Blade or Dog

As everyone knew, being attacked by a bear was an exceptionally gruesome ordeal, because bears had a habit of eating their prey alive—brutal beyond measure.

By comparison, feline hunters, who killed their prey before eating, were practically living bodhisattvas of the carnivore world...

Xiao Fan was in such agony that he wished he were dead, but barehanded, no matter how he pounded the bear monster's head, it was utterly useless.

Having tasted blood, how could the bear demon be willing to let go? It tore and bit even more frantically.

"That's right! The pain nearly muddled my head. You dare drink Grandpa's blood? Fire Element Art!"

Xiao Fan formed a hand seal, intending to leave this bear monster charred on the inside and tender on the outside!

Huh?

Igniting Blood-Burning Flame... had actually failed?!

Not to mention the blood the bear monster had swallowed—even the bloodstains around its mouth had their flames snuffed out the instant they were ignited.

It was as though something invisible was absorbing those flames!

Now he was cooked...

Just as Xiao Fan despaired, the bear monster suddenly stopped moving for some unknown reason. Wisps of white vapor seeped from the rotting patches of its bear hide... as though something were burning inside it!

The Fire Element Art had worked?!

The next moment, the bear monster let out a miserable howl and sprang up, violently flinging Xiao Fan away. It then wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves as it rolled across the ground, white vapor constantly rising from its body with sharp sizzling sounds.

No... these weren't flames caused by the Fire Element Art... Xiao Fan saw that the flames emerging from within the bear demon were actually a deep crimson, the color of blood!

The bear monster struggled for a while longer before falling still. Its body gradually began burning from the inside, and in the blink of an eye, only a charred black skeleton remained.

Inside that blackened skeleton was a rust-covered Miao saber, five feet in total length, with a blade three feet long.

Traces of blood still lingered on the Miao saber. What was strange was that the bloodstains seemed to be getting drawn into the blade.

As the blood was drained away, the rust on the Miao saber gradually faded as well, revealing its original sharp gleam!

Xiao Fan struggled to his feet, tore off a strip of cloth from his clothes to make a temporary bandage, and used his qi to temporarily seal the blood at his wound.

After dealing with it simply, Xiao Fan limped over to the bear monster's remains and carefully pulled out the Miao saber.

The crimson-black interwoven hilt still retained some warmth. When he ran his hand over it, he could feel a scorching current flowing within the handle.

Then he looked at the three-foot-seven-inch blade. Dark-red, bloodlike flowing light intertwined with the metallic sheen, wicked and razor-sharp.

As though it had sensed something, the blade, held in Xiao Fan's hand, emanated a unique wild aura and a thirst for his blood!

Xiao Fan stared at the restless Miao saber, suspicion stirring in his heart. "Could this blade sense something special in my blood? The bear monster ate my blood earlier... so that's how it was!"

It wasn't Xiao Fan's Fire Element Art that had burned the bear monster to death, but this Miao saber!

The Miao saber had absorbed Xiao Fan's blood inside the bear monster's belly, causing the Fire Element Art to fail.

Yet for some unknown reason, the blade had released crimson flames on its own and burned the bear monster to death.

That was enough to show that this blade was no ordinary object, and that it possessed a certain degree of spirituality!

Such magical artifacts were rare to begin with—indeed, exceedingly scarce.

Usually, only magical artifacts of very high grade, or severely cursed baleful artifacts, possessed spirituality.

By that reasoning, this Miao saber was either a top-grade magical artifact... or an already awakened baleful artifact.

If it was the former, then he had struck it rich. But if it was the latter... he might have the life to take it, but not the life to use it.

Other than its excessively dense Sha Qi, this blade did not seem to display any particularly obvious cursed reactions.

As an instrument of slaughter, having some Sha Qi was nothing unusual. It could only mean that this Miao saber had likely claimed quite a few lives, leaving the Sha Qi within its blade unable to disperse for a long time.

For now, this Miao saber probably was not an awakened baleful artifact... and its spirituality was not particularly strong, so it could be controlled.

Xiao Fan studied the Miao saber in his hand. Lost in thought, he decided to conduct a small experiment to verify his guess.

