Chapter 258 : Forging the Demon-Slaying Blades
Eldrin Chen gazed upon the forging methods for the two immortal swords, a faint tremor stirring within his heart.
Both the Thousand-Demon Slaying Sword and the Hundred Spirit Immortal-Slaying Sword were swords of astonishing latent potential; in theory, the ceiling for both was limitless.
In ages past, the Sword Lord who forged that pair of immortal swords was peerless under heaven, and their might was considered rare even among Supreme Treasure of Pure Yang.
"These two swords..."
Eldrin Chen pondered silently for a moment before finally storing the two scrolls containing the methods.
Both the Thousand-Demon Slaying Sword and the Hundred Spirit Immortal-Slaying Sword were feared by the world—one was loathed by Demonic Cultivator, the other dreaded by the Human Race.
Forging them to the Fourth Rank was one thing, but attempting to refine them into a Demon-Subduing Supreme Treasure would likely invite significant trouble.
Demons and monsters feared the divine might of such blades and would not wish to see a pair of Demon-Subduing Immortal Sword emerge into the world.
Yet, though the methods for crafting these two swords were unorthodox, they produced exceptionally potent Demon-Subduing Immortal Sword; their lethality against evil spirits and the Demonic Tribe would be truly terrifying.
"Why dwell on such distant concerns now?" Your portal to cultivation novels: audio—novel.com.
Eldrin Chen shook his head with a wry smile. A Demon-Subduing Immortal Sword [a divine sword forged specifically to vanquish demonic beings] was the kind of thing one could choose not to use, but should never be without.
He and the demonic monsters were mortal enemies by nature. Why should he care about their opinions? If fate granted him the opportunity to forge such an immortal sword in the future, what reason would he have to hesitate?
According to the notes from the Ethereal Void Sect, within the Eastern Sea region, the Human Race was not the only faction that had forged such a pair of immortal swords to resist evil fiends. There were even those who had refined the Thousand-Demon Slaying Sword into a fifth-rank Demon-Subduing Immortal Sword.
After storing these ancient texts, Eldrin Chen made a light inventory and discovered a volume titled the Ethereal Void Historical Annals.
With a simple glance, he was immediately drawn into the depths of this historical record.
Opening to the first page, his eyes fell upon a single line of text:
Dao Calendar [the cosmic calendar used by cultivators to mark significant eras] Year Thirteen Thousand Four Hundred.
The Founding Patriarch of the Ethereal Void Sect, Qingxuzi, followed Jiang the Sovereign Emperor from the Central Ancestral Domain.
After enduring one hundred and ninety-six great battles, they reclaimed the Eastern Wastelands and marched their forces to the borders of the Eastern Sea Cultivation World, recovering vast territories for our Human Race...
"Dao Calendar Year Thirteen Thousand Four Hundred?"
Eldrin Chen's eyes narrowed slightly, and he furrowed his brow.
It is now the year nineteen thousand three hundred twenty-three of the Dao Calendar [a system for recording years based on significant cosmological or historical events]. This means the Ethereal Void Sect followed Jiang the Sovereign Emperor here over six thousand years ago.
Furthermore, the term "reclaimed" is used here, which carries profound implications.
It implies that the Eastern Wastelands was once ancient Human Race territory, though it is unknown why it fell into ruin, only to be reclaimed six millennia past.
The meaning behind this is terrifying. In the distant, ancient past, the Eastern Wastelands harbored a flourishing Human Race Cultivation World [the realm and society of those who practice cultivation]. Then, after a great war, that entire Cultivation World was utterly destroyed.
What manner of war could have brought about the complete annihilation of a Cultivation World as ancient and vast as the Eastern Wastelands?
Were the demonic forbidden domains that now litter the Eastern Wastelands born suddenly, or were they seeds planted long ago, in that distant age six thousand years past, driven deep by demonic forces time and again?
Eldrin Chen's gaze grew heavy with thought as he continued reading:
In the year thirteen thousand six hundred of the Dao Calendar, the Founding Patriarch established his orthodoxy at Star Abyss Island in the Eastern Sea, founding the Ethereal Void Sect.
After a millennium, the entire Ethereal Void Sect followed Jiang the Sovereign Emperor, driving the evil demons from the Purple Realm.
Thus, the Purple Cultivation World had reclaimed its homeland for the seventh time…
A tremor of dread ran through Eldrin Chen's heart. The seventh reclamation of the homeland… could it mean the Eastern Wastelands Cultivation World had been utterly destroyed seven times before?
Furthermore, according to the knowledge he had received since childhood, the Purple Realm had a history spanning at least several million years. Why, then, did the Dao Calendar record less than twenty thousand?
What of the time before those twenty thousand years? What was the true state of the Purple Cultivation World in that distant past?
The historical annals of the Ethereal Void Sect held no record of these matters. They contained only sparse, cryptic lines:
In the fifteen thousand nine hundredth year of the Dao Calendar, Jiang the Sovereign Emperor transcended his tribulation and ascended to immortality. Alone, with but a single sword, he entered the Demonic Abyss to sever all karmic ties to the mortal dust. Visit (audio-novel.com) to enjoy the complete series.
