Nightfall

Chapter 1022: God Is Gone, Then What About Haotian?

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

The situation in the human world was extremely tense. On the border line of the Tang, within the capital of the Song Kingdom and in the dark bottom of Giant Sinkhole, conflicts were everywhere. War had already broken out in some places, while in other places, it never stopped.

The people all around the world pinned their hopes on the envoys sent by the Tang, wishing them to reach a new peace agreement with the Divine Halls of West-Hill.

The two envoys were just ordinary people, who knew nothing about cultivating. But at this moment, they were the most important people in the human world.

There were two kinds of people who loved peace: one was those who feared war, and the other was those who just worried that they couldn’t win, so they were in favor of peace temporarily. Chu Youxian and Chenqi belonged to the latter. They didn’t know that the world was counting on them, but they wanted to reach a peace treaty with the Divine Halls of West-Hill as much as the world wanted.

However, the problem was that they couldn’t get in touch with the two people they wanted to see. What made them more worried was that the two people they had to see would certainly find a way to meet with them if they wanted. But the situation at this moment showed some bad signs. Was is true that nobody wanted to know Ning Que’s message?

Seeking what you could not get was the source of anxiety. Chu Youxian and Chenqi were very anxious, but they couldn’t think of any viable option to complete their mission.

Today, an ordinary priest in a brown robe came to see them, and it appeared he was just a low level priest. In fact, the attitude of the Divine Halls was getting colder and colder these days. After Chu Youxian and Chenqi refused to negotiate with Zhao Nanhai, the level of divine priests who were sent by the Divine Halls to talk to them became lower and lower.

“I am a nobody. Obviously I am not the one you two are expecting,” the brown-robed divine priest looked at them and said. “Then who do you want to see?”

Judging from this question, the Divine Halls of West-Hill had either lost its patience or curiosity, and it seemed that it wanted to put all the cards on the table.

It was meaningless to lie at this moment, and it might be a better choice to speak out. After thinking for a while, Chu Youxian looked at the brown-robed divine priest and answered seriously, “We want to meet with Ye Hongyu.”

The brown-robed divine priest was not surprised and asked with a smile, “Why?”

After the attempted assassination in Qinghe Prefecture, Chu Youxian and Chenqi already figured out that the Divine Halls must know their intention, so they were not surprised that the brown-robed divine priest was not surprised.

“Taoism is unfaithful. We, to be more accurate, Mr. Thirteen only trusts the Great Divine Priest of Judgement.”

“Fine. This is a reasonable explanation.” The brown-robed divine priest said calmly, “I will report your request, but I can’t guarantee that you can get what you ask for.” After saying this, he left the Revelation Institute. Then Chu Youxian and Chenqi were forgotten once again.

Standing on the stone steps in front of the Revelation Institute, Chenqi looked at the fallen peach blossoms, imagined the three Grand Arrays hidden in the mountain roads and the peach forest and said, “Even though the Divine Halls can ward off our army, all people outside the Grand Arrays would be killed by Mr. First.”

Chu Youxian asked, “So how the Divine Halls reacted puzzles you?”

“No, what puzzles me is the attitude of the Academy.” Chenqi shook his head and answered. “Why is Ning Que so eager to negotiate with Taoism? What is he afraid of?”

As dusk fell, the two went silent and felt heavy at heart. At this point, the Divine Halls finally replied to their request, which was just one word: congratulations.

Tomorrow morning, the Hierarch would summon them personally. The Divine Halls would arrange a grand ceremony for this meeting, and the Great Divine Priest of Judgement they wished to see would be there.

After attending the dinner, Chu Youxian and Chenqi went back to their room and looked at each other silently, like what they did while looking at the peach blossoms at dusk, for they still felt heavy at heart.

The Hierarch and other thousands of divine priests and deacons would attend the ceremony tomorrow. How could they talk privately with Ye Hongyu with so many people present?

“Maybe we don’t have to talk privately with her,” Chenqi suddenly said.

Chu Youxian didn’t understand and asked, “What do you mean?”

Chenqi went silent for a moment and said, “We only need to let her know the message from Ning Que. As long as she gets the message, it doesn’t matter how we tell her.”

Hearing this, Chu Youxian was silent for a long time and turned pale. Then he murmured to himself, “Maybe it’s better that we don’t meet with her.” Delivering the message to her in front of thousands of people seemed suicidal.

He looked up at Chenqi and sighed, “You are so cruel.”

The reason Ning Que chose the two to deliver the message was that Chenqi was good at scheming and Chu Youxian would use all kinds of methods necessary to achieve his goal. But it appeared that Chenqi was better at vicious means.

Like Chu Youxian said, he was cruel to himself and other people.

Chenqi said, “It may be better for other people to hear the message too.”

Chu Youxian was hit by mixed feelings. Nobody could be happy while knowing he was heading for his doom. He had already had a hunch about this when they left Chang’an, so he managed to stay calm.

“If delivering the message means we will die, maybe we should try to meet with another person first,” Chu Youxian said as he walked over to the window and looked at the cliff yard on the mountainside and the inconspicuous small stone houses enveloped in darkness.

