Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 388 The Meanings of Our Lives (I)

Su Li asked again, “Just now when you went downstairs, why didn’t you bring the Yellow Paper Umbrella with you?”

The Yellow Paper Umbrella possessed an incredible defensive power, capable of blocking the full-force blow of a Star Condensation expert. Chen Changsheng had heard Zhexiu say as much in Wenshui, but it was just that in the past few days, the umbrella had always remained in Su Li’s hands. Moreover, from the day they left the snowy plain, he had always felt that the umbrella was a sword, so he had completely forgotten about this property of the umbrella. Now when he heard Su Li’s words, he couldn’t help but give a vacant stare.

He honestly admitted, “I forgot.”

Su Li sighed, “You really are very stupid.”

As the pair was talking, Xiao Zhang did not move, Liang Wangsun did not move, and the people in the streets around the inn all did not move.

Because the person speaking was Su Li.

In the past several centuries, Su Li had served as the idol of countless people in the world of cultivation. He was the soul and sword of the human world. He could be killed, but he could not be humiliated, because that was tantamount to humiliating the human world itself. At this moment, even the most crazed Xiao Zhang would not mind waiting for a few more moments.

The ending had already been decided. The common people had accepted this killing, and the only person to stand in front of Su Li, Chen Changsheng, had already lost. The gap in strength between both sides was far too wide. In the cultivation world’s first generation of blooming flowers, four experts were stronger than the rest. Snow-treading Xun Mei had died in front of the Divine Path in the Mausoleum of Books, so there still remained three. Amongst these three, two of them had come to Xunyang City. What could Chen Changsheng do?

A broken wall behind the inn could no longer bear the gentle push of the wind and collapsed with a rumble, stirring up the dust once more. As the dust settled, the bishop of Xunyang City, Hua Jiefu, appeared within the inn. Looking at Chen Changsheng, he solemnly said, “Your Eminence can no longer change this situation, so why not let this situation end in a somewhat calmer fashion?”

Chen Changsheng lowered his head, saying nothing.

Su Li lifted up his right hand again and patted him on the shoulder. He smiled as he said, “What sort of person am I? Is a little kid like you really prepared to stand guard in front of me for the rest of your life?”

Chen Changsheng understood his meaning and began to arduously drag himself to the side.

When the Liang Household’s emperor’s carriage had arrived, he had been standing by the window. When Xiao Zhang’s spear had descended, he had stood in front of the chair. Even when he had collapsed, he had still collapsed in front of the chair. His strength had already been completely expended. At this final moment, whether it was out of respect or some other reason, he felt he should allow Su Li himself to confront this tribulation. Thus, he moved aside.

Su Li sat in the chair, his hand grasping the Yellow Paper Umbrella. He gazed at Xiao Zhang in front of him, Liang Wangsun in his emperor’s carriage, as well as the crowd on the streets. His expression was serene, free and uncaring, as if all these people were just a bunch of idlers.

The sky above Xunyang City grew somewhat gloomy. The paper snow had already ceased falling, but a sudden drizzle began to rain down.

In those streets sprinkled by the rain, there was only absolute silence. For a very long time, no one said anything.

Xiao Zhang inclined his head and looked at Su Li, his eyes showing an unprecedented focus and fervor. It was like he was admiring an extremely precious piece of porcelain which would soon be personally shattered by him.

The white paper on his face was soaked by the fine rain and began to change shape. It appeared even more comical, and even more frightening. Soon after, he began to slightly shudder. A voice like an iron wire incessantly being struck penetrated through the white paper. “It’s truly meaningful that even a person like you will die.”

When he said these words, Xiao Zhang’s voice began to tremble even more. It was very excited, and also somewhat frustrated—he was excited because he was about to see with his own eyes and personally take part in a most important shift in history, but he was frustrated for an even more complex reason.

Su Li looked at him like he was looking at some heavily wounded little animal. His voice full of pity, he said, “Every person has to die. Do you not even understand a simple truth like this? Everyone says that your insanity is similar to mine, but why is that you seem so much like an idiot right now?”

If it were any other person that called him an idiot, Xiao Zhang would definitely have lost his mind, not stopping until his opponent had been rendered into a pile of chunks. Yet when he heard Su Li’s words, he didn’t even get angry. On the contrary, his eyes became extremely sincere. “You see, the people that showed today are all bastards, or else they’re just piles of trash. It’s meaningless to die under their hands.”

Su Li was in an unpleasant mood. “Are you really an idiot? Dying under anyone’s hands is meaningless.”

