Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Silence, absolute silence, extremely long silence, no sound of wind, no sound of water dropping, no sound of breathing. Both the black dragon and Chen Chang Sheng held their breath and remained wordless. These actions were probably due to nervousness which seemed to rise from the finally arriving hope.

The black dragon’s hope was unknown, but Chen Chang Sheng’s hope was obviously from escaping from death. When he saw the black dragon’s whisker slowly float up, silently come to him and lightly touch the center of his eyebrows, he was not sure what would happen next.

The place where this dragon’s whiskers connected to its jaw was extremely thick and gradually got thinner further up. Its tip was about the same size as a human’s little finger and it looked a bit sharp. Its surface was as dark as night and as transparent as jade. There was black light faintly rolling inside, like dark clouds.

The tip of the dragon’s whiskers barely touched the center of his eyebrows. The distance was so close that human eyes could not even tell if it touched or not. Chen Chang Sheng felt more and more nervous. He was just back from the edge of death so it was easy for him to feel fear. Lots of sweat came out of the hand he used to grab the handle. The sweat rapidly froze due to the low temperature.

Quietly, the black whisker gently pointed at the center of his eyebrows.

The feeling was very strange, not so terrifying, but rather slightly cool, which actually made his mind clear. It let him faintly understand what the black dragon meant.

It wanted him keep going.

Chen Chang Sheng did not hesitate. He spoke the second word, still the word on the last scroll of the three thousand Scrolls of Way.

The pronunciation of the this word was still very strange and it was extremely difficult for him to pronounce it. Even though his hand was covered with a layer of snow, it can be still seen that his face became red due to swelling and his mouth got pale from perhaps speaking out this word. It seemed to exhaust his spirit.

The black dragon’s whisker lightly moved. Its dark tip contracted and flipped in front of the center of his eyebrows. It then pointed at the center of his eyebrows again.

Chen Chang Sheng knew, so he spoke the third word, then the fourth, then fifth….

As the type of strange syllables came out of his mouth, his spirit swiftly became exhausted. It grew weaker and weaker. Simultaneously, he could feel the coldness in the surrounding gradually decrease. After speaking about ten words, warmth came back to his inner organs again.

The black dragon’s look was still cold, but its whisker was contracting and flipping faster and faster, shining out countless black lines under the light emitting from the Nightly Pearl and eventually looking like an infinite amount of flowers blooming. The flowers symbolized its heart which was very delighted now.

Chen Chang Sheng felt its happiness, but some of his fear still remained. The approximately ten syllables of dragon language he said, was not following the order in the last scroll of the three thousand scrolls of way, but randomly chosen from the one thousand six hundred and one words. They shouldn’t form a sentence, but this dragon actually understood it.

He did so because he was a cautious person. He was not sure if he was right or wrong, but at least for now, there wasn’t a problem.

The black whisker gradually stopped moving, slowly got away from the center of his eyebrows and lightly touched his hand which was holding the sword. It did not show any animosity.

Chen Chang Sheng received its signal and finally fully relaxed.

The moment shrouded by the shadow of death finally passed. The terrifying pressure that stacked over a long time suddenly disappeared. His thinking changed as the the environment changed, the frost on his body fell off and dust which came from nowhere slipped through the gaps of the clothes and into the air.

From the moment he pushed the door open, he was always extremely nervous. He only knew he saw a black dragon but it wasn’t until now did he get a chance to truly see the black dragon’s appearance. It wasn’t until now did he dare to look closely at the black dragon.

This is a Mighty Frost Dragon.

Even among the dragon race, this was still the most noble being — one of the legendary holy creatures, at the same level with the Mighty Golden Dragon and the True Dragon above Cloud Nine.

Different from the Mighty Frost Dragon described in myths and legends who loved violence, cleanliness and being as beautiful as the dark sky, Chen Chang Sheng saw a lot of dust on this black dragon and even a lot of broken dragon scales!

Those dragon scales were half falling out. They looked very ugly, like the scales of dead fish.

Chen Chang Sheng was very surprised. If the scrolls of way’s descriptions of the Mighty Frost Dragon was correct, then how could it look like this? As a youngster who had mysophobia, he clearly knew that it was impossible for a creature who cared about cleanliness so much to stand such a situation.

What made him surprised was, as the coldness gradually decreased, he actually saw two very thick iron chains behind the black dragon. The two chains tightly locked the dragon’s two claws in the back and deeply squeezed into the scales. It looked extremely terrifying!

This black dragon actually..wasn’t the protector of the Great Zhou royal palace, but a prisoner!

The two chains, covered with thick layers of frost, was made of unknown materials. They showed no signs of breaking which was logical. If they could lock a Frost Mighty Dragon underground, it’s definitely no ordinary chains.

The other end of the two chains was at the wall.

