Way of Choices: Book I - Youths We Were, Schoolmates

by Mao Ni

  Choosing a Fated Star was a difficult question for every cultivator. There were far too many selections to choose from and no set rule. One could choose a star because one liked the color, and one could also close one's eyes and pick randomly.

  Chen Changsheng did not encounter this sort of problem because just when he wanted to choose a star, a star appeared before him. With a glance, he liked this star, and consequently decided to make it his Fated Star.

  This was a small, red star. Compared to the star he saw at the very beginning, it was clearly much smaller. No terrifying flames of radiance erupted from its surface. All its light and energy seemed to be restrained in its very depths.

  This red star was very round, its surface extremely smooth. It was very much like a small apple.

  It was very cute, very beautiful, possessing a tendency to make people draw close, to make people want to take a bite out of it.

  As Chen Changsheng thought of this, his spiritual sense floated over.

  * * *

  The night breeze gently caressed the library of the Orthodox Academy. The croaks of frogs from outside the window had long since ceased. All was still and quiet.

  Chen Changsheng sat cross-legged on the clean floor, his eyes closed and his expression calm.

  Suddenly, he opened his mouth and then closed it, like he was taking a bite out of something.

  The faint movement of his throat could be heard, as if he was swallowing something.

  Suddenly, sweat poured out of him like syrup, instantly soaking the floor beneath him.

  In the distant starry sky, a red star brightly flashed.

  He opened his eyes and gazed into the depths of the starry sky.

  He could not see that star, but he could feel it.

  Because that was his star.

  Just as the Demon Grand Scholar Tungus had said, no person could see that line.

  So when Chen Changsheng successfully lit up his Fated Star, no phenomena occurred in the Orthodox Academy, no divine beam of light descended into the capital from the night sky. This part of the continent was just like usual, calm and peaceful.

  Moreover, this star of his was too distant from the ground. Although it brightened for an instant, no one could see it. Yes, the star was too far, and even the priests in the observatory far in the western outskirts of the capital did not notice it.

  In the end, however, someone saw it.

  The Divine Empress was viewing the stars tonight.

  This was quite the coincidence.

  As long as the weather was appropriate, the Divine Empress would ascend the Dew Platform every night to view the stars.

  There had been a small drizzle tonight, so she had come out a little later.

  She just so happened to see that star light up.

  But even she did not know who the person that lit up this star was.

  Was that person in the capital or in the south?

  Could they be in Xuelao City?

  The Divine Empress gazed into the depths of the night sky, her inky black brows slowly rising up, and her voice emotionless.

  "Rather interesting."

  Chapter 25 – The Dew Platform and the Hundred Herb Garden

  Lady Mo Yu's eyelashes were very long. Because of the small drizzle just a while ago, tiny drops of water dabbed the edges of the lashes, making her seem very beautiful. It was a great pity that upon hearing the Divine Empress's words, her eyelashes fluttered, causing those little beads of water to fall, fall into the abyss of the dark night that lay before the Dew Platform.

  The Dew Platform was located in the very front of the Imperial Palace and was a hundred zhang tall. Constructed of pure copper, it presented a spectacular sight. Embedded on the platform were several thousand Night Pearls. Even from several dozen li away, one would still be able to see their light. However, tonight, the Night Pearls did not emit a single ray of brilliance.

  Mo Yu gazed at the edge of the Dew Platform. There, the Black Goat stood in the radiance of the stars, its head raised towards a certain place in the night sky. She turned her head to the most forward position of the Dew Platform and confirmed that the Divine Empress was also gazing at that place in the night sky. She couldn't help but grow a little suspicious.

  "Empress, what are you looking at?" she asked.

  In the Great Zhou, and even in the entire continent, Lady Mo Yu possessed an extremely high prestige because of her family background and also because of her unfathomable strength, but the most fundamental reason was her relationship with the Divine Empress. In this world, the people that could chat so casually with the Divine Empress were growing fewer and fewer.

  The starlight landed on the Dew Platform, only allowing that woman's back to be clearly seen. It was just a simple back, yet it seemed like tens of thousands of worlds could be seen upon it.

  Because in tens of thousands of years, she was the world's first female emperor. She was the master of the Great Zhou.

  "A person has lit up a star." The Divine Empress turned and indifferently noted.

  Lady Mo Yu fell silent. Every night, there would always be cultivators lighting up their Fated Stars, but she knew that even the Divine Empress would rarely watch them. However, tonight, the Divine Empress had seen and even quietly gazed at it for a very long time. What did this mean?

  "That star is very far away from us."

  Upon hearing the Divine Empress's next words, Mo Yu believed that she understood.

  After a moment's thought, she replied, "No matter how far it is…it doesn't signify a true genius."

  The Divine Empress did not reply.

