80: Strengthen the Chaos Celestial Sword

"Clang—"

The sword hummed clearly, and the first wave of strengthening was complete.

[Low Grade Spiritual Artifact fragment x2 absorbed]

[combat power bonus + 0.5 x2 = 1 feather]

Immediately following was the Medium Grade fragment; this blue-gray crystal was sucked directly into the interior of the sword body.

[Medium Grade Spiritual Artifact fragment x1 absorbed]

[combat power bonus + 5 feathers]

The final purple High Grade fragment triggered an anomaly. The entire sword suddenly unsheathed itself by three inches, and the blade bloomed with colorful light. The moment the fragment touched the edge of the blade, it vaporized into a purple mist, hungrily absorbed by the sword body until nothing remained.

[High Grade Spiritual Artifact fragment x1 absorbed]

[combat power bonus + 20 feathers]

【Strengthening Complete】

[chaos heavenly extreme sword current status]

[Base bonus: 800 feathers → 826 feathers]

"Only an increase of 26 feathers..." Lin Yuan stroked the sword body, looking slightly disappointed. There was a hint of sharpness in the cold sensation coming from his fingertips that hadn't been there before, but the qualitative change he had expected did not occur. Just as he was about to stand up, he suddenly noticed that the mist in the valley was undergoing a strange change.

The originally thin gray mist suddenly began to wriggle like a living creature, becoming thick at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just three breaths, visibility had dropped to less than three meters, and even his Divine Thought was significantly suppressed. Even more bizarrely, this mist carried a faint smell of blood, and every breath made his tongue taste of rust-like bitterness.

Lin Yuan immediately expanded his Tier 9 Divine Thought and discovered that all the mist was coming from a cliff wall three hundred meters away. There was an inconspicuous cave entrance, about three people tall, with jagged cracks covering its edges, as if it had been bitten by some giant beast. The fluctuations coming from inside the cave made his divine sense tree tremble instinctively; it was the most primal fear a living creature feels when facing its natural predator.

"This is..."

Out of caution, Lin Yuan did not rush to approach, but instead sent a wisp of Divine Thought to probe inside slowly. When his perception passed through the ten-thousand-meter long tunnel, the scene before his eyes made his face instantly turn pale—

Deep inside the cave was actually a giant karst cave with a radius of a hundred miles! The ground was completely paved with ghastly white bones; those skeletons had strange shapes, some with wings, some with six limbs, clearly not belonging to the Human Race. In the center stood a throne carved from obsidian, its surface engraved with strange runes that flowed with blood-colored light.

On the throne, a youth in red robes was resting with his eyes closed. His face was handsome to the point of being demonic, his skin pale as paper, and a blood-colored vertical mark on his forehead flashed with dark light from time to time. The most breathtaking thing was the halo surrounding him—it was not ordinary red light, but a substance between liquid and flame, and every time it flowed, it caused tiny cracks in the surrounding space.

【Tier 2 Red Soul Spirit (Supreme)】

[Base combat power: 50,000 feathers]

[Characteristics: ???]

A more terrifying scene unfolded on the plaza—hundreds of Gold Soul Spirits knelt in a fan shape ten zhang in front of the throne, the golden light on their bodies completely restrained, like the most devout pilgrims. Behind them was a square formation composed of tens of thousands of Purple Soul Spirits, all of them maintaining absolute stillness, even the slightest fluctuation of Soul Power perfectly controlled; the entire plaza was suffocatingly quiet.

And three feet in front of the red-robed youth, a finger as crystal-clear as jade was floating. The finger looked ordinary, but it exuded a pressure that transcended cognition; just perceiving it from afar made one feel the urge to kneel and worship. The space around the finger constantly collapsed and reorganized, as if even the Laws of heaven and earth could not withstand its existence.

"This is... the remnant body of a Soul Clan expert?" As soon as Lin Yuan's Divine Thought touched that finger, an anomaly occurred!

