Chapter 6: Morning Rain
Thinking of that grassland in the Zhou Garden, that Twilight Valley, those Daoist scriptures and old objects lost in the lake, Chen Changsheng was surprised and overjoyed.
When he came out of the Zhou Garden, he had no idea what had happened. From another perspective, he didn’t even know how he had left the Zhou Garden. Suddenly, he found himself in the demon domain’s snowy plains tens of thousands of miles away. Because he didn’t know about the iron plate in the black-robed man’s hand, he was completely unaware of what happened to the Zhou Garden afterward. He only learned about it later on the road from Hua Jiefu and others.
If the Zhou Garden hadn’t been destroyed, didn’t that mean those Heavenly Book Stele stolen by Zhou Dufu might see the light of day again?
Yes, the most important and precious things in the Zhou Garden were not that tomb, nor the lost artifacts of predecessors, nor the roast chicken, grilled lamb, silver, and books he had thrown into the lake while fighting with Nan Ke and her two attendants. Of course, they were the Heavenly Book Stele.
No, Chen Changsheng was stunned. A possibility occurred to him, and he suddenly realized that the most precious thing in the Zhou Garden might not necessarily be the Heavenly Book Stele.
At least for him.
If that girl, First Meeting… hadn’t managed to leave the Zhou Garden, could she still be there now? If the Zhou Garden hadn’t been destroyed, did that mean she might still be alive? Inside right now?
He knew this possibility was extremely slim, but since the thought had occurred to him, how could he hesitate? His divine sense directly charged toward the shadow of that black stele.
With a loud boom, it resounded in his sea of consciousness.
That wisp of his divine sense suddenly turned into countless strands of green smoke and vanished without a trace.
He woke up in the National Academy’s library. His sea of consciousness churned, the pain was excruciating, and he felt a nauseating urge to vomit.
It took a long time for that painful feeling to gradually fade.
Without any hesitation, Chen Changsheng once again split off a strand of divine sense and channeled it into the sword sheath, asking the myriad swords to clear a path. In an instant, he arrived once more at the other side of the ocean of sword intent.
But there was nothing there.
The myriad swords obeyed and cleared the path, the sword intent receding. Naturally, there was no ocean of sword intent.
Without an ocean, how could there be a shore?
Without a shore, naturally, there would be no black stele waiting for him on the bank.
Chen Changsheng thought for a moment, then gave up control over those swords. The fierce sword intent once again filled the space, and the ocean reappeared.
His divine sense, with great difficulty, crossed the ocean of sword intent once more, arrived at the opposite shore, saw the black stele, and descended.
Still, there was no surprise. That wisp of his divine sense was destroyed with a bang, and he woke up again.
Chen Changsheng was silent for a long time, then got up and walked out of the library.
Tonight, his divine sense had been depleted too much to support another attempt.
Suppressing the intense urge to rediscover the Zhou Garden, find those Heavenly Book Stele… and her, was an extremely difficult thing.
Even though he was the most resistant to temptation and the most rational youth in the world, he still endured it with great difficulty.
There were some things Chen Changsheng could no longer endure. For instance, he hadn’t bathed in many days—from entering the Zhou Garden to the long journey south of ten thousand miles, when did he have time to clean himself? So today, after returning to the National Academy, he did nothing else. First, he used three large buckets of hot water and half an hour to wash himself thoroughly from head to toe, inside and out. But even so, he still felt he hadn’t gotten clean.
Returning to the small building, he washed himself twice more. After confirming there was no trace of dirt, he held the Dragon’s Roar Sword and began to cut his hair, shave his beard, trim his fingernails to a slight roundness, and his toenails to a neat square. He put on clean clothes, finally feeling a bit more comfortable. He walked to the window, glanced again at Zhou Prison and the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, silently greeted Zhe Xiu and Tang Thirty-Six in his heart, and went to bed to sleep.
By then, the night was deep.
At five in the morning, he woke up on time.
There was a faint, subtle scent in the room. It wasn’t the smell of cosmetics or flowers, but it was pleasant to the nose.
A strand of black hair lay beside his pillow.
It seemed Mo Yu had come.
Chen Changsheng felt a bit dazed, wondering how he could have slept so soundly last night. Or was Mo Yu stronger than people imagined?
After all, he was now a cultivator at the peak of Penetrating Obscurity. Even if Mo Yu was at the Gathering Stars realm, there was no reason she could lie beside him all night without a sound, and he remain completely unaware.
Of course, his mood now was more one of discomfort, finding it somewhat absurd.
Mo Yu was the most famous beauty in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
She was the second-highest-ranking woman in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
And they were enemies.
He had just returned to the capital, and she wouldn’t even give him a single night before quietly coming to sleep beside him. What was she doing?
Suddenly, rain began to fall outside the window, pattering down. It didn’t carry much chill, but early summer instantly turned back into spring.
Chen Changsheng looked out the window and suddenly heard a loud noise from the direction of the distant courtyard gate.
Everything felt familiar, like that rainy morning when Tianhai Shengsheng led the iron cavalry of the Great Zhou Northern Army and directly smashed down the National Academy’s courtyard gate.
Who had come in the rain this morning?
It was still someone from the Tianhai family. Not Tianhai Shengsheng, but someone Chen Changsheng and Xuan Yuan Po recognized.
Xuan Yuan Po looked at the youth sitting in the wheelchair, his emotions complicated. Back then, his right arm had been destroyed by this youth. Logically, he should hate him deeply. But later, this youth had been crippled by Princess Luoluo, injured even worse than him, and his right arm had mostly healed under Chen Changsheng’s treatment. The simple-minded bear clan youth couldn’t muster much hatred; instead, he felt some sympathy.
Sitting in the wheelchair was Tianhai Ya’er, the young strongman who had once held a terrifying reputation in the capital. Of course, those days were in the past.
Now, Tianhai Ya’er’s face was pale, his cheeks slightly swollen, and the muscles on his legs were clearly atrophied. He had become a cripple. Anyone looking at this youth, if they didn’t know the evil deeds he had done, would likely feel pity and sympathy, just like Xuan Yuan Po.
But Tianhai Ya’er was someone who didn’t need sympathy. He had never sympathized with others, nor did he need others’ sympathy. Whether toward others or himself, he was cruel—even crippled, he wouldn’t swallow his pride.
“Chen Changsheng, go to hell, you and your eighteen generations of ancestors.”
When Chen Changsheng arrived at the National Academy’s courtyard gate, the first words he heard were about himself. Although to this day, he didn’t even know who his parents were, let alone where his ancestral home was, hearing Tianhai Ya’er’s sharp, thin voice, he couldn’t help but feel anger.
The National Academy’s courtyard gate was pushed open. In the morning rain, Chen Changsheng walked into Baihua Alley and began to face his enemy directly, just like last year.
(The stage play of “Ze Tian Ji,” titled “First Entry into the World,” will be performed at the Yihai Theater in Shanghai from May 1st to 9th. Tickets are selling hotly. Interested friends can search for “Ze Tian Ji stage play tickets” and purchase them on Gewara Life Network, Damai Network, or the Shanghai Cultural Information Network. You can also follow the Sina Weibo account “Ze Tian Ji Stage Play” for the latest ticket information. Like everyone else, I’m not very familiar with stage plays, but I always hold good hopes for our story being adapted into various art forms. I wish everything goes well, truly.)