Way of Choices: Book I - Youths We Were, Schoolmates

by Mao Ni

  The demon man slightly bent his body and said, "From the moment Princess left her homeland. To be more precise, from the moment Princess crossed that river reeking with blood, I have always been waiting, waiting for this day to come."

  Luoluo commented, "That really is a very long time."

  "I've been away from my home for several years already, and more than a year has passed since I began this journey with Your Highness. In the capital, I've been hiding like a mouse for the greater part of a year. My life was just silently watching Your Highness from the darkness, very monotonous and very dangerous."

  The demon calmly recounted how he had lived in these past years. He spoke very indifferently, but in reality, it was a very cruel, even tragic life. Living in the city that was the heart of the human world for so many years, he inevitably had to pay an enormous price, especially in mental terms.

  After a moment of silence, he gazed across the lake to the distant north, sighing, "I deeply miss the wind and snow of my home, I also deeply miss my wife and children. Thank you, Princess, for your mercy. Tonight, I finally have the opportunity to complete my important mission."

  Upon hearing these two statements, Luoluo felt a little regretful.

  She had not expected that the demons had been constantly spying on her, following from her home all the way to the capital. With such far-reaching plans, so carefully and deeply thought out, once the demons snatched an opportunity, it was certain that he had prepared for any eventuality.

  What she regretted was that she was the one that had offered this opportunity to the demons. If she had not used her most ingenious method to escape the protection of her clansmen for the sake of finding that person, the demon man in front of her would probably have still remained hidden, whittled away by his life in the human world until he turned old.

  Gazing up at the night sky and seeing the clearly refracted starlight, she knew that this magical artifact had successfully divided the world into inside and outside. Although her clansmen were on the other side of the Orthodox Academy's wall, they would assuredly be unable to hear her calls.

  At this place and time, no one else could save her, except herself.

  Luoluo had confirmed her situation, but she actually grew calmer. As she gazed at the demon man, the childishness about her face was completely replaced with the will to fight. "Upper level Ethereal Opening is very strong, but not strong enough. I don't believe you're qualified to kill me."

  "To live in the capital is not easy. There are too many human experts here. If I was too strong, it could easily alarm powerful figures like Mo Yu; the Great Zhou Imperial Palace would send a few Guardians, and then I would be dead, so I cannot be strong."

  The demon man gazed at her and said, "My techniques are specialized in concealment. Although not particularly strong, they're not particularly weak either, just enough to kill Princess. Thus, I was the most appropriate, and so, the one that appeared before Your Highness today was me and not anyone else."

  Luoluo said, "I want to know your name."

  She spoke very calmly, seeming to look down on him from high above.

  "I am called Mohe," the demon man obediently replied.

  Luoluo said, "Mohe is a surname, not a name."

  The demon man faintly smiled, his pale white face wrinkling like a sheet of paper. With this rather frightening look, he said, "Princess, it's meaningless to delay for time."

  Luoluo began to laugh, the sound crisp and clear. With the night wind, it would be sent very far if not for that protective screen. At the least, the people on the other side of the wall would have been able to hear it clearly. The demon man seemed to have no intent of stopping her.

  "I thought you didn't care about my delaying for time," she ceased her attempts and seriously replied.

  The demon man said, "After killing Princess, I will definitely find it very hard to escape the capital. So this period is most likely the final period of my more than one hundred years of life. For me to be able to speak with a person of such exalted bloodlines as Princess, I feel that my soul will be more easily soothed."

  Luoluo opened her eyes wide and blinked slightly, asking inquisitively, "You're not worried that you will be discovered by humans?"

  The demon man pointed at the metal pestle-like object on the grass before him.

  "This place is very close to the Imperial Palace," she kindly warned.

  The demon man expressionlessly replied, "I have faith that even if the Divine Empress were looking at this very place right now, she would not realize what we are doing."

  "Fine, I truly do admit that no one will come to save me." Luoluo sighed. She was obviously miserable, yet also rather cute. "Then, you are sure that you really can kill me?"

  After saying this, her eyes suddenly became extremely bright, like two bright pearls. Her right hand pulled a leather whip from her waist. This whip was extremely long, so long that it ultimately piled up at her feet, and it was a mystery just how it had been stored at her waist.

  "This is the legendary Falling Rain Whip?" The demon man seemed very regretful, perhaps because he had now seen a legendary divine weapon, or for some other reason.

