Chapter 70: There Is a Youth
At the end of the River of Forgetfulness stood White Emperor City, with eight hundred li of the Red River as its sealed territory… Who else could it be?
The sole princess of the Yao race had actually appeared here!
The people in the hall were utterly stunned. Amid the rustling sounds of robes rubbing together, they all rose to prepare their bows.
"My mother, the Eldest Princess of the Western Continent."
Luoluo looked at the crowd in the hall and continued, "My father, Bai Xingye."
As these two names rang out, the atmosphere in the great hall grew even more oppressive, tense, and silent as death itself.
These two names represented supreme authority and power; both names belonged to the ranks of the Five Saints.
The couple in White Emperor City were both figures on par with Her Holiness the Saintess and His Holiness the Pope.
The members of the Southern delegation were speechless. When they saw Chen Changsheng standing behind Luoluo, their expressions turned exceptionally grim.
They had already noticed earlier that the relationship between Luoluo and Chen Changsheng was unusual.
Sure enough, Luoluo looked at the Southern delegation and said, "My teacher, Chen Changsheng."
After saying this, she turned back and glanced at Chen Changsheng.
My father, my mother, my teacher.
By speaking this way, she was essentially placing the three on equal footing.
Contrary to what some people in the capital had thought beforehand, Luoluo had not entered the National Academy for an interesting experience. She truly wanted to learn. She regarded Chen Changsheng as family and a respected elder.
The people in the hall were stunned into silence. Gou Hanshi's expression grew even more solemn.
Who exactly was this youth named Chen Changsheng, that he could be compared to the White Emperor and his wife?
"May I ask, in what way is my teacher inferior to Senior Brother Qiushan?"
Luoluo looked at the Southern delegation and asked.
The Southern delegation had no words to reply, because they couldn't answer.
No matter how talented Senior Brother Qiushan was, how could he, in terms of status and position, compare to the teacher of the Divine Princess?
Luoluo then turned her gaze to the shabby young scholar in the scattered seats who had earlier spouted nonsense. Raising an eyebrow, she asked, "To fight against the demons, humanity needs unity, and the North and South need to merge. So Xu Yourong must marry Senior Brother Qiushan? Just because of so-called righteousness, a woman must marry someone she doesn't want to?"
That young scholar's voice trembled slightly as he said, "Shouldn't she?"
"Of course not!"
Luoluo looked at him with mockery and said, "That's my future teacher's wife. You want her to marry another man? I really suspect you're a spy for the demons."
The young scholar's face flushed bright red with anger, but he dared not say anything.
Luoluo addressed the crowd in the hall, "Righteousness and reputation? I am righteousness itself. My teacher naturally holds righteousness in his hands. And you want to use righteousness to threaten him? What a joke!"
That young scholar wanted to explain something, but upon careful thought, he found he had nothing to say, and sweat poured from him like water.
No one in the hall dared to oppose Luoluo's words.
Because to fight against the demons, humanity needed unity, and the process of merging North and South should be accelerated. That was why the young scholar had earlier said Xu Yourong should marry Senior Brother Qiushan.
But everyone knew that the alliance between the Yao race and humanity was the foundation for fighting the demons!
If fighting the demons was righteousness, then maintaining the good relationship between the Yao race and humanity was the greatest righteousness!
According to the logic of that young scholar and some shameless people, since Luoluo would certainly represent the Yao race in supporting the marriage contract between Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong, then anyone trying to stop this marriage was attempting to anger the Yao race and destroy the alliance between the two races. If that wasn't being a demon spy, what was it!
Was it necessary to offend humanity's most steadfast and powerful ally just for the sake of merging North and South? Absurd!
No one would make such a choice. Not the people in the hall, not even His Holiness the Pope, the Saintess of the Southern Sect, the Mountain Leader of Lishan, or even Her Holiness the Saintess herself would bear such responsibility.
Righteousness? In the end, it was nothing but interests, or rather, power. When you thought about it, it was really quite laughable.
That young scholar was drenched in sweat. Only now did he see the hidden thoughts beneath his robes and the guise of righteousness.
