The Drunkard looked at the stars in the sky and kept silent for a long time. The emotion in his eyes did not dissipate, as if he had drunk too much wine and strayed into the depths of the sea of stars. He was so drunk that he did not know where to go back even if he knew.
"Or, it's really beautiful."
He looked at the stars and his eyes suddenly showed some fear, like a child seeing the strange world on the other side of the mountain. He was full of fear and uneasiness, and his voice trembled, "But it's also terrifying."
The sweetest honey was often the most poisonous arsenic, and the most beautiful yearning was sometimes the greatest fear. It was good to be free, but bad to have nothing to rely on. Everything depended on one's thoughts.
The Eldest Brother sighed softly, knowing that the Drunkard had woken up and made a decision.
The Drunkard looked back at him and said seriously, "Existence is the most important thing to me, more important than anything else. I can give up a lot for it."
The Eldest Brother said, "Existence and pursuit are not contradictory."
The Drunkard said, "But the pursuit of the Academy is contradictory to the will of Haotian."
The Eldest Brother said, "What does Haotian's thought have to do with our existence?"
The Drunkard said, "I can exist for so many years because I will never fight a battle that I will definitely lose. Even your Headmaster can't defeat Haotian, how can I?"
The Eldest Brother kept silent for a long time and suddenly said, "What about the Academy?"
The Drunkard slightly raised his eyebrows.
The Eldest Brother looked at his eyes quietly and said, "If you don't go against Haotian, you will go against the Academy. You don't have the confidence to defeat Haotian, so how can you be sure that you can defeat the Academy?"
The Drunkard's raised eyebrows turned into two still strokes in the night wind.
The Eldest Brother said, "If we can't instigate a rebellion, we will settle it anyway."
The Drunkard said, "What can the Academy do?"
The Eldest Brother said, "The Academy … will fight desperately."
The Academy once fought desperately in the Lanke Temple in the autumn rain. Later, in Chang 'an, in the Verdant Canyon, and in the Wilderness, the Academy once fought desperately against the enemies with their own lives. The disciples of the Academy were proud and even narcissistic. They valued their own lives and the lives of their peers more than anything else. When they started to fight desperately, it meant that they were in a desperate situation, and they would certainly burst out with unimaginable brilliance.
The Sage of Sword Liu Bai, the Chief Monk of Scripture, and the Abbey Dean. No matter how powerful the Academy's opponents were, once they started to fight desperately, there would be no one or Haotian that they couldn't defeat.
Would the Drunkard and the Butcher be exceptions?
"What's interesting is that those in the Academy who are willing to risk their lives can't catch up with me. For example, Lin Wu, Jun Mo, and even Ning Que. Those who can catch up to me won't risk their lives. "
The Drunkard looked at him and said calmly, "If the Academy wants to fight with me, you are the best and even the only choice. You and I are both Distanceless. We walk the same path and see the same scenery. That's why we can meet. This is the premise of fighting with your life. But are you sure that you will fight with your life?"
Eldest Brother said, "Everything can be learned. I'm good at learning."
The Drunkard said, "When we were outside the Xuankong Temple, I praised you for your rapid progress. You were much stronger than when you were fighting against the Abbey Dean. You are indeed the Headmaster's favorite disciple. You are indeed good at learning and better than Jun Mo and Lin Wu. But are you sure you can learn to fight desperately?"
The Eldest Brother sighed and said, "It's easy to risk one's own life, but it's difficult to risk others' lives."
The Drunkard said, "That's what I proved last night. You have learned to fight, inherited the wooden stick, and killed people. But you still … can't kill people, because killing is different from killing."
The Eldest Brother said, "Or, I can bring people who can kill."
"You can bring the Bodhi tree back to the Academy, but you can't bring people to attack from thousands of miles away. How far can you bring Jun Mo like that day in the Xuankong Temple?"
The Drunkard said, "That's what I'm most afraid of. If you can really bring Lin Wu to attack from thousands of miles away to kill me, what else can I do other than hiding in the small town beside the Butcher?"
The Eldest Brother said bitterly, "If you go back to the small town, the Youngest Brother's arrow will arrive."
The Drunkard's expression changed slightly. He realized that the Academy had planned this beforehand, but failed to implement it. That was why they had this conversation today.
The autumn wind suddenly blew, and the water drops on the leaves fell down. His figure suddenly disappeared.
The Eldest Brother looked a little angry. The dense water drops fell on his cotton-padded gown, as if falling on the beach. A lot of wetness was formed, and then it quickly disappeared.
The rain fell on the ground, but not all of it seeped into the rocks and soil. There was a shallow puddle on the ground in front of his feet, and an ant was struggling in the puddle.
He looked down at the puddle in silence and flicked his fingers. A golden leaf came without any wind and fell on the water. Not long after, the ant climbed to the edge of the leaf with difficulty and saved its life.
The puddle trembled slightly, and a shadow covered it.
The Drunkard returned to the forest. His figure blocked the starlight, and he looked gloomy.
The Eldest Brother looked up at him and asked, "Why did you kill people again?"
There was no fresh blood on the Drunkard's gown, but someone had indeed died.
"I've said that the Academy shouldn't try to kill me, no matter how mild, because I will feel fear and pain. So I will kill people to make you feel pain and fear."
"This time … who's the one who died?"
"I don't know. Maybe an ordinary person?"
The Drunkard said emotionlessly, "Maybe the Tangs, or the Yans. I just kill people, and I don't choose my targets. Maybe I will kill the Desolate next time."
The Eldest Brother was silent.
The Drunkard looked at him and said with pity, "The benevolent love. You don't dare to kill, and you don't want me to kill, so you can't risk your life to fight with me. So you can only learn to accept it. The Academy should be quiet from now on. Wait until the Divine Halls burn hundreds of thousands of followers of the New Stream, and clear the world around the Tang Empire, and then burn the last one."
The Eldest Brother stared into his eyes and asked, "What does killing mean to you? You have already regarded yourself as an inhuman being, so you don't have any psychological barriers, and even indulge in it? "
"I don't have any psychological barriers, but I don't indulge in it."
The Drunkard walked to the edge of the cliff and looked at the human world under the night sky. He looked at the sparse lights in Linkang and said calmly, "I'm not a person who kills indiscriminately. In my eyes, mortals are like chickens and dogs … Even if I am a twisted and perverted person, I might find pleasure in killing my own kind. But what's so exciting about killing chickens and fish like me?"
The Eldest Brother walked to him and looked at the human world under the night sky and the lights in Linkang with his hands behind his back. He held the other end of the stick in his right hand and said, "Nothing can be changed."
The night was long, but it disappeared in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the red and warm morning sun jumped out of the ground and lit up the mountains in the autumn rain.
The Drunkard said, "The sun will rise again, and the day will never be dark. In the world of Haotian, only Haotian can be eternal. And this is the law that you can't change."
The Eldest Brother said, "The Tang Empire doesn't have the habit of surrendering, and neither does the Academy. I may not be able to change the law of the world, or you, but at least I can change myself."
The Drunkard looked at his right hand that was holding the stick and asked, "You want to kill me?"
The Eldest Brother said, "I can't kill you, but I can kill others."
The Drunkard frowned and said, "You mean change, even degeneration?"
The Eldest Brother said, "Yes, even degeneration."
The Drunkard was silent for a moment and asked, "Who are you going to kill for me?"
The Eldest Brother said, "I'm going to the small town to see the girl who sells wine. I want to see if she is beautiful. I want to ask her how old the wine is and if you owe her money."
The Drunkard was silent for a long time and said, "Go ahead."
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