225 Enter the Palace (2/2)

Ning Que felt slightly relaxed and said with a smile, ”I have never seen it, so I can't comment.”

Mo Shanshan slightly lowered her eyesight on that Chicken Soup Calligraphy copy in his hands. No one knew what she was thinking. She just gently sighed and turned around, continuing to write her Hairpin-style Small Regular Script.

In the battle below the meadow on that day, she saw the picture over the fire wall, but failed to see a fleeting fire in front of the Horse Gang leader's face. If she had known that Ning Que beside her was also a Talisman Taoism master, perhaps her idea would have been completely different and have had a totally different performance at this time.

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Deep into the Wilderness, they went from the northeast to the northwest. Soon they could see that touch of dim mountain shade in the faraway sky.

Min Mountain was the world's most magnificent and the longest mountain, extending south from the depth of the Wilderness to the southern Hebei County of the Tang Empire, a place close to Chang'an City. No one knew know how many kilometers it had extended, as if it was a precious sword left by Haotian in the northern land.

Min Mountain was interrupted in the middle of the Wilderness. It formed a natural canyon, in whose western side lay a city heavily guarded by the elite North Road soldiers of the Tang Empire. And due to this interruption, Min Mountain was also divided into two, North Mountain and South Mountain.

The vast Min Mountain that Ning Que had lived in was its southern section. And its northern section was set deep in the Wilderness, which was called Zhashi Mountain by the barbarians, namely Tianqi Mountain. It meant if one walked out of this mountain, one would be abandoned by Haotian.

There was a fertile pasture in the east of Tianqi Mountain. Left-Tent Chanyu's tribe had lived in that pasture for generations, and the palace was also there.

Ning Que looked at that mountain shadow in the faraway sky dome through the window and naturally thought of Min Mountain in the south, the North Road military fort over that mountain, and those old guys in the City of Wei. He had left Blue Water Battalion to be in the food team and the Wilderness for many days. But that mountain was still there, as if it had not changed its appearance at all.

It seemed that it was near but was actually far away, not to mention it was such a magnificent steep mountain. The palace was nearby, but it would still take some time to arrive there. As the distance got closer, Ning Que became more and more silent. He spent more time to hide in the horse carriage and refused to come down. Even Cat Girl called him to see cranes in the wetland, but he did not move an inch.

Because he needed time to think about two very important issues.

The Horse Gang who had attacked them in the meadow must have tracked them for many days. Later, it had been determined that the goal of the Horse Gang was Ning Que himself. It showed that the force behind the Horse Gang had known that Ning Que had left Blue Water Battalion to enter the food team.

Whose subordinates were the Horse Gang or the groups of the Horse Gangs? Who wanted to kill him? Who was the Horse Gang leader? A Psyche Master in the Seethrough State certainly could not simply be a Horse Gang leader. In the battle, Ning Que had felt a kind of military aura, which made him feel heavy-hearted.

The Horse Gang leader's right arm was cut off by Ning Que. If the leader did not die in the Wilderness after being rescued by his subordinates, he would certainly need a place for healing. A common Horse Gang gathering place could not cure such a heavy injury. That leader needed a doctor, drugs, and time efficiency. But the place that was close to the meadow and could help cure a broken arm happened to be the Left-Tent Palace.

The forage had been ruined. Ning Que did not object to Mo Shanshan insisting on taking Black Ink Garden disciples to the palace. In addition to the friendship formed in the fighting, another reason was this point.

Even though the person behind the Horse Gang was the palace Chanyu or someone else, Ning Que firmly believed that as long as the Horse Gang thief was alive, then at this time there was at least a 90% chance for the leader to hide in the palace.

Ning Que wanted to find the leader to ask him some questions and then kill him.

In addition, he was still reflecting on what he had done since he left the Academy and came to the Wilderness.

From an early age, he had analyzed and summarized every difficult battle of life and death afterward. Just because of that, he could survive with Sangsang.

Introspection had become somehow a kind of instinct to him. However, his introspection in the horse carriage this time was much deeper than every reflection in the past years, and even went all the way back to all his behavior after he had left the City of Wei and entered Chang'an.

After a long period of silent thought, he confirmed that after leaving the City of Wei, especially after entering the Academy, his many behaviors or choices were not the most appropriate ones, for he was caught in some kind of misunderstandings.

While in the City of Wei, he became accustomed to fighting alone, probing the enemies' information for the general and chasing the Horse Gangs with his fellows. So, this time he took the Academy students to practice in the Wilderness. With two important tasks delivered by His Majesty and the Master of Nation, he was still accustomed to doing so, disguised to enter a food team for his wish of acting secretly.

However, he had forgotten that he himself was no longer a minor soldier in the City of Wei, a scout or a wood-cutting man in Shubi Lake, but a core disciple of the Headmaster of the Academy, a student of the Academy's Back Mountain, a golden secret scout of His Majesty, and a visiting professor in the South School of Haotian Taoism and the Imperial Center Administration.

Acting secretly meant that his innumerable identities and backgrounds that made people envious and have admiration all had no significance. When that commander of cavalrymen of Divine Hall knew Mo Shanshan was a Calligraphy Addict, he dared not to do or say anything wild. If Ning Que showed his identity as a disciple of the Academy's Back Mountain, how did those Horse Gangs dare to convene to attack?

There was also an extremely important point—Before leaving the Academy, Second Brother in Back Mountain specifically reminded him that the Academy people could only bully others instead of being bullied when going out of the Academy. How arrogant those words were. And now he did not show his identity as a disciple of the Academy's Back Mountain, who would know this was an arrogant Academy person even if he really behaved arrogantly?

Ning Que used his hand to hold his jaw, leaning against the horse carriage window. He watched the faraway mountain range and faintly visible tents. Then he could not help thinking with lament that even if a poor boy in the countryside earned a lot of money after going into the city, this boy would only secretly buy some houses and eat several bowls of hot and spicy shredded noodles. He had been a common person for too long. So some time was still needed for him to get used to bullying others.

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The cold winter had come and there were frozen lands everywhere. Maybe because of the terrestrial heat among the mountains, there were scattered lively green grasses on the pastures below Tianqi Mountain. Those tents were in full bloom between the grasslands like white clouds.

Two horse carriages and a couple of weary horses carried the Great River Kingdom Black Ink Garden disciples to the grassland periphery. With no food team behind them and no guarding cavalry to protect them, they looked rather bleak.

A peace talk had officially begun between the Left-Tent Palace of grassland barbarians and the Central Plains Coalition Army. All forces took their cavalries to gather here. From a long distance, one could hear those noisy lively sounds and did not know how many people were drinking or talking there.

A group of palace cavalry welcomed those Black Ink Garden disciples to the camp. It was clear that word of the meadow attack and that Half Divine Talisman had spread, and they knew Calligraphy Addict was in the horse carriage. So the performance of the cavalry could be counted as respectful.

On the contrary, the Central Plains ambassadors and guards in the camp looked somewhat indifferent towards the Black Ink Garden disciples. They did not understand since the forage was destroyed, why these people did not return to the North of Yan Kingdom, but to the palace. Did these Black Ink Garden students not know that Divine Hall and some bigwigs in the coalition forces were extremely dissatisfied with their performance?