Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)
chapter-550

Chapter 550 – Cultivating Together

What shouldn’t he do? Chen Changsheng naturally understood. After a moment of silence, he nodded his head.

This broken monolith had been broken by Zhou Dufu. The Heavenly Tome Monolith that had originally stood in this place had been brought away by him and should be installed in the Garden of Zhou. This also meant that this Heavenly Tome Monolith was highly likely to be with him and Xu Yourong. Just a moment ago when he saw the broken monolith, he was overcome by a fierce desire to see the complete appearance of this Heavenly Tome Monolith.

He wished to see which stone pearl was this Heavenly Tome Monolith and then reinstall it…

Xu Yourong did not allow him to do this because she was keenly aware that if the Heavenly Tome Monolith returned to its old mausoleum, it would definitely cause the heavens to change in color and cause all experts of the world to sense it.

“In total, eleven Heavenly Tome Monoliths are stranded outside.”

He gazed at the peak of the Mausoleum of Books and whispered, “If the front mausoleum uses this broken monolith as the divider, then doesn’t that mean there are twelve mausoleums in all?”

The Mausoleum of Books was a very mystical place.

Its peak seemed very close, but it was also so distant that it seemed to touch the sky.

Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong knew that before Zhou Dufu stole away those Heavenly Tome Monoliths, there was no such thing as a front mausoleum in the Mausoleum of Books.

Xu Yourong suggested, “We can ask someone about these things.”

Chen Changsheng showed surprise as he asked, “Ask who?”

“I asked the Empress, but she wasn’t willing to say.”

Xu Yourong gazed at a certain place in the Mausoleum of Books and continued, “But there must be other people that know.”

Chen Changsheng asked, “When do we begin?”

Xu Yourong rolled up her dress and sat cross-legged in front of the monolith hut. Then, she extended her hand and invited him to sit on the grass to her right.

Separated by several feet from the broken monolith, her slender finger began to write upon it. She wrote like the wind, stroke after stroke appearing on its surface.

She wrote very quickly, but there was no gap in her writing. It was very clear, just like that sword she had wielded to break through the snowstorm on the Bridge of Helplessness.

Even a Saint that had stepped into the Divine Domain might only be able to understand ten to twenty percent of the words left by her finger. Not even they would able to understand the entire thing.

The only person that could understand this writing was Chen Changsheng who sat by her in the grass.

Once she finished writing, it was Chen Changsheng’s turn. Chen Changsheng’s finger was extremely stable. Every stroke was like the peeling of a knife or the chiseling of a hatchet.

As the finger pierced the air, it carried along a breeze. Once the breeze vanished, it naturally left no traces behind. As for the broken monolith, it was even less possible to leave anything upon it.

But Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong stared at the broken monolith with incredible focus.

Because they had completely memorized those words they had just written.

Those strokes were words and also pictures.

It was divided into three sections, one hundred and eight moves. Put together, it was the Halving Blade Style.

Back in the Garden of Zhou, when that massive mountain of the obsidian coffin had opened, they discovered on its wall the world’s most famous and most powerful blade style.

The Halving Blade Style left behind by Zhou Dufu was truly mystical. The one hundred and eight moves all seemed to be individual blade techniques, but in reality, they were one. Only by completely grasping each of the hundred and eight moves could one truly understand the true meaning of the Halving Blade Style.

At the time, Nanke was bringing the monster tide to attack them, so they simply did not have any time. They were forced to memorize it from different ends. Xu Yourong memorized it starting from the front, memorizing thirty-seven techniques in all. Chen Changsheng memorized starting from the back, remembering sixty-nine techniques. Then, just as they met shoulder-to-shoulder and smiled at each other, the Halving Blade Style vanished without a trace from the coffin wall!

What did this mean? It meant that only the two of them could let the Halving Blade Style reappear in the world.

After leaving the Garden of Zhou, the two of them had separately attempted to copy down these blade techniques, but to their shock, they discovered that the method Zhou Dufu had used to inscribe these blade techniques on the coffin actually seemed to contain some of the wonder of the Heavenly Tome Monoliths. With their current cultivation levels, it was simply impossible for them to take those lines in their seas of consciousness and put them to paper.

