The four youngsters walked on the steep and smooth cliffs with a hostile and complicated atmosphere surrounding them. Their injuries gradually got better in the past few days. However, their exhausted food supplies and hunger gradually weakened them.
Ning Que never expected that the passage dug out by previous Devil’s Doctrine masters would be so long. It seemed that they had already crossed the entire Tianqi Mountains while trudging through this tunnel. However, he still could not find the exit after a long time, which made him a bit anxious.
He was the one who feared hunger most. Thinking back to how the three women had devoured half of his secret food supplies, he felt angry and stared at Tang Xiaotang while saying, “We’ll all starve to death if we still can’t find the way out. How many days do we still need before we can get out of here?”
Tang Xiaotang slightly lowered her head and looked at the beast tail printed on her neck, whispering, “Soon.”
Ning Que took a deep breath and looked at her in disbelief. He then said, “We have been following you for so many days. Don’t tell us now that you have never been here before when we are running out of food.”
Tang Xiaotang raised her little face. She looked at him and then said in grief, “The Front Gate had sealed decades ago. Of course, I never passed through it.”
“That seems somewhat reasonable. Just think about it. When my Youngest Uncle tried to kill you with a sword, you were still in your mother’s belly. How can you know anything about this.”
Ning Que spoke in quite an unfriendly tone. He then suddenly dropped the subject and shouted, “Why didn’t you tell us at the beginning?”
The reason he dared to be so mad towards Tang Xiaotang was that he was too hungry. Under anxiety and hunger, he had no time to consider that the girl from the Devil’s Doctrine was now the strongest of the four youngsters.
Moreover, while walking in the mountains these days, the girl from the Devil’s Doctrine had no vicious aura of the Devil’s Doctrine. Instead, she was innocent, cute and even honest. Thus he had gradually forgotten her identity.
Sure enough, Tang Xiaotang did not get angry. Instead, she shyly lowered her head again and went to the forefront.
“If we have entered the Knowing Destiny State, how can this passage stop us?” Ye Hongyu said with a pale face. She looked at the smooth and cliff aside and continued in an indifferent tone, “After all, it’s still a matter of strength.”
Ning Que mockingly said, “You don’t have to continue to laugh at my sorry state and weak strength. You only took some sneak peek in the Knowing Destiny State and got kicked out from the state. If you’re are still at the Knowing Destiny State, would you still be passing out because of hunger?”
Ye Hongyu fell into silence. Her beautiful face seemed to be covered with a layer of frost.
Mo Shanshan said weakly next to them,”We’re already out of food now. Why do you still have the strength to bicker with each other?”
Ye Hongyu said with a poker face, “I certainly won’t bicker with him after going out of the mountain. I’ll kill him directly.”
Ning Que ignored the threat from the Tao Addict. Since he got away from Chang’an City as he was a child, he had experienced too many life and death situations. So it was impossible for him to flinch at this level of a threat. He did not even fear death. However, due to the profound lessons in his childhood, he did have an innate fear of hunger.
After a short period of silence. Due to the fear and the frustration caused by this fear, Ning Que came to the side of Tang Xiaotang who ashamedly and quietly lowered her head. He then laughed, “Probably only the people from the Devil’s Doctrine are stupid enough to cleave out a passage in the mountains, and turn the escape way into a dead end.”
Tang Xiaotang looked up at him with a solemn face and said, “Both the holy land and this passage represent our Enlightenment Doctrine’s will to change the world. Please be respectful with your words.”
Ning Que did not want to give her a reply, especially after he had heard too many obsessive stories, which he always could not understand. Especially those from Master Lotus about the Devil’s Doctrine’s will of changing and creating a new world.
Tang Xiaotang wrinkled her tender brows and said, “Please don’t be like that, okay? If you think the Enlightenment Doctrine is completely useless and we’re a group of stupid people, then what are you doing here in our Holy Land?”
Ning Que replied in annoyance, “If the ‘Ming’ Handscroll of the Tomes of Arcane doesn’t appear here, I won’t come even if the Headmaster of Academy asked me himself.”
Hearing the words of “Ming” Handscroll of Tomes of Arcane, Tang Xiaotang’s eyes slightly lit up. She thought that she and her elder brother had found nothing in the Holy Land. Thus, her eyesight naturally fell on the iron Box tied with a ribbon in front of Ning Que, and she asked, “So did you find it?”
Ning Que replied, “Don’t look at me like this. All that’s in the box is the ashes of an old man… Why do I always take it with me? Should I find somewhere and throw it away?”
It was wonderful that during these days of walking in the passage they had talked a lot with each other. They talked about things from their childhood to their cultivation, and even about their favorite snacks. But Ning Que, Mo Shanshan, and Ye Hongyu tacitly did not mention their experiences in the Front Gate of the Devil’s Doctrine to Tang Xiaotang or the old monk named Liansheng 32.
It had nothing to do with Tang Xiaotang’s identity of the Devil’s Doctrine or the irreconcilability between the Taoism and Devil. It was also not because the experience was too painful that they were reluctant to think about it. Instead, it was because they had regarded the encounter with Master Lotus as one of the most precious cultivation experience in their lives, and they were unwilling to share it with others.
Ning Que suddenly frowned and looked at Tang Xiaotang, asking, “Haven’t you found the Tomes of Arcane yet? You should be familiar with that place, as it is your hometown. Have you found anything?”
Tang Xiaotang shook her head in dismay and replied, “There is nothing in the Holy Land.”
