Hundreds of pairs of hands got hold of the iron arrow. Some of the hands were covered in festers, some were skinny like branches, while most of them were only skeletons. The color of the skeletons were miserable. They seemed gloomy instead of white.

The iron arrow was finally stopped by the hundreds of rotten hands. But the power of the God-Stunning Array it carried pounded onto Long Qing via the hundreds of hands. He captured people’s psyches and souls and applied their hundreds of pairs of hands as his own, consequently he had to take whatever those hands received, victory or hostility.

The accumulated power on the iron arrow was like a flood. Because of the pause, it burst completely and even more violently toward Long Qing.

Long Qing darted backward on top of the city wall. His feet plowed on the bricks and made two very deep lines. The city wall of Chengjing was seven miles long. He darted back for seven miles and left two lines of seven miles in length. Eventually he failed to stop at the end, broke through the arrow mounds on the wall and was thrown off to the ground in dust and stones.

In a whoosh, the iron arrow set off with the remaining power. No one knew where it was heading. Upon hearing the noises the cavalrymen of the Divine Halls of West-Hill around the city wall came to help. They pulled Long Qing out of the pile of stones and branches with great difficulties. Long Qing was as pale as a dead man. Before he could say anything he covered his mouth with hands and started coughing painfully.

He seemed like a god to the cavalrymen from the Divine Halls. They have never seen him in such miseries. Everyone standing around was stunned and muted. After a long while Long Qing felt slightly better. He stared at the direction where the iron arrow went and pondered. But he looked even tougher than scared.

All of a sudden, the roaring snow storm ceased, as if Haotian was revealing some Divine Manifestation. A minute after the storm stopped, intensive bolts flashed among the layers of clouds like deadly struggles, but no less awe-inspiring for the people on the earth.

Only Long Qing was able to see the cotton-padded gown passing by again on top of the clouds. In some distance after him, there was an indigo gown swinging in the clear sunlight like some celestial being.

The two figures flashed by and disappeared immediately. The next moment the Drunkard showed up in front of him. He looked at where the two figures disappear then turned to Long Qing with a complicated look, as if he was up to something.

Long Qing did not seem disturbed and bowed toward the Drunkard. The Drunkard stayed quiet for a while and disappeared again without doing anything. Until then Long Qing was able to relax completely and colors drained further from this face.

The strange signs appeared in the sky today above the North Yan was an aftermath of the pursuit of the three powerful figures at Distanceless: the Abbey Dean, the Eldest Brother and the Drunkard, but especially the former two. They were too close to each other hence created countless turbulence in the interlining of the Qi of Heaven and Earth. It was also a proof of their divine levels. What happened today would probably be seen frequently throughout the human world in the coming years, leaving behind many legends and scaring many ordinary people.

But Long Qing knew that their pursuit would never stop unless one of them could locate her. Only then the turbulence in the Qi of Heaven and Earth could be stopped. Because for the three of them it was the most important and decisive matter even if their pursuit might throw the human world into a sea of fire. Therefore the Drunkard had an intent to kill him but never executed it.

When facing the Drunkard’s killing intent Long Qing acted very calm. He knew that only by doing so could he avoid a tough confrontation with him. He was not confident in himself in defeating the legendary Drunkard. But he had faith in his master and believed that he would eventually win in this earth-shaking pursuit of Distanceless.

The Drunkard started late. But the Eldest Brother could never completely ignore human sentiments like the Abbey Dean and the Drunkard did. Therefore as long as he had a bond with human world he could never be truly Distanceless.

…

…

It was a historical pursuit of Distanceless. But very few were aware of it. As Long Qing speculated, the Eldest Brother had been at a disadvantage. But probably just because of his disadvantage he showed up in Chengjing and attacked Long Qing, so that he might be able to slow down the Abbey Dean for a while. In the meantime he could take care of some troubles for his fellow Brothers and Sister from the Academy.

But unfortunately, as he had sensed in Linking and Song, Long Qing was already extremely powerful. He could not kill him unless he could make a full strike. But it was not deliberately designed killing for Long Qing this time. It was completely simultaneous. So was Ning Que’s shot. He shot it in a hurry only because he saw the unusual signs in the east.

