Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Mo Yu appeared on the walls of the Imperial City. Her appearance was still as beautiful as a painting, though it was one tinged with exhaustion.

The Prince of Louyang nervously stood next to her, deeply concerned that some cold arrow would fly out of nowhere.

Mo Yu declared, "Since Your Highness has already resolved yourself, I can presume that not even Prince Chen Liu's life can threaten you."

Though she said that it couldn't threaten him, she was still actually threatening him.

Many eyes in the rebel army looked to the Prince of Xiang.

The Prince of Xiang's eyes teared up as he said, "My son will certainly die without regrets. When this is over, I will posthumously confer upon him the title of Crown Prince."

In deep admiration, Mo Yu said no more.

……

……

Prince Chen Liu's face was rather pale. Perhaps it was because the weather today was rather gloomy, or perhaps it was because he had not seen the sun for a very long time.

He turned to an elderly eunuch and said, "I do not know when I will be able to repay your kindness in saving my life."

It was for good reason that the Prince of Zhongshan's beautiful concubine had been worried. Prince Chen Liu lived up to his reputation as the offspring of the Imperial clan most similar to Emperor Taizong. He possessed an unimaginable charisma, so that even though he had been under house arrest for ten years, not only did he fail to become depressed, he succeeded in gaining many supporters.

This old eunuch was the most important of them.

This was the laundry department, the most disorderly and inconspicuous place on the eastern face of the Imperial City.

No one could have expected that the prince that should have been under heavy guard in the Weiyang Palace was already outside the Imperial City.

The old eunuch sighed. Without saying anything, he turned and walked back into the Imperial City.

Prince Chen Liu gazed up at the gloomy sky.

He did not continue to ponder what the old eunuch's sigh meant, because such thoughts were meaningless.

His eyes were even calmer than before, and only in the very depths could one spy a very faint fatigue.

……

……

The Imperial City was already surrounded by the rebel army while the demi-human North-Pacifying Army was in charge of the southeastern district, the area in which the Orthodox Academy and the Hundred Herb Garden were located.

The Orthodox Academy was under such tight guard that even a drop of water would find it difficult to get through. Not even during the coup of the Mausoleum of Books had it been so heavily guarded. The teachers and students who had chosen to remain in the school were extremely nervous and didn't know what to do. As a result, no one noticed a seemingly rather thin student traverse the thick forest by the lake to reach the walls of the Imperial City.

This was a forbidden area of the Orthodox Academy, and the door leading to the Imperial City had both a powerful array and a difficult lock protecting it.

The thin student seemed to not care for these rules, and they easily broke through the array. There was also a key in their sleeve that let them open that old and rusted lock.

She was no ordinary student. She was very familiar with both the Imperial Palace and the Orthodox Academy. To be more precise, she was the Vice Principal of the Orthodox Academy.

While Prince Chen Liu was making his escape from the Imperial Palace, Luoluo was sneaking her way in.

She was offering the greetings of the Orthodox Academy to the emperor and also introducing a new variable.

The White Emperor had sent the North-Pacifying Army to show his support for the Prince of Xiang.

But if she was in the Imperial Palace, would the North-Pacifying Army dare to attack? More importantly, was there a chance that the North-Pacifying Army would heed her orders and change sides?

No one knew how the situation would develop, because at this point, the rebel army did not know that Luoluo had entered the Imperial Palace.

But Prince Chen Liu felt an ill omen.

The winds from the west were too wet, or the water in the well was too sweet. There were always some inexplicable details that would make people begin to draw connections.

Right after escaping the Imperial Palace, he spoke briefly with his father before bringing up his incredibly determined demand.

Regardless of whether the Imperial Design could be opened, the rebel army should still begin to attack the Imperial City so as to place a greater pressure on the defenders.

"The Imperial Design can only block experts like Father and Uncle Cao, but it cannot block ordinary soldiers. Moreover, there are many other places in the capital that need to be seized."

The Prince of Xiang found it hard to reject Prince Chen Liu's proposal in the face of that wan complexion and those gloomy eyes.

Battles would naturally occur between the seized and seizers, and blood would flow. When the situation turned even more chaotic, houses might even be set on fire.

With Prince Chen Liu's return, the rebel army's movements became more intense. By the evening of the same day, fires could be seen all over the capital.