His face was still bright red, but now it wasn't from anger—it was from shame.
The hall was deathly silent. Many people, like that young scholar, felt ashamed and didn't know what to say.
Gou Hanshi looked at Luoluo, his expression very complicated.
"Anyone with a shred of dignity would leave by now. What's the point of struggling here?"
Tang Thirty-Six looked at him with mockery and said, "Give it up. Your senior brother Qiushan isn't going to get a wife… Unless you dare to kill Chen Changsheng in public right now?"
The disciples of the Lishan Sword Sect were all standing. Hearing this, they were furious and grabbed their sword hilts, looking at Gou Hanshi.
Gou Hanshi stared at him quietly. His eyes gradually grew brighter—not sharp, but more resolute.
The head of the Qiushan family had been silent ever since Chen Changsheng took out that marriage contract. Now, unable to bear it any longer, he stared at Tang Thirty-Six and said coldly, "Is Master Wenshui well?"
Tang Thirty-Six's expression shifted slightly. "Are you trying to pressure me with my family's old master? Do you have any shame?"
The Qiushan family was a true thousand-year clan of the South, and they valued face above all. As a member of the Tang family of Wenshui, he understood this perfectly, but he showed no courtesy.
The Green Vine Banquet tonight had seen many twists and turns. There had been several opportunities for both sides to temporarily ease the confrontation and find a graceful exit. But due to certain reasons—or misjudgments of the situation—the Southern delegation had made wrong choices at each of those moments, leading to this awkward impasse.
Besides the reasons above, the current awkward situation was also thanks to the relentless mockery and taunts from Tang Thirty-Six and Luoluo.
Luoluo had scolded and rebuked Elder Xiaosong and others because they had first scolded and rebuked Chen Changsheng. She couldn't stand such things, and with her status and position, she could do whatever she wanted and still be in the right.
But Tang Thirty-Six yelling at figures like Xiaosong and the Qiushan family head was entirely due to his temperament.
By seniority or any other measure, he shouldn't have acted this way. It would seem too absurd, too reckless, too unrestrained.
But not all unrestrained people were rogues; some were just spoiled brats or scoundrels.
In many people's eyes, Tang Thirty-Six's behavior was vulgar, presumptuous, unpleasant, and utterly despicable—nothing like a scion of a noble family, let alone a genius youth from the Heavenly Academy.
But he did it anyway, because he didn't like these people.
If he didn't like them, he didn't like them. So he cursed them.
That was his nature.
He was a sixteen-year-old youth, a true youth. He didn't rejoice at the spring breeze, didn't grieve at the autumn wind, didn't sigh at winter snow, didn't grow annoyed at summer cicadas. He only rejoiced at what he liked, grew annoyed at what he hated, sighed at injustice, and grieved at a heroic silhouette against the setting sun.
He liked solitude and sleeping, but he hated dealing with people. He was slightly narcissistic, very proud and confident, and lived life with boundless freedom. The petty scheming of the world had nothing to do with him. If he saw something displeasing, he cursed it; if he saw something he liked, he drew close to it.
That was the kind of youth he was. It was his true nature. Even if he weren't a genius on the Azure Cloud List but just a young beggar basking in the sun by a wall, he would still whistle at a beautiful princess passing by in her carriage and sneak a kick at a rich young master bullying others, without caring if he got beaten black and blue by the servants.
That was why he had few friends in the capital, except for Chen Changsheng. That was why he had offended many classmates at the Heavenly Academy, including Zhuang Huanyu. That was why he had declared early on that if he ever met that little monster from the Ancestral Sacrifice Temple who liked to harm ordinary people, he would cripple him. That was also why he later couldn't attend the first two nights of the Green Vine Banquet.
Tang Thirty-Six was that kind of person. If he liked something, he truly liked it; if he didn't, he truly didn't. So those who liked him really liked him—like the old master of the Wenshui Tang family, or Vice Dean Zhuang of the Heavenly Academy. Those who didn't like him truly didn't—like the angry young men in the Southern delegation at this moment.
