197 The Eight Storms of the Cardinal Directions Rising from the Black Rock

No, naturally there was no way of changing it. If there was no such thing as fate, then naturally there would not be anythinglike revolting against the heavens or changing fate. Chen Changsheng stared at the final part of the diary, and he stayed silentfor a long time. It was hard for him to put his feelings into words, as he feltrelieved, but even more disappointed. Wang Zhice’s words were like thunder,rumbling loudly in his sea of consciousness. However, it was a pity that it wasnot thunder from spring, and it had no way of causing springtime rain thatmoistened the ground. It was more like an alarm ringing, causing him to wake upfrom his fabricated hope. This part was really powerful, but for him, it did not have any meaning atall——no, there should be more than just this diary. Chen Changsheng’s willpowerhad developed from the past several years of resisting life and deathcircumstances; therefore, he did not spend much time to calm down. He wasdetermined that this was not everything the night had to offer in the Pavilionof Ascending Mist. When the Pavilion of Ascending Mist had first been built, his master Daoist Jihad already become an important figure within the capital. When those honoredsubjects were heavily ill and about to die, his master had helped treat them,so he naturally knew even more secrets. Having him enter the Pavilion ofAscending Mist through countless hardships definitely was not just to read whatWang Zhice had written. He shoved the diary he had finished reading into the hilt of the short sword.He looked at that box on the green stone wall, and he looked at theindescribable bronze wires and densely packed buttons. The more he looked, themore he felt that the image of the box seemed to be extremely similar to thevast sea of stars in the night sky. He was not mesmerized by this sight, so hestretched out his hand to pick up the box. He also put it into the sword hilt. The diary and box were not small, and no matter how you looked at it, itseemed impossible to shove them into the sword hilt. However, it was exactly insuch a manner that he forcibly shoved them in.It was like a huge tree with acircumference of one chi being swallowed by quicksand or a mountain beingsucked into another world through a black hole. Under the soft glow of theLuminous Pearl, this scene looked somewhat strange. After finishing these two tasks, he reached into the green stone wall with hishand and carefully felt around the box. As expected, he found a black rockafter a short while. This black rock was about the length of half a finger, and it was slightlytenuous. Just by looking at it, he could discern its hardness, and hisfingertips verified this feeling while touching it. Chen Changsheng sat in the corner and raised the black rock in front of theLuminous Pearl. He examined it closely——if this black rock could be hidden awaytogether with the diary by Wang Zhice in the Pavilion of Ascending Mist, it wasdefinitely not an ordinary object. The surface of the black rock was smooth and bore the likeness of fog. Thesurface lacked any cracks, and it was entirely pitch-black like ink. However,it was even more like the sea on a starless night.There was clearly nothing onthe surface of the black rock to look at, but he stared at it for a long time.It was as if there were undulations of ink-like waves, producing countlessdifferent shades of black. Chen Changsheng’s gaze landed on the black rock which was like a black sea. The black sea was the night sky. His consciousness arrived within the night sky. The night sky, which was originally pitch-black, suddenly began to glow withcountless stars. At this moment, he looked just like that night when he determined his FatedStar. He had entered a unique selfless state of nothingness, willfully floatingin the night sky and freely flying through the stars. After an indeterminateamount of time, he saw that a small, red star had appeared in an area extremelyfar away in the night sky. Chen Changsheng serenely gazed at that star, feeling extremely comfortable, asif that star was his Fated Star. The star was peaceful and healthy, overflowing with life, constantly spreadingpure and bright rays of light, and not like it was about to be extinguished atall. He suddenly realized something. Even if he really was going to die in five years, that star would yet continueto shine. This fact gave him some comfort, but afterwards, it caused him even moredisappointment and grief. In the surrounding space of this red star, there were countless other stars. He stared at those stars and realized that those stars which hung in the nightsky also stared coldly and peacefully back at him. In other words, they werestaring at that small red star that belonged to him. He suddenly began to feel disturbed, and an extremely strong feeling of feargrew within him. It was just like when he had seen those portraits within thePavilion of Ascending Mist. He always felt that the people within the portraitsstared back at him. Those people were already dead, but it seemed as if they were still alive. These stars could not speak, but they seemed to want to tell him something. His consciousness did not know that his body was still currently within thePavilion of Ascending Mist, sitting with his back up against the green stonewall. He was extremely stiff, just like a sculpture. The black rock he held between his two fingers suddenly became extremelybright, emitting countless rays of light and heat. Those rays could notpenetrate the doors and windows, and only his body could feel the heat. Chen Changsheng who was inside the Pavilion of Ascending Mist began sweatingnonstop. The sweat was instantly vaporized, and it became a cloud of white mistwrapped around his body in the end. The cloud of white mist also carried a type of indescribable, bizarre smell,which was luckily trapped by the edges of the mist, not letting a single bitout. An indescribable, fantastic aura arose from deep within the black rock, and itentered his body along his fingertips. It passed through his ethereal palace(heart), finally landing in his sea of consciousness. A loud sound rumbled in Chen Changsheng’s sea of consciousness. It gave him adifferent feeling than the one he had experienced previously after he hadfinished reading Wang Zhice’s diary. This rumble of thunder was even more likereal thunder. Countless stormy waves arose in his sea of consciousness, as if it was aboutto rip open the ethereal opening. While leaning against the green stone wall, his eyes flickered