Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Xu Yourong sat back down and took out the Tong Bow and the Wu Arrows, and then lowered her head in silence.

Chen Changsheng slept behind her while countless crystals encircled her.

Time slowly flowed by. The monsters hidden in the grass were slow at the onset, their inborn fear towards her Qi deterring them.

The faint tune of the zither did not grow more frantic, and it did not urge them on. Instead, it grew even calmer, as if placating these monsters.

It soothed the hearts and souls of these monsters, telling them to no longer fear, inspiring them with the courage to overcome their fears.

The surface of the water between the grass suddenly began to fiercely shake. The previous tiny ripples suddenly converged into one, transforming into a towering wave.

The wave rolled across the pile of flattened grass, soaking her knees.

She lifted her head and opened her eyes, staring into the depths of the water. Then she bent the bow, nocked an arrow, and then slightly loosened her fingers.

Whoosh.

The Wu Arrow flew through the air, piercing deeply into the water.

There was nothing in the water, so what was this arrow being shot at? It could not be the water, could it?

In the next moment, the wave of water suddenly dispersed and the ripples on the surface were becalmed.

It was as though one arrow was all it took for her to calm the waters.

Xu Yourong's Wu Arrow naturally was not aimed at the water, nor was it aimed at the wave, but at the monster that had stirred up the wave.

The limpid water was slowly dyed red.

The corpse of a dragon serpent slowly floated up. Laying across the sea of grass, its corpse seemed as massive as a city wall.

A Wu Arrow was planted between its eyes, buried all the way up to its feathers. In comparison to the massive body of the dragon serpent, the Wu Arrow was like a thin blade of grass.

However, this diminutive arrow had easily struck down the dragon serpent.

This was not the end, but rather the beginning.

In the next moment, the surface of the water began to fiercely shake. Countless plumes of water arose, and then, accompanied by heart-shaking hisses of anger, dozens of massive figures breached the surface of the water and alighted upon the flattened grass.

Each of those massive figures was one dragon serpent!

Each dragon serpent's head seemed larger than that pile of grass that Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng were on!

Dozens of dragon serpents broke through the surface, obscuring the sky as they descended with astonishing momentum.

The little girl wielding her bow on that pile of grass seemed tiny in comparison.

The dragon serpent was an extremely famous monster on the continent, because its skin could be used to make the finest armor. From this fact alone, one could infer how great the dragon serpent's defensive power was. The seemingly soft and sleek serpent skin was abnormally tough. Not to mention normal weapons, even the strike of an Ethereal Opening cultivator would find it hard to pierce through such skin.

As the humans, demons, the demi-humans, and other such intelligent beings slowly began to dominate the Eastern continent, the vast majority of dragon serpents slowly began to seclude themselves in the rarely traveled lakes and pools in the wilderness. Despite that, they were still renowned for their ferocity. Who could have possibly imagined that this plain in the Garden of Zhou actually contained so many dragon serpents? Moreover, these dragon serpents made up only a portion of the monsters in these plains.

It was no wonder that, in these past several hundred years, all the Ethereal Opening cultivators who had entered these plains had never been able to survive.

The legends said that the dragon serpents possessed the blood of the dragons, but they suffered from a plight as well. Their souls would never awaken, and they could only live in the water. Perhaps this was the reason why they held the greatest animosity towards the bloodlines of the dragon and the phoenix. This was probably the reason why they had been the first to attack Xu Yourong.

As these dragon serpents struck out, their bodies covered the sky and cast a shadow over the area.

Xu Yourong's quiver only contained a bit more than ten Wu Arrows, so how could these be enough to account for each one of these powerful monsters?

This was a problem, but she swiftly arrived at the solution to this problem. Since there were not enough arrows, then she would not use her arrows.

As those massive figures attacked, they gave off terrifying hisses. She calmly gazed at them and once again drew back her bow, but there was no arrow on the bowstring this time.

Her actions were still as steady as ever, concise without any unnecessary movements. She would not waste a single bit of true essence or strength.

