Vessel of Worlds

The fire crow's beak struck the golden sword, and immediately the blade's golden radiance dimmed. It let out a thrumming hum, and the impact knocked its trajectory a full zhang off course, failing to reach Li Qing.

Li Qing was quietly pleased. His Fire Crow Pot was a replica of a famous ancient spirit treasure, and its power surpassed that of ordinary upper-grade artifacts. On top of that, the opposing sword was clearly metal-attribute—and with the Five Elements working against it, the golden sword's effectiveness was reduced by a further thirty percent against his fire crow. Given all this, Li Qing felt the match was already decided in his favor.

Sure enough, over the next several exchanges, the fire crow held a clear advantage against the golden sword. But the sword kept weaving and dodging, constantly shifting direction, darting unpredictably through the air. The fire crow couldn't quite manage to swallow it whole. And whenever Li Qing directed the fire crow at Andy himself, the golden sword would immediately streak toward Li Qing, forcing him to recall the crow for defense.

The two artifacts were locked in a tangle—though for the most part, it was the golden sword fleeing with the fire crow in hot pursuit. Each time the crow caught up and landed a hit, the sword's hum grew more strained and its golden glow dimmed a little further.

At this rate, the golden sword would eventually be drained of all power and destroyed outright. Yet Andy's expression showed not the slightest hint of worry.

Li Qing was growing impatient. His Fire Crow Pot was powerful, but its spiritual power consumption was enormous. If this dragged on much longer, his reserves would run dangerously low.

He gritted his teeth and made an extravagant decision. He pulled out a crimson mid-grade fire spirit stone, gripped it in his hand, and began rapidly drawing on its energy. At the same time, he poured even more spiritual power into the pot.

The fire crow gave two joyful shrieks. Its feathers grew sharper, more defined. Its speed surged—and in one sudden lunge, it caught the golden sword in its beak. The sword wailed, its golden light visibly fading by the moment.

Andy was also gripping a spirit stone—a pale yellow mid-grade metal-attribute stone. Seeing his sword trapped, he drove a sudden burst of spiritual power into it. Golden light flared, and the sword wrenched itself free, flying back to Andy's hand. Without even looking at it, he stowed it in his storage pouch and drew out a matching golden round shield instead.

The shield projected a brilliant golden barrier around him.

Li Qing gave a cold laugh. He directed the fire crow at the golden shield. The two clashed—and this time, neither could overpower the other.

Though the golden shield was also a metal-attribute upper-grade artifact like the sword, it was a dedicated defensive piece, inscribed with several specialized defensive spells. Under the fire crow's assault, the shield held far better than the sword had—though its golden barrier was still weakening, slowly but steadily.

The match had become a war of attrition. If Li Qing's spiritual power held out longer, he would burn through the shield's barrier and win. If his reserves gave out first, he would have no choice but to surrender.

Generally speaking, the attacker held the advantage in such standoffs. A defensive artifact had to protect most of the user's body, while the offensive artifact only needed to strike at a single point—meaning the defender always burned through more spiritual power.

Andy, however, looked completely unperturbed. He clearly had no intention of simply waiting to be ground down.

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His left hand brushed his waist, and three Flame Serpent Talismans appeared between his fingers. Without hesitation, he activated them.

Three talismans became three fire serpents, each about three chi long, streaking toward Li Qing from different angles.

Li Qing's face went pale—earning his name in a rather literal way. He was caught in a dilemma. Andy's upper-grade shield meant that winning required breaking through its barrier. But the incoming talismans were far beyond what his Diamond Talisman barrier could handle.

Though several thoughts raced through his mind, Li Qing reacted quickly. He produced a small, crimson, square-shaped shield and poured what little spiritual power he had left into it.

Three thunderous blasts. The fire serpents slammed into the red barrier without hesitation and detonated. The barrier flickered wildly, nearly shattering. The square red shield was only a mid-grade artifact, and with so little spiritual power backing it, it had barely survived.

But what came next made Li Qing's expression even grimmer.

Andy had already pulled out three more identical talismans, and three more fire serpents were hurtling toward him.

He hadn't anticipated the upper-grade defensive shield. He hadn't imagined his opponent would throw talismans around this freely—three at a time. With no better option, he committed to a final stand. He slapped his last two Golden Shield Talismans onto his body and channeled every remaining drop of spiritual power into the Fire Crow Pot.

Andy's own reserves were running low, but he knew that Li Qing—forced to split his attention between the fire serpents and the shield—had to be in worse shape.

Several explosions later, Li Qing's red barrier and layered golden shields were destroyed along with the three fire serpents. He had escaped injury by the narrowest of margins.

His fire crow, fueled by that desperate final surge, had also consumed the golden shield's barrier—but then, with its spiritual power supply gone, the crow dissolved into scattered motes of red light and vanished.

Both combatants' spiritual power was virtually exhausted. The match appeared headed for a draw.

Li Qing silently counted himself lucky. If his calculations had been off by even a fraction—if his barriers had failed to absorb those three Flame Serpent Talismans—he would have been severely wounded.

But Andy's next move rendered all of that irrelevant.

Andy slapped yet another Golden Shield Talisman onto himself. Then his left hand turned over, revealing one more Flame Serpent Talisman.

Li Qing watched the fire serpent drift lazily toward him, tongue of flame flickering, and knew he had nothing left to fight with. Bitter but helpless, he surrendered.

Andy had won a grueling battle of attrition and advanced to the third round. Below the stage, Jian Xin'er—who had been watching with her heart in her throat the entire time—finally exhaled and broke into a brilliant, relieved smile.

With his spiritual power nearly spent, Andy couldn't even summon enough energy to ride his Flying Plume back to the forging chamber. He found an empty corner, gripped a mid-grade water spirit stone, and sat down to recover. Jian Xin'er's match wasn't for some time yet, so she stood guard beside him in silence.

Accustomed to high-grade spirit stones, Andy found this pace of recovery agonizingly slow. After only half a shichen of meditation—barely restoring twenty percent of his spiritual power—he said goodbye to Jian Xin'er and headed back to the forging chamber to recover properly with a high-grade stone. He wouldn't be able to watch her second-round match.

The following day, fully restored, Andy hurried to find Jian Xin'er and ask about her second round.

To his relief, her opponent had been an eleventh-layer cultivator with only mid-grade artifacts. Outclassing him in both cultivation and equipment, she had won handily and advanced to the third round as well.

Jian Xin'er also told him that two thirteenth-layer cultivators had been unlucky enough to draw each other in the second round—and both carried multiple upper-grade artifacts. The resulting fight had been nothing short of savage. In the end, the slightly shorter of the two had unleashed a sudden burst of power, severing his opponent's legs at the knees and knocking him unconscious. But in the other man's final desperate counterattack before going down, the winner's left arm had been sliced clean off. Both were left severely diminished. A Foundation Establishment senior had quickly reattached both sets of limbs, but full recovery would take time. The shorter cultivator had won his match, but the third round would be far more difficult with his strength reduced.

For cultivators, reattaching severed limbs was no great feat. But restoring them to full function was another matter entirely—it took time, and in the meantime, the winner's fighting ability would be significantly impaired.