Nightfall

Li Guangdi was stunned and he looked at the two knives in Zhang Nianzu’s hands, not knowing what to do. Zhang Nianzu said anxiously, “We’re losing the war, what are you still doing here?”

The woman had finally understood what the two young men were doing and was terrified. She said, “How could you be of any help? You’re too young.”

Zhang Nianzu waved the knife in his hand and said, “We can kill as long as we have knives. I’ve seen many fights in Chang’an City these years. I’ve seen blood and I know how to kill people.”

Li Guangdi hesitated and looked back at his mother. His father died long ago so he tried his best to treat his mother nicely, even when his mother inexplicably gave birth to a younger sister. His attitude towards his mother had never changed.

Zhang Nianzu said, slightly angry and annoyed, “People from the countryside are indeed spineless.”

With that, he turned around and walked outside to the yard.

Li Guangdi stopped him, and then he picked up a steel rake at the corner of the woodshed. He walked out of the door and said, “When I was killing badgers in the watermelon fields, you were too afraid to even hurt a watermelon.”

Zhang Nianzu looked at him and said joyfully, “Li IV, I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

It was extremely cold and the storm and snow were outrageous. Thick snow covered the streets.

Chang’an City had already been frozen, and Vermilion Bird Avenue was as quiet as the bottom of the snow lake. There was no other sound but some cough coming out of the snowy depths.

Eldest Brother was coughing at the other side of the storm and snow.

He could wait no longer when he saw Ning Que fail even with the support of the city and was almost killed, so he came into the storm and snow with his Third Sister, Yu Lian.

This was not the moment Yu Lian had been waiting for because Ning Que hadn’t separated Chang’an City away from Haotian’s world, so they failed again.

The Abbey Dean walked towards Ning Que at the opposite end of the street. His injury was becoming severe but his steps remained steady, leaving only slight footprints on the thick soft snow.

The doors on both sides of the streets were all shut, and the nearby shops were as silent as tombs.

Ning Que sat on the Snow Street, with blood all over his body. The snow under him had been dyed red, and he couldn’t stand up anymore.

Zhang Nianzu and Li Guangdi were hiding in a house. They peered out through the door at the situation on the street. Now it was so cold outside; snowflakes kept falling on their faces, and they felt as if frozen.

The two had been peeping for quite a long time, but they hadn’t made any moves yet. It was not because they were literally frozen, it was because they were lonely and afraid.

There was no one in the streets or alleys, and the whole world was so quiet.

They didn’t have any help. They didn’t see the usual hooligans rampaging through the streets, or those Yulin Royal Guards idolized by all young men in the Tang Empire, not even those cultivators from the Southern Gate Temple. All they could see were both their pale faces and frightened eyes.

They were brave, but after all, they were just ordinary teenagers. Seeing the monster in black defeat the man from the Academy, the fear which had been washed away by warm blood captured them again.

“What do we do?”

Zhang Nianzu’s voice trembled slightly, and it sounded like that he was about to cry. But he was holding it back because this was his own idea and he didn’t want to be looked down upon by the countryside boy.

Li Guangdi was relatively calm, but his pale face revealed his real thoughts at the moment. He looked at the monster in black walking on the Snow Street through the door crack, and then he said in quivering voice, “I’ll do as you say.”

Zhang Nianzu swallowed to keep himself calm, but his tongue and lips were extremely dry because of nervousness and fear, plus he had nothing to swallow. He felt so ashamed.

Shame was the source of courage, especially for the Tangs.

Zhang Nianzu grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed it in his mouth. After chewing it for a moment, he said, “I’ll go first.”

His words sounded muffled because of the snow in his mouth, so Li Guangdi didn’t hear him clearly.

But moments later he suddenly realized that Zhang Nianzu had kicked the wooden door open and ran to the street with the knife in his hand. That was when he realized what was happening and he hurried to catch up with him with the rake in his hand.

He reached the street and saw the monster in black. Soon his courage inspired by chewing the snow disappeared by half. His arms turned limp. He looked quite funny, dragging a kitchen knife and the chopper behind him, but he was still running.

“Go to hell, you monster!” He screamed.

Li Guangdi followed him with the rake in his hand. And his face was paler than the snowy streets. Both of his arms kept shaking as if the rake was falling on the ground.

“Son of a bi**h!” He screamed.

They didn’t know who the taoist priest was, neither did they know whose son he was. But they did know he was a true menace because the man from the Academy failed to beat him.

As scared as they were, they rushed over there.

Because they had a breath of aura in their chests and bellies.

They didn’t know what the aura was either because they had no spare energy. They knew they would blame themselves if they didn’t rush over there now.

Chang’an City remained silent in the storm and snow, and the Abbey Dean remained invincible.

At the same time, two young men from the Sanyuanli block rushed over here. They held the steel rake and chopper in their hands, cursing along the whole way.

Their voices quivered and sounded as if they were crying.

They cried and rushed at the unimaginable enemy.

The whole picture looked ridiculous.

But it was not.

Chang’an City was quiet, but there were still people in there.

In the streets under the morning snow, countless eyes had been caught by what was going on in Vermilion Bird Avenue.

The Abbey Dean was clearly aware because he had sensed the hostility behind the door while he was walking here on the street.

But he didn’t care for it because although the fight took place in the mortal world, it had gone beyond the reach of ordinary people, and none of them was qualified to get involved in this fight.

The Academy and the imperial court of Tang sent no military force here tonight, and that pretty much said everything.

So he was surprised when seeing two young men rushing at him with a knife and a rake in their hands.

He became gloomy for a moment and then he understood. He regained his calmness like snow melting into water.

He smiled at the two young men.

He wasn’t mocking them. He was smiling with mercy, but he had no respect for them because he didn’t worship the value of the secular world.

He was Haotian’s emissary.

He was looking at the two young men like Haotian looked down at the ants on the ground from high above.

The resistance of ants wouldn’t bring out much sentiment of Haotian, but maybe he would find it interesting.

There was another person on the street.

Ning Que sat on the bloody snow, and his expression had changed.

A subtle change.

Not a slight one.

And it took place at all of a sudden.

Seeing the two young men, he realized there was such a meaningful thing existing in the world.

What he did for Chang’an City was also meaningful.

In other words, the city, with its residents like the two pale and trembling young men, was worth fighting for.