The heart of Level 2 opened into an expansive, blood-red subterranean vault. Ancient obsidian pillars, thick as giant trees, anchored a cavern ceiling that dripped liquid sulfur. Flowing around the central stone dais was a surging river of crimson spiritual Qi, thick and heavy with the scent of metallic rust and ancient slaughter.
Embedded at the center of a blood-stone altar sat the Asura Blood-Spite Sword.
The blade was forged from dark crimson metal, pulsing rhythmically like a dying heart. Jagged blood-grooves ran down its length, radiating waves of unrefined, violent malevolence that warped the air around it.
"Hahahaha! A peerless Core-Formation relic!"
Standing on the steps of the altar was Lin Feng, the Young Master of the prestigious Lin Clan. His Late-Stage Foundation Establishment aura surged around his white silk robes as his hand gripped the bone-carved hilt. In a world where the legendary Nirvana Realm was considered the absolute ceiling of existence and higher immortal realms were completely unheard of, a peak Core-Formation weapon was a treasure that could anchor an entire clan's legacy for centuries. "With my rare Sword-Body pedigree, this sword belongs to me!"
BOOM!
The moment Lin Feng applied force to pull the blade, the Asura Sword responded not with obedience, but with absolute, bloodthirsty rebellion. A surge of thick, black-crimson spite erupted from the hilt, violently invading Lin Feng’s hand.
"Aaargh!" Lin Feng screamed as black veins surged up his neck and into his face. His eyes turned entirely crimson, his irises dissolving into blood-red mist.
The sword’s ancient malice invaded his dantian, shattering his mental clarity and corrupting his mind. The terrifying energy forced its way through his meridians, cracking his sword-bones from the inside out. His sword-guards, trying to step forward to assist, were instantly blown backward by a crimson shockwave, lying paralyzed and bleeding on the stone floor.
Driven completely insane by the demonic backlash, Lin Feng turned around, roaring like a mindless beast as raw, corrupted Late-Foundation Qi exploded from his body.
Light, unhurried footsteps echoed through the entrance of the vault. Gu Chen stepped onto the basalt tiles, his dark charcoal robes fluttering in the violent blood gales.
Right on cue, a translucent blue interface flared vividly before his eyes:
[DING!]
[QUEST DETECTED: Demonic Possession in Progress!]
[Objective: Rescue Young Master Lin Feng from total soul-corrosion caused by the Asura Blood-Spite Sword!]
[Warning: Target's cultivation is at Late-Stage Foundation Establishment and heavily empowered by demonic Qi! Extreme difficulty for Host's current 9th-Stage Qi Refining host body!]
[Adjusted Virtuous Reward: 1x Act of Salvation Recorded + 1x Rare Treasure: Ring of Qi Suppression!]
[Item Info: Conceals the user's Qi signature completely from cultivators near or slightly above their own realm, making the Host appear as an ordinary mortal. (May not fool high-tier ancient experts).]
Gu Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly. An item to mask my cultivation level? Perfect for hiding my true strength back at the sect.
"Gu Chen?!"
A soft, breathless voice echoed from the side corridor. Su Yan emerged from the mist, her flaming lotus robes scorched from her trek through the maze. She had finally caught up to Gu Chen, but as she stepped into the vault, her eyes widened in absolute horror.
Before her stood Lin Feng, a Late Foundation genius, completely overtaken by a demonic blade, throwing wild waves of lethal crimson energy. And standing directly in front of that maddened monster was Gu Chen, wearing only the aura of a 9th-Stage Qi Refiner.
"Gu Chen, get back!" Su Yan cried out, her heart leaping into her throat. She instinctively flared her burning lotus Qi, preparing to leap forward and shield him. "He's lost his mind! A Qi Refining cultivator can't stand against a Late Foundation expert!"
Lin Feng locked his bloodshot eyes onto Gu Chen and let out an inhuman screech. Without any martial finesse or sword techniques, he raised his palm, unleashing a massive, roaring tidal wave of corrupted, blood-red Qi straight at Gu Chen's chest!
BOOM!
The air tore apart under the sheer weight of the attack.