He didn't care.
But someone else did.
"How dare you! Apologize to your seniors immediately!"
A voice came from the Heavenly Academy's seating area.
At that moment, everyone in the hall was standing, so it was unclear who had spoken. Only after a moment did people realize it was Zhuang Huanyu.
People were surprised. They didn't understand why he was reprimanding Tang Thirty-Six, and even more so, why he was the one speaking.
Even if Tang Thirty-Six's words were crude and disrespectful to the seniors of the Lishan Sword Sect and the Qiushan family, it was Dean Mao Qiuyu's job to discipline students of the Heavenly Academy. Vice Dean Zhuang was also present. It was hardly Zhuang Huanyu's place to step in, even if he was a genius ranked tenth on the Azure Cloud List. He was still just a student.
Moreover, given the current situation, Dean Mao Qiuyu had remained silent. What right did Zhuang Huanyu have to scold Tang Thirty-Six?
Mao Qiuyu turned and glanced at Zhuang Huanyu, his expression calm.
Many eyes fell on Zhuang Huanyu.
Zhuang Huanyu's expression shifted. He didn't know why he had blurted out those words earlier.
But the words were already spoken; how could he take them back? He pressed his lips tightly together, his face turning ashen, but he still stared at Tang Thirty-Six.
He thought he appeared impartial and stern, but to others, he only seemed to have lost his composure.
The reason for Zhuang Huanyu's sudden loss of composure was complicated. Countless important figures had come to the Green Vine Banquet tonight, and even he could only sit quietly, not daring to speak freely. But who would have thought that Tang Thirty-Six, whom he usually dismissed, would be speaking boldly before the crowd, acting outrageously? This stirred up a deep, subconscious disgust in him.
But the more important reason was Luoluo revealing her identity.
The legend of the Heavenly Academy had returned to reality, and it was still a legend.
He had once imagined countless futures with that junior sister, but tonight, those dreams were shattered.
So that junior sister… was the legendary Princess Luoluo!
No matter how hard he struggled, even if he became a genius surpassing Senior Brother Qiushan, he could never be with her.
Deep disappointment and despair turned into anger—but that feeling had always been hidden in his heart, never revealed to anyone. So tonight's disappointment and anger had nowhere to go.
Then he saw Tang Thirty-Six, the junior disciple he could usually scold freely.
And so, those words came out.
The hall fell into an eerie silence.
Everyone looked at Tang Thirty-Six.
Earlier, Guan Feibai of the Lishan Sword Sect had scolded Tang Thirty-Six for being presumptuous, and Tang Thirty-Six had replied, "Presumptuous my ass."
Now Zhuang Huanyu was scolding him for being presumptuous. How would he respond?
Some members of the Southern delegation wore expressions of schadenfreude, thinking, "Your Zhou people have internal problems. How will you solve this?"
Gou Hanshi glanced at Zhuang Huanyu, somewhat surprised, and raised an eyebrow slightly.
Guan Feibai frowned at Zhuang Huanyu, displeased.
Tang Thirty-Six's expression turned ugly. He looked toward the Heavenly Academy's seating area. None of his classmates met his gaze. Mao Qiuyu sighed, about to say something. Vice Dean Zhuang's face was pale, and he shook his head at Tang Thirty-Six, opening his mouth as if to speak but stopping, looking very troubled.
After a moment of silence, Tang Thirty-Six gave a bitter smile and said, "How boring."
"It really is boring."
A voice sounded beside him.
Chen Changsheng looked at him and said, "That's not like you at all."
…
…
(There is a youth, a little rebellious, a little arrogant… Heh, I suddenly realized that the author's notes can't be seen on phones or WeChat, so from now on, I'll put them in the main text. There were quite a few interesting chapter-ending notes before, like the one last night where I flattered my wife… If you're interested, feel free to go through the web version of Chuangshi from the beginning. Also, today there's really only this one chapter, because the upcoming plot is incredibly awesome and powerful… I still need some confidence. I'll work on the detailed outline tonight.)