Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

The huge umbrella formed from swords covered the sky of the Garden of Zhou. It blocked the flowing flames that fell from the sky and held up the dimensional fragments that cracked and fell. The fragments of the sky originally should not have had any weight, but on the shapeless umbrella surface, they seemed to have an infinite weight. With only a soft bang, Chen Changsheng’s legs were deeply embedded in the tough rock. Around them, countless tiny cracks formed, and his pants were immediately ripped to countless shreds.

In the next moment, his body began to tremble violently. The unimaginable weight and pressure of the sky were directly passed through the ten thousand swords into his body. Every bone in his body seemed to creak, as if they could break at any moment.

The terrifying sounds of cracking continued to resound, and his two feet continued in breaking open the boulder. He could not endure it anymore, and his right knee went soft, kneeling down. His knee heavily landed on the boulder, which crushed the rock into countless pieces of gravel and dust.

With a muffled rumble from below that was like thunder, a great amount of dust rose into the air, and slowly enveloped the surrounding grassland and the White Grass Path that was no longer as it was before. The entire mausoleum began to tremble, and then actually sank by a few inches in an extremely short amount of time.

This was the weight of the sky.

Chen Changsheng knelt on one knee on the peak of the mausoleum. Underneath the sky, his complexion became paler and paler, and his expression became more and more painful. His body that had bathed in the blood of a true dragon could be said to be tough like steel, so that even Nanke’s Peacock Plume could not penetrate. However, under the pure and terrifying weight, even though his body was like true steel, it was as if it was going to be crushed into scrap metal.

Fortunately, it was not the real sky in the end, and only fragments of the sky were ripped off by the storms of energy. Although it was extremely painful and he was almost directly crushed to the point where his mind would be shattered, he still endured it in the end. His body slowly stopped trembling.

The eleven stone pillars in the surroundings of the mausoleum had also truly calmed down, and there was some sort of Qi that flowed out from the black stone monoliths. If it were not for the black rock Wang Zhice had left behind, neither he, Xu Yourong, the human cultivators, nor the monsters in the Garden of Zhou could have managed this. At least there was still a chance of surviving now.

He knelt on the highest point of the mausoleum with his left hand holding the Yellow Paper Umbrella, and his right hand holding the dagger that was embedded in the boulder. He raised his head with great difficulty and gazed into the distance. He hoped that the chance of surviving had already arrived.

The shattered sky itself was very gloomy, and at this moment, it was covered up by countless swords, so the world of the Garden of Zhou became even darker. The collapse of the world was temporarily stopped, but the wind continued to blow violently on the grassland. He could see many monsters that had already run to the edge of the grassland, and could also see the burning forest in the distance. He could vaguely feel Qi leaving at high speeds. Did someone already leave?

Afterwards, his line of vision passed through the violent wind and sand and landed in the distance. He could vaguely see that the girl that was grabbed by the Great Peng had already left the grassland and disappeared into the mountain ranges close to the horizon.

You must live. You must live well.

He thought quietly in his heart.

The gate of the Garden of Zhou may have already opened. The people that participated in the trials were currently leaving, and monsters may have escaped. However, he could not leave. As soon as he removed the ten thousand swords, the sky would immediately collapse, and both he and the Garden of Zhou would turn into gray smoke.

The whirlwinds on the grassland remained violent. His knee was deeply embedded in the boulder at the highest point in the mausoleum, and he lowered his head tiredly. He felt that his current situation was just like the famous tragic hero in the legends of the Orthodoxy.

If the hero on the precipitous mountain path that used all his strength to stop the rolling boulder gave way slightly, he would be squashed by the boulder. He could only expend all his life in the process of resisting against the boulder for all of eternity.

Chen Changsheng had never thought that he would be in such despairing straits. He did not want to be a tragic hero, and also did not have the thought of giving up his life for his principles. He was not that great. It was just that he wanted to live, and also wished for many people to live.

For example, the people he knew and the people he cared for.

Zhexiu, if you are still alive, then live. Qi Jian, you also should still be alive. And the elven girl that had just disappeared into the mountain range, and had the same surname as him but a beautiful name… Young lady Chujian, live well.

What should he do next? He had said before to Xu Yourong that he would see. The three words of ‘he would see’ actually also had the meaning that he did not know what to do, but he really wanted to see whether the change that he waited for would occur or not.

