Chapter 862: Choice

Tang Zhao could swear that he absolutely had not intended to use a black hole for defense.

After becoming a Sword Immortal, his "Tiantai" had undergone many expansions. Originally, the intermittent adoption of extracting properties from Tiantai could only be condensed onto his own body, but now he could make it more concrete; of course, certain moves would be more abstract. To have substance when substance is needed, and to have concepts when concepts are needed—this is what makes for a good Sword Technique. Whether concrete or abstract, Tiantai was a fist-based Sword Technique he had spent much effort on, and it was also a Sword Technique still in the experimental stage.

This Sword Technique that generates black holes had never faced an enemy since its birth. With a rare opportunity today, Tang Zhao set it out to experiment with it. He was currently just setting the black hole out first, not yet having adjusted it according to his needs; he was merely using the Dazai's hand to test the various aspects of the black hole as an applied Sword Technique, such as attacking, defending, absorbing light, distorting space, and even the legendary time stasis or even reversal...

However, he had not yet wanted to directly attempt the black hole explosion part.

After all, a black hole is not easy to create. This one was not made on the spot; it was pinched out bit by bit from accumulated mass, usually hidden within his sword Momentum. Such a powerful Tiantai is hard to assemble on the spot—perhaps he could do it in the future, creating and destroying stars with a wave of his hand; that was the realm he yearned for, but he could not do it yet. Especially for a Tiantai of the black hole level, he still had to honestly accumulate it in advance, and release it during battle; it was a bit like the prerequisite for Changjie Sword Technique.

Unexpectedly, the strength of his opponent had indeed reached a startling level. The Dazai's power also seemed to be accumulated; so many phantoms of living beings were also things he usually raised, and when it came time to fight, he released them all at once. Like Tang Zhao, he traded time for power, both instantly breaking through the upper limit of power that should be used in a battle of the same level.

Consequently, the black hole was actually beaten until it exploded.

And then, the black hole really did explode.

This black hole was not a mimicry like ordinary Sword Images that would disappear once scattered. The mass of the black hole was real, and its properties were as close as possible to the black hole in Tang Zhao's cognition. It could be said that the black hole explosion was not some long-prepared means, but rather it changed into a different form of existence, just as ice will turn into water; it was bound to happen.

It was just that this effect... was unexpectedly strong.

Tang Zhao saw that Martial General Spirit Image torn to shreds at the first moment. Because the time taken was truly too short, Tang Zhao could not even capture the form in which it was torn to shreds. He only saw that the Spirit Image was complete one moment, and completely annihilated the next. Even if there was an intermediate form, he could not be sure if it was just a shadow left behind because his retina had not reacted in time.

As for this Dazai himself, Tang Zhao once again witnessed his "many lives" side. Phantoms of men, women, the old, and the young kept emerging from his body and being torn to shreds, but he himself remained safe and sound. Back then, he had relied on this move to escape alive from under the Jinwu Sword, and now it seemed he could survive for another round.

The Dazai's current state was extremely poor. Although he had relied on substitutes to trade lives and avoid injury later on, that first wave of the storm had truly injured him. He was covered in wounds, his hair was disheveled, and his clothes were torn into rags, as if he had been flayed once.

Of course, just as disheveled as him was the surrounding environment. The black hole had annihilated everything around it equally. The graveyard, which had just been impacted by the explosion of power, was plowed three feet deep. As far as the eye could see, no trace of human work was visible. The gullies and ravines looked as if a Marshal Tianpeng had taken a huge nine-toothed rake and raked the ground randomly; the soil and rocks had all been turned over and crushed into powder. If the previous state was digging up graves, then this could now be considered grinding bones into dust.

Fortunately, the black hole's eruption did not last long. It only erupted with all its destructive power when it was beaten until it exploded. A momentary eruption exhausted its power, and it stopped very quickly, dissipating after leaving behind only a few aftereffects such as spatial fragmentation.

The Dazai only climbed up from the ground after a while. At this time, many of the phantoms of living beings had dissipated, but a portion still survived. The survivors still threw themselves at him one after another to make up for his wounds, and most of the wounds healed quickly. But there were still some wounds that could not be healed; they seemed to be stuck with something that hindered recovery.

Just as the Dazai stood straight, his scalp suddenly felt cold, and blood flowed down with a swish. It turned out that the space above his head had already been distorted; his head had been shredded by a large chunk just by brushing against it. It was fortunate that his reaction was fast enough, otherwise, it would have been his skull that was shaved off this time. Even so, the hair on his head along with his scalp was shaved off in a large layer, and his hairstyle looked very much like a barbarian's.

In fact, he was a veteran of a hundred battles and would never be so reckless under normal circumstances, and his reactions would be faster. But his current situation was truly poor. He had been attacking properly, and victory was in sight the moment before, but in the blink of an eye, without the other person even moving a finger, he had already suffered a crushing defeat. Both his body and Spirit had suffered heavy damage, and he was even somewhat dazed, so how could he notice the various changes around him?

"You..." Before he could utter any angry rebuke, he heard Tang Zhao say: "You old thing are too hateful! My perfectly good black hole was scattered by you, wasting how much of my time? You must compensate me quickly!"

