Nightfall

Looking at the girl in blue walking toward them, these Golden cavalrymen had complicated feelings. They did not know why she was not afraid of the sharp blades in their hands, or how she could be so calm as if she saw nothing.

A soldier cried out and lifted his cutlass up high. However, looking at her face, he could not do anything because he was scared.

In addition to being tall and plump, she was very ordinary, with no weapons in her hand or strong aura at all. He just felt fear for no reason and wanted to throw his cutlass far, far away. He wanted to kneel down in front of her and beg for her forgiveness.

The leader of this group shouted a word. She supposed that it meant “evil girl” or something similar. He drew out his cutlass and hacked without thinking. He had to close his eyes because he was not sure if he would be able to do it after looking at her face one more time.

The sharp cutlass fell onto her head, but it cut no hair off. There was no bleeding, nor did any other cruel thing happen. There was not even a sound of impact. He felt that he had cut into a vast sea. Then, his cutlass began shining and it melted instantly.

The flowers embroidered on her clothes began to spread out, giving off a vast amount of beams of the purest light, which covered the meadow near the tents instantly.

A moment later, she came out of the light and went on to the south.

The light on the grassland gradually went away. The 10 soldiers had fallen down on the ground without breathing, as had their horses. However, there were no wounds or blood on them. The bad smell in the tents had gone as well, leaving only the white bones. That was a purification.

The next day, she met some other human beings. They consisted of several horse-drawn carriages and hundreds of riders, whose hoofbeats sounded like thunder. However, in her eyes, they were the same as the weeds under her feet. Thus, she ignored them and continued moving forward.

An old man in normal prairie clothes was sitting in a carriage, looking at the view through the window in silence. He was the most honored Nation Master in the Golden Palace. He had been traveling around the depths of the grassland since he had left Helan City. In addition to needing to figure something out, the most important reason was he did not want to go south with the ambitious Chanyu. In his opinion, they should not have gotten involved in the Tang’s war from the beginning. The more violent the war became, the more peaceful the grassland would be. Moreover, the two powerhouses in Helan City were keeping him vigilant.

There were hundreds of elite golden cavalrymen guarding around him. And because he was the supreme Nation Master and their scouts that they sent out yesterday had yet to come back, they had to buck up.

At this moment, they saw the girl. She looked so tall and conspicuous wearing those blue clothes on her plump body. They could not ignore her.

With a whistle, the cavalrymen changed their formation and got ready to charge or defend, even though they were only facing a girl walking amid the meadow. It was eerie.

Just like the cavalrymen who had died yesterday, once they had a chance to look at her face, everyone would become scared—even their hands were shaking.

They were the best cavalrymen in the Golden Palace and the Nation Master enjoyed a lofty reputation. They even had two High Priests traveling with them. They were so strong that they even could eliminate some small countries in the south. Even the Tang and the West-Hill Divine Palace would not ignore them. However, at this moment, they were looking at a girl and were scared by her, which confused them and made them become even more scared.

The Nation Master looked at the girl in shock, his wrinkles becoming deeper and his eyes sinking into their sockets, as if he was looking at some being that did not belong to the human world.

The cavalrymen did not understand why her face was so frightening because they were just normal people, but the Nation Master was not.

Her face looked ordinary indeed. So extraordinarily normal that once she entered a crowd, you would never be able to find her again nor even be able to remember her face anymore.

She had average eyes, eyebrows, nose, and lips that could be seen anywhere.

However, this kind of banality was the most unusual thing.

So ordinary, and so extraordinary.

No one had seen such an ordinary person in the world, nor should they have. Upon seeing her, the Nation Master figured out who she was and where she came from in a second.

He knelt down and put his forehead to the ground with his palm facing up. He reverently cried out, “Tengri…”

The Headmaster had ascended to heaven near the Sishui River.

He threw Ning Que to the remote Wilderness in the north first before going up to heaven. After that, rain began falling from the sky.

When the rain beat down, there was nobody around the Sishui River except for a black horse.

It stared at the sky. Up until this moment, it had not figured out what had happened—how the little black girl suddenly had become so beautiful; how the old guy had turned into a fairy; and how Ning Que had been able to fly.

As the rain continued to beat down heavily, the weather got colder and colder. The horse kicked disconsolately and snorted, raising dust and mud.

It could not leave. It had to wait on the shore of the Sishui River until Ning Que returned. It was afraid that if it left, Ning Que would be worried when he could not find it.

Of course, the most important reason was that the carriage made of stainless steel was too heavy. If Ning Que did not return, it would have to drag the carriage back to Chang’an, and that was the last thing it wanted to do. Well, if Ning Que did return, even though the carriage was heavy, it would like to drag it back, so long as he came back…

Standing in the continuous rain, the Big Black Horse had been waiting for an entire day. Its mane was already wet like a rag, hanging on its neck, which made it look even more miserable.

It was dissatisfied with the willow trees planted along the Sishui River because they were so thin that they could not cover its whole body. It was jealous of the carriage being washed in the rain, which had no feelings at all.

It waited for three more days, drinking rainwater when it was thirsty and chewing weeds when it was hungry. If someone tried to take it away, it would knock them into the river. If the local government runners tried to trap it, it would spray spit all over them and kick them over and over again.

However, Ning Que did not come back, the little black girl did not come back, and neither did the old guy.

Its mane had absorbed so much rain that it became heavy and wet, pulling down its noble head lower and lower. It would soon be unable to support the weight.

In the early morning of the fifth day, when it saw the sun penetrate the thick clouds, it raised its head, neighing toward the sky and the Sishui River. And dragging the heavy carriage, it started on its own journey.

It did not plan to return to Chang’an nor to the Academy because these guys had not come back, and it believed that they would probably never come back.

It decided to go to the Wilderness. It remembered that it came across a senior when they passed through the quagmire. The senior never pulled a carriage, it was only on a carriage. It lived a happy and free life there. The Big Black Horse decided to join it because it had thousands of younger brothers out there.

Without Ning Que triggering the array, the carriage was so heavy that only the Big Black Horse could pull it. Even though he could manage it, from the Sishui River to the Wilderness, the trip was long and tough.

It comforted itself by thinking, “If you can find the senior, you will be the second best of the Wilderness.” It had to lower its head and grit its teeth, struggling in the heavy rain, and it finally reached the Wilderness from the Sishui River.

The heavy rain finally stopped. The Big Black Horse was covered with mud and had lost a lot of weight. It looked terrible, but when it saw the beautiful grassland in front of it, it opened its eyes.

The wind smelled good. It could not help thinking that it was the smell of freedom.

All of a sudden, it looked back at the heavy black carriage. What a fool it had been. Since it was going to join its senior, why did it have to drag it on such a long journey?

What if Ning Que was alive and he found it in the future? The Big Black Horse was wondering while going toward the swamp in the west of the Wilderness. In fact, that was what it was thinking about right now.

The journey of freedom ended on an ordinary autumn day.

That day, a young girl came out from the depths of the grassland. She looked so ordinary in blue clothes with flowers on them.

The Big Black Horse wanted to convince itself that it did not know her. She was fat and not that tall and she did not have very nice breasts. However, it knew who she was, so it neighed and turned around to run away.

It had never run so fast before—even when it was chasing after the white horse in the Wilderness. It ran faster than Ning Que’s arrow.

The wind roared past and the Big Black Horse felt terrified.

Then it fell to the ground heavily, raising up dust.

She had sat on its back from out of nowhere.

The Big Black Horse panicked. The little, thin black girl had become a big, fat white girl…

What had happened to the world?