For a man as powerful as the Abbey Dean, it might be hard for him to foresee the future, but he could easily predict the good and bad luck. Therefore, sneak attacks were meaningless, unless Ning Que was holding an iron bow in his hand as well.
Yu Lian didn't hide and walked out of the storm and snow straightforwardly.
"Nobody can commune with Haotian in the city."
She looked at the Abbey Dean and said. Then she raised her hands in the air. She had made great achievements in Twenty-Three-year Cicada Cultivation. Her soft hands seemed so small, as if they were like larger snowflakes in the air.
With her hand movements, the falling snowflakes suddenly paused, and then they kept falling. Although instead of drifting, they shivered and danced in the wind tempestuously.
The snowflakes vibrating at high speed gave out an intense and deep sound. The sound resembled numerous cicadas waving their wings at the same time. A yellow leaf was blown up to the snowy sky by the wind and was torn into pieces.
"I didn't expect that you had attained the Divine Demon Realm, to become the first one to have gone beyond the Five States in the Devil's Doctrine. You should've known that Lotus was too afraid to take that step because he couldn't overcome the inexorable doom of his heart."
"Lin Wu, you're indeed an extraordinary cultivator."
The Abbey Dean looked up at the numerous snowflakes falling from the sky. He had a look of admiration on his face when he thought of that person. Anyone who could take the Twenty-Three-year Cicada as a disciple was a man to be respected.
"Lucky for me, I've devoted my entire life to make a crack in the city."
He sighed and reached out his palm.
The center of his palm was facing the sky, and it looked as if he was trying to catch those falling flakes.
What was falling down was more akin to overwhelming power than to snow.
Thick snowy clouds covered Chang'an City.
Overwhelming power fell from heaven above, from a sun hidden by the clouds.
As the exotic power fell in the mortal world, the God-stunning Array reacted in the shortest time. Then more vigorous breaths arose amid the streets and alleys in Chang'an City, pouring into the snowy clouds.
However, since the God-stunning Array had been damaged, the flow of the Qi of Heaven and Earth slowed down.
Finally the overwhelming power fell on Chang'an City.
The thick snowy cloud in the sky was instantly torn, to leave a straight crack in it.
Below the crack was the long and unswerving street.
If someone standing on Vermilion Bird Avenue looked up at the sky, he would see the unbelievable tear in the snowy cloud covering the Firmament. Behind the crack was the blue sky.
Clear and bright sunlight shone from the sky above. Sunlight fell on the street and made the buildings and snowflakes extremely distinct, with a holy golden light on their edge.
All the snowflakes in the sky turned golden and were melting at a visible speed.
The sunlight leaking out of the cloud, and the overwhelming power were falling on the Abbey Dean's body.
That was the power beyond the Five States.
It was the real Haotian Taoism Divine Skill, Haotian Initiation.
Yu Lian stood under the storm and snow, her black ponytail waving slightly.
She felt that the snowflakes were slightly cold.
She had also reached beyond the Five States, and she had seen Xiong Chumo apply the Divine skill of Haotian Initiation.
But still, it was hard for her to imagine that someone in the world could apply the skills beyond the Five States so easily, like picking up a snowflake.
She looked at the man who was still sighing, standing at the opposite end of the Snow Street, and then she lowered down her head.
She looked at the snow in front of her shoes, and then started to write with her eyes.
She wrote attentively.
The Headmaster had asked her to write for many years. And she wrote her own world.
After the first stroke on the snow field, her own world appeared on the Snow Street.
All the snowflakes in the air started dancing wildly, with their edges constantly clashing against the air.
The bleak chirp of cicadas grew.
Numerous snowflakes turned into transparent cicada wings, fluttering and flying at a high speed, covering the sky above the Vermilion Bird Avenue in mere moments.
The Pure Light falling from the cracks in the clouds fell on these snowflakes that could pass for cicada wings, then the light was reflected. The snow floating above the city looked like numerous golden leaves.
An impalpable but extremely strong aura fell on the city with the dancing snow, and had set up a new regime in this world of Haotian's.