The Dazai was furious, staring fiercely at Tang Zhao, as if he would explode and hurt someone the next moment.

But in his heart, he was not actually that angry. He was not a hot-headed child who could not take a slight. His age was much older than he looked, and he had long been a veteran of a hundred battles, knowing when to advance and when to retreat.

At this moment, he already understood that the young man opposite was indeed an opponent he could not contend with. Although he still had trump cards, the other party clearly also had plenty of strength in reserve. The other party had not even actively used a Sword Technique; it was he himself who went over to poke it and got backlashed. It was evident that if they were to reveal their trump cards to compare sizes, his own chances of winning were definitely not high. What was the point of fighting to the death at this time?

Of course, as a Dazai, he seemed to have an obligation to protect the Imperial Court; after all, the Imperial Palace was behind him. But now, seeing that the Emperor was about to be finished, his own persistence seemed to have little meaning? He was a typical old official, but not a typical loyal subject. Although he was not without loyalty to the Great Wei, if he put it on a scale with his own life, he understood very clearly which side was heavier. In any case, protecting the Emperor was already impossible. If he saw the Crown Prince while escaping, taking him along would not be a waste of his loyalty.

At this instant, he had even thought of where to start over after retreating—he should go to the Liangzhou desert to hide among the barbarians. Anyway, as a powerhouse at the Sword Immortal level, if it weren't for such bad luck that he ran into another Sword Immortal when he went out, where could he not be carefree?

Of course, having decided to retreat, he could not just shout it out and raise an alarm. Instead, he feigned anger, pointed at Tang Zhao, and said: "If it weren't for you taking away my Mountain and River Tablet, how could I be restrained by you? If you want to know my true colors, return the Mountain and River Tablet to me, and let us have a fair fight."

Tang Zhao thought for a moment. It seemed the Gu Kou's Mountain and River Tablet was indeed in his hands. When at Wangliang Mountain, the Dazai had relied on the Mountain and River Tablet to not fall behind compared to a Sword Immortal, but in the end, he retreated steadily, and did not even take the Mountain and River Tablet when he ran. At that time, he was the last survivor of the Battle of Wangliang Mountain, so he naturally took the Mountain and River Tablet. Of course, he had no use for it, nor did he know how to use it, but he would not fall for such a simple provocation, so he said: "You were the one who threw it away back then; it is my spoils of war. Since it was so important, why didn't you look after it back then?"

Just as he said this, a boom was heard, and the palace in the distance, which only had a small section left, shook and completely collapsed. The collapsed area was filled with golden light; that was the brilliant Sunlight. In the Sunlight, a stream of light rose, passed through the blockade of the Sunlight, and shot toward the horizon.

That seemed to be an escape pod.

In the moment Tang Zhao blinked, a slap sound was heard, and the Dazai's body exploded on the spot, also turning into streams of light, and there were several... several dozen streams of light!

It turned out that those dozens of streams of light were all complete human figures, old and young, male and female. Each one was the same as the real person, as if the Dazai had suddenly split into dozens of people. They fled in dozens of different directions, all at an extremely fast speed.

Obviously, this was a trick. Most of these shadows were fake, and only one was real. And among these people, none looked similar to the Dazai, and their aura was exactly the same, so one could only rely on judgment, or rather, on guessing.

Those streams of light shot into the sky, and most of them ran straight in their directions without looking back. Only one, after running far away, made a large circle and came back, moving toward the stream of light that shot out from the main hall.

That stream of light was black, black in a very pure and solemn way, just like a black water flow in a vortex form. In the center of the spiral, there was a young man, his expression dazed, as if he had fallen into some kind of numb stress state.

At this time, a stream of light approached. In that stream of light was an old man. His appearance was originally rough, but the closer he got, the more his appearance changed, becoming a thin and scholarly old man. The young man in the middle saw the old man's familiar face, and suddenly his eyes lit up, filled with vitality, and he called out: "Dazai! Save me, save the Emperor!"

The Dazai said: "Crown Prince, do not be afraid, this old official is here to protect you!"

The Crown Prince changed direction and rushed toward him. The Dazai approached and grabbed his hand. The Crown Prince hurriedly said: "The Emperor and my second brother are still left behind, Dazai, go save them!"

The Dazai shook his head sorrowfully and said: "Crown Prince, your safety is the most important thing now, and this is also the Emperor's wish. For the sake of the nation, please prioritize yourself and come with this old official."

The Crown Prince's eyes were filled with tears, and he said: "The Dazai is right."

The two ended the topic after a few words, and the Dazai said: "Let us go."

At this moment, a golden light suddenly flashed, and a huge golden crow blocked their path, saying: "Aha, there are old ones behind the small ones. Why does this old one look so familiar?"

The Dazai said: "Jinwu, aren't you... are you a Sword Image now?"

Jinwu could not be bothered to pay attention to him and said: "In the end, it is still me who has to deal with you; that kid Tang Zhao is also unreliable. Why didn't he chase after you? Don't tell me he couldn't catch up to you?"

It was just complaining casually; the speaker had no intention, but the listener took it to heart. The Dazai suddenly trembled and blurted out: "Oh no!"