Ze Tian Ji Chapter 157-158

Chapter 157 – Just Up to Here

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Due to his engagement with Xu Yourong, Chen Changsheng naturally became the focus of the capital after the Ivy Festival. The archbishop’s declaration on his behalf had poured oil over the fire, and countless people were inquiring on everything about him. His age, ancestry, grudge with the Divine General of the East’s estate, and his level of strength were no longer secrets. As a result, people were flabbergasted at his performance, dearly wishing to know just what had happened over the past few days for his strength to increase by leaps and bounds, allowing him to win four rounds of matches in the Grand Examination and end up in the final eight.

Xuanyuan Po stared at Chen Changsheng with his mouth agape, as if he was looking at some sort of monster. Tang Thirty-Six stared into Chen Changsheng’s eyes and asked, “Just what did you eat? We’ve been eating with you in the Orthodox Academy every day; did you secretly set up an oven for yourself? Or is it that you stole some good things from the Hundred Herb Garden and didn’t tell the two of us?”

In that quiet room within the Hall of Washing Away Dust, the important personages were also discussing Chen Changsheng’s performance today.

“Could he have used the complete Yeshi Step just now?” a person asked Xu Shiji.

If an elder like Fei Dian or Jin Yulu were present, as participants of that great war with the demons, they would be able to clearly recognize just what that unpredictable movement technique Chen Changsheng used actually was. However, the only people in the room that might recognize this technique were Xue Xingchuan and Xu Shiji.

Xu Shiji indifferently said, “I did not encounter anyone from the Yeshi clan on the frontlines.”

Based on intelligence reports, over the past several centuries, the Yeshi clansmen in Xuelao City had mostly been drafted by the enigmatic Black Robe into his intelligence network, so they rarely appeared.

Xue Xingchuan’s troops had once captured two spies from the Yeshi clan, and that Yeshi clansman that had attempted to assassinate Princess Luoluo last spring was still imprisoned in the Imperial Guard’s prison. He thought of the movement technique that Chen Changsheng had used earlier and shook his head. “It’s not the complete Yeshi Step, but it already has some of the idea.”

The rest of them understood. Just having some idea of the complete Yeshi Step was enough to play an incredibly important role in battles between youths of the level participating in the Grand Examination. Xue Xingchuan thought some more, then added, “Excellent speed and movement techniques along with decent luck in drawing opponents can get one into the top eight. This is understandable, but I don’t believe he can get any further.”

The top eight in the matches of the Grand Examination had been decided. There were well-known experts like Gou Hanshi, Zhuang Huanyu, Zhong Hui, and Zhexiu, and also a few surprising candidates. There was that inconspicuous girl from Holy Maiden Peak, and also that student from Star Seizer Academy that not even the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education had paid much attention to.

The most surprising of all was still Chen Changsheng.

That he still had not been eliminated had already surpassed everyone’s imaginations and felt completely unreasonable.

……

……

“This is just too unreasonable! How can this be possible! Just how has he not managed to be eliminated yet!”

The list of the final eight remaining in the matches of the Grand Examination had been sent out of the Education Palace, written down in the Hall of Shining Words, and sent out to the crowd outside the Li Palace.

It was nearly dusk. The barely warm rays of the setting sun shone upon the stone pillars and also upon the spectating populace of the capital and visiting tourists.

There were at least a thousand people outside the Li Palace at this time, their voices making a great din. The hollering voices of the peddlers had become extremely hoarse, but at this time, everyone was discussing the same thing, venting the same emotions. The topic of their discussion was Chen Changsheng’s four consecutive victories, and the emotions were shock, confusion, and anger.

The people of the capital did not like Chen Changsheng, but they still preferred him to those examinees from the south. They were so shocked and angry at Chen Changsheng’s four victories purely because Chen Changsheng’s performance had lost them a lot of money, some people having lost so much that their eyes were red.

Yes, besides first rank of the first banner, there were many other things to bet on in the Grand Examination. There were winners and losers in each round of the Grand Examination. Similarly, after every round, many people would turn into losers or winners, but because of Chen Changsheng, the vast majority of the people today were losers.

For each round of matches, a different set of betting odds was released so that the populace could conveniently make their bets on the spot. In every round, Chen Changsheng’s odds were extremely low, and his odds were still low even now. He had made some people ecstatic today, and had caused many more to lose money, but no one believed that he would continue to win.

