Chapter 219: Examining the Stele by Lamplight at Night (Part 2)
Earlier, Tianhai Shengxue had said that the people in his household were nearly going mad. He wasn't referring to those young noble sons spouting arrogant nonsense at the banquet, but rather their fathers and his own father's generation. These people had mobilized the Southerners, attempting to influence Chen Changsheng's stele contemplation. The Heavenly Book Mausoleum was far too important for cultivators—everyone understood the principle that one step slow meant every step slow.
But he hadn't paid much attention to this. Because during the Grand Examination, he had already secretly placed a bet on Chen Changsheng through the Princess Luoluo, and also because, although no one knew why Chen Changsheng had gained the Pope's regard, such regard must have its reasons. A person who could reach the Ethereal Opening realm during battle, unless you eliminated him physically, was almost impossible to destroy on a spiritual level—this was Tianhai Shengxue's view. However, upon hearing Prince Chenliu's words and that name Zhou Tong, he realized he had still underestimated the initiative of his elders.
The world said Zhou Tong was the Holy Maiden Empress's dog, but he wasn't an ordinary dog—he was the most ferocious dog in history. After the former Judgment Office of the State Religion was merged into the Ministry of Justice, his power had become overwhelming. He had ruined countless ministers and generals. If you asked who the ministers still loyal to the old imperial clan and the elders of the State Religion hated most, it wasn't the Holy Maiden Empress—it was him. For decades.
Countless experts had risked their lives to assassinate this man, yet not a single attempt had succeeded. Because Zhou Tong was always surrounded by dozens of sinister iron guards, and more importantly, because Zhou Tong himself was a powerful cultivator at the Gathering Stars realm. Logically, experts of this level tended to have calm minds, their sights set beyond the mundane world, and would never stoop to such filthy work as torture, interrogation, murder, and confiscation of property. But Zhou Tong was an oddity—his interest, even his life's ambition, had never been in cultivation, but in these very matters.
Such a man could not be manipulated by the Tianhai family. If he was truly waiting outside the Heavenly Book Mausoleum to make a move on Chen Changsheng, it must be the Holy Maiden Empress's will. Tianhai Shengxue pondered silently, then suddenly felt something was off. He thought that given the Holy Maiden Empress's free and easy, lofty demeanor, even if she wanted to strike against Chen Changsheng and the countercurrent he represented, she would wait until after he returned from the Zhou Garden.
With this thought, he raised his head, looked at Prince Chenliu with slightly furrowed brows, and wondered: You deliberately advanced the timeline of Zhou Tong's move—what exactly are you trying to do?
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The aftershocks of the Grand Examination had not yet dissipated. Countless forces in the capital were watching the Heavenly Book Mausoleum. In the streets, inns, and taverns, countless commoners were discussing the matter, curious about how this year's examinees would perform in the mausoleum, especially Chen Changsheng. Yet no one imagined that inside the mausoleum, the students of the National Academy and the disciples of Mount Li Sword Sect had, for some reason, ended up living under the same roof, and that Chen Changsheng and Gou Hanshi had come together to examine the stele. Just as the examinees around the stele pavilion hadn't expected that after Senior Ji Jin's speech, Chen Changsheng and Gou Hanshi would show no sign of humble acceptance, nor would they admit fault.
The stele pavilion looked somewhat eerie in the night. The atmosphere was tense and oppressive. The young cultivators didn't know what to say. The anger on Zhong Hui's face and the faces of the two other Huaiyuan Academy scholars grew thicker. Ji Jin's expression remained cold as ice. Then, Chen Changsheng broke the silence with words no one had anticipated.
He looked at Ji Jin and said, "Senior, you are wrong."
A commotion erupted around the stele pavilion. A fifteen-year-old youth was directly pointing out that a stele attendant who had been studying steles in the Heavenly Book Mausoleum for over fifteen years was wrong in his interpretation! Even if he was the top scholar of this year's Grand Examination, as had been said before, the mausoleum welcomed a top scholar every year. How could he compare to Ji Jin here?
What happened next shocked the stele observers even more. After a moment of silence, Gou Hanshi also said to Ji Jin, "Senior, you are indeed wrong."
The night was deep. Though starlight fell, it was still somewhat difficult to make out the intricate lines on the stele. At some point, someone had quietly lit an oil lamp hanging from a tree branch outside the pavilion. The dim lamplight mixed with the starlight, falling on the young faces of Chen Changsheng and Gou Hanshi, calm and resolute.
They knew that Ji Jin's earlier argument had its merits. The principle that "a myriad changes never leave their root" held true—the common schools of stele interpretation, when traced to their origins, never escaped the three most mainstream and orthodox methods: taking form, taking meaning, and taking momentum. But they had thoroughly studied the Daoist canon, and having just read Xun Mei's notes, they were even more confident in their determination to blaze a new path.
"Before the Heavenly Book Stele, there is no fixed method or fixed rule."
Gou Hanshi looked at the young examinees gathered around and said, "True, the interpretive frameworks we can recall in an instant are all variations of the three mainstream methods. But we must never assume that all ten thousand methods of stele interpretation have already been figured out by our predecessors. If we think that way, how can we surpass them?"
