Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

(TN: This title is from the poem 'Swimming' by Mao Zedong. It is the final line, the full line being, 'The goddess if still here would marvel at the changed world'.)

The green leaf came through the darkness.

The Pope also walked out of the darkness, his face so pale as to seem transparent, the sea of stars within his eyes moving at high speeds like a burning flame.

Just when the Pope had offered his most powerful attack, using the Green Leaf World to strike at the Tianhai Divine Empress, the two battles in Luoyang and the stream tens of thousands of li away also reached their most critical junctures.

The black ruyi that had already dispersed into a Daoist technique scored countless fierce lines in the buildings around the Monastery of Eternal Spring, streaks of clear light flickering in and out of existence. An extremely cold Qi enveloped the entire Daoist monastery, freezing the water in the jars into ice cubes and shattering them. The lights in the monastery were frozen into colored glass and then shattered, and even the lava bubbling out from cracks in the ground instantly froze!

Daoist Ji's Daoist robe turned white, the color of frost, and also of the passing of time. He saw the Black Frost Qi that enveloped the monastery, sensed the ripples of power coming from the Mausoleum of Books, and an expression of profound thought suddenly appeared on his indifferent face. Clear light seeped out of his Daoist robe, flowing like clear water into that glimmering radiance of the stars that represented Daoist techniques.

The Daoists still alive in the Monastery of Eternal Spring spat out blood and incessantly chanted Daoist scriptures.

An extremely complex and difficult-to-understand syllable emerged from Daoist Ji's lips!

This was the final book of the three thousand scriptures of the Dao, the most incomprehensible Dragon language, the essence of the most masterly Daoist technique!

With this syllable, the sky above Luoyang suddenly began to shake, and the Daoist technique that had come from the dispersed jade ruyi momentarily grew sluggish, the Black Frost Qi visibly drawing back through the darkness.

Daoist Ji took out a longsword, the first time he had taken out a sword!

The sword imbued with a Daoist technique slashed down and from the darkness came a shrill howl, carrying no will of its own yet also holding a deep unease, followed closely by a cacophony of shattering!

With these countless tiny shattering sounds, the shattering jars still shattered, along with the transparent chunks of ice within them. The lanterns like colored glass also shattered, the frozen lava also shattered. All shattered into powder, melted into clear water, evaporated into mist. This world of colored glass that had been shattered by frost and ice was once more under the control of clear light!

Tens of thousands of li away, by the stream behind the old temple, the monk had walked up to the Tianhai Divine Empress's body.

The Tianhai Divine Empress's eyes were incomparably bright, golden flames spitting out of them as if a Phoenix was about to be reborn from this place.

This was a pair of true Phoenix eyes.

Her gaze swept all around. The blood lotuses on the stream began to drift up like they were alive and covered the monk's body. Soon after, they crumbled like maple leaves.

Beneath every broken blood lotus, the monk's body also cracked, his skin cracked, but what flowed out was not blood, but a milky white light.

Those rays of light contained an unimaginably sacred energy, almost the same as the Sacred Light of the Li Palace, yet there was a fundamental, and to the beings of this continent, most fatal difference.

This was also Sacred Light, but it came from another world, a world carrying another race that bore an innate hostility to this world.

Countless quantities of Sacred Light surged out of the monk's body, but the stream behind the old temple made no sound. The boiling water suddenly stopped, and the water converted into mist also grew still.

This was an absolute stillness. Only one thing remained moving: the monk's finger, that finger approaching the Tianhai Divine Empress's forehead.

……

……

The green leaf arrived at the summit of the Mausoleum of Books, confronting the Tianhai Divine Empress.

This was a true world. The trees and stones of the mausoleum sensed its true and incalculable weight and shuddered in unease, sinking down.

If she were still at her peak state, perhaps she would not feel it so troublesome.

But she had already departed from Concealed Divinity, and could no longer preserve her existence within the world nor conceal it within.

If her body, Dao, and soul were all present, perhaps she could firmly block this world, just like that man called Chen Xuanba had done many years ago in the Garden of Zhou.

But her Daoist technique had been broken in Luoyang by Daoist Ji, her soul suppressed by the monk next to Xining Village's stream. Right now, all that was at the peak of the Mausoleum of Books was her body.

