Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

The incident that Chen Changsheng remembered had taken place several years ago.

It had been said that a Sword Pool existed within the Garden of Zhou, and countless renowned swords from previous generations lay within it.

The rumor proved to be true, as Chen Changsheng discovered the Sword Pool in the Garden of Zhou and brought that almost uncountable number of swords back to this world.

Famous swords like the temple sword, which belonged to an existing lineage, were returned to those sects using the name of the Li Palace, but he was still left with a large number of swords.

Thus, on an ordinary night, a meeting was held in the Orthodox Academy to share the riches.

Xuanyuan Po received the Mountain Sea Sword, Zhexiu wanted the Demon Commander's Banner Sword, and Luoluo had received an even better gift. Later on, Su Moyu had requested a fencing sword called Beauty Yu, and even Mo Yu had requested the Yue Maiden Sword from Chen Changsheng.

Tang Thirty-Six had not changed swords, because his Wenshui Sword was one of the famous swords of the generation while simultaneously serving as the symbol of the Tang clan.

But unbeknownst to everyone, he had also actually requested a sword from Chen Changsheng. Yet he had not carried this sword at his side, instead choosing to thrust it into the hollow of an ancient scholar tree in a remote part of the forest, carefully disguising it with fallen leaves and mud.

Chen Changsheng had no idea why he wanted to do this.

Tang Thirty-Six was raising swords.

Several decades later, or perhaps even several centuries, on an ordinary and unremarkable morning, an impoverished and short student who came from an impoverished background and was bullied by his classmates would be rounding the corner of a corridor and suddenly hear a folk song from his home in the southeast. Unable to stop his tears, he would charge into a grove and begin striking at trees, exchanging physical pain for mental consolation. Suddenly, he would discover a famous sword used by a swordsman of a previous generation falling out of an ancient tree, and the sword would even have a strand of sword intent on it. Instantly, his Ethereal Palace would be stimulated and all his Qi openings would begin to blaze…

This was how Tang Thirty-Six had described it back then.

He believed that what he had done would become a legend of the Orthodox Academy several decades, even centuries, from now.

He had not expected that this sword would see the light of day again after only a few years, and it would end up back in Chen Changsheng's hand.

He had even forgotten that this sword existed.

But it now seemed that it was precisely this sword that had saved Chen Changsheng's life in the most dangerous moment.

It was also about to decide the conflict between the new and conservative factions of the Orthodoxy, the conflict between the Orthodoxy and the Imperial Court. It was about to decide the course of the continent for the next several years.

In other words, all of history was about to be altered.

And it was all because he had hidden his sword there back then.

It wasn't important that he didn't remember, because the sword had still been hidden by him there.

Was this what it meant when one said that every sip and every bite was preordained?

What did the saying, 'a grass snake's murky trail can stealthily travel for a thousand li' mean?1

Each move on the board had a profound meaning. When had there ever been such a thing as a useless move!

The more Tang Thirty-Six thought, the prouder and happier he felt. His laughter grew louder, his expression more arrogant.

When Chen Changsheng understood the cause and effect of this matter, he was also excessively shocked, and he also couldn't help but feel very emotional.

This sense that fate had made its own arrangements felt to him like he was once more experiencing a lost period of time.

But Wang Zhice and the others did not know of that period of time, nor did they know that story, so they did not understand why Tang Thirty-Six was laughing.

To Shang Xingzhou, Chen Changsheng's smile was far more repulsive than that sword.

"You want to use one rusty sword to change everything?"

A mask of cold covered his face as he looked at Chen Changsheng.

The color in his eyes was also very faint, like recently frozen ice.

In the deepest part of his eyes, a fire was burning.

He took in a deep breath and a massive wind stirred in the forest.

The fire borrowed the wind to quickly kindle to life, instantly traveling from the depths of his eyes to the surface.

Those dull eyes abruptly became the color of lava, burning with terrifying heat.

The wind blew straight upward, blasting away the clouds above the Orthodox Academy, and a little black dot followed them to hide itself away.

With the clouds dispelled, the sun could reveal its true face.

