Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 779 – The Young Demon Lord, the Truth Behind the Mist

The young array master spoke of His Holiness the Pope, but without the slightest tone of respect, rather taunting and jeering.

Whether he was enemy or friend, the existence of this sort of innate tone of voice meant that this young array master’s true identity was assuredly quite extraordinary.

Earlier when Chen Changsheng was prepared to leave, he had attempted to send this person into the Garden of Zhou to safeguard their life. In the end, he had been attacked by an extremely faint true essence which shook his Ethereal Palace and disturbed his Yeshi Step. Not only had he failed to send the array master into the Garden of Zhou, he had been placed into enormous danger and had almost died at Nanke’s hands.

Now, it was obvious that this had been the array master’s work.

Chen Changsheng looked at the black dagger in the array master’s hand and felt somewhat cold.

This black dagger probably shared the same origin as the Stainless Sword, both forged from the whisker of a true dragon.

His Stainless Sword was forged from the whisker of the Golden Dragon while the black dagger was presumably forged from the whisker of that Black Frost Dragon.

He just didn’t know if it was a harvest from the Demon Lord’s expedition into the Garden of Zhou or if it had an even bloodier origin. Regardless, both possibilities made his blood run cold.

It was the same feeling given to him by the conversation and conduct of this father and son.

Yes, the Demon Lord was the young array master’s father.

From the moment the young array master said ‘father’, Chen Changsheng knew who he was.

After the rebellion in Xuelao City two years ago, all the Demon Lord’s sons were killed or imprisoned, except one.

That one was the new Demon Lord.

He was also this young array master.

In the entire continent, only he would dare show such contempt towards Chen Changsheng, the Pope of the Human race.

Chen Changsheng was well aware that he could not change much tonight, but he wanted to say a few words so as to clarify a few things.

If this matter had nothing to do with him, he naturally wouldn’t care, but there were quite a few corpses on both sides of the shattered bridge.

These people had come from Mount Song. The mountain path was long and covered in ice, and they had even had to carry a stretcher. The journey had certainly not been easy.

They had finally reached here and the young array master on the stretcher had opened his eyes, but these people were all dead.

If he conjectured into the past, when this young array master had feigned being severely wounded, many people had assuredly died to rescue him from the battlefield.

If Zhou Tong were still alive or Mo Yu had been the one standing there, they would have been able to very quickly analyze and conclude what had occurred. However, Chen Changsheng could memorize all three thousand scriptures of the Daoist Canon backwards but was incapable of seeing through this affair. Thus, he was asking for an explanation in place of the dead. Yet it was just as the young array master said. Even if he did understand, what could he do about it?

Chen Changsheng did not care about this. He asked, “Even if you had spies in the Mount Song Army headquarters coordinating with you, how could you possibly deceive so many people?”

“To ensure that someone found you and also sent me to you was truly very troublesome. There were so many casualties in the Mount Song Army headquarters and the rules you set down were too complex. It’s truly difficult to create such a plan. Even if the Lord Military Advisor personally took part, it would still be very difficult to do.”

The young Demon Lord smiled. “Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about these things. Someone was naturally there to handle them for me.”

Chen Changsheng looked into his eyes and asked, “Who?”

The young Demon Lord replied, “Besides the Tang clan, weren’t there also many people in your Imperial Court that wanted to find the master of the Cinnabar Pill?”

Chen Changsheng’s expression turned grave. “What do you want to say?”

“I’m not talking about that trash from just now, I’m talking about your teacher. Even my father and sister who have been on the run for two years were able to find out that you were the master of the Cinnabar Pill, so how could he not think of this possibility? But you were hidden too well. If it weren’t for the fact that you were too inexperienced, if he didn’t understand you so well, it would truly be difficult to find you.”

The young Demon Lord arched his brows, ridicule and sympathy in his voice. “Do you understand now? I simply didn’t need to think about deceiving the people in the Mount Song Army headquarters or how to deceive the Tang clan. This was never my plan. It was your teacher Shang Xingzhou’s plan.”

Whether it was the plans of the Tang clan or the plans of Zhu Ye, Ning Shiwei, the Tianhai clan, and the Prince of Xiang, they were ultimately unable to overcome the plans of Shang Xingzhou. As the undisputed supreme figure of the Great Zhou Dynasty, he stood at the highest place and saw the farthest. He had the most complete grasp of the situation, allowing him to manipulate it as he pleased.

His manipulations were for the sake of killing someone.

The person Shang Xingzhou wanted to kill was naturally Chen Changsheng.

The mountains were cold, the garden in ruins. Chen Changsheng, all alone, lowered his head.

……

……

In a particularly remote cliff in the mountains, the Tang Seventeenth Master gripped his throat and slowly fell backwards, his face showing an expression of fright and disbelief.

The corpses and frozen blood of the dead were scattered all about the cliff. These people had all been killed by him, and now he had become one of their number. Although blood was still flowing through his fingers, there was already little difference between him and the others.

The once-bishop of the Hall of Illustrious Persons walked up to the Tang Seventeenth Master, the caution, anxiety, and fear long since replaced by indifference.

“The Second Master’s intentions are very simple. You also know that killing the Pope is naturally a great achievement, but also a great sin. Not even our Wenshui Tang clan can bear this sin, so you killed all these people. The problem is that you personally concocted this plan, so did you think that you could continue to live as usual? With your death, no one will connect the death of the Pope to Wenshui City. On the contrary, our Tang clan can even use this matter to make difficulties for the Zhu and Tianhai clan. Perhaps in a few years, the Emotion-Severing Sect in Hanqiu City will have to change its name.”

The clerical robes lightly drifted about in the cold winds, just like his white hair and indifferent voice. The Tang Seventeenth Master was already dead and naturally would not speak, but he still very earnestly explained. It felt like after tonight, he would no longer have the chance to speak, and so cherished this chance, even somewhat coveted it.

“This is what it really means to die a worthy death, to die a useful death, or else you would just be trash.” The once-bishop looked at the terrifying wound on the Tang Seventeenth Master’s neck and indifferently said, “You also never thought, if the Second Master had not let you know, just how would you have been able to find His Holiness?”

After saying this, he looked towards the garden below. Due to the vast distance, he could not clearly make out what was going on, but he could already see the future. Everyone that had appeared tonight was dead, so nobody would know the truth of just who had caused Pope Chen Changsheng’s death.

……

……

“You are lying.”

Chen Changsheng suddenly raised his head and said to the young Demon Lord, “You could not have allied with him, but with some other person.”

The young Demon Lord was rather surprised that he would so quickly reach this conclusion. “Why? Do you really think that your teacher is some righteous nobleman?”

Chen Changsheng explained, “Of course he’s no righteous nobleman. I don’t like a lot about his way of doing things, but I know he’s not that kind of person. Back then, in order to depose the Tianhai Empress, he could reach a silent understanding with Black Robe, but he would never borrow strength from the demons, let alone work together with a Demon Lord.”

The young Demon Lord asked in interest, “Why?”