Chapter 127: A Fortune at the Waist (Part 1)
Chen Changsheng was somewhat surprised that he wasn’t injured. He couldn’t figure out why. Even if, as he guessed, the starlight had completed a marrow cleansing while converting into true essence, it shouldn’t have made his body this astonishingly tough. After all, that stone had packed quite a punch.
He reached his hand out the window, examining every detail under the light made brighter by the snow’s reflection. Though he had appeared calm earlier, the fact that true essence was flowing through his body had consumed all his attention. Only now did he truly begin to inspect his own physique.
After a moment, he raised an eyebrow slightly. Apart from his skin becoming firmer and fairer, there was no visible difference from before. But as he focused intently, he vaguely sensed that something extra had been added to his body—something like a certain power, or perhaps a breath of energy.
He walked to the mirror and noticed a hairpin.
This hairpin must have been left behind by Mo Yu a few days ago.
He picked it up, looked at its sharp tip, thought for a moment, and without hesitation jabbed it into his arm.
He could clearly feel the object’s sharpness and the contact between the tip and his skin, but the stinging sensation was diminished countless times. There was no injury, and the sharp tip left no mark.
As he gradually increased the pressure, the sting from the hairpin tip grew more distinct, yet it still didn’t pierce his skin. His skin seemed to have undergone some miraculous change. The tip kept pressing inward, but there was no sense that it would break through—like a lotus leaf bearing a dewdrop.
Chen Changsheng set down the hairpin, picked up the short sword, and gave it a try.
A moment later, looking at the clearly visible but shallow blood mark on his left arm, he confirmed once again that his body had undergone some miraculous change he didn’t yet understand. Its toughness had been vastly enhanced. Even the most perfect marrow cleansings recorded in the Daoist Canon might not achieve results like his.
What exactly had happened?
This question could only be asked of Senior Black Dragon.
Chen Changsheng felt that power—or breath—flowing faintly within him. He could no longer suppress the confusion in his heart, nor the sudden surge of inexplicable, vigorous energy. He dressed as quickly as possible, jumped out the window, and landed on the snow. His soles crushed the ice and flattened the yellow grass as he steadied himself, his expression dazed.
His room was on the second floor, not far from the ground. Even normally, thanks to the body tempered by his teacher and senior brother’s medicinal soups, he wouldn’t have been injured. But it was absolutely impossible for him to land so easily, so lightly.
He was silent for a while, then looked through the mist of his breath toward the cold lake beyond the winter forest. He wanted to try again.
He bent his knees slightly, engaged his waist and abdomen, and pushed off.
Swoosh. A small pit appeared in the snow before the building, with remnants of snow and grass clippings swirling up.
Chen Changsheng’s figure vanished.
The next moment, he appeared at the lakeside, dozens of zhang away.
A cold wind stirred, and fallen leaves rustled slightly.
His expression was dazed, his face slightly pale.
He had never imagined he could move this fast.
All of this came from his suddenly multiplied strength and vastly enhanced physical toughness.
Where had this power come from?
Was this really the effect of marrow cleansing?
It seemed that marrow cleansing was the only explanation, but he found it hard to believe.
Thinking back to the strange psychological feeling when the coagulated blood on his body was washed away by water during his bath, he felt an inexplicable unease.
He climbed over the courtyard wall, left the National Academy, and, shielded by the wind and snow, made his way to North New Bridge again.
The snow was still heavy, and the ground was still thick with it.
The two sets of human footprints and the snow mastiff’s tracks once left by the abandoned well had long been covered.
He looked around, confirmed no one was watching—the distant guards were changing shifts—and leaped into the abandoned well.
With a soft thud, his feet landed on solid ground, which surprised him greatly.
He had prepared himself for a long fall, never expecting to hit bottom so soon after jumping in.
This abandoned well originally had no bottom. Below was an abyss-like darkness that led all the way down to the underground space, to where the black dragon resided.
Now, there was a bottom—solid yellow earth covered by a thin layer of snow.
He looked up at the well’s mouth. Snowflakes drifted down, making him squint.
He crouched and measured the thickness of the snow at the bottom, confirming that the well had been sealed off less than half a day ago.
“You wouldn’t, would you?”
Tang Thirty-Six snatched the kitchen knife from Chen Changsheng’s hand, staring into his eyes.
These past few days, it was Chen Changsheng’s turn to cook. Tang Thirty-Six, disgusted that his cooking was even more flavorless than Xuan Yuan Po’s, had come in to remind him that pickled peppers must be added to stir-fried meat. That was when he saw Chen Changsheng holding the kitchen knife, about to chop at his own finger.
Chen Changsheng knew what he was misunderstanding and said, “Do you think I’m that kind of person?”
What kind of person?
Naturally, the kind who couldn’t bear external pressure and resorted to self-harm to avoid challenges. Or the kind who, unable to withstand pressure, went mentally unstable and sought a quick end by the blade. Or those who, crushed by pressure, forgot their parents’ kindness and jumped from buildings.
“You’re really not that stupid, but I’m worried you might get desperate and try to cut off a finger to make a point.”
Tang Thirty-Six handed the knife back and said, “Geniuses like us, who’ve completed marrow cleansing, don’t give people that kind of misunderstanding.”
