Recognizing the Tong Palace did not mean that one could break out of the Tong Palace and leave. Finding the Tong Palace's gate of life in no way meant that one could escape into the outside world. In reality, in the countless years from now and into the distant past, countless experts had been imprisoned in the Tong Palace, and not one person dared to take a single step into the Tong Palace's gate of life.
Those worthy of being imprisoned in the Tong Palace were naturally not ordinary, so they clearly understood the principle that life was death. They firmly believed that the Pope who had created the Tong Palace would not leave any gap. Once one stepped through the Tong Palace's gate of life, it was the equivalent of stepping into the realm of death.
In the abyss of despair, one was not guaranteed to see hope, and who would really face death in order to live? Compared to choosing that seemingly most simple and straightforward yet actually most dangerous path, it was better to try and find some other method. Even sitting and waiting was a better choice.
Chen Changsheng was probably the weakest person to be imprisoned within the Tong Palace in all its history, but he was also the most unique person. He was different from the other prisoners of the Tong Palace—he had always been seeking out hope in the abyss of despair. He was walking every day and night towards death to live.
He was the person in the world that most valued time, and he did not wish to use it in arguing over meaningless things. After having a few of his speculations confirmed by that conversation with Mo Yu, he very speedily made his decision, stepping without hesitation into the cold pond.
At the time, he did not know that the cold pond he was about to enter was called the Black Dragon Pond, but even if he did know, it would not have mattered. He wanted to leave this abandoned garden and quickly return to Weiyang Palace to accomplish that task, so no matter what blocked his way, whether it was a tiger cave or dragon pond, he wanted to charge in.
This abandoned garden was bitingly cold because of this cold pond, so its waters were naturally even colder. Only when his feet fell upon the surface of the pond did he discover than an extremely thin layer of transparent ice had formed upon it. With a few cracking sounds, it was broken into shards of ice.
Chen Changsheng did not feel the waters of the pond soaking his shoes because his feet did not enter the water. The cracking sounds continued as the thin sheet of ice over the pond began to splinter. The water under the ice also began to part, revealing stone steps that descended beneath the pond!
The stone steps gradually descended from the shore towards the depths of the pond, their surfaces extremely dry. There was not a trace of water on these steps, not even moss.
The waters of the pond were parted by some invisible power, a very mystical sight. The stone steps extended into the gloom, faintly portending limitless dangers. However, Chen Changsheng seemed calm and composed as if this mystical sight had never occurred, as if this path had always existed.
After ten-some steps, the stone stairs vanished below the pond waters, extending all the way to the bottom of the pond.
The ground to which the path led was also very dry, but the corners of the walls were filled with snow. The temperature here was even colder than it was on the shore of the pond. The starry sky and the music from Weiyang Palace was gradually fading into the distance as the path proceeded further into the darkness, nothing visible whatsoever. The more one walked, the more one felt that one was departing the real and human world, possibly about to plunge into an abyss at any moment or walk into some other world.
Chen Changsheng did not stop or slow his steps. On the contrary, he increased his pace until he was running.
He ran into the dark abyss.
After running for an unknown amount of time, he reached the end of the path and realized that this place was not completely dark.
The starry sky could no longer be seen and the colored lanterns of the Double Seventh Festival were powerless to illuminate this place, but there was still some feeble light at the end of this path, piercing through the limpid waters of the pond, shining upon his body and upon a stone door.
This stone door was about ten zhang tall and looked extremely heavy. There were no carvings upon the door—, it was just two massive stone slabs placed together. It looked just like the toy blocks some god had left behind as a child. It also seemed like the coffin of some god, sinister and solemn to the extreme.
What shocked and concerned Chen Changsheng even more was that an indescribable might could faintly be felt from behind the door.
At the side door of the Heavenly Dao Academy and outside Weiyang Palace, he had felt the mighty pressure and Qi exuded by Xu Shiji, but compared to the mighty pressure behind this stone door, Xu Shiji's powerful Divine General's Qi was just like that of a cricket, not even on the same level.
Yes, Chen Changsheng had never felt such a powerful might as the one coming from behind the stone door, or even heard of anything similar. This was an existence that completely exceeded a normal person's imagination. To approach this existence was to suffer an absolute suppression, to confront a certain death.
Let alone a fourteen-year-old ordinary youth like him, even a Star Condensation expert like Mo Yu would not be able to directly resist the Qi coming from behind the stone door. Even a supreme expert of the Saint Realm might also choose to stay far away!
This mighty pressure was not intentionally released by the terrifying existence behind this door, but was rather the Qi that was able to squeeze past the cracks in the door. Despite this, it was enough to oppress Chen Changsheng's body and mind with cold. His face was pale as snow and his two feet seemed frozen to the floor.
Nanny Ning was worried that he would accidentally enter the gate of life and encounter that legendary existence beyond the stone door. Mo Yu did not believe so because she was very sure that no one would be able to open that stone door and enter after sensing the pressure coming from behind it. And for an ordinary youth like Chen Changsheng, he couldn't even stand straight, so how could he enter?
No one expected that the true situation was different from what Mo Yu imagined.
Chen Changsheng was in extreme pain, yet he did not collapse and was even able to maintain a clear mind.
