Nightfall

Ning Que had a military background and most hated this kind of thing like grabbing the military glory. As he said at this time, in the Wilderness outside City of Wei, if other forces of Seven Cities Fortress came to grab the military glory, he and his partners would directly draw knives to chop them. The party who won could have the military glory. The Wilderness’ rule was just that simple.

Dongsheng Stockaded Village’s Tang soldiers just watched that their exploits were snatched by West-Hill guard riding troop. In addition to a few scolds, they actually did not draw the knife to kill the opposite? He was puzzled as well as inevitably indignant. After a while, he calmed down, thinking that Tang army generals indeed should keep a low profile when they were away from Tuyang City.

He shook his head and looked at the Wilderness around the faraway lake. He said, “If I take the troop into the Wilderness for firewood and those West-Hill gangs dare to grab firewood, you’ll see how I deal with them.”

Situ Yilan did not say anything but walked slowly beside him along the lakeside with her hands putting in the back. Suddenly she stopped and turned to look at him and said, “I’ve gotten a family letter from Chang’an saying they would arrange a marriage for me.”

The slightly cold weather made the girl’s breath quickly change into a white fog, adding up a bit of beauty to her refreshing face. Ning Que looked at the fog in front and the girl’s face. He asked after a moment of startlement, “Then?”

Situ Yilan shook her head, turned around and continued to walk along the lakeside. She said, “I don’t want to marry.”

Upon hearing her reply, Ning Que became more relaxed. But suddenly he became a little serious, somehow feeling kind of confused or lost in the direction. He looked at the girl’s back and said, “You should be careful with this kind of thing.”

Situ Yilan did not turn around and said with a smile, “I’ve heard a lot of ministers in Chang’an City wanted to recruit you as a son-in-law.”

Based on Ning Que’s reputation now in Chang’an City, and not to mention his identity as a core disciple of Headmaster of Academy, a lot of courtiers began to introduce their daughters to him, just because His Majesty admired and adored him.

Ning Que smiled and said, “I guess General Yunhui didn’t have such a tendency.”

Situ Yilan looked back at him and said, “My father knew I was familiar with you. So he really thought of this idea.”

Ning Que felt his cheeks slightly hot and subconsciously touched them, but did not know how to answer her.

Situ Yilan put her hands in her back, walking forward on the white cobblestones in the lakeside. She said, “But I did not agree.”

Ning Que looked at the restless black tresses of this girl in a light armor. After a short silence, after all, he could not hold back his curiosity and some kind of emotion that could not be declared in the mouth. So he asked, “W…why?”

“Oh, cause I don’t want to get married.”

The girl’s response was concise and powerful, whose crisp laughter awakened the thin ice films on the lake. “There has been no female general in the Tang Empire these years and I want to become a female general. So I don’t even have a thought of getting married.”

Ning Que listened to her heartfelt thoughts and could not help feeling somewhat ashamed. He kicked a white stone with a strange shape in front of his boots into the lake and said, “I’m addicted in the cultivation and have no time to consider these things.”

Situ Yilan turned around and looked at the stone smashing the thin ice and falling slowly into the bottom of the lake. After a moment of silence, she laughed and looked at him and asked, “What kind of woman do you like if you have time to think about it?”

Upon this question, Ning Que could not help thinking of the dialogue with Chen Pipi in the Back Mountain of the Academy. After a long time of thought, he rubbed his jaw and seriously said, “I like beautiful girls, fair-skinned, slanted eyes, and with a little red lips. It would be best if she has a plump body. In terms of intelligence, I wish she can be clever and does’t always let me consider everything.”

Situ Yilan looked at him and shook her head. Then she sighed and said, “Your request really is not high, and almost the same with the ideas of the vast majority of men in the world. There are no new ideas at all.”

…

…

Life had always been a very boring thing, both in Chang’an City and in the Wilderness of northern Yan. Was there any essential difference between climbing stairs every day and wandering everyday?

Each Academy student practicing in Dongsheng Stockaded Village had his own combat missions. It was impossible for them to spend every day with Ning Que to travel around the stockaded village, having meals, drinking and chating. He had to go alone to visit the stockade village, eat, drink and chat with himself. His life was monotonous and boring to the extreme.

After a few days he finally could no longer stand living such a boring life. So he sneaked out with his big black horse. He avoided the dozens of riding cavalries’ sight near him and got out of the stockade village to a blue lakeside for relaxing himself.

Those dozens of riding cavalries no longer stayed close to him following behind like the second sun. Ning Que today went farther, running eastward 1000 or 1500 meters along the blue lake. He found a secluded lakeside and stopped his steps.

He unloaded the heavy bag off the dark horse’s back and hard slapped its buttock for one time.

