395 Three Pines I

Zhu Luo was one of the Storms of the Eight Directions and rarely appearedbefore the common people, but today, he had to come. In addition, the fact ofthe matter was that his appearance was not at all a surprise to Wang Po orthese cultivators in Xunyang City. What sort of person was Su Li? In order tokill him, Black Robe had not hesitated to weave the Garden of Zhou into hisplot and the demons had arrayed a massive force in the wastelands in front ofXuelao City. Now the human world similarly wanted to kill him, so how couldthose random assassins and Xue He and Liang Hongzhuang, this sort of class ofexpert, possibly be enough? Even after adding on these several hundred cultivators in Xunyang City, aswell as Wang Po, Xiao Zhang, and Liang Wangsun, these strongest members oftheir generation, it still would not be enough. Whether to send him off ortreat his soul, when a historic event like the death of Su Li was concerned,even if Saints like the Divine Empress and the Pope could not appear, theStorms of the Eight Directions had to be on the scene no matter what. The godlike Zhu Luo had descended from the heavens, to come to this noisy anddisorderly secular world and appear in Xunyang City on the end of the longstreet, for precisely this reason: he had come to kill Su Li. Thinking aboutthat pavilion outside the forest on the outskirts of Hanqiu City, rememberingthe transcendent figure of that man with his long hair trailing over hisshoulders, Chen Changsheng felt very unwell. But when he heard Su Li's words,he understood. They were all people that lived in the world. How could therepossibly exist such transcendent figures who dined in the wind and slept withthe stars, who did not consume the food of regular mortals? Since they were worldly people, they would inevitably do terrible things,whether on their own volition or by force. Chen Changsheng silently looked atZhu Luo's indifferent face and remembered something Tang Thirty-Six had oncesaid under the Orthodox Academy's banyan tree. There is no person whose moralcharacter will improve with age. In the vast majority of cases, a young suckerwould turn into an old sucker—old bastards, old suckers. These were all filthywords, but when said at this moment, they seemed to have much more substance.Chen Changsheng would not say these profane words, but when he looked down thestreet at Zhu Luo, he couldn't help but think about them. His feeling was not wrong. The present Zhu Luo was no longer that transcendentfigure under the pavilion, cold and elusive, nor was he that human brave who,several hundred years ago under the light of the moon, slew the second-rankedDemon General in one strike. The present Zhu Luo was a leader of anaristocratic family, a powerful influence in the Great Zhou, an expert of thecontinent, and a man. A normal man. A normal man who could kill another for his own self-interest. After Wang Po finished his bow, he calmly stood in front of Su Li and ChenChangsheng. He said nothing and did nothing, so naturally he also had nointention of giving way. He hadn't even sheathed the blade in his hand. To facethis member of the Eight Storms whose generation, status, and strength was farabove his with such silence and inaction was very disrespectful. Zhu Luo said to him, "I didn't want to appear, but you forced me to." This was talking about Wang Po's seemingly calm, but actually crazed, bladestrike which, by paying a disastrous price in the future, had heavily injuredXiao Zhang and Liang Wangsun. Afterwards, it had continuously broken throughXunyang's crowd of heroes and was about to take Su Li out of the city beforeeveryone's eyes. If Zhu Luo had not appeared, perhaps Wang Po really could havegone against the general trend of the human world and helped Su Li survive. Given Zhu Luo's status in the human world, these words he said to Wang Po wereextremely high recognition, even though he said the words without the slightestexpression on his face. Of course, recognition was not praise, let aloneappreciation. To be more precise, Zhu Luo used these words to clearly andunhappily indicate to Wang Po what he had appreciated and not appreciated. Saying these words, he turned to Chen Changsheng and yelled, "His Holiness isin the Li Palace, sick in the heart and deeply worried. Your teachers andfriends are concerned for your safety, and millions of people in the capitalare praying for you, hoping that you are alive. It turns out that you're alive,but you've delayed so long