241 Different Souls

(TL: This refers to the Chinese conception of soul as being made up of twoparts: Hun (魂), the spiritual soul which goes to heaven on death; and Po (魄),the animal soul which remains with the body.) The cold winds suddenly calmed, the night pearls suddenly began to glow. TheDivine Empress appeared before her. As she glanced at the two iron chainsaround the dragon’s feet, she said. “The tea is good, but the man?” The girl stared warily at her and said nothing. The Divine Empress looked at her and continued. “You gave up a drop of yourtrue dragon blood to help Chen Changsheng. Just who did you think you couldhide your plans from?” The girl put down the tea and apathetically said, “I don’t know what you’retalking about.” The Divine Empress calmly said. “Regardless of if you plan to have him helpyou get something, or send some message back to the dragon tribe, or concoctsome method to break Wang Zhice’s imprisoning spell, none of it is possible. Heis too young, and to have all the qualities you require would take him at leastanother two hundred years.” The girl realized that all her plans had been grasped by this terrifyingwomen, and her expression grew even colder. “So what?” “Chen Changsheng has told you much. Since you’ve been listening, then youshould know that it will be very difficult for him to live past the age oftwenty. Because of this, the chances of you succeeding in carrying out yourplans are basically zero.” The Divine Empress continued, “If you help me with a certain task, after tenyears I will release you.” The girl’s slit-shaped eyes narrowed, becoming even more enchanting. “Whattask?” The Divine Empress placed her hands behind her back and gazed at that gloomyand barely visible ray of light. After a moment of silence, she said, “Help meunderstand just who Chen Changsheng is.” The girl stared blankly, not quite understanding the sentence. Chen Changsheng was Chen Changsheng, how could he be anyone else? “I want to know just how old he is and what is wrong with his body. I want toknow why Daoist Ji would raise him, and I want to know how much the of theconversation between the Pope and him in the Li Palace was true and how much ofit was false.” The Divine Empress withdrew her gaze and calmly looked at the girl. Anindescribably powerful pressure suddenly descended upon the vast undergroundspace, grinding the ice on the floor into a fine dust. The girl’s voice slightly trembled as she asked, “How would I know thesethings?” “Because he trusts you. That is very important.” The Divine Empress replied. As if attempting to explain something, she hurriedly said, “I don’t even knowwhy he trusts me!” The Divine Empress calmly replied, “Perhaps it is because of the first time hemet you, he already said too much, so he no longer cares and now tells youeverything.” After a moment of thought, the girl replied, “This isn’t very logical.” The Divine Empress calmly looked at her said, “There is still the mostimportant reason.” Confused, the girl asked, “What would that reason be?” The Divine Empress indifferently replied, “You’re not a human.” The girl’s brows tightly knit together in irritation. “If…the Demon Lord and the Pope were in front of me, who do you think I wouldtrust more?” The Divine Empress looked at her and gave her a smile that was not a smile. The girl was deeply confused. Between the greatest enemy and the most reliable comrade, was there any needto think about it at all? The Divine Empress gave her no time to think. “So?” The girl looked at the oil paper-wrapped chicken bone and the remnants of thetea left in her cup, then blinked and said, “Fine, I agree. If you let me go, Iwill go with him and report back to you on all his whereabouts.” She reached behind her back and pulled out the chains, then she looked at theDivine Empress and seriously said, “Madame must first help me break thesechains. Thank you.” The Divine Empress calmly looked at her and said, “To go so far is tootroublesome.” Saying these words, she walked in front of the girl and stretched out herright hand to space between the girl’s eyebrows, as if she wanted to caressthat wound. The girl’s vertical pupils suddenly contracted as she felt an incredible senseof danger. The flash of cunning that had appeared in her eyes had long since disappeared,leaving only fear and unease. Her black hair floated around her, as they rustled. Her lips slightly opened as she prepared to furiously roar. Yet she was powerless to do anything, even unable to avoid the DivineEmpress’s palm. Although the Divine Empress’s right hand seemed to fall