Chapter 18

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The superintendent closed the water mirror, and the room went dark for a moment. The Crown Princess will not be canonized until next year, and now the ruling side and opposition parties have already begun to fight against each other. He shook his head and sighed, then glanced outside.

On the top of the White Pagoda, the night breeze was so powerful that the howling sound made the Temple look haunted; the square in front of the temple was empty. Only the armillary sphere ring moved slowly on the observation platform, covering the sky full of stars.

Suddenly, his eyes widened: out of nowhere, at the end of the empty square outside, a person appeared silently! The young man who materialized on the top of the mountain, standing above the Jialan White Pagoda floating, with his hands crossed behind, dressed in white under the starry sky, was watching attentively the changes of the star field overhead through the armillary.

That… that person is the Great Priest?!

The Superintendent stood up in surprise, but before he could sneak out, he saw another man limping onto the stargazing platform on crutches, standing behind the Priest and patting him on the shoulder. It was an old man with long white hair and beard, flying in the wind, holding a piece of jade slip in his hand. It turned out to be Da Si Ming, who had lived in seclusion and had not been seen for many days.

Why did these two people suddenly appear here in the middle of the night?

The Superintendent hurriedly approached the window, trying his best to hear their conversation clearly. However, the two men just stood on the top of Jialan Pagoda, standing with their hands crossed behind, floating in the wind, without saying a word to each other, just silently watching the stars shifting above their heads.

After half an hour, finally, Da Si Ming spoke, “How about it, did you see it?”

“Yes.” Shi Ying said softly, “I saw it.”

“Kongsang is destroyed, the catastrophe is coming… The blood is flowing into a river!” With the jade slip in his hand, Da Si Ming pointed to the almost invisible piece of enchantment, and sighed, “Kongsang people’s end is coming! And now in the Imperial Capital, these people are still busy fighting each other! The Menghua Dynasty? Haha, they are still dreaming!”

What? Da Si Ming is drunk again, right? The Superintendent of the Celestial Prison had a thump in his heart.

He stood on tiptoe and looked from the window in the direction pointed by Da Si Ming. The star field changed, the ephemeris calendar passed through the almanac, but no matter how much he gazed, he couldn’t see anything strange in that area. When he couldn’t help but take look again, suddenly everything in front of his eyes became dark: a pair of huge wings descended from the sky, with a light sweep knocked the peeper on the head and the voyeur fainted head-on; a sharp beak pecked him by the clothes, and the limp body was thrown out of the window horizontally.

“Chongming, you are not allowed to eat!” Shi Ying frowned slightly, and scolded the bird without looking back, “Put him back.”

With a swipe of its wings, the divine bird unwillingly spit out the Supervisor who was dangling into his mouth, and threw him back through the window, making a cooing sound of protest.

Shi Ying glanced at the armillary direction again, and nodded to Da Si Ming: “Yes, I saw it below; although your prediction is cruel, it is undoubtedly accurate.”

Yes, in that starry field, there is a piece of evil that is still invisible to the naked eye, like a faint mist, quietly permeating, and it will reach the position of the Big Dipper within fifty years. When the evil demon that represents the rebirth of the dead and the return of the departing people envelopes the earth, Yunhuang will fall into an unprecedented turmoil!

“Unfortunately, apart from the Great Priest of Jiuyi Temple, there is no other person in Yunhuang who agrees with me.” Kongsang’s Chief Commander shook his head and laughed, “Hehe… everyone thinks I am alarmist. They are all blind!”

“There is no need to argue with those mortals with empty eyes.” Shi Ying bent down deeply and said in awe, “You calculated this result spending half of your life’s hard work. Let me do the rest…”

“You? What do you want to do? What can you do?” Da Si Ming glanced at the young man in front of him and sneered, “Do you think you can reverse the orbit of the stars? Ridiculous! The power of the cycle of nature is like this vast vault of heaven, no mortal can resist!”

Shi Ying bowed slightly: “Just do your best and listen to your destiny, that’s all.”

“So confident?” Da Si Ming laughed and shook his head, “Then, tell me, this time when you went to Susa Haru, did you find that person?”

Shi Ying was silent for a moment, and sighed, “No.”

After a pause, he added, “I have killed all the sharks in Susa Haru, but the evil spirit has not gone away… Therefore, I could only go back to the Jialan White Pagoda and use the armillary to predict where the society stands at this moment.”

“You could not find him, because he is destined to live!” Da Si Ming shook his head, and his hair fluttered in the wind. “He was sent by the Gods to take revenge on Kongsang, he is doomed to destroy the Six Clans and bring chaos to the country; neither you nor I can stop him!”

“I was so close to finding him…” The Great Priest said calmly, “There are still decades to go before the prophecy happens… I still have time; I will find him.”

Da Si Ming was taken aback, looked at him, and suddenly laughed.

“You!” He lifted the jade slips and patted Shi Ying on the shoulder. “Don’t you know that in this Imperial Capital, everyone is fighting like a mad dog for immediate interests? Why do you keep your eyes fixed on such a long-term event? Who cares about what hasn’t happened yet or is still yet to happen decades later?”

“I care.” Shi Ying did not smile, but quietly replied: “If we are like everyone else and only enjoy the glory of the moment, then what’s our purpose and what’s the use of all these divine judgements and punishments?”

