Chapter 192: 185 The Earth as a Sword

Sword: Kun

Sword Guest:

Sword Dao: Earth

Sword Intent: Thick Earth Gentle and Endless Expansion

Supernatural Power: Outstanding People and Divine Land

Sword Image: Breathing Soil (Harmony with Dao)

Sword Heart: Clear Sword Dao

Sword Realm: Dao Realm

Sword Momentum: Vast Fields and Abundant Resources, Following the Heavenly Time

Sword Technique: Dragon Fighting in the Wild, Water Comes Earth Covers, Earth Dragon Turning Over, Juan Tu Chong Lai, A Cluster of Forest, A Coastline, A Mountain Range, A City, A...

Secret Sword Art: Mountain Building, Land Filling, Territory Opening, Wall Erection, Solid Ice, Rooting, Rigidity, Earth Shrinking...

Sword Controlling Art: Yi Sword Controlling Art

Recorded in Sword Manual: Nine pages.

Manual Inscription: The Earthly Kun, the gentleman carries things with thick virtue.

Tang Zhao sat on a chair in the Reception Hall, checking his Glasses, with only one thought in his mind:

Numb.

Is such a sword something I can peek at?

Before, when he saw the Yanggu Sword, he was amazed and could not imagine how there could be such a powerful sword in the world, and even felt indignant that the Yanggu Sword was ranked after the twentieth page—the sun was ranked so low, what ability did the others have to be ranked above it?

Now that he had seen it, he could only say, it is worthy of being a sword in the top ten of the Sword Manual. This prestige is remarkable.

He was not qualified to Knock Sword with this kind of sword, let alone Ask Sword. It was only because this sword had already been recorded in the Sword Manual that he could open this page when he encountered it. If it were his first time controlling a sword and he let the Glasses Knock Sword on their own, he feared the Talisman would finish while the screen was still scrolling, and perhaps it would have cracked before the scrolling was even done.

Let alone Ask Sword.

Speaking of Ask Sword—

Tang Zhao looked at the Sword Guest column.

This column actually had characters, but they could not be distinguished by the eye; there were only faint, garbled codes, extremely obscure and difficult to understand. Tang Zhao guessed that for a Sword Guest who had reached this level, his name should already be under some kind of protection and could not be looked at casually. Perhaps it was recorded in the Sword Manual, but his own Spirit was too low to see it, just like how he could not open other pages of the Sword Manual.

That person should not just be a Sword Immortal, right? Although legend had it that the Sword Guest of Jianzhou was a Sword Immortal, that was only a rumor from who knows how many years ago. The Sword Manual stated clearly that the Sword Immortal's sword was the "Potential Realm," and he was already at the Dao Realm. The Sword Dao column had also displayed something, no longer a blank slate like the Yanggu Sword.

Then what should a Sword Guest of the Dao Realm be called?

Sword God?

However, was he still alive? Wasn't it said that this powerhouse who left behind the sword had already fallen?

A Sword Guest should never be separated from his sword; since the sword was left alone in the world, I fear the Sword Guest also met with misfortune.

Of course, even if a Sword Guest dies, the sword can still be collected into the Sword Manual. Before it is wiped, it will still display the name of the Sword Guest during his lifetime. Tang Zhao had tried this; the Bu De sword was like this. Even if the Bu De sword no longer existed in the world, its information remained in the Sword Manual, and the Sword Guest column still bore the name of Ku Yi, recording that they had once been here.

So, the great power of the Kun Sword might also have truly fallen?

After admiring the sword for a while, Tang Zhao felt regret; he wished he could immediately test the style of this sword. It was just that he had the Sword Manual but no corresponding Dharma Artifact, so he could not simulate holding this powerful sword; thus, all he could refer to were the Rune Formulas transformed from the sword techniques that followed.

But this sword only started to become powerful and miraculous from the sword techniques, and those sword techniques, how should he put it—they were very "civil engineering."

