Chương 214: War God’s — Chapter 215 - Sword Mausoleum, Malevolent Spirit, Soul Devouring Art

"First, this illusionary city is divided into three major regions." Wang Xian's expression was serious as he laid out the information he'd compiled about the relic.

"The first region: the Outer City District. The outer structural area of the illusionary city."

"This is the largest area. Within the Outer City District, there are several key zones: the Sword Mausoleum, the Sword Enlightenment Cliff, the Cloud Sea Hidden Realm, and a few others." The group listened.

"I know about the Outer City District." Bai Xingyun frowned.

"The research institute discovered it some time ago and has the basic information. But things like the Sword Mausoleum and Sword Enlightenment Cliff... I haven't heard of those." The three exchanged glances.

"The research institute says the outer area only has high-risk and low-risk zone classifications." Social Security Sis looked puzzled.

"These three zones you mentioned should be the high-risk zones, right?"

"But the high-risk zones are still being explored. They haven't been officially named yet."

"Right, they're the high-risk zones." Wang Xian nodded.

"I got this from other channels. Just take it as reference." How to put it. Without a squad, the military and research institute would never let anyone enter this secret realm alone. If he went in, he'd probably just be exploring the Outer City District alongside them. So...

"Fine, continue." Bai Xingyun smiled.

"These three zones all have different scarce resources and opportunities." Wang Xian continued.

"Take the Sword Mausoleum, for example."

"The swords there have been infected by Malevolent Qi for years, spawning large numbers of sword-corpse ghosts."

"Given this relic's intensity, they're at least B-rank."

"B-rank!" Social Security Sis let out an exaggerated cry.

"Little junior, is your intel accurate? Since it's the Outer City District, logically only C-rank or D-rank beasts should appear, right?" Wang Xian thought to himself: normally, yes. But Zhe Lou Cloud City was one of the more famous major relics in his past life. It was definitely not just B-rank. In fact, Wang Xian estimated that Martial Gods had personally intervened back then. There were certainly even higher-level existences inside.

"Treat them as B-rank." Wang Xian smiled.

"These sword-corpse ghosts are extremely formidable. They all possess advanced-level martial arts or above. Some might even execute superior-class martial arts." The group drew in cold breaths. Bro, that's a bit much. If humanoid beasts could execute martial arts, that wouldn't be special. Many relics had such cases. Especially when martial artists, infected by Malevolent Qi, slowly transformed into humanoid beasts, they naturally retained their martial arts memories from life.

With the Malevolent Qi factor, the martial arts they executed were even more powerful than the original martial artists. But superior-class martial arts? That was pushing it.

"I'm guessing." Wang Xian said.

"I think your guess is off." Bai Xingyun's face was solemn.

"If they're really that formidable, this exploration's difficulty would be extraordinary. Forget us. Even the other Dragon Country Big Five squads probably couldn't get past this one zone." And this was only one zone of the Outer City District! Wang Xian thought to himself: these sword-corpse ghosts weren't Blue Star martial artists in life. Of course they weren't simple. Stolen story; please report. That's right. Those who died inside this relic were all once disciples of the Heavenly Sting Sword Sect.

And none were core disciples. By Wang Xian's estimate, a superpower alien civilization like the Heavenly Sting Sword Sect was definitely much stronger than Blue Star. There were highly likely experts surpassing the Martial God realm. After all, on Blue Star, Martial God was the limit. But on the Alien Star Battlefield, Martial God was far from the limit. Just think: even a superpower of this level could fall. One could imagine how powerful those existences on the Alien Star Battlefield truly were...

"Best if my guess is off." Wang Xian smiled.

"What I'm saying is, although these sword-corpse ghosts are strong, there are ways to avoid fighting them."

"You can avoid them?" Social Security Sis looked curious. She looked at Wang Xian with the odd feeling she was about to play a game and had suddenly discovered a strategy guide.

"You can." Wang Xian narrowed his eyes.

"Inside the Sword Mausoleum, there's a type of spirit body formed purely from spiritual energy."

"Sword spirits?" Bai Xingyun perked up.

"I've heard of those!"

"You could call them that." Wang Xian nodded.

"These spirit bodies wander through the Sword Mausoleum. Many are formed from weapon implements of this place. After absorbing Spirit Malevolence, they become Malevolent Spirits."

"But... these Malevolent Spirits are very unique." Wang Xian's gaze turned mysterious.

"If a martial artist can obtain these Malevolent Spirits and fuse them into our weapon implements, the implements gain growth properties. You can easily cultivate many secret skills."

