Chapter 226: 219 The Curtain Falls

The Rune Conference, which had been full of twists and turns and stirred up a great commotion, finally drew to a close.

When the last wave of enemies was cleared away, the inside and outside of the venue finally became quiet. Seeing the dust settle, everyone looked at each other, feeling as if they had lived through a lifetime.

Although the process was full of ups and downs, generally speaking, it ended in a complete victory for the Longyuan side. Therefore, after the great battle, Longyuan still had a portion of their reserve troops who had not yet entered the fray, which was just right for handling the aftermath in an orderly fashion.

First, the most innocent young Talisman Sword Masters were invited away one by one, transported to other places to recuperate in Cloud Dragon Carriages. Then, the lucky captives who had not died were also taken away; their numbers were not large. Finally, Longyuan carried out a massive cleanup of the site; Jianzhou was gone, so they swept the mountain peaks clean, which could be considered a tribute to Kungang Snow Mountain. As for the masterminds, the Turtle Bandits, who were blocked at the other end of the space tunnel, they could not be bothered with for now; whether to pursue them actively or passively strengthen defenses later would be a matter for the future.

Tang Zhao had been waiting on the mountainside until Jiang Shenyi woke up. Before the two could say much, they were found by Longyuan Disciples. The Longyuan Disciples were very polite to Tang Zhao and his senior brother, and they also used a carriage to take them along to be guests at Longyuan's temporary camp.

At this moment, Tang Zhao's mood was calm but carried the exhaustion of overexertion. Jiang Shenyi also needed to be checked and treated, and he knew that some things needed to be exchanged between them, so he followed the Longyuan Disciples onto a Cloud Carriage. That crocodile stayed by Jiang Shenyi's side. Seeing that it would not leave, Tang Zhao used a special spirit beast bag to store it and gave it to Jiang Shenyi to carry. After all, this crocodile's soul had been modified and it had great potential; it was likely the only one left in the world, and there would never be another. Since it had recognized Jiang Shixiong, it would be a help to his senior brother, and Jiang Shenyi would not mind.

Longyuan had a method for gathering and applying cloud energy. In an instant, they condensed dozens of Cloud Carriages, including passenger carriages and prison carriages, to take everyone away separately.

Tang Zhao and Jiang Shenyi were originally in the same carriage, but after traveling for a while, someone got on the carriage to transfer Jiang Shenyi to a specialized medical carriage. It was said that there were disciples proficient in medical arts on the carriage to provide treatment, so Tang Zhao naturally did not stop them.

Just as Jiang Shenyi left, someone entered the carriage and sat opposite him; it was Ju Tianxuan, whom Tang Zhao had met once before.

Tang Zhao had long known that someone from Longyuan would come to find him. He had thought it would be Qi Yuheng, with whom he had more dealings, but he had not expected it to be Ju Tianxuan.

Ju Tianxuan's expression was kind, without the faint aloofness from their last meeting; instead, she was extremely friendly. As soon as she came up, she said sincerely, "Brother Tang, I must apologize to you. I had been keeping things from you regarding the Libationer before."

Tang Zhao smiled. Since the topic was to start from there, and he was not someone who would not forgive when he had the upper hand, he said, "It's fine. Didn't Jushouzuo warn me as well? You could have ignored it. If not for your warning, I wouldn't have been able to counter-kill him so easily."

Ju Tianxuan laughed, "Brother Tang is magnanimous. Being able to let go of past grievances makes me feel ashamed. Sigh, at the time I was also blinded by obsession, thinking only that this Libationer was narrow-minded and wanted to attack a junior because he couldn't avenge his severed limb. I couldn't stand it in my heart, so I warned you. I didn't expect his heart to be so big, and full of malicious intent. He didn't tell me the truth; he claimed on the surface that he was retaliating against you, but in fact, he was using you as a smokescreen to assassinate Xiao Guangwang."

Tang Zhao asked with some concern, "Is it confirmed? When he sent the crocodile to attack me, he wasn't actually here, but was attacking Xiao Guangwang elsewhere?"

Ju Tianxuan sighed, "Confirmed. Later, we found Xiao Guangwang's corpse right in his guest room."

Tang Zhao was stunned and asked in confusion, "Isn't that too conspicuous? What murderer would hide a corpse in their own room? Could it be that someone framed him?"

