Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

The dense blizzard silently fell upon the ground, the area around the abandoned well was quiet. The trees at New North Bridge had completely shed their leaves and the upper reaches of the trees were filled with snow, akin to sentries holding spears.

The Divine Empress clasped her hands together, and looked towards the direction of the faraway Orthodox Academy; after a moment of silence, she said: “The Grand Examination is imminent, what are your thoughts?”

“His Holiness, The Pope, on Your Divine Majesty’s suggestion, took Her Highness into the palace, but did not otherwise reveal any stance.”

Mo Yu looked at the Divine Empress’ side and quietly said: “My view is that the simplest solution would be to kill Chen Chang Sheng, then there wouldn’t be anymore troubles.”

The turbulence created by Orthodox Academy, upon the Divine Empress revealing her stance, was not mentioned again by others, but Mo Yu did not believe that the Empress had wanted to use the incident as proof of her tolerance and magnanimity. She believed the Empress had wanted to instead wait for those standing in the shadows behind Orthodox Academy to reveal themselves.

The Divine Empress was aware of everything happening in the world, the current questioning for her opinion must only be a test of her attitude towards this affair, therefore she had to show strength in her stance.

Contrary to her expectations however, the Divine Empress did not express any commendation for her strong, and slightly merciless stance. Instead, the edge of the Empress’ mouth lightly curled up, revealing a slightly mocking smile, before saying: “Such a style of handling matters is too boring. Not to mention, if he was to be killed, how would you manage to sleep well at night? You must know that the scent left in pillows and bedding will eventually disappear.”

Mo Yu was immediately flustered upon hearing those words, thinking to herself as to how should she explain herself.

The Divine Empress didn’t give her a chance to explain, turning around to face her with a look that was hard to ascertain whether if she was laughing or not, and said: “On the night of the Ivy League gathering, you were the one that confined him at Tong Palace?”

Mo Yu suddenly felt that today’s snow was rather chilling to the bone and answered without daring to hesitate, “Yes.”

The Divine Empress no longer looked at the abandoned well, and said: “That is a good place.”

Mo Yu didn’t dare to say anything else; respectfully and deferentially lowering her head, while supporting the Divine Empress’s hand and heading for the Imperial Palace.

Confining Chen Chang Sheng at Tong Palace on the night of the Ivy League gathering was done at the request of a certain dignitary, as to how Chen Chang Sheng had managed to escape, and whether if he had really entered the depths of the icy pond, or whether if he met that taboo, Mo Yu did not know and did not dare to know; no matter how you look at it, it was her fault.

The Empress did not state whether if she approved of or disapproved of her planning, but since she had mentioned it, this must have been a warning.

The entirety of the Imperial Court knew that Mo Yu was the second most powerful woman in existence, possessing unimaginable wealth and power. Her occasional application of some rouge in between her brows on a whim could bring back that fashion that had been dormant for hundreds of years, but she was also well aware of the fact that everything she had was due to the consent and bestowal of the Empress.

If the Empress was to become wary of her, she would lose everything, including a burial.

The snow and wind today was indeed especially cold, the fingers on her hand that was supporting the Empress began to pale, her lips were also pale, without a shred of crimson.

Chen Chang Sheng woke up upon his bed at Orthodox Academy.

His face was pale beyond belief; including his lips, there wasn’t a trace of crimson to be seen.

But his body was covered in blood, from his shoulders to his chest to the nails on his fingers were covered in hardened blood, in contrast to the snow-white bedding, it evoked a horrifying image.

Staring at the ceiling, he stretched open his eyes, remaining silent, until five moments had passed and his breathing slowly calmed. He then slowly turned over, using his left arm to support himself through grasping his bedside and slowly sat up.

On the edge of the bed, he sat for another five moments, waiting for his heartbeat to return to normal, before getting up and walking over to the mirror.

He looked at the image in the mirror, of a youth who was covered in blood and remained silent for a long while.

He was still alive; this sort of feeling was wonderful.

He had come back from the brink of death, to return to the world of the living, this feeling was extremely pleasing.

As for what had actually happened in the underground space, he was unclear of, he only knew that when the Star Brilliance had started burning, his consciousness had fell into an abyss, the abyss was filled with burning, flames, smoke and heat; violent sundering, unimaginable pain and despair.

He felt as if he had just experienced a dream, but he was certain that what happened was reality. He was currently still in a slightly confused state, he subconsciously raised his sleeve and took a sniff, his clothing was covered in the stains of blood and even though it didn’t give off the rank smell of blood, for he, who enjoyed being clean, it was still unbearable

He thought that all the blood belonged to himself, but it was still unbearable, therefore he started to wash, washing multiple times before being certain that he had cleared all the blood. Taking a large towel to dry himself, he went before the mirror, preparing to open the window to let in some of the fresh air that was contained within the winter snow outside.

Crossing before the large mirror, he suddenly stopped his steps and turned his gaze towards the mirror.

In the mirror, the youth was bare at the top, with nothing abnormal; but he had discovered something that was definitely abnormal.

Few people in the world were like him, being very familiar with and understanding their own body – due to his illness, he was especially concerned with this issue – he remembered very clearly, on his upper left arm, there was a scar from when his Senior had accidently made a mistake during acupuncture. But now, the scar had disappeared; his upper left arm was smooth as can be.

