Chapter 233 (1/2)

Looking at that black horse taking off with such speed, many herdsmen and Palace soldiers chased after it in excitement. However, students of the Revelation Inst.i.tute were still silently standing on the meadow. Many of them had already guessed Ning Que's real ident.i.ty. Remembering the matter that had been kicked around in the cultivation world from spring to this moment, they could not help worrying about Princess Chen Jia's emotional state.

Princess Chen Jia's fiancé was Prince Long Qing. This excellent man had lived a good life. Neither the Elder of Lanke Temple nor the chief of the Revelation Inst.i.tute could break his perfect inner and outer composure. He was only defeated once in the mountaineering of the Academy in the south of Chang'an, although not many people knew the specific circ.u.mstances of that event. Nevertheless, failure was failure.

Is today the day when Lu Chenjia first meets the man who defeated her fiancé? Students of the Revelation Inst.i.tute worried that she might feel depressed, hence, they did not dare to look at her, which probably caused her to feel embarra.s.sed and angry. They had to slightly lower their heads, seeming to look unwittingly at the ground of the Wilderness.

Seven Lotus Petals were scattered everywhere on the meadow making a big mess. There was no sign of embarra.s.sment on Lu Chenjia's pretty face, but her calm mind which resembled peaceful water began to be restless.

After pulling out a rare scarf from the side of the saddle of her Snow Horse, she walked to the broken flower pots, and picked up the lotus that was almost withered and that had turned black in the cold wind, and then carefully wrapped it up. She mounted the horse with the lotus in her arms, and then rode towards her own tent.

One of the disciples of the Revelation Inst.i.tute behind her picked up the courage and reminded her, ”Your Highness, today the Divine Hall will have a meeting to summarize the border issues that have arisen in the past few months and to discuss a plan on how to deal with Desolate Men next year. It's important that you attend the meeting.”

Lu Chenjia lightly lifted the reins, without ignoring the voice behind her or the meeting that the Divine Hall called. Instead, she silently watched the distant big black horse that was approaching the tent while lost in deep thought.

After the news of the opening of the second floor of the Academy in spring came out, she quietly paid attention to the Second floor. She prayed that her partner would get his own reward and enter the Back Mountain to become one of the core disciples of the Headmaster of Academy. However, she did not expect that such a proud and confident guy who seemed unlikely to be defeated, actually... failed.

Since then, Prince Long Qing returned to West-Hill. Although they never discussed the matter on the Second floor of the Academy, she could clearly feel that there were some subtle differences between the present Longqing and the former Longqing. He was still proud and confident full of dazzling glory, but under his proud exterior there was something hidden that was unclear and unnatural, and a very pale black shadow clouded his glory.

Lu Chenjia knew that all this was caused by that guy, Ning Que.

For people like Prince Long Qing and her, failure was not a terrible thing. They had accurately understood the relations.h.i.+p between failure and success at an early age when the started learning cultivation. However, Longqing was at a very high cultivation state with a clear Taoist Heart, only one step away from the Knowing Destiny State, while the guy called Ning Que had just learned the cultivation, weak in strength and low in the cultivation state. When there exists such a huge gap in cultivation, defeat by a person of a lower cultivation could be an unimaginable blow to the mental state of Taoist cultivators.

In a relations.h.i.+p between two people, generally one's joy and sadness are always based on that of the other one, while ignoring the joy and sadness of the outside world. As for the guy who defeated Longqing to enter the Back Mountain of the Academy, she certainly disliked him to the point of hostility. If it wasn't that the barrier of the Taoist Heart could only be lifted away by Longqing himself, she might have even gone quietly to Chang'an and humiliated that guy.

Other than feelings of hostility and displeasure, she was inevitably a little curious about him. She, just like everyone else, did not think that the Headmaster of Academy would practice favoritism in receiving disciples and that the Academy would use shameless tricks to recruit students. Then, what on earth made that guy named Ning Que to be better than Longqing in the eyes of the Headmaster? What kind of person was he?

Today she finally saw him, and finally knew what kind of a person he was.

She believed that she would never forget Ning Que's vicious and b.i.t.c.hy appearance when he smashed the flower pots and taunted her. In spite of this, she still could not forget the time he had spent in the Academy. She felt miffed and embarra.s.sed.

She grasped tightly on the reins with her fine hands, watching senselessly the Big Black Horse in the distance. The horse that was going to enter the tent was being chased by many people. She silently thought in her heart, ”Are all disciples of the Back Mountain of the Academy as shameless as Ning Que?”

The countries in the Central Plains were ordered by the edict of the Divine Hall to help the Yan Kingdom resist the barbarians. The Tang Empire and the Yan Kingdom were located in the North frontiers, and sent a large number of cavalrymen. The other clans of the Central Plains sent their younger generation of pract.i.tioners to come and serve their orders. Now that the Allied Forces had made peace with the Royal Court, it was only natural for the forces of the various countries to come together and plan for the future. There was no doubt that the convener was also the Divine Hall.

The Left-Tent palace spent a lot of manpower and materials putting up a fairly large tent where the bigwigs of the Divine Hall would discuss business. They had shown their sincerity. The tent had a circ.u.mference of about a hundred steps. It used the bamboo as the backbone and all its components were stretched together by the use of cloth. There was adequate light in the tent. It was so s.p.a.cious that even if there were hundreds of people staying together inside the tent, it wouldn't seem crowded.

The Priest of the Revelation Department of the Divine Hall was the most distinguished person in the tent. He was naturally sitting in the middle position. On his right hand sat Shu Cheng, General of the Tang Empire, but on his left the position was empty.

Generals of Yan Kingdom, disciples of Sword Garret of South Jin Kongdom, monks of White Tower Temple of Yuelun Kingdom, and other disciples of the sects of smaller tributaries were all sitting at their proper positions according to their rankings. Seats for the disciples of Revelation Inst.i.tute were still empty, while the Calligraphy Addict, Mo Shanshan, and disciples of the Black Ink Garden of Great River Kingdom had already sat idly on the seats on the opposite side.