Chapter 57 – The Prisoner of Tong Palace (2/2)

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He looked around the ruined garden. There were old walls, autumn trees, dried lotuses on the lake, and old petals beneath the berry trees that weren’t blown away by the wind.

Although he never saw this sight before, he felt that he had seen it a long time ago.

He never traveled ten thousand miles, so he didn’t see too many sights.

But he read ten thousand scrolls and traveled ten thousand miles in the books. He saw many sights there.

After memorizing the view around the lake in his heart, he sat down around the lake and closed his eyes and concentrated his mind. Then he started thinking back to the books he read before.

There were the Scrolls of the Way, there were scattered articles, there were fables, and there were traveling diaries.

Those were the books he read in the old temple of Xi Ning Village and in the library of the Tradition Academy.

He sat next to the lake and his eyes were closed, but countless books were flipping in front of his eyes.

The cold wind seemed to know these words and kept on flipping the books and stopping at the pages he wanted to see.

Those pages contained pictures and context.

“The Travel of Nan Ke”*

“Zhu Dian Yuan Hou Luan”

“Zhen Lei Ben Chao”

(The latter two are just book names and I can’t find the meaning of them, not relevant either I believe)

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Chen Chang Sheng opened his eyes and stood up. Once again, he glanced around the ruined garden.

The ruined garden was still the ruined garden, the cold lake was still the cold lake. But currently in his eyes, they were completely different.

The few petals scattered around the lake seemed to be irrelevant and without meaning, but this view was the same throughout four seasons and never changed. The only thing that changed was that only the trees were still living.

The edge of the lake contained many rocks and there were no break between them. But on the other side of the lake, which was close to the old walls, the rocks weren’t there. It seemed to be an exit in the darkness, but he knew it wasn’t an exit but rather an unfinished stroke.

A dozen berry trees seemed to line up here.

This was the character “Tong.”

There was a story in “The Travel of Nan Ke.” There was a picture in “Zhen Lei Ben Chao”. There was a mentioning of a burned down palace in Zhu Dian Yuan Hou Lun”.

That palace was named Tong Palace.

The Tong Palace that killed an emperor in his sleep.

It was also a formation created by a Pope who used all of his energy.

Even after Chen Chang Sheng recognized this ruined garden and this cold lake, what could he do?

Unless he reached the legendary Saint stage, he cannot forcefully break out of this Tong Palace.

Of course, there is a door to any place. Every formation has its living exit.

But in the history of mankind, no one dared to leave from the living exit of Tong Palace.

Many years ago, the Tong Palace which was burned to ashes had grim reapers guarding outside of its living exit. People can still barely live in the palace, but they will surely die after they leave.

Because charm and harm always come together. The so called “living exit” may actually be one’s final destination.

Chen Chang Sheng knew where the living exit of Tong Palace was.

As the wind blows, the water will rise.

When the wind finished blowing but was yet to stop, where the water was low but was yet to rise.

He stared at the cold lake that was in front of him and stayed silent.

The sophisticated music from Wei Yang Palace entered the ruined garden from a distance.

The southern ambassadors sat down and everyone was ready.

He didn’t think much further and walked towards the depths of the cold lake.

*Translator Note: The Travel of Nan Ke: I believe the author was referencing to a chinese idiom, Nan Ke Yi Meng(南柯一梦) Which directly translates to “The Dream of Nan Ke”. The basic story of this idiom is that a person was drunk and fell asleep under a big tree. Then he dreamt that he was appointed as the governor of the Nan Ke City and climbed his way up the social ladder. After twenty years of hard working, he was trusted by his king and respected by his people, but suddenly, a neighboring kingdom attacked and he was defeated. This caused him to lose all of his power and he woke in the real world in his house. This dream made him realize that the fortune and glory in this world is gained and lost too quickly. At last, he turned to Taoism and became a hermit.

Thanks for the feedback on translator note and I took the advice of leaving them on the end of the chapter to not disturb the flow of the story.