Tianhai Shengxue was in a tea house on the south side of the Li Palace, calmly watching the bustle of the crowd in front of the Li Palace. He suddenly said, “If the Four Great Markets are still willing to accept it, place five thousand gold taels on Chen Changsheng’s final victory.”

The old steward at his side froze, then somewhat hesitantly said, “Young Master, he couldn’t possibly continue to win, right?”

Tianhai Shengxue replied, “In the first round, everyone believed that he couldn’t win, but he won. In the second round, still no one thought that he could win, but he still won. The third and fourth rounds were the same. Before the Grand Examination, just who could have imagined he could get into the top eight? This being the case, why can’t I bet on him?”

The old steward repeatedly expressed his agreement.

Tianhai Shengxue suddenly commented, “If he really does get first rank of the first banner, put the money that I won into repairing the Orthodox Academy’s gate.”

The old steward thought, wasn’t it Young Master that broke the Orthodox Academy’s gate? And the Orthodox Academy hasn’t repaired the gate this entire time. The entire capital understands what this means. If Young Master repairs the Orthodox Academy’s gate, isn’t that basically conceding? He was astonished, but he thought that his master presumably had some deeper meaning and dared not object anymore, only inquired on a certain detail.

“If…and this is just a possibility, if Chen Changsheng really does win, it will be a huge sum of money. Even repairing the Orthodox Academy’s gate won’t spend it all.”

Tianhai Shengxue gazed at the Li Palace, basking in the twilight. He indifferently said, “If he really does win, what’s the harm in sending him a gate made of white jade?”

The old steward was even more puzzled, thinking to himself, even if Chen Changsheng does take first rank of the first banner, that youth is the symbol of the Orthodox Academy, a sign of the Orthodoxy’s conservative faction’s challenge to the Empress. It’s simply impossible for the Tianhai clan to take him as a subordinate. Just what does Young Master intend by doing this?

Tianhai Shengxue gave no explanation. He took a sip from his cup but suddenly felt the tea to be rather dull and flavorless.

Since Qiushan Jun did not come and Mo Yu was still in front of him, the Grand Examination truly had no great significance to him, but even so, giving up like this had inevitably left his mood rather complex.

……

……

In the Divine General of the East’s estate, within a quiet pavilion, Madam Xu looked at the middle-aged woman in front of her, her brows slightly furrowed. “Nanny Hua, is this correct? Did he really get into the top eight?”

Nanny Hua whispered, “It shouldn’t be wrong. The Four Great Markets have already put out the odds for the next round. There really is the name of that young master Chen on there.”

Madam Xu was too shocked for words, feeling a terrible ache in her head. If that youngster really did get first rank of the first banner in the Grand Examination, what should they do?

She looked at the chair and empty tea table in the pavilion and recalled her first meeting with Chen Changsheng in the early spring of last year.

That young Daoist was rather reserved and very clean.

He had not drunk any tea.

Madam Xu’s mind suddenly shifted as she thought of a certain possibility.

In the eastern wing of the estate, Shuang’er, who had just received the news, was also utterly shocked.

She recalled her first meeting with Chen Changsheng in the rear garden.

She found it impossible to imagine how that reserved and rustic young Daoist, that piece of trash who couldn’t cultivate, was able to get into the top eight in the matches of the Grand Examination. Based on his rumored performance in the Ivy Festival, his grade in the literary test was assuredly excellent. Was this not saying that he was currently only a step away from getting first rank of the first banner?

Yes, if Chen Changsheng could win one more round and enter the top four, then with his grade in the literary test, there was a very high chance that he could get into the first banner.

But could he continue to advance? Or was it just up to here?

……

……

Deep within in the Imperial Palace was a side palace which was not large. It was extremely deserted, like a cold palace1.

The Black Goat stared at the green fruits hanging off a tree by the stone steps, hesitating for a long time over whether it should eat one. It remembered very clearly that the fruit that the youth had fed it in the Hundred Herb Garden had tasted rather good, but it had no means of ensuring that it was the taste of the fruit and not his scent on the fruit’s skin.

Nanny Ning silently passed by it and whispered, “Young Master Shengxue conceded.”

The Divine Empress was holding a piece of incense wood. The edge of this wood was currently burning, and a pill was suspended above the strands of incense smoke.

Her finger slowly moved the incense wood, and the smoke rising from it gently turned, causing the pill to slowly revolve.

At Nanny Ning’s words, her finger stopped, causing the pill to stop, suspended in the air.

