Chapter 268: The Fate of Past and Present (Part 2)
The sound of the zither swirled around her.
She could not see the person playing the zither, only hear the music, yet she did not know where it came from.
Where was the zither player?
The piece ended.
She took out a square plate and placed it on the ground before her.
This square plate was made of some unknown material. Its body was pitch-black like raw iron, yet it possessed a warmth that iron lacked, resembling ink jade, but with a hardness surpassing that of jade.
On the surface of the black square plate were painted very complex patterns and lines. If someone knowledgeable saw these patterns, they might think of the fake Daoists outside the Li Palace who told fortunes to cheat people out of money.
Yes, this was a fate star plate used for divining destiny.
The points where those lines intersected were the positions of the stars. Throughout the entire continent, only she and a very few powerful experts understood that those lines represented the trajectories of the stars' movements.
Her hands fell upon the fate star plate and then began to move, her motions very natural and fluid, like the wind summoning clouds among the cliffs, or a phoenix bathing its wings by the seaside.
As she moved, the patterns and lines on the fate star plate also began to rotate. The countless rings spun at different speeds, some fast, some slow, appearing extremely complex. If one stared too long, they would likely become dizzy or even faint. But she did not. She gazed quietly at the fate star plate, her eyelashes not trembling, missing not even the slightest change in those patterns and lines.
After an unknown amount of time, she finished her divination and calculation, put away the fate star plate, walked a few steps out from under the tree, unstrung her longbow, drew an arrow, and shot toward a certain point at the end of the mountain path.
With a whoosh, the night cliff was startled awake.
The vibration of the bowstring even caused that solitary tree to sway unsteadily, as if it might break.
Then, a long time passed again.
No unusual changes occurred. That arrow seemed to vanish into the void. She looked up at a certain spot in the night sky—the place where the arrow had disappeared—and fell into silent contemplation for a long time.
This was her arrow. No matter how powerful the enemy, even a Gathering Stars realm expert, it could not disappear so silently. At the very least, there should have been an echo.
There was no echo. This could only mean two possibilities: tonight's enemy was far stronger than her, or the position she had calculated through divination was wrong.
The former was impossible, because this was the Zhou Garden. Moreover, if it were a demon general of that caliber, there would be no need to wait until now; the enemy would have already struck.
So, it meant the calculated position was wrong. She had great confidence in her divination skills. If she had truly miscalculated, there was only one possibility: the position itself was flawed.
At this moment, just like Chen Changsheng when he observed the steles before the Heavenly Book Mausoleum, she thought of a phrase.
Position is relative.
Here, "relative" referred to relativity in space, a distant correspondence. If space itself was not real and could not be calculated, then the positions within that space naturally could not be calculated either.
Was this lonely mountain path actually leading to a false space? Had that clear, uplifting zither music been welcoming her into this death trap, which was why it was so joyful?
She clasped her hands behind her back, walked to the edge of the cliff, looked out at the distant grassland, and began to think.
If the Black Dragon could see this scene, she would surely understand why the Empress Dowager doted so much on this white-clad girl. Because at this moment, she really looked like the Empress Dowager in her youth.
But the Black Dragon could not see.
In her eyes, after that white-clad girl walked under the solitary tree, she never moved again. She did not take out the fate star plate to divine, nor did she draw her bow and shoot an arrow into the night sky.
The world of the Zhou Garden had also arrived at night.
But here, one could not see the stars filling the sky, not because the snowflakes were flying too fast or the snow clouds were too thick, but because the shadow spreading from Snow Old City had covered the entire sky.
This place was too close to Snow Old City. The terrifying Demon Lord did not need to leave the city to project his will here, transforming it into a shadow and coldly watching that human.
If it were an ordinary human, the moment this shadow arrived, they would be frozen into an ice pillar, their consciousness destroyed, and finally turn into dust on the snowy plain. But Su Li was not, because he was no ordinary person.
There was a clear wound on his left shoulder, but no bright red blood could be seen. Only a pitch-black, thick liquid like ink could be seen, and that black water was still bubbling and boiling.
What kind of poison was this, so terrifying?
Su Li looked at the demon general in the distance, who was like a small mountain, and said with slight mockery, "After all these years, you still only know how to mess with these petty poisons. No wonder you can only spend your life licking the boss's instep."
That demon general ranked second in the demon army, the incredibly terrifying and powerful Lord Haidi.
Earlier, no one knew what fierce battle had occurred. The Second Demon General Haidi had left this terrifying wound on Su Li's shoulder but had paid an even heavier price.
His right arm had been severed by Su Li's sword.
But on Haidi's face, not much pain or anger could be seen, only a cold indifference.
He looked at Su Li and said nonchalantly, "You cut me once over a hundred years ago. It takes about ten years to heal. As for licking the boss's instep, if she were willing to let me, I would have knelt long ago."
Su Li clicked his tongue in wonder and said, "Only you demons can be so shameless and so righteous about it. But even if you licked the boss until she was comfortable, now that I've cut off one of your arms, aren't you afraid that the Third General will take advantage of your weakness, take your life, and then tear you apart and eat you?"
In the demon race, strength reigned supreme. The scene he described could very well happen.
A voice rang out in the night snow—it was the voice of the Black Robe. "That won't happen, because I won't allow it, and His Majesty won't allow it either."
Haidi nodded at Su Li, picked up his arm, and retreated into the distance. With each step he took, a crack several zhang deep appeared on the snowy plain. This was the result of his inability to control his aura after being injured. It was hard to imagine how terrifying his power was when he was unharmed. Of course, it was even harder to imagine just how strong Su Li was, to have cut off his arm with a single sword strike.
Although Su Li had won this round, he had no chance.
Because two more demonic shadows, like mountains, slowly approached.
Those were the Fourth Demon General and the Seventh Demon General.
To kill this junior master of Li Mountain, the demon race had deployed too many powerful experts.
Those were all true experts.
Since that earth-shattering war hundreds of years ago, such a formation had appeared for the first time.
Su Li spat a mouthful of bloody saliva in front of him, rubbed his somewhat cold cheeks, and said, "One round after another, aren't you tired? Can't you be more straightforward?"
The Black Robe laughed. Although his face was hidden by his hood, the amusement in his eyes, which were like deep seas, was so clear that the night could not conceal it.
He looked at Su Li and said with a smile, "You're starting to panic."
Su Li said with slight mockery, "Only those who are truly panicked would panic and use this kind of psychological warfare."
The Black Robe said calmly, "Time is slowly passing. You don't know how much longer your daughter can hold out. How could you not be panicked?"
Upon hearing these words, Su Li fell silent.
From the beginning until now, the corners of his mouth had always been slightly raised, even during the bloody battle with Haidi, fully expressing his contempt and disdain for the demon race's schemes and this snowy, icy sky.
At this moment, that smile finally faded.
(To be continued)