Chapter 175 – Ethereal Opening in a Glance

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

An entire lake floated in Chen Changsheng's body.

Yes, this was an entire lake, not just one side of a lake. This lake floated in the air, not so stingy as to give the observer only one side to appreciate1.

When Chen Changsheng had performed Meditative Introspection for the first time, he had seen this lake, but the vast majority of his mind had been focused on the snowy plain. The moment he had seen the lake, he was stunned and could not understand it. Right afterwards, he had fallen unconscious due to the blazing of his snowy plain, so he had no chance to carefully observe this lake.

Now, his spiritual sense was like a cool breeze, instantly traversing thousands of li to reach the snowy plain. Upon arriving at the lake, he was finally able to clearly make out its appearance, but he found it very difficult to describe. This lake was like an enormous pearl of gla.s.s, pure and transparent. However, there were also ripples of water on its surface, making it look like a waterdrop magnified countless times. That it was able to float between the heavens and earth imparted to it an extremely mystical feeling.

Countless rays of light shot into this floating lake from all directions and then intersected in the transparent waters of the lake. These rays of light then merged with each other or reflected each other, releasing even more richly shaded and numerous rays of light. It was a particularly magnificent and grandiose sight. On first observation, it seemed like the Divine Kingdom as described in the myths, but upon careful observation, these rays of light, straight or bent, created a mountain within the lake.

This mountain had no summit, no peak, because every direction had a summit. Regardless of which direction one began climbing from, the place one was at could be considered the top of the mountain.

There was no peak, but this mountain still had cliffs and streams, strange and craggy rocks. Countless trees seemingly made of coral grew on the mountain, incredibly tall and lofty. A path could barely be made out amongst the trees and rocks. These paths were incredibly complicated and indescribable, extremely narrow and steep.

When the cool breeze that was Chen Changsheng's spiritual sense entered the lake, its speed somewhat slowed. It circled around this strange mountain, somewhat at a loss as it observed it.

He could make out a door in the very depths of the mountain path.

He didn't know whether there was a cave behind this door, or a miniature world like the Education Palace.

At this point, he was still unable to accurately determine just what he was facing, but he was already sure about a few things. The waters of the lake and that snowy plain that had been almost completely burned up came from the same place, possessed identical properties. Yes, the lake waters which encompa.s.sed countless qing came from the night sky in the real world. It was called star radiance.

The mountain wrapped in lake water was his heart.

The cool breeze naturally flowed along with the lake water, his spiritual sense entering the mountain and winding its way amongst the cliffs and dazzling trees. He subconsciously understood that the crux of it all was the door at the end of the mountain path. He wanted to find this door, but it was concealed by the cliffs, and there was no sense of direction in this place. The door flickered in and out of his vision, and he found it impossible to confirm its position, much less get closer.

The water rippled as the breeze broke through, carrying a string of pearl-like bubbles with it as it landed in a rock on the mountain. There was a pop, and he looked down and saw that his foot had stepped on a weed.

Without any hesitation, Chen Changsheng began to make his way along this narrow and steep mountain path. He was currently in a very mysterious state of mind, sensing and thinking nothing, forgetting where he had come from and where he was going. He only knew to walk forward and find that door.

The path twisted and turned; eighteen bends were visible with a single glance. The path was long. No matter how long he walked, he was still in the mountain, with no clouds or end in sight. He began to feel tired, but he never stopped to rest. His feet began to tear, but he did not care. He ran, walked, observed, turned, ran, and turned again, going back, forth, up and down in search of clues.

Time continued to pa.s.s. He was unaware of how long he had walked in search within this mountain, and he also forgot just how much time he needed until he finally found the path.

The mountain was enclosed in water. There was no summit, no up or down, no coordinates. The mountain paths were like a spider web and impossible to decipher. However, there was water in this mountain, a great deal of water.

The water in the mountain was not as still as the lake water surrounding it. Rather, it was continuously flowing, and when it encountered some steep cliff, it would fall. When the water pounded against the waters of the lake, it would produce many waves and bits of foam.

The flow of the water had been the true path.

Chen Changsheng followed an extremely thin waterfall, ignoring the strange sights of water pounding against water that he encountered on his journey. With incredible focus, he climbed the mountain, going against the flow of the river for a vast distance until finally reaching the end of the waterfall within the mountain.

To be more precise, this end was the source.

At the end of the mountain and river, the waters fell and stones emerged.

Set in the pure white rocks that made up the mountain and valleys was a door.

It was precisely the door that he had been painstakingly searching for.

He walked up to the door and, for the first time, truly stopped. His face was drenched in water, his clothes were rags, his shoes broken and his ankles wounded. After walking for such an incredible amount of time, he cut an extremely sorry figure.

This was not a door, but a gate. It was just like how the lake was not one side of a lake, but the entire lake. The latter was because the lake was three-dimensional while the former was because the door was simply too large.

This gate was several dozen zhang high and made of some material akin to gold or jade. Upon careful observation, however, it turned out to be made of common stone that had just gone white. One could find such stones casually piled up in the surroundings.

The stone gate exuded a faint but gentle l.u.s.ter. It gave off an aura of kindness and safety, tempting anyone who saw it to immediately place their hand on the gate and push it open.

But Chen Changsheng was somewhat hesitant, as he sensed danger.

He already knew what this mountain was, so he could naturally guess at what this gate was.

