346 The Missing Black Rock

An elegant hand extended towards the pheasant, and gently rubbed its head. Thepheasant was slightly unhappy, but it did not dare to show any signs ofunhappiness. It extended its neck in a clever and sincere manner, and allowedthe hand to rub it. It seemed just like a quail. It was Xu Yourong’s hand—the pheasant knew very well what kind of blood flowedin the girl’s body. It disliked it very much; it had to admit that the bloodwas its bane.  Chen Changsheng also extended his hand towards it, as if he also wanted totouch it. The pheasant also knew very well just how strong the teenager was.Most importantly, he was the owner of the Yellow Paper Umbrella. If it wantedto survive the terrifying storms of energy, it could not offend him. Beingrubbed a few times should be a small price to pay—even if it was shedding allits feathers, it could endure it. However… for some reason, the pheasant gaveout a sharp screech, and like lightning, it pecked down on the back of ChenChangsheng’s hand. A clear sound that was like the collision of gold and jade resounded. The pheasant stared blankly. It did not know why it had behaved so violently.Chen Changsheng also stared blankly, and then remembered that although theinjuries on his body had already basically healed and that the smell of theblood that flowed out had already become extremely faint, animals and monsterswere still unable to reject the enticement. “Although a great peng in dire straits is not as great as a pheasant, it isstill a great peng afterall. It has its own pride,” Xu Yourong said whilelooking at him. This was not the original common saying. The original sayingwas ‘a phoenix in dire straits is not as great as a hen’, but she woulddefinitely not say it like that. Just like she had said, the messy bird that seemed like a pheasant was theGolden-winged Great Peng that had enveloped the entire sky before, but nolonger so mighty. In the first moment that it had taken shelter behind theYellow Paper Umbrella, Chen Changsheng knew that it was the Golden-winged GreatPeng, because of its Qi and because of the violent sacred flames in the deepestparts of its pupils. No matter how well it had disguised itself, to be able topass through the storm of energy and whirlwinds, as well as know that theYellow Paper Umbrella could protect it, it definitely was that Great Peng. The original body of the Golden-winged Great Peng had perhaps left and diedwith Zhou Dufu’s death. Only when Nanke arrived in the Garden of Zhou with theSoul Wood did its spirit that always slept in the shadow of the grasslandawaken once again. Right now, the Golden-winged Great Peng was only afledgling, and did not have the power and level of when it was at its peak. Nowonder it could only form a shadow in the sky, and had only recovered themajority of its divine aura after Nanke had used the power of her soul and theSoul Wood to fuse with the Great Peng. Chen Changsheng did not attempt to touch the baby peng again. The baby pengslowly became quiet, and was no longer as nervous and alert as before. Thefeeling of violence in two smears of sacred flame disappeared, and it wasreplaced by some sort of complicated emotions. Chen Changsheng understood what it wanted to convey, and could not help butstare blankly. The message the baby peng conveyed was all in its eyes. It wasbeseechment, request and imploration. It was sorrow, pain, sadness anddespair—the countless monsters in the Garden of Zhou were all its companionsand subordinates. The monsters had lived in the grassland for centuries,separated from the outside world and without any conflict between each other.The grassland was their home town, and right now, their home town was about tobe destroyed. Chen Changsheng said in his heart that it did not need to request him to doanything. He would try his best to preserve the world. The baby peng seemed tohear what he had said in his heart, and became even more quiet. It seemedextremely lovable. However, what was interesting was that it was stillunwilling to approach him, and instead seemed to be willing to take a few stepstowards Xu Yourong who was supposed to be even more feared and disliked. Itleaned against her body in a well-behaved manner. Chen Changsheng’s remaining attention was always focused on the wind and sandin the surroundings of the mausoleum. When he conversed with Xu Yourong andcommunicated heart-to-heart with the Great Peng, he was always doingcalculations in his heart. According to what Xu Yourong had said before, therelationship between the ten monoliths belonged to some change in someformation. Now, because the Sword Pool had been removed, the balance in theformation had been broken, and could not be recovered ever again, unless hecould find the empty spot that had been filled in with the Sword Pool. Yes, in the formation, the Sword Pool was only a replacement object. What wasthe Sword Pool replacing? Xu Yourong said that Zhou Dufu had taken twelveHeavenly Tome Monoliths, but there were only ten stone pillars here. So wherewere the other two? From the very start, Chen Changsheng always felt that he had forgottensomething. It was the blank memory in his final moment of comprehending themonoliths in the Mausoleum of Books. Afterwards, he remembered somethingvaguely so an unrestrained idea appeared in his head. In order to prove the idea, he always focused on the surroundings of themausoleum, to find the evidence that could prove his idea—he needed to getenough confirmation before following along with the idea, because it was anextremely dangerous act. People only had one life, so it was the last chance. Sand and wind covered the skies. From time to time, sand dunes that were likesmall mountains formed on the ground in the surroundings of mausoleum, andother times, even the tough gray stone ground would be flipped. He alwaysfocused on that area, which was also the area that Xu Yourong had calculated.It was the area that was once covered in white grass, and now covered in sandand monster corpses. It finally revealed its true appearance after hundreds ofyears. There was a ruined stone wall. It seemed like a base—a base for a monolith. There should have been a Heavenly Tome Monolith there—Chen Changshengconfirmed the fact, and with a slight movement of spiritual sense, he took outan object and held it in his hand. He then looked at the baby peng. The babypeng originally felt uneasy, and wanted to look at something else. It did notwant to meet gazes with him, but it discovered that because it was too nervous,its neck actually became stiff. A human and a peng gazed at each other. The atmosphere was slightly weird. Thebaby peng thought in his head, just why is it me? Chen Changsheng spoke in hisheart: it’s because you’re an impressive Golden-winged Great Peng. Only you canwithstand the havoc of the storms of energy, at least for a moment. The babypeng thought with resentment, why can’t you do it? Chen Changsheng squeezed thehandle of the umbrella and said in his heart: even if I am correct, the Gardenof Zhou will still collapse. I have even more important things to do. Theconsciousness of the baby peng became quiet, and then it accepted hisexplanation. Chen Changsheng opened his palm. In the centre of it was a black rock. The black rock was around half a finger long, and its shape was slender. Itwas entirely inky black, and the surface of the rock seemed to be hidden by alayer of faint fog. It was like a night sky that did not have stars, but hadstarlight. It caused people who had seen it to become intoxicated, and trulywant to sink into it. It obviously was not an ordinary object. It was the blackrock that he had found in the Pavilion of Ascending Mist, behind Wang Zhice’sportrait. When the baby peng saw the black rock, a feeling of dread flashed past itspupils. Only after a while did it calm down, and it opened its beak to pick upthe black rock. Chen Changsheng turned the Yellow Paper Umbrella towards the side, providing apath for the baby peng. When he did that, he always used his body to block Xu Yourong’s line ofvision. It was not because he did not want her to learn his secrets, nor was itbecause she was preventing him from doing what he soon needed to do. A breeze formed, and the baby peng transformed into a black shadow. It flewout from the Yellow Paper Umbrella, and passed through the violent winds thatwreaked havoc and the terrifying cracks in space. It followed the guide of ChenChangsheng’s gaze from before, and arrived at the very inconspicuous base for amonolith in the sky full of wind and sand. It loosened its beak, and closelyafterwards… the black rock landed accurately on the monolith base.  It was as if the starry sky had arrived in the Garden of Zhou that never had astarry sky. It was very dark, but it was also very tranquil. A great but tranquil Qi arose from the monolith base. In the next moment, a black Heavenly Tome Monolith appeared on the brokenmonolith base.