Chapter 374: 348 Light Speed

In the only di ku in the examination grounds, two youths were locked in a life-and-death struggle.

This battle had clearly been going on for a long time; both sides were exhausted to the extreme, their movements severely distorted, and in the end, unable to stand, they collapsed to the ground and wrestled in a tangle, like nothing more than brawling children.

Sss—

A flash of white steel streaked by. The shorter youth, who had originally held the upper hand, let out an "Ah," clearly having suffered a heavy blow. His movements went limp, and the other youth seized the opportunity to flip over and pin him down, immediately controlling his vital points.

"Go to hell, Wang Ying!" the youth pinning the other down gasped for air, then hissed.

The short youth called Wang Ying had a tuft of red hair on his head. Seeing the other's murderous intent fully exposed, he truly panicked and shouted, "Zeng Feng, are you sick in the head! Do you really want to kill me? Why? We're both from the Prison Suppression Division, why are you picking a fight with me? If you've got the guts, go kill someone from the Land Inspection Division!"

Zeng Feng sneered, "The Land Inspection Division has no grudge against me, why would I kill them?"

Wang Ying was stunned for a moment and said, "I have no grudge against you either..."

With a "slap," Wang Ying took a heavy blow to the face. Zeng Feng said, "You still dare to say that? No grudge... have you forgotten how you bullied me for these past three years? You dog, relying on your bit of strength and your background, you've bullied me constantly. You extorted my money, took my things as you pleased, ordered me around, publicly insulted my background, mocked my efforts, and despised my feelings..."

Wang Ying was stunned, as if recalling, but then shook his head and said, "I didn't... I... had no ill intent..."

Zeng Feng laughed in disbelief and said, "You might really have had no ill intent. You are narrow-minded and base; even with the slightest bit of malice, you would try to drive a person to their death. Little Tu was crippled because you bullied him. Do you know how many people hate you? You might think you treated me quite well, but I've had enough of your wanton oppression. For these three years, my only thought has been to kill you. I've finally waited for this day! Go to hell!"

Wang Ying's mind went blank, and he screamed, "We are both from the Prison Suppression Division, self-slaughter is forbidden! Killing me is against the law! The family law will not spare you!"

Zeng Feng did not soften in the slightest, saying, "If a thing like you can live so well, I see that neither family law nor state law is of any use. Isn't your favorite thing to say, 'No one sees us here, and no one will know if I kill you'? The group that ambushed the Land Inspection Division said the same thing, and they had a point! Look, there is an underground river here; I will drown you in it, and I guarantee no one will know. Once your corpse is fed to the fish, that's what you call clean!"

As he spoke, he dragged Wang Ying toward the riverbank. Wang Ying wailed, "Zeng Feng, you dog, you will meet your retribution. Even as a ghost, I won't let you go—"

Zeng Feng forced his head into the water and shouted, "I've been hanging around with you for so long, what kind of wicked deeds haven't I seen? Do you think I'm afraid of retribution..."

Seeing Wang Ying struggling incessantly in the water, Zeng Feng wore a look of satisfaction, when he heard someone above his head say, "Are you done making a scene?"

Zeng Feng felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He loosened his grip, and Wang Ying scrambled up, vomiting violently. He was about to pounce on Zeng Feng, but seeing someone in front of him through his blurred vision, his body stiffened.

"Are you... that Instructor?"

Both recognized him at the same time.

They had forgotten Tang Zhao's name, but they recognized his face and knew he was an Instructor. An Instructor was bound to be a Sword Guest, and even if he wasn't an Instructor of the Prison Suppression Division, they could not resist him.

Tang Zhao looked at the two coldly and said, "I am gathering all the students, and you two are the only ones left. I was wondering why I couldn't find you; so you were here putting on a good show."

He had left the main group and taken a map to find the students lost outside. At first, he successfully found five, leaving only these two. However, when he arrived at the location indicated on the map, he found no one, yet the red dot overlapped with him. After studying it, he realized this area was a di ku, and the two were underground.

He circled around again and slipped in through the entrance of the di ku, just in time to see this drama of classmates killing each other.

If such a thing had happened among his own students from the Land Inspection Division, Tang Zhao would have been furious and punished them severely, but since it happened between two youths from the Prison Suppression Division... he was, of course, still very angry.

Anger aside, he found it difficult to decide how to handle it for the moment. While the killer was certainly guilty, the one being killed did not seem innocent either; naturally, in any case, one could not kill one's own people.

Tang Zhao was not a judge, nor was he from the Prison Suppression Division, so it was hard to make a decision based on a momentary feeling. He simply ignored it, deciding to hand them over to the Prison Suppression Division later.

So he only said coldly, "Everyone is to assemble now. You are both still students, so come out. You two walk in front."

The two scrambled to their feet, exchanged a glance filled with hatred and murderous intent, and walked silently along the di ku passage.

Tang Zhao followed behind, and Fan Haiyu walked slowly out from the side of the cave, following as well.

There was no help for it; Tang Zhao had brought this young girl into the di ku. The di ku was narrow and dim; he had left the other students above, but he didn't feel at ease leaving the people from Caiyun Gui with the students, so he had to bring her down, only for her to see such filth. Tang Zhao also felt he had lost face.

Although this was a shameful matter for the Prison Suppression Division and had nothing to do with the Land Inspection Division, from the perspective of Caiyun Gui, wasn't it all a matter of Moyun City or even Qianjin City? They probably didn't even have a concept of the Human World or Shenzhou, let alone Yunzhou or the two departments within Yunzhou.

