Nightfall

The winter battle at the lake started with the storm of talismans, followed by arrows shot in the snow beside the lake. It then became the duel of overt and covert means; it was easy to escape the open spear thrust, but only Ning Que could escape from it; it was hard to avoid a covert sword, and Xia Hou failed to guard himself against it.

Xia Hou covered his abdomen as blood continuously flowed from his fingers. He felt the pain in his abdomen and the horrible sword style that kept invading his body. His unsightly expression was of deep agony.

Since it was not a knife nor a sword, he could easily guess that the sword style, like a river from the sky to the ground, seriously hurting him in an impossible way, naturally came from the Sage of the Sword, Liu Bai.

Looking at Ning Que on the lake in the distance, Xia Hou’s expressions were strange – Ning Que did not have a high cultivation state indeed, but he had the Great Spirit inherited from Ke Haoran, learned to write talismans from Yan Se, controlled the arrows of the Academy, inherited the awareness of Lotus, and even owned the Liu Bai’s sword style!

It was a rather rare phenomenon in the world that a cultivator could take up so many different means, which regardless of whether they were righteous or evil, were at the highest level in the world.

“The Academy… teachers…Ke Haoran…Yan Se…Now comes another one, Liu Bai. How many secrets are you still hiding in your body and how many great abilities do you have?”

Xia Hou suddenly laughed as if he was mad and said, “Does everyone want me to die?”

Ning Que looked at him in the distance and said, “Everyone wants you to die. Then you should die.”

“Only idiots think so!”

Xia Hou stopped laughing and no emotions fluctuated on his face. He said indifferently, “No one is qualified to judge whether I should die. You can’t, nor can those people. Even if everyone says I should die, I’ll live forever if Haotian wants me to be alive.”

Ning Que frowned. He did not know that during the spring two years ago, before the bloody battle in Spring Breeze Pavilion, Chao Xiaoshu had said something similar to someone in the House of Red Sleeves. He only knew that Xia Hou had become somewhat different at this moment.

Ning Que took a deep breath.

An extremely cold breath was released from his body and it then quickly reconverged into the skin. The snow on the lake seemed to sense the horrible breath and it all spread around out of fear.

Several snow lines appeared on the surface of the lake, just like frozen sprays.

The long black hair left his bleeding shoulders and floated in the breeze at night. Several grey hairs swayed in the wind and the black hair was dyed white like frost.

Immediately afterwards, Xia Hou’s cheeks sunk slightly and he turned thin quickly, but the aura from his body did not diminish at all but became even stronger.

With the sound of a hiss, the torn clothes on his body were shattered into pieces and sprayed around like snowflakes. His strong naked torso was exposed and he stood on the snow lake like a man made of iron.

At this time, something strange happened.

There were hundreds of wounds on his bronze body, which were healed quickly at a speed that was visible to the naked eye, as if there was an invisible force that suppressed all injuries on his body.

An extremely lively breath of life filled Xia Hou’s genuine Qi pond which was drying up, and it repaired the meridian channels that were in a disastrous state to how they used to be and made them even thicker than before. His meridians expanded and contracted as he breathed, as if they had come alive.

It was said that ever since ancient times, famous generals were like beauties, whose white hair could not be seen by people in the world. Tonight, when Xia Hou’s hair turned white between the moment of breathing in and breathing out, the snow and the ice on the lake began to fear and be uneasy.

The black hair representing health and vitality, had instantly turned white and the vitality that had previously been attached to it had gone. Xia Hou’s cheeks suddenly sunk; where did the flesh go?

Ning Que looked at the distance fully alert, but he could only see Xia Hou’s white hair vaguely in the dark. He could not see more details, nor could he know what happened to Xia Hou exactly.

The pieces of consciousness in the depths of the sense of perception were shimmering and he knew somehow that it was a war tactic of the Devil’s Doctrine by burning life. The flesh and health that Xia Hou lost momentarily were used by himself to transform into vitality and strong genuine Qi.

The main reason why the Enlightenment Doctrine was called Devil’s Doctrine and had an extremely cruel and bad image in the eyes of people in the world. Apart from their brutal selection of cultivators, there were numerous evil monasteries in the Devil’s Doctrine. For instance, the Practice of Taotie of Lotus needed to devour the cultivators. How cruel it was!

Xia Hou was seriously injured at this time, especially the sword injuries in his abdomen. It was no surprise to Ning Que that Xia Hou would use the evil practice of the Devil’s Doctrine at such a moment between life and death.

This tactic of burning life would inevitably cause terrible damage to the cultivators themselves. Xia Hou fought with his hair all turning white tonight. Even if he could win, he would not be able to live for several years.

Ning Que knew clearly how terrible the deadly attack of a strong cultivator from the Devil’s Doctrine would be but he was not prepared to concede. He wanted Xia Hou to die tonight and did not want him to see the morning light of Yanming Lake.

There was a sudden loud noise on the snowing lake.

The air broke out, and the falling snow was smashed into powder. Originally standing here, Xia Hou passed through the powdery snow on the lake in an instant, and fled to the night sky in front of Ning Que. With a sharp shout that sounded like thunder, he held a spear in both hands like holding an iron bar, and hit the ground with all his strength.