And what did this mean? It meant that only when the two of them were together would they be able to practice the Halving Blade Style.

Back in the Mausoleum of Zhou, Chen Changsheng had once said, “Let’s practice it together.”

Now it seemed that these words were truly an incomparably precise prediction.

After so long, they were finally able to reunite, finally able to have a chance to learn this blade style together.

The broken monolith under the hut had once been severed by Zhou Dufu using his Halving Blade. Even after several hundred, even several thousand, years of wind and rain, it still retained some blade intent.

Before the broken monolith, the peerless and divine work that was the Halving Blade Style reappeared. To comprehend and then practice, there was nothing more perfect than this.

The serious matter they had entered the Mausoleum of Books for was naturally this.

Time slowly flowed by, the winter sun slowly moved.

Silence reigned in front of the broken monolith.

With the aid of a high platform, a sky partitioned off by a sky well, and the limpid waters of a canal, several gazes fell upon this place.

This young couple, shoulder to shoulder, quietly sat amongst the grass.

Anyone could see that they were talking of love.

Who could imagine that they were learning the blade, cultivating the Dao?

Of course, learning the blade and cultivating the Dao could also be their way of talking of love.

……

……

Ten Heavenly Tome Monoliths, the secret of the Garden of Zhou, the confrontation between factions—there were simply far too many reasons for Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong to be cautious and worried about each other.

Let alone the fact that they loved each other, in the long river of history, things like father going against son and husband falling out with wife had happened far too many times. The people involved were all truly powerful figures, possessing insight that could peer beyond the secular world. Ultimately, however, they still sank into the quagmire of harming each other. Why? Because the benefits were so great that they surpassed the scope of the secular world.

Fortunately, the ten Heavenly Tome Monoliths, the secret of the Garden of Zhou, and the peerless and divine work that could only be cultivated together made it so that there were so many identical or different reasons that it seemed foreordained for them to be inseparable for the rest of their lives.

Viewing the Heavenly Tome Monoliths, joining together the Halving Blade, studying the Scroll of Time, and pondering how to break the array left behind by Wang Zhice caused time to flow by very quickly. The date in the Mausoleum of Books came to an end. The pair had developed an even deeper understanding of the Heavenly Tomes and had finally converted the Halving Blade into actual knowledge. Although they had not been able to completely grasp the Scroll of Time, they had a very wonderful time.

They departed from the broken monolith, but they did not directly exit the mausoleum. Instead, they followed the path around the Mausoleum of Books and walked towards the canal on the south face of the mausoleum.

The clear and shallow canals of water ran through the stone plain, forming an extremely complex pattern, but on the mountain above was a path simple to the extreme. The mountain path was extremely straight, extending from the foot of the mountain straight to its very peak, the steps made of white stone. This was the legendary Divine Path.

Chen Changsheng was no stranger to this scene. On the first day he entered the Mausoleum of Books, he had come to this place.

On that very same night, he and his companions watched as Xun Mei awoke from his dream of the Mausoleum of Books and came to this place. He crossed through these canals, dashing to pieces the stars within the water, and reached that pavilion. He wished to take this Divine Path to reach the summit of the Mausoleum of Books. Then Xun Mei collapsed into his bosom.

Xun Mei’s absolute resolve to walk upon the Divine Path had left on him and Gou Hanshi and the rest an almost unforgettable impression, even more important than the notebook that he had also left behind. As he gazed at the ramrod-straight Divine Path and that peak at its end that seemed so distant as to touch the sky, Chen Changsheng silently thought, there will be a day when I will also walk from here to there.

If one wanted to walk upon the Divine Path, one needed to pass that pavilion. Under the pavilion was a person, his body covered in heavy and old-fashioned armor. Even his face and hands were covered in rust-coated metal. He seemed just like a statue, but there was no aura of death about him, only a feeling of an ancient being that had experienced countless things.