Chương 55: War God — Chapter 55 - In Other Words, Truly Kill Me

"How do I get out of here?" Wang Xian asked. This place was bizarre. He'd only absorbed the demon blade's memories from the blade itself. But the Blade Tomb's details? He didn't know much.

"Insert the blade into the groove at the highest point." Long Yuan gestured faintly toward the graveyard's peak.

"The passage will open. Whether you can leave is another matter." Wang Xian said nothing. He walked to the highest point and slid the blade into its sheath. The next second, the ground rumbled. An ancient corridor rose from the earth. Dark and strange, with deep, terrifying auras seeping from within. Wang Xian studied it carefully. The corridor's surface looked ordinary enough. Only the walls on either side held anything unusual: the left carved with blade marks, the right with strange alien beasts.

Each blade mark matched one beast.

"This is the Blade Intent Corridor." Long Yuan's voice was low.

"Every blade mark was left by us tomb keepers before we died. Within each mark lies the desperate struggle of that generation, dissecting and slaying alien beasts."

"Each time you pass a blade mark, you'll face a vision of battling that beast."

"Only by perfectly replicating that tomb keeper's battle, dissecting and slaying the beast, can you pass to the next mark."

"Otherwise, forcing through will get you instantly killed by the blade intent in these 108 marks!"

"This is the trial every generation of tomb keepers undergoes."

"The Blade Zen Trial." Wang Xian glanced at Long Yuan. Said nothing. Without hesitation, he walked straight to the first blade mark. A distinct groove marked the surface. Wang Xian placed the demon blade inside. Instantly, blade intent flooded the air. Wang Xian's body jolted. Before he could react, an alien beast phantom lunged at his face. He narrowed his eyes and swung. The phantom vanished. Then reappeared the next second.

"Useless."

"You must use Beast Dissection. Only by perfectly dismembering them can you truly eliminate them and complete the battle replication!" Long Yuan's voice came from behind, expressionless. Wang Xian didn't respond. He'd only been testing whether it worked as Long Yuan said. Apparently it did. After a few seconds' thought, Wang Xian raised his blade. Exquisite silver light flashed like threading a needle, separating and dismembering the beast before him. The Blood-Drinking Frenzy Blade dropped from the wall groove.

Complete. Wang Xian moved to the next blade mark without pause.

"Interesting..."

"Not real, but as long as I perfectly replicate the battles and dissect these phantoms, Beast Dissection's progress will skyrocket."

"Could this secret skill actually be connected to the tomb keepers?" These beast phantoms could only be defeated by replicating the tomb keepers' battles and perfectly dismembering them. Otherwise, no matter how many times you killed them, they'd just return.

"Is this trial designed specifically to rapidly train Beast Dissection?" Of course, it also tested a martial artist's blade technique. But overall, it relied on Beast Dissection. One by one, Wang Xian unlocked the blade marks. He experienced battle after battle. The further he went, the harder it became. The beasts grew larger, more complex. Even though they lacked true strength. Facing a medium-sized beast 10 meters tall, with its intricate body structure, just landing a single blade was incredibly difficult.

Let alone perfect dismemberment. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Perfect dismemberment meant every blade struck a weak point. One wrong cut meant starting over. The scale was enormous. But once completed, Beast Dissection would surge forward. Time passed. One day, two days, three days... —"What? Can't find anyone?"

"Impossible. Wang Feng was right here fighting Long Yuan... Even if something happened, there should be traces, right?"

"It's only been 2 or 3 days. How could there be nothing?" The veteran and his group waited less than 2 days before the train returned. Even after requesting dozens of soldiers to search the skeletal ruins for half a day, probing the Weeping Blood Pool to its depths, they found no signs of life.

"Either they activated a hidden door and entered an unknown space."

"Or they left."

"Or they're already dead somewhere else..." The group couldn't accept this. They searched the ruins for a week, only returning to Rong City when food ran low.

"How do we report this to the club?" At that question, the veteran and the other two exchanged glances, minds unsettled... — One month later.

"Only the last blade mark remains." At the Blade Intent Corridor's end, Wang Xian studied the final mark and narrowed his eyes. He'd lost track of time. He only knew he'd been ceaselessly using Beast Dissection to complete each blade mark's hidden trial.

"Beast Dissection has reached 90%..."

"The last blade mark should raise it at least 5% more..."

"Which means I've nearly cultivated this secret skill to its peak." Unbelievable. At a normal pace, even constantly killing beasts in ruins wouldn't progress this fast. Earlier, killing those Weapon Dissection Beasts had raised it 10% in one burst. But killing the same beasts again, dozens of them might not even raise it 1 or 2%. Killing the same type drastically reduced progress. After many kills, it simply stopped increasing. You had to find new beasts.

And the further you progressed, the slower improvement became. Only by continuously raising the beasts' strength and variety would progress maintain its pace. Training this way, to fully cultivate this secret skill below the third realm, without several years, was completely impossible. Now he'd nearly maxed it in a month. All thanks to this Blade Intent Corridor. 108 blade intents representing 108 beasts, not a single repeat! And judging by their forms, these beasts had been powerful in life.