"Looks like you're quite interested in my blood..."

As he spoke, Xiao Fan used his index finger to smear some blood from around his wound, slowly bringing his fingertip closer to the Miao saber.

Sure enough, the instant Xiao Fan's fingertip touched the blade, the Miao saber immediately trembled with excitement and, with a slick sound, sucked the blood from his fingertip inside!

Xiao Fan drew back his finger, his eyes darting as the corner of his mouth curled up. "I was wondering how it could be such a coincidence. I'd only just entered the gorge when I ran into a bear monster with a Miao saber in its belly."

"Rather than saying I happened to encounter that bear monster, it would be more accurate to say that you controlled it to come find me!"

"Since you like this young master's blood so much, from this day onward, I will be your new master!"

The moment he said this, the Miao saber was clearly unwilling. It grew restless once more, and even its hilt trembled, as though making a silent protest...

Xiao Fan narrowed his eyes and looked down at the Miao saber in his hand. He again extended his index finger, smeared on some of his blood, and waved it back and forth before the restless saber without letting it touch the blade.

"What? You don't want to? Fine... since you're unwilling, this young master won't force you. As for this blood, I'd rather feed it to a dog than give it to you!"

With that, he spread his stance and assumed a posture as though he were about to hurl the Miao saber away.

Suddenly, the restless Miao saber stopped trembling and became quiet! Like an obedient little lamb, the fierce Sha Qi emanating from it also receded by more than half.

The corner of Xiao Fan's mouth rose, revealing a villainous smile. He nodded lightly. "Hmph. Follow this young master from now on, and you'll naturally have your share of benefits!"

As he spoke, he sheathed the Miao saber backward into the sash at his waist and continued onward through the mist with his father on his back.

Gradually, ever since the bear monster's attack, he had not encountered another corpse ghoul.

Xiao Fan guessed that the Sha Qi within the Miao saber had kept the surrounding corpse ghouls and evil entities from daring to approach.

Low-ranking evil entities were often mindless. Naturally, the corpse ghouls they reanimated had no intelligence either—mere walking corpses driven by the instinct to feed.

As the saying went, ghosts feared wicked men; evil entities were naturally afraid of Sha Qi.

At this moment, the dense Sha Qi within the Miao saber had instead become an advantage, driving away evil entities and corpse ghouls.

However, everything had its pros and cons. While Sha Qi could drive away evil entities, it could also affect the living.

Before he had walked much farther, Xiao Fan clearly felt a wicked fire spreading through his heart.

Irritability, anxiety, inexplicable rage—his mind filled with bloody, savage fantasies, and a baseless urge to kill took root in his heart, impossible to dispel...

Especially whenever he thought of Shi Ping, that ungrateful dog who had stabbed his father in the back, rage surged up in him. He wished he could chop him into eight pieces, grind his bones to ash.

"No, no, no... Why have I become so irritable... If this goes on, I'll go mad!"

Bane Poison Value... +1... +1... +1...

The Sha Qi in the Miao saber would not directly produce Bane Poison, but extreme emotions could trigger a Bane Poison reaction within the body.

Zhang Bin had suffered precisely because extreme emotions deepened the Bane Poison within him, until he completely lost control and turned into a monster.

Xiao Fan stopped and steadied his breathing for a moment, calming himself and suppressing the effects brought by the Sha Qi.

As the hostility in his heart dissipated, the Bane Poison Value finally stopped increasing.

[Bane Poison Value: 49/100]

"Huff... I finally got it under control."

Xiao Fan sensed his father's aura growing weaker and weaker. Knowing he could not delay any longer, he could only grit his teeth and keep moving forward.

Before long, the Sha Qi affected him again, forcing him to stop and regulate his breathing to suppress it.

After being tossed back and forth like this again and again, Xiao Fan was utterly exhausted.

More than once, he wanted to toss away that damned Miao saber and be done with it, but if he threw it away, he would inevitably be attacked by corpse ghouls again. It was like being caught between a rock and a hard place.

As the saying went, when weighing two harms, choose the lesser one. Compared to the endless corpse ghouls, the Sha Qi was still relatively easier to control.