She appeared a little surprised. After a few moments, she understood and sighed, “There is still some potential in the descendants of the Tianhai clan.”

This was both good and bad.

The more potential there was in the descendants of the Tianhai clan, the more impossible it would be for her to completely relinquish her grip, and the more incapable the Great Zhou Dynasty would be of breaking free from that great problem.

But she was still rather gratified.

After a few moments of hesitation, Nanny Ning continued, “The Orthodox Academy’s Chen Changsheng has entered the top eight.”

The Divine Empress slowly raised her brows.

Nanny Ning was rather nervous. She quite liked Chen Changsheng, but she was worried that the Empress would be unhappy.

The Divine Empress said nothing.

In the next moment, she appeared in a pitch-black cavern.

With a light brush of her sleeve, the several thousand Night Pearls embedded in the ceiling lit up.

The cold, white light fell on the frost-covered ground, illuminating all in this cavern.

A pale girl dressed in black lay weakly on the ground.

With a light flick of her finger, the pill fell in front of the girl.

“Chen Changsheng was not eliminated. Your blood can be considered somewhat useful.”

With great difficulty, the girl raised her head and stared at the Divine Empress. There was no fear, only loathing. “Just what sort of ghastly medicine is this?”

The Divine Empress calmly answered, “Motherwort paste.”

The black-clothed girl knew that a terrifying human like the Divine Empress had countless methods of treating her and would never do anything strange to some medicine. Without hesitation, she swallowed it.

“Chen Changsheng…he…can he get first rank of the first banner?” she asked the Divine Empress curiously.

“It’s probably just up to here,” the Divine Empress apathetically said.

In the next moment, she arrived by the side of the abandoned well of New North Bridge, her hands clasped behind her back. She gazed up at the countless stars in night sky, silently pondering something for a very long time.

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1. A cold palace refers to a palace in which a concubine that had fallen out of favor would stay.

Chapter 158 – The Solitary Star Heaven’s Curse1

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

The Education Palace was the Pope’s Green Leaf World. This world should also have had its own day and night, yet there was no night in the Grand Examination. The examinees could only rely on their own senses to guess at what time it was in the real world. They had no idea that it was already late night in the outside world, but exhaustion and drowsiness still arrived as scheduled.

Before the fifth round of matches commenced, the tiebreaker matches were held. Besides Tianhai Shengxue and those few examinees that were too severely injured to continue fighting, the remaining examinees from thirty-three to sixty-four had to put forth one final effort to decide their ultimate rankings in the Grand Examination. However, before these tiebreaker matches, there was a rest period.

The Li Palace priests distributed food, water, and pills amongst the examinees. With Luoluo’s arrangements, the Orthodox Academy naturally had a more sumptuous treatment. The four people sat at the forest’s edge, engaging in whispered discussion about the matches to come as they ate. There was nothing much to say about Tang Thirty-Six’s or Xuanyuan Po’s tiebreaker matches, so they were primarily analyzing Chen Changsheng’s potential opponents.

Gou Hanshi’s performance had been calm and smooth, giving him a formidable aura of invincibility. Excluding him, the wolf youth Zhexiu was undoubtedly the most dangerous opponent. Although he had engaged in consecutive fierce battles with Guan Feibai and Qi Jian which taxed his resources and inflicted upon him significant injuries, he was still not someone to be looked down on.

If Chen Changsheng wanted to take first rank of the first banner in the Grand Examination, these two people were the two loftiest peaks that he needed to overcome.

After thinking of this, Tang Thirty-Six suddenly lost interest in the matter, as he thought it utterly impossible for Chen Changsheng to defeat both of these people.

He looked towards the stream bank and suddenly said, “Don’t you think that the four people from Mount Li and we four are very similar?”

The four people from the Mount Li Sword Sect were eating and chatting by the stream, their mood seemingly quite decent.

Far away from the rest of the crowd, Zhexiu was also eating.

He ate quietly and slowly, his mood very serious, as if the ordinary food provided by the Li Palace was the tastiest delicacy in the world.

Tang Thirty-Six looked over and teased, “I thought that this wolf cub didn’t know how to eat food.”

Puzzled, Xuanyuan Po said, “How could he not know how to eat food?”

Tang Thirty-Six replied, “I thought that he only ate ice, gnawed on jerky, or drank blood.”

Chen Changsheng noted, “That’s a monster you’re describing.”

