Qiushan Jun did not attend this year's Grand Examination not because of the marriage contract Chen Changsheng had placed on the table, nor was it because of the letter Xu Yourong had sent during the Ivy Festival, nor was it because of the chatter of the common people. There were no childish feelings behind his reason. He had just been needed to accomplish a great task.

It had been several months since Qiushan Jun had appeared in public, and not even Gou Hanshi or the other disciples of the Mount Li Sword Sect knew where their senior brother was. This was because the great matter required absolute secrecy. The common people did not know where he was, and he was similarly unaware as to what was happening in the world. The marriage alliance between the north and south, the Qiushan clan and the Mount Li Sword Sect coming with the southern diplomatic mission to the capital to deliver a marriage proposal to the Divine General of the East's estate, had been concealed, intentionally or unintentionally, from Xu Yourong by Holy Maiden Peak, but Qiushan Jun had truly not known.

As he read through the scroll, Chen Changsheng became quieter and quieter.

Qiushan Jun had gone to a place called the Garden of Zhou.

Chen Changsheng did not know what sort of place the Garden of Zhou was, but he could speculate from the account on the scroll that the Garden of Zhou was probably a miniature world, and also an abandoned land. Just like that palace within the Pope's Green Leaf World, the Garden of Zhou had strict limits on who could enter: they had to be below the Star Condensation Realm.

For certain reasons, the Garden of Zhou was extremely important, a strategic objective that the human world needed to vie with the Demon race over. However, other than its former owner, the Garden of Zhou had never been under the true control of a second person.

Fortunately, although the last owner of the Garden of Zhou had not appeared for many years, the Garden of Zhou had not been sealed. Instead, it followed a set cadence, opening every ten years.

Before the Garden of Zhou formally opened, phenomena would emerge in the world and its outermost wall would come into being. In this period of time, as long as someone, whether human or demon, could find the main gate left behind by the former owner and bring out the key to the main gate, they would have control over the Garden of Zhou for ten years.

Of course, if neither human nor demon could do this, the Garden of Zhou would close again, vanishing into the forever unplumbable chaos of space to quietly await the end of the next ten year interval.

It had been many years since the Garden of Zhou had fallen under the control of a human or demon.

It had been several decades since the Garden of Zhou had last been opened.

This year was the year in which the Garden of Zhou opened. The Five Saints had been paying attention to this matter the entire time. The moment they and those terrifying demon princes in Xuelao City sensed the phenomena in the world, they immediately dispatched people to open the garden.

For the past several centuries, the fixed openings of the Garden of Zhou had not once influenced the structure of the world, but those powerful figures who truly understood the Garden of Zhou and the items within had never once dared to take it lightly. None of them could guarantee what would happen if someone really did find those objects in the Garden of Zhou.

For these reasons, the opening of the Garden of Zhou and its approximate location were absolute secrets. Other than the Five Saints and figures on the level of the Sect Master of the Longevity Sect, only the participants would know of these secrets.

Those millions of people that lived on the continent were simply unaware of this matter. At the time, the capital was still waiting for the Ivy Festival to begin and Chen Changsheng was still being stressed by the sudden appearance of a new door in the academy wall.

Since the Garden of Zhou was so important, the two opposing sides of the continent would naturally send extraordinary individuals to open the garden. The demons had sent many young experts while the Five Saints, after a discussion, had only sent one person.

This person was acclaimed as the number one individual beneath the Star Condensation Realm in both the human world and the land of the demi-humans, Qiushan Jun.

The Five Saints had taken every possibility into account, and Qiushan Jun truly did not disappoint. He successfully found the main gate of the Garden of Zhou before the demons and brought out the key, ensuring that the Garden of Zhou would belong to humans for the next ten years.

This was the reason Qiushan Jun was unable to participate in the Grand Examination.

...

...

The scroll Xu Shiji had given Chen Changsheng to read naturally did not describe the Garden of Zhou in too much detail, but Chen Changsheng was still able to clearly recognize the Garden of Zhou's importance. However, what he did not know was that there was another important reason the human world had been able to find and seize the key to the Garden of Zhou before the demons, besides the outstanding excellence of Qiushan Jun, and this reason was connected to him.

Several months ago, a demon expert had attempted to assassinate Luoluo in the Orthodox Academy but was stopped by Chen Changsheng. The demon was captured alive by Xue Xingchuan and was unable to endure Lord Zhou Tong's tortures. The information he divulged allowed the Great Zhou to uncover a spy organization commanded by Black Robe, at the same time leading them to discover a clue to the Garden of Zhou. Qiushan Jun had followed this clue and was ultimately able to reach the goal before those people from Xuelao City.

Chen Changsheng did not know of this, or of how much Qiushan Jun had been tested and challenged. He could only take the simple information written on the scroll to blindly imagine what Qiushan Jun had done. The more he thought, the quieter he became, his admiration deepening for that fellow that he had never once met but who he had always been watching from the distance.

"He gave up on the Grand Examination for the sake of all of humanity's welfare. When this news is spread across the continent tomorrow, just how much luster do you think your first rank of the first banner will still have?"

Xu Shiji's cold voice broke the silence.

Chen Changsheng placed the scroll back on the table and silently thought, since this is the case, why have this family dinner?

"I've never believed that I'm more outstanding than Qiushan Jun, and whether I was or not, I would never come to end the engagement just because I thought I was more outstanding than him."

He looked at Xu Shiji and Madam Xu and said, "I'm ending the engagement truly because I just want to end the engagement. It's just that no one believed me at the beginning, and still no one believes me now."

Regardless of whether anyone believed, this task still had to be carried out.

Chen Changsheng bowed to Xu Shiji and his wife, then turned and left.

The old marriage contract held in its new envelope quietly lay on the table.

By the stone gate in the front garden, Shuang'er stood beneath the bamboo and watched him leave. She stretched out a hand as if intending to call out to him and ask him something, but ultimately chose to say nothing, and her hand slowly dropped down.

...

...

To Chen Changsheng's consternation, when he returned to the Orthodox Academy, he realized to his dismay that the marriage contract was lying on the table in the library, having returned even faster than he had.

"This..what's going on here?" He took the marriage contract offered by Tang Thirty-Six, at quite the loss.

Tang Thirty-Six replied, "Shouldn't you be explaining to me what's going on here? Why did the Divine General of the East's estate send back the marriage contract? Are you really intending to end the engagement?"

After a pause, Chen Changsheng replied, "I went tonight precisely to end the engagement."

Tang Thirty-Six asked in surprise, "Why do you want to end the engagement? Do you think that Xu Yourong isn't a good match for you?"

Chen Changsheng did not answer his question. Taking the marriage contract, he left the library.

He intended to go to the Li Palace.

Since the Divine General of the East's estate was not willing to end the engagement, he could only trouble the Pope.

To end an engagement, one required the person who made the engagement.