Chapter 839: Detection

When everyone else had lost their light and could see nothing, and even the Sword Saints were considering whether to unleash their rules and domains to forcibly break through the god's rules of this place, Tang Zhao had never lost his vision.

Because ever since he entered the dark tower, he had already put on his Glasses.

After two months of collection, the current Glasses, having fused one by one with the previous Fragments—especially after becoming one with the Holy Spring—were completely different; to say they had upgraded from bird guns to cannons would be an understatement. In fact, even he himself had yet to explore all the functions of the Glasses, but based on the few experiments he had conducted so far, they could be described as unfathomable.

This was what gave him a sense of achievement: his two months of hard work had not been in vain after all.

It was just that the current Glasses were not yet complete; they were still missing the very last bit. Through analysis, Tang Zhao had already understood where that last missing piece was.

That was the Fairy Sister.

Without the Fairy Sister, these Glasses were ultimately just a "vessel," still lacking a bit of Soul. At the time, the Fairy had jumped into the rift, and he did not know if she had completely perished, drifted to the Lingjie, or even fallen into the world rift—that is, the Void. Perhaps he would need to exhaust every method to find the Fairy again, or perhaps she could never be brought back, and he would only be able to start from scratch and cultivate another, just like seeing Jinwu Dianxia again after many days.

If it were truly as Gong Yubai had said, that this was the sword of the Overlord from back then, he was afraid he would really have to go through the cultivation process of a Sword Deity once more. Once bitten, twice shy; he could practically become an expert in Sword Deity maintenance now.

But regardless, even if he could not find the Fairy Sister in the remaining time, the current Glasses were enough. He had truly mastered the existing authority of the Glasses, and he had also mastered the Sword Manual.

He guessed that the Sword Manual should be the Sword Image... of the Overlord from back then.

Yes, the Overlord should have had more than just one Sword Image; this was the exclusive information Tang Zhao had received.

Back then, the Overlord had already reached the level of doing as he pleased, creating Sword Images at will, each with marvelous uses exceeding those of ordinary Sword Images. Now that only one remained, it was already very useful.

Tang Zhao already had a comprehensive plan. Since he had returned, he would not be going back out for the time being. The remaining month would just be for perfecting his plan and improving things that needed to be improved. For example, Changle's sword.

Changle thought that Tang Zhao had given up the chance to compete with him for the sacrifice because he knew he couldn't surpass him, but that was a huge mistake. Ever since Changle's sword was logged into the Sword Manual, it was impossible for Tang Zhao to be inferior to him.

However, there was no need to let Changle know this; let him keep a little bit of happiness.

Currently, Tang Zhao's formal realm was still Sword Immortal, but he had the quasi-complete version of the Glasses, and his strength and confidence were completely different from before, so he would act more confidently and even a bit more recklessly; this was also the reason he dared to openly court danger today.

Except for himself, no one knew his strength.

Previously, the Dry Sword had asked the Kun Sword if he was sure about Tang Zhao's strength. The reason the Kun Sword nodded was not because he was so clear about Tang Zhao's strength, but out of trust: when Tang Zhao returned earlier, his first stop was to find the Kun Sword, and although he hadn't explained it in such detail, he had displayed a very confident appearance. The Kun Sword thought that Tang Zhao was a humble and cautious person, and since he was so confident now, his strength must be reliable, so he would just believe him. When the Dry Sword saw that the Kun Sword believed him so much, he believed him too.

Of course, the reason Jianshan dared to let Tang Zhao take the risk was that they had more confidence in a series of arrangements they had already made. To say it was seamless might be an exaggeration, but it was certainly safe and reliable. This key was also within Tang Zhao's grasp. What everyone trusted most about Tang Zhao was not his strength to rise up and resist the evil god, but his strength to trigger the arrangements at the critical moment and not let himself fall into a desperate situation.

What they thought was: call for help, remember to call for help at the critical moment.

As for Tang Zhao's own thoughts, they were different.

He had put on the Glasses as soon as he entered, and with a slight movement of his mind, a clear world had already appeared in his eyes. As for the god's rules that did not allow light, that was nothing to the Glasses. The Glasses were independent of those rules; that was no empty boast.

Along the way, he had been observing this staircase. It should be said that for the height of a dozen or so floors from bottom to top, the staircase was completely normal, just very narrow and dark, much like the spiral stairs in those pagodas, seemingly meant for believers to temper their bodies.

But by the twentieth floor or so, the situation changed all of a sudden. On both sides of the steps, in the nooks and crannies, one could gradually see traces of Luse. That Luse was very fine, finer and more delicate than the moss of early Spring, and let alone in such a dark place, it would be easy to overlook even in Sunlight. Walking further up, the Luse gradually became more abundant and grew thicker; although it was still huddled in the corners, it had changed from cow-hair moss into tufts of fuzzy grass. Although still inconspicuous, if one looked down, one could see it at a glance. If there were light.

Walking further up, the small grass intertwined into bushes and meadows, gradually extending outward from the corners. Later on, the Luse had covered the entire staircase; the steps they were treading on were all green, already padded with a layer of mysterious substance.

