Chapter 56: A Question of Character
Seeing this young man with a handsome face and easygoing bearing, Chen Changsheng calmly bowed, but his mood was by no means as calm.
Prince Chen Liu possessed the blood of the Imperial clan and so naturally possessed outstanding talent. It was just that he had grown up in deep within the palace—his status was far too noble. He also would not participate in the Grand Examination, so there was no opportunity for him to display his strength. But the Principal of the Heavenly Dao Academy and the Guardians of the palace all said that with his strength, it would have been very easy for him to enter the Proclamation of Azure Sky back then. At the moment, he was already twenty, but as long as he desired, there was also a place for him on the Proclamation of Golden Distinction.
However, for him to be able to obtain the respect of a valued Divine General like Xu Shiji had nothing to do with his Imperial blood or his strength, only that the Divine Empress treated him differently from the rest, having him remain in the capital. This fact had attracted innumerable speculations—could it be that the Divine Empress had chosen him to inherit the imperial throne of the Great Zhou Dynasty?
There were many people who thought this way, but in these past few years, the Tianhai clan had been acting in an incredibly unbridled fashion, and in the end, Prince Chen Liu was still surnamed Chen. The Divine Empress had never put forth a clear stance, so still nobody knew what sort of role he would play in the future of the Great Zhou Dynasty. As a result, the people of the capital treated him with a very complex mood, reverential and yet forced to keep their distance.
Xu Shiji was a Divine General of the Great Zhou Dynasty and was deeply trusted by the Divine Empress. Because he had once suppressed a rebellion of the Imperial clan, he had many enemies amongst the court. Consequently, his attitude towards Prince Chen Liu was even more cautious, but he also was forced to try and do some things for him, or at least not offend him.
He knew that Prince Chen Liu was representing the Divine Empress tonight in presiding over the Ivy Festival, responsible for receiving the southern diplomatic mission that had traveled from afar. Yet he did not expect that he would meet Prince Chen Liu outside the hall, and that the prince would even use his words to, intentionally or unintentionally, remind him about a few things and protect Chen Changsheng.
Xu Shiji confirmed that Chen Changsheng's engagement with his family was not known by anyone else, so the sudden appearance and protection of Prince Chen Liu could only be due to the Orthodox Academy. This made him recall the rumors that had been recently spreading through the capital, making him feel uneasy.
Prince Chen Liu glanced at Xu Shiji and then smiled at Chen Changsheng, asking, "Is there any matter that requires this Prince's help?"
His voice was not too fast or too slow, his appearance gentle and amiable. The feeling he gave to others was truly very much like a spring breeze, making others warm and content.
At the beginning, Chen Changsheng had not understood why this prince's words were protecting him, but this question was easily resolved upon hearing those words. He was even more grateful upon hearing these earnest and gentle words, saying, "Many thanks to Your Highness for your concern."
"There's no need to thank me. In truth, for a child like you to be a fish in the moat suffering disaster while we useless fellows just watch from the city gates, I should be apologizing instead."
Prince Chen Liu smiled as he spoke. His words were very casual, but his tone was very sincere.
Only when the city gate was on fire would the fish in the moat be affected.
If not for the new and conservative factions of the Great Zhou Dynasty using the matter of the Orthodox Academy once more taking in new students to stir a storm, Chen Changsheng would just be an ordinary youth that nobody knew. How would it be possible for everyone in the capital to pay attention to him, how could there possibly be so much trouble?
Prince Chen Liu did not know of those stories between Chen Changsheng and the Divine General of the East's estate, only thinking that Xu Shiji was making trouble for him. It was precisely for all those aforementioned troubles that it was only right that Prince Chen Liu, as a member of the Imperial clan, should apologize to Chen Changsheng.
Of course, a county prince apologizing to an ordinary person like Chen Changsheng was proof that he really was a very easygoing person. Moreover, in Xu Shiji's presence, in the middle of the Imperial Palace, he did not avoid speaking about the conflict between the Divine Empress and the old Imperial clan, making him seem all the more impressive and confident.
