Chapter 559: 512 Meeting Again

That is the situation as it stands.

Although Tang Zhao only said that the final decision would be made by the Master, seeing his full confidence, everyone felt that this wager was already as good as settled.

This grand event of a Third-tier Manor challenging a Second-tier Manor was about to begin. The competition format was unprecedentedly thrilling, and the scale was unparalleled.

Then, as everyone mulled it over, the more they thought about it, the more they felt that the Changfa Manor negotiation had been a complete waste of time.

Isn't this just following someone else's lead entirely?

Good grief, they were already stretched thin with only eight Sword Guests, and then a Sword Hero Bureau appeared, with Sword Heroes invited from who knows where. To add fuel to the fire, they even dragged in the YoungMaster, who had originally intended to just watch from the sidelines.

Not only that, but the advantage of potentially setting the venue on neutral ground or even their own home turf was also lost; Xing Qi had just been clamoring that they wouldn't be afraid even if the competition were held at Sunset Manor. Since the other party took the hint and set the battlefield at their own home, what could be done?

With the rules and the venue following the other party's lead, the only thing that could be decided by Changfa Manor was the time, but with the Deep Shadow Society and the Sacrificial Day imminent, there weren't many days left anyway, so there was no way to make anything special out of setting the date.

If this isn't a total and complete failure, what is?

Even Tu Fei felt quite a headache: although he was just doing a job for money and didn't care who won or lost, seeing the party paying him likely to suffer a crushing defeat—and with everyone gone by then—could he even get his final payment?

Of course, it was also possible that this Sword Slave was just spouting nonsense, and when he returned, his Master would refuse to acknowledge it and instead kill the Sword Slave, allowing everything to start over.

But that would also be troublesome, as this matter might fall into a cycle of endless bickering, and Xing Qi might have to run back and forth. That would be annoying; not to mention the loss of face and the anger, if the time dragged on and this challenge ended up coming to nothing, there would be no talk of a final payment.

Tu Fei felt somewhat listless. He found Xing Qi, this fool who was smug even after being played, very unpleasant to look at, and pointed at him, saying: "If you were my Sword Slave, I would have chopped you up. Ignorant fool, do you still not know what a big mistake you've made? You think the biggest trap is in the competition format?"

"The competition format is just a small pitfall. Although there are few Sword Heroes, there are always ways to find them. If you contact them early, I can still help you contact some First Rank Manor Lords; it's not impossible to invite them to help. If the Manor Lord himself enters the arena in the end, it might even count as an advantage, after all, the old thing has long had a stroke and his strength is not what it used to be. Your Master is young and strong; as the saying goes, fists fear the young and strong, so perhaps he is just bullying this old coffin-board. But this home-field advantage..."

He stared coldly at Tang Zhao and said: "As a Sword Slave, you are already base, and being a Sword Slave of a Third-tier Manor makes you the basest of the base, narrow-minded and short-sighted. Do you think home-field advantage means burying five hundred swordsmen on the sides? Do you understand what a Second-tier Manor is, or what a First Rank Manor is? What the favor of Lord Wangliang means? Open your dog eyes and look—"

He pointed behind the huge sand dune.

The black and white sand dune was monotonous and blurry, looking like a gray patch from afar, and since the entrance they used was in the shadow of the dune, Tang Zhao hadn't noticed anything unusual when he looked at the dune before.

But now that Tu Fei specifically pointed it out, Tang Zhao followed his gaze. He really did see a shadow.

It was a pitch-black, oval-shaped stone pillar standing on the ground, with the lower half buried in the soil, like an iceberg submerged under water, its full appearance unknown.

From their angle, one could only see that one side of the stone pillar was not very smooth, with several depressions, looking like some kind of failed sculpture.

But as Tang Zhao looked at it, he always felt it looked somewhat familiar.

What was it again?

Some kind of totem?

Wait... could it be...

Xing Cang furrowed his white, bushy eyebrows, also lost in thought.

"See clearly now? That is one of the trump cards of Sunset Manor. It is only because you are stupid and lowly that you are not enough to make that old thing truly angry. If your Master had come and clashed with him, and he had impulsively activated this lethal weapon, it would be hard to say how many of you could leave in one piece today!"

Suddenly, as if in response to his words, the huge stone pillar moved.

The stone sculpture turned silently by an angle, with the several depressions facing them directly, making their hearts tighten instantly:

That looks like... a flat human face?

Immediately after, the earth shook!

The ground under their feet vibrated rapidly, and the sand and soil instantly turned into a quagmire, collapsing downward incessantly.

Before, the Yinglang Bridge also had this kind of seemingly bottomless collapse, but that collapse was idealistic; it only seemed to be collapsing, but it didn't really collapse. The sand ground at this moment was truly collapsing. The ground seemed to sink into a large hole, and the sand poured into the hole like flowing water, stirring to form a vortex.

Immediately after, as if a boom sounded in their ears, a huge black shadow stretched out from a few yards in front.

It was a pitch-black fist!

A fist large enough to stand several carriages on suddenly rose from before their eyes, just like a mountain peak rising from the ground!

A strong wind hit their faces, making them suffocate; everyone felt the powerful force at close range!

The reason it was said that there was a boom in their ears was because such momentum naturally should have been accompanied by a deafening roar. It should have been like thunder, like a dragon's roar, like a mountain collapsing; the sound alone should have made people prostrate themselves!

