349 From the Garden of Zhou to the Snowy Plains

The huge umbrella formed from swords covered the sky of the Garden of Zhou. Itblocked the flowing flames that fell from the sky and held up the dimensionalfragments that cracked and fell. The fragments of the sky originally should nothave had any weight, but on the shapeless umbrella surface, they seemed to havean infinite weight. With only a soft bang, Chen Changsheng’s legs were deeplyembedded in the tough rock. Around them, countless tiny cracks formed, and hispants were immediately ripped to countless shreds. In the next moment, his body began to tremble violently. The unimaginableweight and pressure of the sky were directly passed through the ten thousandswords into his body. Every bone in his body seemed to creak, as if they couldbreak at any moment. The terrifying sounds of cracking continued to resound, and his two feetcontinued in breaking open the boulder. He could not endure it anymore, and hisright knee went soft, kneeling down. His knee heavily landed on the boulder,which crushed the rock into countless pieces of gravel and dust. With a muffled rumble from below that was like thunder, a great amount of dustrose into the air, and slowly enveloped the surrounding grassland and the WhiteGrass Path that was no longer as it was before. The entire mausoleum began totremble, and then actually sank by a few inches in an extremely short amount oftime. This was the weight of the sky. Chen Changsheng knelt on one knee on the peak of the mausoleum. Underneath thesky, his complexion became paler and paler, and his expression became more andmore painful. His body that had bathed in the blood of a true dragon could besaid to be tough like steel, so that even Nanke’s Peacock Plume could notpenetrate. However, under the pure and terrifying weight, even though his bodywas like true steel, it was as if it was going to be crushed into scrap metal. Fortunately, it was not the real sky in the end, and only fragments of the skywere ripped off by the storms of energy. Although it was extremely painful andhe was almost directly crushed to the point where his mind would be shattered,he still endured it in the end. His body slowly stopped trembling. The eleven stone pillars in the surroundings of the mausoleum had also trulycalmed down, and there was some sort of Qi that flowed out from the black stonemonoliths. If it were not for the black rock Wang Zhice had left behind,neither he, Xu Yourong, the human cultivators, nor the monsters in the Gardenof Zhou could have managed this. At least there was still a chance of survivingnow. He knelt on the highest point of the mausoleum with his left hand holding theYellow Paper Umbrella, and his right hand holding the dagger that was embeddedin the boulder. He raised his head with great difficulty and gazed into thedistance. He hoped that the chance of surviving had already arrived. The shattered sky itself was very gloomy, and at this moment, it was coveredup by countless swords, so the world of the Garden of Zhou became even darker.The collapse of the world was temporarily stopped, but the wind continued toblow violently on the grassland. He could see many monsters that had alreadyrun to the edge of the grassland, and could also see the burning forest in thedistance. He could vaguely feel Qi leaving at high speeds. Did someone alreadyleave? Afterwards, his line of vision passed through the violent wind and sand andlanded in the distance. He could vaguely see that the girl that was grabbed bythe Great Peng had already left the grassland and disappeared into the mountainranges close to the horizon. You must live. You must live well. He thought quietly in his heart. The gate of the Garden of Zhou may have already opened. The people thatparticipated in the trials were currently leaving, and monsters may haveescaped. However, he could not leave. As soon as he removed the ten thousandswords, the sky would immediately collapse, and both he and the Garden of Zhouwould turn into gray smoke. The whirlwinds on the grassland remained violent. His knee was deeply embeddedin the boulder at the highest point in the mausoleum, and he lowered his headtiredly. He felt that his current situation was just like the famous tragichero in the legends of the Orthodoxy. If the hero on the precipitous mountain path that used all his strength tostop the rolling boulder gave way slightly, he would be squashed by theboulder. He could only expend all his life in the process of resisting againstthe boulder for all of eternity. Chen Changsheng had never thought that he would be in such despairing straits.He did not want to be a tragic hero, and also did not have the thought ofgiving up his life for his principles. He was not that great. It was just thathe wanted to live, and also wished for many people to live. For example, the people he knew and the people he cared for. Zhexiu, if you are still alive, then live. Qi Jian, you also should still bealive. And the elven girl that had just disappeared into the mountain range,and had the same surname as him but a beautiful name… Young lady Chujian, livewell. What should he do next? He had said before to Xu Yourong that he