Chapter 432 – No Man At the Ferry, the Mausoleum Opens On Its Own (1/2)
Chapter 432 - No Man At the Ferry, the Mausoleum Opens On Its Own
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Early in the morning on the third day, Tianhai Ya'er and that tall man promptly arrived in front of the Orthodox Academy's gate. Quite a few spectators from the capital had also already arrived.
In the previous two days, Chen Changsheng had severely exhausted his spiritual sense but had still failed to open that black monolith on the other side of the ocean of sword intent. Today, he was prepared to temporarily halt his endeavors for a day.
He sat in the library and began to read and study.
There was a sudden wind, then it began to rain. The sound of the wind, the sound of the rain, and the sound as he read through books mingled with the sound of cursing from the other side of the walls; as one sound fell, another rose, but none of them clashed with the others.
Chen Changsheng could shut out all disturbances from his mind, but other people could not. The common folk of the capital already had an extremely awful impression of the Tianhai clan, and they were completely lacking in favorable opinions of Tianhai Ya'er, who had obtained an evil reputation early on. By noon, when those spectators drenched in the rain realized that Tianhai Ya'er's obscenities were all the same old curses and had cycled around to the very beginning, someone finally booed, followed by a few mocking laughs.
Tianhai Ya'er sat in his wheelchair, his face getting increasingly pale and the expression in his eyes growing increasingly ruthless. He raised his right hand. As a result, a conflict erupted between the crowd and the Tianhai clan's followers. The priests of the Li Palace and the guards were a little late in rushing over. Two ordinary commoners were injured and one follower of the Tianhai clan had been beaten up by the crowd until he was covered in blood.
The priests were incensed and demanded that the guards immediately clear out Hundred Flowers Lane. Simultaneously, they were no longer prepared to wait for the discussion amongst their higher-ups to conclude, and decided to escort Tianhai Ya'er and that other person away. At this very moment, Tianhai Ya'er slapped his injured leg and shrilly shouted, ”Murder!”
”The Li Palace is powerful, they're going to hound somebody to death! They hounded Liang Xiaoxiao to death, they hounded Zhuang Huanyu to death, and now they're going to hound me to death!”
”Come, I'll be watching you! If you hound me to death, just how are you going to explain it to my great-aunt!”
The Li Palace priests were all enraged, but they couldn't lay a hand on him.
Ever since the Divine Empress replaced Emperor Xian in reading memorials and took hold of the Imperial Court, in the following two hundred years, the Tianhai clan supplanted the Chen Imperial clan as the number one clan on the continent. The current Imperial Court of the Great Zhou was filled with the children and disciples of the Tianhai clan and their power had flourished magnificently. Crucially, all the juniors of the Tianhai clan shared a common great-aunt—the Divine Empress.
Gazing around him at the eye-catching and brightly-colored plum blossoms and then turning to the tired expression of the archbishop, Priest Xin felt a complex set of emotions. He said, ”If they continue to make such a ruckus, it'll be too much of a loss of face.”
Mei Lisha slowly opened his eyes and gazed out the window. ”In any case, since the Tianhai clan has already lost their face for so many years, they won't care about it.”
Priest Xin asked, ”Just how do we take care of this matter? If there's really no other option, I will bring some people and drive Tianhai Ya'er away.”
Mei Lisha emotionlessly said, ”Could it be that you cannot see that this is all a smoke screen?”
”A smoke screen?” Priest Xin suddenly remembered that piece of news that had come from the Li Palace and asked in astonishment, ”Is Your Eminence speaking of that matter the two archbishops brought up a few days ago?”
Of the so-called Six Prefects of the Orthodoxy, in terms of qualifications and status, Mei Lisha was without question the head of the Six Prefects, but the other five were all considerably frightening personages. Mao Qiuyu was no longer the Principal of the Heavenly Dao Academy. He had been appointed as the Archbishop of the Hall of Illustrious Persons and had become one of the Orthodoxy's Six Prefects. The two archbishops that Priest Xin was speaking of now were the archbishops of the Hall of Subjugation and the Hall of Shadow Steps. (TN: It was previously stated that Mao Qiuyu was appointed Archbishop of the Hall of Subjugation. From now on, the author states that Mao Qiuyu was appointed Archbishop of the Hall of Illustrious Persons.)
Several years ago, these two archbishops had grown concerned that the Demon race was flourishing by the day. In order that the Orthodoxy could increase the battle prowess of human cultivators, they put forth a proposal—amongst the Six Ivies, excluding Star Seizer Academy, the teachers and students of these academies could challenge each other as long as they were of the same cultivation level. Without ample reason or an exception from the Li Palace, the target of this challenge could not refuse. Of course, there were also many additional rules and limitations.
No matter which angle you examined it from, this proposal was very reasonable and necessary. As a result, when it was first suggested, it received the support of all the halls and schools. The Imperial Court also praised it and Star Seizer Academy even demanded to be added into it. The problem was that those two archbishops that had made this proposal had been the Pope's most loyal assistants, but now, the entire continent knew that they firmly stood on the side of the Divine Empress—yes, these two archbishops were exactly the two that Mei Lisha had said had not yet made the turn few days ago. Now that the entire continent, especially the priests of the Li Palace, were all focused on the ruckus in front of the gate of the Orthodox Academy, these two archbishops were once more preparing to promote this plan. Just what were they up to?
Priest Xin suddenly understood and his heart chilled. ”His Holiness…will not agree.”
”But is there a reason not to agree?” Mei Lisha's voice was rather exhausted.
”The Orthodox Academy currently only has Chen Changsheng and Xuanyuan Po. Even if Tang Tang comes out of the Mausoleum of Books, there are still too few students. According to the rules of that proposal, the Orthodox Academy is too disadvantaged…”
”Two years ago when this proposal was made, the Orthodox Academy didn't have a single person, so you cannot accuse them of deliberately targeting the Orthodox Academy.”
Finally, Mei Lisha added, ”Currently, the Orthodox Academy only has three and a half students, but that is the Orthodox Academy's own problem to address.”
At night, Priest Xin went to the Orthodox Academy and relayed the situation to Chen Changsheng.
”That person is called Zhou Ziheng (自横). He came from the Temple Seminary and is a priest of the Hall of Subjugation. He is a teacher at the Temple Seminary as well as an honored guest of the Tianhai clan.”
”No man at the ferry, the boat drifts there, on its own?” (野渡无人舟自横)
”Zhou (周), the Zhou from ‘careful’ (周密).”
”Which 'heng' is it?”