198 Unexpected Apathy

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Changsheng woke up. However, he feltvery refreshed, and while looking internally with meditative introspection, herealized that all of the injuries he had received from the Grand Examinationwere already healed. Still, he looked at the black rock within his palm andstayed silent for a very long time. He did not feel overjoyed at all. He vaguely understood that this black rock was what he was looking for. Otherthan the diary of Wang Zhice, the black rock was the main reason why Daoist Jihad him enter the Pavilion of Ascending Mist. According to what Wang Zhice hadsaid, Emperor Taizu may have given him this black rock before the emperor’sdeath. Perhaps, it was extremely vital to the secret of changing fate. The black rock was very important; however, he could not stop thinking aboutWang Zhice’s diary. After experiencing that springtime thunder, countless storms of wind and rainarose within his sea of consciousness. He saw many images, and he was able tounderstand many things by cross-referencing Wang Zhice’s records. However, hestill could not come to a decision. Changing fate required one to change the position or brightness of one’s FatedStar. Thus, changing the person’s position and role within the mortal world,and so…. the positions were related. If it was impossible to change the brightness or position of one’s Fated Star,then to change the brightness or positions of the surrounding stars could alsocreate a similar effect. The logic was the same. If you wanted to change yourfate, you had to first change the fate of other people in your life. The closerthe relationship between you and these people, the greater the change in fateyou would experience. Such as father and son. Such as brothers. Such as a lord and his subjects. This truth was very cold and harsh. Chen Changsheng could not confirm whether the images he had seen wereillusions or truly history. For the whole night, his body had been drenched insweat before being dried off. As a result, he felt very cold when he woke up. If those bloody, yet cold images were indeed the true face of history, thenwere the two great lords of Zhou really such cold-blooded people? Was it reallyworth it to pay such a large price like performing terrifying acts to changefate? Immediately afterwards, he thought of the Divine Empress. If she was thethird person who succeeded in changing fate, then how great of a price did shepay? Were those bloody and cruel rumors that had long been circulated among thepeople true? Was her firstborn son from all those years ago really poisoned todeath by the previous queen’s assassins or was he truly killed by the DivineEmpress herself according to the rumors? Most of her children had never livedpast the age of six. Was it really because the imperial palace’s environmentwas too dangerous at that time, or were the children some type of offering?Were they an offering to the stars? Chen Changsheng’s body grew colder and colder. He did not want to continuethinking out of fear of where it would lead him. He could stay calm even in theface of death, but he, a fifteen-year-old, was still too afraid to approachthese truths that had been hidden from the light too closely. He wanted toleave this place. The Pavilion of Ascending Mist was still pitch-black like before. He wasunable to see any light from the doors or windows, so as a result, he could notconfirm the time. However, he knew from experience that it was already fiveo’clock, the time he woke up everyday. He stood up and repaired the green stone wall. The Pavilion of Ascending Mistwas a forbidden location deep within the palace, and it only opened up at mosttwo or three times a year. With such sporadic openings, the slit in the wallthat his short sword had created should not become discovered. Also, he reallydid not have any energy to care about this matter. Logically, the Pavilion of Ascending Mist could block out all light and sound.However, in the next moment, a clear, distant ringing chimed from below, as ifa person was hurrying over from far away to wake up the people in tranquilcontemplation within the pavilion. A soft wind blew as the chiming stopped, and the Pavilion of Ascending Mist’slarge door slowly opened. The soft morning sunlight landed on the green stonefloor and on the dozen or so paintings on the walls. Those people within thepaintings once did countless good deeds for the Zhou Dynasty, but now, theycould only see sunlight a few times a year. Chen Changsheng walked out of the Pavilion of Ascending Mist with the softwind and morning sun. He walked with the sounds of chimes; however, he couldnot calm his heart. Even as the soft wind entered his bosom, he could notbecome clear-headed and instead felt even colder. Standing on the high platform in front of the Pavilion of Ascending Mist, heglanced at the morning sun, which had just risen above the horizon. Then, helooked over at the capital, which was being slowly awakened by the morning sun.The countless streets and alleyways seemed to be like the lines of achessboard, and the countless rivers and water canals seemed like wires, whichhad been dropped on the board. The countless markets were like an infiniteamount of squares, and countless people lived inside the countless residenceslocated within these squares. To change his own fate by changing the fate of others; could such a thingreally be done? Even if those streets and alleyways became decadent…even ifthose residences fell into ruins…even if millions of people becamehomeless…even if there were endless wars and major floods….Did he still have todo it? He remembered the last sentence in Wang Zhice’s diary again——There is no suchthing as Fate, but only choices. Yes, the experts of the world were split into two types: one who changed thefate of others to perfect their own fate, and others who completely disregardedfate, firmly believing that one could control everything connected to oneself.Even if fate proved itself stronger in the end, the latter would still holdtheir head high. The father and son, Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong were the former, andWang Zhice was the latter. What about him? Currently, he was still very weak,but if he became strong in the future and had to face this choice, what wouldhe choose? Looking at the streets and countless residences of the capital under themorning sun, Chen Changsheng questioned himself: What type of person should Ibe? What was more important: a complete life or a complete life? TL: That’s what the author wrote. Just keep reading and it might resolveitself. The two ‘complete’s and the two ‘life’s within the question had two totallydifferent meanings. Thinking of this question, he left the Pavilion of Ascending Mist. He walkeddown along the extremely long stone steps, and even when he had set foot on theground of