Chapter 345: Sword Spirit
In front of him was a pool.
The pool was one metre wide and filled with golden liquid.
"Gold source essence." He muttered and rushed towards the pool.
However, he stopped a few steps from the pool and drew his sword.
In the blink of an eye, his demeanour turned colder and his eyes grew sharper.
"Come out." He shouted while pointing his sword at the pool.
"You discovered me." A voice said and ripples appeared in the golden pool.
A moment later, a drop of golden liquid flew out of the pool.
"Are you..." Yu Nianzhen muttered with a voice filled with excitement.
"I am the spirit of gold essence." A proud voice came from the drop and Yu Nianzhen looked at it closely.
Within the drop was a figure that was about an inch tall.
The figure looked like a compressed man and its voice was that of a young boy.
"What’s your name?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
"The spirit of gold essence." The boy repeated proudly.
"Do you want to become my weapon spirit?"
When the spirit heard that, it looked at the sword in Yu Nianzhen’s hand.
Under ordinary circumstances, it would never appear in front of people.
However, it felt the presence of the mother of iron and the primordial yin-yang flame from the sword.
The two were primordial treasures and the spirit was very tempted.
"Your sword is on the verge of becoming a profound rank weapon." It stated.
"It will be promoted if you agree to become a weapon spirit." Yu Nianzhen confirmed and then continued.
"My sword is forged with the mother of iron and its potential is limitless. If you become its weapon spirit, your future will also be limitless."
The spirit of gold essence was further tempted when it heard that.
In fact, it didn’t need Yu Nianzhen to tell it.
It knew that the mother of iron was a good thing that could nurture it to a higher height.
However, it didn’t want to submit to a human.
It wanted the mother of iron but also wanted to be free.
With that, the spirit made its choice and the golden pool began to stir.
Soon after, golden blades emerged from the pool and flew towards Yu Nianzhen.
’As expected, it’s impossible for it to easily submit.’ He thought and swung his sword.
Instantaneously, a sword-intent barrier appeared in front of him.
The barrier blocked the golden blades and they reverted to golden liquid.
"Surrender the mother of iron and I will let you go." The spirit screamed and more blades flew from the pool.
When Yu Nianzhen heard that, he sneered and continued to block the blades.
"You can take it if you defeat me." He said and made a diagonal swing.
A moment later, an extremely fast sword intent flew to the spirit and pierced its golden drop.
Before it could react, the sword intent pierced the spirit and its body scattered but soon gathered.
"You can’t defeat me." Yu Nianzhen taunted.
"Who says I can’t defeat you?" The spirit argued and more blades appeared in the air.
These blades were condensed from the remaining gold source stones and their sharpness was unparalleled.
When they appeared, the air felt sharp and even Yu Nianzhen was a little uncomfortable.
Without hesitation, he opened his sword domain and the sharp feeling was immediately eliminated.
"I will call you Shanjiang from now on." Yu Nianzhen suddenly said.
"I am the spirit of gold essence." The spirit said angrily and its attacks became more aggressive.
It didn’t like being ignored and it felt that the human in front of it didn’t take it seriously.
"If you follow me, I will find a lot of treasures for you to improve your realm." Yu Nianzhen persuaded and the spirit hesitated a little.
It was born in the mountain of gold source stones.
Over the years, it absorbed a lot of gold source stones and its cultivation reached the peak of the fourth level which was equivalent to the peak of the core formation realm.
Unfortunately, gold source stones were no longer enough to drive its cultivation.
If it wanted to break through, it needed more treasures and the mother of iron was one such treasure.
"There are many treasures outside the gold source stones mountain. You will miss a lot if you continue to stay here."
"Is what you said true?"
"It’s true." Yu Nianzhen confirmed and a silver stone appeared on his palm.
"Star gold." The spirit muttered and rushed towards the stone.
However, Yu Nianzhen wasn’t having it.
