Ze Tian Ji

Five o’clock in the morning, Chen Chang Sheng opened up his eyes. He did not wake up from sleep, rather, he had woken up from meditation. Seeing that his body still did not have any changes, he shook his head and returned to the small building to shower. He laid on the edge of the wooden bucket/tub and allowed the slightly hot water to immerse his body and with it, his state of mind. He sighed and mumbled into the wet towel, “When can I find a way?”

The bucket was about half a man’s height. It was placed behind the wall, very close to the surface of the wall. One moment later, he heard a sigh and a distressed voice that spoke, “When can I find that person?”

Chen Chang Sheng remembered the sigh he heard yesterday morning. He removed the wet towel from his face, turned and looked at the wall. He first saw the green ivies. The wall was very high so he could not see the landscape beyond. He couldn’t see who spoke the sentence.

He suspected that the voice came from a younger girl. Everyone’s sadness was different, but ultimately, it was still sadness. Chen Chang Sheng felt pity for the girl beyond the wall but upon remembering the situation he was in, he realized that he did not have the right to feel pity for others.

The next few days were calm and peaceful. He spent every day at the library reading and he spent every night attempting to absorb starlight for purification. During the process of purification, he always closed his eyes and meditated so he obviously wouldn’t be able to know if all the starlights had already penetrated through his body but from just looking from the outside, he knew that there was no change and that he still had not achieved xiu xing. Even so, he continued to diligently worked at it as if the disappointing results had not influenced his mentality at all.

Like his xiu xing endeavor, the maintenance work at the Tradition Academy progressed in a structured manner. The officer, Xin from the department of traditional education did not stand in the front and preside over. There was no shortage in pay, in fact, the workers were paid on schedule. The workers obviously did not dare to slack.

Since the old and broken wall could not even block off sound, it obviously could not block off wind.

The news of the fixing of the Tradition Academy quickly spread in capital. The fact that there was a student in the Tradition Academy gradually became known to the people. Yet because people only dared to talk privately about the actual reason for the fall of the Tradition Academy and did not dare to inquire the information, the subject offered only a little to chats at dining tables.

Chen Chang Sheng did not know the outside world was dimly accumulating wind and rain. He was silently attempting to achieve xiu xing in the school at the end of the Hundred Blossom Street. He repeated the same life over and over but did not feel bored about such a life at all.

Looking from the surface, he seemed to already be not concern about whether or not the purification was successful. But in actuality, his entire heart was focused on the task of achieving xiu xing. He had not cleaned the floor of the library for several days. To someone like him, this was very rare. This was the proof.

Just because purification was not successful, didn’t mean he had not gained anything from the process.

He read many books in the library. He read most of them when he was at the Xi Ning Town. Some of the books about xiu xing was his first time reading. After comparing what he was reading now to what he read before, he was surprised to find that since his youth, most of the books he read were related to xiu xing.

When he was memorizing the Scrolls of Way, he did not know what the elusive words meant. When he asked his senior or master, he still could not get a specific answer so he perceived what he read literally instead of really thinking closely. Upon coming to the capital and seeing all the entrance books to xiu xing such as Purification at the Tradition Academy, he realized that all the xiu xing methods, all the precious experiences left by the previous elites and all the methods owned by the big sects or even some of the secret methods that belonged to the Demons were all in the three thousand Scrolls of Way at the old temple in Xi Ning.

What did this mean?

Who said he did not know how to xiu xing? He previously thought that he just didn’t start xiu xing yet. Now, he knew that this sentence was also wrong. Who said he did not start xiu xing yet? No, when he learned how to speak, he was already xiu xing!

The three thousand Scrolls of Way at the old temple in Xi Ning were infinitive knowledge fragments related to xiu xing. Before, in his mental world, there was a big fog. Now the xiu xing methods he understood were extremely tiny dirt. They became the core of the fog and so, the gas particle began to liquefy to form a heavy rain.

Chen Chang Sheng entered a very strange status or trip. It could be described as comprehend by analogy or enlightenment. It was as if someone gave him a sharp warning. The most accurate way to describe this is the word: accumulation.

Like a pot of power lit up by a spark.

Inside Chen Chang Sheng’s mental world, there was a big explosion. He was greedily reading all the books in the library and understanding the rules in xiu xing, so that he could reassemble the information fragments he got from the Scrolls of Way in Xi Ning. He started reviewing until he actually understood them. He was comprehending the secrets in the xiu xing world at an unimaginable speed. He also learned all the details of xiu xing methods. With respect to knowledge about xiu xing alone, there weren’t many people that were more knowledgeable than him.

