Chapter 495 – Entering the Garden of Zhou Again (2/2)

Then now, he had to turn everything around. He wanted to use the Intellectual Sword to unlock the Heavenly Tome Monolith. He did not wish to do as he had done in the Mausoleum of Books, viewing the monoliths to be enlightened in the Dao and comprehend. He wanted to break it.

(TN: This paragraph plays on the word 解. 解开 means ‘unlock’,理解 means ‘comprehend’, and 破解 means ‘break’.)

He wished to find a path in these lines on the surface of the black monolith, to find the Divine Kingdom amongst the orbits of the stars, to find the truth amongst the illusory fate…and then use his sword to break through.

After quite a long time had passed, he closed his eyes.

After another span of time had passed, he opened his eyes, and his sword stabbed at the surface of the black monolith.

His spiritual sense was currently within the sheath, his body outside of it.

His sword was in the sheath, but it was not within the sheath.

But the moment he attacked, the Stainless Sword was summoned by his will and came to be gripped in his hand.

The Stainless Sword pierced through the air and fell upon the black monolith. It clearly stabbed at the intersection of countless lines, yet for some reason, when the point fell upon the monolith, it landed on a white space.

There was a pop like a bubble in a pond being popped by some naughty frog.

There was a rumble as the ocean of sword intent behind him curled up into a monstrous wave that reached the heavens.

Before his eyes, the black monolith rapidly lightened and then turned into a pure white.

That was light.

And also the sky.

He drew his gaze back from the sky, lowering his head to look at the plain around. He saw those three mountain ranges in the distance, saw the miserable grass of the wilderness.

With a howl of cold wind, his sleeves were blown around.

This was the Garden of Zhou.

He stood at the place in the Garden of Zhou that was closest to the sky and also the place that was furthest from the ground.

He was standing at the peak of the Mausoleum of Zhou.

……

……

Early morning at the Orthodox Academy had long since ceased being so peaceful and quiet. The Separate Garden was somewhat better. Zhexiu was lying on his bed, recovering from his injuries. Although Tang Thirty-Six was much more diligent than before, it was impossible for him to wake up at five. Xuanyuan Po made his way along the lake from the kitchen on the other side and arrived in front of the house. Looking at a certain window on the second floor of the house, he shouted, ”Chen Changsheng, come down and eat.”

Previously on the other side of the lake, he had seen very clearly that Chen Changsheng was by the window. From this, he knew that it was already five o'clock. The Orthodox Academy had never required a timekeeping device—Chen Changsheng served that purpose.

There was no response from the window.

Xuanyuan Po waved around the fat blue lobster in his hand, shouting, ”This is really tasty when taken with chili oil and flour mantou. I left one especially for you. Hurry on down, or else Tang Thirty-Six will hear and come steal it from us.”

There was still no answer.

Xuanyuan Po felt somewhat bewildered. Clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp, he made his way upstairs. Pushing open the door to Chen Changsheng's room, he said, ”Brushing teeth shouldn't take this long.”

There was no reply because there was no one in the room. The window was open, the morning breeze gusting in and lifting up a corner of the bedsheets.

……

……

Chen Changsheng looked at the Stainless Sword in his right hand, confirming that the sword was real.

Then he confirmed that he himself was real.

This signified that he really had entered the Garden of Zhou. In other words, he had re-discovered the Garden of Zhou.

That illusion of the black monolith now seemed like the path to the Garden of Zhou. As for the black monolith's original body, it should be the key to the Garden of Zhou.

He clearly remembered that when he was leaving the Garden of Zhou, the sky had been collapsing.

Of the miniature worlds discovered by humans, the Garden of Zhou was the most stable and also the largest. Ultimately, however, it was still a shard of space and could not possibly be as firm as its source world. So whether it was him or Zhu Luo and Mei Lisha outside Hanqiu City, they had all believed that the Garden of Zhou had definitely been annihilated. No one had imagined that the Garden of Zhou still existed. It had managed to re-establish its laws and then, truly and with great difficulty, stabilized itself once more.

……But a big change had already occurred.

It truly had not been too long since he departed from the Garden of Zhou. It had definitely not even been half a year, but the Garden of Zhou was already incredibly different.

This world had become much more overgrown, much more ruined, perhaps a result of that catastrophe in which the heavens and earth were overturned. The ground was covered in cracks and the water in the sea of grass had grown turbid. In the distant mountains, signs of landslides could be seen. The mountain springs had dried, as had many of the small lakes. The earth was a picture of desolation, and the green trees were caked with dust. The entire sight was extremely miserable.

The cries of insects could no longer be heard from the sea of grass, and the grass itself was on the verge of dying. There were naturally no shoals of fish, but if one looked closely, one could spot a few fish with their bellies up, weakly spitting out a few bubbles.

Even that sun in the sky, that disk of light, had grown somewhat dim.

……