Volume 4, Chapter 135 – Nurturing the Sword

According to Bai Xiang’s original plan, the nourishment she would use to strengthen Feixiang Heaven would naturally be the remaining Zhenyuan sword-embryos.

There had originally been nine Zhenyuan sword-embryos. One of them had been forged into the Zhenyuan Sword, and after its master died, it had fallen into the hands of the Great Yu Court. That left eight sword-embryos.

Of those, one had already transformed into Feixiang Heaven, one had dropped after she killed Yao Qingyuan, and one had dropped after she killed the ancient demon Shiling. That had also yielded intelligence on the fourth sword-embryo, which was what led Bai Xiang to make the trip to Luohou and achieve Three Flowers within the Demon Kingdom’s secret realm.

She had left in too much of a hurry at the time and had not brought the fourth sword-embryo back. Later, she asked Starwater Company to airlift the Black Crystal Sacred Venerable back to Zhennan, and the sword-embryo was brought back along with it. As usual, she fed it to Feixiang Heaven to be devoured.

At this point, Feixiang Heaven had already gathered the power of four sword-embryos. Not counting the Zhenyuan Sword itself, only four sword-embryos remained.

Bai Xiang suspected that most of those sword-embryos were also under the Court’s control, and she had previously planned to have a proper talk with them about it.

But from the look of things now, that road was blocked. There was no way the Court would speak civilly to her.

Forget a proper discussion. If they ever faced each other openly, then based on what she had done in Maozhou and Qizhou, any imperial clansman would probably point at her nose and call her a rebel.

That meant the Dao sword’s strength could no longer keep improving, and sooner or later it would start falling behind Bai Xiang’s cultivation. That was actually a fairly major hidden danger.

Sitting down directly on the cushion in the cultivation room, Bai Xiang drew the sword with a clang.

Her senses were extraordinarily sharp. From that single sword cry alone, she could already tell that Feixiang Heaven’s structure had been damaged.

Was that the result of clashing with the Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear?

That spear might possess power close to a sacred weapon, but from the battle alone it was clear that in terms of might, it still did not qualify as a true sacred weapon, not even the lowest grade of lower sacred weapon.

The reason was simple. Back then, Cui Yuanhao, whose cultivation had been weaker, had wielded the Tianxuan Sword, a lower sacred weapon, and the sword qi it swept out had been capable of tearing open the space of the main world. But the Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear had performed a little worse in Wang Xiu’s hands. That was enough to prove that weapon was weaker than the Tianxuan Sword.

And yet even against a Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear that weak, Feixiang Heaven suffered damage when parrying it. It was obvious the gap between them was more than a single tier.

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She had to find a way to raise its strength.

Bai Xiang had experience wielding the Jade Phoenix Sword. With a thought, the short yellow-jade sword within her Inner Body-scape darted like a fish to the front of her left arm and slipped out through the pulse opening at her wrist.

There was no bleeding in the process, no injury. The parted flesh closed up at once after the sword left her body, leaving not even a trace of blood.

Feixiang Heaven had been resting on the floor earlier. The moment it sensed the aura of the short yellow-jade sword, it began writhing violently, its guard knocking against the wooden floor with a clacking sound.

Eeee…!

At the same time, the short yellow-jade sword also sensed danger. Bai Xiang could actually detect a note of pleading in its trembling. It clearly did not want to become food for something else.

Bai Xiang ignored it. After all, between a Dao sword that was completely under her control, practically one body and one life with her, and a fragment of the primary order that she could never truly tame, she knew perfectly well which mattered more.

She directly pressed the short yellow-jade sword against Feixiang Heaven’s blade, letting the two lean close together.

Ssss!

The instant she did, the short yellow-jade sword erupted with a large cloud of yellow luminous mist.

Feixiang Heaven’s cry grew even more excited. The moment that mist appeared, it began sucking it in frantically. Cluster after cluster of mist was rapidly drawn into the sword, and in the process, many chips and cracks along the blade visibly started to mend.

Eeee…!!

The short yellow-jade sword was also giving off a sword cry at the same time. In truth, it was only the sound made by the two vibrating against each other while pressed together. Bai Xiang noticed that as time passed, the short yellow-jade sword was shrinking as well. It had originally been about half a chi long, around fifteen centimeters, but after a few minutes it had already become roughly half its original size.

Bai Xiang did not let Feixiang Heaven continue devouring it. She reached out and pinched up the short yellow-jade sword in one swift motion.

Clack, clack, clack…

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Feixiang Heaven was extremely displeased by this, and its guard started trembling and knocking against the floor again.

As for the short yellow-jade sword, the moment it landed in Bai Xiang’s hand, it gave a shiver and instantly went meek and silent, like a young wife who had just been thoroughly bullied, not daring to make the slightest sound.

“Stop whining.”

