Chương 37: Blood Taints, Death Corrupts

Out in the middle of nowhere stood a little city. Tainted by the death energy and so desolate that even Coldharbor Port City, its nearest neighbor, had all but erased its existence from memory. Life was hard here. Limited food and opportunities, a sulfur mine that chewed the few able-bodied men like a grinder, summers that burned, winters that bit. Other than the poor bastards unlucky enough to be born here, no sane person would waste their breath coming all the way here. Kai wasn't sure if he was sane or not.

Or if his goal of coming here fit the description, as this place was a godsend for him at the moment. The city reeked of iron, rotten eggs, and filth. Corpses slumped in every direction— men, women, children, even dogs and chickens. Blood soaked the ground so thick it shone ominously beneath the sun. Kai stood among them, still as a stone. His face shifted every second— not in the sense of expression but as a whole.

Sometimes he turned out to be a handsome, gentle young man, another second a scarred war veteran, then a baby-faced child. And sometimes his face blurred altogether, as if his mind stumbled in confusion and tried to remember what he looked like. It never remembered.

"Harbor no grievance before the dead or the living." Words as old as his childhood spilled out of his lips, stripped of reverence.

"Let no hatred weigh the soul, for only hopes and dreams may cross this sacred river of death…" He spat the last syllable, jaw clenching. A ritual forced into him by a mother who was no more. His hand brushed the jade pendant at his chest, then fell.

"… Madmen. All of you." He bent; his white robes were spotless even when he was knee-deep in the mess, gleaming without a speck on them. Dragging a glassy black hammer from his belt, he felt it pulse faintly, veins of crimson crawling across its surface as though it were alive. A gesture of his hand, and blood seeped from the corpses around him, along with shrieks only he could hear, rivulets flowing through the air to pool into the hammer's head. With every drop, its glow deepened.

A sound rose with it— half moan, half sigh— as if the hammer itself savored the blood. Kai's face twisted. He spat to the side, catching it with the hammer before it touched the dead. Desecration was unforgivable, she'd said. Even now, even with everything he had become, he couldn't break that teaching.

"Master! Why did you spit on my gorgeous self?!" a childish voice shouted, the hammer trembling in his hand with utter shame. A bloodied eye opened on it, stared at the spit in disgust as a few veins swelled into weird tentacles, and wiped away the filth.

"Look at me, all dirty again. Can't you pay a little attention to your sweet baby… you're breaking my fragile heart…" Kai didn't blink.

"Being covered in brain matter and innards isn't a problem, but just a spit breaks your heart?" he said, clicking his tongue.

"Why would my purpose in life disgust me?" The bloodied eye rolled itself in circles as if trying to imitate a certain act, though it failed spectacularly.

"Purpose in life?" Kai asked, voice calm.

"Killing can't be a hammer's purpose. Forging is. Obviously, I made a mistake down the road, creating such an abomination."

"And that's what maeks me beautiful," the hammer answered immediately, its cheerful voice echoing in the emptiness. It pulsed and gulped a ton of blood at once.

"Forging metal is nothing. Tainting it… That, my ignorant master, is what gives me a purpose. If that takes slaughter? Then sure, I'll gladly do it. Otherwise, how can I feed my little brothers and sisters as the big sister?" Kai let out a slow chuckle, hearing this. He dipped his fingers into the blood and drew them back, his eyes drifting along the droplets as they slid off, fascinated. Plop. Plop.

"You're right. We don't just destroy. We destroy so we can create. A fine purpose, maybe…" He paused. What was his purpose? Other than revenge, of course. To hell with the bastards of the Celestial Court. Every one of them deserved to die, and he wouldn't mind commencing that slaughter with his very hands. However, was revenge enough? Plop… plop… As a life purpose, he meant. Mother would be angry if she learned… Or maybe she would understand.

The weight he carried wasn't something that allowed 'companionship' beside it. A feral beast, was it. And a feral beast wouldn't distinguish between dreams and food. It would devour all and make its nourishment. Until one day it starts to devour even his very being—"Master!" He suddenly flinched, noticing all the blood, even the blood on his hand, had been devoured while he was lost in his thoughts. The tentacles 'licked' the last few drops left on the ground while the eye locked onto him.

