232 The Enigmatic Black Stone, the Perfect Starry Sky

Even a Saint like the Pope was unsure of Chen Changsheng’s current situation.This was due to the fact that from the very beginning, Chen Changsheng’s methodof cultivation was different from everyone else’s. He had walked a path that noone else had ever walked before. He had already dispelled what many cultivatorsconsidered to be common knowledge or even rules. There were so many bizarrethings on his path that would be hard to believe. Before he had even undergone purification, he had already begun doingmeditative introspection, thus having a close encounter with death and almostreturning to the stars. However, he received the assistance of the Black Dragonand was able to survive that harrowing encounter. Later, in the GrandExamination, he once again found himself in dire straits, but amidst the autumnrain, he was able to break through into Ethereal Opening. He had originallythought that he was still taking in starlight for purification, but in reality,he had always been at opening his Ethereal Palace. From beginning to end, he had always used methods that exceeded his own levelof cultivation. It was just like an infant that had not learned how to walk, yet was alreadytrying to run, or who did not have the teeth to learn words, but had alreadybegan to memorize the Daoist Canon. Or perhaps it was like someone who did nothave the strength to lift a sword, but was already attempting to learn how tofight. These were all extremely dangerous things, and so were all the thingsthat Chen Changsheng had attempted. If he did not have such fortuitousencounters, he would have died long ago. Starlight rained down upon the Mausoleum of Books, illuminating that meadowinto a snow-white cloth. Chen Changsheng sat in front of that broken monolith,his eyes tightly closed. His sea of consciousness and the starry sky above bothshone as the universe harmonized with his body. The countless stars in thenight sky gazed down on him. They watched over him as he who was still atEthereal Opening began to undergo Star Condensation ahead of time. The Qi emanating from his body continued to rise, continuing to stretch out inall directions. Like the sharp sword-like edges of that monolith, this Qi cuttowards the heavens. The invisible radiance of the stars accompanied thestarlight and fell upon the roof of that hut, falling upon the monolith, andfalling onto his body. It flooded into his body without end, bringing with itthe slight chill of the night wind. If he could break through this mountain pass, then his future prospects wouldbe limitless. Accompanied by the chilly night wind, many people arrived outside theMausoleum of Books. The Six Prefects of the Orthodoxy had come with Mei Lisha standing at the lead. The head of the Tianhai Clan had also come. Jin Yulu had come Mao Qiuyu had come. Mo Yu had also come. They did not enter the mausoleum. Relying on their powerful spiritual senses,they silently observed the event which occurred in front of the broken monolith. The distance left before Chen Changsheng broke through that mountain pass wasnot too far. However, nobody knew if he would really succeed in breaking through, and if hedid break through, to what degree he would succeed. Within his body, the gate of his Ethereal Palace had already begun to slowlyopen. The clear waters that wrapped around his Spirit Mountain were, at themoment, ceaselessly flowing, with it flowing faster and faster. As the waterbecame faster, it created many whirlpools, which caused the dead leaveslittering the mountain path to float into the air, beating against the stonesteps before the gate. Although all this had been done without a sound, intruth it shook one to the core. The Ethereal Palace sat in the center of the Spirit Mountain, while the SpiritMountain sat within the waters of the lake, which were at the very moment,being transformed by the radiance of the stars. The radiance that entered his body continued to increase and the lake grewincreasingly restless, almost as if it was about to turn into a vast ocean. At any time, the dam could burst, even though this floating lake had no dam. In time with the fluctuations of the lake, countless rays of light wererefracted and reflected back and forth under the surface of the water. The raysof light gradually became purer and concentrated, eventually gathering togetherand becoming sparkling points of light, almost like stars. The vast sky of stars of the night appeared in Chen Changsheng’s mind, whichthen appeared within this lake. Every star’s position was precisely where itshould have been. It was just that this starry sky gave a sense of incompleteness, thatsomewhere, there was something missing. This piece of the starry sky made up the seventeen Heavenly Tome Monoliths ofthe front mausoleum. However, the front mausoleum formerly had eighteen monoliths. The last monolith had been broken, so naturally its monolith inscriptions nolonger existed. Chen Changsheng had not seen those monolith inscriptions, so naturally thestar chart in his spirit would still be missing that piece. If that gap in the starry sky was never filled in, then everything would stop. In the plaza of the Li Palace, the Pope gazed towards the Mausoleum of Books,raising his hand to block out the night and the starlight. After a moment ofsilence, he said, “It would be better if only that monolith were still there.” On the Dew Platform, the Divine Empress looked into the night. With anapathetic expression, she thought to herself, missing that monolith, how couldtoday’s mausoleum still be the same Mausoleum of Books from the past? Many years ago, Zhou Dufu viewed all eighteen monoliths in one day. Then for areason, the reason for not wanting others to be like him, he took away amonolith. From that day on, people began to speak of the seventeen monoliths of thefront mausoleum. After many years, Chen Changsheng was the closest to comprehending the fullmeaning of the monoliths of the front mausoleum. The problem lay in the fact that he had no means of viewing that brokenmonolith. As a result, it was very likely that he would only be this close tothe truth forever, never able to touch upon it. Seeing the starry sky slowly taking shape in the lake, Chen Changshenginstinctively sensed that this starry sky was still incomplete. He knew that what he was missing was the monolith inscriptions on the brokenmonolith. He silently pondered this, unable to find a solution. He went on a mentaljourney of ten thousand miles, but found no monolith. Gradually, his spirit became increasingly disordered, even somewhatmuddleheaded. Just then, the dagger at his waist began to fiercely tremble. A black stone appeared amidst the wasteland. This wasteland was covered in a blanket of snow. This snow was the trueradiance of the stars. Chen Changsheng was oblivious to everything. He did not know what was going onin the outside world, nor did he know about the changes inside his own body. That clear lake, suspended in the sky, absorbed and condensed countless raysof light, which becam incomparably translucent. If one looked at the lake from above, it would seem just like a massive glasspearl. The curved surface of the water was so smooth, that it could magnify thescenery. Under the lake, the black stone was magnified to an incredible size. In the Pavilion of Ascending Mist, when Chen Changsheng had touched the blackstone, he had an out-of-body experience. He knew that the black stone wascertainly no ordinary object. It could even be the key to defying the heavensand changing fate. He had even given it a close examination, yet in the end hecould not find anything special about it. That black stone was small enough to be held in his hand. It was gentle andsmooth, its surface not having the slightest crack. If he were to open his eyes now, he would certainly be extremely shocked. Only when the black stone was magnified many times would one be able to seethat the surface of the black stone was covered with countless extremely thinlines. Those lines were extraordinarily complex, like the traces left behind bywater. They had no pattern and they absolutely could not have been artificiallycarved into its surface. If one examined it closely, one would perhaps feel that those lines weresimilar to the inscriptions on the Heavenly Tome Monoliths. The black stone suddenly began to glow, just like it had back in the Pavilionof Ascending Mist. The fine lines on the surface of the black stone also began to glow. The lines projected onto the lake became glowing rays of light. Then those rays of light acted just like the other monolith inscriptions,unceasingly condensing and turning into countless points of light. Every point of light was a star. Countless points of light converging in onearea was a small portion of the starry sky. The incomplete starry sky in this way was completed in such a way. There was a hum. Chen Changsheng’s sea of consciousness quaked. The countless stars within the lake simultaneously flared with light,consolidating into an extremely thick pillar of light which landed on the gateto his Ethereal Palace in the end.