Nightfall

Ning Que felt odd to sabotage a girl’s marriage with his wife and more oddly, the girl happened to be his admirer. However, he planned to do it anyway.

Approaching the palace, Sangsang looked around with her hands behind her back. However, the palace guards saw her behavior as a great disrespect to the monarch.

The guards yelled at her and tried to drive away her and Ning Que, who led the big black horse. The guards would have drawn their swords if not for the forthcoming wedding.

Sangsang ignored the guards and looked up at a flower tree on the corner, which was new to her. She kept walking forward and approached the entrance of the palace.

Anyone who ignored the guards and walked directly to the palace would be treated as an idiot or a real powerhouse intending to intrude the palace.

The situation became tense immediately. The guards all drew their swords, reflecting the clear light of the winter. The swords were Xiu Swords peculiar to the Great River Kingdom. The crossbowmen on the city wall aimed at them too.

Ning Que didn’t worry about Sangsang’s safety, but he worried that Sangsang would kill too many guards. The Great River Kingdom and the Great Tang have enjoyed a peaceful relationship for many generations. As a part of the Great Tang, he could not let things get too bloody. Leading the big black horse, he stepped up and told one of the guards that they were from the Academy.

He thought that the reputation of Academy would get him to the palace easily, but he lost his certification, so the guards believe him.

Countless sharp swords cut through the chilly wind, only to fall. Sangsang knew what Ning Que was thinking, but she didn’t care. She just continued to walk forward, with hands behind her back.

The palace guards didn’t want to kill them at first, so Sangsang spared the guard swaying his sharp sword at her shoulder from death.

The winds in Jingdu were always tender, which led to blooming flowers and red leaves covering the royal road. Suddenly, the wind turned fierce.

Sangsang kept walking calmly with her hands behind her back, and the winds around her turned calm, just like the look on her face.

The sword broke through the wind and came to her, but suddenly deviated its way as if it was immersed in a bottomless swamp or sucked into a raging wave.

The guard looked at his palm in shock and didn’t understand what was going on.

The same thing happened to all the guards. Their swords were surrounded by the wind, swaying like rootless duckweed in the water.

Gasps of amazement rose from the entrance of the palace. Crossbow arrows finally were shot from the direction of the city wall, but they never touched Sangsang and they disappeared in the wind.

The people in Jingdu admired the Great Tang’s culture and shared the same temperament with the Tang people. The guards had already figured out that the ordinary woman who was tall and fat must be a very high-level cultivator. Although losing their swords, the guards still rushed to her with great courage and tried to keep her out of the palace with their own fleshes.

However, she was Haotian. Liu Bai couldn’t enter her world with his sword, let alone these ordinary men.

The guards were flown up and dropped, crying in pain.

Sangsang continued to walk calmly with her hands behind her back. When she approached the entrance, the door opened by itself.

Leading the big black horse, Ning Que followed her tightly and watched what she did quietly. It was even not a real battle since the strengths between two parties were not even close, and Sangsang didn’t treat it as a real battle either. Yet Ning Que still wanted to find something he longed to see in Sangsang’s battle with the guards.

Sangsang was the rule. Although she couldn’t change the rule, she could use it in a way that was magical to human beings. This demonstrated that the ingenuity in varying tactics depended on mother wit.

Everything in nature could be her weapon if she wanted, including the wind, the flower tree in the corner, the bowl of fish balls she ate before, and the streams or rivers they passed through along the way.

The door of the palace opened, and Sanggang went in calmly. The palace guards of the Great River Kingdom were shocked but couldn’t do anything to stop her. Their eyes were filled with despair and sorrow.

The most powerful force in the human world meant nothing to her. It seemed to her that the palace was the same as a brothel where she could walk in whenever she wanted.

Leading the big black horse, Ning Que followed her with a wonderful feeling.

He had the same feeling when he saw his Youngest Uncle’s loneliness due to his invincibility in the Snow Cliff of Wilderness and when he sensed his master’s strength as a model for posterity.

He also had the same feeling during the Rite to Light at Peach Mountain back then, which was because her strength was in his body. Now it was because he walked behind her.

The feeling came from invincibility, and his invincibility came from her. He didn’t feel embarrassed, for they were married and shared everything. Nobody could deny that her invincibility was also his invincibility.

…

…

The palace of the Great River Kingdom was very beautiful. Countless flower trees were planted between the wooden halls with black eave, just like the streets of Jingdu. The blue flagstones in front of the halls were full of impressions of wind and rain, showing a refreshing beauty in their vicissitudes.

Ning Que led the big black horse and walked up to the main hall, looking at the hall complex silently and sighing with all sorts of feelings. All of a sudden, he found that Sangsang was gone, and he couldn’t find her anywhere.

