Chapter 454: 429 Aqin

The Black Widow suddenly moved, jumping off the cloud head in one motion. Tang Zhao was startled at first, then immediately understood: the Black Widow had been still for too long and was restless, deciding she had to do something.

Thinking back, since entering the Dark World, the Black Widow had indeed done nothing.

Although entering the Wangliang was her own choice, and she had been full of ambition at the time, wanting to burn with passion, she had been extremely passive since coming in. Not only had she been subjected to various attacks and shocks, but the people traveling with her had also left one by one.

At the root of it, it was because her strength was insufficient.

In the end, she was left all alone on the cloud, surrounded by boundless darkness. The lamps guarding her dwindled one by one, and the cloud drifted forward at will, ignoring her commands, drifting toward an unknown destination.

This future was clearly one of endless darkness and endless despair.

When a person is pushed to a desperate situation, there are only two states. Either they become as dull as a wooden chicken, completely at a loss, simply remaining on Guangming Dao to muddle along, or, in their collapse, they inevitably wail and scream hysterically to vent, only to end up as dull as a wooden chicken anyway. Or, in the midst of the desperate situation, a surge of courage and strength is born, causing them to cast aside their scruples and do something astonishing—to put it bluntly, what is called "a dog jumping over a wall in desperation."

The Black Widow was a famous heroine in the Jianghu and certainly no mediocre person; with a crisis looming, she would never allow herself to collapse and had to do something.

It just so happened that this Qianqiu Tower, with a different scene on every floor, was not of the Human World and possessed the atmosphere of a Xian Tower, which stirred the Black Widow's desire to explore. In any case, she had no way back, so she simply left this isolated island, which she didn't know who was commanding, to break into the Xian Tower before her; even if there were danger, it was better than sitting and waiting for death. Holding the resolve of no return, she jumped off the cloud.

Tang Zhao approved of the Black Widow's actions. Even knowing that the Qianqiu Tower had a Master and it would be difficult for the Black Widow to gain anything, he still approved of her decision at this critical moment.

As long as it was within the confines of the Qianqiu Tower, the black shadows were purged quite cleanly, so there should be no danger. It wasn't just that there was Sunlight above; that "Aqin" should have also suppressed this single tower to some extent, making it have much less hidden filth.

Just in case, Tang Zhao still separated a wisp of Sword Image Sunlight and hung it on the Hand Lamp tube the Black Widow was carrying, serving as an eye for Tang Zhao to keep an eye on unexpected situations, and also as a trump card for the Black Widow.

He himself remained standing by the window, watching the meeting between the white fox and the young girl, wanting to see if there was any problem with this Aqin.

After a while, the window cracked open a slit, and the white fox poked its head out, saying, "Do you want to come in and chat?"

Tang Zhao asked with a smile, "Do you need me?"

He wasn't the white fox's close friend, needing the white fox to introduce a long-lost relative or friend to him; calling him to join suddenly looked like it had some ulterior motive.

A look of embarrassment actually appeared on the white fox's furry face, and it said, "That... are you a Talisman Sword Master?"

Tang Zhao was noncommittal and said, "Why would you think that?"

He had never told the white fox he was a Talisman Sword Master; he hadn't even properly shown his ability to craft Talisman Art Tools. The Cloud Silk Lamp he made earlier could only be considered a "proto-art tool," made by finding good materials and chopping them with a sword; even someone like Xing Ji, who knew nothing about Art Tools, could make them independently.

The white fox explained, "If you weren't a Talisman Sword Master, why would you carry so many identical Art Tool lamps? That Hand Lamp tube, for instance—they must have been made together, right? No one would buy so many from the same batch. And it's also unusual that you carry so many Origin Talismans. Ordinary people mostly carry Origin Stones to use as currency; only Talisman Sword Masters would store so many Origin Talismans."

Tang Zhao understood and smiled.

Origin Talismans and Origin Stones were different. Origin Stones were energy bodies formed by Strange Stones filled with Origin power, which could drive Art Tools and also serve as currency among Sword Guests. Origin Talismans, however, were Origin Stones with Rune Formulas, which could directly trigger the Rune Formula on them for a one-time effect, and could also be used to conveniently and quickly craft Art Tools and Art Arrays; they were common materials for Talisman Sword Masters.

For ordinary Sword Guests, these Origin Talismans were not cheap, were not practical since they were one-time use, were difficult to control, and had extremely low cost-effectiveness, so no one was willing to carry them. Only Talisman Sword Masters carried them to quickly integrate Rune Formulas into crafting Art Tools.

In fact, ordinary Talisman Sword Masters wouldn't carry so many of the same type of Origin Talisman either, because a Talisman Sword Master's carrying space was limited. But who told Tang Zhao to have such a convenient storage Dharma Artifact as the Time Jar? So he was used to having big and small bags just in case.

Just now, to craft the Cloud Silk Lamp, Tang Zhao hadn't skimped on Origin Talismans. The white fox clearly had common sense in this area, so it wasn't strange that it could tell.

After all, this wasn't a big secret, so Tang Zhao didn't deny it and said, "I am a Talisman Sword Master. Do you need me to make an Art Tool?"

The white fox shook its head and said, "Not to make an Art Tool, I just have something I want to ask you. I think you, as a Talisman Sword Master, might know. We have an idea, but since different trades are like different mountains, I don't know if it's feasible or not."

Tang Zhao said, "Go ahead."

Before going in, Tang Zhao added a light arrow to the sky so that the Sunlight could last longer, though this time he didn't transform it into the image of the white fox, which made the white fox breathe a slight sigh of relief.

Tang Zhao entered through the window, which automatically cracked open a slit to welcome him into the room.

