Nightfall

It was very quiet inside the stone cottage. Long Qing looked at the thin pamphlet and wanted to say something. When he finally uttered his words, it was far from what he originally wanted to say. “The Verdant Canyon is still blocked. It is very hard for the Tang people to get to the south. With Qinghe Prefecture to its North, the South Jin Kingdom is now on its own. The Sword Garret has lost Liu Bai. There’s no one to protect Linkang. If you want him killed, I can do that any time.”

“No need to hurry. Let’s work on the more important matter now.” The Abbey Dean said, “We are expecting a very important guest today. You wait here and don’t waste any opportunity to gain some insight.”

Long Qing was a bit surprised. He wondered, with the Headmaster gone, Liu Bai dead and the Chief Monk of Scripture never leaving the Xuankong Temple, who else could be treated as a very important guest by the Abbey Dean?

Right then someone knocked at the door of the stone cottage. He knocked carelessly, with no rhythm at all. It seemed like he had not been used to being a guest or he was seriously drunk.

Long Qing opened the door. A refreshing wind rushed in upon an annoying squeak, together with some charming smell of liquor and a middle-aged man wearing an ordinary cloth gown.

The middle-aged man seemed nothing special. He had some wrinkles and grey hair but did not seem like he was old because his skin was fairer and softer than those of a young girl and his black hair was darker than that of a newborn.

It was hard to tell his age. Or rather, he was a man of no age.

Long Qing was stunned. He suddenly realized something and his pupils constricted. The peach blossom started blooming in the hole in his chest and he was ready for a fatal strike.

He was not from the Divine Halls of West-Hill yet he had come atop Peach Mountain to the plateau. No one from the Divine Halls was able to sense him, including Long Qing. This could only mean one thing.

He was Distanceless!

The next moment, Long Qing regained his calm and recollected his furious psyche back to the Ocean of Consciousness. The peach blossom in the hole in his chest stopped blooming and closed slowly.

The middle aged man had loosened the flagon from his belt and started drinking. He kept boozing like a tornado on the sea. He never put the flagon down and liquor kept coming out of it.

He was Immeasurable!

The States of Distantless and Immeasurable were both great Divine Abilities above the Five States of cultivation. Throughout the history of thousands of years in Taoism, the Abbey Dean was only one to reach both states. Today Long Qing met the second one.

In front of such a high ranking cultivator, Long Qing realized there was no point for him to stand up. Therefore he calmed down and reasoned this must be the very important guest his master had mentioned.

“Sir, please come in.”

…

…

The Drunkard walked into the stone cottage with one hand holding his flagon and the other behind his back. He looked around the stone cottage and mocked, “It has been so long. I didn’t know the West-Hill was on such a decline.”

His voice sounded elderly, like antique bricks and bronze rubbing against each other. It pierced right into everyone’s heart.

Long Qing turned pale. He felt his Ocean of Qi and Mountain of Snow shaking or even collapsing upon those words. He tried hard to take a deep breath and applied his extremely firm psyche to barely keep his Taoist Heart, his Ocean of Qi, and Mountain of Snow.

The Drunkard turned to Long Qing. It was to his surprise that this young priest was able to calm down himself. He said, “I take back my previous comments. The young people in Taoism were better than I had expected.”

The Abbey Dean was already paralyzed but he was never affected by the Drunkard’s voice. He looked at Long Qing and smiled with content. “He have made great progress these years.”

The Drunkard looked to the middle-aged priest behind the wheelchair and praised, “You are even better.”

The middle-aged priest smiled and said, “Thank you.”

The middle-aged priest looked too ordinary for anyone to remember. He was easily drowned in the darkness and had no fame at all in Taoism or in the world. The Hierarch and Long Qing were only aware that he was a disciple of the Abbey Dean and already reached the state of Knowing Destiny. They did not even know his name.

He seemed to be a nobody. However, since the Abbey Dean was forced by the Headmaster to stay away from the land and confined to the South Sea, he was the one who actually ran the Zhishou Abbey or even Taoism. He had done so much quietly and calmly throughout the years. How could he be ordinary? Others could not tell the difference, but for someone like the Drunkard, he was obviously extraordinary.

The middle-aged priest did not care about worldly fame, but being a cultivator, how could he truly be freed from vanity? Therefore, he was very pleased by the praise from the Drunkard.

“Of course, you are still the best.” The Drunkard turned to the Abbey Dean in the wheelchair and said, “I have to admit if you were still in your full glory, the Butcher and myself together would barely be your match.”

The Abbey Dean smiled at that. “Those are all gone.”

Then the Drunkard suddenly turned the conversation. “That’s why I don’t understand. You are a wastrel now, so how dare you to invite me here? Aren’t you afraid that I’m going to kill you?

Although he had praised Long Qing and the middle-aged priest standing in the darkness, that was nothing but compliment. He could still easily the three of them as long as he wanted to. “If I am not wrong, Haotian should have visited the two of you in the small town. That was why you showed up outside the City of Chang’an. That was also why we, Taoism, had a break. We are grateful for that.”