very casually, intruth it was like heaven and earth were conforming to its will. There was noway to escape from it. There was a light slap. The Divine Empress’s right hand landed between her brows, covering that lineof blood. The girl’s body furiously trembled, her face turning deathly pale. Her pupilscontracted until they gradually disappeared. It all seemed extremely painful. After a while, the Divine Empress slowly withdrew her hand. Along with her hand, the image of a black dragon slowly emerged from the wound. That black dragon image was about half a chi long and as wide as a fingernail.Struggle as it might, it was incapable of escaping from the Divine Empress’spalm. Inch by inch, it was extracted from the girl’s brow. This black dragon image seemed to be both real and illusionary. It seemed tolive, and yet it was clearly not any sort of living being. It was a microcosm of the Black Dragon, as well as its soul. While the Black Dragon was still alive, the Divine Empress had managed toextract its soul. At the end, this black dragon soul had been completely taken out. The line of blood on the girl’s brow grew increasingly red. On its surfacegradually formed a plump bead of blood. Now it seemed like it had truly turnedinto a cinnabar birthmark. With the extraction of the dragon image, the girl became abnormally exhausted,and her body fell limply to the floor. The Divine Empress took a jade ruyi from her waist. TL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruyi_(scepter)<https: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ruyi_(scepter)=""> Everyone knew that the Divine Empress had two pieces of jewelry that neverleft her body. In her hair was an ebony hairpin, its tip painted with a dot of captivatingred, as if it had drunk blood. Its rear was damaged in places and it wasextremely old. Yet it had never been switched out, because it was thethird-ranked weapon on the Tier of Legendary Weapons, the sole hairpin amongstits ranks. The other piece of jewelry was this ruyi bracelet that was always tied to herwaist. No one knew what sort of use this ruyi had that it was treated on parwith that ebony hairpin. In the next moment, the Divine Empress poured the Black Dragon’s soul into theruyi. It seemed very simple, almost like the sleight of hand of some swindler,but in reality it was one of the world’s most supreme divine abilities. The jade ruyi suddenly came to life, transforming into a small black dragon. That small black dragon lay still in the Divine Empress’s hands. It seemedvery weak, but its eyes burned with fierce resentment as it stared into theDivine Empress’s eyes. “You are a dragon, so your blood is innately condensed. As long as it is notfor too long, ripping your spiritual soul from your animal soul should do youno harm. In addition, if you had not willingly given up your true dragon blood,even I would have no means of taking a wisp of your three wisps of dragon soul,so if you must resent someone, you should first resent yourself.” The Divine Empress looked at the small dragon in her palm and calmly said,“You should know how cruel the consequences are if the spiritual soul does notreturn, so when you go to the Garden of Zhou, you should behave yourself.” On this spring night, the night was as bright and beautiful as it was duringthe day. Under the starlight, the trees seemed to be filled with vitality. TheDivine Empress took her leave from the well. She strolled in a leisurely mannerthrough the lively spring atmosphere.   Not far from her was a carriage. As she approached, the black rhinoceroshitched up to the carriage went down on its knees in humility, or moreaccurately, reverence. At the same time, a pale-faced middle-aged man alsoknelt down. The long river of history still flowed on, and there were still some peoplethat had not died. Their names had not yet disappeared, but they were certainto become some of the most unforgettable sights on that long river. One ofthese names was Zhou Tong. It was an absolute surety that in these tens ofthousands of years that passed, he would still be remembered as one ofhistory’s most ruthless officials and treacherous ministers. Whether it was theextraordinary cruelty of his torture, or the number of ministers he hadexecuted on fraudulent charges, he would place first without a doubt. To both government officials and the common people, Zhou Tong was an enigmaticindividual. Outside of important events like the Grand Examination, he mostlystayed in the secluded and sinister office of the Ministry of Personnel in thesouthern parts of the capital. On his