He also didn't know why this was the case. He had clearly never encountered the awe-inspiring Qi coming from behind the stone door, but for some reason, his body and spiritual sense naturally had a subtle response and adjustment towards it, so much so that he was even able to stand with a clear mind before this mighty pressure.
He did not know that just after he was born, before his eyes had even opened, he had encountered an existence similar to the one behind the door.
That awe-inspiring Qi still existed.
Chen Changsheng's body had gone stiff. He did not collapse, but he could not leave either.
He subconsciously gripped the dagger in his hand somewhat tighter. He sensed that the tighter he gripped the dagger, the easier he found it to bear the pressure coming from behind the stone door, and the more comfortable he would feel. It was like there was some energy being transferred from the hilt into his body, protecting him.
He did not know what this energy was. He thought it was courage.
The dagger had been gifted to him by Senior Brother Yu Ren before he descended the mountain.
He had read the three thousand scriptures of the Daoist Canon, but he had never heard of a person more courageous than Senior Yu Ren.
So he believed that his senior's sword was a source of courage.
He gripped the dagger and took one step forward. His palm fell on the stone door and pushed it open.
Without a single noise, the stone door slowly opened.
In the underground space deep below the Imperial City of the Great Zhou, the stone door that had not once been opened since its construction was finally opened tonight.
Dust was sent drifting into the air, the dust of history.
This period of history had already reached one thousand years.
...
...
Behind the stone door was darkness, absolute darkness.
Chen Changsheng held the dagger in front of him while his other hand took out the Night Pearl and raised it in the air.
This Night Pearl was bright and splendid, perfectly round like a melon. This was the pearl Luoluo had gifted to him when taking him as her teacher, but it was a mystery where he had been storing it.
The gentle and watery light spread out from the Night Pearl in his hand to all directions, yet after quite some time, this light still did not shine upon anything like a wall.
This was an extraordinarily vast space, incomparably spacious and empty. One could even place a true palace hall in here.
Chen Changsheng had never imagined that the Great Zhou Imperial Palace would have such a massive underground space beneath it. Judging by the distance he had run, the place he was standing might even be under some place in the capital beyond the walls of the Imperial Palace.
The light of the Night Pearl gradually spread farther, and the vast and limitless space seemed to gradually grow more real.
In the distance, there was a flashing of silver light, densely packed like countless layers of silver scraps or like all the stars in the night sky had descended to the human world.
Chen Changsheng raised the Night Pearl and walked in that direction. When he reached those silver scraps, he realized to his shock that it was actually a pile of silver ingots!
A silver sea formed from innumerable silver ingots.
In the center of the silver sea was a golden mountain made of gold bricks.
At the summit of this golden mountain grew a tree of dark red coral.
On the numerous branches of this coral tree hung countless fruits carved from diamonds and crystals.
A golden mountain, a silver sea, and a coral tree, and also tens of thousands of jeweled fruits.
This scene was truly rather tacky, because it was far too extravagant, extravagant beyond description.
Chen Changsheng was shocked speechless, even almost forgetting about that pressure.
He had never seen this much wealth in his life.
To be more precise, on this continent, there had never been anyone who had seen this much treasure.
The surface of the silver sea was covered in a shallow layer of frost.
The surfaces of many silver ingots had begun to peel and were scattered about like wood shavings. The scraps of silver he had seen were these.
This underground space was so cold that not even silver could endure it.
Just then, there was a sudden gust of cold wind.
The silver sea began to swell as countless silver scraps were sent rustling all over the place. The color of the frost suddenly deepened as snow began to accumulate in the depths of the silver sea.
This gust of cold wind blew for a very long time.
Chen Changsheng's body was covered in a layer of snow, his eyebrows and eyelashes already stained white.
But his heart was even colder.
Because this cold wind that had persisted for a very long time was just a single breath.
An extremely long and extremely frightening breath.
The gloomy darkness suddenly gave birth to two faint balls of flame.
Those two balls of flame were pure and cold, without a hint of color.
Like flames of ice from the underworld.
The two flames slowly approached Chen Changsheng.
The terrifying pressure completely enveloped this underground space.
Chen Changsheng could no longer endure it, and blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth.
A hint of what could be called emotion suddenly appeared in those two flames.
At first perplexity, then shock, then delight, after that curiosity, and finally, it all transformed into iciness and ruthlessness.
They naturally could not really be flames of the underworld. They were two eyes even larger than Chen Changsheng's body.
The being that possessed this pair of eyes…how large would it be?
The Night Pearl left Chen Changsheng's hand and floated upwards, ultimately landing on the dome of this space.
Suddenly, the entire dome lit up. This was because the dome was studded with several thousand Night Pearls. Previously, when Chen Changsheng saw that silver sea, he thought that profuse stars in the night sky had all descended to the human world, but now he knew that this place had its own night sky and its own profuse stars.
The underground space gradually brightened.
A black rock appeared in the air.
It was swiftly joined by more and more black rocks.
Those black rocks absorbed the light spilling down from the dome, not reflecting any back.
Chen Changsheng clearly saw that these were not rocks, but scales.
A massive black rock was actually a black scale.
In this world, only one kind of scale could be so large: dragon scale.
A terrifying black dragon slowly appeared in the night sky.
It looked down at Chen Changsheng, its two eyes like flames of the underworld, cold and cruel.