Chapter 462: He Stands Amidst the Flowers
The priest surnamed Lu from the Li Palace said helplessly, "They're all here to watch the excitement. We can't chase them too far away."
Under the awnings on the street, aside from the stewards of the Four Great Workshops, there were no major figures present. Yet a great many citizens of the capital had already arrived to watch the spectacle.
It was only six in the morning, and rain was still falling from the sky. Tang Thirty-Six felt both helpless and irritated. He thought to himself, isn't it just a fight? What's so interesting about it? Was it worth getting up this early for?
The crowd gradually parted, then gradually fell silent. A middle-aged man in a black priestly robe walked expressionlessly into the arena.
Tang Thirty-Six tore open the envelope, glanced at it twice, and confirmed that today's challenger was actually an instructor from the Li Palace's affiliated academy.
His sword-like brows furrowed slightly. It wasn't because the opponent was a peak Tongyou realm expert, but because the confusion in his heart was growing thicker and thicker, and the feeling was becoming stranger and stranger.
Aside from the Star Picking Academy, the other five Ivy Academies were all directly under the jurisdiction of the state religion. Could it be that within the state religion itself, there were truly so many... who dared to defy the will of the Pope?
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...
The door to the library was pushed open. A breeze carrying raindrops swept in, and along with it came Tang Thirty-Six.
"I can't figure this out," he said to Chen Changsheng.
Chen Changsheng shook his head and said, "In the state religion today, including many priests in the Li Palace, many of them experienced the chaos at the National Academy back then. They killed many powerful royal guards, and many still have the blood of the National Academy's teachers and students on their hands. Of course, they can't accept the royal family returning to power or the National Academy reappearing. This has nothing to do with defying the Pope's will."
After a brief pause, he continued, "The Archbishop was right back then. The Pope turned too quickly. Even those loyal to him couldn't make that turn in time."
Tang Thirty-Six thought it over and said, "That makes some sense, but I still feel something is off."
Chen Changsheng was more concerned with the specifics and asked, "What was the skill level of that instructor from the Li Palace's affiliated academy?"
Tang Thirty-Six said, "Not a Star Condensation realm. Peak Tongyou. Quite old. You could tell at a glance he had some desperate life-or-death tricks up his sleeve."
Chen Changsheng fell silent upon hearing this, thinking that while this opponent seemed inferior to Zhou Ziheng, his combat experience was likely far above Zhou Ziheng's. He wouldn't be easy to deal with.
He asked, "When did you agree to fight him?"
Tang Thirty-Six was momentarily stunned and asked, "What do you mean, when?"
Chen Changsheng was equally stunned and said, "When are you fighting that instructor from the Li Palace's affiliated academy?"
Tang Thirty-Six finally understood what he meant and said casually, "It's already over."
Chen Changsheng wasn't sure he'd heard correctly and asked, "It's over?"
"Yes, it's over."
"Eh..." Chen Changsheng was completely caught off guard and didn't know what to say for a moment.
Xuan Yuan Po could no longer focus on his reading and looked over in surprise.
Even Zhe Xiu, lying on the ground, twitched his ears slightly.
"Who fought?" The answer was obvious, but Chen Changsheng still wasn't certain.
Tang Thirty-Six thought he was being incredibly dense and said, "Of course it was me!"
Xuan Yuan Po was more straightforward and had genuinely thought that Luoluo had returned. Hearing him admit it, he instinctively asked, "You... could you win?"
Since that instructor from the Li Palace's affiliated academy was at the peak of Tongyou, how could Tang Thirty-Six, who had only just entered the upper level of Tongyou in the Mausoleum of Books, be a match for him?
"What do you mean? Chen Changsheng can cross realms to challenge Star Condensation, and I can't even handle an old geezer?"
Tang Thirty-Six sneered and said, "Look at me now—elegant, charming, standing tall like a jade tree in the wind, not even a speck of rain on me. You should know who won."
The library fell silent.
Chen Changsheng didn't know what to say.
At the Ivy Feast and the Grand Examination, whether in realm, cultivation, or swordsmanship, Tang Thirty-Six was clearly slightly inferior to Qi Jian and Guan Feibai, let alone compared to Gou Hanshi. As a scion of a gifted family, being suppressed by those disciples from the Lishan Sword Sect's humble origins had left him breathless and unable to hold his head up... Chen Changsheng knew that on the surface, he seemed indifferent, carefree, wealthy, and foul-mouthed, but deep down, he was deeply affected.
