Nightfall

Ning Que appeared beside the chessboard, shabbily dressed and all wet. He was dark, thin, and exhausted, as if he was a refugee fleeing from famine.

The Seventh Sister, Mu You, felt pity for him and stepped forward to touch his head. Other elder brothers gathered around him and kept touching his head to express their mixed feelings.

They were very excited for they hadn’t seen the youngest brother they adored for four years. But for Ning Que, it had been a millennium since he parted with his elder brothers and sisters. He was even more excited about the long-awaited reunion. A millennium had passed. Ning Que missed his elder brothers and sisters very much. Ning Que hugged the Fourth Brother, the Fifth Brother, the Sixth Brother to the Eleventh Brother and even Seventh Sister one after another. At last, he walked to the Eldest Brother and bowed to him.

“Eldest Brother, I am back.”

“I am glad that you are back.” The Eldest Brother replied with a smile. He was still gentle and calm, as if he would not care even if the sky was falling. But somehow his voice trembled slightly at this moment.

Thinking about the years he spent in the chessboard world and the fact that he was almost trapped there forever, Ning Que had mixed feelings and said, “I will never leave again.”

Bei Gong walked over to him and asked with concern, “What happened?”

Ning Que told them his experience in the chessboard world briefly and mentioned that he almost indulged in the White Tower Temple but was awakened by two axes. “The axe from my ocean of consciousness was the consciousness of Lian Sheng, but what about the axe from the sky? I might have never woken up if it wasn’t for it. Everything has an answer, but I can’t figure this matter out. Whose axe was it? Who was saving me?”

Hearing this, the crowd turned to look at the Sixth Brother.

The Sixth Brother stood by the chessboard and still carried the extremely thick hammer in his hand. Ning Que realized that the sound of the axe from the sky was actually the sound of the hammer. Every sound of the axe represented a psyche, a psyche from outside the chessboard. The psyche was calling for his return.

He began to realize that his elder brothers were trying to open the chessboard during the years that he was trapped in it. Thinking of all the things his elder brothers did for him, Ning Que’s eyes were wet and he kneeled down in front of the Sixth Brother.

The Sixth Brother helped him up and said, “We all smashed the chessboard. I smashed it a little more just because I am good at using the hammer. The Eldest Brother is the one who did the most work.”

Ning Que kneeled in front of all his elder brothers around the chessboard again. Song Qian told him to stop kneeling, so he stopped kneeling and hugged everyone. He even hugged the Eldest Brother and Seventh Sister. Mu You took a step back to avoid his arms and said shyly, “I am married.”

Ning Que was a little upset and asked, “I know you are married. So what?”

Mu You answered seriously, “It is improper for unrelated men and women to have intimate contact. I feel pity for you, so I let you hug me the first time. But you can’t keep doing it.”

“Who cares? If you really need a reason, then how about you taking my second brother’s place this time?” Ning Que took her in his arms with a smile and his hug was so tight that she was almost out of breath, which led to her complaint after he put her down.

The big white goose came from nowhere and pecked Ning Que at his ankle. He broke out in cold sweat due to the pain and almost fell to the ground. Ning Que looked at the big white goose and said, “This guy is really good at guarding the house. If there were red apricots planted in the yard, he will definitely eat them all.”

Mu You took the clothes and towel from the wooden box that was dragged by the big white goose, walked to Ning Que and wiped the rain off him, murmuring, “Look at you. All wet.”

Looking at the rain on the chessboard, Ning Que replied, “It must be the rain that leaked into the chessboard.”

The Third Sister Yu Lian was at the East Wilderness at this moment, so there was only one girl left at the Back Hill of the Academy. Mu You was used to taking care of all the elder and younger brothers.

She took the wet clothes off Ning Que and put dry ones on him. Staring at him up and down, she found the clothes on him were a little loose and felt sad, “You are so thin now. What a hellhole that place really is.”

Thinking of the Styx River, Ning Que said with a bitter smile, “We indeed saw many ghosts there.”

Mu You asked, “Why did you go there knowing that it is a hellhole?”

Ning Que answered, “She wants to kill the Buddha. We never thought that the Buddha would set up a trap in the chessboard.”

All of a sudden, the cliff yard of the Back Hill became extremely quiet. The big white goose, the birds and beasts in the forest were holding their breaths nervously. The fishes in the Mirror Lake and the stream did not dare to wag their tails for they were afraid to stir up the water, so they gradually sank toward the bottom of the lake and the stream.

Hearing Ning Que mentioning her, the crowd remembered that she also left the chessboard world. They all looked to the pear tree and their bodies became stiff.

It had been quite a while since the chessboard was open and Ning Que had a reunion with his elder brothers and sister, but no one thought of her. If she didn’t want to be noticed, then no one would notice her existence, not even the Eldest Brother.

The crowd looked to Sangsang under the pear tree. Sangsang quietly looked at the pear tree, as if she was thinking of something.

After seeing her clearly, the crowd became more and more unsettled. She put her left hand behind her back and hung her right hand on her side, carrying an indigo-haired dog.

It was very common for a young lady to raise a pet, but no one would hold the pet in their hand like a sword. The indigo-haired dog closed its eyes tightly and pretended to be dead.

