Chapter 575: 528 Networking

Deep within Yinglang, countless lines shift, as if water flowing, never ceasing day or night.

In an independent space that had fixed into place, resembling a room, a black shadow that looked like a coiled rope suddenly moved, revealing grey-white eyes.

It was actually a snake.

This snake, when coiled, was three zhang in diameter; its massive head was like a carriage wheel, and a pair of eyes flashed with a ghostly light in the shadows.

It did not open its mouth, but its snake tongue flickered constantly, emitting a "hissing" sound that only it could understand.

"Why have you summoned me..."

"Scoundrel! If there is nothing, withdraw!"

"There is an offering..."

After a moment of silence, the snake finally moved; with a few hisses and a slight flick of its tail, its body suddenly vanished.

The next moment, the surroundings became blindingly bright!

The world around it suddenly became colorful, with blue skies, white clouds, and brilliant sunlight.

These bright existences were all things it loathed.

However, it did not immediately show its dissatisfaction—it had been summoned, and it already knew the location of the summons was outside Wangliang Mountain. After all, the one who summoned it was its confidant, and they had said a large amount of offerings were prepared, so it could suffer a slight grievance.

But this was a completely unfamiliar place, not the shadows of Anxi Mountain; there was not even a single shadow to be seen nearby. Why did its confidant have to summon it here? Did they not know it liked shadows?

Unacceptable, the offering shall be doubled!

Immediately after, it saw a familiar head of white hair; that was undoubtedly its follower. It flicked its tongue and hissed, "Why... summon..."

No one answered, and the surroundings suddenly lit up!

The sun in the desert was already very bright, bright to the point that it loathed it, but the light that flared up at this moment was a hundred, a thousand times brighter than the brightest light it could imagine!

It had once seen the darkest shadow in the world, and today it saw the brightest light in the world!

"This is—"

It knew in its heart that something was wrong; that sense of lethality rushed toward it. It instinctively wanted to call upon the path of Yinglang, but before this thought could even turn, its mind suddenly went blank.

In an instant, it could no longer think; at the same time, its body stiffened like firewood, as if it had been instantly turned into a wax figure, maintaining only its original shape, completely sealed from body to heart within a hard shell.

Thump—

It plummeted.

"Done."

Thirty miles away, Tang Zhao received the message and smiled slightly.

Just now, he was responsible for using the Coil Incense stolen by Chi Mingjing to attract the Coiled Shadow. However, once the snake of Coiled Shadow appeared, he did nothing and immediately activated his Sword Art to teleport. He left the snake alone to be sanctioned by the Jinwu. Although he might be immune to the power of the Jinwu even if he were in the midst of it, he still escaped just in case.

At this moment, from his perspective, the horizon was slightly bright, but since it was noon, the sky was already very bright; if an average person did not look up carefully, they would not be able to tell how much brighter it was than usual.

This was not because the power of the Jinwu was not glorious, but because he had laid out layers of illusions in advance, from his own Sword Art to the Rune Artificer "Refraction Mirror," wrapping the battlefield layer by layer. Originally, he had aimed for the standard of "better too many than too few," and he reckoned half of it was surplus. Now it seemed it was barely enough to cover it.

As expected of the Jinwu Sword.

Tang Zhao waited for the light to dim slightly and hurried back. At a glance, he saw the magnificent Sword Deity existing in the form of the Jinwu, stretching its pure golden feathers, and beneath its feet lay the snake of Coiled Shadow, fallen on the ground like a roof beam.

"Your Highness is mighty!"

Tang Zhao took the time to flatter it, and without waiting for the Jinwu to proudly say, "Is that all?", he slashed a hole in the air, grabbed the giant snake and shoved it in, then climbed in himself.

Leaving behind the Jinwu's unuttered pride, it grumbled a few times, flapped its wings at the air, and flew away.

Inside the opening was a small space, independent of the world. Its predecessor was an Empty-Type Demon Cave.

It had been barely a year since Tang Zhao obtained this Empty-Type Demon Cave during the Battle of Xun City; one thing after another had happened, and he had hardly found the time to clean it up properly, let alone study it carefully. Fortunately, the three months at the Training Camp had been relatively relaxed, so he had cleaned out this Demon Cave.

This Demon Cave was a genuine Space Fragment, the very fragmented kind. It was only one mile in diameter, not even as large as the territory of the Zhaoyang Camp.

There were no earth-shattering treasures in the Demon Cave, nor were any powerful Heavenly Demons discovered. The only one was cleaned out at the beginning, and its corpse was kept by Tang Zhao to see if it could be used as material later. The rest worth noting were a building and a few man-made objects; Tang Zhao had no time to study them thoroughly, so he just piled them up in the space.

Supposedly, such a large place was a bit small to be used as a land resource point, but as a Space Art Tool, it was not small at all; it could store a large amount of supplies. But Tang Zhao did not like to use it; firstly, the Time Jar was very convenient to use, and secondly, it was filled with... Yin Qi.

It was that kind of Yin Qi that drifted everywhere on the night of the Calamity Moon, capable of spawning Fierce Beasts and hiding Phantoms.

This Yin Qi was mutually exclusive with the vital energy of the Human World; they were two completely different forces, basically impossible to utilize, and absorbing it was even more harmful. Tang Zhao had wanted to guide it out, but there was a significant amount of this Yin Qi, enough to spawn thousands of Fierce Beasts; if released outside, it would be a scourge, so it was better to keep it contained in the Demon Cave. Thus, this space could absolutely not hold living things, and it was best not to hold dead things either.

So, nothing could be put in it. At most, it could be used to throw away trash.

