Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 777 – Astral Executioner

From the battlefield to the Mount Song Army headquarters to the snowy mountain range, no one had ever seen the young array master on the stretcher open his eyes.

In everyone’s view, he was already on his last gasps, as his heavy wounds were incurable.

At this moment, his eyes had opened.

On the most shallow level, his eyes contained a bright and clean innocence, but if one looked a little deeper, one would see a cruelty full of savage Qi.

Innocence and cruelty were complete opposites, yet they were often two emotions born together. When combined, they formed an extremely complex and profound emotion.

At this time, Nanke and Chen Changsheng were high up in the cold sky.

Chen Changsheng was preparing to use his last three moves to end all the Demon Lord’s hopes.

The Demon Lord was preparing to use his most tyrannical move to end all of Chen Changsheng’s hopes.

No one noticed the young array master open his eyes; no one noticed his hand resting on his chest.

A few days ago, he been quite heavily injured in the great battle on the snowy plains, and the wound he had suffered was there.

The young array master’s hand left his chest, his hand carrying away some fluid, but also holding something else.

It was a pestle-like object made of stone, its surface particularly mottled, perhaps because it was stained in blood or for some other reason.

The young array master gripped the stone pestle and thrust it towards the Demon Lord’s abdomen.

He lay on the stretcher, so he could only strike from below. In terms of both angle and intentions, he seemed abnormally sinister and vicious.

But he acted like he was carrying out a divine task, even appearing rather pious.

His actions were not slow and were rather casual, yet they also seemed to be carried out with great prudence and focus.

This entire process occurred noiselessly, not even stirring the smallest breeze.

Not even the Demon Lord sensed it, but he was not someone that could be so easily assassinated.

He did not sense that sinister stone pestle, but the stone seal in the night responded.

The stone seal was a Heavenly Tome Monolith that he had brought out of the Garden of Zhou and that had accompanied him in his travels through the world for several centuries. He had long since perceived its truths and become one with it.

If anyone attempted to menace the Demon Lord’s life, the stone seal would automatically act to defend and counterattack.

For the past several centuries, countless experts from both the Human race and the Council of Elders in Xuelao City had attempted to assassinate the Demon Lord, and all of them had failed, amongst their number the miserable defeat of Hai Di in the battle just now. Their failures were all because of this stone seal.

The stone seal ignored the stone pearls and vanished from the darkness.

In the next moment, it appeared in front of the Demon Lord’s abdomen to meet the stone pestle.

Logically speaking, regardless of what the stone pestle was actually made of, it could not be any stronger than a Heavenly Tome Monolith. It seemed like it would soon be battered into fine powder.

However, something utterly inconceivable occurred.

The stone seal paused in the wind, ceasing its attempts to destroy the stone pestle.

It was like it had recognized this pestle from many thousands of years ago and had even yielded the path.

Without the restraint of the stone seal, the remaining Heavenly Tome Monoliths howled as they flew into the darkness, the star chart instantly broken.

The Demon Lord finally sensed danger, but it was already too late.

He lowered his head and saw that a stone pestle had been deeply thrust into his abdomen.

The other end of the stone pestle was grasped in the hand of the young array master.

The Demon Lord could clearly sense the chill from the stone pestle.

Of course, what made him feel even colder was the face of the young array master and the subtle ripples of Qi exuded by the stone pestle.

Countless feeble yet inextinguishable ripples of Qi floated into the night sky as if wanting to tell the entire world of his location.

Whether it was this world or another, it told all worlds.

Just what was this enigmatic stone pestle?

The Daoist Canon of the Human race contained no records of it, and no information could be found about it in White Emperor City. Only the master of the Demon Palace in Xuelao City could possibly know of its origins.

Because this stone pestle and the story attached to it was a forbidden secret of the Demon race.

The Demon Lord naturally knew what it was.

It was a divine artifact that had never before appeared in this world.

The Astral Executioner.

……

……

A furious roar ripped through the night.

Green wings tore through the darkness, and Nanke transformed into a stream of light as she lunged toward the ground, tossing Chen Changsheng to the side.

Just before her wrathful Qi could approach, the young array master floated up from the stretcher and noiselessly drifted several dozen zhang away.

He was just like the drifting dust over the ground, traveling randomly, with extremely strange movements. Of course, this also exposed his extremely profound cultivation.

In normal times, Nanke would have been willing to pay any price to use this chance to kill him, but now was not the time.

She rushed over to the Demon Lord, but before she could get close, she was sent into the distance by a wave of the Demon Lord’s sleeve.

Chen Changsheng also fell on the ground, not far from the Demon Lord.

With just a stretch of his hand, the Demon Lord would be able to kill or seize Chen Changsheng, and then drink his blood and feed on his flesh. Just like that, he would be reborn and regain his freedom.

But the Demon Lord did not do this, or even glance at Chen Changsheng.

His thousand years of old injuries and his thousand years of desires could all be fulfilled from Chen Changsheng’s body, but he suddenly seemed to not care.

The Demon Lord lowered his head to his own body, to the stone pestle embedded in his abdomen. He pulled it out and threw it to the ground.

The mottled spots on the stone pestle had already been completely eroded away by the golden blood, leaving only its crude surface.

But there were still a few objects remaining on his abdomen. They gave off a dark blue glow, looking just like stars.

This dark blue light sent faint ripples of Qi towards the starry sky.

The Demon Lord’s belt dragged out image after image in the darkness. The stone seal flew through the air, howling as it landed and then went still.

Nobody knew that in this brief moment, he had traveled one thousand li and back.

No matter where he went, he could not escape that dark blue light.

The weak Qi was not affected in the slightest, continuing to clearly send his position towards the starry sky.

As expected, what could not be escaped was fate.

The Demon Lord turned to the starry sky above him, revealing an incredibly complex expression.

It was disdain, anger, and unwillingness, but all this ultimately transformed into a strand of sorrow.

Fate was the starry sky.

If the starry sky itself wanted to kill someone, how could they possibly avoid it?

……

……

Chen Changsheng’s gaze also fell on the starry sky.

His spiritual sense drifted upward, surpassing the concept of time and crossing the endlessly long river of stars, reaching that extremely distant red star.

His Fated Star was continuously providing him warmth and strength, confidence and courage.

This place was incredibly far from the ground, seemingly at the other shore of the river of stars. It was extremely spacious here, with only a few stars around.

He looked even further, to that even deeper place, and suddenly felt fear.

Over there was infinite darkness, and it also seemed to contain countless twinkling stars, an enigmatic unknown that inspired fear.

Suddenly, a beam of bright light emerged from those distant and seemingly unreal stars, shooting straight towards his Fated Star!

Sweat instantly soaked Chen Changsheng’s clothes and was quickly frozen into ice by his fear.

Just what was this beam of light? Where had it come from and where was it going?

Fortunately, the beam of light did not strike his Fated Star, merely brushed past.

Afterwards, the beam of light crossed the river of stars and shot towards this world.

Chen Changsheng’s body became as stiff as board. He could not move a muscle or even make a noise.

The Demon Lord raised his head towards the starry sky, his expression indifferent, his thoughts inscrutable.

From the distance came Nanke’s enraged roar.

A light broke through the night sky and fell amongst the mountains.

It fell on the Demon Lord’s body.