It was at this moment that he noticed his skin had become a lot smoother, akin to that of a new-born. What puzzled him even more was that he had definitely suffered serious injuries, yet there was not a single scar to be seen upon his body, even scars from old wounds had disappeared, including the most minute.

Could it be, that this was Purification? From Spring till now, the Star Brilliance that had been absorbed from that distant Fated Star, upon its conversion to True Essence, had a portion of it helped him successfully complete Purification?

He didn’t become wildly jubilant at this, as he was still in a state of confusion and vacancy.

He looked at the youth in the mirror; frowning his eyes and seriously contemplating.

Contemplating, was one of the most effective ways to calm and rouse yourself. His mind became increasingly clear, and started remembering more details; he finally remembered, upon the moment of him losing consciousness, he was still in the cold and frigid underground space, standing before Venerable Elder Black Dragon; why was he already back at Orthodox Academy upon waking up?

He looked at the damp towel, then lightly kneaded it, confirming that the moisture was real.

He went to the window and looked at the wintry woods, towards the Imperial Palace’s walls, thinking: the exit to the underground space was that pond, if it wasn’t the Black Goat that found a way to bring him back to the academy, then the only other possibility was the middle-aged woman, just who was that middle-aged woman?

Just what had happened in that underground space? Why was he still alive? Had he really managed to complete his Purification?

He quietly pondered by the window-side for a long time, until finally coming to a decision. Returning to the bedside, he removed the bedding as well as he could, before crossing his legs and sitting down, closing his eyes, he began to Meditate, self-observe.

That abyss which was brimming with despair had arose from his meditative introspection, but now that he had survived, he did not hesitate to once again meditate and self-observe, this was because even though living was a good thing for himself, he could not accept living in ignorance, he needed to elucidate his current state.

His divine sense once again entered his body and started to slowly wander, but having gained experience, this was no longer an aimless observation, but more akin to an inspection of his own territory, it did not take long for his divine sense to reach the vast snow plain and he gazed at it from far above.

His eyes were closed, his lashes fluttered, his face was as white as snow.

He was very nervous, fearful that his divine sense would, like before, directly land upon the snow plain and once again set it ablaze into a horrifying inferno.

Even someone with a strong will such as he, would not wish to experience that kind of pain again.

The lucky thing was, this time, his divine sense did not land, and nothing unexpected occurred.

The vast snow plain was still a vast snow plain; his divine sense noticed that a fragment of snow plain on the edge had disappeared after burning, transforming into tens of small streams, that flowed towards the South, nourishing the desolate wild plains, but these streams were too small; with the broken mountain ranges, this could not constitute a water flow.

Those small streams must be True Essence, due to the unusual characteristics of his meridians, the two could not combine the way it would for normal cultivators, and could thus, only exist within a small area.

Chen Chang Sheng opened his eyes and started pondering.

His current situation looked similar to that of Luo Luo, but in reality, it was vastly different.

Luo Luo’s internal True Essence was overflowing in abundance, but the meridian channels of yao, in comparison to a human’s, were exceedingly simplistic, making it difficult to practise human cultivation arts.

The problem pertaining to meridians was something he had spent the last few years considering, which was why he could solve Luo Luo’s problem in the space of only a few short months. In truth, solving Luo Luo’s problem was also a preparation for solving his own problem, with regards to how he should cultivate, he had already made plans for.

That’s correct, the current levels of True Essence within his body was limited and his meridian channels were broken, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t cultivate.

He once again returned to the window-side, looked at that most eye-catching Cloud Pine that was growing by the lake side, tempered his breath for a moment, then grasped the hilt of his small sword.

The sound of a clash ascended as the short sword left its scabbard, and an edge of sword manifestation appeared, travelling from the second floor’s window towards the tree.

Zhong Shan’s Sword of Wind and Rain, the First Movement, Rising Flurry.

He did not have the True Essence manipulation technique of Zhong Shan’s Sword of Wind and Rain, so he used the method he had taught Luo Luo as an imitation.

This was Chen Chang Sheng’s first time using True Essence, from this moment onwards, he would refer to himself as a cultivator, a practitioner of The Way.

Anyone with the same experiences as he had, should, at this moment, be delighted beyond words, possibly to the point of tears, but he was different. The same as when he had previously confirmed the flow of True Essence within his body, he was calm to the point of not resembling a 15-year-old youth, but more akin to an Elder that had cultivated for 500 years.

This was because cultivation was never his aim, it was only a means; he had also acted out this this scene within his mind countless times to the point where he was now more or less numb to it.

Following the sword manifestation cutting through the air, his face paled, a single grunt was let out as he felt the pain.

The distant Cloud Pine was untouched, but the stone balcony outside the window was damaged, multiple stone fragments shot into the room like darts, they thudded as they hit the wall, and a single fragment struck him upon the left arm.

Using the method taught to Luo Luo had its problems, finding a new channel was not an easy task.

Chen Chang Sheng shook his head and turned around, preparing to take out medicinal powder and bandage his left arm.

Even though his True Essence was feeble and couldn’t wield the full power of Zhong Shan’s Sword of Wind and Rain, it was still a blade brandishing True Essence; the stones that had been projected were comparable in power to regular arrows, and had lodged themselves deeply into the wall, this was naturally enough to wound his left arm.

He thought to himself that he should be more careful in the future.

He then noticed, his left arm was unhurt, not even a single hair’s worth of damage had occurred.