Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

The freak that had climbed out of its grave was Black Robe.

Her methods truly were extraordinary. She had succeeded in deceiving everyone.

Yes, this graveyard was not a sacrificial altar for communicating with the Sacred Light Continent, just a means of distracting the Demon Lord's attention.

But this graveyard was a sacrificial altar.

The nobles being offered were not offerings to the Sacred Light Continent, but to the abyss to assist her in reincarnating.

This evil method was what had allowed her to live for so many years, the greatest secret that made it incredibly difficult for her to be captured or killed.

In the last several centuries, she had used this method twice.

While she was setting up the spatial path to the Sacred Light Continent, she had not forgotten to arrange a path of escape.

Thus, even though Chen Changsheng's breakthrough into the Divine and Su Li's sword from the heavens had truly left her extremely disappointed and in pain, she had not despaired.

As long as she was alive, there would be a chance to stage a comeback.

At the time, she had already prepared herself to be killed by the human experts so that the sacrificial altar could revive her.

To her surprise, Wang Zhice was not prepared to kill her, only jail her in Sangharama Temple. He was even prepared to enter into hostilities with the other human experts.

This matter was truly rather worthy of ridicule.

Black Robe was not touched, only anxious.

The Demon Lord had sensed her mood, so he had thought of a way to help Liu Qing kill her.

Nominally, it was because he wanted to die with her, but the truth was not so.

The Demon Lord had done this even though he did not know what Black Robe was planning.

One could only say that the Demon Lord truly did love her.

……

……

The winds howled as the snow rustled.

Her gaze rested on the snow, where she spied those few remaining drops of golden blood.

This was the Demon Commander's blood.

The Demon Commander was her most trusted companion.

The body she was using had been personally selected by the Demon Commander and personally placed in the grave.

Black Robe knew what had happened to the Demon Commander after that.

For this, she felt deeply apologetic.

Even until the end, the Demon Commander did not know that she was deceiving her, that she wanted to also annihilate the Demon race.

Black Robe squatted and thrust her hand into that golden blood. She brought the blood to her nose and sniffed, then kissed it.

She stood up and began to walk up the hill.

She had remained in the grave for many days. It was only after she confirmed that the human armies had relaxed their guard that she dared to come out.

In these last few days, she had eaten nothing but snow and been forced to endure the bitter cold, making her extremely weak.

Most importantly, she needed to restart her cultivation. She needed several dozen days before she would have the strength to defend herself. As for her strength at its prime, that would require several decades.

She slowly walked to the top of the hill. As she gazed at the distant plains of snow, a smile appeared on her lightly decaying lips.

When she thought about the cold and hunger she had borne over the last few days, she felt herself to be an outstanding avenger.

She had prepared many safehouses in the snowy plains, supplied with food. As long as she could reach one of them, she would be safe for the time being.

Once she recovered her strength, she would return to Xuelao City—no, to her homeland to the south that she had not returned to in so many years.

She could already imagine what she should do next. After defeating the demons, the humans would certainly descend into internal conflict. It could be between north and south, the Imperial Court and the Li Palace, the humans and the demi-humans, or even between martial brothers, but whichever it was, new conflicts were certain to crop up.

This was an inevitability of history, the law that she was about to wield as her weapon.

Her revenge would continue.

Black Robe turned to face Xuelao City, a faint sorrow running through her.

Stories were basically all written like this. They would have an open ending, and it would only be after many years that a new chapter would appear.

But the story today was different.

Black Robe prepared to walk down the slope and vanish into the vastness of the snowy plains.

At this moment, a part of the snow bulged and scattered.

A massive demon stood up from the snow, its shadow falling on Black Robe's face.

Black Robe needed only a glance to identify it as a member of the Gruel clan.

The problem was that this demon was already dead. However, the cold weather recently had frozen it, preventing decay and making it rigid.

How could a rigid corpse crawl out of its grave and rush toward her?

Black Robe's eyes constricted as the corpse approached. She wondered, just what sort of ghost is this?

In the past, Black Robe would only need a light brush of her sleeve, perhaps only a glance, to pulverize this corpse.

But her cultivation was all gone and she was extremely weak. Let alone this ability, she did not even have the ability to dodge.

Boom! The massive demon corpse crushed Black Robe's body into the snow.

Whether coincidentally or intentionally, a hard stone lay in the snow at this place, pressing right against her neck.

There was a light crack.

Black Robe's neck was broken. Her blood slowly dyed the snow red.

She opened her eyes wide, staring at the overcast sky with a look of rage and despair, tinged with confusion.

In her current state, she couldn't even blow away the snowflakes falling in her eyes, much less push away this heavy corpse.

She could only helplessly wait for death.

After a moment, the heavy corpse flipped to the side on its own.

There was a rip as a hole was torn in the corpse's chest. A person slowly climbed out of it.

This person was dressed in very thin clothes and his body was covered in blood and filth. He was very thin, his face pale, and he gave off a nauseating stench.

Perhaps this effort had used up the last of his strength. The man gasped and lay unmoving on the snow, right next to Black Robe.

Black Robe turned her head with difficulty and asked him, "Who are you?"

The man's voice was soft and horse, as it had been many days since he had last drunk water.

"I am called Zhexiu."

Black Robe knew who Zhexiu was, and said nothing.

Cold winds blew across the hill while a cavalry patrol passed by in the distance. Nobody noticed that two people were quietly lying side by side at the top of the hill.