The lakeside was silent, and the pear tree shook slightly in the wind, dripping dozens of droplets.

The Eldest Brother stared at her quietly and then reached out to hold the wooden stick by his waist. The Fourth Brother Fan Yue walked to the smithing room, for the River and Mountain Sandbox was there. The Fifth Brother Song Qian and the Eighth Brother reached out to grab the black and white chess pieces, and their fingers were trembling. The Sixth Brother clenched the hammer and his muscles tightened like rocks. An embroidery needle appeared between the fingers of Mu You, and the Cloud Gate Array at the mountain road moved slightly. Bei Gong sat down with his legs crossed and crossed the Chinese zither in front of his chest. Standing behind Bei Gong, Ximen put the bamboo flute between his lips.

In a flash, the crowd was ready for combat and they all pulled out their strongest weapons, for Sangsang was Haotian, the most powerful enemy that the Academy couldn’t run away from.

Wang Chi was very distressed. He was good at debating, taking care of flowers and plants, and using poison, but he couldn’t use any of his specialities to fight against Haotian. Haotian would never reason with him, and it was highly doubtful that Haotian could be poisoned to death by him.

He looked around and finally fell his eyes on the hair of Sangsang. Seeing the little white flower, he asked in a trembling voice, “The flower is pretty. Where did you get it?”

“It’s alright. She is still my wife,” Ning Que said eagerly to ease the tense situation. But Sangsang ignored him, which made it hard for the crowd to believe that it was indeed alright. Ning Que felt a little embarrassed.

It was quiet under the pear tree, except for the light sound of the mountain wind passing through the holes of the bamboo flute and the strings of the Chinese zither.

After quite a while, Sangsang finally stopped looking at the pear tree and turned to look at the crowd. She said without any emotions, “I will not kill you today because of Ning Que.”

Hearing this, Ning Que was finally relieved. Sangsang had regained her Power of Heaven since the poisons of attachment, aversion, and obsession inside her body were gone now. Even though the Academy was very powerful in the human world, it was not a match for Sangsang.

“See, like I said, it is alright.” He patted his chest and said proudly, “I have the honor.”

Bei Gong felt very embarrassed and said, “You have lost the Academy’s face.”

Ning Que explained earnestly, “One has to be alive first to care for saving face.”

Sangsang reached out and then the chessboard came to her hand. She looked at the people around and said, “I want this.”

Although she did not use the interrogative sentence, she was actually asking. The crowd was surprised and then nodded their heads. The Academy indeed liked to be rebellious, but they were not stupid enough to argue with Haotian.

Bei Gong was very brave this time. He held back the stress and plucked the strings with trembling fingers, making a light sound. Then he opened his mouth. “I think… the chessboard is community property, so at least half of it belongs to my younger brother. Shouldn’t you consult him before making any decision?”

Ning Que was speechless. He knew why Sangsang wanted the chessboard. An ordinary person would be angry and depressed if they were trapped in the chessboard by Buddha for a millennium and almost lost their true nature, let alone the proud Haotian.

Sangsang would never just forget the whole matter. She was not able to destroy the world inside the chessboard or kill Buddha whose whereabouts still remained a mystery at this point. She must do something to attain peace.

But the chessboard was not a normal item. Sangsang couldn’t destroy it within a short amount of time even though she was Haotian. How would she deal with the chessboard? How would she vent her anger?

Sangsang pick up the chessboard and swung her arm. The flowers on her sleeve blossomed and then a breeze sprang up. The array intent on the sky above the cliff yard of the Back Hill was torn and a crack appeared. The chessboard flew through the crack. Then it became a little black spot and turned into a steamer, falling to the distant west.

Deep in the West Wilderness, the war in the underground world of the Giant Sinkhole was still going on. Tens of thousands of insurrectionary serfs were bravely fighting and blood and countless Lights of Buddha were splashing.

Suddenly, a fierce whistle rang high in the sky. The serfs with the simple weapons and the soldier monks with the iron sticks looked up at the sky with astonished expressions, and silence swept across the battlefield.

A straight line appeared in the sky, coming from far east, tearing the clouds and the air and flying to the Grand Hall of the Xuankong Temple at the Prajna Peak.

With a loud bang, the Grand Hall which had collapsed after being struck by the spring thunder a few days ago disappeared in a flash and became a dust cloud composed of innumerable particles!

The Prajna Peak began to tremble, countless yellow temples collapsed, countless status of Buddha shattered, and innumerable monks vomited blood and died. The horrible vibration passed to the field, and the war horses whinnied with terror and kneeled down.

The Grand Hall was totally broken. There was only the flat cliff yard left on the summit and the dark hole that appeared between the cliffs. The rocks turned into quicksand due to the high temperature, and dust and sparks kept ejecting from the dark hole and were about to hit the clouds.

Disaster fell upon Xuankong Temple because Sangsang threw the chessboard back from the Back Hill of the Academy. She used Buddha’s chessboard to make a deep hole on Buddha’s remains.

The chessboard passed through the entire mountain and headed to the bottom of the field. After penetrating the hard rock layer and the hot river, it did not stop but kept flying to the horrible magma layer.