Chapter 371: 345 Tide

The massive Hongshishan Kou was originally the boundary between the penultimate and final zones of the examination grounds; according to the setup, it was the final must-contest location, a natural battlefield intended to trigger a decisive battle among the examinees.

At this moment, due to the accident with the army of Talisman Puppets, most examinees were pinned down and were instead fighting a decisive battle elsewhere, to the point that with only two days left until the end, not a single person had reached the finish line.

The first to arrive was, unexpectedly, a small squad composed of dozens of Talisman Puppets.

Within the Talisman Puppet squad, a humanoid Talisman Puppet walked in the center; on its head, there was actually another blurry, light-shadow head, stacked on top of the puppet's head like a hat, occasionally flashing a fawning smile at the youth beside it.

That youth was naturally Tang Zhao, and his tone was filled with a coldness rare for him, saying: "Stop looking at me; if you complete my task, the conditions promised will naturally be fulfilled."

The head nodded repeatedly, then suddenly, its expression stiffened, turning into extreme terror.

Tang Zhao looked at the mountain pass from afar and said: "It seems you felt it too? Order your Talisman Puppets to charge in."

The head let out a shriek, and it was seen pulling itself out from the Talisman Puppet, transforming into an intangible wandering soul, attempting to slip away.

Just then, a streak of light flew by with a 'swish', binding it tightly like a rope, and Tang Zhao was heard saying: "I told your Talisman Puppets to scout the path, not you; what are you panicking about? If they don't go, it seems you really want to go yourself?"

The Phantom was helpless, yet it still sneaked back a few steps, then commanded the Talisman Puppets to walk forward listlessly.

Even though Tang Zhao was observing the situation at the mountain pass with full concentration, a thought couldn't help but flash through his mind: Why do I feel like the puppets are walking listlessly?

This group of puppets lined up in a single file, walking forward step by step, and after walking a hundred or so feet, there was nothing unusual. Seeing the mountain pass right before their eyes, they had already approached the line bordering the two examination zones.

Suddenly—

The wolf-like, four-legged puppet at the very front collapsed.

It couldn't exactly be called collapsing; it should be said... it melted.

A part of its body, the front half, suddenly turned into a pool of water, or rather, a viscous liquid like asphalt, which slumped down and flowed gurglingly on the ground.

If it were a person, they would have died instantly, or at least struggled and wailed, but the Talisman Puppet continued to advance, and the puppets behind it were unaffected, following along to continue forward.

Immediately after, other Talisman Puppets passed through that boundary point that had triggered the anomaly; for an instant, they were fine and passed through safely. But after passing, at some other location, other Talisman Puppets also began to melt; some melted entirely into liquid, merging into a small stream with the liquid of other puppets, while others only partially dissolved, with the rest remaining fine.

Consequently, the parts remaining of the already bizarre-looking squad became increasingly strange and twisted, incomplete and broken.

Tang Zhao found it hard to describe this feeling; he could only say it was like a group of walking ice creams, with an invisible mouth in the air, a long tongue licking here and there—where it licked, it melted, and where it didn't, it could still hold its shape, licked into a mottled, tattered mess.

The Talisman Puppets themselves had no feeling, but Tang Zhao couldn't help but feel his hair stand on end watching it.

Before he could speak, the Puppet Charm let out a silent scream and ran backward.

But Tang Zhao's Sword Image would not allow it to escape, dragging it back, and Tang Zhao asked calmly: "You know what is going on, don't you?"

The Puppet Charm could not make a sound, and after struggling a few times, it stopped moving.

Tang Zhao didn't intend to wait for its answer, but instead said to himself: "This is the legendary..."

"Broken Tide!"

Someone behind him answered.

Tang Zhao turned his head and saw that one person had arrived behind him, and another was running over from further away, clearly having followed the first person, and he couldn't help but be astonished, calling out: "Zhang Xiansheng? Why are you here?"

The person who arrived was none other than Zhang Rong; he first greeted Tang Zhao, then said: "I saw the celestial signs were poor and came here to check. It seems you have also discovered the Broken Tide?"

Tang Zhao nodded and said: "Xiansheng calculated it, and I sensed it. Is this the Broken Tide?"

This was another term that only appeared in books, which people in the Human World could not come into contact with; when he had just sensed something wrong relying on his exceptionally high Inspiration, he hadn't even thought of this term.

The Broken Tide is a tide that only occurs in the Suiyu.

Because the Suiyu is too fragmented, apart from the interiors of a few large plates which are relatively stable, there are actually many small, broken fragments drifting at the edges. When these fragments hit a person, they can cause that person to suffer the terrifying attacks of being exposed outside the safe zone.

Most of the time, these fragments are not worth worrying about; the possibility of people inside the plates being hit is not high, just as it is very rare for a person to be killed by a meteorite, but sometimes they inexplicably gather to form a tide.

Ordinary fragments can be blocked by safe Arrays, but the tide has impact force and may collapse the Arrays.

Yet, the safe zones are stabilized by Arrays, and the interior can be walked in like the Human World, so everyone carries no protection. Once the fragments of the Suiyu strike in and touch a person, they will melt just like those puppets earlier, which would instead cause casualties greater than the actual Qianxian.

For example, the students behind Tang Zhao...

Tang Zhao had originally planned to risk ruining the exam to go back and transfer the students after confirming something was wrong; seeing Zhang Rong at this moment, he was overjoyed and said: "Since Xiansheng has come, then the New Sharp Battalion must know too, the exam will be suspended, right? Let's quickly transfer the students away."