He had applied most of his energy and spirit in the previous two shots and could barely make a full strike. But he still made a shot just to figure out how powerful Long Qing was now. Because he did not want to waste the chance.

Long Qing was probably the one who understood Ning Que the best in the world. Ning Que never treated him as his lifetime enemy but knew him pretty well after all. Because of Ye Hongyu and Cheng Lixue he knew that Long Qing had gone through a lot ever since he practiced the Grey Eyes, defected from Taosim and later on captured the souls and cultivation of so many powerful figures in the Secluded Pavilion. Therefore he had to know his limits.

The iron arrow did not kill Long Qing. It was a bit disappointing but Ning Que did not care much. Like Jun Mo said to the Chief Monk of Scripture on the plateau previously, there were very few in this world that the Academy could not kill.

If he failed today, he could always try tomorrow.

“Greatly appreciated. My two Brothers.” Ning Que bowed to the west and east successively. He disassembled the iron bow and stored it into the case, then packed his gears and clothes and walked to the edge of the city wall. He recalled witnessing the empress jumping off from here resolutely and happily many years ago.

Indeed, one had to be resolute from time to time so as to obtain ultimate happiness. With such thoughts in mind Ning Que turned to bow toward Chang’an again. Then he jumped off the wall. A moment later there was a low bang outside the city wall.

Stones splashed and dust blew. When the dust settled a large pit appeared on the ground. And Ning Que was gone.

…

…

It was the most freezing winter throughout a thousand years. Wind and snow roared outrageously throughout the continent. Even the harbor in Yue Kingdom was frozen. It was when the Divine Halls of West-Hill carried out the extinction of the New Stream. Ye Su, the former World Wayfarer of Taoism was burned to death in Song. And Ye Hongyu, the Great Divine Priest of Judgment defected from Taoism.

The Chief Monk of Scripture from Xuankong Temple was imprisoned somewhere deep inside the Prajna Peak and would not be able to escape in years. Jun Mo swayed his sword and led tens of thousands of slaves fighting in the underground world constantly. They were getting closer to the dawn of victory. In the meanwhile the elite cavalry of the Right Royal Court and the reinforcement from the White Tower Temple was pressing in.

Yu Lian and Tang was fighting their last battle in the East Wilderness together with their followers from the Wild Tribe. Ning Que was supposed to be guarding the City of Chang’an. Yet he had left all of a sudden without telling anybody where he was heading for.

The Abbey Dean was missing, so did the Eldest Brother of the Academy and the Drunkard. The top three cultivators at the state of Distanceless disappeared at the same time and could no longer be found anywhere in the human world. No one could figure out where they went.

Although the disappearance of those extremely powerful made the entire human world restless, life had to continue in the world. So did the war. The severe winter was finally gone and spring followed. The Tang Empire was besieged by the entire world. But it stayed firmly against their attacks.

The war in Yan was at a stalemate. The Tang army was short of warhorses and the number of their cavalrymen had declined tremendously. They could not risk for a full attack. The Wild Tribe was blocked in their way to the south. The declining Left Royal Court managed to keep their final territory under the protection of the Divine Halls, particularly with Long Qing and his two thousand cavalrymen from the West-Hill. The Helan City in the heart of the Tianqi Mountain was never captured. The mysterious Yu Lian never showed up in the Golden Tribe. All these were interconnected.

The only comfort to the Tang people was that Taoism seemed to be confronted with more troubles. Ye Hongyu, the former Great Divine Priest of Judgment was still alive and kept welcoming more and more followers in the Great River Kingdom. It threw Taoism into chaos. With the support of the Great River Kingdom, Ye Hongyu started fostering the New Stream. She censured Xiong Chumo, the Hierarch and all the divine priests and deacons in the Divine Hall of West-Hill for being shameless and sinful traitors in claiming themselves as the representatives of Haotian.

The New Stream prospered right after a brief pause. With the support from Tang and the Great River Kingdom, as well as the secret shield of the Divine Hall of Judgment, it spread rapidly to every kingdom in the world.

Ye Su’s students and Cheng Ziqing led the disciples of the Sword Garret traveling and preaching throughout the world. The formerly weak and tiny flames had grown into huge fires. More and more Taoist believers were converted to the New Stream and enshrined Ye Su at their homes. As for if Ye Su would approve such worship, no one seemed to care any more.

