by Mao Ni
Chen Changsheng had recently seen this sort of expression many times. Every time he went to rouse Tang Thirty-Six from his bed, he would see it. He knew that this was called 'getting up on the wrong side of the bed'. In other words, she had not slept well.
"What's wrong?"
Although the Orthodox Academy and Mo Yu were enemies, he was still very curious about why she would have such an appearance. He remembered very clearly that the pillow had been newly stuffed with medicinal herbs that should have greatly assisted in calming the mind.
Mo Yu flipped open his bedsheets and pointed at the crystals scattered about his bed, angrily saying, "If you don't want me to come here and sleep, just say it. Is it necessary to put these rocks here to annoy me?"
The rocks were not meant as an annoyance, but in her view, Chen Changsheng had placed them precisely to annoy her.[26]
Chen Changsheng was very confused. These crystals had been sent to the Orthodox Academy by the Wenshui Tangs and Luoluo, and contained all sorts of fine properties. If one were to hold them while meditating, the speed at which one drew in starlight would greatly increase, so he had put a few of them under his bedding.
For the Grand Examination, he would not miss a single detail.
"I've already put down two layers of bedding. I've personally tried and couldn't feel them at all," he explained to Mo Yu.
Mo Yu couldn't help but be speechless, thinking to herself, If he knew that Ping would not be able to sleep even if there were ten layers of bedding between her and a pea, he definitely would find it impossible to comprehend.
Snowflakes suddenly began to fall outside the window, the first snow of the year.
Inside the room, it suddenly turned quiet. The two silently gazed at each other, the atmosphere becoming rather awkward.
At this moment, Mo Yu understood that her resentment was quite unreasonable, and Chen Changsheng also understood that he didn't need to give her any sort of explanation at all.
This was his room and his bed, and there was no friendship between him and her. On the contrary, they were enemies.
Mo Yu left, and up to the Grand Examination, she never returned to the Orthodox Academy. It was as if she had finally realized how ridiculous her actions were.
However, on the next day, Chen Changsheng discovered that his pillow and bedding had vanished.
Was this also okay? He raised his sleeve and took a sniff, but he couldn't smell anything.
But why did Luoluo and the Black Goat like to smell him? And now, even a person like Lady Mo Yu…
Chen Changsheng could not find a single thing to be proud about. As a person slightly obsessed with cleanliness, he found it quite difficult to accept the thought of Mo Yu hugging his blankets as she slept every night.
* * *
Time passed, and the joy brought about by the first snow quickly disappeared. Snow fell over the capital every day, making everyone sick of it. The autumn departed and winter set in, and the day of the Grand Examination grew closer and closer.
Chen Changsheng knew that he could no longer keep hesitating, so he stopped hesitating.
When the Grand Examination was just a few days off, he departed the Orthodox Academy under the cover of the early morning snow, letting no one else know, and went to New North Bridge. The golden fallen leaves had been covered by snow, and those who wished to see this famous sight of the capital could only wait for next year. There was no trace of any tourists, and there was no one else besides the distant Imperial Guard and the barely visible traces left behind in the sky by the flying carriages.
No, it was not completely deserted. In the distance, a palace maid dressed in fur was walking two Snow Mastiffs.
Snow Mastiffs were not dogs, but powerful monsters that dared to fight with human cultivation experts in close combat. Born in Mount Blackstone outside Xuelao City, they loved the cold and detested the heat, and it was a mystery as to how they had managed to survive in the capital. Of course, someone able to raise Snow Mastiffs was assuredly no ordinary person. The Snow Mastiffs were not both white, as one of them was a very faint shade of yellow. The snow was falling fiercely, so the yellow Snow Mastiff was gradually turning white while the white one was gradually getting larger.
In front of the palace walls was a boundless world of white, all features blurring into one, all except a black hole in the ground.
It was the mouth of the well.
Chen Changsheng walked up to the well, glanced at the palace maid and her two Snow Mastiffs, confirmed that they were not paying attention to him, and then jumped down.
* * *
On the surface, a snowstorm had persisted for several days, but underground, the snowstorm would never end, as it came from each breath the Black Dragon took.
In these past few days, Chen Changsheng had come to see the Black Dragon several times. It was no longer as awkward as it was in the beginning, where he didn't even know how to stand or where to put his hands.
The Black Dragon was very satisfied at his comprehension of the Dragon language, but was greatly displeased at the frequency with which he came to study. However, even though it was a dragon, it knew the significance of the Grand Examination toward humans, so it did not feel right to demand too much.
The dragon's whisker lightly danced, sweeping clean of ice the ground in front of Chen Changsheng.
In a practiced fashion, Chen Changsheng took out several packages of oil paper and several novels often sold in the capital's markets, and placed them on the floor.
The oil papers were untied to reveal roast lamb, roast chicken, roast deer tail, braised ox tongue, and a steamed double-headed fish.
"Leave the ox tongue for me," he said.
