Volume 1, Chapter 447 – Sword Emperor

The energy contained within Supreme blood was far too vast. If even this small portion of Supreme blood were poured into the earth and absorbed by nothing more than a single blade of grass or tree, it would be enough to nurture an immortal medicine above the eighth rank!

Shi Lan submerged her entire body in the crimson pool, allowing that explosive energy to surge into her meridians.

Terrifying cracks appeared across her body one after another. Even with the properties of the True Martial Undying Body, it was beginning to fall short.

The second layer of the True Martial Undying Body already allowed severed limbs to regenerate, but under the impact of the Supreme blood, it was still difficult to withstand.

The violent agony tugged at her nerves. Veins bulged faintly at Shi Lan’s temples, and her blood was boiling. At a time like this, not a single moment could be wasted. She could only use this brutal method to temper her physique as quickly as possible and draw out the potential hidden within her body.

The growth of her golden primordial spirit, which had originally begun to slow, once again entered a phase of explosive progress.

Under normal cultivation, the golden primordial spirit needed slow and painstaking refinement, growing little by little until everything fell naturally into place.

For someone like Shi Lan to force her cultivation forward so recklessly was an exceedingly dangerous process. The slightest mistake would doom her beyond redemption!

Shi Lan’s aura was surging every moment, and her cultivation was soaring stronger and stronger at a speed ordinary people could hardly comprehend.

…

Several days passed in the blink of an eye…

Weng—

Flawless golden light rose from above Shi Lan’s head. The golden primordial spirit stepped out of the sea of consciousness, wrapped in dazzling radiance like glazed glass, standing between heaven and earth in incomparably brilliant splendor.

Nine hundred and ninety-nine zhang, not a fraction off.

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Only after being driven to the edge of death and living through it had she finally completed her Nascent Soul Realm cultivation.

“Open up a space.”

The Sword Emperor descended on sword light and arrived before Shi Lan.

Shi Lan did as instructed. Concentrating her mind, she poured out the power of her primordial spirit, pushing the laws of space to their utmost limit and opening up a vast expanse within another layer of space.

The space fully opened, like a gateway.

Shi Lan was somewhat puzzled and did not quite understand what the Sword Emperor intended to do.

The Qiongluo Realm, spanning hundreds of millions of li, had already shrunk severalfold. Countless mountains, rivers, and valleys had been compressed into one place, piled together without the slightest order, leaving the entire realm in chaos.

Even so, it still stretched tens of millions of li across. Compared to the space Shi Lan had opened, it was no different from an enormous giant.

To stuff the Qiongluo Realm into that space would have been no different from cramming a star into a wine jar. It was fundamentally impossible.

The Sword Emperor reached out and seized the space Shi Lan had opened. With a gentle shake, it spread out like an unrolled painting, the entire space unfolding before rapidly expanding under the force of the Sword Emperor’s power.

This invisible fabric of space covered the heavens and wrapped around the sun and moon. Like a vast, formless net without trace, it completely enveloped the Qiongluo Realm.

That layer of spatial fabric was connected to Shi Lan’s primordial spirit. Through the Sword Emperor’s power, countless fleeting images vaguely passed before her eyes—they were the Sword Emperor’s memories.

She came to know everything from the time the Sword Emperor stepped into the Emperor level onward, yet among those fragments of memory were many scenes she had never seen before.

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In most of those memories, the Sword Emperor was searching for immortal roots and precious medicines capable of reversing yin and yang. He wanted to revive the woman who had always remained by his side.

Yet the overwhelming majority of such treasures required at least a remnant soul. Her cultivation had been no more than the Myriad Phenomena Realm; she had never even condensed a primordial spirit, and her soul had long since dispersed and gone into reincarnation.

After reaching the Emperor Realm, he had once sought access to the Human Race’s historical annals, only to be turned away by the Human Emperor of that era.

The Primordial God War had ended not long before, and the Human Race’s historical annals were suppressing Ancient Gods, along with many great demons and giant devils. They simply could not be moved lightly.

