249 Small, Small Su

Zhexiu walked up, and he looked at the Yellow Paper Umbrella in ChenChangsheng’s hand. He asked, “What’s wrong?” Chen Changsheng did not know how to explain it, and said after thinking alittle, “A sudden impulse?” Zhexiu stayed silent for a while, before saying, “That’s an illness.” (TN: Tide Rush of Blood, Zhexiu’s illness, can also mean ‘a sudden impulse’ or‘to be carried away by a whim’.) Chen Changsheng began to laugh, “I should be able to treat that illness.” The two people walked over the stone bridge. Carrying the umbrella, theydisappeared into the misty rain. A while later, several girls of the Thirteen Divisions of Radiant Green, whohad entered the Garden of Zhou later than them, had also arrived at the stonebridge. One of the teenage girls had a pretty and delicate face. She seemed to be veryordinary, just like the average, commonly seen disciple in sects forcultivation. That young girl stopped at the end of the bridge. She raised her head to lookat the drizzle in the sky, and felt that there was something abnormal. A girl, who was slightly older looked, looked at the other girl’s tilted head.An expression of reverence could be seen through her eyes. Another girl looked at the girl on the end of the bridge. She gathered upcourage and asked, “Senior, do you not want to see him?” That girl said calmly, “There is no difference between seeing or not. Sincethere are no differences in seeing him or not, I hate trouble.” Tens of thousands of kilometres away from Hanqiu City, in the wind and snow, amale of the demon race shrouded in black robes looked at the black square disc.His brows were slightly furrowed. In that moment before, Chen Changsheng had disappeared, and closely following,Zhexiu also disappeared. He did not know that Chen Changsheng had opened up the umbrella that wasgifted to him by the Old Master of the Wenshui Tang clan. Pondering thissilently, just exactly what had happened? Currently, nobody understood the Garden of Zhou better than him, and nobodycould scheme as deeply as him. He believed that he could control the situationperfectly, with the black square plate as his chessboard and those people inthe Garden of Zhou as his chess pieces. However, at this moment, he hadsuddenly discovered that there were chess pieces that had disappeared from hischessboard. This surprised him very much. Floating in the snowstorm, there were three bronze flasks. Within them burnedthe life flames of Zhexiu and the other two. These flasks were already linkedwith his subordinates that had sneaked into the Garden of Zhou. However, he wasnot able to deal with Chen Changsheng in time, so he could only wait for histrace to appear again. He did not know when that drizzle in the Garden of Zhouwould stop. The snowstorm suddenly stopped. It was not the normal stop, and it had actually, truly stopped. The sound of the wind became silent. The snowflakes that were like peacockfeathers froze mid air, and they were scattered in the air and ground aroundthe demon race male. He raised his head, and looked at a certain region deep in the snow. Hisexpression remained apathetic, and he squinted his eyes. They seemed to be thinand long, and elegant, however, they carried a heavy, deathly aura. A distinct sword slash slowly appeared from that area, like it had cut openthe snowy air. Where did this slash come from, for it to be able to stop the snow and wind inthe land of demons? “To plot a murder for a few members of the younger generation, you revealedyour special techniques. Don’t you feel that the price that you have paid isjust a little too great?” A voice resounded in the snowy sky. This voice was very cool, but it alsocarried an undisciplined feeling. “Actually, we have already searched for hundreds of years. Only until now didwe learn that the advisor of the demon race was actually a Candle ShadowShaman.” The demon race male smiled a little, but he did not say anything. As it turns out, he was the most mysterious and the scariest, the legendarymilitary advisor of the Demon Race, Black Robe. No wonder he wore black robes. It was extremely obvious amidst the wind andsnow. Then who was the owner of the cool voice? Facing the unfathomable advisor of the Demon Race, Black Robe, this person wasnot scared at all, and they even seemed to be slightly rough and uncaring. With the terrifying sound of space ripping open, the sword slash in the snowysky began to slowly grow larger. From within, a person walked out. Walking out of the sword slash, this person seemed to enveloped with a layerof sharpness. His clothes and appearance were completely coated in bright light. Only until that person had taken several steps on the snowy ground did thesharp light slowly disappear. He was a human male. No one knew how old he was. If it was just looking at theundisciplined look in his eyes, he seemed to still be a youngster. However,seeing the peace and profoundness within his pupils, it was like he had alreadycultivated for thousands of years. The man walked on the snowy ground with his hand clasped. He carried a swordon his waist, which swayed gently. He seemed to be very casual, so he alsoseemed very natural and unrestrained. “In order to do something, you must always pay a certain price.” Black Robe looked at that man and said calmly, “Su Li, you have already roamedthe world for several hundreds of years. Perhaps you still do not understandthis idea?” There was only one person in the world who was surnamed Su and could cause theadvisor of the demon race army to be interested and converse with. The junior uncle of Mount Li, Su Li. To the human world, the demon army advisor Black Robe