Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 926 – Su Li’s Sword Path

Chen Changsheng was extremely talented in terms of cultivation, but his knowledge of the secular world was rather mediocre. He blankly stared for a long time before reacting, then after a period of serious thought, he said, “If I have the opportunity, I will persuade His Majesty the White Emperor and have the sword manual of the Mount Li Sword Style returned.”

Several hundred years ago, the allied army of humans and demi-humans embarked on a northward expedition against the Demon race. Several elders of the Mount Li Sword Sect in charge of transporting supplies were late on a delivery and were given the punishment of execution.

With no better method, the Mount Li Sword Sect sent the manual for its sword style to White Emperor City, causing the White Emperor to issue an imperial decree to force Jin Yulu to relent.

To the Mount Li Sword Sect, nothing could be better than regaining the sword manual of the Mount Li Sword Style without getting in conflict with White Emperor City.

At present, the person with the highest chances of accomplishing this feat was naturally Chen Changsheng.

The Mount Li Sword Sect Master was very satisfied at Chen Changsheng’s promise.

But Qiushan Jun was slightly raising his brows, somewhat unhappy.

His martial granduncle Su Li had once said that the things lost by Mount Li naturally needed to taken back by Mount Li.

But since this was the intent of his master, the Sect Master, he was in no position to express his opposition to Chen Changsheng.

Resolving Zhexiu’s illness had been the greatest concern, so Chen Changsheng was now in a much better mood. He asked, “Can they meet now?”

The Sect Master shook his head. “Even if that wolf child learns the Just Sword’s Clear Music, it can only temporarily suppress his illness, not cure it. They naturally cannot meet yet.”

Chen Changsheng felt very helpless. “What need is there for this?”

The Mount Li Sword Sect Master also felt very helpless. “This is the will of Junior Martial Uncle. Who dares to defy it?”

Chen Changsheng knew Su Li’s personality, so there was nothing he could say.

Qiushan Jun suddenly said, “I think Martial Granduncle made a mistake in this matter.”

The Sect Master replied, “But he is your Martial Granduncle. You must respect and love him.”

Qiushan Jun responded, “Given Martial Granduncle’s personality, it’s truly hard for anyone to love or respect him.”

Chen Changsheng recalled that journey back south from the snowy plains and glanced at Qiushan Jun, knowing what he was thinking and what worries were on his mind.

In that instant, they felt like they had returned to Sloping Cliff Horse Farm.

But it was only an instant, and they quickly felt uncomfortable and looked away.

“Is there really no way to stretch the rules a little?”

He said to the Sect Master, “In any case, Senior Su Li isn’t here.”

The Sect Master answered, “Although Junior Martial Uncle has left, his sword is still at the mountain.”

Chen Changsheng felt like there was another meaning in these words and asked, “Sword?”

The Sect Master explained, “Junior Martial Uncle left a sword behind. If someone is able to surpass this sword, they can ignore his decrees.”

Chen Changsheng thought, then said, “I want to try.”

“I will not hide it from you. Wanting to break that sword is extremely dangerous.”

The Mount Li Sword Sect Master sternly warned, “Junior Martial Uncle is your teacher on the path of the sword, so you can be considered my junior brother. I am not willing to see you take this risk.”

Chen Changsheng replied, “This humble junior dares not accept.”

He was referring to how the Sect Master called him ‘junior brother’.

The Mount Li Sword Sect Master laughed and said, “It was truly a slip of the tongue. Even if you dared to accept it, I wouldn’t dare to really address you as such, or else some people wouldn’t be happy.”

If Chen Changsheng became the Mount Li Sword Sect Master’s junior brother, wouldn’t he become the martial uncle to Qiushan Jun and the rest of the Divine Kingdom’s Seven Laws?

As for who wouldn’t be happy, the answer was obvious.

Chen Changsheng glanced at Qiushan Jun.

Qiushan Jun ignored his gaze, saying to the Mount Li Sword Sect Master, “Master, if Junior Sister were to hear this conversation, just how much of your beard do you think you could keep?”

