Only he himself knew that this confidence originated from a need. If in the beginning of next year, he had to participate in the Great Trial and obtain the first place, then he will accomplish it, or he will die. Tonight, if he had to leave the ruined garden and appear in Wei Yang Palace, then he will accomplish this as well.
He must do it, so he will do it. Before all this, he must believe that he will do it, only this way will his mind be soothed.
Once again, there are three thousand methods to understand the Way, and his only method was to soothe his mind.
Everything he did after leaving Xi Ning Village and coming to the capital was closely related to this method.
Because only when he soothes his mind will he change his fate.
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He looked around the ruined garden. There were old walls, autumn trees, dried lotuses on the lake, and old petals beneath the berry trees that weren’t blown away by the wind.
Although he never saw this sight before, he felt that he had seen it a long time ago.
He never traveled ten thousand miles, so he didn’t see too many sights.
But he read ten thousand scrolls and traveled ten thousand miles in the books. He saw many sights there.
After memorizing the view around the lake in his heart, he sat down around the lake and closed his eyes and concentrated his mind. Then he started thinking back to the books he read before.
There were the Scrolls of the Way, there were scattered articles, there were fables, and there were traveling diaries.
Those were the books he read in the old temple of Xi Ning Village and in the library of the Tradition Academy.
He sat next to the lake and his eyes were closed, but countless books were flipping in front of his eyes.
The cold wind seemed to know these words and kept on flipping the books and stopping at the pages he wanted to see.
Those pages contained pictures and context.
“The Travel of Nan Ke”*
“Zhu Dian Yuan Hou Luan”
“Zhen Lei Ben Chao”
(The latter two are just book names and I can’t find the meaning of them, not relevant either I believe)
———————————————————–
Chen Chang Sheng opened his eyes and stood up. Once again, he glanced around the ruined garden.
The ruined garden was still the ruined garden, the cold lake was still the cold lake. But currently in his eyes, they were completely different.
The few petals scattered around the lake seemed to be irrelevant and without meaning, but this view was the same throughout four seasons and never changed. The only thing that changed was that only the trees were still living.
The edge of the lake contained many rocks and there were no break between them. But on the other side of the lake, which was close to the old walls, the rocks weren’t there. It seemed to be an exit in the darkness, but he knew it wasn’t an exit but rather an unfinished stroke.
A dozen berry trees seemed to line up here.
This was the character “Tong.”
There was a story in “The Travel of Nan Ke.” There was a picture in “Zhen Lei Ben Chao”. There was a mentioning of a burned down palace in Zhu Dian Yuan Hou Lun”.
That palace was named Tong Palace.
The Tong Palace that killed an emperor in his sleep.