Chapter 885: Even the Surging River Cannot Wash Away This Hatred
Today, Nanxi Zhai was naturally on high alert due to his arrival, as well as the imperial envoy and representatives from various factions gathered at the front gate. Disciples were everywhere among the cliff terraces and beneath the flowering trees, and dozens of sword intents could be faintly sensed lurking along the mountain paths. Should an external enemy appear, the sword formation would surely be set in the shortest possible time.
When those Nanxi Zhai disciples saw him, they all bowed. A young girl asked, "Where is Your Majesty going?"
As the girl spoke, the other young women of Nanxi Zhai looked at him with knowing smiles, clearly having already guessed.
Chen Changsheng acknowledged their efforts with a word of thanks, then pointed somewhat sheepishly toward the peak and said, "I'm going up there to take a look."
Laughter rang out from the Nanxi Zhai girls among the trees, pure and beautiful, like nightingales.
It was truly hard to imagine—if the academy were truly sealed off for ten years, and these exquisite, melodious laughs could no longer be heard—what a pity that would be for the world.
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...
This time, ascending the peak again, Chen Changsheng naturally had no desire to climb. Wind stirred through the forest, the flowering trees swayed gently, fragrance filled the air, and the white crane flapped its wings upward, reaching the summit in no time.
He walked to the stone wall, pulled aside the vines, and fell silent for a long while. Still unable to calm his mind, he turned and left.
The Luomei Mountain Range was composed of countless peaks. Saintess Peak was the highest, its summit closest to the night sky, where the stars were so bright they were almost blinding.
He had once been to the solitary peak within the Cloud Tomb, to a place very high up, but at that time, mist and clouds surrounded him, and he had never seen stars so brilliant.
Starlight bathed the summit, like water, illuminating the lines on those stone tablets with perfect clarity.
Chen Changsheng gazed at the inscriptions, comparing them with those from the Heavenly Book Mausoleum from years past, and faintly sensed a glimmer of understanding.
Time passed, the starry night serene. He awoke from his meditation, walked to the edge of the cliff, and looked down at the distant foot of the mountain.
Countless lights flickered there, like stars, though much dimmer. They should have been the lights of the imperial envoy and the representatives of the aristocratic families and sects.
Was Nanxi Zhai truly going to isolate itself from the world for ten years? Having just examined the Heavenly Book Stele and touched the wisdom of the first Saintess, he wasn't pondering these questions at all. Instead, he took out another book related to the Zhai sword and began to read. Just like that afternoon, a sharp sword intent gradually emerged at the cliff's edge.
That sword intent was born between his fingers, falling upon the distant starry sky and the mortal world.
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The Tong River originated deep within the Luomei Mountain Range, flowed past Saintess Peak, merged into the Hate River, then continued westward, once again splitting through the mountains and entering a gorge.
In a gorge about twenty-odd li from Fengyang County, the night river surged, its roar like thunder.
At the center of the river, a reef suddenly bore two figures who landed upon it. No matter how terrifying the water's force, it was beneath their notice.
Because they were true experts qualified to ignore the power of heaven and earth, and because their hearts at this moment were filled with anxiety and tension.
One was a Daoist nun, clad in deep blue robes. Her eyes were slightly sunken and listless, her cheeks pale, with none of her usual ferocity visible. This was Wujiong Bi.
Bieyang Hong was still dressed as a scholar, his usual calm and composed demeanor now unusually grave, with a trace of grief faintly visible.
"It can't be true, it can't be true. Xin'er must have been playing around... and accidentally broke it."
Wujiong Bi muttered to herself, her face growing paler, her eyes dimmer, because she couldn't deceive herself.
Bieyang Hong's gaze suddenly fixed on a spot in the river. His pupils contracted, a fierce light flashing in his eyes. The little red flower hanging from his little finger shot through the air.
With a thunderous roar, countless river waters were thrown up, cascading toward the night sky like an inverted waterfall.
An unimaginable force forcibly split the water's surface, creating a hole about half a zhang in diameter, reaching straight down to the wet mud at the riverbed.
Wujiong Bi shrieked and darted toward that opening, hovering three feet above the water, peering down.
At just one glance, she nearly fainted. Had Bieyang Hong not arrived in time, she might have fallen into the water.
The bottom of the hole was all wet mud. To the naked eye, there was nothing unusual, but with Wujiong Bi and Bieyang Hong's level of cultivation, coupled with their blood connection, they naturally detected the problem.
In that mud were remnants of extremely fine ice crystals. Most crucially, there lingered an exceedingly faint trace of energy.
That energy was a soul imprint that Wujiong Bi and Bieyang Hong had personally planted in Bietian Xin's sea of consciousness before he set out on his travels.
Sensing that fading energy, Wujiong Bi's body trembled violently. She was furious to the extreme and burst into bitter sobs.
"Who is so vicious! I'll kill you! Who!"
Her miserable cries echoed across both banks of the gorge. A fierce wind suddenly rose, tearing through the forests on the cliffs, startling the monkeys into flight. The river's surface erupted in countless columns of water, killing countless fish.
Bieyang Hong's face showed grief, but he was far calmer than his wife. With a light sweep of his scholar's sleeve, he gathered up the ice crystals from the mud at the riverbed.
Only about a dozen ice crystals remained, each the size of a soybean. Had it been any later—just a few hours more—they would have been completely dissolved by the river, and that energy would have dissipated, swallowed entirely by the water. Even as Divine Domain experts, they would have been unable to detect it.
The one who had done this truly had skill and cunning.
At this thought, Wujiong Bi grew even more enraged.
Bieyang Hong's expression suddenly turned grave, because on these ice crystal fragments, he sensed an extremely cold energy.
Wujiong Bi, consumed by grief and fury, sensed it a moment later. Her expression changed drastically, her eyes turning venomous, as if she wanted to devour someone.
"Black Dragon! Chen Changsheng!"
People of their caliber could naturally determine that what killed Bietian Xin and destroyed the evidence was the deep, freezing dragon breath of the Frost Giant Dragon.
The whole world knew that the dragon race had not set foot on the continent for a thousand years. Only truly important figures knew that the only dragon still existing in the world was the guardian of the current Pope—the Frost Giant Dragon, imprisoned beneath North New Bridge for over six hundred years.
If that Frost Giant Dragon had killed Bietian Xin, then this matter might also be connected to Chen Changsheng.
Bieyang Hong was silent for a moment, then said, "Wait here. I'll investigate further."
As he spoke, he left the river surface and arrived at a spot in the gorge. He woke a fisherman and asked a few questions about what had happened during the day.
One fisherman didn't know, so he woke another. Half an hour later, he finally found a fisherman who said he had seen a strange event on the gorge river.
A monster with green wings had grabbed a person and flown up from the river.
"Nanke! That demon princess!" Wujiong Bi shouted, her eyes red. "Chen Changsheng has kept her by his side all along—who doesn't know? He had a grudge against our son before, and now, meeting in the wilderness with no one around, he struck with foul play! I want him to pay with his life!"
Bieyang Hong's expression was utterly weary, but he still remained silent.
He felt something was off about this.
This was a remote gorge river far from the bustling world. Why would his son have encountered Chen Changsheng and his party?
From a probability standpoint, it was far too unlikely.
A moment later, he brought Wujiong Bi to Fengyang County, where they learned that a tea gathering was to be held here tomorrow, and what had happened during the day.
So Xiao Zhang had been here.
So Chen Changsheng had indeed come here.