Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 739 – Let Us Go South

From the beginning of the new era, the entire continent was only concerned about one thing.

It was not the exiled Pope, not the closed-up Holy Maiden Peak, not Wang Po’s return to Scholartree Manor.

This matter was far more critical than all the other matters added up together.

It was the invasion of the demons.

In the autumn of last year, the Demon Lord died, Nanke fled, the new lord took the throne, the demons fell into internal turmoil, and Xuelao City was soaked in blood. The weather was abnormally cold—winter had come early. The combined efforts of the wind and snow had resulted in an unusually poor harvest. Many of the smaller demon tribes had been forced to venture far away from Xuelao City, and the wolf cavalry so prized by the Demon Palace numbered only a third of their former numbers.

Anyone could see that this was the Demon race’s weakest moment, and very few people could imagine that it was this moment the demons would choose to begin their invasion on a large scale.

To conduct things on a large scale indicated madness and a willingness to pay any price.

Perhaps the crisis of survival brought about by the blizzards and harsh cold had directly transformed into the demons’ desire for blood. There was also another very important reason. It was that the once–Demon Crown Prince Han Qing, after guarding the Mausoleum of Books for more than six centuries, had finally left the human capital, passed through the vast snowy plains, and returned to Xuelao City.

According to an agreement made with Shang Xingzhou, White Emperor City used some secret method to get him into Xuelao City. There, he connected with a few members of the Council of Elders that had always been loyal to him. Through intelligence sent out of the Demon Palace, he once more confirmed that the one truly ruling the land of demons was not the newly ascended Demon Lord in the Demon Palace, but the Demon Commander and the enigmatic Military Advisor Black Robe.

He believed that although the Demon Commander and Black Robe had joined hands to overturn the rule of his father, the Demon Lord who had once terrorized the continent, this did not mean that they truly trusted each other. On the contrary, without that shadow in the sky, the trust between the two could transform into foam at any moment. They needed to remain vigilant of each other at all times, even prepare to attack the other. As for the young Demon Lord within the Demon Palace, he was just a pathetic puppet, a blade of grass buffeted to and fro by two cold winds. He was liable to get involved in their struggle at any moment and then die.

Han Qing wanted to use the tense relationship between the Demon Commander and Black Robe.

Because of their history, he could not work together with Black Robe, so just as it should be, he first contacted the Demon Commander.

He knew that the Demon Commander did not completely trust him, but he did not care. The person he truly wanted to ally himself with was the young Demon Lord.

That child was isolated and without help in the Demon Palace, probably living every day in fear. Right now, if he were to obtain Han Qing and the strength and support backing Han Qing, he would probably be wild with joy.

And they were brothers.

In retrospect, Han Qing’s way of thinking was not necessarily wrong. It even might have been correct. Demons were not humans, and they viewed the world differently, but the two were fundamentally quite similar. In their end, they decided matters based on what they could gain, who they trusted, and the natural strengths and weaknesses of their relationships.

Han Qing failed because there had been a problem with his judgment from the very outset.

There really might have been a problem between the Demon Commander and Black Robe, but the young Demon Lord was not the helpless puppet that he imagined. In reality, only after he died did the entire continent come to know the main driver behind the rebellion of Xuelao City was neither the Demon Commander nor Black Robe, but the young Demon Lord that had been pitied or disregarded by all.

He had truly been the one to seize the throne.

The Demon Commander and Black Robe had joined hands to push the once-domineering and invincible Demon Lord into the abyss precisely because of the young Demon Lord.

The Demon Commander and Black Robe truly would not trust each other, but they both had an incomparable trust in the young Demon Lord, treating him as their closest nephew.

Just how had the young Demon Lord been able to gain the trust, even loyalty, of both of them at the same time?

His father had once been this continent’s most terrifying shadow. Even when Taizong and Zhou Dufu worked together, they could not completely eradicate him, and yet the young Demon Lord had personally killed him.

Just what sort of existence was the young Demon Lord?

He had placed his hopes of success on this true opponent, had wanted to use him to deal with an opponent that was more terrifying than he could imagine. There were no surprises. Han Qing was utterly defeated. Before he died, this demon who had guarded the Mausoleum of Books for six hundred years, unmoved by any storm, could not help but raise his head to look at the throne.

A young and handsome demon was seated there, his lips perked up into a smile, perfectly diluting the noble and domineering aura exuded by a demon’s body.

The young demon was the youngest son of the mighty Demon Lord, not much older than Nanke.

The deceased Demon Lord had many children. Han Qing had been the strongest, and Nanke the most famous, but no one could even remember the names of the rest of them.

Comparatively speaking, his name was actually well known. This was because he had been the young prince of the Demon Lord, but mostly because he had once said a certain phrase.

“I absolutely want Xu Yourong.”

He didn’t want to just meet her, he wanted her.

When these words spread across the continent, they naturally incited the limitless wrath of both humans and demi-humans, and also attracted a great deal of ridicule.

This was because at that moment, besides being a prince, he had nothing much to brag about.

Whether it was his talent in cultivation or the advancement of his demon body, his performance was very mediocre, inferior to Nanke and far inferior to Xu Yourong.

In the parties held by the demon nobles in Xuelao City and in the Orchid Creek Art Exhibition, he had obtained not one bit of fame. He wasn’t even comparable to Chen Changsheng, let alone Qiushan Jun.

Until now.

Fire beacons were lit all around Xuelao City as the heads of countless nobles were severed from their bodies, green blood being shed for days on end.

Outside the Demon Palace, the wolf cavalry howled in their patrols and the buildings of the palace all bore the marks of a fierce battle.

His legendary eldest brother kneeled before him, covered in blood.

The Demon Commander and Black Robe stood quietly at his side.

He was at the very front.

He was at the very center.

……

……

“Do you really think that you can keep their loyalty forever?”

Han Qing asked the young Demon Lord. He was naturally speaking about Black Robe and the Demon Commander.

“Elder Brother, all of you have lived for too long. When you think about things, you only think about loyalty, passion, trust, schemes…nothing but these dull, old terms. I’m very young, so I like more new and refreshing terms, like ideals, dreams, sunlight, warmth, spring…the south, and girls.”

The young Demon Lord flashed a moving smile, then continued, “Their support has nothing to do with loyalty, but because we share common ideals, have the same dream.”

Han Qing understood his meaning, and his face paled.

The seventh Demon General and the twenty-fourth Demon General stepped forward and dragged him out of the hall. The abyss behind the Demon Palace was waiting for him.

The Demon Army was about to move out.

The young Demon Lord walked out of the hall and looked upon the dense packs of wolf cavalry and the ever-roaring demon soldiers, then suddenly fell silent.

He seemed to be thinking about something rather absent-mindedly. After a very long time, he came to his senses and chuckled at himself.

Then, he said a few words that would become very famous in the future.

“The sunlight in the south is better, warmer. The spring is longer and the south has more girls, so let us go south.”