925 On Behalf Of Heaven (1/2)

It was very quiet inside the stone cottage. Long Qing looked at the thin pamphlet and wanted to say something. When he finally uttered his words, it was far from what he originally wanted to say. ”The Verdant Canyon is still blocked. It is very hard for the Tang people to get to the south. With Qinghe Prefecture to its North, the South Jin Kingdom is now on its own. The Sword Garret has lost Liu Bai. There's no one to protect Linkang. If you want him killed, I can do that any time.”

”No need to hurry. Let's work on the more important matter now.” The Abbey Dean said, ”We are expecting a very important guest today. You wait here and don't waste any opportunity to gain some insight.”

Long Qing was a bit surprised. He wondered, with the Headmaster gone, Liu Bai dead and the Chief Monk of Scripture never leaving the Xuankong Temple, who else could be treated as a very important guest by the Abbey Dean?

Right then someone knocked at the door of the stone cottage. He knocked carelessly, with no rhythm at all. It seemed like he had not been used to being a guest or he was seriously drunk.

Long Qing opened the door. A refres.h.i.+ng wind rushed in upon an annoying squeak, together with some charming smell of liquor and a middle-aged man wearing an ordinary cloth gown.

The middle-aged man seemed nothing special. He had some wrinkles and grey hair but did not seem like he was old because his skin was fairer and softer than those of a young girl and his black hair was darker than that of a newborn.

It was hard to tell his age. Or rather, he was a man of no age.

Long Qing was stunned. He suddenly realized something and his pupils constricted. The peach blossom started blooming in the hole in his chest and he was ready for a fatal strike.

He was not from the Divine Halls of West-Hill yet he had come atop Peach Mountain to the plateau. No one from the Divine Halls was able to sense him, including Long Qing. This could only mean one thing.

He was Distanceless!

The next moment, Long Qing regained his calm and recollected his furious psyche back to the Ocean of Consciousness. The peach blossom in the hole in his chest stopped blooming and closed slowly.

The middle aged man had loosened the flagon from his belt and started drinking. He kept boozing like a tornado on the sea. He never put the flagon down and liquor kept coming out of it.

He was Immeasurable!

The States of Distantless and Immeasurable were both great Divine Abilities above the Five States of cultivation. Throughout the history of thousands of years in Taoism, the Abbey Dean was only one to reach both states. Today Long Qing met the second one.

In front of such a high ranking cultivator, Long Qing realized there was no point for him to stand up. Therefore he calmed down and reasoned this must be the very important guest his master had mentioned.

”Sir, please come in.”

...

...

The Drunkard walked into the stone cottage with one hand holding his flagon and the other behind his back. He looked around the stone cottage and mocked, ”It has been so long. I didn't know the West-Hill was on such a decline.”

His voice sounded elderly, like antique bricks and bronze rubbing against each other. It pierced right into everyone's heart.

Long Qing turned pale. He felt his Ocean of Qi and Mountain of Snow shaking or even collapsing upon those words. He tried hard to take a deep breath and applied his extremely firm psyche to barely keep his Taoist Heart, his Ocean of Qi, and Mountain of Snow.

The Drunkard turned to Long Qing. It was to his surprise that this young priest was able to calm down himself. He said, ”I take back my previous comments. The young people in Taoism were better than I had expected.”

The Abbey Dean was already paralyzed but he was never affected by the Drunkard's voice. He looked at Long Qing and smiled with content. ”He have made great progress these years.”

The Drunkard looked to the middle-aged priest behind the wheelchair and praised, ”You are even better.”

The middle-aged priest smiled and said, ”Thank you.”

The middle-aged priest looked too ordinary for anyone to remember. He was easily drowned in the darkness and had no fame at all in Taoism or in the world. The Hierarch and Long Qing were only aware that he was a disciple of the Abbey Dean and already reached the state of Knowing Destiny. They did not even know his name.

He seemed to be a n.o.body. However, since the Abbey Dean was forced by the Headmaster to stay away from the land and confined to the South Sea, he was the one who actually ran the Zhishou Abbey or even Taoism. He had done so much quietly and calmly throughout the years. How could he be ordinary? Others could not tell the difference, but for someone like the Drunkard, he was obviously extraordinary.

The middle-aged priest did not care about worldly fame, but being a cultivator, how could he truly be freed from vanity? Therefore, he was very pleased by the praise from the Drunkard.

”Of course, you are still the best.” The Drunkard turned to the Abbey Dean in the wheelchair and said, ”I have to admit if you were still in your full glory, the Butcher and myself together would barely be your match.”

The Abbey Dean smiled at that. ”Those are all gone.”

Then the Drunkard suddenly turned the conversation. ”That's why I don't understand. You are a wastrel now, so how dare you to invite me here? Aren't you afraid that I'm going to kill you?

Although he had praised Long Qing and the middle-aged priest standing in the darkness, that was nothing but compliment. He could still easily the three of them as long as he wanted to. ”If I am not wrong, Haotian should have visited the two of you in the small town. That was why you showed up outside the City of Chang'an. That was also why we, Taoism, had a break. We are grateful for that.”

The Abbey Dean looked at him with a smile, ”Then why would you kill me?”

He put it clearly. Both of us are working for Haotian now, so why would you kill me?

The Drunkard looked into his eyes and said, ”If you were not a wastrel today, you probably would be of equal importance. However, you are n.o.body now. Why would Haotian even care if I were to kill all of you?”