Entering the room, Tang Zhao felt it was very comfortable, mainly because the temperature was appropriate; the slight warmth was just right, as if the sunlight of a winter afternoon were bathing his whole body, or as if a gentle hand were stroking him.

Aside from the temperature, there was nothing else. The lighting wasn't great, and he could only get a rough idea by borrowing the sunlight from outside. It could only be said that the room had a very high ceiling and a very open layout; at a glance, the space of more than ten zhang in circumference was opened up into one large room, without even a single pillar.

For this kind of structural design, ordinary building materials would absolutely be unable to achieve it, but the Cloud Silk of Xiancheng was almost omnipotent; if you could think of it, you could achieve it.

The decorations in the large room mostly used colorless and transparent materials like crystal and glaze, and the surroundings were inlaid with mirrors polished to be extremely bright. It was already open, and with the partitions also being transparent, it appeared even more spacious.

These mirrors reminded Tang Zhao of Xue Xianyun's fire-quality material storage room.

Various materials had always been stored in containers of different media. Generally, Talisman Sword Masters used mirrors to store fire-quality materials like light, shadow, fire, and gang. Seeing the mirrors and thinking of fire must have been a conditioned reflex. Because Tang Zhao had the Time Jar for universal storage, he didn't specifically organize materials himself, so it took him a beat longer to remember.

Since he had remembered, Tang Zhao immediately guessed, were the mirrors in this room serving the same purpose? Used to store another kind of fire-quality material.

One had to know that shadow, in its essence, was also a kind of fire-quality material. It could not actively break through the mirror surface to erode materials of the same level inside the mirror. If this method were used, it could indeed maintain long-term peace.

The only problem was that this method could not hide people.

And this Aqin was truly a person; she was not a Sword Image like the white fox.

A Sword Image cannot be a person.

Aqin stood behind the white fox, looking somewhat shy like a real young girl, and said, "Aunt Ling, is this brother the friend you made outside?"

The white fox said, "Yes, he is..."

Tang Zhao interjected, "Tang Zhao." He then smiled at the white fox, "So you are called Aunt Ling."

The white fox raised its head and said, "I, Ling Baoyu, am at least the Third Immortal Envoy under His Highness; my seniority is very high. There are even those who call me Great-Aunt."

The two had always been a purely wild team, at most counting as allies, and hadn't even exchanged real names. But later, after experiencing some things, their relationship had unconsciously grown closer.

Just now, Aqin had said "friend," and the white fox hadn't denied it, going with the flow to acknowledge the friendship, yet only when introducing him did it realize it didn't even know Tang Zhao's name.

If you don't even know the name, what kind of friend is that?

Fortunately, Tang Zhao provided his name himself, telling it not to be embarrassed, and then tactfully asked for its name; Ling Baoyu reciprocated by reporting its name. Only then could the two be considered to have some friendship beyond a temporary alliance.

Aqin giggled, "Brother Tang, you are the kind of friend my aunt would like."

Tang Zhao smiled politely, thinking: This little girl doesn't know how to talk. You call me brother and her aunt; doesn't that mean you're letting her take advantage of me?

Ling Baoyu said, "Stop spouting nonsense, let's talk about business." If it weren't for Aqin's special situation, she would have given her a rap on the head—what do you mean by "the kind of friend I like"? Don't you know I like beauties? Where does he look like one?

She changed the subject herself, saying, "This little niece of mine was originally our companion and has been here for over a hundred years. But she wasn't left behind; she fell here by accident. She was originally the youngest Sword Guest in our Baiyujing, with outstanding talent and good luck; she found a sword suitable for herself at a very young age. However, her sword was an old sword passed down, which was harder to control, so His Highness always warned her to cultivate her Sword Heart first and not to rush into comprehending Sword Law. She didn't have any pressure, so she just kept playing on the clouds with her sword; in terms of combat power, she has none."

Aqin looked unhappy, but she didn't refute it; she really couldn't fight.

Ling Baoyu said, "Her favorite game is hide-and-seek. She often hides for days and nights without coming out. Sometimes we are too lazy to look for her, and she is very happy hiding by herself. Because her Sword Image is very suitable..." She hesitated for a moment and said, "It is a reflection."

Tang Zhao said, "It is also a shadow?"

Aqin said, "It is a reflection. Not the kind of pitch-black shadow, but the kind of reflection cast in water or light that is the opposite of a person; everyone only has one reflection."

Tang Zhao smiled, "I see. A reflection, not pitch-black, but colorful; whatever a person looks like, the reflection looks like..." He suddenly felt a stir in his heart and looked at Aqin.

Although Aqin looked like a child and her personality and actions retained some childishness, after surviving for a hundred years, her wisdom had slowly grown, and she was also very sharp, saying, "Yes, I am a reflection."

Tang Zhao suddenly realized; this made sense. A Sword Image cannot be a person, but it can "imitate a person." If it were a reflection, it would make sense. Although a reflection is eight or nine parts like the original, it actually has some color difference, so he said, "So you are a Sword Image like the white fox? That is..."

Aqin shook her head and said, "Ling Gugu is currently a Sword Image; she herself is still slumbering within Canghaiyuan, and you will certainly be able to see her later. As for me... I am just Aqin."

Tang Zhao felt a jolt in his heart, thought of Feng Zhilie once more, and said, "Ah, you..."

Ling Baoyu spoke for her, saying, "This child... was playing hide-and-seek at the time and hid inside Qianqiu Tower; we were busy defending against the enemy and forgot about her. Later, when the Wangliang swept in, she had nowhere to escape, and in order not to fall into the Shadow, she let the Sword Image swallow her."