Lin Xi followed behind ‘Brother Ming’, his head hung dispiritedly.

‘Brother Ming’ had its head high and chest out as it walked in front.

They walked towards the ‘Sunset Horse Field’ that was already in their line of sight.

“Can it really understand what we are saying?”

When he waited until Li Wu, Bian Linghan, and Gao Yanan caught up, Lin Xi couldn’t help but quietly ask Li Wu and Bian Linghan.

Li Wu seemed to never expect Lin Xi would ask this kind of question. He stared blankly. “Of course.”

“This question of yours really is stupid.”

Bian Linghan was Tong Wei’s direct disciple, so her way of speaking also picked up a bit of Tong Wei’s style. She said this line that Tong Wei would often say back when they had lessons in Green Luan Academy, and only then did she look at Lin Xi and say, “If it cannot understand what you are saying, why would it know the connection between the horse field and the Divine Elephant Army? Why would it directly head towards Sunset Horse Field? Why would it have a conversation with you alone just now?”

Lin Xi was speechless.

It was because of his continuous questions that didn’t obtain any replies that left him in in such a helpless and dispirited state.

It was because coming to the horse field now really wasn’t his suggestion.

Even though today just happened to be the day Sunset Horse Field purchased another bulk of food, according to normal reasoning, if this batch of goods were to be transported to Sanskrit Passage, there would definitely be Divine Elephant Army people who would secretly come to receive the goods. Last time, Lin Xi encountered that Big Black wielding Tangcang high ranking officer because he was following Lu Tianfu’s carriage

[1]

, so the one in charge of receiving these goods has a high chance of being this Tangcang officer.

If they entered Sunset Horse Field at this type of time or secretly watched for activity around Sunset Horse Field, then there was a high chance of discovering both the food transport carriage and this Tangcang officer.

However, in Lin Xi’s opinion, now wasn’t actually a good time for entering Sunset Horse Field. It was because previously, the academy already sent over news that Medicine Department already prepared the poison for dealing with the Divine Elephant Army. Even if they could kill this Tangcang officer and seize Big Black, they would be beating the grass and scaring away the snake. Even if the other party didn’t use Sunset Horse Field and chose a different way of collecting foodstuffs, they still had a chance of being discovered by Auspicious Virtue, there were many more unknown variables, so it was harder to grasp.

However, he couldn’t tell ‘Brother Ming’ what to do.

When he noticed that the place ‘Brother Ming’ brought them to was precisely Sunset Horse Field, pleading ‘Brother Ming’ for a one on one conversation, the end result was that he was left extremely frustrated, extremely helpless.

Regardless of what he said, ‘Brother Ming’ had a similar appearance, not showing any changes at all. The only thing it did was receive his questions.

“You have your thoughts, it definitely has its reasoning.” Judging from Lin Xi’s expression and the things he said, Gao Yanan knew that ‘Brother Ming’ definitely didn’t give Lin Xi any reply. She gave ‘Brother Ming’ who was walking in a dignified manner a look, and then turned around to look at Lin Xi, quietly saying, “It is just like how there are some things Vice Principal Xia and the others did before that we cannot understand, but we will naturally understand later.”

Lin Xi’s mood became a bit better. His eyes landed on the proudly strutting Brother Ming up ahead.

During the academy’s chaos calming, the most important battle happened in the little courtyard Principal Zhang stayed within in Green Luan Academy. That lowest Green Luan Academy peak was an academy restricted region, so apart from Vice Principal Xia and the others who were there, no one else in the academy knew the exact details of this battle. Lin Xi didn’t know the exact details of that battle either, but when he looked at the proudly strutting ‘Brother Ming’ up ahead, he inwardly suddenly thought of a possibility. His expression suddenly became serious.

…

‘Brother Ming’ continued to walk with its head high and chest out.

It was just like back then when it followed Principal Zhang into Central Continent City for the first time back then, when it stepped on Central Continent City’s stone paved road.

When it first followed Principal Zhang into Central Continent City, there were already cultivators mocking it for its insufferably arrogant appearance, and then mocking Principal Zhang.

It was angry, so back then, Principal Zhang laughed, telling it to give people a path of life.

Then, it smacked those cultivators who mocked it flying, moreover making all of their clothes explode, their bodies naked as they hung from the roof of a restaurant.

A foreigner who made too strong of an appearance would always draw more disputes.

At that time, those cultivators in Central Continent City were backed by many sect masters from various factions who sent even more formidable cultivators after Principal Zhang.

After fighting more than a dozen battles large and small, all of Central Continent City’s cultivators learned of Brother Ming.

Many people were beaten into idiots by Brother Ming.

Principal Zhang and it never suffered a single defeat before.

Then, there was no one else who dared mock it for the way it walked anymore.

Big Black, Qilin, these were all the most precious memories in its life, a part of its life.

The amount of time it accompanied Big Black for was even longer than Principal Zhang.

Within a certain place without any traces, it already discovered Big Black, discovered Big Black’s power and peculiarities. That was why it guarded Big Black, subconsciously treating it as its secret stash, its best treasure. This continued until a middle-aged uncle walked up to it, looked at it, and then just said a simple line. “You are always staying in this type of place, guarding this thing like a scrooge, what is the meaning? How about you follow me out and give this world a look?”

