Archean Eon Art c1-766

by I Eat Tomatoes, Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi, 我吃西红柿

  A terrifying saber beam rapidly expanded in front of his “eyes.” In the face of this terrifying saber strike that could tear the world asunder, there was no way Meng Chuan could stop himself from feeling fear. It was the same fear that mortals had of being struck by lightning! This was a strike that was even more terrifying than heavenly lightning… but there was no way for Meng Chuan’s consciousness to dodge. He could only endure it.

  Rumble… The saber beam struck his consciousness.

  “Ah.” Meng Chuan suddenly extricated himself from the black metal piece. He clutched his head in pain, and blood flowed out from his nose. He let out an instinctive, painful grunt before losing consciousness.

  The night was very quiet.

  People in Mirror Lake Meng Manor didn’t know that the Young Master Meng Chuan, who they were so proud of, had lost consciousness.

  Time slowly passed.

  Several hours later, Meng Chuan—who had squirmed into a bunch—slowly opened his eyes after his eyelids twitched.

  It hurts. Meng Chuan felt a splitting headache, and his memories were a mess. He didn’t know who he was or where he was.

  Meng Chuan only snapped awake completely quite some time after he woke up. Last night, I investigated that black metal piece. My consciousness was pulled into it, and it hurt my head. Meng Chuan’s headache was excruciating. He lay on the bed for a while before slowly getting up. However, when he sat up, he felt dizzy. He looked out the window. The sky had just become a little bright, and the moon could still be seen in the sky.

  It hurts so badly. Meng Chuan tried his best to stand up, but his body swayed before falling back into bed. He was unable to maintain his balance, and there was a throbbing pain in his head. He tried his best to focus, and thanks to the hard efforts of his will, he finally managed to stand up and walk.

  This black metal piece has really made me suffer. Right now, Meng Chuan didn’t even want to obtain the legacy from the black metal piece. Just thinking was enough to make his head feel stabbing pain. It was clearly not the time to study the legacy.

  Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

  After drinking two large bowls of cold water that he had kept through the night, he washed his face with cold water to snap himself awake.

  He pushed open the door and stood in the corridor, shouting, “Servants.”

  A maidservant rushed to the yard’s entrance. After entering, she respectfully said, “Young Master.”

  “Prepare some hot water. I want to take a bath.”

  Bathing in the morning? The maidservant was a little puzzled, but she didn’t dare ask further. She respectfully said, “Yes, Young Master.”

  Soon—

  Several buckets of hot water filled a bathtub. After Meng Chuan dismissed his servants, he took off his clothes and soaked himself in the bathtub. He felt much better.

  Lying down was comfortable as his head hurt. In a daze, he fell asleep for a short moment. He felt much better once he woke up again.

  I’m feeling much better. Only then did he look at his glabella space. He saw that the tiny translucent person standing there was much dimmer than before. It seems the damage was quite significant.

  He trembled slightly. The water in the bathtub had turned cold, so he immediately stood up and wiped his body before putting on clothes.

  When he came out, he instructed his servants, “For the next three days, I’ll be stopping my cultivating. I need to meditate.”

  …

  “Young Master isn’t cultivating?”

  “Young Master splits eight thousand repeater crossbow arrows every day. He’s actually stopping for three days?”

  “He’s been cultivating all this while. Meditating at times might bring about better effects. Moreover, he had killed two Blood Cloud Bandits last night.”

  “That’s right. One of them was Blood Hand Zhao Can. I believe that the battle must have given the Young Master some insight. That’s probably why he wants to meditate.” The servants and guards were chatting.

  …

  Killing two Blood Cloud Bandit members was easy; on the contrary, he was heavily injured by the black metal piece. However, Meng Chuan wasn’t in a hurry. He realized his headache slowly subsiding as time went by. His control over his body gradually recovered.

  For the next three days, he spent his days in a relaxed manner. He read Godfiend biographies as he lay on a reclining chair and leisurely drew in the study.

