Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 492 – Once More, I Meet You By the Pool

Chen Changsheng felt shaken to the core because he realized that the chains and the formation within the wall were actually familiar.

He was well-read in the Daoist Canon, and after arriving in the capital and gaining access to no small number of experts of the senior generation, his experiences had broadened even more. His nightly chats with Lady Chujian in the Garden of Zhou, his conversations with Su Li in the wilderness—these two geniuses had taught him much. Yet he still had no means of breaking this formation, not even a clue on how to start. He could only sense the unimaginably immense strength and terrifying killing intent within.

As he struck off the layer of ice and wholeheartedly examined the place where the chains attached to the wall, those two deceased generals carved onto the colossal stone wall also seemed to examine him.

After quite some time had passed, Chen Changsheng raised his head to gaze up at the wall.

As he gazed up at those two legendary Divine Generals, he was filled with shock.

The experts of that time had truly been too powerful.

The first generation of blooming wildflowers in the past one thousand years was presumably that inconceivable. He was extremely sure that whether it was Wang Zhice that had set up this formation or those two Divine Generals who had only left a strand of spiritual sense behind and were still able to hold fast the chains that bound the dragon, all of them had entered the Divine Domain. Then of the twenty-four meritorious ministers of Lingyan Pavilion, how many of them had been in the Saint Realm?

In the era of Taizong, how powerful had the human world been?

No wonder the demons had been so utterly defeated, ultimately being forced back to Xuelao City. Then what about now? Beginning several decades ago when Wang Po emerged from Tianliang, many people believed that the human world was welcoming another generation of blooming wildflowers. He was also amongst their number. Then when would he and the fellow members of this generation finally be able to catch up to those figures of the past?

“Take a rest. With your current cultivation, there’s no way you can pull those chains out of the wall.”

The Black Dragon’s voice resonated through the deathly stillness of the underground space. She spoke in human tongue, so the voice of a young maiden could be heard. It was brimming with ridicule, but it was also relatively content. Yes, she was relatively satisfied with Chen Changsheng’s performance today. When compared to the two simple words of ‘thank you’, the focus he had when researching the formation in the wall and the chains was intention.

With a gust of cold wind, the Black Dragon’s mountainous body swiftly moved through the underground space. How it had done it was a mystery, but in a very short amount of time, its head had arrived in the air in front of Chen Changsheng. It looked down on him from up high, awe-inspiring and deliberately apathetic.

Chen Changsheng examined the complicated designs of unknown meaning on the chains. He shook his head and then looked up at the Black Dragon. “You might have to give me even more time.”

The Black Dragon replied, “I just said to you, time isn’t important to me at all. The most important thing is the result.”

Chen Changsheng thought, just when did you say that? But upon thinking about it a bit more, he realized that the Black Dragon was speaking of that dragon cry. The problem was that he had not been able to understand everything within that dragon cry.

He raised his head and asked the Black Dragon, “Just what did you say a moment ago? What do you want me to do?”

The Black Dragon replied, “When you can understand what that means, you will naturally have an answer.”

Chen Changsheng didn’t understand why these formidable beings of the Divine Domain always spoke in such a cryptic and incomprehensible manner. The Pope was like this, Zhu Luo was like this, but now that he thought about, Su Li spoke more like a normal person, even though he clearly wasn’t much of a normal person.

He could see that the Black Dragon’s mind was set. No matter how he asked, it would not respond. It was just like how in the past, it had refused to tell him what had happened on that night he attempted Meditation for the first time. It was only today that it, for some reason of its own, suddenly decided to say it. Then it could also be said that on this matter of the dragon cry, perhaps in the future when it felt like explaining it, it would naturally explain it…but he was still rather curious.

It was at this point that Chen Changsheng realized that having a good grasp of a language was an incredibly important thing.

……

……

In the eyes of outsiders, and even the official records of the court, this place was an abandoned palace. Only the eunuchs and maids at the Divine Empress’s side knew that the Empress would occasionally visit this palace to sit or stroll, but nobody understood why. After a certain summer day last year, the Empress began to visit this palace even more, but the people allowed to remain in the palace with her grew less and less.

Today, this palace contained only herself.

The Divine Empress stood by the water outside the palace, her eyes gazing at the small pool before her and remaining there for a very long time.

From dawn to dusk and then into the night, she reigned over this vast country. She was nominally the master of the entire human world. Every day, she had to handle countless matters of the Imperial Court. Her time was incomparably precious, yet she had spent an entire day staring at this small pool.

At the very beginning, it was because her mind was a little restless after speaking with that old man. To her, this was an extremely rare occurrence, so she wished to stand by this water where no one was and calm herself.

Then it was because she recalled what had occurred several times when she was standing by this pool: meeting with that youth.

Later on, it was because she realized that youth had really come.

At that moment, she had raised her head and glanced at those many stars which had just appeared in the night sky. Her lips perked with a sense of derision, thinking, this thing called fate really is interesting.

She had once changed her own fate. She was the person in the world who would most fearlessly confront fate head-on, so she did not leave, instead waiting for the arrival of fate.

In the darkness, the dark green waters of the pool suddenly began to move. The middle part of the pool bubbled most fiercely as if it was boiling.

She quietly watched that place, allowing the night wind to brush against her.

In Taizong’s era, she was already acclaimed throughout the world as one of the great beauties. Not even Zhou Yuren had been able to steal away her splendor.

As she became Empress Consort, she became the supreme beauty of the world in the eyes of many.

When she began to read through the memorials in Emperor Xian’s place, manage the affairs of state, and was conferred the title of Divine Empress, no one dared to describe her with the word ‘beauty’ any longer.

Authority would forever be above beauty.

But this did not change the fact that she truly was very beautiful.

The passage of time had left no marks upon her face. Her so-called serenity, composure, and maturity were merely a matter of temperament. There was nothing that could be fussed over with regards to her appearance. She was extremely beautiful, but perhaps because she had reigned over this world for too long, there was a faintly discernible tinge of divine prestige about her appearance, as well as an extremely faint strand of fiendish intent.

As the night wind brushed across her face, that beauty and majesty was all washed away, leaving behind a very ordinary appearance. That fiendish intent was still there, but it had been pushed deep into the space between her eyebrows.

The bubbling and sloshing of water from the pool did not cease, nor did the night wind. The wind circled around her body, and the sacred gown signifying her status and identity transformed into an ordinary cloth dress.

With a gentle gust of wind, she became an ordinary woman. Only that ebony hairpin remained stuck into her hair.

With a spray of bubbles, Chen Changsheng emerged from the water.

He swam over to the side of the pool and climbed out. He walked into a thicket and prepared to change out of his soaking clothes for his spare set of clean clothes, but then abruptly realized that something wasn’t quite right.

He turned to look across at the other side of the pool and saw her.