Ze Tian Ji Chapter 717-718

Chapter 717 – Netherworld (II)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

(TN: Way of Choices will be on break from December 25th, 2017 – January 7, 2018)

Zhou Tong stared at the wall, his eyes turning darker and more sinister, transforming into two balls of ghostly fire.

The weak vibration seemed very ordinary, but to this underground world stabilized and protected by layer after layer of arrays, it was the omen of something terrible. Someone had touched one of Zhou Prison’s arrays, and it was not like an insect that was sticking its head into a spider web, but like a zither player extending a finger and lightly plucking a string.

Zhou Tong was staring at the wall, so he did not notice a drop of water falling from a crack in the stone ceiling.

This underground space was very humid, and even though it was sealed off by the numerous arrays, there were still many places in the walls and ceiling where water seeped through. Even in this relatively dry prison cell, this sight was not too unexpected. The problem was that this drop of water had a very coincidental landing point, landing right on the rim of the wine pot.

After the filtering of stones and arrays, the water in the earth that seeped through the stone walls was without impurity, clear and clean like a dewdrop.

This dewdrop silently trickled along the slim rim of the pot and fell into the wine.

Just then, Zhou Tong turned around.

Xue He said, “Chen Changsheng has probably sensed it and guessed that you’re here.”

Zhou Tong knew this, so he was in a rush to leave.

He did not know who the person that had triggered the array was that they were actually able to dig so deep towards Zhou Prison.

There was still some distance until this person reached this place, but he chose without hesitation to leave.

Just as Xue He had said, that person had very possibly wanted to use this method to inform the people on the surface of Zhou Tong’s specific position.

Zhou Tong calmly said, “There have always been many people that wanted to kill me.”

“So do I.”

Xue He took up his own wine pot and filled his empty cup.

Zhou Tong took the other wine pot and filled his own cup.

Xue He raised the cup and cheered, “I wish you a very slow death.”

Death was a very frightening matter, but if had happened fast enough, it could be considered a delight. If it was very slow, then naturally it was only pain that remained. (TN: The term for delight here is 痛快, which uses the words for both ‘pain’ and ‘fast’. 快 can also mean pleasant.)

Zhou Tong laughed, lightly clinked cups, and then emptied the cup.

“No matter how fast Chen Changsheng’s sword is, he can’t possibly arrive here that quickly.”

Zhou Tong’s gaze turned once more to that now-silent stone wall.

This place was the most secretive and safest hiding spot he had created for himself, but now he chose without hesitation to abandon it and seek another place to hide.

No matter how much Xue He loathed this man, even he had to admit that this was truly a most formidable decision. At the same time, he was also quite curious, asking, “Although I don’t know how big the snowstorm is today, I can imagine that there are not many places in the capital that can ensure your safety, so where can you go?”

“A rabbit will have three holes that it can flee from at any time, but that’s just a minimum for people in my line of work.”

Zhou Tong continued, “You will definitely feel regret that an evil man like me is truly not easy to kill. Today, at least, I will not die.”

After saying this, he said no more. He walked out of the prison cell and followed a gloomy tunnel towards an even gloomier place.

The bean-like lanterns lining this tunnel were similar to the glimmer in his eyes, both gloomy balls of ghostly fire.

His figure gradually vanished at the end of the tunnel, as if he was walking into the Netherworld, all the way until he walked into the deepest darkness.

Separated by metal bars, Xue He stared at Zhou Tong’s back in silence. He watched for a very long time, still watching even after Zhou Tong had vanished.

He was not feeling some sort of sorrow, nor was he feeling some complex mixture of emotions. He just wanted to make sure that Zhou Tong had truly left.

Another drop of water fell from the ceiling, and then the sound of scraping came from the wall.

Two hard pieces of stone were moved aside and a ball of mud squeezed out from between them.

It was not actual mud, but a person that had lived in the earth for several weeks.

