1044 Sages Never Get Lonely (2/2)

Just like what happened in the past few years, the Drunkard could not get rid of the Eldest Brother and the Eldest Brother could not completely subdue the Drunkard since they both had reached the Distanceless State. Taoism had lost its most important chess piece, and so did the Academy.

Then they began to fight, from the mountains to the seas. Finally they came to the square, and the Eldest Brother was seriously injured.

He was the one who got injured, for he was the one who wanted to come here.

”The Academy always likes to say that both body and spirit have been decayed. What about you now?” The Drunkard put his trembling hands behind back and said while looking at him, ”You have been followed me for so many days. How much longer do you think you can bear the suffering?”

He was a little pale and his left shoulder was seriously injured. But compared with the Eldest Brother who was covered in blood and had several broken bones, he suffered much less, so he dared to say this.

The Eldest Brother did not respond. Looking at the snow drift in the small courtyard, he sniffed the smell of the embers and remained silent, looking very desolate. He suffered so much to come here, but he was still too late.

There was crying coming from the distance, which might be for the innocent followers who died in the conflict or for Ye Su who was burned in the flame. He listened silently. After a while, he turned around and said to the Drunkard, ”Why didn't you stay in that small town? Why bother coming here?”

The Drunkard replied, ”Why don't you stay in Chang'an? Why bother coming here?”

The Eldest Brother said, ”You are committing a crime.”

The Drunkard said, ”Is it a crime against the human world or the Divine Kingdom? The New Stream has shaken the foundation of the Divine Kingdom, so he must die. I would have killed him if Taoism waited any longer.”

Long Qing had kept silent ever since the moment the Drunkard and the Eldest Brother appeared. He stood in the courtyard and looked at the two powerful cultivators to whom he could only look up, and seemed calm and fearless.

Everything was in the palm of the Abbey Dean's hand. The Drunkard would certainly help Taoism to kill Ye Su from the standpoint of Haotian before he discovered the truth. It was because he and the Butcher were very greedy. They not only wanted immortality, but also wanted eternity. Since they could only get eternity from Haotian's Divine Kingdom, they would definitely never let the Divine Kingdom be destroyed.

In fact, the Drunkard and the Butcher might have killed Ye Su much earlier if not for the Abbey Dean disapproval. These two Grand Cultivators couldn't care less about sanctification.

They had long believed that they were sanctified, but they still had to hide in the human world like rats for tens of thousands of years and finally ended up with becoming Haotian's dogs.

But Long Qing basically figured out what was going on at this moment since he knew what was on the Abbey Dean's mind and talked with Ye Su before he died. He knew that the Drunkard and the Butcher would regret it in the future, but he wouldn't mind using them as dogs in the name of Haotian.

Thinking of this, Long Qing smiled and taunted in his heart that even powerful people like the Drunkard and the Butcher would get carried away by greed. Five colors make people blind, and five notes make people deaf. The West-Hill literary canon is totally right. Long Qing suddenly stopped smiling, for he sensed somebody was watching him.

The Eldest Brother looked at him and kept silence for quite a while and asked, ”Why?”

He didn't understand. Neither did the Academy. No one could figure out why Taoism burned Ye Su to death and helped him to become a sage, for destroying the New Stream would not do Taoism any good. Instead, it would split Taoism apart, or at least would make it impossible for the Divine Hall of Judgement to keep its loyalty.

So what was on the Abbey Dean's mind?

”You can regard all Ning Que's failed attempts as reasons.” Long Qing said, ”My elder brother's death is not just a matter that concerned Taoism. If not for the Academy, maybe he did not need to die, or at least would not die so soon. So your sorrow is pointless.”

After saying this, he slightly bowed to the Eldest Brother, and walked out of the small courtyard. In the wind and snow, he mounted a horse and didn't put the Arcane Tome of the Sand back to his chest until he was quite away from that courtyard.

The Eldest Brother looked at the figure of Long Qing disappearing into the snow.

He once noticed the uniqueness of this person outside Linkang City, and today he clearly sensed that Long Qing was extraordinary. But he had no spirit to think about this at this moment.

He looked back into the small courtyard and looked at the woodpile where the snow kept falling. Then he looked up at the sky, recalling something that happened in the past.

That year, it was snowing in Chang'an and many people came to the city. Qi Nian was trapped by Yu Lian in the snow forest. Jun Mo sat on the snow bridge for one night. The Youngest Brother and Sangsang killed Xia Hou by the lake. As for himself, he stood on the city wall with Ye Su and watched the falling snow, chatting for the whole night.

They had met several times before that night. In front of a small Taoist temple, in the depths of the snow peak of Tianqi Mountain...

Before that, Sangsang was born in the human world, and there was a black line that appeared in the Wilderness. He was reading by a pond at one end of the black line, and Ye Su was cutting a tree on the other end of the black line. After hearing an interesting Taoist chant, Ye Su began to travel around the world and tried to figure out life and death. It was highly possible that he really figured it out at his last moment.

Was that the real reason why he had to die?

The Eldest Brother looked at the falling snow and kept silent for a long time. Ye Su's decision for founding the New Stream had much to do with the Academy, for Jun Mo turned him into a useless person in front of the Verdant Canyon, and also for the discussion he had with Ye Su.

Then he remembered that many years ago, even before he became a disciple of the Headmaster, he wanted to be a scholar who could educate people. He imagined to be a scholar who lived in a mean alley and taught the poor children. He lived a poor and plain life but enjoyed it. He wanted to be such a person. Unexpectedly, Ye Su did what he wanted to do in the last few years of life.

After a long time, he reached out to catch a snowflake and turned to the Drunkard. ”Abandoning the whole human world to get immortality. Don't you think you will be very lonely if you succeed?”

The Drunkard answered, ”Death is the real loneliness. Ye Su was the one who was truly lonely at this moment since he was sanctified and had no connection with the world.”

The Eldest Brother shook his head and said calmly, ”You are wrong. He will never be lonely.”

Ye Su gave up the faith he worshiped for over a decade, just to let humans believe that they no longer need any faith. He passed away, but he left many legacies and believed that his legacies would truly change the human world.

There were still many people who were doing or were about to do the same thing. Jun Mo set a fire at the bottom of the Giant Sinkhole. The Eldest Brother would lead the Academy to the future. How could Ye Su, a sage, be lonely since he had so many companions who shared his faith?

Sages never got lonely ever since ancient times.

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