The snow stopped falling, and so did the sunshine.
The snow stopped melting, too.
The Snow Street became quiet and cold again.
Pure light enveloped the Abbey Dean's body.
The Abbey Dean silently looked at the girl in the storm and snow.
It was only then that he knew she had reached that state.
He raised his right hand and pointed at her, from the opposite end of the street with four of his fingers curved.
However, before his index finger pointed out, a harsh whistle suddenly emerged from the storm and snow.
The sound must have come from the friction between a quick-spinning round material and the air.
Something approached from the north of Chang'an City. It spun fast, giving out an unstoppable sound of whistling and thunder.
Wanyan Tower was located in the south of the city, and the thing that was approaching was a string of Buddha Beads.
They were Master Huang Yang's Buddha Beads.
The beads were spinning around quickly; and there seemed to be some blood stains over them, which might be the essential blood of Master Huang Yang.
Many years ago, Huang Yang achieved his enlightenment in the depths of the Western Wilderness because of the hot blood of his companions.
For that reason, the Buddha Beads stained with his essential blood were hot as well.
They were so hot that they almost started burning.
A very compassionate but extremely violent fire spurt forth from the rotating Buddha Beads toward the surrounding storm and snow, burning everything they came in contact with.
When the snowflakes touched the beads, they didn't melt into water. Instead, they immediately turned into nothingness.
Master Huang Yang was the Bhadanta of the Buddhism Sect, and one of the rare powerhouses living in this world. The Buddha Beads dyed with his essential blood would burn the heart with fire, which was a great threat to the weak Taoism Hearts of those powerhouses of Haotian Taoism.
A line of fire appeared in the sky above the Vermilion Bird Avenue, and the snow storm seemed to fear the line.
The Beads soared and roared in the air, then suddenly fell silent.
The burning beads then landed on the Abbey Dean's wrist.
Yu Lian looked up. There was a reflection of drifting snowflakes deep in her eyes, and her academy uniform fluttered.
The Qi of Heaven and Earth on the Snow Street became turbulent, indicating that someone was about to make an entrance.
At this time, the connection between Haotian and the Abbey Dean had been cut off in the cicada wings world. Then, it had been blocked by Master Huang Yang's fiery Buddha Beads. Thus he had no way to get out of the street even though he was in the Limitless State.
That was the Academy's plan.
The real attack was coming next.
However, the Abbey Dean still looked just as calm and resolute.
He looked at the Buddha Beads on his wrist.
The Buddha Beads were burning, but his dark-blue Taoist robe hadn't been burnt yet.
While his eyesight settled, his mind changed.
Together with his eyesight, a cold, ancient quietus sense from several inexorable fates fell on the burning Buddha Beads.
Then the fire on the Budhha Beads suddenly was extinguished; the beads turned into decayed wooden spheres.
That was called Quietus.
That was the power beyond the Five States.
In mere moments two kinds of realms beyond the Five States appeared on the Snow Street.
Both of them came from the Abbey Dean.
Still, he remained standing on the Snow Street, surrounded by the storm and snow. He was trapped in Yu Lian's world and couldn't break out of it.
On the snow field which was more than a thousand feet away, two foot prints appeared.
The snowflakes fell on the cotton jacket and disappeared.
Then the cotton jacket disappeared in the storm and snow.
Eldest Brother attacked.
The Abbey Dean raised his eyebrows slightly, and his right hand pulled back like an old pine tree in the wind. He then held the Buddha Beads on his wrist tightly, and disappeared.
Half of the Snow Street was a tiny world.
The cotton jacket and the dark-blue Taoist robe went in and out of the storm and snow. They showed up everywhere in the city; by the snowy well in the Nouthern Street, and then beside the shops in the south of the city.
That was the Abbey Dean and the Eldest Brother chasing after each other.
In the Limitless State.
They moved in such a small scale at a speed faster than thought. It might last a moment, but it was far more dangerous than the previous six days when they chased each other amidst rivers and hills.
The storm and snow resumed, and Yu Lian's black and long ponytail dangled around her waist.
