“It seems like I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Chen Chang Sheng looked at the mid aged woman and said “Since I didn’t do anything wrong, then why do I have to change so much?”
After saying this, his expression did not change but his breath had unnoticably became slightly heavier.
Only those who knew him well enough would know that these details indicated he was already very angry.
The mid aged woman’s face became serious and said, “Aren’t you afraid of death?”
“I…. am very afraid of death.” Chen Chang Sheng’s voice was as hard as iron, “…..therefore the first thing I planned to do when I came to the capital was to cancel the engagement in the General mansion. Even yesterday I was preparing to cancel the engagement after getting into the Heavenly Academy or Startaker Academy but sorry, now I truly changed my mind.”
The mid aged woman stared at him. Her eyes became slightly cold.
Chen Chang Sheng looked back at her quietly and said, “Unless you realize what you did wrong, remember my name.”
The mid aged woman remained silent for a really long time.
“Actually I favor you very much.”
She looked at Chen Chang Sheng. The emotion in her eyes was somewhat complicated “In these days I had always been observing your life, I had never seen a youngster who was so good at self-regulating and in the four entrance exams, what you showed was very rare. You deserve praise…..I sometimes would even think, if I have a daughter, it should be a good choice to marry her to you.”
Chen Chang Sheng didn’t know what to say, but he was praised by someone. He felt that he should reply so he thought for a while and said two words, “Thank you.”
Picking this moment to say thank you was somewhat ironic, cute, and very respectable.
The mid aged woman looked at the wall behind the school’s gate and said “But unfortunately, in the entire world no one thinks Miss should marry you.”
Chen Chang Sheng followed her sight and saw many names on the green stone wall. This was the back of the entrance of the academy, therefore this couldn’t be the list of people who got accepted. Then what was this list? He suddenly remembered that he saw similar lists on the back of the entrance of the Heavenly Academy and the Starseeker Academy. There were many names carved on top of them.
There was a line of sentence carved on top most of the green stone wall – “The strong gale will offer strength, and I will enter the green cloud.”
After reading this sentence, Chen Chang Sheng thought back to the records in the books, and knew the list of names carved on the green stone wall was the mythical Honor Roll of Green Cloud.
There were countless powerful xiuxingist in this continent, but geniuses always start when they were young – The Honor Roll of Green Cloud was the tier list for xiuxingist under the age of twenty. All of the people who entered the Honor Roll of Green Cloud were either the core students of different countries, different sects, different academies, or geniuses who held special talents. If they don’t die in the middle of seeking the Way, then these people will all become xiu xingist with true strength.
The reason for the academies in the capital to put up the Honor Roll of Green Cloud was to use the famous names on the list and give the students a model to chase after and enhance the connection between schoolmates. But the effect wasn’t as well as they expected – the students knew they had no chance to enter the Honor Roll of Green Cloud, so they were only respectful, jealous, or even fearful of those names on the list.
The Honor Roll of Green Cloud didn’t care about people’s knowledge, level, sect, gender, but only strength. The single limitation was that the people who entered the honor roll cannot be older than twenty years old. There were few times in the past that a lower level xiu xingist won against higher level ones and were immediately placed in front – this condition was despised by many.
When Tian Ji Ge first created the tier list, this condition was questioned many times, but the answer of Tian Ji Ge was simple and powerful – no matter knowledge, level, or even manner and characteristics, all mixed together was strength. The condition of the Honor Roll of Green Cloud was to test strength, and the best way to test it was victory and defeat.
Chen Chang Sheng glanced over the names of the honor roll. Those names were strange to him. Sometimes he could even see some weird names, and they probably belonged to young xiuxingist from Yao territory, and some genius from the southern forest. Suddenly, he saw Tang Tang ‘s name on the thirty sixth spot. Chen Chang Sheng thought back to the Heavenly Academy and the blue shirt youngster explaining the story of his name, Tang Thirty Six, Chen Chang Sheng laughed happily. He was proud of him.
Finally, his eyes landed upon the highest point of the list, and saw the only name that stood there. The name on top appeared to be lonely, cold, and prideful. He knew that name, he knew the name very well – Xu You Rong.
