355 Waiting for a Person

“Senior, if you wanted me to leave, you can completely say so directly. Whymust you do so many things, purposefully provoking and tricking me?” “When I, Su Li, do things, I have my reasons. Perhaps I still have to explainit to you?” “Okay then… Senior, who is the old man Yin you spoke about before?” “The Pope.” “Ah… is His Reverence the Pope surnamed Yin?” “Don’t you feel that it’s very…?” “Senior… that’s not how I thought.” “Then you mean to blame me.” “Senior, before on the snowy plains, I thought you really would continuebattling.” “The Demon Lord, more than ten Demon Generals, Black Robe… and the DemonCommander, that mutant, was hiding somewhere in wait… Continue battling? Youthink I’m stupid huh?” “But… before you struck, you really were very heroic. I really didn’t thinkyou would run.” “Methods of attack should have countless changes and should be unexpected.Then what is the spirit of the path of the sword?” “I don’t know.” “The spirit of the path of the sword is in the word ‘sword’.” Chen Changsheng carried Su Li on his back, traversing mountains in the windand snow. The conversation lasted until it was finally impossible to continue.At that moment, he felt very tired, and also very gloomy. Because of thegloominess, he felt even more tired. He thought that even though it was thesame thing, carrying someone and running, just why did it have such a bigdifference to when he was carrying Lady Chujian in the grassland of the Gardenof Zhou? Tens of thousands of demon soldiers formed countless streams of flowing metal,advancing towards the wasteland south of Xuelao City. With enough time, thedemon army definitely could search the entire snowy mountain range that had acircumference of several hundred li. However, as Black Robe looked at the greatdemon army that was disappearing into the wind and snow, he did not relax atall. Just at that moment, the ground and the snowy plains began to tremble. Thelayer of snow that had been crushed extremely densely by the pressure andterrifying sword intent of the experts for several nights immediately becamemuch softer. With a deep sound, a huge monster slowly walked out of the snowand wind. With a long jaw and curled horns, it seemed extremely devilish. Itwas the Mountain-toppling Fiend that placed third in the Ranking of EarthlyBeasts. The body of this Mountain-toppling Fiend was extremely huge, and seemed muchmore majestic than the one in the Garden of Zhou. It was over forty zhang inheight. Between the curled horns of the Mountain-toppling Fiend sat a demon. The demonwas very small, even smaller than ordinary, human children. Compared to thehuge Mountain-toppling Fiend, he seemed even more insignificant, but for somereason, the Mountain-toppling Fiend below him was extremely obedient. The demon wore armor which covered his entire body, including his face. On thearmor were complicated images formed from golden lines, like sunflowers, butalso like the most popular shape paintings in Xuelao City. On the sides of thegolden images, there were many dark green objects, indistinguishable betweengems or rusted bronze. A terrifyingly overbearing Qi exuded from the cracks of the demon’s armor. Apair of eyes that were like ice picks passed through the helmet, which landedon the snowy plains several dozen zhang below. The gaze landed on Black Robe’sbody, and what also fell was his voice. His voice was like a perfectly straightmetal wire. There were no undulations in the voice, but it seemed as thoughthere were countless broken gongs that were threaded onto the wire. Every wordhe spat out was like the sound of a broken gong being hit, which was extremelyear-piercing. “According to your calculations, the assassination was flawless,which was why His Majesty agreed to your plans. Now, my race has paid suchgreat prices. My little Hai Di has lost an arm, but that person has fled. Ireally want to know, just where exactly is the ‘flawless’ you are speakingabout? Just how do you plan to explain it to His Majesty and me?” In the eyes of that demon, the terrifyingly powerful second Demon General, HaiDi, was ‘his little Hai Di’. He was naturally the commander of the demon army, the strongest under theDemon Lord in the land of demons, the Demon Commander. Black Robe had an extremely sublime and special position in the Demon race.Although he was not a demon, he received the deep trust of the Demon Lord, andonce helped the demons achieve meritorious deeds that were eternal in nature.It was even more because the entire continent knew exactly how terrifying hismeans for success were. Whether he was faced with humans or demons, he seemedto be able to clearly understand all secrets and grasp all emotions. As a result, the great personages of the Demon race that had once tried toirritate his relationship with the Demon Lord all died by his hand, when heseemed to casually deal with them. At this point, it had been a long time sincethere had been anybody who dared to question Black Robe’s existence. Even moreimportantly, for some reason, Black Robe seemed to be very patient with theDemon Commander. However, today, Black Robe did not have that much patience andignored him. He looked at the snow and wind in the south silently. The cold wind lifted up a corner of his black robe, which revealed a slightlyblue lower jaw. For hundreds of years, it was the first time that Black Robehad designed an assassination specially for a single human expert. He simulateda whole thirty-seven times that Su Li definitely would die. However, as itturned out, Su Li actually escaped successfully. He had never failed in ascheme, so it seemed to be the first time his scheme had collapsed. The person who collapsed the killing scheme was not the Pope, not the DivineEmpress, nor was it the White Emperor couple. It was a teenager called ChenChangsheng—Black Robe or the Demon Generals would only need the movement of afinger to crush him to death. However, it was exactly because of thisunremarkable child that the course of history was changed. Black Robe understood the origin of Chen Changsheng very well, so in thescheme of the Garden of Zhou, he had never planned to kill Chen Changsheng. Itwas just that Su Li appeared too early, and Chen Changsheng carried thatumbrella with him, which was why he was