Chapter 46: Grand Void Passage Upgrade

  Subduing Evil’s bde fragments had decayed, leaving only the most essential 【Grand Dao Spirit Soul】.

  This actually was not a very important matter, because the Spirit Soul was the true core of a Dao Resonance Spiritual Treasure. As long as the Spirit Soul remained, one would only o find suitable materials iure to easily refe the Spiritual Treasure.

  What truly startled the Fuxie Sword Spirit was the fact that its inal form had long since reached the realm of 【Undying and Imperishable, Eternal and Unfading】. Although it had not yet attained 【Iructible】 and could still be broken, by this stage—even if the Spirit Soul fell dormant—the Spiritual Treasure itself should never have beeroyed.

  Yet everything had been reversed. The Spirit Soul of Subduing Evil remained intact, while only the sword bde had rotted away.

  Even more inceivable was that this Spirit Soul tained no memories whatsoever.

  “Someone caused my sword bde to decay and stole my memories!”

  That was the clusion reached by the eeth-gnashing Sword Spirit: “It must be some method of those Heavenly Demons. They viote all reason and uphold the reverse of the Dao. Only thus could they mahe unthinkable act of taking my memories without harming my Spirit Soul—I must recim those memories!”

  “But the problem is, I don’t even know which memories I’ve lost!”

  The Sword Spirit’s fury was easy to uand. It was already inplete to begin with, and it had hoped to rely on rec its lost fragments to bee a bit more whole—only to find that someone had gotten there first and cut off that possibility.

  “How I help you?” An Jing asked, in a matter-of-fact tone.

  The other party had helped him so much; it was only right that he assist the Sword Spirit iurn.

  But the Sword Spirit quickly calmed down. “No. Thank you, An Jing, but not now. First, you should go save your panions.”

  “My matter is far too great, and it’s defiied to the Heavenly Demons and a disasters. If you act hastily, you might be noticed by other involved parties… Our strength is still too small. We must act cautiously. It won’t be too te for you to help once you’ve grown stronger.”

  The Sword Spirit, indeed, was quite rational, arieving the ‘Subduing Evil Spirit Soul’ was irely without be.

  First, having more of the Spirit Soul allowed Fuxie to better suppress An Jing’s Spirit Sea and ceal his aura, enabling An Jing to practice the Serene Sword Teique more effectively.

  Sed, the ability of the Subduing Evil Sword to travel to other worlds had been enhanced.

  inally, with only the hilt, Subduing Evil’s space-time travel could at most st a few hours before it was forced to return to Huaixu. Now it could be maintained for several days.

  As for the duration of that travel, it had not been strengthened by much, but spatially, it was greatly improved.

  Formerly, when perf space-time travel, the point of re-entry was fixed. Wherever o, one would appear in the same pce the ime they returned.

  If, for example, An Jihe other world while in a dangerous situation, the ime he desded into that world, he would appear in the same dangerous pce.

  But now, An Jing could choose to desd anywhere within a radius of about one li tered on the point of departure.

  Moreover, the number of times he could perform space-time travel had also increased: previously, the Subduing Evil Sword could only do it once every several days, whereas now it was once per cycle of sunrise and moo.

  They called it ‘sunrise and moo’ because the Subduing Evil Sword drew on the ‘Essence of Reination’ from the alternation of sun and moon. In some smaller worlds, the sun and moon turned much faster, which could speed up its recharge.

  Lastly…

  “I barely serve as a proper on to subdue demons and evil now—though I only wound souls, and my range isn’t rge.”

  With a tone of finally being able to breathe a sigh of relief, the Sword Spirit said to the rather speechless An Jing, “For so many years, there was only a sword hilt. I nearly lost my qualification to even be called a sword. At least now I’ve recovered a bit of dignity.”

  “This… doesn’t really ge anything in essence, does it?”

  An Jiured a cautious assessment. The Sword Spirit sighed. “You’re human. You don’t uand… Being able to hurt others, no matter how difficult it is to use, means that I’m at least still a on—not just a useless or.”

  “Now, try densing your Death Bde.”

  At the Sword Spirit’s prompting, An Jing circuted his blood essence; a Scarlet Death Bde formed in his hand.

  Within his Spirit Sea, the Subduing Evil Sword’s true form flickered faintly.

  All of a sudden, a trace of silvery light glimmered along the edges of the bde.

  “This silvery light… that’s the enha?”

  An Jing could feel it; the Scarlet Death Bde in his grasp seemed to carry an added sharpness, and the Sword Spirit expined, “Though I’m half destroyed, my Spirit Soul still bless you. It make your ons and oed Divine Abilities sharper, and also increase the damage you deal to ghosts, undead, or other vile entities.”

  “That’s just the most direct effect. Because my existence is bound to your Spirit Sea, it may subtly raise your swordsmanship talent over time—but your talent was already very high to begin with. Even in my era, it was rare to see someo twelve years of age able to train martial teiques to su extent.”