the imperial palace, he still did not have an answer. Most of the people within the capital were still asleep, but most of thepeople within the imperial palace had already awoken. Some examinees were verysleepy with dark circles forming around their eyes. They had obviously notslept very well. Other examinees had not even slept a wink that night due tobeing so nervous, but most of the examinees were well-rested. As for those young examinees who had come from various academies and sects,the most important goal of the Grand Examination was to enter the top threegrades. Thus, they could obtain the right to enter the Mausoleum of Books andview the monoliths. They naturally made proper preparations and needed toguarantee nothing would affect them like becoming unfocused as they viewed themonoliths. The several dozen stagecoaches formed a group outside the palace waiting to becalled. The unusually spirited horses were treading softly but impatiently. Theexaminees stood next to the stagecoaches and were waiting to set off. Afterwatching Chen Changsheng who was slowly walking from the palace, some peoplealso began to grow impatient, such as the young scholars from Scholartree Manor. The examinees noticed that Chen Changsheng’s hair was somewhat messy, and hisexpression was exhausted like he was very sleepy. It even looked somewhathaggard. Knowing that he definitely did not rest well spending the night in thePavilion of Ascending Mist, perhaps maybe not even sleeping at all, they couldnot help but feel somewhat puzzled. They thought to themselves, even if youcould only meditate in there for one night, you did not have to make this thathard on yourself. Tang Thirty-Six was able to discern something more. Somewhat worried, he askedsoftly: “What happened?” “It’s fine.” Chen Changsheng shook his head and replied. He would not tell anyone about the experience he went through last night——evenif it was Tang Thirty-Six or even Luoluo——He had walked into learning history’scruel truth. Although discovering the secret was still in the far off distance,he had already seen the door or perhaps even obtained the key. Regardless if it was the examinee’s or official’s attention, both were on ChenChangsheng’s body. The news of finding the Garden of Zhou had already been publicly announced, orit was more accurate to say that it had been announced in the court’s upperechelon and various academies and sects. Last night, the royal court wascelebrating with a feast, and Lady Mo Yu who represented the Empress formallyannounced that the Garden of Zhou would be opened following a month’s time. Who did not want to enter the Garden of Zhou? Who would not want anopportunity to obtain the inheritance of the continent’s strongest expert?However, only cultivators who had reached the ethereal opening could enter theGarden of Zhou. In regards to cultivation, viewing the monoliths inside the Mausoleum ofBooks, so that one could comprehend the Way was the most important. Now, it hadbecome their last opportunity for the examinees to enter the Garden of Zhou.They had to make a breakthrough within one month and achieve their etherealopening. Under this dual pressure, the examinees were naturally very nervous. They knewthey had to work extremely hard, even to the point where they would risk theirlives inside the Mausoleum of Books. While thinking of this, Chen Changsheng’sgaze naturally became a bit perplexed. Chen Changsheng had only just turned fifteen years old, and apart from a verysmall number of people like Qi Jian and Ye Xiaolian, he was younger than amajority of the Grand Examination’s examinees at the three ranks. However, hewas currently the same as Gou Hanshi and Tianhai Shengxue and had alreadyachieved ethereal opening. In other words, even if he did not travel an inchforwards in the Mausoleum of Books, he could still easily enter the Garden ofZhou a month later. Thinking carefully, to achieve his ethereal opening at such an age, and evendirectly surpassing the Proclamation of Azure Clouds, he was already on somelevel that exceeded Xu Yourong. How could people not envy him? If it were notfor Qiushan Jun’s performance on the matters relating to the Garden of Zhou tobe overly dazzling, perhaps people would have felt Chen Changsheng’sperformance was even more shocking. The current Chen Changsheng was, without a doubt, the focus of the entirecapital. However, he did not have this kind of self-awareness. Instead, he justsat silently next to the vehicle’s window and stared at the streets illuminatedby the morning light. He was silent and appeared somewhat absent-minded. Seeing Chen Changshang’s absent-minded state, Tang Thirty-Six said with hisbrows raised, “Indeed, I don’t know what kind of situations you’ve encountered.You don’t seem to need good luck from the Mausoleum of Books anymore as you canalready directly enter the Garden of Zhou, but you need to get somethingstraight. To us cultivators, the Mausoleum of Books is a matter of the utmostimportance, even more important than the Grand Examination, the Garden of Zhou,or anything else.” Chen Changsheng did not reply and continued to stare out the window. Tang Thirty-Six continued to say, “You cannot necessarily see the immediatebenefits of what you obtain from the Mausoleum of Books. Also, how far and towhat extent we reach will still depend on how much of the Mausoleum of Books wecomprehend. Countless people in the past have already long since proved this,and there have been no exceptions.” Chen Changsheng understood what Tang Thirty-Six meant. Of course he knew howimportant the Mausoleum of Books was to cultivators. The issue was that hecurrently had insurmountable problems with his mindset. Cultivating was obviously extremely important. If one reached the ConcealedSpirit Realm, one could repeatedly replenish one’s meridians without everneeding to worry about the haunting shadow of death. If one managed tocultivate to the Grand Liberation Realm, a stretch of one’s hand was enough topluck the stars. One could dictate one’s own fate and even become immortal,much less worry about other things. The problem was that in the past, even Zhou Dufu could not even come incontact with the Concealed Spirit Realm spoken of in the legends, so how couldhe? As for his current ability, he had already placed first in the GrandExamination’s first rank and had begun to touch the secret of altering fate.Since he could not reach the Concealed Spirit Realm, was there still any pointin him cultivating any more? He who had always been disciplined and hardworkingsuddenly began to grow lazy for some reason, even to the point where he thoughtliving seemed pointless. The morning sunlight was gradually flourishing, and the fifteen-year-old ChenChangsheng had suddenly lost all interest in cultivation. At that exact moment,he arrived at the only holy ground in any cultivator’s mind: the Mausoleum ofBooks.