On the night of the coup of the Mausoleum of Books, Chen Changsheng was brought to the Mausoleum of Books by the Divine Empress, Tang Tang was kidnapped back to Wenshui by the Tang Second Master, and Zhexiu disappeared.

No one was able to find any trace of him, whether it was the Imperial Court, the Li Palace, or the Orthodox Academy.

As it turned out, he had been hiding in the alley of the Northern Military Department this entire time, just very deep underground.

A detailed explanation would be very long and complex, but the truth of it was very simple.

In order to plant the crabapple tree, the Department for Purging Officials had dug a hole. He had jumped into this hole and remained underground right up until this moment.

No one would have been able to fathom just how he had managed to survive over the weeks.

But to Zhexiu, this was a very ordinary matter.

He was a wolf, possessing unimaginable patience and persistence. To catch his prey, he could wait a very long time, could endure a hunger and thirst that humans could not. In order to kill the cavalry the demons posted on the frontlines, he would often wait deep within the snow, often for several weeks. Although snow was much looser than earth, it was much colder.

Zhou Tong was the strongest prey he had ever faced and also the prey that he most desired to kill, so he had displayed even more patience. Of course, he had also paid no small price.

His face was very pale and his body much thinner, and though his eyes still had their cold and focused gaze, he was clearly much weaker than he was several weeks ago.

Xue He looked at him and asked, “Were you the one that triggered the array?”

“No, I don’t understand arrays, nor did I know that Chen Changsheng would come.”

Zhexiu’s voice was very hoarse, both because he had drunk very little water in the past several weeks and because he rarely spoke.

Xue He recalled that on the day he had been jailed in this deepest prison cell, the voice coming from the wall had been very low and also very hoarse.

At the time, he didn’t know who was in the wall, a person or ghost, but after he finished listening to whatever this thing had to say, he decided to cooperate with it, even if it was a ghost.

Xue He extended a hand and pulled a golden needle out of his bloodstained clothes, his brow creasing as he gave a pained groan.

The ten-some needles in his body had all been pulled out, but only by one-third their length. This was something he and Zhexiu had prepared ahead of time.

According to the original plan, he would coordinate with Zhexiu to think of a way to poison Zhou Tong, and then do his utmost to delay for time until the poison could work on Zhou Tong. Zhexiu would then burst out of the wall and join hands with Xue He to make trouble. At the beginning, reality proved to be even smoother than imagination. The poisoning had easily succeeded, but unexpectedly, someone triggered the array and frightened Zhou Tong away.

It was very obvious that this person hidden in the shadows did not know of Zhexiu’s existence, let alone Zhexiu’s plan, but they also wanted to kill Zhou Tong.

Xue He said, “You go and inform Chen Changsheng and I’ll chase after Zhou Tong.”

Zhexiu did not voice his objection, but that did not mean he had given his silent agreement, only that he did not care for what Xue He said.

He passed a ring of keys to Xue He, walked out of the cell, and walked in the direction that Zhou Tong had vanished.

At first, he walked very slowly. He was weak and he had spent the last few weeks clambering through the earth. He had not relied on his legs to walk for quite some time.

It didn’t take long for his movement to become more harmonious. Although his pace was not fast, it was steady enough.

……

……

Zhou Tong walked through the gloomy tunnel, turning back at certain intervals. Occasionally, a door would descend and then be concealed in earth.

These underground tunnels were as dense as a spider web, and after such mechanisms were triggered, they became even more complex. He was confident that even if someone helped Chen Changsheng break out of the Imperial Court’s encirclement, Chen Changsheng found Zhou Prison’s true position, and he then launched an attack underground, he still would not be able to find Zhou Tong.

Thinking about this greatly soothed his mind, and he rubbed his chest with his hand.

His brow furrowed as he discovered that his heartbeat was somewhat fast. Was he walking too fast, or was it something else?

Like…fear.

He was not willing to admit that he was afraid. He took a deep breath and secretly moved his true essence, preparing to slightly slow his heartbeat.