  Mo Yu was like a little girl whose opinions were not valued by her elders. Rather unhappy, she snorted, then said, "The Dragon Soaring Star that the child from the Qiushan clan fixed his Fated Star when he was four as one of the ten furthest stars in the past one hundred years. Yet on that night, a disciple of a small sect on the Hundred Li Stream began Purification, fixed his Fated Star even farther than the Dragon Soaring Star, but that disciple could not compare to the child of the Qiushan clan. In the end, Purification depends on the strength of the meridians within the body. How could an ordinary person compare to the blood of the true Dragon?"

  This was a very illustrative example. Before the age of eighteen, Qiushan Jun had always remained first on the Proclamation of Azure Sky, a genius acknowledged by the entire world. As for that disciple from that small sect by the Hundred Li Stream, he had long since vanished amongst the masses. If Mo Yu had not possessed such broad and extensive knowledge, how could she have remembered such a person?

  The Divine Empress replied, "The person that lit up this Fated Star tonight—his spiritual sense is so strong, his mind so serene. Such a person is very rare in this world. Perhaps this is some old scholar who bitterly studied for a hundred years, then in one day comprehended the principles of heaven and earth. Only this way could this person have such good fortune. Just like Wang Zhice all those years ago, this person accumulated their strength and then rose up. Naturally, this is no ordinary person."

  Mo Yu said, "At the time Sir Zhice needed only one night to reach Star Condensation and the entire capital felt it…how is it in any way similar to tonight? Moreover, no star cast its shadow on the ground, indicating that this was not some special bloodline. No matter how strong, I'm afraid that there's a limit."

  The Divine Empress did not turn around, but the smile on her face could still be felt. "What does a child like you know about cultivation?"

  Mo Yu was young, but she was already a grand expert of the Star Condensation Realm. Whether in the Great Zhou Dynasty or the cultivation sects of the south, she would be regarded as an anomaly. Even the Pope had words of praise for her, yet in the Divine Empress's eyes, she was still a child that did not understand cultivation.

  In the entire continent, just how many people were there that could evaluate her in such a fashion?

  The Divine Empress was naturally one of them.

  So Mo Yu was not a
ngry, only sticking out her tongue at the Divine Empress's back.

  She was no longer the child of the past, but she could still act cute because the person before her was the Divine Empress.

  The Divine Empress naturally knew that she was making faces behind her, but only silently smiled.

  Mo Yu stepped forward and stood beside her, gazing up at the multitudinous stars in the night sky. After quietly looking up for a while, she suddenly asked, "Empress, Fated Stars…do they really represent each of our fates? Then can we see our future fates?"

  The Divine Empress replied, "Besides fate, there is perhaps another explanation."

  Mo Yu asked inquisitively, "What explanation?"

  The Divine Empress gazed deeply into the night, not replying for a long time.

  Over there was a faraway star that had once flashed brightly and then became impossible to see again.

  The Divine Empress declared, "It can also be…the baneful star upon one's fate."

  * * *

  Chen Changsheng had lit up his Fated Star.

  In the entire continent, only a scant few people were lucky enough to coincidentally see the instant at which it flashed.

  Because of that invisible crystal wall, those people miscalculated the distance between the star and the ground, but even so, his Fated Star's distance from the ground was still enough to be ranked amongst the very top in human history.

  In Xuelao, the demon city to the north; Holy Maiden Peak and the Longevity Sect's Mount Li in the south; and the River of Oblivion[16] deep in the territory of the demi-humans; perhaps some people saw it, or perhaps they did not. As long as they saw it, they would inevitably regard the sight with extreme importance and attempt to discover who had lit up this star.

  This was not that important. The night sky contained millions upon millions of stars associated with the millions upon millions of humans. It was a world that could never be touched and that line could never be seen. As long as Chen Changsheng himself did not speak of it, no other person would be able to know.

  However, there would always be surprises, or perhaps they could be called exceptions.

  There were some people whose cultivation level was too low to be able to see the star lighting up, let alone follow that line to find Chen Changsheng. However, by sheer coincidence, they were looking up at the night sky the instant Chen Changsheng lit up his Fated Star, just like the Divine Empress. Even more coincidentally, one of them had been cultivating at the time, her spiritual sense extended towards that ruined land separated from her by just a wall.

  The most fundamental reason was that she had an innately close connection to starlight and could intuitively realize many things.

  This was a sort of innate gift. To be more precise, this was the innate gift of her species.

  On the other side of the Orthodox Academy's dilapidated academy wall was the Hundred Herb Garden.

  On that night, she was in the Hundred Herb Garden.

  She clearly sensed the serenity and tenacity of the spiritual sense that had lit up that Fated Star.

  She was very curious as to the owner of that spiritual sense.