The Divine Halls of West-Hill were enraged. They sent out a series of edicts to deny Ye Hongyu’s identity. But the former Great Divine Priest of Judgment acted on her own no matter what. The Hierarch could do nothing but constantly trying to bring shame on her morality and faith.

Of course they never stopped the extinction. But Ye Hongyu had prepared well. Her loyal subordinates had concealed their identities and could never be found again. The bloody extinction turned out to be meaningless. It was not until then that everyone in Taoism including the Hierarch started to realize how wrong they were to have forced Ye Hongyu to defect from them.

Taoism was disrupting. The Divine Halls of West-Hill could not stay calm in the turbulence. They reinforced the extinction to a horrifying level.

Many were being killed everywhere. The bodies of the New Stream followers were nailed on crosses along the road. The ravens cawed while the human world was flooded by blood.

However, faith was like the wild grass. The harder people cut them, the higher and thicker they grew in the next spring. Taoism was fully aware of the danger behind their bloody extinction. In order to completely solve the problem, they had to kill Ye Hongyu and wipe out Tang and the Great River Kingdom.

Thousands of cavalrymen from the Divine Halls and even more soldiers from South Jin were stationed by the Great River facing the Great River Kingdom on the other side. The person in charge was Zhao Nanhai. The middle-aged priest was not there. People guessed that he had returned to the Zhishou Abbey.

The war was launched long ago. But the final battle was yet to come. Many were waiting. They waited for a result of the battle between the Golden Tribe Royal Court and the Northern Battlefront Army of Tang, as well as the return of those most powerful.

The breath-taking tension made people silent and helpless. No one noticed that in a small town in South Jin, a new butcher’s shop was opened. It faced to the north.

Let alone the importance of a result between Tang and the Golden Tribe, people could never forgot about the most powerful figures who disappeared from the world. They left in pursuit of some possibility. The Abbey Dean was certain about it. Therefore they were determined to find that person.

What if they could find that person? Some wanted to kill her, others wanted to protect her, while the rest had not made up their minds. They had different purposes. But as long as they were still away, it meant they had not located her so far. Indeed, even if they were the greatest cultivators of Distanceless, it was never an easy task to find her.

…

…

In the very north there was a snow peak. It was far away from the Central Plains and the human world. More precisely, it was the remotest place in the human world. No matter where people started they would eventually reach here as long as they kept walking to the north. It was a frozen land by the Thermal Sea.

It was the coldest place in the world. Once people breathed out it turned into frost. Even the firmest steel would not last long when being frozen here. It used to the home of the Wild Tribe. When they migrated to the south the cottages they left had become the shelters for many animals in the extreme coldness, such as snow foxes and long-tail rodents.

There was no spring down at the foot of the snow peak. Snow storm roared as previously and thick clouds covered the dark sky. When no stars nor the moon could be seen, everything was enveloped in darkness, including the snow peak.

In a cottage abandoned by the Wild People, a lamp was lit suddenly and seemed distinctive in the darkness. A long-tail rodent was chewing on some smelly fruit by a cedar but it did not dare to come any closer, as if something horrible lived inside the cottage.

The lamp light penetrated the window and brightened the ice-covered path in front of the cottage. After a while, some footsteps were heard. A woman was coming to the cottage with a heavy bucket of water.

The woman walked with her hand supporting her waist and seemed clumsy. Water was sprinkled along the way and immediately turned into frozen drops due to the severe coldness. But it seemed strange that the water inside the bucket was not frozen, nor even with a layer of ice on top. It was even steamed and blurred the dim lamp light.

More surprisingly, the woman was wearing very thin clothes. On her worn-out green dress, delicately embroidered flowers were fading. But she seemed ignorant of the chillness and kept walking.

Entering into the cottage, the woman placed the bucket in a corner, then walked to the table by the window and stared at somewhere blankly and silently.

She was plump, or more precisely chubby. Her big waist made her seem clumsy. It was unreasonably big.

The lamp light fell on her eyes and eyebrows. She still looked young, as she had always been throughout the tens of thousands of years. She still seemed indifferent. Even when she looked at the snow peak she looked down upon it with pride.

She was of course Sangsang, namely Haotian.

…