The Abbey Dean looked at him with a smile, “Then why would you kill me?”

He put it clearly. Both of us are working for Haotian now, so why would you kill me?

The Drunkard looked into his eyes and said, “If you were not a wastrel today, you probably would be of equal importance. However, you are nobody now. Why would Haotian even care if I were to kill all of you?”

The Abbey Dean said calmly, “If the gate to the Divine Kingdom could not be reopened, you will eventually be a nobody too.”

The Drunkard was slightly shocked. He did not expect that a wastrel like the Abbey Dean would be aware of such a secret. He said with a cold voice, “Someone like you can contribute nothing to those heavenly matters.”

The Abbey Dean said, “It was said when the Chief Monk gave the preaching, there were countless ants flying up as they bathed in the sunlight. Although they couldn’t reach the sky, they became countless flaming spots as if that was the gate to Nirvana.”

The Chief Monk he mentioned was definitely the Chief Monk of Scripture of the Xuankong Temple. The Drunkard understood what he meant and frowned. “You are so conceited. How could Haotian considered you pious?”

The Abbey Dean answered, “Haotian’s perception of human beings would never change no matter what we do.”

The Drunkard said, “I’m not Haotian and I do change. Now I want to kill you even more.”

The Abbey Dean asked, “Why do you want to kill me?”

The Drunkard said, “Because your conceit makes me afraid. I’m the Drunkard. Do I even need a reason to kill?”

The Abbey Dean continued calmly, “You don’t need to pretend to be mad. That’s not going to work with me. I know you are neither Ke Haoran nor Liu Bai. You are just addicted to alcohol.”

The Drunkard was a bit stunned and said, “So what kind of person do you think I am?

“Addiction to alcohol is indulgence, and addiction to meat is greed. The two of you have been cultivating on human desires. The human desires are overwhelming and indestructible. You survived the previous Ever Night just because you cultivated on these desires. Therefore, you are cowards. The stronger your desire for survival is, the more fearful of death you become.” The Abbey Dean said to him with a smile, “You said previously you have not been to West-Hill for a long while. I know that was a lie. Actually you’ve never come to West-Hill because you are afraid. You are afraid of being found by Haotian.”

The Drunkard became stern.

The Abbey Dean continued, “In the teaching of our Haotian Taoism, the human desires are our original sins. You and the Butcher are steeped in your sins. Now that Haotian has promised to cleanse your sins, I suppose you should no longer be as cowardly as you used to be.”

The Drunkard said, “But what you are going to do is against her will.”

The Abbey Dean shook his head and said, “You are wrong.”

The Drunkard asked, “Why am I wrong?”

“Taking the human desires and the cause and effect concept taught by Buddhism into consideration, we would be able to see through truth of most things and what every human being actually desire for. Xiong Chumo sought for glory, magnificence, and the worldly fame. Therefore he cared nothing but his power.” He glanced at Long Qing and turned back to the Drunkard, “You and the Butcher want immortality, while Haotian wants to return to the Divine Kingdom. She might forget that, but we, as her followers, should constantly remind her. If she could no longer remember it, then we have to find a way to send her back.”

The Drunkard asked, “So that’s not against her will?”

The Abbey Dean answered, “Correct.”

The Drunkard kept quiet for a long while. Then he looked at the wise Abbey Dean and sighed. “I never met anyone as weird as you. Please excuse me for not going to keep your company.”

The Abbey Dean said calmly, “You have to stay on my side.”

The Drunkard mocked, “Throughout these years, the Taoists dared not to mess with me. Now it has changed, huh?”

The Abbey Dean asked, “How about Haotian?”

The Drunkard said, “Her telling me that in person is completely different from you speculating her thoughts. Not to mention that your speculation is probably against her will.”

The Abbey Dean said, “You could go take a look and help me send a message.”

The Drunkard frowned and asked, “Send a message to whom?”

The Abbey Dean explained slowly, “I can’t travel much now. The way to the west is too long. I can only rely on you.”

The Drunkard finally confirmed what he had speculated. He turned dramatically and shouted, “That’s extremely audacious! There’s no chance to win! Even if she is much weaker now, she is after all Haotian. Throughout the cyclic existence of the human world, all those who dared to disobey Heaven all died. Even the Headmaster lost to her. How could someone like you and me win?”

“You are wrong. This is not disobeying. It is …” The Abbey Dean said calmly, “To proceed on behalf of Heaven.”

To proceed on behalf of Heaven — what if Heaven would not speak or approve? In that case, how could they proceed? By floating on the sea?

Yet none of those would be the Abbey Dean’s choice.

He was extremely firm. If Heaven could not do this, then I will proceed on behalf of Heaven. As long as I pursue and execute Heaven’s Rules, no one could claim me wrong, not even Heaven.

…

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