Ju Tianxuan said, "No—he killed the person, but the corpse was placed there by someone else. We found a letter the Turtle Bandits gave him—do you know the Turtle Bandits? They are the masterminds this time. Those people somehow discovered his conspiracy, and after he left, they found the corpse of Xiao Guangwang, whom he had dealt with, and stuffed it into his room to threaten him. It should have been to make him link his own Soul Dao with the previous dynasty's Spirit Official Dao, to win over and confuse those young people for the Turtle Bandits. It must have been the day before the Rune Conference opened. Zhu Yang must have been very conflicted, which is why he suddenly claimed to be ill and postponed his speech for half a day."

Tang Zhao suddenly understood. There had indeed been such an incident on the first day when the keynote speech was given. At the time, he was supposed to give his speech in the afternoon, but he was forced to go first at the last minute, which made him very nervous. So it turned out that Zhu Yang was being threatened and was struggling with changing the content of his speech. No wonder his face looked so bad when he first appeared.

He recalled, "I remember the content of the first day's speech was quite clean, with nothing rebellious in it. It was the second time, the last day of the speech, that he started mixing in the private goods of the Spirit Officials."

Ju Tianxuan nodded, "Exactly. Although the Libationer could not speak for himself, we guess that after much struggle, he still refused to follow the Turtle Bandits' threats. Compared to being exposed for murder, he was even less willing to see the path he had worked so hard to develop be tarnished. That is why the content he spoke on the first day was clean."

Tang Zhao nodded. Zhu Yang could be considered a pure person in terms of academic study. He said, "Then later, the Turtle Bandits..."

Ju Tianxuan's expression was gloomy, "The Turtle Bandits saw that he wouldn't listen to them, so they killed him. It was on the second day of the Rune Conference."

Tang Zhao calculated the time and said with horror, "Then the one who went on stage on the third day of the Rune Conference was..."

Ju Tianxuan said, "It was a corpse possessed by a Spirit Image. By that time, Zhu Yang had already been dead for a day."

Tang Zhao felt a chill down his spine. However, thinking about it, it was indeed true. When they came out of the Reflection Realm and discovered that Zhu Yang was dead, his corpse was already completely stiff. It was only because it had been moving all along that there were no obvious lividity spots.

"I saw him in high spirits at the time, with a better complexion than when he was alive. Can a Spirit Official achieve this level?"

Ju Tianxuan said, "They can. This is also a branch of the Spirit Officials. Among the Phantoms, there is a branch called the Death Charm, which specializes in possessing dead bodies, making them act as if they were alive. Let alone a freshly dead corpse, even bones from years ago can walk as usual. They have special means to decorate their appearance, making them hard to detect. It is a very difficult branch of the Phantoms to deal with. And the Spirit Officials..."

Ju Tianxuan sneered, "The previous dynasty's Spirit Officials were almost everywhere modeled after the Phantoms; they were almost Phantoms in the Human World. Whatever the Phantoms have, they must also have. Didn't he perform a severed limb regeneration at the time? At the time, Senior Brother Yue from Qingqu Academy said it was a means for the Fighting Phantoms to stimulate the body's potential, but it was actually the Death Charm's ability to manipulate corpses. They probably obtained a portion of Zhu Yang's notes, memories, and the like, and by sifting and cutting the content, they managed to put together a decent lecture, and even stuffed in a lot of private goods. In the end, they went all the way and wanted to kidnap the students together, but they didn't succeed."

Tang Zhao nodded. No wonder the last lecture was so uninteresting. Although it was authentic, it was like reading from a book, and it no longer had the witty remarks of the first lecture. It really had been someone else.

At this point, Tang Zhao also more or less understood the cause and effect, and could not help but sigh. Although he and Zhu Yang had grievances, he felt relieved now that the person was dead. Zhu Yang's attainments in Rune Dao were unquestionable, and his passion and ambition were also powerful. He had almost become a founding-ancestor-level figure, yet he died so worthlessly.

A waste of talent; this was another great sin committed by the Turtle Bandits!

In the end, it might even be considered that Tang Zhao had avenged him.

After sighing, this chapter was turned. Ju Tianxuan asked him about going up to grasp the sword. Tang Zhao naturally could not talk about the Glasses, so he only said that he guessed his own Inspiration direction was similar to the Kun Sword, and seeing that all living beings were in trouble, his Blood Qi went to his head for a moment, and he drove the carriage up to give it a try.

Ju Tianxuan naturally could only believe him, but she looked at Tang Zhao strangely, not expecting that such a gentle-looking youth would have a reckless side. She said, "Fortunately, good deeds have good rewards, and in the end, that sword recognized you."

