529 I Hear That Your Home Doesn'st Have a Plain

Of course, it could not be for this reason. As Chen Changsheng recalled the scene in that snowy temple, he quicklyrejected his theory. Soon after, he thought of another important question. At the time, Xu Yourong had said that she was called Chen Chujian. She was surnamed Chen—perhaps he was somewhat imagining that his love wasreciprocated, but he always felt that this had something to do with him, justlike how he had said that he was called Xu Sheng. He didn't ask any more questions because he realized that this matter trulywas quite disorderly. If he continued to probe further into the situation inthe Garden of Zhou, he might develop an unpleasant impression towards XuYourong's fiancé, and wouldn't that just be getting jealous of himself? This matter truly was rather disorderly, the reasons unclear. One had studied the Daoist Canons since he was young, the myriad principles athis fingertips. One had a serene Dao heart, at the age of twelve beginning toresearch the Heavenly Tome Monoliths. Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong's innateintelligence were both one in a million. Both were cultivating geniuses, but inthe Garden of Zhou, they had handled matters in a very hurried fashion andcommitted hundreds of mistakes. Xu Yourong did not respond to Chen Changsheng's silly question. The beef ribswere still gurgling in the pot. In this peaceful moment, looking into eachother's eyes, the two understood why they had both chosen to conceal theiridentities. They did not miss a single one of the subtle changes in emotionthat had occurred back then. In the end, they were both smart children, just like those pure whitesnowflakes drifting down outside the restaurant. However, there were still some things that needed to be resolved, or else themind would always feel somewhat uncomfortable. For example, that matter. "You and Princess Luoluo, and also the little Black Dragon?" Xu Yourong had not stated it clearly, but Chen Changsheng understood what sheasked. Back in the Mausoleum of Zhou, she had once said that her fiancé was awomanizer, and one…that only consorted with uncomprehending young girls. Chen Changsheng suddenly remembered, at the time, he had cursed thisfiancé—"Truly a shameless piece of scum!" As it turned out, he had been cursing himself. Thinking of this, he felt rather complex, not knowing how to even startexplaining.  He could only sigh. "Presumably, Miss Shuang'er told you?" Only knowing the truth after half a year had delivered too heavy a blowagainst his psyche, so much so that he didn't even notice that besides Luoluo,Xu Yourong had also mentioned the little Black Dragon. He rather helplessly defended himself, "Think about it, we should be the twopeople who most understand the principle that what the eyes see is notnecessarily the truth." "Perhaps." Xu Yourong softly replied, then raised her head and gazed at him, a spark oflight flashing across her eyes. She seemed to have thought of something, causing her to arch her brows. As aresult, the ethereal mountain waters within her beautiful, painting-likeappearance suddenly came to life, and that light gained an edge. "I remember, back then you said that fiancée…" Chen Changsheng's expression flickered. Back then in the Mausoleum of Zhou, hehad once described his fiancée to her. Although he had not intentionallyridiculed or dishonored her, he really hadn't said anything nice about hereither, but… "Didn't you say yourself that it was better to not have this sort of woman?"He couldn't help but argue. Xu Yourong replied, "This is because I was misled by your words." At the time, she had an extremely low evaluation of this fiancée of XuSheng's, even finding her rather shameless—proud, stupid, terrible vision, andshe even had a problem of virtue. From the moment she realized that these were all evaluations of herself, shefound it hard to not be rather angry and ashamed. At the time, her evaluation had been very critical. Later on, it was filledwith anger and shame. One need not examine her current calm expression The small hand within thesleeve of her cotton jacket was tightly clenched into a fist. This matter was still very disorderly. Chen Changsheng gazed at the wine in his cup and sighed once more. When he was ten, after that strange scent had shrouded the old temple, he hadfallen silent for many days and then moaned and groaned for many days afterthat. From that point on, he had never sighed as much as he did today. Everything had been a misunderstanding. At times, the things and encounters of the world were truly very coincidental,very unfathomable. There had already been all sorts of grudges and emotions between the two ofthem, but as it turned out, in the Garden of Zhou, they met under differentidentities and then experienced many days together. Fortunately, they were finally able to meet once more. It could be presumedthat there would be many more occasions to have these difficult-to-explain,difficult-to-understand matters cleared up. It was fine as long as this misunderstanding did not persist for the rest oftheir lives. Thinking about this, Chen Changsheng was no longer so weighed down by anxiety.Looking at her, he grinned. "What are you grinning about?" Xu Yourong asked. Chen Changsheng responded, "Happy." Xu Yourong's eyes drooped and her eyelashes fluttered. Suddenly, she covered her mouth with her hand and burped. "Drank too much," she explained embarrassedly. The alcohol content of this wine was rather high. Given that she was not usingher true essence to dispel the wine, after drinking so many cups, she trulyshould have been drunk by now. Or else why would her cheeks be blushing again? Chen Changsheng asked concernedly, "Is your injury okay? Is drinking wineokay?" As he spoke, his gaze fell upon her sleeve. Seeing the finger that had justpoked out of the sleeve, he realized that there was no wound. Then he realized, she had once studied at the Thirteen Divisions of RadiantGreen and now she was even the Holy Maiden of South Stream Temple. With theSacred Light, there was absolutely no need to worry himself over these things. Xu Yourong glanced at him and asked, "Do you really think I couldn't beat you?" Chen Changsheng thought, how did we get back to this topic? Changing thesubject, he declared, "I have something important to tell you." With a flick of Xu Yourong's finger, a gale kicked up and slowly rolled theYellow Paper Umbrella on the floor into its original position. There were