Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

The Demon Lord was quiet for a while, then he said, "Yes, but do you know why we lost?"

This was truly a puzzling question, especially with regards to how the demons had lost so quickly.

Chen Changsheng replied, "I thought about it for a very long time, but it was only when I saw those tribal warriors outside Xuelao City at the end that I finally recalled that matter you mentioned in your letter."

The primary reason for the decline of the Demon race, that had resulted in their being completely surpassed by the Human race over these last one thousand years, was that their birth rate was too low.

It took far too long for lower-class demons to naturally evolve into higher-class demons, and the higher-class demons were much less fertile. As time passed and the demons began to rule a larger and larger territory, their population took the opposite trajectory. In the end, their numbers became so few that they could no longer gather sufficient soldiers, and those tribal warriors were too unintelligent to take the human armies head-on.

The Demon Lord pointed at him and said, "Yes, you should remember the reason I gave you."

Chen Changsheng recalled the period of history that the Demon Lord had recounted in one of his letters.

The Demon Lord said that these were the most authentic records of the world, and he had only learned of them after ascending to the throne.

The Demon Lord had even said that only five people knew of these records, including himself and the Grand Scholar.

With this letter, Chen Changsheng became the sixth.

Chen Changsheng did not understand why the Demon Lord wanted to tell him, so he naturally found it hard to confirm whether it was true.

According to the Demon Lord, countless years ago, the five continents of this world were not so far apart as they were now. One could easily travel between them.

The species that ruled this world was the Divine race, now the Demon race of the Central Continent.

As time passed, the structure of the world gradually became unstable, and many changes took place. The Divine Kingdom and the Netherworld gradually began to stray from the main continent, ultimately being lost in the endless and chaotic flow of time. All that they left were several extremely dangerous paths, with the abyss behind the Demon Lord being one of them.

The disappearance of the Divine Kingdom and the Netherworld wrought many terrifying changes. The vitality of the main continent gradually began to drain away, causing it to grow more and more desolate. The ruling Divine race and the other intelligent beings were forced to migrate, and the main continent was ultimately abandoned and came to be known as the Forsaken Land.

The Divine race went to the Sacred Light Continent to continue their civilization, but they realized that the Fire of Civilization of the Divine Kingdom had been lost in another continent.

This Fire of Civilization was the Heavenly Tome Monoliths, and that continent was the Central Continent.

The Divine race dispatched an expeditionary force. Using the Netherworld path, which was still barely traversable, it traveled from the Sacred Light Continent to the Central Continent in order to take back the Fire of Civilization. To the expeditionary force's surprise, in that long period of time, the native species of the Central Continent had been awakened by the Fire of Civilization, and now began to fight with the Divine race's expeditionary force.

Those native species were the humans and the demi-humans.

The expeditionary force was naturally the current Demon race.

……

……

"It turns out that this war has still not truly come to an end."

Upon hearing this story, the crowd was overcome with emotions. The Tang Old Master's wrinkles deepened somewhat, but Divine General He Ming's thoughts were on the meaning of this war.

"The war between us and that war from ancient times have nothing to do with each other."

The Demon Lord shook his head and explained, "As that war continued to intensify, the Netherworld continued to distance itself, and the continents were completely cut off from each other. By now, it would be very difficult to reach the Sacred Light Continent through both the abyss behind me and that mountain in the Cloud Grave, so the commander of the expeditionary force made an extremely difficult choice.

"That commander was my progenitor, the first Demon Lord." The Demon Lord added this explanation before continuing, "He stopped the war, making temporary peace with the humans and demi-humans, and then destroyed all the items related to the Sacred Light Continent. He began to construct his own city on this continent, his home."

Xu Yourong, still holding the young Daoist boy, had said nothing this whole time. Now, she suddenly praised, "A wise and prompt decision."

The Demon Lord faintly smiled at her and said, "Correct, my race continued to live this way on the Central Continent, with all the Demon Lords and Grand Scholars that followed continuing my progenitor's methods, using harsh laws to ultimately wipe away any memories of the Sacred Light Continent and making this place our homeland."

The Tang Old Master sighed, "Time is powerful."

The Demon Lord said, "Alas, there was a serious problem. Those Demon Lords and Grand Scholars realized that without an environment of Sacred Light, my race's fertility would be deeply impacted. By the time of Grand Scholar Tungus's era, he had already determined that this was a degeneration that could not be reversed."