“The Honor Roll of Green Cloud contained all of the young geniuses all over the world. The Zhou Dynasty is full of talented people. Even just in the capital there were more than ten people on the list. Four people in the Heavenly Academy, three in the Starseeker Academy. But it’s not especially well comparing to the Longevity Sect and Huai Academy in the south. Only until the lady of the mansion entered the honor roll did North and South evened out……”
The middle aged woman looked at the list and her pride can easily be seen, but of course she didn’t need to hide her pride. She said, “Two years ago my lady entered the honor roll for the first time and entered the first place. From that day onward she never got lowered in ranking. The young geniuses behind her couldn’t challenge. No, it was too difficult for them to even approach her.”
Chen Chang Sheng looked at the name on top of the list and remained speechless. These four years he kept the marriage vow on him and he read it many times. He knew her name and knew how old she was. After calculating, this Lady Xu entered the Honor Roll of Green Cloud at the age of twelve and was invincible…… The bloodline of Sky Phoenix was truly miraculous.
The middle aged woman looked at Chen Chang Sheng and said sincerely, “You are talented. Although you have yet to reach Purification you still had the ability to enter the academies. But, your are too different from my lady….. It’s not about effort, it’s not about talent, and trying doesn’t matter either. You are continuing to climb up in your life, and I believe you are able to climb to a very high peak. But my lady has already left there. If you want to stubbornly chase after her, then the only thing you will receive is the raging lighting from the heaven.”
Chen Chang Sheng was silent. He thought about the Shuang Er, the maid he met in the forest, and the man she mentioned before. The genius who was the reincarnation of the Heavenly Dragon and was recognized by everyone on the continent as the perfect fit for Xu You Rong.
“Qiu Shan Jun…….”
The middle aged woman didn’t expect him to know the existence of Qiu Shan Jun. She said emotionlessly “Qiu Shan Jun has been the champion of the Honor Roll of Green Cloud.”
Chen Chang Sheng asked, “Why did he leave the honor roll? Was it because he didn’t want to lose to Lady Xu？“
The middle aged woman replied, “Two years ago Qiu Shan Jun past the peak stage of Meditation, now he is the champion of the Honor Roll of Golden Finger.”
Chen Chang Sheng sighed. He noticed that it was hard to find any relief from this information because the people on the honor roll are all above him. He himself couldn’t even go on the board of acceptance…. Speak less of the Honor Roll of Green Cloud. They were truly living in different worlds when compared to Chen Chang Sheng.
He asked, “Previously you said the difference between Lady Xu and I isn’t talent or effort, then what is it?”
The middle aged woman answered, “……It’s destiny. Even if you are the best ordinary person out there, you are still just an ordinary person. When the lady was born, she wasn’t an ordinary person. You were born as a human, but she was born as a phoenix. The difference between you two is that of the sky and the earth.”
“So……it’s destiny once again.”
Chen Chang Sheng sighed once again. After remaining silent for a long time, he looked at the woman and said seriously, “Perhaps you don’t believe me but the reason I came to the capital was to change my destiny…. Although it’s not about the marriage, destiny has no believability to me.”
The woman was stunned. She didn’t expect that Chen Chang Sheng would still not let go of the marriage vow after she explained the situation clearly.
As the sun was setting at west, Chen Chang Sheng followed the crowd and walked to the other side of the street.
The middle aged woman noticed, at first his head was a little low and his back a little bent. It seemed that he was lonely and tired. But after a short time has past, his back became straight and he raised his head. Once again he looked at the crowd on the street and the setting sun far away.
The dawning light shined on the youngster. It seemed as if he was burning.
—————————————
—————————————-
“I have never seen a youngster this self-discipline. He controlled every aspect of his life. He has no harmful habits nor entertainment. He values time greatly. He values it so greatly that I feel like there was always someone chasing him. But he didn’t let anyone around him feel irritated or in a hurry. It’s easy to see that he enjoys living or life…… Except he has a little mysophobia. The first day, I counted saw him wash his hands a total of seven times and he probably has more than five handkerchief.”
