Nightfall

The chanting from West-Hill had died out, however the people from the strange group were still chanting. Judging from their bamboo hats and the smell of the sea on their bodies, the head of Revelation Institute had finally figured out their origins. His face turned pale and without any hesitation, he shouted with blood dripping out of his lips, “Upon my word! Cease!”

This was the first sentence from the Anthem of Genesis. He had incorporated his Knowing Destiny state cultivation with his experience from decades of chanting, making his order extraordinary.

The chanting finally came to an end. However, what alarmed the head was that the chanting of these people did not stop immediately after his order. Instead, they gradually stopped with a long sacred resonating sound, like a fisherman’s song.

“It has been six hundred years.” The pale head of Revelation Institute looked at the people in front of the altar and continued, “Six hundred years have already passed, why do you still want to come back?”

The elderly male standing in front had very dark and wrinkled skin, with a short and sparse beard. His calm eyes looked as though it had seen all the good and bad in the world. He looked just like an old fisherman because of the faint smell of the sea on him.

The elder answered, “We belong to the same school. Why can’t we come back to the Divine Halls of West-Hill?”

After a moment of silence, the head of Revelation Institute asked, “What is your Taoist name?”

“Zhao Nanhai from the South Sea.” The elderly looked at him and stated. “A Rite to Light at the Peach Mountain should have been hosted by the head of Divine Hall of Light, not someone from the Revelation Institute. My South Sea School is a direct branch of the Divine Hall of Light. Since there’s no one in charge of the Divine Hall of Light, I had to come back to take charge.”

The guests at the rite were either powerful cultivators or noble commoners. All of them were more or less familiar with the secret history of Taoism. At this moment, most of them had already realized the origins of these people. They were shocked. Are they really the descendants of the Great Divine Priest of South Sea?

The Divine Halls of West-Hill were the core of the Taoism world. Led by the Hierarch, there were three Great Divine Priests in charge of the Light, Revelation and Judgement Departments. The Hierarch ran the governing body. The Great Divine Priest of Revelation was in charge of taking orders from Haotian and cultivating divine priests. The Great Divine Priest of Judgment oversaw the order and executed the punishments of Taoism, sentencing rebellions and cultivators from the Devil’s Doctrine. Both were powerful and respected. Only the Great Divine Priest of Light did not have any specific responsibility, yet it still held the most divine position.

The Great Divine Priest of Light was viewed as the being closest to Haotian. He ranked first among the three Great Divine Priests, and was respected almost as much as the Hierarch. It was said that over three thousand years ago, before the first year of Dazhi, the position of Hierarch did not exist in West-Hill. The Hierarch’s position was later created to balance the power from the Light.

For the past thousand years, the three greatest figures of West-Hill were all from the Divine Hall of Light. The first one was the Great Divine Priest of Light who sailed to the Wilderness with the Bright Volume of the Tomes of Arcane, and consequently established the Devil’s Doctrine. The latest one was Wei Guangming who, after a decade of imprisonment in the Secluded Pavilion, had come out but perished together with Yan Se.

The second and final one was the master of the Divine Hall of Light six hundred years ago. That Great Divine Priest of Light had studied in the West-Hill since childhood and was widely respected. He was introduced to the three Tomes of Arcane in Zhishou Abbey and was once believed to be the next Abbey Dean. However, no one would have predicted that after reading some of the Buddha’s teaching, he was enlightened and started to amend the teachings of West-Hill.

That was an impossible mission, and was furthermore, unacceptable in Taoism. These were Haotian’s teachings. How dare he amend them? At that time, both the Great Divine Priests of Judgement and Revelation did not approve his behavior. They decided that he had gone on a wrong path and their disagreements with his teaching eventually turned into a battle for power.

That Great Divine Priest of Light had reached a state that no one could compete with no matter in cultivation or debating. Even the Hierarch together with the other two Great Divine Priests could not defeat him. Therefore, there had been fierce conflicts within the Divine Halls.

When Wei Guangming fled from the Secluded Pavilion, many were sacrificed at the Peach Mountain. Prior to that, the internal turmoil six hundred years ago was the most horrifying event throughout the history of the West-Hill.

That turmoil was so destructive that it even affected Taoism’s control over the human world and forced the secluded Zhishou Abbey to take a stand. But even the Abbey Dean and those most powerful figures were unable tell who was in the right. They could only make a decision based on their knowledge at that time.

They banned him from making further amendments to West-Hill’s teachings and expelled him together with his followers from the Peach Mountain. But they still recognized them as a branch of the West-Hill.

That Great Divine Priest of Light had thus drifted away from the Peach Mountain and carried out his teaching in the South Sea thereafter. He swore that he would never come back again unless Haotian displayed his divine magic or the West-Hill apologized.

