Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 764 – The Silent Valley

The frost covering the bridge and a portion of the beads of ice had arisen from the cold of Zhizhi’s breath, but another portion came from the distant sound of the zither. This was also an extreme cold, even colder than Zhizhi’s breath. There was actually an existence even colder than the dragon breath of the Black Frost Dragons?

A human like Chen Changsheng would find it very difficult to think of an answer, but to Hai Di, this answer was obvious.

Xuelao City was extremely cold, especially the Demon Palace, which was always cloaked in shadows and over which icy winds howled year-round.

He was so shocked, confused, and fearful because he had recalled that place.

Before coming, he already knew that the situation would continue to change tonight, but when the change really was on the verge of arrival, he still found it somewhat impossible to accept. He had never expected that it was that person who was coming.

……

……

“It looks to me that the demons truly don’t like the Cinnabar Pill. They actually sent someone as important as Hai Di.”

The Tang Seventeenth Master looked down at the ruins of the courtyard in the valley below with an unfathomable smile on his lips.

The Wenshui Tang clan had paid an enormous price to find a few clues and confirm that the Cinnabar Pill originated from Gaoyang Village, after which they found this valley nestled in the snowy peaks.

He did not deliberately leak this incredibly important intelligence, only closed his eyes for a moment, allowing this news to spread to many places.

Important personages from the Imperial Court had come, as had important figures from the Demon race.

The news had spread out from the Mount Song Army headquarters, so the demons had probably learned the news very late, but they had only been delayed for half a night, and they had sent a truly important figure.

From this, one could see just how much importance Xuelao City placed on this mission.

To the demons, the Human race’s possessing such a wondrous medicine was utterly unacceptable.

In battles over the past year, the difference in the number of dead and injured experts on both sides was clearly beginning to favor the humans. A ratio that was one-to-four in the past one thousand years had dropped to one-to-three-point-seven. The change in these numbers did not seem large, but if this trend were to continue? If the number of Cinnabar Pills were to increase? It must be known that this war between the humans and demons had already persisted for one thousand years. Even the smallest change was highly likely to ultimately affect the overall situation.

Thus, the demons had to think of a way to kill the master of the Cinnabar Pill and destroy the recipe.

If this really did occur, the Tang Seventeenth Master would feel somewhat regretful, but he would also be very satisfied, just like now.

As he talked, the sword in his hand remained in the chest of that inn manager from the Mount Song Army headquarters.

The manager painfully gasped, but in the end, he closed his eyes and ceased to breathe.

At this moment, the Tang Seventeenth Master was standing on a steep cliff high up in the snowy mountains. All around him were corpses.

There was still one person left alive.

The once-bishop of the Hall of Illustrious Persons had his head lowered, his face pale and teeth chattering, not even daring to glance at the Tang Seventeenth Master.

These dead people were all trusted subordinates of the Tang Seventeenth Master, all from Wenshui, and all personally killed by the Seventeenth Master just a few moments ago in a very brief span of time.

He was naturally doing away with witnesses.

The Tang Seventeen Master seemed to want to borrow Chen Changsheng’s knife to deal with Zhu Ye’s group, thus opening the way for the Tang clan in Tianliang County. In reality…he wanted to kill Chen Changsheng. Not even the Wenshui Tang clan could bear the burden of killing the Pope, so he could leave behind no evidence. Even his most trusted subordinates had to die. As for Zhu Ye, Ning Shiwei, and the people from the Tianhai clan, even if they developed their own suspicions in the future, they had no evidence to criticize him. And anyway, in order to avoid the fury of the Li Palace, they might even work with him.

“Lord Hai Di probably also didn’t expect for the master of the Cinnabar Pill to be the Pope, yes?”

The current situation would remain unaltered. The demons had originally come to kill the master of the Cinnabar Pill, and if they were to discover that Chen Changsheng was still alive, they would be even less willing to let him leave alive.

When he thought about how the current Pope was about to die before his eyes, the Tang Seventeenth Master couldn’t help but feel somewhat emotional.

He gazed at the lake and courtyard down below, a grin on his face.

Suddenly, the strum of a zither rose up from some place in the darkness, causing the grin on his face to slowly freeze.

……

……

The first place to hear the strum of this zither was not the lake and courtyard, not the high-up cliff, but somewhere else.

This place was ten-some li from the courtyard, and it was located on that abandoned and lonely road between the courtyard and Gaoyang Village.

Zhu Ye, Ning Shiwei, Tianhai Zhanyi, and several hundred experts and soldiers had paused here after retreating from the courtyard, but it was not yet known what they intended to do next.

They had heard that chilling strum from the zither, but they did not care, as all their focus was on the sounds coming from ten-some li away.

Those thunderous booms, the quaking of the earth, the howling of the storms, and the clanging of swords signified the ferocity of the battle currently taking place.

Those experts were all from north of the mountains.

North of the mountains was the domain of the demons.

Those who had come were naturally demon experts.

If they were not mistaken, those demon experts were currently assailing Chen Changsheng and the black-clothed girl from all sides.

Logically speaking, Zhu Ye or Ning Shiwei should have returned as quickly as possible to offer their aid.

On one side was the Pope of the Human race and on the other were experts of the Demon race. Even a three-year-old child would be able to understand this reasoning. It was a matter that didn’t require thought.

But Zhu Ye was quietly gazing at some place in the darkness, Ning Shiwei was indifferently looking up at the snowy peaks, and Tianhai Zhanyi was creasing his brow as if pondering something very complicated.

The mountain path was very quiet. For a very long time, nobody spoke. It was a very bizarre atmosphere.

Suddenly, Zhu Ye’s and Ning Shiwei’s complexions grew even graver.

The sound from the distant courtyard had not stopped.

It was only at this point that they realized that Chen Changsheng had reached such a formidable level on the path of the sword, and as for the black-clothed girl…a legend was truly a legend.

Zhu Ye and Ning Shiwei glanced at each other and saw the fear in each other’s eyes. It now seemed that if they had not conceded and retreated from the lake shore, and instead insisted on trying to force the issue with their strength, they would have undoubtedly failed. All they would have gained was the offense of attempting to assassinate the Pope…

Tianhai Zhanyi’s cultivation level was much lower than these two, so he was unable to sense just how powerful Chen Changsheng and the black-clothed girl were through the distant sounds and fluctuations in Qi.

Thus, even though he knew what the strange silence hanging over the mountain path meant, he still found it somewhat boring.

He thought of the strum of the zither that had vanished as suddenly as it appeared and gazed at the darkness hanging over the mountain path.

The darkness was instantly broken by the sound of a zither, followed by the sound of footsteps.

A straw sandal crushed through the frost covering the mountain path as a person slowly made their way over. The crumbling of ice sounded like the crinkling of fallen leaves in the autumn, the crunching sound they made very pleasant to hear.

The feet within the straw sandals were very delicate, because their owner was a little girl of about twelve or thirteen.

The girl’s face was picturesque, but there was a slight wideness between her eyes, and her pupils were slightly leaning towards the center of her brow, making her expression somewhat dull.

A middle-aged scholar followed behind, his body bereft of any items except a zither that he held to his chest.

Without any movement on his part, the zither strings met and parted, releasing extremely chilling sounds.