Nightfall

After the Headmaster ascended to heaven by the Sishui River, rain poured for more than ten days. The night when the rain retreated, the bright moon shone upon the mortal world.

Nobody had ever seen the moon except for the Buddha. He had once seen the obscure prophecy about the moon in the “Ming” Handscroll from the Tomes of the Arcane, and it was later clearly pointed out in his reading notes of the “Ming” Handscroll.

“The moon rises as the night comes” referred to something called “moon” showed up in the mortal world, as the Everlasting Night approached. However, how could the Everlasting Night be called “night” if the moon was too bright?

Too often, people panicked because of the unknown, and they had another tough but pathetic trait: they would get used to everything as soon as they found it hard to make the change; they accepted it in mere time, and submitted to it silently.

As soon as they found that the bright moon did not disappear, they soon accepted its existence. Imperial astronomers observed its moving trajectory, and tried to tell fortunes from it. Poets wrote poems to praise the beautiful moon, and some of the common folk began to worship the moon god.

The moon stayed in the night sky just like any other thing staying in Haotian’s world, solemn and stable. Why bother to worry about it?

All these feelings were based on their thought that the moon was stable, and so it was. No changes had ever taken place since it showed up that day; it was always full and bright. It appeared in a fixed spot in time, and its position had not changed.

Something different was happening tonight.

The moon turned from bright to dim, just like the sky; then it waned as if it were missing a piece. Changes were taking place on the moon, and everyone on Earth could see it.

Firecrackers resounded through the mortal world for more than ten nights. Countless towns and villages were sparkling. People looked up at the night sky with fear. They couldn’t stop playing the gongs and drums because they were afraid that the moon would fall down from the sky. They couldn’t tell whether they were playing the gongs and drums to regain their confidence or to cheer the moon up.

Unlike those praying to Haotian and worshipping the moon god, Ning Que was walking in the woods, doing nothing at all. He looked at the moon every night, silent, with worry all over his face.

He had seen the moon wax and wane for countless times, so he wasn’t as panicked as others. What confused him now was not knowing the reason why this moon would wax and wane, making him worry about the Headmaster. “Did you get hurt? Can you hang on?”

Ning Que arrived in the West-Hill Divine Kingdom. He still felt exotic even though this was his second time being there. His last journey had been on the carriage with the Headmaster and had not left any impression on him, so his mood was still a little strange.

Along his way, he didn’t see anything impressive except those believers kowtowing devoutly on the mountain path. Even the food here tasted far worse than what could be had in Chang’an City.

He arrived near the West-Hill Divine Palace, and felt the typical solemnity that the country was famous for as he watched the towering moutain, the three cliff platform beyond the reach of normal people, and several lofty temples seated on the cliffs.

In Haotian’s world, Haotian Taoism had unimaginable authority and resources, and since the Zhishou Abbey was eminent but reclusive, the West-Hill Palace became the political and power center of the world. That was the fact which could never be changed by neither the rise of the Tang Empire nor the presence of the Academy in the southern part of Chang’an City.

There was still a long time to go before the Light Sacrifice, and the West-Hill Palace was heavily guarded already. Inspections were much more intense on believers from the Tang Empire and the Great River Kingdom because of the war, and they had to go through three checkpoints before arriving at the foot of the hill the palaces sat on.

Ning Que didn’t have the passport of Tang, and he was using his Song identity. He learned it from the best; Fouth Brother and Six Brother were second to none in the world for making falsified documents. What alerted him the most was the third checkpoint, or to be specific, the old priest lying on the bamboo couch, with eyes closed.

Judging by the brown robe he was in, the old priest might not have a high position in the Divine Palace, but even the priest in red, who was in charge of the checking, showed great respect for him.

The old priest was in charge of forbidding cultivators from sneaking into the Divine Palace. Unless they had some special Taoists Skills, or had already reached the Knowing Destiny realm, he could detect all those smugglers.

Ning Que felt it hard to imagine that Haotian Taoism could so casually send a Knowing-Destiny powerhouse after the severe loss it had suffered from the war.

He looked at those eminent Divine Palaces from afar, and thought to himself that Haotian Taoism really proved itself to be the ruler of the world for thousands of years. Nobody knew how many great figures were hiding in the mountains.

He walked over there as he was thinking. The old priest in brown didn’t react to him at all; his eyes were closing, and he might have slept even deeper.