Bai Xiang flicked Feixiang Heaven’s hilt with a finger.

“You brainless thing, why don’t you think about why you’re even able to eat something this good?”

How long had she had the little yellow jade already? Before this, the idiot sword had not reacted at all.

Yet the moment it merged with the Jade Phoenix Sword, it came begging for it. Wasn’t that because the Yuancrystal Jade Soul had erased some kind of obstruction and limitation?

So of course Bai Xiang could not possibly let Feixiang Heaven eat the jade sword whole. She planned to leave a little behind each time and see whether she could nurture the jade sword back to full again. That way, she could periodically feed Feixiang Heaven.

Naturally, Feixiang Heaven did not understand any of that. It had no brain to begin with.

Still, it could understand changes in Bai Xiang’s mood. When it saw that acting cute was useless, it immediately straightened up. With a clear zheng, the whole sword gave a sword cry and floated into the air, as though waiting for Bai Xiang to grasp it.

Bai Xiang put away the short yellow-jade sword and reached out to grip the hilt. At once, she could feel the difference from before.

It felt warm and smooth in her hand, yet heavy as well… and at the same time, it carried the distinctive chill unique to metal against the skin.

Its sharpness looked unchanged, but the entire sword was now around four or five times heavier than before. She could very clearly feel that its durability had just undergone a huge leap.

And it was not over yet.

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Bai Xiang turned her thoughts back to her Inner Body-scape and split in half the purple-gold mist surrounding her Golden Core, channeling one half through the meridians of her hand and into the sword.

Bzzz… eee!

Feixiang Heaven’s blade trembled with excitement, and the sword body whooshed up a translucent dragon-shaped strand of pale purple-gold Qi-Origin.

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes and watched closely as the dragon-shaped Qi-Origin was gradually digested and assimilated by the sword body, transforming into her signature violent sword qi. Only then did her lips curve in satisfaction.

Looking at the blade again, it immediately gave off the impression of cold light contained within, only to reveal razor-sharp brilliance the moment it caught the light.

Even the Golden-Pupil Illusory God found it glaring. An ordinary person would probably be wounded just by looking at it once.

After confirming that Feixiang Heaven could not digest any more purple-gold mist for the moment, Bai Xiang drew the Tianxuan Sword as well. Feixiang Heaven in her right hand and the Tianxuan Sword in her left, she brought the two swords together in midair.

She had no intention of destroying this floor, so she was very cautious with the force she used.

Even so, after repeated attempts, Feixiang Heaven did not show a single new chip. That meant its quality and toughness had at least risen to the level of a lower sacred weapon.

Bai Xiang then tested methods like sword flight piercing through the air and the Golden Light Sword Art. She found that sword qi now circulated much more smoothly within Feixiang Heaven, and its offensive speed had increased further.

And most importantly, Feixiang Heaven had gained a new function: it could now “sweep out light.”

Similar to how Little Yellow Jade could sweep out yellow light, this sword too could emit invisible, colorless ripples of light together with its resonant hum.

This thing can restrain divine pools…

A realization came to Bai Xiang.

Little Yellow Jade had originally been a Guarding-Order treasure. What it preserved was, in fact, the order of the main world.

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And now that it was under my control, that was equivalent to changing masters. Its function remained the same, only it had changed from “forcing other things to obey the primary order” to “forcing other things to obey the order of the Path of Qi.”

Through devouring it, Feixiang Heaven had also grasped that ability. Though it was not as powerful as Little Yellow Jade, it would still be enough to stop an Immortal Venerable-level enemy from using a divine pool to escape after being defeated.

Good.

Bai Xiang gently stroked the sword’s edge, extremely satisfied with its evolution.

After that, she performed several more experiments and discovered that the Silverspring Sword, which had been sent over by the Silver Sea Merchant Guild, could actually be fused with and devoured by the short yellow-jade sword to make up for the volume it had lost.

“The Silverspring Sword is also a lower sacred weapon, but it can eat the Silverspring Sword, while it can’t eat the Tianxuan Sword.”

Bai Xiang frowned as she watched it eat, estimating that even among lower sacred weapons there were further gradations.

When the Tianxuan Sword was swung, the waves of sword force it slashed out could transform into a Xuan Bird. Sometimes those Xuan Bird sword-waves could even move on their own. The Silverspring Sword could not do that.

The short yellow-jade sword was still humming there.

It was a sentient thing. It had more or less realized that Bai Xiang’s purpose in feeding it was still to use it later as food for the Dao sword. So rather than seeming happy, it instead gave off a sorrowful mood.

Like eating with huge bites while shedding little pearls at the same time?

Bai Xiang amused herself with the image.

She gently stroked the short yellow-jade sword. “From now on, I’ll call you Little Yellow.”

“Behave well, and I won’t treat you badly.”