163 – Phecda is Damaged
It probably hasn"t been long since she lost consciousness.
The moment the la.s.s regained consciousness, she suddenly expelled air.
Gurgle gurgle — bubbles came out of her mouth and filled the dark field of vision.
Where"s Xihe? When she regained consciousness, the first thing Xue Qilin did was to look for Xihe.
Probably, the moment they entered the water, the two were separated by the impact, which is why she can"t find Xihe within her scope of vision in the water.
The lungs ache a little. Perhaps some water got in, or there isn"t enough oxygen.
Xue Qilin waved her arms and lags laboriously and swam to the surface. To be honest, she doesn"t know is there is a surface — it"s too dark. She can only blindly swim upwards.
“Wu–!”
After rushing out of the water, Xue Qilin coughed violently and vomited the water that invaded her body.
“Cough… hrrr–”
Xue Qilin gasped heavily and chaotically.
In order to pacify her breathing, she took a deep breath, and then exhaled.
“Xihe! If you hear me, respond!”
Xue Qilin grabbed a rock protruding from the water. While struggling with the current, which is more turbulent than expected, she turned around and searched for Xihe.
However, it is very dark here, lowering visibility to an extreme.
At this time, Xue Qilin suddenly found —
“What"s going on here…?”
She wrinkled her nose.
The concentration of spiritual qi here is astonishingly high. The density of spiritual qi is so high that it nearly emits light, and even interferes with Xue Qilin"s perception.
In the outside world, spiritual qi is in a state of flux, and its concentration is rather low. It"s completely different from true qi stored inside martial pract.i.tioners. Although it occasionally gathers in places due to natural factors, it is not common, and it is almost impossible to naturally gather enough spiritual qi to interfere with perception and naturally emit light.
However, this is not the time to look into this.
She dragged her tired body to climb the rock. Consequently, the la.s.s found out that it is not a lone rock, but a small part of land protruding out.
It"s a sh.o.r.e! Xue Qilin is overjoyed.
The fingers of her right hand are trembling, and acute pain is circulating through her hand. She can"t put any weight on the hand. She has no choice but to use her left hand to climb up to the sh.o.r.e.
Eroded by water for a long period of time, the rocks are sharp and slippery. After paying with a few scratches, she barely managed to got ash.o.r.e.
“Ha… ha… ha… ha…”
Xue Qilin is lying on the sh.o.r.e and gasping for air.
The la.s.s feels very tired, as if most of her strength was washed away by the water. Her body is aching — especially the right hand. It is probably broken. If she could, she would love to lie on the ground and go to sleep.
However, Xihe is still missing.
“Xihe! Where are you?”
Xue Qilin sat up and shouted loudly.
Only echoes responded her.
Has she pa.s.sed out? Xue Qilin feels uneasy.
Grandmasters are very powerful, but they are no G.o.ds. They cannot live without the basic elements necessary for survival of living being, namely food, water, and oxygen. This is more so true fro Heaven Realm masters.
If Xihe really lost consciousness and doesn"t regain it in time, then even though she"s a Heaven Realm master, she won"t be able to escape the fate of drowning.
Thankfully, Xue Qilin"s worry is superfluous.
Splosh –!
The sound of something rushing out of the water rang not far away.
Xue Qilin immediately turned to look in the direction of the sound.
In the dark, faint silver light gleamed hazily. Xue Qilin also heard faint coughing mixed in with the eardrum-shaking noise of flowing water.
“Xihe, is it you?”
No response.
Just as Xue Qilin was about to call again, something wrapped around Xue Qilin"s waist. She looked down and found that it is a tail of Xihe"s. Then, Xihe"s voice followed.
“– help me, I have no strength.”
“Oh, okay!”
Xue Qilin grabbed Xihe"s tail and pulled her up.
Xihe is heavier than expected. Is it because the water is pushing her? Xue Qilin guessed. But soon, she found out that she guessed wrong.
“Ah?”
Xue Qilin discovered that one of the Heaven Demon girl"s tails is wrapped around something. When the thing got on the sh.o.r.e, it sc.r.a.ped against the land"s rocks and made sharp, metallic noise. It should be a big piece of metal.
“Despite the state you are in, you still picked up some weird thing?”
The girl coughed violently, unable to answer. Upon seeing this, Xue Qilin reached out to comfort her. After finally finishing coughing, Xihe turned her head to look at Xue Qilin, and helplessness emerged in the purple eyes.
“What are you calling a weird thing? It"s your sword…”
My sword? Xue Qilin promptly lifted her left index finger.
A small flame immediately appeared on the fingertip, and then slowly left her finger and floated above Xue Qilin"s head.
Relying on the faint light, she fixed her gaze on the thing lying beside Xihe.
The dim light it reflects gives off a deep impression.
Indeed, that thing is Empyrean Universe.
Xue Qilin quickly pulled Empyrean Universe towards her and inspected its damage. The thick sword body has a palm-shaped depression. It is difficult to imagine that such a st.u.r.dy sword would be damaged like this. Xue Qilin can only sigh — a Grandmaster"s reputation really isn"t in vain.
“Wretched Asura"er, scoundrel from the Western Regions, G.o.dd.a.m.n you! You harmed my sword!”
Profanities escaped Xue Qilin"s red lips.
Then, she wrinkled her face and stroked the sword body.
“Little Phecda do you hear me?”
“Uw… Qilin, I might be dying.”
