Chapter 285 – Departure - Part 1
At the summit of a high mountain outside the Holy Tree Temple, a white‑haired man sat cross‑legged, his hair in wild disarray.
In the yellow earth before him, a black sword and white sword were locked together, twin blades entwined. Faint arcs of lightning and wisps of baleful energy still crawled across the metal, flickering like aftershocks. No one had ever seen a spirit artifact come out of the forge looking like this before.
Were this an event being recounted in a teahouse, the storyteller would slam the table and proclaim theatrically, “And so a great demonic blade was born! Heaven and Earth would not permit its existence! Why else would thunder fall from the sky? Why else would the earth’s baleful energy surge up? Surely Heaven meant to stop the smith and keep this demonic blade from entering the world!”
That said, stories were just stories. Heaven and Earth were indifferent; there was no such thing as Heaven forbidding anything. It was nothing more than a natural phenomenon no one yet understood.
Li Yuan only half-understood the principles behind what he’d just accomplished. Lifespan was an abstract thing. You stood motionless and somehow decades would slip away...where did they go? How did they vanish? A human being, like all things under Heaven, was born of a balance between Yin and Yang. Perhaps lifespan was the subtlest condensation of that balance.
When he had used the Ghost Hammer to pour vast stores of his years into the weapon, an immense Yin-Yang annihilation occurred, like an enormous cavity opening in the deep sea, drawing the surrounding water inexorably inward.
That, he guessed, was the source of the heavenly thunder and earth fog.
Li Yuan also found the limit of the blood crystal marrow—no more, no less than 500 years of lifespan. He had wanted to add more. The sharper the borrowed blade, the better for killing with a borrowed knife. Yet once those 500 years were spent, not another drop would go in. The Ghost Hammer felt like an old master blacksmith screaming a warning, Sonny, any more than that and you’ll blow up the entire mountain!
Luckily, Li Yuan heeded the warning. He sensed the sword had reached an extreme; further gains would have to come from new materials. A blade infused with 30 years of life was already called a demonic blade. So what about a sword stuffed to the brim with 500 years of life, one that could summon heavenly thunder and earthly fog?
Li Yuan was curious.
And so was everyone else.
Gu Xuejian was no exception. The battle‑hardened swordswoman actually felt a quiver of nerves and excitement. She stepped up, wrapped her hand around the hilt, and instantly sensed a blood‑deep connection, along with many other feelings she had never known.