314 The Key of the Black Coffin

Very mad? That was a must. For such a kind, quiet girl who had eyes like fresh rain over a bare mountainto actually be engaged to such a shameless man, any person would feel that itwas a reckless waste, casting pearls before swine, and they would becomeextremely angry. However, to Chen Changsheng… this was actually a good thing.Because of the battle against the demons, the human world was actually the sameas the Elf race, all caring very much about marriage. There were many youngengaged people like her, and just as she had said before, an engagement was anagreement that was most respected. If there were no special circumstances, itwas very difficult to break—luckily, they were both ill-matched in marriage. This sentence seemed rather weird, but it was very reasonable. Exactly becausetheir partners in marriage were so terrible, they had the motivation and reasonto break the engagement. A problem that seemed very difficult was just solvedin such an easy way. Chen Changsheng immediately felt much more at ease. Hedecided to follow up victory with hot pursuit by also settling the finalquestion. He looked into her eyes and said, “As matters stand, I will also not hide itfrom you anymore. Actually, I…” The black streak seemed far away, close to the horizon, but it would arrive atthe mausoleum before long. The monster tide would bring death. There wasalready very little time that the world had left for them. In the final momentsof life, being suddenly moved at heart was a very sad as well as lucky thing.He prepared to tell her that he was Chen Changsheng. He believed that the entire continent knew his name, that even the far awayland of demi-humans and elves should know of it. Xu Yourong did not know that he was prepared to say his true name. She thoughthe was a disciple of the Snow Mountain Sect and was called Xu Sheng. Seeing howhe was about to speak but suddenly stopped, as well as his slightly nervousappearance, she also began to feel nervous.  She thought he was going to confess. She subconsciously did not want to hear it and mentally prepared herself toturn him down if he said it out loud. It was just that… she did not want to turn him down. If he said he liked her,just exactly what could she do? Her thoughts were slightly messy, and shortlyafterward, she felt very baffled. She clearly devoted herself to cultivation,so why did she think about these trivial matters right before death? Afterward,these baffled thoughts suddenly disappeared, only leaving behind peace. There were many reasons and objectives to becoming a cultivator. Some did soto become strong, some did so to explore even more of the unknown and pursuedspiritual peace, but most cultivators did so because of the two words of lifeand death. To not fear life or death, and as a result, escape from life anddeath. Why? Because between life and death, there were great fears; in thehundreds of years of loneliness, it was possible to sink away forever. However,not long ago, she who was in the years of her youth just had a stroll betweenlife and death. Right now, she was at her most peaceful moment, able to see the faint worldlyaffairs the clearest and able to understand her inner self the most. With apure heart of Dao, brightly lit, she looked at Chen Changsheng and waited forhim to speak. Her expression was calm, but there was an extremely vague smearof bashfulness and happiness swirling in her eyes. The bashfulness was notannoyance, but only peaceful joy, because that was the Dao she pursued andwanted to cultivate. At this moment, she was still weak, but her eyes were extremely delicate andpretty, as well as extremely firm. All of the responsibilities in the world—thehistoric significance of the north and south combining, fighting against thedemons, her senior’s truthful love, her masters’ hopes, the shadow that wasleft by that person—as long as she was with him, all of them would be blownaway by a soft breeze. She did not need to care about anything or answer toanything. Indeed, through their journey in the Garden of Zhou, they had conversed a lot.Most of the times, it was about cultivation, books and natural landscape, andvery little did they talk about the loads on their minds. They did notunderstand it too well, but she was already extremely confident that he was theclose friend she had always searched for, and that he was the companion sheneeded. When she was on the edge of the cliff at the Holy Maiden Peak, she hadsaid to the white crane that no matter if it was a gentleman or an enlightenedmaster, none of them were the ideal partner she wanted to spend her long pathof cultivation with. Right now, she could confirm that the partner she waswilling to spend her long path of cultivation with had already appeared. Yes, this was the Dao she pursued and wanted to cultivate the most: Together.(TN: 一道 can mean both "One path/Dao" and it can also mean "together" or "sideby side".) Underneath the starry sky, advancing together, cultivating together, all theway until the end of life. Yes, the monster tide grew closer and closer, and death also grew closer andcloser. Perhaps life was almost at its end, but only because of this, andexactly because of this, she did not want to deceive her conscience even more. The wutong tree transformed by the longbow grew in the incoming wind by thestone platform. The green leaves swayed softly in the leaves, causing thegloomy light to turn into an even softer light akin to cotton balls, as ifsomeone had lit a candle. Looking at her eyes, Chen Changsheng vaguely understood and opened his mouthslightly, about to speak. Just at this moment, a green leaf suddenly fell off the tip of a branch byitself, slowly landing on his shoulder. It interrupted everything. The reason why the green leaf on the wutong tree fell in the wind naturallywas not because it was autumn, but rather because of the trembling from thestone platform underneath. The trembling stone platform seemed to originate from the far away depths ofthe grassland at first, but actually, it originated from Chen Changsheng’s body. For some unknown reason, his body began to tremble violently. His teethchattered audibly, as if he was a patient who had suffered wind chill. Xu Yourong was slightly alarmed and asked, “What’s