At Mount Li Sword Sect, he often played the role of a teacher to his junior disciples, so he spoke these words naturally.
Hearing this, Ji Jin's face grew darker and darker. He felt this was a strong provocation from his juniors and said coldly, "The younger generation these days is indeed getting more arrogant, always talking about surpassing the ancients, just like that madman who only painted armor. But don't forget—arrogant as he was, he ended up possessed by demons!"
"Cultivation only cares about wisdom and ignorance, not seniority."
Gou Hanshi looked at him calmly and said, "If later generations don't even have the courage to surpass their predecessors, how can each generation be stronger than the last?"
Ji Jin had received instructions from his sect, and combined with his own deep contempt and disgust for Chen Changsheng, he had twice tried to suppress and humiliate Chen Changsheng, from morning till late night. But he hadn't expected Gou Hanshi to argue with him. Huaiyuan Academy, though deeply rooted in the south, was ultimately no match for Mount Li Sword Sect, the foremost mountain gate of the Longevity Sect. He didn't want to confront Gou Hanshi, but now, burning with rage and under the watch of so many juniors, he couldn't care less. He barked sternly, "The Way of the Heavenly Book lies within the stele inscriptions. You've only been in the mausoleum for two days—what Way do you understand? What principles can you cultivate? Do you insist on taking the wrong path?"
Chen Changsheng said, "Ten thousand streams have different scenery, but they all flow into the same sea."
Ji Jin stared into his eyes, his expression cold, and said, "I hear you reached the Ethereal Opening realm in one go during the Grand Examination, shaking the entire capital. No doubt you fancy yourself a babbling clear stream. But don't forget—many streams look abundant, yet dry up in the wilderness just days after leaving the mountains. What makes you think you can escape such a fate?"
At this point in the argument, hostility had become undisguised targeting, even a curse. The people around the stele pavilion turned pale. The oil lamp hanging from the tree branch seemed to dim a few shades.
Hearing this, Chen Changsheng couldn't help but shake his head and said, "I heard that Senior was once a famous scholar in the south, willing to enter the Heavenly Book Mausoleum and dedicate your life to the Way—truly admirable. I never expected Senior to be this kind of person, unable to reason and resorting to scare tactics. Where is the grace of your younger days?"
He wasn't mocking Ji Jin; he genuinely thought this way. The natural regret and disappointment in his tone, however, appeared to the onlookers as a deeper insult to Ji Jin.
Enraged, Ji Jin pointed at him and shouted, "You want to reason? Then I'll reason with you! From ancient times to the present, among the countless interpretations of the Zhaojing Stele, which one has strayed from the orthodox path of the vast sea? Who has ever solved this stele without taking form, taking meaning, or taking momentum? Was it Zhou Dufu? His Majesty the Taizong Emperor? The previous Holy Maiden? His Holiness the Pope? Or perhaps that Su Mou from Mount Li, or that dean of your National Academy?"
His words grew faster and faster, and when he mentioned those illustrious names, they came like a storm, overwhelming everything. The last two names were the sect elders of Gou Hanshi and Chen Changsheng, and the final mention of the National Academy's dean carried a pointed implication.
The stele pavilion fell into utter silence. Gou Hanshi and Chen Changsheng said nothing. No one knew the details of how those legendary figures had interpreted the Heavenly Book Stele back then. According to the Daoist canon and official court records, they had all used the most traditional, most orthodox methods. Zhou Dufu, who had solved a stele at a single glance, once mentioned in casual conversation with the Taizong Emperor that he had used a sublime technique combining form and meaning, but it still fell within this scope.
Just when everyone thought Gou Hanshi and Chen Changsheng, faced with these ironclad facts, would have no response, Chen Changsheng spoke again.
The oil lamp hanging from the tree branch swayed gently in the night breeze, its light flickering. Reflected in his eyes, it seemed like stars were shining.
"One thousand one hundred and sixty-one years ago, His Majesty the Taizong Emperor came from Tianliang Commandery to the capital to examine the steles. The Duke of Wei, then a county clerk, accompanied him into the mausoleum. His Majesty saw three steles in one day, but the Duke of Wei took two full months to understand this Zhaojing Stele. Of course, everyone knew the Duke of Wei couldn't cultivate, so logically, he shouldn't have been able to understand the Heavenly Book Stele at all. His Majesty didn't mock him; instead, he was curious about how he had solved it and asked the Duke what he had seen on this Zhaojing Stele. The Duke said he hadn't seen the flow of true essence, traces of divine sense, or any sword techniques or momentum..."
Chen Changsheng pointed at the silent stele in the pavilion, recounting an old, forgotten story. Everyone's gaze, including Ji Jin's, followed his finger and fell upon the stele's inscriptions, wondering what the Duke of Wei had seen back then. Could there truly be a possibility beyond the three methods?
"What he saw were straight lines forcibly twisted. He saw the pain and helplessness of those once-straight lines being distorted by external force. He saw the power of straightness hidden within those bends. In his eyes, the lines on the Zhaojing Stele had nothing to do with cultivation, yet they were above cultivation. These lines were law—rules."
Silence reigned before the stele pavilion, broken only by Chen Changsheng's voice.
"The Duke of Wei used this to interpret the Heavenly Book Stele."
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