Nightfall

Snowflakes fell on the teenagers’ faces. It was slightly cold, just like how they had felt initially. As they ran, their bodies began to heat up, and the fear in their hearts gradually faded away.

They looked at the Taoist in indigo on the street and felt that the man was just an ordinary person.

Their breathing became rapid and their blood began to boil, feeling fearless.

Zhang Nianzu thought, “I want to kill you with a single stab. But if I can’t, I’ll kill you with two.”

Li Guangdi thought to himself, “I’ll stab you to death like a hog.”

A chopper and a kitchen knife approached.

The melon rake was also lifted in the air.

Then, they reached the skies.

Looking at the snowy street growing further and further away, and the Taoist in indigo growing smaller and smaller, the two teenagers grew frightened. They did not know what had happened.

The turbulent remnants of Qi of Heaven and Earth from the battle between the Abbey Dean and the Academy remained on the Vermilion Bird Avenue. In the seemingly gentle storm and snow, there was plenty of hidden power that ordinary folks could not get close to.

Zhang Nianzu and Li Guangdi wanted to rush over, only to be shaken like two torn cloth bags, tossed into the air.

The cold wind howled and brushed their cheeks as they fell from the sky dozens feet high and fell heavily on the Snow Street.

There were two thuds and snow splattered everywhere. The two teenagers spat out blood.

When they once again looked at the Taoist in indigo standing in the street, the fear in their eyes became even more intense.

They hurt all over and did not know if they had broken any bones. They helped each other up, feeling each other’s bodies while shaking. They began to cry as they were in pain and afraid.

They tried to wipe away the tears, only to find that they could not wipe them clean. This made them feel ashamed, so they cried more and felt even more ashamed.

They raised their knives and rake, crying and rushing into the street once more.

No official would spend long watching ants climbing over his shoe, nor would a driver notice a mantis waving its claws by the state highway. After the Abbey Dean first saw the two Tang teenagers, he did not spare them any more notice. He continued walking peacefully on the Snow Street as if he were a fairy or a crane, unbothered by the snow or dust.

Ning Que looked at the two teenagers running desperately, and his heart started beating faster for no particular reason. It was as if he had seen a mantis struggling to block a wheel or an ant propping up a giant’s sole.

He knew that the two teenagers could not change anything, including the fate of Chang’an City, just as he could not change anything at this point in time, including the fate of the two teenagers.

He was exhausted and helpless, feeling unwilling toward everything that happened in the storm and snow. This injustice was like a beast’s claws tearing at his spirit, making him nervous and bringing him pain.

There was a slight force and he began to bleed. However, he endured the pain and stood up slowly on his shaky legs because he knew the two teenagers would die soon.

He wanted to stand there and watch them die.

Zhang Nianzu and Li Guangdi did not die because they ran slowly due to their limping. There was one thing in front of them. They had arrived before the Abbey Dean.

It was a black brick, a piece of ordinary mottled black brick with moss on. It was unknown how long it had been stuck on the wall and how much rain and wind it had endured.

The black brick came from an ordinary courtyard near the Vermilion Bird Avenue. It flew into the air with a puff and out of the courtyard, hurtling towards the Abbey Dean. Finally, it dropped in front of him.

With a loud crack, the black brick broke into four pieces.

Zhang Nianzu and Li Guangdi stopped and looked at the black brick. They wondered if the cultivators from the imperial court were finally showing their hand. Could the black brick be the legendary magical weapon?

What happened next cruelly destroyed any hope for the two teenagers. As the black brick shattered into pieces, a man wearing a full-face beard appeared on the wall. His clothes were undone in the cold winter and his body was greasy and filthy. He looked like an unsavory character.

Zhang Nianzu knew that he was a famous ruffian in the Sanyuanli area. The man was only good at a few things in his life, which were cheating and stealing. He was no true evil, yet he was no saint, either.

While he respected and wanted to be like the men in the Fish-dragon Gang and the other gangs, he did not like the ruffian at all. For some reason, he felt rather disappointed and a little warm when he saw him. Perhaps the appearance of the ruffian had made him and Li Guangdi feel less lonely and helpless.

The ruffian didn’t dare to get down from the wall and sat there uncouthly. He held a dozen bricks in his arms, pelting them at the Abbey Dean standing in the middle of the street while swearing at him.

“I’ll smash you to death!… You bastard!… Screw you! Damn you to hell!”

Zhang Nianzu came to his senses and swore with the ruffian on the wall. His voice suddenly grew hoarse as he tossed the chopper in his hand at the Abbey Dean while Li Guangdi threw the rake in his hand.

The black bricks with the green marks and residual snow kept falling from the wall. The chopper and fork tore through the snow but naturally, none of them could even touch as much as a corner of the Abbey Dean’s clothing before they fell to the ground.

The Abbey Dean continued forward as nothing touched him and as if he could not hear anything.

However, another knife tore the air.

A black wok flew from over the courtyard walls.

A bamboo used for drying clothes fell from upstairs.

Boiling hot tea was tossed, followed by an expensive teapot.

Countless Tang people appeared on the courtyard walls by the street, and on the upper levels of teahouses.

There were Tea Master, tofu sellers, children and ruffians.

They tossed the heaviest objects in their hands at the taoist priest.

They swore at the taoist priest and his family with the filthiest words they knew.

The Vermilion Bird Avenue, which was silent moments ago, was suddenly buzzing with voices.

Chang’an, which seemed like a dead city earlier, suddenly came alive.

The Tangs, who were hiding earlier suddenly all gathered.

They were once afraid, and so, they stayed at home silently, waiting for the battle between Haotian Taoism and the Academy to end. They were still afraid now because they were mortals.

But when they found out that the Academy had lost, they, like the two Sanyuanli teenagers and the ruffian, suppressed their fears and came to the place where they were needed.

They wanted to protect the man in the Academy and Chang’an because the Academy belonged to the Tangs. And the Tang Empire was their motherland. As the Tangs, they had to contribute even if it meant death.

The Fish-dragon Gang and men in black clothes surged out from the streets and alleys.

Dozens of the last men of the Yulin Royal Guards came from the other side of the Vermilion Bird Avenue.

Cultivators from the Imperial Center Administration emerged from their hiding spots in the storm and snow.

Old women brought their families to the Vermilion Bird Avenue.

An elderly person holding a cane walked behind the crowd.

A skinny taoist priest stood not far away from him.

The skinny taoist priest brought other taoist priests in the temple with him, holding a censer used to offer sacrifice to Heaven. His expression was fierce and he looked like a gangster.

Everyone looked mean and fierce.

The good-natured, kind and devouted Tangs had turned into gangsters at this moment, turning Chang’an into a city of sins.

Because everyone in the city was going to risk their lives and they all wanted to kill someone.