Transcending the Nine Heavens

In a stuporous state, Chu Yang walked out of the Jiaxiu Building. No matter how hard he thought, he still didn’t understand this matter.

He turned at a corner and walked towards the Orchard Palace.

It’s just past early morning and far from noon now. The sun was suspended diagonally in the sky. While sunlight was cast down onto the ground, it couldn’t offset the coldness in temperature.

Chu Yang was puzzled as he thought about this matter.

There had been so many people crowded here just now, but everyone was gone in just a moment? Did this mean that the words that he had said to Wu Qianqian and the show between the both of them were so useful?

He continued to walk, and not for long, he was going to reach the Orchard Palace.

Turning at a corner, he suddenly realized a few people looking at him, smiling.

Chu Yang was stunned for a moment. These few people were dressed in blue and looked spirited. They didn’t veil their faces, neither did they try to hide away from Chu Yang. They were actually standing boldly in the middle of the road.

The Lan clan!

Aside, Lan Changge was leaning lazily against a tree. Seeing Chu Yang, Lan Changge’s eyes lit up. He straightened his back and walked over.

“Brother Chu, haha… How fortunate to meet you!” There’s a hint of coldness in Lan Changge’s eyes as he looked at Chu Yang. He said smilingly, “I suppose you had a good time with Fairy Wu?”

Chu Yang smiled bashfully. “Brother Lan, you’re joking! Alas, I can’t describe this with just a few words.”

Lan Changge revealed a ‘that’s what I’ve expected’ look and seemed to heave a sigh of relief. Then he held Chu Yang’s hands, smiled understandingly, got near him and said, “Brother Chu, I’ve come today to consult you on something. Please do enlighten me.”

Chu Yang said stunningly, “What’s the matter?”

Lan Changge held Chu Yang’s hands warmly and said, “Come come come, we shall talk about this in the teahouse. I’ll be the host, haha. I’ve been feeling close to you since the first time I met you. Brother Chu, please don’t reject me. Please, please come.”

Chu Yang was bold and unafraid of what Lan Changge was up to. Besides, Chu Yang was also very curious why Lan Changge had come to him.

Thus, Chu Yang agreed readily. They made a turn at a corner and entered a teahouse, then sat down at a quiet place.

Lan Changge waved his hands, and the four accompanying experts dispersed towards four different directions to guard the teahouse.

Lan Changge grabbed a teacup which the shopkeeper had just delivered and poured tea for Chu Yang hospitably. Lan Changge sounded gentle, his manners were graceful and he looked warm.

He appeared to be completely different from how he behaved at the Jiaxiu Building.

The young masters from the nine big clans indeed all had deep minds. On the surface, all of them seemed to be mischievous and like fops. However, once they’re not in public, all of them looked noble and remarkable.

Chu Yang pondered on this secretly in his heart. But, which sides of them were more real? Or… had they not revealed their true selves yet?

“Thank you. Young Master Lan, may I know what’s there you want to ask me? Please talk about it earlier so that I have an idea of what it is.” Chu Yang realized that the teacup was actually transparent when he held it.

All the teacups were actually carved from a whole piece of white crystal. From the outside, the movements of the tea leaves within the cup was observable.

“Brother Chu, please be calm and taste this tea. This tea is called Starry Night Tea, and it’s a unique product of the Tianji City. It has been said that these tea leaves are dried over starlight! How can you not have a taste of this tea when you’re here at the Tianji City? Please.”

“Every guest who comes over to this teahouse can only drink a cup of tea a day. He has to make the tea for himself, and drink it and appreciate the experience by himself,” Lan Changge said, “I heard that everyone who drinks such tea will feel differently… Haha… This is very intriguing.”

“Oh? There’s such a thing? Brother Lan, how do you feel?” Chu Yang said lightly as he held the teacup and blew gently on the floating tea leaves.

You’ve come to look for me anyway. Since you’re not worried, neither am I.

Drag on the conversation then.

I have plenty of time…

“Brother Chu, tea is like life. Look at these tea leaves. Although they don’t have fixed positions in the cup, all of them are striving to float upwards. Although each of them is independent, the teacup mouth is only of this size, and it’s impossible that so many leaves float to the top. Although it’s only a layer apart, there’s after all a difference, and the competition between the leaves is also quite intense.”

Lan Changge laughed and said coherently as he pointed to the leaves in the teacup.

Chu Yang tilted his head and said, “Oh?”

Lan Changge smiled deeply and said, “Other see tea leaves when they look at tea, but from my eyes, I see life and the martial world!”

Chu Yang gazed at the tea leaves and said, “Indeed, there’s competition among them. But… this competition is a passive one; If not for the boiling water added to them, this cup of tea would, after all, be some dried leaves.”

“Brother Chu, you’ve said it well. But, the more this is so, the more interesting this seems to be. Each of us is just like these dried leaves, lying quietly at some place in the world, and has no competition with one another. But… regardless of what reasons there exist, it may be coercion or also out of one’s own will, everyone will ultimately enter this boiling water and have a life and death battle with one another!”

“So, from my perspective, this cup of boiling water is the Nine Heavens, while the tea leaves within it are the sentient beings.” Lan Changge revealed a sorrowful look. “Like me and you.”