So Tang Thirty-Six worked very hard and diligently in the Mausoleum of Books, eventually catching up to and even surpassing Guan Feibai, astonishingly entering the upper level of Tongyou directly.
But Chen Changsheng still hadn't expected him to improve so much that he could defeat a peak Tongyou senior.
He glanced at Tang Thirty-Six, confirmed that he really wasn't injured, and asked, "What happened in the end?"
Tang Thirty-Six sat cross-legged on the floor. His clothes were slightly damp, and a few droplets of water clung to his temples.
He didn't answer Chen Changsheng's question immediately. After a moment of silence, he said, "I cut off one of his hands."
Chen Changsheng was silent for a moment too, then said, "That was a bit harsh."
Tang Thirty-Six said, "We have to make them pay a price... Otherwise, if challenge letters keep coming every day, what do we do? Can you keep fighting forever? If you slip up once, they'll dare to cut off your hand."
He said this calmly and firmly because he knew it was inevitable.
Chen Changsheng, however, noticed that his face was somewhat pale. He remembered that although Tang Thirty-Six had shouted about crippling Tianhai Ya'er as soon as he arrived in the capital, the truth was... he had grown up in Wenshui with a silver spoon in his mouth. After coming to the capital, he had been looked after by Dean Zhuang. It was only after leaving the Daoist Academy and coming to the National Academy that he truly began to face the storms of life. Had he ever actually crippled anyone? Aside from the Grand Examination battles, he had hardly ever seen blood.
Chen Changsheng didn't say anything. He took out a handkerchief and handed it over, saying, "Wipe it off."
Tang Thirty-Six was somewhat surprised. Xuan Yuan Po was very surprised. Even Zhe Xiu opened his eyes.
They were the people closest to Chen Changsheng in the world, and they all knew by now that he had a very serious, though usually hidden, cleanliness obsession.
"Only rainwater," Chen Changsheng emphasized. "If you're going to wipe the blood off your sword, then you don't need to return the handkerchief to me."
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...
Tang Thirty-Six struck hard, but the summer rain struck even harder. The light morning rain suddenly turned into a torrential downpour by evening, and the bloodstains at the entrance of the National Academy were quickly washed clean. Aside from making the young ladies of the capital think he was even cooler and thus more infatuated with him, this incident seemed to leave no other impact—whether for the National Academy or its opponents.
The next morning, the National Academy received three more challenge letters. But unlike the previous day, the academy's gate remained closed all day. Only faint sounds of argument, even quarrels, could be heard from within the walls. It wasn't until evening that the gate was opened again. As Tang Thirty-Six walked out, the idlers of the capital who had been waiting all day, the stewards under the awnings, and the people in carriages scattered along the street all perked up.
Unlike the previous day, there was no torrential rain today. Instead, the sky was filled with evening clouds.
The Wenshui Sword left its sheath. Its bright blade reflected the sunset glow, yet at the same time, it seemed to possess some kind of magic, drawing in all the evening glow from the western sky of the capital. The street fell into gloom, then brightened again.
Tang Thirty-Six struck with his most powerful move—the Three Styles of Wenshui!
The evening clouds receded. The sword intent arose.
On the ground before the academy gate, remnants of rainwater lay in puddles, like countless miniature lakes.
His true essence surged mightily. His sword momentum rolled out grandly. The surfaces of those puddles shimmered with golden light, and the summer heat instantly dissipated.
From the alley came the dense, piercing shrieks of countless sword cries!
That swordsman, who claimed to be from the Ancestral Temple but was actually an expert of the Tianhai family, retreated backward in a blur and landed heavily on the street!
With a crack, the puddles shattered beneath his figure, the golden light scattering like countless broken scales.
More than a dozen wounds crisscrossed the swordsman's body. Blood flowed everywhere. He could no longer stand.
Tang Thirty-Six didn't spare him another glance.
He gripped the Wenshui Sword, looked at the crowd, and said, "Next."
The crowd was silent for a moment, then erupted with a roar.
Especially the young ladies of the capital. They were almost mad with infatuation, shouting his name and hurling flowers at him.
Flowers were continuously thrown to the entrance of the National Academy. Before long, a thick layer had accumulated on the ground, like a sea of blossoms.
He stood in the center of this sea of flowers.
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(There will be a second chapter today. The time is uncertain.)