  He turned his gaze back to Luoluo and said solemnly, "Regardless of how many rare magical artifacts are on Your Highness's person, Your Highness must die tonight, because this is the Lord Military Advisor's plan, and so nothing unexpected can occur."

  Upon hearing this sentence, Luoluo slightly tightened her grip on the whip, turning somewhat pale.

  The Demon Military Advisor's reputation was one of the most terrifying of the continent. Even her parents paid a great deal of attention to this person.

  When that great war of the past concluded, the demons suffered a crushing defeat under the combined armies of the humans and demi-humans, but this did not mean the death of their country. They could bitterly persist in their cold realm of the north, and there were even signs of recovery in the past few years. Besides the cruel and powerful Demon Lord, who oversaw Xuelao City and stabilized the various great powers, the most important reason for this recovery was a military advisor that crafted plans for the demons. Whether they were outrageous plots or fair and open policies for governing the people, that human's shadow was always behind them.

  Yes, a human's shadow.

  The Demon Military Advisor was a human.

  No one knew why a human was willing to betray his race and give his utmost effort for the sake of the demons, but the entire continent knew that this human was extremely respected by the demons. From this point alone, one could tell just how extraordinary this person was.

  None of the Demon Military Advisor's plans had ever failed, and there seemed to be no gaps in his thinking. His control and use of the minds of people had long since surpassed the point of perfection and had become an indescribable strength.

  In these countless years, the expeditionary forces sent north by the humans were all thwarted by his crafty plots, to the extent that before the army had even set out, it had already failed. The damage inflicted by this person was even more than the damage that had been inflicted by the terrifying Eight Great Hermits of the demons added together.

  Countless human experts and demi-human braves had attempted to find the Demon Military Advisor and then assassinate him, but no one ever succeeded. Besides an expert of the path of the sword belonging to the Longevity Sect, no one had even found him.

  Even today, no one knew the name of the Demon Military Advisor, what he looked like, where he had come from, or what sort of past he had that would make him betray the humans and devote himself to the demons. There was even a legend that when the demons suffered their crushing defeat, this Military Advisor did not choose to return with the Demon Lord to Xuelao City, instead choosing to conceal his identity, and that even now, he was living in the human world. He might be the neighbor by one's side, he might be one's teacher, and he might even be a priest.

  This was the most frightening aspect of the Demon Military Adv
isor.

  People only knew that he often wore a black robe.

  Many demon experts, when mentioning him, would all address him with deep respect: Lord Black Robe.

  Luoluo gazed at the black-robed demon man standing by the tree, her heart gradually sinking.

  If this was planned by the Demon Military Advisor, then it really might be very difficult to escape through sheer luck. Everyone knew that the plans of the Military Advisor never contained any sort of gap even though they seemed simple, even casual. Nothing unexpected would ever occur.

  The demon man by the tree was wearing a black robe. He was most likely that Military Advisor's direct subordinate.

  The metal artifact in the grass had cut off all changes to the world outside

  She had come alone to the Orthodox Academy.

  No one else would be able to see her.

  She would naturally die.

  This trap was very simple, yet it was logically impossible to escape from.

  She knew that she could only rely on her own strength to strive for survival.

  She knew even more that the legendary Demon Military Advisor had definitely made extremely precise calculations on the strength of both sides. Just as the demon man had just said, he might not be very strong, but he was not weak either. He was just strong enough to kill her.

  It was definitely enough to kill her.

  She was able to see the strength of the man's cultivation due to her innate gift, but it did not mean that she could defeat him.

  Based on human reckonings of strength, she was currently at the initial level of the Meditation Realm. With her age, this cultivation level was already sufficient to shock the world, yet in a life-or-death battle between mature experts, this sort of cultivation was not at all enough for her to survive.

  "To be able to speak so much with the exalted Princess at the final moment of my life, I am very content."

  The demon man slowly walked towards her and slowly raised his right hand, white rays of light seeming to shine through his fingers.

  It was a ball of light condensed from true essence.

  Luoluo sensed the terrifying Qi coming from the ball of light and slightly narrowed her eyes.

  The demon man was wearing a pair of worn-out boots on his feet.

  As the boots stepped on the lawn, they left no tracks behind.

  During the day, the grass had been cut short, and now their shorn ends revealed a pleasant aroma.

  Apparently because they had been cut short, the grass seemed to have more strength, seeming to grasp at the demon's shoes.

  No, that was only a momentary scene.

  In reality, from the moment the demon man had taken his first step, his body had begun to blur and then vanish from sight!

  Luoluo's eyes grew brighter as if wanting to illuminate the darkness.

