Nightfall

Situ Yilan heaved a sigh in his heart as she bid goodbye to him. She held her riding horse and headed down the meadow.

The war of the Seven Strongholds had ended, and the battlefield clean-up was almost completed. Now she had to lead the cavalry to go deep into the grassland, following the footsteps of Xu Chi to launch their last attack on the Golden Tribe.

The war had ended but the act of slaughtering had just begun.

She hoped that the world would not give Ning Que a second chance, however she had no choice but to continue killing people.

Holding the riding horse while walking to the bottom of the meadow, she could not help herself from turning over her shoulder. She could only see the rising of the morning sun, and Ning Que was standing in the sun, his body was beaming with golden rays that made him look rather holy.

If she had a chance to take a look at Ye Su being sanctified at the capital of Song Kingdom, maybe she would be able to associate these two individuals with each other. However, it was different from Ye Su because Ning Que stood on the bright side but he was more inclined to form a shadow in himself.

He was a little bit dull, not easy to see through him.

Situ Yilan felt a strong surge of compassion for him out of the sudden.

Hundreds of thousands of people died because of his one statement, but he could still maintain his composure without any concerns. Because he could not find Sangsang, he had no feelings of love or hatred for the world. A person as such would surely be very intimidating, but simultaneously, someone like him could be very pitiful. What was his purpose of living?

The Tang troops set out, and once again the City of Wei regained its serenity.

Without the isolation of the array master, countless of flies were making a scary buzzing sound that sounded like windstorm lingered around Heaven and Earth. Occasionally, the gloomy clouds would cover the sky during the daytime, and there were hundreds of vultures emitting unpleasant noise as they flew around the scene under the clouds.

Ning Que could not care less about those things. Even though he had never seen so many dead bodies and blood in his life, he had been through these miserable and terrifying situations for too many times, causing him to feel sick of them.

He walked through the Wilderness filled with the scent of blood, lowered his head to observe the wild grass that had condensed into a mess by blood and the soil that had condensed into clumps of Earth. He contemplated as he walked all the way to the Human Skull Mountain.

Contemplating while observing quietly was not a sign of lamenting but was to meticulously perceive the breath of the surroundings. The powerful blood sacrificing array of the Golden Tribe’s national master gave him a hint that the force in the human world did not only come from those alive but also from the deceased. He felt the urge to utilize these forces, but what should he do?

The Wilderness that was immersed in the blood water had many footsteps on it. Pit-a-pat, each footprint accumulated a slight stain of blood, a strong fishy smell, an abundant of resentment, and formed a clear trace.

Ning Que had walked in the wilderness for exactly three days, leaving behind many footsteps.

If a person was sitting above the clouds while gazing down at the grassland, then he could see a very complex image. This image would have the City of Wei as the main focus, the Human Skull Mountain as the vulnerable spot, the Wilderness which was about 10 miles square as the backdrop, and his footprints as the lines. It was complicated until it was hard to imagine.

This image was a rather complicated array, or in other words, it was an extremely big talisman.

After that, he left the City of Wei and headed to Kaiping. This time he had a shorter time to observe discreetly, and he only walked for a day because he was getting more used to it. Next, he left for Qu city. He finished walking the whole Seven Strongholds and this resulted in the presence of a fairly complex blood array in each part of the Seven Stronghold.

If that person who was viewing the ground in the sky could fly higher up, he could possibly see the seven complex blood arrays which appeared like seven ink dots could be combined to form a straight line.

That line was very messy and random, it did not look like a complete stroke, but seemed more like the beginning of a stroke.

The seven complex arrays was merely the ink dots and the straight line formed from the combination of the seven arrays was only the beginning of a stroke. Then when this stroke was completed, how long would it be? How magnificent would it be?

Before Ning Que wrote this stroke, no one would ever know about it.

…

…

After Ning Que had completed arranging these seven arrays, he went back to the City of Wei.

The City of Wei was still in tranquility as there were only a big black horse and a broken hand-drawn carriage awaiting his arrival.

The big black horse walked toward him, but it did not reveal the joy of reunion. It was because he could clearly sense Ning Que’s exhaustion and perceive his real thoughts, thus it lowered its head.

Ning Que stretched out his hand to gently caress its neck. It was not him that comforted it, but it was it that comforted him in such a way.