If someone looked from above, they might think that this was a rather beautiful sight, that these were lovers who had died together.

Alas, this was anything but the truth.

After some time, Black Robe deeply sighed and asked, "How did you know?"

She was naturally asking about how Zhexiu had guessed that she would use the corpse in this graveyard to revive.

Zhexiu replied, "I didn't know what you were up to. It was just that when I arrived at this graveyard, I happened to see that you were also here."

At the time, the human armies were about to break into Xuelao City. At that tense moment, that the wounded Black Robe chose to come to this graveyard meant that this place was very important to her.

Black Robe asked, "So you've been waiting for me to come back this entire time?"

Zhexiu affirmed, "Yes."

Black Robe asked, "Did you not think that you might have been wrong?"

When she had been killed by Liu Qing that night in the Demon Hall, her soul had used the power of the sacrificial altar to escape. But she had been in no rush to leave, and cautiously hid herself in the grave for several dozen days.

She could not think of anyone who was more patient than she was.

And there was simply no reason for Zhexiu to wait in this graveyard for so many days off a single conjecture.

Zhexiu replied, "I wasn't needed elsewhere, and I'm an ideal candidate for doing jobs that no one else can do."

Black Robe inquired, "What if I never appeared? Would you continue waiting? Wait until you became an actual corpse?"

Zhexiu answered, "No. Once I confirmed that you wouldn't be coming back, I would naturally leave."

Black Robe asked, "How could you be sure?"

Zhexiu explained, "When hunting, the most important thing is not experience, but intuition."

Black Robe asked, "What if your intuition was wrong?"

Zhexiu answered, "Not every hunt will yield prey. It's fine if I come again."

Black Robe thought this over and said, "That's reasonable."

……

……

The news that Zhexiu had reappeared was quickly sent back to the capital, along with an even more secretive piece of news.

Only after reading the letter did Chen Changsheng realize that Black Robe had not died that night, but had then been killed by Zhexiu. This matter was not publicly announced, because Zhexiu had written clearly in his letter that he did not need this sort of honor. In consideration for all sides, it was best to treat this episode like it never happened.

Thus, Liu Qing still believed that Black Robe had died to his sword and felt that he no longer had any desires in his line of work. After confirming that neither the Imperial Court nor the Li Palace needed him to inquire into Cao Yunping's whereabouts, he calmly ended his life as an assassin, Xu Yourong and Archbishop An Lin bearing witness, and began to live out his twilight years.

Chen Changsheng went to the alley of the Northern Military Department to see Prince Chen Liu.

By now, Prince Chen Liu naturally had no need to hide anything. He was proud and arrogant, seemingly unaware that he was a prisoner. Upon seeing this once-familiar friend with this rather strange face, Chen Changsheng finally understood why Tang Thirty-Six had never liked him.

Prince Chen Liu was a very cool and sober individual. He lived very explicitly, with a clear understanding of what he wanted in life. Thus, his desires seemed extremely out in the open, bared for the world to see. In the end, this manifested as calm, the pretentiousness that Tang Thirty-Six loathed the most.

Prince Chen Liu stared into Chen Changsheng's eyes and said, "In another history, perhaps I won in the end."

Chen Changsheng replied, "Perhaps, because that history wouldn't have me."

……

……

Four years ago, a crabapple tree was once more planted in that small courtyard in the alley of the Northern Military Department.

Two years ago, the repairs to the Mausoleum of Books were formally concluded. The river dikes and stone paths damaged in the battle from ten-some years ago and the conflict from ten years ago were all repaired. Under the diligent workmanship of the craftsmen, they did not seem particularly new. They had been built to look old.

The verdant forests reminded Wang Po of Xun Mei.

He walked up the Divine Path. Nobody came to stop him.

The pavilion had collapsed but had not been rebuilt. Han Qing was dead and there was no guardian now.

He walked to the summit and silently stared at that characterless Heavenly Tome Monolith for a very long time.

He turned around to face the sprawling capital below, his gaze ultimately resting on the Imperial Palace.

What a fine autumn it was.

He turned and left.

He never returned to the capital again.

……

……

Chen Changsheng went to the Imperial Palace and told Yuren that Wang Po had left.

Yuren's expression did not change, though Divine General He Ming and the other ministers were clearly relieved.

It was only after everyone retreated that Yuren gave an assessment of this situation, or perhaps of Wang Po as a person.

"One whose heart cherishes all living beings is a true warrior of the country."

Chen Changsheng was rather depressed. Wang Po's departure had made him think about Shang Xingzhou's life.

"In his life, Master also only wanted to do one thing. If he were still alive, he would definitely be very happy, but he might… also be very empty."

"Perhaps."

Yuren did not finish his thought. He looked at the paper on his desk and shook his head. "Your brushstrokes are wrong. Write it one hundred times."

The young Daoist boy, who had always been very resistant to the calligraphy textbooks, gave Chen Changsheng a teary-eyed stare and begged, "Senior Brother…"

In Xining Village's old temple, if Yuren or Chen Changsheng made a mistake in their memorization, they were certain to be punished.

Chen Changsheng had seen this sort of sight too many times. Rubbing the boy's head, he smiled and said, "He's your Eldest Senior Brother, so I also have to listen to him."

Yuren noted, "So I say that leaving at the ideal moment is an incredibly wonderful thing."

This was an answer to Chen Changsheng's words.

The abruptness left Chen Changsheng a little dazed. It took a while for him to respond.

"Yes.