Chapter 818 (1/2)
Published at 19th of March 2019 08:35:57 PM
Chapter 818
Ning Que didn't go back to the palace after he left Yanming Lake . He went to the Building of Pines and Cranes for a drink and to the Vermilion Street for a walk . He hadn't drunk much or walked too far . Spring rain fell upon him gently on his head; his face and his clothes became slightly damp .
The drink sped up his blood circulation; the walk eased his temper; the rain cleared his heart . Finally, he turned calm again and accepted the dramatic change of the world's situation which made the Tangs and the Academy outrageous . Later he reached the Sanyuanli area .
The neighborhood was preparing dinner . The smell of cooking oil in pans was mixed with the smell of damp wood burning . It smelled nice, making him even more calm .
He was waiting beneath the stone steps in the yard . Soon, there was a creaking sound of the door opening and Second Brother came out, then the creaking sound kept echoing in the darkness of the night .
Ning Que saluted to the one on the steps in the darkness, then he said, ”The Drunkard and the Butcher must've had received Haotian's promise that they could keep their self-existence eternal, so they pledged allegiance to Haotian as the price . ”
Jun Mo continued, ”Their biggest fear was that they couldn't make it through the second Everlasting Night . ”
Someone in the yard lifted a lantern high in the air, lighting up the street and dispelled the darkness, revealing two wheelchairs .
Yu Lian said, ”The Kingdom of Haotian is no place for self-awareness . ”
Jun Mo said, ”No matter how wise a coward could be, he would never be a match for a brave man's stupidity . ”
Eldest Brother didn't join the discussion among his sisters and brothers . He stared at the night sky silently, and at the bright moon after the rain . It also seemed as if he were staring at the Kingdom of Haotian, from which n.o.body had come out of alive .
Jun Mo looked at Ning Que and said, ”Sometimes anger may bring courage, but most of the time it is meaningless . ”
Yu Lian looked at Ning Que and said, ”We can go on with our conversation since you've calmed down . ”
Ning Que figured out what his brother and sister were talking about, so he asked, ”How?”
Yu Lian said, ”Talk as you like . ”
Ning Que recalled that he had a similar conversation with the Queen, and his expression turned bitter .
Eldest Brother turned away from the sky and looked at him with a smile . He said, ”Youngest Brother, just try harder . ”
The main hall was so quiet that even the candle looked dim . All eunuchs and palace maids were standing far away, leaving only the Queen and Ning Que before the desk .
The Queen looked at the yellow-covered envelopes on the desk, silent . Ning Que looked at the summary files sent by the West-Hill Divine Palace diplomatic corps; he was temporarily silent, too, but he knew he couldn't keep silent forever .
”Are there really cultivators who have lived through the Everlasting Night?”
The Queen was asking Ning Que, feeling the notion so unbelievable .
Ning Que thought it for a while, and said, ”Every one thousand years, a sage would be born . The Drunkard and the Butcher, n.o.body knows how long they had been cultivating in the mortal world . Though the Drunkard didn't make his power felt outside the city, I am sure that his power was beyond most people's imagination . In other words, the mortal martial arts mean nothing to him . ”
The Queen frowned slightly and said, ”Then who's the more powerful one, the Drunkard or the Abbey Dean?”
Ning Que said, ”The Drunkard has a higher state, but I doubt he surpa.s.ses the Abbey Dean in power . ”
The Queen was puzzled and asked, ”How so?”
”The Drunkard and the Butcher have no choice but walk in the darkness for all these years, and their bodies and souls are all rotting . The Abbey Dean, however, has been walking in the light and reached the peak as the Headmaster left . ”
Ning Que said, ”If one of the two enters Chang'an City someday, there's 70 percent chance that I could kill him; if both of the two enter Chang'an together, there's still 10 percent chance that I could kill both of them . ”
The Queen then said, ”Ten percent chance is no different from no chance at all . ”
Ning Que said, ”That works for other cultivators, except for the Drunkard and the Butcher who were so afraid of death . For them, ten percent chance equals 100 percent . ”
The Queen asked, ”They are grand cultivators with such high states, why does death still haunt them?”
”The Headmaster once pointed out that cultivation is all about time . The longer you live, the more powerful you'll be, and the more fearful you'll be of death . Immortality is the biggest temptation, and death is the greatest fear . ”
Ning Que continued, ”The Drunkard and the Butcher are so typical, so they pledged allegiance to Haotian . Since then, they were banned from entering Chang'an City . ”
The Queen's eyes started glowing, and she said, ”How about outside the city?”
”We can have a try if my Senior Brother and Sister were at their peak . ”
Ning Que remembered the flagon swinging in the spring breeze, then he nodded and said, ”The problem now is that n.o.body could find the two, not to mention catching up with them . ”