Nightfall

Ye Su was on the stage.

Since he was on the stage, he couldn’t just be an audience. He was dragged into the tragicomedy to play his part as the hero of the tragic ending play.

The disciples of the Sword Garret stood in front of the stage. Despite their injuries, they held the swords in their hands tightly as long as they could manage to stand, guarding the area in front of them.

The South Jin Kingdom had been occupied by the Divine Hall of West-Hill, so the area in front of them was the last land their mother country left.

Long Qing knew that they would not get out of the way. He slowly raised his right hand, sweeping over these men with his gray eyes, and suddenly a black peach blossom appeared in his hand.

These men of South Jin Kingdom perfectly practiced the promise that the Sword Garret once made, fighting to the last moment and never letting anyone get close to Ye Su before they all stopped breathing.

They knew that death was coming, but they feared nothing. Liu Bai once drew his sword to attack Haotian on Peach Mountain. As Liu Bai’s disciples and followers who inherited the will of that sword, they never forgot about the Yellow River. And they had nothing to fear even if they had to fight against the Divine Kingdom of Haotian and the Abyss of Invariant Yama.

But death did not come immediately because Chen Pipi walked out from behind Ye Su and walked to the front of the disciples of the Sword Garret. He said to Long Qing while staring at him, “Do you really want to destroy Taoism?”

Looking at the sky which was getting brighter, Long Qing was silent for a while and then answered, “You are well aware that this is the will of the Abbey Dean. I am just following orders.”

Chen Pipi’s question seemed to make no sense, and Long Qing’s answer was somehow puzzling, as if he was agreed with Chen Pipi that the war aimed to annihilate the New Stream was just the beginning of the perish of Taoism.

In fact, to understand what the two were talking about, it was necessary to think about why Taoism could allow Ye Su to preach in the human world for the past few years and why it decided to kill him at this point.

Ye Su used to be a World Wayfarer of Taoism, but at this moment he was the most important and indispensable figure of the New Stream. Besides, he was also Ye Hongyu’s beloved brother.

Ye Hongyu would definitely defect if Ye Su were killed by Taoism. If Taoism were to kill her too, the Divine Halls of West-Hill would inevitably fall into chaos and even be torn apart. In this case, Taoism could not compete with the Academy and the Great Tang. How could Taoism still exist in the human world if the Great Tang were to win the war due to this reason?

Long Qing’s sight line crossed over Chen Pipi and the disciples of the Sword Garret, finally falling on Ye Su who was absorbed in the books on the desk, as if he was thinking about some difficult problems.

“The foundation of Taoism has been totally destroyed on the day he wrote the doctrine of the New Stream. Those stupid humans do not need Taoism to which worship Haotian. No one can reverse this trend, so he must die. Destroy Taoism? The levee has already collapsed and flood is everywhere. What more damage can I do?

Long Qing paused for a moment and then said without any expression while looking at the white smoke which was dissipating in the distant hall, “Not to mention that she is already dead. Who else can repent?”

Since that white smoke had risen, the fate of Ye Su was already settled. Similarly, since Taoism wanted Ye Su dead, the fate of Ye Hongyu was also doomed.

The two siblings had only met a few times in the past decades, as if they were not close. But everyone knew that their fate had been linked and they would live or die together.

After writing something on the paper, Ye Su looked up and said to Long Qing, “I am not that hard to kill. Why do you kill so many people?”

Long Qing bowed to Ye Su, then straightened up, and said, “You are too modest. Killing you is probably the hardest decision the Abbey Dean has to make. Taoism takes it very seriously.”

Ye Su replied thoughtfully, “Tens of thousands innocent people died because of me. I indeed deserve to die.”

…

…

More than two thousand papal cavalrymen of the Divine Halls of West-Hill rushed in from all the gates of the city. With only eyes and nose exposed, the horses in armor looked particularly horrible. The cavalrymen on the backs of the horses wore black armor engraved with golden lines, shining with bright lights.

