Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 485 – Two Wildflowers Fill the Cliff (I)

Before Qiushan Jun, Mo Yu had been the world’s youngest Star Condensation cultivator. It was only natural that she possessed the qualifications to express her disdain and ridicule for those so-called geniuses of cultivation.

The Divine Empress glanced at her and said, “Do you really believe that Chen Changsheng is messing around?”

Mo Yu’s fingers slightly stiffened. Similar to many other powerful figures, she had also secretly gone to the gate of the Orthodox Academy. Of course, those matches were not worthy of her eyes, but she was forced to admit that the innate skill and talent Chen Changsheng displayed through the swords in the hands of those new students were not something she could match up to, whether at his age or at present.

This was a question from the Divine Empress—she could not lie. Lightly biting her lip, she answered, “I was talking about Tang Tang.”

“Everyone’s eyes are on Chen Changsheng, believing Tang Thirty-Six to just be messing around…could it be that you also think this way?”

Although the Divine Empress knew that Mo Yu had just been casually speaking, she was still dissatisfied with her opinion. “Chenwu and those two archbishops prepared for three months, preparing countless contingency plans, soft and exquisite as silk. No matter how the Li Palace responded, they had the means to make it a bigger affair. But up to today, have you seen the Li Palace express its position once or take a single action?”

Naturally, Mo Yu knew the intention of the Tianhai clan and the two Sacred Hall Archbishops.

Tianhai Chenwu had told Xu Shiji that he just wished to do these things because it was convenient, awaiting Xu Yourong’s return to the capital and the one battle to decide it all. Of course, this was not the truth, at least not the entire truth.

When a powerful figure like him joined hands with two Sacred Hall Archbishops to do something, it was impossible for them to be so small-minded.

The Ivy Academies challenging the Orthodox Academy were merely the vanguard of an even greater affair.

Mo Yu had originally believed that the Pope would act to suppress this matter before it exploded, but she had not expected that, even now, the Pope would continue to maintain his silence!

This surprised her greatly.

Now, she had been admonished by the Divine Empress. She now understood. Why had the Li Palace never expressed its stance? Why had the matter of the Orthodox Academy always remained limited to the confines of the Orthodox Academy? Why had the matter not proceeded as the Tianhai clan and the two Sacred Hall Archbishops had planned, spreading to the Li Palace, thus allowing the All-School Martial Exhibition to become an all-out clash between the new and conservative factions of the Orthodoxy?

It was for one very simple reason.

The Orthodox Academy…had taken care of the matter on its own.

Chen Changsheng and Tang Thirty-Six simply did not require the Li Palace to express its stance nor the Pope to say anything. They were cleanly and neatly resolving the matter on their own.

Back when the Tianhai clan and the two Sacred Hall Archbishops decided to push this matter, they presumably had not imagined that this matter that was only an interlude in their eyes was about to become a seemingly eternal interlude due to these two youths.

That great event had just begun but already seemed to have ground to a stop.

“As long as the Orthodox Academy can endure, the Pope will not say anything.”

The Divine Empress walked to the edge of the platform and looked as the nearby Orthodox Academy gradually began to glow with lantern light. “Countless contingency plans were all broken by just Tang Tang himself. If the Pope had any view of Chen Changsheng, it was also broken by him. Do you still think he is just messing around?”

Mo Yu was speechless. She truly had not imagined that Tang Thirty-Six, that seemingly frivolous and incompetent guy, was actually able to see through the shrewd and ruthless plans of so many powerful figures.

“Truly, this is the generation of blooming wildflowers.”

The Divine Empress said, “Tang Tang is good, Chen Changsheng is even better. If the two of them are given enough time and opportunity, what need is there to worry over the future of the Great Zhou and humanity?”

If a single wildflower were to open up all by its lonesome on a cliff, how could it be described as beautiful?

Only when many wildflowers opened together could it be considered blooming, could it be so beautiful that it touched the soul.

