Nightfall

Ning Que would never have imagined that he would see Chen Pipi’s annoying face in the walls of the precipice. Ning Que and his Senior Brothers and Sisters at the Academy all thought that Chen Pipi had brought the Abbey Dean back to the Zhishou Abbey. They did not imagine that he had been incarcerated within the precipice, becoming a prisoner in the West-Hill Divine Palace’s You Prison.

Chen Pipi had also not imagined that moonlight would shine on the unchanging scenery outside the stone window and that he would see Ning Que’s annoying face. He seemed dull, but was actually very smart and had long predicted that Ning Que would become a prisoner of Chang’an City. He had not expected that Ning Que would be so gutsy to dare to come to the West-Hill Divine Palace and had even appeared in front of him.

This was a reunion that no one had expected. The two Academy brothers looked at each other through the stone window and were stunned for a long time before they started smiling dumbly at each other.

The prison cell was simply decorated, with just a bed and some tools. Ning Que looked in from outside the stone window and discovered that it was at least dry and devoid of blood stains. There was some food and clean water on the little table, and Ning Que relaxed.

He started to examine the stone window after that. Even though the meeting was sudden and the Academy did not know that Chen Pipi had been imprisoned in the You Prison, and naturally did not have any plans, since he had already seen him, then there was no need to hesitate. Ning Que was prepared to spring Chen Pipi out of the You Prison.

As he examined the window, Ning Que’s expression grew grave. It was not because the fog that had been dissipated by the wind was once again cutting his body, but because he realized that the prison break was a difficult task.

The stone window was very small and one could only see the sky through it. A bird that was slightly bigger would not be able to fly in. He had to make the window bigger if he wanted to extract Chen Pipi from the prison cell. However, when he reached out, he was blocked. He was somewhat shocked to realize that the precipice was a solid whole. The stone window was a little hole opened up in the small precipice. If he wanted to break open the stone window, he would have to break down the entire precipice of the Peach Mountain. The mountain was shrouded by an extremely powerful tactical array and might be a cage. How would he be able to break through it?

The powers of the West-Hill Divine Palace might be strong, but other than the Headmaster, who else would be able to pry open the Peach Mountain that had several unknown layers of arrays and talismans? One had to know that only one person had successfully escaped the You Prison over the years, and not even Wei Guangming had thought of prying open the stone window. He had instead chosen to break the wooden rods in front of him.

Ning Que said, “It seems like you have to stay in there for a couple of days. I need to think of a way.”

Chen Pipi stood by the stone window, somewhat lost. He did not react.

Ning Que only recalled then, that when the two had smiled at each other, he did not hear Chen Pipi’s laughter. He thought of a certain possibility and asked at a slower speed, “You can’t hear me?”

Chen Pipi looked at Ning Que’s mouth shapes and nodded. Then, he said something. Ning Que looked at the shapes his mouth made and understood, “Other than light, nothing can pass through this window.”

Ning Que thought about it and just as he was about to say something, Chen Pipi’s expression suddenly turned into one of worry. His lips opened and closed, and Ning Que understood Sangsang and Tang Xiaotang’s names.

He knew what Chen Pipi wanted to say, and nodded to indicate that he already knew what happened to Sangsang. Then, he told him that Tang Xiaotang was at the back of the Academy’s mountain and that he need not worry.

Moonlight scattered down from the night sky and onto the precipice and Ning Que. Only a small amount of light could pass through the small stone window and on Chen Pipi’s face. The two continued conversing without any sounds.

“Wait for me to get you out.”

Ning Que looked at Chen Pipi’s eyes and said. He said it really slowly and enunciated perfectly to ensure that Chen Pipi could understand every word that he said and could sense his determination.

Chen Pipi looked at him silently and suddenly smiled and shake his head.

Ning Que looked at the smile on his face and slowly pointed his middle finger. He said, “You are just a prisoner now, you have no choice other than waiting passively for me to save you.”

With that, he looked at his middle finger bathed in the moonlight. He wondered to himself in confusion; if he only had the Dhyana Emblematic Gesture on his left hand, then how could he stay on the precipice?

Ning Que tried to stretch his hand and reach the stone window once more under the moonlight. He startled the inhibition on the You Prison, and the West-Hill Divine Palace knew that someone had approached the prison and began to grow wary. The black-clothed deacons from the Judicial Department appeared on the three cliff platforms, but they had yet to check the Revelation Institute under the mountain.

Ning Que was not worried that they would find him. The patch of peach blossoms at the waist of the mountain was his best shield. As long as no one in the Divine Hall expected that someone would be able to pass through the patch, they would not grow suspicious of the area under the mountain.

Other than thinking about how to spring Chen Pipi from the heavily guarded You Prison, what made him feel cowed was the cold gaze from the peak that night.

He was certain that there was no one on the Divine Halls at the peak then, but he kept feeling as if someone was watching him. Who was the owner of that cold gaze?

He admitted that courage was an important aspect in battle, but it was not the deciding factor. That was why he did not leave Chang’an with courage only. The Academy had made detailed plans and arrangements earlier, and his hiding in the Divine Hall was an important aspect in the plan. If the cold gaze was what he thought it was, then it would not have any impact on the Academy’s plans.