Before the spirit reached him, he put the stone away and a smile curled his lips.
"What do you say? Do you want to become my weapon spirit?"
The spirit stopped when it heard that.
Its golden face became tangled and its eyes looked at Yu Nianzhen furtively.
"I have a few pieces of star gold and you can have them all when you become my weapon spirit."
"What else?"
Yu Nianzhen looked at the spirit and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
With his cultivation, he couldn’t defeat it.
If he continued to fight it, he would soon lose and be forced to flee from the gold source stones mountain.
"I also have a piece of profound black iron." Yu Nianzhen said and removed the metal to show to the spirit.
"In the future, I will find better things for you to cultivate."
"Really?"
"I am a pure swordsman and Shanjiang is my only weapon. I will not neglect you and the sword in the future."
The spirit fell into thought when it heard that.
It had long realised that staying in the gold source stones mountain was a dead end.
However, it was still not convinced.
Its inheritance memory had a lot about the human race.
From the memory, it knew that becoming a weapon spirit would allow it to grow.
However, it was also risky.
If contracted with a cruel human, it would be forced to do evil things.
More importantly, some humans liked to burn the essence of the weapon spirits to temporarily enhance the power of their weapons.
Thinking of that, the spirit couldn’t rest assured.
It had worked hard to reach its current level.
If it contracted with the human and the human burned its essence, it would have nowhere to cry.
"Are you a bad human?" It asked in a low voice.
"Bad human?"
"Will you burn my essence? Will you destroy my consciousness?"
"I won’t." Yu Nianzhen answered without hesitation but the spirit was still sceptical.
"I can make an oath to reassure you."
"Can you?"
Yu Nianzhen looked at the small spirit and his lips twitched.
"I can."
After that, Yu Nianzhen made a carefully worded oath and the spirit relaxed.
Now that it had no worries, it flew to Yu Nianzhen and began to circle him.
"Stop that, it’s making me dizzy." He said and the spirit stopped in front of him.
"Let’s make the contract now." He continued a little urgently.
He wanted to contract the spirit, refine the sword, and then leave the gold source stones mountain to find Jiang Yue.
"Okay." The spirit said and flew into Shanjiang.
When Yu Nianzhen refined Shanjaing, he used a lot of blood essence.
The blood essence formed a seal within the sword and would normally not appear unless someone was trying to contract shanjiang.
At this time, the blood essence seal lit up and the bloody light captured the spirit.
Since it had agreed to contract with Yu Nianzhen, the spirit didn’t fight the bloody light.
It allowed the light to sink in its body and the contract was successfully completed.
Almost immediately, the sword began to vibrate and dark clouds formed in the air above the mountain.
"Master, I am about to undergo the promotion tribulation." Shanjiang said.
Now that it was the sword’s spirit, it naturally identified with the name of the sword and recognised Yu Nianzhen as its master.
"Will you manage?" Yu Nianzhen asked worriedly.
If the sword passed the tribulation, it would be promoted to a profound rank weapon from a peak grade spirit rank weapon.
However, if it failed, it would be destroyed and Yu Nianzhen’s hard work of more than fifty years would come to nothing.
"Don’t worry master." Shanjiang said confidently.
After saying that, it flew from Yu Nianzhen’s hand and hovered a few metres away.
A moment later, a bolt of white lightning emerged from the cloud and fell on the sword.
At the same time, Yu Nianzhen heard a cracking sound and his heart skipped a beat.
’This is only the first strike; how can it be so powerful?’ He thought and clenched his hands.
Fortunately, Shanjiang was a carefully refined sword.
Although the lightning was powerful, Shanjiang absorbed it and used it to eliminate the impurities in the sword.
After the first strike, came the second, and third.
The tribulation continued for a whole day and didn’t stop until the sword was struck forty-nine times.
When it was over, the sword vibrated and emitted a radiant silver glow.
After that, it flew into the pool of gold source essence.
