Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

The starlight that covered the Mausoleum of Books, shining in sync with the starlight that rushed into his Ethereal Palace. The starlight was like snow, blanketing both Chen Changsheng and the broken monolith. His spiritual sense was carried along with the wind and snow, being taken off to some place unknown. The starlight also fell on other places, such as the Reflecting Monolith. The lines on the monolith became increasingly brighter and they would occasionally sparkle. It was just like as if mercury was flowing through those lines.

Although he could not see the Reflecting Monolith, he could see the inscriptions on it. He was insensible to the world, but his true essence flowed like the mercury-like starlight that flowed through the monolith inscriptions. The true essence began to flow through his meridians, allowing those once parched rivers and streams to flourish with life once more. Ultimately, those clear waters poured off the steep cliffs into the abyss below. It seemed identical to what had happened in the past, but now, there seemed to be a faint glimmer of hope.

Even if the abyss was even deeper, as long as the water flowed without end, presumably, there would be a day in which it was filled, right?

The starlight also fell upon the second Heavenly Tome Monolith. The lines on the monolith seemed to fluctuate between bright and dim, like the spiritual sense was floating in the void, its position was unfathomable. Chen Changsheng’s spiritual sense shifted, moving off to some distant riverbank, then suddenly arrived in front of the River Guiding Monolith. In the midst of his sojourn, an indescribable rule had been branded onto his soul.

The starlight fell on each of the seventeen Heavenly Tome Monoliths of the front mausoleum. Like falling snow and like drifting leaves, the countless methods for comprehending the monoliths thought by his worthy predecessors appeared in his sea of consciousness, one after the other, and in his body, they began to display their purposes. His meridians became saturated with true essence like never before, his spiritual sense was nourished like never before, and his qi constantly increased in power.

Time slowly passed. He sat in front ot the broken monolith with eyes closed, waiting for that moment to come.

The starlight continued to illuminate the capital, and the Dew Platform continued to blaze, except the light it gave off were cold like flames made of ice.

The Divine Empress stood in the middle of the indescribably beautiful flames of ice, looking at the Mausoleum of Books in silence. That monolith had vanished from the Mausoleum of Books long ago, so how did Chen Changsheng complete the starry sky?

The Mausoleum of Books was enveloped in that snow-like starlight. There was silence all around the monolith hut. As Gou Hanshi, Zhuang Huanyu, Tang Thirty-Six, and the other young monolith viewers saw the mercury-like starlight flow through the lines on that monolith, they each had their own expression. Although they could never know for sure what had happened here tonight, they knew that it definitely had something to do with Chen Changsheng.

Gou Hanshi suddenly lifted his head to look at the star-filled region in the southeast part of the sky, then he began walking towards the monolith hut. Zhexiu followed him. Then Tang Thirty-Six, Qi Jian, and the rest followed without hesitation. They all entered the hut, then they disappeared, going towards their respective monoliths.

They did not know why tonight, the Mausoleum of Books was illuminated to be as bright as day. However, they knew that many years ago, when Wang Zhice had broken through, the capital had experienced a similar strange phenomena.

They could clearly sense that the starlight tonight was much richer than on normal days. Even their own Fated Stars were much brighter than usual, like they were waiting for them. To cultivators, how could they pass on such an opportunity? Especially since after twenty odd days, the vast majority of them were on the verge of breaking through. They had to take advantage of every chance and opportunity.

Not long after Gou Hanshi and the others had entered the monolith hut and disappeared from the Reflecting Monolith, a clear and long cry suddenly arose from within the mountain mausoleum.

This clear cry came from the East Pavilion Monolith.

The Divine State’s Third Law, Liang Xiaoxiao, stood in front of the monolith hut, his expression has an icy arrogance as ever, only his trembling right hand betrayed his excitement. After he had broken through all those months ago, his cultivation had become stuck in a rut. Even his viewing of the monoliths had ceased to progress. Yet tonight, borrowing this starlight, he had broken through to the middle level of Ethereal Opening in one stroke.

In front of another monolith hut.

