Chapter 215 – Viewing the Monoliths in the Night by Lantern Light (Part One) (2/2)

To everyone there, Chen Changsheng’s first sentence was clearly to disregard Zhong Hui, while the second sentence was to politely put his foot down. Even those people that had previously jeered and ridiculed those Scholartree Manor scholars also believed that Chen Changsheng was humiliating Zhong Hui. Only Gou Hanshi realized by looking at Chen Changsheng’s expression that he was not setting out to humiliate Zhong Hui, but really just wanted Zhong Hui to move.

He shook his head and followed Chen Changsheng to Zhong Hui’s side.

His robe trembled in the night wind as Zhong Hui’s wrath reached a boiling point. His two fellow schoolmates were the same. The three were ready to attack Chen Changsheng at any time. However, when Gou Hanshi walked up between them and Chen Changsheng, they had no choice but to cool their tempers somewhat as they thought about the gap that lay between Meditation and Ethereal Opening…They were no match for Gou Hanshi. In other words, they were also no match for Chen Changsheng.

Since they could not beat him, their anger had no power. Although the two scholars from Scholartree Manor remained furious, Zhong Hui forced himself to calm down, then backed up several steps, letting Gou Hanshi and Chen Changsheng through. Looking at Chen Changsheng’s back, Zhong Hui said nothing, but the signs of a sneer appeared at the corners of his mouth. It was precisely as he had said before: these past two days, Chen Changsheng had rarely been seen in front of the monolith hut. To him, this was definitely all a pretense. He thought it impossible that Chen Changsheng would have the same sort of luck that carried him through the Grand Examination. Could it be that he would still be able to see a pattern in this monolith?

The starlight illuminated the Reflecting Monolith, making those complex lines seem lined with a layer of silver, as if mercury was slowly flowing through them. A vivid sensation that was hard to describe appeared before Chen Changsheng’s eyes. He did not use his spiritual sense, did not move his true essence through his meridians in accordance with those lines, nor did he attempt to extract some sort of sword form from the direction of the lines; he only calmly looked at it, perceived it, experienced it. He had confirmed that the picture he had seen at dawn was real, and that the picture made using his spiritual sense while daydreaming in the afternoon in that courtyard was also true. A smile gradually emerged on his face.

“Did you get something?” Gou Hanshi asked, somewhat surprised in his change of expression.

Chen Changsheng nodded. “I was originally a little hesitant because I felt it was too simple, but there were parts in the notebook that reminded me of something.”

“You’re still persevering on using the most primitive method of understanding?”

“It might be less intelligent it might be slower, but it fits me the best.”

Silence reigned around the monolith hut. Everyone was listening in, including Zhong Hui. Chen Changsheng and Gou Hanshi were publicly acknowledged as two of the world’s most erudite scholars of the Daoist Canon. When discussing the methods to comprehend the Heavenly Tome Monoliths, how could they miss the experience? Only, what was that notebook that Chen Changsheng had mentioned?

“What is this most primitive method of comprehension? To make the lines into numbers?” The senior sister from the Holy Maiden Peak, who knew Gou Hanshi well, asked curiously as she stepped forward.

Gou Hanshi glanced at Chen Changsheng.

“We think that the most primitive method discards everything about true essence, spiritual sense, and sword moves. It’s not turning lines into numbers, but…” Chen Changsheng turned around to look at the girl from Holy Maiden Peak as he seriously spoke. He was prepared to speak about his insights, explain his theories, that the true meaning of the Heavenly Tomes was hidden within the changes, when unexpectedly…

A cold admonishment rose up from the night.

“Ridiculous!”

A middle-aged man had at some point arrived, the expression on his face abnormally cold.

Upon seeing this man, Zhong Hui and the other two from Scholartree Manor suddenly became happy. They rapidly approached and paid him respects. “We have seen Martial Uncle.”

Chen Changsheng realized that the middle-aged man was the Monolith Guardian that had severely reprimanded him at dawn. Only now did he realize that this man had originally been a senior from the Scholartree Manor.

That middle-aged man walked to the front of the monolith hut. Staring at Gou Hanshi and Chen Changsheng, he sternly shouted at them, “Supposedly, your two juniors are masters of the Daoist Canon, but I didn’t think that you were actually just two ignorant children, only knowing how to talk a lot of nonsense!”