A few days ago, Xu Yourong had said that if he wanted to know the situation in the Mausoleum of Books, he could ask someone. Even if the Divine Empress did not say it, there would definitely be people who knew. Since it was a matter of the Mausoleum of Books, who in the world could understand it better than this person? This person had already sat in the Mausoleum of Books for several hundred years.
She and Chen Chang Sheng walked across the clear water and arrived in front of the pavilion. She bowed to the person under the pavilion.
There were already very few people in the world who were qualified for her and Chen Chang Sheng to bow at the same time, but the person under the pavilion was different.
The continent's number one Divine General, Han Qing, had an extremely high seniority, was the oldest, and had an extremely profound cultivation. Many years ago, he had already approached the Divine Domain and could be called invincible on the battlefield. He was the only person in the present world that could compare to those legendary Divine Generals of the past. People like Xu Shiji and Xue He simply could not compare, and not even the current Storms of the Eight Directions dared to say that they could definitely defeat him.
What made people sigh in awe was that this person had guarded the Mausoleum of Books for several hundred years and had never left. It was as if he wanted to sit here until the end of his life.
"Hello, I am Xu You Rong. I have come under the orders of my master to ask Senior a few questions."
Xu Yourong looked at the man in the armor and said softly.
Due to being covered, there was no way to confirm whether the man within the armor had opened his eyes or not, but Chen Chang Sheng could clearly see that some dust suddenly flew out from the cracks of the armor, like tiny moths dancing under the sunlight. At the same time, he could clearly feel a pair of eyes that were like iron spears falling upon him and Xu You Rong.
"Who is your teacher?"
An old voice came from the depths of the armor. It seemed to be covered in rust and seemed to have experienced the vicissitudes of life.
Xu Yourong replied, "I come from South Stream Temple."
South Stream Temple was divided into the Outer Sect and the Inner Sect, but only the current Holy Maiden or a direct descendant could walk in the name of South Stream Temple.
The light of the winter sun fell on the surface of the armor, but it did not add warmth. Instead, it seemed even colder, just like the voice that came from the armor.
"Why didn't she come herself?"
"My master said that her question was something that Senior couldn't answer back then, and she still can't answer it now, so she left this opportunity to me."
"Go ahead."
"Just how many Heavenly Tome Monoliths were stolen from the Mausoleum of Books?"
Xu Yourong's gaze fell on the Divine General's armor through the flying dust and the winter sunlight. She was very calm and gentle.
But her question was so direct and biting cold, as if the Divine Path at the southern foot of the Mausoleum of Books wanted to pierce through the heavens.
Chen Changsheng glanced at her and thought, Divine General Han Qing has guarded the Mausoleum of Books for several hundred years, guarding the Divine Path and secrets of the Mausoleum of Books. There are many Heavenly Tome Monoliths that are not in the Mausoleum of Books, but have been lost outside. This is without a doubt the Mausoleum of Books' greatest secret, so how could he answer you?
Unexpectedly, in the next moment, the old and cold voice came from the armor.
"Twelve."
Upon hearing this answer, Chen Changsheng was slightly shocked. Firstly, Divine General Han Qing was actually willing to answer this question, and secondly, the answer itself.
He and Xu Yourong glanced at each other, and saw the astonishment in each other's eyes — there were twelve Heavenly Tome Monoliths wandering about outside?
"All of them were taken by that person?" Xu Yourong continued to ask as she looked at the person under the pavilion.
"Eleven."
"What about the other one?"
"Emperor Taizu took it away."
Upon hearing this, Chen Changsheng thought of the notebook that Wang Zhice had hidden in the Pavilion of Ascending Mist.
In the notebook, Wang Zhice had once mentioned that in his later years, Taizu had been imprisoned in the palace and indulged in sensual pleasures. In the end, he had given Chen Changsheng an item …
"Zhou Dufu took away the Heavenly Tome Monoliths, so that's why the front mausoleum exists?"