nonstop, movingfaster and faster, and he also began to sweat more and more. The white mistsurrounding him also grew denser and denser to the point of even covering uphis face. Deep within this white mist, his eyes were tightly shut, but they stilltrembled at a high speed. After the springtime thunder had rumbled through hissea of consciousness, countless images appeared. He was inside a grand church that had light everywhere. Countless churchmenall knelt on the ground, and there were hundreds of sculptures on both sides ofthe church, which seemed very modest under the light. Deep within the wave-like light, an elderly person with divine robes and adivine crown tightly grasped his divine staff. He prayed loudly towards themultitude of stars in the sky above the church, and a slightly plump,middle-aged male knelt in front of the divine throne. After the ceremony ofofferings continued, a projection of starlight fell onto him. At the same time,an abnormally majestic aura returned to the starry sky from his body. There were changes in the deepest parts of the starry sky. These changes wereso small, that some stars had become slightly darker, as if the wings of a mothhad just blocked part of the sun. Other stars moved slightly from theirpositions, even if they only moved by a sliver of hair. Even the oldeststargazing platform would have encountered extreme difficulty to detect thesechanges. Even the Council of Divine Ordinance could not. In the night sky, stars moved, darkened, or paled. The countless, tiny changescombined at one spot, and the formless structure of power also experienced somechange. The centermost star was faint purple, and it slowly began to glowbrighter. Its glow became denser and more beautiful until its purple hadreached the extreme. Afterwards, an extremely bright light suddenly burst forth. It was in such a manner that the Purple Abstruse Emperor Star had appeared. Inthe mortal realm, the armies of Tianliang State had left the Fork Mountain fromthe east, taking down seventeen cities in one breath. They seiged Luoyang andseized the mausoleum of the capital, where Emperor Taizu was formally enthroned. Years later, horrifying sounds of killing arose in the Hundred Herb Garden,and the quiet night was broken. Those stars which once had changed in positionand brightness slowly began to darken. Blood flowed like a river, and brotherskilled each other. In the end, out of all of those outstanding sons of EmperorTaizu, only one person survived. Many years later, after a game of cards and after fooling around with manybeautiful female servants, Emperor Taizu arrived under the vine canopy, andstared at those stars in the night sky. His face revealed a painful smile. That Purple Abstruse Star in the night sky continued to dazzle people’s eyes.However, it already no longer belonged to him, but to his son, the famousPrince of Qi known for his filial piety. He was also the current EmperorTaizong. The galaxies continued to experience change, occupying the twenty-fourconstellations of region of Central Wilderness It seemed like it was about toexpend all of the energy it had gathered since the ancient times in a few shortdecades. The brightness of the twenty-four constellations were so dazzling that peopledid not even realize the Purple Abstruse Emperor Star, which had beensurrounded by these constellations, had already begun to change its position.Although it had only moved by a sliver from the ground’s perspective, itactually had already shifted north. It directly approached the darkness of thenight sky. As the great Demon army suffered a crushing defeat and returned north, thehuman world became peaceful. The Pavilion of Ascending Mist was built in thecapital, and a skinny painter lay on the ground, painting nonstop. Theexpression on his face seemed a little deranged. Emperor Taizong’s most beloved and revered queen had passed away fromsickness, and the queen’s brother, the honored subject who had the firstportrait in the Pavilion of Ascending Mist, Duke of Zhao, committed suicide onthe sovereign’s orders. However, in the history books, he died for the samereason as his sister, the most commonly seen disease of River Luo. Closelyafterwards, the only person in the world who was brave enough to argue withEmperor Taizong, the Duke of Zheng, also passed away from an illness. Qin Zhongand Yu Guan who were the most loyal to Emperor Taizong also passed away from anunknown reason. However, they died very peacefully, and it could even be saidhappily, without a single complaint. The Zhou Dynasty flourished, but these famous subjects and divine generalsinstead began to wither away slowly. During a particular late autumn, after participating in the funeral of afellow subject, he walked silently into the imperial palace and arrived at thePavilion of Ascending Mist. He looked at the portraits on the wall, and finallyarrived in front of his own portrait. He stared silently at himself within thepainting. It was as if he was participating in his own funeral in advance, andhe had even laughed and said the words “As if you were still alive”. He hid a box into the green stone wall beside the portrait before turningaround and leaving. The Wang Zhice in the painting watched as Wang Zhice walked out of thePavilion of Ascending Mist, smiling without saying a word. Chen Changsheng opened his eyes and woke up again. In that moment, the cloudof mist that had always surrounded him suddenly dispersed. It was as if it hadjust collapsed. It landed on his body at a speed, which could not be seenclearly with the naked eye. It passed through his academy uniform and enteredhis body through the pores of his skin. The mist originally was his sweat, so after it returned to his body at thismoment, it had transformed into a watery substance. It formed countless smallstreams within his body, moistening the dried up river valley from the GrandExamination. Afterwards, it dropped into the deep, final chasm of the brokenmountain range without a sound to be heard. The skies of the snowy plains where he had overheated in the fight against GouHanshi began to snow. The snow was like goose feathers, fluttering aboutlightly and gracefully. It seemed to be slow, but extremely fast at the sametime, causing the entire wasteland to once again become a vast expanse ofwhiteness. Afterwards, the Eight Storms of Cardinal Directions rushed in from all sides,perhaps horizontally, perhaps vertically, or perhaps from the groundunderneath. They produced a very slight pitter-patter, striking the lake waterthat floated in midair. It was an incomparably magnificent sight.