Chapter 173: Summoning Spirit

The entire sand sea seemed like a breeding ground for monsters. The sandy surface continuously swelled and cracked as countless creatures emerged, most of them appearing as a near-void white in their soul form.

Some of these creatures resembled infants but dragged long tails. As soon as they appeared, they leaped violently, opening mouths full of tiny triangular teeth to bite off the neck of another newly emerged creature. However, their own bodies were too small; after biting several soul-form creatures to death, one was trampled into a pulp by a giant, elephant-like hoof and quickly vanished. The creature with the elephant hoof, which had a lizard-like body, quickly glided away after crushing the long-tailed infant, leaving a trail of huge footprints on the fine sand.

Inside the Qi Sea, the Spirit of the Sword Scripture exclaimed, “This… this is a Dragon Elephant! Shouldn’t this creature have disappeared long ago? Its hooves, made from elephant feet, are supposedly only used by envoys from the Divine Realm when they travel.”

Following the Spirit of the Sword Scripture's exclamation, more and more creatures swelled up from the boundless fine sand.

Among the countless monsters, a few humanoid creatures were also present. Their faces were indistinct, but they moved at high speed, wielding weapons and executing sword moves as they fought fiercely across the wasteland.

Giant, shackled corpse-beings charged from a distance. Petal-like monsters grew from the ground, killing any approaching living thing. Three-headed monstrous birds flew in the sky like vultures, seemingly trying to avoid the conflict, but another ape-like creature climbed through the void and twisted their three heads off like a braid.

Inside, the Spirit of the Sword Scripture's exclamations sounded intermittently as it introduced each creature, its words filled with shock.

“This seems to be from the ancient Kuafu tribe, but the Kuafu tribe was wiped out in that Corpse-Refining War. I never expected to see one here.”

“This is a Dark Moon Vulture. It likes to peck through a person’s heart with a single blow from behind. Its beak can be made into the sharpest hidden weapon.”

“Is this… is this a Three-Leaf Scaled Fish? Legend says it grows a five-colored scale, and whoever swallows it can instantly reach a new level of cultivation…”

If one's perspective swept across the entire desert, it would be a magnificent scene of a vast land without a master, with heroes rising to contend for supremacy.

During the Spirit of the Sword Scripture's brief introductions, Ning Changjiu also found himself caught in the melee.

A giant, tadpole-like creature glided swiftly towards him, its edges sparkling with soul-form electricity. It appeared very juvenile, but its mouth full of saw-like teeth was capable of tearing through a giant python’s neck.

Ning Changjiu drew the broken sword from his waist while simultaneously taking out the hard black iron branch. These were the only two defensive items he currently possessed.

Inside the broken sword, Blood Feather Lord protested loudly, “Go easy, don’t break the sword!”

Ning Changjiu ignored its pleas. He simply channeled spiritual power into the sword, causing it to outline its original form completely.

He pushed off with his feet, twisted his body to the side, and after dodging the tadpole's charge, he swiftly brought his sword down, instantly cleaving it in half. Then, with agile footwork, he dodged an ambush from a ground dragon. He circled behind it, leaped up, and thrust his sword down, pinning it to the sand. As Ning Changjiu descended, he tapped the hilt of his sword with his toe, launching himself back up and cleaving a feathered serpent swimming overhead in half. He then landed, pulled his sword from the sand, leaned forward, and swept his sword horizontally, clearing an empty space with sword energy.

“I understand!” the Spirit of the Sword Scripture shouted. “These are all creatures that died in this desert, and now they’ve been reawakened!”

“Many who were worthy of dying here are close relatives of gods, with divine blood flowing through their bodies…” Ning Changjiu also realized this.

No wonder every creature appearing here was so ancient and mysterious; any one of them reappearing in the outside world would cause immense upheaval. If they weren't in their undead form, Ning Changjiu wouldn't be able to kill them so easily. These creatures, to continue existing, had to kill any nearby life, but this also consumed a great deal of their power. No one knew what other evil beings lurked in this wasteland.

Ning Changjiu established layers of sword domains to block the approaching creatures.

The "moon" in the sky was descending.

This hourglass-like space didn't seem to rotate around its center. Instead, it rotated around its bottom, meaning that each time the hourglass inverted, the entire space would travel a certain distance. Where was it going?

Numerous questions clouded his mind. Because the world was constantly flipping, many of Ning Changjiu’s spells could not be cast in such an unstable space.

He could only continuously move and shift using his footwork, occasionally striking out with a sword.

Soul-form creatures continued to emerge from this desolate desert, but their death rate was equally swift. Swathes of fading soul light were like lit signal fires, and in a relatively short time, the weaker creatures across the entire desert were almost completely slaughtered.

“I know!”

The Spirit of the Sword Scripture loudly exclaimed again.

“Speak!” Ning Changjiu said directly.

The Spirit of the Sword Scripture’s voice carried a hint of fear. “I have a piece of primordial memory! About… well, my origin.”

“Your origin?” Ning Changjiu questioned.

The Spirit of the Sword Scripture proudly stated, “As humans, you humble beings have blank memories of your birth and infancy. But I am different. Even after being born, I can recall things from before my birth—the past events surrounding the creation of this very Sword Scripture.”

Ning Changjiu plunged his sword into the throat of a giant ape, twisting it. Then he leaped up, grabbed the ape’s nape, and swung it out, hurling it towards an ant colony that was crawling densely like a legion.

