Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

With the hot blood dissipated, when the execution was carried out, it would be difficult to hear the powerful curses and recitations of the Great Zhou's laws. However, Yang Xiushen was still breathing, even though he was on his dying gasps, exhaling less then he inhaled, his breath like gossamer. His bones were still hard, even though his ribs had been shattered into ten or more pieces.

Yang Xiushen had never participated in the Grand Examination. He had entered the court as an official through the regular imperial examination. He had worked diligently in the government for many years before finally being recognized by the Divine Empress and promoted to a secretary of the palace. Everyone believed that he should have been thankful for the Divine Empress's kindness, yet he continued to act as he did in the past, quietly concerning himself with his own matters and recording all that occurred in the Imperial Palace.

This lasted until a certain autumn day four years after the bloody incident of the Orthodox Academy, when he suddenly submitted a memorial to the throne.

This memorial was fully aimed at Zhou Tong and also criticized the Divine Empress at the end.

The Divine Empress was greatly displeased and had him locked away in Zhou Prison. In Zhou Prison, he suffered countless tortures, but in the end, he endured and survived. Finally, he was pardoned, released, and transferred to the Ministry of Rites.

That was a matter from ten-odd years ago.

Ten-odd years later, he was once more jailed in Zhou Prison. This time, he had no colleagues in the court to call upon and the Divine Empress also seemed to forget his existence.

Through the bars, Zhou Tong gazed at the mass of mangled flesh lying on the disorderly straw. After squinting for a very long time, he finally confirmed that this was his greatest enemy from that period in the past.

"Lord Yang is truly a loyal and dependable official. After suffering so much torture, you still did not speak a single word."

Zhou Tong continued, "But that matter from back then was not known only by you."

Upon hearing his voice, Yang Xiushen's body very arduously moved somewhat on the straw.

"Doctor Sun has just started talking." Zhou Tong stood up and began walking out of the prison, his hands held behind his back. "I came today only to bid you farewell."

Hearing this, Yang Xiushen's body tensed and then suddenly relaxed.

He had persisted until now and finally had a reason to no longer persist. Of course, this did not mean that he would start talking, only that he could rest.

The sounds of heavy objects being moved could be heard in the gloomy and sinister prison cell. Ten-odd sacks packed with soil were moved into the cell by the officials of the Department for Purging Officials and then pressed over Yang Xiushen's body.

At the very beginning, Yang Xiushen's body would still twitch a couple of times, letting out a few muffled and indistinct noises. Ultimately, his voice grew softer and softer until it ceased.

Black and foul, almost solid blood flowed out from his eyes and nose. He could no longer breathe, but his eyes remained open.

Even if he was dead, he still wanted his eyes open. He stubbornly kept them open as if he wanted to see if the Heavenly Dao existed in this world, if there was such a thing as justice.

The autumn sun shone over the courtyard. The crabapple trees had no blossoms, but they were still beautiful.

Zhou Tong stood under the crabapple trees, his face slightly pale, most likely because it had been many years since he had seen much of the sun.

An official of the Department for Purging Officials stood behind him, his heart and body both cold. Not even the sun was able to warm him.

An official of the Imperial Court had died just like that.

Logically, this should have been a very normal affair. Similar things had happened many times, but this official of the Department for Purging Officials was Zhou Tong's most trusted subordinate and had followed him for several decades, so he knew that this time was different from all the other times. Those officials of the Imperial Court that had died in Zhou Prison in the past had often died without a trial, an act which logically was in serious defiance of the laws of the Great Zhou, but not in defiance of the Divine Empress's will.

The Divine Empress no longer wished to see those officials, so those officials quietly died.

But this time was different. He was keenly aware that Lord Zhou Tong was privately investigating something. The Divine Empress did not know, and also did not know of Yang Xiushen's death.

He turned to Zhou Tong, his gaze resting on the great crimson official's robe. Gone was its usual appearance—it now seemed to contain no boundless sea of blood or fiendish intent that filled the heavens, but a sense of anxiety, even fear.

Why had Lord Zhou Tong acted this way? To risk the Empress's rage and secretly interrogate so many people, just what did he want to know? What matter was he so fearful of?

……

……

If Black Robe could be called the most secretive person in the world, then Zhou Tong could be called the person that knew the most secrets in the world.

To him, secrets were like money and treasure, power and status. The more he had, the better, and the more he had, the safer he would feel.