happening?” Chen Changsheng could not answer her and used his right hand to quicklyinvestigate the origin of the trembling. He held tightly onto his dagger hilt. The violent trembling originated from the dagger at his waist. He held tightly onto the dagger, but it continued to constantly tremble. Itbecame faster and more frequent, all the way until the extremely simplepatterning on the dagger sheath had turned into blurry lines, unable to be seenclearly. He used more and more strength in his hand, but he was still unable to makethe dagger stop. He was a little disturbed, unable to comprehend what washappening. This was the first time he had met such a situation after Yu Ren had giftedhim the dagger. His spiritual sense landed on the dagger hilt and attempted to regain control.However, he failed. His spiritual sense went deeper across the hilt, arrivingin the space within before finally finding the origin of the trembling. Amidst the drifting bottles of medicine, secret manuals and treasures, a blackmagical artifact moved at high speeds, grinding everything of what it came incontact with into fine powder. As its speed of movement increased, the blackmagical artifact grew hotter and hotter, as well as brighter and brighter,giving off a powerful Qi and radiance in all directions, as if it was about toturn into a sun. This black magical artifact was the Soul Pivot from White Emperor city, and itwas also the core of Zhou Dufu’s mausoleum. At this moment, it seemed to have detected something in the outside world andwent berserk all of a sudden. If Chen Changsheng’s current level of cultivation had been slightly higher andhis spiritual sense slightly stronger, perhaps he could attempt to use his allof his authority over the space to forcefully suppress the berserk Soul Pivot.However, right now, he did not have that sort of power and could not even makeit settle down a little. If he continued to try, no matter how much time therewas, he would not succeed, and this even made it highly possible for the spaceto suffer severely heavy damages. Without any other ideas, he could only give up. Channeling his spiritualsense, he released that black Soul Pivot from inside. With a quaking drone, the black soul pivot appeared on the stone platform. Itgave off great radiance, illuminating every vein of the leaves on the wutongtree. It emitted an unimaginable pressure, causing Xu Yourong and ChenChangsheng to even struggle to breathe. Especially since Xu Yourong had notfully recovered from her injuries, her complexion became even paler and weaker. Fortunately, the Soul Pivot did not stay on the stone platform for too long,and neither did it begin to attack the two of them. Even more fortunately, andincomprehensibly, the Soul Pivot clearly only became so berserk after feelingsomething that was currently approaching the Mausoleum of Zhou, but it did notattempt to break open the green leaves of the wutong tree and unite with it.Instead, it transformed into a ball of light, and shot into the depths of theMausoleum of Zhou. Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong glanced at each other and came to a tacitunderstanding from the looks in their eyes. He carried her on his back, andthey once again entered the tomb in pursuit of the ball of light. In the spacious and gloomy depths of the mausoleum, the huge obsidian coffinstood as quiet as a mountain in the center of the hall. The black Soul Pivot floated in the air before the obsidian coffin and did notmove at all. It gave out a dim light, reminiscent of a life lamp. When Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong went back into the mausoleum, this was thescene they saw. Vaguely, they heard some sounds. The sounds were very faintly discernible andvery remote, as if they originated from within an abyss or the sea of stars. Itwas like the whisperings of a person, and also like a deep dirge. Clearly, the sound that originated from the remote space was extremelyunclear. The music was not continuous, and they could not hear its clear melodyor content. However, they could feel the content that the music wanted toexpress. May the spirit of the deceased return to us. Chen Changsheng looked at the Soul Pivot in front of the obsidian coffin andasked her after staying silent for a while, “Did you hear it?” Xu Yourong gave a soft sound of agreement and said, “It is not ahallucination. It should be some sort of leftover Qi from a formation.” “What exactly has it sensed? I vaguely feel that it is related to the monstertide.” Chen Changsheng asked. Before they had discovered the black Soul Pivot, as well as the time followingits discovery, it was always very quiet. However, it suddenly became soberserk, forcefully leaving Chen Changsheng’s dagger, and flew in front of theblack coffin and gave off some leftover Qi of an old formation. It definitelyhad its special reason. For an isolated object to suddenly undergo change wouldalways be related to external factors. Xu Yourong thought silently and said, “I have always suspected that the SoulWood is in Nanke’s hands. Looks like it’s true, and she is getting closer andcloser to the mausoleum.” Previously, Chen Changsheng found it very odd. The dagger could separate thereal world and the world in the sheath. Instead, this Soul Pivot could feel theQi of the outside world from inside, so what exactly was the connection thatactually allowed it to penetrate the walls of space? Now, hearing her words andalso thinking about the three words ‘artifact, soul, unseparated’ from theNanhua Records of the Daoist Canons, he finally had a reason of cause. The lost piece of Soul Wood was indeed in Nanke’s hands. She brought themonster tide from every direction with her towards the mausoleum, growingcloser and closer until the Soul Pivot to sensed it. ‘Artifact, soul, unseparated’ could be applied to the Soul Pivot, a magicalartifact that could oversee the White Emperor City, which was better known as adivine artifact. It could be imagined how intense the connection between theartifact and soul was. After an unknown about of time, the Soul Pivot finallysensed the return of the Soul Wood, so it naturally had an extremely greatreaction. However, why did the Soul Pivot return before the obsidian coffin andnot fly off?