"Mountain Building" sounded nice, but that was supported by the sword's powerful Sword Essence to truly build a mountain. Once transformed into a Rune Formula, with the Yuan power limited by the materials, it would be good if it could pile up a mound of dirt. There was also filling ditches, laying bricks for walls, laying floors... it was rarely useful in combat, but perhaps it could shine when he expanded the Baiyu Shenghui Firm in the future.

He put away the Sword Manual with some regret and stood up, preparing to go to the island to scavenge. He wanted to see if there were any materials at the foot of the Kun Sword that had been catalyzed by this Mysterious Yellow Land and stained with its aura, so he could try to forge a Dharma Artifact to allow the divine sword sleeping in the Sword Manual to reappear in the world.

However, Tang Zhao also knew the hope was slim. As the Host, the people of Longyuan had already occupied this place for nearly a month; even if they didn't skin it and take it apart, they would have dug three feet deep. What good things could be left?

At this time, he was in the Reception Hall arranged by Longyuan. He was in the first row of the Heaven District, Heaven Number Nine. The previous eight were the Seven Great Factions and the Libationer. Among all the others, he was ranked first.

The environment here went without saying; outside the guest house, willows swayed and flowers bloomed, while inside, it was clean and tidy, with meals, fruits, fine wine, and clear tea, all fully prepared, and a stick of faint sandalwood incense was lit. He had slept for a few hours last night and was full of energy; even if he didn't go out to sweep, he wanted to take advantage of the early morning to breathe in the fresh air and disperse the fatigue and tension of the Sword Province Road.

Just as he stepped out, Jiang Shenyi came looking for him. He also lived in the Heaven District, but further back; after all, the competition at the nine-hundred-point level was very fierce, and a one-point difference could mean dropping several places.

Seeing Tang Zhao about to go out, he asked curiously, "Eh, are you going to look for yourself? Not waiting for someone to come to your door to report the good news?"

Tang Zhao said, "What?"

Jiang Shenyi said, "The posting of the rankings. The final seating list. You should have a chance to compete for the top spot, right? It is said that Longyuan held a ceremony, and the top three invited a group of people to blow horns and beat drums, wearing red and green, to report the good news at the door of the Reception Hall. You shouldn't fall out of the top three, right? Just wait for the good news."

Tang Zhao thought about that scene, being surrounded at the door by people blowing suonas, and only felt his toes curling in embarrassment. He said, "I'd better go look at the rankings; having people block my door and blow suonas is terrifying."

Jiang Shenyi disagreed and said, "Are you kidding me? Isn't this set just learning from the Imperial Court's imperial examination results? You were a scholar before; haven't you ever dreamed of being on the golden list? You must have imagined that scene, right? What is there to be ashamed of?"

Tang Zhao wiped his face and said, "If I had topped the imperial examination, living up to ten years of hard study, and become the leader of the world's scholars in one day, no celebration would be too much. But for a Rune Association seat, it's better not to be too exaggerated."

Speaking of which, Longyuan really revealed the atmosphere of the old Government Office everywhere, even learning that set of imperial examination naming.

Jiang Shenyi laughed, "You say it so lightly, isn't it because your results are proud? If it were those who couldn't answer the questions no matter what, there really are people who would live or die for this. Oh, right, be careful when you go to see the rankings, don't get beaten up. The people who were eliminated by you at the time must still be angry; maybe they want to give you a punch to your face."

Tang Zhao also laughed, "Beat me? Then they've found the right person."

For the sake of posting the rankings, Longyuan had built a Zhuangyuan Tower on the small Jianzhou Island. In front of the tower were three large stone tablets, divided into Heaven, Earth, and Human rankings, each hung with gold, white, and green silk ribbons.

At this time, the tablet with the green silk ribbon had already been unveiled, revealing hundreds of densely packed names, each with a table number and seat behind it. Unlike the crude list in front of the White City, the names on this list were the final rankings; whether fair or unfair, there was no room for debate.

