Chapter 176 – He Was Always at Ethereal Opening
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
When Gou Hanshi's strike broke through the rain and sent Chen Changsheng flying back, everyone believed that Chen Changsheng would crash into the ground and find it impossible to stand up again. Against all expectations…he truly did not stand up again, because he simply never fell. His clothes were tattered, his face was pale, and his appearance dismal, but he did not fall in a dismal fashion. His feet were incredibly steady, seemingly imbued with infinite strength.
This fierce and tense battle could not leave too much time for shock and sighs. Chen Changsheng leaned his body forward, his shoes stepping into a puddle, and then suddenly dashed like a wolf to the west. He initiated the Yeshi Step and instantly appeared behind and to the side of Gou Hanshi, his sword carrying the berserk energy of the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong.
Gou Hanshi's sword guarded his surroundings like a vast forest of rustling pines, leaving not the smallest gap. Like pine trees rustling in the rain, his sword accurately slapped Chen Changsheng's dagger on its flat side. A drone rang out from this point of collision, sounding like the ringing of a distant bell.
This terrifying clash of true essence caused the rain between the two to suddenly rise into a circle of rain in the air that shot hundreds of raindrops like arrows in every direction.
Chen Changsheng was sent flying back like an arrow, his body smashing through layer after layer of rain, his feet leaving two extremely straight trails of splashes through the puddles of water. Only when he reached the stone wall did he finally come to a stop.
However, this time, he did not fall, did not smash against the stone wall, but came to a steady stop according to his own will. His grip on his dagger was also very firm. Even if it were not tied to his hand, it would probably not be knocked away. It was already a completely different situation from that dismal scene when he received Gou Hanshi's Three Songs of the Fisherman at the very beginning of the match.
Now, he was very calm, even somewhat unhurried.
Gou Hanshi continued to tighten his grip on his sword as he looked at Chen Changsheng with an increasingly solemn expression, the shock and confusion in his eyes growing increasingly thick. Through this exchange, he had finally confirmed that his earlier conjecture was true, that the impossible had truly taken place.
His grip was so tight that his knuckles were somewhat white, yet the edge of his sword hanging by his thigh was trembling. This was because the level of strength Chen Changsheng had displayed in this exchange was completely different, but also because he was deeply shocked. This was a matter that had not once been recorded in the three thousand scriptures of the Daoist Canon, an unprecedented miracle that had never once occurred in all of the long history of human cultivation. Just how had he managed to do it?
This exchange seemed ordinary and mediocre, but it was actually a declaration.
Chen Changsheng was telling everyone that he had not yet lost, that he was continuing to advance.
The chirping of cicadas outside the Hall of Washing Away Dust had long since ceased, but with this strike, they appeared once more. Their sound was like if people in the marketplace or outside the Li Palace had all begun to sing loudly, a great and distracting clamor.
The deep blue sky above the Education Palace was streaked with a few white clouds and also one raincloud that had not completely faded away. It had been showing signs of clearing up just a few moments ago, but with Chen Changsheng's attack, a clap of thunder could be heard from the depths of the raincloud and a set of beautiful evening clouds suddenly appeared on the distant horizon.
A deathly stillness pervaded the Hall of Washing Away Dust.
Of the people within the hall, Gou Hanshi included, some people were looking in shock at Chen Changsheng, some people were gazing up in frustration at the sky, and some were even rather dejectedly thinking, just how is this possible?
Just how had Chen Changsheng managed to undergo Ethereal Opening?
Yes, Chen Changsheng had already succeeded at Ethereal Opening.
Everyone knew that he had still not succeeded at Purification at the time of the Ivy Festival, so he could have only spent an extremely short period of time in Purification and Meditation. At best, he should only have been at the initial level of Meditation. He shouldn't have even been able to see the threshold of Ethereal Opening, much less succeed in entering it. Amongst the examinees participating in this year's Grand Examination, he was quite mediocre.
But no one knew that Chen Changsheng had needed only one night to fix his Fated Star, upon which he began to draw in starlight for Purification, a process which he had continued for almost three hundred days. In all these days of drawing in starlight, he had never once succeeded at Purification, but that star radiance had not dissipated. Instead, it had penetrated through his skin and flesh, accumulating in the deepest part of his body. When he had performed Meditative Introspection for the first time in the underground cavern, he had believed that the thick snowy plain was the star radiance that he had drawn into his body for those hundreds of nights, but he had not noticed the lake.
The vast quantity of clear water making up this lake was the true fruit of his many nights of drawing in starlight.
In the underground cavern, when he had still not succeeded at Purification, he had taken a risk by forcing Meditative Introspection. His body had ruptured and his blood had been set ablaze. Even the Black Dragon had thought his death was a certainty, but no matter how terrifying the flames of star radiance, the heart in the pool of blood remained a glittering and translucent fruit, never once shattering. Why?
This was because the starlight he had drawn in night after night had not been used for Purification, but had lightly touched his Ethereal Palace every night, saturating its surroundings and transforming into a blue lake. Purification? What he had been doing all this time was Ethereal Opening!
While he was completely unaware, the star radiance originating from that distant red star had been incessantly pouring into his body, moving along the paths in that mountain every night and reaching that gate. It was not that hundred nights of knocking that Gou Hanshi had emphasized, but a firm and focused beating for several hundred nights!
As a result, in front of the gate to the Ethereal Palace, he had not needed to use any strength, only give a light push to open the gate. Was it because he was a genius? Yes, he really was very talented in cultivation, but the more important reason was that he had already pushed at this gate for far too many nights. All he had been missing was a light push from his conscious mind!