Cultivators who succeeded in marrow cleansing had greatly enhanced physical toughness. It wasn’t impossible to chop off a finger with an ordinary kitchen knife, but it was quite difficult.
“Marrow cleansing makes you immune to kitchen knives, but I haven’t seen you help with the chopping these past two days.”
Chen Changsheng took the knife and continued slicing white radishes. Over these days, he had visited North New Bridge twice and found the abandoned well truly sealed. He could only learn to adapt to his body’s changes. Chopping at his own finger with the kitchen knife was something he did often—only by getting used to his body’s toughness and strength could he use them accurately and fight with them.
Tang Thirty-Six’s worry was understandable because the Grand Examination was imminent.
People participating in the Grand Examination had come to the capital from all over the continent. Countless eyes were fixed on the National Academy, on Chen Changsheng, who had declared he would take the top rank.
Although the declaration about taking the top rank had been made public by the Archbishop himself, and Chen Changsheng had never personally acknowledged it, no one cared about that.
Because of his engagement to Xu You Rong, the Azure Cloud List, and this declaration, he had become very famous, pushed to an extremely high position. The problem was, who would accept that?
If not for Jin Yu Lu sitting in his recliner, enjoying the wind and snow, sipping hot tea, the National Academy’s dilapidated gate would likely have been trampled long ago.
The pressure he was under was unimaginable.
“Actually, I’ve never understood this. If the old faction of the National Church and those ministers loyal to the Chen imperial clan want to challenge Her Holiness’s authority through the revival of the National Academy, wouldn’t I be a more suitable target than you, who still hasn’t succeeded in marrow cleansing?”
Tang Thirty-Six took a cabbage leaf, scooped some rice, added some pickled chili peppers and preserved vegetables, and wrapped it up as he spoke.
Chen Changsheng tossed the sliced white radish into the bone broth that had been simmering for a while and said, “A nobody like me might be easier to control.”
Tang Thirty-Six took a big bite of his rice wrap and said indistinctly, “I think it’s because of your engagement to Xu You Rong. That’s the important part.”
The youths in the National Academy knew exactly what role they were playing, which was why they used words like “nobody.”
But it was this casual attitude that showed they didn’t care about any big shots. What the big shots did had nothing to do with them. They just lived their own lives, took their own Grand Examination, and earned their own rankings.
Chen Changsheng didn’t tell Tang Thirty-Six about the changes in his body, nor about the starlight converting into true essence. He couldn’t bear to imagine going through that burning, that living death, again.
That snowfield, like his twentieth year, had become an inescapable shadow, pressing down on him until he could barely breathe.
How could he ensure that snowfield remained undisturbed?
By not disturbing it, by not meditating on it, by not even thinking about it—by achieving true, complete forgetfulness.
But completely not thinking about it was incredibly hard, especially when he remembered that the entire snowfield was made of the most condensed starlight. If it all converted into true essence, how much would that be?
He sighed and said, “The feeling of being rich is really good.”
Tang Thirty-Six said, “I don’t feel much.”
Chen Changsheng said, “That’s because you’ve been rich since you were a child.”
“Maybe.”
Tang Thirty-Six thought about it and admitted this.
Chen Changsheng added, “But the feeling of having money and not being able to spend it is really bad.”
Tang Thirty-Six said sympathetically, “What a country kid. After the Grand Examination ends, I’ll teach you how to spend money.”
The snowfield was Chen Changsheng’s vast savings, but also a terrifying haystack. A single spark could ignite it, turning it to ashes and taking him along with it out of this world.
In this situation, any rational person would choose not to add fuel or hay. But Chen Changsheng didn’t think that way. He still meditated night after night, drawing starlight into his body, gripping the jade essence Luo Luo had given him, surrounded by piles of crystals from the Wen Shui Tang family, showing no fear.
Others didn’t know about his condition. Seeing these scenes, they naturally felt differently. Tang Thirty-Six was now utterly in awe of him, thinking that anyone else would have given up long ago after failing at marrow cleansing for so long, yet this guy kept persisting. His willpower was truly astonishing.
Admiration aside, Tang Thirty-Six no longer held any hope for Chen Changsheng taking the top rank in the Grand Examination.
Even the most optimistic person would feel the same.
So… he became exceptionally diligent.
The Azure Cloud List’s commentary and Chen Changsheng’s example were reasons for his diligence. More importantly, if Chen Changsheng failed to get the top rank, he would become the laughingstock of everyone. As Chen Changsheng’s friend and a student of the National Academy, Tang Thirty-Six had to do something.
Xuan Yuan Po was equally diligent.
His right arm had fully healed. Under Chen Changsheng’s guidance, he was practicing a cultivation technique, his strength advancing by leaps and bounds, his energy seemingly inexhaustible. As a result, the big trees by the lake began to suffer, and the hard bluestones shattered like ice on the lake’s surface.
The peaceful life at the academy was disrupted one morning by a carriage.
At the time, Tang Thirty-Six and Xuan Yuan Po were bickering, and Chen Changsheng was muttering to himself in the snow, reciting something or other.
(Written in a rush, still a bit late. I’ll try to update earlier tomorrow. Please remember to cast your votes.)