The Daoist Seal

The inside of the cave was slightly wet. The occasional sounds of dripping water *pitter patter* broke through the silence, causing the atmosphere to feel even eerier.

Jiang Xiaofan cautiously proceeded forward as if he was a thief. To be literal, he really was a thief because his purpose of coming here wasn"t to open a path or to reseal the Celestial Demon Sword. He was here to steal the sword.

Arcanranked! It"s a mystical weapon that even surpa.s.ses precious-ranked!

Jiang Xiaofan wasn"t familiar with the rare treasures of this world, but he was extremely familiar with weapons, even more than what he knew about basic mathematics. Every day for the past days, he envisioned himself wielding his coveted weapon. He would be content if it was even spirit-ranked.

However, how could something like this possibly happen? It was all just imagination. Unexpectedly, Heaven was good to him. He finally had the chance to realize his dream. Not to mention, it was an arcana weapon!

Jiang Xiaofan couldn"t help but think that the old man was being melodramatic. In fact, he wasted a good weapon! How could he bury an arcana weapon like that?! Even if its power is sealed away, he can, at the very least, use it to chop trees. With that, it won"t require so much effort to obtain firewood.

With tips from the old man, Jiang Xiaofan finally arrived in front of a pile of random rocks. The demonic qi in this area was the densest, and even with the activation of the Buddhist Sutra, he felt great discomfort. His body turned cold, and he sensed a very dangerous aura around him.

For the arcana weapon, I"ll fight on!

Jiang Xiaofan careless tossed the rocks on the surface away and took out the shovel that he borrowed from Grandpa Zhang. He then began to dig at the ground. The soil here was very moist, dark, and loose. It was as if someone had just recently tilled it.

*Ding*

 Jiang Xiaofan grew elated after the crisp sound of him hitting an object echoed in his ears. He finally hit the jackpot!

He looked at the demonic sword that lay horizontally before him and slowly gulped. The pommel of the hilt was a skull, and it emanated a powerful, menacing aura. The beautiful, slender sword glimmered with dark, demonic light as if was ready to slice everything in half. There were strange runes on the blade that dizzied him when he looked at them. They looked like the characters on oracle bones[1], none of which he could read.

With the unearthing of the demonic sword, the demonic qi in the atmosphere intensified. Beads of sweat dripped down Jiang Xiaofan"s forehead. Currently, he was under great pressure as if he was holding the sky on his shoulders. The power of the sword was even more terrifying than Zhu Xidao"s precious weapon.

As a reminder, this sword had yet to be unsealed.

As expected of an arcana weapon. Such frightening might!

"It was a good thing that the others hadn"t volunteered to take the lead. Otherwise, their lives would be at risk," inwardly muttered Jiang Xiaofan.

It was true that his cultivation relied on the Buddhist Sutra, and he could use its power to contain demonic cultivation. However, if the level of the demonic cultivation was higher than his, then he could only suffer a grisly fate. He would be like a newborn kitty who was facing a fully-grown, ravenous rat. How was he supposed to kill it? If somehow he didn"t end up dying, he would burn incense and pray to the G.o.ds!

The golden Buddhist light radiated more brilliantly, which caused him to look like a human lightbulb. Jiang Xiaofan reached out to grab onto the hilt of the Celestial Demon Sword. At this time, the still sword suddenly trembled.

Oh my G.o.ds! Jiang Xiaofan nearly fainted. The Celestial Demon Sword was flying towards him!

With the tremor of the Celestial Demon Sword, black qi permeated the air around him and his vision blurred. The sword transformed into a thin, small black light and broke through his Buddhist light barrier before perfusing into his body.

"Get out of there!"

The color drained from his face, and cold sweat profusely dripped down. If a demonic sword goes inside your body, is that considered a good thing?

Just when the sword entered his body, an excruciating pain attacked his senses and his body curled up. He felt that there was a strange organism inside his body and that it was devouring his innards.

"Ahhhh!"

Jiang Xiaofan uncontrollably shrieked with pain. Although his cries were loud, they could not resonate outward. Because of his vast distance from the entrance, Bingxin and Ye Yuanxue had no way of knowing the situation inside the cave.

He regretted it. He felt that his life force was rapidly draining away and nearly lost consciousness from the searing pain. The Celestial Demon Sword was wreaking havoc on his body, absorbing not just his life force but also the circulating Immortal Spirit Qi.

His spiritual awareness channeled through his body in an attempt to stop the Celestial Demonic Sword, but it was useless. It had no way of nearing it. At the same time, wave after wave of pain washed over him. Death was fast approaching.

Abruptly, the Celestial Demon Sword trembled again as if it seemed to have sensed something. Its powerful demonic qi shot towards a specific area within his body. Its movement caused Jiang Xiaofan to violently vomit a mouthful of blood as he felt his organs ripping from the inside out.

"That!"

His spiritual awareness trailed the path of the demonic sword. Before him was the small, multicolored lake. It was so mystical that it looked surreal. In the center was the palm-sized, silver-colored bra.s.s piece that floated serenely and unmoving on top of the water.

He was utterly stunned. Could it be that the Celestial Demonic Sword was attracted to this lake?

In the next moment, Jiang Xiaofan"s guess had been actualized. The Celestial Demon Sword was like a hungry man who l.u.s.ted after a beautiful girl, streaking towards the lake at lightning speed. The scene had Jiang Xiaofan frozen on the spot and at a loss for words.

The sword"s actually going for it!

Just when the sword plunged into the water, its black blade suddenly shook wildly as if the sword had encountered the most frightening thing in existence. It wanted to escape, but a glimmer of light intercepted and held it back.

Entering may be a piece of cake, but exiting it surely isn"t!

