Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 280 – Meeting in the Night Sky

The ice-cold lake water splashed onto his face, just like countless, sharp blades.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Changsheng finally woke up. He attempted to open his eyes, but his eyes were only hit painfully by the incoming lake water, so he could only close them once again. He did not know of the current situation, and only knew that he was in the water of the lake, travelling at unimaginable speeds. From the feeling in his hand, he confirmed that the Yellow Paper Umbrella had saved his life.

The Yellow Paper Umbrella was an inanimate object, so how could it act by itself? To him, it was a very hard question to understand. The faint sword intent that was transmitted from somewhere ahead allowed him to vaguely guess something. However, he was unable to make a link between the sword intent and the Yellow Paper Umbrella—that sword intent should have belonged to the legendary Sword Pool, which should have disappeared for several hundreds of years in the Garden of Zhou already. As for the Yellow Paper Umbrella, it was a new object that the Junior Uncle of Mount Li, Su Li, had requested the Wenshui Tang Clan to make for him. The two objects had a difference in years, so logically, it was impossible to make any connections.

After another period of time, he became even more clear-headed, and fixed his posture with great difficulty. It allowed him to squint his eyes open, upon which he saw the light not far behind him. Only then did he learn that the dangers had never left him. At the same time, the injuries that could not be seen in his body began to ache, clearly sending the feeling of pain into his sea of consciousness, causing him to suffer extreme pain.

The front part of the umbrella rotated at high speed without stopping, just like the corkscrew propellers created by the people of the great western continent for big boats. It dragged him forwards at high speeds. The dark, icy cold lake water constantly rammed against his body, bringing even more pain. Just how long did he have to be dragged for? Where did the Yellow Paper Umbrella want to take him?

Suddenly, he realized the lake water had disappeared, and at the same time, he heard many sounds.

They were the sounds of bursting through the lake water, and the sounds of the bugs within the grass beside the lake. Just why did that clear yet slightly violent cry sound so close to his ear, when it should have been very far away?

Was the dark image in front of his eyes really the bottom of the lake? No, it was the night sky, and it was dark because there were no stars in the Garden of Zhou.

It was a small lake ten or so li away from Sunset Valley.

That night, the small lake had seen the battle of incessant blood and flames on the peak. It had heard the cry of a phoenix, it had been illuminated by wings of fire, and at this moment, it had also heard the cry of a peacock. Just when it had experienced peace, it was destroyed again.

The Yellow Paper Umbrella rotated, and brought Chen Changsheng out of the lake.

Lake water fell off the umbrella and his body, flying in all directions. It created a falling curtain of water.

Chen Changsheng became clear-headed, and understood that he had finally escaped from the cold and scary lake water. He had returned to the world above the lake, however, he just did not know whether he was still in the Garden of Zhou, or the other side of the cold lake.

In the next moment, he discovered that he had arrived in the night sky. The small lake below his feet had become a mirror, and he was several dozen zhang above the ground.

Any person, to go from the depths of the lake to high up in the night sky so suddenly, would feel slightly astonished and absent-minded.

At that moment, the lake water split open once again, and a pair of wings of light transformed into flowing radiance. It chased from below him. The tips of the wings were brought together, forming a sharp spike and heavily striking his body.

A muffled sound.

Chen Changsheng’s blood surged, and he almost spat out some blood. He forcefully swallowed it back down, but that did not mean he was not injured.

After being decisively hit again, he who was already heavily injured was no longer able to last anymore.

Holding onto the Yellow Paper Umbrella, he was just like a kite with a broken string, flying higher into the night sky dispiritedly.

To continue flying to the highest point before falling onto the ground again—would that be the time of death?

Thinking about these matters, he fainted once again. In the final moment before he fainted, he suddenly felt the night sky grow slightly lighter.

That was not the feeling of impending death, but rather the night sky had really been illuminated.

What illuminated the night sky was a pair of flaming wings.

Not the light wings behind the two girls that chased him, but… a pair of flame wings.

The flame wings opened up comfortably in the night sky. They were very large, and gave off warm yet holy flames.

As a result, the girl in the wings seemed somewhat delicate.

The flame wings rushed through the night sky, and just at the moment where Chen Changsheng was about to fall to his death, she grabbed him before continuing to fly towards the far away distance.

The two girls that had chased Chen Changsheng until now felt an extremely strong feeling of dread for some reason. The wings of light rapidly flapped, dodging backwards. Afterwards they thought of the peacock cry they had heard in the lake before, and the dread within their hearts intensified. Without even thinking, they flew hurriedly towards the area where the cry originated from with unbelievable speed which almost seemed to be a method of burning their lives.

Nanke jumped off the cliff, and fell faster and faster just like a rock. The whistling wind blew at her hair, however, it was unable to blow away the indifference in her eyes. Concerning the approaching ground and death, it did not hold any meaning to her, because she could see very clearly that her two female servants had already arrived in front of the Sunset Valley peak, under the cliff, and were waiting.

Without a sound at all, the two females caught Nanke’s petite body, and then immediately transformed into a ball of light. The ball of light then opened up into wings of light, like clouds in the blue sky. The wings of light suddenly changed slightly in color as compared to when they chased after Chen Changsheng. The edges of the wings carried a smear of bewitching green, as if an ethereal body had transformed into a real object.

The green wings on Nanke’s back moved slowly. She gazed at a distance in the night sky with an indifferent expression. After confirming the location of the wings of fire that had already turned into a spot of light, she began fluttering her wings without hesitation, chasing in that direction. The green wings of several zhang in length created two whirlwinds in front of the cliff, and with a terrifying whistle of piercing through the air, she disappeared.

The innate blood talent of humans or demons seemed somewhat similar to the transformations of demi-humans. However, the difference was actually very big. The awakening of innate talent normally had four stages. The initial awakening was the blood itself, and the second awakening was the spirit. In simpler words, after this awakening, the cultivator and her blood would combine into one body, no longer differentiating between the two. This was also truly understanding what they were.

After two days and two nights without rest, being unable to defeat Nanke and the zither-playing old man working together in the end, peacefully walking into the abyss of despair, and before the great dread of death, Xu Yourong successfully completed her second awakening. The phoenix spirit deep within her body also awakened like this. Her blood and her body combined and merged, and through use of spiritual sense, a pair of wings of fire unfurled in the night sky.

However, this did not mean that she suddenly gained the power to burn the whole world. At that moment, she was still heavily injured, and Nanke’s poisonous blood was still constantly wreaking havoc in her body. This caused her vision to become slightly blurry, so she did not fly back to the peak to fight a life and death battle with Nanke again. Instead, she flew into the far away distance in the night sky, as she needed treatment and grooming the most right now.

However, she did not think that after only leaving Sunset Valley for several moments she would actually encounter another battle in the peaceful-looking small lake around ten li away. She knew with a single glance that the two girls who were linked together, that had burst out of the water with wings on light on their backs were Nanke’s two fearsome maids. But who were they chasing?