Otherworldly Demons!

"Then the sword intent remaining within the sword will turn directly against you, shredding you into a mass of bloody pulp on the spot!"

Hearing this warning, Chen Xin's expression grew utterly grave.

He drew a deep breath, brought himself into peak condition, and slowly stepped into the Sword Tomb shrouded in mist and sword qi.

At the very instant he stepped across the edge of the Sword Tomb.

Clang!

A clear sword cry suddenly rang out from deep within the gorge.

Immediately afterward, a surge of fiendish energy shot into the sky.

At this sight, even Senior Brother Guide standing at the entrance paled, abruptly retreating two steps as he stared incredulously into the depths of the Sword Tomb.

As that sound rang out, the churning mist deep within the gorge was torn apart in an instant.

An astonishing surge of fiendish energy flooded through the rift like water bursting through a broken dam.

Senior Brother Guide's expression changed drastically at the entrance. He instinctively retreated two steps, his previously cool eyes filled with astonishment.

He gazed toward the region at the deepest part of the gorge, shrouded in black mist year-round, and murmured to himself.

"Impossible..."

"That vicious sword at the bottom of the gorge has been quiet for a full hundred years. Why would it suddenly stir today?"

Hearing his senior brother mutter to himself, Chen Xin's heartbeat quickened as well.

Outside the Sky Screen, Ning Fengzhi and Gu Rong of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect instantly sat up straight, barely daring to breathe.

A vicious sword that had lain dormant for a hundred years had awakened precisely when Chen Xin entered the Sword Tomb.

Was this a coincidence, or some opportunity ordained by unseen forces?

"Senior brother, has something happened inside?" Chen Xin took a deep breath, suppressed the shock in his heart, and asked softly.

Senior Brother Guide came back to his senses. He glanced at Chen Xin, his expression turning particularly solemn.

"It's all right. Perhaps a slight fluctuation in the aura of the formation within the Sword Tomb resonated with those old fellows inside."

He adjusted his sleeves, a note of warning entering his voice.

"But when you go in to choose a sword, you must be careful."

"The swords on the outskirts may be damaged, but their temperaments are relatively mild."

"The deeper you go, the heavier the karma clinging to those swords."

"Your cultivation is too low right now. If you rashly approach the depths, even a graze from the sword qi they release would be enough to leave you bedridden for over half a month."

Chen Xin nodded solemnly, committing those words to memory.

Then he slowly stepped forward, truly entering this Sword Tomb where countless legends lay buried.

As soon as he entered, the smell of blood struck him in the face.

Moreover, the earth beneath his feet was dark red, as though it had been soaked in blood for years.

Countless longswords stood densely planted all around him.

Chen Xin walked very slowly among these broken swords.

He could sense that, although these swords had been abandoned here, a faint breath still lingered within every one of them.

It was a wondrous sensation that was difficult to describe in words.

On the Douluo Continent, he had used his Seven Kill Sword martial soul for decades, only ever feeling that it was an extension of his body's energy.

Yet here, these lifeless objects forged from ordinary iron and black jade gave him the illusion that they were alive.

Just as he reached the middle of the gorge and prepared to carefully sense the surrounding sword intent.

A massive meteor crater appeared in the ground ahead.

The edges of the crater were scorched black, without a blade of grass growing there.

At its very center, half of a dark silver broken sword was planted point-first.

This half of a broken sword looked exceedingly strange.

Wisps of pitch-black energy coiled around its blade, constantly twisting and struggling as though alive, even releasing bursts of shrill screeching that set his teeth on edge.

Even from dozens of meters away, Chen Xin could feel a cold, evil aura drilling straight into his bones.

"Hiss..."

Chen Xin sucked in a cold breath, his feet stopping of their own accord.

That aura was far too pure. Compared with it, the so-called Slaughter City on the Douluo Continent was as mild as a place where children played in the mud.

"Don't approach that pit."

Senior Brother Guide stepped forward and held out a hand to stop Chen Xin, deep apprehension in his eyes.

"What's coiling around that blade is demonic energy that cannot be dispersed."

Demonic energy?

Chen Xin froze for a moment.

Everyone from Douluo outside the Sky Screen pricked up their ears as well.

Previously, when they listened to the elder's lecture, all they heard about was the imposing might of the Divine Lord, the Flame Emperor, and the Martial Ancestor.

This was the first time they had heard anything about "demons" in this Great Thousand World.

Senior Brother Guide sighed, gazing at the half-broken sword wrapped in black energy as his voice grew somewhat heavy.

"Although this Great Thousand World is boundless and filled with powerful experts, it is no peaceful paradise."

"Beyond our world, there are some extremely terrifying enemies."

"They are called the Extraterritorial Evil Clan."

"And in some lower planes, people more commonly call them... Otherworldly Demons."

Otherworldly Demons!

Senior Brother Guide continued:

"These Otherworldly Demons are cruel by nature and have not a shred of mercy."

