His plan included his own death all along?
Half-kneeling on the ground, his voice weak, the flower stamen still pulsing on his chest, Yan Yu heard the sword spirit say this, his face filled with disbelief.
He transmitted his voice, his tone trembling:
"Why!"
"Aren't we friends? We've been together day and night for nearly twenty years, with a common goal. I promised to help you find Fuxi's successor!"
Yan Yu roared in pain, and the Gan Jiang sword in his hand finally slipped from his grasp, clattering to the ground.
"Friends?"
The sword spirit, lying within the sword, chuckled and shook its head:
"You are too naive."
"Did you really think that my constant guidance in your cultivation was to find Fuxi's successor? It was all a lie."
The sword spirit spoke with a cunning tone.
Yan Yu's pain intensified upon hearing this. However, due to the Biluo flower, his skin was rapidly shriveling, and he was losing the strength for soul communication.
The sword spirit realized this and continued:
"To be honest, I am not a Celestial Venerable at all."
"I have absolutely nothing to do with Fuxi."
"Just like this place, in my era, Fuxi was already a legend. I was merely a Celestial Venerable from that era, one of the magic artifacts forged."
The sword spirit recalled the past and then remembered the words Yan Yu had told him, finding it even more amusing:
"If I were you, I wouldn't be so fixated on your wife being smelted away. Why bother resurrecting her?"
"Back then, I followed the carefree Celestial Venerable, harvesting the Yin essence of countless women. Why should you trouble yourself with this... It's useless to tell you these things anyway, as you are about to die."
"To die twice because of a single obsession is a waste of the fortune of your reincarnation as a human!"
The sword spirit's voice carried a hint of melancholy. Reincarnating as a human was such a fortunate thing.
In its original world, both humans and demons could comprehend the Great Dao and cultivate with spiritual energy, achieving eternal life.
After awakening its sentience, it witnessed its master cultivating, fighting enemies, and dominating the land.
Feasting and drinking, harvesting Yin to supplement Yang, how joyful!
From then on, it desired to become a human, not a mere shell that could transform into human form.
It wanted to become a true human, through the process of reincarnation.
This was because humans possessed a talent for cultivation envied by all races.
And only humans could ascend to the position of master.
This fact had been proven countless times throughout the cycles of history!
But to be reincarnated as a human again, it had to transcend the cycle of reincarnation.
And the only thing in the world that could help it achieve this was the Biluo flower.
The sword spirit pondered the matters of its world, its mood becoming heavy.
Legend had it that the Biluo flower grew on the banks of the Yellow Springs, transcending the rules of life and death. The peerless human cultivator Xuanyuan, in order to save his mother, had once descended to the Yellow Springs in search of a Biluo flower.
That was the earliest and only recorded instance of the Biluo flower in existence, hence its legendary status.
After Xuanyuan, no one had ever seen a Biluo flower again.
Countless peerless powerhouses had wished to enter the Yellow Springs to search for it, but they all ended up as piles of white bones. The carefree Celestial Venerable would not risk his life for such an ethereal fantasy.
After all, it was merely an artifact in the hands of the Celestial Venerable, nothing more. But now, things were different.
The sword spirit's eyes burned with passion. After the carefree Celestial Venerable was slain by heavenly tribulation, it had naturally fallen into a deep slumber. After an unknown number of years, a ray of light awakened it.
It had transmigrated and inhabited the mind of an infant.
But what shocked it was that this infant was born with knowledge, neither crying nor making noise, able to speak.
Thus, the family named him Yan Yu.
Later, it learned that Yan Yu was also a transmigration from Blue Star. kuAiδugg
After comparison, the two discovered they were from the same planet, though separated by an immeasurable number of epochs. Human culture differed greatly; in Yan Yu's era, humans could no longer cultivate.
But that ray of light, perhaps due to similar obsessions, had brought them to this world simultaneously, binding them together across time and space.
"It took me immense effort to finally gain your trust and become the sword spirit of this sword, giving me the opportunity to use the Biluo flower."
The sword spirit's voice was rampant:
"But I thank you for fulfilling my wish. When I use the Biluo flower to reincarnate as a human and dominate this Primordial Realm, I will erect the world's largest tombstone for you!"
Its voice echoed and reverberated in Yan Yu's mind, causing him even greater pain.
Yan Yu regretted his own gullibility, his easy trust in others.
Not only was he facing death, but there was also no hope of resurrecting his wife, Mo Xie. Such a miraculous opportunity for resurrection and transmigration would likely not come again.
As if sensing its master's imminent death, the Gan Jiang sword began to tremble slightly.
It mourned for its master.
The sword spirit was somewhat surprised:
"It's about to give birth to an innate sword spirit. Your sword is indeed well-forged."
"If it were from our era, you would undoubtedly be a refiner of artifacts revered by all."
The Gan Jiang sword turned white, frost condensing on its surface as it silently gathered its power.
Yan Yu's body grew increasingly hunched, his hair turning ashen white as frost.
His life was nearing its end. Believing he was about to die, he closed his eyes.
But at that moment, Qiong Qi appeared.
Swish!
Hiss!
Utilizing spatial dao magic, it teleported instantly before Yan Yu and then tore off the flower stamen with a claw, pulling it out.
Yan Yu opened his eyes and saw a tiger with a white forehead and piercing eyes.