But at least the temperature was suitable, there were no disasters or harm, and it was more comfortable than Wangliang Mountain; people with a certain level of strength could stay in it for a while without issues.

At this moment, Jiang Shenyi was waiting for him inside, and the two were going to race against time to study this snake of Coiled Shadow.

"We have at least two hours. After that, it will be able to move, so we must reinforce the Sword Technique." Tang Zhao took out various tools, "Let's study it from the outside first; if we can't find anything, we'll dissect it for a deeper look. Let's not cause irreversible damage first."

As he spoke, he turned on the Artifice Lamps he had set up at the four corners.

Actually, even if he wanted to, it was hard to say if he could cause irreversible damage. The essence of an Abyss Envoy was a Sword Image, mixed with a portion of shadow; it was hard to say if it had internal organs, bones, or flesh when dissected. Perhaps it was like a lump of clay that could still be rounded up even if flattened.

Although it was broad daylight in the space and there was a light source above, he still prepared high-intensity Artifice Lamps, as he must ensure that no shadows would be produced during the inspection. When dealing with an Abyss Envoy, one must never create a shadow.

The two of them set to work, giving the snake a head-to-tail examination.

"Hmm... there is a thread here."

After fiddling for a long time, Jiang Shenyi, with his sharp eyes, felt a thread end on the snake's back, stuck it with a special glue, and gave it a tug, pulling out a thin thread that was almost invisible to the eye.

Tang Zhao looked up, his heart filled with joy, and said, "It's most likely this. This is Ruyi Thread!"

Although it was called Ruyi Thread, this thread was very different from the Ruyi Thread of Baiyujing. The Ruyi Thread of Baiyujing was crystal clear, usually so transparent that it was invisible to the eye, and it could change into various colors; this thread was extremely dim and lusterless, visibly grey to the naked eye, as if covered in a layer of dust, just like it had been rolled in a pile of ash.

Tang Zhao had a high-magnification observation lens at hand, which he had improved into the form of Glasses; after putting them on and adjusting the magnification, he observed carefully: "Hmm, this thread is mixed with shadows. It is equivalent to having someone else's will attached to the Original Thread. But the good news is that it is a physical entity."

It really was Ruyi Silk.

The Sword Image of the Ruyi Sword, Ruyi Silk, could weave almost everything, but it was still primarily material; at most, it could reach the level of "water" and weave clouds and mist, which was the limit. Anything higher, like the levels of fire and wind, was almost not involved. That is to say, even if Ruyi Silk could form a network, it could not form a wireless network; even if it were thinner and had less presence, it was still a wired network.

Therefore, it had a thread end; once the thread end was found, the network cable could be unplugged.

Then, by plugging the network cable into his own interface, he could steal the network. At the same time, he could also make the snake of Coiled Shadow completely disconnected.

However, before that, he still had to test the pattern of the content transmitted within...

"Take your time, let's stabilize the interface first."

The two of them studied it intently for over an hour, initially securing the permissions for the Ruyi Thread. They attempted to set up an Array to serve as an interface for intruding into the Wangliang Yinglang.

This Array was not created out of thin air; it synthesized the experimental data of both, integrated Dongjun's personnel teleportation array, and also referenced the universal Yinglang Bridge Art Tool—which Chi Mingjing had brought over from Changyi Manor. Since it was already taken anyway, if Coil Incense could be taken, why couldn't the Yinglang Bridge?

This thread connects directly into the body of the Abyss Envoy, and even links to their consciousness. Because the Abyss Envoy has no flesh-and-blood entity, it is equivalent to being tethered inside the body, making it relatively easy to plug and unplug, but Tang Zhao and the others could not plug one into their own bodies. Therefore, they created an Array as a stopgap measure, converting the mobile terminal into a fixed terminal. This Array cannot function within the Small World; it must be taken outside for testing before it can connect to the network.

Naturally, this is not as flexible as the Abyss Envoy, who can go wherever they wish with a single thought, but the advantage is that this account becomes public, allowing multiple people to be online simultaneously. If they get more people in, sooner or later they will turn Yinglang into their own private territory.

Tang Zhao also tried to see if the "Congjun Order," which was invincible in Baiyujing, could command this Ruyi Thread, and the result was—it could, but it didn't work very well.

In theory, the Congjun Order can command all Ruyi Threads, regardless of whose will is attached to the thread. However, the shadow of Wangliang is different; it is a substance that runs parallel to the Ruyi Thread and does not merge with the Ruyi Sword. It rejects the command of the Congjun Order, making the movements of the commanded Ruyi Thread look crippled.

In that case, if the interference of Wangliang on the Ruyi Thread cannot be Exclusion-ed in the short term, I am afraid it will be very difficult to take the entire Yinglang for their own use.

But the good news is, it is enough to cause destruction.

Although it cannot be used to accomplish things, it is more than enough to ruin them.

Once the Array stabilized, Jiang Shenyi wanted to try intruding, but Tang Zhao said, "Let's not try it yet. Let Miss Ling go in first; her state is close to that of an Abyss Envoy, so the chance of being discovered is smaller, and she has a way out if she is discovered. Once she has paved the way, it will be safe for us to go in."

Once it is truly safe, there will be many things that can be done.

For example, establishing bases on the various steps of Wangliang Mountain.

For example, deploying teleportation arrays in a dispersed manner.

For example, transporting troops.

For example—how to disseminate the research results on liberating sword slaves, which was a headache before, and how to notify the sword slaves who need to know; now it can be spread rapidly through the network.

And there is also the matter that the White Fox has always wanted to do, which Tang Zhao previously thought was difficult, but now has some leads on.

That is, finding the Ruyi Sword.

Tang Zhao feels that perhaps the Ruyi Sword is truly sleeping deep within Yinglang?