Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 648 – The Entire World Rebels Against Tianhai

The Tang Second Master walked into the Imperial City.

This was his first time coming to the Imperial Palace, but he was very familiar with it. No matter if it was the Heavenly Slaughter Array or any other array, none of them could slow his steps in the slightest.

Before long, his blue clothes had vanished in the darkness. When they next appeared, he had already arrived before the Lingyan Pavilion.

This long set of stone steps before him extended all the way to the night sky, seeming as if one could use them to ascend to the heavens.

To many people, the Lingyan Pavilion and this long set of steps made up the most magnificent and most beautiful building in the Imperial Palace.

But to the Tang Second Master, these stone steps and that lone tower high above were the most hideous buildings of the Imperial Palace.

In his view, the Lingyan Pavilion and this long stairway were a complete mismatch with the Imperial Palace’s style. They were too new and too obvious.

“Truly the artistic sense of the newly rich.”

He lightly mocked, then began walking up the steps.

Arriving before the Lingyan Pavilion, he did not display any caution or prudence. He pushed open the door and entered, seeming excessively calm and easygoing.

Liang Wangsun sat in the center of the Lingyan Pavilion, quietly gazing at the tightly shut window, seeming to be thinking about something.

His blood was still flowing, spreading through the streets of the capital by means of the light emitted from the White Sun Flame.

“Emperor Taizong’s modifications to the Imperial Design were not completely thorough—there are still some problems he wasn’t able to address. If you continue to persist, your blood will very quickly be drained clean.”

The Tang Second Master walked into the Lingyan Pavilion and glanced around him at the portraits on the walls. Striking his folding fan against his palm, he shook his head.

Liang Wangsun raised his head to look at him and asked, “Who are you?”

The Tang Second Master calmly replied, “My surname is Tang, and my seniority is second.”

Liang Wangsun’s expression grew slightly more serious. “So you are the Tang Second Master.”

The Tang Second Master gave one of his noiseless laughs, seeming to be quite happy that a famous man like Liang Wangsun also knew of him.

Then his smile instantly faded as he expressionlessly said, “Since Sir knows who I am, then you should clearly know that you are not my match.”

Liang Wangsun calmly gazed back, replying, “Other people do not know of how terrifying the Tang Second Master is, but how could I not know? But right now, my soul is one with the Imperial Design, so how can you move me?”

The Tang Second Master’s gaze fell upon his body.

A stream of light, a golden Qi, was currently flickering around Liang Wangsun’s body.

He sat in the Lingyan Pavilion, yet he was already one with the capital’s Imperial Design.

Any sort of attack was an attack against the Imperial Design and would receive the full might of its backlash.

But if one did not attack Liang Wangsun, how could he be separated from the Imperial Design?

The Tang Second Master once more gave a noiseless laugh. His appearance should have been rather amusing, but in the Lingyan Pavilion that was lit as brightly as day, it seemed particularly frightening.

Without even glancing at Liang Wangsun, he walked towards the east pillar of the four pillars in the Lingyan Pavilion. He took an item from his sleeve and inserted it in the pillar.

Liang Wangsun’s expression suddenly shifted when he saw this. He wanted to do something, yet he was unable to stand.

An extremely ancient Qi seeped out from the Tang Second Master’s palm. Through the item, the Qi poured into the pillar and continued deeper. Passing through the seemingly endless stone steps, it entered some cave below the Imperial Palace. There, through previously unknown secret channels and canals, it spread throughout the capital.

A breeze stirred within the Lingyan Pavilion and a soft drone could be heard, then the light instantly dimmed!

The demon’s divine artifact, the White Sun Flame, was extinguished!

Liang Wangsun’s blood flowing from his hand to the White Sun Flame was no longer absorbed, but continued its journey to drip to the ground.

A groan of incredible pain burst from his lips!

Just like that, his soul was ripped away from the Imperial Design. Although he did not suffer the complete backlash from the array, being so forcefully torn away had dealt him severe internal injuries!

Right after that groan of pain, blood trickled down from the corner of his lips.

Liang Wangsun’s complexion became abnormally pale, the hand holding the White Sun Flame faintly trembling, his eyes brimming with shock.

He looked at the Tang Second Master and asked incredulously, “How do you know of the array pivot and the divine techniques!”

The Tang Second Master slowly drew his palm back from the pillar. He took a handkerchief from his sleeve and carefully wiped splinters from his palm.

There was a magical artifact made from bronze on the pillar, the vast majority of it embedded within. Only the top layer could be seen, and it looked just like an eye.

An extremely ancient eye.

“Just as I said to a junior not long before, one has to learn how to revere, and what is most worth revering about our Tang clan is our history.” He looked at Liang Wangsun and continued, “Whether it was the Chen clan or your Liang clan, all of you believed this great array of the capital to be yours, but you all forgot, this great array…was built by our Tang clan.”

……

……

In the autumn forest in the Capital Garden of Peace, the statue of a past sage made from obsidian slowly sank back into the ground, yellowed grass quickly growing back on the muddy ground.

