205 Mo Shanshan Has No Mountains in Her Eyes (1/2)
Chapter 205: Mo Shanshan Has No Mountains in Her Eyes
Translator: TransnEditor: Transn
”Say what?”
Without turning around, the young girl in black hair spoke in a much steadier manner. Thus, she looked unusually calm, as if no sentiment could be felt from her.
Zhuo Zhihua and Cat Girl glanced at each other and both felt helpless. Zhuo Zhihua paced a few steps forward and said in a low voice, ”I think the Divine Hall won't be so partial to the Yuelun Kingdom if they know that the Hill Master is here.”
The girl picked up her brush again and silently wrote on the desk. Then she said, ”Now that we are summoned by the edict of the Divine Hall to help the Yan Kingdom, it's a natural thing to accept an assignment. How could it be called as being partial?”
Zhuo Zhihua worriedly said, ”That palace is deep in the Wilderness. If we meet horse gangs, guerrillas or some people with malicious intentions when we escort the provisions and fodder, what should we do?”
Raising her brush and then dipping it for more ink, the young girl in black hair gently said, ”So what?”
Having accompanied her in the Ink Lake for many years, Zhuo Zhihua knew this was her temperament. She was just addicted to books and calligraphy and cared little about most of worldly things, but she wasn't cold nor unfeeling. However, the students of Black Ink Garden were facing an extremely dangerous situation right now. As the only person who could redeem the situation, she couldn't keep being unaffected like this.
Zhuo Zhihua, with slightly clenched fists and severely looking at her long black hair, said, ”If Hill Master doesn't speak for us, we may die in the Wilderness. Maybe you could survive, but I would definitely die and so would Cat Girl. If that happens, those shameless and insidious people would feel happy and joyful about our deaths. The Yuelun Kingdom, which always wants to bully and oppress the people of our Great River Kingdom, may even celebrate it across the country.”
The black haired young girl beside the desk put the brush with full ink back on the inkstone. After a short silence, she placed her hands into her sleeves and peacefully said, ”Why would we die?”
Listening to her words which were as usual, Zhuo Zhihua became more anxious and said with a helpless smile, ”Because we are not strong enough to rival our enemies.”
The black haired young girl calmly said, ”If all students of our Black Ink Garden improve their states and then become cultivators of the Seethrough State, or we have another Grand Cultivator in the Knowing Destiny State like our master, who would dare be so rude to us, even if we are deep in the Wilderness? Who would dare frame us with such absurd tricks?”
Zhuo Zhihua was shocked and didn't know why she said these words at this time.
”The students of the Black Ink Garden are not powerful, so we are always bullied by other people and will be afraid of death when facing such kind of situations. If we are strong enough, we won't be fearful nor would we be bullied by others.”
The voice black haired young girl was straight and smooth, like a thin ice on the lake surface, without any fluctuations.
”If one wants to become powerful, it's necessary to have the guts to face difficult experiences. Why no one in the world dares to look down on the Academy of Chang'an? Because even their common students have to take part in battlefield practice and accept the life-or-death tests in the most dangerous places.”
”When facing trouble, don't always count on me to speak for you. In the eyes of worldly people and you guys, maybe I have some reputation. However, you don't know that in this world, reputation is the most powerless thing. Strength, just like ink, is alwas only relative to itself.”
Standing beside Zhuo Zhihua, Cat Girl looked at the young girl in black hair and confusedly asked with frowning eyebrows, ”But Senior Sister, your state is already so high, is it not powerful enough?”
”The top of the Seethrough state...it indeed sounds seemingly powerful.”
The black haired young girl peacefully said, ”Wang Jinglue of Tang is named Invincible under the Knowing Destiny state; Prince Long Qing is just one step away from the Knowing Destiny state; the Tao Addict Ye Hongyu, she could even make Prince Long Qing fear. Compared with them, is the top of the Seethrough state something powerful?”
Those three people were the mightiest figures in the younger generation. Her calm and placid mention was not only a warning to her peers, but also revealed her estimation that she naturally had a qualification to compete with these three people.
Listening to her statement, Cat Girl stretched her tongue out and said, ”Senior Sister, your analysis is unreasonable. Even if the three people have a high cultivation state, they are also similar to you. If we are speaking of those stronger figures... maybe we can consider only those Grand Cultivators of the Knowing Destiny State. However, those Grand Cultivators are rarely seen in front of us, because they are the Great Divine Priests of the Divine Hall or great masters of different sects. Perhaps a common person would never have a chance to see any of them in his whole life.”
What the little girl said was indeed right. The Grand Cultivators of the Knowing Destiny State were like celestial dragons in the world, which were known but unseen by common people. Sometimes they would appear in the clouds, and then they would suddenly hide in deep mountains. So it was very difficult to encounter them.
