Chapter 445: 420 Battle in the Darkness

On the colorful clouds, the candles shine.

Upon the vast expanse of clouds, one hand lamp cylinder after another was placed, arranged in a formation that was uneven yet orderly; the light shone in all directions, illuminating the surroundings with such brilliance that it felt like a grand banquet.

At the center of this magnificent radiance, inside that pavilion, Black Widow and Yue Lai sat upright, their expressions solemn to the point of piety, surrounded by firelight, with not a single shadow upon their bodies.

Above them, Shangguan Jianke also held a torch, trying his best to illuminate his entire body.

Because his finger was stuck, Shangguan Jianke had missed the chance to voice his opinion on whether or not to enter the shadow. Seeing the shadow closing in, Meng Huazhou had not let him down under such circumstances, and he himself had never taken a desperate gamble to sever his finger and leap into the sunlight to save himself, but snatching a torch from the air was always possible.

Black Widow had quite a few hand lamp cylinders in her possession, so there was naturally no need for a life-or-death struggle; she shared one with him, though she secretly wondered: why was this Sword Guest so persistent? Life in the shadow was nine deaths for one life; compared to that, a single finger really didn't count for much, did it? It wasn't as if there were no Sword Guests outside who could regrow severed fingers, so why struggle so bitterly?

She was persistent because of a dream held for many years; Yue Lai was persistent because of a hatred unknown to outsiders. There was no need to even mention Meng Huazhou; the dream of the Xiancheng was practically his spiritual Pillar. Moreover, none of the three of them were Sword Guests.

In this world, one was either a Sword Guest or a Mortal; the two were as far apart as heaven and earth.

The world tacitly assumed that the lives of Mortals were worthless; in order to be reborn and to defy the heavens and change their fate, Mortals always had to pay some price, such as staking their lives on the table to gamble—this risk was recognized as worth taking. But that man was already a Sword Guest, higher and nobler than a Mortal, with the ladder to the heavens already in his grasp; what was he seeking so desperately that he would disregard his own life?

What exactly was in the Xiancheng that could make him throw himself into the fire like a moth?

As for Meng Huazhou, he was naturally silent and still, making Black Widow wonder—was this kid still there at all? Had he already died inside that flower?

She did not know that on the same cloud, there was an invisible, uninvited guest.

Just on the other side of the pavilion, the white fox was curled up in the light of a hand lamp cylinder, its white fur glowing golden under the light, almost turning into a golden fox.

Beside it sat Tang Zhao, who was also sitting with one hand supporting his chin, as if he were asleep.

Tang Zhao was here, but no one could see him. This was the white fox's handiwork.

Tang Zhao didn't understand the specific Sword Art either, but regardless, he was sitting on the small cloud with everyone else, and everyone turned a blind eye to him.

However, the white fox reminded him that he was not as if he had never existed; he must not act recklessly and disturb others. Once an acquaintance became suspicious—is Tang Zhao still here? —his image would be exposed immediately.

Fortunately, Tang Zhao had no intention of making a big scene anyway; he was simply worried about Black Widow and was also a little curious about the Xiancheng in the stories, so he watched quietly here. If he gained something, that would be best; if things became impossible, his bottom line was to save Black Widow and then use his Sword Art to take her and escape.

They were getting closer and closer to the black shadow of the Wangliang; the black color was gradually becoming impossible to distinguish in outline.

A cloud might have all sorts of shapes when viewed from afar, but once approached, there was only a vast, blinding cloud mist, and no shape could be seen clearly. The black shadow was the same; the black smoke looked like a black vortex from a distance, slowly rotating, but the closer one got, the less one could see the full picture, with only pitch-black darkness above and below.

That black shadow seemed to want to suck everything in the world into it; light, color, sound, temperature... everything that could measure existence was swallowed by the black.

Absolute darkness, absolute Silence.

There was no need to be in the midst of it; just by approaching, one could already feel the endless oppression within, as if the human body were about to be frozen.

The sunlight from the hand lamp cylinders shone far into the black shadow, silently being swallowed in part; the further it went, the thinner and dimmer the light became, like a river gradually disappearing into a desert.

Fortunately, sunlight was different after all; it was not swallowed up indiscriminately, and the light remained bright at close range. In particular, several hand lamp cylinders intersected to form a shadowless circle of light, which ultimately kept the darkness at bay in a stable manner.

In the endless darkness and despair, the illuminated zone on the cloud was like the only hope, like a warm embrace, intoxicating to behold.

Gradually, the cloud approached the interior from the edge of the black shadow. At first, only the front was dark, but immediately after, the left, right, above, and below also fell into pitch-black. But the rear, because it was illuminated by the lamps, was still sheltered with a little light, and one could see the outside world; in the end, as the cloud moved forward, the brilliance could no longer reach the rear, and the darkness behind closed completely, blocking the intersection of inside and outside, and the cloud truly became an isolated island.

The intrusion of the cloud was like throwing a stone into a lake. It caused a ripple, and then it returned to calm.

"This is entering another world."

Black Widow felt moved to speak; after being surrounded by darkness, she instantly felt abandoned by the original world. Even though light was still flickering all around, it could not give her the slightest sense of security.

Honestly, there was also a tiny bit of regret. Regret for her own rash decision.

The human heart is complex by nature; the generosity and passion from just a moment ago were real, and the current regret was also real.

