Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 369 A Conversation Between Two Geniuses

Translated by: Pipipingu

Edited by: Nora

The glow of the sunset near the horizon slowly disappeared, as did the sunset glow on the lake. The breeze that blew across the lake became colder and colder, and the bonfire on the lake shore was already put out. Only ashes remained and there was not much residual heat. Chen Changsheng pulled his garment tight, and looked at the lake and mountains for a long time without speaking. Just where was the assassin who did not appear in the end, but could suddenly appear at any time?

Su Li understood his current feelings and proclaimed, “I have already said, since he decided to wait, he will always continue waiting, waiting like a weak-minded person, all the way until he waits himself to death.”

What he said obviously implied some hidden meaning.

Chen Changsheng was worried about what would happen if the assassin could not continue waiting? He did not believe he had any chance in front of an expert like that.

“Senior… still has some strength?”

In the journey from the snowy plains to the south, Su Li did not even walk. In the most important moment at dawn today, he had used the Yellow Paper Umbrella to block Xue He’s last blade. This could not help but make Chen Changsheng feel a little hopeful.

Su Li lectured, “In the past few days, I accumulated a little bit of strength with great difficulty, and all of it was used to save your little life in the morning. How can I still have strength? Do you think I am those two tireless furry deer?”

The two furry deer were on the lake shore not far away. They slept with their front legs bent, and seemed to be very warm.

“Speaking of which, the final sword you used to heavily injure Xue He… was very good. It was actually able to suddenly flick upwards after the sword energy was used and directly reversed the battle situation. What sword move is that, actually so awesome?”

When Chen Changsheng heard Su Li’s question he felt very speechless. He thought that there was no way he couldn’t tell what sword move it was?

However, just like the other conversations he often had with Su Li, he knew he had to answer.

“It’s… the Burning Heaven Sword.”

When he said these three words, he felt very awkward, revealing an uncomfortable expression on his face.

However, Su Li seemed to be much more thick-skinned than him and praised, “The person who could come up with such a sword move should be very outstanding.”

Chen Changsheng could no longer continue. He hugged his knees and lowered his head, treating it as if he did not hear anything.

The Burning Heaven Sword was a secret sword technique of the Mount Li Sword Sect. Like the Secret Sword of the Golden Crow, they were all sword techniques created by Su Li.

He was unwilling to say anymore, so Su Li was no longer able to brag about himself. After saying nothing for a while, his expression became stern. He looked at him and asked expressionlessly, “Why do you know my Burning Heaven Sword?”

This, indeed, was a problem.

Cultivation sects always paid particular attention to not divulging their techniques to outsiders. Those who learned their techniques would definitely be hunted till death. Besides, the Burning Heaven Sword was not an ordinary sword technique of the Mount Li Sword Sect, but a secret move that Su Li had created himself.

“The Burning Heaven Sword… was recorded in the secrets of the Mount Li Style.”

Chen Changsheng’s expression was rather nervous as he explained it to Su Li.

Su Li thought back to hundreds of years ago, before the great war had ended, before he had exceeded his master. He was still a naive little boy, and he gave a copy of the extremely powerful sword technique he had created to his teachers under their request… He looked at Chen Changsheng and said blankly, “So my secrets of the Mount Li Style are in your hands.”

The Mount Li Sword Sect disciples who had participated in the Ivy Festival and the Grand Examination, such as Gou Hanshi, Guan Feibai and so on, had already confirmed this matter long ago. However, Su Li travelled everywhere and did not care about these matters at all, so this was the first time he found out. When he said the secrets of the Mount Li Style, he stared into Chen Changsheng’s eyes, and he stressed each of his words extremely clearly, seeming rather solemn.

Chen Changsheng grew up reading in the old temple of the Xining Village, and he was also by himself after he had entered the Orthodox Academy. He did not have any teachers or schoolmates, and did not have any understanding of schools and sects at all. He naturally did not know what the secrets of the Mount Li Style meant to Mount Li, so he nodded his head, “I learned Senior’s Burning Heaven Sword from there.”

