C455 The Sword Has a Spirit!
"The evilkind suppressed beneath the sea?"
Liu Ying was utterly astounded, her mind racing with new connections triggered by the Abyssal Leviathan's revelation.
Kong Banbi stood frozen for a few moments before his body jolted with realization. "You, you're not from the evilkind of the sea?"
He, Liu Ying, and everyone on the Fallen Star Eyes had been laboring under the same misconception—
They had all assumed the Abyssal Leviathan was an elder of the evilkind.
"The Tears of the Azurefiend wreak havoc, and as guardians of the Embers Sea, shouldn't the evilkind have intervened? Shouldn't they have stabilized the situation, allowing the Tears of the Azurefiend to settle down?"
It was with this belief that they had welcomed the Abyssal Leviathan, watching it enter the Fallen Star Eyes without second thought.
But now, the Abyssal Leviathan had confessed to being suppressed by the ancient evilkind at the ocean's depths for countless years, covetously observing trial after trial, watching young maidens swim by...
If it wasn't from the evilkind, then what was it?
"Evilkind of the sea?"
Within the confines of the sword light cage, the Abyssal Leviathan shook its head with scorn. "Is there any evilkind in these waters that can compare to me? Not just here—what notable figure among the evilkind of the Everlands' seas could stand before me without fear?"
His words were brimming with arrogance, dismissing all sea-dwelling evilkind as insignificant.
This also confirmed that he was not a native of the Everlands but an extraterrestrial being.
"You, what you've brought with you, it's actually..."
Du Huang of the Forgeroses glared at Yu Yuan with fury, as if accusing him of recklessly introducing such an alien entity into the Fallen Star Eyes without uttering a word.
Yu Yuan paid him no heed, his mind alight with thoughts, rapidly strategizing on how to subdue the Abyssal Leviathan.
He was acutely aware that the sword light bequeathed by the Moon Slayer cultivator was finite and non-renewable, which is why he had always been frugal and cautious in its use.
The Abyssal Leviathan, now masquerading as an old man, had unabashedly revealed its cold and merciless true nature. Confined within the narrow prison of interwoven sword light, it wielded its teeth as though they were a Divine Weapon, capable of withstanding the formidable might of the sword light.
The might of the Abyssal Leviathan was unmistakable!
Hei Xun had mentioned that within the depths of the Embers Sea, the Abyssal Leviathan's power was limited to a mere thirty percent of its peak. Only by shattering the Azure Veil's seal and overcoming the successive restraints could it swiftly regain its full strength.
At its most formidable, not even the Tears of the Azurefiend could subdue the Abyssal Leviathan; it could effortlessly seize them and wield their power to its will across the vast Everlands.
"Hei Xun of the Devil Palace seems to be credible," Yu Yuan mused, a chill settling in his heart. He aimed the sword sheath at the Abyssal Leviathan, watching as streams of sword light successively shot forth, weaving together into a luminous cage that temporarily restrained the beast.
"It's futile."
With a gentle shake of its head, the Abyssal Leviathan retracted the soft limbs that had emerged from its body and consumed the flesh of the two young women, assimilating them back into itself.
Though still gaunt, its exposed skin had begun to look more nourished.
It was as if a withered tree had met spring, sprouting fresh, tender branches and leaves anew.
A vibrant energy and the scent of rejuvenating flesh and blood emanated from it.
"I am growing stronger. Since escaping that sunken ship, my strength has been incrementally increasing," he said with a serene smile. "The sword sheath you wield contains only a finite amount of sword force. Eventually, it will be depleted. And when it is, what will you be able to do against me?"
His eerie, small eyes glanced over Liu Ying, Su Yan, and the rest.
Su Yan shivered under his gaze, feeling as if she had plunged into a frigid abyss, her skin erupting in goosebumps.
The other young women from the Sword Sect and Forgeroses shrieked in terror, involuntarily stepping back, overwhelmed by a sense of despair as if malevolent spirits had marked them for their flesh.
Only Liu Ying, her face ashen, coughed up another mouthful of blood.
The blood fell onto the stone platform before her, the mist morphing into patterns of stars, striving to expel the insidious force the Abyssal Leviathan had covertly inflicted upon the Fallen Star Eyes.
She was aware that the moment the Abyssal Leviathan resolved to strike, it had surreptitiously begun to permeate the Fallen Star Eyes with its strange power, setting the stage in the shadows.
It was also conceivable that the Abyssal Leviathan had wrested control from her in the vicinity of the Crucible of Evil, subtly infusing its own strength into the Fallen Star Eyes as it manipulated them.
Liu Ying was currently harnessing the essence of her vitality, employing the technique bestowed upon her by the Starmoon Sect's Sect Master, to exert influence over the artifact.
Artifacts possessed souls, and she sought to establish a connection with the artifact soul, joining forces with it to expunge the Abyssal Leviathan's influence.