"Boom!"

The red-robed youth suddenly opened his eyes, those scarlet eyes piercing directly through the Void Realm. In an instant, Lin Yuan's Sea of Consciousness was forcibly dragged into a blood-colored world: he saw stars shattering at the fingertips, Realms being submerged by a sea of blood, billions of living beings wailing in karmic fire... These images carried a substantial mental impact, almost tearing his Primordial Spirit into pieces.

"Primordial Purple Qi!"

At the critical moment of life and death, the Primordial Purple Qi deeply hidden within his body suddenly appeared above Lin Yuan's divine sense tree; a wisp of purple light slashed through the blood-colored illusion like a sharp sword. Lin Yuan took the opportunity to retract his Divine Thought, but was still shaken by the aftermath and spat out a mouthful of blood. Without the slightest hesitation, he directly activated Space Law to perform the Space Shift technique he had not yet fully mastered.

"Swish!"

The first space jump sent Lin Yuan a thousand miles away. He dared not stop, continuously activating the power of Space Law, his figure flashing continuously throughout the Secret Realm. Every teleportation caused another crack in the Space Law leaf pattern in his Sea of Consciousness, but compared to being caught by that terrifying existence, this price was insignificant.

An hour later, when Lin Yuan finally shook off that feeling of being locked onto like needles on his back, he was already in a strange crimson desert. There was no mist here, no vegetation, only endless red gravel shining with a metallic luster under the blood moon.

"Cough, cough..."

Another mouthful of stagnant blood was spat onto the sandy ground, instantly absorbed by the greedy sand grains. Lin Yuan slumped on the leeward side of a sand dune, finding his fingers still trembling uncontrollably. Looking inside his Sea of Consciousness, the originally brilliant divine sense tree was now dim and lusterless, and the leaves representing Space Law were covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

"50,000 feathers of combat power..." Lin Yuan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, still feeling lingering fear when recalling those scarlet eyes. That was simply not an existence he could confront at this stage; just a single glance had almost caused his Divine Soul to be destroyed. Even more terrifying was that finger—if just a remnant body had such pressure, what Realm must its original body be?

After regulating his breathing for a moment, he remembered the System information he hadn't had time to check earlier: "Suspected ancestor remnant body???"

"Ancestor remnant body..." Lin Yuan's eyes flickered. Although his reason told him he should stay away, a hard-to-suppress desire surged deep within his heart. If he could obtain such a Supreme treasure... He shook his head to cast away this crazy thought; he decided to first heal his injuries and improve his strength.

Meanwhile, deep in a canyon in the Secret Realm, Nine Nether Emperor was facing a life-and-death crisis. He had mistakenly entered a golden altar and was currently trapped in the center by five Gold Soul Spirits. The golden light on the surface of these Soul Spirits had condensed into tangible armor, each strike carrying the power to tear space.

"Break for me!"

Nine Nether Emperor roared and once again unleashed his Divine Thought technique—Nether Sun Fall; a pitch-black light swept out, temporarily forcing back the Soul Spirits. Taking advantage of this gap, he lunged toward the floating black spear in the center of the altar. Just as his fingertips touched the spear body, an anomaly occurred—

"Ahhh!"

A shrill scream rang through the canyon. A terrifying suction force came from the spear body; Nine Nether Emperor's right arm withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, his skin rapidly turning gray and cracking, and his vital blood surged madly along the blood grooves on the spear. Just as he was about to be sucked dry into a mummy, a black light suddenly burst from his body, creating a strange resonance with the spear.

【Master Recognition Successful】

[Obtained: Soul-Devouring Spear (Incomplete Dao Artifact)]

Nine Nether Emperor quickly fled the altar but wore a ferocious smile: "It was worth it!" He did not notice that the hair-thin blood-colored runes at the end of the spear handle were slowly seeping into his skin along his blood vessels, and the direction he was heading was exactly the valley where Lin Yuan had been before!