Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)
chapter-248

Zhexiu walked up, and he looked at the Yellow Paper Umbrella in Chen Changsheng’s hand. He asked, “What’s wrong?”

Chen Changsheng did not know how to explain it, and said after thinking a little, “A sudden impulse?”

Zhexiu stayed silent for a while, before saying, “That’s an illness.”

(TN: Tide Rush of Blood, Zhexiu’s illness, can also mean ‘a sudden impulse’ or ‘to be carried away by a whim’.)

Chen Changsheng began to laugh, “I should be able to treat that illness.”

The two people walked over the stone bridge. Carrying the umbrella, they disappeared into the misty rain.

A while later, several girls of the Thirteen Divisions of Radiant Green, who had entered the Garden of Zhou later than them, had also arrived at the stone bridge.

One of the teenage girls had a pretty and delicate face. She seemed to be very ordinary, just like the average, commonly seen disciple in sects for cultivation.

That young girl stopped at the end of the bridge. She raised her head to look at the drizzle in the sky, and felt that there was something abnormal.

A girl, who was slightly older looked, looked at the other girl’s tilted head. An expression of reverence could be seen through her eyes.

Another girl looked at the girl on the end of the bridge. She gathered up courage and asked, “Senior, do you not want to see him?”

That girl said calmly, “There is no difference between seeing or not. Since there are no differences in seeing him or not, I hate trouble.”

Tens of thousands of kilometres away from Hanqiu City, in the wind and snow, a male of the demon race shrouded in black robes looked at the black square disc. His brows were slightly furrowed.

In that moment before, Chen Changsheng had disappeared, and closely following, Zhexiu also disappeared.

He did not know that Chen Changsheng had opened up the umbrella that was gifted to him by the Old Master of the Wenshui Tang clan. Pondering this silently, just exactly what had happened?

Currently, nobody understood the Garden of Zhou better than him, and nobody could scheme as deeply as him. He believed that he could control the situation perfectly, with the black square plate as his chessboard and those people in the Garden of Zhou as his chess pieces. However, at this moment, he had suddenly discovered that there were chess pieces that had disappeared from his chessboard. This surprised him very much.

Floating in the snowstorm, there were three bronze flasks. Within them burned the life flames of Zhexiu and the other two. These flasks were already linked with his subordinates that had sneaked into the Garden of Zhou. However, he was not able to deal with Chen Changsheng in time, so he could only wait for his trace to appear again. He did not know when that drizzle in the Garden of Zhou would stop.

The snowstorm suddenly stopped.

It was not the normal stop, and it had actually, truly stopped.

The sound of the wind became silent. The snowflakes that were like peacock feathers froze mid air, and they were scattered in the air and ground around the demon race male.

He raised his head, and looked at a certain region deep in the snow. His expression remained apathetic, and he squinted his eyes. They seemed to be thin and long, and elegant, however, they carried a heavy, deathly aura.

A distinct sword slash slowly appeared from that area, like it had cut open the snowy air.

Where did this slash come from, for it to be able to stop the snow and wind in the land of demons?

“To plot a murder for a few members of the younger generation, you revealed your special techniques. Don’t you feel that the price that you have paid is just a little too great?”

A voice resounded in the snowy sky. This voice was very cool, but it also carried an undisciplined feeling.

“Actually, we have already searched for hundreds of years. Only until now did we learn that the advisor of the demon race was actually a Candle Shadow Shaman.”

The demon race male smiled a little, but he did not say anything.

As it turns out, he was the most mysterious and the scariest, the legendary military advisor of the Demon Race, Black Robe.

No wonder he wore black robes. It was extremely obvious amidst the wind and snow.

Then who was the owner of the cool voice?

Facing the unfathomable advisor of the Demon Race, Black Robe, this person was not scared at all, and they even seemed to be slightly rough and uncaring.

With the terrifying sound of space ripping open, the sword slash in the snowy sky began to slowly grow larger. From within, a person walked out.

Walking out of the sword slash, this person seemed to enveloped with a layer of sharpness. His clothes and appearance were completely coated in bright light.

Only until that person had taken several steps on the snowy ground did the sharp light slowly disappear.

He was a human male. No one knew how old he was. If it was just looking at the undisciplined look in his eyes, he seemed to still be a youngster. However, seeing the peace and profoundness within his pupils, it was like he had already cultivated for thousands of years.

The man walked on the snowy ground with his hand clasped. He carried a sword on his waist, which swayed gently. He seemed to be very casual, so he also seemed very natural and unrestrained.

“In order to do something, you must always pay a certain price.”

Black Robe looked at that man and said calmly, “Su Li, you have already roamed the world for several hundreds of years. Perhaps you still do not understand this idea?”

There was only one person in the world who was surnamed Su and could cause the advisor of the demon race army to be interested and converse with.

The junior uncle of Mount Li, Su Li.