  Completely relaxing sped up his recovery! He could tell with his inner sight that the translucent figure between his glabella was gradually regaining its former luster.

  On the third day, Meng Chuan began to study the information he received from the damaged black metal piece.

  The legacy I received was the seventeenth stance of the Lightning Devastator Saber, the Five Lightning Descent. It’s not even a complete move? I didn’t even manage to withstand a complete strike before I passed out? Meng Chuan laughed self-deprecatingly. He recalled that when his consciousness was brought into the black metal piece, a large amount of information had entered his consciousness when he was struck by that saber.

  However, his consciousness was only able to withstand a portion of it before falling into a coma. This was an instinctive form of protection.

  However, Meng Chuan still carefully studied the legacy’s information. The information contained partial secrets to the seventeenth stance of the Lightning Devastator Saber.

  Every single word, every single diagram, and description contained boundless information, causing Meng Chuan to feel a sense of oppression.

  The strike of the Five Lightning Descent is actually a series of five strikes. The first strike is extremely terrifying, while the second one is even more powerful. Five consecutive strikes would result in a qualitative change in potency. The power is simply unimaginable.

  The legacy I received was only the first two strikes of the Five Lightning Descent; yet, that’s already the most complicated saber art I have ever seen. Meng Chuan shook his head. The requirements for the physical body and Quintessential Energy were too high.

  …

  His injuries were not completely healed, but he was no longer affected in his normal cultivation of the Saber Drawing Stance and movement techniques.

  Meng Chuan fully recovered two months after receiving the black metal piece’s legacy. Only then could he activate the Power of the Soul again.

  He also made up his mind.

  Unless I have a qualitative change in my glabella’s soul, I will not investigate the black metal piece again. Only after he had completely recovered did he begin to cultivate the first two strikes of the Five Lightning Descent.

  However, when he did so, he realized that he couldn’t use it under normal circumstances. Having comprehended Saber Force, his control over his physical body and Quintessential Energy was considered high among mortals. Still, it was clear that he hadn’t reached the threshold required by the two strikes. Only by using his Power of the Soul to infuse his body and raise his control over his physical body and Quintessential Energy could he barely execute the two saber moves.

  With a single slash, the lightning in his body would flash. This technique was a perfect match with the Lightning Divine Body.

  When he struck out with the two moves, lightning in his body surged together with his Quintessential Energy.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have the secrets to the third saber move. All he could do was release the accumulated lightning and surging Quintessential Energy in his body as a third move.

  …

  Time passed. Winter went, and spring came. Another year had passed.

  In the Skydemon Sect branch hall.

  Boom! A door slowly pushed open. A white-browed man walked out with his hands behind his back.

  “Brother.” The hunchbacked man and a muscular man revealed smiles.

  “In the past half-year that I’ve been in seclusion, did anything major happen in Eastcalm Prefecture?” the white-browed man asked.

&
nbsp; “Brother, Eastcalm Prefecture is still the same as before. If something really major were to happen, we would have woken you up a long time ago.” The muscular man laughed.

  “Okay.” The white-browed man nodded.

  The burly man seemed to recall something. He immediately took out a scroll and handed it to the white-browed man. “By the way, Brother, the Blood Cloud Bandits wanted to sell us a damaged black metal piece a few months ago. It didn’t catch Brother Gao’s fancy, but I do sense a powerful Godfiend aura from it. Could it be a fragment of the legendary Black Metal Sutra?”

  “The Black Metal Sutra refers to Meteorite Metal. Did you check if it’s Meteorite Metal?” pressed the white-browed man.

  “When I came out of seclusion, those two Blood Cloud Bandits were long dead. I didn’t even have the chance to come into contact with that black metal piece,” the muscular man said.

  The white-browed man nodded. He took the painting and unfurled it to take a look. The painting illustrated the damaged black metal piece, and its damaged appearance was very clear.

  “I’ll investigate.” Although the white-browed man said so, he immediately headed towards his residence.

  …

  In an underground study.

  There were many books placed here. The white-browed man took out a stack of paintings and flipped through several of them before finally pulling one out.

