Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 1146 – Idly Listening to Falling Flowers While Sending a Sword

Chen Changsheng had already said his farewells to his senior brother, but before he left, he naturally had to pay Mo Yu a visit as well.

Mo Yu had been a renowned beauty of the capital, and now she was even more gorgeous and moving.

He knew that she was not deliberately tempting him. It was just too hot here. Not even the cooling array in the hall seemed to be of any use.

“This place is too small.”

He looked around and commented.

This place was a specially partitioned room behind the great hall. Compared to the other buildings of the Imperial Palace, it truly was extremely small, and it wasn’t well-ventilated either.

“Before the Empress began to rule from behind the curtain, she learned governance from Emperor Xian for twenty-some years. This is the room that she listened from.”

Mo Yu mocked, “When His Majesty just entered the palace, the venerable Daoist would sit here when court was in session. For me to sit here now, am I in some way unqualified?”

Chen Changsheng bitterly smiled. “Then I truly have nothing to say.”

Mo Yu arched her brows. “Perhaps all of you think that I’m very ambitious.”

For a time, Chen Changsheng truly had thought that she was very ambitious. It was not during the period when the Divine Empress was alive, but ten years ago.

She had always kept in touch with him, and when the emperor issued a decree requesting her to return to the capital, the letter she had sent to Chen Changsheng seemed rather hesitant. It was only afterward that Chen Changsheng realized that she had already made up her mind.

But when she insisted on marrying the Prince of Louyang, Chen Changsheng felt his view of her wasn’t right.

If she really did have ambition, she should have married a figure with more authority, perhaps even marrying the emperor and becoming a new empress.

“That depends on what you mean by ‘ambition’,” Chen Changsheng said.

Mo Yu replied, “If ambition means authority, then I admit that I truly do have strong desires in this aspect, but all I want is to guarantee that I have the authority to involve myself in the affairs of the court.”

These words were a little confusing, and Chen Changsheng needed a little time to sort them out. He curiously asked, “Why do you like handling government affairs so much?”

“Because I’m a female official taught by the Empress.”

Mo Yu looked at him and continued, “Yourong and I were taught by the Empress. I like and have the ability to handle government affairs, while she’s more skilled in killing in all directions.”

Chen Changsheng thought of many memories from the past few years, and he could only express his silent agreement to this statement.

Mo Yu added, “Of course, she’s even more like the Empress than me, perhaps because she’s even more capable of killing people.”

Ten-some years ago, in a nearby palace hall, the Tianhai Divine Empress had told her and Xu Yourong that killing people was the correct path.

Mo Yu knew that she couldn’t do this. Perhaps it was because she had seen far too many of her family slaughtered when she was young.

That year, when she took up the sword and gave Zhou Tong death by a thousand cuts, she seemed to have used up all the killing intent in her body.

Chen Changsheng did not want to continue on this topic. Instead, he asked, “You’ve been married for so many years. Is he still that afraid of you?”

He was asking about the Prince of Louyang.

Mo Yu’s slender brows perked upward. “That’s respect, not fear. Do you think everyone is like you?”

Chen Changsheng hadn’t expected to stir trouble, and felt a little awkward.

Mo Yu let him go and said, “He spends every day cooking at home. He just learned a seventeenth method for steeping radish and is having quite the fun time.”

Seeing how happy she was, Chen Changsheng was also very happy, but he also… felt somewhat more complicated emotions.

He glanced at her hair and then took a sip of his tea as he asked, “Have you been sleeping well?”

Mo Yu’s brows flew upward as she said, “Very well. Do you know? The bodies of fat men are all cold. It’s very comfortable when you hug them.”

……

……

On his journey to the front lines, Chen Changsheng would think of what happened that day in the Imperial Palace and laugh at himself.

This happened so often that An Hua became rather nervous. Fu Xinzhi and Chen Fugui, now teachers at the Orthodox Academy, also became very uneasy.

Chen Changsheng had not brought too many priests of the Li Palace with him. Instead, he had brought students from the Ivy Academies.

He was traveling under the reason of inspection, but the students of the Ivy Academies were traveling to the front lines for the purpose of learning.

Not long after entering Tianliang County but before arriving at Xunyang City, Chen Changsheng and An Hua left the party early.

The records from the various Daoist churches were constantly being delivered to him and he had seen with his own eyes the true circumstances of the people, had seen the injured soldiers. Then he saw the plains.

Before entering the actual battlefield, he once more recalled Mo Yu’s last words to him in the Imperial Palace.

