Chapter 49: What Life Can Barely Bear...
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"I will learn to treat these stone beads as beautiful ornaments, not as Heavenly Book Stele."
Xu Yourong looked at him calmly and said, "Then, I'm feeling a bit hungry now."
Xun Mei's thatched cottage had been uninhabited for a long time, covered in dust, but all kinds of utensils were still complete.
Chen Changsheng went to the garden to pick two handfuls of greens, pinched off a dozen or so chili peppers, sliced half a square of cured meat, laid it out with honey to steam, and paired it with white rice for a fragrant meal.
Xu Yourong ate very contentedly, feeling a bit embarrassed.
Afterward, they discussed the Grand Examination and the upcoming Stone Boiling Conference, as well as how to leave the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books.
To avoid being seen and thus having others guess something, which would stir up even more rumors in the capital, they agreed to leave separately. Xu Yourong would go first, while Chen Changsheng would stay an extra day in the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books. Little did they expect that this was entirely an attempt to cover up, impossible to hide from anyone.
Or rather, this was called plugging one's ears while stealing a bell.
However, before Xu Yourong could leave, the small courtyard welcomed an uninvited guest.
The visitor was the stele attendant Ji Jin, who came from the Sophora Courtyard. Whether he recognized Xu Yourong's identity or had guessed something, he stood by the fence, his expression somewhat desolate, his face pale. The venomous resentment in his eyes was gone, replaced by a complexity that was hard to articulate.
Chen Changsheng was about to say something, but Xu Yourong signaled him to wait.
Her sleeves fluttered lightly as she walked to the fence, looking at Ji Jin with an indifferent expression. "I will propose revoking your status as a stele attendant and expelling you from the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books."
Sunlight filtered through the branches of the orange grove and plum trees, falling on her face.
That extraordinarily beautiful face instantly gained a few more degrees of sacred solemnity.
Because when she said these words, she was the lofty Southern Holy Maiden.
Becoming a stele attendant at the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books was an extremely difficult task, requiring a blood oath that was both extreme and, in some mysterious way, carried the force of Heavenly Dao.
Once a blood oath was sworn and one became a stele attendant, they gained the freedom that cultivators dreamed of—to be with the Heavenly Book Stele day and night—but also lost the freedom to leave the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books. For life, they could only study the Heavenly Book Stele within the mausoleum, pursuing scholarship, without taking a single step outside.
Countless years had passed since the State Religion first established this rule, with only one exception—when Su Li stormed the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books, berated two stele attendants from the Li Mountain Sword Sect, and forcibly took them back to Li Mountain.
Those two stele attendants later became the two elders of the Li Mountain Discipline Hall, and they were also one of the main causes of the internal strife within Li Mountain.
The Mausoleum of Heavenly Books held an irresistible allure for cultivators, like an endless beautiful dream.
The deeper one's Dao techniques, the longer one studied the Heavenly Book Stele, the more reluctant they were to leave this place.
Even a cultivation master as gifted as Xun Mei took decades to wake up.
To revoke a stele attendant's blood oath and expel them from the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books, only the Pope and the Holy Maiden had that authority, and the stele attendant would suffer the backlash of the blood oath, enduring great pain.
Hearing Xu Yourong's words, watching Ji Jin's face instantly turn pale and his body tremble incessantly, Chen Changsheng felt a sense of caution.
In his mind, Ji Jin, subjected to such humiliation and severe punishment, would surely be furious to the extreme, possibly even going mad and attacking Xu Yourong.
Yet Ji Jin did not erupt in rage. After a moment, he gradually calmed down, bowed to Xu Yourong across the fence, and made a deep, respectful bow, touching the ground.
His voice trembled slightly, filled with agitation and a hint of bewilderment.
"Thank you, Holy Maiden, for your compassion. Ji Jin is endlessly grateful and will repay you with his life."
Watching Ji Jin's figure gradually disappear into the forest, Chen Changsheng was puzzled.
"Why?"
"Because he wants to get out."
"I heard... the backlash of the blood oath is terrifying."
"Ultimately, it's not as terrifying as being unfree."
"But... didn't they become stele attendants voluntarily?"
"People's thoughts often undergo changes over time that they never could have imagined at the start."
Xu Yourong walked over to him and said, "For many cultivators, the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books is the most beautiful dream, but also the longest imprisonment."
Chen Changsheng vaguely remembered hearing a similar saying before.
She continued, "Actually, I've had the idea for a long time, planning to convince the senior masters in the Nunnery to discuss with the Li Palace about changing this rule."
Chen Changsheng looked at her strikingly beautiful features, finding her more and more appealing, and said from the heart, "You're a good person."
Then he added, "If the Li Palace refuses the Nunnery's request, when I become Pope in the future, I'll also strive to abolish this rule."
Xu Yourong said softly, "You're a good person too."
...
...
The next day, Chen Changsheng left the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books and, escorted by several Red Cardinals, returned to the National Academy.
At that time, the morning light was faint, the western sky still like night, and it was very early. He was about to head to the newly built kitchen across the lake to find Xuan Yuan Po for some food when he suddenly spotted an entirely unexpected person on the big banyan tree. Startled, he asked, "What's wrong?"
Except for very rare special circumstances, Tang Thirty-Six would never get up this early. But now he stood on the branch of the big banyan tree, gazing into the distance. Whether he hadn't slept all night or something else was going on, he didn't look at Chen Changsheng, still staring into the distance, and asked coldly, "Do you know what the most painful thing in the world is?"
Chen Changsheng shook his head.
Tang Thirty-Six sneered, "The most painful thing in the world is that while we're exhausted like pigs and dogs, some people still have the leisure to go on dates, and you even have to keep secrets for someone. Well done... sneaking a rendezvous in the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books."
After the National Academy's recruitment, the first trial the new students faced was the Grand Examination. In preparation for the upcoming Grand Examination, both Tang Thirty-Six and Su Moyu were busy to the extreme. Even Zhe Xiu occasionally gave lessons to the students, using pain and blood to teach them what true combat was.
Yet Chen Changsheng, as the dean of the National Academy, had completely ignored this matter.
Tang Thirty-Six's real pain still came down to those two words: keeping secrets.
Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong had known each other in the Zhou Garden, harbored mutual feelings, and often met in private. This secret was now known only to him in the capital.
Once a secret was known, the person who held it often felt much more relaxed, like Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong these days.
But the one who knew the secret yet couldn't speak it out inherited their pain and pressure, even magnified.
Rumors spread throughout the capital, with everyone saying that Chen Changsheng pined for Xu Yourong in vain. Tang Thirty-Six wished he could spit in those people's faces, wished he could reopen Cheng Lake Tower, stand on its roof, and tell the story to the thousands of citizens, proclaiming the secret of those two to the world.
But he couldn't do that, so he was in pain, even somewhat angry.
Chen Changsheng looked at him, somewhat puzzled, and said, "Back then, you were the one who told me to endure."
Tang Thirty-Six looked at him and said, "But I can barely endure it anymore."