Knowing that the Black Dragon had been imprisoned underground for several hundred years, lonely and pitiful and not having eaten anything for a long time, Chen Changsheng would bring some food with him each time he came to visit.
This food naturally couldn't make the Black Dragon full, only take the edge off its hunger.
At the very beginning, the Black Dragon had turned its nose up at this food, giving off a demeanor that said, This one used to eat human flesh in the Imperial Palace and didn't blink an eye. However, when it actually ate, it showed no courtesy whatsoever.
"I've decided."
Chen Changsheng had used his most dauntless patience to wait for the Black Dragon to finish savoring these foods at its most slothful pace before beginning to speak.
The Black Dragon stared at him like he was an idiot.
In the past few meetings, it had come to know what Chen Changsheng wanted to do.
The lowly humans had only their fragile bodies. Without a successful Purification, attempting Meditative Introspection was seeking death.
Although it had not paid particular attention when it was learning from its royal father, it could still understand this simple reasoning.
In truth, Chen Changsheng also knew that there was basically no chance of success, as no previous case of success had ever been recorded in the three thousand scriptures of the Daoist Canon.
But he had to do this, because the Grand Examination was imminent.
He had to take first rank of the first banner in the Grand Examination, because only this way could he obtain the right to meditate for one night in the Lingyan Pavilion.
Only this way could he have a chance of defying the heavens and changing his fate.
Only this way could he possibly live past the age of twenty.
If he could not do this, there was no difference between twenty and fifteen.
Yes, in that dry and monotonous life of cultivation and studying, he had reached the age of fifteen.
Twenty minus fifteen left five years.
But five hundred minus twenty was still about five hundred years.
He wanted to gamble five years for five hundred.
He truly did want to live another five hundred years.
Seeing Chen Changsheng's face, the Black Dragon knew th
at he was serious.
The Black Dragon's eyes gradually turned solemn, intending to put a stop to this matter.
If you die, who will come to speak with me, to handle that matter for me?
Chen Changsheng said nothing, only calmly stared at it. Thus, it knew that it could not stop him.
The Black Dragon's eyes became somewhat irritated.
Chen Changsheng took the dagger from his waist and said to it, "If I die…"
When the Black Dragon saw the dagger, its eyes turned grave.
Chen Changsheng thought it over, then said, "Forget it. If I die, I die; there's no meaning in leaving any words behind."
The Black Dragon's eyes gradually shifted from solemnity to calm, ultimately leaving behind only admiration.
Any being that could calmly confront death, challenge death, was a being worthy of admiring.
Whether it was a dragon, demon, demi-human, human or even a sparrow.
It remembered that its royal father had once said something like this.
Out of admiration, it did not attempt to stop Chen Changsheng. Its whisker gently drifted over, lightly prodded him on the brow, then withdrew.
Chen Changsheng sat down and took up the ox tongue that he had requested the Black Dragon leave behind.
At the age of ten, upon learning that he would not live past twenty, he had ceased eating food like ox tongue which was unhealthy yet delicious.
He seriously ate it, savored it. His expression was quite satisfied.
After eating the ox tongue and drinking some water, he took up some snow to wash his hands and rub his face, ensuring that he was alert and aware.
After making all possible preparations, he closed his eyes and began Meditative Introspection.
Chapter 123 – Blazing Plains
Just like he had done on that spring night, Chen Changsheng closed his eyes and forgot everything. His spiritual sense departed his sea of consciousness, separated from his body, and drifted about the still space of the underground cavern. A vague image of the surrounding environment appeared in his mind. The stone walls and the light of the Night Pearls were deformed and then appeared in his consciousness.
When one closed one's eyes, the sky went dark. Only when the sky was dark could the stars emerge, and only this way could one find the star in the night sky that was one's Fated Star. However, what he was doing now was not fixing his Fated Star, but performing Meditative Introspection. Thus, his spiritual sense did not continue floating higher, but instead slowly drifted down like snow back onto his body.
Spiritual sense was weightless and shapeless, easily passing through his clothes and skin and entering the deepest part of his body. There, it would send back information on all that it encountered. This was introspection, self-introspection.
There was truthfully no precise boundary for the Meditation Realm. Any cultivator that had condensed their spiritual sense and was able to enter Meditative Introspection as they pleased could be considered to have entered the Meditation Realm. If one wished to continue improving, one had to also pay attention to the interaction between the spiritual sense and one's meridians. However, the most fundamental method was still self-introspection.
A single phrase was recorded in the cultivation methods of all sects regarding Meditation: 'Only by inspecting one's own body can one see the world.'
Why? Because every cultivator's body contained a world. In contrast to the natural world, the world within the body of a cultivator was much finer and subtler. If one said that the source of a cultivator's strength was the natural world, if one wanted to become stronger, they needed to constantly remold the small world within themselves.
