by Mao Ni
An indescribable Qi entered his mind, and he suddenly felt sleepy.
Soon after, a chill ran through his mind and he became clear-headed once more.
The scene in front of him was already different. He discovered that he was in an abandoned garden. In front of him, he could faintly make out a cold pond, giving off a thick aura of wetness under the starlight. Several plum trees were scattered about the shore of the pond. It was still autumn, so the plum branches had not blossomed. They didn't even have flower buds, so they looked very lonely and bare.
He was too shocked for words. Just a moment ago, he had clearly been in the corridor outside Weiyang Palace, so how did he get here?
Just what sort of method had she used to produce such a strange result?
The abandoned garden was still and deserted. From the distance, the sound of music could barely be heard.
He turned around and saw that the palace hall several hundred zhang away was still brightly lit. Although he could not see, he could also imagine that it was unusually lively within.
The southern diplomatic mission had probably arrived.
Standing in the abandoned garden and gazing at the bright hall, his figure seemed very lonely.
Mo Yu's voice could once more be heard, except now it was not in his mind, but at the other end of the abandoned garden, from some place in the darkness. "Take a good look. Tonight, you only need to play the part of a spectator, and then everything can be easily resolved."
Chen Changsheng turned to the pitch-black night and said, "This is not fair."
Mo Yu replied, "These are childish words. They shouldn't come out of the mouth of a treacherous person like you."
For some reason, her voice seemed rather exhausted.
Chen Changsheng replied, "Such childish words should not come from the mouth of the legendary Grand Lady Mo."
Mo Yu believed that his concern over whether this entire matter was fair or unfair was very childish.
He believed that Mo Yu's view on this matter was what was truly childish.
These were not opposite sides of a topic but different views on the world.
Mo Yu's voice was very cold. "Fairness has never been the most important thing."
After a pause, Chen Changsheng replied, "When the Scholar of Shining Light froze to death after being unjustly charged, he probably was not thinking that way."
Scholar of Shining Light Mo Wenshan was the greatest scholar of the Great Zhou Dynasty in his generation. In the later years of Emperor Xian's reign, he offended an important official of the palace and was unjustly imprisoned. On a cold winter day, he was dragged out of his prison cell by a ruthless official and had water spilled over his body until he froze to death. Every able-bodied person of the Mo clan was executed, with only a single granddaughter surviving by chance.
Mo Yu was precisely this granddaughter.
The darkness suddenly erupted with Mo Yu's cold and furious voice. "Audacious little scoundrel!"
Chen Changsheng replied, "People of the world speak of matters of the world. How is it audacious?"
For a very long time, Mo Yu did not respond to these words.
"Yes, this truly is not fair, but you are too insignificant…compared to this palace hall. In order to resist the demons, humanity requires unity, requires new blood. For this purpose, both the Great Zhou and the sects of the south are willing to spare no expense. Thus, we have the Ivy Festival, we have the Grand Examination, we have…the marriage between her and Qiushan Jun."
Mo Yu's voice gradually grew calm as she continued, "Of course, none of these are important. What is important is that the Empress is fond of Xu Yourong, thinks highly of Xu Yourong, and feels that in this world, only Qiushan Jun's talent is barely enough to match up with her. Thus, she can marry her off to him."
Chen Changsheng did not agree with this argument. He wanted to leave this abandoned garden and return to Weiyang Palace.
He knew that leaving in front of a legendary being like Mo Yu was an impossible task. It was assuredly extremely difficult to leave this seemingly desolate and uninhabited abandoned garden that didn't even have a perimeter wall, so without hesitation, he threw the button he had always been gripping in his palm to the ground.
This button made of rhino horn was an extremely precious magical artifact—the Thousand Li Button.
When Luoluo gifted the Thousand Li Button to him, she also taught him how to use it.
A plume of smoke rose from the abandoned garden as Chen Changsheng's body vanished.
However, the next moment, his body reappeared at its original position.
The cold pond remained the same, the plum trees did not shake.
His face had become somewhat pale, with a drop of blood slowly flowing from the corner of his lip.
The abandoned garden was surrounded by an extremely formidable barrier, even more formidable than the Heavenly Net the demon expert used on that night in the Orthodox Academy.
As expected, the Great Zhou Imperial Palace was an extraordinary place.
As expected, the place Mo Yu wanted him to remain was not ordinary.
Even though it looked just like an abandoned garden, he still could not leave.
"Everything you have has been factored into my plan, so just give up." Mo Yu's voice was calm and chilly.
Chen Changsheng raised his head and used his right sleeve to wipe away the blood on his lip. He gazed at the Imperial City in the darkness, gazed at the capital that he had lived in for several months, yet still found it unfamiliar and hard to grow close to. He looked at all the people that lived here that he couldn't see.
"In truth, I really did come to end the engagement."
