Nightfall Chapter 12

Once Lu Qing Chen finished his sentence, he began to cough drastically again.

In secular people’s imagination, Psychic Masters are the most mysterious. However, only the Psych Masters themselves know that, the seemingly miraculous Psychic Power was actually a double edged sword. While it attacked the enemies, it would deal a lot of damage to their own Sea of Soul or even flesh.

He glanced at the corpse of the giant man, thinking how Tang would lose some of its precious elites due to this battle. He couldn’t help but feel unfortunate and sad. He shook his head and sighed,

“Even though Tang had many experts, but there were not that many Great Sword Masters. You have such great power, and you are from the Academy. You should have worked hard to help the nation, but why would you work for the traitors?”

“Traitor? What is a traitor? Master Qing Chen,you were from the Great Sky Way. You should have known the prophecy from the Sky Seeking Court* was being wiped out : Night covers the stars, the nation would soon become chaotic!”

Based on the guards’ facial expressions, the mid-aged scholar had already realized that the target of this assassination was not in the wagon. The woman died before was only a scapegoat. He looked at the luxurious wagon that had already became trash.

“I don’t care about what General Xia Hou was thinking at all. I only know that we have the same goal. That is, to kill the woman in your group!”

Lu Qing Chen remembered the Sky Seeking Court Event that caused huge influences from more than ten years ago. He remained silent for a while, shook his head and said, “The Academy’s spirit proposed is to disregard fate, I am from the Great Sky Way. Yet even I don’t believe in such prophecy, you have no need to believe in it at all.”

“I followed the Princess for four years already, I had never considered her as the person the prophecy talked about.”

After hearing this secret that the lower class people would never know, Ning Que faintly understood why the Princess had insisted to marry the Chief in the Great Plain, and why the Emperor would actually agree.

After thinking of this, he couldn’t help but turn his head around, seeing that pretty maid getting an angry and cold face.

The mid-aged scholar slowly held back all his facial expressions and stopped replying to Lu Qing Chen. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. As he inhaled, the fallen leaves surrounded him started to flow around him.

“What else do you want to do?”

The old man Lu Qing Chen frowned as he stared at him. “I waited for you for seventy seven seconds. During that time you still could not regulate your pranayama** successfully, showing that your inner organs were already broken, and your Sea of Qi was destroyed, plus your natal sword is useless now. Now, you can’t even beat a regular soldier. Don’t you want to have a calm moment before death?”

In common people’s heart, no matter Sword Master or Psychic Master, these Xiu Xingist all are very mysterious. Some non-educated people even believe that those powerful Xiu Xingists can no longer die. Therefore even though they saw the mid-aged scholar was about to die, the heavily wounded Great Plain barbarians and guards were still not daring to loosen their guard.

Until they heard what Lu Qing Chen said, they eventually realized that the terrifying Great Sword Master really could not fight anymore. Suddenly, they began to relax due to fatigue and wounds.

Only Ning Que still remained cautious. Since the beginning of the battle, he hid like a quail inside the fallen trees, staring at the bloody mid-aged scholar. He held the bow and arrow and moved slowly, seeking the best position to shoot.

Tang Empire valued pride over life. No matter educated or illiterate, everyone favored reputation. In their point of view, when the enemy fought hard and was about to die, he should earn the respect corresponding to his strength and status.

At this moment, the person about to die was a respectable Great Sword Master, so the head of guards would nod back as a courtesy. Even though the opponent killed many of his loyal subordinates, Lu Qing Chen would talk with him and explain the puzzles, allowing him to complete his last word or give his last request.

Ning Que was never a typical Tang civilian.

He values reputation, but he insists that reputation is not his life. He never believes that there is anything more important than life in the world. Even if there is, it will not be reputation.

He is just a little soldier on the frontier. He did not understand the way the strong Xiu Xingists fought, and today was his first time seeing such fight.

However, today this Great Sword Master became his enemy, then he would keep remaining cautious, getting ready to kill the opponent at any time using any method.

He had a harsh vagrant life since he was very young. In the frontier, he was living on the borderline of dead because he had to fight with the barbarians. From these experiences, he formed a ingrained understanding: ‘Only the dead enemies are safe enemies, and good enemies.’ And only at that time would he probably take off his hat, and stare at the enemies’ corpses to show some respect.

At this point, a strange event suddenly happened, or, happened as he expected.

The fallen leaves by the tree flow quickly, the mid-aged scholar’s long gown suddenly became swollen, and bloods came out of his five sense organs. It seems like there was a horrifying invisible power flowing from the fallen trees into his body, pushing out his own power with the flow of blood.

“Absorb the universe inside!”

Seeing this, Lu Qing Chen’s mood suddenly changed. He looked at the mid-aged scholar and criticized at him angrily, “The student from the Academy uses Satanic technique? You…you dare to betray your mentor and ancestor!”