Su Li raised both eyebrows and said, “Only the sword manual is recorded in the secrets, with only the moves and sword paths. However, there is no method for circulating the sword essence in there. There is only the form and not the intent, so how did you learn it?”

Chen Changsheng answered honestly, “I designed two paths to circulate the true essence myself, and after my own calculations and deductions, as well as using it twice, the strength is definitely not as great as Senior’s true Burning Heaven Sword, but it can be used.”

Hearing that, Su Li went silent for a very long time.

Chen Changsheng asked, “Senior?”

Su Li looked at him and said, “No wonder when I saw you use it, it felt slightly weird… you designed it yourself… since when did designing a path for the sword become such an easy matter? Perhaps you actually are a genius in the path of the sword?”

Chen Changsheng did not dare accept it and said, “It’s all Senior’s intelligence, I just made a few changes.”

“Sometimes, changes are even harder than creating it originally. I created the Burning Heaven Sword when I was fourteen, and improved it when I was fifteen. I am an exceptional genius, so then you could you still be an idiot? To be able to create your own pathways to circulate true essence, you obviously are a genius, or even a great genius rarely seen even in a thousand years. It’s just that the people in the capital are idiots, never realizing what they should have been attaching importance to. Probably even Gou Hanshi did not realize it.” Su Li looked at him and praised, “Only the demi-humans who have different meridians from humans but want to use human cultivation methods can roughly understand how great the thing you have done is… no wonder the White Emperor couple allowed their beloved daughter to become your student, even giving you my secrets of the Mount Li Style.”

Chen Changsheng had never felt that he was very outstanding, other than being fluent with the Daoist Canon.

It was only because people said that Gou Hanshi being fluent with the Daoist Canon was very outstanding that he understood his senior Yu Ren and he himself were also very outstanding. Instead, today, there was someone who said that he was very outstanding in the aspect of cultivation and the path of the sword, even calling him a peerless genius. Also, the person who had said it was a publicly renowned genius himself. This made him feel very surprised, very happy and also slightly disappointed.

Afterwards, when he heard Su Li mention the secrets of the Mount Li Style again, he finally returned to his senses. He said, “Senior, the secrets of the Mount Li Style were given to me by Luoluo, but it’s not mine, so I can’t give it to you.”

Su Li saw that he finally understood what he implied, and was ready to smile and extend his hand to receive the secrets of the Mount Li Style from Chen Changsheng respectfully in an unmindful fashion. At this moment, he was informing his master’s spirit in heaven, but something unexpected actually happened… this made him very mad. He thought that he had just praised him, but was it instead heard by a pig?

Chen Changsheng saw that his expression was unpleasant and wanted to ease the atmosphere. He smiled, “Senior cannot fight over stuff with juniors.”

He really was not good at speaking. This joke was not funny.

If Su Li was about to act at this moment, he would definitely directly take the secrets of the Mount Li Style off him. As a result, the atmosphere did not take a good turn, and instead became even more awkward.

“My secrets of the Mount Li Style were stolen away by the White Emperor clan. I am only taking it back from them.”

Su Li looked at him and said. The way he said it was so righteous that it seemed like it reached the clouds, and pierced a hole in the clouds so the moon could be seen. However, he knew it was just an excuse, or in other words, a way out of an embarrassing situation. At this moment, he could not even defeat Chen Changsheng so he was unable to steal it. As a result, he could only not steal it, and leave the matter for later.

The problem was that Chen Changsheng did not know. He thought Su Li really thought like this and asked out of curiosity, “Senior, why haven’t you gone to White Emperor City all these years to get the secrets of the Mount Li Style back?”

To him, with Su Li’s level of cultivation and personality, even if the secrets of the Mount Li Sword Style were lost to the White Emperor City, he should have already killed his way there for it ages ago. As a result, when he asked this question, he had directly pulled Su Li’s path out of the embarrassing situation from under his feet.

Su Li’s expression became rather ugly. He thought that his praises to this little person before him really were much better heard by a pig.