Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

When the old Daoist nun heard the voice, her expression suddenly changed. She raised her head in the direction of the Dew Platform and opened her mouth to speak.

The Tianhai Divine Empress stood at the edge of the Dew Platform, her face turned towards that estate in the south, her gaze august and majestic, like a real beam of light.

The moment the old Daoist nun entered the capital, she had sensed it.

When the old Daoist nun tortured a dog to death in an alley and severed the hand Guan Bai used to hold his sword, she had offended her.

Perhaps many would think that neither the wild dog nor Guan Bai were worth a thing compared to the old Daoist nun.

But the Divine Empress did not think this way, because this was her world.

Under the blue sky, the most diseased wild dog was still her dog and the least important person was still her subject.

Of course, if the old Daoist nun had obediently departed after being repelled by Su Li's sword intent, she would have given face to the old Daoist nun's husband and not appeared.

But the old Daoist nun should not have continued to remain in the capital.

This was disrespecting her.

The old Daoist nun especially should not have remained in that estate.

This was taking advantage of her awe-inspiring renown.

The Divine Empress did not like it, so she did not want to hear the old Daoist nun's explanation.

"Scram," she expressionlessly declared.

With this single world, the jade ruyi at her waist instantly transformed into a stream of light that shot off towards the distant southern part of the city.

The light transformed into a black dragon. It carried the might of a thunderstorm but traveled noiselessly, as if it had become one with the night.

In the entire capital, only two or three people could sense the appearance of this black dragon.

In the cavernous space beneath New North Bridge, that little girl whose appearance was suffused with fiendish intent was dining on the roast chicken Chen Changsheng had brought over several days ago, at the same time complaining about how it had already been quite a few days since he had visited, and also at the same time filled with the hope that she could learn the Mount Li Sword Style from him. If she could cultivate to Su Li's level in the future, then how could the chains behind her keep her jailed?

Suddenly, she knit her brows and gazed upward, her petite face tinged with fear.

Borrowing the cover of the night, the black dragon that was the transformed jade ruyi reached the southern part of the city.

The word 'scram' exploded in the old Daoist nun's ear like thunder.

Her expression immediately changed and without the slightest delay, she turned and left. Simultaneously, the horsetail whisk fell down, laying behind her layer after layer of blue-green ocean.

With a whoosh, the jade ruyi arrived in the serene garden and pierced through the horsetail whisk!

The black dragon was like an ocean, stirring countless storms!

With a boom, the old Daoist nun's back was struck, her clothes instantly torn to shreds, and she coughed up a mouthful of true blood.

She no longer dared to linger. Forcefully enduring the heavy wound on her back, she used a secret technique and leapt into darkness, vanishing from view.

A moment later, a torch lit up the tranquil garden.

Tianhai Chenwu and several of his most important sons and nephews stood by the garden wall, their complexions extremely ugly.

The wall here, as well as the bamboo, were stained with the old Daoist nun's true blood, the spots gleaming with a golden light.

"Auntie is angry."

"It's not like we wanted to kill Chen Changsheng, we just wanted to cut down a little of the Orthodoxy's arrogance…but the Empress won't even allow this, so just what are we supposed to do?"

……

……

The Pope sat in his chair, gazing at the Green Leaf in the pot that was growing ever more robust as he thought about tonight's events. He seemed to fall a little into a daze, speaking to himself, "Senior Brother, your conclusion back then was correct, she truly is stronger than anyone could have imagined…and I also think that this isn't even her at her strongest."

……

……

Besides powerful figures on the level of the Pope and the old Daoist nun, the most important thing in tonight's battle, besides Su Li displaying the universally shocking level he had reached on the path of the sword, was the tyrannical and incomparably powerful Black Phoenix. At this moment, people finally confirmed that the Divine Empress was truly as she was described in rumors and conjectures, possessing the sublimely noble blood of the Heavenly Phoenix. It was no wonder she cherished Xu Yourong so deeply. Viewing it from the angle of innate blood, she had decided that she could treat Xu Yourong as her real daughter.

Very few people knew that before the heaven-shaking battle between the Divine Empress and Su Li, two other battles had occurred in the capital. In normal times, those two battles between experts of the Divine Domain would inevitably attract countless discussions, but tonight, these two battles could only be relegated to unremarkable footnotes.

No one knew that one of the Eight Storms, Wuqiong Bi, infiltrated the capital in the night, wanting to go to the Orthodox Academy and recover some face for her dearly beloved sole son. In the end, she suffered the double suppression of Su Li and the Divine Empress. Not only was she unable to recover any face, she even suffered severe injuries and was forced to retreat in an absolutely dismal state.

Not too much later, the seven letters Su Li had left for the continent were finally found out.