Tang Thirty-Six took the medicine box that Chen Changsheng had given him several days ago out of his bosom. He took some pills from the box and he offered them to Zhexiu. Then, he swallowed down the rest of the pills and closed his eyes.

Zhexiu shot him a glance, and then in the same way, he swallowed the pills.

Glancing at Guan Feibai and Liang Banhu, Gou Hanshi distributed the medicines prepared by the Mount Li Sword Sect, then without any further delay, he moved on to the next monolith hut. Only after he delivered the rest of the pills to Qi Jian would he slowly take his leave.

This was the third Heavenly Tome Monolith, Bent Osmanthus Monolith.

It was spring, so there were no osmanthus flowers blooming on the mountain. There were no golden petals, nor was there any of that sweet cloying fragrance of osmanthus flowers most detested by Tang Thirty-Six.

And yet for some reason, around the Bent Osmanthus Monolith, an intense fragrance suddenly appeared.

Perhaps it was because all those shockingly talented youth were using their true essence to digest the pills, thus releasing this fragrance.

Pop, pop, pop, pop.

A fine, yet extremely disturbing breaking sound arose from Zhexiu’s body.

It seemed like the sound of all of his bones being broken.

Soon after, the sound of boiling water arose from his body.

Following this, more and more sounds of boiling water began to arise from all around the monolith. The cross-legged youths, eyes shut, slowly began to be wrapped in a white mist as they broke though.

The boiling was the sound of the radiance of the stars igniting into true essence, the sound of the gate of the Ethereal Palace in the Spirit Mountain slowly being pushed open.

After an unknown amount of time, Tang Thirty-Six opened his eyes.

The joking expression that was usually seen in his eyes long ago had disappeared, it was replaced with solemnity, peace and an incomparable serenity.

In the deepest depths of his black pupils, there still seemed to be the afterglow from the radiance of the stars.

This was proof that his Ethereal Palace had been opened.

Tang Thirty-Six had entered Ethereal Opening.

Guan Feibai opened his eyes next. He spat out a mouthful of impure Qi, and a hot vapor rising from the corner of his lips.

Liang Banhu opened his eyes, then he looked around with a look of naïve joy. He seemed extremely peaceful and happy.

The two disciple from Mount Li Sword Sect had entered Ethereal Opening.

Next, Su Moyu had entered Ethereal Opening.

The senior sister from Holy Maiden Peak entered Ethereal Opening.

The students from Star Seizer Academy entered Ethereal Opening.

The two scholars from Scholartree Manor entered Ethereal Opening.

Around the Bent Osmanthus Monolith, people successively entered Ethereal Opening.

In front of the River Guiding Monolith, Qi Jian entered Ethereal Opening.

In the front mausoleum, every person had entered Ethereal Opening.

Like snow, the starlight fell over the Mausoleum of Books.

When some people broke into Ethereal Opening, the qi around the monolith hut became disturbed. This caused the starlight snow falling down to bend and scatter, like flowers blooming. It was particularly beautiful.

Tang Thirty-Six stood in front of the Bent Osmanthus Monolith, lightly rubbing his fingers and taking in that sweet and cloying fragrance. Suddenly, he realized that the osmanthus flowers were not so unbearable after all.

The starlight fell on his body, then like water, it sputtered apart and scattered back into the night sky.

Not too far off, where Liang Banhu and Guan Feibai stood, starlight was also sputtering apart and then scattering back into the night sky.

Outside the Bent Osmanthus Monolith, ten odd rays of starlight sputtered into the night, there were figures of people standing in them.

An identical scene was occurring in many places in the front mausoleum.

The luxuriant forests of the Mausoleum of Books, even when enveloped in starlight, were still somewhat gloomy.

Suddenly, from the mountain rose dozens of strands of sputtering starlight, blooming into silver flowers. A more beautiful sight could not be imagined.

Tang Thirty-Six looked at Zhexiu.

Under the snow white starlight, Zhexiu’s face was all the paler. An incidental flush of red was a sign of the Tide Rush of Blood.

His true essence had been brought under control by Chen Changsheng’s copper needles. Before when he had taken those pills, it was exceptionally dangerous.

This was also the principal reason why compared to the other monolith viewers, he had not yet been able to enter Ethereal Opening.