The topic had once more returned to the initial question: why the demons had lost this war.

The Demon Lord had vaguely mentioned this matter in his letters, which Chen Changsheng did not understand, but he was even more confused on another aspect.

Divine General He Ming, Xiao Zhang and the others also did not understand.

A decrease and degeneration in fertility was an extinction-level threat to a race. In the face of this matter, what the demons needed to do was naturally reopen that path and return to the Sacred Light Continent. Why had the successive generations of Demon Lords and Grand Scholar Tungus never considered this course of action?

Chen Changsheng asked, "Just what is it in the Sacred Light Continent that all of you fear so greatly? That would make you watch as the Demon race withered away over returning?"

"God."

The Demon Lord stared into Chen Changsheng's eyes. "If the path between this place and the Sacred Light Continent is reopened, we will all become God's servants."

……

……

At the start, many people were shocked to see Chen Changsheng and the Demon Lord being so familiar with each other, and the Tang Old Master's eyes had turned rather dark.

No one believed that Chen Changsheng would collude with the demons, but they still found the circumstances rather strange and odd.

But the crowd was quickly entranced by the contents of their conversation.

The shocking legends of ancient times, the true history hidden behind the black curtains: the demons had originally been an expeditionary force from the Sacred Light Continent!

But what was God? That sole, fixed and objective will that only ignorant women and children believed in?

There was no God in the Central Continent. The Orthodoxy believed in the Great Dao, not something with any objective existence.

The gods that people spoke of were only the imaginary constructs of the tales and legends, perhaps even purely mental projections.

The Divine Kingdom existed above the sea of stars as the home that all souls returned to, but it was just a symbol.

Did God truly exist in the Sacred Light Continent?

Everyone fell silent at the Demon Lord's words, and not even Xiao Zhang spoke.

"Isn't the Divine Kingdom gone?"

No one had expected the young Daoist boy to break the silence.

He was lying in Xu Yourong's chest and hugging her neck. His bright eyes were wide open and curiously aimed at the Demon Lord.

At some point, he had broken free of fear and sorrow and listened to the entirety of this story.

The Demon Lord did not answer this question, because he had no answer.

All that was effable and ineffable about God had been words that he had only been able to see after ascending to the throne.

From his silence, one could imagine how powerful was the mental blow those words had inflicted on him.

Xiao Zhang finally couldn't help but ask, "Is God so powerful?"

"Those two Battle Angels that descended ten years ago in White Emperor City were only God's servants."

The Demon Lord paused, then added, "Once, we were as well."

'We' here referred to the Imperial clan of Xuelao City.

Dazed, Xiao Zhang muttered, "Pretty tragic."

The humans and demi-humans, who had obtained the Mausoleum of Books and the fire within, were called stealers of fire by the Sacred Light Continent.

The first Demon Lord, on the other hand, was called a Fallen Angel.

In the Sacred Light Continent, he had been an Angel, the leader of an army of Angels.

He had fallen because he had been tempted by a devil and refused to return to God's embrace.

This devil's name was freedom.

No one was willing to be a servant, not even if it was a servant of God.

Thus, the first Demon Lord had resolved to stay here.

Thus, not a single one of the Demon Lords that succeeded him or Grand Scholar Tungus had any desire to return to the Sacred Light Continent.

"I can understand this feeling."

Chen Changsheng replied, "Once I was free of the shadow of death, I felt like the entire world had gotten lighter."

The Demon Lord replied, "Compared to death, that is an even more intrinsic sort of freedom."

Chen Changsheng replied, "Compared to the answer, the reason you brought up the question is even more important."

This tale of the past had resulted from the Demon Lord's question.

Why had the demons lost to the humans?

What was the reason the Demon Lord had brought up this question?

"I still haven't finished. There is one other important reason that my race lost… The Military Advisor wanted us to lose."

The Demon Lord's complexion paled, but his lips became so red that they seemed to have been adorned with lipstick.

"She personally made all the plans for this war, and then she wanted us to lose, so how could we not lose?"

Several cries of shock arose within the Demon Hall.

Black Robe was the Demon Military Advisor and wielded immense power. Most importantly, she had personally arranged all the strategies and specific tactics of the demons.

If what the Demon Lord said was true and Black Robe wanted the demons to lose, the demons truly had no reason to not lose.

But why would Black Robe do this?

No one would believe some tragic and inspiring story of sudden repentance. There was assuredly some deeper reason behind it.