Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

“Senior, why bother with these little kids?” Xue Xing Chuan looked at Jin Yu Lu and said expressionlessly.

His words surprised everyone. The entrance of Tradition Academy suddenly became silent.

Everyone noticed that although Xue Xing Chuan was expressionless and cold, he sincerely respected Jin Yu Lu and he didn’t hesitate to show it. Anybody who knew Jin Yu Lu wouldn’t find it awkward. Even Fei Dian, the oldest of the Thirty Eight Generals of Zhou Dynasty was of no older generation than Jin Yu Lu. Even though Xue Xing Chuan was one of the Generals of Zhou Dynasty, it was still suitable of him to address Jin Yu Lu as his senior. Since the youngsters in front of the Tradition Academy’s entrance didn’t know this, they were shocked.

Jin Yu Lu smiled, “Someone wanted to barge in, I could only stop him.”

Xue Xing Chuan turned around and looked at the young man who was covered in blood. He wrinkled his eyebrows and said,

“Aren’t you being a little too rough?”

Jin Yu Lu shook his head, “I was a soldier and my responsibility was to guard my nation’s territory. If the demon race dared to invade, my job was to push them back regardless of my actions and methods. Now, I am the door guard of Tradition Academy and I’m responsible for watching over this entrance. If anyone wants to barge into the Tradition Academy, I’ll fight them back no matter the cost.”

Xue Xing Chuan was silent. He knew the value of Jin Yu Lu’s words.

Just this moment, a young vice-general walked towards him and whispered something.

Xue Xing Chuan raised his eyebrow slightly and said, “this thing is getting into a mess and it’s not looking good for anyone.”

Jin Yu Lu pointed to the crowd in front of the entrance which was showing some signs of unrest and replied, “What can we do? They have already been here for a while and are disturbing the peace. I’ll leave the court out of this even though it should be here to put down the disturbance but should we stop maintaining the peace of our property as well?”

Xue Xing Chuan wrinkled his eyebrows even more. Tradition Academy went through a lot of messy events today but they were just meaningless riots, especially this one. If the government hadn’t asked him to come out here to contain the situation, he wouldn’t even be here.

The young vice-general spoke, “Sir, we should just stand aside and watch. If anyone dare to violate the law of Zhou, then it wouldn’t be late for us to punish them.”

Hearing this, Xue Xing Chuan was satisfied. The suggestion from his vice – general was an appropriate action.

He didn’t hesitate. He walked towards a tavern in the Hundred Blossom Street and was prepared to be a spectator of the situation. The Red Cloud Kylin looked around confused but it followed up. The rest of the army just lined up near the entrance of Tradition Academy. They showed that their intention was not to help any side, but that neither side should step outside of their lane either.

Xue Xing Chuan was satisfied with the current situation, but the two sides inside and outside of the entrance of Tradition Academy wasn’t.

The rioting crowd felt that since many people were already severely injured, it was unfair for Xue Xing Chuan and his army to disregard the criminals who harmed them. Tang Thirty Six felt that Xue Xing Chuan had been unfair because the crowd was still in front of the Academy and was still disturbing the peace.

No matter which side the people were on, both felt that the decision was unfair and illogical.

Xue Xing Chuan felt that it was unfair for him to have to come here to solve this situation so he stopped caring about fairness and logic. Since the Forbidden Soldiers were here, no one would dare to barge into the Tradition Academy again. The students of Tradition Academy would also stop hurting the crowd due to his presence. This was good enough for him to report back.

There are only two places powerful enough for him to report to, the Royal Palace and Li Palace.

But Xue Xing Chuan never thought that although the three youngsters of Tradition Academy may care about his presence, they cared more about restoring peace to their home.

Looking at the Forbidden Soldiers standing firmly in front of Tradition Academy, the rioting crowd realized that the government wouldn’t interfere as long as they didn’t rush into Traditional Academy. Some daring ones quickly started cursing again.

Chen Chang Sheng could hear their words much more clearly at the entrance than at the library. Hearing their insults and accusations that the marriage vow was fake, Chen Chang Sheng’s mood worsened. Tang Thirty Six’s face got colder and his hand held the sword handle tighter than before.

“Are you deaf? Can’t you all hear this nonsense?”

Tang Thirty Six shouted at the young vice-general of the Forbidden Army.

The young vice- general turned around and looked at him expressionlessly, “We can hear it very clearly, why?”

Tang Thirty Six said, “If you can hear them cursing, why aren’t you doing anything to stop them?”

