Chapter 42 Somebody lived in this Building

In Dazhou, it was the fourth year’s spring of Shending.

But in fact, in Yanling, it was the sixteenth year of Zhenghe. This spring had no difference from the spring in the past, except that in this spring, Yanling wanted to punish a small country for the first time and sent more than ten cultivators, but it was defeated in the end unexpectedly, and all the cultivators had been killed by the Luosang River. So there was a rare bitter quarrel at the imperial court in Luoyang City. As a result, the Ministry of Penalty sent three officials to capture the two chief criminals who killed a dozen cultivators. However, over ten days after the three officials were dispatched out of Luoyang City, they came back to the city today, empty-handed, the same as when they left.

The Ministry of Penalty kept it a secret and didn’t tell the news at the imperial court in front of all the civil and military officials. They just submitted a report to the emperor of Yanling after the imperial court session.

After reading the report, the man who ruled one of the top three empires in the human world just wrote a few words with red ink and then put down the brush pen. Afterward, he went to the Star Building alone which was built with much money and manpower. The building was more than three hundred meters high. When a person was on the top of it, he seemed to be in the cloud, and perhaps the ones who lacked courage would be scared and couldn’t move. When the building was being built, all people at the imperial court of Yanling didn’t understand. All the emperors in the history were magnanimous and gentle and had never done anything to waste manpower and money. Even if they wanted to build something occasionally, they would recruit labors from the small countries of dependency, and they had never made the people in Yanling suffer from forced labor. But in order to build this Star Building, the late emperor recruited eight hundred thousand people and it took three years to finish it. As for how many people had been tired out to death, it wasn’t recorded in the history book, and only the officials in the Ministry of Works knew something about it. However, nobody in the world except the emperor knew the function of this building. It was not used to worship God as it was rumored, but in fact, it was a prison.

The emperor dressed in a black dragon robe walked upstairs step by step. When he reached the high platform, he stood still in the distance and looked at the cloud peacefully.

The emperor of Yanling was not tall or big and didn’t look like an emperor, but he was more like a middle-aged Confucian scholar. In fact, when the Yanling Confucian Temple enrolled new students in Luoyang City, this emperor who was still a prince then was extraordinarily talented and surprised those masters in the temple till now. If the late emperor didn’t try his best to stop, there would be an emperor in Yanling, but it shouldn’t be him. So these years, it was rumored in Luoyang City that even if this man wouldn’t become the emperor, he must be a rare cultivator in the human world after he entered the temple and would be able to go farther on the way of cultivating.

As a matter of fact, anyway, this emperor was a rare talent in other aspects besides his gift of cultivating. Otherwise, how would the late emperor have the courage to insist on keeping the prince while facing the danger that the temple got furious? The late emperor had six sons.

The emperor’s reign title was Zhenghe after he ascended to the throne. He had never been out of Luoyang City in the past sixteen years. There was good weather for the crops in Yanling. The people respected and supported him, and even the temple also admired him for his governance. And in the past sixteen years, no official at the imperial court had suffered because of this emperor’s joy or anger.

The emperor was famous in the human world for his virtuous character and capability.

If Dazhou wasn’t anxious to expand the territory, probably this emperor wouldn’t mind.

After fifteen minutes, the three officials from the Ministry of Penalty had arrived at the top of the Star Building. The three looked at the emperor standing with his hands behind his back and bowed to him. Afterward, one of them reported, “Your Majesty, every detail has been submitted to the Ministry of Penalty, and you must have read it. We failed in capturing them this time because nobody could resist it. The two seemed not to care about the magic tool, the thousand-mile ring. They crushed at least twenty thousand-mile rings on the way.”

While he was speaking, the official’s face was bitter.

How could a person who was able to crush twenty thousand-mile rings easily be an ordinary cultivator?

The emperor didn’t turn his head but smiled peacefully, “It’s said on the report that they are a girl who likes to wear black clothes and a boy with a machete on his back. Two teenagers killed more than ten cultivators sent by me by the Luosang River, and they must be at the Fundamental Stage at least. I sent somebody to capture such young cultivators at the Fundamental Stage, and it was a stupid decision in the first place. I am not surprised that you didn’t catch them. We failed, and I don’t mind, but I got a report from the battlefield the other day. Can you guess what it is about?”

