Chapter 428 – Granting Shining Light (2/2)
The black-clothed girl was very angry, the baleful air about her increasing even more and the temperature of the underground space plummeting like a stone.
The Tianhai Divine Empress did not care. The circle several dozen zhang in radius around her was still as warm as the spring, and the ground by her feet even seemed to be showing little starry points of green.
The world above the well was early summer at dusk, and there was a bit of summer heat in the air. The ice shop far in the distance was doing good business, but this place by the well was very cold. This was because many imperial bodyguards were walking around, and also because of those terrifying Snow Mastiffs resting on the grass under the tree. Mo Yu held the leash in her hands as she quietly waited.
When the figure of the Divine Empress appeared once more, she quickly went over and said, ”Prince Chen Liu also just went to the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education.”
The Divine Empress glanced at her and asked, ”What do you want to say?”
Mo Yu said, ”I can't understand, even if Chen Changsheng is Daoist Ji's student, is he really worth the Orthodoxy paying him so much attention? This…could it be some sort of camouflage technique?”
This sort of incomprehension was a question that the ministers and wise advisors had required her to ask as soon as possible, but perhaps not even she could perceive that this actually made the Empress lower her guard against Chen Changsheng a little more.
The Divine Empress said, ”The actions of the people in the Orthodoxy are best when they are deliberately mystifying. There is no need to understand them.”
This said, she began walking towards the Imperial City. Those two Snow Mastiffs noiselessly left the tree and followed behind her.
Watching the Empress's back, Mo Yu gave a slightly sarcastic smile. She thought to herself, if there really is no need to understand, why is it that when Chen Changsheng came to see the Black Dragon, Empress followed him?
Her inability to understand was because she did not know of the pact between the Divine Empress and the Black Dragon, nor of the existence of the jade ruyi.
Returning to the Imperial Palace, she gazed at the pool in front of her. As she thought about how Chen Changsheng had most likely emerged from this pool just a while ago, she also began to think of a much earlier time, about that first night in which Chen Changsheng first emerged from this pool—that youth did not care that he was deep in the palace on dangerous ground. When he saw a woman about to be struck by a flower pot knocked over by a panicked squirrel, he had rushed over.
The Divine Empress once more revealed a mocking smile, but it always seemed to give off the feeling of an elder teasing a junior.
With the slightest stimulation of her spiritual sense, the jade ruyi left her belt of its own accord and floated above the pool. The water of the pool fell into turmoil, as if it was boiling, and the pool began to give out clouds of mist.
A light shot out of the jade ruyi and projected onto the mist, and a picture gradually began to grow distinct—these were the scenes that the Black Dragon saw after leaving the capital with Chen Changsheng. Later on, there were many times when her soul had been asleep in the ruyi, but the ruyi, tied to Chen Changsheng's waist or on his wrist, had still recorded those scenes down.
Seeing these scenes, the Divine Empress grew quieter and quieter. The smile did not disappear, but it was no longer very mocking, leaving behind only a sort of interest.
The scenes quickly sped by, gradually transforming into streaks of light. It was many times faster than normal speed, and only a Saint like her would be able to make out the scenes clearly.
When the golden wings illuminated the night and the image of the heavily injured white-clothed girl appeared, the Divine Empress's brows leapt up, for the first time expressing a deep concern.
Xu Yourong was her most dearly beloved junior. Although she was disguised, it was impossible to conceal it from her eyes.
In the next scenes, Xu Yourong met Chen Changsheng, but neither of them knew who the other was. The Divine Empress silently smiled, most likely thinking this very amusing.
Eventually, she saw that unsetting sun at the edge of the plains, saw the surging tide of monsters, saw Xu Yourong not leaving, Chen Changsheng not abandoning, and saw that person's mausoleum.
The smile on her face gradually faded. She calmly gazed at the Mausoleum of Zhou in silence.
Eventually, the light dimmed and then everything vanished without a trace.
With a light wave of her hand, the scene went back to the place where Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng first met, and also the first place where their misunderstanding began.
That place was an isle of reeds at the edge of a lake, the two people having come across each other but not knowing who the other was.
The ruyi could not record the inner workings of Xu Yourong's mind, but the Divine Empress clearly knew what she was thinking about, why she had never connected that unconscious youth with Chen Changsheng who she had an engagement with—no matter who it was, nobody thought Chen Changsheng looked like a fifteen-year-old youth. He was too unflustered and calm, even when he was unconscious. Back then, when Xu Yourong had looked over, she had thought this person was around twenty years old. Then, just how could this person be Chen Changsheng?
The Divine Empress stood in front of the pool for a very long time, and what she thought about was unknown.
Suddenly, she looked at Xu Yourong in the scene and said, ”Originally, even you felt he wasn't fifteen years old.”
The night wind breezed through the grass. At some point, a chief eunuch had arrived outside the palace hall.
She asked, ”What?”
The chief eunuch reported in a low voice, ”There are still no new clues in the case. Lord Zhou Tong also did not discover anything in Xining Village…only that crazy Lord Hu on the Imperial Board of Astronomy still continues to insist…that Crown Prince Zhaoming is still alive.”
He had been with the Divine Empress for several hundred years and had experienced countless great matters, but when he mentioned what that insane Lord Hu had said, his voice still could not help but tremble.
The Divine Empress gazed up at the night sky at a certain place where a star should have existed. For what seemed like ages, she said nothing.
(TN: The chapter title, ‘Granting Shining Light’, is a line from one of the poems of the ‘Classic of Poetry’, 诗经. The poem in question wishes blessings and shining light 昭明 to the king, as well as wishing that he is blessed with sons and daughters and a long life. If you have the translation of the Classic of Poetry/Book of Songs by Arthur Waley, the poem is number 202. In this case, the 'shining light' also refers to the name of Crown Prince Zhaoming 昭明, so it can also mean 'Granting you a son, Zhaoming'.)