Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

The wind was somewhat cold and hurt a little as it jabbed against his face. However, it was only a cold wind, not a mental assault from the old zither-player. Those mountain ghosts and those misty shaman tigers seemed to have avoided the Yellow Paper Umbrella, but how could they ever have really avoided it?

The Yellow Paper Umbrella in Chen Changsheng's hand required countless precious materials used by the Tang Clan in its construction, necessitating the Old Master of the Tang clan to forge it personally. If the holder of this umbrella possessed a high enough cultivation, this umbrella could disperse all spiritual attacks. Even if his current cultivation was not enough, it was sufficient to sever Black Robe's observations from outside the Garden of Zhou, so what did the mental attacks from zither-playing old man amount to? Yet the zither-playing old man taking action was a dangerous signal. It indicated that Nanke had ceased to stubbornly hold onto her pride. The demon experts were highly likely to attack as one,from all sides.

This truthfully made Chen Changsheng very vigilant. Teng Xiaoming and Liu Wan'er, the Demon General couple, had been silently standing down the divine path, just as inconspicuous as their names, but he had never once forgotten them. At the lakeshore on the other side of that cliff, this Demon General couple had exhibited a terrifying strength. In truth, this Demon General couple were already true experts at the upper level of Star Condensation. Besides the Five Saints, the Eight Storms, experts like Su LI, who could easily defeat them? Even after they entered the Garden of Zhou and forcefully suppressed their strength down to the upper level of Ethereal Opening, they still kept their combat experience and awareness. If comparing solely in terms of battle prowess, they would most likely be even stronger than Nanke.

Nanke's sword energy had still not been completely slashed to pieces by his sword intent. Like a cloud of fireflies, the starlight danced on the surface of his umbrella. His gaze looked over the edge of the Yellow Paper Umbrella, over Nanke's shoulder, and landed at the end of the divine path. His expression abruptly turned cold. In the middle of the rainstorm, Liu Wan'er smiled at him, her expression warm and serene. She was like a mother leaning on a door, waiting for her child to come home. But that middle-aged man with the honest expression was no longer by her side. Just where did he go?

Suddenly the space above the divine path exploded with a thunderclap! The cold wind around the mausoleum seemed to freeze at this thunderclap, but the falling rain seemed to grow even more frenzied.

Chen Changsheng lifted his head upwards, but all he saw in the gloomy sky was a black speck.

The black speck fell along with the boundless torrent of rain, falling faster and faster. In a short period of time, it had grown many times larger, gradually appearing to be a mountain before his eyes.

The twenty-fourth Demon General Teng Xiaoming had transformed into a heavy mountain peak, his hands holding an unremarkable carrying pole. With a shrill whistle that pierced through the air, he fell from the sky with the wind and rain, with an unequaled berserk power!

Seeing this scene, Chen Changsheng's face suddenly paled, but his eyes were still as calm as before. Without any fear, the dagger in his right hand pierced through the curtain of rain and came to meet Teng Xiaoming.

The Yellow Paper Umbrella in his left hand was currently occupied with blocking Nanke's two streams of starlight and the zither-playing old man's pouncing shaman tigers, so it could not move. If he wanted to use the umbrella to block Teng Xiaoming's heavy blow, he could only move closer to the umbrella. Yet to do this would leave him with no retreat. He would only be able to passively defend, so he chose to forgo this option and instead chose to attack. In this tense moment, he did not forget to split up the sword intent in the Yellow Paper Umbrella and send some into the dagger.

With a massive boom, the stone platform violently shuddered. The pools of rainwater on the ground were like a pack of frightened ghosts, tearing themselves apart in transformation in an attempt to escape. This rainwater turned into a cloud of mist. In the back of the mist in a corner, Xu Yourong also suffered from the vibrations. Her face instantly turned pale and she could no longer endure her injuries. In extreme pain, she closed her eyes and began to adjust her breathing to resist.

The mist settled. Chen Changsheng stood in the same place, but was somewhat shorter than he used to be. Upon close examination, it was apparent that his two legs had actually buried themselves into the firm gray stone, making it seem like he did not have knees!

The heavy strike of Teng Xiaoming falling from the rain like a mountain had truly been too frightening. Chen Changsheng had relied on the dagger and that split-off strand of sword intent to firmly receive it. Even though his body had been washed in the true blood of the Black Dragon, it still felt like it would shatter. From his brow to his collarbone, down his spine and to his ankles, every bone in his body was wracked with an unbearable pain. His right hand incessantly trembled, just like a sickened old man’s. If he did not know that he would be dead without this dagger, his right hand would have already let go of the hilt.

Teng Xiaoming stood in the rain, expressionless.

His right hand held that carrying pole, but it was really an iron staff, thicker than an average person's arm. It was constructed from an alloy of the Demon Mountain's Secret Iron and two taels of the True Metal of Meteorites. It was incredibly firm. On the battlefield in the snowy plains, who knew how many experts of the Great Zhou army it had smashed to death? Now, this iron staff was covered with several dozen deep sword marks. The upper end of the staff was especially affected, a chunk of it having been shorn off.

The iron staff had only collided with Chen Changsheng's dagger for an instant, but it had suffered so many sword scars. It had to be said that this dagger's sharpness had already reached an unimaginable level. That sword intent was even more powerful, so quick and forceful that it would cause the heart to turn cold. But Teng Xiaoming had no reaction to this. He silently gazed at Chen Changsheng, just like an actual mountain. No matter how fierce the storm, it still did not rock his body in the slightest. He exuded a particularly solemn and serene aura.