"My thanks to Your Highness."
Chen Changsheng truly did like this county prince, saying, "If a matter comes up that I must trouble Your Highness over, I will inform you."
"Very good, I like just this sort of personality, and I'm not afraid of trouble either."
Prince Chen Liu smiled and patted him on the shoulder, then walked into the hall, his bodyguards emerging from the darkness to follow. Before leaving, he glanced at Xu Shiji, his eyes calm and gentle. There was clearly no warning in these eyes, yet they brimmed with warning nonetheless.
The gentle and watery light of the Night Pearls passed through the bright paper of the windows and became somewhat unstable.
Xu Shiji's face was illuminated in this light, somewhat temperamental.
Prince Chen Liu proceeded within, but his words remained outside the hall, the night wind unable to scatter them.
Xu Shiji could no longer say anything to Chen Changsheng. His face a sheet of frost, he noted, "Your luck is very good."
Chen Changsheng thought this over and then said, "Perhaps it has to do with my character being rather good."
Saying this, he smiled.
To many people, Chen Changsheng possessed a maturity and composure beyond his age because he had always kept very calm, seldom showing great happiness or sorrow. When meeting with people he wasn't very close with, he would always adhere strictly to etiquette, not even smiling much.
But he was now smiling very happily, because he was standing in front of Xu Shiji.
Xu Shiji was also smiling as if he found the response of a small child very interesting, very naive, but his smile was very ugly.
Truthfully, Weiyang Palace was not a main hall, nor was it the inner palace in which the Divine Empress dwelled. There were even some abandoned gardens nearby. In the current deep darkness, a pitch-black goat slowly ambled through the weeds of an abandoned garden. Its eyes reflected the starlight, and were extremely dark and serene.
Xu Shiji gazed into the darkness at that place, his brows slightly furrowing. He said no more, returning to the great hall with a flick of his sleeves.
Chen Changsheng had also seen the Black Goat.
The Black Goat quietly looked at him and then began walking away from the hall. After walking a little while, it stopped and turned its head to glance at him as if it was guiding him.
Chen Changsheng understood the Black Goat's meaning: it wanted him to leave the palace.
Although it was impossible for the two of them to communicate, and although he was extremely sure that this Black Goat had nothing but goodwill for him, he faintly sensed that this might signify that tonight's matter had not yet concluded. There was even a chance that the true trial, or danger, had only just begun.
However, he did not follow, because he wanted to attend today's Ivy Festival.
Even now, he still had not decided what he should do when the southern diplomatic mission proposed, but he wanted to personally see it.
Perhaps when he saw it, he would know what he should do.
...
...
The Black Goat disappeared into the darkness.
Chen Changsheng stood in the light outside the hall, thinking about the terrifying Qi that Xu Shiji had exuded, and knew that he had been in great danger at the time.
Xu Shiji had said that his luck was good. This was because of Prince Chen Liu's sudden appearance.
His answer was "Perhaps it has to do with my character being rather good."
Character was that one's morality and principles remained uncompromised, unharmed.
And one on the side of justice would inevitably receive the most assistance.
This was a principle that he had learned from the three thousand scriptures of the Daoist Canon.
Leaving Xining Village and coming to the capital, he had suffered many suppressions, humiliations, and probings, but similarly, there had also been many people that had helped, like the Archbishop of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education, Priest Xin, Prince Chen Liu, and also that Black Goat that had disappeared into the darkness.
Why had these people helped him? He was well aware that it had nothing to do with justice or principles. After coming to the capital, he had received some humiliations and pressures that he should not have, and this help was something he originally shouldn't have had. Many matters had only been because of misunderstandings.
Only the Divine General of the East's estate and that important personage in the palace knew of the engagement between him and Xu Yourong, nobody else. His entering the Orthodox Academy and the humiliations and blows sent at him by the Divine General of the East's estate over these past few months were believed by many people to have some deeper meaning.