occasional excursion, he would always beguarded by countless experts. He rarely saw others, and even when he met withfellow colleagues in the halls of the Imperial Court, or interrogatedprisoners, face would always be obscured by a black veil. Generally speaking, only women, especially beautiful women, would wear a blackveil. This peculiarity of Zhou Tong’s was the subject of much ridicule. Manypeople thought that because Zhou Tong’s methods were too cruel, his actions tooshameless; he had no face to see his ancestors, no face to see the heavens andthe earth with. Thus he would obscure his face year-round. Of course, thesejeers, or perhaps curses, were only whispered in the dark. They woulddefinitely not land in Zhou Tong’s ears. The people probably could not imagine that Zhou Tong was actually an averagelooking middle-aged man. Only because he spent too much of his time in theprison and always had his face obscured by a veil, his face was rather pale. “Your Majesty, I do not know how to handle Chen Changsheng.” Zhou Tong continued to speak with a low voice, “Considering his connections tothe Li Palace, I am unable to use torture.” The Divine Empress smiled, but said nothing. The entire continent knew that Zhou Tong was the Divine Empress’s most loyaland most insane dog. In the eyes of many, he was certainly her most obedientdog. However, in reality, this was not the case, because Zhou Tong understood dogsvery well. If the master told the dog to stop barking, and the dog stopped barking, itdid not necessarily mean obedience. On the contrary, if the master told the dogto stop barking, but the dog continued to bark because there was somethingoutside the door, then even if the master had to scold it in front of guests,or strike at it, the master would inwardly feel happy, thinking that it wastruly a good dog. This sort of disobedience was true obedience. Zhou Tong knew very well when he should bark and when he should stay silent.He knew when he should leap into a scuffle, and when he should directly tearthrough the throats of Her Majesty’s enemies. The Divine Empress had always been satisfied with his performance. Even thoughhe had committed so much evil and had become an enduring stain on theflourishing world of the Zhou Dynasty, she would never once think about takingthis dog and cooking it in a pot, then feeding it to its victims. That wasbecause she was very pleased that this dog would not be a dog like Xu Shiji whowould never mature. Moreover, she cared not for the assessment of the historybooks, so why should she care for the talk of common people? “What do you think We should know from Chen Changsheng?” The Divine Empress indifferently asked. It was very strange. Even when she ascended to become Empress, she very rarelyreferred to herself using the royal ‘We’. Only before Zhou Tong would she referto herself as such. The ministers of the court had also grown accustomed toreferring to her as the Divine Empress. Zhou Tong was the only one who insistedon addressing her as ‘Your Majesty’. Zhou Tong replied, “Since Your Majesty has allowed him to live up to thispoint, then it must be because Your Majesty wants him to say something.” In this world, only the dead did not speak. The Divine Empress pondered this in silence, then said, “I want to confirmsome things.” Zhou Tong softly said, “If I cannot use torture, then…should I use death?” The Divine Empress laughed at these words, then brightly said, “I once askedMo Yu a question, and now I can ask you the same thing.” Zhou Tong replied, “I will be pleased to answer the Empress.” The Divine Empress asked, “Do you believe that there is anyone in the worldthat is unafraid of death?” Zhou Tong seriously pondered this question for a long time, then finally said,“I do not believe it.” The Divine Empress smiled. “Before I did not believe, but afterwards, Irealized that there really were people that did not fear death.” Not waiting for Zhou Tong to reply, she continued, “A man who does not feardeath, how can he not fear it?” Zhou Tong thought hard but found no answer. He asked, “How can Chen Changshengnot fear death?” “Because he is a real person, true to his heart and true to his own nature.” The Divine Empress placed her hands behind her back and looked in thedirection of the Orthodox Academy. There had been another reason that she hadleft unsaid——that youth had death as a constant companion——she silentlythought, if he was true to his feelings and true to his nature, if ChenChangsheng was able to live past twenty, then would he perhaps really becomethe second Zhou Dufu? </https:>