In the center of the southern part of Red House Street, the crack in the ground slowly closed. The scorching Qi rising from its depths was gradually cut off. The wind gradually blew more harshly, constantly howling as if wailing in unwillingness.

In the north part of White Paper District, the rotted buildings of that courtyard could not be reconstructed, but the clear water in the canals flowed back into the shattered well.

In the North Li of Achieving Merit on that mound, green pines grew back up from the muddy earth, the bones and corpses buried once more. Lightning constantly flashed down and the golden luster that soared into the sky was once more stained by resentment, no longer as dignified and divine as it once was. All returned to silence, from beginning to end a grand tomb which no one was aware of!

The light emitted outwards by the Lingyan Pavilion instantly vanished and returned to darkness, just as it had been for the last one thousand years.

……

……

The awe-inspiring array energy shrouding the capital gradually dispersed into the world.

The unrest in the darkness that had been suppressed for so long gradually began to surface.

The Prince of Louyang anxiously remained hiding in the mansion right outside the Imperial Palace. The other Chen princes, however, headed towards their own residences or the residences belonging to students or old friends of their parents.

The assorted ministries of the Great Zhou Imperial Court all became abnormally silent, no one knowing what sort of change would occur next.

The Ivy Academies were also in a state of absolute silence. The cavalry of both the Imperial Court and the Orthodoxy had all withdrawn, heading towards places where the situation was even more tense.

No one knew that the Principal of the Heavenly Dao Academy, Zhuang Zhihuan, was at the residence of the Minister of Rites.

The Minister of Rites who had only displayed his true attitude during the battle on the Bridge of Helplessness had a very lofty reputation in the Imperial Court, so although he had endured an extremely difficult period in the last year, the Divine Empress had not treated him as she had treated other ministers, expelling them from the court and granting them death.

Perhaps for this reason, his stance was not as fierce as others had imagined.

“If people don’t have to die, it’s best to not have them die. If a little less people can die, then a little less people should die.”

The Minister of Rites extracted a thick stack of papers from his sleeve and placed it in front of Zhuang Zhihuan. “I’ve been standing guard in the court for more than two hundred years, guarding until the clouds finally parted. What I was waiting for was not for a dynasty to gain power and for blood to flow. I deeply esteem the Empress, and I somewhat pity those ministers. Not everyone is Zhou Tong or Cheng Jun, not all of them are evil.”

After Zhuang Huanyu’s suicide, the Principal Zhuang who had lost his only son had grown even more taciturn. Tonight was no exception.

He took the stack of paper, glanced at the name written upon them, then left the mansion. He made no promises to the Minister of Rites.

Gazing at his back, the Minister of Rites sighed. He knew that after tonight, whether the Divine Empress won or the other side won, an extremely tragic situation would ensue.

……

……

The situation in the capital tonight was abnormally tense, but it was also particularly strange.

Of the several factions that could sufficiently influence tonight’s situation, some had not yet made their voices heard.

The Li Palace’s silence might indicate that the Pope was still hesitating, just like the Green Leaf was still swaying.

But what of the Tianhai clan who had operated for so many years in the capital, who had great strength hidden in both the court and the army…why had they continued to maintain their silence?

The darkness around the Tianhai clan’s mansion and estate concealed at least ten thousand cavalry, and many cultivators would occasionally come in a rush of wind.

These cavalry and cultivators were the strength under the control of the Tianhai clan. The problem was that this strength should have appeared in the Imperial Palace, appeared in the various ducal estates, appeared in the offices of the Imperial Court. They should not have remained here, and even after such a long time, there was no sign that they planned to mobilize.

This apparent silence was truthfully only external. Within the mansion and estate of the Tianhai clan, many things had already occurred.

These things were very bloody, very cruel, but the two sides of the conflict were clansmen, family members, relatives, father and son…

The blood on the floor of the courtyard was particularly dazzling under the light of the lanterns.

Tianhai Shengxue narrowed his eyes. His stomach still churned with disgust and he felt rather dizzy.

In this period of time, message after message had come. A few of the younger descendants of the Tianhai clan that still insisted on not complying with orders and sending out the troops were cruelly suppressed by the strength of the clan head.

A few of his cousins had probably already been subdued, even killed.

His own younger brother had just now, right before his own eyes, had one of his arms chopped off by his father.

“Why?”

He raised his head to look at his father, his voice shaking. “Why do you have to do things this way?”

“What ‘why’?”

In the spacious hall, the chair seemed particularly lonely. Tianhai Chenwu sat upon this chair and also seemed very lonely, but this did not mean the look on his face would change in the slightest.

He looked at his own son and expressionlessly asked, “Just what exactly do you wish to know?”

“I want to know a lot of things!”

Tianhai Shengxue angrily cried out, “Just what do you plan on doing!”

After experiencing the earlier part of the night’s turmoil and the gory suppression, this hall was now devoid of others. Only father and son were present, a loneliness that was somewhat horrifying.