"So that's how it is. Then what does it mean?"
Although he did not get the final answer, Ning Que was one step closer to the truth and to the Abbey Dean's idea. Maybe it was just a small step, but it was a big gain.
Because according to the usual way of thinking, neither he, Eldest Brother, nor Yu Lian could come to this conclusion. In other words, no one dared to.
Haotian Taoism wanted to weaken Haotian and even destroy it. It was not as simple as deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors. It was fundamentally against faith and logic. No one would think like that!
Mistress Jian did not know what the Abbey Dean was thinking, but she could understand Ning Que's confusion and pain. So she used two unreasonable words to point out the way for him.
She used Ke Haoran's sword, the most direct way.
People always said that the destination was not important, but the scenery along the way. Most of the time, it was just a self-comfort of the loser and an excuse for not having the courage to move forward.
Looking back at the destination, the scenery along the way was actually more beautiful and clearer.
It was the same with life and also with thinking.
Ning Que looked back at the mountain path and her figure between the cliffs. He knew that if she went to cultivate, she would definitely become a top figure. She was just not interested in it.
He was grateful for her advice, just like what she had done in the past.
She had been taking care of him since he came to Chang 'an from the City of Wei. When he first entered the House of Red Sleeves, she started to teach him. Because he reminded her of the lad who rode the little black donkey.
Thinking of the first time they met years ago, the ridiculous days in the House of Red Sleeves, the fact that Mistress Jian made all the brothels in the Tang afraid to do business with him, the unspoken criticism and the gratitude he felt now, he could not help but sigh for a long time. His face was full of self-mockery and emotion.
…
…
The Abbey Dean wanted Haotian to weaken.
This was what Ning Que was sure of. As for the reason, he had a vague guess, but he could not grasp the most crucial light. Or maybe it had been bright before, but he could not believe it.
Even if the sun went out, life had to go on.
Without understanding the Abbey Dean's intention, the situation in the world could not be changed. The war between the Tang Empire and the human world officially started again. Chang 'an was filled with tension and killing. All the prefectures and prefectures were constantly sending supplies to the border. The Military Ministry was brightly lit throughout the night, constantly mobilizing troops.
The world outside of the Tang Empire was also in chaos. The news of Ye Su's death had brought the New Stream to a low ebb. However, according to the intelligence of the secret guards, there was no large-scale withdrawal of the New Stream. It was believed that after some time, the New Stream would become even more powerful.
Since the war had already begun, it had to be won. This was the principle that Ning Que had always followed, and it was also the principle that the Great Tang followed. But to actually carry it out was assuredly very difficult.
The most elite Yulin Royal Guards in the capital region had been transferred to the Verdant Canyon, ready to go south to Qinghe Prefecture at any time. On the surface, it seemed that Chang 'an did not need to worry about defense with Ning Que around. However, it also showed that the Tang Empire was under great pressure. Even the Yulin Royal Guards had to enter the battlefield and prepare for field battles.
Ning Que stood on the city wall, looking at the falling snow and the advancing Tang army in the wind and snow. He thought that since the war had begun, it seemed to be someone's principle to win.
Was Ye Hongyu really dead?
According to the Abbey Dean's style and wisdom, if Ye Su was going to die, she would die at the same time. He would not leave her any chance of survival. And according to what he had sensed that night, she was indeed dead.
The Taoist of the Zhishou Abbey, the Hierarch of the Divine Halls, Xiong Chumo, and Zhao Nanhai of the South Sea.
Facing such a lineup, Ning Que was not confident that he could escape, and neither could she.
But for some reason, he felt that Ye Hongyu was not dead. A woman like her should not have died so quietly. He had an unreasonable confidence in her.
…
…
It was dead silent in the Divine Halls of West-Hill. Countless divine priests and deacons knelt before the stone steps. They looked pale and terrified, because the thunder was roaring above their heads.
The light screen made of thousands of rays of light was trembling under the thunder, as if it would fall at any time. The tall figure behind the light screen was trembling. Was it because of anger or fear?
Ye Hongyu jumped into the abyss. The Hierarch and Zhao Nanhai were sure that she was dead, but they did not relax. They sent many people down to the abyss to look for her body.
The abyss under the precipice was extremely dangerous. The one in charge of this mission was a powerful cultivator in the Knowing Destiny State from the South Sea, and many other powerful cultivators from Taoism. Even so, it took them more than ten days to return to Peach Mountain. By the time they came back, less than one-fifth of them were still alive. Most importantly, they did not bring back the body that the Hierarch wanted to see the most. All they could bring back was bad news.
