Chapter 628: The Other Person in the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books
The Pope gazed into the depths of the night and said, "This is sending him to his death."
A voice in the darkness replied calmly, "What is death? So many of the royal clan died back then."
The Pope was silent for a long time, the sea of stars deep in his eyes gradually calming. "You are not of the royal clan, so why can you never let these matters go?"
The voice in the night was steady and firm. "This is His Majesty's final edict."
The Pope knew that the "His Majesty" he spoke of was not the late emperor, but the greatest sovereign in history—Emperor Taizong.
This conversation had begun many years ago with a letter sent from Xining Town to the capital.
This debate had started two and a half years ago, when that young man named Chen Changsheng stepped into the abandoned grounds of the National Academy.
It seemed it should end with tonight's conversation.
Yet even at this moment, the Pope still had not made up his mind, like that green leaf in the basin, gently swaying in the night breeze.
This did not mean he lacked his own stance or that his Dao heart was not firm enough. On the contrary, it was precisely because he had too many things to consider, far-reaching and meticulous, that making a decision was so difficult.
"Aside from me, no one knows that your greatest skill is the Scroll of Time, also known as the Western Flow Canon."
In the darkness, it seemed a gaze fell upon the small pool in the hall, then onto the wooden ladle by its edge.
That person said to the Pope, "You are the clear water flowing westward. Though you have flowed for a thousand years, you have never touched a speck of dust or filth, clear to the bottom, gentle yet possessing endless divine power. So... you don't need to decide now. At the final moment, you will eventually discover your own heart."
After saying this, no sound came from the darkness again.
The Pope stood on the stone steps, looking at the shadows of the upturned eaves, standing before the sound of flowing water, his robes and the green leaf gently swaying in the night breeze.
"Senior Brother, you cultivate the Way of Following the Heart, so are you so confident that my heart will follow yours?"
...
...
After leaving Xining Town, Yuren followed his master to many places. But whether it was the snowy plains of Hanshan or the wilderness below Yongxue Pass, he didn't like them much—too few people. The White Emperor City by the Red River didn't leave a deep impression on him either, though he was somewhat happy when he heard that the demon princess was actually his junior brother's student.
He had been in a good mood these past few days, not because this was the capital, his hometown.
He had been raised by his master since childhood, with only vague memories of his early years, long since indistinct. His master told him he was from the capital and had lived here, but he couldn't recall where his home was. And he didn't like the capital, for a different reason than the snowy plains or wilderness—he felt there were too many people here.
Too many people in the capital, too few on the snowy plains and wilderness. Xining Town had just the right number—neither too many nor too few—and that was best.
He didn't know why his master had taken him to so many places or why they had come to the capital. He was just worried about his junior brother's health and wanted to see him. But after his master brought him to the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books, he quietly disappeared, instructing him not to leave, saying that in a few days, he would naturally meet his junior brother.
Watching his master's vanishing figure, he thought it over and decided this was fine. No matter what trouble his junior brother faced, with his master around, it could always be resolved. Besides, there really were too many people in the capital, and he truly didn't like it. The Mausoleum of Heavenly Books had just the right number of people, with green trees and flowing water, easily reminding him of the mountain and stream behind Xining Town, and the happy days spent memorizing the Dao Canon and catching fish with his junior brother. He had heard that when his junior brother comprehended the Dao by observing the steles, he had drawn down the starlight of the entire sky. This filled him with pride and joy, and he felt he had even more reason to like this place.
There was another very important thing—in the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books, he could view the Heavenly Book Steles. He had read through the Dao Canon since childhood, mastering all three thousand volumes except the last. Like Chen Changsheng, his master had never taught him how to cultivate, but he naturally felt a closeness to the steles that hid the ultimate principles of the Dao, hoping to glean something interesting from them.
When his master left the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books, he told him not to leave but didn't forbid him from viewing the steles. He prepared two days' worth of food in that small courtyard, leaned on his crutch by the fence, watched the sunlight shift twice, and decided there should be no problem. So he packed his lunchbox, left the Plum Grove, and followed the mountain path up the mausoleum.
The Grand Examination was still a long way off. Because of last year's opening of the Zhou Garden, the Alchemy Conference, and the many upheavals that followed, the stele viewers in the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books had gradually left. The number of cultivators still inside was very small compared to previous years. He walked along the mountain path for a long time without meeting a single person, until he reached the first stele pavilion.
At this pavilion, he met a stele attendant named Ji Jin. The attendant had a very gentle temperament, carrying a calm and composed detachment from worldly affairs. Yuren felt good about him, thinking that the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books truly was a sacred place of cultivation—did viewing the steles for long improve one's temperament like this?
The stele attendant named Ji Jin asked which sect or mountain gate he belonged to and why he had entered the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books to view the steles at this time.
Yuren didn't know how to answer. Fortunately, he couldn't speak anyway. He propped his crutch against a pavilion pillar and made a few gestures with one hand, unsure if the other could understand.
