Ze Tian Ji

Edited by: Michyrr

The dark forest was eerily quiet. The winter cicadas were unable to chirp, and the autumn insects did not cry out.

The tea on the stone table was already cold, the lights extinguished.

Suddenly, a rustling could be heard from the forest.

The two people looked and saw a squirrel quickly running across a tree.

This squirrel was very fat, its shaggy tail a gray shadow. It looked very cute.

Seeing this, for some reason, Chen Changsheng forgot about his coming death or what might be a conclusion even more miserable than death. His face revealed an innocent smile.

The Tianhai Divine Empress did not smile. She only quietly gazed at the squirrel, thinking of something.

She waved her sleeve as if brushing away some emotions that she found unpleasant.

The cute squirrel was currently jumping towards another tree when it transformed midair into a flower of blood.

Chen Changsheng froze. Rather sad, he asked, "Why?"

The Tianhai Divine Empress did not answer his question. What answered his question was a series of sounds from the dark forest.

These sounds were very dull puffing sounds like a leather bag filled with wine that could no longer take the internal pressure and thus burst.

A middle-aged man tottered out from behind a tree, his stomach already deflated like it had been directly crushed by some terrifying pressure. Blood was constantly spurting from his eyes, ears, and nose. Before he had time to say anything, he collapsed to the ground.

Chen Changsheng recognized him as one of the three cardinals of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education.

He had come to find Chen Changsheng, or perhaps follow the Li Palace’s order and protect him.

He had just died in front of Chen Changsheng’s eyes.

Those dull sounds continued. In the early autumn forest, in the trees or in the fallen leaves, ten-odd flowers of blood exploded out.

Every flower of blood represented the explosion and death of an expert of the Orthodoxy.

Further off in the darkness, some Orthodoxy experts who had not been affected were forced out and ran off in all directions to escape, but how could they run faster than the wind that ran through the forest?

As he viewed this scene so terrifying that it bordered on bizarre, Chen Changsheng’s body turned cold.

The people dying in front of him were all extraordinary experts of rare talent, but before the Tianhai Divine Empress, they were all powerless.

The Tianhai Divine Empress had already placed her hands behind her back, but the wind stirred up by her sleeves was still coursing through the forest.

The merciless slaughter continued. Occasionally, someone would die, their death too miserable to describe.

Chen Changsheng cried that it was enough.

He thought that his voice was loud enough, yet she seemed not to hear.

He felt like his voice was stained in blood, yet she seemed to have no reaction.

Several dozen no longer intact corpses quietly lay within the dark forest.

The Tianhai Divine Empress expressionlessly gazed into the darkness and raised her right hand once more.

A muffled cry of pain suddenly came from the darkness, and then a person was forced into the light.

The person coming out of the darkness was Liu Qing, the sword in his hands already bent, his clothes covered in wounds, blood constantly flowing out of them.

He kneeled in the leaves, gazing behind Chen Changsheng at the Tianhai Divine Empress, his eyes filled with shock and reverence, but no fear.

Su Li and the enigmatic assassin had left this continent. He, who was already at peak Star Condensation in Mount Han, was without question the world’s most powerful assassin, but it was simply impossible for him to get close to the Tianhai Divine Empress. Even his secret art to conceal himself in the darkness had been seen through at a glance. He was just a joke before her.

After confronting the Demon Lord in Mount Han, he was already well aware of the gap between him and the true experts of the Divine Domain, understood how ridiculous his insisting Su Li lead them to the capital and kill the Divine Empress was, but he had still come to the capital.

Because he was an assassin and this was what he should do.

Assassins eventually had to die, and for him to die at the hands of one of the continent’s supreme experts was completely satisfactory. He even felt excited. Neither Su Li nor his big sister had ever had a true exchange with Tianhai, and even though he had undoubtedly lost, he had still tried. Moreover...Tianhai was truly very strong!

Seeing the Tianhai Divine Empress standing by the stone table, Liu Qing began to breathe rather quickly, his eyes turning bright as if he was rather excited.

The Tianhai Divine Empress slightly arched her brows.

