Sword Sect Outer Sect

Chapter 276 Fang Xiangshi

There were multiple voices speaking, some male and some female.

"This time, after returning from the border region, I've been quite obedient and spent some time cultivating within the sect..."

"So, now that I've come out of seclusion, I wanted to ask you all if you have any information about chess scores."

The voices of the crowd were muffled, as if they were being heard through a veil.

But Song Yan found the voice quite familiar.

"What? You called everyone out specifically for this?"

The voice that spoke was that of a woman, and she sounded quite young.

His tone sounded somewhat disappointed.

"I thought you brought back something fun from the borderlands..."

Upon entering the space, the dizziness subsided, and some outlines became faintly visible.

The black mist in front of him was gradually dissipating. Song Yan activated his Observational Sword Eyes to speed up the process and see the scene before him clearly.

It was still that enormous human-shaped statue.

Song Yan's silhouette appeared on the right thumb of the giant statue.

However, this time, the space was no longer as empty as before.

On the ten outstretched fingers of the giant statue, besides itself, there were four other people standing.

Stand on the left thumb and ring finger, and the right middle finger and index finger respectively.

Like Song Yan, everyone else was just a black silhouette with a pair of eyes, their faces obscured.

The person standing on the left ring finger was not tall, about the same height as Gu Qingqing.

At that moment, the figure suddenly widened its eyes and stared in Song Yan's direction.

"Wow! Look!"

The figure stretched out its hand and pointed at him from a distance.

"The person on the thumb has appeared!"

Judging from her voice, she should be a girl, but Song Yan had no interest in the gender of these people.

Because all four people present were turning their gazes toward him.

"..."

Song Yan had no idea what these people did, nor did he understand the situation at all.

I originally wanted to observe secretly for a while, but I didn't expect to be discovered so quickly.

But thinking about it, this is quite normal.

There are only ten fingers in total. If they can't even detect this, their spiritual strength is probably not strong enough to support these people in making the mask recognize its owner.

The person standing on the right index finger is the closest to Song Yan.

He was also turning his gaze to look this way, as if he wanted to say something, but was interrupted by the person on his left thumb.

"Ah! I remember now."

The man seemed to suddenly realize something and said somewhat embarrassedly, "This is the most important reason why I gathered everyone here."

“We have a new fellow Daoist.”

"Really?" The girl on the left ring finger looked at him suspiciously. "You didn't seem to mention this at all..."

"It looks like something was improvised."

"Cough cough."

The figure on the left thumb coughed lightly, ignoring the woman's sarcastic remark, and looked at Song Yan: "Fellow Daoist, I wonder if you..."

However, when he saw those golden eyes in the darkness, his voice suddenly stopped.

"..."

Suddenly, silence fell over this space.

After a few breaths, he continued, "Fellow Daoist, may I ask your name?"

But at this moment, his tone seemed to have undergone a subtle change.

"..."

Song Yan frowned slightly. Everyone here could only see his outline and eyes, so they couldn't see his expression.

However, he couldn't be happy.

Because he has been using the Observing Void Sword Eye ever since he entered this place.

If anyone here has seen this eye technique of theirs before, and then recognizes their own voice, they would probably recognize them very easily.

For example, the person on the left thumb.

The voice is familiar; I'm searching for a chess score...

The first person Song Yan thought of was Wang Ke.

However, there is no direct evidence at the moment, and he did not reveal it.

With a thought, he sensed his connection with the mask, making sure he could leave this strange space as soon as possible before he felt a little relieved.

He looked at the person on his left thumb, but did not answer his question immediately.

Instead, he raised his own questions.

"What is this place?"

Based on their previous conversation, it can be inferred that they must have met here before.

I wasn't the first one; in fact, I was quite late in the group.

Since that's the case, there's no need to pretend to know what you don't or act profound.

Asking questions directly and frankly is much faster than beating around the bush and trying to "probe" someone.

"Hehe, it was I who was too impatient."

The person chuckled softly, dispelling some of the sense of unfamiliarity.

That voice... sounds so much like Wang Ke's.

"It's a long story."

"This space was not actually created by me; I don't have that ability."

"I just discovered it by accident."

"I have always enjoyed collecting ancient books and artifacts. Several years ago, while exploring a secret place with a friend, I discovered a mask."

