Chapter 83: 80 Luck (Bonus for 500 Favorites)

80 Luck (Bonus for 500 Favorites)

Tang Zhao had already been startled awake by the ringing of bells in his sleep, and upon hearing "The Wangliang are here," it was as if cold water had been poured over his head; he sat up on the bed in an instant.

Before he could panic, the first thought that popped into his mind was: Good luck? Just this?

Looking out the window, the night was deep and dark, so pitch-black he couldn't see his own fingers; where could he see any "Wangliang"?

But the bursts of bell ringing outside, each sound urgent, rang out in his ears, reminding him that the crisis was imminent. Amidst the bell ringing, there was also the "hoo-hoo" hooting of an owl.

Tang Zhao jumped off the bed, drew his Dharma Artifact, and ran to the living room. The living room was brightly lit; the ceiling and all four walls were covered in lamps. As Tang Zhao entered the living room, he felt only a blinding whiteness before his eyes, without even a trace of a shadow. Xue Jiejie was draped in a long robe, standing at the door in her boots, her face a mix of anxiety and anger:

"What are the people at the Land Inspection Division doing? Letting a Wangliang run all the way here! Pear Blossom Sword, you damn woman, you've killed me!"

Tang Zhao was stunned and said, "Pear Blossom Sword? Is she..."

Xue Jiejie said angrily, "That dead woman took all my evil-breaking Art Tools with her. If she had left a few behind, how would we be trapped here? Tell me, do you think she did it on purpose?"

Tang Zhao suddenly realized; it was that woman who had been talking to Xue Jiejie. The sword title Pear Blossom Sword... had he heard it somewhere before? He said, "Is she also from the Land Inspection Division? She wouldn't intentionally harm people, would she? Where is the Wangliang?"

Xue Jiejie said, "I don't know, I only heard the bell ringing too. The essence of a Wangliang is a shadow, and where at night is there not a shadow? The earth is all shadow, so the Wangliang could be lurking anywhere. Don't leave the range of the lamplight; as long as a single shadow is created, you could be invaded by the Wangliang and dragged into the Yingyuan. The only plan now is to stay in the lamplight for the night. It will be fine once the sun comes out tomorrow."

Tang Zhao took out his Glasses and looked out the window, wanting to see if there were any prompts. Unexpectedly, the lenses only popped up prompts for the various Art Tools in the room from time to time; the various Art Tools were dazzling, but there was no prompt for the Wangliang. He didn't know if the Wangliang didn't trigger the Glasses' prompts or if it was too far away for the Glasses to capture.

Xue Jiejie, of course, couldn't see the Wangliang either, but she still looked out the window anxiously and said, "It's everywhere. You see, our lamps here don't have any blind spots, right?"

Tang Zhao checked carefully and said, "None. Is there no way to directly harm it?"

He had previously used the Lihuo Sword to create light, disperse shadows, and protect himself and the others from the Wangliang, but it seemed it hadn't harmed the Wangliang itself. Therefore, before the Judge arrived, he was helpless, only defending and not attacking.

Xue Jiejie said, "One thing subdues another; shadows cannot be destroyed, but the Wangliang also carries the trait of an evil spirit. You meet the move with a counter-move, and evil-breaking Rune Formulas are all useful. That woman searched me from top to bottom and took everything that was even remotely relevant. She said she was going to deal with the Wangliang, she... deal with my foot!" Under the crisis, she also became irritable, clearly very nervous.

Tang Zhao hummed, thinking: Can the sun be considered the nemesis of shadows? Can sunlight be considered the nemesis of evil spirits? Should he try it?

Actually, he felt there was a certain possibility, but the flaw was that the sword from the Simulated Holding Manual was not as long-lasting as directly holding a Dharma Artifact. At that time, the consumption would be high, and if he couldn't destroy it, he would instead weaken his own layer of protection.

Was he really to be trapped in a lonely city?

Just then, the ground began to vibrate slightly.

First it was a slight tremor, and then the vibration grew larger and larger, making "bang, bang" sounds, as if a mountain had grown legs and was walking over step by step.

