246 Outside the Garden of Zhou, a Storm Comes Part Two

So you are Chen Changsheng? He is Chen Changsheng? Who is Chen Changsheng?From the Ivy Festival, or to be more precise, from the time that the news ofhis engagement with Xu Yourong spread to the entire continent, these were thethree phrases that Chen Changsheng had heard the most often. As time passed,this situation had not improved one bit. Contrarily, as his name became moreand more famous, there were times where he was not sure who he was. The curiosity of humans was not too different from a cat’s. Not even theDivine Empress could block up the mouths of all the people in the world. Eversince he had begun to hear those comments and see those gazes filled withnervousness and caution, he had slowly become silent and numb to them. Only nowhe was unable to treat this as he had done before, because the man who hadasked the question was Zhu Luo, the Solitary Drunk Under the Moon. He was apowerful personage that even the Li Palace had to treat with extreme courtesy. He took several steps forward and bowed to that distant grass hut, dignifiedand orderly. The peace and quiet gradually began to grow restless. Many pairs of eyes fellupon his body. Chen Changsheng’s expression was calm, but how could he be calm? When hethought about that scene in Wenshui City, or how on the road some people wouldflatter him while others would give him a cool eye, he felt extremely helpless.He began to have the feeling that being famous really was not that fortunateafter all. How could Xu Yourong have borne this for so many years? Compared to liveliness of the capital and Wenshui City, the crowd outside theforest was much faster in calming down. Zhu Luo was asking a question to ChenChangsheng, who would dare to disturb them? The Eight Storms of the Cardinal Directions stood at the peak of humanexperts. In terms of strength, they were not necessarily below the Five Saints.Although the opening of the Garden of Zhou was very important, it was enoughfor just Zhu Luo to be overseeing it. With one of the world’s most powerfulexperts here, unless the Demon Lord or Black Robe personally came, there wouldbe no problems. Zhu Luo did not look at Chen Changsheng. Instead, he looked at the snowy peak.In the twilight, his long hair that fell to his shoulders seemed to blaze withthat snowy peak. It made him give off an especially wild feeling. “Has Mei Lisha gone senile? He actually let a child like you become Principalof the Orthodox Academy.” Hearing these words, it became even more quiet. Many people turned towardsChen Changsheng, their eyes showing all sort of expressions. Some had pity, butnaturally there was also scorn and pleasure in his misery. Even though he had performed that great merit of summoning the starlight inthe Mausoleum of Books, in the end, he was only fifteen. To become thePrincipal of the Orthodox Academy at such an age, this decision had beendiscussed and censured all across the world. It was just nobody dared to opposethe Pope’s decision in public Even though Zhu Luo was a member of the Eight Storms, not even he would defythe Pope’s will in public. So although he said Mei Lisha, everyone knew who hewas really talking about. Mei Lisha was the archbishop of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education and oneof the Six Prefects of the Orthodoxy. His position had a similar status to thatof Zhu Luo’s. Zhu Luo’s taunting words were not necessarily provoking theOrthodoxy, nor was it bullying a weak child. Priest Xin walked over to Chen Changsheng and whispered a few sentences intohis ear. Only then did Chen Changsheng know that as master of the Tianliang’ssecond most powerful family, he had built a very close relationship with theimperial family of Chen over the past several hundred years. Because the DivineEmpress had ascended to the throne and suppressed the imperial family, thispeerless expert’s relationships took a turn for the worse and his relationshipwith the Li Palace became cold. On the other hand, he was very close with theOrthodoxy’s conservative faction which Mei Lisha represented, and he was oldfriends with Mei Lisha. Reasonably, he should have been looking after ChenChangsheng. Why did this supreme expert say these words which made things difficult forChen Changsheng? Chen Changsheng seriously pondered this question, then he realized that ZhuLuo was jeering at the archbishop, not him. Regardless of his age, status, orstrength, he was obviously a child in Zhu Luo’s eyes. To the world, the Orthodox Academy had fallen into ruin long ago. ChenChangsheng was its principal in name only. Perhaps they did not know that theacademy, deep within the Hundred Flowers Lane, only had three students?However, to a worthy senior like Zhu Luo, this was a far cry from the OrthodoxAcademy of old. Under the leadership of that principal, the Orthodox Academy ofthe past could be considered to have limitless potential. Not even the currentMount Li Sword Sect could compare. Seeing that Chen Changsheng had actuallybeen made the principal of this academy, Zhu Luo naturally felt somewhatsorrowful or even uneasy. For such a powerful person as he, not even he couldimagined that the words he had said without thinking would place such greatpressure on Chen Changsheng, and such great expectation in the minds of thespectators. The crowd was silent as they looked at Chen Changsheng, waiting for his answerto Zhu Luo’s question. Some were scornful, some took pity on him, but very fewpeople were worried about him. Just at this moment, Chen Changsheng recalledthe words that the Pope had said to him during the Grand Examination’sannouncement of the ranking——lower your head, so that I might crown you. Upon which he made a slight bow, then lowered his head. He paid his respects once more to Zhu Luo, not saying anything, then returnedto the carriage. What was this? Was it disregard? The scene once again grew restless. They allthought that Chen Changsheng was about to meet with tragedy for offending ZhuLuo. Everyone knew that amongst the continent’s peak experts, Zhu Luo’stemperament was the harshest. How would he discipline Chen Changsheng? Against all their expectations, Zhu Luo was not angry, nor