Chapter 738: Disappearance

Right, it's Wei Se!

He had been wondering what he had forgotten; thanks to the prompt on his Glasses and the name of Wei Se, he hurriedly used the Celestial State to dispel his Sword Technique, only then recovering this segment of memory.

That's right, he had previously sent Wei Se to contact the Gaoyuan Marquis, and the two had a way to maintain contact; logically, they should have been in daily communication.

It was just that Tang Zhao hadn't contacted Wei Se these past few days, and Wei Se hadn't contacted him either.

He didn't contact Wei Se because he had forgotten the person; since the other party was in a state of Disappearance, it was natural that he couldn't recall him.

But why didn't Wei Se contact him? He couldn't have forgotten about himself, could he?

Unless...

"Oh no!"

Tang Zhao's expression turned ugly, and he slapped his thigh. "I've ruined everything!"

Xing Ji, who had just relaxed slightly after making up his mind, felt his heart tighten and hurriedly asked, "How is it ruined? Who ruined everything?"

He thought that if Tang Zhao said it was ruined, the situation must be dire indeed.

Tang Zhao smiled bitterly, pointed at himself, and said, "Me, I ruined everything myself!"

He shouldn't have given the Vanishing Sword to Wei Se.

Xing Ji said the Gaoyuan Marquis had only sent her final message last night; calculating the time, Wei Se had set off several days ago and should have found the Gaoyuan Marquis long ago. If there was enough time, according to the agreement between Tang Zhao and Wei Se, he would not have left once he reached the Gaoyuan Marquis's tent, remaining by the Marquis's side to take orders and acting as a bridge for communication between the two sides.

If that were the case, then in the end, he should have been by the Gaoyuan Marquis's side. The Gaoyuan Marquis's final message should not have been sent to Yunzhou, but to Tang Zhao.

Which was more important: the final message sent to Yunzhou or the one sent to Tang Zhao?

Tang Zhao could now confidently say that sending it to Tang Zhao was more important.

Sending it to Yunzhou could only settle affairs after death, but sending it to Tang Zhao might have been enough to turn the tide!

The message the Gaoyuan Marquis sent to Yunzhou was very conservative, almost completely abandoning any intent to save herself from her predicament. Not only that, but she didn't even reveal much information, because in her view, her disappearance or disaster was a foregone conclusion. Since Yunzhou knew, it couldn't be hidden from everyone; the more people who knew, the more chaotic the public heart would become, and the more trouble would arise. Thus, she could only prioritize stabilizing the overall situation and adopt the most conservative strategy. If this message had been sent to Tang Zhao personally from the start, there could actually have been more flexible ways to handle it. Even if it were to settle affairs after death, she should have waited for Tang Zhao to take over before slowly announcing the Gaoyuan Marquis's situation.

Then why didn't she send a message to Tang Zhao?

The answer was most likely: she forgot.

It was just that absurd.

It wasn't that the Gaoyuan Marquis lacked intelligence, but that the Vanishing Sword Technique had made her forget Wei Se. She was merely a strong individual among ordinary Sword Heroes and could not at all be immune to the encroachment of the Vanishing Sword Technique, so in her moment of crisis, she couldn't find a way to contact Tang Zhao.

Anli Suo, after Wei Se contacted the Gaoyuan Marquis, he should have entered a standby state, just like a normal person; he shouldn't have maintained the state of Disappearance, as disappearing from time to time greatly affected his work.

But at such a critical moment, Wei Se happened to be disappearing; there were two possibilities.

One possibility was that Wei Se never found the Gaoyuan Marquis, was exposed halfway, and died while maintaining the state of Disappearance. If that were the case, Tang Zhao would truly be powerless and might not even be able to collect his remains. Tang Zhao always felt it wouldn't come to that and didn't want to consider this possibility.

There was another possibility—when the Gaoyuan Marquis encountered danger, Wei Se was by her side and was drawn into the danger.

A danger capable of interfering with the Gaoyuan Marquis must have been extraordinary. Wei Se had just become a Sword Guest; how could he resist? To preserve his life, he could only use the safest method in a moment of crisis—Disappearance. Once he disappeared, the Gaoyuan Marquis fell into information isolation and could only activate the backup plan in Yunzhou.

This was also unavoidable. If Wei Se died, the Gaoyuan Marquis still wouldn't have been able to contact Tang Zhao; the situation wouldn't have changed. If one had to blame someone, blame Tang Zhao's initial choice, letting Wei Se take the Vanishing Sword and taking the Fox-Doubt for himself. If Wei Se had taken the Fox-Doubt...

Then it might have been the Gaoyuan Marquis who forgot Tang Zhao.

Well, that might have been even worse than now, as the Gaoyuan Marquis wouldn't have known who to entrust Yunzhou to in the end.

This Disappearance was indeed useful, providing absolute safety, and one wanted to keep using it once they started, but sometimes it really did ruin things.

"If my guess is correct, Wei Se witnessed the situation when the Marquis left, so finding him means finding the most crucial clue. But there is one point: if he were fine, why wouldn't he contact me afterward? It's already been a day; he would have sent a message if he could. It's very likely he also encountered difficulties, perhaps..."

Tang Zhao was filled with worry; one disaster after another, how distressing this situation was!

Xing Ji thought for a moment and said, "Regardless, we must find him first. I will go find him." As he spoke, he drew his sword.

Tang Zhao saw it was the Pi Gan Jian and said in astonishment, "You intend to rely on luck to teleport over again? Why are you so confident?"

One had to know that when Xing Ji came to find Tang Zhao, he had teleported thousands of times until he vomited, only then luckily appearing by Tang Zhao's side. Would he have to teleport thousands of times again to find Wei Se?