Zhang Rong's expression was grave as he said: "Things are not that simple. If it were just an ordinary Broken Domain Tide, it would only be necessary to transfer them, but in that case, I wouldn't have been able to calculate it, and I wouldn't have come."

"Ah? The Suiyu is collapsing?"

Although Tang Zhao's composure was not shallow, he was still shocked at this moment.

Isn't this a world-ending level disaster?

Just like that, in the blink of an eye, the world is going to be destroyed?

"It's not that exaggerated." Zhang Rong had been very grave, but hearing Tang Zhao be so dramatic, he instead appeared calm and said: "It is that cracks have appeared above the safe zone. It is fine if they are mended in time. If they cannot be mended for a long time, they will split from the middle and begin to collapse under the pressure of the opposing domain. Those Broken Tides are merely what has been blown over from the other side of the cracks."

"It's like an egg; a complete egg cannot be crushed by hand, but once it is cracked, it is very easy to shatter."

Tang Zhao said hurriedly: "Then what should be done? The students are right behind us; what can we do?"

Zhang Rong said: "The New Sharp Battalion has already gone to handle it, but they are not enough, and reinforcements have already been called. We are all Sword Guests of the Human World; dealing with this kind of problem is not as good as the soldiers of the Qianxian. They have the personnel and the experience to mobilize the power of the entire Moyun City to save that crack."

Tang Zhao couldn't help but ask: "Can it be saved?"

This was a redundant question that didn't need to be asked; if it could be saved, it would be saved, and if it couldn't, what could he do?

Zhang Rong said: "I hope it can be saved. If it cannot be saved, then we will cut off the arm to save the body and excise that piece of Suiyu. They often do this. It is nothing more than making the Suiyu even more fragmented, and then adding a forbidden zone in the center of the Suiyu."

Tang Zhao clicked his tongue in wonder, knowing that this Suiyu was indeed not the world he lived in, and that the logic of doing things was often different.

"Then... that means they all have tasks, and there is no manpower to spare for me to evacuate people?"

Zhang Rong nodded and said: "That's right. As the saying goes, when the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact; if the Suiyu can be saved, everyone is safe, otherwise no one can stay out of it." He looked back at the flat Hongshi Pingyuan. "But the students must also be evacuated; these are the seeds of Yunzhou. They must be sent to the Fire Seed Carriages. Fortunately, they have hands and feet and can run themselves; I imagine it won't take many people."

"People on the other side of the mountain pass definitely cannot come over; to come over, they would have to pass through the tide zone, and only Sword Guests have the ability, while others cannot even protect themselves. The manpower that can be used here is the people in your camp; see how many you need according to the situation and just assign them. And we—"

He pointed behind him, and the youth behind him only just ran over at this moment, "This Feng Xiansheng and I are not familiar with the situation here anyway and cannot be of much help, so we came to help you."

That youth was naturally the only Talisman Sword Master accompanying the army in the New Sharp Battalion, Feng Nanming. Zhang Rong saying he couldn't be of help was an act of modesty, but Feng Nanming not being able to help was likely a fact. Moreover, sending him over also meant to protect him. Although it was complicated here, it was relatively safer, and it was more convenient to flee into a Fire Seed Carriage and return to the Human World.

Feng Nanming panted and said: "Tang Xiansheng, I... I brought this." As he spoke, he presented a large map, on which red dots and green dots were clearly marked, exactly the same as the one Li Yijian had in the main camp.

"Li Langjiang said... the main camp has already contacted the front camp of the examination; the Fire Seed Carriage will arrive at the entrance of First District to receive you when it comes. You must bring the students over as quickly as possible, without leaving a single one behind."

The assessment of the New Sharp Battalion certainly allowed for death, but not to die in this kind of accident.

Tang Zhao opened the map and said, "I don't know if it's luck, but most of the students are gathered in the valley. The difficulty of finding them is not high."

This was good news. One had to know that Art Tools for real-time communication were very precious, and the Qianxian could not possibly issue them to every student; they could only be found one by one. The map helped a great deal, but it could only track in one direction, and there was only one map, which was disadvantageous for searching separately. Now that most were gathered together, it was already the best situation.

"Looking at this situation, perhaps I can do it alone."

"Ah?" Feng Nanming was surprised for a moment, disregarding his respect for Tang Zhao, and said, "Tang Xiansheng, there is absolutely no need to show off in this situation. With one more pair of hands, we can save some time."

Zhang Rong, however, looked at Tang Zhao; he understood Tang Zhao better and knew he was not a person who would blindly show off.

"In this area, there is another group of people who really need to be relocated, and that is the original resident village that has been preserved. The students need to be relocated, and they need it too."

Tang Zhao said with a serious expression, "And compared to the students, their pace is slower, and they have property in their homes, so relocating them is very troublesome and will definitely consume manpower. Zhang Xiansheng, I originally didn't want to trouble you. But I want to use this Puppet Charm."

He pointed at the Phantom that was bound by light.

"Letting it command the remaining puppets, especially that big guy, to help move house would be enough. But without you, a Grandmaster Sword Guest, I'm afraid I won't be able to suppress this wicked ghost. Also, the people in the main camp need to follow; otherwise, if we can't persuade them, we can only use violence."

Zhang Rong was thoughtful and said, "So that's it, the original residents... are also the common people of Moyun City, and this is also our responsibility. However, you cannot take no one with you; you should keep this young brother Feng, right?"

Tang Zhao smiled and said, "Fine, Brother Feng, you come with me."