He turned his attention back to the broken sword.
"Try it."
In the old world, he had infused aether by drawing energy from his solid core and pouring it through spiritual root channels into a weapon or forging material.
Now, the solid core was gone. In its place were dark-gold nodes spread throughout his body.
Su Li closed his eyes.
His consciousness sank into his body. The dark-gold nodes were evenly distributed like stars in the night sky. He tried to stir the densest cluster around his chest.
There was a response.
One node lit up first. Then the second beside it, then the third. Like lamps being lit, they illuminated in sequence from his chest toward his right hand.
Energy reached his palm.
Su Li pressed his hand against the flat of the broken blade.
The instant the nodes' energy flowed into the sword, something new appeared in his perception.
The sword's internal structure.
The direction of every metal fiber, every hollow left by corrosion, the depth and spread of every tiny crack—all of it surfaced in his mind as dark-gold lines.
It was like opening an X-ray image.
This was the ability of the [Sword Immortal].
Su Li opened his eyes. "I can see it, but I don't know how to use it."
He tried pouring more energy into the blade.
There was no channel. The nodes' energy scattered the moment it reached the sword's surface, like water splashed onto a stone slab. The feeling of aether infusion from the old world was gone, replaced by an awkward sensation of being able to see but not touch.
He could observe, but not control.
At least, not yet.
Su Li withdrew his hand and leaned the broken sword against a tree root. He pulled out the giant ant mandible