Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 659 – One Leaf, One World

This battle was in the human world, yet not in the human world, perhaps because the blows both sides exchanged had already surpassed the scope of humans.

By the stream behind Xining Village’s old temple, the monk walked up the Tianhai Divine Empress, his finger jabbing at the center of her brow.

As his finger proceeded forward, the starlight falling from the sky suddenly grew dim and then began to turn as if the starry sky had become fake.

The mental energy from the distant continent and the soul from tens of thousands of li away engaged in direct confrontation, releasing invisible, yet unimaginably mighty ripples of power.

The tree branches, still in the wind, suddenly disintegrated. In the distance, from that fog-covered mountain peak, countless sounds could be heard.

These were the low and fearful howls of monsters, the sounds of their frantic escape, and their miserable yelps.

Countless tiny bubbles appeared in the stream, surging up all over the place as if boiling.

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……

The torrential rains persisted over Luoyang, but the rain around the monastery had already stopped. The water accrued on the street that was leaping about like it was boiling suddenly became abnormally still, and a shallow layer of frost formed on its surface.

The aftershocks of the earthquake gradually faded, but the surrounding buildings still continued to collapse.

This was the strength of Daoist techniques.

Several dozen invisible lines representing the laws and principles of the world had cut apart all in the darkness, an extremely cold Qi enveloping the entire street.

The jade ruyi had scattered into the darkness, yet it had not truly disappeared. It had already broken free of its solid body and transformed into the purest attack of a Daoist technique.

Daoist Ji stood in front of the monastery, his expression indifferent. Countless faint stars, representing Daoist techniques, flickered about his body.

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A boom suddenly burst out from the night sky above the Mausoleum of Books.

The sea-like field of lotuses below the Divine Path frothed, and those gaily-colored lotus blossoms constantly swayed as if about to drop off, yet they persevered.

Lightning bolts crashed onto the water’s surface, starkly illuminating all and also shining upon Han Qing’s elderly face.

This boom was not the crashing of thunder but the reverberation produced by the clash of two irresistibly powerful Qis.

The thick clouds in the night sky were torn to shreds by a strong wind and then blown away into countless wisps, and even faint cracks in space could be seen.

A lightning bolt in the midst of forming, without having any time to fall, dispersed back into the void.

With no clouds, there would naturally be no lightning or thunder, nor would a single drop of rain fall again.

The terrifying clash had driven away all things in the night sky, leaving only the clean sky and the many stars gleaming in the distance.

The Tianhai Divine Empress and Pope appeared on two ends of the night sky, separated by several dozen li.

Starlight fell on his and the Divine Empress’s body, plating them in silver light, making them seem like gods.

Even this world seemed unable to bear the power of these two.

After a few moments, the ripples produced by this clash of power finally reached the ground.

The water that had spread through the Mausoleum of Books seemed to boil as it surged. Some lotus blossoms finally dropped off and many green lotus leaves were densely covered in holes.

On the other side of the river that had flooded over its banks, houses began to collapse. There were no plumes of dust, only the sound of breaking.

In this brief moment of time, in the southern part of the capital, at least several thousand houses had collapsed, and countless people had died.

The Pope gazed at the miserable state of the capital, listening to those feeble cries for help. After a moment of silence, he gazed into the distance.

Many people were also dying in Luoyang, but what of Xining Village?

A white line extended from the night sky to the ground, and the Pope returned to the streets of the capital, emerging amongst the collapsed streets.

With his appearance, the ripples of power were gradually calmed, ceasing to wreak havoc.

The Tianhai Divine Empress also returned to the peak, her body and shadow becoming one.

The Pope gazed in the direction of the Mausoleum of Books. He raised his hand to the night sky, the Green Leaf appearing in front of his fingers, swaying in the wind.

This pot held the Green Leaf, but there were only four leaves.

The Pope plucked one off.

This action was very simple and, logically speaking, should have been very easy, but his expression was very grave, the vast sea of stars in his eyes instantly growing sluggish in that instant.

When this green leaf was plucked from its stem, a terrifying noise appeared in everyone’s ears.

This was the sound of mountain ranges fracturing, great rivers reversing, the heavens collapsing.

The Pope cast this green leaf towards the Mausoleum of Books.

The green leaf was very light, leisurely drifting towards the Mausoleum of Books, with seemingly no power whatsoever.

Yet for the first time, the Tianhai Divine Empress showed a grave expression. Then, she raised her right hand, pointing at some place in the Mausoleum of Books.

The green leaf fluttered in the breeze, drifted in the darkness, slowly advancing.

The breeze gradually crumbled, the darkness shattered, and the space through which the green leaf traveled cracked as if bearing an immense weight, not dissipating for a very long time.

The green leaf had come to the Mausoleum of Books.

The river waters leaped even more fiercely, the green lotuses sprouted towards the night sky as if shaking off the chains of the earth, and the lotus blossoms grew to heights of several feet.

The green leaf came to the Divine Path.

The firm stone steps were covered in the cracks. The tree leaves and gravel on the two sides of the Divine Path madly danced in the green leaf’s direction and then vanished as if sucked away into a vortex.

The monoliths in the mausoleum all reacted to the green leaf’s coming. Countless ancient and profound Qis seeped out from the drenched forest and drifted towards the green leaf.

Even the starlight spilling down from the night sky visibly bent, transforming into countless streams of light and shooting towards the green leaf!

Just what sort of Daoist technique was this? To be powerful to this extent! Able to interact with the Heavenly Tome Monoliths, able to alter the trajectory of starlight!

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Chen Changsheng knew that this was no Daoist technique.

He gazed at the slowly drifting green leaf, sensed its boundless might and almost unimaginable pressure and finally understood why his martial uncle the Pope had always taken such great pains in caring for the Green Leaf, why he constantly watered it, wanted it to grow taller and more luxuriant.

The Green Leaf was a miniature world. Within was another heaven and earth, palaces and pavilions, light and wind.

Luoluo had once lived there, and he had once entered it.

This was a real space, a real world. Worlds could be classified into big and small, but to humans, they were all so heavy as to seem limitless.

So no matter whether it was fallen leaves or starlight, all would be drawn to it and then ground into infinitesimal particles of dust.

The Pope used the Green Leaf as a sword, used a world to fight.

Under the shining of the starlight and the twisting of space, the green leaf seemed particularly tiny, yet also particularly majestic.

In this green leaf, Chen Changsheng seemed to see rivers, mountains, an entire city!

Just how could one withstand such an attack?

The green leaf slowly drifted over. It should have been very light, but it gave off an abnormally weighty feeling.

Because it was a world.

The Tianhai Divine Empress’s expression grew even graver.

The right hand that she had extended towards some place in the Mausoleum of Books suddenly dropped an inch as if holding some extremely heavy object.