  In the painting, there were twenty-six pieces of black metal fragments. The white-browed man carefully compared the twenty-six black metal fragments that matched the black metal fragment in the painting.

  The traces at the edges are identical. This is indeed a fragment of the Black Metal Sutra’s Lightning Devastator Saber. The white-browed man nodded slightly. If it were a complete Black Metal Sutra, demon monarchs would have long come to fight for it. A small fragment held limited interest to the demon monarchs. Demons also had their own legacies that were even more powerful than the humans’.

  Chapter 43

  Inside the hall, the hunchbacked man and Tu looked at the branch master.

  “Brother.” Tu couldn’t help but ask, “Is this really a fragment of the Black Metal Sutra?”

  The white-browed man nodded. “In the history of the human race, portions of the Black Metal Sutra had gone missing. It was confirmed to have shattered into eight fragments. The demons have also recorded the appearances of the eight fragments. Back when I flipped through their records, I deliberately recorded it when I saw it.”

  “When I cultivate on the mountain, I can enter the library once a month,” said Tu with a smile. “But I usually read cultivation manuals. I don’t even bother to spend time on those useless books. Brother, you’re the best. You actually keep it in mind to memorize such stuff. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to recognize the fragment of the Black Metal Sutra.”

  “These intelligence reports are confidential to humans, but the demons do not pay much attention to them. Even if they obtain the Black Metal Sutra… the demons are unable to cultivate it. They are only used for reference,” the white-browed man said. “I’ve identified the fragment that the Blood Cloud Bandits wanted to sell to us is the Lightning Devastator Saber legacy. The complete Black Metal Sutra’s Lightning Devastator Saber legacy is split into twenty-six pieces.”

  “According to the reward set by the demons, a complete Black Metal Sutra can be exchanged for a million credits,” said the white-browed man.

  “A million credits.” The hunchbacked man and Tu’s eyes lit up.

  “It’s impossible to gather all the fragments since some of them have long been collected by Archean Mountain, Black Sand Grotto-Heaven, and Two World Island. Some have fallen into the hands of the demons, while some have been scattered all over the world. How can they be gathered? As we are unable to gather all of them, a fragment will give us ten thousand credits,” said the white-browed man. “Ten thousand credits… For just ten thousand credits, the demon monarchs will not be willing to risk their lives to enter human cities. But for us, it’s worth the risk.”

  “Let’s risk it.” Tu’s eyes turned red.

  “I’ve been in the Skydemon Sect for thirty years. I’ve only accumulated 1200 credits.” The hunchbacked man gritted his teeth. “Let’s take the risk.”

  “Same old rules. After we succeed, I’ll get sixty percent. The two of you will each get twenty percent,” said the white-browed man. “Any objections?”

  “No.”

  “It’s your call,” replied Tu, and the hunchbacked man immediately.

  In Skydemon Sect, the strong were supreme. Even if they joined forces, they were no match for the branch master. They were satisfied getting twenty percent each while the branch master took sixty percent.

  “If you didn’t tell us, we wouldn’t be certain that it’s the Black Metal Sutra fragment,” said the hunchbacked man immediately.

  “In all my years at the Skydemon Sect, I have only accumulated 5000 credits. If I were to receive 6000 credits this time… I would have a chance of entering the Demon Transformation Pool and becoming a Skydemon,” said the white-browed man.

  “Brother, you have already condensed a demon core for over a decade. You will definitely become a Skydemon once you enter the Demon Transformation Pool,” said Tu.

  Skydemon was the cultivation path the demons created for human traitors. It was equivalent to demon monarchs and human Godfiends.

  “Since we have decided to take the risk,” the white-browed man swept the area with his gaze, then said calmly, “you have to understand that this operation is extremely dangerous.”

  “Yes.” The hunchbacked man and Tu were extremely solemn.