  She wanted to find him, and then ask him a few questions. For this, she would not mind gifting a few priceless treasures rarely seen in the world.

  Because she was called Luoluo (落落), and she was very generous (大方).[17]

  Chapter 26 – Accumulation

  If Chen Changsheng had begun to draw starlight into his body on the night he lit up his Fated Star, thus beginning the first step of Purification, the young girl in the Hundred Herb Garden next door might have been able to use her gift to follow that unbroken sensation and discover his existence. If the syrupy sweat that had flowed from his body to the floor had not strangely melted away in the wind and seeped into the floorboards, perhaps she also would have been able to find him.

  The problem was that Chen Changsheng once more displayed his difference in temperament, or perhaps way of thinking, when compared to the ordinary person. Without hesitation, he resisted the temptation of beginning Purification and returned straight to the house to bathe and sleep. As for the sweat, not even a single syrupy drop could be seen on the floorboards.

  The next day, Chen Changsheng carefully read over On Purification again, especially the parts on drawing starlight into the body for Purification. He made even more notes and, upon confirming that he had a firm grasp over its contents, he went out to the lakeshore and took a nap. Only when the setting sun had sunk below the city walls and night was on the verge of falling and had confirmed that his body and mind were all in excellent condition, did he finally push open the door to the library and formally begin Purification.

  His spiritual sense was emitted into the air, but it did not pass through the roof of the library and into the night sky, yet he knew that there was already a mysterious connection between him and the small red star far in the distance. This was not a very vivid feeling. To be more accurate, this connection between him and that star was not perceived in any way by either his body or his spiritual world, but he was incredibly certain that the star was there and that no one could snatch it away.

  Just as that Pope from so many years ago had said, that line really did exist.

  Chen Changsheng closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and opened his soul. Based on the methods described in On Purification, he entered the state of complete forgetfulness, the realm of absolute relaxation, and quietly waited for the essence condensed from starlight to come down that line and enter his body.

  Time gradually passed. The night wind was sometimes warm and gentle, other times hard.

  The forest outside the library was peaceful. Yesterday, the laborers of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education had pruned this part of the forest, cutting off many extraneous branches. The bare stumps of the branches were exposed to the air, exuding the aroma unique to trees, which was sent off by the wind to distant places.

  The aroma exuded by those branch stumps was so strong because a gelatinous and near-transparent substance was seeping out from those places. This was sap. The Orthodox Academy contained a variety of trees, naturally including fruit trees, so this aroma was quite fragrant.

  There was one extremely thick scholar tree that had all its branches near the ground cut off. One of these cuts was extremely similar to a scar and a thick layer of resin had already formed over it. Upon being blown by the wind, this resin began to slowly flow down the tree trunk. If one of those people that delighted in slaughter were to see this sight, they would think that this scholar tree's arm had been chopped off and that it was now bleeding. However, under the silver radiance of the stars, the sap flowing down the tree was more like a sweet, sweet syrup.

  There was one extremely thick scholar tree that had all its branches near the ground cut off. One of these cuts was extremely similar to a scar and a thick layer of resin had already formed over it. Upon being blown by the wind, this resin began to slowly flow down the tree trunk. If one of those people that delighted in slaughter were to see this sight, they would think that this scholar tree's arm had been chopped off and that it was now bleeding. However, under the silver radiance of the stars, the sap flowing down the tree was more like a sweet, sweet syrup.

  After a very long time, the honey-like sap finally reached the ground and dripped upon a clump of green grass. It was not able to luckily, or perhaps cruelly, trap an insect in the beginning stages of amber, so it could only ultimately become food for those insects.

  In the library, a similar scene played out.

  The radiance emitted by countless stars fell upon that invisible, imperceptible line and condensed into dense essence. Then, this essence began to slowly trickle towards the ground. After traveling some distance, the essence ignored the roof of the library and finally fell upon Chen Changsheng's body.

  The radiance of the stars was soft and moist, and the skin of Chen Changsheng's face seemed to be transformed into white jade, yet the next moment, that radiance acted like
sand or wind falling through the fingers, seeping into his skin and vanishing from sight. His face remained as it was before, as if nothing had changed.

  Much more radiance fell on his body. This radiance seemed able to disregard any obstacle, easily passing through his clothes and resting on his skin, yet it did not stop there, seeping deeper into his body to some unknown place.

  Chen Changsheng's eyes were closed. He did not see these sights nor did he know what happened.

  Only when the early morning light fell upon the capital and the roosters began to crow did he finally wake.

  He was somewhat excited, a feeling that he had rarely experienced in his fourteen years of life. That was because if he succeeded in Purification, then he would be stepping onto the path of cultivation. Whether or not he obtained first rank of the first banner in the Grand Examination, he was about to obtain some right to speak about his own fate.