At first light, Linley was already standing on a flat rock.
The clothing on his upper body had long since been torn apart, and the wounds on his right arm, waist, and chest had scabbed over. Dragonblood Battle Qi flowed slowly through him, healing his injuries far faster than an ordinary person's, but the claw marks left by the Black-Striped Cloud Leopard had still not healed completely.
Linley had not Dragonformed.
The Black Jade Heavy Sword rose in his hand.
He slashed down.
The blade struck the edge of the rock, its heavy force erupting all at once on contact. The rock did not shatter; only a clean sword mark appeared on its surface.
Linley turned his wrist, sweeping the heavy sword sideways.
The compressed air gave a low whistle.
He drew back the sword, turned, and slashed again.
Each strike was faster than the last, yet its point of impact never strayed.
More and more sword marks appeared on the rock, almost identical in depth.
Bebe crouched nearby, watching for a while with his head tilted before he could not help saying, "Boss, you just finished fighting a peak ninth-rank magical beast yesterday, and today you're already back to chopping rocks?"
"My injuries don't affect my sword swings." Linley drew back Edgeless. "Besides, I'm still missing some insight into Wielding Heavy Weapons as Though They Were Light."
"Didn't you already knock Haeru flat with Rushing Thunder yesterday?"
Haeru immediately let out a low growl nearby.
Bebe grinned. "It says that was because of the Eightfold Gravity spell. It hasn't lost to your swordsmanship alone."
Haeru lay beneath a large tree, the bleeding from its wounds already stopped. Its gaze fell on Edgeless before shifting to Linley, its eyes still defiant.
Linley ignored Bebe and Haeru's argument.
He took out the Purple Blood Soft Sword.
The purple blade curved slightly in the sunlight, like a long purple snake without bones. With a flick of Linley's wrist, the soft sword immediately straightened, its tip giving a faint ring.
He had been using this sword for a long time.
Yet even now, he still could not see through the power within its blade.
When flexible, it could bend around weapons and stab straight at an enemy's vital points. When rigid, its blade was astonishingly sharp. It came from the Infernal Realm, could be bound to Linley through a drop of blood, and had once been part of the underground seal in Mist Valley.
Linley had always used it as a powerful weapon.
But Dylan's words made it impossible for him to keep ignoring the sword's origins.
"You want to examine it?" Doehring suddenly asked, standing below the rock.
Linley nodded. "Just a look."
"Don't let your spiritual energy go too deep."
"I know."
Doehring glanced at him and did not try to stop him again.
Linley sat cross-legged and laid the Purple Blood Soft Sword across his legs. Spiritual energy surged from between his brows, first covering the blade, then seeping into it little by little.
At first, everything was calm.
The inside of the blade seemed empty, yet also seemed filled with countless tiny, interwoven patterns. Those patterns flickered in and out of sight, and as soon as Linley's spiritual energy touched them, the Purple Blood Soft Sword began to tremble gently.
Linley frowned.
He did not venture deeper, only tried to follow the trembling to its source.
The next instant, his spiritual energy abruptly sank.
Everything before his eyes suddenly turned blood-red.
A sea of blood.
Broken corpses and bones floated in that bloody sea. In the distance, enormous figures of other races fell, black blood flowing from their chests.
The vision appeared for only an instant.
Then the blood-red color surged toward him along his spiritual energy.
Linley's body jolted.
His eyes immediately turned red, and veins bulged on the back of the hand holding the Purple Blood Soft Sword.
"Linley!" Doehring's voice came from outside.
Linley did not answer.
His spiritual energy seemed caught by an invisible force, and countless voices overlapped in his mind. Rage, roars, screams before death-all crowded together.
Kill!
Kill everything in front of you!
Linley suddenly stood.
The Purple Blood Soft Sword thrust straight out.
The air before its tip tore apart, and a nearby tree split in two down the middle.
Bebe's expression changed, and he immediately darted aside.
"Boss, what's wrong with you?"
Linley turned.
His gaze fell on Bebe.
His eyes held none of their usual clarity, only cold killing intent.
Bebe lowered his body slightly and extended his claws. He did not immediately pounce, only stared fixedly at Linley.
Haeru had already risen.
It smelled danger, every strand of black fur on its body standing on end. Rather than retreating, it took a step forward, placing itself ahead and to one side of Bebe.
The Purple Blood Soft Sword turned in Linley's hand.
Sword light swept sideways.
Bebe and Haeru leaped at the same time.
Boom!
The blade grazed the ground, cutting a fissure several dozen feet long through the rock. Stone fragments flew, and Linley took one step, his body already arriving before Haeru.
The Purple Blood Soft Sword thrust out again.
