896 Second of the Three Petty Things (1/2)
Ever since spring, no one had entered the Divine Hall of Light, not even the Hierarch. Therefore, when the pious deacons on the plateau saw Xiaocao being escorted into the Divine Hall, they were shocked and could not believe what they just saw.
Xiaocao did not understand what had happened to her either. She knew that the Divine Hall of Light had been lacking a master for years, so who was asking for her?
A girl in a white dress led her into the Divine Hall and then disappeared. She looked around the spacious and imposing Divine Hall and found herself small in comparison. She instinctively kneeled on the cushion.
Curtains hung in the far end of the Divine Hall. She saw no one behind the curtains or heard any sound. The silence was frightening. She lowered her head and waited anxiously for her destiny.
Time passed by slowly. She kneeled for so long that her knees became sore and painful. However, she neither dared to stand up nor refrained from being more anxious.
Suddenly she saw a big black horse.
Xiaocao's eyes shone with some joy because she knew that the big black horse belonged to Ning Que. However, before she greeted the big black horse, she remembered something else.
She used to have a good friend in Chang'an. They were of the same age. She was dark and skinny. They used to exchange many inexpensive gifts. She taught that friend how to do makeup and how to tempt her lustful master.
Later on, that friend went through a lot. She became the daughter of the Grand Secretary and even was said to the descendent of the Divine Priest of Light. However, when they met occasionally she was still the friend Xiaocao used to know.
Xiaocao was shocked. She felt lost and fell onto the cushion with her hand covering her chest. She could not believe her own reasoning. Yet she knew there could be no other explanation for this.
A wind blew from within the Divine Hall of Light and the curtain was lifted from a corner. Instead of her acquaintance, she could only see a lofty girl standing on the terrace.
Is that Sangsang?
Xiaocao stood up and stared at that figure. She wanted to call her but did not dare to. It did not matter if she was the master of the Divine Hall of Light or some other high-ranking figure in the Divine Halls of West Hill because she was no long her former friend who was of no significance.
”I grant you immortality.”
An awe-inspiring voice resounded in the Divine Hall of Light.
Xiaocao could not figure out whether or not this voice belonged to the figure standing by the terrace. She gazed blankly at the curtain that divided the world into two realms and slightly clenched her fists.
The formerly disappeared girl with the white dress showed up again and led her out of the Divine Hall of Light.
Xiaocao did nothing inside the Divine Hall of Light. She was not tortured. She neither met an acquaintance nor prostrated to Haotian. Then she just left.
It seemed she was only taken there for these words: ”I grant you immortality.”
Xiaocao left the Divine Hall of Light and returned to the small town. The girls from the House of Red Sleeves kept asking her about what had happened, but before she could tell them anything, the Divine Halls sent a group of cavalrymen and escorted them out of the West Hall Divine Kingdom courteously. They escorted them to the south of the Verdant Canyon.
Until they came back to Chang'an, Xiaocao still felt that their trip to the West Hill was like a dream, especially her experience inside the Divine Hall of Light. It was so unreal. She did not realize what she had been granted until many years later.
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The Haotian's Divine Hall where the Hierarch dwelt used to be the most respected place in Peach Mountain. However, now people viewed the secluded Divine Hall of Light as the supreme place.
No one dared to disobey the orders from the Divine Hall of Light, not even the Hierarch. But the figure inside the Divine Hall of Light had kept quiet since spring. It was only until recently that several orders were issued.
The first one was to escort the girls from the House of Red Sleeves back to Chang'an. Many people from the Divine Halls did not understand why. For those who knew the stories like the Hierarch, the reason was very simple. When Haotian was taking a rest in the human world, some people were nice to her. She was just paying them back now.
However, the second order from the Divine Hall of Light was a shock to all of them including the Hierarch. The girl in the white dress announced expressionlessly that they must stop going after Chen Pipi and Tang Xiaotang.
Tang Xiaotang had intruded Peach Mountain and took Chen Pipi away from the Rite to Light. It was extremely humiliating to the Divine Halls of West Hill and they wanted them to pay for it.
The strongest men were sent out from the Divine Halls and series of traps were set up along the way from Qinghe Prefecture to Chang'an. The Hierarch was so sure that those senior cultivators from the Back Hill of the Academy would not dare to interfere under the pressure of the Drunkard and the Butcher. Chen Pipi and Tang Xiaotang would eventually be taken back to the Divine Halls and sentenced with slow slicing.
Right then, the girl in the white dress conveyed the order to stop tracking them down. Why should Haotian make such a decision? The Hierarch was confused but did not dare to question.
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For the Divine Halls of West Hill, it was very annoying that the girls from the House of Red Sleeves had returned to Chang'an safe and sound but it was a trivial matter. However, to stop hunting for Chen Pipi and Tang Xiaotang was significant.
Yet for Sangsang, those were all petty things because whatever happened in the human world was of no significance to Haotian. She made those decisions only because she had a plan, rather than some attachment to any human beings.
The Rite to Light was organized to reopen the gate to Haotian's Divine Kingdom, as well as cutting her connections to the human world. That was why she wanted Chen Pipi to be the sacrifice and asked the Tang Empire to send the girls from the House of Red Sleeves. In her original plan, Chen Pipi, Tang Xiaotang, and Xiaocao would have been burnt in the holy flame. Then most of her connections to the human world would have been severed.