Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 1098 – You Don’t Want to Try?

“Master, when you had me go to the Lingyan Pavilion to read Lord Wang’s notebook, you said that the secret to defying the heavens and changing fate could be found inside, but I didn’t see it.”

Chen Changsheng’s words to Shang Xingzhou caused the mood in the Mausoleum of Books to become rather strange.

This was a secret known to very few people.

Even after this master and disciple began to fall out, this secret had still not managed to get out.

These words should have been said three years ago, but Chen Changsheng felt that since all the time in Xining Village’s old temple, including all those conversations, had all been part of a plan, what meaning would there be in anguished questions about the past? Moreover, he had obtained an extremely important Heavenly Tome Monolith from the Lingyan Pavilion and seen many secrets within Wang Zhice’s notebook, allowing him to comprehend many things, greatly assisting him in his cultivation, and providing many warnings on how to live his life. This was already enough.

He added, “The only thing I saw in that notebook was the phrase ‘eating people’.”

Reminiscence appeared on Wang Zhice’s face, somewhat emotional, or even sorrowful.

The experiences he had written down in that notebook were the most authentic historical accounts of the founding era of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The most authentic history was often also the darkest.

The seemingly calm sounds of reading from that humble alley had concealed countless screams from the flower barges on the Luo River.

The seemingly monotonous life in the court had concealed countless gleaming blades and shadowy swords.

Wang Zhice had not mentioned the coup of the Hundred Herb Garden, but a few words here and there exposed the cruelty of that night.

The so-called golden age could only follow one person’s desires in the end. The steps leading to the highest point were strewn with corpses drenched in blood. The several hundred years that followed were full of conflicts of father against son, brother against brother, husband against wife, lord against subject. So… master against disciple naturally wasn’t anything absurd.

Chen Changsheng paused for a while, then said, “I just could never understand why you never personally acted.”

Three years ago, on that snowy night in the Orthodox Academy, he and Shang Xingzhou had discussed this question.

At the time, he had provided an answer. He was mentioning it again only because he wanted to vent his feelings.

Shang Xingzhou’s Dao and heart could be described as perfect. The only weakness was Chen Changsheng.

Because with anything he did, even slaughtering everyone in the capital, he could still convince himself that there was a reason for such action.

But with regards to Chen Changsheng, he found it impossible to convince himself.

The more he tried, the more unpleasant he found Chen Changsheng.

It had started from Xining Village, started from the old temple, started from many years ago.

As time passed, this emotion weighed heavier and heavier on his heart, and he found the him that did not like Chen Changsheng more and more unpleasant.

He did not want to see Chen Changsheng.

At the very end, he had even wished that Chen Changsheng had never appeared in this world.

He did not want to act personally because this would only make his Dao heart even harder to pacify.

He hoped that Chen Changsheng could die at someone else’s hand.

Three years ago, in the Orthodox Academy, he had said that as long as Chen Changsheng did not return to the capital, he would not move against him.

But later on, he found it impossible to resist the temptation.

And so Zhou Tong had died, Chusu had failed, and that Mu of the Great Western Continent was killed.

Chen Changsheng did not die in the snowy mountains, and encountered that perilous situation on Holy Maiden Peak.

“We cultivate the heart. Of the myriad things in the world, only the heart cannot fool itself.”

Chen Changsheng asked in confusion, “If I died at another person’s hand, could you really convince yourself that it had nothing to do with you?”

Shang Xingzhou looked at him, saying nothing.

Chen Changsheng finished, “Please personally act. In the final moment, perhaps you might be able to clearly see your own heart. Does Master truly not want to try?”

……

……

I want to try.

In that storm in Xunyang City, when facing Zhu Luo, Wang Po had uttered these words. In White Emperor City, when facing an unbeatable opponent, Xuanyuan Po had also said these words. Xu Yourong had also said them, as had Chen Changsheng.

Compared to Shang Xingzhou, they were still very young. They had enough time to try, a margin to commit error. Perhaps it was for this reason that when they reached a point where they had to choose, they would exhibit more bravery and straightforwardness.

Then, you don’t want to try?

Shang Xingzhou calmly stared at Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng’s and Xu Yourong’s performance today truly had been remarkable, earning his admiration. And there was also that child in the Imperial Palace. His silence today had truly been splendid beyond compare.

But these juniors had still underestimated that dense volcanic power hidden beneath his patience and silence.

Even if Wang Zhice had been persuaded to remain uninvolved, he was still confident that he could seize control of the capital.

There was no reason for him to accept Chen Changsheng’s proposal, but then he heard that question.

This was a drop of dew hanging from a branch drooping over a stone wall: beautiful, pure, touching.

It made him think back to many, many years ago, when he was still just a young Daoist boy.

In Luoyang’s Monastery of Eternal Spring were two Daoist boys called Yin and Shang.

At that time, they had not yet parted to separately seek the Dao at the Heavenly Dao Academy and the Orthodox Academy.

Their master was naturally no ordinary individual, but he had still silently died.

It had truly been a chaotic era back then. Luoyang was besieged for a very long time, with demons all over the mountains and plains outside the city, and the entire world smelled of rotting fish.

When they left Luoyang, they were accompanied by a youth with the surname of Tang.

In that journey, they saw many miserable sights, deeply affecting each of them in different ways.

Finally, at a certain place, he had stopped and said to those mountains awash in twilight, “I still want to try.”

He changed his name and placed himself under Emperor Taizong’s service, getting to know many extraordinary individuals.

Those people were front and center in the action, but he continued to stand in dark corners, silent and inconspicuous.

He remained as such no matter how glorious the others were.

The demons had still not been exterminated, meaning that he could not relax for a single moment.

In the end, he got used to this life, even liked this sort of life.

An emperor needed a person like this to help him from the shadows in order to become emperor.

Other than a scant few people, no one knew that he was Shang Xingzhou, a legitimate successor to the Orthodoxy. They only knew him as the doctor, Daoist Ji.

When he overturned the Tianhai Divine Empress’s rule, he decided to put Zhou Tong in a high position without regard to the undercurrents of society. This had not just been because of his promise. He simply did not think there was anything wrong with what Zhou Tong did. It had been what he was doing for the last few centuries.

It was just that he would occasionally feel a tinge of regret.

Gone was his youth.

Shang Xingzhou looked at Chen Changsheng, looked at those calm and persistent eyes, at his clear and vivid features, and he thought to himself, exactly this sort of youth.

Several hundred years had passed. Luoyang was no longer besieged and no more were those dismal scenes in which human ate human. No matter how today ended, whether or not the human world fell into civil war, the Human race would no longer need to worry about returning to that horrifying era. People would no longer have to live such bitter lives.

Didn’t that mean that he also did not need to live such a bitter life?

That starting from now, he could live more for himself, a little more wantonly?

As he quietly stared at Chen Changsheng, he suddenly said, “Fine. Let us try and see if we can end this story.”

When Emperor Xian’s illness worsened and Tianhai refused to return the throne, he began to write this story.

This story had opened with that existence on that continent covered in white sand, on the other side of the sea of stars, helping him pluck a fruit.

So this story naturally had to end with the death of this fruit.