  At that point, the Sword Spirit seemed intrigued. “On that note, when you killed that Demonic Sect Manor Lord earlier, you hahat flying sword teique with real finesse. If I recall, that should have been your first time using it?”

  “Your first time, yet you still achieved such results. As expected of the one who awakened me—yifts for the sword are extraordinary!”

  …That was a firearm, not a swordsmanship teique.

  Never mind. If it wants to call it a flying sword, then a flying sword it is.

  An Jing no longer had the energy tue on that point, but, thinking carefully, he also found it rather strange.

  For some reason, he was exceedingly skillful in using that sort of firearm. It left him w what he had done in a previous life.

  —I clearly remember being just a disciple in a martial hall… So why do I know how to use guns?

  All sorts of martial skills… perhaps they never bahe use of guns?

  No, it was a flying sword! A flying sword is part of martial arts. Ihere’s nothing wrong here!

  “It’s time to move.”

  Shaking his head and drawing his thoughts back, An Jing turned and surveyed the area.

  After firming with the Sword Spirit that nothing of value remained in this jade-hued chamber—which had already beguing to an ordinary rock cavern—he briskly departed.

  Utilizing Mysterious Steps, An Jing did not follow the same route back to Hanging Fate Manor’s main halls, because there was already a unit of Red Armuards statiohere, though they had not dared ehe pce due to the miasma of demoniergy.

  Skirting around them, he climbed up the sloping cliff face. With the power of a martial artist whose Internal Breath was Like Rivers, he easily took a wide detour and arrived at the rear courtyard of Hanging Fate Manor, he source of the waterfall and the cold pool.

  Following that river—his previously pted “escape route”—An Jing traveled as quickly as he could, cirg back behind Hanging Fate Manor.

  Hardly anyone guarded the area.

  The Red Armuards were still locked in a street-by-street struggle against the Demonic Sect defenders. Progress was extremely slow, as the Red Armuards wished to avoid casualties and refused to fight a brutal meat-grinder battle, whereas the Demonic Sect erfectly tent t out the flict to buy time.

  The two forces cshed at the main gate of the estate and in the westere grounds, leaving the easterion and rear areas paratively empty.

  “Lucky. The battlefield isn’t in the east.”

  From high ground, after roughly determining the current situation, An Jing quietly approached the eastern fields of the manor.

  With his mastery of martial arts and his familiarity with the yout, ordinary instructors uards stood no ce of spotting him—let alohe Red Armuards, who knew nothing of the manor’s hidden pathways.

  As he crept closer to the eastern fields, An Jing sorted through what he had taken from the Medie Manor Lord.

  Three iron bamboo tubes tained powders beled by the Sword Spirit as 【Soul Pacifying Powder】 for sleep, 【Meridian Disrupting Powder】 for enfeebling, and 【Oblivion Powder】, a lethal poison.

  There was a jade dagger, not intended for bat, but used for ceremonial rituals.

  A small vial taihree pills that, judging from the smell, were likely some sort of Heart Resg Pills—though in truth, the Sword Spirit identified them as【Qi Boosting Pills】 that would fre up one’s blood essend amplify Internal Energy. Even someohout martial training could temporarily gai strength from them.

  Finally, there were two pieces of luminous jade. Their edges were half-transparent; the ter had a faint turquoise gradient, and at the very core ot ht blue-green light.

  They looked quite precious, but with An Jing’s experience, he couldn’t identify what they were, nor why the Medie Manor Lord had carried them.

  Even so, An Jing uood that these jades were definitely valuable. Better to keep them.

  “That jade dagger has long been steeped ihought of sacrifices to the deities.’ It t as a Magical Artifact—keep it in case it es in handy,” the Sword Spirit said. “As for those pills, they’re Qi Boosting Pills. A martial artist use them to recover Internal Energy, and even someohout trained martial arts gai strength from them.”

  “Very useful. They might e in handy in the fighting to e.”

  “And those two pieces of ‘spirit jade’… their quality isn’t too high, but they assist with cultivation or be used to power certaihat only Qi Refiners of the Immortal Path activate.”

  “ martial artists use them too?” An Jing asked, aware that Qi Refiners meant those who practiced Spiritual Root Qi Refining.

  Receiving the Sword Spirit’s firmation, he carefully stowed both pieces of spirit jade.

  —Resources for cultivation were not to be wasted!

  Before he k, An Jing had reached the eastern fields of the manor. He was about to vault over the wall when he abruptly stopped in his tracks, brow furrowing.

  —Someone was there.

  Employing Mysterious Steps, An Ji lightly, nding atop the wall in absolute silence. He cealed himself, peering into the grounds.

  Then he grit his teeth.

  He saw three cultists of the Demonic Sect holding a dark-golden vessel, siphoning the medie slurry from each of the opened vats.The red blood essend the white vitality merged into a pinkish medial energy ihe tainer. It then densed into a translut, glittering… Great Blood Pill!

  (End of Chapter)