Afterward, the Sword Emperor wandered the starry sky and, within a span of years that was not even all that long, reached the very pinnacle of the Emperor Realm.

He found the boundary of yin and yang and, with blood and qi flourishing to the utmost, shattered the wall between the yin and yang realms and stepped onto the farther shore of the Yellow Springs.

This portion of memory was incomparably obscure, as though something covered it over, and Shi Lan could not see it clearly.

In the end, the Sword Emperor broke through the underworld and returned to the world of the living, his blood and qi greatly damaged, his lifespan nearly at its very end.

He had originally had a chance to strike toward the supreme realm, but his blood and qi had already declined, and there was no way to reverse it.

At the moment of his death, he returned to the Lingyang Realm and, carrying an invincible bearing, slew demons and exterminated fiends like a brilliant meteor streaking across the heavens, vanishing in an instant.

At the end of his life, he returned to that solitary grave, moved the entire landscape into the Guiyun Realm, and used Emperor arts to draw in ninety-nine dragon veins, building a mausoleum for himself…

…

The memories flashed before Shi Lan’s eyes at tremendous speed. From those vast, ocean-like fragments, she could only catch a few scattered words and see a few scattered scenes.

Even so, those memories still left her with an incomparable shock.

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The Sword Emperor’s power gradually receded, and that sheet of spatial fabric had already completely wrapped around the Qiongluo Realm like a giant cocoon.

Shi Lan could vaguely sense that her primordial spirit was gradually merging with the entire world.

The Qiongluo Realm was becoming a part of her. The feeling was incredibly mysterious. Beyond her limbs and five senses, there seemed to be some further extension, something impossible to put into words.

Her cultivation, which had only just ceased rising, began climbing once more, entering an entirely new domain.

The laws permeating heaven and earth became exceptionally clear within her heart, as though they were within reach of her fingertips.

Never before had she felt herself so close to heaven and earth. With a single thought, she could command the laws and shatter heaven and split earth.

Awakening from that profound sensation, Shi Lan opened her eyes and looked to one side.

The moment she saw the figure before her clearly, Shi Lan’s heart trembled.

The Sword Emperor, who had still been in the full bloom of his prime a moment ago, now seemed to have entered old age in an instant. Frost-white hair lined his temples, and his blood and qi were nearly exhausted.

That ultimate battle after death, on top of the realm-merging secret art, had all but burned away his last remaining warmth. He could no longer even maintain the most basic appearance he had before.

“Sword Emperor…”

In an instant, countless words surged up in Shi Lan’s heart, yet she could not utter a single one. The corners of her eyes stung faintly.

The divine light in his eyes was dim as he looked at Shi Lan. Then, suddenly, he smiled—a light smile, gentle as a spring breeze brushing against the face.

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“Little girl, good luck.”

In that dazed moment, Shi Lan’s gaze drifted, as though across the ages she saw that peerless prodigy who had risen to supremacy in his youth, the invincible Sword Monarch whose blade had suppressed great demons and giant fiends.

Alone, with only the sword to keep him company.

In his heart, the only thing worth remembering was but a single scene from the past, something that had seeped into his bones and blood in some unknown stretch of time, leaving behind only regret in the end.

He stood there quietly, without the slightest further movement.

A wisp of spiritual light leaped out of the longsword, and Wuxu revealed himself. After looking around, he suddenly whipped his head back and stared fixedly at the Sword Emperor’s remaining body, the light in his eyes flickering uncertainly.

“What did he say?”

“He wished me good luck.”

Shi Lan slowly knelt down and offered a respectful bow.

She did not know whether the one who had just spoken was the Sword Emperor’s divine sense, or something else. There was no way to know.

Kindness ought to be repaid in full, but the Sword Emperor’s kindness was likely something she would never be able to repay.

She lifted her head slightly and looked toward the horizon. Outside the realm, starlight flickered faintly, traveling to her side from beyond endless time and space.

It was weak, yet incomparably striking.