The young vice – general was silent for a moment as if he was giving the question some thought, then he answered, “Why should I stop them?”

Tang Thirty Six’s expression turned even colder and he replied, “then if I say I want to sleep with your sister, is that fine too?”

Hearing his words, the soldiers of Forbidden Army became furious. They glanced at him angrily. Since the General was resting at the tavern, if the vice-general commanded them, they would go up and teach the youngster a lesson.

Strangely, the young vice-general wasn’t angry. Instead, he asked seldomly, “You sure you want to do that?”

Tang Thirty Six thought back to his sister’s violence of her younger days and calmed himself down forcefully, “I’m just joking, why so serious?”

“You are not brave enough to do as you say and now you aren’t even cursing back when thousands of people are pointing at your nose. You are worthless.”

The young vice general looked at him and mocked, “Go back to Wen Shui and cry in front of your grandfather.”

Tang Thirty Six was furious after hearing this. He pointed at the vast crowd outside of the academy and said, ”You must think I’m stupid enough to argue with a thousand people just by myself.”

The young vice general then said with a serious face, “Then there is nothing I can do. They have control of their own mouths and the sound is only heard in the Academy. Who can do anything about this?”

Chen Chang Sheng felt that there was something wrong with this conversation so he walked to Tang Thirty Six and whispered.

“You know him?”

“I’ll explain after getting rid of these people.” Tang Thirty Six answered.

People saw Chen Chang Sheng and thought he was similar to the rumor’s description. His attire was ordinary while Tang Thirty Six’s clothing was luxurious. Their discussion and whispers quickly got louder and they were determined that the person they saw was indeed the Chen Chang Sheng from the rumor. Suddenly, the yelling and cursing got louder as if it was about to reach the sky of the Capital.

Tang Thirty Six’s face became gloomy and he made a small gesture with his left hand.

The previously destroyed door of Tradition Academy was moved into the back. Mysteriously, Xuan Yuan Po had left without anyone seeing him. He followed Tang Thirty Six’s order. He followed along the wall of the Academy and went a long way south.

Then he used a ladder to flip over the wall to join the crowd in Hundred Blossom Street.

Although the crowd was big, no one could stop the strength of a Yao youngster. Just in a few moments, he pushed his way through and arrived twenty yards away from the entrance. Even so, no one noticed him because everyone was too caught up in the chaos.

There was a stone in his hand.

When he saw Tang Thirty Six’s gesture, Xuan Yuan Po knew that it was time to act. Even though he was a little nervous, when he saw Tang Thirty Six’s cold stare, he knew that if he didn’t do as he was told, then the Tradition Academy would face more trouble.

Finally, he made his choice.

He raised the stone in his hand and threw it at the entrance of Tradition Academy and yelled, “Kill this bastard!”

The cursing crowd was silent for a short moment. Everyone heard the words and saw the stone flying towards the entrance of Tradition Academy. They even saw the projectile path of the stone. Some people were about to cheer and some people became pale.

Was this riot finally turning into a big mess?

Bang!

Followed by a loud crash, that stone crushed down heavily onto the stone stairs in front of the entrance of Tradition Academy. It shattered into pieces and bounced off the floor and landed squarely onto the ground.

The stone was only a few inches away from Chen Chang Sheng’s feet. Chen Chang Sheng was lucky enough so that the shattered pieces didn’t hit him.

Tang Thirty Six praised Xuan Yuan Po silently. The Yao race’s control of strength was definitely a natural talent. Xuan Yuan Po threw so accurately!

Xuan Yuan Po, who was standing in the crowd, was sweating and his heart was racing. He thought to himself, how come I used a little too much power?

No matter what they thought, the stone had landed.

The business in front of Tradition Academy had turned from a word fight into a physical battle.

“You guys dare use long ranged weapon?” Tang Thirty Six yelled angrily as he picked up the stone on the ground and threw it at the crowd.

The whoosh sound as the rock passed through the air was followed by a painful moan.

A man held his forehead and fell backwards. Blood was flowing through the gap of his fingers.

Tang Thirty Six’s second stone quickly followed. Another man’s teeth was knocked out and his mouth was filled with blood.

The crowd outside of the Academy finally realized what was happening and screamed for doctors. Some people yell angrily and wanted to counter attack and some people rushed to the Forbidden Army and pointed at their bleeding companions. They wanted the army to capture the criminals. The field was filled with chaos.

Finally, some people started fighting back. They picked up random items from the ground and threw them at the entrance of Tradition Academy.