Tang Thirty-Six very seriously answered, “And none of you think that he’s a monster?”

Xuanyuan Po pondered this question, then shook his head. “I think he’s okay.”

Tang Thirty-Six couldn’t be bothered with him. He turned his head and asked, “Chen Changsheng, you probably can’t beat him, right?”

Chen Changsheng thought this over, then answered, “Perhaps.”

Tang Thirty-Six gazed at the distant Zhexiu and suddenly said, “I suddenly have an urge.”

Chen Changsheng curiously asked, “What sort of urge?”

Tang Thirty-Six replied, “An urge to be friends with this wolf cub.”

Chen Changsheng stared at him for a very long time before finally confirming that Tang Thirty-Six was serious. Somewhat shocked, he considered this prospect for a while, then said, “Does he look like someone who needs friends to you?”

Right before the Grand Examination began, a massive crowd had gathered outside the Li Palace, but Zhexiu alone looked at the rising sun. Upon entering the Hall of Shining Words, he immediately left the literary test’s examination grounds and walked alone through the sea of trees, charged across the green river, and stood in the pavilion on the mountain. With his back to all the examinees, his appearance was so lonely that it seemed like he was even bereft of a mother. Would this sort of person need friends?

“Do none of you feel that he’s very lonely?” Tang Thirty-Six asked the rest of them.

He described him as lonely, not solitary or lonesome, just a forlorn ‘lonely’, making it seem all the lonelier1.

Chen Changsheng was somewhat startled, then replied, “Anyone can see it, so I don’t believe that he needs friends.”

Tang Thirty-Six wagged his finger. “I hold a completely different view. I think that what a lonely person like him needs the most is friends.”

Xuanyuan Po curiously asked, “You want to be friends with Zhexiu?”

“Is that not okay?” Tang Thirty-Six asked back.

Chen Changsheng’s gaze fell on the outer edge of the crowd, at the wolf youth who was silently eating with his head lowered. After a few moments of silence, he said, “I thought you didn’t like his sort of person.”

Tang Thirty-Six followed his gaze to Zhexiu, then replied, “Yes, feigning loneliness and pretending to be in despair is something I often did…and all of you know that I hated it when I acted that way, so I naturally wouldn’t like his sort of person.”

Chen Changsheng drew back his gaze and asked him, “But you still insist on being friends with him?”

Tang Thirty-Six answered, “If he became our friend, would he still have the nerve to fight too fiercely against you or Princess Luoluo?”

Xuanyuan Po couldn’t help but sigh, “The elders of the tribe were correct. Humans…are truly all bad people.”

“It’s not all humans,” Chen Changsheng corrected. “Just one human called Tang Tang.”

Tang Thirty-Six was too lazy to argue with him. He stood up, patted the grass off his body, and declared, “There’s never anything wrong with trying, and it’s not like he can kill me in front of so many people.”

Luoluo had not spoken this entire time, but now she softly said, “Teacher is not wrong. Lonely people don’t necessarily need friends. At least…Wofu Zhexiu is not that sort of person.”

Chen Changsheng glanced at her, but said nothing.

Tang Thirty-Six took half of a roasted chicken that hadn’t been eaten much and messily wrapped it in two sheets of oil paper, then walked towards the edge of the crowd.

The conversation between the people of the Orthodox Academy had not attracted anyone’s notice, but Tang Thirty-Six’s sudden departure from the forest’s edge and, based on his direction, his most likely destination being Wofu Zhexiu instantly attracted everyone’s gazes. The examinees were all shocked, mystified as to what he intended, and the girls of the Thirteen Divisions of Radiant Green and Holy Maiden Peak revealed expressions of concern.

To these girls, no matter how harshly Tang Thirty-Six spoke, how arrogant his actions were, he was always a noble young master who floated above the mundane world. And Zhexiu, no matter how quiet, how much he had achieved for the humans and demi-humans, was always a cold-blooded monster with hands drenched in blood. Upon seeing Tang Thirty-Six walk towards Zhexiu, they couldn’t help but be concerned.

This world obsessed with external appearances was truly not very fair.

The four people of the Mount Li Sword Sect eating and chatting by the stream were also rather startled. Guan Feibai looked at the expression on Tang Thirty-Six’s face and asked in surprise, “Just what crazy thing is this guy going to do next?”

