Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 1089 – The Silent Spring Day

The fierce snowstorm gradually died down.

Only with no wind could the snow stick.

The snow covered more and more names on that stone wall.

The Heavenly Dao Academy was deathly still.

After some time, Zhuang Zhihuan finally walked out from behind the several hundred snowmen.

This was the first time since the Orthodoxy cavalry had surrounded the Heavenly Dao Academy that he had actually stood in front of the teachers and students.

Because the speaker was the disciple he was most proud of: Famous Name Guan Bai.

It was also because many people had already become snowmen, leaving him no place to hide.

He looked at Guan Bai with cold and indifferent eyes.

“Why?”

“Because Teacher is wrong.”

“According to the information from the Mausoleum of Books, it should have been the Holy Maiden that arranged for you to return to the capital.”

“His Holiness wrote me a letter beforehand.”

“You’ve been watching the entire time?”

“Yes, because I had to make sure.”

“Make sure that I was wrong?”

Guan Bai gazed with mixed feelings at his beloved teacher as he said, “Correct, because no one has the right to use the lives of others to satisfy their own way of thinking.”

Zhuang Zhihuan was quiet for a very long time. Finally, he said, “So… you were just making sure.”

Guan Bai’s eyes became much calmer as he said, “Because at the very start, I did not believe that Teacher was this sort of person.”

Zhuang Zhihuan understood everything. He softly said, “It seems that His Holiness really does value you. He actually used so many forces just so you could watch this play.”

Guan Bai replied, “His Holiness is merciful and did not wish to see the Heavenly Dao Academy burned to ash for Teacher’s ambition, so His Holiness treated me with great patience.”

“Ah, ambition…”

Zhuang Zhihuan gazed into the distance, though it was hard to say whether he was thinking about Wenshui or the hometown he had not visited in ages. He repeated that word again.

Guan Bai wanted to know why he was sighing so emotionally.

After some time, Zhuang Zhihuan looked back to him and said, “Yes, I have ambition, and a great one. After all, I have the appropriate ability, a very high cultivation level, and powerful strength. And I’m also very young, so why can’t I pursue it?”

Guan Bai sternly said, “Teacher once taught me that one could achieve the Great Dao from the straight, so there was no need to pursue the bends and twists.”

Zhuang Zhihuan indifferently said, “Senior Brother Mao treated me extremely well and I also had a relationship with the chief branch of the Tang clan. If I stood on His Holiness the Pope’s side, I could also have obtained what I wanted. I could have kindled my ambition into a true wildfire, burning it most beautifully.”

Guan Bai said, “This is precisely what I don’t understand.”

Zhuang Zhihuan asked, “Have you also forgotten how Zhuang Huanyu died?”

Several years ago, Chen Changsheng brought Su Li back to the south from the snowy plains. Passing through Xunyang City, he was on the verge of returning to the capital.

On that night, Zhuang Huanyu, under a formidable mental pressure, chose to cut his throat by a well.

That courtyard was still in a remote part of the Heavenly Dao Academy and that well was still there, but it had remained uninhabited this entire time.

Many people had already forgotten the events of the Garden of Zhou, had forgotten about that outstanding youth that had come to the Heavenly Dao Academy after Guan Bai.

Today’s fierce cold had caused the ground around that well to fissure into an unrepairable state.

Those memories had also been forced out of the cold ground.

Zhuang Zhihuan naturally would not forget this matter, nor would Guan Bai.

During the All-School Martial Exhibition, he had challenged Chen Changsheng precisely for this matter.

He was rather grief-stricken as he asked, “Has Teacher still not forgotten about that matter?”

Whether it was through his relationship with Tang Thirty-Six or Principal Mao, Zhuang Zhihuan should have been one of Chen Changsheng’s trusted aides.

Had he chosen the other side just for this reason?

Zhuang Zhihuan shook his head. “Zhuang Huanyu died because his heart was too weak. It has nothing to do with His Holiness.”

