Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 1134 – Luoyang

Liang Wangsun would not participate in the war, at least at its start, but he had to make his stance known. Thus, he had left behind a sentence and a name.

That name represented half the fortune of the Liang Estate and the Star Condensation expert that was Liang Hongzhuang.

Through Mo Yu, Liang Wangsun had already received a military assignment from the Ministry of the Army. Liang Hongzhuang would be going to Blue Pass. He would indubitably become a general and he would also be left in a safer place on the battlefield. But generals had to experience hundreds of battles, and this war was bound to last for a long time. Who could guarantee that he would return alive?

Moreover, Liang Hongzhuang knew his own personality, and he was sure that once he went, it would be very difficult for him to come back alive.

This was what was meant by meeting death, but before that, he still had some unfulfilled desires. For example, certain people were still alive.

In these last few years, he had formed an excellent relationship with the governor and archbishop of Xunyang City.

Although he had always had a rather so-so relationship with Liang Wangsun, he was still a member of the Liang Estate, so the prestigious figures of Xunyang City had to give him some face.

All of it had been for this day.

Liang Hongzhuang had originally planned to kill all these people tonight.

He knew what these people liked and he had prepared it all: the tallow candles, painted walls, red lanterns, and the food.

And he had even used a large sum of money to hide several assassins who had once belonged to the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets in the darkness.

Xu Yourong had sensed a flash of killing intent when glancing at the lanterns, causing her to crease her brows.

In the end, Liang Hongzhuang changed his mind. Even after a long time, no one knew why, and they would never be able to know.

On a future summer day, a battle to break out of an encirclement would take place on the plains, and he… he would die beneath a sky covered in stars.

……

……

Sitting by a table, Chen Changsheng looked at his face in the mirror. As he thought about the story that Liang Hongzhuang had not finished telling, he sighed.

A rustling came from behind him. He turned around and saw a graceful figure behind the cotton curtain, the flower designs on her underclothes faintly visible.

He hurriedly walked over and tidied up the blankets on the floor so that they wouldn’t get in the way.

Xu Yourong got out of bed. After rinsing her mouth and washing her face, she walked over to the window, still in her unbuttoned underclothes, and used both hands to push open the window.

The morning wind blew in through the window, falling on her face and ruffling her moist black hair.

The spring sunlight came with it.

Spring filled the room.

Chen Changsheng was naturally reminded of that sight from many years ago.

It was precisely in this inn, on an equally bright and beautiful spring day.

He shouted out to all of Xunyang City that Mount Li’s Junior Martial Uncle, Su Li, was right here.

A storm suddenly arrived and he was forced into battle after bloody battle.

There was no need for him to shout this today, and being with Xu Yourong was naturally much more pleasant than being with Su Li.

The most important difference was that humanity had been fractured at the time. There were the new and conservative factions of the Orthodoxy, the Tianhai Divine Empress and the Chen Imperial clan, and of course, the greatest one of all, the split between the north and south. Even someone as merciful as the Pope wanted nothing more than to kill Su Li, so how could anyone else resist?

Things were completely different now.

Luoyang had returned the Red Cloud Qilin to Cong Province of its own accord, so Xue He kept his silence.

The Liang Estate had moved out, but they had left behind half their fortune. Liang Hongzhuang had ultimately decided not to kill anyone, and went straight to Blue Pass.

The grudges still remained, as did the rifts, but they no longer mattered for much.

Now, the Human race had reached an unprecedented level of unification.

Everyone knew that the Great Zhou Dynasty was about to commence a northern expedition. After several hundred years, the Human race was about to attack the Demon race once more. The goal this time was clear: to complete the grand undertaking that Emperor Taizong’s generation could not complete. They would assail Xuelao City and then utterly defeat and subdue the demons.

Before this sort of war, nothing else was important—not the private grudges from a thousand years ago or a conflict of ideals.

All so that the Human race could persist for ages to come.

Xu Yourong did not turn her head. She squinted her eyes as she gazed at the spring radiance over Xunyang City. She was like a rabbit that had just woken up.

“You spent so long in White Emperor City. How did the negotiations go?”