What was even stranger was that though he had clearly never been here before—a fact that he was extremely sure of—this gate gave him a feeling of incredible familiarity, as if he had seen this gate for a very long time. From another perspective, this gate seemed to have been waiting for him for a very long time.

In truth, he only hesitated for the briefest of moments.

Danger was incapable of halting his steps. In order to live, he had already gambled his life quite a few times, so what could stop him from gambling it again?

His hand fell on the gate and gave it a light push. This stone gate was several dozen zhang high, so it should have been absurdly thick. Logically speaking, it was a.s.suredly as heavy as a city, but when he gave it a light push, it bizarrely opened.

Chen Changsheng drew back his hand and warily prepared himself.

The stone gate slowly opened and innumerable rays of light shone from within. They fell upon his face, so bright that his face seemed to blur and his tattered clothes appeared to be burning.

Surprisingly, this light was of no danger to him. On the contrary, it was full of positive energy that instantly made his wounds feel much better and dispelled his exhaustion. It gave him an indescribable comfort, making him feel incredibly powerful, granting him unrestrained control over many things, even giving him a sense of something called freedom.

This was a very good feeling, an incredibly strong temptation. The most unknown of futures or dangers could not suppress this desire. Chen Changsheng walked through the stone gate.

Behind the gate was a world of light. Countless rays of light occupied this entire world, filling his eyes and making it impossible for him to see, much less differentiate directions. He could only blankly and nervously walk forward.

This time, he did not walk for very long.

The rays of light gradually dispersed, becoming gentler. The dense light divided into black and white, and then more colors came into being, like red, which represented life and pa.s.sion, and blue, which represented vastness and mystery.

This blue probably symbolizes vastness.

Chen Changsheng looked at this blue and silently thought.

And then he saw a few white clouds as well as a black cloud that was slowly dissipating.

Only now did he understand what sort of blue he was looking at. It was the blue of the sky.

Soon after, he saw the black eaves, the windows of the second floor, and the woman dressed in palace attire standing by the window and watching him. He recognized her, but did not understand why her face was covered in concern. However, he could be sure of one fact: his spiritual sense had returned to the Education Palace.

He had returned to the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust.

His body was still flying through the air.

His spiritual sense had been bitterly searching in his body for an incredibly long period of time, but to his body in the real world, it was only an instant.

From others' perspectives, he had only closed and then opened his eyes. Who could have known that in this brief span of time, he had experienced so many things and then returned? Who could have imagined that he was no longer his past self, that he had already reached a brand new world?

His spiritual sense had pushed upon that stone gate, but had returned to the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust. This was proof that his small world was already connected to the real world, that the gate of his Ethereal Palace was already open. Although his meridians were still broken and hard to traverse, his true essence would no longer fall into the bottomless abyss. The brooklets of water remaining on the snowy plain and the lake waters continued to pour into his Ethereal Palace, helping him continuously interact with the world.

The torrential downpour had already ceased, transforming into a thin drizzle. Chen Changsheng's body pa.s.sed through the rain. He had closed his eyes, and then opened them. His eyes were as bright as varnish, his expression incomparably serene.

He once more gripped his dagger, using his once more abundant true essence to regain control of his body. He slightly bent his knees, tightened his waist, and adjusted his posture to land on the ground. His soles relaxed and then tightened as he fell like a stone dropping into the water. With a soft plop, he stood steady on the ground.

Soon after, he immediately took out a large batch of pills refined from the herbs he had found in the Hundred Herb Garden and stuffed them in his mouth. He quickly swallowed them and then looked across at Gou Hans.h.i.+.

Gou Hans.h.i.+ would never underestimate any opponent, especially after experiencing Chen Changsheng's performance in the Ivy Festival. And the fact that Chen Changsheng was able to fight his way to the final match of the Grand Examination was also an indicator of far too many things. But it was only after the battle had started that he discovered that he still had not judged Chen Changsheng correctly.

Chen Changsheng had burned up one part of the snowy plain, then ten parts, then all of it. If not for the problems with his meridians, he would have given an even more powerful performance, but even his current level was enough to shake Gou Hans.h.i.+. At the age of fifteen, cultivating only for a year and drawing in starlight for even less, he was actually able to possess such an abundant true essence. In his entire life, Gou Hans.h.i.+ had only seen his senior brother Qiushan Jun accomplish such an inconceivable feat, and he had not expected for Chen Changsheng to accomplish it as well.

But just like he had said to Qi Jian and his other junior brothers in the guest courtyard, he firmly believed that Chen Changsheng could not defeat him or Tianhai Shengxue, because it was impossible for Chen Changsheng to accomplish Ethereal Opening.

Ethereal Opening required at least one hundred nights, each night spent drawing in starlight to cordially knock on the gate of the palace.

Even Zhou Dufu had been no exception.

Chen Changsheng had succeeded at Purification not even one hundred nights ago, so why even discuss Ethereal Opening?

And yet it seemed like something of the sort was taking place right now.

Gou Hans.h.i.+ looked at Chen Changsheng and felt that being praised as being well-versed in the Daoist Canon…suddenly had no meaning, because even if one read through all three thousand scriptures, one would not be able to find such a thing.

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1. This sentence plays with cla.s.sifier words, but does not translate well into English. The different cla.s.sifiers are '面' and '座'. '面' is not normally a cla.s.sifier word, but is used here to describe the fact that you can only see one side '面' of a lake, whereas '座' is a cla.s.sifier word used to describe large and immovable objects. This sort of play on words is also used later on in this chapter.↩