"You're ignoring me again! Hmph, bad master!" It narrowed its eyelids and pulled back its two tentacles to a cross, as if a sulking teenage girl.

"Which slender hammers are you thinking of, huh? Those green twins you sent to that ugly girl? What's so special about frail things when I'm here?"

"I don't find anything attractive," Kai answered absentmindedly, rising.

"It was just her weapon of choice."

"Yeah, right. Save that story for the Sharpie. Only he would believe it." The hammer hummed as if snorting. Though it didn't shut up.

"Anyways, haven't we already finished and sent all my little siblings? Why did you kill them? And you didn't even make preparations. What if we got caught? Or wait—" Its eye suddenly opened wide.

"You can't think of making another lover for yourself and throwing me aside?! Answer me, Master! That's why you're ignoring me, right? Right?!" Kai didn't care about its tantrums and hung it on his belt.

"We had," he said, eyes wandering toward a far-off place as if he could see that stubborn, half-armored figure, "but an abnormality came out. Though I couldn't say I'm surprised. Although I don't know how he hid his mark, I'm not surprised he survived. That bastard was and still is a resilient one." The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He exhaled a long, weary breath before pulling his gaze and laying out his forge tools— tongs, chisels, an anvil, and a forge filled with eternal lava— each landing with a clatter on the ground. The hammer unbuckled itself and floated beside him, its infatuated eye watching his every move.

"If you're not gonna make another lover, then what are you gonna make for… him?" Kai froze with a steel billet gleaming in his hand. Right… what am I going to do? He hadn't even had time to think about it. After all, he was sure he was dead until last night, when they informed him of the Judgment Deed. A great way to show the world he was still alive. And a slap to the faces of those who tried to kill him. I even warned them again and again.

Shaking his head, he continued to take out every precious metal in his ring, piling them aside.

"That bastard uses a sword," he murmured, staring at the dark blue steel ingot. It was the most precious material he had right now, but less than half a kilogram had remained.

"Then why the hell did they send him a spear? And it's even such a weak one…" Sighing, Kai began tapping his head in a steady rhythm. He knew he had to forge a spear, but the spear they prepared was something he couldn't replicate, as it perfectly fit the nature of Judgment, probably for Ren to repair his divine sword after a while. However, the one he forged should remain with him as much as possible.

Even though Ren could repair it at most within a few years with the resources at his disposal, that time was enough for Kai to change his mind.

"Or I can completely destroy his divine sword. Anyway, what type of spear should I choose for him? He is a brute, but not a brainless one…" he continued to murmur, the tapping intensifying. His eyes searched around for inspiration.

"Slaying or purifying auras is out of the question…" Plop… Kai froze, hand in the air, then turned around.

"…Not falling even after death. Fitting." His eyes locked on one body still standing upright, held stiff by the cold touch of death. Fingers clenched tight around a battered spear, refusing release. Blood was still dripping down from his two eyes. Although the man had failed, he had given his all as the protector and sole cultivator of the city, refusing to yield even though he was only a pitiful Foundation Establishment junior. But that was what gained Kai's respect.

"A defiance aura, then. Defying death and rebirth, ready to pierce the heavens. Ah, Wang Ren, ah, you damn chosen of fate. Heavens definitely love sick jokes…" He grabbed the still blabbering hammer out of the air and held it out toward it. The corpse withered into mist, its essence sucked into it without a sound, unlike the others. A prideful bastard, for sure.

"Lend me your strength, Little Flower."" Hihehe, since you asked so gently, Master, I'll gladly do!" The hammer trembled, its tentacles wriggling like a ghost's erratic hair.

"This time, I want a little brother! Sleek, charismatic and devilishly beautiful, hihihi." The forging began. Praying— No. Hoping this would be the only anomaly, Kai didn't care and melted all the metal he had, deciding to forge a metal shaft. He had no time to find a better alternative, like an ashwood or an evergreen tree around. The forge roared to life as molten heat bled into the air, warping the air with its shimmer. The eternal lava inside pulsed with pure energy.