"I told you to be careful, why didn't you listen!"
Qiong Qi picked up Yan Yu's body in its mouth, intending to escape. It immediately sprinted up the uneven walls of the mine shaft.
As it ran, its soul grumbled:
"Why were you in such a hurry? What opportunity is more important than your own life!"
"If only you could instantly comprehend the spatial Dao like Brother Hao Han, then we could teleport directly to the entrance."
"I left a mark there. It's just that since you can't, if I brought you directly into space, the turbulence would rip your soul to shreds!"
Qiong Qi paused mid-sentence, then continued:
"Oh no, if it were Brother Hao Han, he'd probably just draw his sword and slash that Biluo flower. That's someone who wields a demon god's broken horn as a weapon! Speaking of which, your sword strike just now was quite powerful... By the way, where's your sword?!"
Qiong Qi's incessant chatter made Yan Yu's head spin, and he was on the verge of passing out.
He had lost too much life force and mystical energy; he could barely hold on and was incapable of transmitting his thoughts to Qiong Qi. If he could speak, he would have asked Qiong Qi to leave him there.
For he knew that he no longer had any hope of obtaining the Biluo flower. It was better to die and join his beloved in the underworld than to linger on.
But Qiong Qi thought differently.
Its rambling was intended to attract Yan Yu's attention.
It wanted to keep his weak nerves perceptive to the outside world, lest he pass out.
After all, in such a situation, passing out might mean never waking up again!
...
Lying on the ground, the Gan Jiang sword spirit stared in astonishment at the retreating figures of Qiong Qi and Yan Yu, then gave a nonchalant smile.
Whether Yan Yu lived or died was of no consequence to it.
Now that it had become a sword spirit, it possessed the ability and power for independent action, only needing to wait for maturity to pluck the flower.
But the Biluo flower did not think so; it was enraged.
Because Yan Yu was human, his life force was the purest.
It was its favorite nourishment.
Even though he had been nearly drained, there was still some remaining. And now, the flower stamen had been suddenly severed by Qiong Qi, how could it not be furious?
Thus, the Biluo flower let out a shrill cry, as unsettling as the combined wails of countless vengeful spirits in the Yellow Springs.
Its hundreds, serpent-headed flower stamens writhed and chased upwards, piercing countless great demons attempting to flee during their pursuit of Qiong Qi.
Sensing the danger behind it, a bloody aura of death enveloped Qiong Qi's heart.
It ran vertically on the wall, dodging and weaving, leaping into the air and spitting flames, nimbly evading all the flower stamens and falling rocks from above, instantly covering nearly a thousand meters.
Seeing this, the Biluo flower went berserk.
"Rumble rumble rumble!"
It revealed its entire body, rooted to the ground. The ancient trees usually seen nearby were mere blades of grass compared to its massive, thick roots!
The Biluo flower gazed at the great demons swarming upwards in an attempt to escape, and mercilessly plunged its thousands of flower stamens into the sides of the mine shaft, hundreds of thousands of meters deep, and then heaved.
"Boom!"
Immense force erupted, and the earth's crust shifted.
The entire mine shaft, like a toppling mountain peak, cracked open from bottom to top.
Rumble rumble rumble!!!
Innumerable ore fragments condensed together and collapsed, pressing down as if the heavens themselves were falling.
And the Biluo flower, at this moment, began to slowly bloom. It absorbed everything around it wantonly; life and death could both be its nourishment!
"This is bad!"
Qiong Qi, who was clinging to the wall and running, felt its heart sink.
Under such dense collapse, it was impossible for it to protect Yan Yu.
Furthermore, if it delayed any longer, it might also perish here, unable to use its spatial Dao magic!
"I'm sorry, although you are Brother Hao Han's friend, I cannot sacrifice my life for you. My clan still needs me."
"If you are fortunate enough to survive, please do not blame me."
Having spoken, Qiong Qi prepared to abandon Yan Yu and flee.
But at that very moment, a familiar sword intent erupted from below. It was extremely cold, causing pain to its body, and frost automatically condensed in the space, much like Yan Yu's sword earlier.
However, the power of the two was vastly different.
"Crack!"
The sword moved, a white light flashing, carrying endless frost.
Qiong Qi, utilizing its keen spatial perception, dodged the sword energy and then used its Samadhi True Fire to isolate the frost, thus surviving. However, other great demons were not so fortunate, either being cut down by the sword or frozen solid into ice sculptures.
Who had wielded that sword?
Qiong Qi was perplexed. It stood on a half-collapsed, half-frozen rock and scanned its surroundings.
Then, it was shocked to discover that the entire mine shaft, hundreds of thousands of meters deep and on the verge of collapse, had been frozen solid after that sword energy flashed, including the Biluo flower on the ground.
It had just begun to bloom, and within its bud, there was a swaying small flower, looking utterly ordinary, much like a wildflower by the roadside.
But that was the true body of the Biluo flower.
Qiong Qi stared at the flower, a flicker of greed in its eyes, but quickly suppressed it as it saw a familiar sword.
That sword was inscribed with turtle shell patterns and covered in frost.
Qiong Qi recognized it as Yan Yu's sword, but it was now floating on its own.
It moved to the center of the flower bud and gently severed the small flower born from death and life.
...