During the fight with the Abbey Dean in Chang’an City, Ning Que was immediately promoted to the peak of Knowing Destiny State by the endless Qi of Heaven and Earth poured into his body by the God-stunning Array. Later when the war ended, his state fell back to the middle of the Knowing Destiny State as the gathered Qi flowed back to the streets and alleys in the city. But his real power now was more than the middle, and he was a powerhouse edging to the peak of the Knowing Destiny State.

The key point was that a breath Chang’an Qi was still lingering in his body; the breath might be negligible for a thousand-year city, but it was an unimaginable resource for a cultivator.

Ning Que had completely mastered the skill of storing the Great Spirit, during his cultivation in seclusion in the precipice at the back of the Academy’s mountain, and he grew familiar with it after Yu Lian instructed him. As time went by, that Qi lingering inside was turning into his own Great Spirit.

The drops of the Great Spirit inside Ning Que had converged into a pond, which could support him endlessly during fights; he could also use the power to cover his Snow Mountain and Ocean of Qi to pretend to be an ordinary person. Even the Hierarch of the West-Hill Palace would fail to notice his disguise, let alone the old priest on the couch. That was also why he dared to walk back to the mortal world and march straight into the West-Hill Palace.

No accidents were supposed to happen to his identity, because he had long been fully prepared for this trip by the Tang Imperial Court and the Academy. The letter in his pocket was written by the Dean of Baiyun Abbey in his own hand.

The priest in charge of logistics of the Revelation Institute turned gentle to Ning Que after he had read the letter, then he said, “I have to accept you since this is the recommendation from my Senior Brother. You do your work in the Book Hall those days, and behave yourself. Don’t go out too often.”

Ning Que thanked him and put all those precious Song-style gifts at the room corner. Then, he saluted the priest and went to the Book Hall for the registry, with the approval in his hand.

He was temporarily a servant in the Revelation Institute, in charge of the cleaning. The deacon didn’t give him a second look after throwing him a bunch of keys and telling him some helpful things.

A servant could hardly catch any attention, which was why he chose the position at the beginning of the discussion in the Academy. Moreover, he wanted to stay in the Book Hall because the Headmaster had once been here.

The Book Hall used to mean a lot to Peach Mountain many years ago. However, everything had changed; the Book Hall was directly under the Divine Hall of Light now, and managed by the Revelation Institute.

Ning Que looked at the cheerless hall, and at the many classics on the bookshelves. As he saw the changes of the hall, he couldn’t help feel sorry for the declining Haotian Taoism.

The disciples of the Academy might find hard to imagine that the Book Hall had fallen to this state. Not to study is to regress, and a place without book readers was doomed to decline.

Lots of bigwigs came from this Book Hall, including the Headmaster and the Great Divine Priest of Light who had established the Devil’s Doctrine. They were cleaners here a thousand years ago, and look at what they had become!

Lamenting for Haotian was like worrying for the ancients, which was meaningless. He picked up the broom and the rag, concentrating on the cleaning for a while, then he began to read.

Ye Su said there were lots of Taoism classics here which would take much time to read, and Ning Que loved reading. Given the situation around him now, no one would disturb him.

Some of the students of the Revelation Institute were in Qinghe, some in the South Jin Kingdom, and others were busy on Peach Mountain due to the battle with the Tang Empire and the Light Sacrifice. Ning Que had not met anybody in days because he was immersed in the Book Hall. He kept reading the books he needed.

Time passed slowly. Sometimes he felt like a scholar himself, but actually he was not. His eyes moved from the paper to the Divine Palace from time to time, and the expression gradually became complicated.

Before the Divine Hall of Light stood two girls.

The two girls were very young, dressed in white, and bland in appearance. People felt so hard to move their eyes off the two girls because they were so white. Every inch of their skin was extremely fair, like snow with sheer perfection. Their expressions were pure like water.

Not far away from the cliff platform, busy deacons and priests looked at the two girls in white, with their eyes full of curiosity and awe.

The two were picked out from more than a hundred thousand of girls in the West-Hill Palace. According to the order of the Hierarch, they had the status of saintesses, therefore, nobody would dare to ask no matter how curious they were of the girls or about the Divine Hall of Light.

People in the hall seldom saw the two girls because they seldom stepped out of the hall. They were extremely mysterious.

But today, they were standing outside of the temple.

What were they waiting for?

Dust rose on the mountain path at the foot of Peach Mountain, as several horse carriages were approaching at an unbelievably fast speed. It felt as if they were charging.

People in the hall were shocked and wondering what was happening.

“Is it the war starting again?”