Chapter 443: 418 Regret

"Wangliang..."

Tang Zhao felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

Memories sealed deep within him suddenly assaulted him.

Thinking back, his very first battle was against Mr. Xing from Wangliang Mountain; not only was it a bitter struggle, but he had also been ambushed and nearly reduced to a Sword Slave. It was then that he witnessed the Wangliang Fragment that Mr. Xing carried with him, and he had held on for dear life with his Lihuo Sword, only managing to escape thanks to being exiled by Xing Ji.

That battle and the series of encounters that followed left an indelible mark on Tang Zhao. Later, he heard that Wangliang Mountain was a gathering place for the world's evils, a den of human traffickers, and the headquarters for Sword Slave slave-owners, and he had already concluded in his heart that it was the most evil place in the world.

At the time, his martial arts were not even at the entry level, and he knew nothing of the pugilistic world or the imperial court, yet he had already made a pact with Si Liyu that when they became Sword Guests, they would wipe out Wangliang Mountain together.

Years had passed, and he had grown much; he had learned martial arts, become a Sword Guest, seen more of good and evil, and learned of the vast world above and below, a far cry from his initial circumstances. To say he had forgotten Wangliang Mountain, he seemed not to have, but to say he constantly remembered the oath of those years, or even included the eradication of Wangliang Mountain in his schedule, he also did not.

In the end, he had escaped the personal misery of being a Sword Slave, and he had not seen human traffickers or trafficked children for a long time, so he gradually stopped empathizing as much and was no longer desperate to do something about it.

Thinking of this, a sense of guilt rose in his heart.

Those trafficked children, those Sword Slaves suffering day and night, did not cease to exist just because he could not see them or think of them. Perhaps to them, they never even knew that a little child had once made a solemn vow to save them, only to forget them within a few years.

However, Tang Zhao himself knew.

Staring at those two characters, Tang Zhao committed them to heart once more, then pulled his attention back and said, "Wangliang... was it Wangliang that caused the fall of the Xiancheng?"

Isn't that monster Wangliang supposed to be on Wangliang Mountain? That place seems hard to enter from the outside and not much comes out from the inside; it should be sealed off, so how did it run up to the sky to confront the Xiancheng?

He thought about it again, and this also made sense. Wangliang is a very powerful monster; how could it be content to stay quietly on Wangliang Mountain and never come out? Who is to say it wasn't injured after the great battle many years ago and forced to hide?

Perhaps the battle over a hundred years ago was the origin of Wangliang Mountain.

He continued to look at the string of text. Whether it was written in the dark or because this woman was not very skilled with Rune Characters, these two lines were crooked and the meaning of the words jumped around, lacking coherence. Tang Zhao did not understand them well either, so he found it extremely headache-inducing and could only skip words to translate them one by one.

"Calamity of Wangliang..."

"Seek help... Dongjun..."

"Below Tongyang..."

"Too late to regret!"

Tang Zhao interpreted them; the beginning was still intermittent, but it contained a massive amount of information. By the time he reached the end, only the last few words were repeating in different ways.

"Regret! Regret!"

"Regret! Regret! Regret..."

It seemed she had already left the information she wanted to leave earlier, and the latter part was merely a pure venting of emotion, constantly carving out the feelings she held until the very last moment.

Regret, regret, regret...

Endless regret was left on the coffin lid in the form of characters. The characters seemed like flames dancing and burning, making Tang Zhao feel very depressed. Finally, he turned his head away, thinking: What on earth did you do to feel such regret?

Could it be regret for not doing enough to save the Xiancheng?

That wouldn't warrant such regret, would it?

For a disaster beyond human power, what is the use of regret?

It couldn't be that you had a hand in the collapse of the Xiancheng, could it?

As he turned his head, he saw a glimmer of reflection on the gouged-out coffin lid.

What is that?

Tang Zhao still covered his fingers with Qi and tentatively reached in. Sure enough, he touched something, hooked it gently, and pulled it out.

It was a bead the size of a dragon's eye. It was originally dull and lusterless, as if it had a wax-like seal, but as Tang Zhao held it with his Qi, for some reason, the surface layer fell off in flakes, revealing a stone the size of a pearl inside.

It was a golden-red stone. Tang Zhao had never seen such a dazzling gemstone; he felt his vision go black the moment he looked directly at it, as if staring at the sun. He hurriedly used his Qi to wrap the sphere, but it was still too dazzling. Through the Qi, he could still see the golden ball of light, as if it were shining violently, so he hurriedly stuffed it into the Time Jar.

The jar blocked the radiance. Tang Zhao pressed his hands to his eyes, and it took a good while for him to recover. He thought to himself:

A good treasure!

Not to mention how dazzling it was—it clearly wasn't a mundane object—just the fact that it had to be carefully hidden by a woman who gouged through her coffin lid before she died showed that the matter was of great importance. She had been sealed in the coffin for a long time and might never be discovered, yet she still felt it wasn't safe and had to hide this thing as best she could, which showed how special it was.

It was a pity that perhaps too much time had passed, and that protective layer seemed to have decayed. It actually fell off automatically when Tang Zhao touched it, revealing its brilliance; otherwise, this stone might not have been so easy to see.

Being so cautious, it was likely not just valuable, but of great consequence.

Tang Zhao moved his gaze back to the information she left, pausing on the line "Seek help from Dongjun," lost in thought.

"Eh? Why are you so slow? What are you doing?"

Tang Zhao looked up and happened to see the white fox lying on top of the coffin, peering inside.

The light in the coffin was very dim. Because the skeleton was intact and there were not even any will-o'-the-wisps, when Tang Zhao looked up at the white fox from below, he could only see a pair of green eyes, and the white fox could only see Tang Zhao's eyes and general outline.

