Chapter 641: A Call at the Center of the World
"Why did you rush over back then?"
"Because I was afraid you'd get hurt by a flowerpot."
"Even though you were deep in the Night Palace at the time, and if anyone discovered you, it would have caused enormous trouble?"
"I didn't have time to think."
"Even though you were in a hurry to get to the Weiyang Palace for the Green Vine Banquet, to retrieve the marriage contract and disrupt the Qiu Mountain family's marriage proposal?"
"I didn't think that much."
"Three squirrels."
"What?"
The summit of the Heavenly Book Mausoleum was shrouded in a torrential downpour.
Yet the voices of Chen Changsheng and the Heavenly Sea Holy Empress were not drowned out by the sound of the rain.
He didn't understand what she meant by that. Three squirrels?
The Heavenly Sea Holy Empress gazed at the squirrel gradually disappearing into the rain, remaining silent for a long time.
The first time she saw Chen Changsheng, there had been a squirrel.
Earlier, in the National Academy, there had been a squirrel.
And now, there was another squirrel.
When she saw the first squirrel, he had been in a very troublesome situation, yet he had rushed over without any regard for himself to save someone.
When she saw the second squirrel, he had been in a very dangerous situation, yet he only thought of begging her to spare Liu Qing and those priests from the Li Palace, completely abandoning his so-called stubbornness and pride.
When she saw the third squirrel, he had been in a very hopeless situation, on the verge of being killed by her, yet because of what she said, he earnestly thanked her.
What kind of young man was this?
A highly complex expression appeared on the Heavenly Sea Holy Empress's face—some mockery, some disdain, some anger, some disgust—before it finally settled into a cold indifference.
"Such womanish mercy, you're somewhat like your father. How did I give birth to such a useless son?"
After saying this, a fierce intent flashed between her beautiful brows, then quickly transformed into an unimaginable murderous aura.
Without any words, without any warning, she didn't even glance at him again. She raised her right hand and struck toward the top of his head.
Her right hand carved a lightning-like trajectory through the pitch-black night, falling like a mountain.
Countless gasps rang out across Kyoto in the night, each with a different emotion, yet all equally shocked.
No one had expected her to strike like this.
Boom!
It was as if a thunderclap had sounded at the summit of the Heavenly Book Mausoleum.
Countless bolts of lightning flashed, then struck the mausoleum.
The rain poured down like a waterfall; the night was as dark as ink, torn apart and illuminated by the lightning that fell from time to time, revealing shifting scenes of light and shadow.
The Heavenly Sea Holy Empress stood facing the storm.
Her right hand landed on the top of Chen Changsheng's head.
A powerful and terrifying force, along with a sacred and sublime aura, appeared almost simultaneously between heaven and earth.
This force came from the body of the Heavenly Sea Holy Empress.
This aura came from the Heavenly Book Mausoleum beneath her feet, even from the entire world.
This was the most supreme force and aura between heaven and earth, triggering countless strange phenomena—thunder roaring amidst the violent wind and rain.
That force and that aura met within her body, then passed through her right hand into Chen Changsheng's body.
The storm arrived.
In an instant, the seventy broken meridians inside Chen Changsheng's body were crushed to powder. His three hundred and sixty-five energy apertures were all shattered. The deep gashes on the surface of his internal organs cut deeper, and blood surged wildly within him.
The residual starlight fragments hiding in the corners of his broken meridians and deep within his energy apertures could not escape this storm either; they were all forced out.
Countless powdery specks of starlight traveled from deep within his body to the surface of his skin, seeping through his soaked Daoist robe, emitting a pitiful, faint glow.
No matter how violent the rain, it could not wash away that starlight.
No matter how fierce the storm raged, it could not drown out his agonized cries.
After a moment, his spirit and will were crushed to pieces by this storm. Unable to bear it any longer, he cried out in pain!
His cry pierced through the storm and rain, spreading across the entire Heavenly Book Mausoleum, then traveling farther into the distance.
It was filled with immense pain, hoarse and tearing, like the final cry for help of a young beast, conveying a feeling of utter despair.
Everyone who heard his cry could feel his emotions and situation at that moment. Whether friend or foe, they all felt the urge to weep.
...
...
Yu Ren had been in the Heavenly Book Mausoleum the whole time.
He was observing the stele.
