Scholar Zhu was stunned. He had just finished saying that these immortal artifacts were sentient and would only recognize descendants of the Thirteen Great Clans as their masters. He never expected that this immortal artifact would actually run over and recognize Chen Shi as its master instead.
In the thousand years he had hung on the yellow earth slope, he had witnessed countless strange events, but none were as bizarre as this.
The reason immortal artifacts were immortal artifacts was that, besides being forged through thousands of temperings by immortals, they also required continuous offerings of incense energy. Which of the immortal artifacts controlled by the Thirteen Great Clans hadn’t been nourished for over six thousand years?
Some might even have been worshipped for ten thousand years!
After all, the True King’s Era had also been extremely long.
These immortal artifacts, having long received incense offerings, naturally grew closer to the descendants of the Thirteen Great Clans. For others to obtain an immortal artifact, they would have to forcibly suppress it first, refining away the incense energy stored within. But doing so would also greatly diminish the artifact’s power.
Of course, among the prehistoric relics, there were also many immortal artifacts, but because they had gone too long without worship, their extraordinary power had drained away. Without a heritage of incense offerings, they would no longer actively seek a master. This was also why Chen Shi had been able to take the Yin-Yang Sun-Moon Rings from Zhong Wuwang.
Chen Shi hesitated for a moment. He ignored the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, walking around it instead. He said, “Let’s search for other immortal artifacts. Maybe we can find a masterless one!”
Scholar Zhu quickly asked, “Little Ten, this blade recognized you as its master. Why won’t you accept it?”
“If it comes knocking on my door, I don’t want it!”
Chen Shi shook his head. “This blade is extremely sinister.”
Black Pot and Wooden Cart caught up. Chen Shi was about to get on the cart when suddenly, the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade flew up and followed behind him.
Chen Shi frowned slightly. The Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade was indeed an immensely powerful immortal artifact, especially when combined with the Blood Lake Sutra, its might becoming absolutely domineering. In his hands, it might even be easier to use than the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler!
He could even comprehend the demonic blade techniques hidden within the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.
But he clearly remembered the feeling of being controlled by this demon blade.
When you held the demon blade, you no longer controlled it; it controlled you.
The demonic nature of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade was too heavy. Chen Shi had no confidence in controlling this blade, so he would rather not have it.
Yet the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade seemed unwilling to leave him, steadily following behind.
“This blade is extremely dangerous.”
Little Duan Immortal suddenly hid inside Chen Shi’s miniature shrine and said, “I can sense the unparalleled murderous intent it contains, something I’ve never seen before. If you’re injured by it, unless you’ve transcended yin and yang, you will probably die, body and spirit obliterated.”
Scholar Zhu also felt his heart pounding with fear, worried that if he touched this blade, he would vanish into thin air. He quickly flew into another small shrine.
Seeing this, Chen Shi also worried that having this blade follow him around would be disastrous if a fight broke out and he accidentally touched its edge, resulting in his own demise.
Besides, this blade was so sinister. Even if he didn’t touch it, if it touched Black Pot or Wooden Cart, they would probably be done for as well.
Chen Shi carefully grabbed the hilt. The Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade fell into his hand, and he immediately felt a surging wave of bloody energy rush into his body. Accompanied by demonic wails like ghosts crying and gods howling, along with the weeping of immortals—a miserable, pitiful sound!
“Blood Lake Hell! Trying to tempt me into using the Blood Lake Sutra? Dream on!”
Chen Shi snorted and immediately activated Yin-Yang Variation, refining the yin and yang energies that surrounded the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.
These two streams of righteous energy of heaven and earth had been left behind by some unknown person. They were the core of the blade, which was why anyone it cut, even if only the skin was broken, would be controlled by this treasure, their physical body and Primordial Spirit both transforming into nutrients for the Blood Sea Hell. Little Duan Immortal had said that to face this blade, one had to transcend yin and yang to survive, and it was not an empty claim.
However, upon brief contact, Chen Shi immediately discovered that the yin and yang energies surrounding the blade, though appearing small, were actually extremely dense—far more than they seemed on the surface.