According to the convention of Taoism, or to put it directly, the understanding between Taoism and the Great Tang, the papal cavalrymen the Divine Halls of West-Hill could not exceed a certain scale. However, the convention existed in name only after the previous war against the Great Tang. The Divine Halls of West-Hill expanded its army on the strength of the money and resources enshrined by all the kingdoms of the human world. At this point, it maintained more than twenty hundred papal cavalrymen, possessing the strength to fight against the Tang cavalry.

Two thousand papal cavalrymen followed Hengmu Liren to Qinghe Prefecture and were suppressing those potential insurgents with their hearts turned to the Great Tang at Yangzhou City at this moment. Another two thousand papal cavalrymen secretly followed Long Qing to the Song Kingdom directly from Peach Mountain to suppress the followers of the New Stream.

With such a powerful military force to deal with thousands of unarmed followers of the New Stream and disciples of the Sword Garret, Taoism was determined to kill Ye Su and to stop the New Stream from further developing.

Carrying the heavy armor, the horses stepped on the street and made a dull and squeaking sound. While two thousand horses were moving forward together, the sound became extremely loud, like a thunderstorm.

The papal cavalrymen moved forward at a rapid speed and couldn’t care less about hitting others. People in the street all evaded, and the street was filled with panic screams and the miserable shrieks coming from those being knocked down.

Smoke and dust enshrouded the street. Several hawkers who escaped from the horseshoes huddled together outside a tea shop and dared not to make a sound while watching these cavalrymen rushing through the street.

A middle-aged man with a scholarly appearance did not hide in the street corner as others did. Instead, he walked forward with his bag, and was covered with dust and sweat, heading for the same direction where these cavalrymen were going.

…

…

Long Qing pointed to the small courtyard next to the square and the woodpile in the broken wall and said to Ye Su, “I spent a whole night to pile up these firewood. please go up, elder brother.”

Going up to do what? Of course it was not for the scenery. Although the woodpile was higher than the ground and it was supposed to see further standing on it, the scenery to be seen must be all red, being blood or flame.

Ye Su glanced at him but said nothing. Then he bowed his head and replied while continuing to write, “I have to finish this paragraph.”

Long Qing showed no sign of impatience, for there was no reason for him to be impatient. He kept walking forward. If he had waited for a little longer, this might become a legendary story in the history of religion, but he decided to cut the story short.

The disciples of the Sword Garret held their blades up.

Long Qing waved his hand, and the black peach blossom was in full bloom, suddenly disturbing the array of swords.

At this point, Ye Su stopped writing and looked up. “I am done.” What he wrote was not notes or doctrine of the New Stream, but his travelogue.

It was not the travelogue concerning his experience of going into exile in several kingdoms these days, but about how he figured out the life-and-death struggle while traveling through all the kingdoms after seeing that black line on the Wilderness many years ago. And the last article was about Chang’an several years ago.

In that Chang’an, there was a small Taoist temple where he had lived for a long time. He repaired the house for the neighbors and helped the Taoist priests save money. He once argued with the Eldest Brother of the Academy and also bargained with the vendors.

What he figured out while traveling through all the kingdoms finally blossomed when he lived in Chang’an, thus seeing through the life-and-death struggle had a real meaning. He had gained a lot, and all he gained officially broke out as Jun Mo stabbed him in front of the Verdant Canyon and then was gradually taking shape in the smelly lane of Linkang City.

This was the development thread of the doctrine of New Stream. It sounded simple but actually complicated. The doctrine of New Stream was based on the West-Hill literary canon, incorporating the concept of the Academy and blending with Ye Su’s own experience. The doctrine was simple, without any explanation. Ye Su only had time to write a few volumes and was unable to complete his work. So he spent his last time on writing this travelogue.

The travelogue contained 5,041 words, focusing on the description without any commentary. He only wrote what he saw and heard, preached compassion and self-improvement but never mentioned the longing for the afterlife. It was simple yet not simple.

The travelogue only said one thing: live.

What was faith? What was the meaning that the followers had faith? The doctrine was supposed to answer these questions, but Ye Su only wanted to talk about living.