From one year ago, he had begun attempting to discover Chen Changsheng's secret, but sadly, he had not made much progress. His sole source of progress had been forced to a halt because it involved the Imperial Palace and he had been highly likely to come upon one of the Divine Empress's secrets, but nobody knew that he had continued to secretly investigate.

He had at first suspected that Chen Changsheng was Crown Prince Zhaoming. The rumor that had suddenly begun spreading through the capital last year had been deliberately started by him.

It was the secret he most wanted to know.

At the start, he only had conjectures, but he had no means of being sure because there were many points that were difficult to resolve.

If Chen Changsheng was really Crown Prince Zhaoming, why would Shang Xingzhou send him to the capital, send him right before the Empress's eyes?

The most dangerous place was the safest place?

Moreover, Chen Changsheng's age did not match up with Crown Prince Zhaoming's. On the contrary, that fellow called Yu Ren was a match.

When the false is taken for true, the true becomes false?

Everyone that met Chen Changsheng believed that he had matured early, was calm and composed and not like others his age.

When Mei Lisha was on the verge of death, he was still reading the Scroll of Time.

Many clues had been gathered and summarized at this courtyard. Countless details were gradually interweaving and taking shape within his mind.

Ultimately, all of these pointed towards a conclusion difficult to believe: Chen Changsheng was Crown Prince Zhaoming, and his age had been forcefully changed using the Scroll of Time.

This sort of conjecture was too wild, too inconceivable, and still impossible for him to believe, so he continued to secretly investigate.

But he had investigated the secret records in the palace and turned up nothing. He had secretly imprisoned many people involved in the matter, including the midwife that had delivered the child, the imperial physician, and several elders who had long since retired to their hometowns. Only today did he finally manage to confirm that when Crown Prince Zhaoming was born, the sun wheel within his body was already ruptured.

This discovery alone was not enough to shake him. He knew that when the Divine Empress had changed her fate, she had sworn an incomparably savage oath to the starry sky, dooming her to die alone, so she would naturally not leave behind any descendant. Before the Heavenly Dao which operated behind the scenes and yet was irreversible, Crown Prince Zhaoming would naturally die.

But a few days ago, he had seen a secret message between the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets and the Imperial Palace, and thus uncovered another secret.

Chen Changsheng was a member of the Imperial clan, and he was ill. The source of his illness was that when he was still in the womb, his sun wheel was already ruptured—

Just like Crown Prince Zhaoming.

Zhou Tong began to feel anxiety, even fear.

If Chen Changsheng really was Crown Prince Zhaoming, if he still lived, what did that mean?

It meant that the Divine Empress's changing of fate was not completely successful!

As long as Chen Changsheng still lived, the Divine Empress had a chance of suffering the backlash of the Heavenly Dao!

If this matter were used by those hidden opponents of hers, could the Divine Empress possibly continue to stably sit upon the imperial throne?

Zhou Tong was well aware of the miserable end that awaited him once the Empress lost power.

They were both loyal to the Empress, but he was different from Xue Xingchuan and the other Divine Generals. Those Divine Generals had their own subordinates and armies. If the Chen Imperial clan retook the imperial throne, in order to stabilize the situation, as long as those Divine Generals were willing to switch allegiances, they were guaranteed to not suffer any sort of attack. For at least the first few years, they would not encounter any sort of problem.

But nobody would permit him to live.

Everyone knew that he was the most loyal and most wild dog of the Divine Empress.

He had bitten too many people to death for the Empress, was soaked in too much blood.

He did not want to die.

Even a dog desired to live even the most degrading of lives.

How could he resolve this problem? It seemed very simple. Just like many other people thought, the Divine Empress only needed to kill Chen Changsheng.

In the eyes of the world's people, the Divine Empress was cruel to the extreme and simply did not care about these things.

However, Zhou Tong had followed the Empress for many years and knew that the tales circulating amongst the populace were not completely true.

The Empress truly had no bloodline descendant—the Princess of Ping was adopted—but how could she possibly personally smother her own child to death?

She was a woman after all. If she really did find out that Chen Changsheng was her own, what would happen if her heart went soft?

Her heart could not go soft, the Heavenly Dao could not be disregarded, the risk could not be taken!

Zhou Tong's face grew paler and paler. His crimson official's robe faintly shook, stirring up what seemed like a wave of blood under the early autumn sun.

"Let me take on this worry for the Empress."

He silently thought in his heart.