Gu Chen didn't panic, nor did he step back. His dark-violet eyes remained as calm and frozen as an abyss. He thrust both hands forward, activating the secret mechanism of his Abyssal Sovereign Technique.
SWIRL!
A pitch-black vortex of Abyssal Qi erupted between Gu Chen’s palms. The moment Lin Feng's overwhelming blood-blast slammed into the vortex, the Abyssal Qi didn't try to block it head-on, it devoured the raw energy, compressing the wild Foundation-level force within Gu Chen’s meridians before violently reversing its flow!
BANG!
Gu Chen absorbed the chaotic attack and threw it straight back at Lin Feng in a concentrated beam of black-crimson light!
Lin Feng was sent skidding backward across the stone floor, roaring in confusion as his own energy blasted against his chest.
Su Yan froze mid-dash, her hand lingering on her sword hilt as her jaw dropped in utter disbelief. Her breath hitched as she stared at Gu Chen's tall, slender back.
He... he absorbed a direct strike from a Late Foundation master and threw it back?! Su Yan thought, her mind completely reeling.
She wanted to rush in and fight alongside him, but as she watched Gu Chen move, weaving through the chaotic blasts like an ethereal ghost, controlling the flow of battle with absolute, mathematical precision, she checked her momentum. To disrupt his perfect rhythm now would be an insult to his martial dignity. Out of deep respect for his skill, Su Yan suppressed her impulse to intervene, holding her flaming sword at the ready, watching intensely, prepared to spring into action only if he faltered for a fraction of a second.
Seeing him handle an absolute calamity with such cold, poetic grace made her chest thunder. A strange, intoxicating warmth flushed through her veins. Only 9th-Stage Qi Refining... yet his face is so dark, so cold, so impossibly composed in the face of death...
She was utterly mesmerized. The sheer, terrifying elegance of his movement caused an overwhelming sense of admiration and deep attraction to bloom within her heart.
The fight raged on with intense, brutal violence. Lin Feng, stripped of his sanity, could not use his clan's refined sword arts; he simply hurled vast, uncontrolled bursts of raw Qi and violent blood intent. Gu Chen's fragile body strained under the pressure his feet digging deep grooves into the obsidian floor as he repeatedly used his Abyssal vortex to absorb the blasts and redirect them back at Lin Feng's weak points.
Gu Chen maintained absolute tactical dominance, weaving through the chaotic blasts like a phantom.
FLARE!
Finding a split-second opening as Lin Feng overextended, Gu Chen closed the distance in a flash. He slammed a palm infused with concentrated Abyssal Qi directly into Lin Feng’s chest, severing the connection between the sword's energy and Lin Feng's dantian!
"Gah!" Lin Feng coughed up a huge spray of black, corrupted blood. The crimson glow in his eyes flickered out, replaced by sheer shock before his eyelids fluttered shut.
His body collapsed face-first onto the cold stone, passing out cold.
Gu Chen stood over him, exhaling a slow, steady breath as he wiped a faint trickle of blood from the corner of his own lip.
‘Phew...’ Gu Chen evaluated mentally, his face deadpan. ‘If he had been sane and using actual sword techniques, my fragile Qi Refining body wouldn't have stood a chance in a direct clash. I would have had to grab the sword, toss it into my spatial storage, and run.’
Gu Chen turned toward the stone dais. The Asura Blood-Spite Sword hovered in the air, humming violently as it prepared to unleash another wave of blood intent.
Gu Chen stepped forward and reached out his pale hand. From the depths of his soul, he released a tiny, imperceptible thread of his ancient Demonic Sovereign soul pressure.
WUUU...
The moment the ancient, terrifying soul aura touched the blade, the murderous spirit inside the sword shuddered violently. The violent crimson glow instantly died out, and the weapon whimpered like a beaten puppy. Gu Chen wrapped his fingers around the hilt and pulled the Asura Blood-Spite Sword from the altar effortlessly.
Holding the crimson blade, Gu Chen closed his eyes and sent a thread of his divine sense directly into the weapon's core to inspect its construction.
‘Hmm?’