"Their sole purpose is to invade the various planes and devour every living being and all the spiritual energy within them!"

"Back when Lord Martial Ancestor was still in a lower plane, his homeland suffered a full-scale invasion by the Otherworldly Demon Emperor."

At this, both Chen Xin and the viewers outside the Sky Screen were stunned.

Before ascending, the Martial Ancestor had already been fighting monsters of this caliber?

"That battle darkened heaven and earth. To protect his homeland, Lord Martial Ancestor led the heroes of the lower plane in fighting to their last drop of blood, paying an enormous price before finally suppressing those Otherworldly Demons completely."

"After ascending to the Great Thousand World, Lord Martial Ancestor established the Martial Realm and guarded the borders of the Great Thousand World, becoming the nightmare of countless members of the Extraterritorial Evil Clan."

After saying this, his senior brother pointed at the broken sword in the pit.

"The previous owner of this sword was an elder of our Sword Domain's Inner Sect."

"Several hundred years ago, that elder went to the border to slay demons."

"He risked his life to kill an Otherworldly Demon General, saving an entire city's people."

"But his own sword was severely contaminated by the demonic blood that erupted from the Otherworldly Demon General before its death."

"This demonic energy is like an abscess clinging to the bone, extremely difficult to remove."

"To prevent the demonic energy from eroding his mind, the elder could only endure the pain of breaking the treasured sword that had accompanied him all his life and abandon it in this Sword Tomb, using the countless streams of sword qi in the gorge to slowly grind away its demonic nature."

After hearing this account of the past.

Chen Xin gazed at the half-broken sword, heartfelt respect rising in his eyes.

He suddenly realized just how narrow his horizons had been on the Douluo Continent.

The Two Great Empires fought back and forth over a few cities.

Spirit Hall spent every day scheming against one person after another to unify the continent.

But what about these experts of the Great Thousand World?

The swords in their hands were used to slay monsters and demons, to protect the living beings of their planes!

This difference in vision gave Chen Xin a strong sense of belonging to the sect called the Sword Domain.

He straightened his gray robe and respectfully offered the half-broken sword a swordsman's salute.

Then he turned and continued toward the depths of the gorge.

The farther he went, the sharper the sword qi in the air became.

Chen Xin felt even breathing grow difficult, and invisible edges cut tiny bloody wounds into his skin.

But he did not stop.

He closed his eyes, abandoned any attempt to mobilize the faint trace of spiritual energy within him, and forgot the Seven Kill Sword martial soul he had once taken such pride in.

He emptied his mind completely, retaining only a pure sword heart that sought the pinnacle of the sword Dao.

Just then.

Clang!

That clear sword cry from before rang out once again from deep within the gorge!

And this time, it was extremely close, as though it had exploded right beside his ear!

Chen Xin's eyes snapped open.

Not far ahead stood a ruined stone platform, worn almost beyond recognition by the years.

A sword was planted in the platform.

It was a thoroughly ordinary-looking iron sword, its blade covered in dark red rust, even the wood of its hilt mostly rotted away.

Strangely, however, all the broken swords within dozens of meters leaned slightly toward this rusty iron sword.

As though prostrating themselves before a king.

At that moment, the rusty iron sword was trembling violently, releasing bursts of joyous humming.

Pale red sword qi, visible to the naked eye, swirled and coiled around its blade.

"That sword is calling to me..."

Chen Xin felt a powerful resonance, as though they were connected by blood.

He involuntarily stepped forward, walking toward the ruined stone platform.

"Junior Brother Chen Xin! Stop!"

Seeing this from afar, Senior Brother Guide instantly turned deathly pale and hurriedly shouted.

But Chen Xin seemed possessed, utterly unable to hear anything from the outside world.

He slowly extended his right hand, covered in calluses from sword practice, toward the sword.

At some point, the wind in the gorge had stopped.

Only a thick smell of rust flowed through the air.

Chen Xin's steps were slow.

He could feel that the closer he came to the ruined stone platform, the greater the resistance in the air before him became.

This resistance was not some kind of spiritual pressure, but purely the repulsion naturally emanating from the rusty iron sword.

Under ordinary circumstances, Chen Xin might have retreated in the face of difficulty.

But he was a Sword Fanatic with a near-mad obsession with the sword Dao in his very bones.

The more the sword rejected him, the stronger the resonance in his heart became.

He involuntarily extended his right hand, his fingertips passing through layers of visible pale red sword qi, inching toward the mostly rotted wooden hilt.

Boom!

Yet at the very instant his skin made contact.

A burst of bloody light exploded in Chen Xin's mind. The gorge, stone platform, and broken swords before him all vanished without a trace in an instant.

In their place was an endless expanse of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The sky was an eerie dark red, with bloody rain falling in a steady drizzle.

Within this blood-colored world stood a giant whose face could not be made out.

The giant's hair hung loose, and he held an enormous sword that spanned heaven and earth.

That sword looked exactly like the rusty iron sword outside.