The Myriad Willows Garden outside Hanqiu City had been burned into scorched earth. This was a matter impossible to hide. The Zhu clan and Emotion-Severing Sect of Tianliang County suddenly became much more low-key. At the same time, the Longevity Sect's Elder Liang suddenly died from his illness while its other two elders caught a serious disease. Thus, the last few greats of the first generation of experts that remained from that sudden change ten-odd years ago faded away. The Longevity Sect announced to the world that it would immediately seclude itself for three years, even choosing to remain uninvolved in the major event soon to come to fruition, the confluence of the north and south. After this, it issued no other opinions.

For so many major events to occur in such swift succession, anybody could tell that it had something to do with Su Li.

But of course, what truly stunned the entire world was still that battle on that snowy night in the capital between the Tianhai Divine Empress and Su Li.

Originally, when news that Su Li and the Holy Maiden had chosen to shun the world and leave together reached the southerners, many of them believed that he had been unable to bear the pressure of the Zhou people and deserted. He had been so deeply loved then, now their hate cut all the deeper, especially those young southerners who had once regarded him as an idol, their words containing much more disrespect and incomparable loathing.

However, Su Li was still Su Li. As the heaven-soaring tree that had stood straight and tall over the south for several hundred years, how could he just escape and leave? How could he leave in such a silent, subdued, and even wronged manner? Before he left, he would certainly settle all gratitudes and grudges.

He had once cold-bloodedly and emotionlessly killed many people and this world also had many reasons to detest him, to be hostile to him, but there were not too many places in this world that he held grudges against. Looking over these past few years, it was only the shame and injuries incurred in his journey back south from the snowy plains that remained unwashed. Those shameless disciples that had stirred up the internal chaos of Mount Li still lived, so the Myriad Willows Garden was burned down, Zhu Luo was crippled, and the Longevity Sect would gradually vanish into the long river of history. As for the gratitude part of the 'gratitudes and grudges', there was naturally that letter in Chen Changsheng's bosom, Scholartree Manor was suddenly gifted with a vast tract of good farmland, a certain famous assassin suddenly obtained an amnesty personally issued by the Tianhai Divine Empress, and that settled that.

Of course, at the final moment, he had not forgotten to do one thing that he had truthfully always wanted to do, but that he had never had the chance to.

A true competition of strength with the Tianhai Divine Empress.

Many years ago, when Su Li was still very young, he had already become the number one assassin on the Ranking of Assassins. There had once been countless people willing to pay countless taels of gold, or even entire counties and provinces, as the price to have him assassinate the Tianhai Divine Empress, but he had never accepted their offers, not even hesitating to part ways with those subordinates that had followed him.

After another few years, he had become the greatest Martial Granduncle of his generation in the Mount Li Sword Sect. The Chen Imperial clan and many important personages of the south, including the elders from his hometown, asked him in the name of all that was righteous, with sincere words and tear-soaked faces, to wield his sword and enter the capital, to eliminate the scourge that was the Demon Empress for the sake of all the people of the world. But he still did not agree.

Ten-odd years ago, the Longevity Sect and the Liang Household joined hands in capturing his pregnant wife to compel him to kill Tianhai, but he still did not do it.

It wasn't because at the time, he had not cultivated to his current level in the path of the sword and had no confidence in challenging a true Saint, nor was it because he wanted the situation to be unstable and the human world to be in strife, thus allowing the Demon Army to invade southwards. Rather, it was because, at that time, it was other people that wanted him to challenge Tianhai.

Su Li was just this sort of person. The more someone wanted him to do something, the less he wanted to do it. Now that he wanted to leave this world, no one dared to order him to do anything, nor did anyone dare to bother him, but now he really wished to see whether he or Tianhai was stronger.

Ultimately, the result was that there was no result, but it could be believed that he was very satisfied.

As he departed this world, Su Li made the world more exciting for a while. From a character standpoint, he was someone that dearly loved excitement and he was worried that a world without him would seem too dull. Or perhaps he was also worried that after he left this world, he would not be able to see so much excitement for a very long time.

When he ascended the world's stage, the sight was glorious to behold, blindingly dazzling, his talent shocking and magnificent. When he left the world, he similarly departed with booms and gusto, confident and easy beyond compare. It could be believed that the world would find it impossible to forget his name, even if he would not appear for a very long time.

He acted this way with another purpose: to establish a basis for Mount Li and for the southerners.

The Burning Heaven Sword had illuminated the capital, shining together in the night sky with Wooden Sword Little Phoenix.

He was telling the Tianhai Divine Empress and the Pope that the agreement they reached back then should be fulfilled. After the confluence of north and south, they had to treat the southerners well.

Simultaneously, he was telling the entire continent, "Don't take advantage of the fact that I'm not here to try anything on Mount Li.

"Or else, you'll die in as ugly a fashion as that elder of the Longevity Sect and your homes and monasteries will be scorched to the earth like the Myriad Willows Garden.

"The above-mentioned."

……