Chapter 631: Wangliang

Above the shadow region, which was like a black hole, a youth sat cross-legged, sitting in the Void as if seated upon a throne.

He wore a golden mask with a large smiling face on it, looking as if he himself were smiling. It was just that such a smile could not remain solid for too long; the longer one looked, the more eerie and terrifying it felt.

Although no one could see his face clearly, one would instinctively feel he was a youth, not only because he was slightly shorter than the average person, but also because he was thin, with slender arms that made him appear frail.

The frailty of a youth is different from that of an adult; it is the thinness of adolescence. He had a somewhat large head and a small body, a feeling of being nothing but skin and bones.

Even though he appeared so frail and young, sitting alone atop the vast darkness, he was as majestic as a sovereign. The Ou Swordsman, who had taken one look from afar and fled in a panic, was not in his eyes at all, just as a person would not particularly notice a few ants crawling on the ground.

Yet, while he ruled the shadow beneath his feet, there was also something discordant.

Countless silver threads darted through the darkness, appearing and disappearing, as if electric snakes dancing in thunderclouds. But the number of those silver threads was a hundred times denser than lightning in the sky, each one entangling the shadow, like a white spiderweb draped over it. At a glance, the shadow and the silver-white were almost evenly matched.

The people within the shadow thought the shadow and the silver threads were one sovereign, but the youth's appearance seemed quite disturbed by the silver threads, a trace of discordance permeating that sovereign majesty.

With a casual scoop, he caught a thread in his hand, as if pulling a fish from the sea, intending to crush it fiercely, but immediately after, the thread slipped through his fingers like sand; even he could not grasp it.

"Hua..." the youth under the mask sighed, "You and I are the two ends of the fate line; this thread has ultimately tethered us, and in the end, only one can survive. It will be clear soon; who will win?"

"Chih—"

A sneer rang out.

The mouth of the golden mask stretched even wider, the expression far exceeding the limits a human could reach, like a wound spanning the entire lower part, appearing increasingly eerie.

The youth did not smile, but the mask did.

The youth raised a hand and pushed the mask up, revealing his chin.

It was a pitch-black void, without any outline or texture, only a blurred mass of half a face, or something similar to a face.

"Destruction, what are you laughing at?"

"I am laughing at fate..."

The mask emitted a sound on its own, a very hoarse, vicissitudinous, and even tormented voice, as if coming from a throat that had been scorched by fire and slashed dozens of times, leaking air from everywhere.

"You actually speak of fate? Don't you never believe in such things? Furthermore... if you and the Ruyi Sword are tethered by a fate line, then what am I to you?"

"You?" The blurred face also smiled. "What does your fate line have to do with me? You are merely my appendage. We will not have only one survive, but either live together or die together. Or rather, I must live for you to live, and if I die, you must die. So, if you still want to live, you should know which side to stand on."

His words caused the mask's smile to continue expanding: "Oh? Are you actually asking me for help? Wanting me to assist you? Does this mean you also know that your battle with the Ruyi Sword is going to be lost? That's right, she is still a complete Sword Immortal, while you have long been strong on the outside but weak on the inside after all these years of grinding. Although you have the advantage of the terrain in this round, the odds of victory are still not on your side. You have spun a cocoon around yourself, and now you actually have to rely on begging me for help to save your old life? Hahaha, Wangliang, if you want to keep up appearances, you must do it well; don't show your cowardice, or your enemies will tear you to pieces."

Wangliang under the mask sneered: "You fool with a perpetually overheated brain, you only have a mouth left, so shut it. When did I ask you to help me? Just shut up and watch the show quietly, and watch how I pull that woman out of her coffin and kill her again."

"You say I am at the end of my rope, but is that woman in her prime? If she still had her strength from back then, why wouldn't she dare to walk out of Yinglang and face me in a decisive battle? She is the one who is truly strong on the outside but weak on the inside. For so many years, Yinglang has been draining her Sword Essence to operate; for over a hundred years, she has long since dried up. It is even possible that she hasn't fully awakened yet, and might not even be able to crawl out, only having established this bet with me through her consciousness. If I lose this game of chess, I can leave, but if she loses, Yinglang will collapse, and everything will belong to me. She has long since merged with Yinglang; she will surely die without a burial place."

The mask Destruction laughed hoarsely: "It is good that you have confidence, but wanting to retreat unscathed even if you lose—where is the resolve for a decisive battle before the fight? Without the courage to succeed or perish, you cannot defeat your opponent. Let me help you firm up your resolve. If you lose, you will also surely die. I will take action to finish you off. I am not afraid of death; once you show weakness in front of me, I will make you die without a burial place."

Wangliang was silent for a moment, then suddenly sneered: "Your true body has come to find you, hasn't it?"

This time it was the mask's turn to be silent, but its smile remained; the split opening was not so easily repaired.

