Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)
chapter-419

Chapter 419 The Blade That Did Not Fall

Since the opening of the battle, this had been the first chance that Wang Po’s blade had to approach Zhu Luo.

It was precisely at the moment where Zhu Luo had been sneak attacked, his body heavily wounded, his phantasm crumbled away, and he was forced out of his Moon in Water technique and back into his original body.

The blade rose up in the storm, incredibly straight and incredibly powerful.

Wang Po simply didn’t care about all those things that had happened before. He ignored the bright moon in the rain, that assassin’s two sneak attacks, and the unified clashing of Chen Changsheng’s ten thousand swords. He just slashed down at Zhu Luo in front of him.

It was like he was cutting firewood, or even more like he was settling accounts, performed with absolute devotion.

This moment was perhaps his greatest opportunity to defeat Zhu Luo. It was perhaps even the only opportunity he would have while he still had not stepped into the Divine Domain.

Zhu Luo raised his palm to the sky and the dark clouds obscured the moon.

Nobody knew whether it would be the blade with Wang Po’s full strength behind it or the palm that Zhu Luo hurriedly raised up after being heavily injured that would be stronger.

In the next moment, still nobody knew.

Because Wang Po’s blade did not fall.

His metal blade paused in the air above Zhu Luo’s body.

Zhu Luo’s palm was also paused in the air.

The two did not meet.

The torrential rain had gradually come to a halt, but the street was still dark and gloomy, silent beyond compare.

It was like the scene had paused in time.

Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

Zhu Luo stared at Wang Po in silence, but his complexion suddenly turned abnormally pale.

Countless powerful strands of Qi shot from the edge of his palm and his clothes and dispersed into the drizzle.

It was his remaining true essence after his heavy injury that he was now forcefully dispersing. Originally, it should have rested on Wang Po’s blade, but he did not expect Wang Po to actually renounce his final chance and pause his blade in the air.

With a muffled hum, Zhu Luo’s true essence was completely dispersed into the air, his Qi completely given over to the world.

He could not imagine that Wang Po would stay his blade because he was a completely different person from Wang Po.

Wang Po had not restrained his blade because he could calculate how the situation would develop, nor was it because his battle sense was so powerful that it could pierce through those dark clouds obscuring the moon. He had done so for a very simple reason.

Zhu Luo was injured. He did not want to take advantage of Zhu Luo in his time of difficulty.

He did not care about the best opportunity. He believed that as long as he could survive, there would be a day when he would step into the Divine Domain. And then, he would honorably defeat Zhu Luo and those other experts of the Divine Domain.

Thus, Wang Po restrained his blade.

And thus…Zhu Luo had suffered severe injuries, even worse than if you took Liu Qing’s and Chen Changsheng’s injuries and added them together.

Blood oozed out from the corner of his lips and flowed out from his body, flowing out faster and faster.

In this world, there were many things that happened without any sort of reason.

But in fact, when you examined them very carefully, there were many reasons.

Under the gentle caress of the rain, the long street was silent.

Both the people present on the scene and the spectators of the battle said nothing.

Seeing the scene of Zhu Luo covered in blood, it was very difficult for anybody to say anything.

In these past several centuries, had anyone seen a powerful figure of the Storms of the Eight Directions lose at the hands of mortals?

Was there anyone that had seen Zhu Luo, this peerless expert, so miserable, so heavily wounded?

Zhu Luo’s head was lowered, his long hair soaked by the rain and draped over his shoulders. Looking at the sword in his hand, he saw that only the hilt remained. This sword of moonlight was forged from a great amount of refined essence steel and secret silver and was incredibly tough, but now it had become the dust in the cracks on the walls and the ground.

He lifted his head and looked through the light rain at Chen Changsheng. He asked, “An innate sword heart?”

At these words, the spectators that had been previously shocked by that simultaneous clashing of ten thousand swords were even more shocked.

Zhu Luo then turned to Wang Po and said, “Admirable.”

