Chapter 558: The Stone-Boiling Assembly
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To calm the heart with strong wine and enemy blood—when you savor those words, how heroic they are.
Chen Chou was silent for a moment, then said, "I know that at the very beginning, you were drowning your sorrows over a woman."
The young officer smiled and said, "Yesterday I received a letter she sent from the south. She found the man she thought was already dead, and... quite coincidentally, that man is the very fiancé she used to dislike the most. Tell me, should I congratulate them or congratulate them?"
Chen Chou looked at him with much more sympathy in his eyes, patted his shoulder, and comforted him, saying, "Then it's truly over. Don't think about this anymore."
That night when they were besieged by wolf cavalry in the snow plains, the two had talked about many things, most of all about men and women. He roughly knew the story.
The young officer's eyes suddenly brightened, as if to illuminate the darkness before him, the wind and snow in the darkness, and the road ahead through the wind and snow. He said calmly and firmly, "No. If that man had truly died, I naturally couldn't compete, with no hope at all. But now that he's come back to life, for me, it means hope has reappeared."
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At the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, the Stone-Boiling Assembly was about to be held, and people from all over the continent began to set out.
Unlike the Grand Examination or the Zhou Garden, the Stone-Boiling Assembly was not well-known. It was only circulated among the upper echelons of the cultivation world, and only those who were qualified to receive invitations knew that the assembly was always held at the Heavenly Pool in the Cold Mountains of the distant northeast. Whether departing from the capital, from Tianliang Commandery, or rushing from the far south, reaching the Heavenly Pool was a long journey. For many, the Stone-Boiling Assembly was more of a journey than a grand event in the cultivation world.
Of course, for cultivators at that level, traveling itself was a form of cultivation. So few would use celestial birds or formations. Instead, they would travel along the continent's well-connected official roads, cross rivers as dense as a spider's web, take in the scenery, and move forward with sincerity.
Legend has it that countless years ago, countless meteorites turned into falling fire and landed on the continent. Many of those meteorites fell where the capital now stands, with yellow earth forming the highest mounds. Those meteorites turned into Heavenly Book Monuments, awakening the continent's life and wisdom—this is now the Heavenly Book Mausoleum. Besides those meteorites that fell at the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, many others turned to ash in the sky, and many returned to the sea of stars. Some meteorites, fortunate or unfortunate, neither fell into the Heavenly Book Mausoleum nor burned up completely. They became incomplete, true stones and landed on the earth, called Heavenly Stones.
Strangely enough, those Heavenly Stones were not scattered across the continent. Like the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, the vast majority fell in the same place.
That place is now the Cold Mountains in the continent's northeast, especially around the Heavenly Pool at the peak of the Cold Mountains.
Those Heavenly Stones had burned too much, leaving no mysterious lines on them, nor the marvel of the Heavenly Book Monuments. But since they shared the same origin as the Heavenly Book Monuments, they were still extremely precious to cultivators. It was said that many powerful figures had successfully broken through their original realms by using these Heavenly Stones.
The Stone-Boiling Assembly boiled these Heavenly Stones. Of course, it wasn't about setting up countless stoves by the Heavenly Pool to boil water. The stones were boiled in the Heavenly Pool itself, because the water in the pool was formed by hot springs, with extremely high temperatures, like a furnace created by heaven and earth.
The Stone-Boiling Assembly was a grand event held by the human world to accelerate the cultivation progress of practitioners. Any cultivator who ranked among the top in the assembly was qualified to receive a Heavenly Stone for contemplation and perception. The marvel of Heavenly Stones was far inferior to that of the Heavenly Book Monuments, but the Heavenly Book Monuments were in the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, while Heavenly Stones could be carried around day and night. So for cultivators, the importance of Heavenly Stones was not below that of the Heavenly Book Monuments, and for some, it was even greater.
When to hold the Stone-Boiling Assembly, after Emperor Taizong returned to the sea of stars, was jointly decided by the Five Saints and the Eight Winds and Rains, and organized by the Old Man of Destiny. The specific timing depended on the cultivation status of the younger generation of powerful figures in the cultivation world at the time, ensuring their realms were sufficient to comprehend the Heavenly Stones before the assembly was held.
After the generation of Emperor Taizong gradually withdrew from the historical stage, the cultivation world grew increasingly quiet. The Stone-Boiling Assembly was often not held for decades. It wasn't until Wang Po made his stunning debut that the cultivation world entered an era of blooming wildflowers, and the frequency of the Stone-Boiling Assembly gradually increased.
The most important purpose of the Stone-Boiling Assembly was to help the human world's cultivation geniuses gain assistance at critical moments in their cultivation, allowing them to quickly break through barriers of knowledge and perception and achieve advancement. So the number of invitees was very small. This year, for example, there were only about thirty young cultivators on the list.
On that list was the great name of Guan Bai from the Heavenly Academy, naturally Qiu Shanjun, and of course Xu Yourong, as well as Gou Hanshi, and Zhong Hui from Huaiyuan Academy, who ranked fourth on the Gold List. Zhe Xiu and Tang Thirty-Six hadn't made it onto the Gold List, but that didn't mean the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion didn't think highly of them, so they were also on the list.
