Chapter 356: Waiting for Someone
"Senior, if you wanted me to leave, you could have just said so directly. Why go through all this trouble, deliberately provoking me, tricking me?"
"I, Su Li, act as I see fit. Do I need to explain myself to you?"
"Fine... Senior, that old man Yin you mentioned earlier—who is he?"
"The Pope."
"Ah... His Holiness the Pope's surname is Yin?"
"Don't you find that utterly absurd?"
"Senior... I never thought that."
"So you're blaming me, then."
"Senior, earlier on the snowy plain, I really thought you would keep fighting."
"The Demon Lord, over a dozen demon generals, the Black Robe... and that freak the Demon Marshal lurking somewhere unknown, waiting... Keep fighting? Do you take me for a fool!"
"But... before you drew your sword, you were truly heroic. I never imagined you would flee."
"In warfare, deception is key. And what is the soul of the sword?"
"I don't know."
"The soul of the sword lies in the word 'sword' itself."
Chen Changsheng carried Su Li on his back, traversing mountains and snowy plains in the wind and snow. At this point, the conversation could no longer continue. He felt exhausted now, and deeply frustrated, and because of that frustration, even more weary. He thought to himself, carrying someone while fleeing—why was the gap so vast between this and carrying that girl Chu Jian in the grasslands of the Zhou Garden?
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Tens of thousands of demon troops, like countless iron currents, advanced from the Snow-Crowned City toward the southern wilderness. Given enough time, the demon army could surely turn over the snowy ridges and plains spanning hundreds of miles. Yet the Black Robe, watching the demon army disappear into the wind and snow, showed no sign of relief.
Just then, the snowy ground trembled. The snow surface, compacted tightly over the past few days and nights by the oppressive auras of powerful beings and terrifying sword intent, suddenly softened. With a dull rumble, a massive beast emerged from the wind and snow, walking slowly. It had a long snout and coiled horns, exuding a fierce and murderous aura—it was the third-ranked beast on the Earth Beast List, the Mountain-Toppling Boar.
This Mountain-Toppling Boar was enormous, far more massive than the one in the Zhou Garden, standing over forty zhang tall.
Seated between the boar's coiled horns was a demon. This demon was very small and thin, even smaller than an ordinary human child, and compared to the colossal boar, it was utterly insignificant. Yet, for some reason, beneath this demon, the Mountain-Toppling Boar was docile and obedient to the extreme.
The demon wore a suit of armor that covered its entire body, including its face. The armor was covered in complex patterns woven from golden threads, resembling sunflowers or the most popular color-block paintings in the Snow-Crowned City. Along the edges of these golden patterns were many dark green objects—unclear whether they were gems or copper rust.
A terrifying, domineering aura seeped from the gaps in the demon's armor. A pair of icy, spike-like gazes pierced through the helmet, falling onto the snowy plain dozens of zhang below, landing on the Black Robe. Along with that gaze came its voice—a voice like a straight metal wire, devoid of any fluctuation, yet strung with countless broken gongs. Every word it uttered sounded like a gong being struck, harsh and grating: "According to your calculations, this killing formation was foolproof, and His Majesty approved your plan. Now, the divine race has paid such a heavy price—my little Haidi has even lost an arm—and yet that man has escaped. I'd very much like to know, where exactly is this foolproof plan of yours? How do you intend to answer to His Majesty and to me?"
The terrifying and mighty Second Demon General, Lord Haidi, was referred to by this demon as "my little Haidi."
He was naturally the commander of the demon army, rumored to be the strongest beneath the Demon Lord in the demon snowy plains—the Demon Marshal.
The Black Robe held a very high and special status among the demons. Though not a demon himself, he enjoyed the deep trust of the Demon Lord and had rendered immortal merits for the demon race. Moreover, the entire continent knew how terrifying his methods were. Whether human or demon, he seemed able to uncover all secrets and grasp all emotions.
All the great demon figures who had ever tried to sow discord between him and the Demon Lord had ultimately died under his seemingly casual responses. By now, no one in the Snow-Crowned City dared to question the Black Robe's existence, let alone show him any disrespect—except for the Demon Marshal. Because the Demon Marshal also enjoyed the deep trust of His Majesty the Demon Lord and was immensely powerful. More crucially, for reasons unknown, the Black Robe showed great patience with the Demon Marshal. But today, the Black Robe had little patience. He ignored him, quietly gazing at the wind and snow to the south, remaining silent.
The cold wind lifted a corner of the Black Robe's cloak, revealing a slightly blue jaw. For the first time in centuries, the Black Robe had specifically set up a killing formation targeting a single human powerhouse, deducing it thirty-seven times. Su Li was surely doomed to die. Yet who could have imagined that Su Li would ultimately escape successfully? His never-failing schemes seemed to have been broken for the first time.
The one who broke this killing formation was not the Pope, not Her Holiness the Empress, nor the White Emperor and his consort, but a youth named Chen Changsheng—whether the Black Robe or the demon generals, they could crush Chen Changsheng with a flick of their fingers, yet it was precisely this insignificant little fellow who had altered the course of history.