The giant threw back his head and roared. With a casual swing, thousands upon thousands of living beings below dissolved into a sky full of bloody mist beneath that savage sword qi.

Brutality, bloodlust, the desire to destroy everything.

These negative emotions also surged through the hilt into Chen Xin's meridians, rushing straight at his divine soul.

"Kill..."

In reality, Chen Xin's eyes had already turned completely scarlet.

His facial muscles twisted in pain, veins bulging across his forehead, his entire figure exuding a demonic air!

Standing dozens of meters away, Senior Brother Guide immediately sucked in a cold breath upon seeing Chen Xin's condition.

"Damn it! His mind has been bewitched by the sword spirit!"

The White-Clothed Youth cursed inwardly. Unable to worry about anything else, he brought two fingers together into a sword gesture, intending to use his sword qi to forcibly sever the connection between Chen Xin and the iron sword.

But the moment his sword qi approached the stone platform, an overbearing surge of fiendish energy hurled it back.

The powerful recoil forced the youth back seven or eight steps, the blood and energy in his chest churning.

He gazed at the gray-robed old man trapped in this demonic state, his face somewhat pale.

"What kind of evil thing is this? It can even devour my sword qi..."

Outside the Sky Screen.

Inside the Main Hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Ning Fengzhi had only just sat down when this sight made him spring to his feet again, slamming his cane heavily against the jade floor.

"Uncle Jian!"

Gu Rong was so anxious that he stamped his feet, his wizened old face filled with worry.

"What's possessed that old bastard? There's something strange about that wretched iron sword!"

Although separated by the Sky Screen, they could still tell that Chen Xin's current condition was extremely dangerous.

Tiny beads of blood had actually begun seeping from the skin of his already somewhat aged body, dripping continuously down his gray robe.

It was as though an invisible monster were greedily draining his life force.

On the sports field of Shrek Academy.

Yu Xiaogang wiped away the nosebleed that had spilled out from his earlier fright and could not help letting out a cold laugh.

"A greedy snake trying to swallow an elephant."

"He left his own Martial Soul unused and insisted on touching those deadly weapons in the Great Thousand World, tainted with cause and effect."

With his hands clasped behind his back, Yu Xiaogang watched the blood-covered Chen Xin on the screen, his tone tinged with schadenfreude.

"He actually dared touch a demonic sword that can devour even the mind? He's simply courting death."

"No matter how deep that Sword Domain's foundations run, by the time the sect elders arrive, he'll probably have been sucked into a dried husk."

Listening to Grandmaster's analysis, then looking at Chen Xin's miserable state in the image, the students around him shrank back a little in lingering fear.

Opportunities in the Great Thousand World were indeed not so easily seized.

In the image, deep within the Sword Tomb.

Chen Xin's signs of life were fading at a rate visible to the naked eye.

His right hand, still gripping the sword hilt, had already shriveled, as though it had become a length of deadwood drained of moisture.

Just as Senior Brother Guide bit the tip of his tongue, preparing to use a secret sect technique to forcibly awaken Chen Xin.

The gloomy mist that lingered above the gorge all year round suddenly parted gently to either side, as though brushed aside by a pair of invisible hands.

A gentle shaft of sunlight spilled down, falling squarely on the ruined stone platform.

Along with that shaft of sunlight.

A man in a long blue-green robe had appeared beside Chen Xin at some unknown moment.

The man looked to be in his early thirties, with handsome features and an indescribable air of carefree ease and otherworldly grace.

His hair was not tied up; his long black locks fell loosely over his shoulders, and he wore a pair of ordinary cloth shoes.

He bore not the slightest oppressive aura of a powerful expert, nor any dazzling spiritual radiance to shield his body. Had he walked among a crowd, he would have looked like a mild-mannered teacher who had just stepped out of a schoolhouse.

Half a step behind the blue-green-robed man followed a young woman.

She wore a fitted black combat outfit, its fabric hugging her skin and outlining every inch of her supple waist, slender enough to encircle with a hand, and her full, proud curves.

Her collar lay slightly open, exposing a broad expanse of fair, delicate skin around her collarbones, adding an eye-catching, alluring wildness to her sharp, heroic bearing.

Her hair was cropped at her ears, but most striking of all was the dark gold sword case strapped to the tall woman's back, broader than her entire body.

With a stalk of emerald-green spirit grass between her lips and her arms folded across her chest, she surveyed Chen Xin on the ground with an almost-smiling look, her manner languid and unrestrained.

The instant Senior Brother Guide saw the two of them.

He looked as though he had been struck by lightning. His legs went weak, and he dropped straight to one knee.

The young man's voice trembled, filled with reverence and fervor that ran deep into his marrow.

"This Outer Sect disciple... pays his respects to Lord Sword Saint! My respects to Senior Sister Qingyuan!"

Sword Saint!

The moment those words rang out, the Douluo Continent beyond the Sky Screen erupted into an uproar.