However, there was none.

This huge fist rose silently, along with the trembling vibration of the ground; it didn't make any sound, just like a disaster movie played on a big screen with the sound turned off.

Powerful, yet eerie.

The fist rose up, reaching several yards high, truly like a dangerous cliff, almost revealing the forearm connected under the fist, as if it were gathering strength to fall and smash fiercely toward Tang Zhao and his party.

But in the end, it just froze in the air, like a stone fist sculpture.

Under the fist, almost all the Sword Slaves were already lying on the ground, not daring to lift their heads, while a few Sword Guests were still standing. Most of them showed expressions of lingering fear. Only Tu Fei, instead of being afraid, was angry. He didn't look at the fist, but instead pointed at the Sunset Manor in the shadows and cursed:

"Damn it, Wu Shayu, I've given you face, haven't I? I've been polite to you because of your age, and you really think you're some favored minister of Lord Wangliang, one person above ten thousand? I am the Master of Changyi Manor, my rank is above yours! Tell your big guy to behave; if you dare to block my path, I will twist your old head off, even if it displeases Lord Panying!"

Tang Zhao thought to himself: Big guy, so that's really an old friend?

At this moment, someone in the shadows said: "Changyi Master, calm your anger. My Master has no ill intent."

A white-haired woman crawled out from the Sunset Manor in the shadows; it was Xing Qing, the chief steward who followed Wu Shayu.

The chief steward came out, first bowed deeply, and said: "Changyi Master, calm your anger. It was not my Master's intention to activate it. That warrior was left over from the old years; it is old and worn out, and occasionally there are times when it does not obey orders. Just now, it smelled the scent of living people and acted on its own, which disturbed everyone; it was not my Master's original intention. My Master stopped it immediately after noticing, and now it is fine."

Tu Fei sneered repeatedly upon hearing this: This Wangliang Warrior is the watchdog of Sunset Manor, not a real person, and it doesn't even have its own brain; it obeys the Manor Lord's commands entirely. What is this about acting on its own? This excuse is truly clumsy.

But he couldn't pursue it further. Not to mention that his title of "Changyi Master" was somewhat presumptuous, and whether a First Rank Manor Head or a Second-tier Manor Lord was higher was not yet clear, even if his status were truly higher, there was still the principle that a wise man doesn't fight when the odds are against him. At someone else's doorstep, with real power right in front of him, it was best not to be too arrogant.

He was born a Sword Slave and knew how to bend and stretch. He immediately went with the flow, flicked his sleeve, and said: "Tell your Manor Lord to take care of himself. Although the Wangliang Warrior is good, it follows the manor, not the person. When one day you lose Sunset Manor, this Wangliang Warrior will belong to someone else."

Xing Qing smiled faintly and said: "Thank you for the reminder, Changyi Master. Let the warrior send you to the Altar."

The Altar was the center shared by the three tiers of Wangliang Mountain; one had to go there whether ascending or descending.

Tu Fei sneered: "No need for you to send us, I have already called for an airship."

Tang Zhao was secretly surprised: There are airships on Wangliang Mountain? This is the first time I've heard of it.

Large transportation tools like airships didn't even exist in the Waijie. He had always wanted to develop an airship that even ordinary people could ride, but this project was too large and required comprehensive consideration of various systems and details; not a single mistake could be made. This was not a project that one or two people could complete in a short time, and he had never been able to spare the time, so he only left conceptual sketches and handed them over to the R&D department of Baiyu Shenghui to advance.

The R&D progress... could be said to be nowhere in sight.

He was full of expectation to see the airship of Wangliang Mountain, when he heard Xing Qing say: "If so, Changyi Master, please do as you please. Let the warrior send the guests of Changfa Manor instead."

After saying this, not allowing them to refuse, she gave a shout.

They saw the huge stone pillar slowly rise, revealing the neck, shoulders, and torso underneath...

In an instant, a Shadow giant dozens of zhang tall appeared before everyone. The uneven pits and holes in the stone pillar were indeed its abstract facial features.

This giant was none other than the Wangliang Warrior that had once wreaked havoc in Baiyujing, had its control seized by Tang Zhao and been buried entirely underground, and was finally leveled along with the soil layers of Baiyujing.

So at Wangliang Mountain, Wangliang Warriors are just guard dogs for high-level estates. I wonder how many other Wangliang Warriors are available for people to command, besides those in the Shadow Kingdom at the very center of Wangliang Mountain?

Although Tang Zhao had single-handedly scrapped dozens of these warriors back then, it did not mean they were useless. These fellows were not easy to deal with; in Baiyujing, a single warrior had once easily killed a Sword Guest. In this group, apart from Tang Zhao, I fear no one is a match for a Wangliang Warrior.

But Tang Zhao did not fear them, not only because his current strength could suppress a Wangliang Warrior, but also because he had obtained a token back then that could control Wangliang Warriors. He had thought it was a one-time item at the time and had just tucked it away, and it was still with him now.

Would this thing still be useful here at Wangliang Mountain?

Although Tang Zhao guessed that Wangliang still possessed the ultimate authority to control the Wangliang Warriors and that using the warriors to counterattack Wangliang was likely a pipe dream, if Wangliang did not show up at the start, could he exploit the timing and pull off something big by surprise?

Tang Zhao kept this in mind, and a plan slowly took shape.