Chapter 467: 442 Open

Tang Zhao went out for a turn, and after a while, he returned in disappointment.

The Xiangyangzi was still propping up the door at the entrance, its two verdant feet dug into the ground as if rooted, standing as steady as Mount Tai. The heavy door seemed to have no weight at all. It said, "What's wrong? Can't find an exit?"

Tang Zhao tried his best not to look dejected, suppressing his frustration as he said, "It's not that there isn't an exit; the exit is on the other side, but it has been sealed shut. It was likely sealed when the Ruyi Sword left."

Heaven knows how overjoyed he was when he groped through the darkness and finally touched the traces of the gate, only to find it wouldn't open, and finally, when he confirmed it was sealed, despair flashed through his heart.

If not for the fact that the gate here was open and a beam of light had been shining through, allowing him to distinguish directions, he might have lost all strength right then and there, collapsing into the darkness, and it would have taken a very, very long time to recover.

Now that Tang Zhao had found his way back, his mood remained heavy. He leaned against the wall, dazed for a moment, before pulling himself together and saying, "Senior, do you really not know where my sword is? If I had my sword in hand, even without a door, I could still give it a try."

Having become a Sword Guest, he was accustomed to his sword; without it, his strength truly plummeted. He couldn't possibly rely on Ant Strength to push open a sealed door, could he?

Xiangyangzi stopped blocking the door and returned to sit among its flower cluster, once again the same height as the other sunflowers. It said, "I really don't know. And even if you got your sword, do you think you could push open the gate? That is a gate sealed by the Sword Immortal Ruyi Sword; how could a mere Sword Guest push it open?"

Hearing this, Tang Zhao's heart stirred. He said, "She used her power to block the door—could it be she used Cloud Silk? If I have Ruyi Silk, I could connect to the Cloud Silk and control them, then command the door to open..."

Halfway through, he suddenly remembered that the Ruyi Silk was stored in the Time Jar and had been confiscated along with it. He instantly deflated, leaning against the wall; this time he really had no strength left and was about to collapse to the ground.

As it stood, only one slim hope remained: that Ling Baoyu and Aqin were still outside. If they discovered he was trapped here and happened to find the Ruyi Silk left behind by the Ruyi Sword years ago, perhaps they could use it to connect to the external seal and open the gate to let him out.

But the probability of that was truly small. How many coincidences would be needed for success? And even if that coincidence occurred, who knew how long it would be? He currently had no supplies, and a Sword Guest was still a mortal of flesh and blood who needed to eat and drink. There were only stones and Pearls here; was he supposed to survive by eating sunflowers?

Thinking of this, his gaze swept over Xiangyangzi and its kin.

Xiangyangzi did not notice Tang Zhao's intentions and said, "You lad actually have some composure; to hold yourself together like this without showing it on your face is rare. It seems you are a young Sword Guest with boundless prospects. If Ju Dongjun had seen you back then, he surely would have liked you."

Tang Zhao let out a laugh, feeling that the word "prospects" sounded extremely distant.

Xiangyangzi said, "Fine, I have one last path here. The hope is slim, but if you are still unwilling to sit and wait for death, you might as well try."

Tang Zhao instantly perked up and asked, "What is it? I ask for your guidance, Senior."

Xiangyangzi said, "The Ruyi Sword side has nothing to do with me; I can't help there. But on the Dongjun side, there is a glimmer of survival. Do you know that while the entire Baiyujing is the territory of the Ruyi Sword, this Zhugong was moved here from Zhongtian Prefecture..."

Tang Zhao was stunned and said, "What? Moved here from Yunzhou?"

Xiangyangzi was startled and said, "What Yunzhou? Zhongtian Prefecture was the Tianwaitian of Ju Dongjun back in the day."

Tianwaitian was the Small World condensed from a Sword Immortal's Sword Intent; theoretically, every Sword Immortal had one. However, it was said that only by becoming a Sword Saint could one possess a truly complete Tianwaitian that could form a world of its own. The Tianwaitian at the Sword Immortal level had many loopholes, incomplete rules, or perhaps only their own private rules, which were far from the real world—it was just something they called it themselves.