“Maybe by refining these yin and yang energies, I can subdue this blade.”
Chen Shi’s heart stirred. He called out, “Black Pot, you handle the driving. I need to refine this blade and cannot be distracted!”
Black Pot barked in acknowledgment. Chen Shi sat down in the cart, placed a cushion, and set the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade on the altar of the miniature shrine.
Seeing this, Little Duan Immortal immediately flew out of that shrine and entered another small shrine, sitting down on its altar.
Scholar Zhu nodded slightly to her, and Little Duan Immortal bowed in return.
Scholar Zhu thought to himself, “My disciple’s wife seems cold and aloof, but that’s not really the case. She might just be not good at social interactions, which makes her seem distant.”
Chen Shi lit a few incense sticks for the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. The incense energy curled upward, drifting toward the divine blade placed on the altar.
He then activated his Primordial Spirit, channeling his own yin and yang energies to connect with the sun and moon of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade!
The moment his yin and yang energies touched those of the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, Chen Shi’s vision suddenly turned blood-red. Looking around, he saw an endless ocean formed of blood, vast and boundless, with no shore in sight.
Waves rippled across the blood sea. A massive immortal head let out a piercing shriek, slowly rising from the sea, its hair disheveled and terrifying—the very head of the immortal from the Upper Realm that Chen Shi had cleaved in two with a single strike.
But this immortal head had been refined by the Blood Sea Hell and posed no danger to him.
This Blood Sea Hell was formed from the blood of that immortal, its vastness comparable to the eighteen layers of hell.
In the sky, the sun and moon formed from yin and yang energies revolved endlessly, clashing, entangling, and refining each other. Between the sun and moon, a faintly visible edge of a blade flickered, indistinct and unclear.
That was the true body of the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.
Chen Shi leaped up, floating before the great sun and bright moon. He channeled his own yin and yang energies, merging them into the celestial bodies.
“Before, I couldn’t subdue you because my understanding of yin and yang wasn’t as deep as yours, this blade. But now that I’ve comprehended Yin-Yang Variation, let’s see if you control me or I control you!”
He exerted himself to the utmost, mobilizing his yin and yang energies, trying to seize control of the sun and moon revolving around the blade’s edge.
Outside, a flash of light suddenly streaked across the sky, like a meteor tearing through the night, many times brighter than the sun. Black Pot looked up, his heart stirred. He immediately revealed his Huo Dog true form, transforming into a colossal beast. His tail curled around the wooden cart, lifting it onto his back.
Wooden Cart quickly grew arms, gripping tightly onto the fur on his back.
Black Pot immediately broke into a run, chasing after that streak of light at full speed.
His body was enormous, and now that yin and yang were indistinct, his strength had also advanced by leaps and bounds. He tracked that light all the way for tens of thousands of miles.
The streak of light had flown from the Upper Realm, so it must be an immortal artifact. That was why he refused to give up the chase.
As he got closer, he saw that within the light was a silver, elongated object with two pointed ends. From a distance, it looked like a willow leaf or a silver fish. It appeared hollow, with no patterns on its surface, resembling a shuttle used for weaving.
Black Pot accelerated his pursuit, moving faster and faster, but the silver shuttle gradually slowed down.
Suddenly, the silver shuttle unfolded, and a corpse fell out. It was unknown which ancestor of the Thirteen Great Clans, already killed by a Despair Slope immortal.
This person hadn’t died immediately but had used the shuttle’s speed to escape. Unfortunately, he had breathed his last inside the shuttle.
The silver shuttle circled the corpse several times, as if mourning its master’s death. Black Pot charged in, blasting out a mouthful of demonic flames, trying to refine the shuttle.
But the silver shuttle showed no sign of being refined in the demonic flames. Suddenly, it shot out of the fire with a sharp whoosh. Black Pot quickly shrank his body, tilting his head to dodge. The silver shuttle grazed his ear by a hair’s breadth, nearly piercing through him.
Having missed its target, the silver shuttle immediately turned around and flew back.
Black Pot shook his body, tossing Wooden Cart off. The cart grew clouds under its wheels, floating in the air.