It was a stone wall around a hundred zhang high(3 zhang = 10 meters). It decorated a huge image. The paint on the image already eroded over time, but what was left was still comprehensible. There wasn’t any landscape, just two people.

Two scary looking people.

The wall was very tall and the picture was very big. The two people obviously also looked very tall and big, like gods. They were equipped with armor and weapons. One person held a mace and the other held a long whip. They were the door-gods.

One of them was called Qin Zhong, the other was called Yu Gong.

These two Generals followed the first Emperor for their life, from the establishment of the Great Zhou dynasty until when the humans defeated demons at last. Although they were not as accomplished as Wang Zhi Ce, they were even more brave. Both were very strong as they got into saint stage when they were very young. They were the real elites who were rarely seen in the world.

While they all were generals, they were much stronger than the generals of today.

The chains that imprisoned the black dragon were held by the two Generals in the picture.

Such plot obviously had its own purpose.

Seeing this image, Chen Chang Sheng faintly understood that this black dragon was probably caught in the period of the first Emperor.

He was thinking about the fantastic era, thinking about those elites who were almost becoming myths or had already became myths and thinking about those images in the Ling Yan Pavilion. He really felt pity for this dragon.

Maybe because of the humiliations and pressure from the demons, humans were incredibly strong at that era. Countless elites rose so that even creatures like the Mighty Frost Dragon could be caught and held as pathetic prisoners.

From the period of the first Emperor to now, how many years had passed?

In the cold, lonely, and dark underground, how did this black dragon insist to suffer for so long?

“You want to talk to me, right?” Chen Chang Sheng asked.

The black dragon’s whisker floated up again and lightly touched his lip, like a dragonfly dip water.

“I just want to say, I don’t understand the meaning of those words.”

Chen Chang Sheng looked at him and said, “But, you can teach me.”

The black dragon’s eyes suddenly became extraordinarily bright, even more bright than the sum of the thousands of Nightly Pearl.

Chen Chang Sheng thought, unsurprisingly you could understand human language, then if you want to translate, I can learn the language of dragon race. He looked at the black dragon and continued, “I know that the language of dragon race was very hard, but I am very good at learning. As long as you have the patience, I can definitely learn it.”

Suddenly, the black dragon made a deep shout.

Chen Chang Sheng was dumbfounded.

The black dragon’s whisker rose without making any wind current and it pointed four times at the center of his eyebrows as fast as lightning and as light as dust.

Chen Chang Sheng frowned, thinking about the meaning.

The black dragon lightly pointed at the same place again for four times and simultaneously the dragon made a deep shout.

Chen Chang Sheng understood now.

In the previous sentence, he said four “I’s”

This is what the black dragon attempted to tell him.

“I?” Chen Chang Sheng pointed at himself and asked.

The dragon language was very complicated. Countless segments of one syllable could be rearranged into an infinite number of permutations. Different combinations were expressions of different meanings. If he wanted to fully learn it, it would be a very long process. He knew that the dragon’s roar had the meaning “I,” but definitely not just “I,” but…at least it had “I.”

Looking at Chen Chang Sheng’s action, the black dragon was first dazed and then suddenly, it began to roll!

Its huge body was constantly rolling in the underground dimension, forming a terrifying hurricane!

At the same time, a strange sound kept coming up from the black dragon’s mouth.

From approximately a thousand years ago to now, it had never been so happy before. It did not know what kind of roar it should use to celebrate.

Yet because of some reasons, it must suppressed its roar and its laugh. (In Chinese, both roar and laugh were pronounced Xiao, so author is making a pun here.)

“Zhi Zhi….ZhiZhi….ZhiZhi…”

It sounded like a mouse shouting. The noise was very funny.

Yet there was extreme happiness inside.

Chen Chang Sheng did not know what the black dragon did before to be imprisoned by the Great Zhou dynasty. Now he saw it feel happy simply because there was a human doing the simplest communication with it. Chen Chang Sheng felt touched, and pitied it greatly.

Not sure how much time had passed, but the black dragon finally stopped rolling, and calmed down.

It looked at Chen Chang Sheng and felt his honest sympathy. Its look gradually got kind.

Its whisker floated up again and paused in the air between his eyebrows.

It waited for Chen Chang Sheng to open his mouth again.

Chen Chang Sheng thought a bit and spoke something that the black dragon didn’t want to hear.

“I know you really want to speak to someone….but now I can’t do it. I have a very important thing that I need to leave right away.”

The black dragon’s look became cold again.

Chen Chang Sheng said seriously, “I promise you, as soon as I finish this thing, I will come back to find you, learn language with you, and talk to you.”

The black dragon’s look was still cold, and even somewhat doubtful.

As a noble Mighty Frost Dragon imprisoned by human for so many years, it would never forget what its father said before.

“If humans are trustworthy, then we should be the rulers of this world.”