Translator: Ash Editor: Geoffrey_
Li Yao was like a mouse that fell into a sack of rice. With narrowed eyes, he looked all around, only to find a dense mass of red specks of light making a headlong rush towards him.
Li Yao walked around along the rail tracks. He tried to find the place that was the richest in demonic energy.
Suddenly, in front of him appeared a big, dark black lump. On a closer look, it was nothing but a scrap of iron that had been deformed into such a shape.
He pondered for a long time before a sudden realization dawned on him—it was the armored carriage from last night that charged into the beast tide without a shred of hesitation!
He had never imagined that it would actually be deformed into such a shape under the raging beast tide; it was like it was nothing more than a box made of rotten paper in front of the beast tide.
Even though the bodies of the cultivators from this lump of iron had already been removed, Li Yao could still hear the heroic roars of the seven cultivators ringing in his ear.
“I’ll cultivate here. I hope that the seniors would lend me a hand. After my cultivation culminates, I’ll definitely slaughter the demon beasts, and I will help you get revenge!”
Li Yao struggled to climb his way up the lump of iron that was laden with blood stains. Crossing his legs, he sat at the peak and silently operated the <Endless Cosmos> breathing exercise in his mind.
“According to legends, countless millions of years ago, the endless universe that we now live in used to be a plasmic[1] crystallization of pure spiritual energy, which was also known as ‘Primeval Crystallization Point’.”
“And because of an impetus of some kind of incredibly huge ‘power’, at the Primeval Crystallization Point, a huge scale explosion that was beyond any man’s imagination took place. An almost inexhaustible amount of pure spiritual energy exploded as it spread everywhere and created stars and everything in existence, including the universe itself!”
“Whereas, at the beginning of the universe…”
“There weren’t any stars nor were there any planets. There were only countless extremely hot and incomparably unstable masses of matter!”
“The relatively large masses of matter revolved at high-speeds, while the smaller masses of matter were attracted to them. Much like how a snowball would grow bigger and bigger as it rolled over the snow, the masses of matter grew to an unimaginable size and became huge as countless stars formed one by one.”
“According to the profound principles of the <Endless Cosmos> breathing exercise, one must imagine themselves as the larger mass of matter at the beginning of universe after the big bang, while the spiritual energy floating in the air would be the smaller mass of matter. Then, let your own soul revolve at a high-speed and attract the spiritual energy to temper the body and strengthen the soul!”
“There are two things which are the crux of the <Endless Cosmos> breathing exercise!”
“First, in the mind, imagine the scene of the universe at the starting phase of the Big Bang, where the pure spiritual energy, in the blink of an eye, expanded into the vast universe. Feel the ancient world, the ‘beginning point of the universe’, ‘the world when there were no land and sky’, and experience the inconceivable scene that transcended human imagination!”
“Second, during your meditation, let your spirit revolve at a high-speed!”
Silently pondering over the profundity of the <Endless Cosmos>, Li Yao’s pair of eyes were half-opened, half-closed; it seemed as if he was asleep, yet at the same time, he was not. He took a few dozen long, deep breaths, each of which lasted longer than before, as he entered a mysterious state.
In his trance-like state, the Wasteland turned into a vast and endless universe, and he was surrounded by a large amount of hot and virulent spiritual energy that constantly disintegrated, collided, compressed, fractured, and finally congealed into mass after mass of bright matter.
Each mass of matter was incomparably hot, and the temperature was more than a hundred times than that of the sun!
Whereas, Li Yao own body was also emitting a tremendous amount of heat, seemingly as if he too had turned into a red-hot mass of matter.
And his soul, in a trance, fluttered and shook as it fiercely started revolving as its speed was getting faster and faster!
Some of the smaller hot masses of matter floating around him were attracted by the torque generated by the revolution of his soul. They suddenly floated towards him and adhered on his body before merging into his body!
Demonic energy!
The demonic energy surged into Li Yao’s body like a torrential tide!
He was filled with an incomparable feeling; compared to absorbing the pitiful amount of spiritual energy in the medical tent, where he could only do so by spending a tremendous amount of effort, this was far more comfortable!
Li Yao was wild with joy. The four spirit threads revolved constantly as more demonic energy was sucked into his body. Rolling through Ou Yezi’s tree of memories, the demonic energy was purified into the purest of spiritual energy, which thereafter surged into every part of his body, constantly filling each strand of his muscles, every blood vessel, and every cell of his body with spiritual energy!
Every second, his body would become stronger. With every passing second, his body evolved by a level!
“This is too strong!”
Li Yao clenched his fists in inexplicable joy, as he felt the fearsome strength surging through his fingers.