The three officials kept silent. Although the emperor was smiling, all of them knew it was not so simple.

The emperor turned around and smiled at the three officials, “After what happened by the Luosang River, the Chen Country’s soldiers continued to go to the south, but more than one hundred thousand soldiers were driven away by less than one hundred thousand cavalries led by a young man and ran like pigs everywhere on the mountain when they were hundreds of miles away from Shaoliang City. They were defeated in less than one day. Even if the people from Dazhou capture more than one hundred thousand pigs, it would probably take them more than one day to catch all of them.”

“I always stay in Luoyang City, but I am not deaf or blind. The emperor of Dazhou bragged many years ago, and I admire him, but I can’t stand by and watch him continue to expand the territory. Now Yanling has suffered losses once, and the aristocrats in Luoyang want to see me being embarrassed again now, so I won’t take actions. Luo Li, you go to the Chen Country now and send my imperial decree, telling them that the Chen Country would take responsibility for destroying Dazhou in the future. Yanling would provide weapons and food but won’t send any soldiers. Our people shouldn’t lose their lives there. Tell the king of the Chen County that I will give him one year. After one year, if Dazhou still exists, I will destroy the Chen Country and Dazhou.”

One of the three officials took the order and left, with only two officials left upstairs.

After that man disappeared from the Star Building, the emperor stared at the remaining two and expressed gently, “Luo Li has hooked up with the Yanling Confucian Temple since long ago, and I don’t want to see him again. You two kill him for me, in the Chen Country at best. If not, it’s fine to be in Yanling. I know behind Yanling is the temple, but Yanling is Yanling, and the temple is the temple. Although there are connections between them, I don’t want to be a marionette and be watched no matter what I do. You don’t need to worry if the temple would get furious. Even if it is exposed, the temple wouldn’t take actions because this is my attitude, and the masters in the temple would understand.”

The emperor spoke casually, but the fact was not like that. The Yanling Confucian Temple was the first academy of Confucianism in the human world. Not to mention how many cultivators there were, only the backup, Confucianism behind it was enough to make people hold in awe. Among the three religious sects, although there were more sages of Daoism, there were four Confucian sages anyway, and each of them could change the world’s appearance and destroy an empire randomly. To be honest, nobody was confident to kill somebody at the risk of irritating the temple under the control of this sect.

But the emperor standing on the top of the building considered more than them downstairs. He had been an emperor for sixteen years and had never done anything to affect the national fortune. And he had a good relationship with the temple, so the two officials from the Ministry of Penalty didn’t dare to suspect anything.

Although the two were doubtful, they were in Luoyang City as officials of the Ministry of Penalty, so they should follow the emperor’s orders. Thus they didn’t say anything but nodded to accept the task and then went downstairs.

After the two went away, the emperor standing in the Star Building laughed with self-mockery, “I know that even so, I am just a marionette.”

All people upstairs had gone down except him, and logically, nobody could hear what he said, but soon there was a calm voice.

“You are trapped in Luoyang City, and I am trapped in this building. Although they have different sizes, it is the same in essence. But I am better than you as I don’t need to be a marionette.”

Turning his head to the voice source, the emperor saw a middle-aged man dressed in grey clothes who came out from nowhere.

The man was thin and looked indifferent, with an ordinary iron sword on one side of his waist and a yellow book on the other side.

The man looked weird. He was gentle like a scholar and aggressive like a swordsman occasionally.

Looking at the yellow book on the man’s waist, the emperor joked, “Changgu, you have read this book for many times. Why do you still keep it on your waist?”

The middle-aged man answered impassively, “I can’t get out of this building, so I can’t get new books to read. When I am bored, I can do nothing but read it. That’s why.”