If these remarks were heard by Ning Que, he definitely wouldn't agree. Those people whom he contacted and consulted with every day, like Second Brother who wore a wooden club over his head, Chen Pipi who fought for crab porridge with him, his master who stayed in the brothel every day, Chao Xiaoshu who had gone travelling, the Master of the Nation, the emperor's younger brother, Professor Huang He, not to mention the Headmaster of Academy and his Eldest Brother whom he had yet to meet...
Grand Cultivators of the Knowing Destiny State? What was the difference between them and those cabbages seen everywhere in the field?
The black haired young girl had made up her mind, so other girls of the Great River Kingdom could only keep their many thoughts to themselves and made preparations to set off. However, Zhuo Zhihua, standing beside the river lake, unavoidably showed a worrying expression, as she looked at the distant, mysterious and dangerous Wilderness where there clouds were gathering and winter snow fell.
They came from the southern continent and had never been to the Wilderness before. They had not yet experienced the food, climate, geography and culture of the Wilderness. Although the united army assisting Yan sent tour guides for them, how could they be reliable? Who wouldn't feel scared when having to enter a totally unknown world without any assistance of external forces and their own sect?”
Cat Girl, who was still very young, cared less about these things. She was angry at the unfairness of the Divine Hall and the impudence of the Yuelun Kingdom, but she wasn't afraid of entering the Wilderness. She believed that there wasn't a real danger as long as her Senior Sister was with her, so she still had the mood to remember the Osmanthus Cake made by the Lotus Store in Chang'an. In addition, she trotted along the river and said goodbye to Ning Que on such a snowy day.
After listening to her about what the students of the Black Ink Garden faced, Ning Que kept silent for a while and then smiled at the little red-faced girl. His soft smile was filled with many hidden emotions, such as a kind of self-praise.
Cat Girl looked at him and suddenly said, ”Senior Brother, you smile so horribly.”
Ning Que was shocked and asked, ”Is my smile not gentle, honest, kind and natural?”
Cat Girl laughed with a ”GeGe” sound, which went along the river lake and caused several snowflakes to fall down.
Ning Que looked at her, trying to make his smile look more casual and kind. Then he said with an even more casual and kind tone, ”It's such a coincidence that I also need to enter the Wilderness for some affairs.”
With her eyes glistening, Cat Girl looked at him and said, ”Senior Brother also needs to enter the Wilderness?”
”Yes.”
Cat Girl exclaimed with worship, ”You going alone? You are so amazing!”
”I am familiar with the Wilderness.”
Ning Que, who succeeded in winning the little girl's trust with Osmanthus Cake, slightly smiled. He recalled his experience as a travel guide in the Wilderness last spring. It seemed that this winter he would be a guide again while returning to the Wilderness.
Ning Que successfully guessed that the young girls of the Great River Kingdom may have been discriminated and suppressed, but the guessing actually relied more on luck, rather than analysis. He wasn't a celestial from the heavens, so it was impossible that everything happened as he thought.
Cat Girl took him to the camp of the Black Ink Garden and told Zhuo Zhihua about his plan of tagging along. Zhuo Zhihua slightly frowned and confusedly asked Ning Que, ”It seems inconvenient, since Senior Brother Zhong is a student of the Academy.”
In most stories told in novels, when you intended to go somewhere and suddenly encountered someone who happened to have the same route as yours, the person was perhaps an evil guy or a fugitive. As long as you had some life experiences, not like the naive and innocent Cat Girl, you would certainly feel that something wrong was hidden behind this kind of coincidence.
Ning Que was a Tang man that the Great River Kingdom people liked, and he was a student of the Academy. In addition, the relation between the young girls of the Great River Kingdom and Ning Que gradually became close after they shared food these days. What's more, he saved them by attacking a monk from the White Tower Temple. Considering these things, Zhuo Zhihua wouldn't like to connect anything evil with Ning Que, so she chose a roundabout way to refuse him.
Ning Que asked, ”Why is it inconvenient? Are you worried that the Divine Hall would be displeased if they know a Tang man was mixed in?”
Zhuo Zhihua slightly lowered her head, which meant 'Yes'.
Ning Que laughed and said, ”It could be solved if I dress up as a student of the Black Ink Garden.”
Looking at the students of the Black Ink Garden who were packing up their luggage not far away from him, Ning Que couldn't believe that the Master of Calligraphy would be at ease to send a group of inexperienced young boys and girls to frontier fortress for practice.
”Since you're just sending provisions to the Wilderness, I think nobody would care to inspect me in the group during the journey. As to my identity being exposed... I think the younger brothers and sisters of Black Ink Garden are worth trusting.”