Azure Blue Realm, Southern Region, Sky Feather City.
The blood-red moonlight was like blades, cleaving apart the bluestone slabs of the Ye family's training ground. Sixteen-year-old Chu Mo knelt on one knee, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth and staining the faded azure robe on his chest. Ye Hong stood before him, grinding the broken sword in his hand beneath his toe—the wooden sword that had accompanied him for ten years.
"You haven't even reached the third level of the Bone Forging Realm, and you think you deserve to enter the Lineage's Autumn Trial?" Ye Hong flicked the gilded longsword in his hand. The inscription "Ye Clan Outer Sect" on its blade gleamed coldly beneath the blood moon. "Father said you're a bastard your mother bought with her life. Looking at you now, you're not even as good as a stray dog."
Low snickers rose from around the training ground. More than thirty Ye family disciples stood with folded arms or leaned lazily to one side, their gazes filled with contempt. Chu Mo's fingers, hanging by his knee, dug deeply into his palm. His grandfather's sigh from three days ago rang in his ears once more. "Chu Mo, if you still cannot break through to the Bone Forging Realm in tomorrow's Autumn Trial, go to the outer courtyard and become a servant."
He raised his head to gaze at the blood moon overhead, and his memories were dragged back to that rainy night ten years ago. Covered in blood, his mother had shielded him in her arms. Before dying, she pressed half a shard of jade carved with sword markings into his hand. "Chu Mo, go to the Back Mountain Sword Tomb... Find the sword that belongs to you..."
"A piece of trash still dares to lose focus?" Ye Hong's boot suddenly crushed Chu Mo's wrist. The crisp crack of dislocated bones made him groan. "I heard your mother was the Ye family's greatest genius back then. How did she give birth to something like you, someone who can't even hold a sword steady?"
In a corner of the training ground, a girl in white clenched the handkerchief hidden within her sleeve. Yun Che bit her lower lip as she watched blood seep from the whip-torn wounds on Chu Mo's back. Her nails nearly pierced her palms—three days ago, she had personally seen the Third Elder secretly mix Bone Corroding Powder into Chu Mo's body-tempering medicine.
"Enough!" Yun Che was just about to step forward when a dazzling azure light erupted from the center of the training ground. The jade shard in Chu Mo's palm moved without wind. The broken sword fragment floating in the air began to absorb the blood moon's radiance, while countless tiny sword markings spread over his arm like living creatures.
"This is..." Ye Mingxuan, the Second Elder overseeing the examination, abruptly rose to his feet, shock flashing through his eyes. He clearly remembered that ten years ago, Chu Mo's mother, Chu Muxue, had awakened the rare Azure Mist Sword Body before the Sword Tomb. Yet the aura surrounding the boy before him was far more violent, far more chaotic, than Chu Muxue's had ever been.
Crack! A fissure suddenly appeared in Ye Hong's gilded longsword. He stared in horror as Chu Mo slowly rose to his feet. Shattered moonlight reflected in the latter's eyes, as though countless swords were rising and sinking within his pupils.
"The Bone Forging Realm... How is that possible?" Ye Hong staggered back again and again. Just moments ago, he had clearly sensed Chu Mo's aura leap from the second level of the Bone Forging Realm directly to the sixth. That vast Sword Qi had even caused the Mid-Grade Spirit Artifact in his hand to shrink back as if it possessed intelligence.
Chu Mo said nothing. He stared at the jade shard floating above his palm as countless sword cries rang in his ears. Memories surged like a tide: deep within the Sword Tomb sat a skeleton that had been meditating for untold years. The broken sword in its hand fit perfectly with the jade shard he held now, and three ancient characters were engraved upon its blade—Primordial Sword.
Hummm—
Every weapon in the training ground suddenly rose from the ground. The Second Elder's bonded spirit sword, "Azure Frost," flew directly toward Chu Mo, letting out a mournful cry three feet away from him. Chu Mo raised his hand, and all the weapons revolved around him like pilgrims paying homage. The light on their blades gathered into a pillar that shot straight toward the blood-red moon.
"Chaos Sword Body..." Ye Mingxuan's voice trembled. This legendary divine body, known only from ancient records, had truly appeared in a youth judged to be "waste." He suddenly remembered the bloody tragedy from thirty years ago. Why had Chu Muxue risked her life to send the swaddled Chu Mo back to the Ye family? It had not been for some so-called bloodline, but to protect this divine body capable of overturning the myriad worlds.
Bang!
Chu Mo suddenly dropped to one knee, the power within him raging like a flood. The jade shard and broken sword fragment fused deep within his Sea of Consciousness, and scene after scene flashed past: at the Dawn of Primordial Chaos, Chaos Sword Qi split open the void; countless sword cultivators fell amid the chaos; in the end, only the skeleton holding the broken sword remained, its blade stained with seven colors of blood—the blood of the seven great Divine Venerables of the God Realm.