The Orthodox Academy was a lake that no one had ever visited before, and within this lake grew many wild lotuses.
He was just a passing traveler that had mistakenly come upon this abandoned lake. He just wanted to take a small boat to the other side, but when he took up the oar, he startled a flock of herons.
Right as he was thinking this, a shrill cry of a bird came from the distant darkness, and then there was a faint splash of water.
He didn't know whether this was some nocturnal bird hunting for food or being hunted.
Chen Changsheng turned to that pitch-black darkness, wariness in his heart.
Just then, there was a voice.
This voice came from deep in the darkness, yet it did not scatter within the darkness.
This voice came from deep within the palaces, yet it did not scatter amongst the collection of palaces.
This voice rang out directly in his ear and then fell directly upon his heart.
This was a very crisp, very moving voice, just like the scent of tanghulu in the winter, but it was also just as cold as the winter.
"You are Chen Changsheng?"
It was quiet all around. The music from within Weiyang Palace was very soft after passing through the window paper. The rustling of the leaves in the autumn wind from the trees in the distance was very soft after crossing the vast plaza. That voice that directly rang out in his heart was similarly soft, yet it was also like a clap of thunder.
If the average person were to suddenly hear a voice ring out in their mind, they would certainly grow panicked and uneasy, but Chen Changsheng had no reaction. He stared into the many palace halls in the darkness, attempting to find the position of the speaker.
He was well-versed in the Daoist Canon, so he knew that some Star Condensation experts could very easily send their voices into the ears of ordinary people.
"You are much more cool-headed than I imagined, or perhaps it is dullness?"
That voice rang out once more.
"I only hope that you are somewhat smarter than I imagine you to be."
There was a woman in the Imperial Palace who had cultivated to the Star Condensation Realm at a very young age. To utterly disregard the words Prince Chen Liu had left behind, one could imagine how terrifying her power and status were. Her identity had long been on the point of being disclosed: it was precisely the important personage of the palace that Chen Changsheng was thinking about just a few moments ago.
He gazed at the many palace halls in the darkness and calmly bowed. "I have seen Grand Lady Mo."
The voice vanished for a time as if surprised that Chen Changsheng was able to immediately guess at her identity, or perhaps because she was not used to this sort of address.
The owner of this voice was legendary Lady Mo Yu.
The woman, or even person, with the second-most authority in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
"You can call me Lady Mo Yu."
"Yes, Grand Lady Mo."
For some reason, Chen Changsheng was feeling rather willful tonight.
Possibly because he knew the reason for Mo Yu's sudden appearance.
"You truly are a very smart youth."
"Thank you."
"In these past few days, a storm has been stirring in the capital, yet you stayed in the Orthodox Academy, never leaving. This is why I said you are smart."
"Thank you."
"But this sort of smartness…it unavoidably feels somewhat shameless."
"Please instruct me."
"You guessed at Luoluo's identity, so you hid behind her. Could this not be shameless?"
"You were the one who arranged for me to enter the Orthodox Academy. You know that I only want to read and cultivate—I didn't think about matters to this extent."
"But you still are using her."
"This is her intention."
"Any man with spirit would not deceive such a naive and pure-hearted girl."
"How have I deceived her?"
"If you did not deceive her, how could someone with her identity acknowledge you as a teacher?"
Hearing this question, Chen Changsheng fell silent for a few moments, and then he said to the darkness, "Perhaps it's because my character is rather good."
Chapter 57: A Question of Fairness
Chen Changsheng had only said what he truly thought. However, to onlookers, his words would seem like ridicule mixed with some shamelessness. It was very obvious that Mo Yu was thinking this way, her voice slightly gloomy as she said, "Let us discuss the engagement."
"That is a matter between me and the Divine General of the East's estate."