……

……

In the foothills behind Mount Li’s main peak was a cliff, and in front of this cliff was a stone wall. This wall was covered with ivy, the ivy speckled with wildflowers.

Only by walking up close could one see that there was a path about two feet wide in this ivy-covered wall.

One could faintly hear the melodious songs of birds from the other end of this path and smell the aroma of flowers. If one looked carefully, one could see a lush green.

There seemed to be a verdant valley on the other side.

Qiushan Jun, Gou Hanshi, and a few other disciples of Mount Li brought Chen Changsheng’s group to the cliff.

Zhexiu silently stared at the seam in the stone.

“For the last few years, Junior Sister has been quietly cultivating on that side. If you want to meet her, you have to walk through here.”

Gou Hanshi explained to Chen Changsheng’s group, “This path was made by Martial Granduncle before he broke through into the Divine, cleaved out of this cliff using his sword. The stone walls still have sword intent and killing intent, making it extremely dangerous. This is the sword you will have to break through.”

Chen Changsheng was well aware that after the Heaven Shrouding Sword was lost in the Garden of Zhou, the sword Su Li used was an ordinary bronze sword forged from a smithy of the village at the base of Mount Li. When he thought of how Su Li had used such an ordinary sword to cleave a path through this cliff to the paradise on the other side, he was stupefied.

His gaze fell on the path through the ivy-covered stone wall.

Countless sword slashes, incredibly deep, could be seen on the wall. Even after several centuries of wind and rain, they had not been worn away.

They were still ten-some zhang from the entrance into the wall, but he could already sense the powerful sword intent contained in those slashes.

After looking at the wall a few times, Bai Cai and Tang Thirty-Six felt a stabbing pain in their eyes and wanted to cry.

Zhexiu’s gaze remained fixed on the wall. He was quiet and abnormally focused, and though his eyes gradually reddened, he did not even blink.

A gust of wind came from the direction of the wall. It rustled the leaves on the ground and blew against Chen Changsheng’s clothes.

With a light rip, a straight tear appeared on his sleeve.

The chunk of his sleeve drifted with the wind and off the cliff.

Chen Changsheng lowered his head to look at the base of the cliff. He saw that in a semi-circle of ten-some zhang in radius around the entrance to the path, the ground was extremely smooth, with not even a fallen leaf in sight.

Presumably, as time passed, the fierce sword intent within the stone wall had seeped out, slicing all the fallen leaves and stone gravel in this area into a fine powder.

Such an awe-inspiring and terrifying sword intent was truly a rarity.

It was truly worthy of the strongest expert of the sword in the last one thousand years.

Zhexiu moved.

And then he was stopped by Chen Changsheng.

“I learned the sword from Su Li, so I have a deep understanding of his path of the sword. You should let me try first. Even if I fail, I should still have a chance to retreat. What you need to do is observe. With your observations and your ability to analyze and fight, your probability of success will greatly increase.”

Chen Changsheng stared into his eyes as he spoke.

He was right.

Although one only needed to walk through this path scored with countless sword slashes, it was also an extremely challenging battle.

This was their battle with the Su Li from several hundred years ago.

Zhexiu fell into thought, then stopped and said, “Thank you.”

There were many things where not many words were needed.

With Zhexiu’s personality, a word of thanks was enough to represent many things.

Chen Changsheng took out the Stainless Sword and inserted its hilt into the Vault Sheath.

This was his sword’s strongest form.

He had done this when facing Zhu Luo in Xunyang City, when he was forcing his way into the alley of the Northern Military Department in the capital, and even in his battle against two generations of Demon Lords in the snowy mountains.

Today, he wanted to force his way through this stone path, just as powerful of a foe.

The Su Li of several hundred years ago had cleaved out this path to paradise before reaching the Divine Domain and had certainly not reached his future level of strength. However, he had already cultivated the sword to an extremely high level. To him and Zhexiu, this Su Li was still an almost unreachable existence.

Chen Changsheng wielded his sword and took a step forward.

With just this one step, several holes were torn in his clothes.