When Lu Chen slipped back into Wuzhuang Temple, Zhen Yuanzi was sitting beneath the Ginseng Fruit Tree, brewing tea.
It was Enlightenment Tea, which Lu Chen had "lent" him. Though calling it a loan seemed a bit generous, judging by how calmly Zhen Yuanzi was enjoying it, he probably had no intention of giving it back.
"You're back?" Zhen Yuanzi poured two cups of tea and pushed one toward him. "The Demon Clan has been making quite a fuss. Di Jun turned the Eastern Sea upside down looking for you."
"Let him look." Lu Chen picked up the cup and drained it. "It's not like he dares come to Longevity Mountain and demand that you hand me over."
Zhen Yuanzi chuckled. "You really are a troublemaker. But this time... well done."
Lu Chen raised an eyebrow. "Senior, you can't stand the Demon Clan slaughtering the Human Clan either?"
"Disapproval is one thing. Taking advantage of the situation is another." Zhen Yuanzi refilled his own cup. "The Human Clan was created by Saint Nuwa. The Demon Clan's actions have already incurred her wrath. By saving those human souls, you helped Saint Nuwa save face. She owes you one."
Lu Chen understood.
No wonder he had sensed a faint Divine Sense from a Saint pass over him on his way back to Longevity Mountain, carrying a hint of goodwill. So Nuwa had been making her position clear.
"By the way, Senior..." Lu Chen pulled a small box from the Qiankun Diagram. "This is a little gift for you."
Inside was a small bottle of "residual Three Lights Divine Water." There were only a dozen or so drops left, but it was still a supreme treasure for healing wounds.
Zhen Yuanzi accepted it without protest. "Go on. Who are you planning to scheme against this time?"
"Now, that's not a very nice thing to say." Lu Chen grinned. "I just wanted to ask you something. About when do you think the Witch-Slaying Sword will be finished?"
Zhen Yuanzi made a quick calculation, his brow furrowing. "Soon. After you snatched three million souls from Di Jun, he was so furious that he directly diverted the essence and souls of the Demon Clan's elite to make up the shortfall. That's actually sped up the sword's forging. At most... three months."
Three months.
Lu Chen narrowed his eyes.
In the original story, the day the Witch-Slaying Sword was completed was the day the final Witch-Demon battle began.
That sword was too vicious. It was made specifically to counter the Witch Clan's physical bodies, and a single strike could destroy an Ancestral Witch's true form! If the Witch Clan hadn't later forged the Witch-Slaying Saber—the one Lu Chen had laid a trap in—the Witch Clan would have lost the First Witch-Demon War.
"Senior, do you think... there's a way to make the Witch-Slaying Sword 'go wrong' somehow?" Lu Chen ventured.
Zhen Yuanzi glanced at him. "What are you plotting now?"
"I'm not plotting. I'm protecting myself." Lu Chen put on a serious face. "Think about it. If the Witch-Slaying Sword is too powerful, the Witch Clan will lose too quickly, and the Demon Clan will unify the Primordial World. Will us unaffiliated cultivators have any good days left? The Demon Clan will just harvest us like chives."
"Flawed reasoning." Zhen Yuanzi shook his head, though he didn't argue further. "But tampering with the Witch-Slaying Sword will be difficult. Di Jun and Taiyi are personally guarding the sword-forging formation. The Ten Great Demon Saints are taking turns protecting it. Not even a mosquito can get in."
"If you can't get in, you can always use the 'inside track.'" Lu Chen smiled knowingly.
Zhen Yuanzi paused. "What do you mean?"
"Do you remember the 'Zhou Tian Xing Dou Formation optimization plan' I anonymously sent to the Demon Clan?" Lu Chen lowered his voice. "I hid a back door in it. It lets me remotely affect the energy supply to the sword-forging formation through fluctuations in the array."
Zhen Yuanzi sucked in a breath. "You..."
"Just a tiny bit of interference." Lu Chen held his fingers a hair's breadth apart. "All I need is for the Witch-Slaying Sword's power to be reduced by ten percent. It won't be noticeable, but it might save someone's life at a critical moment."
