Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)
chapter-75

Everyone from the Wen Shui Tang family knew that their young master was not good at long battles, not because he had no stamina, but because he got bored of fighting easily.

Tonight, Tang Thirty Six appeared to very bored of the fight. He stepped out with his right foot. The grass was being blown down by wind. Tang Thirty Six’s Wen Shui Sword carried the starlights and was thrusted at Qi Jian. The sword Qi broke the air and faintly, fire could be seen.

“Return of Night Cloud!”

Among the spectating crowd, there were people who knew this sword technique and were calling it out.

Tang Thirty Six used all of his qi. The sword qi became more rampant as if it was actually burning under the sky.

Several clouds were slowly floating above the square. They were lit up by the sword and it looked as if they were burning too, like the crimson clouds at the sunset.

More terrifyingly, infinite sword spirits were hiding in the burning clouds — the sharpest sword spirits.

People were all shocked thinking that there was reason for this arrogant youngster to be so arrogant.

Gou Han Shi also became serious. He had thought that, when Tang Thirty Six left Wen Shui to xiuxing in Heavenly Academy for several months, he must have become stronger and was no longer just ranked 36th on the Honor Roll of Green Clouds. But he didn’t know that he improved this fast, and was on such high level already.

Above the sky, the clouds were burning. Sword Qi was thrusted at Qi Jian’s face. His skinny body was shaking and his little face became a bit pale but there wasn’t a hint of fear on it.

He shouted and placed his ruler horizontally in front of his chest, like two mountains slowly closing on a river, blocking out all of the sunlight!

Tang Thirty Six continued move up, fire came along his sword. As he walked, his sword got brighter and on its tip, a cluster of white and glaring light was formed!

The dark square was first lit up by clouds and then suddenly, it became as bright as day as if the morning sun had just risen or as if the falling sun was hoisted back up!

“Falling Back of the Setting Sun!”

The spectating crowd again surprisingly shouted!

It wasn’t until now could the elites finally ascertain that Tang Thirty Six had already fully learned the true meaning of the sword techniques of the Wen Shui Tang family.

Return of Night Cloud!

Falling Back of the Setting Sun!

A Sea of Maple!

The Wen Shui Three Movements!

…………………………………

The Wen Shui Three Movements were the strongest sword techniques of the Wen Shui Tang family. This set of sword techniques only had three moves, but it could change the world!

Of course, with Tang Thirty Six’s current xiuxing stage, even if he learned this sword technique, he couldn’t fully express its power, but it was strong enough.

Even for someone as lazy as him, with four full years of xiuxing and his hard work in the recent several months, he finally mastered it. He was originally going to use it in the Ivy Festival, to destroy Tian Hai Ya Er or in the key moment when he was fighting against Zhuang Huan Yu, but he didn’t have the chance. Tonight, he had the chance to use it against Qi Jian.

The crowd was shocked again and began discussing.

Chen Chang Sheng was confused so he asked Luo Luo, “What happened?”

“The three movements are very powerful. It’s the burn to kill technique.”

Luo Luo said, “Besides this, people are shocked because they didn’t expect Tang Thirty Six to use his strongest methods at the very beginning.”

Chen Chang Sheng remained silent as he thought about what was wrong with it.

“No one does that.”

Luo Luo knew that her master lacked experience of xiuxing and fighting. She thought a bit and said, “This…. isn’t normal.”

It was certainly abnormal.

In the square, whether it was Priest Academy or Thirteen Division of Green Light, or the Southern sects such as Mountain Virgin, the elders were getting ready to analyze the details of the battle for their disciples, but how could they know that just as the battle began, Tang Thirty Six would use his strongest sword technique. The result would be out soon.

How would the teachers and elders of the schools and sects even have time to say anything. They could only sigh or be shocked and say nothing.

Xiuxingists rarely use their strongest technique right in the beginning of the battle, not because of temperament but because the strongest technique was the key to victory. Using it meant that the result of battle would be out soon.

Such scene would only occur in battles between people with obvious strength disparities.

Extremely confident elites would use this method or people who were losing and knew they couldn’t win would use the method.

Tang Thirty Six and Qi Jian had similar strengths. Normally, the fight would take much longer.

He didn’t have any reason to take the risk to see the result as the battle began.

…………………………………

Tang Thirty Six wasn’t impatient or too confident and of course, he wasn’t unconfident either.

He knew that Qi Jian’s quantity and quality of qi were slightly higher than his own. Moreover, the sword technique of Li Mountain Sword sect was probably more sophisticated and stronger than that of Wen Shui Tang family. If he took the time to fight, then he would lose eventually.

He wanted to win so he had no choice but to get on the offense first.