did he sayanything. Using two of his fingers, he brought up a flask of wine to his lipsand took a drink, then he looked up in silence at the gradually emerging stars. The words that he had said were for the Li Palace, for Mei Lisha, and also forthe Pope. He wanted to make his dissatisfaction known, but none of his wordshad ever been directed at Chen Changsheng. Naturally, Chen Changsheng did not need to answer. To not answer turned out to be the best answer. Priest Xin wiped the sweat off his forehead, then softly asked ChenChangsheng, “Enter the city to rest?” Chen Changsheng shook his head. “I won’t enter Hanqiu City. Just waiting inthe carriage is fine.” The seemingly endless night tranquilly passed. With the coming of the dawn,people emerged one after another from the official road. Even more peoplehurried over from Hanqiu City. Under the protection of several dozen priests, Mei Lisha arrived, at whichpoint Chen Changsheng realized that this venerable elder was supervising theopening of the Garden of Zhou. However, he wondered when Mei Lisha had arrived,and why did he not travel together with them? The cultivators of the varioussects and schools all had different reactions when seeing Mei Lisha. Some ofthem thought back to the words that Zhu Luo had said last night andsubconsciously turned towards that grass hut. The light spring wind breezed through the grass hut, ruffling Zhu Luo’ssleeve. Zhu Luo’s eyes were closed, his body leaning against the fence. Itseemed like he had drunk himself into intoxication and he was unwilling toawaken. Mei Lisha looked over and he could only smile and shake his head. Afterwards,he indicated that the ceremony to enter the garden should begin. Every ten years, the Garden of Zhou would open once. It would remain open forone hundred days. After these one hundred days had passed, everyone had toexit, or else risk being torn to pieces by the changes and chaos occurring inthe Garden of Zhou. This was an iron law that had been verified many times inthe past. The Garden of Zhou possibly contained Zhou Dufu’s legacy. It wouldalso contain the legacy of all those experts that had been defeated by ZhouDufu. This was a truth that had already been affirmed. To enter the Garden of Zhou could be said to be going on an adventure, and itcould also be called a trial by fire. For this reason, the rules which humanityestablished for the Garden of Zhou were very simple. No matter who was the onethat picked up a treasure or technique in the Garden of Zhou, that item wouldbelong to the sect or school of whichever cultivator managed to successfullytake it out of the Garden of Zhou. Stealing was permitted in the Garden ofZhou, and any other methods except killing were allowed. In the past, there were people that asked, were these rules not too cruel andviolent? The Pavilion of Divination, which had been entrusted by the Saintswith devising these rules, gave the following explanation: if bitter encountersand the spilling of blood could not be had in the Garden of Zhou, then in thefuture, when confronting those callous and murder-loving Demon experts, theywould still die. Why squander the resources? If humanity wanted to continueexisting on this continent, then they must be a little heartless to the youngergeneration, which would bear such heavy responsibility. As the priest explaining the rules delivered a solemn warning to thecultivators entering the Garden of Zhou, even more priests registered the namesof the cultivators in books and distributed cloth bags. In these cloth bagswere two items: a flowing water bottle to keep track of time and a gray string. There were some people that did not understand why the flowing water bottlewas necessary to keep track of time. Even if the sun and the stars in theGarden of Zhou were impossible to use for calculating the true date, they werenonetheless Ethereal Opening cultivators that would never count the days wrong.As for the gray string, everyone was very clear on its use. If one encounteredan unconquerable danger in the Garden of Zhou, they found their harvest to besatisfactory, or no longer wanted to continue their exploration; they onlyneeded to light that gray string and they would be automatically sent to theGarden of Zhou’s gate. Zhu Luo would stand guard outside the Garden of Zhou — the human world had nomoonlight. He could only drink alone under the starlight. Regardless of howdead drunk he was, as long as people could see him, they felt safe. While Chen Changsheng listened to the priest explain the rules and took thebag that Priest Xin had gave him, his mind was elsewhere. His eyes somewhatnervously moved about the crowd. The senior from Holy Maiden Peak as well as Ye Xiaolan had journeyed togetherwith him. Now, the two women stood together with several other girls. They wereprobably their fellow disciples from Holy Maiden Peak. He very seriously lookedaround very seriously, but he did not find anyone that looked like her —— Hehad never met her before, but he heard that she was extremely beautiful. Heshould have been able to tell who she was at a glance. Had Xu Yourong come or not? If she had come, then where was she? The morning light gradually flourished, yet the fog did not disperse. In thatspace between the forest and mountains, the fog only grew thicker. The light ofthe morning sun was dispersed in that fog, transforming into all sorts ofstrange lines. Suddenly, a cry of alarm arose from the crowd. As the crowd looked into the fog, they saw a small bridge faintly come intobeing. Under bridge was flowing water. They saw a gallery, and at the corner ofthis gallery sat an old plumtree. This quiet and secluded beauty seemed to beone side of a garden. Was this the Garden of Zhou? This quiet garden amidst the fog seemed to be both fake and real at the sametime. It was like a mirage. The instance the Garden of Zhou appeared, Zhu Luo opened his eyes. He turned towards the quiet garden within the mountains, and a complex swirlof emotions bubbled up in his eyes as he began to think about many things. His hand rested on the fence, constantly patting it. Mei Lisha also opened his eyes. Slowly, he said, “Go, and do not loseyourselves in greed and forget the time.”