Chapter 441: 416 Fragment

Night had completely descended, the void was bottomless, and it was another dim, moonless, and windy night.

A thick cloud drifted across the firmament.

At this moment, the sky was like ink, and the clouds filling the heavens were all a faint blue.

Only this particular cloud, not only wide and thick like a round cake, also shimmered with bright radiance.

One could see a huge round Lamp standing at the very front of the cloud; the lamp light shone, transforming into a Light Beam that rotated incessantly, sweeping the surroundings in a three-hundred-sixty-degree arc.

Behind the lamp, the cloud top resembled a large, flat platter, holding many things, with an exceptionally rich variety—there was a pavilion, a pink wall with a moon gate, and a section of spiraling stairs. There were three large willow trees, two banana plants, three or four peony branches... There was a large water vat, two plum vases, and three or four small urns...

There were even more miscellaneous items piled into a heap, daily sundries, enough to dazzle one's eyes...

Tang Zhao sat in the middle of the pavilion surrounded by the sundries, carefully examining a Folding Fan. He traced his fingers back and forth across the fan surface, seemingly wanting to cut an opening and pull out a thread.

"Crack—"

The sound of a shortbread cookie being bitten through came, and the fragrance of scallions and lard erupted all at once, making the scent in the air even thicker.

"You really are something." Tang Zhao raised his eyes and glanced at Yue Lai, who was stuffing his face with the cookie beside him. "You truly ignore everything else and just keep stuffing yourself. Such a good appetite? Which one is that?"

"Forgot." Yue Lai ate the last two bites and said, "Do you have a towel?"

Tang Zhao took a towel out of the Time Jar and gave it to him, saying, "Need to wipe your hands? Finally finished eating?"

Yue Lai wiped his hands with the towel but did not wipe his mouth, saying, "Almost, I'll just drink some soup to fill the gaps and it'll be fine."

Tang Zhao folded the fan, revealing an intrigued smile, and said, "Fine, to have a calm spirit when facing major events, you are a character. You have the air of Guan Erye warming wine to slay Hua Xiong."

Yue Lai asked in return, "Slay what?"

Tang Zhao said, "Slay the enemy. The enemy's name is not important."

Yue Lai filled the bowl with soup and downed it in one gulp, saying, "Indeed, it is not important. You and I both know who the enemy is. Thanks to your hospitality, I will pluck his head from his shoulders later."

Tang Zhao laughed in spite of himself and said, "Spare me that. Don't pin that hat on me. Whether I kill him or not is fine, but you are so eager to kill him that you must be mad with hatred, right? I just see that you can eat my food with such composure, without being suspicious, and that you are an open person; I actually admire you a bit. So, eat and drink as you please; I can still afford to treat you to this little bit."

Yue Lai suddenly sighed and said, "It's not that I don't suspect you. Just now I wanted to decline, but in order to guard against Meng Huazhou, I haven't eaten properly for three days. I couldn't help but eat your food in the end. If you wanted to harm me, I've already fallen for it. Eating one piece is eating, and eating a pile is also eating. I might as well eat my fill."

Tang Zhao laughed. He and Yue Lai had not spoken privately before, and he hadn't expected that, setting aside the obsession with the Meng Family father and son, this person's nature was actually quite straightforward. He said, "In that case, did you also not sleep well these past few days while guarding against Meng Huazhou? Why not rest here for a while?"

Yue Lai said, "Oh? Is there still time to sleep before arriving at Xiancheng? That's great, I'll sleep for a while; wake me when we arrive."

Tang Zhao looked at him with interest and said, "When we arrive, we will all go in; who will remember to wake you?"

Yue Lai said, "If that's the case, then I'll have to trouble you to take his head. It would be quite embarrassing if I just ate your food for nothing, wouldn't it?"

Tang Zhao asked directly, "It seems... you really aren't interested in Xiancheng?"

Yue Lai asked in return, "Why should I be interested? If I had to be interested in things that have nothing to do with me, would I have time to do anything else? If it weren't for the fact that there was no opportunity in Five Immortals Town, I would have killed Meng Huazhou and saved everyone the trouble of this trip."

Tang Zhao raised his eyebrows slightly, guessing Yue Lai's background even more.

If he truly did not yearn for Xiancheng, besides lacking the curiosity of an ordinary person, he should have confidence that surpasses an ordinary person, right?

Because he is wealthy, he has no desires?

Where on earth did he come from?

Just as Tang Zhao was about to speak, he heard Black Widow say from the front, "Something else is drifting over."

Tang Zhao stood up somewhat sluggishly.

He no longer had that initial excitement.

Ever since they encountered the pavilion, they had clearly reached the edge of Xiancheng. The further they drifted forward, the closer they got to the site of that legendary great battle, and along the way, they had encountered several cloud Fragments like the pavilion.

Those fragments varied in size, but the largest ones were not even as big as the cloud with the pavilion. The large ones had scattered buildings and broken walls, while the small ones mostly only had some grass, trees, utensils, or sundries. They were scattered and lacked any system.

Tang Zhao had been quite excited at first, rushing to fish over whatever he saw, even if it was just a handful of grass, he would pluck it up to examine it carefully, but every time it was just a wasted look, unable to see any clues.

