Volume Four, The Year of the Curtain, Chapter 199, Please Come In
The city gate slowly opened, revealing Ning Que's figure.
Carrying an iron sword on his back and holding an iron pestle in his hand, he stood in the city gate and looked outside the city.
He said: "Senior brother, since you are here to see me, I will talk to him."
Jun Mo pondered for a moment, his eyebrows were like a lake shaded by willows, becoming calmer.
The broad and straight iron sword slowly retracted itself into its sheath.
He saluted the man beside the carriage again, and then walked back to his carriage.
The carriage drove into Chang'an City and stopped next to Ning Que.
Jun Mo looked at him and said: "Since we are talking, we must talk carefully. Although the teacher is no longer in the world, the academy is still there. Such cowards have no right to mess up your mind."
Ning Que saluted and said calmly: "I understand."
He looked at the dirty old carriage at the outer gate of the city, saw the dark steel carriage walls that had been dusted by the spring breeze, and the familiar runes, and then looked at the man beside the carriage.
"Only Second Senior Brother dares to call this man a coward."
Ning Que thought silently, because he knew who this man was who seemed to ignore time. This man had appeared in the teacher's conversations and even in his dreams.
He once had a dream. In that dream, he came to the wilderness. Everyone in the wilderness looked up at the sky that separated light and darkness. He saw the tall figure of the teacher, a drunkard and a butcher.
Later, he had another dream. That time, the master snatched the wine bag from the drunkard and drank from it, and then snatched a pig's hind leg from the butcher's back and ate it.
The Master once mentioned in a conversation in the mountains behind the academy that there were two great practitioners who had experienced the last eternal night. A drunkard and a butcher were the two people in his dream.
Last year, he took Sangsang to the wilderness in a black carriage and saw the battle between the Xiling Temple coalition forces and the desert warriors. Only then did he realize that the place he saw in his dream was here.
In the dream that became reality, he saw the contrast between light and darkness in the sky, the Kingdom of Light behind the clouds and the huge golden dragon head. The Master's figure was indeed that tall. But he did not see the drunkard.
, and I haven’t seen the butcher, until today.
Being able to survive the long eternal night and having almost eternal life under the watchful eye of Haotian shows that the drunkard and the butcher have the means to deal with Haotian. In the words of the Master, practice means living longer than anyone else, then
The realm of these two people has undoubtedly reached a level that is unimaginable to humans.
Still using Master's words, these two people probably can no longer be regarded as human beings.
Among the people Ning Que knew, no one had seen the drunkard and the butcher except Master. Probably only Master could find them. As long as they lived, they would be legends in the world.
The man was carrying a hip flask and had no pig legs on his back, so he was certainly not a butcher.
Ning Que was not an ordinary person. Looking at this man, he was still extremely shocked and wary. After a while, he calmed down and asked, "Senior Drunkard, what do you want from me?"
The drunkard looked at him and said hoarsely: "I was entrusted by someone to return something to you."
His voice was still so unpleasant, as if every word contained the smell of the soil from the tombs of ancient kings and the silk soaked in corpse water.
Ning Que frowned slightly.
The second senior brother had asked before what he wanted to return, but he naturally did not ask again. Looking at the carriage that had been with him for many years and the traces of being crushed on the official road, he naturally thought of those things on the shore of Surabaya.
On the bank of Surabaya, Sangsang appeared as the true god. He was in the dark night, and his feet turned into white lotus to step between the lights. He asked the master to appear as a saint and ascend to heaven, and go to the Kingdom of Haotian together. Colorful flowers fell from the sky, and the sky shook.
That's where the teacher and Sang Sang left. The big black horse that separated them from him in Surabaya, and the black carriage also contained the Yuan Thirteen Arrows and the big black umbrella.
Afterwards, Ning Que sent people to search for it. The wind was blowing in Sishui, and the big black horse could not be found at all. The black carriage and the things in the carriage had also disappeared without a trace.
Today, one thing finally returned to the world, but what about the rest? Where’s the arrow? Where’s the umbrella? Where’s that stupid guy on the big black horse? Where’s the teacher? Where’s Sangsang?
Ning Que's mood was a little unstable. He stayed silent for a long time before calming down and returning his focus to reality. Who wanted to return his things? Who had the ability to find the drunkard and let him be the messenger.
"Who is it?" He looked at the drunkard and asked directly.
The drunkard's reaction was also very direct. He did not answer. The Master is not in the world, so as long as he does not want to answer, no one can make him speak.
The spring breeze dragged Ning Que's cheeks, and it had no meaning of warmth. It was extremely cold, or maybe it was just that he was cold both physically and mentally, so the spring breeze that surrounded him cooled down.
On the bank of Surabaya, he watched the master take Sangsang to the sky together, and then the incoming bombs of the Haotian Kingdom exploded with meteors all over the sky. He was sure that Sangsang was dead, or had returned to the Haotian Kingdom, no matter what.
, anyway, she is no longer in the world now, if she is still here, he will definitely be able to feel it.
So who took away the big black horse, who picked up the iron arrow, who is holding the worn-out big black umbrella in the world now, and who wants to return the carriage to himself? Why is it in the hands of a drunkard?
Ning Que couldn't understand these things.
"Those who disturb my heart are like yesterday." He raised his head and looked at the dim spring sun in the sky. After a moment of silence, he continued: "Those who abandon me, why bother to think about it anymore."
Then he looked at the drunkard and said, "Sir, please come in."
It was extremely quiet in front of the South City Gate. Following his words, it seemed as if a tense atmosphere surged out from the deepest part of the city wall and then floated towards the distant sky.
The drunkard looked at the majestic Chang'an City Wall and said, "Why do you want to enter?"
Ning Que said: "Since we are guests, there is no reason why we should not come in."
The drunkard said: "To be a bad guest, you must have the consciousness not to enter the house."
Ning Que said: "Evil guests and good guests are all guests, and guests do as they please."
The drunkard thought he was very interesting and smiled and said: "Then I am not a guest."
Ning Que also laughed, but his true mood was not like this. If he was not a guest, he would naturally be an enemy.
He looked at the drunkard and said seriously: "If you don't go to the city, how can you return my things to me?"
An alcoholic is like looking at a naughty child and says: "I am already so old and tired from walking such a long way. Do I have to walk the last few steps by myself?"
Ning Que said: "Even if we are only a few steps away, we still haven't reached it yet."
The drunkard said: "You can come out."
Ning Que smiled and said, "You can come in."
The drunkard looked at the mottled old city walls of Chang'an City again, and after a moment of silence he said, "Let's talk about it another day."
After hearing this, Ning Que said without hesitation: "It's better to choose another day."
This was both an invitation and a gamble. To be more precise, it was a gamble on life, on his own life, on the life of the entire city of Chang'an, on the life of the Tang Dynasty, and on the fate of the world.