In the General’s mansion, the middle aged woman stood in front of Madam Xu and said expressionlessly. “Madam, I must say that this child is talented. If he has a chance, he will grow quickly. If he‘s lucky, then he will have a bright future before him.”
Madam Xu never thought that the loyal woman who followed her for several decades would speak for the youngster. She wrinkled her eyebrows and asked, “What are you trying to say?”
The middle aged woman replied, “Of course our lady won’t marry to him…..But if we continue insulting and oppressing him like this, it’s better if we just kill him. If he actually got the chance and become strong, even if the mansion is not afraid of him, it’s still troublesome. In addition…..I really think that youngster is nice. Why do this to him?“
This logic might be difficult to understand by normal people, but Madam Xu understood her. She didn’t realize that the woman actually liked Chen Chang Sheng. and she thought back to the words Xu Shi Ji spoke to her at night in the book room. Madam Xu looked deeply at her and said, “There are too many people watching the General’s Mansion… especially the stubborn elders. If there is any ugly news from the mansion, even if it won’t affect the entire reputation, Divine Queen would still not like it. Therefor this thing should be taken carefully. It’s for the best if we can use peaceful negotiations to obtain the marriage vow. But if that youngster still want to maintain his pitiful pride until the very end, or if he wants to get more benefit from this, then he should die silently. Even if it will cause some trouble, it’s another way to get rid of the source of trouble.”
————————–
Shuang Er returned to her room and her mind went blank for a while. Thinking back to the conversation she heard outside of the madam’s room, her felt irritated and insecure. Even after she drank half bowl of cold tea, she couldn’t calm down. She knew the reason that she could’ve heard the entire conversation was that the madam allowed her to….. The madam knew she contacted with the lady constantly, and let her heard the conversation on purpose. The madam wanted her to inform the lady of this matter. But even if the lady won’t marry to that guy named Chen Chang Sheng, but was it really necessary to do this? would lady accept this?
Shuang Er walked to her table and lay a paper flat on its surface. She picked up a brush and sank it into the dark ink. After thinking a little, she started writing a letter.
“It seems like I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Chen Chang Sheng looked at the mid aged woman and said “Since I didn’t do anything wrong, then why do I have to change so much?”
After saying this, his expression did not change but his breath had unnoticably became slightly heavier.
Only those who knew him well enough would know that these details indicated he was already very angry.
The mid aged woman’s face became serious and said, “Aren’t you afraid of death?”
“I…. am very afraid of death.” Chen Chang Sheng’s voice was as hard as iron, “…..therefore the first thing I planned to do when I came to the capital was to cancel the engagement in the General mansion. Even yesterday I was preparing to cancel the engagement after getting into the Heavenly Academy or Startaker Academy but sorry, now I truly changed my mind.”
The mid aged woman stared at him. Her eyes became slightly cold.
Chen Chang Sheng looked back at her quietly and said, “Unless you realize what you did wrong, remember my name.”
The mid aged woman remained silent for a really long time.
“Actually I favor you very much.”
She looked at Chen Chang Sheng. The emotion in her eyes was somewhat complicated “In these days I had always been observing your life, I had never seen a youngster who was so good at self-regulating and in the four entrance exams, what you showed was very rare. You deserve praise…..I sometimes would even think, if I have a daughter, it should be a good choice to marry her to you.”
Chen Chang Sheng didn’t know what to say, but he was praised by someone. He felt that he should reply so he thought for a while and said two words, “Thank you.”
Picking this moment to say thank you was somewhat ironic, cute, and very respectable.
The mid aged woman looked at the wall behind the school’s gate and said “But unfortunately, in the entire world no one thinks Miss should marry you.”
Chen Chang Sheng followed her sight and saw many names on the green stone wall. This was the back of the entrance of the academy, therefore this couldn’t be the list of people who got accepted. Then what was this list? He suddenly remembered that he saw similar lists on the back of the entrance of the Heavenly Academy and the Starseeker Academy. There were many names carved on top of them.
There was a line of sentence carved on top most of the green stone wall – “The strong gale will offer strength, and I will enter the green cloud.”