In the Ivy Festival, Tang Thirty-Six had cursed Mount Li too fiercely, leaving no good impressions on Guan Feibai. Qi Jian gazed at the wolf youth sitting apart from the crowd. His nostrils flared and his breathing became rough, apparently out of anger. Gou Hanshi was somewhat confused, thinking to himself, just what happened between Junior Brother and Zhexiu that’s made him so angry?

The stone plaza in front of the Hall of Washing Away Dust was vast, with both a forest and a gurgling stream, but the place where Zhexiu sat had nothing at all, only a smooth stone.

Tang Thirty-Six walked up to this stone, saw Zhexiu’s strange posture as he kneeled, or squatted, on the ground, and suddenly felt a little hesitation.

Zhexiu ignored him and silently continued to eat.

Tang Thirty-Six silently looked at him, and after some time, suddenly said, “If someone else were to notice the particulars of how you ate, they would definitely think you to be very terrifying.”

Zhexiu drank some fruit juice provided by the Li Palace, then raised his head to look at Tang Thirty-Six.

Tang Thirty-Six was the first person since the start of the Grand Examination to voluntarily start a conversation with him.

Tang Thirty-Six looked at him and continued, “You eat very slowly and without any sort of style, more like a young lady in her chambers. You chew very seriously, chewing on rice twelve times, but chewing on beef thirty times…this isn’t interesting, only proof you’re too self-disciplined. In other words, you treat yourself very harshly.”

Zhexiu quietly looked at him, his eyes bearing no emotion, but he also did not lower his head back down to continue eating and thus bring an end to this one-sided conversation.

“Perhaps it’s because food is too scarce on the snowy plains, or perhaps it’s because there’s a lack of doctors or medicine, and certainly no female priests of the Thirteen Divisions of Radiant Green, to casually treat your wounds, making your life very hard. You cherish all the food that you can get, but you never eat or drink too much so as to avoid any problems with your body. In an awful place like that, perhaps even an ordinary stomachache can make living worse than death.”

Tang Thirty-Six continued, “But I don’t feel a person like you is very frightening, because I’ve met a person a lot like you. That guy pays attention to every detail in his life, so I often think that people like the two of you, people who are afraid of death, should really get to know each other.”

He was naturally referring to Chen Changsheng.

Zhexiu followed Tang Thirty-Six’s finger to the forest’s edge. After a few moments of silence, he lowered his head and continued, no longer paying him any attention.

Tang Thirty-Six placed the wrapped food in front of Zhexiu and opened it, asking, “Do you need friends?”

In the oil paper was half a roast chicken, and the one chicken leg had already been given to Luoluo by Chen Changsheng, leaving it somewhat incomplete. Moreover, it had been sitting around for a while and had gone rather cold. The oil had congealed on the surface of the skin, so it didn’t look very good. The crucial problem was that roast chicken was truly not a very healthy food.

Yet for some reason, when Zhexiu saw the roast chicken, he unexpectedly spoke.

Ever since the start of the Grand Examination, he had only spoken two sentences, and the vast majority of the examinees had not heard them, so few knew just what his voice sounded like. It was only now that Tang Thirty-Six discovered that Zhexiu’s voice was not hoarse or grating, and was not similar at all to the legendary wolf howl.

Zhexiu’s voice was very clear and cold, and he spoke very slowly, the space between each word rather long. He was like a child that had just learned to speak or a mute that had suddenly regained the power of speech.

He impassively said to Tang Thirty-Six in the slowest of voices, “My life offended the solitary star Heaven’s Curse, dooming me to be lonely for my entire life, so I have no friends.”

……

……

Countless stars twinkled in the sky above, and perhaps there was a star far apart from the sea of stars in a very inconspicuous corner, lonely to the extreme.

Perhaps this star truly was called Heaven’s Curse.

Perhaps the Fated Star that Zhexiu lit truly was the solitary star Heaven’s Curse.

But regardless of whether this was real or not, his cold tone expressed loud and clear that he did not need friends, that he wanted to repel everyone to one thousand li away from him.

A normal person might have retreated in the face of these difficulties.

But Tang Tang was not a normal person. He was a chatterer.

After he got to know Chen Changsheng, especially after he formally entered the Orthodox Academy, this hidden trait of his was fully unleashed.

“To have no friends does not mean that one does not need friends. What do you think of me?”

He said sincerely to Zhexiu.

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‘天煞孤星’ refers to a specific star, but it is also used to refer to a very unlucky person who also spreads misfortune to others.