Ning Que thought that there were actually a lot of bones, ghosts and an old guy who was even scarier than ghosts in that place.
Many cultivation sects in the world gathered in the Wilderness. The West-Hill Divine Palace even bet big to look for the legendary “Ming” Handscroll of Tomes of Arcane when the Front Gate was opened. However, it gained nothing. The location of the Tomes of Arcane naturally became a great puzzle in people’s hearts.
Ye Hongyu said, “The Great Divine Priest of Relation had said that the’Ming’ Handscroll would appear here. So it must show up.”
Ning Que shook his head and said, “It seems that the Great Divine Priest of Relation is probably wrong this time.”
Ye Hongyu slightly frowned and said without any hesitation, “It’s impossible for the Great Divine Priest of the Divine Hall to make a mistake.”
Ning Que looked at her and said mockingly, “If the God of Light didn’t make mistakes a thousand years ago, how could the Devil’s Doctrine appear in this world? Or does the West-Hill always consider that the Devil’s Doctrine is the product of truth?”
Ye Hongyu tightly bit her lips and stopped talking to him.
Mo Shanshan sighed weakly and smiled, “So are you done arguing with him?”
Ye Hongyu nodded and said, ” I did make a mistake before.”
Ning Que felt quite satisfied, thinking that no one in this world, apart from Sangsang, could beat him in an argument.
Ye Hongyu immediately continued, “Since I’ve said I’ll kill him after going out, why do I have to keep contending with him?”
Ning Que bitterly said: “I was just joking. Don’t take it seriously.”
Tang Xiaotang, who was walking in front of them, suddenly said in surprise, “Yes, it’s true.”
Ning Que was stunned, and asked, “What’s true?”
Tang Xiaotang looked back and pointed at the faint fog in front of the passage with her childish eyes filling with a happy expression. She then said, “That really is the exit. We are finally out of here.”
…
…
Looking at the faint light amidst the fog at the end of the passage, they could vaguely guess that it was an exit. After going through lots of hard work while running low on food, they should have excitedly rushed towards the exit while holding each other’s hands and wearing ribbons on their bodies.
However, they stopped and fell into silence. Even Tang Xiaotang was no exception.
Inside this long-winding tunnel, they were isolated from the world, so they could temporarily forget the background of each other’s sect, the so-called good and evil, and the centuries of hatred and bloodshed that could not be washed away. However, once they got out of this mountain that was deserted by Haotian, they would be back to the real world, and the thought of those things weighed down heavily upon them.
The four persons looked at each other and kept silent for a long time.
Ye Hongyu suddenly said indifferently, “I’m not used to pretending to be sentimental. After I go out, I need to spend some time curing myself. Therefore, to kill you and the evil girl from the Devil’s Doctrine should be a matter done in the far future.”
Tang Xiaotang looked proudly at her and said, “You’re still injured now, so I’ll beat you when you recover.”
Mo Shanshan gently trimmed her cotton skirt and said with a smile, “Anyhow, it has nothing to do with me.”
Ye Hongyu sneered and said,”If I try to kill Ning Que, does it really have nothing to do with you?”
Ning Que waved his hand to stop these meaningless conversations, and he then said, “Let’s go out and talk about it later. Xiaotang, you go first.”
Tang Xiaotang stared at his eyes and seriously said, “I know what you mean. You worry there is something strange outside the fog, so you let me lead the way. Yet I’m the disciple of the Enlightenment Doctrine, if the people outside are all from the Central Plains, how can I escape? You’re a man, yet you’re really like what she said – the shame of the Academy.”
Ning Que seriously said with no change of expression, “How did you suddenly become smart?”
Tang Xiaotang replied, “I’m kind, but I’m not stupid.”
Hearing these words, Ning Que naturally thought of Sangsang, who was just a bit stupid, but not an absolute idiot. He suddenly had a strong desire to return to Chang’an City.
He looked at the exit in the fog and said, “All right, I’ll go first. The most powerful disciples of the younger generation of the Taoist, Devil and talisman sects are all here, together with me, a World Wayfarer of the Academy. Let’s not even talk about people who dare to ambush us, I totally think that anyone who sees us of this super crew would be scared to kneel down and kowtow to us!”
These words were obviously used for emboldening himself, just as that he had constantly bickered with the Tao Addict these days. He just wanted to relax the mood that was as dense as the stonewalls that surrounded them.
No one knew that Ning Que, the core disciple of the Headmaster of Academy, had joined the Devil. Even Ye Hongyu just faintly guessed that he had inherited his Youngest Uncle’s mantle. He did not know how the real and ruthless world outside the valley would welcome him if the truth of his joining the Devil was discovered after returning to the human world.
Ning Que walked into the fog after a moment of silence. He reached his right hand to his back and slowly held the handle of the big black umbrella.
The big black umbrella was his greatest ally in this world, which is the warmest and quietest existence like the dark houses of wild cats. When facing Lotus in the Front Gate of the Devil’s Doctrine, he had not enough time to take it out, which almost cost him his life. At this time when he was about to get back to the human world from the isolated mountain, the strangeness and vigilance caused in this situation always made him ready to take out the big black umbrella.
There was no hostile crowd waiting for them in the world outside the fog.
Nor was there a sneak attack.
What met Ning Que was a fist.
A fist that was even bigger than the cheap clay bowl bought by Sangsang.
The fist was frank and righteous, full of hardness and strength.
It came at him like the whirlwind, devoid of any evil intentions.
It was not a sneak attack.
But a blow meant to kill.