Although the battle in the opening of North Mountain was dangerous and intense, the elder did not change his expressions even a tiny bit. In Tang’s culture, if there was a battle, then death from defeat or glory from victory were common. Killing was not frowned upon when the reasons were legitimate. However when he discovered that the middled age scholar used self-destructing techniques from Satanism, he finally shown his hidden rage.

“If I walk on a righteous path, why would I be afraid to use Satanism techniques,” The scholar raised his hand slowly, and pointed at the elder sitting on the side of the carriage, and said indifferently, “If this is damnation, then let me be damned into the Underworld and can never reincarnate for eternity.”

The moment he finished speaking, a cut appeared at the bottom of his index finger from

his right hand. The cut was so deep the bones inside were showing slightly. Hearing his painful moan, the finger bursted from the hand and accelerated rapidly into a bloody shadow, aiming straight towards Lu Qing Chen’s forehead.

Containing the qi of nature inside his body and molding his body into a natal sword, then compress all of his qi and life force into one strike was a most classic Satanism technique!

The elder named Lu Qing Chen was the strongest person in the party escorting the princess. He was a very important part of the group especially in this situation where all of the barbarian soldiers and Tang guards were badly wounded or dead. If he was going to be killed by this broken finger, then who was able to defend against a deadly strike from a dying Great Sword Master?

Two barbarian guards rushed towards the middle aged scholar shouting, but they quickly fell onto the fallen leaves after two steps. The curvy knives in their hands also slipped out of their hand when they crushed into the ground.

The leader of the guard was crawling on the ground, which was flowing with blood. There was a crossbow next to a dead guard not far away from him. Although he struggled with his life to obtain the crossbow, he was still too slow. Even if he successfully got the weapon, Lu Qing Chen was too weak and exhausted to save himself from the strike of the broken finger.

In the dark and gloomy entrance to the north mountain, no one expected that a Great Sword Master from the Academy will use Satanism techniques. No one was prepared for this. The ending seemed to be clear – the elder will be killed by the Great Sword Master and the whole team will be slaughtered.

But Ning Que was prepared.

He prepared for a long time.

When the scholar spoke indifferently of his Satanism, Ning Que was not scared or angry. He cautiously watched every movement and action of the enemy and quietly moved his body, finding the perfect position.

When the middle aged scholar started to absorb the qi of nature into his body, the fallen leaves were flying and swirling in the air with the flow of qi. Using the leaves as camouflage, Ning Que stood up and aimed his bow at the opponent and pulled the bowstring.

Exerting force from his right arm and waist, he violently pulled out the bowstring. Just like a full moon, the soft but enduring bowstring stored tremendously force and let out a buzz. The arrow on the string was like a snake, it vibrated slightly but quickly rested its body, preparing for its deadly attack.

When the broken finger of the middle aged scholar flew towards the elder, Ning Que released his index and middle finger. The bowstring bounced back rapidly and an arrow shot out like a lighting, piercing through multiple falling leaves and went straight toward someone’s chest.

Weng weng weng!

The bowstring vibrated violently. The black arrow flew into the air like dark lighting and pierced through the falling leaves and tear the night sky apart. Just before the Great Sword Master’s broken finger landed its hit on the elder’s forehead, the arrow shot into the scholar’s chest.

The flesh and body of xiuxingist were not much stronger than regular people. Especially xiuxingists like swordmasters, psychic masters, and charmist. Their bodies became really weak due to long periods of meditation; therefore they need to focus on close range defenses. Besides loyal guards defending their sides, these xiuxingists also wear light armor inside their robes in case of ambushes from assassins.

In the last moment of his life, this Great Sword Master from the Academy did not hesitate to use Satanism techniques to kill the strongest Psychic Master of the enemy. It was clear that his mind was determined to accomplish his goal, that’s why when he noticed that someone was using a bow to sneak attack him, he didn’t do anything to stop the person.

There was only lakes formed by the qi of nature in his sea of soul. The broken finger was like a black line surfing on a dangerous wave, struggling to advance further. The scholar needed to focus all of his spiritual force on the broken finger to successfully land the strike on the elder. He did not allow himself to be distracted by anything, even if it was a killing blow from a cold arrow.

Plus there was a protective light armor beneath his green robe, he believed that the arrow shot out of nowhere has no ability to kill him from such a long distance.

“Pu”, with a quiet sound, the arrow stuck into his chest and the arrowhead rotated with a much faster speed than a regular arrow. The sharp arrowhead teared the green robe apart in an instant and squeezed into the small openings of the light armor.

The arrow was in the flesh of the Great Sword Master, and blood are flowing out of it.

But the middle aged scholar did not care, he did not even lower his head to look at his wound. The tiny blood drops on his forehead came together to form a stream and flowed towards his eyebrows.

Having an arrow in his body was painful, but he did not die from it, so what?

But Ning Que shot more than one arrow…

* Sky Seeking Court- a place in the capital where the people try to predict the future reading stars

** pranayama- meditation to smooth out your breathing; a yoga technique