498 A String of Stone Pearls

Chen Changsheng walked through the wetlands on the outskirts of the plain. Heglimpsed that island of reeds and then went to that cave. In the depths of thatcave, he saw the bones of that elder from the Setting Sun Sect, already pickedclean by the monsters. Then he went to Sunset Valley, slowly making his way along the mountain pathof white stone, arriving by a wutong tree. He didn't know he wanted to come to this wutong tree, he had just beenfollowing a feeling. But this place also had no people. There was no other person in the Garden of Zhou. Not a single one. Ultimately, he returned to the front of the Mausoleum of Zhou. The colossalmausoleum stood between heaven and earth, still insufferably arrogant as ever.The Heavenly Tome Monoliths arranged around the mausoleum were no longer asberserk and terrifying as they had been on that day and now seemed extremelycalm. The lines on their surface, perhaps because the sand blown by the windover these past days had filled them up or because they had been grinded away,had already disappeared, as if they had returned to their initial forms asstone pillars. The black monolith was just like the rest, its surface smooth. Chen Changsheng placed his hand on its surface. From the plain behind him, aburst of low howls came from the distance. This was a sending off and also an expression of unease and imploration. They were sending off the Garden of Zhou's new owner, uneasy that he might notcome back, imploring him that in his grace, he might descend once more asquickly as possible. …… …… There was darkness, and then light. Chen Changsheng opened his eyes. He realized that he was still in his room,still by his window. Nothing had changed from before. It was just that the time had already reached high noon. The sun hung up highin the azure sky. No matter how hard the trees of the Orthodox Academy workedto provide shade, it was impossible for them to prevent the descent of thosescorching rays of light. The light that he saw was sunlight. Then he noticed that a string of stone pearls had appeared on his wrist. In every aspect, these pearls seemed to have been made from the most ordinarystone. Their surfaces were unadorned, and they emitted no Qi. Moreover, theirsurfaces could not even be described as particularly smooth. He didn't know that when he was confronting Zhu Luo's attack in Xunyang City,this string of stone pearls had appeared on his wrist. These stone pearls were the Heavenly Tome Monoliths transformed. Because there were eleven pearls in all, ten of them gray and one of themblack. In the past, Zhou Dufu might have taken away twelve Heavenly Tome Monolithsfrom the Mausoleum of Books. Later on, when he and she saw them in theMausoleum of Zhou, there were only ten monoliths and one broken monolith base. It was precisely because one Heavenly Tome Monolith was missing, and he hadtaken away the Sword Pool that had served as substitute for this Heavenly TomeMonolith, that a problem had occurred with the formation around the Mausoleumof Zhou. It was only at that point that he realized he had a black stone withhim. That black stone he had obtained from Lingyan Pavilion was actually also aHeavenly Tome Monolith. That black stone that had come from Wang Zhice had transformed into a HeavenlyTome Monolith, allowing the formation of Heavenly Tome Monoliths around theMausoleum of Zhou to restabilize. He had originally thought that this blackstone was a Heavenly Tome Monolith that Wang Zhice had carried out of theGarden of Zhou, but later on after leaving the Garden of Zhou and recalling thecontents of the notebook he had found in Lingyan Pavilion, he felt that hisconjectures might not have been accurate. Regardless of where those two Heavenly Tome Monoliths had gone, the string ofstone pearls on his wrist were Heavenly Tome Monoliths. Of course, it wasn't merely because of these eleven stone pearls, ten weregray and one was black, just so happening to conform to the number of HeavenlyTome Monoliths around the Mausoleum of Zhou. He felt this way mainly because hecould sense something from that black stone. He could clearly sense that the Garden of Zhou was within the black stone. This sentence was not completely correct. It would be better to say that theblack stone was the new gate to the Garden of Zhou and the key to open theGarden of Zhou was his spiritual sense. He subconsciously raised his hand, taking advantage of the sunlight outsidethe window to carefully examine the string of stone pearls. Bright rays of light peeked through the chinks of the stone pearls,fluctuating between all sorts of angles. In certain tiny places, there seemedto be rainbows within. It was only at this point that he finally realized what had occurred. Those objects of incomparable divinity, the source of all Daos, the HeavenlyTome Monoliths, were currently being worn on his hand. And there were eleven of them. The sunlight illuminated the stone pearls and shot into his eyes, dazzling himand giving a dreamlike impression. At this moment, the door to his room was pushed open. He turned his head and saw Tang Thirty-Six and Xuanyuan Po. "Just where did that idiot go?" "How would I know…Princess Teacher Luoluo even wanted to me to keep an eye onhim, but then he went and ran off without even saying anything. How can I keepan eye on him?" Xuanyuan Po said with great chagrin, then he and Tang Thirty-Six saw ChenChangsheng's figure. After a moment of silence, Tang Thirty-Six patted his stomach. With a littlefear still lingering in his voice, he said, "It's fine, it's fine. I won't askyou where you've been. As long as you didn't run away, it's fine." Puzzled, Chen Changsheng asked, "Why would I run away?" "You just up and disappeared for half a day…" Tang Thirty-Six looked at him and said, "We all suspected that upon hearingthat Xu Yourong was coming back, you got scared that your fiancée would beatyour face into a swollen mess and so ran away." Xuanyuan Po waved his hands around, saying, "I didn't say it like that." Tang Thirty-Six sneered at him, "Do you dare say that you weren't thinkingabout it?" Xuanyuan Po was a very honest bear child. Hearing this question, he hesitatedfor quite some time before finally saying nothing. Chen Changsheng was a little taken aback. "Your mentioning her just remindedme of something. Can one of you help me write a letter to the Divine General ofthe East's estate?" Tang Thirty-Six asked in shock, "A son-in-law with muddy feet moving into thehouse of his wife? The woman hasn't even come back, there's no need to be insuch a rush." Chen Changsheng shook his head, saying, "I plan to pay a visit tonight. Thereare some matters I wish to discuss." "You can't really be afraid of Xu Yourong and planning to do some dirtytricks, are you?" Tang Thirty-Six was interested now, saying, "You should first ask me aboutthese things. You know that I'm most skilled at them." Chen Changsheng laughed, but paid no attention to his words. He made his wayout of the room, saying, "I'll go eat first." A few days ago, Luoluo had said to him that it was certain that the girl hadnot left the Garden of Zhou alive. He said to her that he would go to theDivine General of the East's estate to end the engagement. He had promised herthis back in the Garden of Zhou. Even if she was no longer here, he wouldassuredly still carry out this promise. He had not gone to the Divine Generalof the East's estate in the last few days because he had been rather busy,because he had lost an important and necessary item in the Garden of Zhou. Atthe same time, it was also because his heart still held one final thread ofhope. If she did not leave the Garden of Zhou, then perhaps she was still there.Since the Garden of Zhou had not been destroyed, she might still be alive. Only last night and this morning, when he finally entered the Garden of Zhouonce more, did he discover that there was no one within. No person was there,that person was not there. As a result, his final hope was also not there. As he had searched, he had retrieved that item in passing. As he watched Chen Changsheng's back go through the door, Tang Thirty-Six fellsilent. Finally, he asked, "Do you think that he's a bit stranger today?" Xuanyuan Po asked in confusion, "How is he strange?" Tang Thirty-Six replied, "His laugh was rather strange…very ugly."