He had a vague feeling that if the spiritual energy was stimulated to the limit and blasted through this fist, the destructive force might very well be ten times stronger than the past!
In the past, he could only rely on physical strength.
But now, he had instead become the vast universe, one of the endless stars, making it possible for him to fire the world’s energy!
In just a short span of one hour, Li Yao had engulfed an incredibly huge amount of demonic energy. Every single one of his cells had been filled to the point that he could not absorb even one more speck of red light.
Just like how a human’s appetite had a limit, the amount of spiritual energy a cultivator could absorb also had a limit. One could never engulf endlessly and completely absorb the spiritual energy in the world.
If the spiritual energy was absorbed blindly and not refined, it would more than likely lead to oversaturation of spiritual energy, which would result in “Spiritual Energy Poisoning”.
Much like drinking too much water would lead to “Water Intoxication”.
In serious cases, it could even lead to overflowing of the spiritual energy, causing the meridians to be torn which may very well lead to Qigong deviation!
After Li Yao had absorbed a huge amount of demonic energy, it was enough to allow him to continuously advance three levels.
He was very well aware of the principle of biting off more than one could chew. He restrained his greedy thoughts and jumped down from the lump of iron with a long howl.
“Well?”
An incomparably strange scene entered his vision, leaving him gawking.
What he saw was the Black Wing Sword vertically floating and gradually rotating in the air. From the inside of its scabbard, three black spirit threads had grown out and were absorbing the demonic energy.
And the way it was doing it was exactly the same as when Li Yao was cultivating!
No! On a closer look, Li Yao noticed that the efficiency of absorbing the spiritual energy of the Black Wing Sword was far more than his!
When he was using <Endless Cosmos> to absorb the spiritual energy, the spirit threads were only entwined around his body and moved slowly.
In contrast, the spirit threads of the Black Wing Sword were spread out, and every thread was like a spring which coiled round after round to form an incomparably strange spiral made of spirit threads.
Obviously, under the same length, the Black Wing Sword’s spirit threads could touch far more specks of red light than him, thereby having ten times more efficiency in absorbing spiritual energy than Li Yao!
“Can magical equipment also cultivate on their own?”
“Moreover, the cultivation exercise is obviously an upgraded version of the <Endless Cosmos>!”
“Is Little Black imitating me after watching me cultivate? And while at it, did it just upgrade the <Endless Cosmos>?”
“T-this is too terrifying!”
Li Yao was stupefied for a long time. Suddenly, he reacted; his complexion changed as he screamed, “This is not good, Little Black! Quickly stay your hand… This is not right, quickly close your mouth… This is also not right! Whatever, you quickly stop!”
The Black Wing Sword suddenly stopped absorbing as its three black spirit threads coiled around each other and moved towards Li Yao. Obviously, it was greatly dissatisfied.
Li Yao impatiently ran next to it, and having sensed the density of the demonic energy, he explained:
“We can not completely absorb all the demonic energy. Tomorrow, powerful cultivators will be coming to purify the demonic energy. If they found that it is all empty here and that there is not even an iota of demonic energy, they will definitely continue to investigate. If they find out that it was us, we will be in big trouble!”
At the beginning, Li Yao thought that the Black Wing Sword was just a slightly strange flying sword; therefore, he actually didn’t mind too much.
Anyway, in the world of cultivation, there were many rare and wondrous treasures. A flying sword that would watch a hologram projector was nothing strange.
But a flying sword that could cultivate on its own would absolutely be a priceless treasure in the eyes of many cultivators. Once it was found, perhaps they would even use all kinds of means to take it away.
Li Yao did not want Little Black to be taken away by these people, only to be taken apart for research.
This guy was something left behind by the old man, not to mention it had accompanied him for so many years. It was like his half-sibling.
“Squeak…”
Upon listening to Li Yao’s explanation, the Black Wing Sword reluctantly shook its sword tip as it slowly retracted its three black spirit threads back into its scabbard.
When it was retracting its last spirit thread, the spirit thread unwillingly moved and grabbed one last speck of red light into its body with a “Swish!”. Only then did it retract it back and that too reluctantly, seemingly as if it longed for more.
Li Yao, on the other hand, had a shrewd smile hanging on his face. Knocking on the scabbard, he said:
“Hey hey hey, Little Black. I just wanted to make you act with caution, so don’t think that I don’t want to let you completely absorb the spiritual energy! My heart also aches to see such a large amount of demonic energy floating around yet unable to be absorbed!”
From childhood, Li Yao had been doing things stealthily. He was well aware of where the shoe pinches[2].