on the road. Just what are you thinking about? Don'ttell me you don't plan to go back?" Compared to the tone he had when speaking to Wang Po, Zhu Luo's tone was evenmore discourteous. Although Chen Changsheng was the Principal of the OrthodoxAcademy, he was still too young. Moreover, through Mei Lisha, he felt that hetruly was Chen Changsheng's elder, so he was naturally somewhat harsh. The lastsentence was actually very close to lecturing and scolding. Chen Changsheng said nothing, but it wasn't because he didn't have the face tosee his teachers in the capital, nor was it because he felt shame from thelecturing of his elder. Rather, he was still very angry and thought that if heopened his mouth to refute, it would seem like he wasn't giving proper respectto his senior. Wang Po also said nothing because he felt that there was no needto say anything. He required no one's appreciation, even if that person was ZhuLuo. The street was completely silent. No one dared to say anything. From the moment Zhu Luo appeared, besides Su Li's carefree voice, the entiretyof Xunyang City could only hear Zhu Luo's voice. The Storms of the EightDirections were supreme experts, not just in Xunyang City but the entirecontinent, so even when he spoke indifferently, his voice still rumbled likethe spring thunder. The entire world absolutely had to carefully listen. Yetthis was to say nothing of the fact that his appearance today on this street inXunyang City also represented the collective will of the Great Zhou ImperialCourt. He who had a close relationship to the Chen Imperial clan had clearlylong since reached some sort of agreement with the Divine Empress and theOrthodoxy. The Divine Empress, the Li Palace, and Zhu Luo—these were the three greatmountains of the Great Zhou Dynasty. In the mountains where Chen Changsheng hadgrown up, there were some young pines that, because of their position, receivedgreat respect and status. But now, he wanted to resist the will of this greatmountain at his feet while at the same time resisting the shadow of anothergreat mountain. Just what could he do? He looked at Wang Po. As Wang Po's tall and thin body lightly rocked in thechilly wind, he really did seem like a healthy and sturdy pine. It still hadnot grown thick enough that it could resist a bolt of lightning, but at thevery least, it would not be blown about every which way and deformed by thewind. Zhu Luo had come, but he did not fall on his knees, did not give way, anddid not retreat. His head was slightly lowered by the wind as he silentlythought about something. And yet, these things had no meaning. He was the supreme expert of the Middle generation and top of the Proclamationof Liberation, but he could not possibly measure up to Zhu Luo. Zhu Luo was a Storm of the Eight Directions, a person that had already steppedinto the Divine Domain. In the present Xunyang City, and in the entire continent, there was only oneperson besides them that dared to directly stare at, or even ignore, the FiveSaints and the Storms of the Eight Directions. Su Li made no attempt to conceal his disdain and scorn. "Is the only thing youold farts can do now to scare children?" This was speaking of the difference in the two sentences Zhu Luo had said toWang Po and Chen Changsheng. Not waiting for Zhu Luo's reply, Su Li perked hiseyebrows and he said a few more words. "I know that you lot really want me dead…you've wanted me dead for many yearsnow, no matter if it’s the Divination Elder or you. This is because even when Iwas really young, you lot already couldn't kill me, so you wanted to kill meeven more. On a similar basis, I think that you actually really want Wang Po toattack, so then you have a good pretext to kill him?" These words were very critical, so the entire street was very quiet. The crowd could only pretend that they had not heard these words, and evenWang Po himself did not show any reaction. Zhu Luo was expressionless and said nothing. "As I got stronger and stronger, you wanted me dead more and more." Su Li sighed, "Tianhai, the Bai Xingye couple, you eight oldgood-for-nothings, and now even Old man Yin wants me dead…" The Five Saints and the Storms of the Eight Directions: besides Su Li, thiscontinent had thirteen supreme experts. At this point, he had counted twelve names. He accused these godlikeexistences of attempting to assassinate him. "I'm not at all in a bad mood, because I've never had any interest in standingtogether with you guys in the Divine Kingdom."