The cavalryman from the grassland seemed confused. He looked around to make sure there was no one else, and asked, “Who are you?”

He did not answer the girl’s question and asked for her identity instead. It seemed so natural as if their confrontation was indeed a coincidence. But it could never be a coincidence for a lonely grassland cavalryman and a young girl in yellow dress to meet randomly in an unknown and remote oasis. He was barely trying his luck.

Unfortunately the young girl did not like to talk nonsense. “You are Ningcuiya, and of course I am Yu Lian,” the young girl answered.

The grassland cavalryman paused for a while. Then he stood up and wiped the water on his palms. He looked at the other side of the brook and said, “You are indeed the legendary Twenty-Three-Year Cicada. I was not expecting anyone to see through my transformation.”

Throughout this world very few were aware of the national master’s original name, Ningcuiya. Likewise barely did anyone know that the Hierarch of the Divine Halls of West-Hill was named Xiong Chumo, or what Ye Hongyu went through as a child. But she knew it. She knew everything. It was because she was the leader of the Devil’s Doctrine, the mystical Twenty-Three-Year Cicada. She was Yu Lian, while her original name was Lin Wu. Her life had been mystical to everyone else in the human world, while she saw through everyone and everything unobstructedly.

Yu Lian stared at him and said, “You array is quite interesting.”

It was a huge array that assembled the killing intent of the entire Golden Tribe Royal Court and the resentment of countless sorrowful souls. She said quite interesting. But it was already a high compliment.

What was more interesting was the national master himself. The national master was there in the blood sacrificing array in front of Ning Que, as well as by a brook several dozens of miles to the west in front of Yu Lian. And he was a spirited young cavalryman instead of an aging and exhausted man.

What exactly was happening?

The previous national master had already died. In other words the old national master had given up his longevity for the blood sacrificing array. His body decayed but his psyche and soul stayed. Then he used some unimaginable method to transform into the current young grassland cavalryman.

Ning Que found it weird in the array just because the national master was not a real existence. That was why he could not locate him inside the array. But luckily Yu Lian found him. The national master drained his life to create such a horrifying blood sacrificing array. But he never expected that Yu Lian did not even get into it. Instead she just walked randomly into him by the brook.

The grassland cavalryman seemed disappointed. If someone were to look closely into his eyes, one would definitely see the distinctive sense of vicissitudes and calmness that could only be acquired through age.

“There’s no need to be disappointed.” Yu Lian said to him calmly, “No matter if you were reincarnated, hidden or possessed, you would never hide from me.”

Indeed, the national master did have applied some inhuman skills. It seemed mysterious and unimaginable. But as for Yu Lian… she was the Twenty-Three-Year Cicada who cultivated on the most incredible and mystical skills, and had went through the most bizarre and inconceivable transformation.

The national master’s skills were nothing to her.

All of a sudden voices of cicadas were heard by the brook. There had never been any cicadas in the Wilderness. But it appeared all of a sudden. The sound was not chilling, but rather pacifying. It was because Yu Lian just moved. She raised her feet and walked on the clear fresh brook toward the national master. Wind blew above the grassland and swayed her yellow dress. She seemed like a little fairy walking on the ripples.

The national master looked at her bare feet and said, “I thought you would be jumping down from the sky. Surprisingly you came from the water instead.”

Yu Lian said calmly, “Just as everyone else assumed that you must be closing the rear for the Golden Tribe Royal Court and give your life to stop us from the Academy. Who would expect that you were already on the run?”

The national master asked, “Would the Academy stop me from running away?”

Yu Lian said, “For sure. Because you are indeed powerful.”

The national master said after a pause, “Thank you for your compliment… I was just trying to trap you and leave a last chance for the tribes. As for myself, I was actually planning for a tour around the world.”

Yu Lian said, “I’ve told you there’s no need to be disappointed. You could never deceive me.”

“Ning Que said the same thing a moment ago over there.” The national master looked toward the direction of the blood sacrificing array, to which he had some secret connection with. Then he sighed. “I am disappointed not because I could not hide from you. I never wanted to deceive you. It was just a pity that you did not enter my array.”

Yu Lian said, “Were you thinking that your array could trap me?”

The national master turned to her and answered, “My array could kill you.”

Yu Lian said, “Xiong Chumo thought so too.”

“I’m not him.” The national master continued calmly, “I’m much more prudent. Furthermore, he did not know who you were at the back hill of the Academy years ago. But I know. And I’ve always been waiting for you.”

Yu Lian said, “So what?”

The national master held his machete and said to the approaching girl, “I want to try.”

He appeared to be a bold and unconstrained grassland cavalryman. When he held tight onto the tilt of his machete, a bout of chilling and blood-sucking killing intent that only belonged to a soldier soared into the sky.