His voice was rather exhausted, but it was calm as usual. "She is the one that everyone, including the Divine Empress, loves, the highly regarded Phoenix, but I've never thought about marrying her. I…really did come to end the engagement, but no one ever believed me."
The darkness was eerily silent, the abandoned garden still desolate, very much like the look on his face.
He had come to the capital to end the engagement. In the Divine General of the East's estate, he had said it twice. Today, in this abandoned garden of the Imperial Palace, he had said it two more times.
Yes, why had nobody ever believed him?
Just because she was the aloof reincarnation of the true Phoenix while he was just an ordinary youth that did not cultivate?
"I know more than the vast majority of the world the most important thing about living. That matter is extremely important, more important than this engagement, more important than all the humiliations and setbacks I received in the capital added together, so I don't care about them."
He drew back his gaze from the distance and turned to the darkness across the cold pond, saying, "But all of you have done many meaningless things, constantly reminding me that I have a fiancée and that she needs to be married to someone else. Even now, you're still reminding me…
"Fine, I have to admit that I've begun to care.
"Just like I said to Madam Xu in the Divine General's estate.
"This time, I really have changed my mind.
"I will not marry Xu Yourong—because I don't like her and the rest of you.
"But I also won't annul the engagement—because I don't like her and the rest of you.
"This is very fair.
"This way, as long as I don't agree, she can't get married to Qiushan Jun or anyone else.
"I know that this is unfair to her.
"But it's very fair to me."
The abandoned garden was still and noiseless.
The chill of the cold pond pierced to the bones.
Mo Yu was quiet for a very long time when she suddenly felt like she had done something wrong.
At the beginning in the Divine General of the East's estate, Madam Xu had also felt this.
But right after, she smiled. This smile ridiculed herself and also ridiculed the words of this youth.
&nbs
p; "Then you must inform the entire continent of the engagement between the two of you.
"Tonight is truly your best opportunity.
"But first, you have to be able to leave here."
Chapter 57 – The Prisoner of Tong Palace
A bamboo carriage was slowly driven from behind the Great Zhou Imperial Palace's Hall of Cold Light. The heavy curtain hanging in front of the hall was gently raised as Mo Yu appeared on the stone steps. The starlight fell upon her beautiful face, shining upon her slim brows, her bright eyes, and the alluring plum blossom makeup upon her face.
She gazed at the two pure white reindeer pulling the carriage and slightly arched her brows, seeming somewhat surprised. She asked, "Where's Black Jade?"
The Black Goat had previously vanished into the pitch-black darkness, and no one knew where it was.
Nanny Ning held her hand and walked her down the stone steps, whispering, "The little devil has wandered off somewhere."
Mo Yu knew that the Black Goat had a rather solitary and eccentric personality and had never listened to the orders of anyone else in the Imperial Palace. Shaking her head, she said, "It's just a young child."
Nanny Ning glanced at the darkness behind the Hall of Cold Light and inwardly thought, He who is currently standing by that pond with nowhere else to go is truthfully also just a young child.
Mo Yu knew what she was thinking and said in a slightly mocking tone, "A child that only knows how to play house can spout off angry phrase after angry phrase, looking exactly the part, yet they don't know that in the eyes of bystanders, it's all just false bravado, only making it more laughable."
Nanny Ning replied, "This old servant feels that laughable people are also quite adorable."
The matter of Chen Changsheng joining the Orthodox Academy several months ago had been arranged by Nanny Ning. In their conversation afterwards, Mo Yu came to know that she had a high opinion of Chen Changsheng. Mo Yu did not find Nanny Ning disobedient for insisting on saying good things about Chen Changsheng because she believed the matter to already be over.
Chen Changsheng could not walk out of that abandoned garden and could not appear in Weiyang Palace before the crowd's eyes, so he could not sabotage the engagement between Xu Yourong and Qiushan Jun. By that point, he could have said as many foul words as he wished, but they would only be jokes in the end. All his anger could only smolder within his body, only bringing him more pain.
The bamboo carriage headed in the direction of Weiyang Palace.
The Education Overseer of the Heavenly Dao Academy was compelled by Zhou Tong's vile reputation to commit suicide, but the Ivy Festival still required a host, especially given the fact that the Ivy Festival was receiving so many dignitaries from the southern diplomatic mission tonight. The Archbishop of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education and Xu Shiji were responsible for presiding over the feast, Prince Chen Liu was representing the Divine Empress, and Mo Yu also had to personally appear as a show of respect.
Nanny Ning held the window bars of the bamboo carriage, her left hand resting on the window. She would still occasionally look in the direction of the abandoned garden, a look of pity upon her face.
"Nanny, relax. Nothing will happen to that boy." Mo Yu's voice came from the bamboo carriage, "The restriction of the Black Dragon cannot be breached, and no one has ever been able to leave without someone opening the gate to the garden from the outside. He's only stuck in the garden to receive a few gusts of cold wind. Compared to the matters he's stirred up, what does that count for?"
