Ze Tian Ji

Edited by: Michyrr

Gao Huan was not looking at the elder’s eyes, but at his brows.

He remembered very clearly that there was a mole in one of those brows.

It was really there.

Gao Huan suddenly felt a deep pain.

Heartache.

The instant he saw that mole, he knew that he had been tricked.

Since this elder was here, his surprise attack was doomed to failure.

This also meant that this war was about to end in a human victory.

This was naturally worthy of heartache, especially for someone like him.

"Tang Three! Tang Jingtian!"

Gao Huan madly roared and flew into the sky in a bid to escape.

There was a clattering of metal as several chains flew into the sky, pulling taut as they grabbed onto his ankles.

At the same time, several zither strings stabbed through the flexible armor made from the tail thorns of the Monster Bull.

Minister Wei took out a brush and drew several large words.

An array covered the sky.

The Tang Old Master flew into the air, his fist smashing into Gao Huan’s chest.

Blood rained down!

Gao Huan’s childish face was covered in blood and madness, and he was still ready to fight it out to the end.

But he noticed out of the corner of his eyes that the flames on the plains were beginning to dim.

The twilight was deepening, and it was precisely the moment when dusk shifted to darkness. Logically speaking, the flames should have been getting clearer and clearer, so why were they dimming?

Were they being extinguished? Impossible!

In Gao Huan’s plan, burning the supplies of the human armies had always been the most important goal, far more important than killing any number of human experts.

He had led the demon experts in charging into this wagon circle precisely so that he could distract them.

To a certain extent, he had succeeded. In the battle just now, the wolf cavalry had succeeded in setting many supply wagons on fire.

If nothing unexpected occurred, those flaming supply wagons would have rendered the rest of those wagon circles completely into ash.

How had those fires been extinguished? It had to be mentioned that the wolf cavalry had not been equipped with ordinary tinder, but flammable oil from the frigid seas of the extreme north. Even water and sand would find it very difficult to extinguish this flame!

The entire world gradually became silent.

Gao Huan stood on the plains in utter despair, doing nothing else.

Golden blood drenched his body, and in the last rays of the twilight, he appeared a particularly moving and tragic figure.

He was actually a pure-blooded Imperial.

For a member of the Imperial clan like this to become the Chief Elder of the Council of Elders, what did this mean?

It was no wonder that the previous Demon Lord so feared him that he wanted to forcibly remove him without regards for the tremors this would send through society.

Countless gazes fell on Gao Huan and then moved to the Tang Old Master.

To the people of the world, the Tang Old Master was unquestionably the most famous yet most enigmatic individual.

In the last two hundred years, he had never left Wenshui, not even when Mo Yu came with the Tianhai Divine Empress’s edict to cordially invite him to the capital.

The Tang Old Master looked at Gao Huan and indifferently asked, "You recognize me?"

Many people now remembered the words this demon Divine Domain expert had shouted upon seeing the Tang Old Master.

’Tang Three! Tang Jingtian!’

These extremely simple exclamations had exposed at least three facts:

The Tang Old Master’s exalted name, his seniority in the clan, and that this demon expert recognized the Tang Old Master.

"We met many years ago in Luoyang."

Gao Huan looked at the Tang Old Master and said, "I thought that you would remember."

The Tang Old Master calmly gazed at him and said, "Oh, so it was you. Hehe, no wonder you could speak a few human words."

Yes, Gao Huan’s grasp of the Human language could not be compared to those dukes of Xuelao City who had developed some interest in the language. He was truly familiar with it. But the Tang Old Master’s words clearly had two meanings, and everyone could hear the scorn and harshness within.

He really had recognized him.

"Gao Huan, Gao Yanchen!"

The Tang Old Master stared into his eyes. "I thought you died a long time go. Though I think that right now, you probably wish that you had died earlier."

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Gao Huan, courtesy name Yanchen. (TN: In ancient China, it was common practice for males to be bestowed with a second name upon reaching adulthood—the courtesy name, also known as style name. The courtesy name was generally used amongst one’s peers while the given name would be used with one’s elders.)

