Chapter 34: What’s Going On?
Autumn Mountain Lord’s complexion was very pale, but unlike the pallor from excessive blood loss and severe injuries a few days ago, it was more haggard and more somber.
In just half a night, he had experienced something unknown and aged considerably.
Gou Hanshi saw this clearly and understood why, his emotions complex—sympathy, followed by displeasure.
The sympathy was for his senior brother, the displeasure for Xu Yourong.
He knew this matter was not Xu Yourong’s fault, but closeness dictated bias, and he couldn’t understand why things had developed to this point.
Even though he had thoroughly read the Daoist scriptures since childhood, he still couldn’t comprehend these matters.
After an unknown length of time, Autumn Mountain Lord suddenly spoke: “In a few days, Junior Sister will return to the capital. If you have nothing to do, accompany her on the journey.”
Gou Hanshi was puzzled and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Autumn Mountain Lord gazed at the starlight on the ground outside the cave dwelling and said, “Grandmaster Uncle… might leave with the Holy Maiden. Where the Southern Domain will head from now on will depend on the movements in the capital.”
Hearing this, Gou Hanshi was shocked. It took him a long time to calm down before asking, “Why is Junior Sister returning to the capital? Is she really going to personally dissolve that engagement?”
Autumn Mountain Lord shook his head and said, “That matter is not the key. On the contrary, I’m mainly worried about her battle with Chen Changsheng.”
Gou Hanshi was even more confused, wondering why Grandmaster Uncle, Master, and you, Senior Brother, all insist that when Yourong Junior Sister returns to the capital, she will inevitably fight Chen Changsheng.
“With the unification of north and south ahead, neither the Holy Empress nor His Holiness the Pope wants to stir up too much trouble at this time. In other words, both saints will remain silent. The struggle for the throne is still beneath the surface. The new rules of the national religion, the academies’ martial exhibition… what the Tianhai family and those two archbishops are doing is actually very similar to what His Holiness the Pope and Archbishop Melisandre are doing—building momentum for the final battle.”
Autumn Mountain Lord looked at him calmly and said, “From the Ivy Banquet to the Grand Examination, to the Tomb of Heavenly Books, Chen Changsheng walked on starlight, first defeating you, then defeating fate. This time, if he can continue to win, when his momentum and reputation are at their peak, and Yourong Junior Sister returns from the Southern Domain to defeat him in one stroke, then who in the future would dare to lightly challenge Her Holiness the Holy Empress’s authority?”
Then he frowned slightly and said, “But this is too cruel.”
Gou Hanshi understood what he meant by cruel, shook his head, and asked, “What exactly did Junior Sister say earlier?”
Autumn Mountain Lord calmly recounted some of what Xu Yourong had said earlier, such as how she had fallen in love with a disciple of the Snow Mountain Sect’s hidden sect who might have already died.
Gou Hanshi thought, isn’t this also a form of cruelty? After a long silence, he asked, “So is that it?”
Autumn Mountain Lord was silent for a long time, then said, “A dead man cannot be defeated.”
Gou Hanshi didn’t know what to say and murmured, “This isn’t right.”
“Who isn’t right? Junior Sister?” Autumn Mountain Lord looked at him with a faint smile and said, “Why do you think Zhou Dufu’s blade was unstoppable?”
Gou Hanshi said, “Because it was fast.”
Autumn Mountain Lord smiled faintly and said, “Because one cut severs two. Sometimes… that is true compassion.”
A wisdom sword can cut emotional ties, and so can a blade.
He spoke with a smile, then coughed.
He coughed painfully, the pain was heartbreaking, and spots of bloodstains fell on his clothes.
Feelings arise without reason, deepening with time—how could they be easily severed by swords or blades?
Chen Changsheng did not know that the storm in the capital was about building momentum, and that the so-called new rules would ultimately fall between him and Xu Yourong. Similarly, the vigilance and hostility of the Tianhai family, the new faction of the national religion, and the great families, sects, and mountain gates in the far south toward the old faction of the national religion and the imperial clan all fell upon him and the National Academy.
At five in the morning, he woke up on time as he had for years. After calming his mind for a moment, he opened his eyes, got up, dressed, and washed.
Rain fell outside the window, but the summer morning breeze did not become cooler, nor did the sounds from the distant courtyard gate diminish. He had grown accustomed to waking up to the noise and various news, no longer as anxious as before. He calmly went about his tasks, walked to the kitchen by the lake, ate two bowls of millet porridge, two sorghum flour steamed buns, and two slices of extremely thin-cut, fatty Red River ham, and incidentally searched for the Mountain and Sea Sword hidden in the woodpile before heading to the library.
When he returned from Zhou Prison yesterday, he noticed the street’s awning hadn’t been dismantled. He and Tang Thirty-Six guessed that the so-called academies’ martial exhibition wouldn’t end with Zhou Ziheng’s severe injury. Crossing realms to defeat a Star Gathering cultivator was indeed a continent-shaking event, but compared to the Tianhai family’s overwhelming power and influence, what did it amount to?
Especially since the Li Palace had remained silent until now.
The Li Palace’s silence didn’t mean the old faction of the national religion and His Holiness the Pope had truly abandoned the National Academy. From a few days ago until now, many Li Palace priests and national religion cavalry had been guarding the National Academy’s surroundings. While they couldn’t stop the noise, they ensured safety here.
A Li Palace priest surnamed Lu hurried into the academy, stopping Chen Changsheng before he entered the library. He first respectfully bowed, then handed over a letter with both hands.