"Chu Mo!" Yun Che could no longer care about propriety. She rushed forward and supported the swaying youth. She smelled the Chaos Aura emanating from him, and it resonated with the Heaven Suppressing Bloodline that occasionally stirred within her own body. The sensation was like... like they had always been meant to be one.
"Get lost!" Chu Mo suddenly barked, a trace of scarlet flashing through his eyes. The violent fury brought by the initial awakening of the Chaos Sword Body nearly devoured his reason. He could clearly feel every inch of his bones being reforged, every drop of blood boiling, as though countless swords were coursing through his body, determined to completely reshape his meridians.
"Don't be afraid. It's me..." Yun Che did not retreat. Instead, she pressed his hand against her chest. The gentle power unique to the Heaven Suppressing Bloodline flowed into Chu Mo's body, and the rampaging Sword Qi gradually calmed. "Ten years ago, you saved me outside the Sword Tomb. Now it's my turn to protect you."
Chu Mo abruptly raised his head and met the tenderness in Yun Che's eyes. The little girl who had lost her way at the Sword Tomb in his memories overlapped with the girl before him. He suddenly remembered his mother's final words. "Find the sword that belongs to you, and... protect Yun Che."
Boom—
A thunderous crash came from the direction of the back mountain, and the blood-red moonlight suddenly thickened like blood. Chu Mo felt the jade shard calling to him. It was a summons from the depths of the Sword Tomb. He broke free of Yun Che's hand and staggered toward the back mountain. The wounds on his back healed rapidly beneath the effects of Chaos Sword Qi, and every step left a faint sword mark upon the bluestone slabs.
"Chu Mo!" Yun Che tried to pursue him, but the Second Elder stopped her. Ye Mingxuan looked toward the direction in which the youth had vanished, a complicated expression flickering in his eyes. "The Back Mountain Sword Tomb has not opened in thirty years. With today's blood moon omen... I fear the Southern Region is about to undergo a change of heaven and earth."
The training ground fell silent, with only the blood-red moonlight remaining. Ye Hong gripped his cracked longsword and stared at the still-wet bloodstains on the ground. Then he suddenly discovered that those bloodstains had formed a sword marking—the very same pattern carved on the jade shard in Chu Mo's palm.
Deep in the back mountain, Chu Mo stood before stone steps covered in moss. At their end stood a collapsed archway. The four words "Primordial Sword Domain" had weathered away for the most part, yet Sword Qi still lingered around them. He took a deep breath and stepped onto the first stair. Instantly, countless sword shadows rose from beneath the earth, leaving dozens of bloody gashes across his body.
"Does it hurt?" An ancient voice echoed through the void. "When this old man passed away here, the one I waited for was the master of the Chaos Sword Body. Remember: the Primordial Sword Art is divided into the World Annihilation Scroll and the World Creation Scroll. The World Annihilation Scroll requires blood as its guide; the World Creation Scroll requires emotion as its sacrifice..."
Chu Mo gritted his teeth and continued onward, every step accompanied by piercing agony. When he stepped onto the ninety-ninth stair, the entire Sword Tomb shook violently. The broken sword remains at its center finally emerged in full—it was a black sword missing two-thirds of its blade, covered in Chaos Runes. Half a jade shard was embedded in its hilt, precisely the one he had worn since childhood.
Hummm—
The black sword let out a clear cry and flew into Chu Mo's palm of its own accord. In that instant, he felt the laws of the entire world resonate. The aura of the ninth level of the Bone Forging Realm erupted like a volcano, and the ancient trees of the back mountain were shorn of their crowns by Sword Qi, exposing clean, even cuts.
"Chaos Sword Body, Primordial Sword Art..." Chu Mo murmured, lowering his head to look at the Chaos Sword Markings appearing on the back of his hand. A cold smile curled his lips. "Didn't the Ye family call me waste? Tomorrow's Autumn Trial, I'll let the entire Southern Region see what a true sword cultivator is!"
Beneath the blood-red moonlight, the youth's shadow stretched long. He turned with the broken sword in hand. The bloodstains on his robe gradually evaporated in the Sword Qi, while the sharpness in his eyes outshone even the blood moon in the sky.
At that moment, in the Ye family's main courtyard, the Third Elder Ye Minghe gazed at the Sword Qi over the back mountain. The teacup in his hand shattered with a crack. "Chaos Sword Body... Chu Muxue, you still left that thing to him in the end..."
In the darkness, a black shadow flashed past, carrying a secret letter northward. There were only eight words on it: The Chaos Sword Body has appeared; the Southern Region shall fall into chaos.
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