The emperor sighed, “Changgu, I stay in Luoyang and can’t go out for the sake of the people in Yanling, but you are a man of great talent. How can you be trapped in this building? What you did those years is really confusing. You know, with your talent, you are supposed to be well-known in the world now. You are trapped here, and it is a waste.”

The middle-aged man looked at the cloud in the distance and responded calmly, “I just drew a circle on the ground as a prison for myself.”

He said that without helplessness, and he just recalled the past.

With a complicated expression, the emperor looked at this middle-aged man named Li Changgu and thought of those secrets passed down by the royal family. Every year, there were children from Luoyang City selected by the Yanling Confucian Temple and Li Changgu was one of them, but he was the most special one. The other children would be brought to the temple after they were selected by the masters, but Li Changgu didn’t choose that. Instead, he went out of Luoyang City alone and walked for thousands of miles to the Jingkou Mountain. Then he endured the pain and climbed the mountain step by step before entering the gate of the temple. Although it was not something earth-shaking, it was enough to make people admire him as he was only eight years old then. It was not easy for a child to walk thousands of miles and climb the mountain under the temple’s ordeal, but he entered the temple in that way. Many people in the temple held him in high esteem. If he hadn’t been selected by a master, it would probably have caused a fight. After Li Changgu climbed the mountain, he walked faster than his peers on the way of cultivating since he got started and entered the Awakening Stage in less than ten years. Later, in a few years, he entered the Fundamental Stage and the Sanctification Stage. When he was thirty years old, he was close to the Dawning Stage. The gifted Dao cultivator who attracted worldwide attention almost came of age and was still at the Sanctification Stage. Li Changgu was inferior to her, but not too much. His talent and persistence made many masters in the temple pay attention to him. Later one master even wanted to marry his loved daughter to him, and it was wonderful, but this young man with a bright future refused decisively, saying that he had fallen in love with a girl in Luoyang City since long ago. The master was embarrassed by him and got furious but couldn’t lose temper. Then ten years later, Li Changgu seemed to go crazy somehow and started to practice swordsmanship, saying that he would learn from the swordsmen and end all the unfair things with a sword, so he naturally irritated many people in the temple. But then Li Changgu had entered the Dawning Stage, and he had learnt swordsmanship, so he got promoted a lot, and most of the masters in the temple were no match for him. So he was unrestrained and went down the mountain with a sword, returning to Luoyang City, and nobody could stop him unexpectedly. At last, an old master who had stayed secluded for a long time personally caught this young man and brought him back to the temple. There was no prison in the temple, and nobody was willing to face this top genius of the temple recent years, so after they discussed, they decided to tell Yanling to build the Star Building to imprison such rebellious students, and Li Changgu was the first one who was locked up here.

And he was the only one.

From beginning to end, nobody in the temple spoke for Li Changgu, except the arrogant scholar who had written an excellent poem.

And after that, the said scholar was almost driven out of the temple, and he travelled around the world these years, nowhere to be seen.

Since Li Changgu came into this building, two emperors ruled Yanling successively, and more than seventy years had passed. While the Star Building was a forbidden area of the temple, and he couldn’t cultivate, not to mention breaking through and getting promoted, so this swordsman at the Dawning Stage didn’t make any progress in the past seventy years in this building, and he was still at the same level as before.

If not so, perhaps this genius Li Changgu could almost challenge the principal of the temple.

When the emperor was still a prince, he had climbed this Star Building with a height of three hundred meters and seen Li Changgu who sat with his legs crossed on the high platform at the top of the building and looked down at Luoyang City all day long. At that time, Changgu was not so distant and was willing to chat with him. The emperor would come upstairs occasionally these years and asked Changgu about how to govern a country, but sometimes he couldn’t see this scholar or swordsman.

But the emperor still admired him from the bottom of his heart.

Looking at Li Changgu, the emperor suddenly stated, “Sir, the woman you asked me to look after died in late spring seven years ago.”

Li Changgu’s expression didn’t change, “I know. I even know that she married a good man, who was nice to her. Then they had a son and a daughter, a happy family. In late spring seven years ago, I was even beside her bed, but she couldn’t see me, and I wasn’t in her eyes.”

