856 The Silent Wreck (2/2)

Long Qing looked at the scars on the Abbey Dean's face and said, ”I want to challenge Ning Que.”

The Abbey Dean asked, ”All these for such a boring reason?”

He had been crippled by Ning Que in Chang'an. And by right, should hate Ning Que for it. However, his expression remained cold and distant when he listened to Long Qing, and he even seemed bored.

Long Qing could not understand what the Abbey Dean was thinking. After thinking about it, he spoke, ”This is something I want to do badly. It might seem pathetic, but I seem to be living for that person right now.”

”That is indeed pathetic.” The Abbey Dean said.

Long Qing said, ”We all need a reason to live.”

The Abbey Dean replied, ”It makes Haotian laugh when mankind tries their hardest to find a reason for their behavior. Since she thinks I'm disrespectful, how will she allow you to study under me?”

After a moment of silence, Long Qing answered, ”She knows that I'm loyal and cowardly. Furthermore, perhaps... she needs my reason. So even though she might laugh at me, she will not stop me.”

The Abbey Dean said, ”If she does not need a reason to kill Ning Que anymore, what will you do?”

Long Qing paled, not knowing what to say.

The Abbey Dean looked at him quietly, and then, suddenly said, ”Let me tell you what to do. You can only find a reason belonging to yourself if you find a reason for your own behavior. You have already turned your back against Haotian once, so why not betray again? You can only be loyal to yourself. The source of your cowardice can only be because of your selfishness. What are treason and heresy if you don't even dare to defy the Heavens and Haotian Taoism?”

Fear emerged in Long Qing's eyes, and he looked out of the window subconsciously, as if he felt that someone might be evesdropping.

After being made a wreck by Ning Que's arrows on the Wilderness, he had painfully and viciously abandoned his faith. Then he used the Grey Eyes to swallow the Halfman Taoist's powers and jumped off the cliff, deciding to stand on the side of darkness and not pursue the light. However, in the end, he realized that the dark night that he had chosen belonged to Haotian. At that moment, he felt a relief he had never felt before and his respect for Haotian became unshakable.

”Do not worry about her listening to our conversation.”

The Abbey Dean said, ”Haotian is omnipotent and omnipresent. That is because she stood at a place that is high enough above the mortal world. She is but just a little higher than us after coming to the mortal world.”

Long Qing seemed to have understood, but found it hard to hide his fear.

The Abbey Dean slowly stretched out his left hand to Long Qing and said, ”Return to your room.”

Long Qing heard this and was certain that the Abbey Dean was allowing him to cultivate in the Zhishou Abbey. He was overjoyed, and quickly pulled out the ”Sha” Handscroll that he had stolen.

The Abbey Dean did not take the scroll, but said, ”The seven Tomes of the Arcane are weapons that Haotian had bestowed upon Haotian Taoism. These weapons are knowledge and wit. Since you want to study my wit, the scroll shall stay with you. You can take and read the other five scrolls as you wish. What I want, is something else.”

Long Qing vaguely understood what the Abbey Dean wanted, but did not understand why he wanted it. He took out the black peach blossom inside his chest and placed it in the Abbey Dean's hand respectfully.

The Abbey Dean twirled the petiole of the black peach blossom in his hand and asked, ”What is this?”

Long Qing did not understand, but he answered honestly, ”This is your disciple's natal peach blossom.”

The Abbey Dean replied, ”What will happen to it if you die?”

All cultivators understood what their natal items meant. This was a knowledge that cultivators had to know when they started cultivating. As such, Long Qing did not understand why the Abbey Dean would ask such a simple question. He answered, ”The peach blossom will wither when I die and will not come back alive again.”

The Abbey Dean pointed at the black peach blossom and asked, ”What if it is another natal object?”

Long Qing said, ”If it is a natal sword, one can make another, but even then, it would mean that the person had died once.”

The Abbey Dean signaled for him to leave the temple. Then, the temple was silent once more. Wind entered through the window, but it did not manage to dispell the stench that spread from the couch.

He got up with difficulty and inserted the stem of Long Qing's natal peach blossom into the sand table in front of the window. He watched as the black peach blossom swayed slightly in the wind and thought of the mountain full of peach blossoms on Peach Mountain and smiled.

Haotian had come to the mortal world while the Zhishou Abbey had become an abandoned prison. The strongest cultivator in the mortal world had become a useless wreck. But the true story was only just beginning.