After all, to become a tomb keeper, to wield the demon blade, to become the blade sheath, you needed real ability. He walked out of the corridor and looked at Long Yuan leaning against the wall, barely breathing. The man hadn't died. Perhaps due to the blade puppet's nature, even with his body ruined, as long as he wasn't separated, he retained some consciousness. But he had no combat strength left. The Immortal-Slaying Flying Blade Art, that strike had practically crippled him.

Interestingly, all the food during this period had come from Long Yuan. Or rather, stored within this space. Enough food for several years. Wang Xian guessed it was meant for tomb keepers to survive here, endlessly honing their blade skills.

"Which one?"

"Only the last remains." Long Yuan weakly opened his eyes, staring at Wang Xian.

"How long?"

"I've eaten the preserved food hidden in the corridor nearly 30 times." Wang Xian ate once a day.

"A month."

"You reached the 108th in a month..." Long Yuan gazed toward the corridor, voice hoarse.

"The final blade mark, that's from the first-generation tomb keeper."

"What he left is the only one who fought the 'Dragon Owl Glutton Lord.'""You don't need to defeat it. You can't. Just replicate that battle as closely as possible." Wang Xian said nothing and walked to the final blade mark. The moment the demon blade entered the groove, a terrifying roar erupted. Wang Xian looked up. A colossal body over 100 zhang long, like a mountain range, crashed down with crushing force. Its blood-drenched maw opened wide, as if to swallow heaven and earth.

"This is the first-generation Dragon Owl Glutton Lord?"

"Not even X-class yet... already this enormous..." Wang Xian shook his head inwardly. How hopeless must the martial artists of that era have felt, facing such a beast? Yet even in despair, they later cleaved off this beast's tusks and forged them into weapons to slaughter its kind.

'The true essence of martial arts: living toward death.'

'Even then, it ran through history.' Wang Xian sighed softly. Holding the short blade, as if becoming the first-generation tomb keeper, he began a bitter battle against the giant phantom. Outside, Long Yuan waited. Days passed, he didn't know how many. He closed his eyes, as if he'd stopped breathing. Occasionally he opened them, contemplation flickering.

'If he fails...'

'He'll just be the next me...' Long Yuan murmured, then chuckled, reminiscence in his eyes. At some unknown moment, a figure walked out from the Blade Intent Corridor. Light reflected back from within. Long Yuan froze. That was the sign the Blade Intent Corridor had opened. For many years, no tomb keeper had opened it and truly left this Blade Tomb openly.

"You succeeded." Long Yuan looked at the figure, expression carrying unprecedented ease.

"The Blade Intent Corridor is open, but there's still one door." Wang Xian looked at him.

"The key isn't the demon blade."

"I know the key." Long Yuan glanced at Wang Xian.

"What is it?"

"Simple. Use Beast Dissection to perfectly dismember me."

"Extract my bones and piece them into a blade sheath. Embed it in the keyhole and it'll open." Long Yuan spoke in an exceedingly casual tone.

"In other words, truly kill me." Wang Xian remained silent for a long time. He only drew the demon blade, gently stroked its body, then spoke:"From the beginning, you never wanted to leave alive."

"You did all this just to seek death." Long Yuan froze. Smiled. Said nothing.

"If I didn't become the blade sheath, you couldn't find the next blade wielder..." Wang Xian looked at him.

"And once the demon blade emerged, the consequences would be unimaginable. You'd have to continue being a blade wielder... this demon blade's sheath."

"But you knew you'd been tormented by this blade too long. Your body had mutated."

"You were afraid, afraid that under the blade's influence, you'd become a killing machine without consciousness..."

"So unless absolutely necessary, you didn't want to pick up the demon blade." That was right. The Long Yuan of the previous life had been exactly like that. He'd caused endless slaughter.

"You seemed to have seen it all..." Wang Xian walked to his side, eyes slightly closed, recounting something unrelated.

"You dreaded it. Feared it. Didn't want to sully the tomb keepers' final line."

"You were born to destroy the 'Dragon Owl Glutton Lord,' lived to save the common people."

"So you schemed against me."

"You wanted me to become the blade wielder and kill you in the end, granting you release while passing on the tomb keepers' duty."

"This Blade Intent Corridor was never the only way out. It was all an excuse so I'd succeed in the trial and perfectly become the tomb keeper..." Wang Xian stopped.

"Kill me." Long Yuan pointed into the void and closed his eyes.

"I don't want to become one of those blade puppets. Not while I still have consciousness."

"Also, there's no such thing as an active blade puppet. They're just mutated monsters fully infected by Malevolent Qi."

"I've survived until now only because the Blood-Drinking Frenzy Blade continuously supplied me with life."

"Now that the demon blade has changed masters, I'll only become a blade puppet."

"......"

"Alright." Wang Xian held the Blood-Drinking Frenzy Blade, closed his eyes, and swept it through. In that instant, a thousand blades struck. Long Yuan's entire body split apart, neat and orderly. The final smile on his face was pure as a child's.

"Long Yuan, the last tomb keeper of this era... the future 'Western Shu Blade Demon'..." Wang Xian said softly.

"May your journey be well." ➤ Next: Teacher Zhou, Wang Xian... Has He Left Rong City?