Black Pot stood on two legs, charging at the silver shuttle while reaching out to grab. The Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler flew out of the cart, landing in his hand.
The Heavenly Cycle Fire Domain erupted. Black Pot swung the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler in a full arc, whistling down toward the silver shuttle!
This silver shuttle was called the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle, a treasure used for subduing demons among immortal artifacts. It was an immortal artifact brought from the Divine Continent by Daoist cultivators. “Demon-repelling” meant driving away demonic energy and monsters. The artifact was sentient and, sensing the demonic energy on Black Pot, was instinctively driven to try and kill him.
Now without a master, it acted entirely on instinct.
The Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle dodged the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler and was about to stab into Black Pot’s side. Black Pot grinned, and the other end of the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler swept squarely into the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle.
*Clang!*
The Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler was incredibly heavy. This blow bent the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle, which then bulged back out. A burst of light exploded, and it prepared to flee.
Black Pot swung the ruler down again. The light trembled violently. Within the glow, the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle quaked and shot through the void.
Black Pot chased after it, swinging the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler down once more. *Clang!* Another thunderous impact, sending the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle wobbling.
Black Pot chased it all the way, striking down again and again. *Clang, clang, clang*—over a hundred blows.
When he leaped high into the air and brought the ruler down once more, the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle finally couldn’t take it anymore. With a loud crack, it split open, decomposing into ninety-nine soft swords.
These soft swords had two pointed ends, were wider in the middle, and had no hilts.
It seemed that when these oddly shaped soft swords merged together, they formed the Demon-Repelling Shuttle’s shape.
Black Pot raised the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler, about to strike again, when suddenly, incense energy rose from the ninety-nine soft swords, forming a patch of blue clouds. A little girl with two small buns on her head fell to her knees with a *plop* on the blue clouds, raising her hands together in a prayer gesture, bowing repeatedly to him in surrender.
Black Pot lowered the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler and scratched his head.
Over ten days later, Chen Shi finally finished refining the yin and yang energies within the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. He awakened from his meditation.
He held the blade in his hand and slowly activated the Blood Lake Sutra. With a low hum, the bloody energy in the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade surged, rapidly forming a Blood Sea Hell behind his head.
The Blood Sea Hell stood upright, incredibly heavy, but the surging blood energy caused Chen Shi’s power to climb step by step. In an instant, he rose from the Unity realm to the Great Ascension Realm!
At the same time, the demonic nature within the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade drove straight in, trying to control Chen Shi.
Chen Shi immediately activated the yin and yang energies outside the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. The sun and moon revolved around the blade, circulating endlessly, barely resisting the blade’s ferocity—but just barely.
Chen Shi’s body trembled. He found controlling the blade still extremely difficult. But at least this time, he was in the dominant position, not being controlled by the blade.
Given time, as his cultivation deepened day by day, he would gradually be able to control this blade without worrying about the demon blade turning the tables on him.
He slowly dispersed the Blood Lake Sutra. The Blood Sea Hell behind his head rapidly flowed back into the blade, and the demonic nature gradually subsided.
Chen Shi breathed a sigh of relief, filled with joy. Just then, he noticed many soft swords flying around Black Pot like silver fish.
“Black Pot, what is this?”
Chen Shi was astonished and quickly asked.
Black Pot looked smug. Suddenly, he leaped into the air. *Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh*—the silver soft swords flew over, rapidly forming a silver shuttle around him. It shot through the void and vanished without a trace at a speed that was breathtaking.
Suddenly, another *swoosh*, and the silver shuttle flew back, coming to an abrupt stop.
The shuttle reverted into individual soft swords, continuing to fly around Black Pot.
“This flying shuttle... is an immortal artifact?”
Chen Shi’s eyes widened. He exclaimed, “Black Pot, how did you subdue it?”
It had taken him immense effort and over ten days of grueling refinement to barely control the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade. He hadn’t expected that in such a short time, this dog had subdued an immortal artifact!
Black Pot grabbed the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler and mimed forcefully beating something.
“That works too?”
Chen Shi was stunned for a moment. He looked at the Heaven-Measuring Iron Ruler, then back at the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade.
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