Chapter 557: Nether Sea Sunset

Beneath Yinglang Bridge, the terrain is flat and the surroundings are empty, save for a large, greyish-white sand dune directly ahead.

A sand dune is just a sand dune, no different from those in the vast deserts of the outside world; it is incredibly smooth, almost devoid of ripples, and certainly contains no buildings. No one would ever guess that this is the legendary manor known for its "long heritage, grand displays, and abundant wealth."

Yet this is Wangliang Mountain, a world that at first glance appears so monotonous and desolate, with all its prosperity hidden behind that desolation.

Tu Fei led the team toward... the shadow of the sand dune.

Yes, in this world of grey tones, there are actually shadows.

It is just that, unlike the outside world, where shadows are black, the shadows of objects within Wangliang Mountain are white. This is a world where black and white are inverted.

The shadow of a shadow is called Wangliang.

The team stopped outside the shadow, not entering, much like one would not walk directly through the front gate when visiting someone. Sword Slaves had already stepped forward, placing the calling card of Changyi Manor onto the white shadow of the ground; within moments, it slowly sank in, as if sinking into quicksand.

A moment later, a Sword Slave rose from the shadow and said, "Greetings to the Changyi Master, please enter."

Tang Zhao found this Sword Slave extremely strange. The way it emerged seemed like a pole being "flicked" from beneath, stiff and straight, arriving before them in the blink of an eye; this was not how a person moves. Its form was also very blurry, even thinner than the people standing under the grey-white filter. It seemed as if the true body was not here, and only a shadow had emerged.

To them, Sunset Manor was in the shadow, but to those in the shadow, were the people outside not also in a shadow?

It was like a world of visual illusion diagrams; viewed from the front it forms a ridge, from the side a peak—which side is the top and which is the bottom depends entirely on the shift in perspective. Shadow and substance transform into one another in an instant.

One cannot dwell on this in the Wangliang World; it is easy to go mad.

Tu Fei waved his hand, and groups of Sword Slaves stepped forward to present gifts—these were all funded by Changfa Manor and were much more generous than the last time; if Tang Zhao and the others had not contacted the follow-up caravan sent by Yunzhou, they might not have been able to scrape together these rare treasures. The servant receiving the gifts had a faint expression, as if accustomed to seeing such treasures.

Then, Tu Fei led two envoys from Changfa Manor and stepped into the shadow first.

Heaven and earth faded once more, and the world transformed again.

It was another black-and-white world, containing only black, white, and grey, but inverted compared to the outside. The black of the outside world was white here, and the white was inverted into black.

To use a metaphor no one in this world could understand, it was like coming from a world of black-and-white photographs into a world of photographic negatives.

Arguably, the negative world is even more bizarre, because the depth of the colors is entirely contrary to common human perception.

However, Tang Zhao had no heart to look at inverted color schemes; his attention was entirely captured by what was before him.

Except for him, the attention of everyone who had come for the first time was also firmly drawn to the same direction.

It was a flash of bright color—gold!

In this Wangliang Mountain where black is white and white is black, there was a single streak of the purest, most magnificent gold! It was so dazzling and eye-catching that it instantly brought a warm, melting sensation to the frozen, oppressive world.

It was a massive sculpture depicting a golden sun half-fallen into a black swamp, splashing up countless black waves that almost enveloped the sun's body, dragging it into the bottomless black abyss below. A black feathered arrow was pierced through the sun, as if it had just been shot down from the sky.

This was the sun in the midst of falling.

The momentum of the entire sculpture clearly showed the black shadow having the upper hand; the sun was in a sorry state, at the final moment before its fall, yet from within the all-encompassing black obstruction, that purest golden sunlight still shone through. That sunlight represented the world full of light beyond Wangliang Mountain.

Those like Tang Zhao who harbored ulterior motives remained relatively calm, but the others could not help but show signs of fascination and even longing; even Xing Cang could not help but stare, though he dared not truly approach.

Yet Tang Zhao was the most shaken of all, forced to suppress his surging emotions:

Destruction!

He had finally felt the aura of destruction!

That Destruction Sword Intent, or rather the aura of the Jinwu Sword, came precisely from the statue; although it was but a tiny sliver, by no means comparable to a true third of the Jinwu Sword, it was extremely pure. Clearly, a sliver had been separated from the Destruction Sword Intent to create this sculpture.

This must be the handiwork of Wangliang; one wonders what it meant by making this sculpture? To record its great achievement of shooting down the Jinwu?

One of Tang Zhao's purposes in coming here was to seek news of the Destruction Sword Intent. He had thought it would be a difficult and long task, but he had not expected to see it the moment he walked through the door—they had no intention of hiding it at all!

Perhaps it was being flaunted as a trophy?

Or perhaps... if it is true that the Jinwu said the Destruction Sword Intent suppresses Wangliang, then this statue is not a realistic record, but a fabrication. Did it build such a sculpture to bluff and whitewash its own war record? To boast behind closed doors in its own home?

Seeing the people from Changfa Manor looking like country bumpkins, Tu Fei said, "You may look, but do not approach. This sculpture is the most precious thing in the manor. It contains restrictions personally placed by Lord Wangliang; the consequences of approaching rashly are unimaginable. Look at how Sunset Manor has suffered repeated disasters over the years, yet this sculpture has not been damaged in the slightest."