In the legend of the Orthodoxy, the reason the famous tragic hero spent all his time and life resisting against the boulder, before turning into a stone sculpture in despair, was that in the endless days, no one came to help him. No one was willing to help him because he was once very arrogant, and never helped the lowly common people.

Although Chen Changsheng often made people speechless, it did not make any person feel that he was arrogant. Confidence and arrogance were never synonyms, and he was very willing to help other people, such as the human cultivators that currently fled towards the outside world.

A just cause always receives abundant support.

Great people of the Orthodoxy, like archbishop Mei Lisha, and experts like the Solitary Drunk Under the Moon, Zhu Luo, were all outside the Garden of Zhou. If he could last a little longer, these people would definitely come and save him.

That was how Chen Changsheng thought.

But until when would he have to hold on? How much longer did he have to endure?

The terrifying weight of the sky caused pain to every point in his body. With the flow of time, his right hand which held up the umbrella became heavier and heavier, until his arm slowly became numb, as if it was crippled.

After an unknown amount of time, from the dagger that was embedded in the boulder at the peak of the mausoleum, the Black Dragon’s voice resounded, “Are you… still well?”

Chen Changsheng lowered his head and asked, “Are you still well?”

He cared more about how it was currently. Before, in order to battle against the Golden-winged Great Peng, the spiritual soul of the Black Dragon had awoken in the lake water outside his Ethereal Palace, and then entered the dagger. Afterwards, there was actually no time for them to communicate at all.

The Black Dragon stayed silent for a while and then said, “Still well.”

Chen Changsheng said, “I’m still well too. I… still can last a little longer.”

The Black Dragon said, “I understand it. This is the so-called play on words in your human language, but do you know, compared to the dragon language, this type of technique, or level of complexity, is just so outrageously pitiable.”

(TL: Pun lost in translation)

Chen Changsheng said tiredly, “Can we talk about other things?”

The Black Dragon said, “Yes, you still don’t seem to know something. I am thinking whether I should tell you or not…”

Chen Changsheng said, “Whatever.”

The Black Dragon’s voice became slightly cautious. “You… won’t die?”

“No.” Chen Changsheng directly answered without even thinking.

The Black Dragon stayed silent for a very long time, and said, “Looks like you really will die.”

Chen Changsheng was slightly helpless and said, “Why do you say so? I already said I won’t die.”

The Black Dragon said, “Just now, you replied too quickly… you aren’t mindful.”

Chen Changsheng felt disinclined to continue to pay any attention to it, but he also felt that something was wrong. The Black Dragon could speak the human tongue. This did not cause him any surprise, but it was just that its voice was soft, like a girl’s…

He did not ask, because at that moment, he truly did feel very tired, very exhausted and very pained. He almost… could not endure it anymore.

This was the weight of the sky. How long could mortals hold it up for?

He did not sweat, but he felt that all the muscles in his body had already ripped apart, and was about to lose strength. His mind had become rather distracted, and his true essence was already completely consumed. Even his vision became blurry.

The ten thousand swords became silent together, and he also became silent. He even entered a state of forgetfulness, forgetting everything.

After an unknown amount of time, the whistling wind slowly weakened, and the pressure brought on by the violent streams of energy slowly disappeared. The weight that pressed on the Yellow Paper Umbrella also slowly disappeared. The sky became peaceful.

Chen Changsheng opened his eyes. He was extremely tired, and he looked around at his surroundings.

At that moment, a snowflake fell, and landed on the Yellow Paper Umbrella. Such a soft flake of snow actually caused a huge amount of pain on his wrist. He almost could not hold onto the umbrella anymore. The Garden of Zhou… was snowing?

No.

This was not the Garden of Zhou. This was a plain of snow.

He looked into the distance, and only vaguely saw a grand city under the shadow in the sky.

Where was this? He was very confused and did not know what had happened. Shock and exhaustion stole his mobility, and he remained in the position he was in before—he knelt on one knee in the snow with the dagger in his left hand and the Yellow Paper Umbrella held up in the right hand.

The sky there did not break. The plain of snow was very pretty, and he obviously seemed rather ridiculous in such a position.

With the sound of steps, a person walked to his side and gave a soft expression of surprise. He said, “There’s a sword.”

Afterwards, the person extended his hand, and grabbed the Yellow Paper Umbrella from Chen Changsheng’s hands.