Li Changgu smiled with self-mockery, “There are too many prohibitions here. If I go downstairs, I have to get out of my body and wander for only thirty minutes every time, at a huge price. I have been out of my body for seven times and consumed a lot of energy. Now I am below the Dawning Stage. However, it is not a happy ending for me. But she is fine.”

The emperor smiled bitterly, “Something like this can’t be predicted. You must have been prepared, but you are trapped in this building, and it has something to do with her.”

Li Changgu shook his head with a smile, “I am trapped here, but it has nothing to do with her.”

Li Changgu didn’t finish his words but pressed the handle of the sword on his waist. He suddenly laughed, “Someday I will break this place with the sword. When I went down the mountain from the temple, I met a swordsman at a high stage. Judging from his imposing manner, how can the scholars with pedantry in the temple compare with him? Before I learnt swordsmanship, I didn’t know why those swordsmen in the world unsheathed the sword. After I started to practice swordsmanship, I suddenly realized that although the way of practicing swordsmanship is rough, it can mostly express feelings. I feel happy as I practice swordsmanship after quitting school.”

The emperor stated sincerely, “Then I will wait for the day when you cut down this building with the sword.”

Li Changgu returned calm, “After she died, I didn’t get out of my body anymore, and my cultivation wouldn’t go down to a lower stage. But there are many prohibitions here, and it’s not easy to break.”

The emperor smiled and stayed silent.

Li Changgu suddenly thought of something and then looked at the emperor, expressing peacefully, “The donkey I rode out of the temple must have died, but the poems I wrote are supposed to be in Luoyang City. If it’s okay with you, please send them upstairs. I am old now, and I want to read something old.”

The emperor looked at Li Changgu who was like a middle-aged man and thought, “You are already one hundred years old, but how can we say that you are old? Even if you are below the Dawning Stage, you will live at least five hundred years more.”

He was doubtful, but he agreed soon, “Sir, after I go downstairs, I will tell somebody to find your poems and send them to this building as soon as possible.”

Li Changgu nodded, “It’s great.”

The emperor glanced at Li Changgu and then asked, “I have read many poems of yours. Which is the one you are most satisfied with?”

Li Changgu kept quiet for quite a while and then replied with a smile, “I am satisfied with each of them. After I finish a poem, I think they have different features and don’t dare to decide what to leave out and what to leave in.”

The emperor laughed it off.

After they chatted for a long time, even the emperor had to leave here, so he got up and said goodbye. Li Changgu nodded and then saw him off.

When the emperor went downstairs, he thought of a story he had heard in Luoyang City when he was a child. It was about a hero in the human world. The hero saw a dragon do something evil, so he cut off that golden dragon with his sword. After the dragon was killed, the world was peaceful and everybody had enough food and clothes. But when the hero was sleeping one day, he dreamt about a god. The god asked him, “You have killed the golden dragon. Then who will build the White Building for the Emperor of Heaven?” The hero laughed loudly, “I will go to heaven and tread the White Building into pieces.” The god got furious, “What a conceited man! You don’t know the immensity of heaven and earth.” Facing the god’s rage, the hero didn’t care. Then suddenly a green donkey came from the sky at night. When the flying light showed up, the hero went to heaven with his sword.

But after the hero in this story went to heaven, there was no news about him till now. So many years had passed, and the White Building must have been broken. You should come back, right?

After going downstairs, the emperor stood on the first floor and looked up at the sky, murmuring, “Changgu, nobody knows where the White Building is, but I really want to see you break this building with your sword and come down freely someday. It’s not only for you, but also for me, okay?”

While on the high platform of the Star Building, Li Changgu sat with his legs crossed. He took off the iron sword from his waist and put it horizontally on his knees. Straightening his back, he looked at the cloud in the front nonchalantly.

The yellow book was not an old book but some of his poems. Now he opened it and put it next to him. There were only a few sentences in the poem on that page, but it was arrogant.

The poem was, “I will cut off the dragon’s feet and chew its meat to make it unable to return to the imperial court or sleep at night. So the old won’t die and children won’t cry.”