"Like the Six Yao weapon technique."

"That powerful?" The three's eyes lit up.

"High-quality Malevolent Spirits can also grant weapon implements spiritual nature. Some even inherit unique secret skills." Wang Xian smiled faintly.

"Even martial arts." In his past life, someone had obtained a very powerful Malevolent Spirit from this Sword Mausoleum. From it, they gained extremely formidable secret skills or martial arts. These secret skills were originally a type of secret technique cultivated by outer district disciples of the Heavenly Sting Sword Sect. The one that left the deepest impression on Wang Xian was a secret skill called the Soul Devouring Art.

This secret technique supposedly allowed a martial artist, after killing someone, to devour their soul and obtain their martial talent. Only, the talent obtained would be downgraded. A BUG-level existence. In later generations, after obtaining this secret technique, that person secretly killed many martial artists. His body wielded over a dozen types of martial talent power simultaneously.

Even if these martial talents were only mid or low grade, he ultimately became an infamous villain on the Blue Star international stage. He built up a massive criminal force. It was just that he made too many enemies. Within a few years, the five standing committee members of the Blue Star Martial Alliance, led by the Great Eagle Empire, joined forces and dispatched a squad of grandmaster martial artists to execute him. They uprooted his force.

Afterwards, when they extracted the Malevolent Spirit from his weapon implement for research, they discovered something. This Soul Devouring Art originally granted a martial artist a soul-devouring ability. Within the Heavenly Sting Sword Sect, outer sect disciples cultivated this Soul Devouring Art not to devour other people's souls. Rather, they devoured certain alien evil spirits, raising them within their own bodies, purifying them while nurturing them into spirit seeds.

It was absolutely not meant for committing evil. Normally, devouring just one was enough. Devour too many, and you simply couldn't bear it. So once someone used this technique for evil, once wicked thoughts arose, sooner or later they'd be infected by the excess soul power. In the end, good and evil would be repaid in kind! It was just that... Wang Xian remembered that in his past life, the Great Eagle Empire ultimately obtained the Soul Devouring Art.

After completing their research, they publicly destroyed the technique. They stated that this secret technique was too evil. Once wicked thoughts arose, one would inevitably be controlled by it. It absolutely could not be allowed to spread. In fact... Wang Xian didn't believe the Great Eagle Empire truly destroyed it. Because in later years on the Alien Star Battlefield, Wang Xian had personally seen a Great Eagle Empire Martial God using this secret technique. Of course, it wasn't just this secret technique.

The high-quality Malevolent Spirits within the Sword Mausoleum often held other inheritances as well. From this, one could glimpse the tip of the iceberg of that former alien civilization superpower, the Heavenly Sting Sword Sect.

"Damn, junior, you're sounding more and more far-fetched." Bai Xingyun clicked his tongue.

"If you were from the research institute, I'd suspect you were painting me a giant pie-in-the-sky."

"If I could get even one Malevolent Spirit, even if it had nothing else, just using it on my weapon implement, I'd be rich!" Well, of course. A relic that even Martial Gods of the past life couldn't resist stepping in for. You think it's just talk? As for this lifetime... Wang Xian figured it was hard to say. This relic's value was too great. Once it opened even slightly, it would inevitably attract many powers clashing over it in short order. But the pity was, this relic was far too complex and dangerous.

Or rather, even as mere wreckage, many of its designs and power levels surpassed current Blue Star. Unless one could find that so-called Heavenly Profound Sword Seed. Otherwise, Wang Xian estimated most people would only be able to stay in the Outer City District. The inner Void Realm, the Profound Heaven Sword Palace, core zones like these, the vast majority of martial artists simply couldn't reach. It wasn't a matter of difficulty. Rather, many mechanisms inside would trigger a backlash once trespassed upon.

Like if a Martial God stepped in, the core zone would sense an overly powerful force. Unable to obtain authentication, it would directly self-destruct. You wouldn't even get a single hair out of it.

"Hurry, tell us about the later zones!" Social Security Sis was full of curiosity, as if listening to a story.

"I don't know if it's true or false, but little junior, the way you tell it sounds made up."

"What about the later zones?"

"The later ones... the Sword Enlightenment Cliff..." Wang Xian was about to speak. Suddenly, the vehicle slowly rolled to a stop. They'd arrived at the relic's entrance.

"We'll talk when the time comes..." Wang Xian looked outside. ➤ Next: Old Opponent from a Previous Life