Countless grasslanders were killed, and their blood watered the grassland. All the sins and evil deeds were for the sake of that stroke, and his greatest concern in the heart.

That faint feeling of fear and anxiety was like a whip which was striking his body all the time, causing his soul to feel the pain deep inside, and increase his anxiousness.

He was in a rush to leave the City of Wei to head for the south because he could not find her in the City of Wei.

“I can’t find her… I think Abbey Dean, Eldest Brother, and the Drunkard have yet to find her, but I need to find her, so I would like to ask for your help.” Ning Que glanced at the black donkey in the broken hand-drawn carriage, requesting for help earnestly.

The black donkey went into silence for a moment, subconsciously using its front hoof to pull the grapes on the plate. Regardless of how arrogant and lazy it was, it knew very clearly about the importance of this problem: its previous owner died under her hand.

A very unpleasant “Hee-haw” transmitted through the Wilderness outside the City of Wei.

Getting the promise from the black donkey made Ning Que slightly more relaxed. He turned over his body to ride on the big black horse, and gently squeezed the horse’s belly. A cheerful neighing sound was heard as it flashed through Heaven and Earth.

In the wilderness, a stroke of straight line emerged and directed toward the north side.

Heaven and Earth was a piece of grassland while he was a wild horse which never ceased to explore.

…

…

If compared to the long lasting war in the northern grassland, the Central Plains was also not peaceful as it was filled with smoke everywhere.

Long Qing led the cavalry of the Divine Halls of West-Hill with the full cooperation of the Yan Kingdom. They were fighting North Battalion of Tang troops in the west direction and went deep into the wilderness to help the remnant force of the Golden Tribe Royal Court. They were strenuously withstanding the powerful attack of the Wild people.

After the Divine Halls of West-Hill controlled South Jin fully, it ordered the armies of South Jin to separate into two groups. Zhao Nanhai led the cavalry of the Divine Halls of West-Hill and the vast and mighty soldiers of South Jin. They were planning and preparing to attack the Great River Kingdom on the other side of the country. The news spread like wildfire across the Great River. The old personnel of the Divine Hall of Judgement who were faithful to Ye Hongyu were carrying out a merciless and terrifying assassination at the border of the West-Hill Divine Kingdom and South Jin to slow down the progression of the allied forces toward the south direction.

The real brutal combat did not happen in these wars, but it happened in many inconspicuous areas, for example, an unnoticeable small county, a run-out temple in a village, a fishing village by the sea and an iron ore mining area at Qinghe Prefecture, Fuchun River. Those places had the most number of people died.

It was due to the propagation of the New Stream as a result of poverty and anger. Therefore, it would certainly start off from these places, even the brutal repression of the Divine Halls of West-Hill toward New Stream would be reasonable to carry out in these areas.

After the death of Ye Su, the influence of New Stream was badly suppressed. However, it did not take too long for them to turn over a new leaf with the assistance provided by the Tang Kingdom in secret. It also made them feel as though they had risen from the ashes.

Chen Pipi had left Chang’an for a long time. He carried on the unfulfilled wish of his Eldest Brother to preach around. He executed the established policy with silence and determination and promised to overthrow the old Taoism way of ruling the world.

The hidden chief disciples from all around the world accepted the lead of Chen Pipi without hesitation. They honored the predecessor master, Ye Su as the man of god, and gave respect to Chen Pipi as the pope. They were starting to launch a full attack on the ancient world.

The propagation of the New Stream in the human world was undergoing at full steam.

The repression of the Divine Halls of West-Hill toward New Stream was as though the mountain and water. Even if the blessings from god was not granted, the invincibility shown would be dignified and scary.

Part of the yamen building in a small county had been burned down. It was said that the aggressive believers of the New Stream had ignited the fire, but the fire behavior was a little weird. It had not been raining in the county town for a few days, and the air in the atmosphere had gotten dry. However, the fire did not spread out but instead had only damaged one secluded cabin, and the cabin had a pregnant female servant.

During the trial, the county magistrate made the closing statement of the case with unbelievable efficiency. About ten believers of the New Stream were sent to the only Taoist temple in the county town. They were dragged to the fire judgement platform for their sentence in the presence of all the citizens in the county. After a while, they turned into burnt dead bodies. Everyone’s eyes revealed a tinge of fear, perhaps no sense of compassion but the feeling of fearfulness and wrath.