The Black Robe was very clear about Chen Changsheng's origins, so in this Zhou Garden scheme, he had never intended to kill Chen Changsheng. But Su Li had appeared too early, and Chen Changsheng had brought that umbrella with him, so the Black Robe hadn't had time to convey his will to the demons infiltrating the Zhou Garden. Most importantly, he hadn't expected Chen Changsheng to mature faster than anyone had imagined.
Did the Zhou Garden scheme thus end in the Black Robe's failure? No, the Black Robe didn't think so. As long as Su Li hadn't yet returned to the human world—more precisely, given Su Li's current state of severe injury and difficult recovery, as long as he hadn't yet returned to the Li Mountain—this killing formation was still in progress.
Just as he had once said to Su Li, too many people on this continent wanted Su Li dead. For various reasons, countless people wished for his early demise—the demons, and many in the human world as well. Only, Su Li was too strong; no one dared to try killing him. Now that Su Li had been severely wounded by the demons, the forces in the human world saw their opportunity. This inference seemed somewhat unbelievable, as if the demons and humans were working together, but the Black Robe knew it was a highly likely reality.
Because, many years ago, something like this had already happened once.
The Black Robe quietly gazed toward the southwest of the snowy plain. The cold wind grew stronger. His eyes narrowed, long and delicate, yet filled with cold and complex emotions.
Thinking of that Li Mountain disciple, he couldn't help but feel some emotion. Hatred was truly the most interesting thing in the world—it could turn a gentle lady who had never sullied her hands into a devil stained with blood, or turn a disciple of a prestigious sect into a genius schemer. He wondered what surprises that Li Mountain disciple would bring next.
Thinking this way, even if Su Li could successfully return to the Li Mountain, the story of the Zhou Garden was far from over.
He raised his left hand, reaching into a glacier over ten miles away, and grabbed from afar. With a thunderous roar, the glacier suddenly shattered. Countless sharp ice chunks, glowing faintly blue under the sky, flew everywhere. Along with them flew a small figure—Nanke, eyes tightly shut, on the verge of death. Pale green wings tightly wrapped around her body. The Black Robe grabbed her, ignoring the mountain-like Mountain-Toppling Boar and the Demon Marshal behind him, and walked into the depths of the wind and snow.
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Hanqiu City was still in spring, so naturally, there was no snow. But this morning, it was very cold. The grove outside the city was filled with chill. Dewdrops that had just formed on the green leaves didn't last long before freezing into ice beads, rolling off the leaves with a dense patter.
The reason for this strange phenomenon was the chaotic flow of heaven and earth's energy behind the grove. The main gate of the Zhou Garden, faintly visible in the mist, remained tightly shut. The rainbow from the Li Mountain, thousands of miles away, aided by the great formation set up by the State Church, continuously tried to open that gate, even causing nature to respond.
The grove was filled with cultivators—priests from the Li Palace, teachers from various sects and academies, naturally the city guard of Hanqiu, and representatives of the Tianliang Commandery led by Zhu Luo. A dense crowd, yet no one made a sound. Everyone's expressions were extremely grave.
Time passed slowly. As the morning sun broke through the clouds on the horizon, illuminating Hanqiu City, the rainbow seemed to brighten a few degrees.
"It's open!" At the deepest part of the grove, near the thick mist, a Li Palace priest shouted in surprise.
With this shout, the scene instantly became noisy. Many people surged toward the slowly opening garden gate in the mist. Most of them couldn't enter the Zhou Garden, but getting closer would make it easier to assist later. Now everyone knew that the Zhou Garden's closure was a demon scheme—how were the disciples who had entered the Zhou Garden for the trial faring?
Before long, a cultivator rushed out from the Zhou Garden, looking extremely panicked. Only when he saw his master did he finally relax, nearly bursting into tears. Then, more and more cultivators emerged from the Zhou Garden, all looking somewhat battered and miserable, but at least they had survived.
Li Palace priests and government officials stood aside, carefully recording the number of people leaving the garden. More staff members, ignoring the lingering shock of some young cultivators, stepped forward to ask about their sects and names, then calculated how many had yet to emerge.
The grove was filled with chaotic voices.
Zhu Luo and Melisandre stood outside the grove, listening to the reports from the priests and officials, their expressions growing increasingly grave. From the descriptions of the cultivators who had left the Zhou Garden, their earlier suspicions were confirmed—the worst kind of suspicion: the Zhou Garden was about to be destroyed.
Time continued to march forward. More and more people escaped the Zhou Garden.
But according to the records of the Li Palace priests and officials, some still hadn't come out.
Melisandre stared at the increasingly faint garden gate in the thick mist, sensing the increasingly chaotic energy within, his gaze growing colder.
Chen Changsheng still hadn't come out.
Zhu Luo looked toward the carriage on the official road outside the grove, his expression relaxing slightly.
That carriage belonged to the Azure Radiance Thirteen Divisions. The green curtain over the window was drawn, hiding the inside.
Xu Yourong sat by the window, silent.
She was waiting for someone to come out.
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(Previously, the scene of Chen Changsheng unleashing ten thousand swords at the Zhou Mausoleum was illustrated by Deor—a unique perspective and impressive artwork... I'll post it on WeChat later; feel free to come take a look. Now, back to writing. I'll try to get the next chapter out before eleven. Also, Butterfly Blue asked me to let everyone know he'll be updating soon too. Please pass it on. Thanks.)