would see.The three words of ‘he would see’ actually also had the meaning that he did notknow what to do, but he really wanted to see whether the change that he waitedfor would occur or not. In the legend of the Orthodoxy, the reason the famous tragic hero spent allhis time and life resisting against the boulder, before turning into a stonesculpture in despair, was that in the endless days, no one came to help him. Noone was willing to help him because he was once very arrogant, and never helpedthe lowly common people. Although Chen Changsheng often made people speechless, it did not make anyperson feel that he was arrogant. Confidence and arrogance were never synonyms,and he was very willing to help other people, such as the human cultivatorsthat currently fled towards the outside world. A just cause always receives abundant support. Great people of the Orthodoxy, like archbishop Mei Lisha, and experts like theSolitary Drunk Under the Moon, Zhu Luo, were all outside the Garden of Zhou. Ifhe could last a little longer, these people would definitely come and save him. That was how Chen Changsheng thought. But until when would he have to hold on? How much longer did he have to endure? The terrifying weight of the sky caused pain to every point in his body. Withthe flow of time, his right hand which held up the umbrella became heavier andheavier, until his arm slowly became numb, as if it was crippled. After an unknown amount of time, from the dagger that was embedded in theboulder at the peak of the mausoleum, the Black Dragon’s voice resounded, “Areyou… still well?” Chen Changsheng lowered his head and asked, “Are you still well?” He cared more about how it was currently. Before, in order to battle againstthe Golden-winged Great Peng, the spiritual soul of the Black Dragon had awokenin the lake water outside his Ethereal Palace, and then entered the dagger.Afterwards, there was actually no time for them to communicate at all. The Black Dragon stayed silent for a while and then said, “Still well.” Chen Changsheng said, “I’m still well too. I… still can last a little longer.” The Black Dragon said, “I understand it. This is the so-called play on wordsin your human language, but do you know, compared to the dragon language, thistype of technique, or level of complexity, is just so outrageously pitiable.”  (TL: Pun lost in translation) Chen Changsheng said tiredly, “Can we talk about other things?” The Black Dragon said, “Yes, you still don’t seem to know something. I amthinking whether I should tell you or not…” Chen Changsheng said, “Whatever.” The Black Dragon’s voice became slightly cautious. “You… won’t die?” “No.” Chen Changsheng directly answered without even thinking. The Black Dragon stayed silent for a very long time, and said, “Looks like youreally will die.” Chen Changsheng was slightly helpless and said, “Why do you say so? I alreadysaid I won’t die.” The Black Dragon said, “Just now, you replied too quickly… you aren’t mindful.” Chen Changsheng felt disinclined to continue to pay any attention to it, buthe also felt that something was wrong. The Black Dragon could speak the humantongue. This did not cause him any surprise, but it was just that its voice wassoft, like a girl’s…  He did not ask, because at that moment, he truly did feel very tired, veryexhausted and very pained. He almost… could not endure it anymore. This was the weight of the sky. How long could mortals hold it up for? He did not sweat, but he felt that all the muscles in his body had alreadyripped apart, and was about to lose strength. His mind had become ratherdistracted, and his true essence was already completely consumed. Even hisvision became blurry. The ten thousand swords became silent together, and he also became silent. Heeven entered a state of forgetfulness, forgetting everything.  After an unknown amount of time, the whistling wind slowly weakened, and thepressure brought on by the violent streams of energy slowly disappeared. Theweight that pressed on the Yellow Paper Umbrella also slowly disappeared. Thesky became peaceful. Chen Changsheng opened his eyes. He was extremely tired, and he looked aroundat his surroundings. At that moment, a snowflake fell, and landed on the Yellow Paper Umbrella.Such a soft flake of snow actually caused a huge amount of pain on his wrist.He almost could not hold onto the umbrella anymore. The Garden of Zhou… wassnowing? No. This was not the Garden of Zhou. This was a plain of snow. He looked into the distance, and only vaguely saw a grand city under theshadow in the sky. Where was this? He was very confused and did not know what had happened. Shockand exhaustion stole his mobility, and he remained in the position he was inbefore—he knelt on one knee in the snow with the dagger in his left hand andthe Yellow Paper Umbrella held up in the right hand. The sky there did not break. The plain of snow was very pretty, and heobviously seemed rather ridiculous in such a position. With the sound of steps, a person walked to his side and gave a softexpression of surprise. He said, “There’s a sword.” Afterwards, the person extended his hand, and grabbed the Yellow PaperUmbrella from Chen Changsheng’s hands.