Besides these familiar names, the list also included some lesser-known independent cultivators and experts from small sects. Those independent cultivators and experts were probably around forty years old, still quite young among cultivators, but compared to the young geniuses above, they were significantly older.
Several hundred national religion cavalry escorted several carriages through the capital.
These national religion cavalry had indifferent expressions and a murderous aura, but they couldn't stop the capital's citizens from their determination and courage to watch the excitement.
Mao Qiuyu and the King of Linghai sat in two carriages respectively, their eyes closed in meditation, as if they couldn't hear the shouts from outside the window.
Those shouts were all for the person in the carriage behind.
Inside the carriage, Tang Thirty-Six put down the list in his hand, scratched his ear, which was itching from the noise, and shook his head, saying, "They don't even know what we're going to do, so why shout so loudly? And Rou'er... I only gave you a thousand taels of silver last night, and now you're putting on this farewell act again?"
He looked at the young dancer leaning sadly against the railing on the street-side building, his expression very unnatural.
No one paid him any attention, nor did anyone look at him, or else he might have been even more embarrassed.
Zhe Xiu sat with his eyes closed, resting. His true essence scraped through his malformed meridians like a small knife, but no pain showed on his face.
Chen Changsheng held a scroll of Daoist scriptures, reading with a very focused and serious expression, while in his sea of consciousness, he was constantly calculating how to break the formation left by Wang Zhice.
Tang Thirty-Six felt a bit ashamed, thinking, why couldn't he be as detached as they were?
"Listen... someone actually guessed you're going to Nanxi Zhai to propose marriage!"
A sudden burst of shouting erupted from the crowd by the street. Tang Thirty-Six heard it, laughed so hard he rocked back and forth, utterly delighted.
"These people have quite the imagination. But this formation does look a bit like it. To marry the Saintess, of course, you'd need two national religion magnates to come along."
He was referring to Mao Qiuyu and the King of Linghai in the front carriage.
This time, only Chen Changsheng and the others were going to the Stone-Boiling Assembly, but the formation deployed was enormous, with two Archbishops personally escorting them.
Because Chen Changsheng's status was now different, and the journey was long. The Cold Mountains were not far from the demon domain. Who knew if the demons might have designs on this future Pope? With two powerful figures at the peak of the Star Gathering realm overseeing things, it should be much safer.
Chen Changsheng still kept his head down, reading the book, with no reaction.
Tang Thirty-Six finally felt something was off. He patted him and said, "What are you thinking about?"
Chen Changsheng looked up, took two balls of fur fluff out of his ears, and asked somewhat dazedly, "What's wrong?"
Tang Thirty-Six was speechless. He pointed at the paper and said, "Shouldn't you be concerned about what opponents you'll face at the Stone-Boiling Assembly?"
Chen Changsheng was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "I don't plan to participate."
For cultivators, Heavenly Stones were, of course, extremely precious objects for contemplation. But for him and Xu Yourong, the effect of such contemplation was nearly nonexistent.
The Heavenly Book Monuments were in their arms. Why would they care about Heavenly Stones?
The reason he was going to the Stone-Boiling Assembly, besides broadening his horizons, was also to see some people. For example, Wang Po, who might appear at the Heavenly Pool because of Huaiyuan Academy's Zhong Hui. For example, Gou Hanshi and the other disciples of Lishan Sword Sect, whom he hadn't seen in a long time. For example, her, whom he had only just parted from not long ago.
Tang Thirty-Six said, "That's right. You're the future Pope. It's really not suitable for you to compete with us anymore. Besides, now you can enter the Heavenly Book Mausoleum anytime you want, look at whichever Heavenly Book Monument you want, and even bring a girl along to look at the Heavenly Book Monuments together..."
Chen Changsheng glanced at Zhe Xiu and only relaxed when he saw that Zhe Xiu wasn't paying any attention to their conversation.
Seeing his nervous expression, Tang Thirty-Six shook his head, handed the note to him, and said, "Since you're not participating, our strongest opponents will definitely be those guys from Lishan Sword Sect. The demon race will also send people. I heard even that Little De from the Carefree List is coming."
Hearing the name Little De, Zhe Xiu suddenly opened his eyes and asked, "Confirmed?"
"Basically confirmed." Tang Thirty-Six looked at him with a frown and asked, "Do you have a grudge against that guy?"
Zhe Xiu asked, "If I did, would you help me?"
Tang Thirty-Six said matter-of-factly, "Of course not. That's a top-five expert on the Carefree List. Are we that close?"
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The long journey brought fresh scenery but not many fresh stories.
Most of the time, Chen Changsheng was in the carriage reading, cultivating, and thinking, treating Zhe Xiu's illness and injuries, and then the two of them watched Tang Thirty-Six become increasingly sharp-tongued and sarcastic out of boredom. Occasionally, Mao Qiuyu would also find him to talk about some things, but aside from eating in the wilderness, he had never seen the King of Linghai.
Just as summer was about to leave, the convoy finally arrived at the Cold Mountains.
This place was already far north. Beyond the continuous mountain range before them lay the territory of the demon domain's snow plains. Moreover, as the terrain rose with the mountains, the temperature grew lower and lower, as if they had arrived in deep winter ahead of time. A thin layer of frost gradually formed on the armor of the national religion cavalry.