Meanwhile, on the other side—
The moment the teleportation light from the Profound Crystal Abyss faded, a piercing chill carrying a rotten stench assaulted her senses.
A white-haired girl appeared from the fading light. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she stepped onto a soft pile of remains. The crunch of shattering bones was startlingly loud in the deathly silent space.
"Where is this... Husband... Ye Chuan...?"
Upon arriving in this space, Bai Qianshuang immediately turned to look for Ye Chuan, only to find he was not beside her. Not only that, there were no mineral ores here at all!
Strange...
Is this really the Profound Crystal Abyss?
Bai Qianshuang frowned slightly and drew her spirit sword from her storage ring.
She raised a hand, gathering spiritual energy to shield herself. By the faint blue spiritual light emanating from her body, she barely managed to see her surroundings—
It was a deep cavern with a low, vaulted ceiling crisscrossed with spiderweb-like cracks. Only occasional slivers of faint light seeped through the cracks, illuminating mountains of piled-up corpses on the ground.
Among the remains were those of human cultivators and demonic beasts. Some had long turned to bleached bones, while others still bore their grotesque forms in death, clearly having perished not long ago.
The air was thick with the aura of death and the smell of blood. Even the spiritual mist carried a gray, decaying hue; a single breath chilled one's heart and soul.
A land of death...
"No, just where is this place..." Bai Qianshuang murmured to herself, extending her spiritual sense outward. However, it was blocked by an invisible force deep within the cavern, allowing her to perceive only the scene within a hundred zhang around her.
Just as she was about to take a step forward, an unusual movement came from the pile of corpses beneath her feet.
Clang—
A clear, crisp sword cry rang out. Immediately after, a snow-white longsword burst forth from the pile of remains. Its blade shimmered with a faint, frosty spiritual light, appearing right before Bai Qianshuang.
Intricate patterns were carved on the sword's body, marking it as no ordinary object. Moreover, its light even faintly resonated with the Luo Xuan Empress mark between her brows.
Bai Qianshuang's pupils contracted slightly—the aura of this sword was actually so compatible with the Empress's legacy within her?!
What in the world...
"Luo Xuan Empress... You have finally returned..." A hoarse, aged voice suddenly echoed, startlingly clear in the deathly silent space.
Bai Qianshuang paused, first looking around before her gaze finally settled on the sword directly in front of her.
That voice just now had come from this very sword.
Now, the patterns on the sword's body suddenly lit up, projecting a blurry, shimmering figure.
A sword spirit...
Legend has it that extremely high-grade magical treasures and weapons can develop sentience, even capable of autonomous action and cultivation.
"I am merely the inheritor of the Empress's legacy. You... know me?" Bai Qianshuang instinctively took a step back, gathering spiritual energy in her palm as she watched the sword warily.
Although she had inherited the Empress's legacy, encountering a spirit sword related to it in this corpse-strewn place inevitably aroused suspicion in Bai Qianshuang's heart.
"I am one of the life-bound swords you personally forged in your past life," the longsword trembled slightly in the air, its tone filled with barely concealed excitement. "Deep within this secret realm, there is a demonic entity sealed away by you!"
Bai Qianshuang looked towards the depths where black mist swirled. She frowned, feeling a strange sensation.
Gazing at the patterns on the sword, the Empress mark between her brows grew brighter. A familiar sense of intimacy welled up from the depths of her heart, as if she had known this sword for a thousand years.
The sword's voice carried a plea. "I beseech you to wield the Emperor's Blade and complete the unfinished task of the past!"
Bai Qianshuang took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in her heart.
She looked at the sword before her, then towards the encroaching black energy deep within the cavern, and slowly reached out her hand—
The moment her fingertips touched the hilt, Bai Qianshuang felt a sinister, cold energy seep into her meridians through her palm. It was completely different from the gentle, frosty spiritual energy of the sword's surface.
That energy carried a bone-chilling malice, coiling around her spiritual power like a venomous serpent, attempting to burrow towards the Empress mark between her brows.
Without changing her expression, she subtly withdrew a portion of her spiritual energy and released her grip, her face still maintaining a calm facade.
"You possess sentience. Why is it that I can sense two completely different forces residing within you?"
The spirit sword noticeably hesitated, its hoarse voice growing more urgent. "You are unaware. Having guarded this secret realm for a thousand years, resisting the erosion of that demonic energy, it was inevitable that some deathly aura would taint me. Once you wield the Emperor's Sword, you will naturally be able to purify this deathly energy!"
As it spoke, the spiritual light on the sword's body grew more intense, trying to mask that sinister aura. "Hurry! That demonic entity is about to awaken. Only by activating the power of the Emperor's Sword can you suppress it!"
Bai Qianshuang lowered her gaze to the hilt.
She remained silent, but her eyes grew a few degrees colder. "You may have some connection to the Empress, but you are definitely not one of her life-bound swords."
"She was so powerful—"
"And you are unworthy."
Everything was too convenient. In a sea of bones littered with corpses, such a sword just happened to be placed here.
With Bai Qianshuang's cautious nature, she didn't believe a tenth of it.
Bai Qianshuang's words caused the sword's body to tremble violently. The sinister aura could no longer be concealed, twisting into a ferocious ghostly face in the air.
"You dare test me!"
The hoarse voice instantly turned sharp and piercing. "The Luo Xuan Empress has long turned to dust! I have lain dormant here for a millennium, slaughtering countless cultivators and living beings, all to await a perfect vessel inheriting the Empress's mark!"
Before the words faded, the sword suddenly erupted with dense black energy. Within the black mist, countless vengeful spirits howled as they lunged towards Bai Qianshuang.
The sword spirit's voice carried a maddened laughter. "A natural Dao Body! The Luo Xuan Empress's Mark! What a perfect vessel! Once I seize your body, I shall unite the three realms!"
Bai Qianshuang had actually been prepared all along. Spiritual energy erupted from her hands like a tidal wave, forming a pale golden barrier around her.
The vengeful spirits crashed against the barrier, instantly scorched and dispersed into nothingness!
She raised her hand and grasped the sword's hilt. The light from the Empress's mark flowed down the hilt and infused the sword's body. The black energy on the sword was gradually dispelled by the golden light, revealing the utterly evil, pitch-black blade beneath—
This was no Emperor's Sword; it was clearly a demonic sword!
"You wish to seize my body?" Bai Qianshuang's Empress mark erupted, firmly imprisoning the sword spirit within the blade.
The sword spirit let out a shrill scream: "Impossible! Your cultivation is only at the Dao Comprehension realm! How can you possibly suppress me!"
"The Empress's legacy is not something a wicked demon like you can lay eyes upon," Bai Qianshuang said coldly. The light from the Empress mark between her brows blazed brilliantly. A golden imperial seal pattern spread along the sword's body, completely sealing the sword spirit within the demonic sword.
The sword spirit's screams gradually weakened before finally falling completely silent.
Bai Qianshuang released her grip. The now-dull sword, devoid of its spirit, clattered onto the pile of remains.
Simultaneously, all the surrounding skeletons instantly turned to dust in that moment, scattering like flowing sand until nothing remained.
Bai Qianshuang stood quietly in place for a few seconds, her gaze falling on the demonic sword on the ground.
A few seconds later, she picked it up again and stuffed it into her ring.
Hmm, Ye Chuan might like it.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