Tang Zhao explained, "I did not gain recognition; it just borrowed me to support itself for a moment." He then described the feeling at the time in detail. The Kun Sword had its own thoughts, and he could not command it. At most, he could issue some requests; the Sword Technique and Sword Momentum all depended on the Kun Sword's own will.

These words of his were facts and were spoken sincerely. After Ju Tianxuan carefully distinguished them, she believed him and smiled, "Actually, if that sword were the Sleep Sword, it would have recognized you; it did indeed look upon you with favor. But since it has a Sword Guest, it naturally could not choose you again. However, who knows if this is a blessing in disguise? Your direction is correct, and your talent is strong; you will surely achieve great things in the future. When that time comes, you will cast your own sword, which might be even stronger than this Immortal Sword."

The two flattered each other and chatted about the final battle. Ju Tianxuan did not know that Tang Zhao already knew about Longyuan's dark history, so she did not go into detail, but she did mention that the Turtle Bandits were a force from the previous dynasty, holding a grudge against Longyuan for turning over a new leaf, always wanting to find an opportunity for revenge, and coveting the power of the Kun Sword, which was why such a thing had happened.

Finally, Ju Tianxuan said with worry, "The Turtle Bandits are coming aggressively. They have always been calculating, and since they have made such a big move to have this fight, I think they are prepared. Once they step onto the stage, they won't easily step down. Don't look at their failure today; the strength they revealed doesn't even count as the tip of the iceberg. There might be hundreds or thousands of such plots. When that time comes, the Jianghu and the imperial court will be in troubled times again. Brother Tang—"

She said to Tang Zhao with a serious expression, "You not only ruined their plan today but also killed their important figures. The Turtle Bandits are vengeful and will definitely come to trouble you. We can be considered to be in the same boat, and we should keep in touch more often."

Tang Zhao nodded. He would naturally not refuse the olive branch extended by Longyuan. Not to mention this time, he had long received news from the Yama Shop that the Turtle Bandits seemed to have designs on Jiugao Mountain, and the two sides would have to fight sooner or later. Today could not be considered him starting the trouble. And the private feud between Longyuan and the Turtle Bandits meant that even if the enemy of an enemy was not a friend, they could still exchange information.

Speaking of the Yama Shop...

Tang Zhao thought of that mysterious and unpredictable Wei Se, wondering where he had gone. It seemed he hadn't seen him get on the Cloud Carriage?

Ju Tianxuan accompanied him all the way to White City. Besides Jianzhou, White City was also a foothold that Longyuan had arranged early on. This Rune Conference could be considered to have started in White City and ended in White City.

The Lotus Pond outside White City was still there. It seemed that the Sword Saint had made a new Lotus Pond for Tang Zhao.

Tang Zhao and Jiang Shenyi stayed at the Lotus Pond with the Talisman Sword Masters for a few more days. During this time, they inevitably connected with new friends, exchanged academic knowledge, and their friendship grew deeper. It was not until Longyuan had everything sorted out that the Talisman Sword Masters left one after another. To express their apologies, Longyuan gave everyone valuable gifts. Everyone had originally had complaints about the Rune Conference, but the gifts were generous, so they were embarrassed to pursue it further.

Tang Zhao's gifts were naturally even more generous; Longyuan specially added several times more for him and officially gave him Gui Ye. Tang Zhao then openly placed Gui Ye in the Lotus Pond, which was considered to have cleared the way. Finally, both sides left contact information, and Longyuan invited him to be a guest. Tang Zhao naturally agreed and also planned to see the real Dragon Tooth Sword when he had the chance.

Disciples from other major powers also left contact information with Tang Zhao, agreeing to visit each other in the future. After this battle, the few of them could be considered to have shared hardships and had the friendship of fighting side by side. Moreover, Tang Zhao's performance was the best among everyone in every aspect. These young geniuses were born proud and only respected true ability, so they all recognized Tang Zhao.

When the Talisman Sword Masters returned to their respective sects, the name of Tang Zhao would be known throughout the world.

When leaving at the end, Wang Fei invited Tang Zhao to be a guest at the Snow Mountain Wangfu. Tang Zhao had originally intended to go, but after calculating the time, he vaguely remembered that he had an appointment with Deputy Envoy Mai of the Land Inspection Division, and there was still a Demon Cave that needed to be dealt with, so he had to postpone it for now. Anyway, there would be opportunities in the future.

Tang Zhao and Jiang Shenyi left Jianzhou and walked all the way outside Kungang. With no one around, Jiang Shenyi suddenly said, "Junior Brother, I will tell you something, don't be scared."