Nightfall

Shoulder By Shoulder

A spider web fell on the head of the old monk from the eaves of the White Tower. Although his head was almost covered, the old monk closed his eyes, and looked quite peaceful. His silver eyebrows were slightly floating in the wind, and touched the spider’s thread in front of him. It was hard to distinguish his eyebrows from the spider web without a good look.

The old monk closed his eyes. He made people believe that his eyesight was within this world and was looking at the seemingly ordinary chessboard right in front of him.

The old monk was the Chief Monk of Scripture of Xuankong Temple.

After Ning Que and Sangsang entered it, he had never left the chessboard. A lot of time passed. It went from spring leaves to summer flowers to autumn fruits and finally to winter snow. The bell rang in mornings and the drum sounded in evenings. Through numerous days and nights, he was still silent, even though winds blew and rain fell.

Jun Mo came to the cliff plateau, and exchanged looks with his First Brother. There was no time to chat. He didn’t talk to the old monk either. Instead, he walked directly to the old monk, lifted the iron sword and began to strike.

The wide and straight iron sword heavily hit the chessboard, with an ear-splitting bang. Smoke and dust were appeared on the cliff plateau. A while later after the smoke and dust went down, the chessboard still lied intact in front of the old monk’s knees.

There was not a single scratch.

With Jun Mo’s strength, such a cut would have cut through a stone mountain. However, he unexpectedly didn’t damage it at all.

Even though the chessboard could bear the power of the iron sword, the cliff plateau couldn’t. A few ruptures were found on the cliff plateau. It was too dark to detect the depth, which could be estimated to be thousands of meters into the mountain. These ruptures extended along the side of the cliff. The precipice below the pear tree finally cracked.

A year ago, water splashed the chessboard, and then became several giant waterfalls. Although it had neither root nor source, the water continued to flow all the way down the cliff. It wasn’t until now that they were cut off by Jun Mo’s sword.

One swing could cut off waterfalls, but couldn’t even shake the chessboard.

Jun Mo looked at the Chief Monk behind the chessboard, and then lifted the iron sword.

The Chief Monk eyes were still closed, as if he didn’t notice the very existence of the iron sword. However, his hands were falling on the chessboard. Or was it his trick to make the chessboard iron-like like before?

Jun Mo wasn’t sure, but he didn’t need to be. Then he lifted the iron sword and cut downward. Only this time, didn’t he cut the chessboard, but the Chief Monk.

Wind came ahead of the cutting sword. It easily tore the seemingly messy spider web, and fell on the Chief Monk’s skull amid the solemn ordained marks.

The iron sword was thick and heavy, while the head of the Chief Monk of Scripture was very round. Thus, it looked like Jun Mo was knocking the Chief Monk with a stick in an attempt to awake him.

Another extremely loud bang rang out. On the cliff plateau, cold wind blew aimlessly, the pear tree swaggered with rustles, and a lot of stones fell towards the ruptures, far away from filling them up.

The Chief Monk closed his eyes, and remained calm. Only his silver eyebrows looked a bit messy. It was as if the kasaya was hanging on a cloth drying line in the open air at the point where it was hard to guess which way the sleeves and lower hems would go.

The iron sword didn’t leave any traces on his head.

The Chief Monk reached Buddhahood by cultivating his body, so both his body and soul were as strong as iron. For him, Ning Que’s Thirteen Primordial Arrows back then were as soft as straws, and Jun Mo’s iron sword was more like a wooden stick.