In a sense, they had already stepped into the encirclement of the Luse substance.

But including the Sword Saints and Sword Immortals, no one noticed anything unusual. Not only did they not notice that the staircase under their feet had changed its material, but no one even noticed that the object they were supposed to be guarding against was right under their noses. Although the other party truly did not reveal any extra aura, it at least showed that it wanted to hide, and even a Sword Saint could not easily detect it.

"Detect." With a thought, without needing to speak, the Glasses had already begun to automatically refresh the screen.

The target was very clear; locking onto the green carpet below, the Glasses soon displayed a line of text:

"Life, unknown."

Although it was labeled with the word "unknown," Tang Zhao knew that this was not the end. The current Glasses were not what they used to be; they would not just search a database that he didn't know where it was loaded from. Instead, they would apply more analysis—or rather, after Tang Zhao set his intentions, the Glasses could execute his requirements and begin to analyze.

"Analysis: Plant similarity: 65%. Fungi similarity: 77%, Animal similarity: 54%, completely unknown composition: 23%..."

It was very similar to plants, animals, fungi... all of them? It seemed Chen Zong had said that the genes of living things were mostly the same... wait, he couldn't do genetic analysis yet, right? Mainly because Tang Zhao's shallow knowledge couldn't establish a method or program for genetic testing, so the Glasses couldn't learn it. Now, the Glasses were merely saying it was similar to too many things based on various characteristics, and there was still a portion that was completely unknown, looking like nothing at all.

"Vitality detection: low. Energy detection: manifest energy, low. Potential energy, detecting..."

"Background detection."

"Switching to background detection. Fluidity: low. Rule detection: exists. Starting rule verification..."

Hmm?

Tang Zhao felt a slight chill: did rules really exist here?

Of course, rules existed in all things, but most matter, whether living or non-living, was just obeying the rules. Those rules were separate and invisible to them. Only when rules were truly gathered into form and combined with matter, and the matter could even operate or command the rules, could such rules be detected.

In other words, if the Glasses were used to check a Sword Guest, they shouldn't be able to detect rules, but for powerhouses above the Sword Immortal level, they could. Tang Zhao had actually tried to detect them, and from another angle, he had glimpsed the rules of the Sword Saint Emperors. Additionally, detecting a sufficiently powerful Tianmo Jishi could also detect rules, yet those rules were incomplete, borrowed, and would eventually be marked as "Fragment" on the Glasses. Therefore, from the perspective of the Glasses, Tianmo powerhouses were far inferior to Human powerhouses.

"Is it a fire-prohibition rule?"

"Detection rule: Regeneration. Completeness: high. Status: normal."

"Detection rule: Spread. Completeness: high. Status: normal."

"Detection rule: Luse. Completeness: high. Status: normal."

"Detection rule: Consumption. Completeness: high. Status: normal."

"..."

Rule after rule was detected, practically flooding the screen. And they were all normal rules. That is, they were operating normally. One had to know that if a Sword Immortal did not release their own rules, the detection result would be: passive. And if they normally released their rules and domains, maintaining operation, then it was normal. If they were using rule domains to fight and performing high-intensity expansion, the detection result would be "active."

These categories were all set by Tang Zhao; he built the framework, the Glasses could understand his meaning, and the detection was very precise.

Now this monster had so many rules, and they were all normal, meaning that although it hadn't made a move, it could make a move at any time. Tang Zhao, as well as the visiting Sword Immortals and Sword Saints, were truly within its hunting range.

However...

Why were there so many rules?

Although rules were very high-end things, it didn't necessarily mean the more the better; when rules of the same object gathered too much, they easily rubbed against each other and conflicted. Moreover, "spread" and "green" were very simple functions that ordinary plants could naturally perform; why generate rules for them, as if they couldn't move without rules...

Hmm?

Could it be?

Tang Zhao's heart stirred, and he thought of an answer:

Could it be that this was actually a creation?

The evil god's body form was mixed, and its way of acting was piled up by rules; didn't this look like some kind of artificial creation? Gathering the materials at hand, kneading them into something that was neither fish nor fowl, and then extravagantly piling it full of various rules to drive it, ultimately forging it into some kind of terrifying existence.

If that were really the case... then that would be a huge trouble.

Wouldn't that mean there was still a mastermind behind the scenes?

Tang Zhao felt a bit annoyed. This was a trap within a trap, layers within layers, like a thousand-layer cake. Even though he had already poked through the window paper and everything seemed clear, there were new doubts. Could it be that he hadn't reached the truth even at this step, and still had to grope in the fog for a longer time? Natural things were troublesome enough, and now he had to deal with man-made things too?

Looking on the bright side, even if it is a creation, perhaps the Master is already dead? If an evil god loses its Master, wouldn't it be even more prone to Chaos and evil?

As he pondered in this desultory fashion, lines of large characters suddenly flew across his Glasses, reminding him like a slogan.

His mind steadied, and he said inwardly: It's here!