  “Eastcalm Prefecture is a human city. There’s a Godfiend from Jadesun Palace presiding over it! The five Godfiend clans should have two or three Godfiends present. If any Godfiend discovers us, we’ll definitely die,” the white-browed man said. “In fact, if we are held back by human experts, we’ll still die once the human experts swarm us.”

  “Understood.” The two vice branch masters nodded.

  The Skydemon Sect… could only hide in the shadows.

  After all, it was only a sect formed by human traitors. Although the demons had created a unique Skydemon cultivation system for these traitors, the Skydemon Sect’s overall strength was far inferior to humans. Their only advantage was that they were humans. Furthermore, the Skydemon system was adept at concealing their auras, allowing them to hide in human cities. However, once they were exposed, humans could easily kill them.

  The hunchbacked man said, “Branch Master, your strength is nearly invincible under Godfiends. As long as we act fast enough, we can quickly escape. It would be too late by the time those Godfiends arrive.”

  “Don’t be careless,” said the white-browed man. “Among the mortals in Eastcalm Prefecture, there are three who can restrain me. The Yun family’s Yun Fucheng, the Zhang family’s Zhang Yong, as well as the Bai family’s Bai Shuwan. The three of them are all experts at the Core Condensation realm. Although they aren’t my match, they can still hold me back for a while. Therefore, I have to avoid the three of them as much as possible.”

  “Alright.” The duo nodded.

  The branch master was practically invincible under the Godfiend realm in Eastcalm Prefecture.

  As for the two vice branch masters, they were weaker. Although they had already comprehended Force and knew many demonic spells, they had yet to reach the Core Condensation realm. In Eastcalm Prefecture, there were more than ten people who could match them.

  “According to what the two of you’ve said,” the white-browed man said, “those two Blood Cloud Bandits died at the hands of the Meng family’s Meng Chuan. Then, the fragment of the Black Metal Sutra might be in his hands.”

  “This is such an important treasure. Blood Hand Zhao Can would definitely carry it with him out of worry,” said Tu. “I’ve also secretly investigated this matter. When the two Blood Cloud Bandit corpses were handled, many people were present. They didn
’t find the Black Metal Sutra fragment. There’s a high chance that it’s in the hands of Meng Chuan.”

  The white-browed man nodded. “The Black Metal Sutra is mysterious and unfathomable. Ordinary Godfiends would find it difficult to pry into its secrets. Only some powerful Godfiends and demon monarchs are able to pry into the profundity of the legacy. Meng Chuan is only seventeen-years-old, so he won’t be able to discover any secrets from it. At most, he will treat it as a Godfiend fragment. He likely wouldn’t carry it with him daily.”

  “Yes.” The hunchbacked man and Tu’s eyes lit up.

  “Brother, you mean…” said the hunchbacked man immediately.

  “The Black Metal Sutra might very well be somewhere in the Mirror Lake Meng Manor,” the white-browed man said. “It’s very likely to be hidden in Meng Chuan’s residence.”

  “Activate our Skydemon Sect assets in Eastcalm Prefecture. Think of a way to infiltrate the Mirror Lake Meng Manor,” said the white-browed man. “Search through Meng Chuan’s residence. If the black metal piece can be stolen, even better.”

  “Yes.” The duo nodded.

  If it wasn’t necessary, they wouldn’t want to fight the Meng family.

  There were a group of Seamless realm experts in the Meng family. Three of them had comprehended Force! Furthermore, Liu Yebai was an expert who had achieved Force as well. Most importantly, there was also the terrifying Godfiend, Fairy Meng. If Fairy Meng discovered them, none of them could escape.

  Therefore, they had no choice but to use their wits.

  …

  The Skydemon Sect members that were lurking in human cities were best at gathering intelligence.

  They used demonic spells to control an old servant and a maidservant who frequently cleaned Meng Chuan’s yard. When Meng Chuan practiced his Saber Drawing Stance in the training grounds, the old servant and maidservant would search the residence while they did their daily cleaning chores. They even found the banknotes hidden by Meng Chuan, but since demonic spells controlled them, they obediently left the banknotes in their original spots to prevent the enemy from being alerted.