Fan Haiyu's expression was calm as she walked behind with Tang Zhao, looking at the backs of the two from afar, and smiled, "You don't need to feel ashamed. Such things happen everywhere; it is not a specialty of your Moyun City. It is not as if my master's sect doesn't have them. They are clearly fellow disciples, yet they hate each other and wish for the other to die."

Perhaps because their ages were similar, her tone became more familiar, losing some of the respect due to a Sword Guest.

Tang Zhao was silent. He hadn't actually experienced such infighting among fellow disciples, but he hadn't not seen it either. Not to mention Black Spider Villa, even below the True Jade Disciples of his own Zhuoyu Villa, forming cliques was the norm; one really couldn't say it was all harmony.

It was just that it was rare for it to escalate to this degree.

Tang Zhao shook his head and said, "This is the teacher's fault. People have different temperaments, so it is impossible to be entirely harmonious. Small conflicts are hard to avoid, but they should be strictly managed to maintain a clean atmosphere; one should not encourage or indulge them to the point of murder."

Fan Haiyu disagreed, saying, "As long as the master selects suitable disciples and imparts the heritage, that is already a kindness as heavy as a mountain. Does one have to manage every other little thing?"

Tang Zhao said without hesitation, "Of course one must manage them. To teach and to instruct: to impart knowledge and to guide people toward goodness. As a teacher, one should be like this."

Fan Haiyu paused and said, "That also depends on what you want. Like us in Caiyun Gui, we exist solely to find the 'Sun-Holding Envoy.' If you teach a few more saints but they lack the ability to find the Sun-Holding Envoy, what is the use? The sect will cease to exist, and all these disciples and legacies will be like floating clouds."

Tang Zhao stopped discussing it, still not asking her what exactly the Sun-Holding Envoy was, only saying, "Since you have found Ding Xu as the Sun-Holding Envoy, you should be able to rest now, right?"

Fan Haiyu said, "We cannot rest; there isn't only one Sun-Holding Envoy. And we don't even know if he is qualified. I see that he is born well and looks like a Sun-Holding Envoy, but inside, he may not be qualified."

The more she looked at Tang Zhao, the more she felt it was a pity. It was a pity that he was already a Sword Guest; otherwise, she would have been eighty percent certain that this was the person they had been looking for all along.

Of course, it wasn't that a Sword Guest couldn't do it; one could always abandon the sword and start over, though it would mean all previous efforts were wasted and one's vitality would be severely damaged.

But she wasn't so tactless as to say it to his face; it was also because she lacked the ability.

If her master or even her grandmaster were here, they might have even brought up the idea of asking Tang Zhao to abandon his sword to test if he were the Sun-Holding Envoy.

The four reached the entrance of the di ku and were about to go out when suddenly there was a clattering sound and shadows flickered; it was the students who had been waiting above rushing down in a swarm.

"What happened?" Tang Zhao's heart sank.

One of the young girls was a student from Tang Zhao's Training Camp, named Wang Ying. She shouted, "Instructor, the tide has come. It is no longer safe above."

At this moment, Tang Zhao also felt something, and something fell, almost sticking to his head.

He caught it with his Qi, and it was a drop of stone liquid.

It was stone that had been melted by the tide, losing its shape and dripping down as stone juice.

Tang Zhao's expression changed, and he said, "Not good! Quickly, go down and hide!"

These were his subconscious words, but Fan Haiyu, who had the most experience in the Suiyu, said, "The di ku is useless. The tide easily passes through stone. Neither the sky nor the earth can defend against the tide; one must hide in the water."

Tang Zhao immediately thought of the underground river that had almost drowned people earlier and said, "Quick, let's hide in the underground river."

At this point, even the two bickering youths from the Prison Suppression Division stopped talking nonsense and turned to rush back. Tang Zhao let the students go first, let Fan Haiyu go first, and braced his Qi to hold the rear.

Fortunately, the cave entrance was not far from the underground river. Once they reached the water's edge, everyone jumped into the river with a splash.

Tang Zhao instructed, "Once you are in the river, do not move. Hold hands one by one, and don't let anyone fall behind. Wait for me."

Fan Haiyu ignored politeness and said, "Even if you hide in the river, you must try to reach the bottom. Do not stay in one place; swim away quickly. Otherwise, if you are caught by the tide, you won't even be able to breathe, and you will suffocate!"

She had one more thing she wanted to say: holding hands was unnecessary and would only make them less flexible and drag down their escape. If a large-scale tide really came, who could look after anyone else? It was better to escape if one could.

Tang Zhao said, "No need, I will lead you. From which direction is the tide coming?"

Wang Ying poked his head out of the water and replied, "It seems to be the East Pillar of State?"

Tang Zhao said, "Then let's head upstream. Fortunately, light penetrates the water as well."

Without waiting for Fan Haiyu to be confused, Tang Zhao jumped down himself.

As soon as he hit the water, he used his Sword Essence to protect his entire body, opened his eyes underwater, grabbed Fan Haiyu with one hand, and grabbed the students who were holding onto each other as he had instructed with the other. Counting carefully, there were indeed nine people, not one missing.

"Alright, everyone is holding on!"

"Sword Art—Light Speed."

A streak of light pierced through the bottom of the water, extending all the way upstream, its destination unknown.

Fan Haiyu had just seen Tang Zhao's Sword Art, and seeing light again, it seemed like the same Sword Art as before; just as he was wondering what he intended to pierce, he suddenly felt as if he had been yanked, his body turned ethereal, and he followed the light.

Opening his eyes again, he was already at the end of the light.