Chapter 631 – Tonight (1/2)
Chapter 631 – Tonight
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The Tianhai Divine Empress ascended the Divine Path paved with white jade.
The Mausoleum of Books was the continent's most unique location. In this place, the laws and principles of the world all had an enormous effect. Even supreme experts who had transcended the Divine Domain could not fly. They could only rely on their two feet to ascend. Of course, besides an unparalleled expert like her, other people simply didn't even have a hope of taking one step onto the Divine Path.
This was the first time Chen Changsheng had stepped upon the Mausoleum of Books' Divine Path, although his feet didn't even touch its surface.
This was a place that countless cultivators only dreamed of setting foot on, and he had once seen with his own eyes as Xun Mei attempted to charge into the Divine Path and died, leaving an even deeper impression upon him.
At this moment, seeing the Divine Path under the starlight, so sacred and pure that it did not seem to belong to this world, he had no time to feel emotional. What he first thought of was many questions.
Why had the Divine Empress brought him to this place? Why had she left Divine General Han Qing with those words at the bottom of the path? The entire world knew that the army of the Great Zhou Dynasty was under the command of the thirty-eight Divine Generals, and the vast majority of these thirty-eight were loyal to the Divine Empress, except…the one at the very top, Divine General Han Qing.
Divine General Han Qing was the sole remaining member of the Divine Generals from Taizong's era, even older than Divine General Fei Dian. When he was scourging the snowy plains, the Divine Empress was still deep within the palace, so there should have been no old friendship between the two. It was said that he had pledged his life to Emperor Taizong, and the reason he had guarded the mausoleum for six centuries without leaving was that Emperor Taizong had left behind a final order that he should do so. But previously, the attitude the Divine Empress assumed when speaking to him seemed to indicate that she was very sure he would obey her decree, so why was this?
The Divine General had probably gotten infinitely close to the Divine Domain many years ago and was widely acknowledged as the strongest if one excluded the Five Saints and Eight Storms. There was even a theory that if he had not been standing guard over the Mausoleum of Books for six centuries, perhaps he would have long since broken through that threshold and entered the Divine Domain! If he was actually an expert that the Divine Empress had arranged to be in the Mausoleum of Books, the Divine Empress's opponents would undoubtedly be extremely shocked.
The dark clouds formed again and the starlight vanished once more. The pure and sacred Divine Path also grew gloomy under the darkness, now somewhat chilling to behold.
Just as Chen Changsheng was thinking about these things, the Divine Path under the Tianhai Divine Empress's feet became a stream of clear water flowing west, flowing into the distance, and she had already come to its source.
The source of this river was the highest point of the Mausoleum of Books, as well as the highest point of the capital.
The Tianhai Divine Empress loosened her grip and threw him to the ground. Clasping her hands behind her, she walked to the edge of the Divine Path and gazed at the world below the Mausoleum of Books.
The altitude of this place was even higher than the Dew Platform. When she looked over this world, she naturally looked down upon it, naturally viewed it from high above, because this had always been her world.
Very few people were able to stand on the peak of the Mausoleum of Books. After Emperor Xian returned to the sea of stars, only the Divine Empress and the Pope had come.
Chen Changsheng was the third person to reach this place, but he felt no honor in it, because he had been carried up, and he was also in incredible pain, about to die at any moment.
On his first time in the Mausoleum of Books, Chen Changsheng had personally witnessed that Xun Mei had been willing to pay his life to ascend to the peak of the Mausoleum of Books. Seeing now that he had managed to reach the peak without effort, Chen Changsheng felt rather downcast, rather sorrowful.
Although he was downcast and sad, he still looked all around him, wanting to clearly see this place's scenery and remember it. It wasn't out of any desire for the Great Dao nor was it out of curiosity. He only wanted to see it in place of Senior Xun Mei, and if he truly could meet with those people who had passed away in the Divine Kingdom above the stars, he could tell Xun Mei just what this place looked like.
The summit of the Mausoleum of Books was very ordinary and unremarkable, just like the summit of any other mountain. The only difference was a stone plain.
But this was still the place that all cultivators dreamed of reaching, so it was impossible for it to be as ordinary as it seemed.
Chen Changsheng's meridians were currently all shattered and no waves could form in his sea of consciousness, so he could not send out his spiritual sense. Even so, he could sense that on this stone plain and the surrounding forest and rocks, profound and incomprehensible laws and principles existed. Moreover, these laws that should have been invisible and ethereal seemed to be nigh corporeal, but in his current state, it was impossible for him to see them.
This mountain was the Mausoleum of Books because of the many Heavenly Tome Monoliths upon it, so would the peak of the Mausoleum of Books also have a Heavenly Tome Monolith?
His gaze moved about the summit, finally resting upon a black object in the depths of the stone plain.
Tonight was cloudy and starless, and the lights of the capital could not shine upon the lofty peak of the Mausoleum of Books. Everything up here was dim and difficult to clearly see, so he could only judge by shape that this was a monolith. Was this Heavenly Tome Monolith just like the last section of the Essay on the Origin of the Dao, its surface recording the most abstruse and incomprehensible, yet most sublime Great Dao?
Chen Changsheng thought this way, yet he could not make out clearly what was written, or drawn, on this stone monolith.
”In the past one thousand years, the number of people who have truly been able to understand this monolith does not surpass five.”
The Tianhai Divine Empress stood at the edge of the Divine Path, not turning around.
Chen Changsheng shifted his gaze to her back.
At the moment, he was sitting on the ground, raising his head towards her. From this angle, she seemed to be standing in the clouds, in the night sky, incomparably lofty and grand.
”What is my lady waiting for? Just kill me and bring everything to an end,” Chen Changsheng said to her.
”The problem is that I don't want to bring everything to an end so quickly.” The Tianhai Divine Empress gazed at the world below the Mausoleum of Books, from the extremely distant coast to the night food stall across the river outside the Mausoleum of Books. She continued, ”How many people want you to die, how many people want you to live—tonight is the best time to see all of them, and I would like to take a look.”
Chen Changsheng asked, ”Why do you want to see this?”
The Tianhai Divine Empress replied, ”Tonight, everyone that wants to save you is my enemy, but the people that want you dead aren't necessarily my people. If they appear tonight, even if they're several thousand li away, furtively peeking like mice, then it means that their hearts contain a hint of rebellion, so then they are also my enemies.”