Chapter 547: Ice and Snow Have Never Been Smart
That ordinary Taoist surnamed Wu had no fame to speak of. In his lifetime, he had authored only three books, one of which was that *Compendium of Formation Diagrams*. At first, Chen Changsheng merely skimmed through it without much hope, but the more he read, the more something felt off. The formations recorded in Master Wu's *Compendium* were all very simple—some could even be called crude, utterly unworthy of a glance from anyone accomplished in cultivation. Yet, on a few pages, he vaguely discerned traces of the formation from the Boiling Stone Forest.
Time passed slowly. Chen Changsheng continued reading, without a trace of anxiety or irritation, his gaze calm and resolute.
He had promised the Black Dragon that he would rescue her, and so he would. If not this year, then next year—there would always be a year when he could. He firmly believed that the Black Dragon would not remain imprisoned beneath the earth for another few hundred years. Of course, all of this was predicated on his being able to live past the age of twenty.
"A few nights ago, I saw a burning sword... very powerful."
A cold, crisp voice sounded behind him. At some unknown moment, the Black Dragon had silently drifted to his back. When she mentioned that burning sword, a flicker of fear passed deep within her dragon eyes. "That was... Su Li's sword?"
Chen Changsheng had long since confirmed the Black Dragon's gender and had heard her speak in this tone before, but he still found it somewhat unsettling.
During the ten-thousand-mile journey south, the Black Dragon had spent most of her time asleep because she had expended too much of her soul energy helping him suppress his injuries in the Zhou Garden. But he had to admit that another important reason she refused to wake was her desire to avoid being discovered by Su Li.
At that time, Su Li was gravely wounded, weaker than an ordinary person, yet the Black Dragon still instinctively feared him. She had sensed it from the very beginning, back in the snowy mountain hot spring—Su Li's sword... had once slain many of her kin, even those stronger than herself.
"Senior Su Li fought a battle with Her Holiness the Empress. In the end... it was probably a draw?"
"And what about you? You haven't come to see me for so many days. You must have been very busy. What have you been up to?"
"I've been researching books on formations."
Chen Changsheng glanced at the portraits of the two towering divine generals on the stone wall, then continued, "...The rest of the time, I've been preparing for a battle."
"You're the next Pope. Who would dare challenge you?"
"Many people."
"You could refuse to fight them."
"That one, I can't."
"Who?"
"Xu Yourong."
"...That fiancée of yours?"
The Black Dragon's voice inexplicably turned cold, its tone losing much of its inflection.
Chen Changsheng didn't notice this. "I don't even know if she's still my fiancée now."
A complex emotion flickered in the Black Dragon's eyes. "Tell me about it."
After a moment's hesitation, Chen Changsheng recounted everything that had happened in recent days to the Black Dragon in full detail—from the events around the Bridge of Helplessness to the snowy night he entered the palace, and even the most subtle emotions in his heart, hiding nothing.
This was the first time he had ever spoken about these matters between himself and Xu Yourong. Though he had mentioned it to Tang Thirty-Six, he had never gone into such detail. He held nothing back from the Black Dragon because she had saved his life several times, and he trusted her completely—even though he knew that, by the long lifespan of dragons, this Black Dragon had only just entered adolescence. Still, she had lived for several hundred years, and he subconsciously regarded her as a venerable senior.
In short, he trusted the Black Dragon deeply and found it convenient, so he laid everything out without omission.
The underground space was silent and dim. Suddenly, a layer of frost appeared on the stone wall, obscuring the faces of the two legendary divine generals.
The Black Dragon drifted down, her pitch-black dragon eyes reflecting Chen Changsheng's figure. Then, she slowly opened her mouth.
Recently, during his visits to Beixin Bridge, whenever Chen Changsheng exhausted himself studying formations and devising ways to free the Black Dragon, she would lower her noble head and exhale a faint, cool, and refreshing dragon breath to help him dispel fatigue and restore his energy—just as she had done moments ago.
Chen Changsheng had grown accustomed to this. Seeing her movement now, he naturally closed his eyes, ready to welcome the chill tinged with specks of frost and snow.
*Ao wu*—a low, solemn dragon roar rang out.
A stream of dragon breath landed on Chen Changsheng's face and body.
It was not the coolness of frost and snow, but the true breath of a Black Frost Dragon.
In an instant, Chen Changsheng's body was frozen solid, encased in a block of transparent ice.
...
...
Water gently lapped against the ice, producing a splashing sound.
This was not the Luo River, but a small pond within the palace. Because of the formations, the palace maintained a spring-like climate year-round. Though the pond was small, it had not frozen over.
For Chen Changsheng, this was both good and bad.
A massive, transparent block of ice bobbed up and down in the pond water, and he was frozen inside it.
Calling the pond unfrozen a good thing was because the water's flow would help the ice melt faster. Calling it not so good was because the water kept churning, causing the ice to sink and rise uneasily, tumbling over and over. He was very uncomfortable inside, and also very embarrassed.