  She knew that for this demon man to be able to hide himself in the human world for so long, it was definitely exactly as he said: his techniques must be extremely specialized in concealment. Yet she had not expected that her opponent could so easily vanish in the middle of battle.

  The next moment, the demon man appeared behind her!

  His terrifying fist rumbled towards her back!

  The demon man was far stronger than her, but even so, he had used his most powerful technique.

  He had put all his true essence into this fist, all his emotions into this strike. Even though this strike would also cripple his hand, he did not care. As long as he could kill this girl, he was even willing to offer his life and soul, so why would he care for a hand?

  Luoluo had no means of blocking this fist. In reality, she hadn't even been able to follow his tracks.

  But her whip could.

  The long whip in her right hand flicked out like a snake, the tail of the whip swishing through the darkness like a snake's tongue and piercing toward the throat of the man.

  At the same time, she opened her palm, causing a third button to fall to the floor.

  The demon man's pale face was still indifferent, not caring about any of this, his fist still striking down.

  Squelch.

  A bloody hole appeared in his throat.

  At the same time, his fist fell toward Luoluo's back.

  Demons were born in the wind and snow amongst the mountains. Their strength became famous throughout the mountains.

  His fist was a mountain.

  This mountain boomed towards the girl's body.

  It was a very brutal sight.

  The button fell upon the ground.

  With a puff of smoke, and before it could even disperse, Luoluo had turned around to directly confront this monstrous fist.

  With this demon's strange movement techniques, there should have been no reasonable way for her to have the time to turn around, but she had done it.

  Because she had used another Thousand Li Button in advance.

  The Thousand Li Button could not help her overcome that invisible protective screen, but it could at least help her turn around.

  But what could she do after turning around?

  That terrifying fist was getting closer and closer, the light of true essence seeping through his fingers growing brighter and brighter.

  Was it out of dignity that she had chosen to confront death head-on in her life's final moments?

  No.

  An unswerving determination appeared upon Luoluo's childish face.

  With a clear cry, she tightened her tiny fist and fearlessly sent it flying towards the demon's fist.

  Boom!

  Floorboards were sent flying, dust billowed into the air, countless cobweb-like cracks appeared in the ground, and the trees of the forest which had just been pruned were sent toppling by the wind!

  The night wind gently blew.

  The dust gradually settled, revealing two people.

  The demon man stood at his original location, the expression on his pale face abnormally complex as several trickles of blood slowly flowed down.

  The demon man stood at his original location, the expression on his pale face abnormally complex as several trickles of blood slowly flowed down.

  His right fist had become a mass of blood and flesh, the white bone visible.

  The most terrifying injury was on his head.

  His left demon horn had fractured from its base, and blood bubbled forth from it.

  A slightly yellowed tusk was deeply embedded in his forehead, slightly trembling.

  If this sharp tusk had been able to get just a little deeper, perhaps it would have already killed him!

  The demon extended a hand to pull out this tusk, but then, for some reason, he did not dare touch it.

  He knew that if not for the magical artifact given to him by the Military Advisor suppressing the entire battlefield, he would already be dead to this girl's sneak attack.

  With this thought, his face turned further pale, somewhat fearful.

  "This…is the Great Emperor's Tusk?"

  He stared into Luoluo's eyes, his voice a little shaky, both pained and angered. "Truly as expected of the Princess said in the tales to possess countless treasures, actually possessing protective magical artifacts of this level! In the end, I still underestimated you."

  Three Thousand Li Buttons, one Falling Rain Whip, and also one Great Emperor's Tusk.

  The acquisition of any of them could make an entire family go bankrupt…no, they were treasures that any expert would bankrupt their family to obtain.

  And all of these were in her possession and used unsparingly by her.

  If the world's experts were to see tonight's scene, they would undoubtedly beat their chests and stamp their feet in endless lamentation.

  But she would not, because she was Luoluo, and she was very generous, so she was first very generous to herself. And anyway, those things had originally been hers.

  "I must admit that Your Highness's response was truly outstanding, your innate abilities as powerful as expected, but regretfully…this is a
plan of the Lord Military Advisor. He definitely calculated the items on Your Highness's body and confirmed that they were not enough to kill me."

  The demon used his hand to smear his blood all over his face. In the slightly crooked starlight, he seemed abnormally terrifying.

  He finished, "I am still alive, so Your Highness will die."

  Luoluo's situation was not at all good. A moment ago, she had used her sleeve to wipe her lip clean, but now another trickle of blood had stained it.