"At that time, the mask was left in a corner, in a crack in the rocks, and no one cared about it. It was even almost completely covered by mud."

"Perhaps it was guided by fate that I retrieved it and cleaned it with water. I found that its shape was simple and ancient, neither gold nor wood, and it was extremely heavy in my hand."

"Out of curiosity, I tried to communicate with my divine sense, and then I felt my soul being pulled in by a powerful suction force, and then I appeared here."

Song Yan nodded slightly.

It was no different from how I entered this place.

I began to believe it to some extent.

"At first, I didn't know what the mask did or what was strange about this space. I only knew about this giant statue."

"Later, I also put in some effort to consult all the ancient books about Nuo gods in the sect's records and cross-reference them."

"The name engraved on my mask is 'Misjudgment'."

"One of the twelve Nuo gods in ancient legends."

"Then one day, a second fellow Daoist appeared here, namely Fellow Daoist 'Boqi'."

He casually pointed to the figure standing on his right middle finger.

However, this fellow Daoist "Boqi" did not speak, but lowered his head and pondered, as if he was thinking about something.

The person on the left thumb continued, "Subsequently, you all obtained your own Nuo masks through various circumstances."

"Fellow Daoist 'Lanzhu'."

He pointed to the girl on the ring finger, who waved to Song Yan in a friendly greeting.

"Fellow Daoist Zuming."

He pointed to the figure standing on Song Yan's right index finger.

The other person nodded slightly, which was considered a greeting.

"Whenever a new fellow practitioner arrives, we gather together to communicate with each other and confirm each other's entry into this place."

"So, when I asked your name earlier, I actually wanted to know which of the twelve Nuo gods your mask is?"

Put yourself in their shoes. No matter who it is, if they suddenly found themselves in this strange place, they wouldn't be able to honestly reveal their real name.

Moreover, the person resembling Wang Ke on the left thumb is the one who "misjudged".

The information he mentioned corroborates the contents recorded on the Yang family jade slips.

It shouldn't be fake. According to the Yang family jade slip, "the twelve Nuo gods are 'Jiazuo', 'Jiwei', 'Xiongbo', 'Tengjian', 'Lanzhu', 'Boqi', 'Qiangliang', 'Zuming', 'Weisui', 'Cuoduan', 'Qiongqi', and 'Tenggen'."

From this perspective, it turns out that his own mask is actually ranked first.

After pondering for a moment, Song Yan concluded that there was indeed no need to conceal this matter.

"My mask is engraved with 'Master Jia'."

There was little reaction to the misjudgment, as if they had already guessed it.

The others, on the other hand, were slightly taken aback.

Zu Ming turned his head again to look at Song Yan, and even Bo Qi, who had been silent all along, glanced at him slightly.

"Wow, you misjudged him, brother. He's a Class A worker!"

Looking at everything, I made a wrong judgment.

"But... why is he the last one to arrive, while you, who are so far back in line, are the first to arrive?"

She smiled slightly and said gently, "Isn't this perfectly normal..."

"Think about it, when your Tang Clan holds a clan meeting, don't people with higher prestige arrive later?"

"Hmm? It seems so."

Tang Sect...

Song Yan looked at the girl.

He was familiar with this term, but he hadn't heard of it in the State of Chu; rather, he had heard of it vividly in his previous life.

From their conversation, we can roughly guess some information.

At least both Cuoduan and Lanzhu are in the Central Region.

The other two are probably also very close to being the same.

Does the Central Region also have a Tang Clan?

The map he had seen in the Two Realms did not mark the various sects, so Song Yan was not sure.

Seeing Song Yan lost in thought, the misunderstanding thought he had misunderstood something and quickly explained.

"Hehe, Fellow Daoist Jia, please don't misunderstand. She just said it by accident."

"Hehe." Lan Zhu scratched his head a little embarrassedly.

"No one will force you to reveal your real name, which school of thought you studied under, or where you came from."

Song Yan nodded.

His gaze swept around the area before settling on the enormous statue.

“The Nuo god has twelve faces, but there are only ten spots here.”

Song Yan pointed to the giant statue: "Even if you include him, there are only eleven."

"why?"