Purification was the first step cultivators took to remold their bodies, but that was a relatively crude method. Meditative Introspection was observation and also a subtler method for the cultivator to remold their body. Moreover, at the Meditation Realm, cultivators no longer directly used the strength of star radiance, but began to learn how to convert this radiance into true essence.
The radiance of the stars belonged to the greater world of nature, while true essence belonged to the small world of the cultivator.
Compared to normal cultivators, Chen Changsheng had special circumstances. He first had to enter his small world and find that star radiance. Then, he would attempt to convert it into his own true essence, which would also be the most dangerous juncture. His body not having undergone Purification, could it contain the explosive power produced the instant star radiance was converted into true essence?
He did not think about these problems as he sent his spiritual sense into his body to begin introspection and his search.
A small world was still a world, and so when he began Meditative Introspection, his spiritual sense became a wisp of cool breeze within this world. His search tonight for the star radiance in his body was like those nights he spent searching for his Fated Star. It similarly required constantly searching a vast world, an extremely long process, so long that he forgot about the passing of time.
The fuzzy horizon and the constantly fluctuating light formed into all sorts of strange sights. These indistinct sights made this world seem equally familiar and foreign.
Land bulged out from the ground like lofty mountain ranges. Were these bones? But what were these cracks in the ground, these earth veins faintly exuding Qi? Meridians?
The cool breeze slowly crossed this world, his spiritual sense constantly searching his body. He gradually got used to this sensation, and the sight within his consciousness gradually became more distinct. Then he saw ruptured cliffs, the firm mountain ranges of granite twisted about, the earth veins shattered. It was a dismal scene of utter desolation.
This was his body, and this was the first time he clearly saw his body's true appearance. It truly did make him feel utter dismay. Were those ruptured cliffs and shattered earth veins his severed meridians? Or perhaps they were sections of meridians? Was this the shadow of death hidden within his body?
But… where did that terrifying strength that could deform mountains come from?
The cool breeze drifted across thousands of li of wasteland, passing over nine mountain ranges crossed over with giant gashes, and came to a plain covered in snow.
He didn't what this place was, only that this vast plain of snow was extremely cold. Moreover, the mantle of snow was extremely thick and so clean that it was somewhat dazzling.
He did not know what this snowy plain was, nor did he know what such a thick mantle of snow, such a clean plain of snow, signified to a cultivator. And he also did not know that if the legendary Junior Martial Uncle of the Mount Li Sword Sect or a similar supreme expert were to find that he possessed such a perfect plain of snow, they would undoubtedly want to make him their successor.
Finally, he saw a lake.
This was a lake suspended between the heavens and the earth, a vast expanse of dark blue. His spiritual sense told him that it had a radius of several hundred li. To be more precise, this lake was a sphere of water suspended in between heaven and earth. There were no impurities, grass, mud, or sediment within this lake, only clean and transparent water, so light naturally could pass through it.
At this time, his spiritual sense had already made one complete circuit of this small world. From a cultivating perspective, he had already entered the Meditation Realm. If this fact were to be made public, it would certainly shock the world, because this indicated he possessed the world's purest and most serene spiritual sense that could even cross that threshold between cultivation realms!
The problem was that such a fact was meaningless.
No matter how strong the spiritual sense was, without true essence, one was still just an ordinary person. All the spiritual sense could do on its own was at most to widen his scope of perception.
True essence originated from the radiance of the stars.
From spring to the late winter, he had spent every night drawing in starlight for Purification, but the Purification had
still not succeeded, so where was all that radiance accumulating?
Chen Changsheng began to get nervous.
The moment his spiritual sense found the star radiance and touched it, all of it would be converted into true essence. His body had not undergone Purification, but it had been tempered by the medicinal broths of his teacher and senior brother… Would it be able to hold against that monstrous explosion?
His spiritual sense made another journey around the small world, crossing tens of thousands of li in a single breath.
Ultimately, he turned to the snowy plain… a boundless sheet of white, truly clean, truly beautiful.
His spiritual sense floated even higher to get a clearer picture. He saw that this snowy plain was gradually thawing, but because snow was constantly falling, the area the snow covered was not shrinking. Instead, it was expanding and thickening. Only where the light was fiercest did a few cracks appear.
There were very few of these cracks, but they ran through the entire plain, dividing the snow into several dozen sections.
Was this the place?
It was.
He quietly and happily gazed at the snowy plain.
This snow was not actually snow, but crystals condensed from star radiance.
He could cultivate.
The star radiance was all here.
What should he do next?
He didn't take too long to think. This matter didn't need thinking about, nor was it up to him whether he could think about it or not.
In the instant he confirmed that this snow was star radiance, the small world also sensed it.
To observe and then draw a conclusion was to touch upon something.
To travel from the sky from the ground, to cross a distance of tens of thousands of li or that of a single finger, his spiritual sense needed only a moment's thought.
His spiritual sense fell in the southeast corner of the snowy plain on a section of the snow that was slowly beginning to drift away.