The Hierarch's angry voice exploded in the Taoist Hall like thunder. Those kneeling before the stone steps were terrified. They did not know what kind of punishment they would face, so no one dared to speak.
After a long time, the Hierarch finally calmed down. His voice also became much softer. Only his closest subordinates could hear the uneasiness in his voice.
"Find her and kill her at all costs."
…
…
The Divine Halls of West-Hill did not find Ye Hongyu's body at the bottom of the abyss. But they found several ruts and traces of people passing by, which proved a shocking fact.
Ye Hongyu was still alive. She jumped from the railing to the precipice and fell into the clouds. When everyone thought she was dead, she was still alive. She did what only Haotian could do.
How did she do it?
If we were to start from the beginning, we would have to go back to half a year ago. At that time, a letter left the Divine Hall of Judgment and was sent to a place through the most secret way. It was an invitation.
To put it simply, we could turn the picture to that night. It was the night when the Hierarch Xiong Chumo, the middle-aged priest, and Zhao Nanhai besieged Ye Hongyu.
During the day before that night, Chu Youxian and Chenqi had a passionate conversation in the Taoist Hall. They invited Ye Hongyu on behalf of Ning Que and expressed the contempt of the Academy and the Tang Empire to the entire Divine Halls of West-Hill.
Because of Ye Su and the prediction of the Abbey Dean, Ye Hongyu did not accept Ning Que's rude invitation. But she did not ask the Hierarch to kill them either. Instead, she locked them in the You Prison.
The You Prison was a place used by the Divine Halls of West-Hill to imprison the traitors and the remnants of the Devil's Doctrine. It was heavily guarded with countless tactical arrays waiting to kill. For countless years, no one had ever escaped from this prison except for Wei Guangming. Even Ning Que could not do anything to Chen Pipi when he was imprisoned here.
Chu Youxian and Chenqi were taken to the deepest part of the You Prison by the black-robed deacons of the Judicial Department. They were locked in a cramped cell behind the iron fence. At that time, they had no hope of leaving. They knew that they would either die or never see the light of day. Either outcome was hopeless.
What comforted them was that no one came to interrogate them from day to night. The rumored horrible means of the Judicial Department did not fall on them.
It was very simple for them to understand that they were not badly mutilated and did not want to commit suicide because of Ye Hongyu. Only she would do that.
Tonight or tomorrow, she might coldly kill Chu Youxian and Chenqi, but she would not torture them. That was already a great mercy for her.
She did not accept Ning Que's invitation. It seemed that she did not want to make Ning Que angry.
Chu Youxian and Chenqi sat in the cell and looked at the stone wall in silence. There was nothing in the cell except a bucket of water. No one brought them food.
They were not tortured or subjected to the horrible punishments of the Judicial Department. But no one cared about them. The long wait was actually a cruel torture. They did not know when someone would come in and kill them. The psychological anxiety made Chu Youxian a little uneasy, and his face became paler and paler.
Chen Qi's thoughts were much deeper than his. He was wondering if Ye Hongyu was waiting for them to kill themselves by hitting the wall when no one was paying attention to them. A quiet environment always made people think too much, especially for Chen Qi who was good at scheming. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was true.
Ye Hongyu's mercy should be to give them a chance to kill themselves.
He told Chu Youxian, who became paler. After a moment of hesitation, he asked what they should do next. Should they kill themselves by hitting the wall or wait for another night?
Chenqi did not hear it. Just when Chu Youxian asked, a horrible bang came from outside the cell, which completely covered Chu Youxian's most courageous question in his life.
Along with that terrifying sound, there was a tremor. The cells hidden deep in the mountain began to shake violently. The water in the bucket kept swaying and splashing out a lot.
Chu Youxian held the wall and struggled to stand still. He felt a little dizzy.
Was it an earthquake?
Chenqi's expression became serious. He quickly walked to the stone window and looked out of the cell. He could only see the bright moon in the night sky and nothing else.
He clearly heard that the horrible crash came from the night sky outside the cliff, and the tremor should come from the top of Peach Mountain, which meant something happened there.
Then, several more loud bangs came from the top of Peach Mountain. The tremor spread to the cell. More and more water splashed out of the bucket, wet the ground, and then flowed to Chu Youxian.
Chu Youxian took two steps back and asked Chenqi with a pale face, "What happened?"
Chenqi shook his head and said, "I don't know."
They were prisoners now, so they did not know that several top powerhouses of Haotian Taoism were fighting in the black Divine Hall of Judgment on the top of Peach Mountain.
The horrible crash and tremor were the effects of the battle.
