Chapter 348: The Past of the Stele and the Sword
As that black stone fell onto the stele base, transforming into a black Heavenly Book Stele, a distant and ancient aura emanated from the stone tablet, gradually merging with the auras emanating from the other ten Heavenly Book Steles. The formation hidden within their relative positions seemed to undergo a subtle yet absolutely crucial change with the arrival of this aura.
The area around the mausoleum grew slightly quieter. The stone skin on the surface of the stone pillars stopped peeling away. The exposed surfaces of the black steles glowed with a faint, cold light. At least several hundred space cracks, as thin as threads, floated between these pillars.
Those thread-like space cracks floating between the pillars were actually terrifying, as dark and deep as an abyss. Anything that touched those cracks would be sliced apart, and once swallowed by them, it would be sent to a different space, condemned to an endless, lonely drift. Fortunately, they were now bound by some force and no longer continued to disperse.
Amidst the howling gale, a clear cry rang out from the young Peng. Its call was so joyful, filled with the satisfaction of successful revenge. In its past life, it had been the mount of the Lone Sovereign of Zhou. It had personally witnessed its powerful master suppress these proud steles. Now, it was like a replay of that day—how could it not be smug?
Chen Changsheng withdrew his gaze from those space cracks and looked at the eleven stone pillars around the mausoleum. Following the deduction method Xu Yourong had explained earlier, he performed another verification, confirming that this formation controlled the energy eruption brought about by the appearance of the Heavenly Book Steles, and also confirming that his memory and that seemingly miraculous thought were not wrong.
Back then, when he observed the Heavenly Book Steles at night in the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, the seventeen steles in the front mausoleum formed a star map, but it was always incomplete, preventing him from breaking through that threshold. It wasn't until the end, when the black stone he had obtained from the Lingyan Pavilion shone brightly and completed the star map, that he truly understood the true meaning of the Heavenly Book Steles and broke through to the upper realm of Tongyou.
Countless starlight had washed over the mausoleum. At that time, he had been in a state of spiritual wandering, completely unaware of what was happening in his spiritual world. Afterwards, he had even forgotten the role of the black stone, retaining only the faintest, most blurred impression. Fortunately, he had finally remembered it and had it verified.
The black stone behind Wang Zhice's portrait in the Lingyan Pavilion... was a Heavenly Book Stele.
Thus, the greatest secret of the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, also the greatest secret of the Zhou Garden, and perhaps even the greatest secret of this continent for a thousand years, had finally revealed most of its true face before his eyes. Although the stories of those former peerless experts had faded into obscurity, he had glimpsed some truths.
Many years ago, the Lone Sovereign of Zhou had taken twelve Heavenly Book Steles from the Heavenly Book Mausoleum. This feat alone was astonishing and unheard of; no one could understand how he had done it. At the same time, his ability to preserve these steles outside the Heavenly Book Mausoleum was equally mind-boggling.
The Heavenly Book Steles were sacred objects of the Heavenly Dao. Within them were stored energies that did not belong to this world—energies that could be described as violent (kuangbao). Those auras and energies came from another world. For this world, they were like countless sparks, and everything in this world—mountains, rivers, seas, trees, beasts, and humans—was like a pile of dry kindling.
Once they met, countless flames would inevitably arise. Fortunately, countless years ago, when the Heavenly Books descended to the world, a natural prohibition was formed. The Heavenly Book Steles were connected to the earth, using the power of the thick soil to rest in silence. So, in the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, these energies could be stored peacefully within the stone tablets. Once they left the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, those auras incompatible with this world would naturally leave the steles and ignite everything in this world. Those distant, ancient auras, seemingly calm, represented destruction for this world.
Therefore, the Heavenly Book Steles could not leave the Heavenly Book Mausoleum.
Yet the Lone Sovereign of Zhou did exactly that, and he succeeded. One Heavenly Book Stele was lost for unknown reasons. He brought the remaining eleven steles into the Zhou Garden. Even though the Zhou Garden was isolated from the world, and even though his abilities were nearly miraculous, he still couldn't make these eleven steles conceal their auras and prevent them from contacting the real world. So, using earth-shattering methods and genius-level wisdom, he devised a very ingenious solution—he arranged these eleven steles into a formation.
This formation was a sophisticated imitation of the prohibition in the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, or rather, a miniature version of it. Xu Yourong could see the connections between these stone pillars in such a short time and see through the Lone Sovereign of Zhou's brilliant methods from back then precisely because she had been studying the Heavenly Book Mausoleum and the Heavenly Book Steles since childhood.
Relying on this formation, the Lone Sovereign of Zhou made the auras of the eleven Heavenly Book Steles that had left the mausoleum mutually restrain each other in a continuous cycle, forming their own independent world. By relying on this seemingly fragile balance, he prevented destruction. To stop anyone from disrupting this balance, he left countless terrifying demonic beasts in the Never-Setting Sun Grasslands.
If things had continued like this, perhaps after the Lone Sovereign of Zhou's death, as time passed and the rules of the Zhou Garden gradually collapsed, the mausoleum would have crumbled. Yet the eleven Heavenly Book Steles hidden within the stone pillars would have remained undiscovered, silently enduring the wind and rain until eternity.
But there is no such thing as "eternity" in this world. In fact, not many years after the Lone Sovereign of Zhou entered the Heavenly Book Mausoleum to seize the steles, a man quietly entered the Zhou Garden and set his sights on these stone pillars. In terms of realm, cultivation, and combat power alone, that man was naturally inferior to the Lone Sovereign of Zhou. But in other aspects, in the eyes of the world, he was considered even more outstanding than the Lone Sovereign.