True essence smoothly flowed through his meridians, just like water flowing through a canal, when suddenly, it encountered an impassable wall.

He felt a twinge of pain at his chest.

He began to vomit blood.

The blood was black.

Chapter 718 – The Sunlight of the Courtyard Shines upon the Brewing Medicine by the Window

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

(TN: Way of Choices will be on break from December 25th, 2017 – January 7, 2018)

Zhou Tong stopped, his eyes narrowing.

Even in the dim light of the lanterns, he could still clearly see the color of the blood. The black blood was rather striking.

He felt that the heart underneath his palm was beating faster and faster, causing his hand and arm to tremble with it. Then his shoulders began to tremble, and then his entire body.

His face became abnormally pale, as if he had been afflicted by some grave illness in this brief span of time.

He had been poisoned, and with a fierce and very rare poison.

He had been able to conclude so quickly that this was a very rare poison because the Department for Purging Officials was the place most skilled in the use of poisons.

The poisons he personally saw and used were more numerous than the different foods a normal person ate in their entire life.

When had he been poisoned? The gloomy light in his squinted eyes continuously flickered as he recalled this past period. Although there were no clues, he very quickly determined who had poisoned him and when he had been poisoned. These did not require proof, only reverse deduction based on time and the grasp of a few details.

His poisoner was probably still there, but he did not turn around, because what he needed to prioritize was leaving.

He took a handtowel from his sleeve and wiped the foul blood from his lips, then continued walking forward, very quickly vanishing into the darkness.

After some time, a soft sound rose from the darkness. The gloomy lanterns on the stone walls revived, shining upon Zhexiu’s pale face streaked with dried mud.

He crouched down and dipped a hand into the foul blood, brought it up to his nose, and sniffed.

The foul black blood exuded a faint fishy scent atop those blade-like fingers glimmering with cold light.

He was very satisfied and continued in pursuit along the trail of Qi, swiftly vanishing into the darkness.

……

……

The tunnels under the Department for Purging Officials spread out like a spider web and were extraordinarily complex. They were also longer than one might imagine, leading directly to very distant places. If possible, if this were any ordinary time, Zhou Tong would have spent much longer in the tunnels, winding through many paths, activating many more mechanisms, all to ensure his absolute safety.

This was not possible today, because a fierce poison ran through his body.

This poison was completely different from the poisons commonly used by the Department for Purging Officials. It did not particularly target the meridians, the star openings, or the sea of consciousness. Instead, it pervaded the organs like sand, imparting a coarse and rough sensation that made him think about the vast plains of the north.

This sort of poison that was so incredibly close to nature might not even be treatable using the Sacred Light technique. However, very few people in the world had his level of knowledge in poisons, and he could even be considered a grandmaster in this aspect. Even if he had not seen this type of poison before, he knew how he should set out to deal with it. In order to take care of such a poison, only medicine would do, and it had to be medicine made with herbs. Even in Zhou Prison, such herbs would be very difficult to obtain. Fortunately, he knew of a place appropriately equipped for this ask, and even more fortunately, it was the place he had intended to go to.

He walked through the cold, wet, and extremely long tunnels, taking many turns. The ground was no longer flat, but gradually inclinined upward. He continued forward, walking to the end of the tunnel. His hands accurately inserted themselves into a gap in the wall, removing an array. He activated a switch, and then his hands pushed forward, opening a door and delivering him from darkness.

A dazzling sunlight was waiting for him, and also a moving face as warm and gentle as the sunshine.

The sunlight came from the sky above the courtyard. The gloomy clouds of snow had at some point been blown away, revealing the porcelain-blue sky. Just like this, the warm light of the winter sun appeared before him. The warm and moving face belonged to a beautiful young woman.

Upon seeing this sunlight and the face of this young woman, Zhou Tong instantly felt his body warm up and his mind calm down. Moreover, the concern and anxiety evident on the woman’s face made his chest turn hot. This was an emotion completely different from fear or loathing, and it was also the emotion that he most lacked and most required in his life.