was the greatestnightmare. On a certain level, he was even scarier than the Demon Lord. Then the junior uncle of Mount Li, Su Li, was the oddest legend, the mostreckless ocean. Because of the Garden of Zhou, they had met. Who was able to leave later? Su Li was not interested in what Black Robe had said. From hundreds of years ago, he had already been extremely disinterested in theextremely profound conversation of his senior, the Sect Leader, the HolyMaiden, the Pope, His Majesty Taizong and other important figures. He was only interested in the sword, in travelling, in the floating clouds andthe starry sky. He asked directly, “How many people have you sent to sneak into the Garden ofZhou? Are there still tribe members of the Candle Shadow Shamans that are stillbeing used by you?” Black Robe waved his hand., and the mist above the black, square plate beganto move. The surroundings and people in the Garden of Zhou disappeared. He looked at Su Li and his eyes squinted. He smiled slightly, “What? Worryingabout your daughter?” Hearing this, Su Li also began smiling with his eyes squinted. When Black Robe’s eyes squinted, his eyes became long and thin, and veryelegant. However, they was filled with a frightening killing intent. When Su Li squinted his eyes, his smile seemed to reveal the happiness withinhim. However, it currently carried the sharp intent of a sword. He said with regret, “No wonder you are the legendary Black Robe. You areindeed scary. You actually even know about this.” Black Robe said calmly, “There are very few things that I do not know in theworld.” Su Li’s smile gradually disappeared, and his expression became serious. Heasked, “Then, do you know how terrifying I am when I go mad?” Black Robe’s smile became even more genuine. He said, “Back then when you wentmad for the first time, the Myriad Sword Array of Mount Li was destroyed byyou. The second time you went mad, seventeen elders of the Longevity Sect diedin one night. As a result, even now, they are unable to choose a sect leader,causing the Six Saints to decrease by one. You humans say that Painted ArmorXiao Zhang is a madman, but how could they know that he cannot even be comparedto a toe of yours. It is just that the things that you do when you go mad areso crazy that no one is daring enough to mention it. Su Li explained seriously, “The second time has nothing to do with me, atleast I won’t admit it.” Black Robe only smiled a little, and he did not say anything. Su Li said, “Since you know how terrifying I am when I go mad, why are youstill doing this?” Black Robe stopped smiling, and said extremely seriously while looking at him,“It means that I have confidence in controlling everything.” Su Lu raised a brow, and said, “What I don’t understand the most is that justhow are you able to control the Garden of Zhou? At that time, I had evendoubted whether you were His Excellency Wang Zhice or not. Black Robe said calmly, “In the past hundreds of years, you were alwaystravelling around in the world. I believe that you were always looking for me.May I ask why?” Su Li looked at him quietly. His right hand landed on the sword hilt, and hesaid, “Up until now, I still don’t know who you are. But since I found youafter great difficulty, I don’t want to let you escape.” Without a question, the military advisor of the Demon Race, Black Robe, wasthe most mysterious and terrifying enemy of the human world. Back then, if it were not for him, under the leadership of Taizong, perhapsXuelao City would have been already taken by the allied army, with the demonrace becoming just a noun in history. In the past hundreds of years, the thing that the experts of the human worldwanted to do the most was to find Black Robe, and then kill him. The problem was that right up to this moment, nobody even knew the trueappearance of Black Robe, much less found any trace of him. Until now, when Black Robe had plucked a sliver of the rainbow from the sky,opening a door to the Garden of Zhou. It alarmed Mount Li, allowing Su Li, whowas currently travelling in the north, to find him. “Finding me is not important, what is important is killing me. The problem isthat can you kill me?” Black Robe looked at Su Li calmly. He said, “I touched the Garden of Zhou,revealing a small trail, which you took advantage of. However, have you everthought that this may have been an ambush against you? Just like what was saidbefore, you looked for me for hundreds of years, and still failed to find me.Then, if it was not that I wanted you to find me, how would you still be ableto find me?” Su Li’s squint became even more intense. It was filled with smiles, and thesharp intent slowly dispersed. Black Robe seemed to not realise at all, and said plainly, “At the start, whenI let that person of the Yeshi tribe to go and assassinate that little princessof the demi-human race, it was for you humans to discover the Garden of Zhoufirst. In order to make you trust it, I had even borrowed the His Majesty’sHeavenly Fog Net. Of course, that young fellow Qiushan Jun’s behaviour in theouter garden had somewhat exceeded my expectations. My strategies that wereoriginally planned were unable to be used, so I could only use my backup plan.” Su Li said, “You want to kill people in the garden?” Black Robe said, “Correct.” Su Li said, “If you really use such a method, why haven’t you done it in thepast hundreds of years?” Black Robe looked at him, and said with a smile, “Because only around a dozenyears ago did you have a treasured daughter. Because your daughter can onlyenter this year, I just wanted you to know that I have the power to hurt yourdaughter, so you would