Ze Tian Ji Way Of Choices Chapter 164 – Toppling Mountains

Chapter 164 – Toppling Mountains

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Chen Changsheng's clothes were torn and his chest was wounded. He was in such a sorry state that if Tang Thirty-Six were to see it, he would a.s.suredly tease Chen Changsheng as having been beaten until he looked like a dog. Yet in this state, Chen Changsheng unexpectedly wanted Zhuang Huanyu to concede, and from the look on his face, he was not joking.

His att.i.tude was very serious, his tone sincere, so Zhuang Huanyu was very angry, feeling this to be an expression of enormous contempt, an incredible insult.

Chen Changsheng was not intending to mock him, only making a sober judgment.

Whether it was because of the autumn rain or because of the toughness of his body, since the blazing of star radiance had not burned him to death, that snowy plain within his body could provide him an endless stream of true essence. In reality, he now had an unprecedented amount of true essence. The greatest gap between him and Zhuang Huanyu no longer existed, so why shouldn't he be confident?

"Just why is he so confident?" As he stood by the window on the second floor, the Princ.i.p.al of the Star Seizer Academy frowned and asked this question.

Even if Chen Changsheng had bizarrely succeeded in undergoing two initial Meditative Introspections, everyone in the capital knew that less than a year had pa.s.sed since he had fixed his Fated Star and begun to draw in starlight for Purification. On the other hand, Zhuang Huanyu had already been cultivating for ten-some years, so for what reason did Chen Changsheng believe that he had already caught up in terms of true essence?

Chen Changsheng used facts to prove that his confidence had a basis, although it was not clear just where this basis was.

Zhuang Huanyu stared at him. The Sword of Hithering Light embedded in the ground trembled and several hundred sword silhouettes emerged once more. They attacked Chen Changsheng from all sides, causing another storm to appear in the Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust.

Chen Changsheng's right hand was holding the dagger, but it had moved up so that it was at the edge of the sheath, making it seem like his hand was attempting to grip the sheath and hilt at the same time, making it impossible to unsheathe the dagger.

He did not unsheathe the dagger, nor did he attempt to avoid or receive the blows with his body. Instead, he wielded the dagger with its sheath and swung.

A howl could be heard in the hall as a gust of wind stirred.

Several tyrannical winds struck the surrounding sword silhouettes from the Sword of Hithering Light. There were several thumps, and then those sword silhouettes began to shatter and disperse.

When true essence was pitted against true essence and both were equally matched, it was naturally easy for a sword to shatter sword silhouettes.

The expressions of the important personages standing by the window subtly changed. They had finally determined that Chen Changsheng's cultivation was now on a completely different level. In both purity and quant.i.ty of true essence, he was no weaker than Zhuang Huanyu.

Mo Yu's tightly clenched hands in her sleeves finally relaxed. She gripped the window pane, her face still expressionless, but her mood was not as relaxed as it seemed.

She did not wish for others to see that she did not want anything to happen to Chen Changsheng, and now she had no need to worry about Chen Changsheng being no match for Zhuang Huanyu. However, Chen Changsheng's performance and his sudden and unreasonable explosion of true essence had made her think about that night many days ago, that night on which she viewed the stars with the Divine Empress on the Dew Platform.

On that night, the Divine Empress sensed that a person in the capital had fixed their Fated Star. That star was incredibly far and that person's spiritual sense had been extremely serene and powerful.

That person…was it Chen Changsheng?

As the important personages on the second floor were occupied with their thoughts, the battle on the first floor intensified.

Chen Changsheng's sheathed dagger used true essence to destroy the storm of sword silhouettes. His body blurred, and then he was in front of Zhuang Huanyu.

Ten-some zhang had been crossed in an instant. He had not used the sword energy of the Wind and Rain Sword of Mount Zhong, but the Yes.h.i.+ Step.

By this time, Zhuang Huanyu had already completely calmed down. He had been somewhat surprised that Chen Changsheng was so easily able to destroy his sword silhouettes, but the sight was not able to make him fall into another daze. There was no fear on his face. He extended his right hand and the Sword of Hithering Light began to fiercely tremble. With a buzz, it flew up from the ground and returned to his palm!

