Chapter 891: Seeing Again

A white shadow was crouching under a tree; it was a small, fluffy ball with a large, bushy tail, and a pair of eyes that were darting around.

It was a white fox!

And an old acquaintance at that!

Under the shine of the light, Tang Zhao's gaze pierced through his own Sword Image and recognized it instantly; wasn't this the very white fox that had been in the arms of the little girl he met at Dajing Hutong during the day?

Back when it was in the girl's arms, Tang Zhao had thought it was a dog, but seeing it now in the deep night, he recognized it at once—it was clearly a white fox, a white fox that looked slightly like a dog.

The light saw the white fox, and the white fox saw the light; it opened its eyes wide, bared its mouth, and revealed its canine teeth—

Swoosh!

The white fox pounced toward the light.

Tang Zhao was quite surprised. Perhaps because the white fox looked pleasant and had a certain cleverness like a dog, appearing harmless under the leaves, he had not expected the other party to be so fierce, attacking right away.

With hostility fully revealed, does this mean the Fierce Beast's attack just now was indeed instigated by the white fox?

Tang Zhao's main body was not there, so the Sword Image transformed directly into incandescent light, sweeping across toward the white fox like Sword Light.

The white fox leaped up and bit toward the light.

A beast, actually biting the light?

It must be said, the white fox's movements were incredibly fast, moving like a streak of white light, yet its opponent was light itself!

How could the speed of anything else compare to light? It immediately turned into a spiral, and in the blink of an eye, it wrapped around the white fox, winding it like a bandage until it was rolled into a white fox dumpling in an instant.

Although Tang Zhao took action, he did not harm the white fox. Even though he suspected the white fox of manipulating the Fierce Beast to hurt him, he was in no rush to attack; after all, the fox tracking him here was very suspicious and worth digging into further. Furthermore, its appearance was indeed cute.

The white fox, bound and unable to move, suddenly twisted its neck to an incredible angle and opened its mouth to bite at the light band it could reach.

It still wanted to bite the light!

Crack!

As its teeth fell, the light band had a gap in it.

It could bite it!

When those teeth bit into the Sword Image, Tang Zhao immediately felt a wave of exhaustion and weakness; that was the wear on his Sword Essence, his Sword Image's energy was being consumed!

Because the light was very thin and did not carry much Sword Essence, this one bite almost bit through the light!

What the hell?

Why could teeth make contact with light?

Tang Zhao could command the Sword Image, but in truth, his connection to it was not that tight. To make the Sword Image reach the level of an external incarnation, one must be at the Sword Immortal level of "Man and Sword as One." Even transmitting complete sensory input like sight, hearing, smell, and touch through the Sword Image requires the "Heart-to-Heart Connection" of the Sword Hero level.

An ordinary Sword Guest's Sword Image is like a kite released by the Sword Guest; at most, it can vaguely give the Sword Guest a feeling through the string, and even basic vision is just a rough outline, unable to even distinguish colors.

Tang Zhao was like this at first, but with his daily training of the Sword Image, he gradually developed shared vision, being able to see into the distance through the Sword Image, and recently even gained hearing, but he still lacked touch or more acute senses. Therefore, when bitten, he could only feel the consumption of Sword Essence without knowing what the sensation was.

But he knew that anything capable of biting through Sword Essence was definitely not ordinary.

Could the white fox also be a Sword Image?

Tang Zhao was somewhat suspicious. Since there are cats as Sword Images in the world, it would not be strange to have a fox Sword Image. But when he was at the door, he hadn't sensed it at all.

Back when he was just an ordinary child, he could vaguely sense that the big orange cat of the Li Hua Sword was strange; all these years his Inspiration had only increased, so how could he have sensed nothing at all about this fox?

At this moment, the white fox bit again, and Tang Zhao's heart stirred, causing the Sword Image to condense.

The energy density of light can be increased indefinitely; Tang Zhao made the light condense, and in an instant, the light turned blindingly white, with a high temperature like the scorching sun. It was clearly visible from a great distance in the dense forest.

The white fox's eyes were squinted by the glare, but its teeth remained firmly clamped onto the light.

A silent contest unfolded between the teeth.

Tang Zhao felt the Sword Essence still being consumed; although there was no feeling of being on the verge of collapse like before, the Sword Essence was still steadily decreasing.

In other words, perhaps a draw, perhaps a loss, but he definitely wasn't winning!

Disperse—

The strand of light held in its mouth dissipated, and Tang Zhao manipulated the light to bind the white fox from under its armpits in a safer posture. Logically, it shouldn't be able to bite this time, but soon, he noticed the light was still being consumed, though he couldn't even detect how it was being consumed this time.

This won't do; his main body was a bit too far away, the Sword Image's perception was reduced while the consumption increased; relying solely on long-distance manipulation of the Sword Image, he was afraid he couldn't win.

He looked back at Black Widow, wanting to tell her to wait here, but he dismissed the thought before the words left his mouth. He must not take risks; he could not assume that just walking away and coming back immediately would be fine. The worst things always happen if they can happen; many stories had such lessons.

But taking Black Widow to find the white fox wouldn't work either; this would undoubtedly increase his weaknesses. And leaving the white fox alone was even worse; it kept provoking Fierce Beasts to attack, so wouldn't waiting here be just waiting to be beaten passively?

After a moment of contemplation, Tang Zhao said, "Sister Yin, I must wrong you for a moment." Having said that, he took out a Time Jar.

