Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 785 – The Peacock Flies Southeast

Chen Changsheng called constellations and coordinates. More precisely, he indicated a position of the Yeshi Step.

The Yeshi Step was the innate supreme skill of the Demon race’s Yeshi clan. The Demon Imperial clan could also learn it, but in the past several decades, only Nanke had gained a complete grasp of it. Chen Changsheng had only managed to learn this movement technique by relying on his understanding of the Daoist Canon, indescribably monotonous calculations, and his awareness of the star charts on the Heavenly Tome Monoliths.

After calling out these coordinates, Chen Changsheng shook his right sleeve. The swords howled through the air and blocked the Heavenly Demon Horn that had been stealthily making its way through the darkness. He stepped on a star position and his body vanished. He left the ground, taking step after step into the night sky, making his way to higher and higher altitudes.

The many swords followed him, gradually returning to the sheath along the way.

This was an incredibly beautiful sight, but it was rather meaningless. In a little while when his true essence ran out, he would drop from the sky and be in great danger, and this was not even considering the fact that the thick darkness accompanying the Heavenly Demon Horn was closely pursuing him.

Chen Changsheng did this because he knew that Nanke had understood his intentions.

Just as expected, when he appeared high above the mountain range amongst the frigid winds, Nanke was already there.

She had left two beautiful trails of green light behind her in the sky.

But this was still not enough to leave, as the darkness brought by the Heavenly Demon Horn was gradually engulfing the entire mountain range.

But it was also because in the distant north, Black Robe’s finger began to beat on the metal plate like it was a drum.

The icy winds blew against Chen Changsheng’s face. He sensed something and tightened the grip on his sword.

Nanke’s eyelashes trembled, but her eyes remained indifferent. As she gazed at the deepening darkness, she sensed the ripples of Qi within and understood something.

Although Chen Changsheng was so heavily wounded that even allying with Nanke would not necessarily result in the young Demon Lord’s defeat, it logically shouldn’t have been difficult to escape.

Yet unexpectedly, this darkness contained several hundred Essence Qi Locks.

The methods that the demons had used to besiege Su Li several years ago were being used tonight by Black Robe to deal with the pair.

Those Qi Locks probably had nothing to do with the Heavenly Demon Horn. Instead, they had probably been spread around by the young Demon Lord through some other method with Black Robe responsible for activating them from the distance.

How could they break through these Essence Qi Locks? Did the Pope of the Human race truly have to be buried together with the Demon Lord?

“Can you really cure it?”

Nanke’s voice sounded particularly somber in the frigid winds.

Chen Changsheng saw the resolve in her eyes and understood what she intended to do, but he could not bring himself to answer her.

If he had enough time, he was confident that he could cure Nanke, especially if he had Xu Yourong’s help.

But the situation was too dangerous and everyone knew that Black Robe was most skilled at mental attacks. If Nanke completed the second awakening of her soul right now, it was highly likely that her teacher would deal her a serious blow from a thousand li away with disastrous results.

Chen Changsheng was not confident.

Even though she did not hear his answer, Nanke’s Qi continued to rise.

Perhaps her question had just been to comfort herself.

The indifference in her eyes had completely transformed into a fervor that bordered on self-destruction.

And then, it began to blaze.

A bright Peacock appeared in the night sky, exuding a green light in all directions.

Its two wings were about a hundred zhang wide. When they flapped, the clouds scattered and the stars fell into disarray while mountains crumbled below!

The several hundred Essence Qi Locks concealed in the darkness were forced to reveal themselves with the appearance of the Peacock’s true body.

The Essence Qi Locks in the part of the sky closest to the human lands numbered the fewest and were rather sparsely spread.

The Peacock flew in that direction, crashing through many Essence Qi Locks in its path, its feathers snapping and its Qi raging!

Over there was the southeast.

……

……

As he watched the specks of light flicker on the metal plate, Black Robe gave another deep sigh.

It was plain to see that this sigh was for his only female disciple.

Suddenly, the southeast corner of the plate became extremely bright, the rays of light illuminating Black Robe’s face.