The black horse rarely had such a wonderful relaxing time. With a pleasant loud neigh, it happily moved its hooves to step on mud and rushed into the lake. And then it used a faster speed to run back to the lake shore with a low and furious neigh.

Its whole body was slightly trembling and kept rolling its thick tongue with a grumble as well as turning its lips. It was obvious that it felt freezingly cold for the cold lake and didn’t like the taste of salt water.

“I’ve never seen such a careless horse like you.”

Ning Que laughed at it and pointed to the luxuriant hills not far away, saying, “Idiot. Where there is a lake, there are naturally lake branches. Run to the other side to see if there is drinking water. When it’s done, come back earlier.”

The big dark horse dissatisfiedly shook its head and moved the back hooves, shaking some icy cold lake water out of its body. Then it scuttled away in accordance with the direction Ning Que pointed at.

Ning Que piled a pot and cooked some fresh vegetable soup. He smelled the gradually diffuse scent and sat beside the quiet lake. Now Sangsang was not nearby to serve him. So he had to serve himself. Luckily, when Sangsang was young, he had cooked their meals alone and never forgot his adept cooking skills.

There were perennial northwest cold winds blowing in the northern Wilderness, especially in the area between Central Plains and the great grassland. He sat beside the lakeside wearing a thick jacket, with a wind-proof gown outside. Unnoticedly it was the bowl of warm fresh vegetable soup or his cultivation that played a role. In short, he did not feel too cold.

In the shallow part of the lake, the water was very transparent. One could clearly see the white stones and fallen trees with a history of millions of years at the bottom of the lake. If one looked further, he could see bluer and bluer lake water. Stricted by mountain forests on the two sides and short cliffs, the lake became slender and one could not see its end, for it had been extended to the depths of the far northern Wilderness.

Ning Que sat on the stone and saw the beautiful lake view in front. He thought it was kind of indecent to regard the blue lake as a kidney. In fact, it should be a woman’s weak slender waist that was not big enough to be held.

The slightly shaking lake water was like a blue gem that was about to melt and pushed the thin ices condensed by the cold air to the lakeside one by one. Some gradually melted away, while others were overlapping together. With the winter becoming colder and colder, these thin ices would eventually become thick and hard ice cubes.

Ning Que looked at the thin ice moving up and down with the lake and remembered those legendary people standing under the ice. He recalled those things mentioned in the previous days when he and Situ Yilan walked by the lake, and could not help showing self-mockery on his face.

One must always consider the marriage after a certain age. He had not seriously considered it before, and indeed did not have any thoughts about Situ. But when he heard of Situ’s refusal to yunhui general, he still felt somewhat unpleased. He also had this feeling on Northern Mountain Road last spring. At that time, he was very clear that there was absolutely no possibility between himself and the Princess of the Tang Empire Lee Yu. However, when Lee Yu left away from his shoulder and stood up to slowly recover her graceful look, he still had a lot of unsure feelings in his heart.

He scooped a bowl of water and put out the remaining flames in the stone stove. He re-sat down at the lakeside, looking at those thin ices that were like sugar glaces rather than glass. Then he said with a self-mockery, “Someone said that there were only two kinds of women in the world, the woman belonging to himself and others. Are all of men like this?” (…Liu Xiahui’s words)

However, he had always educated Sangsang to remind himself that anyone who talked about relationship, especially love, was an idiot. So he did not take too long to immerse himself in this self-deprecating mood. Soon he was awakened by the horrorible prospect of his becoming an idiot and began to think of something that was more meaningful for him.

Ning Que has come to the Wilderness of northern Yan for more than one month, but has not seen Xia Hou. So there was no way to watch him on behalf of His Majesty. Although he was near Tuyang City, he did not make up his mind whether to go or not. He did not know what would happen if he now met Xia Hou. Although sporadic fightings over the Wilderness had been happening, the upper body of Yan-aiding army knew his identity and sent dozens of elite to offer him personal protection. Therefore, he could not kill enemies for a few rounds at will. Should he really waste the time like this?

As a young man who survived so hard by himself, Ning Que was very clear about what to rely on. So he would not allow himself to waste too much time. After he thought of some meaningless things like the relationship between men and women by the lake and some meaningful but unfinished things like Xia Hou, he started his meditation and cultivation.

Slightly cold wind was blowing from the lake, making piled thin ices shivering on the bank and his eyelashes closed tightly. There was a slender podao resting on his lap. With the deepening of meditation, the invisible Qi of Heaven and Earth gradually gathered together to his side, and then gently softly covered the blade.

The simple Fu character lines engraved on the knife seemed to sense something. The shadows caused by the natural light suddenly became deeper than before. And then the podao began to buzz and singularly vibrated.