The surrounding lamplight swayed from the tremors, as if announcing that their lives were also hanging by a thread.

Xue Jiejie said urgently, "Quick, steady the lamps; no matter what, they cannot go out. Listen to me, if the worst happens..."

Tang Zhao cut her off and said, "If the worst happens, you hide behind me." Having said that, the Lihuo Sword in his hand burned fiercely, like a torch.

Xue Jiejie was startled, felt the heat of the fire, and her heart gradually calmed down, saying, "Okay."

The ground vibration grew larger and larger, the bang-bang sounds grew louder—that thing was getting closer and closer.

Clearly there was sound, but it seemed the vibration was coming from all directions, making it impossible to judge the direction of the attack.

Tang Zhao asked, "Xue Jiejie, which direction do you think it's coming from?"

Xue Jiejie shook her head and said, "That can only be guessed."

Tang Zhao thought: Guess? That means relying on luck; is my luck pretty good right now?

He asked again, "If my Spirit is over-consumed, is there any tonic I can eat to recover immediately?"

Xue Jiejie said, "Where would there be such medicine? Didn't you also faint once before from over-consumption? If there were such medicine, I would have given it to you then."

Tang Zhao gave an awkward smile and said, "I forgot."

This was troublesome. He had wanted to gamble on his luck and use a big move from the Yanggu Sword technique in the likely direction to land a fierce blow, which would definitely exceed the Vermilion Bird fire of the Dharma Artifact and might be able to solve it once and for all. But then he couldn't go all-in; he still had to keep a final line of defense to ignite the flame and protect their lives.

One person was still too strained. Although Xue Jiejie had skills, she was an "Art Sect" member; without weapons, it was hard for her to be effective. He needed someone to help him cover the bottom...

"Listen up, people inside—" Suddenly, someone shouted in the dark night: "Stay inside and don't move, keep the lamps lit, don't worry about the movement outside, keep the lamps lit!"

Xue Jiejie's spirits lifted, and she shouted, "Who is it? Is it the Lan—"

Tang Zhao had already recognized the voice and shouted, "Is that you, Judge?"

The Judge's voice said, "Eh? It's you kid? It's good that you're here; you have to listen to me, right? Don't be afraid, hold the lamplight to protect yourself and the people around you."

Tang Zhao's heart settled quite a bit, and he said, "Okay, do you need help?"

The Judge said, "You? Forget it. You just have good eyes. Can good eyes see a Wangliang?"

Tang Zhao said helplessly, "No. Then I will..."

Suddenly, his heart stirred, and feeling a sudden impulse, he abruptly pushed open a window. The flame of the sword in his hand surged, and a golden ray of light flew out—

Half the sky was illuminated with a boom, and everything within hundreds of feet was revealed in minute detail. In the ray of light, a pitch-black shadow retreated as if startled.

It pushed back and suddenly hit a wall with a bang. It turned out that a glowing wall had been erected behind it long ago; light flickered on the wall, as if countless fireflies were dancing.

Tang Zhao leaned out to look and saw many such high walls erected on the surrounding open ground, one here and one there, wrapping the hundred-foot radius like a maze. The points of light were like brilliant starlight, clearly constructing a formation to slowly surround the Wangliang.

The Judge stood on a high wall, the sword in his hand gleaming, his black and white Mask as striking as ever, and said, "That was beautiful! How did you see it?"

Tang Zhao said truthfully, "Blind luck. Just now I felt it was there; my luck is very good today."

The Judge said, "Is that so? Then even the immortals are helpless. But your sword can indeed block the Wangliang. If your legs are good, come out. Help fill the gaps on the side, and let's surround the Wangliang together."

Tang Zhao said, "Okay, don't we need to add a lid on top?"

The Judge said, "No need, no matter how high a Wangliang jumps, a bit of it must be stuck to the ground; it can't fly."

Tang Zhao made up his mind, turned back to Xue Jiejie and said, "Don't be afraid, don't let the lamp go out. I'll be right back." He pushed open the window, kicked off the ground, and with the boost of the Dharma Artifact, used Zhamang Zongyue, jumping onto the nearest glowing wall in one go.