The self-control that both sides had maintained for so many days gradually began to slip, and scenes of burning, killing, and looting began popping up all over the streets around the Imperial Palace and the Li Palace.

In Prince Chen Liu's view, these were all costs that had to be endured to ensure success, so he didn't need to worry about them.

He was more concerned about other things.

He led three hundred cavalry of the rebel army to the Orthodox Academy.

"A temple of Xining rules the world."

As he gazed at the gate of the Orthodox Academy, Prince Chen Liu said these words.

This phrase had been circulating the continent for ten-some years and was on the verge of becoming a truth, a belief amongst the common people.

In order to destroy this phrase, he first had to destroy the Orthodox Academy.

But he was truly very familiar with this gate.

Many years ago, in a bout of autumn rain, Tianhai Shengxue returned from the north and brought his clan's soldiers to ram the gate of the Orthodox Academy into pieces.

Jin Yulu moved, defeating Divine General Fei Dian, and then after that was the Ivy Festival. After that incident, the Orthodox Academy made no attempts to repair the gate, using its ruins to deliver a slap to the Tianhai clan's face.

It was only during the Grand Examination that Tianhai Shengxue finally conceded. He personally led the effort to repair the gate, and another story was born in the capital.

That period of time was also the start of Prince Chen Liu's close relationship with the Orthodox Academy. During the repairs to the gate, he had personally seen the designs and given his opinions.

In other words, he had also made some contributions to the current gate.

At that time, all the ivy in front of the gate had been torn away and the smooth stones had been completely exposed.

Now, the ivy had regrown, obscuring the majority of the words.

"Smash it."

Prince Chen Liu calmly spoke these two words.

The rebel soldiers carried the prepared battering ram and, under the eyes of the confused demi-human soldiers, they viciously slammed it against the gate.

After several thunderous booms, the gate of the Orthodox Academy cracked and then slowly toppled to the sides.

As the night set in, the soldiers of the rebel and demi-human armies lit torches.

The torches illuminated the depths of Hundred Flowers Lane, the shattered remnants of the academy gate, and many young faces.

Those faces were all very young, and they were clearly very nervous. Fear was starkly visible in their eyes.

But not a single person had left, because they were the teachers and students of the Orthodox Academy.

Prince Chen Liu was rather surprised.

It was not because of this sight, but because at the very front of these teachers and students was Tianhai Shengxue.

The fires clearly illuminated Tianhai Shengxue's face.

Prince Chen Liu felt like the workings of the world were truly wondrous. He began to laugh rather bitterly.

……

……

It was a gloomy day in Xuelao City. The clouds were extremely thick, tightly blocking out the sun.

The streets of the city were so dark that it seemed like it was still before dawn. One could occasionally hear a dog bark, as well as the sounds of pursuit and fighting.

The demon soldiers were still resisting. They clearly lacked any sort of organization, but they were still very troublesome to the human army.

The cavalry galloped along the wide and straight boulevards while signal fireworks occasionally lit up the sky. Finally, at dusk, the intense battle began to die down and then cease.

Xuelao City was very large, and it was necessary to clear the blockades and deal with the occasional ambush from a demon expert, so the soldiers could not advance too quickly. There was also one other important reason that the holy carriage in which Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong sat did not arrive at the forest of buildings that was the Imperial City until dusk. There were still very far from the Demon Palace itself.

A blooming flower of fire blazed at the very front of the convoy, spitting out rays of white light and driving away the deepening darkness. Someone very close would have been able to see that this torch was not made of gold or jade, but an extremely transparent glass. While it had a milky white surface, countless crystals were glimmering within, all of them seemingly containing infinite energy.

This was a divine artifact of the Demon race: the White Sun Flame.

In the war from several hundred years ago, Emperor Taizong and his generals seized this divine artifact on the battlefield and brought it back to the capital, placing it in the Lingyan Pavilion for safekeeping.

Today, the human army had brought it back to Xuelao City, but it did not feel like it was returning home. Instead, it was like some powerful will passing on its legacy.

The demon commoners who had been driven from their homes into the streets and the impoverished demons standing in front of their shabby homes curiously gazed at the human troops advancing to the Demon Palace.

When they saw those flames of white jade, they began to whisper to each other. Gradually and mysteriously, they began to kneel.