Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)
chapter-641

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

What did this flat plain mean? Could it mean that all his severed and blocked meridians were already repaired?

Chen Changsheng stared in shock at the scene before him.

Countless great rivers flowed freely across the plain, irrigating the rice paddies on both their banks.

Many lakes were dotted sporadically across this plain, both big and small.

Clear and elegant mountains and rivers, beautiful sights, myriad scenes, were currently in his body.

It turned out that this was what normal meridians looked like.

It turned out that this was what perfect Qi openings looked like.

It turned out that true Qi flowing through the meridians should have been this smooth and unhindered, not the slow and congealed flow that he had always felt in the past.

Chen Changsheng stared in amazement. Before he even had time to feel joy, he became sentimental.

Yes, he was still alive, and now it seemed that he would live even better than he had in the past.

His illness…seemed to truly be cured.

There was no more curse.

Fate had been knocked to the ground.

Although he was still in Meditative Introspection, he could sense that his body had become much lighter, as if it had shed countless burdens.

On the horizon before him, that shadow that had been his constant companion for seven years was no more, only beautiful mountains and rivers, infinite light!

He opened his eyes.

And saw her figure.

She held her hands behind her back as she stood on the edge of the Divine Path, gazing into the night sky, her clothes somewhat damp.

In the distant night, one final extremely thick lightning bolt crashed down, illuminating all of the Mausoleum of Books, and also making her figure seem abnormally lofty and tall in the light.

He did not know what to say.

Besides 'thank you'.

The Tianhai Divine Empress responded with 'you're welcome', as if what she had done was a trivial task she had casually undertaken.

But why did she do it?

"We saved you, not because you are Our son, nor because of those three squirrels, but because We did not like your appearance."

"Then why did my lady want to save me?"

"We are Our will, you are Our son, so you are the existence of Our will."

"I don't understand."

The Tianhai Divine Empress did not give an explicit explanation. Everything she did had never required an explanation, even if the target was him.

"We once heard you say that your incurable illness was fate."

Chen Changsheng fell silent. He truly had said these words, to Xu Yourong, to the Black Dragon, to himself; he had said them many times.

"Even if this is truly your fate, We will not permit you to die, so you will not be able to die."

The Tianhai Divine Empress declared.

At Mount Han, Xu Yourong had said that she would not permit him to die.

Under New North Bridge, the little Black Dragon had also said that she would not permit him to die.

But the feeling given off when the Divine Empress said these words was naturally vastly different.

Because when she said it, she could do it.

Even if her opponent was called fate.

"We believe in this thing called fate, but We have never respected it."

The Tianhai Divine Empress gazed up at the starry sky and expressionlessly continued, "Since it is about defying the heavens and changing fate, fate naturally cannot be respected, only used."

Chen Changsheng recalled the first words written in Wang Zhice's notebook.

They were both truly extraordinary people. Although their stances towards fate were somewhat different, they were, in essence, the same.

Now, the wind had ceased and the rain rested, the clouds gradually dispersing to reveal the true appearance of the countless stars, yet it was still a mystery what the fate that hid behind them looked like.

The Divine Empress gazed into the starry sky as she spoke, "The Heavenly Dao wants you to die, then We want you to live. The Heavenly Dao wants you to not die, then We want you to die, and then We will fight a battle with it to see which one of us is stronger."

She then drew back her gaze to look upon the world outside the Mausoleum of Books. "As for these people, in the end, they are nothing more than capering buffoons, that's all."

With her voice, a gust of wind curled around the Mausoleum of Books and lifted up a corner of her sleeve.

Her body was still at the peak of the Mausoleum of Books, but Chen Changsheng felt like she was already more than a thousand li away.

……

……

Tens of thousands of li away in Xining Village, the night was dark and still, the small stream murmuring on.

The fish were quietly sleeping in their crevices while petals drifted from upstream, circling that pair of bare white feet and never leaving.

The monk gazed down at the petals and fish in the stream, seemingly in deep thought.

Footsteps were heard near the stream, very calm and relaxed, yet they seemed to contain countless thunderstorms.

The fish at the bottom of the stream scattered in fright, attempting to swim even deeper into their crevices. Yet they were unable to find a path and so constantly threw themselves at the edges of the sharp rocks, their collisions producing blood.

The fish blood bloomed in the stream, staining the petals a dark red. Those petals left his bare feet and collected together in the little eddies on the surface of the stream.

The monk contemplated all this for a few moments, then raised his head to gaze at the other bank of the stream, his expression solemn.

The Tianhai Divine Empress, her hands held behind her back, stood by the stream and expressionlessly looked back.

To her soul, a journey of tens of thousands of li was only a thought away.

The monk raised his left foot from the stream and bent it under his body. His left thumb touched the big toe of his left foot, seeming to touch and not touch it, forming the image of a lotus.

In his right hand was a string of dark brown prayer beads, slowly moving all on their own. As the prayer beads moved, they seemed to hold a fragment of the true meaning of time.

He gazed at the Tianhai Divine Empress, then his lips slightly opened and he began to chant scriptures.