He flicked his wrist, once again using spiritual energy to mend the chip in his sword’s edge. He retreated towards the edge where the soul-forms were sparser, trying to conserve strength as much as possible.

The Spirit of the Sword Scripture asked, “Do you know how the earliest, most profound sword techniques were created?”

Ning Changjiu was too lazy to answer, knowing it would just continue talking.

As expected, after waiting a moment for an answer, the Spirit of the Sword Scripture muttered to itself, “Back then, the Ancestor selected a hundred skilled death warriors and had each of them cultivate a different sword scripture. Three years later, they were all cast into a desolate mountain, and only one was allowed to survive. That person’s swordsmanship would be the most powerful and effective for killing. That was true swordsmanship! Not like today, all flashy and impractical; truly, each generation is worse than the last!”

The Spirit of the Sword Scripture paused, then stated proudly, “That swordsman, back then, killed all his competitors, and each person he killed had only one wound. The swordsmanship he used was the Heavenly Prophecy Sword Scripture!”

The Spirit of the Sword Scripture wanted to laugh proudly a few times to bolster its courage, but it was afraid of disturbing the Golden Crow still slumbering in the Purple Mansion. So it only let out a few dry laughs, then said, “The fighting in this desert now should also be to select the strongest… Only the strongest can survive until the end!”

Ning Changjiu said, “This is ‘raising Gu’?”

“You could say that,” the Spirit of the Sword Scripture nodded, though it felt the description lacked grandeur.

“So someone is controlling us?” Ning Changjiu asked.

This idea was somewhat frightening.

To be able to incite endless, entangled battles among divine-blood creatures across the entire desert, how powerful must that person be?

“The Headless God?” The Spirit of the Sword Scripture frowned.

Ning Changjiu couldn't be sure.

According to Madam Bai, the Headless God had long been dead, and she herself was a being born from a portion of its divine bones.

But if not the Headless God, who else could create such a domain that contained the laws of time? That moon was continuously descending, growing larger in their sight.

The fighting in the desert became even more intense. The entire world would soon fall into another space.

“Master Ning, Master Ning, that bird seems to be a Red Feather Falcon too. They’re both close relatives of the Fire Phoenix clan. Meeting relatives in a foreign land, Master, won’t you spare it…” Before Blood Feather Lord could finish its chattering, Ning Changjiu reached out, grabbed the neck of the diving bird, squeezed hard, then directly stabbed it with his sword, disemboweling it.

Blood Feather Lord thought, "This is definitely killing a chicken to warn the other chickens," and it immediately shut up, chastened.

Meanwhile, the souls that had killed nearby life all ran towards the “moon,” as if they wanted to be the first to rush towards it when it reached the horizon, like carp striving to leap over the dragon gate.

This was the instinct of the creatures here, and in a sense, a manifestation of the laws.

Without hesitation, Ning Changjiu also followed the souls, chasing after the hollow moon.

Then, Ning Changjiu stopped.

In the darkness, he saw a giant, python-like body arching high.

The black python turned its head and looked in his direction.

“Jiuying…” Ning Changjiu instantly recognized it.

It had unexpectedly reappeared before him in this desert, in its undead form.

In the darkness, such a massive shadow was always chilling to behold. The Sword Scripture within him also gasped, cursing, “The soul of Jiuying never disperses.”

On the canopy-like caisson ceiling, colorful paintings and delicate bas-reliefs were beautiful and refined. Layer upon layer of dougong brackets extended outward with precision. Illuminated by lamplight, the richly colored murals were covered with a soft, lustrous glow, appearing profound and beautiful.

Beneath the caisson ceiling was a classical palace.

The palace’s furnishings were not luxurious; the center even seemed empty. Many inscribed stone tablets stood there, quite out of place, with various divine beasts hanging from them.

But compared to the desolation of the entire city, this elegant and solemn hall stood out, like a radiant pearl left behind by a deity.

A group of people arrived outside the palace.

Among the crowd, men stood in two rows and women in another two, dressed in pure black robes and pure white skirts respectively. In their midst, a young girl in a white top and black skirt walked with the crowd into the hall.

The girl appeared well-mannered. She was only sixteen or seventeen, and at this moment, she kept her head slightly bowed, her eyes serene and noble. Her steps were unhurried as she approached a stone gate in the center of the main hall, where she knelt on a prayer mat, her hands clasped together.

A man with a pale, bluish-white face walked out and recited a scripture.

Then everyone collectively offered blessings for the girl.

Today was a great day for the City of Severed Realms.

When each royal girl came of age, she had to summon a powerful creature from the Abyss of Time to jointly defend against the invading mutated demons outside the city.

Their agreed-upon age of majority was seventeen.

The girl clasped her hands, her beautiful face appearing calm and confident.

Everyone placed great hopes on her.

However, in the girl’s heart, a different kind of storm was raging.

“Help me…”

“Oh no, Mother made me pretend for so many years; I can’t keep it up anymore…”

“I don’t have any royal bloodline! Even if you drain all my blood, I won’t be able to summon a deity…”

“Waaah, after cheating them for so many years, if I’m exposed today, Mother and I will definitely be hanged together…”

“There are so many people who adore me… Who can save me…?”

“Or maybe, Divine Father, you could show your spirit? Your daughter is kowtowing to you now!”