Upon reaching the level of Holy Weapon, any sword could breed Sword Spirit.
Or rather, any sword that breeds Sword Spirit was considered a Holy Weapon.
Floating in mid-air, the pitch dark Abyss Ancient Sword was absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi as if it had life.
Eight hundred years ago, the Abyss Ancient Sword had already bred a sword spirit. However, after the blade was cut off, the sword spirit also suffered heavy loss and fell into a dormant state.
The sword spirit was only revived and began to recover its weak consciousness when the Ancient Abyss Sword was restored by the Sword Sanctum and its blade began to absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.
With Kong Lanyou watching, Zhang Ruochen walked beside the sword and reached to stroke its primitive body.
Kong Lanyou stared at Zhang Ruochen and the Abyss Ancient Sword. She held her breath. Under her sleeves, she instinctively squeezed her fingers.
She had never been this nervous ever since she reached the Saint Realm.
“Swoosh!”
The Abyss Ancient Sword trembled a bit, emitting a black brilliance, and then turned into a light shuttle. It flew up, circled around Zhang Ruochen, and finally fell into his hands.
Zhang Ruchen grasped the hilt, feeling as if he’d been reunited with a long-lost relative. His blood and the Blood Meridian of the Abyss Ancient Sword had found each other again.
His five fingers tightly clenching the hilt, he immediately turned his arm and stabbed forward with the sword.
“Clang!”
The sword slashed through the air, emitting a cheerful sword sound.
The light on the sword tip glittered with spirituality.
Upon witnessing this, Kong Lanou seemed to have received a jolt of electricity. Rushing forward, she confronted Zhang Ruochen and said, “You are him. Tell me you are him.”
He took his sword back and straightened his body before asking, “What are you talking about, predecessor?”
“Don’t you pretend that you don’t know me! I know You’re Zhang Ruochen, the person from 800 years ago!” Kong Lanyou was yelling.
Zhang Ruochen remained very calm as he said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what relationship you have with the former owner of this sword, but I’m sure that I’m not the one you are looking for. May I ask whether the person from 800 years ago is still alive?”
There was bitterness in Kong Lanyou’s eyes. She took a step back and shook her head. “He… he is dead. I saw him die in front of me 800 years ago.”
Looking at her painful appearance, Zhang Ruochen also felt sad. “Since this is so, you should learn to let it go. Eight hundred years have passed. The dead have already left and turned into dust. Those who are living should not remain immersed in grief.”
Kong Lanyou took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Go away, please!”
Zhang Ruochen nodded and took three steps back. He turned around and withdrew from the bamboo forest with Lu Youcai and Nie Honglou, leaving the mansion.
Left alone in the bamboo forest, Kong Lanyou spoke to herself. “Do you think it is him?”
In the void, an old voice spoke. “They’re very much alike, but it is definitely not the same person. Although he seems to know that something happened 800 years ago and is deliberately hiding it. He is a bit weird.”
Her eyes flew open, cold and sharp. She said, “Since the Good-luck Sword accepted him, it means that he must have some sort of relationship with the man from that year. What secret is he hiding?”
…
…
Having returned to the Courier Station of Martial Market, Zhang Ruochen’s heart was perturbed.
“How could she be associated with the Sword Sanctum? What realm has she reached? She claims she saw me die in front of her. Has she had any contact with Chi Yao? Was she related to the thing before?”
Seeing a loved one from 800 years ago, he was both happy and scared.
If this was so, then even she was his enemy. What a sad thing it would be.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen decided to keep his thoughts at bay and focused on the Abyss Ancient Sword instead. He said, “Take things as they come. When I am strong enough, I will be able to uncover the truth.”
“Swoosh!”
The Abyss Ancient Sword flew into the air, sword tip down and hilt up. It rotated slowly in front of Zhang Ruochen.
Inscriptions flowed on the sword like a spider web.
“With 108 basic inscriptions and 18 medium-level inscriptions, the sword should be a preliminary Holy Weapon.”
Empress Chi Yao’s Blood Drop Sword was able to absorb the blood of creatures so that it eventually grew into a Peerless Legend Sword that terrified all the monks in Kunlun’s Field. The Abyss Ancient Sword could grow powerful in a similar manner by absorbing other weapons.
As long as enough weapons were refined, the sword would surely develop to the same level as the Blood Drop Sword.
Holy Weapons were divided into three levels: Hundred Inscription Weapon, Thousand Inscriptions Weapon, and Ten-thousand- Inscription Sacred Weapon.
The so-called “Hundred Inscription Weapon” referred to a weapon with more than 100 basic inscriptions and over 10 medium level inscriptions.
More inscriptions meant more power.
Currently, the Abyss Ancient Sword could only be regarded as the lowest grade Holy Weapon.
Nevertheless, being a Holy Weapon, even if it was the weakest, it could burst forth with immense power.
He grasped the hilt with both hands and injected Genuine Qi into it, continuously activating the inscriptions on the blade.