nowtwo more tables of guests in the restaurant and it was even noisier. Now, thesound from the outside could no longer enter, and the occasional gaze sent overto their corner was blocked off by that invisible wall. With the Yellow Paper Umbrella and both of their current cultivation levels,unless a peak level Star Condensation cultivator personally came to eavesdrop,nobody would be able to notice them. "Do you still remember all those treasures and valuables we found in thosestone chambers in the Mausoleum of Zhou?" Chen Changsheng took the Stainless Sword from his waist and placed it by thepot, then began to take things out of its sheath. This was the first time Xu Yourong had such a close view of this valuabletreasure of the Orthodoxy—not the Stainless Sword, but rather the sheath knownas the Vault Sheath. She examined it very seriously and with great interest.She was so interested that she didn't really care much for Chen Changsheng'ssolemn words, giving a casual 'uh-huh' in reply. "Right before Nanke used the Soul Wood to command the monster tide to surroundthe mausoleum, the Soul Pivot started going crazy and broke many things. Thoseherbs and medicines had originally lost their effectiveness, so theirdestruction didn't matter too much. It's just a pity about those secretmanuals. Oh, as for the jade and crystals, after being pulverized into apowder, they're worthless now. The gold is still okay. Later on, I requestedsomeone to melt it all down and cast it back into ingots, so not much was lost.These are pearls…I hear that powdered pearls can be made into tea and drinkingit is supposed to be good for one's looks. We don't need to divide this. In awhile, you can just take all of it with you." Chen Changsheng incessantly took out items and incessantly spoke. This finally caught Xu Yourong's attention. Looking over at those boxes by thestove, she asked, "What are you talking about?" "We already agreed on this, that we would divide the treasures of theMausoleum of Zhou equally." Chen Changsheng looked at her very seriously and continued, "If thosemedicines were still usable, then when Senior Su Li was heavily injured, Iwould have used some. But for the rest of the things, since we hadn't agreed onit, I kept them all. Just, to make it more convenient, I asked the Bureau ofEcclesiastic Education to help me exchange some of the items for silver taelsand other items." He spoke the truth. He had always believed that the treasures of the Mausoleumof Zhou were not his alone. Until he confirmed whether she was alive or dead,he had no right to use them. Thus, when Tang Thirty-Six asked him for money, hedid not mention that he had these treasures. Moreover, when he believed thatshe had already left this world, he had made an even more incomprehensibledecision. "This is a deed…I asked Jin Yulu to go to the lower reaches of the Red Riverand acquire a large plain to leave for you," he said, pointing to a box. Xu Yourong was a little startled, asking, "Why would you give this to me?" Chen Changsheng explained, "At the time, I thought you were no longer alive,so I felt I had to leave something behind for your tribe in your place, andthat plain is closest to your homeland…" At the time, he was still of the belief that she was a young genius girl ofthe Elf race, bearing the heavy responsibility of reviving the Elf race. Xu Yourong understood, but remained silent. Chen Changsheng misunderstood her silence and said awkwardly, "Of course, nowI know that you don't have any use for this plain. This matter truly does seemrather silly now." "No, it's very good, I like it a lot." She took the box and said to him as she gazed at his face through the steamrising from the pot. Back in the Mausoleum of Zhou, he had cared not a whit for those treasures andsecrets, and was only in a rush to find a medicine for her. Back then, this hadmoved her greatly. It was the same case now. "I'll leave everything else with you. I didn't bring out the Tong Palace, soit's inconvenient for me to bring it all with me." In a very natural tone, she continued, "Whenever I need it, I'll go and findyou." This was a very good arrangement and Chen Changsheng was filled with praisetowards this proposal. But he thought about how she was now master of SouthStream Temple and probably had to spend money in all sorts of places, so said,"These assorted items you can leave with me, but take the pearl powder and boxof silver taels with you." Xu Yourong replied, "These are all external things, there's no need to careabout them too much." Chen Changsheng didn't understand this sort of otherworldly attitude towardslife, so asked, "Then what should we care about?" She wasn't really otherworldly, it was just that compared to the fires ofhumanity, the myriad stars above were all the more dazzling and bright. "We should care about…the fact that we are opponents, enemies." Xu Yourong stared into his eyes, her voice very calm, the expression in hereyes somewhat complex, and the starlight in the very depths of her eyesslightly shaking. Beautiful, yet stirring up a sense of unease. Yes, whether or not there was still an engagement between the two of them, thetwo were destined to be rivals. In the future, they might even be mortalenemies. The schism of the Orthodoxy's north and south, the struggle between the newand conservative, the difference in opinions on this world between the DivineEmpress and the Pope. The three primary conflicts of the human world now rested on their bodies. Above and below the balcony, poison and dagger, the lonely tomb on the yellowsands and the butterflies in the cold? No matter how one looked at it, ChenChangsheng and Xu Yourong's story seemed that it would ultimately develop insuch a fashion. Perhaps sad, perhaps tragic, perhaps it would be a romance thatwould be passed down through all of history. In brief, this matter easilystirred sorrow in others.  (TN: The first line refers to two rather famous tragedies, the first beingRomeo and Juliet, the second being The Butterfly Lovers.) He and she were so young, their shoulders so weak and thin—how could theycarry along so many burdens? But he and she seemed completely unaware of this all. They had just fought onthe Bridge of Helplessness, then soon after sat together to eat ribs and drinkwine. Chen Changsheng especially seemed completely clueless to the generalsituation, utterly oblivious to all the dangerous obstacles between the two ofthem, because he really had… "I forgot," he said rather sheepishly to her. ……