After a moment of contemplation, Cuo Duan continued, "This human figure is probably not one of the Twelve Nuo Gods."

“Ancient books record a special type of people called Fangxiangshi.”

"Fangxiangshi were a special group of people among the ancient people. Legend has it that they had the ability to communicate with the unknown and summon mysterious forces."

“By wearing a specific mask and performing an ancient ritual, one can invoke the Nuo God to descend to earth and drive away and devour those terrifying things called ‘ghost plague’ that wreak havoc on humankind.”

Cuoduan slowly turned around and looked at the huge human figure.

"If my guess is correct, he is very likely the legendary first Fangxiangshi in the world."

"He is someone who can communicate with and borrow the power of all twelve Nuo gods."

Song Yan's eyes narrowed. The name of Fang Xiangshi was also mentioned in the Yang family's jade slip.

However, it was never mentioned that there was such a person who could communicate with all the Nuo gods.

Regarding the origin of this human figure, it was a misinterpretation by one party, and he also said that it was merely speculation.

After all, statues can't talk.

"Therefore, for the sake of convenience, I will call this place Nuo Realm, and we people are called 'Fangxiangshi'."

"Of course, these are just things I mentioned casually. You can call them whatever you want, it doesn't matter."

Originally, Song Yan thought that these people were led by the wrong judge.

It seems that there is no leader here, and everything is rather loose and free.

This wasn't a bad thing; on the contrary, it made Song Yan feel a little more at ease.

"As for why there are only ten... we don't know either."

He said, "I only have some fragmented guesses, so I won't say them to avoid misleading everyone."

"Currently, besides Fellow Daoist Jia, there are six fellow Daoists. However, two other fellow Daoists seem to have other matters to attend to and have not entered here today."

“We come from all over the world, and we all have different backgrounds.”

"If you are curious, you can arrange a meeting time and then speak with the other party alone."

From all corners of the world...

Song Yan sighed softly.

This phrase "from all corners of the world" probably only refers to the five lakes and four seas of the central region.

However, by now, Song Yan had a general idea of ​​what kind of place this was.

Lan Zhu's shadow jumped, then changed from standing to sitting.

He seemed determined to have a serious talk with Song Yan.

"Fellow Daoist Jia! Where are you from...?"

She seemed completely unconcerned about protecting personal privacy information and went straight to asking questions.

"I am in Sichuan, but my fate is in the Central Plains, while Zuming is in Chang'an..."

"Hey you!"

Lan Zhu laughed and joked, and without asking anyone else's permission, he announced the locations of all these people.

But actually, it seems like no one really cares.

"Tell me quickly, where are you? Maybe we live nearby and I can come visit you."

The names the girl mentioned were both unfamiliar and familiar to Song Yan.

It was unfamiliar because I had never heard of it in the State of Chu, but familiar because I had seen it on that map.

Sure enough, all of these people came from the Central Region.

Based on Song Yan's speculation about Wang Ke, it's likely that everyone here, besides himself, are disciples from major sects.

No wonder I'm not worried about someone opening the box...

However, this actually relieved Song Yan of any burden.

These people all came from the Central Region and would never look down on someone like me, a country bumpkin.

People travel thousands of miles to the border, only to find it disadvantageous to themselves; I don't know what they're after.

So, wanting to fit in, he introduced himself: "I am perhaps different from everyone here."

"I come from the frontier."

Song Yan did not mention that he came from the State of Chu, firstly because there was no need to.

Secondly, these young masters and ladies may not have even heard of these border countries.

"what?"

Unexpectedly, Lan Zhu exclaimed, "You're in the border region?"

Song Yan nodded: "What's wrong?"

With a quick gesture, she pointed to the wrong side and said, "He just went to the border region two years ago! You two didn't meet there, did you?!"

Song Yan was actually a little unhappy when he first heard this.

In the eyes of these young masters and ladies, just how small is the border region?

What annoyed him even more was...

This time, she probably really was right.

Song Yan looked at Cuo Duan and found that the other person was also looking at him.

“Hehe,” Song Yan chuckled lightly, “The border regions are divided into many countries, so it’s not really a coincidence.”

His gaze flickered, then he nodded.

"Oh..." Lan Zhu muttered to himself, "So the border region isn't a country after all."

"..."

(End of this chapter)