Haeru became a black blur, narrowly evading the sword tip. Just as it prepared to counterattack, Linley's left fist came smashing toward it.
Haeru raised a claw to block.
Fist and claw collided, and Haeru was knocked several steps back.
Bebe lunged from the side, his claws reaching for Linley's wrist.
Linley spun around and slashed down with the Purple Blood Soft Sword in a backhand stroke.
Bebe forcibly twisted in midair. The blade skimmed his body, carrying away a few strands of black fur.
"Boss!"
The cry reached Linley's ears, but did not stop him.
He raised the Purple Blood Soft Sword, and a faint layer of red mist appeared over its blade.
The red mist grew thicker and thicker.
Killing intent surged from the blade, reaching for Linley's soul like an invisible hand.
"Get back!" Doehring finally moved.
His voice was not loud, but carried the distinctive majesty of divine power.
Linley still did not react.
His feet shifted, and he was about to charge at Bebe again when a sharp pain suddenly pierced the space between his brows.
An earthen-yellow light flew from Doehring's hand.
Rather than touching the Purple Blood Soft Sword, the light plunged straight between Linley's brows.
Linley's body stiffened.
Earthen-yellow divine power instantly enveloped his soul core, like the weight of the earth suppressing a gale. The red baleful aura struck the divine power, sending out soundless tremors.
Linley's soul shook violently.
The red mist surged along the spiritual energy connection, part of it already entwined around his soul.
Doehring's gaze sharpened.
"Sever!"
The divine power abruptly contracted.
Linley's spiritual energy connection was forcibly cut off.
At that moment, the Purple Blood Soft Sword seemed to come alive. Its blade bent violently, and the red mist surged back in retaliation. Doehring raised his right hand and pressed down with all five fingers.
A force as heavy as the earth descended.
The red mist was forced back into the blade.
The blade trembled incessantly, purple and red light flashing in turn. It seemed to still want to struggle, but that Earth Element divine power held it firmly down.
Clarity slowly returned to Linley's eyes.
His knees buckled, and he braced one hand against the ground, gasping for breath.
Bebe immediately ran to his side. Haeru did not continue attacking either, but remained on guard, its gaze moving between Linley and the Purple Blood Soft Sword.
"Boss, just now you..."
"I know." Linley raised a hand to interrupt Bebe, his face still somewhat pale.
He looked at his own hand.
While holding the sword just now, he had truly wanted to kill Bebe.
It was neither the killing intent of battle nor the resolve he felt when facing enemies, but an utterly unreasonable impulse. As long as there was a living thing before him, he wanted to make it fall.
"It was something inside the sword," Doehring said.
Linley looked up at him.
Doehring's hand was still poised above the Purple Blood Soft Sword, the earthen-yellow divine power not yet fully withdrawn.
"There is a baleful aura inside," Doehring said gravely. "This is a powerful divine artifact, but as you are now, you cannot rashly probe it."
After a moment's silence, Linley asked, "Can you remove it?"
"No."
Doehring answered very directly.
"I can only protect your soul and temporarily force the baleful aura back into the sword."
Linley looked at the Purple Blood Soft Sword.
Its blade had returned to its original purple and lay quietly on the ground, as though nothing had happened.
"From now on, you must not actively probe it again," Doehring said. "And you certainly must not use your spiritual energy to stir the power inside."
"I understand."
"No, you don't." Doehring's tone grew sterner. "You only touched a trace of it just now, and you nearly lost consciousness. If I fail to notice in time next time, you will sink deeper and deeper into that killing intent. By the time you truly realize something is wrong, it will already be too late."
Linley did not argue.
He reached out and gripped the Purple Blood Soft Sword's hilt, but did not put it away, only looked at its blade.
It looks like I'll have to wait until later to investigate this soft sword's secrets, Linley thought. He wound the Purple Blood Soft Sword around his waist again and secured its scabbard with a cloth band.
Only then did Doehring slowly withdraw his divine power.
Just as the earthen-yellow light was about to vanish completely, a thread of red light suddenly lit up deep inside the Purple Blood Soft Sword.
That red light was extremely thin, like an eye opening within the blade.
It did not release its baleful aura again, nor did it attack Linley.
It merely flickered gently once toward the Coiling Dragon Ring.
Doehring's hand stopped in midair.
The next instant, the red light vanished.
The Coiling Dragon Ring still sat quietly on Linley's finger, its surface cold and entirely unchanged.
Doehring glanced at the Purple Blood Soft Sword, then at the ring.
He said nothing.
In the distance, the mountain wind passed through the trees. Haeru growled softly, and Bebe still stood guard beside Linley.
Only that purple soft sword was unnaturally quiet.