After reading this sentence, Chen Chang Sheng thought back to the records in the books, and knew the list of names carved on the green stone wall was the mythical Honor Roll of Green Cloud.
There were countless powerful xiuxingist in this continent, but geniuses always start when they were young – The Honor Roll of Green Cloud was the tier list for xiuxingist under the age of twenty. All of the people who entered the Honor Roll of Green Cloud were either the core students of different countries, different sects, different academies, or geniuses who held special talents. If they don’t die in the middle of seeking the Way, then these people will all become xiu xingist with true strength.
The reason for the academies in the capital to put up the Honor Roll of Green Cloud was to use the famous names on the list and give the students a model to chase after and enhance the connection between schoolmates. But the effect wasn’t as well as they expected – the students knew they had no chance to enter the Honor Roll of Green Cloud, so they were only respectful, jealous, or even fearful of those names on the list.
The Honor Roll of Green Cloud didn’t care about people’s knowledge, level, sect, gender, but only strength. The single limitation was that the people who entered the honor roll cannot be older than twenty years old. There were few times in the past that a lower level xiu xingist won against higher level ones and were immediately placed in front – this condition was despised by many.
When Tian Ji Ge first created the tier list, this condition was questioned many times, but the answer of Tian Ji Ge was simple and powerful – no matter knowledge, level, or even manner and characteristics, all mixed together was strength. The condition of the Honor Roll of Green Cloud was to test strength, and the best way to test it was victory and defeat.
Chen Chang Sheng glanced over the names of the honor roll. Those names were strange to him. Sometimes he could even see some weird names, and they probably belonged to young xiuxingist from Yao territory, and some genius from the southern forest. Suddenly, he saw Tang Tang ‘s name on the thirty sixth spot. Chen Chang Sheng thought back to the Heavenly Academy and the blue shirt youngster explaining the story of his name, Tang Thirty Six, Chen Chang Sheng laughed happily. He was proud of him.
Finally, his eyes landed upon the highest point of the list, and saw the only name that stood there. The name on top appeared to be lonely, cold, and prideful. He knew that name, he knew the name very well – Xu You Rong.
“The Honor Roll of Green Cloud contained all of the young geniuses all over the world. The Zhou Dynasty is full of talented people. Even just in the capital there were more than ten people on the list. Four people in the Heavenly Academy, three in the Starseeker Academy. But it’s not especially well comparing to the Longevity Sect and Huai Academy in the south. Only until the lady of the mansion entered the honor roll did North and South evened out……”
The middle aged woman looked at the list and her pride can easily be seen, but of course she didn’t need to hide her pride. She said, “Two years ago my lady entered the honor roll for the first time and entered the first place. From that day onward she never got lowered in ranking. The young geniuses behind her couldn’t challenge. No, it was too difficult for them to even approach her.”
Chen Chang Sheng looked at the name on top of the list and remained speechless. These four years he kept the marriage vow on him and he read it many times. He knew her name and knew how old she was. After calculating, this Lady Xu entered the Honor Roll of Green Cloud at the age of twelve and was invincible…… The bloodline of Sky Phoenix was truly miraculous.
The middle aged woman looked at Chen Chang Sheng and said sincerely, “You are talented. Although you have yet to reach Purification you still had the ability to enter the academies. But, your are too different from my lady….. It’s not about effort, it’s not about talent, and trying doesn’t matter either. You are continuing to climb up in your life, and I believe you are able to climb to a very high peak. But my lady has already left there. If you want to stubbornly chase after her, then the only thing you will receive is the raging lighting from the heaven.”
Chen Chang Sheng was silent. He thought about the Shuang Er, the maid he met in the forest, and the man she mentioned before. The genius who was the reincarnation of the Heavenly Dragon and was recognized by everyone on the continent as the perfect fit for Xu You Rong.
“Qiu Shan Jun…….”
The middle aged woman didn’t expect him to know the existence of Qiu Shan Jun. She said emotionlessly “Qiu Shan Jun has been the champion of the Honor Roll of Green Cloud.”