Getting on the offense depended on who would impose his momentum first.

He unhesitatingly used the Wen Shui Three Movements. His Return of Night Cloud connected to Falling Back of the Setting Sun. The two powerful moves pushed towards Qi Jian like mountain and sea to directly shroud him.

This was the so-called momentum.

He had deeply analyzed the battle between Zhuang Huan Yu and Qi Jian two years ago. He knew Qi Jian’s weakness.

He believed that although Qi Jian must have become stronger and more mature after two years, he definitely didn’t completely fix his weakness.

Because after two years, a twelve year old child (actually 11 and several months) is still a child not even fully fourteen yet.

After all, a child is still a child.

…………………………..

Children were too young, had too few experiences and most importantly, could not stand as much pressure as adults. Not everyone was like Chen Chang Sheng who had been living under the most terrifying pressure in the world since he was ten.

Qi Jian was the smallest disciple of the Li Mountain Sword Sect, but he was one of the two students who faced the most pressure in the Mountain Li. The other was Qiu Shan Jun.

He was not even twelve yet, but he could already fight against the strongest student in Heavenly Academy and although he lost, it still shocked the world. The most epic granduncle of Mountain Li who found out about this event while traveling had evaluated: As long as Mountain Li has this child, it will not fall for a thousand years.

Such high evaluation brought heavy pressure.

Qi Jian had been xiuxinging and studying under this high pressure. Although he was young, he became more and more reticent like a little adult.

But just as Tang Thirty Six anticipated, he was only a child.

Tang Thirty Six used the Wen Shui Three Movements as he first attack to try to trigger the pressure Qi Jian was facing.

He wanted to defeat Qi Jian by simply using this pressure.

……………………………

Besides Mao Qiu Yu and other elders, only Gou Han Shi immediately understood what Tang Thirty Six was trying to do.

His emotion became more and more serious. He knew that his junior was very talented, but because of his age, he always had a weakness. Two years ago, he lost to Zhuang Huan Yu. People all thought he lost because he lacked experience and didn’t xiuxing long enough but he knew that the youngest junior lost the battle because he was not determined enough.

The reason why he wasn’t determined was because Qi Jian felt flustered. He was flustered because he had too much pressure.

As if he expected it, facing the sword momentum burn like a cloud at sunset, facing the white light like a setting sun on the tip of Tang Thirty Six’s sword, Qi Jian remained calm. His Iron Rule was still stable and he didn’t look scared at all. The two invisible mountains were still slowly closing up and Gou Han Shi could see that. He began to become anxious.

Gou Han Shi frowned.

People would probably have thought that Tang Thirty Six’s idea of hiding in his sword spirit was shameless because he was tricking a child, but he didn’t think so. Like what he said before, as long as it’s one’s own strength, then people should use it. Since it was a battle, then regardless of one’s mind or capability of taking pressure, all should be attacked.

He just felt unfortunate because his youngster was stronger than the opponent but lost because of his mental state.

Tang Thirty Six already appeared in front of Qi Jian.

His Wen Shui Sword had already ignited all of the clouds on the sky. Even the grasses in the gap between the stones on the square were fully colored red.

Fire was everywhere and the setting sun shrouded the world.

Qi Jian looked determined. He placed the Iron Rule in front of him like a mountain defending the brook in his heart refusing to dry out.

Tang Thirty Six did not give him a chance.

After one roar, Wen Shui Sword drastically shook as if there were tens of thousands of brooks flowing on the sword eventually turning into a river.

The burning clouds in the sky, the setting sun on the tip of sword, the red grasses on the ground all fell on the body of sword and fell into the river to become tens of thousands of gold coins.

Along with the sword spirit, the river gradually flooded the shore. The trees on the shore were firing up like the red maple in the fall.

The last move of the Wen Shui Three Movements!

A river of maple!

……………………

A little fear appeared on Qi Jian’s face.

Now many people saw it, he was going to lose.

This close-door disciple of the master of Li Mountain Sword Sect did not even have time to fully express the power of Li Mountain Sword Technique and was going to lose sadly like this.

Seeing the daze and pain in his disciple’s eyes, Gou Han Shi could no longer stand it.

He shouted to the field, “Flying the clouds on distance and close mountain!”

Qi Jian heard the words but he did not understand why his senior would say this sentence as this key moment.

This sentence a very common move among the Li Mountain sword techniques. More accurately speaking, it was in the Calm Heart scroll that every disciple would learn.

However, just like how he practiced sword techniques before in the Li Mountain, Qi Jian did as what the senior said and did not hesitate at all.

He raised right knee, twisted his wrist slightly, took back his Iron Rule and moved back like a lotus in wind.

