Chapter 997 – Before the Cold Answer (1/2)
Chapter 997 – Before the Cold Answer
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
There were no clouds in the sky, only the manifold stars scattered about like sesame seeds, with no obvious law or pattern. No matter in which direction one looked, they seemed to be spread in a smooth and well-proportioned manner.
Chen Changsheng stood by a window, looking up at the starry sky that truly did seem closer than the ground, as he recounted his earlier conversations.
Luoluo stood beside him, her left hand habitually grasping his sleeve. Her head tilted in thought, she said, ”So just meet him then.”
Chen Changsheng glanced at her and said, ”This matter must be done secretly. Your mother must be kept unaware.”
The Shi clan leader had already noted the likely area of the White Emperor's secluded cultivation on a map and given it to him.
If he wanted to go there, he needed to use a secret path in the Imperial Palace.
In his view, even though Luoluo was the noble princess, she had no control over Madam Mu's deliberate suppression of the Imperial City.
Luoluo blinked and then earnestly said, ”Be at ease, Teacher. I happen to be your student, so I'm quite capable in these matters.”
Chen Changsheng felt like these words had a hint of Su Li or Tang Thirty-Six about them, so he couldn't help but smile.
……
……
As he walked out from the humid, gloomy, and stuffy stone passage, Chen Changsheng was simultaneously assaulted by the sight of a snowy mountain and the morning light.
The mountain was several thousand zhang tall. Its lower half was made of black cliffs and primordial forests while its upper half was completely blanketed in white snow, blinding in the morning sun. The mountain rose up abruptly from the edge of a lake and stretched far into the north. It was impossible to see where it ended, even making one wonder whether it might extend until the end of the world. So magnificent it was that it seemed to have been left behind by a god.
Chen Changsheng knew that this snowy mountain that extended for countless li was that mountain range often brought up in books, the Starfall Mountains.
The Starfall Mountains stretched along the shore of the Western Sea, abruptly rising from the lands north of White Emperor City, with the sea a hundred-some li to their left. Their peaks had been covered in snow for tens of thousands of years, and the mountains stretched for tens of thousands of li, reaching all the way to the extreme north. In the middle of them was a relatively flat area called Zhanling.
If one started from there and worked their way southeast for ten-some days and nights, they would come to the westernmost Cong Province Army headquarters of the Human race.
Between Zhanling and the Cong Province Army headquarters was a grassland. Once the ancestral land of the Elves, it was now in the complete possession of Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong.
Chen Changsheng walked up to the lake and looked at the mountain range on the other side.
He recalled that it was written in the Daoist Canon that the Red River arose from one of the snowy peaks in these mountains, and then he remembered that the grassland within was connected to him, giving him a somewhat strange feeling.
Ever since the demi-humans had established their country on the shores of the Red River, generation after generation of White Emperors and Empresses had been buried within the Starfall Mountains.
According to the laws set down by the ancestral spirits, to prevent any evildoer from stealing the remains or true blood of these great demi-humans, the successive generations of White Emperors had never built any sort of mausoleum within these mountains. When their lives reached their terminus, they would take that secret path Chen Changsheng had just used to come to these mountains and randomly choose a place to close their eyes and allow their soul to return to the sea of stars.
Of course, other than when they were on the verge of death, the White Emperors would often come to the Starfall Mountains whenever they did not have government affairs to handle. Whether it was to pay homage to their ancestors, enjoy the scenery, or search for chances to break through, it was naturally difficult to not construct a few buildings in these snowy mountains to either offer sacrifices or rest. But all these buildings had extremely strict seals on them that made it extremely difficult for anyone except the White Emperor to enter.
The current White Emperor had engaged in a heaven-shaking battle with the Demon Lord in the snowy plains to the north of Mount Han. The Demon Lord had been severely injured and was later deposed by Black Robe and the Demon Commander. The White Emperor had also suffered grievous injuries, so he had spent the last few years in secluded cultivation within the Starfall Mountains. Other than figures like Madam Mu and the Xiang clan leader, very few people knew his exact location.