Confused, Guan Bai asked, “Then why do all this?”

Zhuang Zhihuan lightly said, “I truly do not hate His Holiness. The problem is, who will believe me?”

Guan Bai was speechless.

Yes, even if the Pope trusted him, would Linghai Zhiwang? Would Daoist Siyuan? Would the Holy Maiden?

“Since I am incapable of walking this path, I can only choose the other method to burn my ambition.”

Zhuang Zhihuan’s hand rested on his chest, and he said, “Or else this place will never be at peace.”

Guan Bai advised, “Yet now that you have failed, why not give up?”

“You’ve seen my true face and now want me to give up? Who do you think you are?”

Zhuang Zhihuan mocked, “You’re my student. What right do you have to judge right and wrong? And what right do you have to ask me to give up?”

There was a pause, then Guan Bai declared, “Right now, I am speaking with you in my capacity as Archbishop of the Hall of Illustrious Persons.”

Cries of shock rose from the teachers and students of the Heavenly Dao Academy.

The previous Archbishop of the Hall of Illustrious Persons was the old Principal of the Heavenly Dao Academy, Mao Qiuyu.

They had believed that after Principal Mao Qiuyu broke into the Divine Domain, Zhuang Zhihuan was certain to become the Archbishop of the Hall of Illustrious Persons.

No one had expected that the Li Palace would send firm word that the Pope had no such intention.

The teachers and students of the Heavenly Dao Academy were at first dejected, and then furious. Today’s situation was in large part related to this matter.

The true circumstances had taken them all by surprise.

The position of Archbishop of the Hall of Illustrious Persons had been taken up by Senior Guan Bai?

The Li Palace was not suppressing the Heavenly Dao Academy?

Could it be… that Principal Mao had not been forced to leave by the Pope?

Then what would happen next?

Zhuang Zhihuan had taught in the Heavenly Dao Academy for many years and truly did have a very high prestige there.

But in the minds of these young students, Senior Guan Bai was their greatest pride, a true model in terms of both cultivation and conduct.

The snow had stopped a long time ago and spring was gradually returning to the world. Accumulated snow was hard to melt, so those students that had been made into snowmen were only slowly beginning to regain the ability to move.

They did not know what to do next, but they realized that they could no longer raise the weapons in their hands.

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One division of Orthodoxy cavalry was in front of the Mausoleum of Books.

One division of Orthodoxy cavalry was at the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education.

One division of the Orthodoxy cavalry was at the Heavenly Dao Academy.

But the Li Palace’s strongest force was elsewhere.

The inexplicable fall of snow made the Road of Peace as chilly as the tense situation taking place.

Daoist Siyuan’s left hand rested on his chest, lightly clenched, like he was playing with a walnut.

What was actually in his hand was a treasure of the Orthodoxy: the Universe Stamp.

Hu Thirty-Two stood next to him and half a step behind. His head was slightly lowered while his hands were buried in his sleeves. He looked like an inconspicuous shopkeeper.

No one knew that his left hand gripped the Falling Star Stone while his right hand held an ordinary and unremarkable dagger.

Similarly, no one knew if it was the divine strength of the Falling Star Stone that was more powerful or the dagger that was more frightening.

A vast crowd of people stood behind the two Prefects of the Orthodoxy.

A hint of bright and striking red occasionally appearing in the dense crowd of people made it seem even more wicked.

Two hundred and seventeen bishops and deacons of the Star Condensation Realm.

Sixteen cardinals of terrifying cultivation level.

They stood on the Road of Peace.

Surrounding the Prince of Xiang’s estate.

The other ten-some princely estates and the Tianhai estate were deathly silent.

Let alone the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets, even the Great Zhou Imperial Court would find it hard to gather so many cultivators of this level.

This was the Li Palace’s strength. It was usually concealed, but once it appeared, everything in the world had to fall silent out of respect.