Tang Zhao nodded. He wanted to ask about the origin of the sculpture, but feared revealing a flaw. Ling Baoyu, representing the YoungMaster's Sword Image, had fewer scruples and asked, "What is this thing? Is that sun made of gold?"

Tu Fei said, "Of course it is not made of gold. How could gold compare to it? This is..."

"Nether Sea Sunset."

Someone interjected, and a white-haired woman walked out from behind. Her expression was indifferent, just like a standard Wangliang Mountain Sword Guest, and her tone was not very polite. "The Nether Sea is the vast Nether Sea in the Shadow Abyss of the Shadow Kingdom, and the sunset is that of Sunset Manor. What is carved here is a key battle of Wangliang Mountain, also the battle that established Wangliang Mountain. Placing the sculpture here is, on one hand, to manifest the great power of Lord Wangliang, and on the other, to record the merits of the master of our Sunset Manor."

She pointed to the black arrow stuck in the sunset: "That arrow, which decided the outcome, was shot by my master. Even the great beings of ancient mythology shooting the sun were no more than this."

Ling Baoyu said "Oh," and asked, "Your manor master is that amazing? This sun looks very powerful, and it was actually shot down by the Sunset Manor master?"

The white-haired woman paused slightly and said, "Of course, it was not the master's merit alone. This relied on the power of Lord Wangliang. But that battle was dark and chaotic, a stalemate, and in the end, the master delivered the key strike, the greatest merit after Lord Wangliang. Lord Wangliang favored the master, bestowed a generous reward, and personally granted this place as Sunset Manor, for the master's lineage to inhabit forever."

Ling Baoyu asked curiously, "Since there is such favor, why is Sunset Manor only a Second-tier Manor, and not a First Rank Manor?"

The white-haired woman was furious and shouted, "Where did you wild beast come from? How dare you spout such nonsense? Manor Head Tu, is this something you raised?"

Ling Baoyu bared his teeth, and Tu Fei laughed, "This is the current master of Changfa Manor—his Sword Image."

He also felt that Ling Baoyu's words were a provocation, but then again, since both sides were about to fight and duel, wasn't it normal to trade provocations? As someone who had taken the money, he didn't care about these messy affairs.

The white-haired woman sneered slightly upon hearing this, "Ha, so it is you. No wonder a mere nameless manor dares to challenge a higher-tier manor; truly an arrogant junior who knows not the height of the sky or the depth of the earth. What do you understand? Although we are Second-tier, we are a unique and vital location in Wangliang Mountain, more important than a First Rank Manor. My manor has stood firm for a hundred years, and every time we offer sacrifices, we receive a response from Lord Wangliang, with rewards that surpass all other manors. What is First Rank or Second-tier? If there is no real benefit, what are mere empty titles worth?"

She paused and said, "Of course, because of our special status, we attract some people with ulterior motives. But for a hundred years, no one has ever truly threatened our manor. How can one speak of disasters? Let alone repeated disasters."

Tu Fei smiled; he knew that this person had overheard him saying earlier that Sunset Manor had suffered repeated disasters, and she was retorting with sarcasm. If his partner were here, he naturally wouldn't allow the other party to be rude and would have already put on the airs of a First Rank Manor to make a scene, but he specialized in being harmonious to make money, so he wasn't angry, saying, "No disasters is for the best. Who doesn't hope for their own home to be safe and sound? I have brought the envoys from Changfa Manor; you can talk face-to-face. This time it is also to meet friends through martial arts, let us not damage the harmony."

The white-haired woman glared at Tu Fei, thinking, you brought the people here to kick down the door, and you still say not to damage the harmony?

But since Tu Fei now represented the First Rank Changyi Manor, the white-haired woman could not go too far, so she suppressed her anger and said, "Very well, since you are here, follow me to see the master."

The group then bypassed the sculpture and entered Sunset Manor.

Aside from the monotonous colors, Sunset Manor was quite impressive. The courtyards were deep, the corridors winding, and the buildings were magnificent, with an old-fashioned architectural style from the transition between the Wei and Jin periods. Although the colors were indiscernible, they still made extensive use of gold, silver, and gemstone decorations; some places were coated in a murky mess, emphasizing a style of having money to burn.

But whether it was because Tang Zhao was biased, he always felt that there were traces of repairs on the corners of these buildings, and some places even had scorch marks from fire, presumably from when it had been destroyed before. It was just that in a black-and-white world, the traces were not conspicuous, and with a layer of paint on top, the average person would not notice.

The group arrived at the Huayuan—yes, there were also Huayuan on Wangliang Mountain. If the people of Wangliang Mountain could survive, flowers could also survive. It was just that they had lost their color, and the flowers and grass were mixed together, looking chaotic and having lost most of their aesthetic appeal.

Under a large pine tree in the Huayuan, a person sat alone, dressed in brocade, the loose robes covering their body, revealing only an orange-peel-like old face, currently fiddling with a round ornament in their hand.

In a flash, Tang Zhao saw that the ornament looked like a turtle.

His heart skipped a beat, and looking at the old man again, he thought: "Good, another authentic old man!"