Time rewound several months, to when Zhang Chen and the others were on their way to the Devouring Realm after leaving the Blood Realm.
Zhang Chen and Evil Mouth Elder discussed two possible methods for forging the divine artifact. The first was a stable, conservative approach: keeping the Tooth Blade's original form unchanged and gradually infusing the True Ghost Source within the black ore into it, allowing the Tooth Blade's essence to advance to the level of a divine artifact.
Evil Mouth Elder had forged the Tooth Blade based on Zhang Chen's original path as a Vessel Demon. It did not perfectly match Zhang Chen's current Forbidden Release state, which had been unlocked through his comprehension of the Body Devouring Heart Sutra. As a result, Zhang Chen's crucial left arm had not been able to fully display its capabilities.
The second method was far more radical. They would abandon the prototype of the Pseudo Divine Artifact and completely shatter the Tooth Blade, separating the Devouring Teeth inside it and Slender Man's vital essence into their most primitive materials.
Zhang Chen's body was now divided into three parts: ghost, human, and Hell Envoy.
Of these, his ghost body occupied one-half of his body, while the Human Transplanter and Hell Envoy body shared the remaining half.
Evil Mouth Elder's idea was simple. The forged divine artifact had to use Zhang Chen's ghost portion as its core. Therefore, he would use the True Ghost Source within the black ore Elizabeth had obtained, which matched the former Ghost King, as the origin of the entire divine artifact. At the same time, considering that Zhang Chen's left and right arms were different, Evil Mouth Elder would forge the remaining Devouring Teeth and Slender Man's bodily essence separately.
Slender Man's essence could not truly be considered