"What do you plan to do?"
"I'll need your help." Lu Chen leaned closer. "Use the Earth Book to stir the ley lines of the Primordial World and create a 'ley-line tide' that disrupts the spiritual energy in the Eastern Sea for three hours. While that's going on, I'll use the back door to make a little adjustment."
Zhen Yuanzi fell silent.
After a long while, he sighed. "Lu Chen, do you understand the consequences?"
"I do." Lu Chen nodded. "The Witch-Demon Decisive Battle will drag on, and there'll be even more casualties. But... isn't that still better than one side crushing the other and throwing the balance of the Primordial World into chaos?"
That was only half true.
Lu Chen's real goal was to make both the Witch-Slaying Sword and the Witch-Slaying Saber "go wrong," then pick up the pieces afterward. The fragments from those two vicious weapons colliding would be top-grade materials for crafting treasures!
But he couldn't say that.
Zhen Yuanzi remained silent for a while longer, then finally nodded. "Just this once. Don't do it again."
"Thank you, Senior!"
Three months later, at the sword-forging formation in the Eastern Sea.
Di Jun and Taiyi stood at the formation's heart, gazing at the blood-red giant sword that had taken shape, their eyes blazing with fervor.
The Witch-Slaying Sword was finally about to be completed!
The sword was nine zhang and nine cun long, crimson from hilt to tip. Patterns formed from the blood essence of countless Demon Clan elites flowed across its surface, while the sword's edge echoed with the wails of resentful souls. Its baleful aura alone made the space around it repeatedly shatter and re-form, as though the world itself couldn't withstand its dreadful might.
"Brother, it's time." Taiyi looked up at the sky.
It was now midnight, when the moonlight was brightest and yin energy strongest. This was the final step in forging the sword: drawing down the moonlight to temper it and balance the overly violent solar essence within.
"Draw down the moonlight!" Di Jun commanded.
The sword-forging formation activated, and a thick pillar of moonlight descended from the heavens, pouring into the Witch-Slaying Sword!
The blade trembled violently. Its crimson color gradually faded to a strange dark red. Its sharpness drew inward, yet it became even deadlier.
But just as the moonlight reached the most crucial point—
The ley lines beneath the Eastern Sea suddenly went berserk!
Rumble!
A tsunami tens of thousands of zhang high surged across the entire Eastern Sea. The spiritual energy of the ley lines ran wild like a horse that had broken free, throwing the sword-forging formation's energy supply into disarray as well!
"What's going on?!" Di Jun's expression changed.
"It's a ley-line tide!" Taiyi sensed the disturbance in the ley lines. "Someone's interfering with the Eastern Sea's ley lines!"
Just as the two were about to stabilize the formation, a strange fluctuation suddenly came from the core of the Great Formation of the Stars—the optimized version!
It was the back door Lu Chen had hidden. It had been activated!
The fluctuation was faint, but at this crucial stage of the forging, it was amplified a hundredfold!
"Vmmm—!"
The Witch-Slaying Sword let out a shrill scream. A tiny crack quietly appeared on its surface.
It was instantly repaired by the moonlight that followed, but in the moment the crack appeared, a drop of "Chaos Demon God Grudge Blood" hidden within the blade slipped into its core!
Di Jun and Taiyi didn't notice a thing.
All they saw was the ley-line tide quickly subsiding, the formation returning to normal, and the Witch-Slaying Sword completing its tempering without a hitch. The sword was finished!
"It's done!" Di Jun gripped the hilt. Feeling the terrifying power within it, enough to destroy an Ancestral Witch's true form, he threw his head back and laughed. "With this sword in hand, the Witch Clan is doomed!"
Taiyi also breathed a sigh of relief. The disturbance just now had unsettled him, but the sword was complete. It should be fine.
What the two of them didn't know was—
On a deserted island a thousand li away.
Lu Chen crouched on a reef, holding a treasure shaped like a compass. It was the Formation Deduction Disk he'd taken from Treasure Distribution Cliff, specially made for remotely controlling back doors in formations.