If the Black Wing Sword continued to absorb voraciously at one place, the demonic energy within that region would be entirely absorbed, creating a “demonic energy deficient” region.
At first glance, the high-level cultivators that would be coming here tomorrow would definitely know that someone was cultivating here!
If they changed place to place and absorbed a little bit of demonic energy from everywhere, how would they be discovered? In any case, it would be impossible for the high-level cultivators to know the density of the demonic energy here.
Assume that there were ten cans filled with candy. If Li Yao stole all the candies from one can, then he would, for sure, be discovered at a moment’s notice.
However, if he secretly stole just one candy from each can, it would be hard to notice.
For the next hour, Li Yao and the Black Wing Sword shuttled around the demon beast battlefield. They flew to a place, absorbed some of the demonic energy, then waved the spirit threads to scatter the remaining demonic energy so that the specks of red light were evenly distributed as far as possible.
The more the Black Wing Sword absorbed, the more Li Yao shuddered in fear.
Because Li Yao discovered that Little Black’s, this freak’s, “appetite” seemed to be inexhaustible.
In just a short span of one hour, it had already absorbed more than ten times the amount of demonic energy than Li Yao had!
Moreover, it seemed that it was still restraining itself a little. If he let it absorb voraciously, it would have even swept clean all the demonic energy here.
“Who the hell actually refined such a magical equipment that could even eat!?” Li Yao secretly criticized.
The Black Wing Sword wandered in the sea of demonic energy to its heart’s content. It seemed as if it was a glutton who had been hungry for ten straight days and ten straight nights and had thrown himself into a pool of wine and a mountain of meat, eating in a manner that could be described as wholeheartedly.
“Little Black, you can not swallow anymore. If you swallow any more demonic energy, the density would decrease by too much, and others would easily notice it! If your hunger still has not been satiated, if worse comes to worst, wait for me to earn a little bit of money. Then, I will buy you high-grade crystals that contain a large of spiritual energy to eat!”
Li Yao said with sorrow.
From the appetite shown by the Black Wing Sword, in order to buy crystals for it to eat, perhaps in just one week, all of Li Yao’s assets would vanish.
The Black Wing Sword’s spirit threads danced around as it emitted “Creak Creak” reluctant noises before using its spirit threads to nod to Li Yao, seemingly saying, “You said it! High-grade crystals, I’m waiting!”
Only then did it reluctantly retract its spirit threads and flew over to Li Yao’s front.
When Li Yao remembered about those lightning-swift, crazy ten minutes from earlier, Li Yao’s complexion changed. He righteously and sternly said, “Little Black, let us first come to an agreement. In accordance with the <Basic Laws of Cultivators>, when riding the sword, the ride should be calm and peaceful. You must slow down, look around, and only then should you cross ahead. You absolutely can not fly chaotically! That’s why, in the returning journey, you must—”
He was not even able to finish speaking before the Black Wing Sword had already started making “creak creak” sounds of impatience and appeared beneath his feet. With one vigorous move, Li Yao was pulled up before a strong suction appeared, pulling Li Yao firmly to the sword’s body—the whole thing made his balls ache!
“Boom! Boom Boom Boom Boom!”
After absorbing enough demonic energy, the Black Wing Sword turned even wilder. It had not yet taken off, but a torrential jet stream was already being discharged from the back of its hilt. Its blade was madly shaking as round after round of ripples rapidly proliferated and spread in the air!
“Let me down! I will just walk back!” Li Yao screamed.
Too late, the Black Wing Sword released a thick black mist that completely enveloped Li Yao as the sword and the human duo soared into the sky, breaking through the clouds and appearing beyond the ninth heaven in the blink of an eye.
Thereafter, the Black Wing Sword, inch by inch, pushed its sword tip as it gradually aligned towards the desolate land ten thousand meters below them!
“W-what are you doing? I don’t have any injustice or any hatred with you. And last night, didn’t I even oiled you and help you removed the rust!?”
Li Yao repeatedly screamed as his legs went limp and his balls went soft in fear.
From the scabbard came the sounds of metal rubbing against each other, sounding as if it was mocking him. A large mass of black mist surged out in the star space behind Li Yao, forming two black wings that spanned over a hundred meters.
The Black Wing Sword transformed into a black stream of light as it whizzed straight towards the ground!
TLN:
[1] The author wanted to give a scene where the spiritual energy is highly concentrated to the point that it had become a semi-liquid and semi-solid entity. Semi-liquid and semi-sold because the temperature and pressure were high, so I think “plasma” would better fit the description.
[2] Sources of trouble, grief, etc.