Volume 1, Chapter 171 – Sword Spirit

Could it have been a spatial storm?

Shi Lan thought for a moment and could only blame it on the spatial tear from before.

It was not anything important, so Shi Lan pushed the matter to the back of her mind and opened the lottery tab.

The mission the system had issued earlier had rewarded her with one intermediate lottery draw. Now that she was alone in the Demon Domain, it was safer to use it as soon as possible and convert it into strength.

Looking at the four lottery categories, Shi Lan hesitated slightly, then chose Random. The pill category was originally the option with the highest conversion rate, but last time she had drawn a Spirit-Transforming Pill and ended up unable to digest it.

Besides, if she drew something like a poison pill, its effect on her strength would be practically nothing. To put it bluntly, even though the system offered four options, there were still plenty of risks hidden among them.

The golden wheel began to spin, and one treasure after another with different auras appeared and vanished in succession.

【Congratulations, Host, you have obtained a five-star item: Golden Rainbow Star-Chasing Sword.】

【The item is special and carries certain safety hazards. Erase them?】

Hearing the system’s prompt, Shi Lan’s brows twitched slightly as she silently asked, “What kind of hazards?”

【Inside the Golden Rainbow Star-Chasing Sword, there is a sword spirit with its own consciousness. It may harm the Host. Erasure is recommended.】

“After erasing it, what effect will that have on the sword itself?” Shi Lan asked in a low voice.

【Once the Golden Rainbow Star-Chasing Sword loses its sword spirit, it will drop from five stars, but remain stronger than a four-star item. Final grade: four and a half stars.】

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“Other than erasing it, is there any other way to control the sword spirit?” Shi Lan asked. If there was, she naturally did not want the thing she had drawn to be compromised.

【If you forcefully control the sword spirit and it develops rebellious intent, the sword’s power will be reduced by at least forty percent, completely dropping to four-star level. The optimal suggestion is still erasure.】

“Can you help me control the sword spirit?” After thinking it over, Shi Lan still wanted to keep it. After all, as long as a sword spirit had consciousness, she could slowly communicate with it. There would eventually come a day when she could draw out its full power.

【Sword spirit will be retained. Hazard-elimination program initiated.】

The system directly began processing. After a short half hour, the system’s temporary storage area lit up faintly.

Shi Lan opened the temporary storage. A pale-golden longsword, four feet in length, appeared before her.

The hilt was seven inches long, the blade three feet three. The entire sword was a soft gold color, scattered with tiny star-like patterns, like a dreamlike starry sky, shrouded in a faint, shimmering radiance.

Before Shi Lan could carefully examine it, the longsword let out a swish and shot out, landing in a corner of the cave. Its body trembled lightly, then sank into the stone wall, leaving only half the hilt exposed.

Before Shi Lan could stand and walk over, a wisp of white mist wafted up from the hilt, condensing into a palm-sized human figure.

“Y–You… who are you? Where is my master?”

A voice rang out, clear and crisp like a sword’s hum, ethereal and distant, echoing through the cave. The palm-sized figure stood on the sword guard, pressed tightly against the stone wall, its tone unable to hide its panic.

Hearing this, Shi Lan could not help arching a brow. Another item that already had an owner.

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Shi Lan stood and walked to the half-exposed hilt, then sat down on the ground in front of it, carefully examining the humanoid creature, or rather, the sword spirit, before her.

It was a somewhat blurry phantom, neither male nor female, its features indistinct. Judging from the voice just now, it should be very young.

“Do not come any closer. If you come any closer, I will…”

Seeing Shi Lan reach out her hand and draw nearer, the sword spirit grew a little agitated. The moment it gave rise to the slightest intent to harm Shi Lan, a feeling of deathly threat instantly descended above its head, making it afraid to move even a muscle.

It felt as if with a single thought, Shi Lan could erase the consciousness that had only just been born.

“Where did you come from?” Shi Lan asked as she raised her hand and rested it on the hilt.

“Ziiing!”

The Golden Rainbow Star-Chasing Sword trembled lightly as Shi Lan pulled it out of the rock face.

The tiny figure on the hilt swiftly retreated all the way to the sword tip, trying its best to keep its distance from Shi Lan. Hearing her question, it did not dare not answer and said timidly:

“Sword-Worship Sect.”

Sword-Worship Sect…

Running her fingers along the blade, Shi Lan lightly brushed the edge with her fingertip and was instantly sliced open.

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Seeing this, a trace of satisfaction flashed through Shi Lan’s eyes. With the strength of her current fleshly body, an ordinary lower-grade magic tool could not harm her at all without the aid of true qi. The sharpness of this sword could only be described as terrifying.

Before the pale violet blood even had time to flow, the wound had already closed.

“Who is your master?” Shi Lan asked casually.

“Chu Yang. He is the current Sword Chief of Sword-Worship Sect, the most talented person of nearly a thousand years.” The sword spirit’s emotions gradually calmed, and it seemed a bit reserved.

“Ask this sword spirit whether that Sword-Worship Sect is on Xuanyang Continent.”

Samsara, which had been paying attention to the changes outside, heard the somewhat familiar name Chu Yang and hurriedly spoke up, its tone unusually agitated.

Shi Lan followed its instruction and asked, receiving a definite answer.

“Shi Lan, lend me your body for a short while. I want to verify a few things.”

Shi Lan did not ask further. She paused the Empress-raising System’s hazard-elimination program and relinquished control of her body.

Samsara took over Shi Lan’s body and immediately began a thorough examination of the Golden Rainbow Star-Chasing Sword from top to bottom.

“How is there not the slightest trace of aura left?” Samsara muttered, gripping the hilt tightly. Staring at the sword spirit, it asked, “How did you get here? Do you still remember?”

“I do not know… I just felt a mass of energy suddenly wrap around me, and I instantly fell asleep. When I regained consciousness, I was already here.”

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Samsara loosened its grip in faint disappointment and returned the body to Shi Lan.

“What is so special about this Chu Yang?” Shi Lan asked silently. It was rare for Samsara to show such a big emotional fluctuation. When something was abnormal, there had to be something hidden behind it, there was definitely more to this.

“The original intended Host of the All-Heavens Samsara System was not you, but Chu Yang. And the original world was not the Lingyang Realm, it was Xuanyang Continent.” Samsara revealed part of the truth and continued,

“I wanted to use this sword to see if I could find some trace of Xuanyang Continent’s aura. I did not expect there would not be a single clue. Every trace of aura has been wiped completely clean.”

For such a method, aside from the Empress-raising System that coexisted with it, it could not think of anyone else.

Samsara had originally thought that if it could find some traces of aura from Xuanyang Continent and sense its precise coordinates, it might be able to set up a cross-world teleportation array in advance. Then they would not have to wait for Shi Lan’s cultivation to be high enough and could go there first. Once there, it could try to contact headquarters.

If that succeeded, then the seas would be wide for fish to leap in and the skies high for birds to fly in, and they would no longer be bound to a single world.

As Samsara was thinking about this with some regret, its heart suddenly sank. It hurriedly asked, a bit anxious, “Shi Lan, ask that sword spirit, how old is Chu Yang this year?”

Samsara knew Chu Yang’s identity profile like the back of its hand. He was only a person of mediocre talent.

It had only been a year since Samsara came to the Lingyang Realm. Without its help, even if other accidents had occurred, it was impossible for Chu Yang to undergo such a drastic change and become, on Xuanyang Continent, the so-called most talented person of the past thousand years.

This discrepancy made an ominous guess faintly take shape in Samsara’s heart.