In a sharp contrast in the meanwhile the clothes of the cavalryman cracked, and his beard and hair fell down. He turned into a monk instantly.

He turned into a chilling, blood-sucking, brutal yet benevolent looking young monk.

Yu Lian reached the east side of the brook. Her bare feet were not wet at all. She looked at the young monk and praised, “Impressive.”

It was unworldly impressive. A young monk bestowed with the bloody killing intent of the entire Golden Tribe Royal Court would probably be indeed unworldly.

Yu Li was merely praising instead of being scared, not even worried. She was not even worried when confronting the Abbey Dean who was at the State of Purity years ago. How could she be intimidated now? She pointed out one finger at the young monk between his eyebrows. The sounds of cicadas by the brook suddenly intensified and seemed restless.

The wild grass was crushed and bits of grass were thrown into the air, as if they were countless cicadas’ wings piercing through the space. Her strike was above the Five States.

The young monk could never get away, hence he just took it.

He stared at the approaching slim finger, paid no attention to the gashes on his body made by the bits of grass, and chopped down the machete with both his hands.

“You are wrong in one thing…”

The machete was just an ordinary blade. But it pierced through the air with the killing intent of countless people. It did not shine but already activated the heaven and earth.

With this blade between Heaven and Earth, the young monk stared at Yu Lian and told her that she was wrong. You did see through my plan and did not enter my array. But by the moment you came to me you are already in my array. Because I am the center of the array. Wherever I am, the array follows.

It was no longer an ordinary machete, but the embodiment of the blood sacrificing array. It carried the killing intent of the entire Golden Tribe Royal Court and the resentful souls collected throughout hundreds of years. And it was chopping onto the young girl in the yellow dress.

No matter how powerful Yu Lian was, how could she withstand the intent of the entire tribe?

…

…

When confronting the young monk’s earth-shaking machete, Yu Lian reacted in an extremely simple way. She reacted as if she was a beginner in cultivation rather than a powerful figure above the Five States. It was too naive or even ridiculous. Her way was simply pressing her palms together and clamped the blade in-between.

Was that really naive? Not at all. The simplest was the most horrifying. Whatever she did was a matter of fact. Therefore a killing intent of the entire Golden Tribe Royal Court carried by the machete was clamped between her palms.

Her hands were very small and tender, yet the machete could no longer move one inch forward. She seemed slim but possessed immense strength.

Between the young monk’s machete and her hands, countless bouts of energy splashed.

The brook behind her started rippling, then boiling and eventually turned into steam. An entire brook dried out in a blink. The fish and water plants in it all disappeared. The bottom of the brook was also dried out and cracked like the scales of a dead snake.

The cracks extended into the fields and dried out the surface in a dozen miles. It seemed like a dead giant tortoise.

Her yellow dress and the hair by her cheeks swayed slightly in the breeze. The dress was never on fire, and the hair was merely withered. Yu Lian looked at the young monk at the other end of the blade.

The young monk was also looking at her with admiration, but not awe. He admired that she was no wonder the current leader of the Devil’s Doctrine, who could actually catch the killing intent of the entire tribe gathered by the blood sacrificing array with a pair of bare hands. She was indeed unfathomable.

He was not in awe because he knew that even if Yu Lian had caught the blade, she could never strike back under such a circumstance. Therefore he was not defeated. Yu Lian indeed did not strike back. But she seemed mocking. What was she mocking?

The young monk realized all of a sudden. His blade could only make Yu Lian stood still by the brook. While Yu Lian’s hands also trapped him right there. He could not move either.

Then how could the other himself dozens of miles away in the east make any further movement?

…

…

When the machete was chopped toward Yu Lian a dozens of miles to the west, Ning Que felt a distinctive relief because the power of the souls pressing on him was instantly weakened.

The dozen of iron cases floating in the air started trembling suddenly. The resentment of the white bones and the killing intent hidden in the array was draining by something and delivered to somewhere afar.

Ning Que turned suddenly to that direction. It was in the west. He knew that the Senior Sister was there in the west.

The thin thread among the clouds he saw previously was her hint. He was not aware of her plan by then, but vaguely got it now. But being trapped by over ten priests from the grassland, what could he do now?

No one could have reacted within such a short period of time. But Ning Que was not anyone else. He had incredibly tacit understanding with Yu Lian. Although he seldom met Yu Lian throughout the years, their tacit understanding had always been there.

It started many years ago in the voice of cicadas by the old library, from the Hairpin-style Small Regular Script they wrote, the badge, the understanding of the Devil’s Doctrine, and their similar characteristics.

He heard the voice of cicadas a dozens of miles away in the west. He knew his Sister was already taking care of it. He closed his eyes and opened again.

The young monk chopped toward Yu Lian in the west. While he chopped toward the old national master on the carriage in the east.

…

…