To the human world, the demon army advisor Black Robe was the greatest nightmare. On a certain level, he was even scarier than the Demon Lord.

Then the junior uncle of Mount Li, Su Li, was the oddest legend, the most reckless ocean.

Because of the Garden of Zhou, they had met. Who was able to leave later?

Su Li was not interested in what Black Robe had said.

From hundreds of years ago, he had already been extremely disinterested in the extremely profound conversation of his senior, the Sect Leader, the Holy Maiden, the Pope, His Majesty Taizong and other important figures.

He was only interested in the sword, in travelling, in the floating clouds and the starry sky.

He asked directly, “How many people have you sent to sneak into the Garden of Zhou? Are there still tribe members of the Candle Shadow Shamans that are still being used by you?”

Black Robe waved his hand., and the mist above the black, square plate began to move. The surroundings and people in the Garden of Zhou disappeared.

He looked at Su Li and his eyes squinted. He smiled slightly, “What? Worrying about your daughter?”

Hearing this, Su Li also began smiling with his eyes squinted.

When Black Robe’s eyes squinted, his eyes became long and thin, and very elegant. However, they was filled with a frightening killing intent.

When Su Li squinted his eyes, his smile seemed to reveal the happiness within him. However, it currently carried the sharp intent of a sword.

He said with regret, “No wonder you are the legendary Black Robe. You are indeed scary. You actually even know about this.”

Black Robe said calmly, “There are very few things that I do not know in the world.”

Su Li’s smile gradually disappeared, and his expression became serious. He asked, “Then, do you know how terrifying I am when I go mad?”

Black Robe’s smile became even more genuine. He said, “Back then when you went mad for the first time, the Myriad Sword Array of Mount Li was destroyed by you. The second time you went mad, seventeen elders of the Longevity Sect died in one night. As a result, even now, they are unable to choose a sect leader, causing the Six Saints to decrease by one. You humans say that Painted Armor Xiao Zhang is a madman, but how could they know that he cannot even be compared to a toe of yours. It is just that the things that you do when you go mad are so crazy that no one is daring enough to mention it.

Su Li explained seriously, “The second time has nothing to do with me, at least I won’t admit it.”

Black Robe only smiled a little, and he did not say anything.

Su Li said, “Since you know how terrifying I am when I go mad, why are you still doing this?”

Black Robe stopped smiling, and said extremely seriously while looking at him, “It means that I have confidence in controlling everything.”

Su Lu raised a brow, and said, “What I don’t understand the most is that just how are you able to control the Garden of Zhou? At that time, I had even doubted whether you were His Excellency Wang Zhice or not.

Black Robe said calmly, “In the past hundreds of years, you were always travelling around in the world. I believe that you were always looking for me. May I ask why?”

Su Li looked at him quietly. His right hand landed on the sword hilt, and he said, “Up until now, I still don’t know who you are. But since I found you after great difficulty, I don’t want to let you escape.”

Without a question, the military advisor of the Demon Race, Black Robe, was the most mysterious and terrifying enemy of the human world.

Back then, if it were not for him, under the leadership of Taizong, perhaps Xuelao City would have been already taken by the allied army, with the demon race becoming just a noun in history.

In the past hundreds of years, the thing that the experts of the human world wanted to do the most was to find Black Robe, and then kill him.

The problem was that right up to this moment, nobody even knew the true appearance of Black Robe, much less found any trace of him.

Until now, when Black Robe had plucked a sliver of the rainbow from the sky, opening a door to the Garden of Zhou. It alarmed Mount Li, allowing Su Li, who was currently travelling in the north, to find him.

“Finding me is not important, what is important is killing me. The problem is that can you kill me?”

Black Robe looked at Su Li calmly. He said, “I touched the Garden of Zhou, revealing a small trail, which you took advantage of. However, have you ever thought that this may have been an ambush against you? Just like what was said before, you looked for me for hundreds of years, and still failed to find me. Then, if it was not that I wanted you to find me, how would you still be able to find me?”

Su Li’s squint became even more intense. It was filled with smiles, and the sharp intent slowly dispersed.

Black Robe seemed to not realise at all, and said plainly, “At the start, when I let that person of the Yeshi tribe to go and assassinate that little princess of the demi-human race, it was for you humans to discover the Garden of Zhou first. In order to make you trust it, I had even borrowed the His Majesty’s Heavenly Fog Net. Of course, that young fellow Qiushan Jun’s behaviour in the outer garden had somewhat exceeded my expectations. My strategies that were originally planned were unable to be used, so I could only use my backup plan.”

Su Li said, “You want to kill people in the garden?”

Black Robe said, “Correct.”

Su Li said, “If you really use such a method, why haven’t you done it in the past hundreds of years?”

Black Robe looked at him, and said with a smile, “Because only around a dozen years ago did you have a treasured daughter. Because your daughter can only enter this year, I just wanted you to know that I have the power to hurt your daughter, so you would definitely come and find me. Only like that can I kill you.”