He departed, never to return…
A millennium later, the Founding Patriarch and several dozen other True Lord Dao Lord departed together in his wake.
They, too, never returned.
In the seventeen thousandth year of the Dao Calendar, the Demonic Abyss Cataclysm descended once more. The Eastern Sea Cultivation World was grievously wounded, and the Second Generation Patriarch fell in battle.
In the year eighteen thousand of the Dao Calendar [a system for recording the passage of time in the cultivation world], three successive sect masters fought valiantly against three Demon Monarch [powerful rulers of demonic forces] and perished from exhaustion…
Eldrin Chen watched in silence, a profound sense of dread slowly sinking into his heart.
There were no records from nineteen hundred years ago in the Dao Calendar, for the Ethereal Void Sect had been annihilated in that war three centuries prior.
The entire Ethereal Void Sect was filled with heroes and martyrs, steadfastly holding the front line against the evil demons. Yet, in the end, Lin Daoyang met his demise through another's treachery—a profound and bitter injustice.
For the first time in his life, Eldrin Chen felt a suffocating pressure, an anguish so deep it defied words.
Within the recorded history spanning twenty thousand years, the Eastern Wastelands [a vast and perilous region] had been laid to waste seven times, with the Human Race reduced to mere sustenance for demons and monsters.
This immense, terrifying reality struck at the core of his being. The fact that the entire Cultivation World [the realm where cultivators pursue immortality] had been destroyed more than once was a horror that left him gasping for breath.
Even after Jiang the Sovereign Emperor ascended to immortality, he had not managed to quell the great calamity. The darkness lurking behind this failure sent a chill through Eldrin's soul.
He had never lived in a world free from war; it was merely that someone had been holding up the sky on the front lines.
Poisonous miasma shrouded the heavens, seas of fire boiled across the land, and molten rock lay exposed between the mountains.
Eldrin Chen closed the ancient tome and lifted his gaze to the heavens, feeling as though this world shrouded by the Flaming Prison Sea of Fire was a microcosm of the vast cosmos itself.
In that moment, he finally understood why Lyra Jiang had warned him that knowing too much could shake one's Dao Heart [the foundational will and clarity of a cultivator].
"Demonic monsters…"
Clad in robes white as snow, he stood in serene silence amidst the infernal landscape,
uttering not a single word, merely observing it all with a profound stillness that lasted for a very, very long time.
Cultivation is a process both arduous and interminably long.
Eldrin Chen sat cross-legged within the hellish sea of flames, ignited his furnace to refine several batches of Spirit-Nourishing Pill [pills that nourish and restore the spirit], and then began his visualization of the Falling Sun Ridge.
While restoring his Primordial Spirit [the spiritual core of a cultivator], he spent his time studying the classics left by predecessors and, in parallel, deducing the principles of Five Elements cultivation arts.
In the third year, he successfully deduced a water-attribute cultivation art, which he named the 'Heavenly River Flood Water Scripture'.
This Heavenly River Flood Water Scripture not only allowed cultivation up to the Purple Mansion Ninth Layer, but the spiritual essence [True Essence] it refined was exceptionally pure, enduring, and possessed a recovery rate far surpassing that of both the Solar Separated Flame Scripture and the Earth-Fortress Sovereign Scripture.
Six years later, he advanced another step, creating a Metal-attribute cultivation art. Eldrin Chen named it the 'Western Pole White Emperor Scripture'.
Nine years after that, Eldrin Chen deduced the final art of the Five Elements series—a Wood-attribute cultivation method.
Its combat prowess was merely ordinary, yet it possessed the remarkable ability to increase a cultivator's lifespan by one Jiazi-time [a cycle of sixty years].
Even more astonishing was that Eldrin Chen, by learning from the strengths of others to offset his own weaknesses, resolved the inherent drawbacks of longevity-extending arts. Cultivating this method would not hinder one's chances of breaking through to the Golden Core [the third major realm of cultivation, where one condenses a golden spiritual core].
Generally speaking, any cultivation art capable of extending lifespan without affecting breakthrough potential would be considered among the pinnacle even within Golden Core-grade arts.
Based on this merit alone, this art was sufficient to rank among the very top echelon of Purple Mansion Cultivation Art [cultivation arts designed for the Purple Mansion realm]. Thus, he decisively named this scripture the Green Emperor Longevity Scripture.
After completing the deduction of the Five Elements arts, Eldrin Chen initially intended to continue by fusing them into a unified method. However, realizing that such a fusion would likely not be the work of a single day, he ultimately set the thought aside.
Thus, time flowed swiftly by. In the twelfth year of his seclusion dedicated to refining his spiritual sense, his mastery in that domain finally brushed against the threshold of the Golden Core realm. Discover more cultivation stories at audio-novel .c om.