For a moment, the white fox was slightly stunned, feeling some surprise, and there was a momentary pause. Immediately after, it felt a sense of melancholy, thinking to itself: His outline and eyes are truly excellent. If his facial features were also well-formed, he would surely be a great beauty; wouldn't that make him both talented and beautiful? What a pity, what a pity.

At the thought of Tang Zhao's natural deficiency, the white fox felt quite unwilling, but after all, this was not the time to dwell on it. It continued, "Why don't you come out? Does she have many relics?"

Tang Zhao took out a piece of white cloth and completely covered the skeleton, saying, "Come look, she left some words."

The white fox carefully slid down, not touching the skeleton, and only looked at the coffin lid. After looking for a few moments, it asked in confusion, "What characters are these?"

Tang Zhao said, "Universal Rune Characters—what, do you not use these in the Xiancheng?"

Rune Characters are a simplified font derived from Rune Formulas. From their birth, they carried a portion of power, and to balance power, they necessarily sacrificed some linguistic function, making them difficult to learn and understand, and unsuitable as a language for communication. Even in ancient times, they only circulated among a small group of scholars. But Tang Zhao thought that Baiyujing was a place of high style; perhaps they had their own system and didn't use ordinary writing, and Immortals only communicated using Rune Characters?

He didn't expect the white fox really wouldn't recognize them. It seemed this woman had added another layer of insurance for the sake of secrecy.

She was truly very cautious. Did she want people to discover it, or did she not want people to discover it?

There was a subtle contradiction in it.

The white fox stared at the characters on the coffin for a long time, walked to the white cloth, and gently lifted the cloth covering the skull.

For a moment, it still felt some sadness, but immediately after, it used its eyes to stare at the skull.

Its gaze brightened, and it muttered something. Tang Zhao felt the fluctuation of Sword Essence and knew it was using its Sword Art again. The white fox's Sword Art mostly related to the Spirit, and it was likely that no effect could be seen from the outside.

After a while, nothing happened. The white fox became puzzled and said, "I haven't seen her."

Tang Zhao asked in surprise, "You know that too? Is it skull reconstruction?"

The white fox said, "Reconstruct what? I was just wondering if I had seen her—if I had truly seen her, I would have remembered her face."

Tang Zhao nodded in realization—because it had seen her, it would see her; this idealistic sword was truly unreasonable.

"Then, she is not one of your people, but..."

But the coffin clearly has 'Calamity of Wangliang' written on it, and it mentions Dongjun; no matter how you look at it, it seems to have something to do with you.

The white fox hesitated itself and said: "But this is indeed His Highness's Shelter, that is certain; she can only be one of our own. And it is very spacious here, even more spacious than mine. His Highness took great care of her. Tell me, what is written in the Rune Character?"

Tang Zhao told it, and the white fox murmured: "Wangliang, so it was Wangliang that invaded?"

Tang Zhao thought to himself: You have been fighting for half a day and don't even know the enemy; what kind of Sword Hero are you who understands nothing?

At this moment, he felt that perhaps he had overestimated the white fox's age and experience. Perhaps she was very young when she became a Sword Hero, perhaps she had always lived in Baiyujing carefree; in any case, she did not know much, and the hundred-plus years she spent in the Human World were all wasted on stalking beauties.

Hearing the words of Dongjun again, the white fox suddenly said: "Ah, I know who she is! She must be an envoy sent by Dongjun to make contact. I haven't met her; I heard from Big Sister that she was exhausted as soon as she arrived, and after relaying a few pieces of intelligence, she fainted, so everyone sent her to rest. At that time, I was still in the Human World and hadn't returned, so I never met her; when I returned, I was only focused on fighting and didn't see her either. In the end, it seems she met with disaster along with us... After all, she was a guest from afar, and His Highness had to take care of her, so he gave her a very good Shelter."

"It is a pity that, in the end, we were unable to take good care of her. If there had been an opportunity, we should have let the guest leave first."

An envoy of Dongjun?

Tang Zhao immediately thought of the stone she had hidden on the coffin lid. That stone was just like... just like a Fragment of the sun.

Could that be an object related to Dongjun?

If she was an envoy of Dongjun, merely fulfilling the duty of delivering a message, what was there to regret in the end?

Regret coming here and bringing disaster to Baiyujing?

Regret leaving too late, to the point of being buried with them?

Regret not completing Dongjun's mission, and being unable to return?

Or perhaps...

As Tang Zhao thought, the white fox could not recall any other old matters, and it felt melancholy alone—it was not that it felt much pity for this woman it had never met, but it was reminded of old friends who had suffered the same fate.

Perhaps those who silently turned into Bone were not just her.

A hundred-plus years; even by natural lifespan, apart from Sword Heroes, even Sword Guests with some age would be approaching death.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that Suisui Sword is still alive; after all, if she were to die, the white fox would also dissipate.

Tang Zhao pointed at the handwriting and said: "She is reminding us to seek help from Dongjun."

The white fox said angrily: "Pah, he was the one who asked us for help first, okay? Now we are turning around and asking him back? Who knows where he is? What Dongjun, causing trouble and dragging us into it, yet they say he is an incredible existence in heaven and earth; what is so incredible about him?"

Tang Zhao also felt that this request for help was unreasonable—if Dongjun could handle it, there would not have been this disaster at all. If he could not handle it, what use would seeking help be?

However, he always felt there was some profound mystery in this.

Just as Tang Zhao was pondering, his spine suddenly straightened, feeling an oppressive sensation imminent; he could not help but stand up straight, looking past the coffin to the outside, and the white fox jumped onto the top of his head, seizing a higher vantage point.

In the distance, the sky grew darker.

"That is..."

"Wangliang?"