Even if she had the body of the true Phoenix, it would still be impossible for her to endure the coming of a world.

What could she do? Would she now fall and burn into nothingness?

Just when everyone looked up towards the peak of the Mausoleum of Books, holding all sorts of emotions, awaiting the arrival of the final moment, an extremely clear Phoenix cry resounded through the night sky!

From Xuelao City to the Longevity Sect, from the Great Western Continent to the Cloud Grave, no sound in the world could be heard other than this Phoenix cry.

This Phoenix cry was extremely tyrannical, extremely proud. The starlight spilling down from the night sky was refracted by the green leaf then torn apart by the Phoenix cry, instantly vanishing into nothingness!

The monsters within the solitary mountain of the Cloud Grave called out in fear. Suddenly, their sounds of escape vanished without a trace, seeming to turn the Cloud Grave into a real grave.

By the stream, the golden flames spitting out of her eyes were painted over with heart-chilling fiendish intent. The stream and stones were all ignited, as were the blood lotus fragments!

The stream moved, the stones moved, the forest moved, and the wind moved.

The breeze brushed against her clothes, and her soul rose up from several dozen zhang until it was several hundred zhang, until it could only be looked up at, until it seemed about to touch the dome of the night. Before this massive figure seemingly formed from the starry sky, the monk in the stream seemed just an ant, the endless Sacred Light exuded by his body seeming just like insignificant lights, instantly suppressed until they were on the verge of extinction!

Simultaneously, in Luoyang, the shreds of the Daoist technique torn apart by the sword fell to the ground. The blood of the true Phoenix suddenly appeared out of nothingness and melded with the lava, beginning to burn all things.

The black dragon that had earlier appeared in the night sky above Luoyang suddenly appeared once more. This time, however, it had a pair of wings which tore through a scene rendered fantastical by mist and smoke, its Phoenix claws stretching out like lightning bolts to grab the Daoist sword in Daoist Ji's hands, and its Phoenix beak a descending star, pecking at Daoist Ji's eyes, accompanied by that clear and ruthless Phoenix cry!

She was at the peak of the Mausoleum of Books, gazing at the green leaf, her expression indifferent.

This place was the highest point in the capital because she stood there, and it was only right that she stand at the highest point. The moment she stepped aside, this place would no longer be so high and dangerous, and she would no longer be herself. So from the very beginning, she never had any plans of avoiding this green leaf. Her choice was to firmly receive it. But what could she use to receive it?

The green leaf was a world. Even divine weapons such as the Frost God Spear or the Halving Blade would not be able to block it.

Her right hand had sunk down as if it had snatched something up in the night sky.

It was a very heavy item, neat and square, but it was not a weapon.

It was a monolith.

Chen Changsheng looked over and found the lines on the monolith to be somewhat familiar. Then he realized, and he was struck speechless.

This monolith was the Reflecting Monolith!

A Heavenly Tome Monolith!

The Tianhai Divine Empress had extended her hand to grab the Reflecting Monolith from the mausoleum!

Then, the green leaf smashed down!

When she grabbed the Heavenly Tome Monolith, her sleeve was torn to shreds.

When she waved the Heavenly Tome Monolith, the entire night sky was torn to shreds.

The Heavenly Tome Monolith heavily struck the green leaf.

The green leaf was very soft and tender, the monolith very heavy and hard. When the two met, it should have been like a dry leaf falling in the water, a piece of paper falling in the stove. There shouldn't have been much noise.

But for this meeting, that would definitely not be the case.

If one said that thunder was ear-splitting, then if all thunder that occurred from the very beginning of time until tonight simultaneously boomed out, what sort of sound would that be?

Boom!

The Mausoleum of Books which had never undergone any change seemed to leave the earth, shaking three times.

The buildings in the south of the capital that had just stabilized instantly collapsed like a sandcastle blown over in the wind.

The trees of the mausoleum were all shattered, their pieces sent flying.

The lotus sea that flowed freely through the Mausoleum of Books was jolted upwards, a line of water several dozen li long circling the Mausoleum of Books.

A hole appeared in the night sky.

The sea of stars seemed to change shape.

……