Chapter 458: 433 Celestial Sphere

"Lamp..."

"So many lamps!"

The three arrived at the highest level of what is known as Qianqiutai, and Aqin, Ling Baoyu, and Tang Zhao were all stunned together.

Aqin's astonishment was that she had actually seen a sky full of lamplight.

Standing on Qianqiutai, one could see the lamplight in the firmament flickering brilliantly, truly like a splendid starry sky; the eternal firmament and the starlight that flickers in an instant are, by nature, the ultimate romance.

The young girl, who had long and lonely lived in darkness, had long forgotten the appearance of the starry sky; seeing such a spectacular scene of brilliant starlight again, she could not help but have tears well up in her eyes.

As for Tang Zhao's surprise, it was that he discovered he had guessed wrong about the observation deck of Qianqiu Tower.

He had originally thought that when Ling Baoyu and the others said the view from the top of Qianqiu Tower was good and could see far, it was because the tower was particularly high; climbing high to look far naturally allows one to overlook a thousand miles.

But in fact, it was not so; the top of Qianqiu Tower actually had a unique perspective.

Looking at Baiyujing from the sky platform was not an overlooking view at all, but rather like entering a crystal ball, where all directions were a 360-degree spherical screen, pulling a bird's-eye view from two dimensions into three, surrounding them on all sides without any blind spots.

In such a surround, the cardinal directions were slightly distorted, but once one became accustomed to this perspective, one would see clearly at a glance, and it was as if one were placed outside the world, possessing a very clear bystander perspective.

Especially since this screen was intangible, there was no tangible piece of glass; everything seemed to be laid out directly before one's eyes. The depth of field was incomparable to a virtual screen; one could even see the three-dimensional division between heaven and earth vertically, see the infinite extension of the cardinal directions horizontally, and possess dynamic vision, perceiving the invisible flow of wind and water in space and experiencing the roaring passage of time.

This feeling of vertical and horizontal superposition was extremely wondrous. Tang Zhao felt that everything he saw was real, only that space had been folded and distorted, allowing them to stand outside of space to see so comprehensively.

Tang Zhao had followed Chen Zong since childhood and had been instilled with a pile of terms that sounded impressive but were incomprehensible. At this moment, it made him vaguely connect them to various sci-fi vocabulary like "space," "dimension," "folding," and "transition." In fact, he didn't understand what they meant at all; he just felt these words were very powerful and should match the powerful scene before him.

After sighing for a while, he pulled himself out of these infinitely abstract concepts and turned to consider reality.

How exactly was such a powerful visual achieved? Was it a Rune Formula, or a Sword Technique?

Could a Rune Formula achieve such an effect?

It seemed this was not just an illusion of light; it already involved the derivation of space and its advanced application?

In fact, a Sword Technique-level Rune Formula was already a three-dimensional Fu Formula Array, but doing space within space was obviously unable to transcend space.

Sword Technique-level... not enough?

Could it be Sword Momentum-level, that is, a Rune Formula of the Sword Immortal realm? Or was it the Sword Momentum itself?

Tang Zhao suddenly felt Revered, and with a heart of reverence, he began to observe and admire it.

Over here, the white fox actually knew about Qianqiutai and knew about the sky full of lamplight. But she was still stunned by this scene.

Because she had not expected the combination of lamplight and Qianqiutai to be so wondrous.

One must know that looking from the ground, after the lamplight rose, it could only turn into tiny specks of light; although as brilliant as a starry sky, one could only look up and fantasize. But from the perspective of the sky platform, she could see the destination of every bit of lamplight clearly.

The lamplight was evenly scattered within the space, up to the Shadow and down to the foundation of the towers; there was no place without the shadow of Cloud Silk lamps. Some of those lamps were still dancing, and some had already fallen. But most of the lamplight within them had not been extinguished; they successfully drove away the surrounding Shadow, and with each Cloud Silk lamp as the center, one could see a small patch of light and the scenery within the radius of that light.

Within these dimensions, some could see a corner of a tower, some could see a small patch of Huayuan, some could see a section of the wall of Xiancheng, and some could see half a pool of clear water ripples.

These scenes were like little holes poked into a box covered with black cloth, allowing people to glimpse the rare treasures preserved inside the box. Although the black cloth was still covered very tightly and the holes were very small, it already allowed people to imagine the scene of the treasure chest seeing the light of day again after these holes connected into one and the black cloth was completely torn into Fragments.

Seeing this, Ling Baoyu was full of hope and couldn't help but glance at Tang Zhao, wanting to thank this companion who insisted on releasing lamplight in Xiancheng.

Turning her head to look, she saw Tang Zhao frowning, seemingly thinking about some difficult problem, not looking carefully at the scenery before him. She restrained her expression and said, "How is it? Our Qianqiutai is impressive, right? It is more than a match for the Qingtian Temple where you are."

Tang Zhao paused and asked suspiciously, "Qingtian Temple? Where we are?"

Why was Qingtian Temple mentioned again?

Ling Baoyu said, "The Qingtian Temple of your Human World government. This celestial sphere map only exists in Qingtian Temple in the Human World, used to monitor the changes in Yin energy in the world. However, although the scale of the celestial sphere map in Qingtian Temple is large, its functions are incomplete. Our celestial sphere map is as complete as the celestial sphere maps of other Tianwaitian, with infinite wonderful uses. Look—"

She pointed lightly, and one could see a certain field of vision suddenly enlarge and zoom in; the lamp that originally looked like only a speck of starlight was magnified a hundred times, filling most of the field of vision, and even the patterns on the Cloud Silk lamp shade could be seen clearly.