Su Li seemed to understand something immediately. He said, “So in the end, it is still for me to die?”

Black Robe said, “After spending so much effort into arranging such a situation, it definitely should be used to gain a reasonable amount of benefits.”

Su Li was slightly awkward, and said, “I am not a Saint, nor do I hold the position as one of the Storms of the Cardinal Directions. To the world of humans, I am not important.”

“You are not being modest, but instead laughing at my insight.”

Black Robe shook his head, and said sternly, “In my eyes, the so-called Five Saints and Eight Storms of the Cardinal Directions are not enough to be feared, because they have already grown old and they do not require thought to be dealt with. However, you are different. You are not held down by matters of the world. You are just one lonely person, so you are daring to kill, you are able to kill, you can like to kill, you can kill for the greater good, or even just massacre indiscriminately. If my race wants to be victorious over the human race, someone like you must die.”

Su Li stayed silent for a very long time. He was suddenly somewhat distressed, and said, “Why do I feel very happy listening to these words?”

Black Robe smiled, and he did not say anything. Holding the black, square plate, he shook it gently. The mist disappeared, and everything returned to how it was before.

Su Li’s expression instead became a little cold, and said, “You closed the Garden of Zhou.”

Black Robe said, “This is Mister Zhou’s world. Although I have some understanding, but I am unable to completely close it. However, closing it for a few days is still achievable.

Su Li raised his brows slightly and said, “What exactly do you want to do?”

Black Robe said, “As I said, I put so much effort into creating this situation, there must be enough benefits. Other than you, I still want to kill many people.”

Su Li said coldly, “Only cultivators at Ethereal Opening can enter the Garden of Zhou. Even if you have planned beforehand, there is still a limit to how strong the subordinates you sent. How can a few demon bastards win against several hundred people?

“Then have you never thought why you humans were never able to defeat us? Because the more of you humans there are, the easier it is for internal conflicts to occur. Other than jackals, I really have not seen other species that like killing each other as much as you humans. Of course, I have also never thought that a side door opened to the Garden of Zhou can bury several hundred human cultivators at the Ethereal Opening realm. I just want to kill a few people. That’s all, it’s not that difficult.”

Su Li asked, “Who do you want to kill?”

Black Robe smiled, “Zhexiu is too similar to you in the past, so he must be killed. The two girls, your daughter included, also must die. And that teenage principal of the Orthodox Academy called Chen Changsheng? It should be just those four. It is very regretful that Gou Hanshi did not enter the Garden of Zhou, otherwise it would be about all of them. Why kill these four people? Because they are the future of the human race, and as for you, you are the present of the human race. With the Garden of Zhou appearing again, it will help me destroy the present and future of the human race. If the owner of the garden were to find out about this matter, he should feel very relieved.”

Su Li stayed silent for a while before questioning, “What about Qiushan Jun?”

“To have a True Dragon Bloodline and reach Star Condensation before twenty… he indeed is a true genius.”

Black Robe looked at him with a smile and said, “Sadly, that member of the younger generation is a lovesick person. When he knows opening the Garden of Zhou is opening the gate of the abyss for those four people, when he knows that Xu Yourong died because of him, he will definitely regret it for his whole life. To handle such a lovesick person, leaving him alive is even more ruthless than killing him.”

Su Li said, “Wang Po, Xiao Zhang, Liang Wangsun.”

These three names were all on the Proclamation of Liberation.

When he said these names, he was questioning and also challenging.

Black Robe thought about it and said, “Just like what you said, the human race is so adaptable, so I definitely have to have some patience, and go slowly. I can kill slowly. I believe that there will always be a day where I can kill them all.”

Saying this, he began to cough. His handsome face began to pale, and the greenness under his skin began to grow darker. It seemed especially weird, and a line of blood had even begun flowing from the corner of his lips.

Su Li’s body also began swaying slightly. His gaze seemed to dull slightly.

Only up until now did several intersecting sword slashes appear in the motionless snowy sky.

Some of those sword slashes flew several li into the snow, and they had even seemed to cut the sky open.

However, it did not break in the end, because outside the snowy sky, there was still a dancing snowstorm.

As it turned out, as they were conversing, the two greatest experts in the world were always fighting.

Following the coughs of Black Robe, the motionless snowy sky also began to move slightly, and the snowflakes began to fall again.

Several mountainous silhouettes slowly appeared in the area surrounding the snowy plain. Their overbearing pressure was extremely terrifying.

Several great demon generals had appeared.

A shadow bursted out of the faraway Xuelao City. It covered up half of the sky, and landed on the snowy plain.

Su Li stared blankly, and he turned around to face the south. Squinting both his eyes, his expression became slightly sad, like he was sighing with emotion.

Afterwards, he yelled out, “Somebody come quickly!”