When those great figures and peerless experts conversed across tens or even thousands of miles, the ordinary people of Kyoto could not hear them, and naturally, he could not either.
A light rain began to fall from the night sky. Leaning on his crutch, he took two steps toward the stele hut, sheltering under its eaves from the rain, continuing to study the lines on the stele.
The wind and rain grew fiercer, the night deepened. He moved further into the stele hut. Unable to see, he used his hands to feel the lines on the stone stele.
No matter how violent the wind and rain, they could not affect his mood for observing the stele.
Occasionally, lightning would illuminate the stele's surface, but it could not rouse him from the spiritual world of stele observation.
Until that agonized cry spread across the entire Heavenly Book Mausoleum, reached this stele hut, and fell upon his ears.
Yu Ren was struck as if by lightning. His face turned deathly pale.
Because he could tell it was his junior brother's cry.
And from this cry, he could hear that his junior brother was in great pain and despair.
He turned and looked toward the place where the cry had originated.
He was already quite high up on the Heavenly Book Mausoleum. That place was even higher, very likely the summit.
Without another thought, he limped and hobbled toward it as fast as he could.
The crutch that had accompanied him for twenty years lay quietly in that stele hut, waiting for his return.
The higher one climbed the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, the steeper and more difficult the terrain became. It was overgrown with shrubs everywhere. The torrential rain made the rocks incredibly slippery, and the wilderness was full of mud, adding to the difficulty.
Not to mention that he was already a man with a disability in his leg.
He paid no heed to any of this. Gripping the crevices in the rocks with his hands, pushing off the muddy ground and tree roots with his leg, he desperately climbed toward the summit.
He had only one hand. His leg was somewhat deformed.
His hands soon became torn; some of his fingernails were ripped off.
His leg was soon scraped raw as well.
The path he climbed was covered in bloodstains, but they were quickly washed away by the torrential rain.
He must have been in great pain, but he couldn't feel it.
What he was doing was very dangerous, but he wasn't aware of it.
Because his junior brother's cry was still echoing through the mausoleum. He only knew that his junior brother was in great pain, in great danger.
Suddenly, Yu Ren stopped moving.
The storm abruptly ceased. No more lightning fell from the sky.
That cry also disappeared.
The entire Heavenly Book Mausoleum, the whole world between heaven and earth, was utterly silent, quiet to the point of deathly stillness.
This mountain mausoleum seemed to have become a true tomb.
A great fear arose in his heart. He felt terribly cold.
He looked at the summit of the Heavenly Book Mausoleum and cried out twice in pain.
He couldn't speak, so even his cries sounded strange—"Ah, ah, ah, ah"—like a child.
Like an anxious, wronged child.
Then he wiped the mud or tears from his face and continued climbing toward the summit.
...
...
Chen Changsheng lay quietly on the ground, soaked through, eyes tightly shut, completely motionless.
The starlight fragments that had drifted out of his body could not be washed away by the rain, but now they gradually scattered with the night breeze, returning to nothingness.
The rain stopped, the clouds dispersed. Water-like starlight fell upon the summit.
The Heavenly Sea Holy Empress stood with her hands behind her back, gazing at the stars in the night sky, silent.
She stood before him, blocking the starlight, and also blocking the fate behind the star-filled sky.
"Don't do those inexplicable things anymore in the future."
The Heavenly Sea Holy Empress's voice sounded tired, a very rare occurrence.
Only she and Chen Changsheng were on the summit.
Chen Changsheng was dead.
Who was she talking to?
Chen Changsheng opened his eyes and woke up.
His face was pale, he was extremely weak, and he kept coughing up rainwater.
He looked at her back, remained silent for a long time, and then said, "Thank you."
The Heavenly Sea Holy Empress did not turn around. She said, "You're welcome."
...
...
(Thank you, you're welcome—these are things that "The Path of Heaven" will emphasize greatly, starting from Xun Mei, to now, to the future. There were two versions of the last two lines of dialogue. I discussed them with my author friends for a long time. Guo Nu preferred the other version, but after half an hour of heated debate, it was rejected.
As for the chapter title, I once thought of calling it "Three Squirrels," but then I found it too unserious, and no one paid me for advertising, so I settled on: A Call at the Center of the World... Everyone knows the last word. Using Zhang Jie's song... This is love~~~~~ Hey hey, this is love~~~ Hey hey. See you tomorrow.)