Kakakaka, ten-some sounds of swords clas.h.i.+ng came one after the other.

The Sword of Hithering Light seemed to come alive in his hand, its sharp edge piercing through the air as it stabbed at Chen Changsheng's body.

A few moist grains of sand remained on the floor washed by autumn rain. Those grains of sand were carried up by Zhuang Huanyu's sword, transforming into several dozen extremely fine lines of sand in the air.

Those lines of sand were sword techniques, the visible trajectories of swords.

Chen Changsheng could rely on his true essence to break those sword silhouettes, but to block these lighting-quick sword techniques, he would require an even more exquisite sword technique of his own.

The spectators on the second floor became extremely focused. They had all either witnessed or heard about the story of how Gou Hans.h.i.+ and Chen Changsheng had competed in techniques in the Ivy Festival and knew that this unremarkable youth of the Orthodoxy was the same as the erudite Gou Hans.h.i.+: both knew the sword styles of countless sects. These important figures were all rather curious as to how Chen Changsheng would respond to this attack.

Several dozen lines of sand attacked Chen Changsheng from different angles.

Behind each line of sand was the cold edge of a sword.

Chen Changsheng still did not unsheathe his dagger.

His palm was wrapped around both the sheath and the hilt. Even if he wanted to pull out the dagger, he wouldn't be able to.

He gripped the dagger and swung it.

He swung it very cleanly and decisively, simply and forcefully.

It didn't even seem like a sword style, nor was there anything subtle or exquisite about it. It was like a housewife was.h.i.+ng clothes by a river, using a wooden hammer to smash the clothes against a rock1.

It seemed like an ordinary and unremarkable sight, but when he raised up the dagger and swung it down, at least three of the important personages by the window let out cries of surprise!

"Toppling Mountain Staff!"

Yes, Chen Changsheng was not using a sword style, but a staff style.

He had become well-versed in the Daoist Canon as a child and had extensively read many books. After entering the Orthodox Academy, he had also read relentlessly for days, comparing the books on cultivation in the library with the books he had read as a child. The scriptures he had studied in the first fourteen years of his life had been completely converted into the knowledge required for cultivation. In knowledge on the cultivating methods of the sects and schools of the world, no one other than Gou Hans.h.i.+ was his match.

He also cultivated with incredible diligence. In a short half-year, he had gotten a grasp of many sword styles and cultivation methods. During the Ivy Festival, his instructions that had led to Luoluo's and Tang Thirty-Six's victories over Guan Feibai and Qi Jian had relied on this ability. However, many people forgot that his grasp of those sword styles and cultivation methods was mostly on paper.

He knew how the Three Forms of Wenshui should be used and knew the order and angles for the Seven Swords of the Mountain, but this did not mean that he could use the Three Forms of Wenshui or the Seven Swords of the Mountain whenever he pleased, and this wasn't even considering that he had not even succeeded at Purification at the time and was unable to cultivate. Back then, there was not even a possibility of practicing these techniques.

No matter how diligent or talented he was, it was utterly impossible for him to grasp so many techniques in the short span of a few months.

At least ten years of hard effort were needed to have any sort of accomplishment on the path of the sword.

This was the case for everyone, whether it was Qiushan Jun, or Guan Feibai, who had proved that he had a grasp of at least a hundred sword styles in the Ivy Festival.

Other people might have forgotten about this matter, but not Chen Changsheng. He was well aware that in terms of swordplay, he could not defeat Zhuang Huanyu or any of the four disciples from the Mount Li Sword Sect. Even if he was able to think of techniques that could hold back his opponent's sword techniques, he would not be able to use them in the course of this intense fight.

Cultivators on different levels required different methods of fighting. He currently required a simpler and more effective means of fighting. He had not thought of a sword style that was both capable of restraining the Dao sword of the Heavenly Dao Academy and something he was familiar with using, so he had moved his right hand down and gripped both the hilt of his dagger and the edge of the sheath.