She knew that Liu Qing was a person of the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets. She had originally planned to spare him out of respect for the Elder of Heavenly Secrets, but now she was prepared to kill him, because she did not like being looked at by people in this way.

He didn’t know whether it was because he was watching her every moment or because their hearts were connected through some mysterious and inexorable method, but when Chen Changsheng heard the crunching of leaves being stepped on by shoes and saw her arch her brows, he knew that she was prepared to kill Liu Qing, just like how she had ruthlessly killed those priests of the Li Palace.

In Xunyang City, Liu Qing had saved Su Li, and in Mount Han, he had assisted Chen Changsheng, so Chen Changsheng certainly could not allow him to die. Thus, Chen Changsheng grew very anxious, especially when he heard the faint galloping of hooves from beyond the walls and guessed that the Orthodoxy cavalry were beginning to move towards this location. If he could not prevent her from killing more people, then there was a high chance that the Orthodox Academy and the Hundred Herb Garden would become a horrifying graveyard.

However, he currently couldn’t move, only slightly move his neck around, so he could again try to use words to convince her. He gazed at the Tianhai Divine Empress and begged, "Please let them go. They’re all low-ranked cavalry and have nothing to do with major events like this. As for him...he’s always been crazy, there’s no need to kill him."

The Tianhai Divine Empress lowered her head to glance at him, asking, "Why should I consent to this?"

Chen Changsheng fell silent, then replied, "Since you gave birth to me but didn’t raise me, I won’t ask for anything more, only for this."

The Tianhai Divine Empress’s brows leapt up once more, seeming to be mocking him.

Chen Changsheng just pretended he did not see the change in her expression, continuing, "What need is there to kill so many people? Isn’t killing me enough?"

The Tianhai Divine Empress drew back her gaze to a splatter of blood on the leaves. This blood splatter was not left by a priest of the Li Palace, but by that squirrel of which only the tail remained.

For some reason, she seemed to silently contemplate that blood splatter for a very long time.

The hooves of the cavalry drew closer and closer to the walls, and the Orthodox Academy also seemed to be thrown into chaos. Chen Changsheng could even hear the cries of Tang Thirty-Six.

Time was still passing, and he continued to grow nervous.

Suddenly, the Tianhai Divine Empress grabbed his collar. The wind swept through the autumn forest, and they were gone.

With great difficulty, Liu Qing dragged himself up from the fallen leaves. He spit out some more blood and gazed at the now vacant stone table with a confused expression.

With several bangs and the opening of a door, several apertures were opened in the academy wall, the Orthodoxy cavalry and the people within the Orthodox Academy charging through them into the forest.

Liu Qing turned and vanished into the darkness.

......

......

Chen Changsheng only felt his body grow light, and then he realized that he was in the air, the autumn forest of the Hundred Herb Garden now a faraway blanket at his feet. The lights of the Imperial Palace were now the reflections of stars in the river, and the blazing torches of the Orthodox Academy were also fading into the distance. Soon after, he saw the distant Qu River and the Dallying Forest, then they plunged into the clouds.

They broke through the clouds amidst the howling of chilly winds, then the ground and those clear and shallow canals upon it came up to meet him. When his two feet finally rested on the ground and he looked around, he realized that he was in the Mausoleum of Books.

Right afterwards, his two feet once more left the ground. It wasn’t because he was flying, but because he was being carried.

The Tianhai Divine Empress carried him like he was a small bird waiting to be slaughtered. Crossing the clear canals on the stone plain, they came to the lower end of the Mausoleum of Books’s Divine Path.

There was a pavilion here, and under this pavilion sat a man covered all over in armor, looking just like a bronze statue.

Tonight, there were many clouds over the capital and not many stars could be seen.

When the Tianhai Divine Empress carried Chen Changsheng to this pavilion, a tiny crack opened up in the clouds, the starlight spilling down through this crack onto the armor.

The person in the armor thus awakened, a distant and ancient gaze appearing in the gloomy depths of the helmet.

The Tianhai Divine Empress ordered, "Kill all who step upon the Divine Path."

The person in the armor did not speak, only slowly raised his right hand and gripped the sword at his waist.

With his movement, several plumes of dust spurted from his armor, six centuries of time seemingly contained within.