Tang Zhao only glanced at it and didn't pay much attention. His fellow apprentices would not be in the Human District, but he did see the two from Liangzhou in the front. Wusun Tong and Che Sha were roughly in the first few places of the Human District, because the Human District had the most spots, and the front row of the Human District could be considered upper-middle among everyone. Compared to being at the very end at the beginning, this could be considered a small counterattack. It proved that the newly established One Hundred and Eight Springs were not ordinary people. To put it bluntly, if Tang Zhao's two senior brothers came here, Zhuoyu Villa might not necessarily be the opponent of this new faction.

However, unless everyone reviewed the list later, no one cared about this small progress within the Human District. At most, when arranging seats for the next Rune Association, it would be used as a slight reference to rank their initial seats a little higher.

Then he heard someone say bitterly, "After such a big circle, the ranking hasn't improved at all, but instead fell to the end. Don't let me know who was in that wooden house flashing with seven-colored light, or I won't let them off!"

Someone behind sneered, "What is there not to know? Just look at who is at the top of the list. The house with full marks, it can't be anyone other than those few in the Heaven District. In a while, you just stop him and make a move, vent this anger; don't tell me you don't dare?" A few words of sarcasm earned him a glare from the other party.

Tang Zhao glanced at them and saw several young men with angry expressions; they must be the unlucky ones who were later eliminated by him. Their scores were not bad originally, and maybe they were enough to reach the threshold of the Heaven District, but because they wanted to go further, they targeted him, only to be directly knocked out, ending up with a zero score and ranked at the very end. This is called "willing to bet and willing to lose," and it's no one else's fault.

Moreover, they weren't the only unlucky ones. Tang Zhao didn't eliminate many directly, but there were plenty who withdrew for various reasons along the way or were eliminated in the final melee. Thanks to them, as long as one successfully entered Jianzhou with the test paper, they could be ranked in the middle, and there were plenty of people at the bottom. As for the unluckiest ones like the victims of Yi Zhixin, that goes without saying.

After this time, many young Talisman Sword Masters had formed grudges, but fortunately, Longyuan controlled it well; the hatred of elimination was not a life-and-death feud, and time would wash it all away. It shouldn't turn into a deep-seated hatred... right?

Immediately following was the unveiling of the Earth District list.

At this time, Jiang Shenyi was still nervous; he had spent his time helping Tang Zhao fight in the end and didn't get any questions for himself, so his results fell a notch, and he feared falling into the Earth District.

Fortunately, after a glance, he wasn't in the Earth District either. Jiang Shenyi breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Didn't lose face for the folks back home."

What remains is the unveiling of the Heaven District.

"Clang—"

With the sound of a golden bell, a young man walked onto the stage.

Tang Zhao was startled; he remembered that this young man seemed to be the Longyuan Disciple who had handed him his fishing rod.

The young man smiled and said, "Everyone, I am Qi Yuheng of Longyuan, and I shall now announce the candidates for the Heaven District. Let me say first: those who can enter the Heaven District are undoubtedly the cream of the younger generation. One could say everyone here is favored by the essence of heaven and earth, with differences of only a hair's breadth. As you sit side by side, do not harm the harmony."

Everyone thought: You say it lightly, but weren't the setups you Longyuan people placed along the way all meant to harm the harmony?

Qi Yuheng continued, "Then I announce, there are twenty-four people in total for the Heaven District."

Tang Zhao was startled in his heart, feeling something was wrong; others sensitive to numbers also frowned one after another, saying, "Are there still that many people left? There should only be about twenty, right?"

Qi Yuheng smiled, "Perhaps some peers have noticed; there aren't that many people left on the Sword Province Road, are there? I tell everyone, besides the outstanding ones screened from the Sword Province, there are also representatives from the Seven Great Sects. They did not brave the Sword Province Road, did not receive any extra hints, and could not copy others' answers; they relied entirely on their own strength to complete the test papers. Their scores are listed on the same ranking as yours. Everyone, let's see whether you or they rank higher!"

"Unveil the list!"