The travelogue didn’t give any answers about how to live, why live and how to live happily, just pointing out a path through describing daily life and cherishing the memory of suffering and happiness.

To live well, one must have faith: believing in themselves.

Oneself to oneself, Divine Hall to Divine Hall, human world to human world, and Haotian to Haotian.

This was the one truth or path Je Su wanted to tell the followers.

At this point, he finally finished writing the travelogue. After putting the brush pen on the desk, he blew the ink marks on the paper which were still wet and spread the paper out to dry the ink marks. The paper was under the morning sky.

He wanted to let god see the travelogue and the real human world recorded in it, and he wanted to let god know what the human world really wanted.

Long Qing stopped and felt unsettled while looking at the papers on the desk.

Ye Su stood up and said to the crowd, “We are the road, the truth, and the life. Follow your heart, you will walk out of the dark valley and get the greatest joy.”

He said the same words yesterday. At that time, with the snow stopped and the clouds scattered, the light fell on him and plated a golden rim for him, making him look like a saint.

When he said the exact same words after finishing the travelogue, there was no snow, and the sky was blue with the clouds scattered. The morning light suddenly became brighter, shining on his body.

He was no longer only coated with a layer of golden light. In the eyes of the followers in the square, he was in the morning light and turned his back to the bright red sun. He was the morning light that represented hope.

Earlier, the tree on the side of the broken wall was shattered by the impact caused by Tang Xiaotang and Long Qing, only leaving a half-foot-high stump on the ground. At this moment, under the morning light, it began to grow new branches and leaves which were slightly trembling in the morning breeze, looking very delicate but vibrant.

Starting from Ye Su’s last stroke, or from spreading the travelogue out under the blue sky, or from the loud sound of reading in the mean alley, or even from the Taoist Temple in Chang’an, Ye Su and the New Stream he created, on behalf of a certain part of mankind, began to compete for rights with god, or ask Haotian to give back rights which originally belonged to humans. History was rewritten from that moment.

The morning light was bright, and the cold wind and snow were nowhere to be found. The morning sun shone on Ye Su and the whole human world, looking like a miracle. But it was not a miracle, for the magical scene had nothing to do with Haotian. It was an ordinary person blending with Heaven, Earth and nature and yielding brilliant results.

Seeing this, the escaping followers who were horrified by the blood gathered together again. In defiance of those ferocious divine priests, deacons and cavalrymen, they rushed to the stage, trying to get closer to Ye Su.

The body of Ye Su was like a transparent glass through which the sun light spread to the whole human world. The light travelled far, even illuminating the streets and lanes in the distance.

The ordinary people who just woke up or stayed up all night and the pedestrians who hid under the eaves to avoid the cavalrymen all saw the light in the square, and saw the person in the morning sun. They were shocked and confused, subconsciously walking to the square.

As followers of the New Stream, these thousands of people who had already been in the square were more shocked. Looking at Ye Su in the morning sun, the followers worshipped on bended knees silently, expressing their respect.

Standing in front of the morning sun, Ye Su faced away from the light and delivered his speech while looking at Long Qing, divine priests, deacons, and thousands of followers in the square.

His voice was very calm, not deliberately fanatical at all. Contrary to those well-known orators or saints in the history of religion, he was very calm. But what he said seemed to be magical, like a prophecy that could not be shaken.

Long Qing did not stop him from speaking, because he also wanted to know what Ye Su would say at this moment. Ye Su wanted to predict something, and the followers were all serious and focused.

“When the Ever Night comes, when the sun is blocked, and the Heaven and Earth sinks into complete darkness, people will hail in joy. Because they will live for real.” The voice of Ye Su floated in the quiet square, like the sound of cicadas in the forest, the sound of frogs in the pool, the sound of wind among the cliffs and the sound of waterfalls in the autumn, making the world quieter.

In the quiet world, people all listened carefully, just like hearing the teachings of saints, and then they started thinking. Even Long Qing was thinking about something with his head down.

If this was a prophecy, then what did this prophecy predict?