Chen Chang Sheng asked, “Why did he leave the honor roll? Was it because he didn’t want to lose to Lady Xu？“
The middle aged woman replied, “Two years ago Qiu Shan Jun past the peak stage of Meditation, now he is the champion of the Honor Roll of Golden Finger.”
Chen Chang Sheng sighed. He noticed that it was hard to find any relief from this information because the people on the honor roll are all above him. He himself couldn’t even go on the board of acceptance…. Speak less of the Honor Roll of Green Cloud. They were truly living in different worlds when compared to Chen Chang Sheng.
He asked, “Previously you said the difference between Lady Xu and I isn’t talent or effort, then what is it?”
The middle aged woman answered, “……It’s destiny. Even if you are the best ordinary person out there, you are still just an ordinary person. When the lady was born, she wasn’t an ordinary person. You were born as a human, but she was born as a phoenix. The difference between you two is that of the sky and the earth.”
“So……it’s destiny once again.”
Chen Chang Sheng sighed once again. After remaining silent for a long time, he looked at the woman and said seriously, “Perhaps you don’t believe me but the reason I came to the capital was to change my destiny…. Although it’s not about the marriage, destiny has no believability to me.”
The woman was stunned. She didn’t expect that Chen Chang Sheng would still not let go of the marriage vow after she explained the situation clearly.
As the sun was setting at west, Chen Chang Sheng followed the crowd and walked to the other side of the street.
The middle aged woman noticed, at first his head was a little low and his back a little bent. It seemed that he was lonely and tired. But after a short time has past, his back became straight and he raised his head. Once again he looked at the crowd on the street and the setting sun far away.
The dawning light shined on the youngster. It seemed as if he was burning.
—————————————
—————————————-
“I have never seen a youngster this self-discipline. He controlled every aspect of his life. He has no harmful habits nor entertainment. He values time greatly. He values it so greatly that I feel like there was always someone chasing him. But he didn’t let anyone around him feel irritated or in a hurry. It’s easy to see that he enjoys living or life…… Except he has a little mysophobia. The first day, I counted saw him wash his hands a total of seven times and he probably has more than five handkerchief.”
In the General’s mansion, the middle aged woman stood in front of Madam Xu and said expressionlessly. “Madam, I must say that this child is talented. If he has a chance, he will grow quickly. If he‘s lucky, then he will have a bright future before him.”
Madam Xu never thought that the loyal woman who followed her for several decades would speak for the youngster. She wrinkled her eyebrows and asked, “What are you trying to say?”
The middle aged woman replied, “Of course our lady won’t marry to him…..But if we continue insulting and oppressing him like this, it’s better if we just kill him. If he actually got the chance and become strong, even if the mansion is not afraid of him, it’s still troublesome. In addition…..I really think that youngster is nice. Why do this to him?“
This logic might be difficult to understand by normal people, but Madam Xu understood her. She didn’t realize that the woman actually liked Chen Chang Sheng. and she thought back to the words Xu Shi Ji spoke to her at night in the book room. Madam Xu looked deeply at her and said, “There are too many people watching the General’s Mansion… especially the stubborn elders. If there is any ugly news from the mansion, even if it won’t affect the entire reputation, Divine Queen would still not like it. Therefor this thing should be taken carefully. It’s for the best if we can use peaceful negotiations to obtain the marriage vow. But if that youngster still want to maintain his pitiful pride until the very end, or if he wants to get more benefit from this, then he should die silently. Even if it will cause some trouble, it’s another way to get rid of the source of trouble.”
————————–
Shuang Er returned to her room and her mind went blank for a while. Thinking back to the conversation she heard outside of the madam’s room, her felt irritated and insecure. Even after she drank half bowl of cold tea, she couldn’t calm down. She knew the reason that she could’ve heard the entire conversation was that the madam allowed her to….. The madam knew she contacted with the lady constantly, and let her heard the conversation on purpose. The madam wanted her to inform the lady of this matter. But even if the lady won’t marry to that guy named Chen Chang Sheng, but was it really necessary to do this? would lady accept this?
Shuang Er walked to her table and lay a paper flat on its surface. She picked up a brush and sank it into the dark ink. After thinking a little, she started writing a letter.
