Chapter 191: The Box of Fate
The luminous pearl rested at his feet, leaning against the wall, its light casting upward. The short sword embedded in the wall was reflected as an extremely long shadow, reaching all the way to the ceiling, like a black beam.
Inch by inch, the short sword slowly pierced deeper into the wall, gradually being swallowed. Chen Changsheng gripped the hilt, staring at the point where the sword met the wall. His breathing grew faster and faster, his expression more and more tense.
His mind was attached to the sword, as if walking along a night road without lamplight, unaware of what lay ahead. This feeling of complete unknown brought anticipation but even more unease.
Finally, the short sword transmitted a clear sensation back to him. The tip had penetrated about half a foot into the wall and struck something hard. Chen Changsheng stared at the wall before him, paused for a moment, then pushed again. Confirming that the short sword could barely go any deeper, he felt a slight surprise, wondering what material that thing inside was made of that even his sword could hardly pierce. At the same time, he confirmed that this was what he was searching for.
He released his left hand, raised his arm, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Then he grasped the hilt again. This time, instead of trying to go deeper, he began moving it horizontally, relying entirely on feel. The short sword silently cut through the hard bluestone wall. Aside from a faint drift of stone dust, there was not a single sound.
The short sword cut noiselessly, traveling through the bluestone wall, moving back and forth until it finally returned to its starting point, carving out a complete pattern on the wall. Chen Changsheng looked at this pattern and felt it seemed familiar. Then he remembered that the outer outline of the Boiling Time Forest appeared to be exactly this shape.
He pulled out the short sword, moved closer to the bluestone wall, and used the sharp blade to probe into a slightly wider horizontal crack. Carefully, he began prying outward, levering it bit by bit.
This was the wall to the right of Wang Zhice’s portrait. With his movements, an entire piece of bluestone slowly shifted outward, a few strands of silk at a time, until it became a visible protrusion.
No one knew how much time passed. The gap between the cut-out bluestone and the wall had grown to half a palm’s width. Chen Changsheng sheathed the sword, placed both hands on the smooth, even ends of the bluestone, took a deep breath, and slowly spread his true essence throughout his body, channeling strength into his arms.
An extremely low, subtle grinding sound arose. In the soft light of the luminous pearl, stone dust flew more rapidly. A highly irregularly shaped bluestone block was slowly pulled out from the wall by him.
An opening had been cut into the bluestone wall. Deep inside, a box could faintly be seen. This box was embedded in the stone wall, clearly difficult to separate, but the lid should be openable.
That such a mechanism existed within the walls of a place like the Lingyan Pavilion, hiding a mysterious box—who had tampered with it during its construction? Who could have done such a thing?
If this scene were seen by others, it would surely cause a great earthquake in the Great Zhou Dynasty, possibly even tracing back centuries. Some prominent families might face utter destruction.
Chen Changsheng did not know who had placed this box in the Lingyan Pavilion. During its construction, countless craftsmen and officials watched day and night. How could that person have deceived so many eyes and even the divine gaze of His Majesty the Taizong Emperor? All he knew was that inside the wall of the Lingyan Pavilion lay a box he needed.
The box hidden in the wall was quite dark in color. The outermost lid was easily removed, revealing the true lid beneath. On that lid were many copper wires, and between the wires were numerous delicate copper buttons, looking extremely complex. At the very center was the mechanism to open the box.
Any child in the capital, seeing these copper buttons and wires, could guess what it was—the most popular puzzle in the Great Zhou, the Nine Linked Rings. But this was infinitely more complex, seemingly a set of seventeen linked rings.
Like the maze in the Boiling Time Forest, the Nine Linked Rings was a game Wang Zhice used to pass the time and clear his mind during his arduous studies. Though just a game, it was excellent for training mental strength and mathematical ability. However, while Nine Linked Rings were common, seventeen linked rings were extremely rare, and the difficulty of solving them was vastly different.
Chen Changsheng hesitated not at all. Staring at those extremely complex copper wires, he began calculating. His gaze occasionally fell on a small copper button, and then he started connecting the wires. His fingers plucked and pulled among the copper wires, as if playing a zither, linking the wires and buttons together continuously.
This process took him a very long time. After a long while, he looked at a blank spot in the southwest corner of the lid, took a deep breath, and lifted his left ring finger from the copper wires. With a soft click, the copper wires he had woven began to move on their own. The patterns kept unraveling and recombining, moving toward the very center.
This was the process of solving the rings. It would take a long time to know if it could finally be solved. It was also possible that at the very end, he would realize he had made a mistake, and then he would have to start all over again.
With nothing else to do but wait, Chen Changsheng only then noticed that a lot of sweat had formed on his head. When he raised his arm to wipe it, he saw the sweat stains left on his sleeve earlier. He was momentarily stunned, then smiled bitterly and shook his head. Taking a handkerchief from his sleeve, he carefully wiped the sweat from his face.
Watching the ever-changing patterns, those copper wires and buttons, he remained silent.
He did not know who had made this mechanism—Wang Zhice or someone else. Just as he knew there was a box inside the bluestone wall, he only knew of its existence, but not why it existed.
All these things had been told to him by the Daoist Priest.
Before coming to the capital, Chen Changsheng had always thought his master, the Daoist Priest, was just an ordinary Taoist, at most skilled in medicine. Now, having experienced so much, he naturally knew that his master was certainly no ordinary person and likely had another identity.
The Taoist scriptures in the old temple of Xining were all ancient texts from before the Great Compilation. In terms of the richness of their collection, they could even rival the Li Palace. How could an ordinary person possess so many Taoist scriptures?
Holding the short sword, he looked at the portraits of former sages and meritorious officials on the wall and shook his head. How could an ordinary person know that so many secrets were hidden in the Lingyan Pavilion? Even this short sword was far from ordinary.
It was also the Daoist Priest who had told him that if he wanted to defy fate and change his destiny, he must enter the Lingyan Pavilion and find the secrets related to it. So from Xining to the capital, his goal had always been to enter the Lingyan Pavilion.
His fate was not good. To survive past the age of twenty, there were only two methods—to reach the realm of Divine Concealment, or to defy fate and change his destiny. Both methods sounded extremely unreliable because they were basically impossible. But relatively speaking, the latter had a bit more feasibility, as there had always been legends among the people about defying fate and changing destiny.
How could one defy fate and change destiny? First, one must know what fate was. Watching the copper linked rings pattern being unraveled, he thought silently, was his own fate hidden inside here?
(Note: Regarding the two names, Grinding Time Forest and Boiling Time Forest, the latter was ultimately chosen because it looks more aesthetically pleasing. Also, I’ve finally returned home. After traveling for twenty days and visiting eight provinces or municipalities directly under the central government, I’m quite impressed with myself. Tomorrow will still be one chapter. Starting the day after tomorrow, I’ll work hard on writing. Thank you all for your understanding.)