Ze Tian Ji

Edited by: Michyrr

The Demon Lord would naturally not kill himself at the words of another, as he had been born with a cruel disposition and unrelenting will.

Of course, normally speaking, even without such qualities, no one would kill themselves at the words of another. This had nothing to do with selfishness, but with the intrinsic qualities of life itself.

But Zhizhi was somewhat worried about Chen Changsheng.

Chen Changsheng had become well-versed in the Daoist Canon as a child and cultivated the Dao of following his heart. He had always acted differently from the masses, and after the coup of the Mausoleum of Books, there had been yet another change in his conduct.

He currently lived life too indifferently.

To put it another way, before the coup, he had viewed his life with incredible importance. Whether it was in what he ate, his everyday routine, or the way he cultivated, he always considered his life above all. Now, however, he had begun to drink wine, although it was not much. He was also eating a lot of beef and lamb, although he didn’t eat them grilled very much. In short, he didn’t care as much as he did before.

He seemed to care more about how he could use his life to accomplish a few things.

As a result, he left the capital for the sake of the general situation and became the first exiled Pope in history.

As a result, he appeared last year on the battlefield in the snowy plains, engaged in bloody battle with the wolf cavalry, and then nearly died.

As a result, the Cinnabar Pill appeared in the world.

"After leaving the capital, no, even before that, I was thinking about just what I should do with my life now that I can live for so many years. At the beginning, I wanted to put my efforts into helping the Human race on the battlefield, but later on, I realized that this wasn’t right. My cultivation and strength are not sufficient to change the course of the war, and although my medical skills are quite good, they’re not that special when compared to the clerics and doctors of the Sacred Hospital. The use of a single person has a limit. Finally, I suddenly came up with the idea of the Cinnabar Pill."

He said to the Demon Lord, "I truly did want to save a few people, but Sir has gotten a few things wrong. I have never thought about saving all living beings. I don’t have such great abilities. I can only save a few specific people that I can see. Moreover, there is another very important problem. Although using my true blood to make Cinnabar Pills and save lives is somewhat taxing on my body, it won’t kill me. On the other hand, if I saved all living beings, as you advise, I would have to pay death as the price, so I cannot accept this proposal."

The Demon Lord replied, "Those last words of yours are somewhat reasonable."

Chen Changsheng earnestly continued, "Most importantly of all, Sir said that eating me could be exchanged for the demons’ being incapable of moving south for several centuries, but this is meaningless to me."

The Demon Lord asked, "Oh, why is it meaningless?"

Chen Changsheng answered, "Because we simply don’t care about whether you go south or not. We have always planned on moving up into the north; we intend to go to Xuelao City."

As he spoke, his eyes were very wide and bright, appearing like a bottomless lake. They seemed so sincere and clean that they made one want to trust in them.

"As expected of the youngest Pope in history. You’re much more passionate than those old fellows, and also more amusing. Of course, you’re also much more childish."

The Demon Lord smirked, "Do you really think that these words of mine were seeking your opinion?"

"Not seeking my opinion, but persuading me, or weakening my will."

Chen Changsheng continued, "Because Sir is well aware that though Sir can kill me, it won’t be like last time where Sir could easily control me. I have the ability to destroy my body before Sir can succeed, burning away all the blood in my body and leaving you with no harvest, bereft of your final hope."

In truth, what he didn’t say was that in front of the Demon Lord, he still had a chance to escape.

He did not want the Demon Lord to be on guard, and most importantly, he wanted to try and see if he could take the remaining humans with him in escape.

The Demon Lord gave him a very prolonged and silent stare.

A clattering of metal and a chilling voice rose up at the same time.

"You owe us two lives."

Nanke threw the emblem of the Zhu clan and the command medallion of the Mount Song Army in front of Chen Changsheng.

This argument was even more unreasonable than the Demon Lord’s.

Zhizhi pointed at Hai Di and said, "We’ve killed a few of your traitors, and we’ve delayed this big fellow until you could come and take care of him. How do we calculate this bill?"

Nanke silently contemplated the matter.

Chen Changsheng was very gratified.

He had never been good at quarreling with words or making unreasonable demands, unless he was in front of Xu Yourong. In this aspect, he was disadvantaged against everyone, even the dull Nanke. Fortunately, experts in this aspect had always been at his side. In the beginning, it was Luoluo, and later on it was Tang Thirty-Six, and now he had Zhizhi.

