Nightfall

Mo Shanshan was staring at the lake.

She was the most excellent Talisman Master of the young generation. Before Ning Que had appeared, she was the successor of the Divine Talisman Master.

As was said by Master Yan Se, arrays were big talismans, and a most excellent Talisman Master was no doubt a most excellent Tactical Array Master. The reason why she constantly stared at the lake was to see through this marvelous tactical array in Daming Lake.

After examining the lake for a whole night, she finally figured out what had caused the valley to be so verdant.

There was a big tactical array deep in the lake, whose function had not been made clear yet, but it was powerful enough to ward off eyesight or even the perception of Psyche Power. And above the valley, there should be another more powerful tactical array that helped to ward off the effects of nature.

According to her analysis, it was extremely cold this year and the cold air had come from the north. Therefore, the big tactical array shrouding the valley from above broke with the change of climate, which released the vitality that had been locked in the valley. And then the valley gradually flourished, which produced the verdant one that she saw now. This also matched with what Prince Long Qing had said on the snow cliff.

However, although the big tactical array had broken and the valley had become verdant again, the cold air also invaded from outside. So the vitality in the valley had to fade before it reached its peak, which was why there was thin ice on the lake now.

Mo Shanshan sat silently beside the lake, and her hands resting on her knees constantly tapped as she tried to figure it out. However, she still could not figure out what would trigger the big tactical array in the lake.

“Does it mean that the array center can only lose its efficacy and the Front Gate of Devil’s Doctrine can only reopen after the whole lake freezes or is emptied by triggering some key?”

She furrowed her brows slightly and hesitated at the glistening and peaceful lake. The deeper she went into this tactical array, the more wisdom and power she found hidden in it, which defied nature. So she could not help but feel respect for the Devil’s Doctrine back then and the predecessor who had made this big tactical array.

At dawn, Mo Shanshan gradually opened her eyes and awoke from her thoughts. She then turned to her side to see Ning Que sitting on the stone still fishing. It was funny that he had obviously fallen asleep with his eyes closed, yet his head nodded up and down with the lake waves as if he was fishing with his head.

Perhaps Ning Que felt her gaze on him as he woke up, rubbed his eyes, and then his belly. He looked at the girl watching him attentively and asked, “Are you hungry?”

Mo Shanshan nodded slightly. Looking at the reflections in the lake she softly said, “I will cook now.”

Their reflections in the water were quite clear and appeared to be closer.

Ning Que asked, “I’m really sick of the dried meat. Do we have anything else to eat?”

Mo Shanshan looked at the willow branch in his hand and curiously asked, “Did you catch any fish?”

Ning Que smilingly answered, “Even the hook was bitten off by that fish. How can I catch one without a hook?”

Mo Shanshan stood up, her cotton skirt fluttering in the morning breeze. She slowly reached out with her right hand, and with the fluctuation of the chilly breath of the talisman, a block of ice suddenly appeared in the water of the lake. Inside the crystal ice was a fat fish with no scales, which looked as beautiful as an icy amber drifting slightly with the waves.

Ning Que sighed at that scene. “Junior sister, you have already perfected using Talisman Taoism. I don’t know when I can reach such a level.”

“Once you break into the realm of the Seethrough State, you will find this trick to be easy.”

Mo Shanshan said that calmly, yet what she thought was different. This Talisman Master, who regarded Talisman Taoism as the most holy thing, silently thought, “If not for your desire to eat fresh things, if not for the warm talismans you pasted on me, and if not for the fact that you were at the critical moment of breaking the realm, I wouldn’t do that.”

Ning Que took the ice out from the lake and looked at the jade-like ice under the morning sun and the fat fish which was still breathing inside of it. He suddenly recalled the time beside the wetlands of the Academy that Chen Pipi had shown him a scene of the Knowing Destiny State, and the state of the fish at that time was even more marvelous.

“I’ll go and pick up some edible wild herbs, and then we can stew some fish soup,” he happily said.

Mo Shanshan shook her head, indicating that she would do it by herself. She silently thought, “I even used a talisman to freeze fish in order to help you to break the realm, so why would I mind stewing fish soup for you?”

Ning Que looked at the figure of the busy girl with his head tilted. He could not help rubbing his head because he never expected that some day the Calligraphy Addict would come to serve him. However, he had been accustomed to Sangsang serving him over the years, so he did not feel that it was unacceptable.

The fish soup was ready after just a short time. Ning Que inserted the willow branch rod into the stone seam and fetched salt from his package to sprinkle it into the soup, and then he ladled out a bowl of white soup and sipped it.

His luggage was as heavy as a small hill. And in fact, it was no different from a small hill because it held numerous things.

Mo Shanshan raised her arm and wiped the dirt off of her beautiful round face with her sleeves. She turned her bright eyes to look at Ning Que with anticipation and nervousness, asking, “How does it taste?”

Of course, it was good to enjoy a bowl of warm fish soup after being in the land of ice and snow for such a long time. So, Ning Que praised it with a smile and then said, “It’s a pity that I didn’t bring any seasoning, then it would taste better.”