The fact that he was unable to successfully purify his body but was able to nevertheless learn so much was surprising and consoling to Chen Chang Sheng. After his feeling was calmed down, he developed a lot of confusions and worries. He walked to the window of the library, looked at the direction of Xi Ning and thought silently: the Scrolls of Way in that old temple were common things but obviously, his master wasn’t a commoner. His master had helped him establish such a stable xiu xing basis, yet why did he not teach him how to xiu xing directly. Why did he have to first come to the capital? Was it because the disease in his body was hard to cure, so he wanted him to come here and see if there were opportunities?

Time elapsed quickly. In a blink, more than ten days had passed. People from Dong Yu General’s mansion never appeared again. The little girl named Shuang Er also did not come. His calm life was not interrupted which made him very happy. However, Tang Thirty Six also did not show up, which made him very unhappy. He had left his address at the inn thinking that the opponent should be able to find him. That kid was probably xiu xinging diligently at the Heavenly Academy.

There was only Chen Chang Sheng in the Classical Teaching, the school belonged to no one but him.

He quietly read and silently attempted to achieve xiu xing. Gradually, he forgot about the outside world and the outside world also forgot about him. Sometimes he becomes envious when he remembers the chatting he heard from the Department of Education about the welcoming ceremony for the freshmen at the Heavenly Academy and the Starseeker Academy. But he didn’t care much, he was used to this kind of monotonous lifestyle because when he was studying at the old temple in Xi Ning Village with his senior, he could only hear his own voice.

But his body still hasn’t changed after reaching Purification for several days. Although he didn’t see any hope of succeeding, Chen Chang Sheng wouldn’t simply give up. However, he did become indifferent and decided that if there was still no change for the next few days, he would find some other way to achieve xiu xing in the books.

Sometimes indifference makes people lose their boldness, but it could also make people calmer – that was the current mental status of Chen Chang Sheng. It wasn’t exactly his original mood, but it returned to its balance. When he looked at the dust that gathered again on the ground, his eyebrows wrinkled, he wasn’t happy because he liked cleanliness.

But this unhappiness was mostly targeted to himself. He felt that he got much lazier from before.

He got some clean water from the well and started to rub the floor, slowly the dusts disappeared. Chen Chang Sheng sensed a faint fragrance after he cleaned a portion of the floor. The fragrance was very fragile and disappeared after a slight breeze blew through the window.

After finishing his chore, Chen Chang Sheng sat down freely and continued to absorb starlight to purify his body.

There was nothing but silence in the Tradition Academy. He closed his eyes and meditated quietly. Slowly he became one with the environment and disregarded the surroundings.

A butterfly flew into the building through the opened window and landed on the floor next to him. It was unwilling to leave.

That floor was the portion he had just cleaned up.

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Street of Hundred Blossom was just a common street in the capital. Of course, it used to be very famous because the Classical Teaching which was located at the end of this street was well-known. At the same time, the Herb Garden at the other end of the street was also very famous, it used to be the royal garden of the previous dynasty.

The most well known rebellion in the history of Zhou Dynasty also happened in the Herb Garden. When Emperor Tai Zong, who was still a prince at that time rode from his mansion to the royal palace in haste, he was ambushed by the rest of the princes. At that moment Emperor Tai Zong was still in his sleeping attire.

Everyone on this continent knew the ending of that rebellion. Emperor Tai Zong grasped the final victory and his siblings were persecuted on the spot. Several hundreds of the followers of these princes were also decapitalized.

Due to this bloody and shady history, Herb Garden was abandoned by the royal family and was given to the Tradition. It was used as a garden to nurture herbs and fruits. Perhaps the soils of the Herb Garden absorbed too much nutrients from the blood from that day or there were too many dead bodies underground because the herbs and fruits planted here grew very well and it was recognized by the government again and now, it’s under heavy guard duty.

Only a few people knew the reason why the Herb Garden was heavily guarded. Besides the rare herbs and fruits, some important people also come to live and visit this place. For example, when the Divine Queen was exiled for the first time from the royal palace, she xiuxinged in this place. Due to this reason, the Tradition received many benefits later on.

And right now, there was another noble guest living in the Herb Garden.

Under the old wall where the ivies dwelled, there was a stone table and a stone chair. A tea bowl was on the table and within the bowl was the precious New Rain Tea.

A young girl was drinking tea.

Her complexion was young and her pupils were like stars. Her lips were as red as roses and she had long eyelashes. There were two red blushes on her white cheeks. She sure was beautiful.

It was a healthy kind of beauty, just by looking at her, you would feel refreshed and contain no dirty thoughts.

But the girl herself wasn’t particularly happy. There was a troubled expression on her face because she was yet to find the person she was looking for.