Given that the Abyssal Leviathan was momentarily confined within Yu Yuan's sword light cage, it was an opportune moment for her, one she was determined not to squander.
The Abyssal Leviathan sneered, "You think you can?"
Boom!
A chaotic dance of myriad strands of light erupted within the stone of the Fallen Star Eyes.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The once pristine starry pattern that had just emerged within the depths of the silver-white meteorite was now punctured and torn, leaving it riddled with holes and no longer intact.
Liu Ying, with a cry of alarm, found herself seated abruptly on the ground, her snow-white neck marred by a web of fine cuts from the artifact's backlash.
Gazing at the translucent stone platform before her, she could feel the despair and helplessness of the Fallen Star Eyes' artifact soul within. Its silent cries of anguish and pain were audible only to her.
The artifact soul yearned to be close to her, to merge with her and jointly resist the Abyssal Leviathan's might.
Yet, the Abyssal Leviathan's strength was overwhelming, and even the artifact soul of the Starmoon Sect seemed powerless to break free.
"Girl, what do you think these Fallen Star Eyes are? They were crafted from a Lunar Meteorite, incorporating a hundred varieties of the Everlands' exotic fine gold. But this doesn't alter the essence of the moonstone," the gaunt elder remarked from within the sword light cage, pointing to his own luminescent white eyes. "Within this eye lies the Lunar Essence!"
He let out a low chuckle as the artifact soul within the stone platform before Liu Ying wailed in torment.
Her heart ached at the sound, compelling her to cover her ears, sharing in the soul's mournful cries.
The Fallen Star Eyes and her consciousness were united, allowing her to experience the agony of the artifact soul as if it were her own.
The wounds of the Fallen Star Eyes would inevitably manifest on her, inflicting severe damage on both her physical and spiritual being.
"Form the sword circle!"
Kong Banbi, sensing impending doom, bellowed the command. With a deep voice, he directed the miniature sword, which was linked to his psyche, towards the Abyssal Leviathan.
Of the Sword Sect's survivors, only five remained, their levels ranging from Veil Breaking to Subtlety.
At Kong Banbi's signal, the five Sword Sect survivors took their positions with resolute expressions, flanking him on both sides. They called forth Spirit Swords from either the mud pellet acupoint or the middle elixir field, depending on their individual practices.
A Spirit Sword that could be cultivated within the mud pellet acupoint held the essence of the soul, and its wielder had to be at least at the Subtlety level.
Only at the Subtlety level, when the mud pellet acupoint opened, could one truly nurture a sword.
With a whoosh, a Spirit Sword as slender as a needle burst forth from the brow of an elder cultivator in the middle period of Subtlety.
This cultivator was older and no less skilled than Kong Banbi, but regrettably, appearing to be in his fifties, he lacked potential for further growth.
As his Spirit Sword launched, the Fallen Star Eyes erupted with the sound of thunder, hinting at the presence of stormy might.
The presence of thunder magic within the sword's wil was not uncommon, and its ability to carry thunder and lightning was a testament to the sophistication of the sword spell, hardly a cause for astonishment.
However, the real surprise came when the slender Spirit Sword, steeped in the mysteries of his mud pellet acupoint, struck at the Abyssal Leviathan and underwent a startling transformation!
The yellow sword light that had been assailing the Abyssal Leviathan suddenly reversed its course, flying back into the fray!
This strand of sword light merged with the slender Spirit Sword, dramatically amplifying its power as if the sword had been imbued with a soul.
With a sizzling tear, the needle-like Spirit Sword shattered the sword light cage and thrust instantly towards the waist of the Abyssal Leviathan.
Bursts of lightning flared, and strands of yellow lightning, sharp as blades, lanced into the flesh of the Abyssal Leviathan, blasting a horrific wound into the old creature's midsection.
Within the bloodied chamber, the Abyssal Leviathan's thick, serpentine tendons writhed like menacing anacondas, clashing with bursts of yellow sword light.
Moments before, the Abyssal Leviathan had been the picture of tranquility, but it suddenly let out a pained howl, its demeanor undergoing a dramatic transformation.
"Junior Brother Liu?"
Kong Banbi, the one who had initiated the sword circle, stared in astonishment at the older cultivator who had joined the sect later than he had.
"What's happening?" Du Huang exclaimed, startled.
"I... I'm not sure," admitted the Sword Sect cultivator, his straightforward and earnest demeanor evident as he watched the Spirit Sword display its formidable power. This unexpected event left him unable to properly form the sword circle, and he shook his head, lost and bewildered.
"The sword light is infused with a sword's will that seamlessly melds with his own sword!" Yu Yuan exclaimed, thrilled by the revelation.
"That sword, the sword spell he practices, belonged to an elder of the Sword Sect who has long since departed." Kong Banbi paused, uncertainty crossing his face. He took another look at Yu Yuan's sword sheath and was struck by a realization. "The sword's will and sword radiance within your sheath, could they be from the revered ancestors of our Sword Sect?"
