Chapter 876: The Scenery Once So Familiar
Xu Yourong’s cultivation on the other side of the stone wall might have reached a critical moment, where any external disturbance could be extremely dangerous.
Thus, Chen Changsheng could do nothing, but he also did not leave. He stood silently before that stone wall for a very long time.
At first, it was because of longing and some other extremely complex emotions. Later, it was because he began to have a bad feeling.
When it came to deduction and calculation, aside from the Demon race’s military advisor Black Robe, the deceased Heavenly Machine Elder, and his master Shang Xingzhou, the next should be Xu Yourong.
Chen Changsheng did not possess a Fate Star Disk, nor had he studied deduction and calculation, but he had learned the Sword of Wisdom from Su Li.
In a certain sense, the Sword of Wisdom was also a method of deduction and calculation.
He looked back, all the way to the letter he had received at Songshan Military Prefecture.
Then came Hanqiu City, Wenshui City, and Fengyang City.
What exactly had happened at Nanxi Zhai? The Holy Maiden Peak was still so tranquil, just as she had described in her letters.
It seemed as if nothing had happened, but Xiao Zhang had indeed been unable to enter the Holy Maiden Peak.
His feeling grew stronger and stronger. If she continued her secluded cultivation within the stone wall, she might encounter some problems.
He could not stand by and watch this happen. He had to figure out where the problem she might face came from.
That problem was not on the other side of the stone wall, but rather on this side.
He only needed to find that problem and resolve it, and then Xu Yourong would face no threat.
What kind of problem could actually affect Xu Yourong on the other side of the stone wall?
After all, whether it was the Tung Bow transformed into a green vine or the immensely powerful formation on the stone wall, both could ensure she would not be harmed by the outside world.
Chen Changsheng left that stone wall and walked to the edge of the cliff.
The Tong River was flowing through the northern plains, and from this extremely high vantage point, it looked incredibly winding.
Illuminated by the setting sun, it resembled a strand of golden thread carelessly tossed onto a table by a young lady weary of embroidery in the afternoon.
Such a description had once appeared in a letter Xu Yourong had sent him over two years ago.
That green stone by the cliff—she had also mentioned it in her letters. She liked to sit there and gaze at the scenery.
Chen Changsheng sat down at the cliff’s edge and looked at this beautiful landscape.
The scenery once so familiar.
…
…
The scenery was beautiful, never tiring to the eye, but Chen Changsheng did not look for long before withdrawing his gaze.
He took out an old, somewhat ancient book and began to leaf through it.
After a moment of calm, he still had not found that problem, not even a clue, so he stopped searching. It was not giving up, but knowing that sometimes the more deliberately you seek, the easier it is to miss.
He casually recalled everything starting from Songshan Military Prefecture, reasoning from the near to the far. First, he thought of the two young girls from Nanxi Zhai he had encountered at the mountain gate.
Those two girls had used Nanxi Zhai’s Combined Sword Technique. At the very beginning, it had even caught Tang Thirty-Six off guard.
At the time, he felt that the Combined Sword Technique used by the two girls had some extremely subtle differences from the one he knew, which had sparked some doubt in him.
Could this be related to the thing he was worried about?
The foundation of the Combined Sword Technique was the Zhai Sword.
The old book he was reading now was called “A Study of the Unity of Zhai Sword and Combined Sword,” written by a female instructor from the Qing Yao Thirteen Departments who had once studied at Nanxi Zhai for thirty years.
In a certain sense, this senior from the Qing Yao Thirteen Departments had a life journey very similar to Xu Yourong’s.
This was Chen Changsheng’s first formal study of the Combined Sword Technique. The more he read, the more admiration he felt. It was clearly a very simple swordsmanship, yet it placed such high demands on the practitioner. No wonder only the relatively isolated disciples of Nanxi Zhai, with their serene Dao hearts, could bring this swordsmanship to its peak, eventually giving rise to the world-shaking Nanxi Zhai Sword Formation.
Chen Changsheng was now universally recognized as a genius of the sword path. If one ignored his age, he could even be called a master of the sword path.
His knowledge and mastery of the sword path grew more and more refined. Correspondingly, his obsession with the sword path also deepened. Though not yet reaching the level of Su Li in his prime or those from Li Mountain Sword Sect, encountering such a fresh swordsmanship as the Combined Sword Technique naturally led him to gradually immerse himself in it, forgetting the passage of time.
The setting sun shone on the Tong River and also on the Holy Maiden Peak, growing redder and warmer.
Chen Changsheng had already reached the third book related to the Zhai Sword and the Combined Sword Technique.
He held the book in his left hand, while the index and middle fingers of his right hand were pressed together, forming a sword shape, constantly gesturing.
He himself did not notice that with his movements, an invisible sword intent extended from his fingertips, slicing the warm red light and the cold mountain wind into countless fragments.
All around the cliff’s edge were sharp sounds of air being rent.
The drifting clouds scattered, and the spirit beasts in the forest fled fearfully into the distance. Only those few kingfishers stood not far away, tilting their heads and curiously watching him.
Perhaps they were wondering, who is this person? Why are his movements exactly the same as that little fairy’s from before?
Just then, from somewhere unknown, a clear crane’s cry rang out.
The few kingfishers hopped away, heading under the trees to search for the smallest and cutest dinner mushrooms.
The spirit beasts in the forest retreated even further.
The drifting clouds between the cliffs suddenly scattered.
A white crane burst through the clouds, circled down, and then walked over to Chen Changsheng’s side.
When the crane’s cry sounded, Chen Changsheng had already awakened. He reached out and stroked the white crane’s slender neck.
The white crane gently pecked his hand, then looked down at the cliff platform shrouded by clouds and called out softly twice.
Chen Changsheng knew it was telling him that something had happened there.
By his calculations, Tang Thirty-Six and the others should have already entered Nanxi Zhai. Could there really be another misunderstanding?
He stood up, looked toward that stone wall bathed in the sunset glow, and said, “I’ll come back another time.”
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…
While Chen Changsheng was crossing mountains and ridges, Tang Thirty-Six was still on the mountain path admiring the scenery.
After those two Nanxi Zhai girls were released, he and Hu Thirty-Two walked slowly, waiting for an important figure from Nanxi Zhai to appear.
Stirring the grass was meant to startle the snake. Their direct charge at the mountain gate was precisely to divert attention for Chen Changsheng. If they had also moved silently, it would not have worked.
The reason he still had the leisure to enjoy the scenery was that he thought the same as Chen Changsheng: even if some misunderstanding arose between them and Nanxi Zhai, it would not be a big deal.
In Tang Thirty-Six’s view, Xu Yourong was the Holy Maiden, and Nanxi Zhai belonged to her. If there was any misunderstanding between the two sides, it was like a couple quarreling—what did it matter, from the head of the bed to the foot?
When they reached a bamboo forest that stretched like a sea, Tang Thirty-Six praised, “Fine scenery.”
Suddenly, countless sharp sounds of air being rent densely erupted.
The green bamboos swayed incessantly, as if a wild tide had arisen on the sea.
Sword energy crisscrossed, and the slender bamboo leaves fell with a rustling sound, like a heavy downpour, all landing on Tang Thirty-Six.
Hu Thirty-Two was some distance from the bamboo forest and thus managed to avoid it.
Tang Thirty-Six was covered in bamboo leaves, looking somewhat disheveled, but he did not mind. Instead, he said smugly, “An elegant affair indeed.”
When the bamboo leaves had all fallen, the sword energy completely receded, and over a dozen young girls appeared on the mountain path, blocking his and Hu Thirty-Two’s way.
The two girls from the mountain gate earlier were also among them.