"Correct, so the current Mausoleum of Books is actually thirteen mausoleums."
A broken monolith was a boundary monolith, so twelve monoliths were naturally thirteen mausoleums. This was not a particularly difficult problem to calculate. (Note)
"Those Heavenly Tome Monoliths … where are they now?"
Xu Yourong finally asked the most crucial question.
Before coming to the pavilion on the Divine Path, she and Chen Changsheng had both believed that all the Heavenly Tome Monoliths were in their hands, but now it seemed that this was not the case.
"No one knows where the Heavenly Tome Monoliths that person took away are."
Upon hearing the voice from the armor, Chen Changsheng lowered his head in silence. He thought to himself, I know.
"But there is one Heavenly Tome Monolith … that should be in the Demon Lord's hands."
Upon hearing this, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong were finally shocked.
The mountain mausoleum was silent. The clear and shallow water in the canals slowly flowed without any sound.
"Just what use did they have in taking away those Heavenly Tome Monoliths?"
"First of all, this has already exceeded the scope of what I originally promised South Stream Temple. Secondly, if I knew, would I have needed to sit here for several hundred years?"
After saying this, there was no more sound.
The winter wind whistled through the pavilion, carrying with it the dust on the armor and ruffling the cold light. The Divine General seemed to have once again become a statue.
Leaving the pavilion and returning to Xun Mei's small courtyard, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong looked at the plum blossoms outside the fence in silence for a while.
"At the very beginning, there were eleven Heavenly Tome Monoliths around the Mausoleum of Zhou. If the Heavenly Tome Monolith that Wang Zhice obtained from Emperor Taizu was not originally there, then it also means that we guessed wrong from the very beginning. The person who entered the Garden of Zhou and took away that Heavenly Tome Monolith, forcing Zhou Dufu to use ten thousand swords to suppress it, was not Wang Zhice, but the Demon Lord."
"That Heavenly Tome Monolith is currently in the Demon Lord's hands, and there are still eleven in our hands."
Xu Yourong turned around and softly said to him, "There's no need to worry too much."
Besides Chen Changsheng, in this world, only she had personally seen the ten Heavenly Tome Monoliths around the Mausoleum of Zhou, as well as the black stone that Chen Changsheng had taken out of his sheath. Since the Garden of Zhou had reopened, Chen Changsheng should have had eleven Heavenly Tome Monoliths in his hands, but on that night by the window of the Imperial Palace, he had taken out ten.
Xu Yourong had never asked him where the other Heavenly Tome Monolith was. She had a rough guess, and even if they split it equally according to Chen Changsheng's suggestion, they should have had ten. That black stone that Emperor Taizu had secretly given to Wang Zhice and then passed on to Chen Changsheng had originally been brought into the Garden of Zhou by him, so it was his own.
"I've never worried about getting lost in a world that I don't have the ability to enter."
Chen Changsheng looked at her and said, "I'm just worried that you might bear some unnecessary pressure because of me."
This was a problem that they had never discussed.
Xu Yourong was the current Holy Maiden of the south. Ever since she was a child, she had been regarded as the future leader of the human world. From the moment she was born, she was used to living with a sense of responsibility.
Back then in the snowy temple of the Plains of the Unsetting Sun, she had once said to him that this sort of life truly was rather tiring, but she was already used to it. The reappearance of the Heavenly Tome Monoliths was an extremely important matter to the human world. It could even affect the comparison of strength between the humans and demons. With her Dao heart that embraced the world, if this matter were not related to Chen Changsheng, she would probably have already announced it to the world and then returned the Heavenly Tome Monoliths to the Mausoleum of Books.
On that snowy night, when Chen Changsheng placed the five stone pearls in her hands, he finally thought of this problem.
He did not want her to bear this sort of pressure.
… …
… …
(Note: In truth, in order to gather enough for the thirteen mausoleums, I still very seriously checked and calculated. Then, I'll see you at eight. I'm really prepared to use up all my manuscripts at any moment.)
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