For some reason, with just this line, it didn’t even fight against this middle-aged uncle, just directly handing Big Black to him, and then followed him into this world, experiencing this incomparably brilliant life.

That was why no one understood Big Black’s aura better than it.

It already sensed Big Black’s aura.

Big Black was precisely in this horse field before it.

…

The worn out and nameless Tangcang officer sat in a wooden house within the horse field.

Behind him was the chest that held Big Black, in front of him was a pot of wine that was being warmed up and a large plate of red sauced oily pork belly.

This life of his was also closely tied to Big Black.

Big Black made him more powerful, to the extent where he was almost unmatched in Tangcang. However, it also made it so that he didn’t dare make an appearance. Perhaps without Big Black, he might have enjoyed greater status today.

Right now, he was a bit tipsy.

The gains and losses of one’s life, who could count them clearly?

If he went with the flow of the winds and water current, he might have become one of Tangcang’s most influential figures, someone who lived a life of luxury and extravagance, not like previously where he always resided in poor residences and alleys, to the extent where he only ate things he himself made out of fear of exposing his identity. It was to the extent where if things went like that, he might not be able to even enjoy this simmer-fried pork belly.

“For better or for worse, it is a beautiful dream.”

He picked up a piece of pork belly, slowly chewing it, enjoying the thick and delicious taste. He chuckled in self-mockery, and then thought back to the reason he set the resolution to give up everything to obtain Big Black.

Many years ago, he already thought through this reasoning. Today, while he was still half drunk, he didn’t know why he suddenly remembered it again, why he was actually still thinking about this. That was why he said this in self-mockery. Then, while he slowly swallowed this piece of meat and picked up the wine cup again, he instantly understood why he would suddenly think of this, also instantly understanding that what he was most scared of also finally arrived.

Could it be that this was a destiny he couldn’t escape from?

This worn out middle-aged man’s expression paled slightly. The soul force on his body surged,  in that instant, all of the alcohol smell in his body surged out from countless pores in his body. The entire wooden house was instantly filled with extremely strong wine fragrance.

He couldn’t accept this.

His hand landed on the black chest on his back. The chest directly split open, his hand landing on Big Black, moving the zither strings, directly firing an arrow.

At this time, he only sensed an aura that made his heart tremble.

This wave of aura was something that other Sacred Experts might not be able to detect, but during these years, he feared Green Luan Academy’s assassination even while fast asleep. That was why his perception towards the slight changes of vital energy in this world was much greater than most Sacred Experts’.

Right now, he still completely couldn’t determine the enemy’s exact position through this type of weak aura. However, during these years, he had long thought through countless fighting methods for dealing with Green Luan Academy’s experts. This arrow of his directly fired at a pool in the horse field.

This pool was what the horses normally used for water, the shore stamped solid by the horses’ hooves, not a stalk of grass growing there. However, the waters were full of water plants, extremely verdant.

A wave of black arrow light silently flew out from this wooden hut’s rear window frame, drawing out an arc that spiraled around almost half of the horse field. It entered this pool and then turned into an expanse of dark night, carrying large amounts of pond water, instantly rushing high into the sky.

Dark night instantly covered the skies above the horse field.

Everyone in the horse field saw the distinct radiance and darkness in the skies. They didn’t release any cries of alarm, nor did they release any screams, because the amount of shock they faced was too great, moreover, they were completely unable to react.

Countless water droplets brought into the air by the dark night flew through the sky, quickly evaporating and then turning into even smaller water droplets. The entire sky suddenly became ice-cold. Even more water vapor began to condense in the humid air.

This arrow was like the fuse for an explosion, like an artificial rain. A downpour suddenly descended upon the entire horse field’s surroundings.

…

Lin Xi raised his head towards the skies in shock.

His shock laid in the fact that the worn out Tangcang officer really was in this horse field, he was shocked that the other party actually sensed an aura of danger that quickly, releasing this type of shocking arrow.

An arrow stirring up a great rain, this was something he couldn’t even imagine before.

Just now, he didn’t notice just where exactly this arrow was shot from at all. At this time, finding out where the opponent was in the boundless rain became even more difficult.

He didn’t know if Brother Ming had the ability to find out where exactly the enemy was hiding in this great rain. The only thing that he was sure of was that right now, both him and the others, before this type of scene, couldn’t interfere at all.

The first drop of rain landed on the ground.

The raindrops scattered across several areas of grass.

In this instant, Brother Ming raised his head in a dignified manner. A streak of extremely pure radiance that was also concentrated to the extreme shot out from its mouth, turning into an expanse of radiance.

The dark night and bright day’s distinction was clear.

The moment this expanse of brilliance appeared, a dark night also descended at the same time.

Endless black dust and fragmented wisps of light began to face each other, as if flames were burning away at some kind of border.

Everything was completely silent.

Only powerful energy surged, and then disappeared.

Brother Ming stopped Big Black’s arrow.

Before the first expanse of black night completely faded, another dark night shot over from who knew where, descending and crushing down on top of the previous expanse of night.

The black night became even thicker.

1. Merchant who owns Sunset Horse Field

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