Wangliang continued: "You have been too active lately, both actively condensing your consciousness and shouting orders? You know what this means. You Righteous and Awe-Inspiring fellows always act as if you are ready to face death, but if death were truly at hand, what kind of changes would there be?"

"I won't pierce your mask; just pretend I don't know. There are some things I know you cannot bring yourself to do, and even thinking about it makes you feel like you've lost the face of your sun. But I can do it; if you cooperate with me, we will naturally have a tacit understanding. Just like we have for these years."

The golden mask laughed twice and said: "Don't try to drag me down with you here. As if we were already in cahoots. All these years we have always been mortal enemies. And Jinwu is of the same origin as me. From the day I suppressed you, I have cast life and death aside. You actually threaten me with life and death?"

Wangliang finally let out a distinct laugh, his throat sounding as if it had been scraped by a knife: "Same origin is same origin; things grown on the same vine are all sweet melons, but a sweet melon soaked in coptis for too long becomes bitter. Not to mention the tacit understanding of lowering the intensity of our confrontation all these years, do you think I don't know about the little tricks you've been playing?"

"Wasn't that Gui Rong supported by you?"

The golden mask grinned; this matter was not hidden, and he had not particularly expected to keep it from Wangliang.

"You took a fancy to that boy's talent and his hatred for Wangliang Mountain, wanting to cultivate him, so you helped him comprehend a death Sword Intent similar to Destruction, and even pushed him to become a Sword Hero, and even protected him from the Abyss Envoy in my name, letting him become an envoy of Wangliang Mountain, hoping that with both strength and power, he would act recklessly within Wangliang Mountain and greatly weaken the internal forces of Wangliang Mountain."

"But you didn't expect that for the sake of longevity, he turned around and got together with a few manor lords; those people who should have hated and killed each other instead formed a force to maintain order. You hated him so much you gritted your teeth, wanting to kill him several times, but in the end, you didn't. It clearly wasn't difficult for you, so why?"

"Perhaps it was because you saw the word 'longevity' and had ideas? Although you look down on the few decades or a hundred years of a Mortal's life, you wanted to keep him to see if he was of any use to you, in case they researched a method for eternal life. Once you have such thoughts, you are no different from anyone else."

"Chih."

Another sneer: "It is you, after all, who always uses that set of thoughts to speculate about others. I only ask you, who killed your lackeys? Was keeping him useful or not?"

"It was just a coincidence."

"It was not a coincidence. I knew they would take action long ago. Because this is not a world where everyone can live well. It is too barren, too chaotic, and too oppressive. If you want anything more, you can only go and snatch it from others. When a new force takes the stage, it must fiercely trample on the old force; that is how countless killings come about. It's just that Gui Rong did it especially well, and then he died himself, which was also very cooperative."

Wangliang's voice said coldly: "Now you can say whatever you want, of course. You have had no shortage of these little tricks for so many years. If I were to point them out one by one, you would naturally have excuses to quibble. But there is one point: you often used my name, which is to say, you shared my power."

The mask truly fell silent.

"It's not just you; what about the Ruyi Sword? She secretly brought out the remnant souls of her subordinates from deep within Yinglang to be reborn in the name of the Abyss Envoy, and she still relied on my power. You, and that woman, you all borrowed my name, dipped your fingers into my power, and drove my people. You naturally feel this is very convenient, but gradually you have become inseparable from me. For these years, the three of us have been in deep sleep for long periods, and we are rarely awake at the same time. Whoever is slightly awake issues orders in the name of Wangliang; the so-called Wangliang of the outside world actually refers to the three of us. We have long been one, inseparable."

Amidst a strange laughter, Wangliang continued: "That stupid woman always thinks she controls Yinglang and can stand against me, and now she even uses Yinglang as a bargaining chip to challenge me and divide my Sword Momentum. She doesn't stop to think what Yinglang is; it is merely a part of the order of Wangliang Mountain, a tool to rule the three tiers. Without Wangliang Mountain, what is the meaning of a tool? Those threads entangling the shadow are like dodder entangling a tall tree. Sometimes the dodder might strangle the tree. But when the tree falls, the dodder can only wither. When we decide the winner, she will know that even if she wins, it will be of no avail. I wonder if she can even walk independently?"

"She still retains a complete body and is already like this, let alone you who are only left with a mask? You, like the so-called Long Robe and High Crown, are just an accessory of mine. Of course, when you return to the Jinwu Sword, you are just a part of the composition. Although you are both appendages, at least you can speak here with me, saying whatever you want."

After he finished saying these words, there was a period of silence without hearing Destruction's reply. He stretched like a human and said: "Alright, my interest has passed. Now let's end the boring preliminary round and let the surviving chess pieces come out. I should play chess with my opponent."

"Are you ready? Hua Yaozhi?"