The cold wind whistled, the snowballs on the lake rolled, and the lake water in the cracked hole tumbled.

Ning Que stamped heavily on the trembling ice surface, and when his body was suddenly shaken, he held the knife with both of his hands and jumped high in the darkness and chopped down on the god-like man!

Without any expression on his face, Xia Hou stepped on the snow, then swung the iron spear and smashed down.

The iron spear had the strong power that Xia Hou exchanged at the price of burning his life and Ning Que could not resist it. With a huge booming sound, he jumped high into the darkness and then fell at a faster speed toward the lake.

Instead of flying with the clouds and among the mountains, the iron spear was held tightly in the hands of Xia Hou. In the battle which might be the last one in his life, Xia Hou, the man with strong power who had betrayed the Devil’s Doctrine many decades ago, eventually went back to the original world with his endless power and his real Devil’s Doctrine powerhouse demeanor.

Xia Hou at the moment was like a mountain falling from the sky.

While Ning Que was like a gravel under the mountain, which could only be turned into powder.

Xia Hou shouted with anger, kicked at the clouds, held the iron spear and struck with it again.

Ning Que laboriously held up his knife to resist it.

The waves of Qi were sputtering around.

The speed of Ning Que’s fall was getting faster, and if he fell on the ice on the surface of the lake at this speed, he would definitely die even if he could escape the Xia Hou’s iron bar.

It was unknown that whether it was out of fortune or because of his calculation ahead of time before he jumped to the air, he fell on the lotus land, where there were dozens of holes that had been blown out by the small iron kettle.

In the dark hole, the lake water swayed restlessly, with a thin and fresh ice mask floating on it.

There was a splash, and Ning Que smashed into the cold lake water which splashed against the hole.

A gust of wind blew and Xia Hou did not hesitate to plunge into the water with the iron spear.

…

…

The flying snow slowly fell on the ground and peace was restored in Yanming Lake at night. There were no more thunderous sound of swords and spears or the two figures fighting with their lives at stake. The sound of the fluctuating lake water from the lotus land seemed to be even colder than before.

Sangsang, who was standing on the cliff at the southern shore of the lake, climbed out from under the big black umbrella laboriously. Looking at the secluded winter lake, she was frightened and worried, with her pale face stained with blood.

Standing beside the wooden bridge, Chen Pipi, Tang Xiaotang and Ye Hongyu looked at the quiet lake. No one spoke and their breath was like the reeds in winter beside the bridge, sometimes swaying and being silent for a long time.

In the palace, the emperor embraced his wife without any expression. Li Qingshan and Huang Yang stood in the pavilion. Huang Yang lifted his hand from the ancient bell and it then remained silent in the snow.

In front of the snow bridge, Xu Shi’s silver eyebrows fluttered wildly in the breeze at night. Second Brother sat cross-legged on the bridge in the snow and kept his head down and the expression on his face could not be seen.

In the Winter Forest, the mute monk covered by snow was silent but the chirping of cicadas in the forest had become much softer than before.

On the city wall, Eldest Brother and Ye Su looked at the direction of Yanming Lake and remained silent until the snow on the wall in front of the two was so heavy that it had scattered into the houses under the wall.

The entire city of Chang’an was in silence.

People in the city knew that Xia Hou and Ning Que were under the ice surface of Snow Lake, chasing or killing in the cold water, but no one knew exactly what was happening there.

After a long time, a sound rose from the Snow Lake.

The sound was like an old wooden door that was slowly opened or a heavy stone table being dragged on the ground. It was a soft sound but it broke the silence of the entire Chang’an.

A bulge appeared on the Snow Lake.

Then the soft sound became a loud sound.

The ice surface of Yanming Lake arched from time to time and then fell down. It seemed that there was an invisible giant who was hammering continuously from the lake water down below, trying to break the ice surface.

The extremely thick layer of ice was like a wound hit by a huge force and it curled up to the ice nearby. The lake water kept rolling and gave out a tsunami-like sound.

The previously quiet and peaceful Snow Lake suddenly became terribly frightening and overwhelming, with fierce and endless storms.

A dark shadow flew out of the crack on the ice surface but crashed heavily into the snow.

It was Ning Que whose black uniform was already soaked and was torn into pieces that could not conceal his body. His bare body was full of mottled blood that could not be washed off by the lake water.

He did not pause for a second and rushed towards the cliff.

A moment later, the surface of the black uniform began to freeze. Compared to the previous dark and cold world under the lake, the world outside the lake was like a garden for Haotian.

When running like escaping from being killed, Ning Que thought of the friend who had returned to Haotian in advance and he thought that he could not fully believe in the intelligence of Darkie. Xia Hou was not afraid of water at all. It was fair to say that such a strong man at the peak state of martial arts would not be drowned even he could not swim.

At this moment, a loud noise rang out behind him. The thick ice layer was lifted up and the cold lake water brimmed over the surface; huge waves like snow seemed to flood over and drown the whole world.

In the terrible snow waves, Xia Hou appeared, like a powerful monster in the sea. He stepped on the cold water and flew for more than ten feet and smashed the spear into Ning Que’s back.