Each time she drew back her bow, it was an exact duplicate of the first time without the slightest difference.

Except for the direction the Tong Bow was pointed at.

Twangtwangtwangtwang~! The bowstring vibrated like the strings of a zither, and the sound it issued formed a most unyielding and monotonous song.

Countless slender white streaks departed from the bowstring and flew through the air, landing on the enormous bodies of the dragon serpents.

The dragon serpents' incredibly sturdy skin, so tough that not even Ethereal Opening cultivators would be able to split it, when touched by these slender white streaks, began to crack open, piece by piece.

The slender white streaks seemed like they could sunder the air, as though they possessed the ability to rend almost everything.

In an instant, the bodies of those dozens of dragon serpents were densely gorged with bloody wounds, and their blood spilled down like a majestic downpour. Within those wounds, one could make out the twisted dragon flesh and even the dense white bones. It was an incredibly bloody and terrifying sight.

The dragon serpents were in immeasurable pain, their upper halves writhing violently in the air while their lower halves stirred up colossal waves that would shock the heavens.

Those turbid waves touched the skies, and then were followed soon after by the wounded dragon serpents' most frenzied attack.

Xu Yourong sat amidst the grass, her expression serene, unafraid and unawed, indicating that she would not yield. She simply began to fire her bow even faster, the blurring speed of her arms rendering her moves completely unpredictable.

Twangtwangtwangtwang! Several hundred, no, several thousand slender white streaks shot forth from the bowstring, scattering out in every direction from the pile of grass she stood on.

Those dragon serpents could not even approach the pile of grass before they were cut into boulder-sized chunks. The chunks ricocheted off each other as they plummeted to the surface of the water, filling the sky like a rain of meteors.

With continuous booms, the countless pieces of the dragon serpents splashed into the water, stirring up enormous waves. Only after a long time did the water gradually grow calm once more.

The water had long since been dyed red by the blood of the dragon serpents, but now it began to gradually turn black. It was suffused with an unbearable stench, like a particular cheap and shoddy ink.

When those dozens of massive dragon serpents had covered the sky, it appeared that the heavily injured her had no means to resist, left only with the option of becoming a meal together with the sleeping Chen Changsheng. However, who would have thought that the feeble her only casually drawing back her bowstring would be able to turn those terrifying monsters into a pile of meat chunks?

Of course, even though she had seemed to draw back the Tong Bow very casually, it was in reality extremely tiresome.

Moreover, it still had not ended.

The inky water once more began to shake, creating even more ripples. The ripples crisscrossed everywhere, giving rise to an indescribable design.

The countless monsters concealed in the plains, urged on by the tune of the zither, charged out like a tide into the water.

Xu Yourong glanced at Chen Changsheng, her calm face expressing a little confusion and self-ridicule.

What she was confused about was Chen Changsheng. Her calculations with the Fated Star Plate clearly indicated that his life force had been exhausted, so why was he still alive? It was to the extent that she found it impossible to easily depart. She was also confused about herself. She clearly knew that the youth from the Snow Mountain Sect would die, so why could she not abandon him? Since yesterday night, she could have ignored him at any time, but why did she not?

The self-ridicule was obviously aimed at herself. Back when she was small and lived in the palace, the Empress would often tell her that she was too soft-hearted, stressing that it was ‘no good’. Later on, when she moved to the South Stream Temple, the Holy Maiden would often tell her that she was too hard-hearted, and that this, too, was no good. Then was her heart too soft or too hard? Or did her wavering and uncertainty prove Nanke’s words of calling her small-minded correct?

Just as she was thinking about these things, the dim sky above the plains suddenly resounded with ear-piercing and strange cries. She raised her head and saw several hundred demon vultures flying over. This time, the sky truly was overshadowed, the demon vultures not letting a single ray of light through. The dimness turned into gloominess. Simultaneously, her eyes became even calmer, so much so that they could even be described as indifferent.