Chapter 729: Redemption and a New Legend
On that stone wall were carved the portraits of Qin Zhong and Yu Gong, the two previous Divine Generals. In their hands, they held two iron chains that bound her feet. This was the formation laid down by Wang Zhice centuries ago. For hundreds of years, including Little Black Dragon herself, no power had been able to pull those two iron chains out of the wall. Even Chen Changsheng, using the Western Flow Canon and his own blood, could only hope to see a possibility two years later. By all logic, a stone wall imbued with such a powerful formation would necessarily cut off all external vitality, making it impossible for any plant to grow. But now, a cluster of green leaves had sprouted.
That cluster of green leaves had only three blades. Originally plump and tender, they now looked somewhat withered, as if they had expended much of their vitality.
Or perhaps it was because the root system of that green cluster was too developed?
Countless fine roots, nearly invisible to the naked eye, grew from the lower end of the green cluster, spreading endlessly along the portraits on the stone wall. Some found the tiniest cracks, penetrated deep into the stone, and then, under the illumination of the rainbow's light, grew almost frantically.
That rainbow from the Li Palace and the cluster of green leaves were attempting to break the formation here.
Little Black Dragon didn't understand what was happening or why. So she was bewildered, then tense. Her small face was pale, and the cinnabar mole between her brows was unusually conspicuous.
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...
What illuminated the world was not starlight, but a rainbow.
The colored arcs merged into one, becoming colorless, silently and unnoticed, shining upon North New Bridge and also upon Frost Flower Shop.
Frost Flower Shop had a seemingly inconspicuous but heavily guarded garden called the Orange Garden. It was Mo Yu's former residence and now the prison where she was under house arrest.
Under the illumination of the colorless, formless rainbow, the formation in the Orange Garden melted silently like thin snow under a scorching sun, without alarming anyone or the frogs hibernating in the snow.
Several strings of small lanterns made of orange peel hung by the window, very cute. The light that shone through them was red, warmer than reality.
Mo Yu knelt on a cushion, facing the direction of the Li Palace, her eyes closed, her long lashes fluttering slightly, feeling incredibly warm.
This was the Pope's final redemption for her. Perhaps it was related to her arranging for Chen Changsheng to enter the National Academy back then, perhaps not, but it was redemption nonetheless.
That rainbow vanished, and the national religion's treasures in the six halls, including the Grass Moon Lodge, gradually calmed down.
The chill at North New Bridge intensified, and the black pit in the snow seemed about to crack open from the cold.
The orange trees at Frost Flower Shop were covered in newly formed frost, a rare and beautiful sight. The lamp by the window was still warm, but the cushion was empty.
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The Pope's funeral was held quickly, as everything had been prepared long in advance.
The delegations from White Emperor City and the south had not left the capital after the celebration, precisely because everyone had mentally prepared for this.
It was precisely because of this preparation that the people, though sad, were not shocked, nor did they feel much panic or unease.
From autumn to winter, the Zhou Dynasty had lost two sages in succession, and the Eight Directions Winds had suffered heavy casualties. If one also counted Su Li and the Southern Saintess who had left early, the number of peak human experts had plummeted in just a few years. But in the eyes of the people, the demon race had suffered even greater losses from internal strife, so how could they dare to invade southward?
Some didn't see it that way, such as the Pope himself, who had already returned to the sea of stars. Besides him, those in the know grew increasingly tense as time passed.
The Li Palace had issued a grand proclamation, and the entire world already knew that Chen Changsheng was the new Pope of the National Religion, even though he had not yet officially ascended.
What was shocking and puzzling was that no one saw him at the Pope's funeral.
This was a very hard thing to imagine, but both the Li Palace and the court remained silent on the matter, as if there was some kind of tacit understanding between them. What was that understanding? Was it the agreement reached between the Pope and Shang Xingzhou after a long talk on the night Wang Po and Chen Changsheng killed Zhou Tong? Or were both sides waiting for that moment to arrive?
The New Year was approaching. Another page of the yellow calendar was torn off. The winter sun rose again. Many things would become different.
On that day, the Zhou Dynasty would officially change its reign title. The young emperor's position would become unshakeable. The Li Palace would hold the ascension ceremony. The National Religion would welcome its new master.
That young emperor and the young Pope were master and disciple.
In history, such a thing had never happened.
It also meant that the current emperor and the Pope would both be the sole students of Shang Xingzhou.
This, too, had never happened in history.
From any angle, this was the pinnacle of life that people could imagine. In fact, before this event actually materialized, it was simply unimaginable.
Having led the entire world to overthrow the rule of Empress Tianhai, having predicted and possibly even participated in the destruction of the Demon Lord, having effortlessly taken control of the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, and having personally raised two disciples who would become the most powerful figures in both the secular and sacred realms—Shang Xingzhou, even if not a god, was already a legend.
Unfortunately, there was no true perfection in the world. The fate above the starry sky would not allow such a thing to happen.
That problem still needed to be solved. No matter how people failed to understand why Chen Changsheng had to oppose his teacher, no matter how people couldn't figure out why Shang Xingzhou disliked, even loathed, this actually very popular disciple... in any case, this problem had to be solved.
This was not just a problem between master and disciple; it had already affected the fate of the entire human race, even the entire world.
What would happen on New Year's Day? The first internal war of the Zhou Dynasty?
The wind and snow fell without cease. The Grass Moon Lodge, the Laurel Palace, and the Moss Dwelling were all dyed white. A lonely trail of footprints could be seen in the snow.
The streets outside the Li Palace were empty. An invisible force pulsed unceasingly between the famous stone pillars.
Neither the priests, nor the officials of the various halls, nor the teachers and students of the Green Vine Six Academies, nor the twenty thousand National Religion cavalry—no one went out.
The court's military camps throughout the capital were on the highest level of alert. Furthermore, several Divine Generals led the world-renowned Black Armored Heavy Cavalry, returning south from the northern snowfields and stationing themselves along the Black Mountain Valley line. If calculated by travel time, this terrifying torrent of iron had left the Northern Military Prefecture twenty days ago, when the Pope was still alive.
The atmosphere in the capital was extremely tense.
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...
On the last evening before the New Year, the wind and snow still fell, even violently.
This year's capital was exceptionally cold. No one knew that this was largely due to the abandoned well not far from the Imperial City.
The last rays of the setting sun struggled through the clouds and snowflakes, falling on the palace walls, casting a faint twilight.
Suddenly, an unimaginably cold aura seeped out from that abandoned well. Dead leaves and soil were instantly frozen rock solid. Even the ice and snow seemed to be frozen again in some incomprehensible way. Even the twilight itself seemed about to freeze solid.
An extremely crisp sound, coming from deep within the well to the surface, was already very faint, even less clear than the crying that followed.
It was a little girl crying.
She cried without stopping, but the emotions conveyed were constantly different. Sometimes she was particularly happy and excited, sometimes particularly sad and sorrowful.
The soldiers on the city walls and the people in the courtyards all heard the little girl's crying, but they didn't know where it came from. They searched everywhere but couldn't find her. Even more incomprehensible was how, in such freezing weather, a little girl could be outside, still alive, and keep crying from twilight deep into the night without stopping.
After that day, besides the legend of the evil dragon, a new legend appeared in the North New Bridge area.
The protagonist of the new legend was a child bride killed by her cruel mother-in-law.