Hearing footsteps, Chu Youxian and Chenqi looked back and saw a deacon in black walking to the fence, took out a key and opened the fence. He signaled them to follow him out.
The deacon in black was about forty years old. His face was extremely pale, not because of illness or fear, but because he had not seen the sun for years.
The deacon took out the key, opened the fence, and signaled the prisoners to follow him out. His pale face showed no expression, and he looked calm and natural.
Chu Youxian and Chenqi looked at each other and saw the confusion and anxiety in each other's eyes. The change happened suddenly, but they did not know whether it was good or bad. Would they be greeted by death or something else after they left the stone room?
After leaving the cell, they were greeted by a very long passage. The passage was made of stone walls, about one and a half men tall and no wider than two men. It extended diagonally from a warehouse at the back of the You Prison to the bottom of Peach Mountain. The dim light cast their shadows on the dry ground. The sound of their footsteps was unusually clear.
No one came out to stop them. The deacon in black walked in front of them expressionlessly, as if he was sure that the entire You Prison had fallen asleep at this time, so it did not matter how loud his footsteps were.
The passage was really long. Chu Youxian and Chenqi walked in it for four hours. Their feet were sore, their eyes were dizzy, and their calves were about to cramp, but they still did not see the exit. Chenqi keenly noticed that the walls of this part of the passage were covered with light dust, and there were traces of wind blowing on them. The oil stains on the oil lamp were still fresh.
Judging from the wind blowing, they were about to reach the bottom of the mountain according to the slope of the passage and the distance they had walked. He relaxed a little because the passage was coming to an end, and then he became nervous again. All the details showed that no one had walked through this passage for at least decades.
There was such an unknown escape passage hidden in the You Prison of the Divine Halls of West-Hill. Who built it? Where was the black-clothed deacon going to take them?
Chenqi guessed the truth, but he was even more shocked and puzzled. As the Great Divine Priest of Judgment, Ye Hongyu naturally knew the biggest secret of the You Prison, which even the hierarch did not know. She was the only one who could keep the entire You Prison silent. But why did she secretly let him and Chu Youxian go?
Finally, they reached the end of the passage. The deacon in black pressed a black brick to deactivate the mechanism, took out his Taoist Sword, and carefully pulled out several bushes with deadly thorns in front of them. Then he walked out with Chu Youxian and Chenqi.
Outside the cave, there was freedom. Countless starlight fell from the night sky, filtered by the clouds between the cliffs and melted by the miasma at the bottom of the abyss, turning from milky white to a strange purple.
Looking at the strange purple starlight, Chenqi and Chu Youxian were equally excited about freedom and confused. For a moment, they were stunned and did not know what to say.
The deacon did not give them a chance to speak. He turned over his palm and put two pills into their mouths. When Chu Youxian realized what was going on, the pill had already entered his stomach and melted. He was shocked and angry, especially when he felt the malice and burning pain in his chest and abdomen. He thought he was poisoned, which made him even more indignant.
"If you want to kill me, you can just kill me in the cell. Why did you let me out of the cell and poison me after walking so far to the You Prison?" "How painful it is to give people hope and then make them despair. Are all the people in the Divine Hall of Judgment perverts? Don't you know that my feet are worn out after walking so far?"
Chu Youxian collapsed on the ground in fear. He was a little confused, thinking about these messy things and helplessly waiting for death. But after waiting for a while, instead of sinking into the dark ocean and falling asleep, he became more and more awake …
"What's wrong?" He stood up in confusion and shook his head. It took him a long time to fully wake up. When he saw the miasma under the starlight and remembered the information he read in Chang 'an, he realized that the pill was not poison, but an antidote to the miasma. He could not help but feel embarrassed.
He wiped the sweat on his forehead and the rotten leaves on his body. Then he walked to the deacon and Chenqi in front of him. When he was about to move forward, he found that the two did not mean to.
Most of the trees at the bottom of the abyss were vines without large leaves, so it was not accurate to call it a forest. Normally, the view should be relatively wide, but it was not. Most of the starlight in the night sky was covered by the clouds and mist between the cliffs, which was why it turned into that weird purple color. After they stood for a while, the miasma around them became thicker and thicker, and the environment became extremely dark.
Chu Youxian noticed that there were thick rotten leaves under his feet. Looking at the vague shadows of vines around him, he suddenly felt a little cold when he thought of the horror of the abyss behind the You Prison.
The miasma in the abyss contained natural toxins, as well as the resentful thoughts left by the dead prisoners in the You Prison. It was terrible when mixed together, and he was standing in the miasma.