That man was Wang Zhice.
Whether acting on orders from Emperor Taizong to investigate the whereabouts of the Heavenly Book Steles or simply to verify some conjecture of his own, Wang Zhice entered the Zhou Garden. Then, using unknown means, he extracted one of the Heavenly Book Steles from its stone pillar and miraculously transformed that stele into a black stone.
The Lone Sovereign of Zhou naturally discovered this, and then the problem arose.
With one of the eleven steles missing, the formation that had cost him so much effort was broken.
Back then, the Zhou Garden must have been just like it was now—filled with energy storms and howling hurricanes of destruction.
Of course, the Lone Sovereign of Zhou could have used his peerless power to forcibly suppress the eruption of these steles. But, as at the very beginning, he couldn't stay among these steles forever. So, he had to repair the formation. In other words, he had to find another Heavenly Book Stele.
Clearly, the imperial clan of the Great Zhou and the National Religion, having learned from their previous experience, would not give him another chance. Perhaps, as he sat among the mausoleums pondering, he saw a sword in the grassy sea that still refused to yield. It might have been Chen Xuanba's Dragon's Roar Sword, or the Saintess Sword of the Nanxi Sect. This gave him an idea.
Since finding another Heavenly Book Stele was so difficult, why not find a substitute?
Of course, that substitute had to be powerful enough, with power equivalent to that of a Heavenly Book Stele.
The substitute the Lone Sovereign of Zhou chose was sword intent.
He used ten thousand strands of sword intent to replace that Heavenly Book Stele.
Thus, the Zhou Garden gradually returned to calm.
The Never-Setting Sun Grasslands became peaceful once more.
No one ever found that mausoleum again, and no one could discover the secrets within those stone pillars.
Until, some years later, a sword's spirit separated from its body. The sword's body flowed out of the grasslands along with the water, passed through a small lake, went to the other side of the Zhou Garden, surfaced through a cold pool, was carried by a stream to a riverside forest, and was picked up by Su Li. Thus, the Wenshui River gained an umbrella, and that umbrella was now in Chen Changsheng's hands.
Chen Changsheng brought the yellow paper umbrella back to the Zhou Garden. For the ten thousand strands of sword intent in the grasslands, this was a return. Without the suppression of the sword intent, the formation was destroyed, the Heavenly Book Steles appeared, and they began to destroy heaven and earth. Yet no one expected that he had also brought back the lost Heavenly Book Stele. For the Zhou Garden, this was the true return.
This might be the story of that time. Of course, it was only Chen Changsheng's conjecture. At this moment, he did not know the true secret within the yellow paper umbrella. There were still many unclear details in the story he had imagined. For example, why had Wang Zhice only taken one Heavenly Book Stele back then? Was taking one stele the limit of his ability, or had his original intention in taking the stele not been to search for them, but to destroy this formation and thus annihilate the Zhou Garden, or even to use this method to deal with the Lone Sovereign of Zhou?
No one knew what Wang Zhice had been thinking back then, nor did anyone know if a earth-shattering battle had occurred in the Zhou Garden. According to historical records, Wang Zhice and the Lone Sovereign of Zhou had never fought. According to folklore, they were sworn brothers. But who knew? The ways in which those peerless experts who had once roamed the continent, those former sages who had shone over the capital, interacted and fought were beyond Chen Changsheng's current understanding, and even beyond his imagination.
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The young Peng flew back through those terrifying space cracks and returned to the front of the mausoleum's main gate.
Chen Changsheng looked into its eyes and said nothing. It understood and its gaze turned gloomy. It thought, this was a transaction. Since I've already completed my part, why should I continue to do things for you? Besides, look at her—she looks so heavy and cumbersome. What if I can't fly out in time?
Yes, it was still too late.
The stone pillars had stopped shedding their stone skin. The Heavenly Book Steles had stopped emitting their clear light. The distant, ancient auras had withdrawn back into the depths of the black stones. But the world of the Zhou Garden was already riddled with holes. Countless energy storms were still tearing apart the grassy sea and the mountains. Most terrifying of all, the sky was still collapsing continuously. The demonic beasts on the grasslands seemed to sense a glimmer of hope and were desperately fleeing away from the mausoleum. But the distant mountain ranges were also collapsing. Who knew if they could escape before the world was destroyed?
Chen Changsheng turned back to look at Xu Yourong.
Xu Yourong had already sensed the changes outside. Her eyes were filled with shock as she looked at him.
The formation composed of eleven Heavenly Book Steles by the Lone Sovereign of Zhou—she had understood it, and she had told Chen Changsheng how to solve the problem. But she hadn't expected that Chen Changsheng could actually solve it. This shocked her, even left her somewhat bewildered—Why did he have a Heavenly Book Stele?
But there was no time to talk about this, so she said nothing.
The Heavenly Book Steles had quieted down. They had to seize the time to leave, to leave together.
Chen Changsheng, however, didn't think that way. Looking at the Zhou Garden on the verge of destruction, he said, "You go first."
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(Today has been the worst day since I started writing "Ze Tian Ji." I've been sitting here since noon, and I want to curse. There's nothing for today. Actually, I know the reason. It's because the next part of the plot is my personal favorite, so I'm afraid to continue. That feeling of fear often appears. I'll finish writing this part tomorrow. The scene will be very beautiful. See you tomorrow.)