The scriptures he was chanting were rather unique. They were not the normally seen Daoist scriptures, but scriptures with a rather cryptic style and somewhat odd tone, their rise and fall seeming to have a sort of cadence.

It was a Buddhist verse.

The Buddhist faith had long since come to an end on the continent, but the Tianhai Divine Empress understood it to some extent. Her black hair moved despite the lack of wind as she seemed to ponder something.

With the chanting of this Buddhist verse, the petals in the eddies of the stream drew closer to each other, gradually combining into lotus flowers.

An extremely translucent Sacred Light gradually spilled out from the overlapping petals.

The Tianhai Divine Empress stood by the stream, yet she seemed to be standing high up in the night sky.

What had come to Xining Village was not her body, but a projection of her soul in the air. With a thought, it could become incomparably tall.

An oppressive pressure difficult to describe began to emit from her body, and her eyes became abnormally bright, like real stars.

Those lotuses in the stream gradually began to leave the eddies, scattering in all directions. Some drifted towards her, but even more drifted towards the other bank.

The monk's expression grew even more solemn. The prayer beads in his hand began to move even more slowly, like mountains moving within his palm.

The stream became absolutely still, everything ceasing to flow. The trees by the stream also seemed to want to cease movement, but they were suddenly blown about by a violent gust.

The Divine Empress said to the monk, "Since you dared to return, you shouldn't think about leaving."

……

……

Every family was still asleep, but the Daoist had always been awake.

He gazed in the direction of the Mausoleum of Books, a solemn expression on his face, then he turned and left.

In the small drizzle, he turned and walked into the darkness, heading towards some unknown place.

Right after, his figure appeared by the Bridge of Helplessness atop the Luo River.

He took from his sleeve an extremely exquisite and small hourglass and placed it on the railing.

The passage of time was silent and very easily prone to being neglected, resulting in all manner of measurement tools.

The hourglass was without question one of the most primitive tools to measure time, but it was precisely its primitive nature that made it reliable.

The Daoist calmly gazed at the hourglass, knowing that after twenty-seven breaths, the other side would be able to confirm his true position.

The fine sand flowed from the upper half of the hourglass to the lower half, and when it was almost exhausted, the Daoist vanished once more.

Just when he vanished, a cold Qi appeared on the Bridge of Helplessness. The Luo River responded, waves rising from its surface and then quickly calming down, a few fragments of ice even appearing in the river.

A black shadow appeared where the Daoist had just been standing: the Tianhai Divine Empress's ruyi.

This ruyi seemed to hold a extremely formidable soul. It had already ceased to be an unliving object and was currently searching for the whereabouts of the Daoist.

In the cold cave under New North Bridge, a girl dressed in black was currently sleeping. For some reason, the cinnabar wound between her eyebrows seemed exceptionally bright.

At this time, the Daoist had come to a stall selling lamb meat buns in the northwest part of the capital.

He glanced at the hourglass in his hands. This time, he could pause for twenty-three breaths.

The time the Divine Empress needed to confirm his true position was growing shorter and shorter. This also meant that the places where his true positions were located were getting closer and closer.

If she was able to confirm the Daoist's position, she was certain to use all her strength to kill him.

……

……

The Tianhai Divine Empress stood at the peak of the Mausoleum of Books, calmly gazing in the direction of the Li Palace.

This night had persisted for a very long time, and it would not be long until dawn.

Yet the Li Palace had maintained its silence the entire time. The old man living within, that old man which she was required to treat with caution, had never once made his voice heard.

……

……

Zhu Luo, Guan Xingke, Bie Yanghong, and Wuqiong Bi, these powerful figures who brought storms in their wake, had all heard the Divine Empress's voice.

Those fifteen princes of the Chen clan that had borrowed the cover of the night to enter the capital and those already restless opponents of hers also heard her voice.

This voice was very indifferent, yet it was also tyrannical beyond compare.

Earlier, Daoist Ji had said that she did not dare to eat Chen Changsheng because she was timid, did not dare to gamble because she feared the existence of the Heavenly Dao.

Yet she did not even find it worthy to use the fruit that was Chen Changsheng to gamble for the direction of the Heavenly Dao, but to gamble with the Heavenly Dao over victory and defeat!

Besides a scant few experts, no one knew that the Divine Empress's soul was already tens of thousands of li away, and her most powerful magical artifact was in the streets of the capital, seeking out the tracks of her foes. They could only see her figure quietly standing on the summit of the Mausoleum of Books, her hands held behind her back, and an irrepressible fear appeared in the depths of their hearts.

That place was the highest point in the capital, and also the highest point in the world, because she stood there, had stood there for more than two hundred years now.

The distant ground began to tremble, and the accumulated rainwater splashed about, scattering plumes of water in all directions.

Thunder rumbled from the plains, an occasional lightning bolt revealing the faintly visible figures of countless cavalry.

It was real thunder, and also the thundering of hooves.

Other than the forces from the critical strongholds in the north, such as Snowhold Pass, that required massive military forces, tens of thousands of the finest Great Zhou cavalry were being led by eleven Divine Generals into the capital!

They were the Divine Empress's most loyal subordinates in her reign over this world, and also her most powerful military force.

……