Nanke seemed to think of some reasoning and said, "Without mentioning the earlier matter, one life in exchange for one life is also very fair."

Zhizhi seemed a little surprised, asking, "Just whose life have you prepared to exchange for Chen Changsheng’s life?"

"We won’t touch you, so it’s naturally his own life," Nanke replied.

Zhizhi asked, "What nonsense is this?"

Nanke calmly reasoned, "We can kill him right now, and the fact that we haven’t means that we’ve spared his life. Then he can use his life in exchange. This is very fair."

"This makes sense to you?" Zhizhi opened her eyes wide, utter disbelief within.

Nanke asked Zhizhi, "Do you not understand?"

Zhizhi seriously replied, "I don’t understand bullshit."

Nanke advised, "You must speak reason."

Zhizhi answered, "You have to have a sense of shame."

This world had countless young girls, and Nanke and Zhizhi were undoubtedly the strongest and most dangerous of the two.

But when they argued, they were still young girls, somewhat ridiculous and making others feel helpless.

As they argued, no one noticed that Chen Changsheng had silently taken a few steps back.

At this point, he was only a few steps away from An Hua and the deputy general. With just two more steps, they could touch hands.

But just when he was prepared to act, a cold gust suddenly blew across the lake shore, the air rippled, and countless specks of light blossomed behind him.

The specks of light condensed in the wind, transforming into a naked beauty and a refined maiden dressed in a sword uniform.

They noiselessly appeared behind An Hua and the deputy general, their hands resting on the pair’s throats.

Nanke ceased to converse with Zhizhi and expressionlessly declared to Chen Changsheng, "Now it’s three lives."

Chen Changsheng had intended from the very start to send An Hua and the deputy general away, but he had never expected that Nanke had long since seen through his plan and made the corresponding arrangements. This made him somewhat regretful, thinking to himself, since Nanke appeared, how could I forget about Nanke’s two wings?

Zhizhi gave an angry shout.

Her spat with Nanke had been for the exact purpose of concealing Chen Changsheng’s movements, and so it was hard to not be a little angry at its failure.

The naked beauty lightly embraced An Hua’s neck, her demon horns faintly discernible in her waterfall of black hair. When paired with her enchantingly beautiful face, she gave an incomparable aura of attraction. Zhizhi’s small face blushed, and she spat on the ground and said, "True enough, a shameless master has shameless maids."

These two beauties possessed spiritual bodies, and it was this trait that allowed them to elude Chen Changsheng’s and Zhizhi’s perception and noiselessly alter the situation.

It was also because they were spiritual bodies that they were particularly vulnerable. They looked at her with boundless fear, and didn’t dare retort to Zhizhi’s insults.

The refined maiden dressed in the sword uniform somewhat uneasily lowered her head. The naked demon beauty was a little bolder. Although she didn’t dare to retort with her own curses, she gave a laugh and straightened her body to allow those soft parts of her to stand out, those two red dots to be even more striking.

Zhizhi’s monstrous pupils constricted as she shouted, "If he wasn’t here, I would freeze both you and that woman together into chunks of ice!"

The demon beauty was a little taken aback, thinking to herself, why does this dragon girl hold such resentment towards this woman I’ve captured?

An Hua was very nervous and couldn’t help but raise her head to look.

Zhizhi resentfully said to An Hua, "What are you looking at? Aren’t you the source of all this trouble?"

Out of the corner of her eyes, An Hua spied the nearby stretcher with the dying array master atop it and thought, in order to save this person, just how many have already died tonight...

She felt thoroughly ashamed and lowered her head back down in silence.

Chen Changsheng looked to Zhizhi and soothed, "Is there a need to be so cranky?"

Since they were speaking to each other, their gazes naturally met.

After this long-winded conversation, in a sky filled with threads of ice, the two’s gazes met.

Without any sign or warning, a sound rose up.

This sound was incredibly complex, containing at least a hundred syllables. It was incredibly bizarre and difficult to understand, seeming to contain an extremely ancient odor, as if it originated from a primordial era, and it seemed to carry infinite information.

This sound came from Zhizhi’s lips.

Her expression became abnormally solemn, almost divine, and her black dress danced wildly in the wind.

A dragon cry!