Chapter 554 – Vanished Names (1/2)

Chapter 554 - Vanished Names

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

The new Proclamation of Azure Sky had nothing new about it. The most famous person on it was actually Xuanyuan Po. In the Elder of Heavenly Secrets' concise and comprehensive commentary, this bear youth's techniques were extremely compatible with his body and were given an incredibly high assessment. As for the other new names, the vast majority were young men and women of not even fifteen and not many people recognized their names.

On that night last year, Chen Changsheng had drawn down an entire sky of starlight in the Mausoleum of Books, allowing many people to easily pass that most difficult barrier that was the threshold of Ethereal Opening. That bitter and miserable scene that would occur three or four times out of ten in the past years did not occur. Those familiar names once on the Proclamation of Azure Sky had all been removed and gone to the Proclamation of Golden Distinction.

Tang Thirty-Six had left the Proclamation of Azure Sky, but he was unable to enter the Proclamation of Golden Distinction. With his current position at the upper level of Ethereal Opening, this was an almost unimaginable occurrence. Upon hearing this news, he remained silent in the Orthodox Academy for a very long time. Only when he heard that Zhexiu and Su Moyu had also failed to make the list did he grow happy again.

With Chen Changsheng's assistance, although Zhexiu's Tide Rush of Blood had not been cured, he had once more made a breakthrough in cultivation. Coupled with his innately powerful and fearsome fighting power, the only reason he was not able to enter the Proclamation of Golden Distinction was that he had been too heavily injured in Zhou Prison and had not displayed his strength for a very long time.

Tang Thirty-Six and Su Moyu were unable to enter the proclamation only because the competition for this year's Proclamation of Golden Distinction was too fierce.

The demi-humans, who were scarcely visible on the Proclamation of Azure Sky, gave a full display of the particular characteristic of their race to explode in strength in the middle phase of their cultivation. They took up a full quarter of the rankings, and those three young demi-human experts ranked at the front were even rated by the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets as having a future chance of threatening the fifth-ranked demi-human expert on the Proclamation of Liberation, Xiao De.

The most shocking of all was Zhong Hui. This youth who had obtained third rank on the first banner in last year's Grand Examination had been cast into the gloom by the radiance of Chen Changsheng and Gou Hanshi, so much so that many people found it hard to remember his name. Who could have imagined that in this short span of a year, he had actually been able to break into the peak of Ethereal Opening! As a result, he seized fourth place on the Proclamation of Golden Distinction.

It was a pity that no matter how outstanding this Scholartree Manor student's performance was, it was still unable to completely suppress the dazzling radiance of a few certain individuals.

Gou Hanshi had viewed the monoliths in the Mausoleum of Books for half a year. After returning to Mount Li, he engaged in a duel by a cold stream with an initial level Star Condensation expert belonging to Xiao Songgong's faction and easily won.

This battle alone sufficed to have the Elder of Heavenly Secrets personally place him on the third rank of the Proclamation of Golden Distinction.

There was no second, because the first rank was shared by two people.

Upon seeing those two names, whether it was the denizens of the capital or the female disciples of South Stream Temple's outer sect, all were filled with emotion and shook their heads in silence.

Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong.

Whether or not that marriage contract had really been rendered invalid, it seemed that these two names would appear together until the end of time.

Many people thought that this was not predestination, but the entanglements of fate, not anything good to talk about.

Then what of the name that had always been tied to Xu Yourong's in the past?

Qiushan Jun had already successfully broken into Star Condensation, so he naturally could not remain on the Proclamation of Golden Distinction. He ceded the first rank to Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong.

But what stunned the entire continent was that his name was not to be found on the Proclamation of Liberation.

Qiushan Jun was too young, so it was only natural that he could not be put on the same level as those experts on the Proclamation of Liberation's upper ranks. Nobody believed that he could challenge powerful figures like Wang Po and Xiao Zhang, but given his current level of strength, he should still have been able to enter the tail end of the Proclamation of Liberation.

If he were truly able to enter the Proclamation of Liberation, even at its bottom-most rank, he would still be the youngest expert on the Proclamation of Liberation in the past one hundred years.

The entire continent had anticipated the arrival of this day, but all their hopes had come to naught.

The explanation the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets had for this was that because of the opening of the Garden of Zhou and the following demon conspiracy, and then adding on the self-stabbing during the internal strife of Mount Li, Qiushan Jun had been severely wounded and had not displayed his abilities for an entire year. As a consequence, it was impossible to appraise his current level of strength, so it could only be saved for later.

This explanation was very clear, but it was utterly lacking in persuasiveness. What sort of place was the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets? Even if Qiushan Jun had not confronted an enemy, could it be impossible to assess his level? This wasn't even discussing the fact that last year, Xuanyuan Po had entered the Proclamation of Azure Sky similarly without a single fight, so how was he able to be ranked?

The Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets gave no further explanation and very few people knew the real reason.

……

……

The world was very lively, but Mount Li was very quiet.

Before Su Li left, he had left a message: the disciples of the Mount Li Sword Sect should not be afraid of getting into trouble, but they shouldn't cause any trouble either.

”With the confluence of the north and south, the situation is unstable and those Zhou people and noble families of the south are too crafty and secretive. Since we're not their match, just live quietly in the mountain.”

These were his original words.

After Su Li left, there was a feeling of sinking down to the bottom and then rising up once more.

The second generation experts of the Sword Hall, Mount Li's most powerful experts, were all quietly resting due to their injuries. At present, Gou Hanshi and the other third generation disciples were administering affairs. Many people believed that these young swordsmen would find it very challenging to stabilize Mount Li. However, after that bloody battle in the mountain creek in which Guan Feibai severed sixteen hands, the Divine Kingdom's Seven Laws proved to the entire south why they were called the Seven Laws. This was because they strictly maintained discipline, their Dao hearts brightly lit. In the future, they would assuredly enter the Divine Kingdom amongst the sea of stars.

After removing the final effects of the internal strife, Mount Li finally returned to peace.

Gou Hanshi and the rest attentively studied, cultivated, planted crops, and in these calm days, comprehended the true meaning of the path of the sword.

On a certain night, Gou Hanshi awoke from his meditation and gazed off at the distant mountains. He only saw the silver starlight, but the once-familiar scene was suddenly accompanied by many different meanings and sounds.

He thought of his childhood, those difficult days in which the feeble mother and only son accompanied each other, and a sparkling and translucent aura appeared in his eyes.