By controlling the direction of the wind to form numerous tiny mirrors, it was possible to change the trajectories of light. One could even hide in the wind without being seen. It might sound easy, but actually Sangsang was the only one who could do it. The calculation was so massive that it might turn Fourth Brother’s hair into white overnight.

Ning Que knew that Sangsang was still here. With his consciousness, he could sense she was wandering in one of the halls, but he was flustered when she was not in his sight.

Terrifying guards and soldiers rushed to him from all directions of the palace. He stood in front of the hall, realizing that he had to face them alone.

Ning Que was silent and understood what Sangsang meant.

He hated to see Shanshan get married, but he was also afraid that Sangsang was disappointed in him. So he was shamelessly silent as many men would be in the human world. He refused to solve the problem that Sangsang set up and pushed his responsibility back to her.

She took him into the palace of the Great River Kingdom and then disappeared. He entered the palace and stood in front of the hall, so he had to make his decision.

Looking up at the quiet and solemn palace, he drew the iron sword from the sheath and held the rein. He walked to the main hall slowly and firmly.

…

…

The Sage of Calligraphy had meticulosity combed white hair that looked like the famous silver wire-knitted ornament in Yuelun Kingdom. His image perfectly matched with what people in the Great River Kingdom had imagined.

Another middle-aged man was also in the hall, wearing an imperial robe. He had an unhealthily pale face and relatively calm eyes, but joy and anxiety were tangled deep in his eyes.

He was the monarch of the Great River Kingdom. He looked at the Sage of Calligraphy and said, “How about we think this matter through and discuss it later?”

The Sage of Calligraphy said, “Please relax, Your Majesty. All we need is her consent.”

The monarch frowned. He thought, The message I got from Black Ink Garden is quite different. Although the Master of Mogan Mountain didn’t say no explicitly, it seemed that she didn’t want to marry me.

Looking at the monarch, the Sage of Calligraphy understood his concern and said, “Even though she objected, it didn’t mean anything. As her teacher, I can make decisions for her.”

The monarch said, “I have admired her for many years, but the Tang…”

The Sage of Calligraphy was a little displeased and said, “It’s none of the Academy’s business. Ning Que never proposed to Shanshan. The Tang and the Great River Kingdom have enjoyed a peaceful relationship for many years. They won’t be unreasonable about this matter.”

The monarch was a little uneasy and said, “But what about Mr. First of the Academy?”

All of the big names in the cultivation world and the human world already knew that Mo Shanshan and Teacher One were sworn brother and sister. If it were not for their relationship, the Great River Kingdom would have been destroyed by the Divine Hall of West Hill because Mo Shanshan helped the Academy to fight against Abbey Dean of the Zhishou Abbey.

The Sage of Calligraphy answered in a lower voice, “Now the Academy is busy with its own affairs. It is in no position to meddle with our business.”

While they were speaking, a loud noise came from outside the hall, and then the sounds of terrible fighting were everywhere. A pale eunuch entered the hall and cried out, “Your Majesty, there is an assassin intruding the palace!”

The Great River Kingdom had always been peaceful, and Jingdu didn’t have any riots in the past few years. Now that the grand wedding was in the corner, it wouldn’t be a coincidence for an assassin to trespass the palace.

Thinking about this, the Sage of Calligraphy turned pale and released his Psyche Power to explore what had happened outside the hall.

As a superb talisman master, his Psyche Power was extremely powerful but he was shocked that he sensed nothing. Even Liu Bai couldn’t control his breath so perfectly that he can hide from my Psyche Power. Then who could be the intruder today?

He opened the door of the hall and walked outside. When he saw the young man leading a big black horse in front of the hall, he was more puzzled than shocked.

“Ning Que! Shouldn’t you be at the Divine Hall of Light?”

Looking at the old man with silver hair, Ning Que figured out his identity and said with a smile, “I can’t stay at West Hill forever. I am traveling around the world and passed through the Great River Kingdom, wanting to pay my respects to Your Excellency.”

The Sage of Calligraphy raised his eyebrows slightly and said with an extremely indifferent expression, “I don’t know how you escaped from the Divine Hall of West Hill. I guess you have a better excuse than just paying your respects to me for the intrusion today.”

Ning Que said, “Of course it was a lie. I’m not Haotian, how could I know that Your Excellency is also in the palace. I’ve come to the palace to meet the monarch.”

The Sage of Calligraphy asked, “What do you want from His Majesty?”

Ning Que said with a smile, “I came here to inform the monarch that his wedding with Shanshan might have to be postponed indefinitely.”

The Sage of Calligraphy looked at him and said sarcastically, “Even though Haotian will get angry?”

Ning Que sighed and answered, “I can tell from your disgusting expression that you’ve heard some rumors. Unfortunately, you probably don’t know that I make the important decisions in my family.”

…