He had spent an incalculable amount of time and energy to dig up earth and pile it into a hill as high as the Dew Platform. He only needed to dump one final basket of earth at the top of the hill, and he would be able to stand at the highest point of the capital.
The final basket of earth was not heavy and it turned over very easily. It might have looked very easy, almost certainly a very understated action when considering that this was creating the highest point in the capital, but who could remember just how much he had paid beforehand?
Yes, this was Chen Changsheng's path of cultivation.
Because his meridians were severed, because the special constitution of his body made it impossible for him to cultivate, he had relied on his fantastical imagination and luck to accidentally smash open and walk a path completely different from others.
Purification, Meditation, and then Ethereal Opening?
No, before he had begun Purification, he had started Meditative Introspection.
Most absurdly of all, before he had begun Meditative Introspection, he had already begun Ethereal Opening.
If one said that water flowing to lower elevations was a principle of this world…
Then in Chen Changsheng's world, water truly had always flowed upward.
No one knew his specific circumstances, knew what he had encountered or what he had paid, so no one could imagine his current situation. Naturally, they also could not understand just how he was able to undergo Ethereal Opening. Moreover, it must be known that Ethereal Opening had always been regarded as the first true high threshold on the nigh endless path of cultivation, a pass of life or death. Countless young geniuses nurtured by their sects or schools had all fallen before this threshold, and it was where countless ordinary cultivators who were not willing to comply with fate had died. So great was the risk that at least half of the current human cultivators in the continent did not dare to attempt Ethereal Opening. Even those who had succeeded, such as Gou Hanshi or Lady Mo Yu, had acted with great caution when attempting Ethereal Opening. When they formally attempted to break through, it was only after undergoing a very long period of preparation, with their schools or sects providing vast amounts of medicines and experience to calm and nurture their minds. When they broke through, they would have at least three powerful and remarkable elders or teachers standing guard, ready at the slightest sign of danger to come to the rescue. But Chen Changsheng…had succeeded at Ethereal Opening in the final match of the Grand Examination.
He had closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was at Ethereal Opening.
What moved many of the spectators the most was that this youth of the Orthodox Academy had treated Ethereal Opening like the simple matter of eating breakfast. He said that he wanted to take some porridge, so he had cooked himself a bowl of porridge and eaten it. Earlier, he had confirmed that he was no match for Gou Hanshi and decided to undergo Ethereal Opening, and now, he was at Ethereal Opening.
In what world was this possible? Just how could such a person exist? If this was all true, then what meaning did those bitter years of suffering they had experienced have? Gou Hanshi was not thinking about these things, but those speechless personages on the second floor could not help but think this way.
The downpour had become a drizzle, dripping down and seemingly about to stop at any moment.
Chen Changsheng stood in front of the stone wall, his still-childish face carrying a calm expression. Upon careful examination, one could see that there were subtle differences. He was a little less reserved, his eyes a little brighter.
His past self was excessively calm and composed, giving others the sense that he had matured early, that he was four or five years older than his actual age. His current self, on the other hand, was like the newborn sun rising over a sky that had been washed by rain.
It was fresh and clean, bright and beautiful, bursting with a vitality rarely seen on his person.
Gou Hanshi did not notice these details. He only felt that Chen Changsheng had become somewhat more frightening, even surpassing the sense of danger that Zhexiu had given him in the last round.
Mo Yu looked at Chen Changsheng through the rain, a few complex strands of emotion appearing on her indifferent face. The knuckles of her hand whitened as she gripped the windowsill, her mind seemingly occupied.
For certain reasons, she did not want to see Chen Changsheng lose in the Grand Examination, but she was well aware that the Empress did not wish to see Chen Changsheng win the Grand Examination. Although the Empress had never once explicitly stated this point, many people had still silently moved to ensure that Chen Changsheng could not reach the end.
But there were still many people standing opposite the Empress.
The Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education need not be mentioned, Tianhai Shengxue clearly had a different view from the rest of his clan, and Zhexiu had bet his life for the Orthodox Academy. Most crucial of all was the autumn rain that would occasionally fall over the Hall of Washing Away Dust.
This autumn rain symbolized the attitude of the Pope.
She believed that Chen Changsheng would still not be able to reach the end, as his strength was insufficient. But just when she thought this, just when she had thought that Chen Changsheng had given everyone so many surprises that she was already numb to anything else he did, he once more delivered a shock to all.
Mo Yu once more thought of that night and inadvertently shifted her gaze to those evening clouds on the distant horizon of the blue sky. She thought to herself, is there really such a thing as fate in this world? Is there really such a thing as a blessed fate bestowed by the heavens?
In truth, not even Chen Changsheng currently had a complete understanding of what had happened or why he had suddenly entered the Ethereal Opening Realm.
But he gripped his dagger, faced the rain, and walked once more towards Gou Hanshi. He never considered that this might be a blessing granted by the heavens, because the heavens had only ever given him difficulties and he had always been cursed. He also did not think about fate, because fate had always been unfair to him and he had never respected it. On the contrary, he had always been challenging fate, and then winning.
He only recalled that this was the forty-seventh time he had gripped his dagger and walked towards Gou Hanshi.
The first forty-five times, he had lost miserably and fallen heavily, his body covered in water and blood. But though he had fallen, he had never collapsed.
He would get up every time and continue fighting, seriously and solemnly yearning for victory.
Finally, though he still had not found victory, in the last two exchanges, he had not fallen.
Then if one had to speak of fate, this was not a favor, but a reward from the mysterious and inexorable heavens for his last forty-five attempts.