The young woman supported him out of the tunnel and then closed it with great difficulty, once more activating the switch.

This courtyard was not very large, nor very refined, but every detail, whether it was the black eaves, the screen wall, or the border of green bamboo, brimmed with the word ‘tranquility’.

When Zhou Tong first designed this courtyard, this was what he had pursued. He had always believed that only with tranquility did a place carry the flavor of home.

This courtyard was his home, his true home, the final place that he could serenely rest his exhausted body and poison-steeped heart.

Only after returning to this courtyard could his mind finally gain true calm, could it truly relax.

For his safety and to protect his secret, so that his hard-sought tranquility could not be disturbed, Zhou Tong had set up with this courtyard with extreme prudence.

Nobody knew of this place, not his most loyal subordinates in the Department for Purging Officials, Cheng Jun and the other Eight Tigers, or even the Divine Empress.

The only person that knew of this courtyard’s relationship to him was already dead.

Every time he returned to this courtyard and he listened to the sounds beyond the patches of green bamboo from their neighboring courtyard, Zhou Tong would always recall a certain memory.

In these past few years, Xue Xingchuan had dearly hoped that Zhou Tong would treat the Xue Estate as his true home, but how could this be possible? Disregarding how every one of the servants and his juniors in the Xue Estate would view him with dismay and unease, he refused to do so solely because of his surname. His elder brother might not want this surname, but he did.

……

……

Along with the Demon Commander, Zhou Tong was probably the person that the greatest number of people wished to see dead. Perhaps for this reason, what he feared most was death. Besides this courtyard, he had a few more secret hiding places in the capital. However, none of those places was as safe as this or as important or comfortable.

He felt this way because this courtyard had a sweet-tempered and moving woman who also had heartfelt love and respect for him. More importantly, there were many precious things stored, like several extremely rare herbs. Of these herbs, the majority had been obtained via sending people to remove them from the Hundred Herb Garden, and another portion had been gifted to him by the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets.

He took a steaming towel and placed it over his face. He began to heavily cough, perhaps incited by the hot air.

Upon taking off the towel, he saw that its surface was now spotted with blots of black blood. They looked like flowers drawn in ink, completely unreal yet somewhat horrifying.

The woman was very anxious, but Zhou Tong seemed particularly calm and indifferent. He had her grind some ink while he sat on a chair, closing his eyes to calm his mind, but looking like he was tasting something.

He was tasting that fierce poison in his body carrying the flavor of the vast plains.

After some time, he opened his eyes. Supported by the woman, he walked to a table by the window. He lifted the brush and wrote with confidence and ease, as if he was writing calligraphy.

The strokes on the paper were dripping with ink, and the handwriting was extremely clear. This was not grass script, but a prescription of herbs.

(TN: Grass script is a type of calligraphy style.)

Which herbs to use, how many bowls of water, how to simmer it, what sort of fire, what sort of stove, what sort of coal, what sort of water, how to filter the medicinal broth, when to add crystals—everything was written with remarkable clarity.

The woman saw his expression and knew that he should be okay for the moment. Her mind relaxed, she took the prescription and went to the kitchen to make the medicine.

This sort of matter had happened several times, so she had some experience.

No mistakes were made with regards to the types and amount of herbs used, and she very smoothly heated the stove.

At some point, a beauty dressed in palace attire appeared by the stove. The fire shone upon her face, illuminating her sublime appearance.

This palace beauty was truly very beautiful.

In fact, in the past few years, she had been regarded as the most beautiful woman in all of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The servant woman brewed the medicine with a calm expression, dividing the herbs and filtering their juices with great steadiness. It was like she didn’t even see this beauty dressed in palace attire.

The beauty placed a few things in the medicine pot.

The servant woman still acted as if she did not see.

The room was silent, the only sound the gurgling of the broth in the medicine pot.