Chapter 476: Congjun Order

In the shadows of the spacious hall, two figures were rummaging through cabinets and chests.

A young girl with snow-white skin pursed her lips, searching through a cabinet on high. Most of the cabinets were empty, and those that did contain things held only writing brushes and ink, yielding no real harvest. She was not focused on searching, either; from time to time, she would glance sideways and down, where she could see the shadow of a white fox silently rummaging under the light of a Cloud Silk lamp.

Ever since Ling Baoyu mentioned the past events at Mingzhu Bay, Aqin had felt a sense of dread in her heart, and she no longer wished to go to that sorrowful place. She suggested that they might as well circle among the various halls and pavilions of Yutang, using back-and-forth lures to see if there was a chance to defeat them one by one.

In any case, neither of them counted as human anymore; they could survive without supplies and had plenty of time. Even if they spent a few years circling the giant shadows, it would be no problem.

But this time, it was Ling Baoyu's turn to be resolute. After her recent recollection, she seemed to have a comprehensive plan and was firmly determined to have a decisive battle at Mingzhu Bay. She was so resolute that one could not tell if it was truly a flash of inspiration with a strategic plan for a sliver of victory, or if she had recalled the past, become filled with grief and indignation, and then lost her head and disregarded everything.

To this, Aqin could only:

Of course, follow her.

Just as she had said, a person wandering silently in the darkness, with only the days of going up and down stairs—she had lived like that for a hundred years and had long since had enough. Having finally met Ling Baoyu, she naturally clung to her tightly, never to be separated again, even if it meant dying together.

Tracing the cause, dying in the lake water where the aunts were buried in the beginning could also be considered a good final resting place.

"Found it!"

With a cheer, Aqin hurried to turn and look.

At this moment, they were searching the Wenxin Hall, which was Hua Yaoshi's study.

Wenxin Hall was on the east side of Yutang, a two-courtyard palace. Outside was a flower hall, where the Ruyi Sword occasionally handled official business. After all, Yutang was not a true Imperial Court palace and did not require holding court to hear politics; most of the affairs of Baiyujing were handled in Wenxin Hall. The "Wuqiu Hall" in the very center, which was the largest, was a ceremonial hall; although it could accommodate hundreds of people, it was not often used.

Back then, Ling Baoyu often entered the study, and she knew exactly where everything was kept, but the great battle before had caused every hall and pavilion to suffer shocks. The area around Yutang was even more of a center for the battlefield, and every great hall had been through the fires of war. The study was also in a mess, with boxes and cabinets overturned and books and scrolls scattered all over the floor. It still maintained the appearance of those years; clearly, the giant shadows that had long occupied this place did not want to clean the room.

The two of them naturally could not stand such a tragic sight, so they cleaned while they searched. In any case, the giant shadows had no vision, so even if they returned, they would not notice that this place had been cleaned by someone.

At this moment, Ling Baoyu pulled a small box from under a pile of scrolls. Inside the box were tokens that looked like Ruyi.

"It is the Congjun Order."

Aqin was surprised: They actually found it!

The Congjun Order, also known as the "Ruyi Jun Order," was the highest power token of Baiyujing back then. The Ruyi Sword would hand it to subordinates handling affairs to use, serving the purpose of "as if the Emperor were present."

The difference was that while tokens in other places often only had a symbolic meaning, the Congjun Order was truly useful—because it was woven from the Ruyi Silk of the Ruyi Sword.

This kind of Ruyi Silk was infused with the will of Hua Yaoshi and possessed the highest command priority in Baiyujing. Being able to easily command all Cloud Silk, it could be considered as being able to do whatever one wanted in Baiyujing.

Even today, having such a small thing could still command the Five Cities and Twelve Towers buried in the shadows.

This was also the target they had come to find.

"One, two, three! There are actually three Congjun Orders. I thought there was only one from beginning to end." Seeing the Congjun Orders, Ling Baoyu was overjoyed, but also felt a bit of sadness at the sight of objects that reminded her of the past. She only cast aside her emotions after a moment of distraction. "These are enough. Aqin—"

She threw one of them to Aqin. Aqin reached out, but failed to catch it; the Congjun Order passed through her hand and landed on the ground with a *pat*.

Ling Baoyu was helpless and picked it up herself, saying, "You cannot hold it, so I will have to keep it. If Tang Zhao were here, we could give him one, so we could fight separately, and the tactics would be more flexible."

Aqin was very surprised—she did not expect Ling Baoyu to trust an outsider so much, even sharing the Congjun Order. This was the highest authority of Baiyujing; once entrusted to the wrong person, it would bury the last glimmer of hope for their homeland.

Could it be that this was Ling Gugu's infatuation period?

She knew that every time Ling Baoyu found a beauty, there would be an incomparably immersive period. At that time, whatever the beauty did was right, and she could even offer her heart and lungs to provide for the beauty.

However, she would gradually discover many flaws in him or her, and after a period of time, her enthusiasm would fade, and she would turn to find someone new.

It seems this Tang Zhao was still in the most intense stage.

But that Brother Tang did not seem to just have a good appearance; he also had strength and was very reliable. Perhaps Gugu would trust him for a little longer?

Ling Baoyu had no idea that she still had the heart to think about these things at this time. She swallowed the Congjun Order into her belly and said, "Let's go. Let's choose a target and then break out."

