Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 1154 – The Fisherman by Xining Village’s Stream Uses His Spear

“You want to lock down my soul and kill me with a single strike? An excellent method, but it’s a pity that it didn’t work, because you are already old.”

Black Robe walked toward the small carriage. The cold winds blowing through the holes in her black clothes made them look like a war banner from the Netherworld.

Shang Xingzhou’s eyes remained indifferent as he took in this sight, but the young Daoist boy behind him was scared out of his wits. His small face was snow-white and his entire body trembled.

None of the surrounding cavalry had noticed what was happening on the small mountain. It was obvious that Black Robe had employed some sort of method to prevent them from finding out.

The battle on the plains continued, and it was even more intense than before. The Mountain-toppling Fiend seemed to have gotten a little closer.

The Second Demon General suddenly led the tribal elders and experts in an assault on the Central Army Camp.

Sounds of fighting rose from all around the plains, all to conceal that killing intent in the small mountain.

Shang Xingzhou indifferently said, “I truly am very old, because I am not you, who actually used such repulsive methods on your body to live a few more years. For the once-supreme beauty of the world to become a person that’s not a person, a ghost that’s not a ghost, after you die, will you still have the face to see your older brother?”

“Shut your mouth!”

Black Robe’s voice turned shrill, as sharp as iron needles, as it echoed across the small mountain.

Several small holes instantly appeared on the painting in the sky.

“None of you have the right to mention his name!”

Black Robe furiously screamed.

And then she immediately calmed down. The entire process had been extremely sudden and strange.

Her hood could not conceal the green tinging her face, and the addition of that faint smile made her seem even stranger.

“I will kill you, and then I will have Brother in the Netherworld kill you again, kill you countless times.”

Shang Xingzhou’s expression remained calm as he said, “You first have to be able to kill me.”

After so saying, he abruptly began to cough so badly that his always-erect posture gradually began to bend like an old pine.

The young Daoist boy held his arm and massaged his back. His eyes were watery as he shouted in his childish voice, “Ancestor, Ancestor, are you okay?”

Shang Xingzhou straightened his body with some difficulty and then waved his hand.

“Look at your pitiful face full of wrinkles and your head of white hair. How could you possibly be my opponent?”

Black Robe looked at him and said, “Thus, go die.”

The words ‘go die’ were often only heard by the marketplace well, and it was often only vicious women who said them, uttering the phrase like a curse.

Black Robe spoke them very calmly and elegantly. She was not cursing him, only describing something about to take place.

Her composure concealed an admiration that could never be voiced, an appreciation for talent.

After all, in these last one thousand years of history, she and Shang Xingzhou were the two most outstanding schemers.

Alas, any scheme still relied on strength to ultimately realize, and victory and defeat still relied on life and death. This seemed to slightly deprive them of beauty.

Black Robe disappeared.

She reappeared in front of the carriage.

There was no link between these two scenes. They seemed to be two independent incidents.

The peak of the mountain was quiet and still.

Patches of grass sank into the ground, several clear footprints appearing in them.

The blur left behind by Black Robe’s body against the background of green and yellow appeared like the tip of some giant brush. Dripping with black ink, it hungered to draw a painting or produce a volume of calligraphy.

This brush did not land on that giant painting in the air, but on the carriage.

Black Robe’s thin and withered finger, suffused with a faint green light, stabbed at Shang Xingzhou’s throat.

……

……

A hint of regret appeared in Shang Xingzhou’s eyes.

As was said before, he and Black Robe were the two most remarkable schemers in the world.

In truth, he really did want to exchange blows with Black Robe.

Alas, he truly had gotten old.

As the only person in tens of thousands of years to have achieved great success in the cultivation of the Canon of Flowing West, he knew more than anyone else the power of time.

Every night of the last ten years, he had been able to sense his life passing, his soul melting into the void.

He was a member of the Orthodoxy’s legitimate line, so he was not willing to be like Black Robe and use an evil method to prolong his life, and his strength was also inferior.

His attempt just now to lock down Black Robe’s soul had failed, so he could only wait for Black Robe to come and kill him.

He felt profound regret at not being able to battle her when he was at his peak. It didn’t need to be a simple and direct battle, but a battle of exceptional schemes and most unscrupulous methods.

Did he have any other regrets besides this, like his death?

He had driven his carriage to this mountain to lure the demons into coming to kill him.

Luring Black Robe was already the best result he could imagine.

There was a small stream outside Xining Village’s old temple, and there were many fish in this stream. It was a favorite pastime of Yuren and Chen Changsheng to stand by this stream and watch the fish play, but his was fishing.

It didn’t matter if they were koi or red snappers, if they were large or small, if they were steamed or braised. They were all delicious.

He was the world’s finest fisherman, and since he had made himself the bait today, who was still capable of escaping?

……

……

The autumn sun was at its zenith, and it was precisely the brightest time of day.

Black Robe’s mood was just as bright and charming as the sunlight.

The brighter the surroundings, the darker the carriage compartment seemed.

Her hand was still two feet away from Shang Xingzhou.

She saw the regret in Shang Xingzhou’s eyes and the fear in the young Daoist boy’s.

But then she saw a sudden point of white in the carriage.

What was this wan and pale white?

Was it the face of a ghost demanding her life or was it a white sheet of paper?

And then a chilling ray of light tore through the darkness and slashed at Black Robe.

It was so bright that it felt like someone in the carriage had lit a sun.

It was so cold that the grass on the mountain slope was instantly covered in a thin layer of frost.

What sort of light would have two completely different Qis?

In a swamp ten-some li away, Wang Po leaned against the husk of a tree, watching the nearby Mountain-toppling Fiend with incredible focus.

Suddenly, he sensed something and turn to look at the small mountain.

At almost the same time, the Mountain-toppling Fiend also turned to look in that direction.

The Demon Commander’s cold gaze suddenly blazed with fervor and then almost immediately cooled as worry worked its way in.

The Second Demon General and the tribal experts attacking the Central Army Camp had also sensed the appearance of this powerful Qi.

Chen Changsheng and a few Divine Generals also sensed it.

Xu Yourong sensed it the most clearly and accurately, because she was the one most familiar with it.

When she was living in the Imperial Palace as a child and got bored, she would often go to seek out that spear and play with it.

……

……

Black Robe howled and retreated with unimaginable speed.

Her eyebrows were covered in frost and everything she saw with her eyes seemed to be suffused with a rainbow glow.

This included that spear tearing through the darkness.

There was a soft squelch.

Black Robe landed on the grass several dozen zhang away.

A hole had appeared on the right side of her chest.

Blood poured out of it.

It was a terrifying wound.

Golden flecks of light drifted out of the bloody hole, making it also seem like a setting sun.

“How is this spear in your hands!”

Black Robe stared at the carriage at the peak of the mountain and yelled in anger, “Why are you here?”

The white sheet of paper flapped in the wind.

Xiao Zhang walked out of the carriage, a spear in his hand.