Thinking of all that had changed over the past year, Mo Yu was forced to admit that the reason the Orthodox Academy could so quickly show signs of rebirth, besides Chen Changsheng, was that Tang Thirty-Six had left the Heavenly Dao Academy and entered the Orthodox Academy. If the Empress’s judgment was accurate, these methods of Tang Thirty-Six which seemed to be for messing around were actually a cool-headed response. Then one could say that what the Orthodox Academy required the most at present was precisely a person like him.

She knew of the circumstances behind Chen Changsheng and Tang Thirty-Six’s first meeting. At the time, Tang Thirty-Six was already renowned as a young genius while Chen Changsheng was a nameless Daoist boy from the countryside. At the entrance examination for the Heavenly Dao Academy, they had met and become acquainted with each other. Moreover, it had been Tang Thirty-Six that had first approached Chen Changsheng. Looking back on it, one would be forced to admit that this sort of meeting truly had a sense of fate about it.

“What is the most extraordinary characteristic of the Wenshui Tang clan? Not their wealth nor their strategies, but their insight.”

The Divine Empress gazed at the brightly lit Orthodox Academy and said, “In the past, the Tang Old Master was the first to see how skilled Su Li was. In the proceeding centuries, who dared to show disrespect to the Tang clan? Even the Storms of the Eight Directions did not. Later on, the Tang clan once more went against the pressure of the Imperial Court, allowing Wang Po to work for ten years with them as an accountant, which they were most certainly able to exchange for several more decades of peace. Currently, Tang Tang and Chen Changsheng have such a friendship that if Chen Changsheng really were to become the next Pope, the position of the Wenshui Tangs would become unshakeable.”

For some reason, Mo Yu replied, “If this is the case, then Chen Changsheng truly is inferior to Tang Tang.”

“Women truly are extroverted.” The Divine Empress glanced at her with a profound expression.

Mo Yu felt rather wronged but didn’t dare to say anything.

The Divine Empress declared, “The Pavilion of Divination has sent someone over to examine the sword. Since you are already acquainted with Chen Changsheng, accompany him, or else with Chen Changsheng’s personality, he really might not be able to examine it.”

Unlike last year and unlike the last twenty years, tonight’s Orthodox Academy was brightly lit.

Even though it was already very late, the figures of people could still be seen and the sounds of voices heard by the lake, in the forest, and by the fountain.

Chen Changsheng was not used to these changes. Shaking his head, he recalled the matter that had been discussed this morning and turned to Tang Thirty-Six, “The story you gave yesterday wasn’t correct. I never said that I would obtain first rank of the first banner in the Grand Examination. At the time, Su Moyu was right on the Divine Avenue. He should be able to clearly recall that it was the Archbishop that said it. I don’t understand why he would forget such an important thing.”

“This means that it’s everyone’s impression that it was you that said these words, so don’t try and explain yourself,” Tang Thirty-Six said, “and I recall very clearly in the Plum Garden Inn, you personally saying it to me.”

Because of this statement, the two simultaneously began to think of a situation back then when Chen Changsheng was treating Tang Thirty-Six to a meal. Back then, they had been attempting to communicate in the manner of adults, but now they remembered themselves as presenting a young and inexperienced appearance.

The two looked each other in the eyes and began to laugh.

It seemed that not much time had passed, but many things had already changed.

A year ago, the Orthodox Academy was still desolate and rundown. Although it had been cleaned and repaired by the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education, besides the region which Chen Changsheng used every day, the other regions were still very bleak. At night, they even seemed like graveyards. A year later, the Orthodox Academy welcomed a group of new students bursting with vitality. The desolate night had been driven away by the lights of the dorms and the library which had once been used by only one person was now filled with many people borrowing the lantern light to read.

Upon seeing these scenes, many people would often think of how Chen Changsheng and Tang Thirty-Six were so young but had managed to transform the Orthodox Academy into this appearance and take care of matters with such strength. Inevitably, they were somewhat surprised, but then they were filled with admiration. Chen Changsheng was not thinking about these sorts of things. He looked at Tang Thirty-Six and asked, “So why do we need to do all this?”