According to her plan, this step was also very important. She could not blindly crash into an encirclement, nor could she be silent; she had to graze the edge and lead one or several giants into her own battlefield first.

This task was actually very suitable for Aqin. She could switch between the reflection state and the three-dimensional human form and could avoid many dangers, but Ling Baoyu really did not want to let her take the risk.

However, if she shouldered everything herself and did not let Aqin do a single thing, it would be looking down on her. Aqin would not be happy either.

She pondered for a moment and said, "Aqin, I will give you a task."

Aqin was very happy and immediately puffed out her chest and raised her head, saying, "Okay!" Only, in her state, only she herself could see the raising of her head and puffing of her chest.

Ling Baoyu said, "You go from here..."

Before the words were finished, she felt a light flash outside the window!

Besides their Cloud Silk lamp, Yutang had actually lit up with lights again!

Ling Baoyu was both surprised and happy. Her first thought was: Has Tang Zhao returned?

But immediately after, she thought of another possibility. She suppressed her joy and leaned against the window to look out. Aqin also hurriedly leaned over to look together.

Outside the window, a brilliance flashed, followed immediately by another brilliance. Both looked like Sword Light, one following the other, as if two Sword Guests were chasing.

Such a chase could be considered common in the Waijie, but to be so blatant in the center of this Wangliang World was to not take the giants seriously at all.

Especially since the person fleeing in front was being chased in a hurry; he probably discovered that there were giants standing like a forest here, creating many blind spots that could be used as cover, and had charged straight over.

He was like a little rabbit, in order to shake off the chase of the weasel behind, he had fiercely charged into the mountain of fierce tigers.

This action immediately triggered a chain reaction.

The giants he grazed along the way were the first to realize they had been offended and turned to grab at the person in front. But the speed of that Sword Light was also extremely fast; by the time the giant's hand arrived, he had already slipped away. It didn't catch him, but it nearly grabbed the person behind.

The person behind was a fraction slower than him and happened to run into the giant's grab. Seeing that this grab was about to land, the person's Sword Art was also quite remarkable. In the blink of an eye, he forcibly charged straight up at ninety degrees. From afar, one could only see a pillar of light turn and head upward. In an instant, he had already charged up more than ten *zhang*, escaping from this grab in a perilous and narrow fashion.

And the first person, having dodged this danger, was also not safe.

The moment the first giant failed to strike, all the giants turned.

Those faceless heads turned simultaneously, silently facing that light.

They hadn't even had time to move, yet it was as if they had already locked onto the thin and small prey in the air.

Immediately after, those massive bodies swarmed over.

There were no clumsy movements, no deafening roars. Those bodies were so agile, easily turning and changing direction, surrounding them in an orderly fashion as if they were an Array. In an instant, they had completely sealed off the two streaks of Sword Light from front to back, top to bottom.

From Ling Baoyu's perspective, she could only see those pitch-black bodies of the giants surrounding them like towering Gaota. The two streaks of Sword Light were completely submerged in the pile of giants, unable to emit even a sliver of light.

"These two people seem to be the one surnamed Meng and that kid surnamed Yue. It seems the one surnamed Meng is chasing, and the one surnamed Yue is fleeing?" Although Ling Baoyu was far away, her eyesight was good, especially since Meng Huazhou's sword carried the light of thunder and lightning, which was different from ordinary Sword Qi and was easy to recognize.

She was a bit surprised. She remembered that before, Yue Laifei was desperately trying to hunt down Meng Huazhou, and his strength seemed to be a fraction higher. How did the roles of attacker and defender switch in the blink of an eye? What great advantage had Meng Huazhou gained to be able to chase and hack at Yue?

Aqin asked curiously, "Are they friends? Should we go save them?"

Ling Baoyu sneered, "Don't worry about them, let's see what their fortune holds. However, I have discovered that these giants have a way of communicating with each other... No, rather than calling it communication, it is more like mutual sensing. If they relied on communication to call others, they could never react so quickly and so uniformly. They are practically like they share a single brain; perhaps they don't even have brains at all, just a group of monsters that mindlessly swarm once they have a target."

After she analyzed this point, she felt somewhat uneasy. Her previous plan was to take advantage of someone attracting attention so that she and Aqin could lure a monster giant to the lakeside to take action and eliminate it, then lure other monsters. But if these monsters only had one brain, then it would be impossible to lure a single monster out and defeat them one by one...

With one link of the plan severed, Ling Baoyu had a headache. She was not good at this kind of strategy to begin with; having just had a flash of inspiration to come up with a plan was already quite difficult. At this moment, asking her to adapt on the fly and come up with another useful plan was truly something she could not do for the time being.

If only Second Sister were here; she is the mastermind of Baiyujing, after all. What are mere giants worth a sneer?

At the very least, even having a Tang Zhao here would be fine. That kid is also quite smart and has many devious ideas.

Ling Baoyu felt regretful while urging herself to think faster; she did not have much time. Right now, it was Meng Huazhou and Yue Lai using their lives to buy her time to think—although those two clearly did not want to do so.

But the fact was just that; Ling Baoyu only had time to respond before the giants crushed them to death. This was something that would happen very quickly. Since those two dared to take the initiative to dive into the pile of giants, it was truly a case of "there is no door to hell, yet they threw themselves in." They were definitely dead; even an immortal could hardly save them...

Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly felt something and turned her head abruptly—

"This... this is..."

In the pitch-black world, she once again saw the sky full of light.