Correspondingly, the few large trees illuminated by that Cloud Silk lamp were also clearly displayed; under the light, every branch and leaf was revealed in minute detail. She moved her claw again, and the focus immediately shifted to the darkness beside it.

At this time, the thick Shadow was magnified a hundred times, and the observation distance was extremely close; one could see the black shadow as thick as mist and cotton wool, as if there were strands and threads, entangled with each other, flowing slowly. That kind of mist looked quite eerie and filthy, and even made one feel a bit nauseous after looking at it too much; it was a psychological nausea when seeing something that was both dangerous and dirty.

Then, she retracted her claw, and the perspective of the map suddenly shrank, but the range covered became larger and larger; later, the entire field of vision was covered by black shadows, and the flickering firelight was not even the size of a needle tip.

This was the limit of the celestial sphere map, which just happened to cover the entire Baiyujing, as well as a small area in the sky outside the capital, and could also be used to observe and guard the surroundings. However, Baiyujing had other four-cornered Gaota responsible for guarding against external enemies, and Qianqiu Tower was mainly for observing the situation inside the capital; theoretically, everyone in the city could be monitored at any time, monitored closely.

However, the black shadows were currently obscuring the view a bit, making this kind of monitoring somewhat nominal. For example, Ling Baoyu just wanted to find Meng Huazhou's small team, but the black fog was too thick and Baiyujing was too big, so she didn't find them for a moment.

But since they had arrived at Qianqiutai, those few people shouldn't think about running. Ling Baoyu would not let a few disasters run wild in the city, especially Meng Huazhou, this successor of Xu Congsheng, who was even more of a thorn in her heart.

"Far or near, high or low, adjust as you wish. This is just one of the wonderful uses. It can also see through things, and can track and locate..." Ling Baoyu looked at Tang Zhao, her tone carrying a bit of pride. Perhaps it was because Tang Zhao's emotions were too stable; he didn't know how to exclaim when encountering wonderful things, only thinking about their significance, without any expression, which made her somewhat unhappy—she came from Baiyujing and was under the Sword Immortal; logically, it should be easy to shock a small Sword-smith Master, right?

Tang Zhao had never been to Qingtian Temple, had never seen a celestial sphere map, and didn't know the origin of the celestial sphere map or its relationship with that "Tianwaitian," only feeling that what Ling Baoyu mentioned was a matter of another world.

Such a magical celestial sphere map, did everyone in Tianwaitian have one?

He had the heart to Ask, but at this time there were more important things at hand. He was not surprised by the far and near, high and low that Ling Baoyu just demonstrated; even the Phantom Bonsai he made himself could do it, and he had used this function to demonstrate to students. After all, having learned from Chen Zong, setting such a function when projecting images was an instinct.

But his Phantom was fake, all fabricated, so changing 180 perspectives was normal, but theirs was a live broadcast, and the difficulty could not be mentioned in the same breath.

He asked, "The scenery seen in the celestial sphere map, is it real or fake?"

Ling Baoyu was very strange that he actually asked such a question, and said, "Of course it is real, how could it be fake? Everything you see really exists."

Tang Zhao said, "No—I am asking if everything we see is real scenery, or a projection?"

He reached forward, as if to grab the rolling black fog around him, but the scenery looked close, yet it was as if it were infinitely far away, and he couldn't grab it at all, saying, "There is no screen blocking here. If we are looking directly at the real scenery, just because of the tricks of space producing different perspectives, then if we have long enough arms, we should be able to touch the real objects, right?"

Ling Baoyu and Aqin froze at the same time and said, "Ah?"

Tang Zhao continued, "If that's the case... this is not just an observation deck for watching the Baiyujing starry sky. This is actually a transportation hub—as long as we find the correct Path, theoretically, we can jump from here to any corner of Baiyujing?"

Ling Baoyu was stunned for a moment—she had actually never thought of it this way.

It seemed that no one had ever thought of using Qianqiutai for long-distance movement before?

If it could really be done, that would be too convenient; she could even enter Sancong City directly from here.

But...

"It shouldn't be possible, right?"

This sentence was said by Aqin; compared to Ling Baoyu, Aqin was more familiar with Qianqiu Tower.

"Although I haven't tried it, it shouldn't be possible. Before, Baiyujing had very strong winds, but this place was not affected, and rain didn't sprinkle in either. I think the inside and outside should not be connected, right?"

Tang Zhao was thoughtful and said, "This is the same as what I guessed. Although this place is magical, in essence, it is still a special screen projection, right?"

Ling Baoyu and Aqin nodded.

Tang Zhao showed no sign of disappointment; instead, he said, "In other words, this floor is actually completely enclosed by a spherical screen, and while it looks like it's open-air, it is actually Inner?"

The two women, one human and one fox, nodded again.

Tang Zhao said solemnly, "Do you still remember? When I arrived riding the clouds, I saw it clearly; the very top of Qianqiu Tower is indeed an open terrace."

"Ah?"

"This means this floor shouldn't be the top-most level. There is a hidden floor above this one."

"This..."

"Even you don't know? Since it's so secretive, shall we go up and take a look?"