1040 Truly Alive (1/2)
Ye Su was on the stage.
Since he was on the stage, he couldn't just be an audience. He was dragged into the tragicomedy to play his part as the hero of the tragic ending play.
The disciples of the Sword Garret stood in front of the stage. Despite their injuries, they held the swords in their hands tightly as long as they could manage to stand, guarding the area in front of them.
The South Jin Kingdom had been occupied by the Divine Hall of West-Hill, so the area in front of them was the last land their mother country left.
Long Qing knew that they would not get out of the way. He slowly raised his right hand, sweeping over these men with his gray eyes, and suddenly a black peach blossom appeared in his hand.
These men of South Jin Kingdom perfectly practiced the promise that the Sword Garret once made, fighting to the last moment and never letting anyone get close to Ye Su before they all stopped breathing.
They knew that death was coming, but they feared nothing. Liu Bai once drew his sword to attack Haotian on Peach Mountain. As Liu Bai's disciples and followers who inherited the will of that sword, they never forgot about the Yellow River. And they had nothing to fear even if they had to fight against the Divine Kingdom of Haotian and the Abyss of Invariant Yama.
But death did not come immediately because Chen Pipi walked out from behind Ye Su and walked to the front of the disciples of the Sword Garret. He said to Long Qing while staring at him, ”Do you really want to destroy Taoism?”
Looking at the sky which was getting brighter, Long Qing was silent for a while and then answered, ”You are well aware that this is the will of the Abbey Dean. I am just following orders.”
Chen Pipi's question seemed to make no sense, and Long Qing's answer was somehow puzzling, as if he was agreed with Chen Pipi that the war aimed to annihilate the New Stream was just the beginning of the perish of Taoism.
In fact, to understand what the two were talking about, it was necessary to think about why Taoism could allow Ye Su to preach in the human world for the past few years and why it decided to kill him at this point.
Ye Su used to be a World Wayfarer of Taoism, but at this moment he was the most important and indispensable figure of the New Stream. Besides, he was also Ye Hongyu's beloved brother.
Ye Hongyu would definitely defect if Ye Su were killed by Taoism. If Taoism were to kill her too, the Divine Halls of West-Hill would inevitably fall into chaos and even be torn apart. In this case, Taoism could not compete with the Academy and the Great Tang. How could Taoism still exist in the human world if the Great Tang were to win the war due to this reason?
Long Qing's sight line crossed over Chen Pipi and the disciples of the Sword Garret, finally falling on Ye Su who was absorbed in the books on the desk, as if he was thinking about some difficult problems.
”The foundation of Taoism has been totally destroyed on the day he wrote the doctrine of the New Stream. Those stupid humans do not need Taoism to which wors.h.i.+p Haotian. No one can reverse this trend, so he must die. Destroy Taoism? The levee has already collapsed and flood is everywhere. What more damage can I do?
Long Qing paused for a moment and then said without any expression while looking at the white smoke which was dissipating in the distant hall, ”Not to mention that she is already dead. Who else can repent?”
Since that white smoke had risen, the fate of Ye Su was already settled. Similarly, since Taoism wanted Ye Su dead, the fate of Ye Hongyu was also doomed.
The two siblings had only met a few times in the past decades, as if they were not close. But everyone knew that their fate had been linked and they would live or die together.
After writing something on the paper, Ye Su looked up and said to Long Qing, ”I am not that hard to kill. Why do you kill so many people?”
Long Qing bowed to Ye Su, then straightened up, and said, ”You are too modest. Killing you is probably the hardest decision the Abbey Dean has to make. Taoism takes it very seriously.”
Ye Su replied thoughtfully, ”Tens of thousands innocent people died because of me. I indeed deserve to die.”
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More than two thousand papal cavalrymen of the Divine Halls of West-Hill rushed in from all the gates of the city. With only eyes and nose exposed, the horses in armor looked particularly horrible. The cavalrymen on the backs of the horses wore black armor engraved with golden lines, s.h.i.+ning with bright lights.
According to the convention of Taoism, or to put it directly, the understanding between Taoism and the Great Tang, the papal cavalrymen the Divine Halls of West-Hill could not exceed a certain scale. However, the convention existed in name only after the previous war against the Great Tang. The Divine Halls of West-Hill expanded its army on the strength of the money and resources enshrined by all the kingdoms of the human world. At this point, it maintained more than twenty hundred papal cavalrymen, possessing the strength to fight against the Tang cavalry.
Two thousand papal cavalrymen followed Hengmu Liren to Qinghe Prefecture and were suppressing those potential insurgents with their hearts turned to the Great Tang at Yangzhou City at this moment. Another two thousand papal cavalrymen secretly followed Long Qing to the Song Kingdom directly from Peach Mountain to suppress the followers of the New Stream.
With such a powerful military force to deal with thousands of unarmed followers of the New Stream and disciples of the Sword Garret, Taoism was determined to kill Ye Su and to stop the New Stream from further developing.
Carrying the heavy armor, the horses stepped on the street and made a dull and squeaking sound. While two thousand horses were moving forward together, the sound became extremely loud, like a thunderstorm.
The papal cavalrymen moved forward at a rapid speed and couldn't care less about hitting others. People in the street all evaded, and the street was filled with panic screams and the miserable shrieks coming from those being knocked down.
Smoke and dust enshrouded the street. Several hawkers who escaped from the horseshoes huddled together outside a tea shop and dared not to make a sound while watching these cavalrymen rus.h.i.+ng through the street.
A middle-aged man with a scholarly appearance did not hide in the street corner as others did. Instead, he walked forward with his bag, and was covered with dust and sweat, heading for the same direction where these cavalrymen were going.
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...
Long Qing pointed to the small courtyard next to the square and the woodpile in the broken wall and said to Ye Su, ”I spent a whole night to pile up these firewood. please go up, elder brother.”
Going up to do what? Of course it was not for the scenery. Although the woodpile was higher than the ground and it was supposed to see further standing on it, the scenery to be seen must be all red, being blood or flame.
Ye Su glanced at him but said nothing. Then he bowed his head and replied while continuing to write, ”I have to finish this paragraph.”
Long Qing showed no sign of impatience, for there was no reason for him to be impatient. He kept walking forward. If he had waited for a little longer, this might become a legendary story in the history of religion, but he decided to cut the story short.