Xiao Zhang straightened his chest and said, “Can you see how I am? Dying under my hands always has some meaning.”

Chen Changsheng couldn’t help but ask, “Does this way you all are doing this have meaning?”

They were all talking about meaning, but it wasn’t the same sort of meaning.

Xiao Zhang looked at him and his eyes suddenly turned cold, his voice even more demented. He yelled, “Of course it has meaning! He’s Su Li! How could he die at the hands of those pieces of trash? It’s obvious that he can only die under my spear!”

Of course, in the minds of many people, even if he couldn’t battle, even if he was so injured that he was almost a cripple, in the end, Su Li was Su Li. He had never lived out his life in this world in any ordinary manner, so how could he so ordinarily leave it?

Chen Changsheng could find no words to respond, but Su Li had his own words that he wanted to say.

“I oppose it.” He looked at the crowd outside the inn and said very solemnly and seriously, “No matter how I die, I won’t agree.”

The rainy streets once again grew completely silent, but the atmosphere was different from before. This period of quiet originated from astonishment. Not everyone here had met Su Li, and none of them had imagined that the legendary Junior Martial Uncle of Mount Li would actually be this sort of person. Even at the very last moment of his life, he was still undisciplined and frivolous, not even possessing an iota of the bearing proper for a figure of legends.

“Your objection is in vain.”

Liang Wangsun walked into the ruins of the inn. After silently gazing at Su Li sitting in the chair for a few moments, he bowed. Then he said, “Ten-odd years ago, when you killed three hundred people of my Liang Household, you should have known that this day would come.”

He then turned to Chen Changsheng at Su Li’s side and said, “As I just said, to use a life to repay a life is the fairest matter, let alone the fact that his one life is paying back for three hundred lives.”

Su Li pushed his messy black hair to behind his shoulders, then said very unconcernedly, “Whatever you say lah.”

(TN: I generally do not translate these ending interjections because they sound awkward, but it is necessary to do so in this case. The interjection in this case is 咯, which is pronounced as ‘luo’, hence the next paragraph, but which I translate as ‘lah’.)

Hearing this “lah” word, Chen Changsheng, for some indescribable reason, began to think about Luoluo, and then he began to think about that assassination in the Orthodox Academy, about that demon assassin. He thought about Black Robe and about the battle on the snowy plain. As a result, he still firmly believed that this was not fair, but he no longer had the ability to insist upon his opinion.

The fine rain slowly drizzled down, floating about like threads or string.

Several hundred gazes watched the ruins of the inn, watched Su Li sitting upon his chair, boiling hot and yet icy cold, both happy and reverential.

Su Li’s left hand held the Yellow Paper Umbrella, but from beginning to end, his right hand never held the intention of gripping its handle.

From the snowy plains to Xunyang City, through tens of thousands of li of wind and snow, dust and road, these people had already confirmed many times the authenticity of the news: Su Li was heavily injured, incapable of battle. Yet no one dared to look down on him. The most terrifying demon assassination of the past several hundred years, personally planned by Black Robe, had not even managed to kill him. How could a man like this so simply die?

“Miracle” seemed to be a noun that the heavens had created especially for people like him.

The streets were deathly still, with an oppressive and tense air hanging over them.

No one knew when Xiao Zhang and Liang Wangsun would take action.

Just at this moment, a person preemptively took action.

A rock that had been soaked by the rain came flying from the street and struck Su Li’s face.

There was a dull thump.

A stream of blood flowed down from Su Li’s forehead.

Chen Changsheng had no strength to help him block that rock.

Su Li also had no strength to block that rock, or even avoid it—one strike to behead a Demon General, one glance to see through a legendary Star Condensation expert, and yet now he didn’t even have the strength to avoid a rock.

The streets remained silent, but the atmosphere somewhat changed.

In the drizzling rain, a roar of laughter could be heard.

The crowd turned to look and then realized that the person laughing was the Star Mysteries Sect leader, Lin Canghai. It had been precisely him who had thrown the rock.

Lin Canghai looked up to the second floor of the inn. With a rancorous and elated laugh, he said, “Su Li, even if all you were today was a dog, you would know to avoid a rock. Right now, it turns out that you’re even less than a dog!”

In the drizzle, Su Li’s clothes were soaked and his face was pale. As the blood slowly flowed down his head, he seemed exceptionally lonely.

Seeing this scene, although everyone there had come with the single purpose of killing Su Li, they each had their own emotions.