756 Looking at Changsan Part I (2/2)

It was rather odd to see a young girl of about 12 or 13 with black pigtails swinging at her waist speaking calmly and maturely, calling Mo Shanshan a girl.

She was the Grandmaster of the Devil's Doctrine, and thus, she was qualified to call the Calligraphy Addict a girl.

”Senior Sister, I really can't think of a solution.”

Ning Que said.

Yu Lian looked at him and said, ”So you have already made plans for when the city is breached.”

Ning Que said, ”I am used to worrying about failures before success.”

Yu Lian said, ”Such considerations would not be an issue if everything is working fine. But the Tang Empire is about to definitely fall, so we have to only consider success and not failure.”

Ning Que did not understand.

Yu Lian said, ”We can only consider how to attain success, not how to face failure.”

”But... if it is destined that we will fail, then how can we succeed?”

”Then we have to succeed before we fail.”

Yu Lian said, ”The final ending of a war is decided by many factors. Perhaps Second Brother cannot hold down the Verdant Canyon, or perhaps the Northern Army will be defeated by the Golden. Or perhaps Chang'an might be breached. But as long as we gain victory over a single factor before all these failures, then we can stop all these failures from happening.”

Ning Que understood and said, ”The deciding victory.”

”Indeed,” said Yu Lian. ”How do you think the battle will end?”

Ning Que knew very well that the Tang Empire had suffered a severe setback right at the beginning and the gap between the two sides' strength has been widened. Even if the Verdant Canyon can be held down and the God-stunning Array could be fixed, it was difficult to change the final outcome.

”We will probably still lose.” He said, ”But I believe that there will not be many other countries still around when the Tang Empire falls.”

”That's right. That is something that everyone knows. The royals and generals of other countries might be stupid, but they know this as well.”

Yu Lian said, ”The Tang Empire and the Academy have already started to show their power. People are dying everywhere. I believe that things are bad in Chaoyang City of the Yuelun Kingdom. The internal strife in Yan Kingdom has crippled them. Who else is willing to die together with the Tang Empire?”

Ning Que answered, ”I heard that the South Jin Kingdom Emperor has gone mad from the sorrow of losing his son.”

Yu Lian said, ”If that Emperor wants to drag the entire South Jin Kingdom into his own cesspool of madness, there are still generals in the royal family. They will stop him because there are still more sane people.”

”Only the West-Hill Divine Palace is willing to pay any price to destroy the Tang Empire.” She continued, ”Xiong Chumo is gone, both the Divine Priests of Revelation and Judgement may be severely injured or even die after the battle of Verdant Canyon. What else is left in the Divine Hall?”

Ning Que was deep in thought.

”Days ago, Eldest Brother and I were considering a problem. How should we succeed in failure even if it was a temporary success and temporary calm? Then, we thought of this.”

Yu Lian looked at him and said, ”The battle will end if we kill the Abbey Dean.”

Ning Que did not know what to say.

This was a correct inference. If it was known that the Zhishou Abbey Dean had been killed by the Academy, and the West-Hill Divine Palace had been weakened, their influence on the secular world countries would weaken. Then which other countries would be willing to be destroyed along with the Tang Empire?

Most importantly, if the Abbey Dean died, then Haotian Taoism would no longer be able to stop Liu Bai and the Sword Garret.

The problem was... the Abbey Dean had the most powerful cultivation state in the world after the Headmaster ascended to heaven. It was just as difficult to kill him as it was for the Tang Empire to win this battle.

Ning Que looked at her and said, ”Did you stay in Chang'an and not go to the Verdant Canyon because of this?”

Yu Lian said, ”I am not confident about defeating him because he is much more powerful than you and anyone in the world could imagine. He is unimaginably powerful.”

Ning Que knew that Eldest Brother's Limitless State was close to that of the Abbey Dean's. To him, no matter how powerful the Abbey Dean was, it was not as how his Senior Sister had described. As such, he felt a little puzzled.

Yu Lian said, ”You'll find out when he fights.”

Ning Que asked, ”What can I do?”

Yu Lian answered, ”Fix the city.”

Ning Que finally understood what Eldest Brother and Third Sister meant.

If Chang'an was breached, then they would be defeated.

If the Academy killed the Zhishou Abbey Dean before Chang'an fell, then they would be taking a step towards victory.

And when Eldest Brother brought the Abbey Dean into Chang'an, he would at least need to have fixed a part of the city.

— The part where they would kill that man.

If he couldn't do that, then he would no longer need to fix the city in the future.

This was the last night before dawn and it may also be the last step before the abyss.

Ning Que felt more and more stressed; he was so stressed he found it hard to breathe.

Soon night fell.

Mo Shanshan stood beside the city walls, her face reddened by the cold autumn winds.

She wrapped her arms around herself and looked at the light in the households in front of her. She suddenly seemed to have understood something.

However, that thought was fleeting and escaped her.

She furrowed her brows slightly and continued looking at the city.

Ning Que was also looking at the city.

He sat atop the Yanming Mountain and looked across the lake.

Across the lake, was a part of Chang'an.

His and Sangsang's house was there. It was dark and empty because they had not lived there for a long time.

He looked at it for a very long time and thought of many things in the past.

Back then, he had received a challenge from Monk Guan Hai and had come here to think for a long time by the lake. Then, he had reaped plenty here.

Of course, most of the things in the past were related to Sangsang.

However, he did not gain any inspiration.

He was very tired.

He fell asleep in the cold night.

When he awoke, it was still dark across the lake.

Because the sky had brightened.

Sounds of vendors shouting and selling their wares traveled through the fog.

After the morning fog dispersed, the residential streets were enshrouded in mist from the Bun Shop.

The crowd grew.

So it was not that empty across the shore after all.

Ning Que looked over there and seemed to have caught something.