457 Two Perspectives

In the Great Zhou, if Mo Yu wanted something from someone, even if it wereone's entire family property, much less a sword, there would be innumerablepeople that would be delighted to offer it up to her with both hands and wouldeven think of it as the greatest honor. Although Chen Changsheng's current status was also extraordinary, if he wereable to use his slip of the tongue to take this secret relationship of theirsand parlay it into a friendship, it would assuredly be a good thing. This was like pushing a boat with the current, exceptionally easy and alsovery natural. No one would reject it. Chen Changsheng did not reject it, but he also did not immediately agree. Hediligently pondered this question, then he gazed into Mo Yu's eyes and asked,"Why?" Mo Yu was stunned. It was beyond her imagination that she, who very seldomasked things of others, would actually receive this sort of answer. She would naturally not reply to Chen Changsheng's question. With a sneer, sheturned and headed out the window, disappearing into the forest. Chen Changsheng gazed at her faintly discernible figure in the dark forest,rather confused about why her mood had so abruptly changed. He had previously confirmed that the Yue Maiden Sword truly wasn't on thelist, but…it was his. If you ask me for it, is it not okay for me to ask for areason? To be more straightforward, is it not okay if I don't want to give yousomething of mine? The villagers of Xining Village were so simple, Senior YuRen was so simple; why were these people of the capital so inexplicable? He decided to no longer waste any more time thinking about these things whichwere many times more complex than the Daoist Canon. He closed his eyes andresumed his attempts to meditate. Perhaps it was because Mo Yu had left too quickly, not having any time toleave too much of her perfume behind, but he was able to very quickly stabilizehis mind. He quickly perceived his Fated Star and began to absorb starlight forPurification. Simultaneously, he took an extremely fine strand of his spiritualsense from his sea of consciousness and had it enter the sheath. With somedifficulty, he once more traversed the now-familiar path through the ocean ofharsh sword intent. He once again arrived at the other shore and saw theillusion of the black monolith. After his arduous attempts over the past fewdays, his spiritual sense was already at the point where it would not instantlyexplode upon touching the black monolith, and it could even penetrate a littledeeper. Especially tonight, this strand of spiritual sense completely enteredinto the illusory black monolith and it could even faintly make out a cliff! That cliff was on the verge of crumbling away, but with effort, one could tellthat the peak of this cliff should have been formed from smooth ashen stone,only it was now scored with innumerable cracks. The trees had all beendestroyed, leaving behind only a few crooked pines whose roots had extendeddeep into the cliff face, allowing them to stubbornly persist. Moreover,distant from that cliff, he could see countless small lakes like mirrors, whichseemed even more familiar to his eyes. Was this Sunset Valley? And weren't those small lakes the wetlands of thePlains of the Unsetting Sun, the place where he had emerged from after goingthrough the bottom of the lake on the other side of that mountain? Then thiswas really the present-day Garden of Zhou? She…was she still inside? Hisspiritual sense had already dived too deep into the illusory black monolith andwas bearing too great of a crushing force. Let alone diving deeper to searchthe Garden of Zhou, he couldn't even hold on for another second. Just by gazingfrom afar, just by thinking, his spiritual sense turned into a wisp of smokeand then vanished without a trace. Chen Changsheng opened his eyes and awoke. It was still deep in the night and the sky outside his window was awash withstars. Under the starlight, the forest of the Orthodox Academy seemed very muchlike a lush and verdant field of grass. Just like those weeds of the Plains of the Unsetting Sun that were taller thana man. Chen Changsheng very naturally began to think of those days when he journeyedtogether with her through those plains, of how they entrusted their lives toeach other in that snowy temple, of how the blood had mixed with water in theMausoleum of Zhou, of that conversation at the end of the divine path. If Nankehad not used the Soul Pivot to control the newborn Golden-winged Great Peng, tocompel the monster tide to surround the Mausoleum of Zhou, perhaps he and shewould already have begun… To confide their deepest feelings to each other? Was this a phrase? He wasn'ttoo sure. It was very much a strange and alien emotion that he had nevertouched on before. That was a very sweet sort of emotion, and yet it also madeone afraid, uneasy, but this made one yearn for it. Most importantly, thesorrow and joy elicited by this emotion was so intense that it at times seemedmore important than all else. He had been learning the Daoist Canon ever since he was a child, and uponlearning at the age of ten that he did not have much longer in this world, hebegan to even more severely control his emotions, preventing both happiness andsadness. And yet when they journeyed through the plains with her on his back,when they sat in front of the stone door at the end of the divine path withtheir shoulders touching, or when he was thinking about her now, he foundhimself unable, and also unwilling, to control this sort of emotion. Because hewas fond of the beauty of those moments and confirmed now that he still longedfor them… Then, just where are you? Xu Yourong walked along a cliff. Her appearance was like a painting: a tinge of childishness, a movingprettiness, a solemn holiness. Yes, this was a rhyme, because her beauty was absolutely sublime. Besides withan ethereal rhyme, it was very difficult to use real things to describe it. Thenight wind brushed her sleeve and her white garments drifted on the breeze. Asshe slowly walked, her footsteps seemed to possess their own imposing air. Yetupon careful examination, it would perhaps be possible to see in her limpideyes a faint sorrow. A young lady not yet sixteen should be enjoying her youth; just why was she insuch sorrow? Because news had come once more to Holy Maiden Peak that no one knew who thatSnow Mountain Sect disciple was. Even the distant Snow Mountain Sect in thenorthwest was unwilling to admit that it had a disciple called Xu Sheng.  Perhaps you snuck into the Garden of Zhou, perhaps you were a secret sectdisciple, perhaps you had some secrets, but none of that is important. Only,were you really called Xu Sheng? Did you really just die like this? Upon departing from the Garden of Zhou, because her wounds were so serious,she had secluded herself in the back mountain of Holy Maiden Peak torecuperate. She no longer went out every day to appreciate the snow, to listento the rain, or to pluck herbs—only rested, read, and thought. She thought of her experiences in the Garden of Zhou, the life and death inthe plains, and that man. She had originally resolved herself to consecrate her life to the Great Daowithin the books, but she had never anticipated that she would really encounteran incident in her life that would make her heart throb for the first time. Butthat throbbing of the heart had also swiftly passed away with the wind. Thiswas a dull grief nigh-impossible to describe with words, a deeply ingrainedmemory that she had no one to tell. She was keenly aware that perhaps thismemory would forever accompany her in the future endless years of cultivation.And only she knew that this would ultimately become a corner of her spiritualworld that no one else would be able to access. That was a world which she temporarily did not want to take leave of, so shenaturally cared little for the affairs outside this world. Su Li, LiangWangsun, Painted Armor Xiao Zhang, Wang Po, Zhu Luo, Guan Xingke…that storm inXunyang City had shaken the entire continent, but it was unable to make herraise her slightly lowered eyelids. Only her teacher the Holy Maiden and ChenChangsheng, these two names, could cause her to be attentive for a few moments. But there were people that she had to care about and which she truly did careabout. The internal strife of Mount Li, the revolt planned by Xiao Songgong and theother two elders, Qiushan Jun being heavily injured on the verge of death—thesepieces of news had long since been spread to the entire south. When her injuries had gradually recovered and she emerged from the backmountains of Holy Maiden Peak, she heard this news and knew that she had to paya visit. Yes, she was walking along a cliff.