Last year at the winter solstice, the Orthodoxy’s diplomatic mission left the capital to travel to the land of the demi-humans, tens of thousands of li away. The Pope traveled with it.

It was only the day before yesterday, late in the spring season, that Chen Changsheng flew back on the White Crane for Xiao Zhang’s imminent return.

He had been away for a hundred-some days.

Chen Changsheng said, “Although it’s said that everything has a precedent, it’s still been several centuries. It’s not hard to have the White Emperor agree to send allied forces, but the details are very troublesome.”

Xu Yourong replied, “It seems like it’s even more difficult than fishing in the Red River.”

Her face was blank of emotion when she said this.

But anyone could tell what emotion she wanted to express.

Chen Changsheng was stupefied at her words. He vaguely understood why she had been so cold and indifferent since the day before yesterday, but he momentarily found himself unable to explain.

He abruptly recalled Tang Thirty-Six’s lessons. His expression shifting, he shouted, “Look, there’s a kite up there.”

Xu Yourong arched her brows and looked up at the sky. She was greeted by a clear blue sky and nothing more.

Chen Changsheng quickly stepped forward and hugged her from behind, his arms just managing to completely embrace her.

“I won’t let go.

“The entire continent is so united, so how can we break apart?

“The confluence of the north and south and the unification of the church and court completely rely on us.

“Just follow me.

“Or maybe I’ll follow you.”

Her brows raised, Xu Yourong said nothing.

How was it that emotions of hate and resentment seemed so endlessly bashful beneath the dazzling spring radiance?

……

……

Morning rays and drizzling rain fell once more on the old earth, causing people to scatter in search of shelter.

Ten-some li away from the capital, visible in the distance, the party broke up. One went up the Luo River to the capital while the other headed for some place farther.

Farther from the capital was no other place in the continent but Luoyang.

Many years ago, on his journey from Xining Village to the capital, Chen Changsheng had passed by Luoyang, but he had not entered the city.

It was very difficult to live in Luoyang. The inns there were widely acknowledged as being very expensive.

This was Chen Changsheng’s first time entering Luoyang, and also his first time entering the Monastery of Eternal Spring.

This was the first meeting in ten years with his master Shang Xingzhou.

After the battle in the Orthodox Academy, Shang Xingzhou had retreated to Luoyang. It had been ten years since he had left the grounds of the Monastery of Eternal Spring.

The past was the past, but it could not be treated like the wind. The Human race was united like it never was before, but the rifts were still there, spanning between certain people and certain matters.

The deepest and most important rift was naturally the one between Chen Changsheng and Shang Xingzhou.

Shang Xingzhou had not cared about government affairs for many years, but he was still alive, which meant that he represented a faction, a belief.

The Daoists of the Monastery of Eternal Spring did not attempt to interfere. They calmly relayed Chen Changsheng’s request for a meeting.

Even though the master of their monastery had been killed by Liu Qing, who had been invited by Chen Changsheng, they still remained courteous to Chen Changsheng, expressing no resentment.

This lack of emotion, or perhaps lack of subjective awareness, was truly frightening.

It was probably only Daoists like these that could force Xiao Zhang into the snowy plains, right?

As Chen Changsheng silently thought, he received a response from within the monastery.

A young Daoist boy of six or seven years old ran out from the Monastery of Eternal Spring. Panting, he said, “The ancestor has said that he’s not seeing guests today!”

Chen Changsheng pinched the blushing red cheeks of the young Daoist’s snow-white face and smiled. “Tell the ancestor that it’s about White Emperor City.”

No one else came to stop him, so it seemed like Shang Xingzhou truly was very interested in what he had to say.

Fields were laid out all over the Monastery of Eternal Spring.

It was not rice being grown in the fields, and the pine trees planted along the ditches were quite nice to look at, but that didn’t mean that these fields were meant for cultivating scenery.

A faint odor shrouded these fields. The several dozen temples in the monastery were raising medicinal herbs.

Led by the young Daoist boy, Chen Changsheng was brought to an herb field. He took up a hoe lying by a ditch and began to weed and prune.