He said that casually while his main point was still praising her. But, this was the first time that Calligraphy Addict had made food all by herself, and furthermore, she had other special thoughts, so she was not so happy with that sentence.

She held a bowl of fish soup with her head lowered and slightly blew off the foam and hot steam on the surface as her long eyelashes fluttered slightly. After a moment, she softly asked, “Is it worse than what you ate before?”

“How can we make tasty food in the Wilderness!”

Ning Que drank the soup in the bowl and began to eat the fish. He then said vaguely, “The one back home never made any tasty food. It all has the same taste, and I’m already tired of it.”

Mo Shanshan sensitively noticed that the word he used was “one” instead of “handmaiden”, so she became even more silent. After a moment, she raised her head with a strong will and earnestly looked at him, saying, “I will make it better.”

When they were done drinking and eating, Ning Que continued fishing on the stone beside the lake. After being immersed in water for such a long time, the willow branch in his hand had already grown white and there was no hook nor bait on its tip. Except for some mischievous fish that occasionally touched it, no other fish showed any interest in it at all.

Mo Shanshan spread the volume out and began to write not far away from him. The brilliant winter sunlight, which was reflected by the Snow-capped Peak around Daming Lake into the verdant valley, looked warm and glorious.

When he got bored while fishing, Ning Que would occasionally leave the stone and come to see what the girl was writing. After making some comments, he would then write some characters and listen as the girl made comments.

They were both calligraphy enthusiasts and were not afraid of boredom. In this isolated verdant valley, they sometimes wrote and appreciated each other’s calligraphy and sometimes appreciated the lake view. Time moved slowly and nothing special happened.

Of course, most of the time, Ning Que was still fishing beside the lake.

The big tactical array outside of the verdant valley had totally faded, which allowed the cold air from outside and the rejuvenated vitality of spring from inside to collide. It was now the exact peak of the vitality and the broad-leaved forest beside the lake had grown out numerous green leaves so marvelously in a short time, which were comfortably waving in the wind.

When spring reached its peak, people would feel sleepy due to the warmth. So Ning Que, holding that willow branch, unknowingly went to sleep.

He woke up abruptly and raised his head to look at his surroundings. Yet before his eyes, there was no peaceful and beautiful Daming Lake, nor Mo Shanshan. What he saw was only desolation.

He was in the Wilderness again, the land that only appeared in his dreams instead of in reality.

The Wilderness that he saw now was not covered with corpses and blood, nor did it have fearful people looking up at the sky, the indifferent butcher and wine drinker, or that big and tall figure.

What it had was merely chilly air, the desolate and dark Wilderness, and the faint caws of a black crow in the distance.

Ning Que rubbed his eyes and looked in the direction of the crow. What he saw was not black crows all over the sky, but only three columns of dark smoke stably hanging in front of the Wilderness. The smoke coldly looked in his direction, as if it had life.

It reminded him of a previous dream, the dream in the journey. In that dream, he also saw a similar scene and somebody said beside him, “It’s getting dark”.

It was getting dark.

Looking at the three columns of dark smoke far away, Ning Que suddenly felt chilly, and frost gradually appeared on his eyelashes. He felt his clothes become thinner because he finally saw the real appearance of those three columns of dark smoke.

It was not smoke, but numerous rays of light or perhaps fragments of light. Black light and fragments of black light converged to make the darkest smoke in the world, as if it could devour all other light.

Out of fear, he subconsciously waved his hand, wanting to break and disperse the dark smoke with the willow branch. But the next moment, he found the willow branch had turned into the big black umbrella.

“Poof!” The big black umbrella quickly unfolded and covered his body.

And all of a sudden, he felt much safer.

…

…

Beside Daming Lake, Ning Que was struggling to break the realm.

On the snow cliff about 10 miles away from Daming Lake, Prince Long Qing, who took on the bet with Ning Que of breaking a state at the cost of his future life, had stepped on the threshold of the Knowing Destiny State.

With only one foot on the threshold, he could not maintain his stability. It was like he was standing at the boundary of two worlds, so he might go forward or backward. Stepping forward, he would embrace the Haotian Divine Light, and backward, he would degenerate.

Prince Long Qing had been sitting quietly on the snow cliff for quite a long time. The blizzard on Tianqi Mountain had blown thick snow onto the right side of his body, which looked like armor, yet the left side of his body remained in the verdant valley. With one part of his body shrouded by snow and the other part by vitality, he really looked strange.

Suddenly, he stood up and calmly flipped the snow off of his body, caring nothing about escaping the cliff of enlightenment. He just slowly went below the cliff and caught a white sheep.

And then, he let the sheep go.

Against the verdant valley and facing the Snow Mountain, he was immersed in his thought as if feeling something. The verdant green in the valley crept up along the cliff like vines, and in the snow under his feet, green grass gradually appeared, which was as numerous as the stars.

If you wanted to break a fence, why trap yourself inside the fence?

…