Chenqi walked to him and said with a frown, “It’s hard to get there.”

Chen Youxian glanced at him and asked, “Harder than death?”

They kept silent for the rest of the night and said goodbye to the past in their hearts. So they were not in a good mood while waking up the next morning. Chu Youxian had dark circles under his eyes, which looked funny.

“At least it looks funny,” Chu Youxian consoled himself.

Guided by the deacons of the Divine Halls, the two left the Revelation Institute and walked to the Peach Mountain along the stone steps. The verdant hillside was covered by fallen peach blossoms and the accumulated snow that fell a few days ago, which looked clean and beautiful. The bluestone steps were wet from the dew and looked more eye-catching in the snow.

The white divine hall on the summit came into their view soon. The morning light fell on it, making it holier and brighter.

Chu Youxian and Chenqi looked at each other, suddenly turned their bodies and ran towards a certain spot on the cliff yard.

The bottom of their boots stepped onto the hard stone steps, and their breath was as heavy as the mountain wind. They ignored the deacons of the Divine Halls who kept shouting and the cavalrymen of the Divine Halls who were chasing after them, and they just desperately ran towards the depths of the cliff yard.

The two who were prepared to die kept running at an unprecedented speed in this morning, and even their figures became blurred.

The Divine Halls reacted slowly. The deacons and cavalrymen didn’t catch up with them until they ran to the middle of the cliff yard. But somehow the pursuers dared not to move forward.

Zhao Nanhai came to the cliff yard from the summit of Peach Mountain. Seeing the two figures, he revealed no emotion on his face, but he felt strange.

If the person in the stone house at the end of cliff yard doesn’t want to see the two men from the Tang, they won’t make their way to the cliff yard.

Then why would he want to see them?

…

…

While approaching the several stone houses at the end of the cliff yard, Chu Youxian and Chenqi were panting and were almost unable to stand straight, feeling that their lungs were about to explode.

The Divine Halls didn’t chase them to the stone houses either due to fear or other reasons. They were actually not surprised, for they had anticipated the current situation.

The man in the stone house was willing to see them, so it appeared he wanted to know Ning Que’s message. Chu Youxian was a little puffed up while wiping the sweat off his forehead.

With a soft sound, the door of the stone house was pushed open. Then a middle-aged priest came out from the inside. The middle-aged priest wore an ordinary robe and his appearance was also normal. In many ways, he was not supposed to be normal, but he was indeed normal for his whole life, which was very unusual.

Chu Youxian knew this priest was not the person he was looking for, but his expression was still respectful. And his hands were even properly trembled.

Looking at his deliberate behavior, middle-aged priest asked with a smile, “What do you want to say or do?”

What did Chu Youxian want to do? He kneeled down without hesitation towards the middle-aged priest and also towards the person in the stone house and said humbly, “Chu Youxian wants to tell a story.”

The middle-aged priest looked at him quietly, like he didn’t expect Chu Youxian would kneel down so naturally and firmly. Chu Youxian didn’t give the priest a chance to refuse his request.

Chu youxian was calm. Ning Que chose Chenqi for his strategy and bravery, and chose him for his unscrupulous means.

The middle-aged priest smiled and asked, “What story?”

Since Chu Youxian and Chenqi were able to come to the front of the stone house, they were allowed to speak out.

Chu Youxian said sincerely, “The story takes place in a world very similar to ours. In that world, there is a religion similar to Taoism led by God who knows everything and is omnipotent.”

…

…

As the morning light fell, Chu Youxian’s throat became drier and drier and his voice became more and more and hoarse. He finally finished the long story.

The middle-aged priest looked at him quietly, then looked back at the stone house and finally looked up at the sky and the clouds, and said, “It is a very long story.”

The past and present of Christianity and the rise of Protestantism was indeed a long story. Chu Youxian condensed two-thousand-years of history into one story. Looking back, the bloody war of religions seemed a little ridiculous.

Chu Youxian lowered his head respectfully.

The middle-aged priest thought about the whole story, the cooperation and dispute between the royal family and the followers and the distribution of interests, feeling that it was a wonderful story.

“I heard that Mr. Thirteen had told Haotian a lot of stories in the past. I am wondering if he ever told her this one. But at least it proved that he was really a great storyteller.” The middle-aged priest was well aware that the story came from Ning Que. Then he stepped aside, and the door of the stone house appeared in front of Chu Youxian and Chenqi.

The story was only the beginning of the conversation. Ning Que used the grand story as an introduction, making the person inside the stone house curious about what he wanted to say.

Looking at the closed door, Chu Youxian turned paler and paler, and Chenqi was breathing rapidly. For the followers of Haotian in the human world, the person in the stone house enjoyed a unique status and meaning. Even the two were very nervous to confront him.

The middle-aged priest said, “If you want to say something, just speak.”

Chu Youxian was humbler, and his forehead seemed to be pressed into the ground of the cliff yard. However, what he said in a trembling voice the next moment was blasphemous.

“The god is dead, and so would Haotian.”

“So it is better for the Abbey Dean to think more about what happened in the human world.”

…

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