Ji Jin couldn't understand his sign language, but he saw Yuren's disability and felt sympathy. He didn't ask further, only reminding him not to push himself while viewing the steles and to rest well.
Watching the stele attendant leave along the mountain path, Yuren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, a smug smile appearing in his eyes. He thought to himself, his junior brother was wrong—he could deceive people; he just didn't need to in Xining Town. See? He had just successfully fooled a senior.
The first Heavenly Book Stele in the Mausoleum was the Zhaojing Stele.
Yuren dragged his leg slowly to the stele, looked at it, curious and excited, even unable to resist reaching out to touch it. He found this stele truly interesting. The poem written by a former sage was wonderful, and the feel of his fingers on it was really pleasant—cool and smooth, like the little stream behind the mountain in Xining Town.
Then he came to the second Heavenly Book Stele.
This stele was also very interesting. He looked at it with keen interest, finding the lines so beautiful, like the light cut through autumn leaves on the mountain behind Xining Town.
Then he came to the third Heavenly Book Stele.
This stele was even more interesting. The marks on its surface were still clear, the lines still beautiful, but not as intricate as the first two. In his eyes, they became extremely simple lines.
Simplicity didn't mean it wasn't beautiful, nor did it mean it was easy to understand. It was like the rain season in Xining Town, the water lines sliding off the old temple eaves, or the traces of yellow leaves dancing as they were beaten down by rain. To figure out the patterns in those traces, Yuren spent quite a bit of time this time, even setting his crutch aside and sitting on the ground to think for a while.
Then came the fourth Heavenly Book Stele.
The fifth Heavenly Book Stele.
The sixth.
The seventh.
...
...
No one knew how much time had passed.
Yuren arrived at a stele pavilion. Leaning on his crutch, he tilted his head slightly and looked at the stele beneath the pavilion, finding it strange.
Because the stele was broken. The original surface was nowhere to be seen.
He didn't know that this broken stele had been shattered by a man named Zhou Dufu back then. With this broken stele as the boundary, the steles he had viewed were all called the Front Mausoleum Steles.
He knew that his junior brother had successfully viewed the steles in the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books last year, which made him proud, but he didn't know about the saying of viewing all the Front Mausoleum Steles in one day.
He looked up at the sky and saw that the sun hadn't yet reached its zenith, and the weather wasn't too hot, so he decided to keep going.
At this point, it hadn't even been half a day since he entered the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books.
How to view a broken stele? He didn't know either.
He slowly walked up to the broken stele and reached out to touch the jagged edges on it.
After a moment, he withdrew his fingers, thoughtful, and looked around, finding himself still before this broken stele.
He switched his crutch to the other side, tucked it under his broken arm, and used his free right hand to scratch his itchy back, puzzled. He thought to himself, "Which way should I go now?"
The autumn wind in the mausoleum gently stirred, lifting the hem of his washed-out Daoist robe and brushing the black hair from his forehead, revealing his eyes.
One of his eyes couldn't see, but perhaps it could perceive other things.
He walked to the wild forest behind the stele pavilion, reached out to push aside the prickly branches, and peered inside curiously.
There was a faint path there, likely trampled out, now nearly overgrown with weeds. It seemed no one had walked it for years.
Looking at the narrow, treacherous trail, Yuren's face showed hesitation, but after thinking it over, he still propped himself on his crutch and limped inside.
The wild grass gradually swallowed his figure, the abandoned path extending under his feet and crutch.
No one knew how much time passed before he finally emerged from the wild forest and arrived at another stele pavilion.
He raised his arm, wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve, felt his face burning, and thought to himself, luckily he hadn't gotten lost—that would have been trouble, since he couldn't call for help.
He walked under the stele pavilion and began to view the stele.
This was no longer the Front Mausoleum.
Of the Thirteen Mausoleums of Heavenly Books, he had already reached the Second Mausoleum.
After Zhou Dufu broke the stele in the Mausoleum of Heavenly Books back then, Yuren was the first person to walk directly here.
Of course, he didn't know this. He continued viewing the steles, continued forward, looking at one stele after another.
When he felt hungry, he took out his lunchbox from his robe and ate. When thirsty, he sought out mountain springs to drink.
The food in the lunchbox was simple—stir-fried cured meat with green peppers.
The cured meat he had found on a beam in the kitchen of some abandoned courtyard, and the green peppers he had picked from an untended vegetable patch.
The sun set, stars filled the night sky; the sun rose, stars retreated behind the light. The clear mountain streams flowed slowly, like time itself.
On some unknown day, Yuren found his lunchbox empty. Neither the stir-fried cured meat with green peppers nor the fermented tofu had any leftovers.
He was truly hungry, so he turned back along the same path. As he passed the stele pavilions, he finally saw some cultivators.
After days of seeing only silent forests and stone steles, finally seeing people brought Yuren some joy. He nodded to the cultivators in greeting.
But those cultivators looked at him as if they were seeing a ghost.
Who was this person? Why had they never seen him before? Why was he coming back from ahead? Had he already seen the next Heavenly Book Stele?