Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 845 – Seven Peddlers and Six Government Laborers

Chusu’s pupils constricted into the size of green beans, with endless vigilance and fury pouring out of them.

Someone had discovered him.

He didn’t know who this person was or how they had managed to confirm his location in such a massive estate, but as a successor to the Yellow Spring Flow, he was extremely sensitive to danger, even surpassing Zhexiu and Nanke in this aspect. He could clearly sense those foreboding omens.

No thought was needed. Like a beast, he acted out of pure instinct, using his earth-traveling technique to depart.

A thump rose from the artificial hill. The moss-covered rocks ruptured and parted.

Chusu had failed to leave. He was still standing at his original position, his head and body covered in bits of stone and earth, a puzzled expression on his face.

What was going on here?

……

……

The moment those two-fortune tellers confirmed Chusu’s position, the attack had begun.

The seven peddlers all had a string of cash around their wrists.

The strings suddenly snapped. Carrying bits of snow, they fell on the model, striking those tiny towers and buildings that seemed real, just hundreds of times smaller.

At the same, the streamer in the remaining fortune-teller’s hand suddenly went straight.

The wind suddenly began to howl, causing the large streamer to fully extend and fly.

It was like a great banner.

The Wenshui suddenly began to froth, even the water grass at the bottommost depths beginning to dance while countless fish fled in all directions.

A shaking emerged from the ground and quickly reached the surface, both shores of the Wenshui beginning to fiercely quake.

Miraculously, the buildings of the estate on the surface were not harmed in the least.

.……

……

.……

……

The estate was filled with alarmed cries.

Those people who had earlier been cursing were now running around with heads in hands.

The Tang Second Master stood in front of the scorched earth that was once the Tong Cottage, imagining the beautiful sights once contained within, still not moving in the slightest.

He knew that this shaking meant that the array had activated.

He then turned his head to someplace and muttered to himself, “Even Fivekind has come. Father, just what are you thinking?”

He did not seem concerned about Chusu’s life, or even if Chusu might be caught. Why?

……

……

The complicated array that had been left by the Tang clan on the shores of the Wenshui and lain silent for so many years activated. Stream after stream of ancient Qi rose up from the ground and formed layer after layer over the estate.

When he discovered that he could not escape through the ground, Chusu reacted with incredible speed. Transforming into a gray blur, he attempted to get as far from the estate as possible.

He had already pushed his speed to its maximum. Even if Nanke were here, she would only be able to keep up with him, but not overtake him. But it was still impossible for him to exceed the speed at which the great array spread. By the time he had reached the perimeter of the estate several li away, light was already rising to the sky, forming a perfect semicircle with no gaps.

Without even thinking, Chusu rammed into the wall of light, wanting to use his tenacious body and lightning speed to push his way through.

With a buzz, a greenish-yellow smoke erupted from his body.

Chusu yowled in pain. Retreating, he lowered his head to glance over his body. Every part of his body that had touched the array’s light was now showing a deep wound with thick liquid flowing out. As it dripped onto the flagstones, it hissed, quickly corroding several small holes into the ground.

He raised his head to the wall of light before him. Knowing that it would be very difficult to charge through, he couldn’t help but angrily howl.

Since it was difficult to charge through the array, how could he break it? Naturally, it would be the person controlling the array.

A sudden gust of wind scattered the greenish-yellow smoke, dispersing it into the surroundings and significantly diluting it.

But those flowers that were still blooming in midwinter wilted upon meeting it, instantly poisoned to death.

Chusu had vanished.

After a few moments, he had arrived on the other side of the estate.

The side adjacent to the Wenshui.

He saw the peddlers and fortune-tellers on the opposite shore, and a hint of astonishment flashed through his cold and evil eyes.

Those people clearly had very ordinary Qis, so how could they control such a terrifying array, destroying his concealment technique and trapping him in this place?

In this tense moment, he had no more time to ponder these problems. He could only think about how to cross the Wenshui and kill those people.

The array enveloped both shores of the Wenshui while that sealing wall of light was several li away on the other side of the estate.

Logically speaking, he should have been able to easily cross the river and assault those people controlling the array.

But he could clearly see, and even more clearly sense, that the bright pivot of the array, where it was strongest, just so happened to be over the Wenshui.

As the successor of the Yellow Springs Flow, the evil made flesh left over from the Corpse-Beheading of the previous Sect Master of the Longevity Sect, his entire body was poison, his soul foul. If he wanted to cross the river, he had to touch that bright array pivot.

At that time, he would have to confront the full-power attack of the array.

No matter how arrogant and cold-blooded he was, he did not dare to match his body up against the Tang clan’s great array.

He had to think of another way.

If he were from some other sect, an individual so innately foul and vile as him would have found it impossible to hide from the bright pivot of the array.

But after he was born, he cultivated in the most traditional and most ancient divine techniques of the Daoist faith, and he just so happened to have this ability.

An ambiguous stream of words, bearing some faint resemblance to a Daoist verse, slowly issued from his lips.

He sat cross-legged in a lotus position, taking on a dignified visage.

His hands, covered in black fur and scales, showed their palms to the stormy skies.

An indescribably divine Qi gradually seeped out from his deformed body, completely shrouding it.

It was like a blazing stream of lava wrapping around a cold, black stone.

Anyone would only see the bright, red surface, glowing with heat. No one would be able to see what lay beneath it.

Chusu vanished into the infinite light over the Wenshui.

Like a snowflake dropping into a plain of snow, a drop of water flowing into the ocean.

The Wenshui basked in endless rays of light. Even though the wind and snow outside were weeping and wailing, the Wenshui seemed to be bathed in the gorgeous warmth of dusk.

But Chusu’s disappearance had caused some sort of vague transformation to this scene.

It was a very strange sensation, like a ghost disappearing into the abyss, never to be found again.

Even more frightening was that if Chusu was using these rays of light to conceal his approach as he silently neared the opposite shore, how could those peddlers and fortune-tellers escape his sneak attack?

For some reason, although those peddlers and fortune-tellers clearly saw that bead of blood on the model vanish the same moment Chusu vanished into the light, and knew that he was probably approaching them, they remained indifferent, dull, and completely unconcerned.

Perhaps because one kind of people amongst them were also like ghosts.

If a ghost entered the abyss, they would be incredibly difficult to find, but what if a ghost was the one searching for them?

There were no real ghosts in this world, but to many people, the government office was the Netherworld, and the government laborers were ghosts responsible for snatching away lives.

Six government laborers appeared on the shore, spaced ten-some zhang from each other.

Chains were wrapped around their bodies while their left hands gripped cudgels.

Both the chains and cudgels were very old and had probably been in use for many years. Their surfaces were covered in rust and stank of blood. They seemed both murderous and incredibly sinister.

Though the endless rays of light shone upon their bodies, the sinister Qi on the bodies of the government laborers was impossible to disperse.