495 Leftover Tea Shatters the Crimson Gown

A fiendish intent emerged from the depths of the space between her eyebrows. An incomparably terrifying and oppressive force appeared in the silent HundredHerb Garden. Chen Changsheng blankly stared at her face, feeling that fiendish intentemanating from her brow and the sea of oppressive might around him. Hesubconsciously ceased his struggles, vaguely guessing that something must haveoccurred. She was looking at his eyes. Could it be that the problem was within his eyes? No, the eyes were the window to the soul. Through his eyes, she was seeing his sea of consciousness. She couldn't see what he was thinking, but she could keenly sense thatspiritual sense which was not at all his own. This strand of spiritual sense was extremely indistinct, yet extraordinarilytenacious. Moreover, it was extremely cunning, hiding itself in the deepestdepths of Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness, quietly sitting on the seabedwith those stones formed from subconscious thought and extraordinarily hard todifferentiate from its surroundings. Putting aside Chen Changsheng, if she hadnot suddenly been taken by the urge to examine Chen Changsheng, to search hisface and eyes for something and thus prove or reject her suspicions…if she hadnot examined with such focus and care, she would also have failed to discoverthat extremely thin strand of spiritual sense. "Who is so audacious as to dare move against him?" As she stared at the spiritual sense in the depths of Chen Changsheng's sea ofconsciousness, she gave a cold snort. With this cold snort, a strand of her spiritual sense entered ChenChangsheng's sea of consciousness. Of course, this was just an extremely tinyportion of her complete spiritual sense. With the strength of her spiritualsense, the moment it entered Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness, it mightcause his head to explode. Even though it was only a tiny portion, the moment her spiritual senseentered, Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness was immediately engulfed in araging tempest. Countless fierce and mighty waves constantly rose up from thesea and it frothed without end. Even the deepest depths of the sea felt theeffects of the storm. That strand of spiritual sense in Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness hadkept itself hidden for a long time, but it finally found it impossible to keepup the act. Accompanied by a mighty surge from the depths of the sea, theentirety of the sea instantly turned red. An incredibly terrifying bloody scent inundated the world. Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness seemed about to become a sea of blood. In the moment after revealing itself, this concealed strand of spiritual sensewas actually so powerful. One could imagine that if it had not been discovered,if the owner of this spiritual sense wished to assassinate Chen Changsheng oneday, it would be an incredibly easy affair! Even now, this strand of spiritual sense was still seeking to kill ChenChangsheng. Chen Changsheng still knew nothing. His sea of consciousness was alreadyengulfed in countless storms, the blood beneath the fierce storms graduallycreeping towards the horizon. But he was aware of none of this. He only feltsomewhat absent-minded. Fortunately, she sat across from him. Ultimately, both Chen Changsheng andthat person were her affairs to handle. She would not permit another to lay ahand on him, even if that person acting against Chen Changsheng was that dogshe had raised herself. Yes, the moment that strand of spiritual sense rose up from the seabed, sheknew just who had planted it within Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness.That scent of blood was too distinct, too pungent. She extended her hand and dipped it into a cup of tea. In his dazed state, Chen Changsheng felt he had gone back to the past. At thattime, she had also dipped her hand in tea to write the word 'ice' on the table,helping him to find New North Bridge and thus the Black Dragon. But this time, she was not writing a word. With a flick of her finger, a drop of tea fell in between Chen Changsheng'seyebrows. With a hiss, the drop of tea turned into a puff of steam and vanished. Chen Changsheng only felt a buzz in his sea of consciousness and then fainted. …… …… The instant that drop of tea fell between Chen Changsheng's eyebrows, in thatmansion within the principal alley of the Northern Military Department, a cupof tea fell to the ground and shattered. Zhou Tong's hands stiffened in the air and his complexion turned abnormallypale. It was as if he had caught some serious illness in an extremely briefspan of time. Then his fingers began to shudder, his entire body began toshudder. Because of this shuddering, that crimson official's gown began totwist, seeming extremely similar to a sea of blood being swept over by the wind. Just a moment ago, he had steeped a cup of fine black tea and left it to situntil it reached the appropriate temperature. He had just been ready to bringit up to his mouth and take a sip when an intense pain abruptly running throughhis sea of consciousness took him by surprise. That pain was so real that it was like someone had stabbed into the depths ofhis brain with a rusty knife. Even he found it impossible to bear this sort ofpain. His fingers had released, causing the teacup to plummet to the ground. And it was only he who had interacted with pain for half a lifetime that wouldbe able to sit down on a chair. Although his face was pale and his entire bodywas shuddering as if he had suffered some terrible illness, he had not fallenunconscious. The moment that pain bloomed in his sea of consciousness, Zhou Tong knew thatsomething had happened. That day in the courtyard where crabapples blossomed, he had borrowed thesinister pressure of Zhou Prison and didn't hesitate to consume his heartbloodso that he could use a technique to conceal a strand of spiritual sense in ChenChangsheng's sea of consciousness. The Great Crimson Gown was worthy of being called the strangest of all mentalattack techniques. He had managed to commit this deed silently. Neither ChenChangsheng nor Tang Thirty-Six had been able to sense it. However, even the strongest mental attack ultimately had certain