Kai threw everything at once, letting it separate them on its own. Slivers of moon-silver, fragments of cold-iron, black-steel, obsidianpulse, and more hissed, dissolving into the molten bath. The hammer cackled." Ahh, feed it, Master! Let them melt together, let them merge with my screams. Can you hear it? My little brother is calling me, begging for a new form… begging for me to strike!" Kai's face remained still, though his eyes gleamed in the fire's reflection.

He reached into the heat not long after, making eerie hand-signs. All the fully melted metals rose into the air, took a shape he desired until they hardened enough to be hammered.

Kai grabbed it with the billet, put it on the anvil, and kissed Little Flower before raising it high— The first strike fell. CLANG! The hammer thundered against the billet, the blood it had devoured seeping into the metal's pores. Veins of red spread through the now white-hot glowing spearhead, staining it with something alive, something wrong. Screams rose.

"Again! Again! Make it sing!" the hammer cried, its tentacles lashing like impatient whips. Kai obliged. CLANG. CLANG. CLANG. Each strike rang louder, echoing off the ruined city as if giving a sick concert for the shriveled corpses. The air thickened with the smell of scorched iron and old blood. Between blows, Kai muttered under his breath, his voice rising and falling in tandem with the screams.

"Death isn't an end, only a beginning. To create, you must destroy first. To destroy, you need to know how to create first… Chain the fate, to become its master; defy the death, to live…"

"Yesss, chain it!" the hammer squealed.

"Harder! Hit harder! I can feel it! My little brother, my precious brother, I can sense him… he wants more! He needs more!" It glowed, trembled, and shouted. Suddenly, a crimson pillar of light burst from it, piercing the dark clouds that blanketed the city. Kai's lips curled in the faintest smirk, pausing just for a moment to stare at the heavens. Thunder growled threateningly, but the pillar didn't let it approach. He slammed the hammer down again, this time pouring spiritual energy through it.

Little Flower moaned in pure ecstasy, black fire crawling out of its eye into the spear embryo. Hours passed quickly until he felt a faint tremble from the spear. The forge flared as if sensing it. From within, skeletal arms formed of slag and molten ore clawed upward. Each one was touched and absorbed in the form of golden carvings, leaving only faint markings. The hammer shuddered.

"Yes! Yes! Take them all in, fuse with them!" Kai ignored its shrill laughter. His gaze turned distant, fixed on something beyond the weapon. With every strike, he envisioned the stubborn figure standing tall, refusing to bow even if his end was unjust.

"You'll take the shape of his defiance," Kai murmured, the figure he envisioned slowly overlapping with another, equally stubborn one. No, equally saying would be an underestimation as that figure refused even death.

"And my bloodlust." His eyes sharpened in an instant as he made a last-second decision, reaching deep into the molten lava. Enduring the burning pain in his arm, he pulled out two crescent-shaped rib bones, one short, one long. Even the eternal lava couldn't melt them.

"Let us see what a slaughter fest you're going to prepare for us…" Kai muttered, attaching the bones beside the spearhead. Melted metal flowed toward it, grabbing it like a child holding his parent's hand eagerly.

"It's a healthy baby brother, Master!" The hammer flew out of his hand and snuggled up to the spear. A deep hum resonated, at the same time as the thunder growled in fury. The clouds compacted like a clenched fist; within it danced lightnings in different colors. A seven-colored tribulation! The spear turned to Kai, its hum getting more urgent.

"Fine, I'll bless you with a name," Kai said, smiling. He rubbed his chin, then his finger danced in the air.

"You'll be known as the Spear of Defiance and Bloodlust, and your name is… Heavenpiercer!" The world stilled as if even it held its breath. The spear quivered with such ferocity that the very fabric of space split apart in its wake. And without waiting even a moment, it shot toward the tribulation clouds. Kai calmly watched. He already knew the result, yes, but he liked to watch it. At the same time, he clicked his fingers, and a pristine white crane— pure as snow, eyes deader than death— landed at his side.

"Wait here," he told the bird.

"When it returns, you'll carry it." RUMBLE! An earthquake-like boom came as the spear pierced through the tribulation cloud, shining in seven different colors.

"Hope you won't disappoint me, Terror Incarnate…" Kai murmured under his breath as the light shone on his blurred face. Phase one had finally slid into its place.