In the entire continent, the number of people that could make Zhu Luo say the word ‘admirable’ was not more than five. Yet he had said it to Wang Po. Because in this battle today, Wang Po had displayed a powerful will and a battle strength that far surpassed his age. It was also because of the fact that Wang Po’s final strike that did not fall was actually far more powerful than if his blade had actually struck.

Lastly, Zhu Luo turned to that end of the street where the blood-covered assassin stood in front of the horse.

Today in Xunyang City, the three people that defended Su Li had all been outstanding. If one were to discuss their contribution to injuring Zhu Luo, Chen Changsheng contributed roughly twenty percent, Wang Po’s final strike that did not fall was fifty percent, and this assassin called Liu Qing contributed thirty percent. Considering the entire battle, Wang Po was the foundation, Chen Changsheng was the final unexpected opponent, but Liu Qing was the crucial person that had caused Zhu Luo’s plans to collapse.

The job of an assassin was to kill, so they naturally were not involved in anything constructive. In the annals of history, they had always appeared in the role of collapsing plans. The spectators in the distance followed Zhu Luo’s gaze and rested on the assassin. When they thought about how both sudden changes in this battle had been because of this person, they were all extremely shaken. They thought, just what is going on here? Just who is this assassin? Just who would cultivate to the upper level of Star Condensation and still be willing to play the role of an assassin in the night? And just which assassin could actually calculate the details of the entire battle and successfully break Zhu Luo’s control over Xunyang City?

Perhaps Zhu Luo had been too confident, or maybe it was because Wang Po was too strong and was not an opponent he could hold back against, but Zhu Luo did not care that he could easily kill Wang Po, as this would even allow him to avoid a few problems in the future. However, he could not allow Chen Changsheng to die. This assassin had counted on this point, so he launched his sneak attack in the pouring rain, every one of his attacks drawing blood, pushing Chen Changsheng to the precipice.

The Zhu clan was a major power of Tianliang County and its clansmen were numerous. Zhu Luo was not concerned about the Mount Li Sword Sect’s retaliation nor the vengeful gazes of the southerners, but he had to consider the future of his clan. In the end, he also had to consider his reputation as well. Therefore, he did not want…to personally kill Su Li, so he had chosen to execute his Moon in Water technique and appear on that end of the street to take Chen Changsheng away. He thought he could utilize the simplest trick to create the most ideal situation, leaving the assassin the opportunity to kill Su Li. Yet he had not imagined that the assassin had made him create this opportunity.

This was not an opportunity for the assassin to kill Su Li. It was…an opportunity for the assassin to kill him!

The minds of people, love and hate, pros and cons, aristocratic families, reputation, divinity—all of this had been accounted for in the assassin’s calculations!

Chen Changsheng stood in front of that assassin, and so he naturally began to recall the words from Su Li’s lessons. If an Intellectual Sword really did exist in this world, then shouldn’t this be the true Intellectual Sword?

Zhu Luo’s cold voice rang out in the cold drizzle, “Liu Qing, you actually dare to attack this elder?”

The crowd could not suppress their cries of surprise. Some of the people, who had planned to use the cover of the rain to continue attacking Su Li, subconsciously halted their steps. The people who knew of Liu Qing’s name were not many, but those who knew of it knew what this extremely ordinary name represented—on the Ranking of Assassins, Liu Qing was the terrifying third-ranked assassin. Discounting that unpredictable and ghastly assassin on the top of the list, it could be said that Liu Qing was the most terrifying man on the continent.

All along, this assassin had been the legendary Liu Qing!

No wonder he even dared to assassinate Zhu Luo!

Zhu Luo looked at Liu Qing and said, “Did you really believe that there was no one in the world that could discover your background? Since you would actually dare reveal your own background, don’t find it strange when this elder sends someone to Mount Li to dig deep!”

Liu Qing’s mask was already torn. Pieces of skin and congealed blood could be seen all over it, making for an abnormally frightful appearance.

He looked at Zhu Luo and said, “I am not a person of Mount Li, so how can you find me there?”