Nanny Ning thought of that rumor and said with concern, "What if he runs into the taboo?"
Mo Yu replied, "Since it's taboo, how can it be so easy to run into?"
She spoke very casually, callously, but Nanny Ning could hear the exhaustion in her voice. She then recalled that back on the stone steps in front of the hall, she saw a haggard look on the lady's face that not even her plum blossom makeup could hide, and she grew somewhat perplexed at her lady's willingness to use up true essence in order to imprison Chen Changsheng with a secret technique.
"My lady, you already promised Lady Yourong that you would not raise a hand against that youth."
"Did I raise my hand tonight? I only moved my mouth." Mo Yu thought of the letter from the south she had received several months ago and angrily said, "That stubborn girl doesn't want to marry him, but she won't let anyone touch him either. Can't injure him, can't harm him, given all these rules, else it would never have been so troublesome and require me to rack my brain for ideas."
With her terrifying level of cultivation, coupled with her terrifying power and status in the Great Zhou Dynasty, she had tens of thousands of ways of dealing with a youth like Chen Changsheng. She could make it so painful that he didn't want to live, make him loathe the thought of living, but because of that letter, she was forced to go to all this trouble.
The more she thought about it, the less happy she became. "Her own family arranged this rotten marriage, and she wants me to waste my time and energy. She hides away in the south and plays the good person yet wants me to play the villain. You didn't hear how that youth scolded me. If not for her, I would have just killed him!"
Nanny Ning smiled, saying, "My lady and Lady Yourong are like sisters. To expend a bit more energy is only right."
Mo Yu sneered, "Everyone says that Black Jade is a little devil, but in reality, that Phoenix chick is the true little devil. The entire continent thinks her to be as clear as ice and pure as jade, intelligent as ice and snow, her appearance carved from ice or jade, but nobody knows that she's really a cheapskate. Nobody can offend her or else risk making her truly unhappy. Anything she wants me to do is certainly not done out of any sisterly friendship. I'm just worried that if things aren't in accord with her heart and she really doesn't want to marry Qiushan Jun, what can I do then?"
Nanny Ning soothed, "Thankfully, as long as tonight passes, there's no need to worry about this anymore."
The curtain was slightly raised as Mo Yu gazed at the abandoned garden behind the Hall of Cold Light, as well as the cold pond obscured by autumn trees and old walls. She thought of Chen Changsheng's words and thought to herself, Can tonight truly pass by smoothly? Why did I have to shut him up there? Just what is the Saint thinking?
* * *
After those words filled with ridicule, Mo Yu's voice was no longer heard. Chen Changsheng quietly stood in the abandoned garden, the cold pond in front of him with the plum trees to his side. His figure no longer seemed so lonely, as if it was once more brimming with energy.
After confirming that Mo Yu had left, he walked forward. Walking past those bare and lonely plum trees, he arrived at the pond and was assailed by a chill.
This abandoned garden was clearly colder than any other place in the Imperial Palace, and the cause was most likely this cold pond in front of him. He carefully examined the surface of this pond, allowing the chill to accumulate on his face until a sheet of frost gradually formed over it.
This wasn't self-abuse. He merely wished to use the environment to assist him in cooling his head. He did not wish to waste time on anger and other negative emotions. The words he had said to Mo Yu were truly very childish words, foul phrases of no use, the complete opposite of being cool-headed, but he still had said them.
Of the Three Thousand Great Daos, he cultivated the Dao of following his heart. He acted according to his heart, lived according to his heart. If the world would not allow him to follow his heart, he had to think of a way around it. Only by following his heart could he obtain true calm, and calm was the highest level of being cool-headed.
Of course, he also did not want those words of his to become a joke. He had to escape this abandoned garden and hurry back to Weiyang Palace. Before leaving the Orthodox Academy, he had already made corresponding plans, but since those important personages were able to fool Luoluo into leaving Weiyang Palace, he could not place all his hopes upon her.
How could he leave this abandone
d garden? In reality, he didn't even have an idea of how to start. However, he still had the same attitude as when he spoke to Luoluo, when he told Tang Thirty-Six and Luoluo that he wanted to participate in the Grand Examination and take first rank of the first banner.
There was clearly no reason, no possibility of success, but he could speak of it calmly and naturally, as if it was only right and inevitable. This sort of unreasonable confidence produced shock and admiration in those close to him, while outsiders would naturally think of it as wishful thinking, laughable to the extreme.
Only he himself understood that this self-confidence arose from necessity. At the start of next year, he absolutely had to participate in the Grand Examination and obtain first rank of the first banner, else he would die. Tonight, he absolutely had to leave the abandoned garden and appear in Weiyang Palace, so he absolutely could do so.