Chapter 549: Rumors in the Capital
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"Must we wait another few hundred years?"
"Or perhaps we should truly study the power of time. No matter how powerful the legends of old were, they cannot overcome time."
"Among the Three Thousand Daoist Scriptures, there is only one volume on time."
"Then let us examine that volume on time first."
"Understood. When the time comes, please help me deliberate."
Having made up his mind, Chen Changsheng saw that it was getting late, stood up to take his leave, and walked out of the hall.
Shuang'er stood on the snowy ground outside the hall, always alert to the surroundings. When she saw him emerge, her expression was very complicated.
Chen Changsheng was about to say something to her when he suddenly heard Xu Yourong's voice behind him.
"You are very close to Miss Cinnabar?"
Chen Changsheng was taken aback for a moment before realizing that the "Miss Cinnabar" she referred to was the Little Black Dragon. He asked in confusion, "Close?"
"Mo Yu saw the two of you embracing once."
Clearly, Xu Yourong was deliberately keeping her voice very calm, so calm that it bordered on wooden.
Chen Changsheng was speechless. He thought, the Black Dragon is like a mountain—how could he possibly embrace her?
"Don't you know... that if she doesn't maintain her dragon form, she's just a pretty little girl?"
...
...
Night had fallen. Chen Changsheng silently gazed at the calm little pond and the broken shards of ice floating on the water's surface.
The little girl and the Black Dragon might just be outward transformations, but they gave off entirely different impressions.
Having a name versus not having a name also made a tremendous difference.
Wang Zhice had once given her a name back then, called Cinnabar.
He had also given her two names: one was Squeak, and the other was Red Attire.
There seemed to be some faint, elusive connection between them.
The Xuan Frost Giant Dragon who died in battle in the Zhou Garden possessed a noble soul that yearned infinitely for freedom.
She was the daughter of that Xuan Frost Giant Dragon, and must also have a heart that desperately craved freedom—yet she had been imprisoned for so many years.
It was truly pitiful.
He did not speak to the pond, but simply left directly.
That night, through the stone bead left by Wang Zhice, he entered the Zhou Garden.
He paid no attention to the tide of beasts bowing low like an ocean, only noticing that the Zhou Garden was now much better than it had been some time ago.
The water pools around the grasslands had been dredged clean, and the collapsed cliffs had been tidied up.
He went to the lakeside by the waterfall, found the volume on time among the sun-dried books on the rocks, and returned to Twilight Valley.
Leaning on the light cast from the distant sky, he began to read.
After an unknown amount of time, he put away the scroll and said to the towering mountains before him, "Rest assured, I will rescue your daughter."
...
...
In the courtyard of the North Military Command Post, Zhou Tong was also reading the volume on time.
Nowadays, people only remembered him as a cruel and fearsome powerful minister, having long forgotten that he was once renowned for his profound knowledge and was a cultivator at the peak of the Star Gathering realm.
Since Archbishop Meilisha returned to the Sea of Stars, Zhou Tong had been studying the volume on time. Only recently had he finally grasped the true meaning of this Daoist scripture.
"Can it really change the flow of time?"
Looking at the snow in the courtyard and the lonely crabapple tree in the snow, the sea of blood deep in Zhou Tong's pupils churned incessantly, appearing exceptionally violent and terrifying. This indicated that his mind was in a state of shock, his sea of consciousness disturbed, and even his cold Dao heart was barely holding steady.
As time passed, the sea of blood in his eyes gradually calmed, and his pale face showed some weariness and sorrow. He knew that ever since he decided to follow Her Holiness the Empress to usher in a golden age and sank into this endless sea of blood, he would never again reach the end of the long path of cultivation. Whether time or space, both were realms he could no longer touch. But that did not mean no one in this world could achieve this.
He believed that if one could enter the legendary Divine Concealment realm, or with the aid of certain extremely powerful formations, it might truly be possible to change the flow of time using the volume on time. This would mean that someone's age might have been altered—perhaps that young man and the late Crown Prince Zhaoming were exactly the same age?
...
...
Two rumors spread through the capital.
The first rumor was quite absurd: it claimed that the young Dean of the National Academy, Chen Changsheng, was a descendant of the Chen imperial clan, and might even be the Crown Prince Zhaoming who had disappeared during the palace coup back then. No one believed this claim, because Chen Changsheng's age was clearly much younger than Crown Prince Zhaoming's. Moreover, compared to this seemingly shocking rumor, the citizens of the capital preferred to believe a colder and more sinister tale—that poor Crown Prince Zhaoming had been smothered in his swaddling clothes by Her Holiness the Empress herself.
The second rumor sparked more interest and gained more acceptance. Perhaps Tang Thirty-Six had drunk too much that night and let it slip to a dancer in the tavern; perhaps Shuang'er, when returning to the Eastern Divine General's mansion to fetch her young lady's favorite hand warmer, had inadvertently revealed something under her mistress's probing questions; or more likely, some true masters on the capital's high platforms had occasionally glanced down at the streets and alleys, catching sight of that young man and woman walking side by side—the yellow paper umbrella had failed to hide Chen Changsheng's face... Many capital residents had heard that in the days since the Battle of Naihe Bridge, the Holy Maiden and the young Dean often met, and it was said that the young Dean would occasionally enter the palace to visit her.
Today was Prince Chenliu's banquet, and Chen Changsheng was the guest of honor. The theme of today's gathering was appreciating the snow, and appreciating snow naturally required reciting poetry. Several students from the National Academy who had come with Chen Changsheng to the prince's residence to broaden their horizons engaged in a poetry debate with students from the Green Vine Five Academies, but were defeated after just a few rounds. Now, the status of Chen Changsheng and the National Academy was completely different from before. Neither the teachers nor students from the Heavenly Dao Academy or the Hall of Ancestral Sacrifice dared to mock them over this, but the National Academy students still felt somewhat embarrassed, occasionally stealing glances at Chen Changsheng.
Chen Changsheng naturally sensed these looks and instinctively began to miss Tang Thirty-Six—that guy was the best person for handling such situations. Whether being mocked, humiliated, ignored, or facing low morale or even despair, he always had a way to turn the atmosphere around.
As usual, for reasons unknown, Tang Thirty-Six, who had always disliked Prince Chenliu, didn't even bother to make an excuse and directly refused to attend today's poetry gathering. However, he hadn't gone far. He sat in the National Academy's carriage with his favorite dancer, waiting outside the prince's residence, pointing at the falling snow outside the window and reciting verses, perfectly playing the part of a dashing young noble.
The gates of the prince's residence opened, and Prince Chenliu personally saw Chen Changsheng and the others out.
The snowfall had stopped earlier. Many capital residents who loved to watch the excitement had gathered outside the prince's residence. As Chen Changsheng appeared, countless pairs of eyes turned toward him, and countless whispers arose. The quiet street in front of the prince's residence suddenly felt like a classroom.