Later on, as more and more of those sundries drifted over, he grew weary of looking; if it wasn't a large item, he was too lazy to reach out and fish for it. Moreover, those sundries bearing traces of life drifting about aimlessly made Tang Zhao think of shipwrecks at sea.

After a Great Ship sinks, scattered pieces of the hull, masts, and deck drift with the waves, to be picked up by people on the beach, leading one to guess how tragic that shipwreck must have been.

Tang Zhao happened to dislike those tragic stories; looking at those fragments, his heart gradually felt a sense of pity, and his interest waned even further.

But Black Widow over there was still very interested; this was her dream of many years, and she was excited to see even the slightest trace—how could she be tired after only a few hours? She stood in front of the lamp observing in all directions, staring wide-eyed at every cloud that passed by, calling Tang Zhao over to fish whenever she saw a clue, and before they knew it, they had accumulated so many things.

Although he was a bit lazy, Tang Zhao still picked up the net beside him when Black Widow called.

His net was extremely light and soft; when rolled up and placed to the side, it was not even as large as the Folding Fan in his hand, but when spread out, it was enough to capture a "white whale boat"—it was something he had woven out of Cloud Silk.

Or rather, something the white fox had instructed him to weave.

Under its guidance, Tang Zhao had dismantled several roof tiles, broken them down into several balls of long silk threads, then twisted the threads together and knotted them into a fishing net to capture the fragments in the air.

When Tang Zhao was knotting the net, he suddenly had a feeling: although he hadn't reached Xiancheng yet, he had already started learning to work for Xiancheng.

"There, over there! Do you see..."

Black Widow stood in front of the lamp, pointing to a cloud head and saying to Tang Zhao.

Tang Zhao focused his eyes to look closely, only to see something on a small piece of cloud that looked like a square corner. The visibility in the night was poor, and even with the lamp, it was hard to see clearly what it was.

But no matter what it was, being so regular, it must be a man-made object. As long as there were traces of human work on the cloud, it was almost certainly from Xiancheng.

"Whoosh—"

Tang Zhao was already familiar with the process; he found the right angle, cast the net lightly, and covered the entire cloud. Then he switched hands and pulled it back.

As he pulled, Tang Zhao suddenly felt a sense of heaviness.

It wasn't that the object itself was very heavy, but rather that the previous Xiancheng fragments had been very light; when pulling them, it was no different from pulling a cloud, and the net almost only served to limit the direction, just giving them a direction of force, and they would drift over with a single tug.

But this time, when he pulled, he felt the weight; it was the feeling of catching a big fish from the sea—not only was the fish's body heavy, but he could also feel the fish resisting.

Of course, the resistance wasn't that great, but Tang Zhao clearly felt this lack of smoothness. Although it was the first time he had encountered this situation, a thought had already flashed through his mind: he had caught a real thing?!

A real thing, meaning something from the real world. Not those "imitations" woven from Cloud Silk.

"Eh... that is..." Black Widow watched from the side, her expression changing first:

"A coffin?!"

The cloud drew closer and closer, and Tang Zhao could see it clearly too.

On that cloud rested a black wooden coffin more than a person's length long, and the coffin seemed to be shrouded in a thin mist. In the night, the mist and the cloud almost merged into one; only by pulling it closer and looking carefully could one see clearly that the cloud was cloud and the mist was mist—two distinct existences.

Tang Zhao's heart skipped a beat; seeing a drifting coffin at such a high altitude on a night like this was unusual by any measure. Furthermore, there had been an odd sensation regarding its weight just moments ago, and although the layer of mist on the coffin looked thinner than clouds and appeared transparent, a closer look revealed it to be pure black. It was merely stretched so thin that it had almost lost its color.

Coffin, heaviness, black mist—with all these elements in Superposition, he felt an ominous premonition in his heart. Instead of pulling it directly onto his own cloud like the other Fragments, he stopped at a distance, only tethering the net to the Lamp and not letting it touch his own clouds.

He turned his head and said to Black Widow, "Sister Yin, you should retreat for a moment; I will inspect it."

Black Widow nodded and slowly retreated to the center.

Tang Zhao gave a light wave of his hand, appearing to signal her to move back, but he was actually beckoning the white fox.

The white fox had originally been crouching under the banana tree, but the moment it saw the coffin, it exclaimed, "That's it!"

Tang Zhao Ask, "What?"

The white fox pointed at the coffin and said, "That black mist is the disaster. Back then, that black shadow drifted rapidly; whatever it drifted onto, it would entangle, and once entangled, it would drag everything into the cloud layer, falling downward, falling down. Big Sister said that falling down would lead into that black world, forever becoming a part of the black world. Later, His Highness used a sword to create a bottomless abyss, forcibly separating our bodies. But we remained forever under that abyss."

What it said was somewhat incoherent, and Tang Zhao did not quite understand it, but he always felt...

It seemed to have a sense of déjà vu?

But that feeling from the depths of his memory was hard to find for a moment, so he Ask again, "What is that coffin?"

The white fox said, "What coffin? Look closely, that is just a small house. That is the Shelter where we resided; because His Highness lacked the strength, everyone's Shelter could only be built that large. Lying here can isolate one from the disaster outside; there should be our brothers and sisters lying inside, right?"

Tang Zhao had not expected there might be living people inside, so he Ask, "Should I open it?"

The white fox said, "Of course, I don't know if they are still alive? But the mist must be driven away first. If it is only this amount, I can try. You come and help me."