Black Widow said "Huh?" and Tang Zhao gently lifted her, and she crawled into the Time Jar. It was fortunate that this jar had been upgraded and could now store people, otherwise it would have been hard to carry her.

Having settled Black Widow, Tang Zhao stood up directly and transformed into a streak of Sword Light to chase the white fox.

Tang Zhao landed directly on the white fox's back; upon arrival, the Sword Image's brilliance flared, its intensity more than ten times brighter.

Although the brilliance was greater, Tang Zhao did not attack with full force immediately; instead, he stood his ground and said politely, "Which fellow Daoist is here? We have no enmity, why must you..."

The white fox suddenly rolled on the ground, turned around, and looked toward him.

Those fox eyes shone brightly in the night; although they were a pale Luse like a wild beast, the green was not eerie, but rather a beautiful, emerald green like a gemstone.

Tang Zhao was startled and immediately closed his eyes.

Sizzle... A sound came, and invisible ripples spread before Tang Zhao.

The defense had been triggered!

To cultivate his Sword Heart, Tang Zhao continuously maintained his Sword Image, always keeping an invisible wall of light in front of him. In the past, this light was only hard to see during the day, but at night it was always extremely dazzling; he was like a street lamp walking around at night. But as his cultivation time grew longer, he was able to maintain an extremely thin, dim curtain of light at night, almost the same color as the dark night, protecting himself without attracting attention.

Of course, because the energy was pressed so thin, this defense couldn't be relied upon for much. Its greatest use was to warn him when triggered and to block some special attacks.

Such as mental attacks.

Just now, when the fox raised its eyes, Tang Zhao immediately realized it might be a mental illusion attack; it was truly because the fox itself gave people that impression. If it hadn't been competing with the light with its teeth just now, only revealing its biting ability, Tang Zhao should have been even more guarded.

But fortunately, he had defended against it; just one layer of light curtain blocked the most direct attack. He still felt a wave of dizziness and immediately circulated his Sword Essence to dispel the discomfort, barely avoiding falling into an illusion.

That was close!

Tang Zhao, while feeling lingering fear, was also greatly enraged, thinking: I am speaking to you nicely, and you are so impolite! You want to play this with me? You are an illusion, and I am an illusion, let's see who wins—

With a movement of his mind, the surrounding light brightened like a peacock spreading its tail. In an instant, it circled all around him.

Only when the radiance enveloped his entire body did he open his eyes.

A screen of light appeared before his eyes.

That was not the light around him, nor was it the light emitted by the white fox, but a screen of light that was very familiar yet now somewhat strange—

It was actually the Sword Manual.

Seeing the Sword Manual again, Tang Zhao's eyes welled up with tears for a moment; he reached out to touch his Glasses, but touched nothing, and most of his excitement dissipated.

The Glasses were still in his bosom, the Fragment had not been restored, yet the Sword Manual had appeared.

Perhaps the Sword Manual had nothing to do with the completeness of the Glasses; it had always been there, just waiting to encounter a sword from the manual, and it would open naturally.

Thinking this way, Tang Zhao felt slightly relieved—the Sword Manual had not left him, nor had the Glasses, and perhaps nothing had ever left, but was merely dormant for the time being.

Then, the sword that awakened the Sword Manual was...

"Sword: Suisui Sword."

Tang Zhao's heart stirred; this actually matched up.

However, below it was not the familiar long list, but only a single line of small text.

"Suisui Sword, subordinate to Ruyi Sword. Ruyi Sword, sub-page three."

What does that mean?

This was the first time Tang Zhao had seen such a label.

Ordinary swords, whether Saint Sword, Immortal Sword, or even Heroic Swords like the Jar Sword, were all listed on individual pages, arranged from page one, two, three, four, five, and so on; he had never heard of "sub-pages."

In other words, are there more than just those few dozen swords in the Sword Manual? Are there powerful swords that have their own sub-pages?

What kind of sword could possess a sub-page?

Is an Immortal Sword enough?

What kind of sword is the Ruyi Sword?

Is it very strong?

Judging by the name, the original meaning seems very powerful, but the word "Ruyi" is used so much that it sounds rather down-to-earth.

"Ruyi Sword..."

Seeing this, he whispered it softly, with almost no sound.

However, when these three words left his lips, the fox suddenly stood up, its gaze staring gloomily at Tang Zhao.

Whoosh—

The white fox turned into a streak of white light and charged toward Tang Zhao.

The radiance around Tang Zhao was brilliant, almost sealing off every direction.

The white fox charged into the light, not looking back, and passed straight through a corner of the light, exiting again. The radiance could not even hinder it for a moment before being pierced through, as if it were truly just empty light.

Tang Zhao's expression changed; he sensed something abnormal—his Sword Essence had suffered a loss again!

And the loss was immense! Unprecedentedly large!

He saw that after the white fox charged past, it turned its head slightly, with a large piece of light clamped between its teeth; it was exactly what it had torn off from Tang Zhao's Sword Art.

Tang Zhao broke into a light sweat, knowing he had underestimated this fox. His own light was to it like flesh and blood!

After the fox turned its head, it did not charge again, but ran in another direction, its speed neither fast nor slow, not like the state of a beast fleeing.

Tang Zhao was slightly stunned, and because he did not know the reality of the situation, he stopped his steps and did not give chase.

Who would have thought that the white fox would run a few zhang, stop again, turn its head once more, and nod at him to signal.

What does that mean?

Is it telling me to follow it?