This sort of grip signified that he had never intended to unsheathe his dagger.

When he gripped it this way, his dagger became a shortstaff.

He used a staff style.

The Toppling Mountain Staff.

Three cries of shock simultaneously arose from the second floor.

The ones who cried out were the two Sacred Hall archbishops and the Bishop of the Temple Seminary.

This was because they recognized this staff style, because they had not seen this staff style for many years.

The Toppling Mountain Staff was the staff style of the Orthodox Academy, handed down from its establishment. It was the staff style used by the Orthodox Academy's superintendent to punish rulebreaking students.

The Orthodox Academy had been in decline for ten-some years, so this staff style had naturally not appeared on the continent for ten-some years.

The two Sacred Hall archbishops were important members of the Orthodoxy's new faction, natural opponents of the Orthodox Academy that served as the symbol of the conservative faction. However, even they, after seeing the Orthodox Academy's renowned Toppling Mountain Staff suddenly appear after ten-some years, could not hold back their cries of shock, could not prevent their emotions from instantly falling into great turmoil.

Xue Xingchuan and Xu s.h.i.+ji had met brilliant individuals from the Orthodox Academy before, so they were just a little later than the other three in recognizing what staff style Chen Changsheng was using. Their expressions slightly changed.

The Toppling Mountain Staff was used in the Orthodox Academy for punishment, so it walked the rough and straightforward, clear and simple path. Its goal was to knock down a student and inflict pain. This staff style seemed to have no principles to speak of, but there were actually many principles contained within it. Just like the rules of the Orthodox Academy, one could not avoid them, only bear them.

Zhuang Huanyu had an incredibly solemn expression on his face, but the sword in his hand did not slow by one iota.

Chen Changsheng's dagger swung down too straightforwardly, so straightforward that it seemed to contain no technique.

It appeared that the sword in his hand had plenty of leeway to rush forward and stab into Chen Changsheng's body, but Chen Changsheng's dagger gave Zhuang Huanyu the feeling that if he did this, then no matter how severely wounded Chen Changsheng was, the dagger would still fall and strike his body.

Attacking first seemed to have no meaning, and as for avoiding? It seemed impossible to avoid, so he could only block.

Zhuang Huanyu's true essence came out in an unending stream as the edge of his sword sliced through the air to meet Chen Changsheng's dagger.

The Toppling Mountain Staff met the Sword of Hithering Light as if the Orthodox Academy was meeting the Heavenly Dao Academy.

If the reborn Orthodox Academy wished to regain its status within the Orthodoxy, it seemed that it would always need to cross this pa.s.s.

These two swords clashed and then parted, and then clashed once more. No matter how unreasonably Chen Changsheng's dagger fell, it would always be blocked by Zhuang Huanyu. No matter how subtle or ingenious Zhuang Huanyu's sword technique was, it could not break past Chen Changsheng's dagger. In this very brief moment of time, these two swords clashed ten or more times.

The Hall of Was.h.i.+ng Away Dust resounded with the deafening sounds of their clashes.

Ten-some white b.a.l.l.s of Qi appeared around the two and then burst apart.

Those b.a.l.l.s of Qi were the Qi jolted out of the air by the clash of these two swords.

Popopopop!

The two figures suddenly parted.

Zhuang Huanyu groaned, his face slightly pale, the hand holding his sword trembling.

He was not able to completely block Chen Changsheng's sword.

In the final moment, Chen Changsheng's sword and sheath had struck his wrist.

If not for the fact that Zhuang Huanyu's sword intent had been straightforward and he was in the midst of stabbing forward, causing the tip of Chen Changsheng's sheath to only brush past him, his wrist might have been shattered.

In a head-on battle, sword against sword, he had ultimately fallen behind.

Zhuang Huanyu found it impossible to accept this fact, and his face turned even paler.

Immediately after, he threw his sheath to the ground and stepped forward once more.

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1. When was.h.i.+ng clothes, a wooden hammer or bat is used to beat the clothes so as to shake off dirt.↩