A weeping voice came from the large sword.
Upon hearing Phecda"s tearful complaint, Xue Qilin suddenly became nervous.
“What"s wrong with you? Was the core part"s magic array damaged?”
The magic array engraved on Empyrean Universe"s core is used to bind Phecda"s spirit body — that is, her soul — to the sword. If it is damaged and not repaired in time, Phecda will dissipate into nothing in a very short time. In other words, she will die.
“Uwuu… the Transfiguration spell model was destroyed… I cannot live… I can"t meet anyone.”
“The Transfiguration spell model…? Only the Transfiguration spell model?”
“The spell models and magic lines engraved on the surface are destroyed… are all destroyed! What do we do…”
Phecda prattled on, yet none of it is related to the crucial point. Xue Qilin is a little impatient.
“Talk less nonsense! I"m asking if there is anything wrong with your core part"s spell model! Forget about the rest, they can all be redone! The most important thing is your spirit body!”
“Uwuu… there shouldn"t be… I don"t know, I can"t see… Anyway, I"m not all right.”
“In the end, I still don"t know! Let me remove your exterior!”
“Uwuu, even you"re bullying me, Qilin. I don"t want to be stripped naked…”
“Dammit, Little Phecda, this is not the time for tomfoolery!”
The corners of Xue Qilin"s eyes twitched involuntarily.
She ground her pearl-white teeth in anger, then grabbed the hilt tip of the large sword with her trembling hand, and then twisted it by 180 degrees.
“Qilin… don"t… don"t do this!”
Feeling it rotate, Xue Qilin ignored Phecda"s sad supplications and infused true qi into the hilt.
“No, no, I don"t want –!”
With a strange metallic sound, the hilt extended instantly, and the sword body broke apart, as if it suddenly disintegrated.
A large number of metal components dropped on the ground and made clacking sounds.
The remaining main part is complicated in construction. At first glance, it looks like a bird. The left and right sides extended with the sharp, sweeping cutting edge parts facing inward.
Then, the tips of the cutting edge parts shaped like “wings” traced arc-shaped trajectories, pointed in the opposite direction to the hilt, and formed a bayonet. However, the strange thing is that they aren"t touching, leaving a finger-wide gap.
“Is this a spear…? No, is it a sword with a long handle?”
Witnessing the incredible changes of the sword, Xihe couldn"t hide her surprise.
In Xue Qilin"s hands, Empyrean Universe turned into a seemingly suspicious weapon. If you say that it"s a spear, then it"s main spear edge is rather too complicated. If you say that it"s a sword, then its hilt is too long. And it"s even less like an axe.
No matter what, the current Empyrean Universe is even more intimidating. The l.u.s.ter it emits became darker, as if it can absorb light. Yet the surface of the cutting edge parts is inexplicably eye-catching, and has a creepy cold l.u.s.ter attached to it.
“I won"t be able to get married…”
“Who"s gonna marry a sword!”
Xue Qilin mocked Phecda, who is babbling nonsense, and then scratched her head awkwardly and answered Xihe"s question.
“I don"t know whether it should be called a spear or a sword… Anyway, this is what my sword really looks like.”
To be honest, Xue Qilin doesn"t know what kind of weapon this is. Empyrean Universe is not like ordinary cold weapons. It"s more like a modern magic engineering product, with a strange sense of science fiction to it.
“Is it mechanic?”
Xihe asked with little certainty.
“Well, it"s indeed mechanic. But I don"t understand it too well… do you know about mechanics?”
“I have only heard of it a little bit. A long time ago, mechanics was an extremely delicate art placed above martial arts… It is said that it could produce mechanical beasts that flew in the sky and spat fire as well as mechanical gear that provided the wearer with strength that matched that of martial pract.i.tioners.
Xihe"s tone contains somewhat conspicuous reservation, as if she"s talking about something taboo. Xue Qilin objected.
“Those are just exaggerations… Isn"t it just ordinary mechanics.”
Moreover, it can only be regarded as the embryonic form of mechanics. Compared to modern times, the precision is still quite lacking.
Xihe was silent for a while, and then shook her head.
“Perhaps it"s the case… This technology has been lost long ago. Now only the tip of the iceberg, which has been handed down, remains. There"s no way to a.s.sess how capable true mechanics was.”
“Hey, isn"t it just a legend! Legends are tales of exaggeration.”
Next, Xue Qilin began to tinker with the main part of Empyrean Universe. Xihe watched silently.
“Qi, Qilin, you"re going to strip me even more?”
“Don"t make me out to be a pervert!”
With that, Xue Qilin pulled out a lid from Empyrean Universe.
“Really, you"re really going to?”
“Sheesh, can"t you just shut it?!”
Xue Qilin raised her eyebrows, and then took out a gem from Empyrean Universe.
The gem is crystal clear, there is a dim blue shimmering inside like moonlight, and the surface is engraved with strange symbols and patterns.
That is the core part of Empyrean Universe, the gem that binds Phecda"s soul.
“It"s so cold! Qilin, will you hurry up? Please.”
“Yes yes yes…”
Xue Qilin gave a perfunctory reply, and then continued to examine the gem.
“It seems to be alright…”
“Then put me back inside! Uwuu… this is really embarra.s.sing!”
“Okay, fine.”
After repeatedly confirming that there is no damage, Xue Qilin exhaled with relief, then put the gem back in place, and put the lid on, and fastened it.
She placed Empyrean Universe aside.