Chapter 176: He Has Been Entering the Subterranean Realm All Along
Gou Hanshi’s sword cut through the rain and struck, sending Chen Changsheng flying backward. Everyone thought he would crash heavily into the rainwater again, and this time, he wouldn’t be able to get up. Who could have imagined… he indeed did not get up again, but not because he fell—he simply didn’t fall at all. His clothes were tattered, his face pale, and he looked miserable, but his landing was anything but miserable. His steps were steady to the extreme, as if he still possessed boundless strength.
In the fierce and tense battle, there was no time for lingering shock or amazement. Chen Changsheng leaned forward, his boot soles breaking through the puddles, shifting from a wolf-like charge to a Western Sky Line. He stepped into the Yashida stance, instantly arriving at Gou Hanshi’s side and rear, his sword surging with the violent storm of Bell Mountain.
Gou Hanshi’s sword circled around him like a vast sea of pine waves, leaving no gaps. It was as if the pine waves were gently rippling in the rain, and his sword precisely struck the flat side of Chen Changsheng’s short sword. With a clear hum, the sound burst from where the two blades met, like a distant bell toll.
The terrifying collision of true essence caused the rain curtains between them to suddenly arch upward, forming a hollow ring of rain. Hundreds of raindrops shot outward like sharp arrows in all directions.
Chen Changsheng was sent flying backward like an arrow, his body breaking through countless layers of rain curtains. His feet dragged two straight lines of water through the puddles on the bluestone floor, only stopping when he reached the stone wall.
But this time, he didn’t fall, nor did he crash into the stone wall. He stopped steadily according to his own will. His hand holding the sword was steady, and even without the cloth strap around his wrist, the short sword likely wouldn’t have left his hand. This was completely different from the miserable scene when he first received Gou Hanshi’s three Fisherman’s Song strikes.
Now, he was calm, even appearing somewhat composed.
Gou Hanshi’s grip on the sword handle grew tighter and tighter. Looking at Chen Changsheng across from him, his expression grew more and more solemn, and the confusion and shock in his eyes deepened. Because through this exchange of swords, he finally confirmed that his earlier speculation was true—that impossible thing had indeed happened.
His hand gripped so tightly that his knuckles turned slightly white, yet the tip of his sword, hanging by his leg, trembled slightly. This was because Chen Changsheng had displayed a completely different level of power in this exchange, and even more so because he was deeply shocked—this was something not recorded in the Three Thousand Daoist Canons, an unprecedented miracle in the long history of human cultivation. How had he done it?
This exchange of swords seemed ordinary on the surface, but it was actually a declaration.
Chen Changsheng told everyone that he had not lost yet, that he was still improving.
The cicada chirping outside the Dust-Washing Pavilion had long since ceased, but with his sword strike, it suddenly reappeared, as if the commoners in the market and outside the palace were singing loudly, extremely noisy and unsettling.
Above the academy, in the azure sky, there were a few white clouds and a patch of rain clouds that hadn’t fully faded. It had just shown signs of clearing, but who would have thought that as Chen Changsheng executed this sword strike, faint thunder rumbled deep within the rain clouds, and a beautiful sunset glow suddenly appeared at the distant edge of the sky.
Inside the Dust-Washing Pavilion, it was dead silent.
Among the people, including Gou Hanshi, some stared at Chen Changsheng in shock, some looked at the sky with dazed expressions, and some even seemed utterly lost, thinking, how could this be possible?
Chen Changsheng had actually entered the Subterranean Realm?
Yes, Chen Changsheng had successfully entered the Subterranean Realm.
Everyone only knew that he hadn’t succeeded in marrow cleansing during the Ivy Banquet, so the time he took for marrow cleansing and then entering the Contemplation Realm must have been extremely short—at most, the initial stage of Contemplation. He couldn’t even see the threshold of the Subterranean Realm, let alone succeed in entering it. Among this year’s Grand Examination candidates, he was very ordinary.
But no one knew that Chen Changsheng had used only one night to successfully fix his destiny star, then began to draw starlight for marrow cleansing. Nearly three hundred days and nights had passed since then. He had never succeeded in marrow cleansing with starlight, but those star radiances hadn’t dissipated. Instead, they passed through his skin, hair, and muscles, directly depositing in the deepest parts of his body. When he first entered the Contemplation Realm in the underground space, he had thought that thick snowfield was the star radiance drawn into his body over those hundreds of days and nights, but he hadn’t noticed the lake.
The countless clear waters in that lake were the true result of his starlight marrow cleansing.
In the underground space, without successfully completing marrow cleansing, he had recklessly forced his first entry into the Contemplation Realm. His body split open, his blood burned, and even the Black Dragon thought he would surely die. But no matter how terrifying those star radiance flames were, in that pool of blood, his heart remained crystal clear like a fruit, never collapsing. Why?
Because over those hundreds of nights, the starlight he drew hadn’t been used for marrow cleansing at all. Instead, every night, it gently touched his Subterranean Mansion, soaking it without leaving, forming an emerald lake. Marrow cleansing? He had been practicing entering the Subterranean Realm all along.
Without his knowledge, the star radiance from that distant red star continuously entered his body, night after night seeking the path within that mountain peak, gazing at that stone gate—not just the hundred nights of knocking at the door that Gou Hanshi had emphasized, but focused and steadfast knocking for hundreds of nights!