As he took back the sword, the two slowly falling mountains paused in mid air.

Tang Thirty Six’s sword thrusted in, shined in the sky and moved to Qi Jian instantly.

Ca! Ca! Ca! Ca!

Part of Qi Jian’s clothes broke and fell off. A cut appeared on his shoulder. He looked shabby, but he actually got away from Tang Thirty Six’s sword momentum!

No one had thought of this result.

People were certain now that the key was Qi Jian’s retreat.

How was the retreat so great that Qi Jian could dodge the Wen Shui Three Movements?

Qi Jian clearly knew what helped him dodge the Wen Shui Three Movements was his movement method and sword spirit.

But the premise was the retreat.

He must retreat first and then he could stand still again.

The retreat was admitting his weakness and following along with the momentum.

Was the mountain distant or close? Sometimes, was the cloud on the sky coming or leaving?

What Gou Han Shi taught him was not an actual sword technique, but was how to correct face pressure.

Because of age, because of some objective reasons, there would always a moment when one could not take the pressure.

Forcing oneself to stand the pressure was truly brave, but learning how to retreat was more wise.

Gou Han Shi used his wisdom to help Qi Jian remove the pressure from Tang Thirty Six’s Wen Shui Three Movements.

Now, it was Tang Thirty Six’s turn to bare the pressure.

Qi Jian’s expression turned calm and his sword momentum revitalized as sharp as the rock in the mountains.

But different from before, his Iron Rule, followed the clouds and moved up.

The two mountains no longer slowly closed up like before, but rather, they completely fell off!

The wind blew hard. The youngster stabbed his sword forward which broke the setting of the sun. His sword momentum fell down like the cliff!

The cliff suddenly broke which caused the clouds at night to collapse!

Tang Thirty Six hummed as a result. He took his sword back to defend and stepped on a cloud to move back. His move was indescribably casual and smooth.

A noise came up now.

It was the sound of the interaction between Wen Shui Sword and the Iron Rule.

Just in a instant, the situation was changed.

In one round, a wound appeared between Tang Thirty Six’s belly and chest.

He fell down, holding the sword at the side. His hand was shaking slightly.

He knew that he’s in a disadvantage, but he was not flustered.

Suddenly, a voice came up from behind him.

“Retreat again!”

Tang Thirty Six heard that it was Chen Chang Sheng’s voice and he thought, what are you talking about? I was standing with a sword calmly waiting Qi Jian to attack and looked so handsome while doing so. If I moved back again, wouldn’t I look awkward?

Although he thought in such way, he instinctively moved back several steps.

Right after he left, a extremely deep fissure appeared on the ground where he was standing.

Tang Thirty Six’s expression changed. He then knew that Qi Jian’s sword spirit actually came soundlessly to him!

Until now, the opponent’s sword spirit was used up!

The mountains suddenly fell, blocked the river and destroyed the maples on the shore but the rock that came out actually flew farther than people saw!

If Chen Chang Sheng didn’t warn Tang Thirty Six, he would probably be heavily wounded by now!

………………………….

Gou Han Shi felt surprised. He looked towards Chen Chang Sheng.

The spectating crowds in front of the palace were all quiet. Everyone’s eyes all fell on Chen Chang Sheng.

Tang Thirty Six only had fought with Qi Jian for a few moves but in the few moments that they fought, each had encountered extremely big hazards.

Gou Han Shi could see through the meaning behind the Wen Shui Three Movements and one shout helped Qi Jian to counteract it by using the most common technique of the Li Mountain Sword Techniques. He was able to defend against it through retreating. Such knowledge and such wisdom were truly applaudable, but he was Gou Han Shi, so no one felt too shocked or surprised.

But….why could Chen Chang Sheng see through Qi Jian’s sword momentum too? Why did he look like he was so familiar with the Li Mountain Sword Techniques?

Was he also like Gou Han Shi in that he possessed vast knowledge?

No one dared to believe in this conjecture.

Xiao Song Gong also didn’t believe in that. He remembered the old thing that happened several hundreds years ago and looked towards Jin Yu Lu in the opposite side of the square. His look became even more hostile.

The silence in the field only remained for a really short amount of time. It was broken again.

Chen Chang Sheng seemed like he didn’t feel the several hundreds of eyes falling on him at all.

He took back his vision from Tang Thirty Six and stared at Gou Han Shi at the opposite side.

“Flipped Golden Tube!”

“Sea Essence!”

“Shadow on the Window!”

“Forest Longsword !”

He spoke these four sentences continuously.

Those were the names of four sword moves.

The four moves in the Wen Shui Tang family’s sword technique.