Nightfall

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

For the ordinary locals and tourists, the Yue Laan Hungry Ghost Festival was undoubtedly a grand celebration as well as the principal theme of this autumn. Though for the bigwigs, the festival was simply a good excuse for them to meet. They just needed to use this opportunity to gather together and discuss about affairs that actually mattered.

Prior to the Yue Laan Festival, the meetings among emissaries from the different countries had already reached their ultimate objectives, and all that was left was approval from their respective governments before being sealed by their kings or emperors to take effect.

All countries in the Central Plains agreed to continue to wage war against the Wilderness next year, and they would greatly increase their army force as well as logistic support. The Tang Empire was even demanded to show their real power instead of remaining as a bystander like it did in the past two years.

The reason for this was that, the situation of the Wilderness had become ever more chaotic, and once the Desolate stabilized their position, it took them only a year of rest and rehabilitation to fiercely rise up again. On the other hand, the Left King’s Palace of the barbarians, that was ridiculed by the Central Plains countries during the war finally woke up after paying a bloody price; they began slipping through the Central Plains and the Desolate, while attempting to get some revenge.

The Desolate had left this world for way too long, and the barbarians became masters of the Wilderness in the past millennium. Even though the Left King’s Palace endured great losses, their familiarity with the Wilderness meant that they could simply play hide and seek around the Min Mountain whenever they couldn’t win against the countries in Central Plains, and the latter wouldn’t find a better way to retaliate.

What the countries in Central Plains feared the most was that, under severe losses, the cavalry of the Left King’s Palace could really give up the dignity of their palace and turn to the Golden Palace.

The Golden Palace remained very quiet for decades, so much so that most people of the Central Plains forgot about the existence of the fierce beast. Nevertheless, the nobles and officials from these countries knew very well that, despite South Jin Kingdom being generally considered to rank second in the world, the actual second strongest power in this world continued to be the Golden Palace.

The Golden Palace was endowed with the strongest cavalry, the largest number of horses, and the largest number of High Priests. If it wasn’t thanks to the resistance of the Min Mountain, the several generations of courageous and powerful Chanyu of the Golden Palace would have conquered and seized the entire Wilderness long ago.

Had the Tang Empire not provided such strong resistance for centuries without ever giving in an inch of their territory, the cavalry of the Golden Palace would have long swept the Central Plains by now, and they might even have reached the Peach-Mountain of West Hill.

In the face of anger and cries of the delegations, the Tang delegation eventually agreed to sign this plan. It was on one hand due to the pressure exerted by the West-Hill Divine Palace, and on the other hand, it was also out of strategic considerations by the Tang Empire.

The Tianqi Mountains and the Min Mountain were actually part of the same mountains, stretching tens of thousands of miles across the north of the continent. It divided the wilderness in two with a really narrow valley in the center, referred to as South Min Mountain and North Min Mountain respectively by the people of the Central Plains, whereas the grassland barbarians were more accustomed to referring the northern region as the Tianqi Mountain.

Should the Left King’s Palace wish to make contact with the Golden Palace or even fight alongside each other, their cavalry would need to cross that valley. However, to the west of that valley was a city built by the Tang Empire that cost countless human and material resources.

This was the most distant, yet the most important city for the Tang Empire.

Chang’an would never allow that town to be threatened by anything.

The delegates of the front temple had now completed their mission, and they had either joined the town to enjoy their remaining time with the local folk or chosen to return to their respective cities to report on the outcome of their discussions.

The cultivators from the different sects still remained in the middle temple. Normally, masters of these cultivation sects would have left alongside the bigwigs of their respective countries; considering the presence of the West Hill Divine Palace, they must also obey the orders of the royals of their respective countries. However, it was a different scenario this year, since they must wait for the orders of the bigwigs at the back temple.

Those who were now at the back temple were the true bigwigs. For instance, neither Mr. Cheng of the Sword Garret who had reached the Knowing Destiny State, nor Quni Madi and Lu Chejia need to care about the affairs of their respective countries. Moreover, this year even saw the presence of the President of Commandment Yard of the Xuankong temple as well as representatives of both the Academy and the West-Hill Divine Palace.

The representative of the Academy was obviously Ning Que, and although Sangsang was qualified to represent the Divine Palace, she had only been endowed the title of the Divine Palace without any particular position. And most importantly, the Divine Palace knew very well that the Lady of Light could not be bothered to take care of such matters, so they sent a priest to assist her.

That priest was an acquaintance of Ning Que, the Divine Palace Priest, Cheng Lixue, with silver hair and beard.

Ning Que looked at Cheng Lixue and said, “How did the Divine Palace think of the term ‘assist’? If Sangsang really demanded something, would you actually listen to her? Who would believe that anyway?”

Cheng Lixue smiled and said, “Should the Lady of Light really raise her opinion, I would definitely respect her. Moreover, I also trust that there is no one from the Divine Palace who would oppose to her opinion.”

“No need to express such formalities anymore, since it is meaningless.”

Ning Que looked at him and said, “You must have heard rumors about my family background.”

Cheng Lixue remained calm and said, “I have.”

Ning Que then asked, “Do you believe them?”

He smiled and said, “I don’t know.”

Ning Que went on to ask, “Does the Great Divine Priest of Revelation know about it?”

Cheng Lixue shook his head and said, “He said he didn’t know either.”