Gu Chen’s dark brows knitted together as he unraveled the residual seals in the hilt. Deep inside the blade's core, he discovered a spiteful, highly restrictive Core Formation-level possessive curse.
It was a tyrannical seal placed deliberately by the Blood Sovereign, the ancient Peak Core Formation founder of this secret realm centuries ago. Knowing his death was near and unable to take the blade with him to the grave, the Blood Sovereign had cursed the sword so that no other cultivator could ever claim his legacy. Anyone without his specific imperial bloodline who tried to touch the hilt would trigger the curse, having their mind destroyed and turned into a mindless blood puppet, which was precisely what had just hijacked Lin Feng.
A cold, mocking sneer touched Gu Chen’s lips. ‘A petty mortal emperor leaving a spiteful possessive curse so no one else could steal his prize... how ridiculously vain.’
To an ordinary cultivator, that Core Formation curse was lethal. But to an ancient Demonic Sovereign whose soul had reigned over higher realms, a petty mortal's possessive curse was nothing more than a cobweb. Gu Chen’s soul pressure had crushed the Blood Sovereign’s seal in less than a second.
Probing deeper past the shattered curse into the sword's underlying metallurgical structure, however, a rare wave of shock rippled through Gu Chen's dark eyes.
‘This durability... it's comparable to an Immortal Rank realm weapon!’
Gu Chen inspected the ancient spatial arrays forged inside the crimson steel. The blade was a masterwork, but its underlying divine restrictions were horrifyingly strict: it could not be spiritually activated by anyone with a cultivation lower than at least the Earth Immortal Rank!
In this lower world, where cultivators didn't even know realms above Nirvana existed, mortals like Lin Feng and the Blood Sovereign perhaps believed this weapon was merely a top-tier Core Formation blade. They had no concept of Immortal realms.
‘Fascinating...’ Gu Chen mused internally, his lips curving into a dark, amused smile. ‘The Blood Sovereign built an entire empire wielding this weapon... but to him, it was just an indestructible, super-hard sword because his low core formation cultivation couldn't awaken even a single true array! He didn't even know what he was holding!’
For any cultivator below the Earth Immortal realm, the blade possessed zero magical abilities, it functioned purely as an unbreakable piece of divine metal. Yet, even as a dumb, unawakened physical sword, an Immortal-Rank metal structure was enough to slice through lower-realm treasures and armor like paper.
Gu Chen gripped the hilt tightly, his dark eyes burning with cold ambition.
‘Even if I cannot unlock its true spiritual arrays until I reach the Earth Immortal Realm, this physical blade alone is an absolute treasure... something worth slaughtering entire kingdoms to possess.’
Right on cue, the interface chimed brightly:
[DING!]
[QUEST COMPLETE! Successfully suppressed the demonic backlash and saved Young Master Lin Feng's soul from permanent destruction!]
[Act of Salvation Recorded: 7/10!]
[Virtuous Reward Issued: 1x Ring of Qi Suppression transferred to Spatial Storage!]
[System Comment: "Incredible heroism, Host! Facing a superior opponent to save his life—you truly embody the selfless spirit of the Heavenly Dao!"]
Gu Chen ignored the System's praise, slipping the newly acquired Ring of Qi Suppression onto his finger. Instantly, his dark, dangerous aura vanished, making him look like a completely ordinary, harmless youth.
Suddenly, a sharp ZZZZT! echoed through the chamber.
Gu Chen’s eyes snapped down toward the unconscious Lin Feng. From inside Lin Feng's high-grade spatial ring, a brilliant, crimson talismanic spell erupted on its own!
SWOOSH!
Before Gu Chen could destroy it, the spell split into two streaks of light. One streak tore through spatial dimensions, shooting straight back to the distant Lin Clan main territory, while the second streak zipped forward and latched directly onto Gu Chen’s left wrist!
A glowing, crimson blood-tattoo burned itself into Gu Chen's skin.
Gu Chen’s dark eyes narrowed into cold slits. A Lin Clan Soul-Beacon Marking Spell.
The spell had just transmitted his identity across thousands of miles directly to the Lin Clan patriarch and elders, permanently tagging Gu Chen as the person who defeated their Young Master.