Chapter 108: A Flower, a World
"You're lucky. Don't you dare try to sneak away."
Hearing the bell and the teacher's scolding shouts, even the angriest, most hot-blooded students could only stop their pursuit of Chen Changsheng and his group with reluctant frustration. After cursing a few times, they returned to their respective courtyards, because... class time had arrived.
At the end of the straight sacred path lay a stone staircase of about a thousand steps, made of white jade, smooth as a mirror. At the top of the stairs stood the circular palace they had seen from afar earlier. That palace was not the main hall of the detached palace, but the Qingxian Hall.
Looking up from the foot of the stairs, the palace, already solemn and majestic from a distance, appeared even more towering.
"Why did you add that last part?"
The stairs were long, and within the detached palace, they couldn't use their abilities, so they had to walk slowly. Chen Changsheng, thinking back to the surging crowd at the end, couldn't help but ask, "After we finish our business, how are we supposed to leave? Are we really going to fight our way out?"
Xuanyuan Po, a straightforward young demon, was brave but certainly not stupid. He looked around and asked, "Does anyone know where the back door is?"
"Don't worry, you guys might not be able to fight, but I'm not afraid," Tang Thirty-Six said.
"Gou Hanshi and the others might not show themselves, but the attached courtyards of the detached palace and the ancestral temples have experts from the Azure Cloud Ranking. And even if you're a great fighter, can you take on a thousand alone?"
"Gold Chief Historian is also returning to the National Teaching Academy. Even if it's not proper for the strong to bully the weak, do you think he would just stand by and watch us get beaten to death?"
Gold Jade Law smiled but didn't respond.
Chen Changsheng sighed helplessly and said, "If Gold Chief Historian steps in, wouldn't the teachers or even the deans of the opposing academies come forward?"
Tang Thirty-Six said, "If the deans come forward, do you think a fight would even break out?"
Chen Changsheng didn't know what to say. Xuanyuan Po remarked, "You humans are indeed cunning."
"Speaking of which, that little girl was really too harsh."
"Hey, who was I standing up for? You're crossing a line here."
"Alright, I admit I was wrong."
"I accept your apology."
"But I still don't quite understand. When I first met you at the Heavenly Academy, including later at the inn, you were really different from now. They say you're famously cold and aloof, but now you're a chatterbox, and your mouth is full of foul language..."
"You just don't get it."
Tang Thirty-Six stood on the steps, looking back at the capital, and said with indescribable emotion, "It's like that day when Tianhai Shengsheng charged the academy gate. I stood in the rain, sword in hand, naturally cold and handsome. But pretending to be lonely, faking despair—doing that for too long is actually very tiring."
Chen Changsheng let out an "ah" and said, "So you were faking it all along?"
Tang Thirty-Six sneered and said, "Obviously. Except for that wolf cub up north, who's naturally aloof and cold?"
"Why not keep faking it?"
"Do I still need to fake it in front of you?"
"Then... at least try to curse less. That's really not good."
"You guys, how could you understand the anguish of someone like me? From the moment I became aware, I had to play the role of the proud and aloof one, untouched by worldly affairs. Holding it in for so many years is like a flood restrained by a long dike. Once it breaks, of course it's going to rage for days."
"You mean, either you hold it in until it hurts inside, or you turn into a thug?"
"Exactly. The longer you endure, the more terrifying the outburst. Just like your wife—she's a fairy-like figure. Even those demons in the Snow Old City would kneel before her skirt. But I'm absolutely sure she often wants to..."
Tang Thirty-Six paused as he looked at Chen Changsheng and continued, "...curse someone out."
Chen Changsheng was stunned for a moment before realizing he was talking about Xu Yourong. He had no choice but to shut up.
"But those girls' looks at you just now changed," Xuanyuan Po said regretfully.
Tang Thirty-Six said, "I don't like being stared at like that by those girls. It was like that in Wenshui, and at the Heavenly Academy too. If it's still like this now, why would I join the National Teaching Academy? I'm not the Heavenly Book Mausoleum—what's there to look at?"
Xuanyuan Po, thinking of those beautiful human girls from the Qingyao Thirteen Department, said longingly, "If only they would look at me like that."
"Brother, even though you look old, aren't you only thirteen? Are you already thinking about starting a family this early?"
"Chen Changsheng is only a year older than me, and he's about to get married, isn't he? Besides, where I come from, having kids at thirteen is normal."
"Speaking of which, I'm really curious—how many can your demon race have at once?"
Gold Jade Law's cough echoed on the stairs.
Tang Thirty-Six quickly pulled the topic back: "What's so good about being stared at?"
"What's so bad about it?"
"What if you get stared to death?"
"What does 'stared to death' mean?"
"It means being looked at until you die."
"Ah... that would have to be someone at the Saint realm, right?"
"I can't even have a conversation with you."
"Go on, explain."
"Back then, Zhou Dufu's younger brother, Zhou Yuren, was the most famous handsome man on the continent. The first time he entered the capital, tens of thousands of women lined the streets to welcome him. Their eyes burned with passion, as if they wanted to scoop him up with a bowl of water and swallow him whole. Zhou Yuren was already weak in health, and he was so frightened he nearly fainted. That's the origin of 'stared to death.'"
"Ah, our demon bodies are much stronger than you humans. No matter how much they stare, nothing would happen to us."
