Chapter 1160: The Joyful Old Master Tang
Gao Huan was not looking at those eyes; he was gazing at the old man’s brow.
He remembered it very clearly—there was a mole on the brow.
And indeed, there was a mole.
Gao Huan suddenly felt a sharp pain.
Heartache.
The moment he saw that mole, he knew he had been deceived.
Since that person was here, his surprise attack could not possibly succeed.
This meant this war would end with humanity’s victory.
That was certainly a cause for heartache, especially for him.
“Tang San! Tang Jingtian!”
Gao Huan roared, shooting into the sky, ready to flee.
The clang of metal rang out as several iron chains shot through the air, straight as arrows, latching onto his ankles.
At the same time, several zither strings pierced through the soft armor woven from the tail spines of fierce beasts.
Minister Wei held his judgment brush and wrote several large characters.
A formation sealed off the sky.
Old Master Tang soared into the air and landed a punch on Gao Huan’s chest.
Blood sprayed wildly!
Gao Huan’s youthful face was covered in blood and madness, and he prepared for a final struggle.
But then, in the corner of his eye, he noticed that the fires on the grassland were growing dimmer and dimmer.
Twilight had deepened, turning toward night. By all logic, those flames should have become clearer—why were they fading?
Could they have gone out? That was impossible!
In Gao Huan’s plan, burning the human army’s grain was always the most important goal, far surpassing killing any number of human strong warriors.
He had led those demon clan experts charging into this wagon formation precisely to draw attention elsewhere.
His approach had succeeded to some extent. During the earlier battle, the wolf riders had managed to ignite many grain wagons.
If nothing went wrong, those wagons would have turned this interconnected formation into ash.
Why were the fires dying? He knew the wolf riders carried not ordinary flames, but oil-fire from the far northern Cold Sea—fire that water and sand could barely extinguish!
The world gradually fell silent.
Gao Huan stood on the grassland, despairing, and did nothing more.
Golden blood stained his body, gleaming under the last rays of twilight, appearing especially tragic and solemn.
—So he was a member of the royal clan with pure blood.
What did it mean for such a royal clan member to become the Chief Elder of the Council of Elders?
No wonder the previous Demon Lord had been so wary of him, willing to forcibly eliminate him despite the upheaval it would cause in the court and among the people.
Countless eyes fell on Gao Huan, then shifted to Old Master Tang.
To the world, Old Master Tang was undoubtedly the most famous person, yet also the most mysterious.
For the past two hundred years, he had never left Wenshui, not even when Mo Yu came bearing the sacred decree of the Heavenly Sea Saintess, pleading earnestly.
Old Master Tang looked at Gao Huan and said calmly, “Do you know me?”
Only then did many people recall the words this demon clan Saint Realm expert had shouted upon seeing Old Master Tang.
“Tang San! Tang Jingtian!”
A very simple sentence, yet it revealed at least three facts.
Old Master Tang’s name and birth order, and that this demon clan expert knew him.
“We met in Luoyang many years ago.”
Gao Huan said to Old Master Tang, “I thought you would remember.”
Old Master Tang stared at him quietly and said, “So it’s you, heh. No wonder you can still speak a few human words.”
Indeed, Gao Huan’s command of the human language was not comparable to those Snow Old City nobles who merely took an interest in it; he was truly fluent. But Old Master Tang’s words were clearly a double entendre, and the mockery and sharpness in them were obvious to all.
So, he knew him too.
“Gao Huan, Gao Yanchen!”
Old Master Tang stared into his eyes and said, “I thought you were long dead. But I imagine right now you wish you had died long ago.”
……
……
Gao Huan, courtesy name Yanchen.
That was his human name.
He was a demon clan royal with extraordinary talent and pure blood, and also the last demon to have studied among humans.
Old Master Tang knew he had once been a direct disciple of the Eternal Life Sect, but he had truly seen him in Luoyang.
When Luoyang was besieged, Gao Huan’s identity was exposed, yet no one dared to kill him, because the demon army outside the city had specifically demanded his safety.
Old Master Tang and his companions had tried to assassinate him but were stopped by their elders.
“If Shang knew you were still alive, he would be very happy.”
Old Master Tang looked at Gao Huan and said, “Back then, the one who most wanted to kill you was him.”
Gao Huan said, “If you had dared to make a move back then, I could have crushed you with a single finger.”
Old Master Tang said, “Yes, you were far stronger than us at the time.”
Gao Huan sneered, “If you hadn’t ambushed me today, I wouldn’t necessarily have lost.”
Old Master Tang shook his head and said, “Wrong. Even if you had won today, you would still lose in the end.”
Gao Huan raised an eyebrow slightly and asked, “Why?”
Old Master Tang said, “Because we have waited a thousand years. If we still can’t win like this, it would be utterly unreasonable.”
Gao Huan said, “Luoyang was also besieged by us for a long time, but you didn’t lose either.”
“Luoyang is not Snow Old City, and the biggest difference is that in the end, you never entered the city.”
Old Master Tang paused, then said, “And we will soon enter Snow Old City.”
Gao Huan’s body grew stiff.
Old Master Tang reached out and patted his shoulder, saying, “Admit defeat.”
Perhaps it was the vibration from Old Master Tang’s hand.
A line of clear tears traced down Gao Huan’s face.
He still maintained a smile, but it was especially ugly, his youthful face etched with pain.
“If His Majesty were still here, you would all die…”
Gao Huan’s voice suddenly rose, and he shouted harshly, “No! If he had died sooner, how could it have come to this!”
If that great Demon Lord had died long ago, how could he have been imprisoned in the abyss seven hundred years ago? He would surely have become a legendary figure of the demon clan.
In the past thousand years, how many geniuses as brilliant as him in the demon clan had been brutally murdered simply for threatening the old Demon Lord’s position? How many real talents had been destroyed by the countless purges in Snow Old City? What damage had those killings done to the demon clan?
There was no answer. That Demon Lord was already dead.
The tears grew faster, washing over his pale cheeks. Gao Huan felt his heart ache terribly. His left hand tightly clutched the soft armor, pressing against his chest, his breathing becoming more and more labored.
Finally, he slowly fell to the ground and stopped breathing.
Old Master Tang looked at his corpse, silent for a long time, recalling many past events.
Those were truly past events, for nearly a thousand years had passed.
On the Falling Willow Plain, the demon army surged like a black tide.
The bloodthirsty giant wolves often had human limbs in their mouths.
Luoyang was besieged, and in months, the city gates had only opened three times.
The first time was when the demon army demanded that the humans hand over Gao Huan.
The gates of Luoyang stood open, sunlight streaming through, casting the shadow of that demon clan prodigy long and far.
Gao Huan walked toward the city, his steps steady, his laughter arrogant.
Two lines of tears rolled down Old Master Tang’s face.
The people were startled.
The young girl selling cosmetics and the general of the grain transport team hurried over, wanting to offer words of comfort.
Old Master Tang weeping over Gao Huan’s body—to many, it seemed like a mutual admiration between great figures?
But Minister Wei and the Blind Zither Master knew it was not so.
These were tears of joy, and what they needed most was a toast of celebration, not consolation.
“Joyful! I am too joyful!”
Old Master Tang cried and shouted, “Hurry to Snow Old City! I want to be even more joyful!”