Tang Zhao realized, "It's a shared name. Yunzhou, the prefecture where my hometown is, is also called Zhongtian Prefecture. Dongjun's residence is also called Zhongtian Prefecture—what a coincidence, a truly great coincidence."

Thinking about it carefully, the naming in Yunzhou—Dong Mountain, Dansheng, Zhongtian, Riyang, Yuxia—were all county names related to the sun, which sounded warm. That Zhongtian Prefecture shared the same name as the residence of the genuine Dongjun showed it was fate. Tang Zhao even felt that being born in Yunzhou was fate.

Xiangyangzi was quite disdainful, clearly not believing that a prefecture in the Human World was worthy of sharing a name with Dongjun's Tianwaitian. It continued, "But Dongjun is not buried here; this is merely a Cenotaph—that is just what is said to the outside world. Think about it: if Dongjun is not buried here, why would I guard this place? Could it be that I am guarding a few old clothes?"

Tang Zhao suddenly remembered:

It was true; why would Dongjun build a Cenotaph in Baiyujing? And silently build it in the depths of the Xiancheng under the name of a palace?

If it were to set up a monument for people to pay their respects, this Cenotaph was far too obscure; shouldn't more people have known about it? One would think the Imperial Court would have set up a mausoleum in Jingcheng.

And since Xiangyangzi was, after all, a Sword Deity, and loyal to Dongjun, it was naturally a rare combat force in the Human World; how could it be wasted in a big coffin?

Xiangyangzi said, "This was originally a secret that could not be told to outsiders. But if you can succeed this time, you are naturally qualified to know; if you cannot, I assume you won't be able to get out, so you won't be able to leak it..."

It spoke quickly and urgently, but its voice was low, as if talking to itself. It was less like telling Tang Zhao and more like convincing itself. Finally, its flower disk rose again and it said, "Open it."

Tang Zhao said, "What?"

Xiangyangzi said, "Is there anything else here that needs to be opened?"

Tang Zhao's gaze wandered for a moment before finally fixing on the very center of the flower bed, on the jar placed there.

"You want me to... open this?"

Before... he had thought that was the urn for the ashes of the Jinwu Sword.

Now, although he knew it was a Cenotaph, that box was meant to hold clothes and headwear in place of a coffin, right?

Was he supposed to open the coffin for Senior Dongjun?

Digging up a grave...

Xiangyangzi said, "Don't be long-winded, open it."

At the word "open," Tang Zhao no longer hesitated and opened the solemn and grave box.

Opening the lid, there was no sound, no light, and no strange phenomena.

Tang Zhao lowered his head and easily saw the object inside the box.

It was a piece of an old sword tip.

Tang Zhao shuddered and gasped, "The Jinwu Sword... is broken?"

It wasn't that a sword couldn't break; in fact, many swords that had followed Sword Guests for years were covered in scars, and it was uncertain if they might break during a battle. Breaking didn't matter; if one gathered the Fragments, a Sword Smith could repair it. Xue Xianyun had taken on many such jobs before he became a Sword Smith, and even Tang Zhao had learned it, having practiced repairing Broken Swords sent by the Sword Inspection Department during his apprenticeship.

But the Jinwu Sword was different.

Not to mention that this was a Sword Immortal's sword, just the fact that Caiyungui had been driven mad for years over the Jinwu Sword, and the talk of the Four Pillars—in Tang Zhao's heart, this should have been an unshakable, powerful legend. Dongjun might have died, but the Jinwu should have lasted forever. Seeing the broken sword so suddenly, he couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment.

Thinking about it carefully, this was also normal. Dongjun had passed away; the battle back then must have been unimaginably tragic. The opponent must have been powerful, and the sword inevitably suffered.

But shouldn't the Jinwu Sword have been repaired by now?

If the Fragments weren't all found, were the materials gathered anew?

Could it still be perfectly restored?