This was his name amongst the Human race.

This pure-blooded descendant of the Demon Imperial clan of outstanding talent was also the last demon to study in the Human race.

The Tang Old Master knew that he had been a distinguished disciple in the Longevity Sect, but they had truly met in Luoyang.

In the siege of Luoyang, Gao Huan’s identity was exposed, but no one dared to kill him, as the demon armies outside had demanded that he be kept safe.

The Tang Old Master and his comrades had wanted to assassinate him, but they were stopped by their elders.

"If Shang knew that you were still alive, he would definitely be ecstatic."

The Tang Old Master looked at Gao Huan and noted, "Back then, he was the one that wanted to kill you the most."

Gao Huan replied, "If any of you had dared to attack me back then, I would be able to crush you to death with just one of my fingers."

The Tang Old Master agreed, "Yes, back then, you were far stronger than us."

Gao Huan sneered, "If I hadn’t been ambushed by you today, I might not have lost."

The Tang Old Master shook his head. "Wrong. Even if you won today, all of you would still lose in the end."

Arching his brow, Gao Huan asked, "Why?"

The Tang Old Master answered, "Because we’ve already waited for one thousand years. It would be far too unreasonable if we still couldn’t win now."

Gao Huan argued, "We besieged Luoyang for so long, but you still didn’t lose."

"Luoyang is not Xuelao City, and the greatest difference is that none of you were ever able to enter the city."

The Tang Old Master paused and then continued, "But we are on the verge of entering Xuelao City."

Gao Huan’s body went stiff.

The Tang Old Master patted him on the shoulder. "Just concede."

Perhaps the Tang Old Master’s palm had shaken him.

A line of tears began to trickle down Gao Huan’s face.

He was still smiling, but it was a ghastly smile, and his childish face was thoroughly dyed in pain.

"If His Majesty were still here, you would all die..."

Gao Huan’s voice suddenly got louder as he yelled, "No! If he had died a little earlier, none of this would have happened!"

If that mighty Demon Lord had died earlier, how could he have been imprisoned in the abyss seven hundred years earlier? He would assuredly have become a legendary figure of the Demon race.

And just how many astonishing geniuses like him had appeared in the Demon race over the last one thousand years but had been killed by the old Demon Lord because they threatened his position? How many true talents had been wiped away by the many purges within Xuelao City? Just how much harm had those massacres inflicted on the Demon race?

There was no answer, because that Demon Lord was already dead.

The tears began to come down faster, washing his pale cheeks. Gao Huan felt like his heart was in terrible pain, his left hand gripping the flexible armor against his chest as he found it harder and harder to breathe.

In the end, he slowly toppled to the ground and ceased to breathe.

The Tang Old Master gazed at his corpse. He was quiet for a very long time as he thought about many matters from the past.

Those truly were matters from the past, because it had been almost one thousand years.

The Demon Army had stood on the Plain of the Fallen Willow like a black tide.

Human limbs could often be seen in the mouths of the giant wolves.

Luoyang was besieged. In the span of several months, the city gate had only opened three times.

The very first time had been because the Demon Army had demanded that the humans bring out Gao Huan.

The gate of Luoyang opened and the sunlight spilled in, making the figure of that young demon genius appear even taller.

Gao Huan walked out of the city, his steps firm, his laughter brash.

Two streams of tears trickled down the Tang Old Master’s face.

The crowd was frightened out of its wits.

The cosmetic-buying girl and the general of the supply convoy hurried over to console him.

To many people, the Tang Old Master crying over Gao Huan’s corpse was probably a sympathy shared between extraordinary figures.

Minister Wei and the blind zither player knew that this wasn’t the case.

What those turbid tears required the most was a toast to celebrate, not soothing words.

"Ah, I’m happy! Too happy!"

The Tang Old Master wept and yelled, "Let’s quickly get to Xuelao City! I want to be even happier!"