So earlier, when he stood before the Subterranean Mansion’s gate, he hadn’t exerted any force. He simply pushed gently, and the gate of the Subterranean Mansion opened. Because he was a genius? Yes, he indeed had great talent for cultivation, but more importantly, he had pushed that stone gate for too many nights. It was only missing that final gentle push with conscious intent.
He had spent countless time and effort carrying earth to build a mound, creating a hill as high as the Sweet Dew Terrace. He only needed to pour one last basket of earth on top to stand at the highest point of the capital.
That last basket of earth wasn’t heavy; pouring it was easy. It might seem effortless, even too light compared to the words “highest of the capital,” but who still remembered how much he had paid before that?
Yes, this was Chen Changsheng’s cultivation.
Because of his severed meridians, because of his special constitution that prevented marrow cleansing, he had relied on his strange imagination and luck to stumble onto a path completely different from others.
Marrow cleansing, Contemplation, then Subterranean Realm?
No, he had begun Contemplation before marrow cleansing.
Even more outrageous, he had begun entering the Subterranean Realm before Contemplation.
If it were a truth in this world that water flows downward.
In Chen Changsheng’s world, water had truly been flowing upward all along.
No one knew his specific situation, what he had encountered, or what he had paid, so no one could imagine his current state, and naturally, they couldn’t understand why he could enter the Subterranean Realm. Moreover, it must be known that entering the Subterranean Realm had always been regarded as the first truly high threshold on the long path of cultivation, a life-and-death barrier. Countless young geniuses nurtured by sects and academies had fallen before this threshold. Countless ordinary cultivators unwilling to accept their fate had perished, to the point that now at least half of the human cultivators on the continent didn’t dare attempt entering the Subterranean Realm. Even those who succeeded—like Gou Hanshi, like Miss Mo Yu back in the day—how cautious and careful they were when entering the Subterranean Realm! Before formally breaking through, they inevitably underwent a long period of preparation. Sects and academies would provide many elixirs and experiences to help calm their minds and nurture their thoughts. When breaking through, at least three powerful senior masters would watch over them, ready to intervene if anything went wrong. But Chen Changsheng… he entered the Subterranean Realm during the decisive moment of the Grand Examination.
He closed his eyes, then opened them, and he had entered the Subterranean Realm.
To many spectators, it felt like for this youth from the National Academy, entering the Subterranean Realm was as simple as eating breakfast. He said he wanted plain congee, then cooked a bowl and ate it. Earlier, he confirmed he was no match for Gou Hanshi, decided to enter the Subterranean Realm, and so he did.
How could such a thing exist in the world? How could such a person exist? If all this was real, then what were the sufferings they had endured back then, the years of bitter waiting? Gou Hanshi didn’t think about these things. But the great figures by the second-floor window, stunned into silence, couldn’t help but think so.
The heavy rain turned into a drizzle, pattering down, but it seemed it wouldn’t stop anytime soon.
Chen Changsheng stood before the stone wall, his slightly childish face calm. If one looked closely, they might notice subtle differences from before—less restraint, brighter eyes.
In the past, he had been too steady and quiet, giving a sense of premature maturity, as if he were four or five years older than his actual age. But at this moment, he was like the newborn sun in the sky after the rain had washed it clean.
Fresh, bright, full of a vitality rarely seen in him.
Gou Hanshi didn’t notice these details. He only felt that Chen Changsheng at this moment was somewhat terrifying, even surpassing the dangerous feeling that Zhe Xiu had given him in the previous round.
Mo Yu looked at Chen Changsheng in the rain below the pavilion, a complex emotion arising in her indifferent brows and eyes. Her fingers gripping the window frame turned slightly white, lost in thought.
For certain reasons, she didn’t want Chen Changsheng to lose the Grand Examination, but she knew very well that Her Majesty didn’t want Chen Changsheng to win this Grand Examination. Although Her Majesty had never explicitly stated this, many people had silently taken action to ensure Chen Changsheng wouldn’t make it to the end.
But there were also many people standing on the opposite side of Her Majesty.
The Education Department went without saying. Tianhai Shengsheng clearly had a different view from his family. Zhe Xiu fought desperately for the National Academy, and most crucially, the autumn rain that occasionally fell into the Dust-Washing Pavilion.
That autumn rain represented the attitude of His Holiness the Pope.
She thought Chen Changsheng still couldn’t make it to the end because his strength wasn’t enough. But just as she was thinking this, just as she thought Chen Changsheng had already brought too much shock to everyone present, and any further shock would only numb her, he shocked her and everyone present once again.
Mo Yu once again thought of that night, subconsciously looking at the sunset glow at the edge of the azure sky, wondering if fate truly existed in this world? Could there really be such a thing as heaven-sent blessings?
In fact, even Chen Changsheng himself still couldn’t fully understand what had happened, why he had suddenly entered the Subterranean Realm.
But as he gripped his short sword and walked toward Gou Hanshi again in the drizzle, he didn’t think at all about whether this was a heaven-sent blessing, because heaven had only given him suffering, never blessings. Nor did he think of fate, because fate had always been unfair to him, and he never revered it. On the contrary, what he had always been doing was challenging fate and then overcoming it.
He only remembered that this was the forty-seventh time he had walked toward Gou Hanshi with his short sword.
The first forty-five times, he had lost miserably, fallen hard, covered in rain and blood. But he had fallen without being defeated.
Every time, he got up and continued fighting, earnestly and seriously yearning for victory.
Finally, he hadn’t won yet, but the last two times, he hadn’t fallen.
So, if one must speak of fate, this couldn’t be heaven’s gift. It was the will of the unseen, a reward for his first forty-five attempts.