Gradually, it became heavier and heavier while emitting brighter and brighter light.
At the Medium State in the Heaven Realm, he could only activate the 72nd basic inscription in the blade, which released 10% of the power of the Holy Sword.
Only by fully activating the inscriptions in the sword could the full power of the Holy Sword be exerted.
“Soul-repose Shadowing.”
Zhang Ruochen held the sword with both hands, pulling out a long sword shadow, and then chopped down.
An illusory image of a 23-meter giant sword emerged above the Abyss Ancient Sword and then fell vertically, hitting the ground. With a loud bang, Sword Qi pierced through the earth and left a deep hole.
“The strength of this sword should be close to the full blow of a monk of the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.”
He then released the Martial Soul and suspended it on top of his head to control the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, and then continued to inject it into the blade.
Actually, the current strength of his Martial Soul was comparable to the Sixth Change of the Fish-Dragon Realm, having reached the peak of his current cultivation.
While mobilizing the Martial Soul, he activated 99 basic inscriptions in the blade. The aura that the Abyss Ancient Sword emitted became stronger.
Swish!
Inspired by the sword, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi condensed into hundreds of sword-shaped Qi, flying around him, just like a rain of swords.
With a flick of his arms, he chopped down with the sword.
Suddenly, countless Sword Qi also flew off, hitting the light wall of the array in the Courier Station of Martial Market and forming a circle of ripples.
“It seems my current cultivation is still far from being able to display the true power of the Abyss Ancient Sword.”
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged and embedded the sword into the ground. At the same time, he took out the Violet Thunder Sword, a Tenth Level Genuine Martial Arms.
The Ancient Abyss Sword automatically flew up and hit the sword body of the Violet Thunder Sword. With a loud clang, a crack appeared on the surface of the latter.
“Swoosh!”
Streaks of black light emerged from the tip of the Ancient Abyss Sword. It quickly rotated to form a black vortex.
The Violet Thunder Sword broke into metallic particles that then flew into the vortex and merged with the Abyss Ancient Sword.
The Violet Thunder Sword completely disappeared soon after.
Zhang Ruochen once again lifted the Abyss Ancient Sword and found that not only did the sword body become heavier, but a basic inscription of electrical nature had also appeared on it.
The total number of basic inscriptions was now 109.
“Will the Abyss Ancient Sword add another inscription every time it takes one weapon?”
In order to confirm his hypothesis, he took out the Dragon Bone Spear, an Eleventh Level Genuine Treasure, and used the Abyss Ancient Sword to refine it.
As expected, another basic inscription appeared on the sword, for a total of 110.
“Both the Violet Thunder Sword and the Dragon Bone Spear are invaluable magical weapons, but they only added two basic inscriptions to the Abyss Ancient Sword.” Zhang Ruochen sighed.
The Violet Thunder Sword was actually worth 370,000 Spiritual Crystals.
The Dragon Bone Spear was even more valuable, worth more than 1,000,000 Spiritual Crystals.
If they were used to buy pills instead, it would be enough to allow large families and Suzerains to cultivate a large number of young disciples.
Yet after absorbing them, only two basic inscriptions were added to the Abyss Ancient Sword.
Continuing his experiments, he let the Abyss Ancient Sword take ten more Genuine Martial Arms. Among them, two were Eighth Level Genuine Martial Arms, and one was a Seventh Level. The remaining pieces were all weapons below the Seventh Level.
After absorbing 10 Genuine Martial Arms, only one basic inscription was added to the Ancient Abyss Sword.
After analysis, he finally concluded that the Abyss Ancient Sword would add a basic inscription after absorbing a Ninth Level or higher Genuine Martial Arms.
As for Genuine Martial Arms below Ninth Level, it needed to take 10 or even dozens of pieces before adding one basic inscription.
Of course, refining weapons would not only increase inscriptions but also absorb the vital essence of the weapons, making the combat sword sharper and harder.
“The Abyss Ancient Sword is currently a Hundred Inscription Weapon. I don’t know how many weapons it will need to upgrade to a Thousand Inscriptions Weapon?”
Holy Weapons were very precious. Even some half-saint families only had one or two Hundred-Inscription Weapons, and they were already regarded as Family Treasures.
Only those who were rich and powerful Saint Families had a Thousand Inscriptions Weapon.
In two days that followed, he spent 60 million Spiritual Crystals to purchase 100 pieces of Tenth Level Genuine Martial Arms in the shops of the Martial Market Bank.
The least of Zhang Ruochen’s concerns was Spiritual Crystals. Even if he had bought 100 pieces of Tenth Level Genuine Martial Arms, he still had 300 million pieces of Spiritual Crystals.
The wealth in spiritual crystals and various treasures that he now possessed was even comparable to the wealth accumulated by a Half-Saint family over centuries.
As long as it could enhance the power of the Abyss Ancient Sword, it was worth spending spiritual crystals on, no matter how much it cost.