A letter delivered to the National Academy at this time was naturally a challenge letter.
Chen Changsheng returned the bow to Priest Lu, thanking him for his hard work over the past few days, but did not take the challenge letter. Instead, he gestured for him to take it to Tang Thirty-Six in the small building and also asked him to tell Tang Thirty-Six to get up early and eat. It didn’t matter if the millet porridge got cold, but if he got up any later, the entire large basin of fatty Red River ham would really be finished off by Xuan Yuan Po alone.
Entering the library, he first checked on Zhe Xiu’s condition, then took out the medicine that Luo Luo had asked Chief Jin to deliver last night. He also untied his golden needles, dipped them in a green juice made from a medicinal herb Tang Thirty-Six had stolen from the Hundred Herbs Garden last night, and inserted them into Zhe Xiu’s brow, slowly twisting them to continue treating his injuries.
After an unknown length of time, the dual medicinal power of the Li Palace’s rare medicine and the Hundred Herbs Garden’s juice, driven by the golden needles, fully entered Zhe Xiu’s meridians and spread throughout his body.
After finishing this, Chen Changsheng felt tired and his body was a bit hot, but unlike yesterday, he didn’t sweat again.
Removing the toxins from Zhe Xiu’s body was not difficult. What had worried him most—the poison from Nan Ke’s Peacock Feather—had, perhaps due to a Li Palace red-robed cardinal personally performing the Holy Light Technique or because it clashed with the poison from Zhou Prison, become very weak, completely inconsistent with the amount of toxin Zhe Xiu had mentioned.
Now his greatest concern was Zhe Xiu’s meridians.
The library door creaked open, and Xuan Yuan Po walked in, asking, “What am I learning today?”
The National Academy currently had no instructors, so if Xuan Yuan Po wanted to learn something, he had to ask Chen Changsheng. Chen Changsheng had experience in this area. He had taught students at the National Academy, knew many demon race techniques, and was thoroughly familiar with the demon race’s unique body structure and meridian pathways. Moreover, after treating Zhe Xiu so many times since the Grand Examination, he now had more confidence in demons cultivating human techniques.
He took out a book he had prepared earlier and handed it over, saying, “Starting today, you will learn the Heavenly Thunder Guide.”
The Heavenly Thunder Guide was not a common cultivation technique. To be precise, it was a volume of Daoist scripture from the national religion’s canon. It was said that when this scripture was cultivated to its peak, one could gain immense strength, summon wind with a punch and rain with a strike, like a demon god, and even call down heavenly thunder to annihilate extremely powerful enemies.
But “said” often meant legend. No one could understand how to cultivate this scripture, so naturally, no one had ever succeeded.
Xuan Yuan Po was a simple bear clan youth, but that didn’t mean he was stupid. Especially after spending so many days at the National Academy, being forced by Chen Changsheng to read so many books, his mind had opened, and his knowledge had grown. Looking at the scripture in his hands, he said sadly, “Are you messing with me? Or do you think I’m going to become a rain-summoning priest in the future?”
The Heavenly Thunder Guide was most commonly used during rain-praying ceremonies, where priests would lead the people in chanting. But who had ever seen the altar glow, the wind rise, clouds gather, thunder roar, and rain pour down after reading this scripture? Even if the scripture was real, Xuan Yuan Po, a youth willing to struggle his whole life to become a demon race divine general, would never want to become a priest who summoned wind and rain.
Chen Changsheng didn’t explain. He used the authority of the academy head, the dignity of his grandmaster, and most importantly, Luo Luo’s entrustment and the ownership of the Mountain and Sea Sword to successfully suppress what could have been the first truancy incident since the National Academy reopened.
Xuan Yuan Po breathed heavily, frustrated and unwilling, and walked to the window to begin cultivating in the daylight.
The noise outside the National Academy’s gate gradually quieted, but that didn’t mean the situation had subsided.
The academies’ martial exhibition was a simple term, but involving the national religion’s cultivation of practitioners and the more important war between humans and demons, it naturally had a complete set of rules and procedures.
Chen Changsheng ignored these matters. After confirming that Zhe Xiu had fallen asleep again and Xuan Yuan Po had truly started seriously reading the scripture, he began his own meditation and cultivation. Last night, in the shadow of the black stele, he had glimpsed scenes from the Zhou Garden, which gave him hope and made him more anxious.
As for matters outside the gate… Tang Thirty-Six was handling them. Chen Changsheng and Xuan Yuan Po lacked that ability. Even if Zhe Xiu weren’t injured, he would only know how to fight and kill. That’s why Chen Changsheng and Xuan Yuan Po had been waiting for Tang Thirty-Six to come out of the Tomb of Heavenly Books. And Tang Thirty-Six lived up to expectations—on his first day back, he kicked Tianhai Ya’er and verbally demolished Zhou Ziheng.
What would he do today?
Tang Thirty-Six bit into a small sorghum flour steamed bun stuffed with the last half-slice of fatty Red River ham he could find in the kitchen. He took the challenge letter from Priest Lu without looking at it and walked straight out the gate.
Two squads of national religion cavalry stood grimly in the light rain. Beyond them was a dense crowd. When the National Academy’s gate opened, a huge noise erupted from the crowd. Startled, the bun in his mouth nearly fell into the rain. He mumbled indistinctly, “What’s going on?”
(Autumn Mountain Lord is well, Tang Thirty-Six is well.)
...
...
/br