Hill.

Yu Lian said, “Can’t you come and hold him?”

Rubbing off the tears on his face in a hurry, Chen Pipi came forward to attend to Eldest Brother.

Ruins littered both sides of the street. There was a silverware shop which was built with so strong a construction that it was in an only half-collapsion state, with its broken eaves remaining which were able to shield off the snow and the rain. These three sat beneath the eaves and waited for the final outcome.

The chirping of cicadas in the winter days started to become mournful and quietened bit by bit. The morning snow rose again and danced along with the wind. The moment when the snowflakes were landing on the street, they were immediately blown away into chaos by the chilly wind. It seemed that there were numerous salt flowers rolling on the straight Vermilion Bird Avenue.

The figure of the Abbey Dean was as vague as a flying bird amid the wind and snow drifting all over the sky. It looked also like a least eye-catching snowflake. However, Chang’an captured his trace instantly due to the fact that it was a God-stunning Array left behind by the Headmaster after all.

The countless residences lying amid the 365 street alleys in Eastern City and numerous black bricks and green stone all had perceived the coming of the Abbey Dean. An ancient and distant aura was exhaled from the brick gaps, the green moss, and the accumulated snow.

The five lakes in Western City also sensed the coming of Chang’an’s enemy. The lake surface covered up by icy snow began to tremble in a slight way, with hot springs beginning to pour out from the stones located deeply in the lake.

Since the moment when the thin snow on the city wall of Chang’an fell down like a waterfall, this grand city had already perceived the coming of its enemy who was the most powerful one it had ever met for thousands of years.

With a large amount of aura rising from the Imperial Palace, the Government Office, the people’s homes, the lake, the mountain, the well, and the trees, the aura of Heaven and Earth flowing above the grand city had gone through extremely severe changes all of sudden. The low and dark snowy cloud rolled over in a restless status and covered up the cloud gap hanging above the Vermilion Bird Avenue in an instant, which consequently blocked the majestic power projected from the vault of Heaven in a perfect way.

Looking up and casting a glance at the sky, the Abbey Dean made certain that Haotian Initiation had been obstructed once again. Then he looked towards all directions of Chang’an City and perceived the horrifying power which these aurae had contained.

However, he still walked on to the north with a calm expression on his face, just as before.

Because he was walking on the Vermilion Bird Avenue where the broken part of this city lied.

The accumulated snow on Vermilion Bird Avenue had already been blown away to both sides of the road and ended up as snowdrift whose depth was knee-high, looking very much like the thousands of kilometers’ city wall built at the time when the Yan Kingdom resisted the Eastern Wilderness in the old days. The statue of the Vermilion Bird located in the middle of the street was pretty obvious.

The Abbey Dean walked by the statue of the Vermilion Bird.

The Vermilion Bird suddenly opened its eyes which were intelligent and yet ruthless. It seemed to be transforming into something alive.

Turning his head around and looking towards the statue of the Vermilion Bird, Abbey Dean said, “Ungrateful beasts.”

Emotions of struggle were revealed in the eyes of the Vermilion Bird’s statue; they became grief-stricken out of fear in the end.

Being similar to the Divine Talisman of bloody fighting in the God-stunning Array, the Vermilion Bird statue possessed the power which was equal to the all-out attack struck out by a cultivator at the peak of the Knowing Destiny State. Even for the cultivators who had already crossed the Five States threshold or for Liu Bai, they all should be mindful of these powers.

But the Abbey Dean only said one sentence with an indifferent expression.

Then the Vermilion Bird became instantly dejected.

The array of Chang’an City seemed as if an iron cover which had already covered the sky in the world for thousands of years. Even for the Abbey Dean who was the most supreme powerhouse of Haotian Taoism over the thousands of years, in no way could he tear the iron cover apart on his own.

However, with enough time accumulated, anything can add up to the power which was already strong enough. It took Haotian Taoism thousands of years to tear a hole out in this iron cover in the end.

The Abbey Dean continued forward and he was floating in the air as if he were a celestial being.

People’s residences and houses along the street were all with their doors tightly closed. Some people observed what was going on the street by peeping through the door crack and looked at the Taoist in indigo who seemed to be a supernatural being, with emotions of fear and desperation revealed in their eyes.

Right since the morning began, thousands of bells had rung out together in Chang’an City and the snow falling from the sky had been burning. Everyone inside the city knew what was happening now. However, when faced with the fight which had transcended through the Five States, the strength of the secular world was useless.

The Northern City was closer and closer.

With a vast space located beside the street showing up all of a sudden, sheets of the meadow covered with thin snow had added some senses of quietness and tranquility to the over ten blocks of tiny buildings and Winter Forest where lied exactly the Military Ministry of the Tang Empire.

If it were in an ordinary war, the Military Ministry of the Tang Empire located behind the meadow covered up by snow would definitely be the place which the enemy intended to exterminate most.

However, the Abbey Dean did not even pay it any mind.

He looked at those buildings in the north quietly.

Those grand and majestic imperial city.

That tiny building inside the Imperial Palace was his destination.

He was going to destroy the eyes of the God-stunning Array, located underground, below the tiny building.

Only he could make it happen.

The Abbey Dean stepped up and intended to keep moving on.

All of a sudden, his steps landed back to where they had originally been.

Looking at the storm and snow in front of him, he raised his brow slightly.

The storm and snow raged all of a sudden and then froze bit by bit, finally ending up as two lines of traces.

The expression on the Abbey Dean’s face gradually grew solemn.

The traces frozen by the two lines of the storm and snow were pretty marvelous which hung right in the middle of the sky. Neither did it spread out nor did it fall down.

It seemed that someone had already written two strokes in the air.

It was not an ink character, but a snow character.

Ning Que had woken up early after a night of meditating quietly beside the Yanming Lake.

When he woke up, his clothing and the lakes, mountains surrounding him were all covered by the early snow. All was covered in a vast expanse of whiteness.

He got up, and the snow fell off him, rustling.

He looked at the snow lake while standing at the edge of the cliff.

Holding the array eye pestle in his hands and looking at the snow lake, he was actually staring at Chang’an City.

He saw the snow falling down on the Southern City of Chang’an, as if they were veils.

He saw the snowflakes on the vault of heaven burning away, as if they were real fire.

He saw the street enveloped by rain in winter days.

He saw the Taoist in indigo, natural and unrestrained like an immortal who would arrive at the imperial city in an instant.

Suddenly, he stretched his hands back to his shoulders; he gripped and pulled out the cold hilt.

Then he hacked down.

The podao struck out randomly, accompanied by two sounds of Chi-chi.

Two lines of distinct knife scars appeared on the snow lake.

While in the next moment, the two lines instantly vanished from the snow lake.

They traveled between Heaven and Earth, without any traces to be found.

The two lines of knife marks, which had been hacked out on the snow lake by Ning Que, came right to the Vermilion Bird Avenue.

They came right to the front of the Abbey Dean.

The expression on the Abbey Dean’s face was solemn.

He stopped moving.

There were two lines of knife marks, with one stroke to the left and another to the right.

It then formed a character which was simple and sharp at the same time.

It was the Chinese character “Yi”.

Its form looked as if the knife and the sword intertwined together.

What the Chinese character referred to was that no sound was made while cutting the weed.

It also had another meaning which could be grasped by even a little child.

— The road is impassable.