441 Holding Umbrella (1/2)
Chapter 441: Holding Umbrella
Translator: TransnEditor: Transn
Sangsang was a little handmaiden.
But Sangsang was not an ordinary little handmaiden.
Her memory was amazing. From the time she learned to count, she had been able to easily remember all the numbers she had ever seen. All the soldiers and citizens of the City of Wei could testify this.
She was also very smart. This could be testified by Chen Pipi, who found himself dejectedly walked out of the Old Brush Pen Shop several times. Chen Pipi was a true genius, having been certified as such by both the Haotian Taoism and Chang'an Academy.
The reason why Sangsang often seemed clumsy, or even dull, was not true because she was dumb. In Ning Que's opinion, she was just lazy and couldn't be bothered to think too much.
Ning Que's understood Sangsang's special features far more than anyone else in this world. He was well aware of her unique abilities, like her intelligence. Yet over the past ten years, he made no effort to train or even think about these special gifts that Sangsang possessed.
This was a choice he made on instinct.
He had only picked up this baby girl from among the corpses on the side of the road in Hebei County, but he had never imagined that she might hide some secrets of her own. Deep in his heart, he had his own faint fears about her.
The Great Divine Priest of Light had escaped from the clutches of West Hill and come all the way to Chang'an City. Here, he took Sangsang as his disciple, and so Sangsang became the best successor candidate for the seat of the next Great Divine Priest of Light of West-Hill Divine Palace. Seeing how all this had happened, Ning Que realized that this was all the guidance of fate upon Sangsang, a Lucky Chance for that baby girl who had lived through such hardship in her early life.
The trappings of fate and the secrets of destiny had already grasped both Ning Que and Sangsang in their clutches. They could no longer afford to fear their fate. They could only recognize and accept it. In the past six months, Ning Que had stopped trying to escape and instead began to train Sangsang, trying to explore her true potential in cultivation.
Today, the heavens above Yanming Lake were stormy and booming with the roar of thunder.
Sangsang stood on the edge of the cliff. As she held the big black umbrella out in front of her, she said that she could feel everything.
Two years ago, during their trip from the City of Wei to Chang'an City, the elder Lyu Qingchen had once told Ning Que that when cultivators first gained enlightenment, the range of the Qi of Heaven and Earth that they could feel represented the qualification of the cultivator, and could even predict how far they could go in cultivation.
Some cultivators perceived a pond, while others could feel a lake. Liu Bai, the Sage of Sword, had encountered a raging river.
Ning Que had perceived a warm sea. He had never spoken to anyone about this, as even he himself could not believe that his spiritual potential might be stronger than that of the Sage of Sword. In fact, it had already been proven several times that this feeling seemed to be misleading.
angsang claimed that she could sense everything. This did not mean that she was more powerful than Liu Bai. Rather, it represented another unique meaning, one which only Ning Que and Sangsang herself could understand.
”Are you going to give it a try right now?”
Sangsang handed the big black umbrella back to him.
Ning Que took the umbrella from her tiny hands. There was rainwater everywhere upon it, flowing in little streams in between his palm and the handle.
Psyche Power seeped out from his sense of perception. It went through his palms and floated into the handle of the big black umbrella. Reaching the tip, it silently covered the oily surface of the umbrella, then passed through the heavy rain and spread into Yanming Lake under the cliff.
Now, even Ning Que could feel everything.
He felt the lake being beaten by the storm, with its surface rippling like boiling water. He felt the lotus leaves in the field being hit by rain, sounding like the steady beat of a drum. He felt the terrified frogs that were huddled under the lotus leaves. He felt that the rocks in the depths of the lake that resembled small iron cans.
Ning Que looked up at the sky and leaned the black umbrella back as the rainwater drenched his body within a second.
The clouds in the sky were roiling and rumbling. The dark clouds overtook the sky, stretching into the horizon. Torrential rain poured down from the layers of dark clouds, like countless black snakes biting and lashing at everything within their reach.
All of a sudden, a thick and straight bolt of lightning flashed through the sky from over the northwest corner of Chang'an City, instantly tearing through the roiling rain clouds without any resistance.
The thunder came soon after, and it exploded over Yanming Lake.
Boom!
At the same time, the water over Yanming Lake rippled violently and splashed everywhere. The lotus petals shuddered from the shock, as if they could split apart at any moment.
Ning Que looked down at the surface of the lake, where the water had erupted like a fountain just a moment ago, and the debris of the flowers and leaves that had been pushed to the shore by the waves. He silently said, ”Good.”
Sangsang wiped the rainwater from her face, not saying a word.
That horrifying flash of lightning seemed to only signal the start of the sky's wrath upon the earth. Flashes of lightning appeared one after another, and Chang'an City, which had just earlier been covered in the shadow of the dark clouds, now lit up under the periodic bright light. The sound of thunder boomed without pause, refusing to give any respite to the people of the city.
Standing amidst the raging thunder, Ning Que held the black umbrella as he looked toward the northern shore of Yanming Lake. He opened his mouth to speak. However, drowned within the sound of the thunder and the torrential rain, only Ning Que himself could hear the words he spoke.
Pointing at the house on the north bank, he said, ”Start from the courtyard.”
He pointed at the turbulent lake and said, ”Continue to the lake.”
Then he looked at Sangsang, then at Yanming Mountain, at where he currently stood. He said, ”It ends here.”
Sangsang took the big black umbrella from him and said, ”We can't let him get to the mountain.”
Ning Que remained silent for a moment, then said, ”I'll handle it. Even if we're unable to kill him at the lake, we cannot let him come up. I will go down to him instead.”
Sangsang said, ”What should I do if you go down?”
Ning Que said, ”Stay on the mountain and watch over me.”
Sangsang said, ”I can help you.”
”I don't doubt that you can help me, but that's only before I have to go down. Still, I believe that there will certainly be many people here on that day, such as Second Brother, so you will be safe as long as you stay here.”
Ning Que finished his words and walked down the hill.
The heavy midsummer rain was rough and torrential, appearing and disappearing just as suddenly. It seemed to have no hesitation at all. By the time Ning Que and Sangsang reached the shore of the lake, the rain had stopped.
As the downpour had finally ended, they went back to the boat.