“…” The smile on Da Si Ming’s face solidified, and after looking at the young man for a long time, he suddenly sighed, “More than twenty years ago, I asked the Emperor to send you to Jiuyi Mountain. It seems to have been the right decision… My time is running out, when I die, only you can take my place.”

Shi Ying bowed slightly and said, “I dare not.”

The Chief Commander frowned: “What dare not? I have already recommended you to the Emperor.”

Shi Ying lowered his eyes, looked at the distant earth under his feet, and suddenly sighed gently: “Thank you for your kindness. To tell you the truth, if this nefarious event can be safely ended, I want to take off this white robe.”

“What?” Da Si Ming was taken aback for a moment, “You… You’re not going to be a priest anymore?”

“That’s right.” Shi Ying smiled, with a profound tone.

Da Si Ming’s face changed slightly: “Have you talked to the Emperor about this?”

Shi Ying shook his head and said, “Not yet. It’s too early to speak.”

“The Emperor may not agree.” Da Si Ming’s expression sank, a little worried, “He sent you to the Jiuyi Temple in your childhood. In fact, he hopes that you will be a Priest who serves the Gods for a lifetime, and never come back to the mundane world. If you want to take off this white robe, I’m afraid he will be furious.”

“What reason does he have to be furious?” Shi Ying sneered, and suddenly there was a trace of sarcasm in his tone, which was a rare sign of real anger coming from him. “Even if I take off this white robe, I won’t come back to compete with my brother for the throne; he doesn’t have to be worried.”

“…” Da Si Ming was speechless for a while.

“Besides, my current life is not something he can control anymore.” Shi Ying’s voice regained restraint and said faintly, “If I want to go, no one can stop me.”

Da Si Ming was silent for a moment then asked: “Then… What do you want to do when you’re no longer a Priest?”

“I haven’t thought about it yet.” Shi Ying said lightly, “When the time will come, I will probably figure it out.”

When the Chief Commander saw that he was resolute, he could not help but become serious: “Once you put on this white robe, it is not so easy to take it off. To break away from the seat of the Gods and break the oath of lifelong service to the Heaven, you also know the price you have to pay! Are you really going to accept the thunder fire, drain all your psychic powers, destroy the strength gained from a lifelong penance and hard work, and become a mediocre person again? In this mundane world, there is nothing worth to suffer this for!”

The voice of the old man was fierce, almost yelling, but the face of the young Priest remained calm.

“Your excellency, you should know me,” Shi Ying only replied indifferently, in a calm tone, “if I decided which way to take, what fear should I have if I am in a sea of fire and destruction?”

“…” The Chief Commander stopped speaking, glanced at him, his eyes changed subtly, and suddenly said, “Shi Ying, you haven’t moved your heart, have you?”

Shi Ying’s face moved slightly and did not answer.

“So, that’s it then!” Da Si Ming took a breath of cold air, then raised his head, looking at the stars in the sky, his old face showed an indescribable look under the starlight, “You really look like your mother… Alas, I wasted my efforts to send you to Jiuyi!”

Shi Ying looked at Da Si Ming in a daze, not knowing why.

He knew that he was sent by the Emperor to practice in the remote Jiuyi Mountain when he was an infant, and it was actually after the advice from Da Si Ming. But for so many years, he has never asked this old man who is also a teacher and a friend, whether this advice that has changed his life was true or false.

“Forget it…” Da Si Ming looked at the starry sky and sighed for a long while, “However, being a Priest is indeed not your destiny, it shouldn’t be this way.”

Shi Ying was shocked, his hands tightened slightly.

His fate? All practitioners, no matter how powerful, even if they can penetrate the past and the present, are unable to see their own destiny. On the other hand, the only one who could see the trajectory of his fate was the Commander on the top of the White Pagoda, the only one whose cultivation was higher than his own. At that moment, he wanted to ask the old man what his fate was, but he remained silent.

“In fact, like you, I also want to save this national disaster,” Da Si Ming sighed, and his tone suddenly became serious, his eyes deep and tired, “but I studied the astrolabe carefully, those fatalistic threads were numerous and tangled… If I move one of them, it may lead to invisible results. At that time, I can’t even be sure whether for Kongsang is a blessing or a curse…”

He turned his head and looked at Shi Ying: “You want to step in and save Kongsang’s fate. Do you know that if you fail, the whole astrolabe will overturn and will cause chaos in the world?”

“I know,” Shi Ying lowered his eyes, “but it’s better than doing nothing.”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple.” Da Si Ming shook his head and didn’t continue, “You think of it too easily.”

“Then, we might as well try our own methods.” Shi Ying looked at the Chief Commander with his hands crossed, and said lightly, “If you are empty and negative, you can’t be helpful to Kongsang.”

“Oh, yes, you are so high-spirited, how can you give up?” Da Si Ming laughed, his tone was light, he didn’t know whether it was a praise or a scolding, “You grew up with the world in mind since you were a child…”

On the top of the Jialan White Pagoda, under the sky full of stars, only the old and the young stood side by side in the wind, looking up at the starry vault, relatively silent, their minds surging.

“Now that you are all here, go and see the Emperor. He hasn’t been feeling well lately.” For a long time, Da Si Ming sighed and lowered his voice. “Although he didn’t say it, I know that in his heart he always wanted to see you.” You haven’t exchanged a word between father and son for more than twenty years.”

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