She looked peaceful and concentrated; the snowflakes reflected in her eyes were becoming denser.
She had executed the Divine Demon Realm to the extreme.
Numerous snowflakes floated over Vermilion Bird Avenue, each of them being like a cicada. The sky was filled with them, producing an endless killing aura which concentrated on the Snow Street.
The half Snow Street was her world.
No matter how quickly the Abbey Dean could move, he couldn't possibly move faster than the original rules of the world.
A snow flake fell slowly in front of the deputy yamen's gate of the Ministry of Revenue's Clean Water Agency.
There was nothing there previously.
But as the snow flake fell down, a cracking sound resounded.
The heavy storm and snow forced the Abbey Dean to show himself.
On the chest piece of his black robe, there was a new and narrow wound.
At the top of Wanyan Tower.
Master Huang Yang sat cross-legged, chanting scriptures with his palms put together. The blood before him dripped down like a melting candle.
Before the tower, dozens of monks of the temple knelt on the snow field and they were also chanting scriptures.
The Buddha Beads around the right wrist of the Abbey Dean stopped burning.
However, they did not fall.
The Beads turned scarlet, as beautiful as pomegranates.
The chanting came out of the snow storm.
The beads kept shrinking.
White snow covered the stone steps before the government office.
Eldest Brother showed up by the snowy steps, and hit the Abbey Dean on the head with the rod.
The Abbey Dean had a solemn expression. He pulled out his sword with a clang.
Elder Brother's feet had sunk in the snow.
Blood spurted out from the corner of his mouth.
But he didn't retreat and instead, he wielded the rod and struck again.
The Abbey Dean raised his sword and cleaved down again.
The strikes might look simple, but actually, they were quite complicated.
The sword and the rod were now being wielded in the Limitless State, and they were moving at such a high speed that in a short moment they had clashed countless times.
Blood was all over Eldest Brother's cotton jacket, and shallow sword marks covered his wooden rod.
The expression on the Abbey Dean's face became graver and graver.
At the opposite end of the Snow Street, Yu Lian suddenly took a step forward.
Snowflakes were falling on the Abbey Dean.
The Abbey Dean waved his sleeves, and then all cicadas went silent. The snow storm was disturbed and turned into a mess.
Yet not a single snowflake had fallen on him.
He held the sword and retreated, then he raised his palm and pointed to the sky.
Endless power fell from heaven above. It fell from the cracks in the clouds like lightning, attaching itself on the floating snowflakes, to then fall on the transparent screen of the world.
The Snow Street was disturbed, and the snow fell off the eaves like waterfalls.
Yu Lian moaned and stopped moving.
The Abbey Dean casually tossed the Taoist Sword into the snow storm.
Moments later, he appeared before Eldest Brother and parried the wooden rod.
He was only using a finger.
The rod then shook uneasily, and the Qi of Heaven and Earth grew restless.
Eldest Brother retreated to the other side of the Snow Street. He pressed a hand on his chest and coughed, with a look of extreme pain.
The Abbey Dean again looked to his right wrist.
The scarlet Buddha Beads kept shrinking, and they were about to press into his flesh.
He slightly frowned and seemed a little bit unhappy.
All of a sudden, the snow storm ended.
The Abbey Dean instantly seemed as if he had grown many times taller.
In fact, he was just standing still in the storm and snow.
An aura filled the surrounding space. It was as vast and boundless as the ocean.
Then suddenly, the string of the Buddha Beads broke.
Dozens of Buddha Beads flew away, whistling into the air.
Several round holes appeared on the gate of the Clean Water Agency's yamen.
Not far away, a wall collapsed with light smoke and dust rising into the air.
The Buddha Beads were still hot. Although they had stopped burning, wood surfaces were scorched as soon as they came in contact with them.
The snow storm was stilled, but the fire was slowly extinguished.
At the top of Wanyan Tower.
Master Huang Yang was in pain, clutching his chest with blood all over his palms.
He looked at the snowy street in the south, and said in a trembling voice, "Is it the Boundless?"
The secret skill of the Buddhism Sect, the Boundless.
Another realm beyond the Five States.