Whether it was the Mausoleum of Books or the streets of the capital, they all fell into a deathly stillness.
Many people opened their mouths in shock, and no one could say a word. People thought that they had heard wrongly, or that the whistling of the night wind had suddenly become faster, making them unable to hear it clearly.
The Tianhai Divine Empress's eyes were very beautiful, bright like the stars, just like the eyes of a true Phoenix.
A ray of light flashed in her eyes, and her Divine Sense moved slightly.
She gazed at a certain place in the Mausoleum of Books. She could not see it clearly, but she could see everything clearly.
That feeling was still there. So it had always been there. So it was here.
Crack! Several bolts of lightning, each as thick as a tree, fell from the night sky and landed around the peak of the Mausoleum of Books, illuminating everything with incomparable clarity.
The dark clouds in the night sky rolled wildly, twisting incessantly as if there were countless dragons fighting within. It was as if the mysteries of heaven were about to move and the will of heaven was about to arrive.
An extremely faint Qi seeped out of the Tianhai Divine Empress's body. Faintly discernible, it pierced through the clouds and returned to the depths of the vast sky of stars that could not be seen with the naked eye.
She looked up at the sky with an indifferent expression and said nothing.
…
…
"What do you mean?"
"Chen Chang Sheng isn't the son of the Divine Empress and Emperor Xian?"
"Could he not be Crown Prince Zhaoming?"
Following Daoist Ji's words, the entire capital sank into a boundless shock.
When the rumor began last year, not many people believed it, but too many things happened later on, forcing people to believe it. The most crucial point was the attitude of the Orthodoxy and the Divine Empress.
For his sake, the Imperial Court and the Orthodoxy had repeatedly confronted each other, and the two great powers were about to launch a decisive battle tonight. The Divine Empress had not hesitated to lower her cultivation to help him defy the heavens and change his fate, break the blood oath from the past and perfect his soul. But if he were not Crown Prince Zhaoming, then wouldn't all these things that the Divine Empress had done be meaningless?
The person who was most shocked was obviously Chen Chang Sheng himself.
An unknown source of strength made him stand up with difficulty. Using the scabbard to support his body, he gazed at the capital in the night.
He wanted to see where his Master was. He wanted to know what his Master's words meant.
The Tianhai Divine Empress did not turn her head, nor did she pay attention to him.
The silence lasted for a very long time.
His face became paler and paler, and his childish features were filled with frustration.
Is this true?
So, it was all fake.
He suddenly understood.
Yes, everything was fake.
When the false becomes the true, the true becomes the false.
His master had lied to the entire world.
Both the Divine Empress and himself had been deceived.
The Scroll of Time might really be able to shorten time, but that didn't mean that it would definitely fall on him.
Perhaps the Canon of Flowing West could change many things, but it could not change the fact that the great river would eventually flow west.
…
…
In a very short period of time, Chen Chang Sheng had thought through many things, or even everything.
Those were the things that he didn't understand, the things that Tang Thirty Six didn't understand, the things that Xu You Rong didn't understand, and at the same time, they were worried about.
Yes, if he really was Crown Prince Zhaoming, how could his master have allowed him to enter the capital and appear before the Divine Empress?
Two and a half years ago, in the spring, he left Xining Village and came to the capital.
He couldn't break off the engagement, so he couldn't get into the Six Ivies. In the end, he entered the abandoned Tradition Academy. Whether or not the Pope knew at the time, whether or not the document Mo Yu carried had anything to do with it, now that he thought about it, he had assuredly wanted to enter the Tradition Academy. Because his master was the previous Principal of the Tradition Academy, it was easier for people to associate him with the fact that he was in the Tradition Academy.
Did the Pope know of this matter from the very beginning? He probably didn't. What about Archbishop Mei Li Sha? He probably knew.
That elderly archbishop sat in the plum blossom covered room of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education, shielding the Tradition Academy from the wind and rain, building bridges for Chen Chang Sheng. He allowed Chen Chang Sheng to grow and mature at an unimaginable speed. He said on the Divine Avenue that Chen Chang Sheng would take first rank of the First Banner in the Grand Examination. He allowed Chen Chang Sheng to stand out above the forest, to enjoy limitless glory at the peak of danger.
All of this was to make him even more striking, to make the Divine Empress discover him even faster and pay attention to him. Then, she would grow suspicious of him and begin to investigate him.
Because he was Chen Chang Sheng, a legitimate successor of the Orthodoxy, the Principal of the Tradition Academy, a genius of cultivation, the successor of the Orthodoxy. He was Crown Prince Zhaoming.
Of course, all of this was fake.
He was nothing.
He was a fruit.
He was only a fruit.
A fruit that was naturally poisonous.
From the moment he was born, his fate had already been arranged. After he ripened, he would be eaten by someone.
This was his destiny.
Only when his destiny came to an end with time and everything calmed down would the true successor of the Great Zhou Dynasty walk onto the stage and receive all of this.
Who was that person? Master? The Pope? Or … the true Crown Prince Zhaoming?
Chen Chang Sheng should be feeling sorrow, but he was not.
He was already numb.
He stared in a daze at the world beneath the Mausoleum of Books.
If everything was fake, then what was real?
Suddenly, he began to miss that old temple in Xining Village. He wanted to go back and pretend that he had never come to the capital, that he and his senior were still babbling by the stream …
Senior … did he know of these things?
… …
… …
Only now, including those fifteen princes surnamed Chen that had infiltrated the capital in the darkness, did many people realize just what had happened.
Amidst their shock, they began to ponder the blow this matter would deal to the Divine Empress and its effect on the entire situation. At the same time, they very naturally began to ponder a very important question.
Since the Divine Empress had not reached perfection, it meant that Crown Prince Zhaoming was assuredly still alive. Chen Chang Sheng was not, so where was the true Crown Prince Zhaoming?
This shocking piece of news spread countless times faster than Red Eagle.
On the official road from Luoyang to the capital, the bloated Prince of Xiang suddenly shot up from the ground and loudly cursed in the direction of the capital.
No one could clearly hear who he was cursing, Daoist Ji or Chen Chang Sheng, but his attendants were certain that he had not cursed a single word at the Divine Empress.
Panting, he walked back to his imperial carriage and said, "After we enter the capital, investigate where my pitiful younger brother is."
On the waterway from Jiangnan Province to the capital, the Prince of Zhongshan issued a similar order to his subordinates, but he was much more direct than the Prince of Xiang.
"If you can hide it and kill it, then kill it. If you can't, then help this prince take the initiative to show your loyalty and pledge your allegiance."
At this moment, countless princes had the same thought.
The Prince of Xiang raised the curtain and gazed at the capital.
The Prince of Zhongshan stood at the bow of the ship, gazing at the capital.
They could not see what was going on at the peak of the Mausoleum of Books, but they felt like they could see it.
Even they, who were extremely vicious and merciless, felt that the current Chen Chang Sheng was very pitiful.
At the same time, they felt that Principal Shang was very frightening.
… …
… …
The clouds really did disperse.
Chen Chang Sheng searched for his master's figure in the darkness, but to no avail. He slowly lowered his head, the rain slowly dripping down his drenched hair.
The Tianhai Divine Empress gazed at the vast sky of stars. After a very long time of silence, she finally said four words.
"So that's how it was."
Then she drew back her gaze and gazed at the capital in the darkness, her voice tinged with derision.
"So what?"
… …
… …
(There's another chapter at eight.)
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