This was a true expert. Chen Changsheng naturally thought this as he gazed at this demon man standing in the rain, then he began to think about even more things. Just as Nanke had said before, he could barely express one-thousandth of the true power of this sword intent; how could it be enough to defeat such a powerful opponent? Most importantly, with his current level of strength and cultivation, if he wanted to block and even defeat this iron staff, the combination of this sword intent and dagger was far from enough. He needed a sword that could better display the power of that sword intent.

He needed a heavier sword.

As he was thinking about these things, Teng Xiaoming once again lifted his iron staff. That staff scored with sword scars seemed even more frightening than it was before. The rain falling around the staff suddenly parted. A thunderous sound erupted from above the divine path. The iron staff whistled through the air, the wind and rain making way for it.

At this moment, Nanke's sword energy had finally been completely sliced apart by the sword intent emitted by the Yellow Paper Umbrella and the old zither-player's mental attack had also been blocked. Chen Changsheng could now try to use the Yellow Paper Umbrella to receive that iron pole. His face was still pale, but it was no longer because he was tense. Rather, it was because he was too cold, and also because his heart was uneasy about the last idea that had come up in his mind.

He could use the Yellow Paper Umbrella to receive this iron staff, but he did not want to. This was because he faintly sensed that the sword intent attached to the Yellow Paper Umbrella, although strong without compare, was not the best method to block the iron staff at his level of cultivation. He still felt that he needed a heavier sword.

In reality, this umbrella was his only resort, because he did not have a heavier sword. And yet… he felt that he should have a heavier sword.

Just as Chen Changsheng thought of this, a change occurred at some place in the plains south of the mausoleum.

In this faraway place, the rain was much lighter than the rain around the mausoleum. The surface of the water below the underbrush was lightly beat upon by the drizzle. Suddenly, for some reason, the ground began to sink. The pools of water in the seemingly descending plains suddenly fused together with the rain falling from the sky, transforming into a ball of water. They clumped together, as if there was something extremely heavy in the ground that was sucking in everything around it.

From deep within the dusky sky came a furious cry. This cry came from the great peng. Just what was about to emerge that could provoke its fury so, such that one could even hear its wariness and unease?

The heavy iron staff split the wind and rain on the divine path and came to the front door of the mausoleum. It was only a bit more than ten zhang away from Chen Changsheng, yet he did not lift the Yellow Paper Umbrella. With a clear cry, he had even returned the dagger to its sheath.

He did not know why he was doing this. Why did he need to sheath his dagger?

Just at this moment, a massive rumbling came from outside the mausoleum, like true thunder had reached the ground. Compared to this thunder, the thundering of the iron staff seemed like firecrackers lit by a small child for the new year.

A pitch-black object burst through the rain and arrived in front of Chen Changsheng, then sat in front of him, unmoving.

It was a sword, black and cast from some unknown metal. There was no design on the blade, and it was not very smooth. It seemed especially rough and coarse, even like it did not have an edge. It was just like a sword that had not been completely cast. In short, this metal sword did not have a single special characteristic and emitted no Qi that would cause someone to raise their eyebrows. It was just very broad and very long, very thick and very black, so it seemed… very heavy.

Chen Changsheng had wanted a heavier sword.

Thus a heavy sword had appeared before him, calmly floating in the rain.

The metal sword's hilt was inclined downwards. He only needed to stretch out his hand and he would be able to very easily grasp it. The metal sword's posture was extremely comfortable, so comfortable that without a thought, he had lifted up his hand.

His right hand passed through several seemingly unmoving curtains of rain and grasped the hilt.

The hilt of this metal sword was very rough, very thick, and very crude. When it seemed like his hands had completely gripped the hilt, he clearly felt a sense of weight. At this moment, he also realized something else. That sword intent attached to the Yellow Paper Umbrella did not heed the commands of his spiritual sense and use his body to enter that metal sword. Because the metal sword originally had its own sword intent, the sword intent in the Yellow Paper Umbrella felt it unworthy or did not want to compete with that powerful sword intent. With Chen Changsheng's current strength and cultivation of the sword, he could not accurately perceive the strength of that metal sword's sword intent, but he could clearly sense that the sword intent was just like that metal sword, incomparably heavy.

He drew back his hand, taking the metal sword out of the rain.

In order to remove this metal sword from the rain, he required an incredible amount of strength. Simultaneously, this weighty sword gifted him with an incredible strength. He brandished the metal sword and chopped down at the iron staff that was flying through the rain.

The metal sword met with the iron staff in the midst of the downpour.

There was an extremely brief moment of silence, then a continuous explosion of thunderclaps. The rain was shattered into pieces, transforming into myriad water arrows, and shooting out in a sphere at every direction. The wall of the mausoleum became filled with countless deep caves and was riddled with holes. A clear light emerged from the Tong Bow behind Xu Yourong. It protected her, but it could not protect Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng's clothes were riddled with tiny holes, just like a leaf that had been snacked on by a worm. The clothes floated in the rain and his face was deathly pale, but his two legs were still on the firm stone. The surrounding stone was covered with a spider web of cracks, and he seemed somewhat miserable.

However, he did not retreat a single step.

The powerful Demon General had retreated. He had been directly pushed a bit more than a hundred zhang away and heavily fell amidst the rain. He incessantly spat out blood and the iron staff in his hands had been bent to a ridiculous extent.

The rain continued to fall like thunder, but upon the divine path, there was a deathly stillness.