Nightfall

The Abbey Dean looked at the snowy traces on the street and frowned.

A chilly breeze blew away the snow covering the traces, revealing them clearly. They were transparent and shapeless, sharp as two knives.

They spread to both sides of the street, shrouding the entire Vermilion Bird Avenue. The trees and grass on both sides all fell down as if they were saluting and showing their respects.

While Ning Que was writing beside the snow lake, the Qi of Heaven and Earth in Chang’an condensed two invisible lines, spliting the heaven and earth like sharp knives and blocking the Snow Street like fences.

Then they began moving to the south, cutting down the trees, shaking off the snow, and leaving two deep gullies on the black ground.

This was the power of both the Divine Talisman and the God-stunning Array. The two marks appearing in the Vermilion Bird Avenue perfectly blocked the gap of the God-stunning Array and fixed the crack on the iron cover.

Facing the approaching word in the snow, the Abbey Dean could not cope with it even if he had entered the Limitless State since they could divide Heaven and Earth and cut the interlayers of the Qi of Heaven and Earth.

Therefore, he had to step back as far as hundreds of meters away from the northern city to the middle of the Vermilion Bird Avenue, where the Vermilion Bird Statue was standing.

At this moment, the Vermilion Bird suddenly opened its bright eyes and seemed to fly up like a fledgling, strongly flapping its wings.

“Stupid.”

He put his right foot on the Vermilion Bird’s wings.

The air on the street was disturbed and began to scatter.

The Vermilion Bird wailed and quickly fell silent.

The Abbey Dean looked up at the other end of the street, narrowing his eyes.

The long street was silent and empty.

Only the character was approaching.

A snowflake fell on Ning Que’s hand, melting into water and wetting his sleeves, which was because the array eye pestle in his hand was getting warmer, not because of him being feverish.

Holding the array eye pestle and looking at the snow lake, he could see all of Chang’an and sense all the changes in the city.

Although the character had faded away, he could feel it in his head, which had appeared in the Vermilion Bird Avenue, subduing the Winter Forest, and pushing the Abbey Dean back.

Without being noticed, Mo Shanshan went down from the city wall and came to Yanming Lake. She quietly stood behind him in a bloody white dress, since she was injured when the Abbey Dean broke the formation.

As a brilliant Divine Talisman Master, even though she hadn’t seen the two marks, she could feel the remaining Talisman Intent in the snow lake. At this moment, she reminded the two sword marks on the stones Ning Que and she had seen at the bottom of Daming Lake. She could not help misting up.

The Stone Array in front of the Devil’s Doctrine’s gates had been broken by Mr. Ke with two sword marks, which resembled the two Ning Que made. However, in fact, they were completely different.

Ning Que didn’t use his podao to cut. He wrote with it—both he and Mo Shanshan were Divine Talisman Masters, which meant he was writing a Divine Talisman.

In the past, he could only use one kind of Divine Talisman: the Two-Horizontal Talisman.

He had been meditating for seven days while the Academy was waiting for the Abbey Dean. He had written down countless characters in the snow last night. Until the sun came out, he learned the second character.

It was simple, like a deformation of the Two-Horizontal Talisman—the two horizontals were crossed like firewood which formed a new character—its shape was different from the marks under the Daming Lake the Youngest Uncle left, which were more direct and tougher.

Ning Que did not know whether this was the character he was looking for or the one his master, Yan Se had been going after for his entire life, but he liked it very much.

The character was “Yi”, which meant stability as well as cutting grass.

It looked like a cross which represented a mistake if it was on a test paper or “No Entry” if it was on a guide board.

It was very suitable for the Abbey Dean who was going to enter Chang’an. If Ning Que wanted to protect the city, he had to keep the Abbey Dean away and he was willing to chop his head off like cutting grass.

The most suitable character was the best one. When it rose from the depths of Ning Que’s head, he even believed that he had been inspired by his teacher in Heaven.

A Divine Talisman could not resist the Abbey Dean, otherwise, the Vermilion Bird would not moan. However, at this time, Ning Que had control of the entire city and he was able to mobilize nearly all the Qi of Heaven and Earth, which meant that if his arms could hold on, he could write countless Divine Talismans.

They would act like needles to sew up the God-stunning Array, blocking the Abbey Dean on Snow Street or even besieging him within the Divine Talismans.

Ning Que turned to the snow lake—in his sense, the Abbey Dean was like a bright light, which had disappeared at this time.

Since Ning Que had the God-stunning Array, he was able to observe Chang’an in a meticulous way. Given the battle in the morning, he was sure that the Abbey Dean could enter the Limitless State in the city, teleporting within a specific range, but he could not perform it across the whole city.

Even if Chang’an, which was built by the Headmaster, had been torn open by the Haotian Taoism after a thousand years, it still subtly controlled the Qi of Heaven and Earth beyond people’s abilities. If the Abbey Dean wanted to teleport within the array, he would take the risk to be torn up by the turbulence of the Qi of Heaven and Earth.

Ning Que believed in his teacher as well as the city, so he was sure that the Abbey Dean could not vanish—he must still be in somewhere in the street, looking for the leak of the God-stunning Array.

He thought of one possibility.

If the Talisman of “Yi” was considered as a needle, which could sew the city, it would leave pinpricks that ordinary cultivators could not see or make use of.

However, the Abbey Dean was not an ordinary person.

He was able to paint within a needle eye.

Accordingly, Ning Que walked to the snow lake where it was near the Vermilion Bird Avenue. He would continue writing and sewing to stall the Abbey Dean.

There was only one problem to be solved.

Ning Que stopped and turned to Mo Shanshan. He asked, “Where should we go next?”

It was a very important issue.

It seemed ridiculous that he had not figured it out at this crucial moment.

Mo Shanshan didn’t laugh. She held the array eye pestle on the other end, feeling its warmth. A totally different world showed in front of her.

That was the God-stunning Array. In a sense, it was also the city of Chang’an.

It was not the real one or it was just the real one.

Mo Shanshan put her glasses on, looking at the snow lake and the city, and said after a while, “I think you should cut here.”

She pointed at a faded lotus in the lake.