“It’s been two months since the people of the capital last had any meat, and only three barges of cotton have arrived from Luling this year. If you lose on the front lines, there will be many refugees this winter, and countless people will freeze to death on the road. This is a war between countries and is fought with a strength that could topple a country. It must be won, as a loss will mean the death of the country.”

Yes, this was a war between countries. Both sides were certain to pour in all their strength, paying every price to gain the final victory.

But there were some things that Chen Changsheng still could not understand. He and Gou Hanshi had discussed them many times, but they had still not been able to provide a convincing conclusion.

In both the first phase and the second phase, the strategies employed by the demons had been too intense. Even in a war between countries, they were still rather excessive.

Logically speaking, no one would choose a strategy of mutual destruction at the very start of the war. Even if the demons were the weaker side, was there a need for such a lack of confidence? And it was impossible for this strategy to weaken the humans’ resolve, so what meaning was there in it other than making the demons lose even faster?

……

……

It was very difficult for people on the inside to clearly see the entire situation, even if these people were the Demon Lord or Demon Commander.

Those on the outside, by way of their perspective, actually found it easier to see a few problems. For example, Shang Xingzhou had long since noticed that point that both Chen Changsheng and Gou Hanshi had felt was a little off.

A convoy journeyed from Mount Han to Mount Li. Mid-journey, it stopped for a night at Luoyang.

On the morning of the next day, Shang Xingzhou left Luoyang. No one knew of this matter, and the only person he brought with him was a young Daoist boy so beautiful that he seemed to be sculpted from ice or jade.

Xining Village’s old temple had become a crucial site protected by the Imperial Court ten-some years ago, but what soldier could obstruct him?

He brought the young boy into the old temple, quietly pondering the long-empty room. After ordering the young Daoist boy to continue memorizing the Canon of Flowing West, he went to the stream outside the temple.

The waters of the stream were just as clear as they used to be, and the fallen flowers drifted along with the flow. Whenever they passed by him, they seemed to grow livelier.

A monk appeared on the stream bank.

Just like he was ten-some years ago, his face was handsome and his age hard to determine. He wore a black monk’s robe, its surface covered in tears and dust.

Shang Xingzhou said to him, “Your Highness, I wish to know a few things.”

This monk was the Prince of Chu’s son. In terms of generation, he was Yuren’s uncle. If he was a member of the court, he would naturally be a prince.

And if not for the coup of the Hundred Herb Garden, perhaps he would now be the emperor.

Of course, Shang Xingzhou would never admit this.

The monk replied, “Please speak.”

Shang Xingzhou asked, “Just what does the Sacred Light Continent want to do?”

The monk said nothing.

Shang Xingzhou indifferently said, “You are still a person of our side.”

All the compassion in the monk’s eyes transformed into desolation as he said, “Just a traveler who has no home to return to.”

Shang Xingzhou suddenly noted, “Now that I think about it, Tianhai’s injuring your soul and making it impossible for you to return was not a bad thing.”

In these words, he was clearly expressing his suspicions that the monk was working with the Sacred Light Continent on some scheme.

The monk declared, “Designs on the throne have already come to nothing.”

Shang Xingzhou said, “One must consider your descendants. After all, they still carry the blood of the Chen clan.”

The monk was quiet for a very long time. Finally, he asked, “This is your promise?”

“If I die, my students will bring all of you back.”

Shang Xingzhou seemed to think of something and lapsed back into silence. He added, “If they refuse, I will have this student bring you back.”

The monk looked at the young Daoist boy sitting under the tree. A satisfied expression appeared on his face as he said, “What do you want me to do?”

Shang Xingzhou requested, “I want your help in sending over a piece of information and one object.”

The monk said, “The Sacred Light Continent is too far away. This will require a very long time.”

Shang Xingzhou replied, “It’s just a meaningless move on the chessboard.”

The monk asked, “What information?”

Shang Xingzhou said, “Tell Su Li that something has happened.”

The monk defended, “I truly don’t know if anything will happen on the Sacred Light Continent.”

Shang Xingzhou returned, “I also don’t know what will happen there, but I think that he probably knows that something is currently happening here.”

The monk was quiet for a while, then he asked, “The object?”

Shang Xingzhou handed over a sword.

This sword had been wrapped up neatly with cloth, and a ring forged from melted bronze had been placed in the middle.

When the monk took the sword, he was careful to grip the bronze ring and not any other part of the sword.

“A good sword.”

The monk’s gaze fell on the bronze ring and he sighed, “Such a treasure, but you’ve actually melted it down to send a sword through space. Truly extravagant.”

The Heaven Shrouding Sword was naturally a good sword.

The bronze was a shard of the Clear Sky Mirror.