Fortunately, Tang Zhao had left, so even if she regretted it to the point of wailing, she wouldn't be afraid of losing face in front of the child.

She turned her head, wanting to say something random to Yue Lai, with whom she was not at all familiar, to relieve the oppression, when suddenly she felt her whole body explode, and she dodged backward—

Slash!

A black shadow emerged from the darkness, rushing toward Black Widow.

That black shadow was extremely fast, almost pouncing before her eyes in an instant.

Black Widow had not expected an enemy attack within the shadow, but she was also a veteran expert; her body reacted naturally, stepping aside and twisting her waist, brushing past the pounce of the black shadow, and then shaking her sleeve, the Soul-Startling Silk shot out, circling backward to snare the black shadow.

However, this snare caught nothing but air.

Behind her was empty; there was nothing there, let alone an attacker, not even the slightest anomaly.

Black Widow was suspicious and uncertain, saying: "Did I see wrong? Or was it a Spirit attack?"

If it were truly a Spirit attack, it would not be strange; the Phantom in the Yin Calamity primarily used Spirit attacks, and Xinmei could even scare a good person into madness without them knowing. As a Martial Artist, one could use Qi for Body Protection to resist Spirit attacks.

Yue Lai said: "It is not. There really was..."

Before he could finish his words, a black smoke also rushed from behind him, pouncing straight at his neck.

Yue Lai's reaction was much faster than Black Widow's; he turned his sword and stabbed backward, as fast as lightning.

This stab also stabbed into empty air!

This time Black Widow saw clearly; a face suddenly stretched out from the darkness, three parts human and seven parts ghost, opening its mouth wide to bite at Yue Lai, with such speed that even with Black Widow's keen eyes, she only saw a residual image.

However, this black shadow began to dissipate the moment it left the dark place, as if a lump of snow had been thrown into a wok of oil; at first it maintained its shape, but in the blink of an eye, it was baked by the high temperature, turning into snow water, and finally disappearing into the scorching fumes of the oil wok.

At the moment the black shadow pounced out, Black Widow could still see a realistic face, but before it reached behind Yue Lai, it had already become abstract, and the moment Yue Lai pulled out his sword to hack down, it had already completely dissipated.

The speed of dissipation was so fast that Black Widow almost thought it was a prank.

Yue Lai stared at his sword tip, and after a moment said: "Manor Master Yin, come to the middle. Do not let it catch you."

Black Widow was startled, then understood, and hurried a few steps closer.

The monster in the black shadow was clearly afraid of sunlight and would dissipate when shone upon, but it was not without danger before dissipating. Ordinary shadows would disappear instantly when shone upon by light, but that monster-like shadow could exist independently for several breaths on the cloud where the light shone without blind spots, which in itself was extraordinary.

Such weirdness meant that even being grazed on a small patch of skin before it dissipated was dangerous; standing on the edge of the light was very unsafe, and the further away from the darkness, the safer one was.

Black Widow was also someone who had served in the military; her thoughts raced, and she had already begun to calculate the speed at which the black shadow had just dissipated, using it to deduce a safe distance, while simultaneously taking two large steps forward to get closer to Yue Lai.

Although they were not from the same camp, with the darkness outside, Black Widow could not help but draw closer to this companion whom Tang Zhao had once evaluated as "very strong."

Perhaps it was also because Black Widow had lost her most reliable companion and had not yet re-entered her usual state of being a lone wolf, so she couldn't help but ask Yue Lai as she had asked Tang Zhao: "What exactly was that thing just now? It doesn't look like a Phantom; it seems to be a monster born from the shadow."

Yue Lai frowned and said: "How would I know?" He lowered his sword and pulled up a hand lamp cylinder with his backhand, holding it in his hand as if it were a sharp sword. This action was very much like a child picking up a tree branch as a weapon to play a war game, but his expression was serious; he clearly really treated the mere half-foot-long hand lamp cylinder, which had no blade, as a sharp sword for self-defense.

Black Widow had almost no hesitation; she also pulled up a hand lamp cylinder in her hand to protect herself.

She guessed that although Yue Lai really didn't recognize this kind of monster, the black shadow had just bullied its way to Yue Lai's front, and Yue Lai had hacked a sword with real steel; the two sides had already engaged, and Yue Lai had mostly discovered that sword weapons could not harm the black shadow, so holding a sharp sword was no different from being empty-handed, and it was better to pull up a hand lamp cylinder that could clearly dispel the darkness for self-defense.

The two of them each pulled up a Hand Lamp tube; although there were many Hand Lamp tubes underneath, the formation now had gaps, inevitably creating Shadow within the range of the light. Black Widow naturally could not be negligent, moving a few of the Hand Lamp tubes to ensure she maintained her own warm and bright isolated island.

As she was moving them, the light and shadow of the small Yun Dao flickered, and suddenly, a roar was heard—

Black Widow shuddered and looked up in a daze, only to see a large, square face stretching out from the darkness.

If that face were shrunk several dozen times, it might have been considered regular-featured, but at this moment, that face was the size of a Buddha head on a mountain, every single feature could be called a "giant object," and it had already become terrifying; it was further shrouded in shadows like black smoke, and under the illumination of the light, the Shadow rapidly dissolved and shattered, as if a living face had been splashed with strong acid, festering and crumbling, appearing exceptionally horrific under the flickering light.

That large face withstood the collapsing light, opened its mouth ferociously, and lunged straight toward...

Shangguan Jianke, who was still hanging in the air!