Ever since then, news came from the South Sea that the priest and his followers had travelled from island to island cultivating the barbarians. He was so devout that people began calling him the Great Divine Priest of South Sea. He died decades after his expulsion.

The West-Hill had always been aware of who this Great Divine Priest of South Sea was. When he died, they placed a name board for him.

That was where this Great Divine Priest of South Sea came from.

Not much was heard after his passing. The West-Hill had thought his followers were also gone, and that after six hundred years, there was no longer such a branch in the South Sea.

Who would have expected the Great Divine Priest of South Sea to have descendants, and that they would have travelled all the way back to the Peach Mountain?

People around the altar were all shocked, especially those divine priests and deacons who knew this story. They were back after six hundred years!

Not everyone was kept from this secret that the Great Divine Priest of South Sea did have descendants. Ye Hongyu was aware that Chen Pipi’s mother was a direct descendant of this Great Divine Priest. The Hierarch knew this as well.

Up in the sacred sedan covered by floating gauze, the Hierarch moved a bit forward under the radiating lights. He did not speak, nor look at this group. He just looked at Chen Pipi calmly.

Chen Pipi was half from the South Sea branch. Had they therefore come all the way to save him from being burnt as a sacrifice?

The head of Revelation Institute wiped off the blood at the corner of his mouth, and lowered his voice to Zhao Nanhai from the South Sea, “Although you are a branch of the West-Hill, did you forget the oath your Great Divine Priest made when he left the Peach Mountain?”

Zhao Nanhai replied emotionlessly, “We from the South Sea never expected you rotten people on the Peach Mountain to apologize. But since you dared to host the Rite to Light, Haotian would definitely reveal some divine magic. Thus, our coming back to the Peach Mountain is not a betrayal of the Great Divine Priest’s oath.”

The head of Revelation Institute was speechless.

As the chanting stopped, the Anthem to Heaven was left unfinished. As the bright lights dimmed, Chen Pipi felt liberated. His melting Ocean of Qi and Mountain of Snow regained its tranquility. He realized he was saved.

But he could not recognize those people from the South Sea. He left the South Sea as a small boy. Those things and people were almost complete irrelevant to him.

He only knew that these people were his mother’s relatives. In another word, they were his family. He should have been more excited and grateful to see his family and life-savers from the South Sea.

But he was not. He merely looked blankly at the group of people from the South Sea. Even if he could barely remember anything associated with them, he could still recall their coldness toward themselves and the people around them. They only cared about spreading their religion.

He had almost forgotten what his mother told him before she died. But at that moment he realized that they would have never betrothed his mother to his father if they were not intending to return to the Peach Mountain.

Chen Pipi knew very well that the descendants of the Great Divine Priest of South Sea did not come for his sake. At least, he was not the main reason they were here. There had to be something to do with his father.

The descendants of the Great Divine Priest of South Sea could have come back to help his father regain control over Zhishou Abbey. But his father should have known that she was right there inside the Divine Hall of Light.

As long as she was there, anyone who dared to challenge the West-Hill would be doomed, even if it the former Great Divine Priest of Light from six hundred years ago was here. There was nothing his descendants could do.

What was his father thinking about?

…

By the lake at Zhishou Abbey, there lay a bamboo bed.

The Abbey Dean was lying on the bamboo bed, holding on to something unknown, and looking at the direction of the Peach Mountain. A middle-aged cultivator was cooking tea. Meanwhile, Long Qing was reading the Tomes of Arcane in a cottage on the other side of the lake.

The middle-aged man prepared the tea and placed a cup of tea by the side of the bamboo bed.

The Abbey Dean picked up the cup with his newly regrown fingers and sipped gently.

The middle-aged looked at the direction of the Peach Mountain, and sighed after a long silence, “What a pity.”

The Abbey Dean knew what he meant by pity. There were two reasons.

When the Headmaster of the Academy stepped up to heaven from Sishui River, he smashed their place at the Abbey. All the secluded powerful cultivators were killed. From then on, the centre of Taoism had shifted from Zhishou Abbey to the West-Hill. Because authority always came with power, not belief.

He was there when the Abbey was in power. But he was now crippled. His middle-aged disciple was powerful but not enough to succeed his position. Thus, the Zhishou Abbey had declined.

When the middle-aged cultivator had said it was a pity, he had two meanings. The first was pity that the core of Zhishou Abbey was already lost because of the Headmaster. Meanwhile, the second intent was that it was a pity for those divine priests from South Sea who were at the Peach Mountain at the moment.

Because she was in the human world, right there at the Peach Mountain.

“I do not think so.”

The Abbey Dean threw away the things he was holding. They fell onto the ground and sounded like something hard. Then he looked at his disciple and stated, “She would not win. At least not today.”

The middle-aged disciple looked to the ground and saw two pieces of yak bones facing two different directions.

That was a prediction.

…