Chapter 1039 – In White Emperor City, Clouds Rush Out the Gate (II) (2/2)
There was a fwoosh as Chen Changsheng opened the Yellow Paper Umbrella.
Tang Thirty-Six was prepared to walk under it, but then he realized that Chen Changsheng had walked to Xu Yourong's side.
The cosmetic-buying young girl called out to her young master and raised an umbrella over his head.
An Lin was in the process of treating the wounds of Linghai Zhiwang and the others. She would occasionally raise her head to glance at the sky.
All was quiet around the courtyard.
White Emperor City was also very quiet.
The only sound was the turmoil in the sea of clouds, the tearing that spilled snow over the earth.
The entire world shifted between black and white, but not once did it turn gray.
The heavens and earth seemed to have become one.
An extremely thick lightning bolt descended far in the west.
The peak of some obscure mountain had been leveled.
The stream outside the courtyard was frozen and ceased to gurgle.
The thunder did not stop, the snow did not cease.
……
……
After some time, a fracture finally appeared in the middle of the sea of clouds, and the clouds began to scatter.
Sunlight peeked in through that crack, which grew wider and wider, eventually enveloping all of White Emperor City.
The sea of clouds began to disperse, shedding countless wispy snow-carrying clouds.
Those cold clouds descended on the Imperial City, on Heavensguard Pavilion. They flowed down the Stairway to Heaven like a waterfall.
The cloudfall reached the lower city, then exited the city gate, ultimately entering the Red River and leaving nothing behind.
Not a single trace, not in the blue sky above or in White Emperor City below.
Not a single wisp of a cloud was left.
In the stone hall at the highest part of the Imperial City…
Luoluo stood by the window, tears rolling down her face as she gazed at the snow.
The White Emperor returned to that street.
He gazed up at the sky.
There were no more clouds.
But snow was still coming down.
This snow seemed to come from the void.
It had all been so empty.
Shang Xingzhou walked to his side and asked, ”How many years have we been friends?”
The White Emperor answered, ”Several hundred years.”
Shang Xingzhou said, ”Back when you chose her, your father objected, I objected, and all the ministers objected.”
The White Emperor jeered at himself, ”Jin Yulu said the same thing today.”
Shang Xingzhou looked at him and asked, ”So then what do you think now?”
”Are you asking if I regret it?”
The White Emperor said nothing for a very long time. Finally, he said, ”Only you humans and the demons will have such a boring way of thinking.”
If it really was such a boring way of thinking, why had he said nothing for so long? Why had he needed to think for so long?
'Only if the mountain is without its peak, and the rivers come to a stop.
'Only if the winter thunders and snow falls like rain.
'Only if the heavens and earth become one.
'Only then would I dare to break with my lord1.'
This was the final parting.
Only parting can bring one overwhelming grief2.
And this was the final parting.
But had everything truly come to an end here?
Those dispersing clouds, this still-falling snow, was all her: cold, wet, and soft, making one feel a little angry.
The White Emperor abruptly lowered his head and began to cough.
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1. The above four lines are from a folk song from the Han Dynasty called 上邪. The singer of the song is a woman who is swearing an oath to the heavens that her love to her husband will remain true. Not unless the seemingly impossible events mentioned above happen will she dare to be parted from her husband.↩
2. This is the first line in the 'Fu on Parting', the Fu being a type of poetic prose, by Jiang Yan, a poet who lived in the Southern Dynasty. As can be expected from the title of the Fu, it describes the various sorrowful circumstances of parting.