Ning Que said, “Then forgive my rudeness if anyone from Haotian Taoism ever talks about me being the Son of Yama ever again.”

Cheng Lixue said, “Unless you choose to raise the matter, who would dare mention that rumor in front of you?”

Ning Que smiled and said, “I just want to remind you of the deadly consequences of spreading rumors.”

Cheng Lixue wasn’t keen to engage in this kind of meaningless conversation with him again. He simply took out a letter from his sleeve and handed it over to Ning Que, while saying, “This is a letter that the Divine Priest of Judgment wrote back, and I was asked to pass it to you personally.”

Ning Que was slightly startled and as he opened the letter, he saw that it was Ye Hongyu’s handwriting indeed.

In the letter, Ye Hongyu briefly explained the process of hunting down Prince Long Qing outside the borders of North of Yan Kingdom. It didn’t explain in detail about the thunder by the Shubi Lake, but it did say that Long Qing did not die, and how he took a few dozens of his fallen knights and reunited with the army of the Left King’s Palace, running away to the depths of the Wilderness.

The fact that Long Qing was able to survive Ye Hongyu’s sword was highly unexpected for Ning Que. He deduced that something interesting must have happened, only that there was nothing he could do if Ye Hongyu refused to tell.

As he remembered the black peach blossom, the silent and gloomy aura, Ning Que could almost foresee the upcoming danger.

He knew too well how strong and terrifying Long Qing was, especially with the mystic devouring technique he was endowed with, as it would make him stronger at a fascinating speed.

Back in the day in front of the Red Lotus Temple, had Long Qing not been startled by his Practice of Taotie and escaped, he would have already been killed.

Even though there were no Taoist cultivators in the Wilderness, there were many Priests and Necromancers. Without forewarning and preparation, they would end up being the best meal option for Long Qing.

As someone who should have died long ago, but kept surviving and continued to become stronger and ever more terrifying, Ning Que found Long Qing rather admirable. He raised his eyebrow slowly, and remembered about the rumor that lingered since years ago, about them being each other’s nemeses. He wondered, would this actually become reality?

Ye Hongyu’s letter consisted of two pages.

On the second sheet, she drew a sword.

Ning Que stared at the sword on the paper, experiencing the awe-inspiring sword style it conveyed, faintly sensing the undefeated power she expressed while she drew that sword. He couldn’t help but shiver, and he muttered to himself, “I cannot believe you were inspired so soon. Do you mind not being so strong? It makes me feel rather weak.”

While he said that, he was actually rather grateful to Ye Hongyu, as she decided to draw the sword to let him know as soon as she became further inspired by the Dahe Sword. This was obviously out of concern that his progress was too slow to defeat Long Qing in the future.

Surely Ning Que also knew that, adding this previous notion and the Tao addict’s personality, an even more important factor was her fear that their future fight wouldn’t be interesting enough, because of his lagging too far behind.

Cheng Lixue heard him talking to himself, and he couldn’t help feeling bitter, saying, “When I saw you in the Wilderness, you hadn’t reached Seethrough state yet. Today I see that you have already entered the Knowing Destiny State. If you consider yourself to be weak, I should probably dig a hole and bury myself in front of you and the Divine Priest of Judgment.”

Ning Que patted him on the shoulder in consolation, “Happiness lies in contentment.”

In shock, Cheng Lixue almost spewed blood to taint his snow white eyebrows.

After a while, he said feebly, “I finally understand why Prince Long Qing was so infuriated after losing to you in Chang’an years ago. Anyone would be infuriated upon losing the opportunity to become the Headmaster’s disciple. Furthermore, he lost to someone like you. That would definitely lead to sleepless nights.”

Ning Que smile and said, “I didn’t do anything at the time, except for asking him whether he wanted to have some cake.”

The meeting taking place at the back hall of the Lanke Temple was certainly not apt for the ordinary cultivators to take part in. They could only remain waiting at the Middle Temple while discussing actively. Nevertheless, they didn’t seem to be too tense or nervous looking at their facial expressions.

Those who were unable to raise their heads and look at the sky certainly wouldn’t understand how high the sky could be, and they could never touch the real secrets; therefore, they obviously could not foresee the danger ahead. As a result of that, they would be more likely to remain in their comfort zone, thinking that the Underworld Invasion was simply a myth that wasn’t worth their concern.

The four stone statues sat quietly by the side of the hall, and things continued to be nice and quiet, because only very few people were entitled to sit in this place.

Master Qishan sat in the very center, his emaciated face showing compassion.

The Monk Guan Hai stood by his side.

Ning Que and Sangsang sat by the left hand side of the Master.

Master Boshu, President of Commandment Yard of the Xuankong Temple sat by his right.

Regardless of how prestigious and highly regarded anyone else in this hall could be in this world, they all ought to show their due respect in front of the representatives of the two major Unknown Places.

Cheng Lixue represented the West-Hill Divine Palace and sat next to Sangsang, followed by Quni Madi, Cheng Ziqing of the Sword Garet, Mo Shanshan and Lu Chenjia, the Flower Addict.

Also present in the hall was Master Dongming, who hosted the second round of the three games of chess on Wa Mountain, though he chose to sit by the side wall instead of being among the crowd. He glanced at Sangsang and gave her a very calm and relaxed smile.

Only ten people were present at the hall, though they were ten people who could represent the entire cultivation world.