The other was naturally his demi-human blood.

Suddenly, the only sound that could be heard around the monolith hut was that of a mournful wind.

On the roof of the hut appeared many deep knife cuts.

Extremely sharp claws extended from Zhexiu’s fingers, suffused with a metallic luster.

His face grew many gray hairs and his eyes turn red. He gave a bloodthirsty feeling.

Suddenly, a powerful qi emanated from his body.

He lifted his head and howled into the night.

Arooooo!

This howl was filled with unwillingness and anger, it was also filled with contempt and pride.

This howl was directed to the vast sky of stars, but it was even more directed to that luminous ball at the extreme ends of the north. It said: I have won.

Within the Mausoleum of Books, the starlight fell upon the bodies of those youth breaking into Ethereal Opening, then it sputtered back up into the night air. It was just like a display of fireworks, truly beautiful.

If one looked at it from outside the mausoleum, one would think the entire Mausoleum of Books was releasing fireworks.

While the scene was beautiful, it was also incredibly shocking.

In the Mausoleum of Books, in front of the Divine Path, sat a pavilion.

All around this pavilion were shallow canals. Within those canals flowed clear water.

Tonight, the clear waters of the canal had been covered with a thin layer of frost and then it was illuminated by the countless fireworks rising from the mausoleum.

Under the pavilion, that dust-covered suit of armor was also illuminated by those fireworks.

The rust-covered helmet flashed with light.

The man in the armor had woken up.

An extremely transformative voice flowed out of the helmet, his tone somewhat oppressive.

“As expected, the season of blossoming flowers has finally come.”

As the continent’s number one Divine General, this old man had left the frontlines of the war with the demons and guarded the Mausoleum for several hundred years. What he guarded was humanity’s future. As he saw tonight’s display of fireworks over the Mausoleum of Books, he was naturally gratified. In his heart, he silently thanked two people. One these people was called Xun Mei. The other was called Chen Changsheng.

Those powerful figures outside the mausoleum had come to see Chen Changsheng. They had simply not imagined that they would able to see such a shocking spectacle.

In one night, dozens of monolith viewers collectively entered into Ethereal Opening.

In all of humanity’s history, this sort of scene had never been seen before.

The gardens outside the mausoleum were silent, punctuated by the occasional deep sigh.

The fireworks gradually died down, the radiance of the stars dimmed, and the Mausoleum of Books returned to normal.

The powerful figures of the Orthodoxy, the Imperial Court, and the various sects and academies made an exception and they entered the Mausoleum of Books to wait at the foot of the mountain.

Tonight, the young cultivators that had broken through were too many. Some had entered Ethereal Opening, others had entered the middle level of Ethereal Opening, and there were still others that succeeded in entering Star Condensation! To humanity, this was undoubtedly a fruitful night. It was absolutely necessary that they handle the following matters personally. Not a single problem could be allowed to arise.

Chen Changsheng woke up and realized that he was sitting cross-legged in front of the broken monolith. He took a look at the color of the sky and he confirmed that it was five in the morning.

It was the time right before dawn.

He stood up and walked through the meadow to the edge of the cliff.

The waterfall under the cliff still made its soul-shaking sounds.

He did not sweat, he did not feel exhausted nor did he ache anywhere. It was like nothing had happened.

However, he knew that many things had already happened.

It was darkest before dawn. The starlight was insufficient to illuminate the distant capital.

Yet in his eyes, his view of the capital was crystal clear. It was like every street and alley, even the great banyan tree in the courtyard of the Orthodox Academy, was right in front of his eyes.

The dawn light gradually drew closer. Line by line, the stars in the sky gradually vanished.

But he knew that those stars all still hung up above his head.

He could clearly sense his Fated Star.

This was the first time that he was able to sense his Fated Star in the daytime.

The morning sun appeared over the horizon.

The warm and red rays of light caressed his face.

He did not know why.

He could not explain why.

He was completely unaware of the magnificent spectacle that had occurred in the Mausoleum of Books last night.

He was unaware that he had become the youngest cultivator in history to reach the upper level of Ethereal Opening.

Yet, he felt deeply moved.