"Done." He looked at the glowing point on the compass that represented the Witch-Slaying Sword and grinned. "The Chaos Demon God Grudge Blood is in. When it clashes with the Witch-Slaying Saber... heh heh."
He put away the compass and disappeared with Brick Escape.
The next day, the Demon Clan's Heavenly Court issued an announcement to the Primordial World:
"The Witch-Slaying Sword is complete. The Witch Clan is doomed! In three days, we fight to the death beneath Buzhou Mountain!"
The entire Primordial World was shaken.
The Witch Clan refused to back down. Ancestral Witch Dijiang raised the Witch-Slaying Saber, already tainted by Chaos Demon God Grudge Blood, and issued his own announcement:
"The Demon Clan is out of control, but Pangu's orthodox successors stand firm! Three days from now, beneath Buzhou Mountain, we fight to the death!"
The two clans declared war, and the final battle of the calamity began.
By now, Lu Chen had already returned to Wuzhuang Temple and was playing chess with Zhen Yuanzi.
"That was a risky move." Zhen Yuanzi placed a piece on the board. "You tampered with both the Witch-Slaying Sword and the Witch-Slaying Saber. What if they don't clash at all?"
"There's no way they won't." Lu Chen captured a group of his opponent's pieces. "Neither Di Jun nor Dijiang is the type to swallow an insult. When they meet, they'll definitely use their strongest weapons to fight. Then..."
He made a "boom" gesture.
"Both vicious weapons will explode, leaving the Witch and Demon Clans without their greatest advantages. The battle will become a brutal melee." Zhen Yuanzi shook his head. "There'll be even more casualties."
"But then the outcome will be fair." Lu Chen's expression was calm. "Otherwise, it'll be a one-sided slaughter. That would be a real sin."
He made it sound noble.
But Zhen Yuanzi knew Lu Chen's real goal was to pick up the scraps.
Once the two vicious weapons exploded, their fragments, the scattered blood essence and souls, and the treasures left behind on the battlefield would all be ownerless.
Knowing the boy's nature, he'd rush in to "clean up the battlefield" at the first opportunity.
"Fine. Do as you like." Zhen Yuanzi pushed the board away in surrender. "But Lu Chen, the final battle of a calamity is no small matter. The Saints will surely be watching. Be... discreet."
"This junior understands." Lu Chen grinned as he collected the pieces. "I promise I'll only pick up trash, not get involved in the fighting."
Zhen Yuanzi looked at him and said nothing.
As if I'd believe that.
Three days later, beneath Buzhou Mountain.
The armies of the Witch and Demon Clans faced off, their baleful auras reaching the heavens as the world changed color.
Di Jun held the Witch-Slaying Sword. Dijiang gripped the Witch-Slaying Saber. The two of the Primordial World's greatest powerhouses stared at each other across ten thousand li of empty space.
"Dijiang, today is the day the Witch Clan is wiped out!"
"Di Jun, those are my words!"
They attacked at the same time!
The Witch-Slaying Sword unleashed a ten-thousand-zhang arc of blood-red sword energy. The Witch-Slaying Saber swept out a jet-black blade beam. Two terrifying forces capable of destroying Quasi-Saints collided in midair with a thunderous crash!
"BOOM—!!!"
The heavens fell silent. All things perished.
But at the heart of the collision, the Chaos Demon God Grudge Blood within both vicious weapons was fully awakened!
Dense black cracks appeared at once across the blade of the Witch-Slaying Sword and the body of the Witch-Slaying Saber!
Di Jun and Dijiang's faces changed dramatically.
But it was already too late.
"CRASH—!!!"
Both vicious weapons exploded into a storm of fragments!
The shock waves tore across the battlefield, killing and injuring countless elites of the Witch and Demon Clans!
At that moment, in a bank of clouds on the outskirts of the battlefield,
Lu Chen had the Qiankun Diagram slung over his shoulder, grinning from ear to ear:
"Time to get to work!"
Before you continue