Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 1149 – First Snow

Whether one wanted it or not, Xuelao City would always be there, waiting for travelers returning home or foreigners with ill intentions.

The human armies were still in the south, so though the north city gate was under slightly stricter guard, normal entry and exit were still allowed.

The large carriage being pulled along the gray stones attracted many eyes.

The demons saw the large corpse in the compartment and their pale faces and deep blue eyes became shocked as they began to shout. There were many kinds of Demon language, and the different classes within Xuelao City would often use different languages, but at this moment, the majority of the cries were shouting the same word: Gruel.

No noticed that there was a very long wound on that large corpse, and a small hole had been torn open in its chest which just so happened to be concealed by a fur robe.

If someone examined the body up close, they might discover an extremely bizarre and frightening sight.

There was an eye in that little hole. The eye was very calm and devoid of emotion, but very clearly alive.

“Giant Gruel’s grandson¹?”

Zhexiu mentally checked over the top-secret information he had seen from the Ministry of the Army and understood who the young noble he had killed was, so he stopped ruminating over the question.

Through the small hole in the young noble’s body, he took stock of the streets and buildings of Xuelao City.

On the surface, humans were rather similar to high-class demons, but they were two completely different species. The two species had battled for tens of thousands of years, establishing grudges that could never be resolved. Whether physically or mentally, the two sides were completely cut off from each other. Only in Grand Scholar Tungus’s era was there a short period of very limited interaction.

For countless years, only an extremely small number of demons had ever appeared in the capital, and the majority met with the most miserable of ends. As for humans… after Wang Zhice signed the armistice with the Demon Lord, no human was allowed to step one foot into Xuelao City. Zhexiu could be considered the first human in centuries to enter Xuelao City.

To humans, Xuelao City was strange and evil, the nest of demons and ghosts, the abyss of evil. Just what exactly was it?

Zhexiu only knew that the walls of the city were extremely high, several times higher than the walls of Luoyang. Even though it had been a very long time since he had been brought in through the city gates, he could still clearly see the moss and snow on the walls. The streets here were straight and wide. The buildings were also very large, and the vast majority of them were built with stone. Though they looked rather crude, they also had an indescribable beauty. Moreover, at set intervals, he would see steep spires. He didn’t know their purpose, but they gave off a majestic and divine aura.

After some time, the sky gradually brightened, and Zhexiu could tell that it was noon. Suddenly, however, the sunlight was obstructed, leaving behind a shadow. Zhexiu saw a black monolith. He couldn’t tell what this black monolith was made of, and it seemed like even his vision was being absorbed by its surface.

After apparently going through an inspection, the beast dragging the carriage proceeded forward, and more of the black monoliths began to appear before Zhexiu’s eyes. He could see one spaced every ten or so zhang, standing tall and upright on a green hill. The limitations on his field of vision meant that he could not see everything, but what he could see told him that it was assuredly a grandiose sight.

Black monoliths were planted all over this green hill, making it look like a massive graveyard or an array used for sacrificial offerings.

Zhexiu felt the young noble’s corpse being lifted up and then slowly and carefully placed in a pit slightly lower than the ground.

He suddenly felt that something was not right.

In his original plan, he had intended to wait for the young noble to be buried, wait underground for several days, and then leave to find Nanke.

Based on his understanding of the demons, the young noble’s clan graveyard should have been near the Demon Palace.

And when he saw those massive black monoliths, he really did think that this was the graveyard belonging to the young noble’s clan.

The bodies of the Gruel clan had always been particularly massive, which is why there was such a thing as ‘Giant Gruel’. He felt that the gravestones of this clan should have been larger than usual.

But someone with the young noble’s status should not have been buried so hastily, not even in the middle of a war.

If this place was not the graveyard of the Gruel clan, what place was it? What were all these mysterious black monoliths doing here?

Some time had passed but no coffin lid had been placed, making Zhexiu even more suspicious.

He stretched his fingers out of the young noble’s wound and pushed the clothes to the side so he could look outside the pit.

His range of vision was still limited, and the first thing he saw was still a black monolith.

Somewhat closer up, he could finally see that this was a square monolith, but its head tapered into a point which was aimed at the sky.

Zhexiu’s gaze followed the tip of the monolith up into the sky.

In the past, on the snowy plains, he would often use this angle to view the sky. When he was hunting down his foe to wear them down and needed to hide himself, he would often bury himself in the snow and gaze at the overcast sky with eyes wide open. One look would last for a very long time, so he knew that looking for too long would result in a sort of misperception. Height would seem to invert and the sky would become an abyss. He would be floating in a void, overcome with anxiety. It was the same feeling now.

This feeling of emptiness grew more and more intense, ultimately becoming a sort of omen.

On the other side of the sky, the bottom of the abyss, an eye seemed to be watching him as well.

Zhexiu felt like he had lost control of his body. Cold sweat slowly seeped out from his skin, taking all his courage with it.

At the summit of the green hill, where Zhexiu couldn’t see, Black Robe looked up to the sky, surrounded by several thousand black monoliths.

Suddenly, Black Robe tore her gaze from the sky and swept it over the monoliths.

At this moment, Zhexiu’s heart suddenly beat out of step with his normal pulse.

At this crucial moment, his old illness, the Tide Rush of Blood, had let him wake from this nightmare that contained nothing real and realize that someone was observing him.

He closed his eyes, and his breathing gradually came to a stop. He seemed to become an actual corpse.

Suddenly, snow began to fall from deep in the overcast skies. It fell on the green hill and pits, gradually burying all the demon corpses.

……

……

The war between the humans and demons had entered the most unbearable stalemate phase. The plains to the south of Xuelao City were fraught with battle, with not one square of clean earth to be found within a radius of one thousand li. Deaths were piling up at every moment, and both sides were exhausted and numb, waiting to see who would crumble first.

The Sacred Light arrows of the human armies were nearly exhausted and the supplies from the rear had begun to lag behind the advance starting from ten-some days ago. As for the replenishments of other weapons and objects like crystals, they had not been resupplied for quite a few more days than that. As for the Western Army, which was currently sweeping the demon bases on the periphery, there had not been any good news. The demons were faring no better. The weapons used to defend the city were mostly in an irreparable state, and a few parties of the Human race’s bravest cavalry were occasionally able to penetrate as close as three li from the city walls.

One early morning, a chorus of elated shouts suddenly rose from the plains of the north, following closely by singing. Gradually, the shouts and singing began to spread southward, and when they reached Xuelao City, they transformed into thunderous cheers. Finally, they came to the tens of thousands of tribal warriors encamped outside the city, who joined them with crazed roars.

At the start, the human armies had observed the demons with wariness and confusion, unaware of what had happened.

As the cheers of the demon soldiers grew louder and louder, the human soldiers grew more and more nervous.

Divine General He Ming looked at the overcast sky, finally understanding what was happening.

He stretched out his hand to catch a drifting snowflake.

It was snowing.

^{1. ‘Giant Gruel’, 庞大固埃, is the Chinese transliteration for ‘Pantagruel’, a character from a series of satirical and obscene French novels written in the 16th century, ‘The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel’. Gargantua and Pantagruel, both giants, are father and son.}