Xue Jiejie watched him go out the window and said softly, "Do I need you to remind me whether I'm afraid or not?"

Tang Zhao stood on the wall and felt that although the ground beneath his feet was transparent, the texture was very solid, almost no different from a brick wall. The distance between the walls was not far, and as long as one looked carefully, jumping back and forth was very easy.

He kept releasing light flames. But there was no longer that flash of inspiration-like impulse from before; most of the Sword Art he released missed, so he just acted as part of the atmosphere.

It was just that, firstly, the range illuminated by the light flames was already large, and secondly, he didn't use the Simulated Holding; this was just the Lihuo Sword, so the consumption wasn't high. He released them continuously, and there were times when he guessed right. Plus, the Judge also seemed to have unique identification techniques, occasionally releasing glowing walls to precisely intercept the Wangliang's path, and the two of them slowly shrank the range smaller and smaller.

Finally, Tang Zhao's last golden flame swept across, and a mass of shadow in the air shrank, intercepted exactly by the high wall that descended from the sky.

The maze, the loop was closed!

The two of them were overjoyed and gave each other a high-five in the air with tacit understanding.

The surrounding glowing walls had hazy light, illuminating a mass of shadow in the center. Tang Zhao wondered, "Is this the Wangliang? Isn't it a bit small?"

It was a pity he had just felt the earth shaking and the mountains swaying, as if Wangliang were everywhere in all directions. Only upon seeing its true form now did he realize this Wangliang was much smaller than the first one he had seen, probably not even a tenth of its size.

The Judge snorted, "It has always been this size. Did you think I had done nothing today? I had already dealt with more than half of that big fellow earlier, and I was supposed to finish cleaning it up at the end. Somehow, this mass of Shadow suddenly split off from the main body, as if it had gained consciousness; it hid here and there, and finally slipped away under the cover of night. It took me a great deal of effort to track it down."

Tang Zhao took out his Glasses and put them on, scrutinizing the Wangliang to see if he could obtain any information at such close range.

"Sword Deity: Mid-tier (Avatar)"

Sword Deity?

What kind of thing is this?

Is it also an item related to the sword? There isn't even a column for this in the Sword Manual!

Just how many more inexplicable terms are there?

At this moment, the Judge took out a jar the size of a vegetable crock, placed it on the wall, and said, "This thing is strange; it is a living creature yet not a living creature, and it seems to have consciousness, yet its essence is still a shadow. Therefore, it can be stored by the Sumero Time Jar—"

Before the words had even faded, a vortex appeared at the mouth of the jar with powerful suction; the mass of shadow twitched incessantly, and from time to time, tiny specks of shadow drifted up and fell into the vortex.

"This avatar is mainly shadow, so the shadow can be sucked away, leaving at most a few dregs of spirituality, which can be cleaned up easily. I tried it, and this method of disposal is the simplest."

At this time, the Judge's state relaxed, and he explained to Tang Zhao while leaning casually against the wall.

Tang Zhao examined the vegetable crock and said, "Sumero storage, is this Ping Xiansheng's Dharma Artifact? Is he alright? Have you already rescued him?"

The Judge said, "He's fine. Actually, this old man is too cautious; he always hopes to come out unscathed and is unwilling to use his trump card powers. Otherwise, it's not as if he had no way to handle it himself. Now that he's made it so I have to come personally to save him, he doesn't even feel ashamed. You two have a good relationship?"

Tang Zhao said, "Yes, we have spent these past few days pleasantly, and he has given me much guidance."

The Judge said, "That's good. Although his situation is a bit dire for the moment, he is a Sword Hero after all, and he has real substance in his belly. You have benefited quite a bit from this trip."

Tang Zhao said, "I still have to thank Lord Xing for the introduction."

The Judge laughed twice, then suddenly stopped abruptly and said, "You remembered wrong, didn't you? It was I who gave it to you."

Tang Zhao laughed and said, "That's right, aren't you Lord Xing?"

80 Luck (Bonus chapter for 500 favorites)