limits. ZhouTong's Great Crimson Gown could not let him know what was going on in ChenChangsheng's sea of consciousness at every moment. It was more like a spy,concealed in the grass behind enemy lines. It would record everything it saw,then when Zhou Tong called it back in the future, he would be able to knoweverything and everyone Chen Changsheng had met with in the past few days. Of course, that strand of spiritual sense that was similar to a ranger, oncertain special occasions, could also infiltrate the enemy camp and launch asuicidal attack against the general. This was also a technique Zhou Tong had prepared beforehand. He wished tocontrol Chen Changsheng's life and death with a single thought. Yet against his expectations, his strand of spiritual sense had actually beendiscovered and then utterly annihilated! The annihilation of the spiritual sense had caused a backlash on his sea ofconsciousness, causing him to suffer extremely harsh injuries. Who? Who had been able to discover that strand of spiritual sense he hadhidden in the depths of Chen Changsheng's sea of consciousness? And just whopossessed such divine power to be able to so easily shatter his Great CrimsonGown? Zhou Tong's complexion was deathly pale and his eyes streaked with blood.Shocked and perplexed, he thought with a chill: could it be the Pope? There were very few people in the world that could see through the secrets ofhis Great Crimson Gown. There were only a scant few in the capital, and it wasonly right that the Pope was among them. It was just that he had specificallymade arrangements to hide his technique from the Pope, so how could the Popehave seen through it? …… …… Chen Changsheng woke up and realized that he had been sleeping on the stonetable. He raised his head and saw that the middle-aged woman had already departed.The teapot and tea cups had also vanished without a trace, as had the BlackGoat. The dark forest of the Hundred Herb Garden was still beautiful andsecluded, the lively cries of insects rising up from every direction. This place was as beautiful as a dreamland, and he felt that he really hadjust been dreaming a moment ago. He had not met that middle-aged woman by the pool, not followed her to theHundred Herb Garden, and had not sat across from her and drunk tea. He inadvertently rubbed the space between his eyebrows and realized that thespot was a little moist and cold to the touch. He withdrew his finger and glanced at it, but it was impossible to tell ifthat moisture really was that drop of tea. But that moist and cool feeling felt particularly good. Through his brow, itseeped into his mind, making him feel incomparably fresh and cool. For some reason, he felt much more relaxed, and also much more clear-headed.It was as if something had washed him from the inside out, leaving not a speckof filth behind. …… …… As he made his way back to the Orthodox Academy from the Hundred Herb Garden,Chen Changsheng recalled what had just happened. Somewhat uneasy, he beganIntrospective Meditation under the great banyan tree, yet found nothingstrange. His Ethereal Palace, sea of consciousness, and meridians were all asusual. Those severed meridians were still blocked up, his true essence had notbeen consumed, his spiritual sense was no stronger. But…it seemed that therewas now an extra sort of Qi. If his spiritual sense could once be described as calm as water and heavy as amountain, it could now be said to have been washed by a spring rain. Thesurface of the water seemed much more flexible and the mountain seemed to havegrown moister. Was this change brought about by that single drop of tea? Chen Changsheng didnot know nor did he understand. He sat by the lake in a stupor for quite sometime before finally getting up. Upon returning to the house, he went as usual to Zhexiu's room. Insertingneedles into the neck, sending a light pulse of true essence, helping themedicine spread—these were his methods of treating illnesses. After so many days of treatment, coupled with the medicines requested from theLi Palace or stolen from the Hundred Herb Garden, Zhexiu's condition hadgreatly improved. Many days ago, he needed some support to walk a few steps.However, he still spent long hours on the bed, not even turning over unless itwas absolutely necessary. Xuanyuan Po had once indicated his confusion overthis, but only Chen Changsheng knew the reason for it. Zhexiu's dark period in Zhou Prison had left far too many wounds on his body.Those wounds seemed to have gradually recovered on the surface, but the painstill remained within his body. Injury was pain, and the phrase 'pain from injury' was impossible to separate.If Zhexiu moved, he would be afflicted by a horrifying pain, so much so thateven this wolf youth famed for his willpower found it better to liemotionlessly on his bed in such a good-for-nothing manner. (TN: 'pain from injury' is a single phrase in Chinese, 伤痛. 伤 means injury and痛 means pain.) Chen Changsheng knew how much pain Zhexiu was in, so he didn't believe thatZhexiu was a good-for-nothing. On the contrary, every time he saw Zhexiu'sexpressionless face, he would always sigh in admiration at Zhexiu's ability toendure until now without a single tear. "After your meridians are repaired, we can invite the priests of the ThirteenDivisions of Radiant Green to come and use the Sacred Light technique." Chen Changsheng said somewhat consolingly as he removed the needles fromZhexiu's body. Suddenly, his fingers stopped. At this time, his thumb and forefinger wereresting on the final needle in Zhexiu's neck. He was keenly aware that below this needle was a meridian important to bothhuman and demi-human, reaching from the Ethereal Palace directly to the loweredge of the sea of consciousness. When Zhexiu was imprisoned in Zhou Prison, the first Zhou Tong did was usesome secret method to sever this meridian and cripple Zhexiu's cultivation. That meridian was far too important and far too sensitive. Let alone touchingit, even gently brushing against it with the spiritual sense would make someoneuncomfortable. If it were actually touched, that sort of pain…Chen Changshengcould only imagine it. Of all the people he knew, only Zhexiu had endured it,so whenever he placed a needle here, he would always act with particular careand precaution.