Chu Youxian knew that if he had not taken the antidote pill, he would have bled to death. He was still alive, but he was still very scared, especially when he heard the faint howling of animals behind the vines. His forehead, which had just been wiped dry, was covered with cold sweat.
There was a miasma, and there were powerful creatures living in the miasma for countless years. It was said that no one had ever walked out of the abyss. Could they walk out? If they could not, wouldn't they still die? Chu Youxian thought in fear. Looking at Chenqi and the deacon who were standing still, he did not understand why they did not continue to move forward.
The wind blew down from the cliffs and thinned the miasma in the forest. When the starlight shone again, Chu Youxian noticed that there was a pool nearby, and there were some vague shadows on the other side of the pool, which should be carriages.
How could there be carriages in such a dangerous isolated area? Whose carriages were those? Who was in those carriages and waiting for who by the pool? Waiting for him? Then why didn't they go there?
Chu Youxian narrowly escaped death tonight and encountered the Abyss of Certain Death. His spirit had been repeatedly shocked, and he had become a little confused. He kept thinking about these messy things.
As the brain of the Fish-dragon Gang, Chenqi was known for his coldness, so he was much calmer. He only glanced at the carriages for a few times, and then looked up at the night sky like the deacon beside him.
Something should fall from the night sky.
At this moment, Chenqi vaguely understood something. It seemed that the Academy's plan had succeeded. Ye Hongyu was really going to betray Taoism. But why did she choose to leave in the middle of the night and choose such a dangerous path?
What puzzled him the most was whether Ye Hongyu would really jump down from the top of the Peach Mountain, break through the clouds, and fall directly here as the black-robed deacon hinted.
The top of the Peach Mountain was as high as the sky. There were countless dangers between the cliffs and the miasma at the bottom of the abyss. No matter who jumped down, they would definitely die.
Sangsang didn't die because she was Haotian. Ning Que didn't die because Sangsang jumped down with him and hugged him tightly in her arms when they landed.
No one came to hold Ye Hongyu, and Sangsang had already returned to the Divine Kingdom. Then how could she survive?
She could not survive. Chenqi thought desperately. The Hierarch Xiong Chumo, the middle-aged priest, and Zhao Nanhai all thought the same. Even the Abbey Dean had the same thought.
Between the cliffs at the back of Peach Mountain, there were two startling Grand Formations. In the clouds and mist, there were many ancient inhibitions. Those were the wisdom accumulated by Taoism over countless years. They were not managed by the Divine Hall of Judgment but operated on their own as if they were alive. They grew stronger and stronger with the help of nature.
Apart from the difference between the top of the mountain and the bottom of the abyss, the most dangerous part of the road in the night sky was not the poison in the miasma, but the array that represented the wisdom of Taoism. Even if Master Yan Se came back to life, he could not break it in a short time, not to mention in the moment of falling. Who could do it?
However, there was a sound of breaking through the air between the cliffs. Someone had really jumped down from the top of the mountain!
Chenqi became extremely nervous. He was not Ning Que, so he could not have such blind confidence in Ye Hongyu. He always felt that he would see Ye Hongyu die in the next moment.
Yes, as he had thought before, no matter how powerful Ye Hongyu was, even if she suddenly learned Talisman Taoism skills like Yan Se, she could not survive.
But she still jumped down.
She was seriously injured by the three giants of Taoism. She walked to the railing, but did not look into the distance. Instead, she calmly walked to the cliff under the starlight and fell into the abyss together with the snowflakes.
No matter how he looked at it, she would definitely die.
At this moment, a complex array intent was generated in the miasma at the bottom of the abyss. At the same time, another array intent was generated on the cliffs. The two array intents met in the purple starlight.
Chu Youxian and Chenqi did not understand why they subconsciously described the array intent with the word "smell" when they felt it. Or was it because the array intent really had a smell?
It was the smell of pig iron, and there were traces of rust on the iron. It was a little sweet, but there was also a little bitterness in the sweetness. There was also an indescribable sense of excitement. Then, the smell turned into the smell of stone. To be more precise, it should be the smell of moss on the stone. There was a little moisture, and there was a hint of the greenness of plants. What was strange was that there was no slippery feeling on the tongue. The moss seemed to have dried up in an instant.
What did the smell of pig iron mean? Tough? What did the smell of stones and moss mean? Chu Youxian and Chenqi were shocked and uneasy. Then they found it difficult to breathe.
The reason why they had difficulty breathing was that they felt like there were countless stones in their chests and abdomens. Those stones were angular and extremely uncomfortable.
What on earth was this array? They looked back in shock at the beginning of the array intent — the carriage on the opposite side of the pool. They wondered who was sitting in the carriage and how could it be so powerful!
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