Perhaps tens of thousands of times. Perhaps he wouldn't make it for years.

Xing Ji said irritably, "I didn't realize that in your eyes, I was a hot-headed fool. It's a pity I thought you at least admired me back then. If you considered me a normal person for even a moment, would I be teleporting randomly?"

He reached out and held a pouch.

"It's the Lucky Pouch!"

Tang Zhao suddenly realized; he had given this pouch to Xing Ji, having specifically begged his Senior Sister for it back then to increase a person's luck. This pouch was truly useful.

So you weren't teleporting randomly, but teleporting randomly with a buff.

I was just saying, not knowing where the target is and relying entirely on luck to teleport to a specific person—to be able to arrive after thousands of attempts, one would have to be at the level of a Child of Destiny, right?

Tang Zhao shook his head and said, "That won't be necessary. I have a special way to contact Wei Se. Even if I can't teleport directly, I can obtain his coordinates."

Xing Ji said, "You can try first, but I don't think it will go that smoothly."

Tang Zhao was somewhat puzzled; why would Xing Ji have such a thought? Could he know some information that he didn't?

But his attitude made Tang Zhao cautious, and he hurriedly took out the Contact Mirror to make contact.

The calling signal was sent out, turning into ripples cast into water.

The stone sank into the sea, with no news at all.

"How can this be?"

Tang Zhao flipped the mirror over, revealing a red button, and pressed it down firmly.

Red patterns spread rapidly from the button to the edges, intersecting into a complex map-like image. Rich Qi flowed along the lines.

This surge of Qi was so immense that even Xing Ji felt surprised; this kind of instantaneous explosive power even made him feel that he was inferior to a Dharma Artifact.

However, after the explosion, the Qi lingered for a long time, but only countless patterns lit up, and nothing else changed.

Tang Zhao's expression changed slightly. He stared at the Dharma Artifact, and after a while, he looked up and said, "How is this possible? This Paging Artifact of mine is very... very powerful. Not to mention a few thousand or ten thousand miles, even if he dove into the Qianxian, or even the Tianwaitian of the Sword Immortals, I should at least be able to sense his direction? How could it be..."

No, no, even if Wei Se really met with an accident, the Paging Artifact by his side should still be there, unless there were no remains left...

Tang Zhao was extremely anxious; he hadn't felt this sense of everything being out of his control for a long time.

He suddenly remembered something and said, "But why were you able to guess it? Could it be..."

Xing Ji nodded slowly and said, "I could guess it because Wei Se might have been caught in the wake of the Marquis's power. Regardless of whether it was the Marquis's intent, if Wei Se was too close, he couldn't have avoided it. He isn't dead; he is still somewhere. You can't find him, and he can't find you, because this isn't a matter of distance."

Tang Zhao felt a chill; the methods of the Gaoyuan Marquis, the techniques she would use in the end, that might be...

Time!

Wei Se had reached the other end of time, a chasm that was absolutely impossible to cross!

When Tang Zhao first encountered the mystery of time, he had wanted to Ask the Gaoyuan Marquis, because he knew the Gaoyuan Marquis could see through time; that was a very rare power involving time.

However...

"Can the Marquis see through time, and can she disturb time?"

That was not the same level of power, just as his own teleportation and spatial displacement were completely different realms. If the Gaoyuan Marquis could do that, she might not be inferior to those Sword Immortals.

Xing Ji could no longer hide his sorrow. He said in a low voice, "She can, but it requires paying a great price. The Marquis's lifespan was already..."

For the Gaoyuan Marquis, time must be exchanged for time, and it was not an equal exchange; it required paying much, much more time. The Gaoyuan Marquis looked much older than the Sword Heroes of her age, and that was the reason.

He looked at Tang Zhao and said, "So in the end, the Marquis no longer considered herself; perhaps she felt that her remaining lifespan was not worth doing anything more with."

Perhaps there was a reason the Gaoyuan Marquis gave up on herself, or perhaps she truly could not hold on for much longer, but as long as she still had a breath left, Tang Zhao and the others would not give up searching.

Not to mention personal feelings, but speaking of official matters, if the Gaoyuan Marquis could return alive, even if she only stayed in Yunzhou for one day and gave a few instructions in person, how much less turmoil would there be in the handover of Yunzhou?

Tang Zhao said, "Since it is a time displacement, is the Marquis also hidden on the other side of time?"

Xing Ji shook his head and said, "It doesn't seem so. The meaning of the Marquis's order should be that she is trapped in a difficult situation. If she had only switched to a different time, she would be able to undo the time transformation herself and return. Since she cannot return, it means she is not in control of her own actions and has fallen into the hands of an enemy."

Tang Zhao sighed and said, "Since I cannot find Wei Se, if he did not go to the past, he must have gone to the future."

It is a simple logic: if Wei Se's timeline is moving forward, then he could immediately go to find the Tang Zhao of this time. Even if there was also a Wei Se beside Tang Zhao at that time, Wei Se probably did not know about the grandfather paradox, and even if he were wary of another version of himself, he could still find time to see Tang Zhao and explain the situation. With the facts present, Tang Zhao would believe him.

Since he has never come, it means there is no Wei Se at this point in time for Tang Zhao, so he can only be in the future.

"Then how do we find him? Do we wait for time to pass? What if it is not a day or two, but a year or two... wouldn't that delay things? But only the Marquis can disturb time; we are powerless."

Xing Ji sighed and said, "Although I do not want to activate it, you actually have a way. I personally gave this key to you; do you remember?"