A piece of withered leaf, which was brought by the lake wind and came out of nowhere, just fell onto the knife surface and was shot into the air. It was momentarily torn by an invisible force and became hundreds of tiny filaments, and then fluttered into the lake and disappeared.

The podao on his knees was slightly vibrating, so was the clean water among the white round stones by the lake in front. Those thin ices, which seemed to be fragile but in fact soft and sticky, gradually shattered and diffused aimlessly along the lake waves. They mirrored the sky, as if presenting dozens of exactly same skies.

The big black umbrella tightly wrapped in coarse cloth was lying silently beside him.

After an unnoticed period of time, Ning Que finished his meditation, looking at broken ice cubes among the round white stones in front. He knew that he would not stay in No Doubts State for too long, for he has begun to approach Seethrough State.

At first he got Tao enlightenment on Vermilion Bird Road, and then quickly broke through Initial State, Perception State and went straight into No Doubts State. Even he himself did not know how to do it. So for now he did not have any thought about breaking the cultivation realm. At this time, he felt he was almost about to break the realm, but did not know how to do it.

He thought kind of confused, “Should I really go to Tuyang City and send a Fu character letter to ask help for Senior Brothers of the Academy?”

Just when he thought so, he suddenly noticed more thin ices piled in front of him. He looked far in the direction of his right hand’s front and saw a lot of flashing mirror-like thin ices were slowly flowing over.

He had lived in the Wilderness of Min Mountain for so many years. So he was very familiar with the wild lake. Just after a few glances, he knew that there must be a hidden stream in the lake and it pushed these thin ices over. But in this dark blue lake like a beauty’s waist, it was so calm on the surface. Where did the hidden stream come from?

He knew that there were no barbarians who dared to come to this forest on the lakeside. So there should be no security problems. Suddenly, he thought of exploring it and got up to carry heavy bags. Then he went upstream along the mirror-like thin ices.

Upstream, was there a beauty on the other side of the lake?

…

…

He went down the lakeside for about a few miles and faintly saw that a stream in front was impacting the calm gem-like lake surface, producing innumerable beautiful small whirlpools. But there were luxuriant trees next to them. Although the trees’ leaves have long fallen, the trees still could cover the movements behind the forest. So no one could see the stream.

Ning Que knew that was the hidden land he was looking for. He smelt a faint smell of sulfur in the nose and guessed there might be a hot spring over there. Then he could not help showing happiness on his face.

Suddenly, a touch of jade whiteness came to his eyesight, then a touch of blueness flashed, which was like this lake.

Suddenly Ning Que showed vigilance in his eyes, not for the touch of blueness that was deeply reflected in his eyes but for other reasons. Then he quickly pulled a bow and set up an arrow, aiming at somewhere in the jungle. He said in a low voice, “Come out.”

After the rustle in the forest, a dozen young people slowly walked out. Some of them also aimed at Ning Que with their bows and arrows. More of them watched him vigilantly, holding the sheaths in their left hands and the long handles outside the sheaths in their right hands.

Ning Que ignored the sharp arrows aiming at himself, but just aimed at that girl, the youngest of these people. The boxwood bow in his hands was stable as a mountain, whose string stretched like a moon. The arrow was motionless like a lake stone, but gave others a kind of feeling. As long as he wanted, that quiet arrow on the string would absolutely pierce that girl’s chest the next moment.

This feeling was so strong that the lads aiming at Ning Que had stiff facial expressions for nervousness. Those who held the slender sword handles even looked slightly pale. As for the girl who was aimed by Ning Que’s arrow, she looked pale on her face, with her slightly elevated chest fiercely going up and down.

A lad courageously jumped to the front of this young girl and bent his left knee forward to take a horse posture. He clenched his sheath with his left hand and faintly used his thumb to hard to withstand the ebony sword blade edge, and then bent his right elbow back to lift up his wrist.

Ning Que looked at the posture of this lad holding a sword and also looked at clothing quality of the boys and girls. He guessed where they came from and felt a little relaxed.

He looked at the brave lad holding a sword and said with a smile, “Arrow-chopped posture? It’s useless for my arrow.”

Despised by the enemy, that lad suddenly showed an anger on his face.

“I’m one of the Tangs.”

Ning Que told his origin and then put down the boxwood bow in his hands. He did not glance at these young people who looked at himself nervously and put his arrow back to the quiver.

Since he had guessed the origins of these boys and girls, he knew that there would be no problems. However, because the other side apparently had no fighting experience, he first laid down his arms to prevent the other party from making mistakes for tension.

As he wished, when those boys and girls heard that he was one of the Tangs, they gave up the nervious expression in the last moment and became relieved. Then they put down their bows and let go of their sword handles.

“We are disciples of Black Ink Garden in Great River Kingdom.”