definitely come and find me. Only like that can I killyou.” Su Li seemed to understand something immediately. He said, “So in the end, itis still for me to die?” Black Robe said, “After spending so much effort into arranging such asituation, it definitely should be used to gain a reasonable amount ofbenefits.” Su Li was slightly awkward, and said, “I am not a Saint, nor do I hold theposition as one of the Storms of the Cardinal Directions. To the world ofhumans, I am not important.” “You are not being modest, but instead laughing at my insight.” Black Robe shook his head, and said sternly, “In my eyes, the so-called FiveSaints and Eight Storms of the Cardinal Directions are not enough to be feared,because they have already grown old and they do not require thought to be dealtwith. However, you are different. You are not held down by matters of theworld. You are just one lonely person, so you are daring to kill, you are ableto kill, you can like to kill, you can kill for the greater good, or even justmassacre indiscriminately. If my race wants to be victorious over the humanrace, someone like you must die.” Su Li stayed silent for a very long time. He was suddenly somewhat distressed,and said, “Why do I feel very happy listening to these words?” Black Robe smiled, and he did not say anything. Holding the black, squareplate, he shook it gently. The mist disappeared, and everything returned to howit was before. Su Li’s expression instead became a little cold, and said, “You closed theGarden of Zhou.” Black Robe said, “This is Mister Zhou’s world. Although I have someunderstanding, but I am unable to completely close it. However, closing it fora few days is still achievable. Su Li raised his brows slightly and said, “What exactly do you want to do?” Black Robe said, “As I said, I put so much effort into creating thissituation, there must be enough benefits. Other than you, I still want to killmany people.” Su Li said coldly, “Only cultivators at Ethereal Opening can enter the Gardenof Zhou. Even if you have planned beforehand, there is still a limit to howstrong the subordinates you sent. How can a few demon bastards win againstseveral hundred people? “Then have you never thought why you humans were never able to defeat us?Because the more of you humans there are, the easier it is for internalconflicts to occur. Other than jackals, I really have not seen other speciesthat like killing each other as much as you humans. Of course, I have alsonever thought that a side door opened to the Garden of Zhou can bury severalhundred human cultivators at the Ethereal Opening realm. I just want to kill afew people. That’s all, it’s not that difficult.” Su Li asked, “Who do you want to kill?” Black Robe smiled, “Zhexiu is too similar to you in the past, so he must bekilled. The two girls, your daughter included, also must die. And that teenageprincipal of the Orthodox Academy called Chen Changsheng? It should be justthose four. It is very regretful that Gou Hanshi did not enter the Garden ofZhou, otherwise it would be about all of them. Why kill these four people?Because they are the future of the human race, and as for you, you are thepresent of the human race. With the Garden of Zhou appearing again, it willhelp me destroy the present and future of the human race. If the owner of thegarden were to find out about this matter, he should feel very relieved.” Su Li stayed silent for a while before questioning, “What about Qiushan Jun?” “To have a True Dragon Bloodline and reach Star Condensation before twenty… heindeed is a true genius.” Black Robe looked at him with a smile and said, “Sadly, that member of theyounger generation is a lovesick person. When he knows opening the Garden ofZhou is opening the gate of the abyss for those four people, when he knows thatXu Yourong died because of him, he will definitely regret it for his wholelife. To handle such a lovesick person, leaving him alive is even more ruthlessthan killing him.” Su Li said, “Wang Po, Xiao Zhang, Liang Wangsun.” These three names were all on the Proclamation of Liberation. When he said these names, he was questioning and also challenging. Black Robe thought about it and said, “Just like what you said, the human raceis so adaptable, so I definitely have to have some patience, and go slowly. Ican kill slowly. I believe that there will always be a day where I can killthem all.” Saying this, he began to cough. His handsome face began to pale, and thegreenness under his skin began to grow darker. It seemed especially weird, anda line of blood had even begun flowing from the corner of his lips. Su Li’s body also began swaying slightly. His gaze seemed to dull slightly. Only up until now did several intersecting sword slashes appear in themotionless snowy sky. Some of those sword slashes flew several li into the snow, and they had evenseemed to cut the sky open. However, it did not break in the end, because outside the snowy sky, there wasstill a dancing snowstorm. As it turned out, as they were  conversing, the two greatest experts in theworld were always fighting. Following the coughs of Black Robe, the motionless snowy sky also began tomove slightly, and the snowflakes began to fall again. Several mountainous silhouettes slowly appeared in the area surrounding thesnowy plain. Their overbearing pressure was extremely terrifying. Several great demon generals had appeared. A shadow bursted out of the faraway Xuelao City. It covered up half of thesky, and landed on the snowy plain. Su Li stared blankly, and he turned around to face the south. Squinting bothhis eyes, his expression became slightly sad, like he was sighing with emotion.