The field turned into a battleground and the Forbidden Army standing in front of the wall of Tradition Academy couldn’t do anything to stop either sides.

Earlier when the crowd was picking up stones, Tang Thirty Six and Chen Chang Sheng had left the entrance and climbed up the wall using a ladder. Tang Thirty Six asked Chen Chang Sheng to pass stones from the ground to him. There was a flower garden behind this wall and a thin layer of rocks was beneath the garden. Their supply of rocks was limitless.

But the situation outside the Tradition Academy was completely different. The Hundred Blossom Street was always well cleaned, and it was hard to find rocks on the marble floor. What could the crowd do but shovel the marbles out of the ground? It may be faster for the crowd to go back home and get their knives from the kitchen.

Some people looked at the broken entrance of Tradition Academy and noticed that there were many rock pieces and leftover wood fragments as well. They wanted to go and gather some ammunition, but Jin Yu Lu was still sitting on his chair. Who could walk past him?

One side was well prepared while the other not. The winner of this fight would be decided quickly.

Tang Thirty Six occupied the top of the wall. Every time he threw a stone, one person would fall.

Painful moans never stopped and several dozens of people were injured by the stones.

Just this morning, Tradition Academy’s door was crushed by the carriage of Tian Hai Family and now the entire capital was cursing at the Academy. Tang Thirty Six endured long enough and he finally found a chance to relieve that stress. He didn’t hold back and the stones flew off his hand to bring pain to the crowd.

Some people stood in the back and thought he couldn’t hit them. They widened their eyes and cursed loudly, but moments later, stones flew from the wall of Tradition Academy and hit them on the head. The crowd was immediately put down.

………What was Tang Thirty Six thinking when he was enchanting the power of qi onto the stones to throw them at people?

“So refreshing!”

He stood upon the wall and yelled while swinging his hand casually. Every stone that he threw hit someone.

The young genius on the Honor Roll of Green Cloud was using qi to fight against these rioting ordinary civilians. Was this not bullying?

He had already entered the peak of Meditation stage and it could be said that he was one of the best xiuxingists of the younger generation. Even if he didn’t use qi intentionally, the stones threw from his hand made a large impact. How could the people in the street handle them?

The cursing in front of Tradition Academy was replaced by painful moans. The loud insults already changed into cries.

The crowd in front of Tradition Academy was already running away trying to dodge Tang Thirty Six’s attack. Blood was spilled on the ground and dusts swirled in the air.

In just a few moments, the enemy of Tradition Academy was eliminated.

“Too much, too much.”

The young vice general of Forbidden Army saw the situation and finally had enough. He turned around and yelled at Tang Thirty Six who was on the top of the wall.

Speaking of which, Tang Thirty Six knew exactly what he was doing. He didn’t stand at any other places but right on the top of the wall that the Forbidden Army was standing in front of. Previously the crowd did gather some stones from the ground, but when they counter attacked, at least half of them were afraid of hitting the army and didn’t use much force.

Tang Thirty Six didn’t stop throwing and asked, “What’s too much?”

The young vice general said reluctantly, “You have already injured the crowd, is this not too much?”

“You previously said that they control their mouths and the voice can only be heard in the Academy so you couldn’t do anything. Now if the stones are mine, the hands are mine and the rocks are flying outside of the academy by accident. What’s the difference between the two? Plus, they threw the first rock.”

After saying these words, Tang Thirty Six glanced at the crowd and made sure Xuan Yuan Po had already left. He was reassured and he continued hitting the crowd with rocks.

The street was filled with dust and cries. People helped each other and ran away. The situation was helpless and they looked like soldiers who had just lost in a battle.

Although the crowd was scattered, Tang Thirty Six was still not satisfied. He squinted and held a stone while focusing on the person in the back of the crowd. He remembered clearly that this person had said Chen Chang Sheng only relied on women. He couldn’t let him run away with only a scraped head.

Due to the marriage vow, the entire capital was showing their hatred toward Tradition Academy and Chen Chang Sheng.

Tang Thirty Six threw away the hatred and his stress through the stones in his hand.

Chen Chang Sheng didn’t do much. He just kept on passing stones from the garden to Tang Thirty Six. If it was his usual self, he might have thought it was all a waste of time and life but today, he was happy. He didn’t even notice that his shirt was pierced by the thorns of the flower.

He realized that there are many ways of life, or many ways of living life.

Perhaps there are meaningless ways, but nevertheless interesting ways.

Plus, it was easy to be happy this way.