"I really can't talk to you."
"Thirty-Six, it just occurred to me—you're not even that good-looking. Are you overthinking this?"
An honest person speaks the truth, and it's the most powerful, the most devastating.
Now the National Teaching Academy had two such people: Chen Changsheng and Xuanyuan Po.
Tang Thirty-Six felt deeply wounded.
Though the thousand-step staircase was long, it couldn't withstand Chen Changsheng's hurried pace and their pleasant chatter. Before long, they arrived at the Qingxian Hall.
With Gold Jade Law leading them, their identities verified, they smoothly entered the Qingxian Hall.
True to its name, the Qingxian Hall was filled with a clear breeze. There were few furnishings to be seen, and the floor was spotless, vast, empty, and cold. What puzzled Chen Changsheng was that no matter how he looked, he couldn't find any traces of daily life. He wondered where Luo Luo's bedchamber was.
Gold Jade Law said nothing, leading the three youths as they followed the guiding priest deeper into the hall. The floor of the Qingxian Hall was paved with two-foot green bricks. When stepped on, the bricks emitted a faint glow, which was quite magical. Xuanyuan Po looked down at this, finding it very amusing.
Chen Changsheng also noticed the peculiarity of the green bricks. Looking around, he saw that while the bricks elsewhere didn't glow like the ones under their feet, they varied in brightness. Thinking of the hall's size, there must be tens of thousands of bricks. Could this form a pattern?
But in the mountains, it's hard to see the full view. Even if there was a pattern, standing on the green bricks, he couldn't see it, so he stopped thinking about it.
If one looked down from the dome of the Qingxian Hall, they would see clearly: the tens of thousands of green bricks, varying in brightness, pieced together to form a solitary green leaf. Chen Changsheng and the others were now walking along one of the leaf's veins.
The priest was taciturn, speaking only occasionally with Gold Jade Law and ignoring the three youths entirely.
As they walked, the bricks lit up in sequence, essentially illuminating that vein, as if some energy was being infused into it.
Finally, that entire vein became bright. Under the priest's guidance, Chen Changsheng and the others reached the deepest part of the hall.
And then, there was darkness.
The darkness lasted for a very short time, so short that to Chen Changsheng, it felt like just a blink. Eyes closed, then open—a night had passed; that was an experience everyone had had. Eyes went dark, then bright—and they had arrived in another world. That was not an experience everyone had.
Looking at the scene before him, he opened his mouth slightly, stunned speechless.
Xuanyuan Po stood beside him, his expression even more exaggerated.
In the porcelain-blue sky floated countless clouds, their shapes perfectly exquisite, like the auspicious clouds depicted in the Daoist scriptures. Hundreds of cranes soared among the clouds, their cries clear and soul-stirring. A majestic and magnificent palace stood before them.
And further in the distance, there were over a dozen palaces of the same scale.
This was a beautiful world. Whether it was the auspicious clouds, the cranes, the palaces, the jade pools, or even the fresh air, everything was so perfect, so perfect it seemed unreal. But standing here, they knew it was all real.
"Don't embarrass the academy. Hurry up and follow."
Tang Thirty-Six whispered beside them, then walked forward as if he didn't know them.
Chen Changsheng snapped back to reality. He saw that the priest and Gold Jade Law had already reached the front of the majestic palace. He quickly patted Xuanyuan Po and led him forward.
Catching up to Tang Thirty-Six, he asked, "What is this?"
Tang Thirty-Six said, "This is a small world. You should have heard of it."
Chen Changsheng didn't speak. He had read through the Daoist scriptures and naturally knew about small worlds. But only today, truly arriving in one, did he realize that reading about it in books was ultimately shallow.
Legend had it that when the Heavenly Book descended, divine fire followed in the sky, tearing space apart, leaving behind countless fragments of space. These space fragments were scattered across the entire continent. Some were extremely unstable, annihilating the moment they appeared; others were relatively stable and could last longer.
As time passed, over countless years, the space fragments on the continent grew fewer. Those that could survive were naturally very stable. This was the origin of that famous saying: Time is the only standard for testing a world.
Stable space fragments were found by humans. Cultivators used terrifying divine powers to open them, refining extremely advanced magical artifacts as doors, thus connecting the space fragments to the real world. These so-called space fragments, true to their name, were often vast and could be used for countless purposes—these were small worlds.
The Tang family of Wenshui possessed a small world. Though not large, it was enough to elevate the Tang family above other so-called wealthy houses. Tang Thirty-Six wasn't very surprised because he had often been taken by his grandfather to play in that small world since childhood.
"So this is 'a flower, a world'..."
Chen Changsheng looked at the beautiful scenery and magnificent architecture before him, feeling somewhat moved. Then, for some reason, he lowered his head and glanced at the short sword at his waist.
(Yes, this is a scheduled post. At this time, I should be on a plane. Yes, this is saved material. 'A flower, a world' is naturally not literal; the next chapter will explain. The chapter title is mainly about people—the youths of the National Teaching Academy. I am now completely certain who Tang Thirty-Six's prototype is. When the book is finished, everyone remember to ask me this question. Before it's finished, I definitely won't say it even if beaten to death. See you all tomorrow. Some friends might actually meet me at the book fair. Hello there.)
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