The true impact was Chen Pipi.

Haotian’s world was stable as if it would never change. But the mortal world that was made up of several tiny details changed all the time. The Academy’s plans had to be changed when he saw Chen Pipi’s face in the precipice, and they might even have to be re-drawn.

Ning Que did not understand why the West-Hill Divine Palace had locked Chen Pipi in the You Prison. Even if the Abbey Dean had died, the Zhishou Abbey could not continue to control the West-Hill Divine Palace behind the scenes; and even if Chen Pipi’s identity as a disciple of the Academy was unacceptable to Haotian Taoism, it was still incredulous to think that they would imprison someone of Chen Pipi’s status. Were the bigwigs in the Divine Hall not afraid that Haotian Taoism would split because of this?

In the middle of the night, Ning Que followed the path in the peach blossom cluster to the cliff again. But the clouds were thick tonight and the moonlight could not shine on the mortal world. The fog beneath the precipice would not dissipate. Ning Que dared not go down as he thought of the pain that he had endured from hundreds and thousands of blades cutting him and the hatred in the fog.

This held true in the next few nights as well. He had no way of seeing Chen Pipi.

At this point, Ning Que had used the Great Spirit to repair the internal injuries he had suffered on the precipice. He had also taken out several old Classics to read in an attempt to find a way. Then, he began to observe the moon every night.

Since light could enter the tiny stone window, then images could enter as well. He did not want to mime with Chen Pipi like an idiot on the precipice, so, he started to write a letter.

Fine hair dipped in ink left behind a clear and beautiful writing on white paper. Ning Que sat at the desk and wrote without stopping, writing the Academy’s plans and his thoughts on the paper. In the letter, he also wrote about some random happenings at the back of the mountain and asked if the food at the You Prison was really that good.

In the gardens in front of the Revelation Institute, Long Qing and the Flower Addict, Lu Chen Jia, were looking at the moon.

Lu Chenjia was still as beautiful as before, looking like a flower. However, the petals on the flower had been stained and seemed a little cold. It was not the delicate beauty that it was before.

Long Qing was wearing a silver mask. There was no one in the world who could see his face hidden under the mask. The beauty that had dazzled countless girls was now a memory.

“I wonder when the practice of eating sweet potatoes during summer formed. I heard that the Divine Hall had this practice for over a thousand years. Habits are really powerful.”

Long Qing looked at the half portion of sweet potato in his hand and the corner his lips left visible from beneath the mask rose up slightly. He said calmly, “I just never thought that it would be so easy to form a new habit.”

Lu Chenjia looked at the scar under his lips. Her expression darkened as she thought to herself that it was not scary to be accustomed to failure, but it was even more hurtful to have forgotten habits that a person once had. Have they ever been so distant?

The war against the Tang Empire had ended and Long Qing had returned to the West-Hill Divine Palace to discover that everything had changed.

He used to be a Priest at the verdict of the Divine Hall, but the person on the black jade throne was now Ye Hongyu. How would she allow him into the verdict of the Divine Hall once more? Furthermore, he had been punished for betraying the sect. Even though the Abbey Dean had absolved him for his crimes, but with the defeat of the Abbey Dean in Chang’an, many in the Divine Hall started to look at him with glances filled with complex thoughs once more.

The West-Hill Divine Palace had suffered heavy damages in the war. As a powerhouse in the upper Knowing Destiny State, he should deserve more respect. With his status in Haotian Taoism and his cultivation state, not even Ye Hongyu nor those crimes that he had committed could affect his current position. There should not be any objections should he take over the position as the Great Divine Priest of Revelation.

However, everyone knew that he had encountered that dark wind in the south of Chang’an. His cultivation state had been torn into tatters by the wind and he had returned to the Divine Hall badly injured.

Nobody believed that he would be able to climb up once more from the abyss of despair, like he did when he was shot by Ning Que’s arrow to rise again to the peak. Just like what Lu Chenjia thought earlier, failure was not terrifying, but if one lost every time, and if failure became a habit, not even the most determined Taoist Heart would be able to bear such a terrible blow.

If not for the Yan Kingdom’s new emperor, Chong Ming, who had given the Divine Hall plenty of boons and showed his support for it—and, if not for the fact that he was still in control of hundreds and thousands of elite cavalry on the Eastern Wilderness—he did not even have to think about the position as the Great Divine Priest of Revelation. He might not even be able to keep his unimportant position as a Minister of Offerings in the Revelation Institute.

“The new habits that I mentioned was not related to being defeated by Ning Que. What I meant included everyone in the Divine Hall. We have gotten used to the moon hanging over us in less than half a year.”

Long Qing looked at the moon that emerged from the thick clouds in the night dome and said, “Peach blossoms that have not bloomed in decades suddenly did this year and are still in full bloom. People are also used to such an incredible thing, but no one ever looked at the mountains full of peach blossoms and asked why.”

His gaze landed on the Divine Hall of Light at the peak and said, “I would like to ask why.”