Chu Yang’s brows furrowed as he pondered. “Brother Lan, you may be reasonable in saying so. But, although such a battle is passive, it’s because of this kind of battle that enable these dried leaves to instigate the potentials hidden within themselves — that is, the fragrance of tea — whilst they are being differentiated from one another. So, although the dried leaves are bathed in hot water and they make the tea bitter, the original viridity and fragrance of leaves bloom as a result. Although the tea leaves are bitter, it’s better than being the dried leaves which lay senselessly within the tea jar.”

Chu Yang smiled. “And it’s even much better than those leaves of the same kind which lay on branches till they wither.”

Lan Changge clapped and laughed. “Brother Chu, your words have really won my heart!”

“But… this cup of tea isn’t the Nine Heavens, and we’re also not the tea leaves!” Chu Yang suddenly changed the topic of conversation. “Talents are emerging in large numbers in the Nine Heavens, and there will ultimately be people who jump out of the boundaries of the Nine Heavens into the universe! But the tea leaves in this teacup can’t jump out of this cup no matter what! And, once their fragrance is lost, these tea leaves will become tasteless and sink to the bottom of the cup.”

Chu Yang looked up and smiled. “It’s like a person who has finished his life. Although he once has a radiant, brilliant and sweet life, he after all is a corpse in the end.”

“Or there may be some exceptions. Some tea leaves are always floating on the water surface, and some are gone into the stomach of the person who drinks them,” Chu Yang smiled lightly and said, “Brother Lan, what do you think about it?”

The sinisterness in Lan Changge’s eyes flashed and he said, “Chu Yang, you haven’t seen the outside world before, I suppose? Who knows if the people who escaped the Nine Heavens haven’t gone into someone else’s stomach?”

Chu Yang shook his head and laughed. “Brother Lan, you make too much sense.”

Then, he evaluated silently in his heart: Although Lan Changge has some wits and insights into various matters, and could be said to be a talent, his thoughts are a little cruel and pessimistic. Such a person has actually already submitted himself to fate. He thinks that even if he escapes the Nine Heavens, it’ll still be a dead road for him.

So, he absolutely can’t achieve much in his life.

And he’s a bit narrow-minded, and don’t like to see anyone else leading a successful life.

This could be seen from one sentence that he had said: Who knows if the people who escaped the Nine Heavens haven’t gone into someone else’s stomach?

Chu Yang wanted to say: Unfortunately, you don’t even have the capability and qualifications to go into someone else’s stomach…

But after some thought, he ultimately swallowed these words.

The circumstance was complicated now, and there’s really no need to offend someone else just because of a cup of tea… Especially this kind of narrow-minded person!

Lan Changge held up a teacup in front of himself and shook it a little. The tea leaves floating on the water surface all slowly fell towards the bottom of the cup.

He smiled warmly and said, “Brother Chu, look, doesn’t this represent what had happened when the Nine Heavens was folded? That powerful man only shook this teacup, that is, the Nine Heavens, and as a result, so many incompetent people died.”

He placed the teacup back onto the table. Wait till the water became stable, Chu Yang realized that each of the nine tea leaves floating on the tea was occupying a region.

Such a geographical circumstance was actually similar to that of the nine big clans.

“Don’t these nine leaves… look like the nine big clans?” Lan Changge revealed a smile of profound significance.

Chu Yang laughed, but he frowned in his heart.

There’s really a vast difference in the breadth of mind of Lan Changge as compared to that of Diwu Qingrou. Just by this analogy, one could see how frivolous Lan Changge was.

And it’s only the first time that Lan Changge and Chu Yang met. Yet, Lan Changge talked such a thing and made such an analogy in front of Chu Yang, who’s not from the nine big clans…

“These nine tea leaves are also competing with one another in the dark.” Lan Changge’s eyes shone with excitement as they looked at the tea leaves. “Whichever leaf sinks down first loses…”

Chu Yang nodded and smiled gently.

“The largest region in the middle is like the Ye clan.” Lan Changge pointed at the leaf floating in the middle of the cup. “Although it’s large, it’s a little old and decrepit. Although the Ye clan has occupied the best region, other big clans are similarly fighting for this region. All of them are trying to move closer to the middle.”

“At this point in time, if there’s some external force which shakes the cup, this tea leaf in the middle will sink down.” Lan Changge smiled. “Brother Chu, it seems that Ye Shifeng is unfriendly towards you? Do you know that the right to exercise this external force is currently in your hands?”

Chu Yang frowned, as he genuinely didn’t understand what Lan Changge had just said. He said, “The right to exercise this external force is in my hands?”

“That’s right. At first, Ye Shifeng told me earlier to be against you. Then, after you mentioned the injuries of Fairy Wu, he immediately treated you with deference. Brother Chu, you naturally would understand that there’s something fishy in this matter.”

Lan Changge smiled meaningfully. “Brother Chu, may I know if Fairy Wu’s injuries are caused by the Ye clan? And, the whereabouts of those men who had laid hands on Fairy Wu is definitely hard to track, and she might still not know who had laid hands on her. But, Brother Chu, do you know?”