"I wonder which Sword Smith is qualified to repair the Jinwu Sword? Could it be the legendary Ancestor Ouye?"

Xiangyangzi clearly didn't care about questions that only a Sword Smith would care about. It said, "I don't know about that. But even if the Jinwu Sword has been repaired, it is no longer the Jinwu Sword of the past. At the Sword Immortal level, a broken sword is not just a simple loss of material. Like this piece of broken sword, it took away one of the Jinwu Sword's Sword Intents."

Tang Zhao was truly shocked and said, "Sword Intent... can also be taken away? Then is the Jinwu Sword still okay?"

When a sword reached the Sword Hero level, one had to begin developing Sword Intent. One could comprehend it out of thin air, and if one couldn't, one could collect more precious materials to have a Sword Smith recast the sword and then comprehend it again. The more ruthless ones would directly plunder the suitable Sword Intent of others.

Since Sword Intent could be plundered, it stood to reason that it could be taken away. It was just that Tang Zhao was too far from the level of a Sword Immortal to know the details.

But he knew that becoming a Sword Immortal required three Sword Intents, and that having too many Sword Intents was inadvisable to avoid Chaos, so usually, Sword Immortals only had three Sword Intents, which was also how it was displayed on the Sword Manual.

This meant that after the Jinwu Sword broke and lost a Sword Intent, it had dropped in rank.

Even if it were repaired and started over, letting a newcomer comprehend from the first Sword Intent, the future potential limit of the Jinwu Sword seemed to be greatly affected. Could it still serve as one of the Four Pillars of the sun?

Although he was in a crisis himself, Tang Zhao couldn't help but worry about the fate of the Qianxian and the Human World.

Xiangyangzi said, "Then how would I know? That is not for me to worry about."

It was not for Tang Zhao to worry about either.

If the sky falls, there are plenty of tall people to hold it up.

Tang Zhao asked, "Then why bury the broken sword here? Why not send it with the other half to be repaired, and ask the most brilliant Sword Smith—perhaps they could turn the tide and restore the Sword Intent?"

Xiangyangzi said, "They certainly wanted to, but they couldn't find the Jinwu Sword, could they?"

Tang Zhao had already been shocked several times, but this time he was still stunned, stammering, "You... you can't find it? Is the Jinwu Sword lost?"

Xiangyangzi said, "At any rate, it wasn't found when the Cenotaph was built back then. Later, when those few came to pay their respects one after another, they didn't bring any good news either, so it probably hadn't been found then. The last time the Ruyi Sword came, the atmosphere was off, and I didn't ask; it likely still hadn't been found."

It saw Tang Zhao's face growing increasingly grim and said, "What are you anxious about? It will certainly be found. Back then, they had someone calculate the location where the Jinwu Sword fell, and it didn't land in the Sword Domain; it fell into the Human World. It is very difficult for Heavenly Demons to cross the boundary into the Human World to snatch it. The meat is rotting in the pot; it will definitely be found."

Tang Zhao thought of Caiyungui again: had they actually found the Jinwu Sword or not? Could it be that they were using their own madness to cover up the fatal predicament of not being able to find the Jinwu Sword?

"At that time, they agreed to first build a Cenotaph for this broken sword, with the Ruyi Sword to stand guard, while the other swords went to seek a successor for the Jinwu Sword. Once a successor was found, they would bring them here, take the broken sword away with the old sword, and repair them together to inherit them."

"I was responsible for guarding the spirit, and at the time I even wondered: would I end this mission and leave once the new Sword Guest arrived, or would I guard this spirit tablet for Dongjun forever? Who would have known there was no need to choose; they never came back after they left that time."

"I originally trusted the Ruyi Sword very much, but she disappointed me more and more. I even thought the Ruyi Sword was also a faithless villain, never expecting that she had also met with disaster and could not come. As for Sword Guests, there are always all kinds of dangers; who can move forward forever? Now, I fear I will never be able to wait for them again."

Xiangyangzi sighed with emotion, stared at Tang Zhao, and said, "Since they aren't coming to take it, you take it."