Jiang Xiaofan fell to the ground and repeatedly pounded on the ground while laughing so hard that he couldn"t catch his breath.

Such bad luck! You totally deserved it! Of all the places that it could"ve traveled to, the Celestial Demon Sword just had to aim for the small, multicolored lake. Even he didn"t know much about this lake, nor had he ever touched its waters. He couldn"t believe that the demonic sword actually set its sight on the lake.

As for that floating bra.s.s piece, its origin was even more noteworthy since it had once belonged to Siddhartha Gautama. With just a slight tremble, the bra.s.s piece"s power shattered Zhu Xidao"s coveted precious weapon. Even if the Celestial Demon Sword was an arcana weapon and more formidable than the Soul Training PaG.o.da, its might, nonetheless, paled in comparison to the might of the bra.s.s piece. The Celestial Demon Sword was asking for torment.

Within the waters, the sword shook even more frantically than before. Its demonic power was now beyond frightening, startling those who felt it.

Jiang Xiaofan"s hair stood on end. He felt the tremendous energy fluctuations, so powerful that they could destroy Heaven and Earth. Concurrently, the water of the small, multicolored lake also turned turbulent. A black-colored flash of lightning appeared and was followed by the piercing screams of demons and ferocious growls of ghosts. The entire scene was apocalyptic.

His body completely froze over. Just what is up with this demonic sword? Why is it so terrifying? He could feel his body wanting to explode and his blood raging to gush out.

*Ring*

All of a sudden, the bra.s.s piece slightly vibrated. In an instant, everything quieted down, and the illusions vanished. The black demonic qi was immediately absorbed into the bra.s.s piece.

Jiang Xiaofan sucked in his breath. The bra.s.s piece really is that amazing after all!

As the demonic qi was being absorbed into the bra.s.s piece, the qi around the Celestial Demonic Sword continued to shake violently in resistance. The demonic aura was constantly weakening. Afterward, its movements came to a stop. With his acute sense, Jiang Xiaofan knew that the demonic sword had undergone a change. It was much weaker now, and its fearsome qi had completely dissipated.

Around this time, the bra.s.s piece also ceased its absorption. It trembled for a final time and sent the black sword flying out of Jiang Xiaofan"s body. The sword landed on the ground with a loud *clunk*.

Jiang Xiaofan was taken aback. He warily walked towards the sword, softly kicked it, discovered that it had no reaction, and kicked it again. Following that were more kicks. After the seventh kick, Jiang Xiaofan finally let his guard down.

He picked up the sword and examined it in his hands. It was quite heavy, and the blade was sharp like a soldier who was ready for battle. However, he also sensed that the sword no longer emitted any energy, not even the slightest fluctuation. It seemed to be even more worthless than a spirit weapon.

He channeled his spiritual energy to the sword, but no reaction was elicited from it. The Celestial Demon Sword didn"t move at all.

"This can"t be. I suffered through all that, and what I now have is a giant knife for obtaining firewood?"

Jiang Xiaofan was so furious with the sword that he tossed it away.

What happened next had left his jaw dropping to the ground as he stared on at the scene. The entire blade of the sword perforated the cave"s wall. Only the hilt with the skull forged on it was visible. It was as if the sword and the cave were one ent.i.ty. Throughout the whole process, not a single sound was produced.

Too sharp! So sharp that it"s abnormal!

This was the first thought that ran through Jiang Xiaofan"s mind. He strode forward, pulled out the sword, and surveyed it once more. Next, he picked up a piece of rock with his left hand, raised it towards the tip of the blade, and gently sliced downward.

*Ziiii*

The sound was almost inaudible. The rock in his hand had been cleaved in half.

Jiang Xiaofan widened his eyes in astonishment. He almost suspected the object in his hand was a block of tofu. No, it"s more fragile than tofu!

He then began to crazily experiment with his sword inside the cave. First, he bore the pain of pulling out a strand of his hair, threw it in midair, and sliced it with the Celestial Demon Sword. In an instant, the strand was cut into two.

Next, he gently waved the sword at a few giant boulders. The sound of contact was so soft that Jiang Xiaofan couldn"t even hear it. The results were the same. All of the boulders were cleaved in half from the middle. The cross section of the cut was smoother than gla.s.s.

"f.u.c.k! What a really sharp woodcutting knife!" Jiang Xiaofan marveled at it.

He was somewhat happy again. Jiang Xiaofan believed that with the sharpness of the sword, even a spirit weapon could be easily hacked by it. More importantly, he could now use the Celestial Demon Sword in the public eye. Other than the scary-looking hilt, the sword didn"t emanate a single thread of demonic qi. n.o.body could tell that it was a demonic sword.

He placed the Celestial Demon Sword inside his spatial ring. The ring wasn"t considered anything special in the eyes of the four large sects. After ascending to the status of an inner disciple, the new inner disciples would receive spatial rings which were used to store simple items. As long as they were not living things, almost anything could be stored.

Right after he walked out of the cave, the glaring sunlight temporarily blinded him. Thus, he subconsciously blocked it with his hand.

"Perverted Wolf, are you alright?" Ye Yuanxue hopped over and asked him.

Jiang Xiaofan smiled and shook his head. Just when he was about to reply, Bingxin interjected, "You wasted a considerable amount of time. I thought you had died in there. I didn"t think that you"d walk out alive."

f.u.c.k! Why does this chick have such wicked thinking?!

Jiang Xiaofan really wanted to slap her to h.e.l.l, but he restrained himself. As the saying went, "A true gentleman does not fight with a girl." He definitely wasn"t afraid of challenging her! Definitely not! h.e.l.l no!

Editor: Vis

Footnotes