Everyone noticed that the expression in the eyes of those believers of the New Stream was full of anger and hopelessness. They opened their mouth in the fire but did not speak a word! Many citizens knew about the relationship between the county magistrate and the female servant and the uncle of the county magistrate’s wife was a divine priest in the Taoist temple. That madam was filled with jealousy…

In a fishing village near the East Sea, in view of the same absurd reason, approximately 20 believers from the New Stream were wrapped to death, being tied to a heavy rock by those males who were faithful to their clan leader and the attendant being summoned by the Divine Priest of Zhou City. Following the palpitations of the heart, those believers were thrown into the sea and became piteous souls with resentment.

In front of a run-out temple in a small village, the Divine Priest who hurt his forehead after being pushed by the big crowd against the wall the day before, stared at those raging citizens. His pale face was filled with the desire of killing, his eyes were occupied with evil flames. He shouted with a loud voice, “If you dare to not pay money, your aftermath will be like these people!”

Seven cavalry of the Divine Halls of the West-Hill who were wearing their armor stood under the flight of stone steps at the Taoist temple with a straight face. They gazed at those citizens who were angry yet were not brave enough to rebuke with a disdainful look. In front of their horses had about ten dead bodies of the citizens laid on the ground in a pool of blood.

Comparing Qinghe Prefecture with those places full of merciless slaughtering, it was a lot more peaceful. Although there were many people here, especially those youngsters who were loyal to the Tang and the New Stream spread out quite fast in secret, it seemed very peaceful, at least on the surface. Or maybe it was because Hengmu Liren and his armies were here.

This did not mean that Hengmu Liren was very merciful, but also not to say that the guts of the Qinghe Prefecture’s citizens went down to drain in front of the hundreds of thousands of allied forces. It was because slaughtering had begun earlier, and the flow of blood was too much. That was why it was peaceful at the moment.

By the Fuchun River, the workers in the iron ore mining area who rebelled at first got killed the most. Many believers of the New Stream in Yangzhou City and the outskirts of the city were killed, to sum up, Hengmu Liren murdered many people.

Both sides of the straight official road outside Yangzhou City in the north direction had initially planted many trees and now was the season between late spring and early summer, thus there should be full of lush and green sceneries. However, that was not the case because almost every tree had a dead body of a rebellion being hung on a tree. The rotten smell had caused the green leaves to fall off; the scene was pretty dreadful to look at.

Both sides of the Fuchun River were also shrouded in terror, a magnificent bridge was filled with dead bodies, blood and indescribable liquid leaked out from the stiff legs and flowed into the river and stream. They used to be pure and clean, and had supplied the people of Qinghe with water for countless years but now they had turned into blood river and stream. The odor was too unpleasant to breathe in.

The picturesque and serene Qinghe Prefecture had become such a manner, and the Yangzhou city that used to be merry had vanished because people were afraid to talk to each other. If those nobles who were thinking about their ancient countries, and were desperate to leave the Tang Kingdom had seen these scenes, would they regret their decision?

Even if they were to feel regret, they did not have any other choices.

The Qinghe Prefecture had completely been controlled by the calvaries of the Divine Halls of the West-Hill and the armies of South Jin especially when Hengmu Liren presented to others his blood-like steel wrist and his unimaginable strong capability, no one dared to be unfaithful.

A sacred sedan travelled slowly along the street in Yangzhou City and came before the calm lake. Those who had seen the sacred sedan knelt down to show their respect for Haotian while those who were further from the street, closed their doors and windows at their fastest speed as though they were afraid someone could see them.

Inside the heavy veil, Hengmu Liren looked calm and composed. His young and tender cheeks showed his innocence temperament. Even if he saw those dead bodies of the sinners with the wooden piles inserted into their bodies, he would still appear the same.

He did not care about these brutal scenes because all these scenes were all created by him.

He thought that since he was Haotian’s son, then he would have the authority to reign over the world. Whoever had the audacity to rebel against his will should die.

A gust of wind by the lake swept in and drifted the veil.

A faint scent of flowers got mixed up with a light blood odour, penetrating through the veil to reach his nose.

He took a deep breath, showing his innocent and engrossed demeanor, which revealed his brutality.

Maybe it was because the wind by the lake was a bit cold or maybe because he inhaled too deep, causing him to suddenly cough. His fair face flushed in red, and made him looked rather unpleasant.

…