unable to send his will to the demonsthat infiltrated the Garden of Zhou. What was most important was that he hadnot anticipated that Chen Changsheng matured even faster than everyone hadimagined. The scheme of the Garden of Zhou just ended with Black Robe’s failure? No,Black Robe did not think like that. As long as Su Li did not return to thehuman world, or speaking more accurately with his current condition of heavyinjury, as long as he did not return to Mount Li, then the scheme was still inprogress. Just like he had once said to Su Li, in the continent, there were just toomany people that wanted Su Li to die. For various different reasons, countlesspeople wished that he could die slightly earlier. The demons felt like that,and so did many humans in the human world. It was just that Su Li was just toostrong, and no one dared to attempt to kill him. However, now, Su Li wasalready heavily injured by the demons. The powers in the human world had nowgained their opportunity—the reasoned conclusion seemed rather unbelievable, asif the demons were working with the humans, but Black Robe knew very well thatthis was a matter that was extremely likely to occur. It was because many years ago, something similar had already happened once. Black Robe gazed quietly at the southwest of the snowy plains. He slightlysquinted his eyes, which were slender and delicate. However, they carried coldand complicated emotions. He thought about the disciple of Mount Li, and could not help but feel someregret. Revenge was the most interesting thing in the world. It could change awell-raised young lady with a pair of pampered hands into a demon with a pairof blood-soaked hands, and it could also turn the descendant of a famous familyinto a genius schemer. He did not know what other pleasant surprises the MountLi disciple would bring. Thinking like that, even if Su Li could return to Mount Li successfully, thestory of the Garden of Zhou would not end yet. He extended a hand towards a glacier that was over ten li away, and grasped atthe distance. With only a crack, the glacier immediately broke open. Countlesspieces of sharp ice flew around in the sky that was dark blue. At the sametime, a small person flew out. It was Nanke who had her eyes tightly shut andwas on her last breath. Her faint green feathered wings wrapped tightly aroundher body. Black Robe grabbed her and ignored the mountainous Mountain-topplingFiend and the Demon Commander behind him. Carrying her, he walked towards thedepths of the wind and snow. It was still spring in Hanqiu City, so it naturally did not snow. However, themorning that day was extremely cold, and there was frost in the forest outsidethe city. The dew that formed on the green leaves froze into ice beads withoutmuch time, and rolled down from the leaves. They produced sounds, one afteranother. The reason for such an abnormality with the weather was that the Qi of theworld behind the forest was extremely chaotic. In the mist could be seen themain entrance of the Garden of Zhou, which remained tightly shut. The rainbowthat originated from Mount Li, tens of thousands of li away, constantlyattempted to open the gate with the help of the formation put down by theOrthodoxy. A response actually occurred. Inside and outside the forest, there were cultivators everywhere. Some werepriests that came from the Li Palace, while others were the teachers of varioussects and academies. Naturally, there were also the city guards of Hanqiu City,and the aristocratic families of the Tianliang County that were represented byZhu Luo. They formed a dense mass, but no one made a sound. The expression onall of their faces was extremely serious. Time passed slowly, and as the sunlight broke through the clouds near thehorizon, Hanqiu City was illuminated. The rainbow also seemed to become severaltimes brighter. “It opened!” From the deepest parts of the forest, before the thick mist, apriest of the Li Palace exclaimed in surprise. With the exclamation, the crowd immediately became bustling. Many peoplesurged towards the slowly opening gate. Between all of them, most of them wereunable to enter the Garden of Zhou, but getting slightly closer would help themprovide support when they needed to a short while later. Now, all the peoplealready knew that the closing of the Garden of Zhou was a scheme of the demons,so were the disciples that entered the garden to undergo trials still okay? Not long after, a cultivator ran out from the Garden of Zhou hurriedly. Heseemed extremely panicked, and only upon seeing his master did he relax, andactually almost cried. Closely afterwards, more and more people walked out ofthe Garden of Zhou. They all seemed to be in rather miserable and sorry shapes,but in the end, they had survived. The priests of the Li Palace and the officials of the imperial court stood toone side, carefully recording the number of people that exited the Garden ofZhou. There were even more personnel that disregarded that the youngcultivators had not calmed down yet, and directly went up to ask for theirschool and names, before calculating how many people had not left the Garden ofZhou. There were sounds of alarm and confusion everywhere in the forest. Zhu Luo and Mei Lisha stood outside the forest and listened to the reports ofthe priests and officials. Their expressions became more and more serious. Fromthe descriptions of the cultivators that had left the Garden of Zhou, itconfirmed their previous conjecture, which was one of the most horribleconjectures—the Garden of Zhou was about to be destroyed. Time continued to pass by, and more and more people escaped from the Garden ofZhou. However, according to the records of the priests from the Li Palace and theofficials, there were still some people that had not come out. Mei Lisha looked at the gate that grew dimmer and dimmer in the mist, andcould feel the Qi that became more and more chaotic. His gaze became colder andcolder. Chen Changsheng still had not come out. Zhu Luo looked at the carriage that was on the road outside the forest, andhis gaze became slightly relaxed. The carriage belonged to the Thirteen Divisions of Radiant Green. The windowof the carriage was covered up with azure blinds, and the interior could not beseen. Xu Yourong sat by the window silently.