This was a face that could be described as perfect, but it was somewhat pale from not seeing the sun. It was also suffused with a faint green, the aura of death.

Black Robe raised his head towards the night sky to the south. He sensed something and the corners of his lips drooped downward. When the corners of one’s lips drooped, it usually meant unhappiness, an ill mood, but on his face, this expression carried a different meaning, a thick sense of scorn.

A cling came from the metal plate.

The Essence Qi Locks in the distant night sky silently scattered, killing countless startled birds.

At the very front of that green light, one could clearly see that Peacock vanish.

Two black dots fell towards the distant ground, perhaps alive or perhaps dead.

At almost the same time, the darkness obscured the starlight and the young Demon Lord used some mysterious method to appear a thousand li away on the snowy plain. He did not look at Black Robe, nor did he look at where Nanke and Chen Changsheng had fallen. Instead, he looked towards the mountain range he had come from, appearing very interested, even somewhat excited.

Black Robe was also quietly looking at that mountain range.

The wind blew up a corner of his hood, revealing half of his face, from which one could see a rather complex expression.

It was like he was looking at his hometown.

Perhaps it was because an old friend was there.

……

……

When the young Demon Lord stabbed the stone pestle into his father’s abdomen and that mysterious pillar of light crossed the river of stars and descended on the snowy mountains, many places in the continent responded. The Li Palace, the Dew Platform, Holy Maiden Peak, White Emperor City, and even the distant Great Western Continent and the dragon islands in the Southern Sea knew that some major event had taken place. And all the star observation platforms in the world bore witness to the phenomenon of the Heavenly Sovereign Star in the northern star region suddenly dimming.

Based on the calculated result, the troops of the Great Zhou Army spread out along the frontlines of Mount Han were ordered to investigate. Gaoyang Village, which should have had the fastest response, had fallen into chaos after a quick succession of incidents, thus no one had any mind to discover what was happening on the other side of the mountains.

Bie Yanghong appeared on the other side of the mountains.

Two years had gone by. He had suffered severe injuries in the coup of the Mausoleum of Books and had appeared on the verge of death, but he was still alive, his wounds completely healed and his cultivation even higher than before, even seeming on the verge of becoming head of the current Storms of the Eight Directions.

Even he had somewhat exhausted himself to cross several thousand li in a single night, and the small red flower tied to his pinkie appeared rather weary.

Several years ago when the Demon Lord entered Mount Han to kill Chen Changsheng and the Elder of Heavenly Secrets warned the world, Bie Yanghong had not needed very long to travel from Jiangnan to Mount Han. In the speedy travel over long distances, even White Emperor City’s Jin Yulu was far inferior to him, yet tonight, he was not the first person to arrive.

The first to arrive was a scholar.

Bie Yanghong had studied in Xiling’s famous Ten Thousand Years Pavilion for many years and had a scholarly air about him, but not even he would refer to himself as a scholar in front of this person.

The Demon Lord often dressed as a scholar when traveling the world, but even he would find it embarrassing to refer to himself as a scholar in front of this person.

This person had read far too many books.

He had read books in his hometown, in Luoyang, in the capital, in the Li Palace, in the Imperial Palace, in the Mausoleum of Books, on the snowy plains, after being returned from dreams by the call of horns, and intoxicated under the light of a candle1. Before Gou Hanshi, Chen Changsheng and Yu Ren, only he had ever read all three thousand scriptures of the Daoist Canon.

Later on, he had begun to teach. He had taught for several decades in Star Seizer Academy, raising so many renowned generals that the Demon Lord’s hair went white from stress.

He was the most famous scholar of the past thousand years, Wang Zhice.

1 .’After being returned from dreams by the call of horns’ and ‘intoxicated under the light of a candle’ are both modified lines from a poem by Xin Qiji, a general and poet of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the poem, these two lines are reversed and go, ‘Intoxicated and viewing the sword by candle light, returned from dreams to camp by the call of horns’, the meaning being that the author is viewing a sword in his dreams, but is awakened back to his camp on the battlefield by the blaring of horns