"You clearly understand that this is not a fact. This matter must be resolved somehow."
The two spoke very calmly and unquestionably.
Mo Yu's voice was as cold as ice. "If there were not someone that insisted on your survival, the marriage contract in your bosom would, in truth, be nothing more than a scrap of waste paper."
For a powerful figure like her, although the marriage contract had the signature of the Pope and was very special, it would be easy to render the marriage contract ineffective. The simplest method was to just kill Chen Changsheng—with the person dead, the marriage contract would just be waste paper.
Chen Changsheng gazed into the darkness and said, "Many people saw me enter the palace."
Mo Yu replied, "Who would care if a person like you lived or died?"
Chen Changsheng answered, "I'm now a student of the Orthodox Academy, so many people will care…in the past few days, those people did not appear, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. They are watching the Orthodox Academy, watching me, and also watching all of you."
As he said this, he very naturally thought of the Archbishop of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education.
Even now, he still had not even spoken a word with the archbishop, but he knew that the source of the Orthodox Academy's changes lay with him.
"Killing me is a very simple matter, but simultaneously also a very troublesome one."
He continued, "You could think of a way to have Luoluo leave my side, but you have no means of making those gazes resting upon the Orthodox Academy take their leave."
Mo Yu's voice was somewhat apathetic. "My desire to kill you has nothing to do with the Orthodox Academy. Those old fellows are not even present in my eyes."
"Yes, your wanting to kill me has nothing to do with the Orthodox Academy. It's a pity that nobody knows, nor would anyone believe that."
Chen Changsheng ended, "Unless I announce my engagement with Xu Yourong to the world. Then I would think that everyone in the world might support you killing me. The problem is that this would bring on its own set of problems, so I really want to know, just what do you plan to do?"
Upon coming to the capital, especially after entering the Orthodox Academy, he seemed to disregard all things except the sound of the wind, rain, and reading. He passed his days very calmly, but in reality, he and the Orthodox Academy had always been within the wind and rain, their positions both very unstable.
(TN: 'The sound of wind, rain, and reading' is part of a line written by a major figure of the Donglin Academy. The full line is "The sound of wind, the sound of rain, the sound of studying, sound after sound enters one's ear. The matters of home, the matters of state, the matters of the world, matter after matter is one's concern." Its meaning is that when studying, one should not forget about one's country.)
In these past few weeks, he had remained in the Orthodox Academy, studying and bitterly cultivating, not once stepping past the academy's gates. Just as Mo Yu had said, he was using Luoluo's background to intimidate those who attempted to do him harm. Although Luoluo had proposed this idea herself, he was the one that had agreed to it. At the same time, he had used the history and recovering prestige of the Orthodox Academy and aimed it at the other party of the still-unknown engagement, making it so that even the Divine General of the East's estate found it inconvenient to move. Only this way could he ensure his safety.
As an ordinary youth from the remote Xining going up against the powerful and wealthy families of the capital, and even an important personage of the Imperial Palace, he had already made all the responses he could think of. He was thankful to his identity as a new student of the Orthodox Academy, thankful to his so-called character, for allowing to him persevere until tonight.
"What a nasty little schemer you are."
Lady Mo Yu's voice made no effort to conceal her contempt and sarcasm. "It's a pity that little people have never seen the ocean, so how can they understand what it means to be vast? They have never plucked stars from the sky, so how can they know what it means to be boundless? You are just a summer insect that knows nothing of ice and snow."
Chen Changsheng suddenly felt an intense uneasiness. His right hand gripped the rhino horn button in his sleeve, and his left gripped the hilt of his dagger.
But he was too late.
His mind suddenly felt dazzled and the scenes in front of his eyes grew blurry.
The sights of the Imperial Palace in the darkness had originally been rather indistinct, but the blurriness in front of his eyes was clearly different.
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 this 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, 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.
But in 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 in 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 chilling.
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 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 just what is 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.
"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."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
12 Power
stone 
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