Embarrassment was an emotion that generally only arose when someone saw you in an awkward situation.
If no one was watching, whether you were like Tang Thirty-Six, hugging a tree in a snowy forest and hiccupping endlessly, or like him now, frozen in a block of ice and drifting with the current, it didn't matter. Chen Changsheng felt embarrassed now because someone had been watching him the whole time.
To be precise, it wasn't a person.
The Black Goat stood by the pond, its head slightly tilted, staring at him inside the ice block.
It had been watching for a long time, apparently finding this very amusing, and had yet to leave.
Thus, Chen Changsheng grew increasingly embarrassed.
If he could have broken out of the ice by now, he would have done so long ago. But the Black Frost Dragon's breath was truly extraordinary—it had directly frozen both his sea of consciousness and his body solid. Even though he had now fully mastered the Sky-Scorching Sword and could condense his sword intent into flames, he still couldn't shatter the ice around him.
It took him a long time just to painfully melt the thin layer of ice over his face, barely managing to open his eyes.
Time passed slowly. The ice block continued to bob, and the Black Goat continued to watch with keen interest, as if it didn't understand what he was doing, or whether this was some kind of cultivation technique.
The ice in front of Chen Changsheng's face melted more and more. After finally being able to open his eyes, he could now open his mouth. He hurriedly called out to the Black Goat, "Please help me."
Because of this shout, icy water rushed into his mouth and nose, choking him terribly.
Though his voice was very weak, the Black Goat understood his lip movements.
Just as it had every time over the past two years when Chen Changsheng needed help, the Black Goat responded to his request.
The Black Goat slowly walked into the pond, used its horns to push the large ice block back onto the stone steps, then lowered its head and exerted a little force.
With a crisp *kala* sound, the ice split in two, and Chen Changsheng tumbled out.
He was soaked through with icy water, frozen to the bone. His face was pale, and the cold had invaded both his Nether Palace and his sea of consciousness, leaving him with considerable internal injuries.
A flicker of fear and bewilderment passed through his eyes.
Why had the Black Dragon suddenly become so cold and violent? What had he done to offend her?
The snow clouds above the palace gradually dispersed, revealing the pale, almost fake-looking sun.
No matter how pale or unreal it seemed, it was still the real sun, and its light was warm.
Chen Changsheng took a spare set of clothes from his sword sheath. His hands and feet were stiff from the cold, and it took him a long time to change with difficulty.
He leaned against a pillar of the desolate palace, closed his eyes, and began to restore his body temperature with the sunlight.
The Black Goat slowly bent its front legs, crouching quietly beside him, and then slowly closed its eyes as well.
...
...
Much later, whenever Chen Changsheng recalled this day in the winter of that year, he would always feel a surge of emotion and a faint melancholy.
Back then, he was still very young, so there were many things he didn't understand, many details he failed to notice.
Those details existed both in the underground lit by night pearls and by the sunlit pond.
He had thought the Black Dragon was a senior, someone he could trust, someone convenient to confide in about his romantic affairs.
In that very sentence, there were two absolute mistakes.
The Black Dragon was certainly worthy of his trust, but she was not a senior. Listening to Chen Changsheng's story about him and Xu Yourong, she found it very inconvenient.
Because she was a young girl, and she had every reason to be angry.
In the dark, cold underground cavern, the young girl was eating.
She didn't want to eat in front of Chen Changsheng in her dragon form, because that would be too ravenous and lack any grace. She was afraid it would scare him.
But Chen Changsheng didn't understand, so she was very angry.
Hearing about Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong meeting on the Bridge of Helplessness also made her angry.
She had thought before that it would be better if he never knew about this... But whether it was because of the food or her anger, her cheeks puffed up slightly. Her beautiful little face was full of displeasure, the blood-red mark like a cinnabar mole between her brows brimming with murderous intent, and her dignified vertical pupils were now filled with grievance.
"Faithless man! If it weren't for the fact that you also had an extra wound on your forehead on the Bridge of Helplessness, making you a bit like me... I would have swallowed you whole just now."
She held the blue lobster in both hands, gnawing on it fiercely, hatefully, like chewing on sugarcane, while thinking fiercely, hatefully.
It didn't take long for her to finish all the dozens of snacks Chen Changsheng had brought.
Beneath her black clothes, her belly was only slightly rounded.
Then, she slowly lowered her head and sat down in her own shadow.
In truth, she didn't care what she ate.
No matter what she ate, she ate alone.
She just didn't want to eat alone.
She had been eating alone for several hundred years.
She wished she could have someone to eat with.
Or if not eat, just chat.
If not chat, just sit together.
...
...
(Yesterday I said there would only be one chapter today, but I felt in good condition this afternoon and decided on a whim to write another. However, when I locked myself in the writing room, I entered too many words, and it ended up taking until now to finish. My apologies for the wait, everyone.)