A Qi descended from the sky. To be more precise, it fell together with the sunlight to fall on Shang Xingzhou's body.

This Qi was not at all pure but was actually rather mixed. In no way did this affect its power, only added a few hints of brutality.

The arrival of this Qi caused all the snow on the ground to instantly melt.

The temperature in the Orthodox Academy seemed to have greatly risen.

Shang Xingzhou was still standing at his original place, but he seemed to be up in the sky.

His body seemed so massive that it seemed to span the gap between the heavens and earth.

In the eyes of the distant Xu Yourong and others, he seemed to transform into the world's most precipitous mountain.

In the eyes of the nearby Chen Changsheng, he looked more like that white tiger in White Emperor City that had obscured half the sky.

Back then it was the White Emperor's soul, but now it was Shang Xingzhou himself.

The puddles of water instantly evaporated, and the mists swiftly purified. The fallen leaves amongst the yellowed grass began to curl along their edges.

This brutal and blazing Qi had come from the sun, but also from Shang Xingzhou's body. Now the internal and external Qis met.

With a boom, Shang Xingzhou's clothes began to burn, his sleeves transforming into countless flying butterflies, leaving his arms bare.

His sleeve had been burned completely into ash, naturally erasing any sign of the hole that Chen Changsheng's sword had torn in it.

Shang Xingzhou used both his hands to grasp his sword, muscles bulging on his arms, looking like sails swelling in the wind and also like they had been cast from iron. They didn't seem real, but their existence also seemed absolutely undeniable, brimming with the most vigorous life force.

In a few seconds, he seemed to have grown centuries younger.

As he walked toward Chen Changsheng, he looked nothing like an elder.

.……

……

.……

……

When the clouds parted and the sunlight spilled down, warming the Orthodox Academy, Xu Yourong thought of a certain possibility.

Her expression subtly shifted, but she did not go over. Chen Changsheng still had a sword, and Wang Zhice was still here.

It was obvious that Wang Zhice already know of this secret, as he was completely unmoved.

Perhaps this had never been much of a secret to the elders of that generation.

Leaning on his walking stick, Yuren stood by the table, his gaze piercing through the black hair and broken wall to fall deep within the forest. His thoughts were inscrutable.

Tang Thirty-Six had stopped laughing long ago. He was so shocked that he couldn't speak, only think, just how is this possible?

……

……

"The Blazing Sun Style?"

"The Blazing Sun Style!"

"Who's using the Blazing Sun Style! How can it be so tyrannical and traditional! Who is it!"

The change in Qi within the Orthodox Academy had already been sensed in Hundred Flowers Lane, triggering a chain of shocked cries.

The ten-some Chen clan princes were all flabbergasted. Only when they remembered that Chen Changsheng also had the surname Chen did they quiet down.

They had never treated Chen Changsheng as a relative, but he was still of imperial blood. In their view, it was not completely unimaginable for Chen Changsheng to be able to learn the Blazing Sun Style. This was because they did not know that his sun wheel had been destroyed when he was still in the womb.

The Prince of Zhongshan knew of this secret, so he had a rather gloomy expression, though it was hard to say what the exact reason was.

The Prince of Xiang opened his eyes, a spark flashing in the deepest part of his eyes. Without even time to burn, it swiftly extinguished.

He knew that it wasn't Chen Changsheng, so it could only be Shang Xingzhou.

But Shang Xingzhou was not a member of the Imperial clan, so how could he practice the Blazing Sun Style?

Just what was the relationship between Shang Xingzhou and Emperor Taizong?

Suddenly, a harsh light flashed through the Prince of Xiang's eyes and he shouted, "What do you plan on doing?"

The area in front of the Orthodox Academy's gate resounded with the scraping of metal and the drawing of crossbow strings.

The atmosphere became extremely tense.

Because when the clouds parted and the sunlight descended, Wang Po had made a movement.

Raising his brow.

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1. The saying about every sip and every bite is an idiom about how one cannot escape destiny, as everything is preordained. The saying about the grass snake is used as a description for foreshadowing, as though the grass snake leaves few tracks, one can still find some evidence if one looks carefully.