Boom!
A towering figure descended from the sky, landing directly in the center of the spatial array.
At that moment, Feng Qi pulled out his communicator.
"Shut down the energy supply."
As soon as he gave the order, Star City's energy division collectively cut off the power, and the spatial teleportation array—still glowing with a blood-red radiance—gradually dimmed.
Up in the sky, the semi-transparent tunnel within the still-spreading spatial rift was the first to collapse. It was torn apart by spatial backflow and quickly disappeared. Then the rift itself began to close as the world's self-healing laws took over, causing the black void to shrink and the spatial fabric to slowly stabilize.
Putting away the communicator, Feng Qi looked up toward the Demon Blade and its blade slave.
As expected, the blade slave raised the Demon Blade and pointed it at them, a wave of terrifying killing intent sweeping out.
But before the blade slave could even launch an attack, it suddenly dropped to its knees. Its body trembled violently, and blood began to ooze from its pores.
The world's laws were rejecting it.
The blade slave's expression twisted in pain as it knelt on the ground, gasping for breath, while blood gushed uncontrollably from its mouth—its body was like a leaky sieve, and the blood wouldn't stop pouring out.
Without the Mist Lord's miracle will within it, the blade slave couldn't withstand the crushing pressure of the world's laws at all.
Finally, with a loud cracking sound, the blade slave's body shattered.
The Demon Blade it held slipped from its grasp.
But before it hit the ground, it hovered midair, black mist swirling across its surface.
The Demon Blade was still in an injured state—fine, almost invisible cracks lined its surface. They were remnants of its past battle with Jian Ji.
Feng Qi knew exactly what the Demon Blade was thinking.
It wanted to seize a new blade slave.
Since he had already made up his mind to wield the blade, Feng Qi didn't hesitate. He stepped forward boldly, the fire of blade momentum roaring in his chest.
He spoke.
"Chao Tian, let's talk."
The Demon Blade was instantly stunned to sense that familiar blade momentum. It couldn't understand how this weakling, with thin blood energy and poor constitution, could possess the exact same blade momentum as itself.
To it, this was completely incomprehensible.
Every one of its previous wielders had a blade momentum that was slightly different—because each person's temperament and growth environment were different.
That meant no one could ever truly match it.
In the Demon Blade's mind, the only one who could truly be compatible with it was its elder sister, Chao Xuan.
But now, sensing the aura of blade momentum emanating from Feng Qi, the Demon Blade was completely thrown off.
It realized this frail guy somehow possessed a blade momentum that matched it even better than Chao Xuan's did.
That shouldn't have been possible.
Unless… this weakling had grown up alongside it, walking an identical path and sharing the same state of mind—how else could he have cultivated a blade momentum so perfectly in sync?
More than that, this weakling had called out its real name.
And with that sudden appearance of the spatial array…
Putting all the clues together, the Demon Blade couldn't help but suspect that there was a whole set of pre-arranged plans behind its arrival in the human world.
"What do you want to talk about?" the Demon Blade's voice echoed in Feng Qi's mind.
"I want to be your wielder."
"You're too weak. Just getting near me, a single wisp of my blade's sharpness will cut you to pieces," the Demon Blade said with disdain.
Feng Qi wasn't surprised.
In this Sacrifice Line, his body's strength was below average even among cultivators. Compared to the Demon Blade's previous wielders, he didn't even come close—he was even weaker than the now-destroyed blade slave.
He took another step closer.
At that moment, he felt a razor-sharp gust graze his face, slicing open his skin. Blood welled up from the wound.
The Demon Blade hadn't attacked him. Even so, the residual aura it emitted was enough to injure him.
"Chao Tian, I know I'm weak right now, but I also know you can make me stronger."
"You seem to know a lot about me."
"Not just that—we share a common goal."
"What goal?"
"To kill Jian Ji."
Feng Qi's face twisted into a grim smile as he stepped forward once more.
This step was like stepping off a cliff—it was a reckless leap.
The Demon Blade's blade aura could shred him to pieces in an instant.
But suddenly, the Demon Blade pulled back its aura.
"Why do you want to kill Jian Ji?"
The Demon Blade's confused voice rang in Feng Qi's mind.
"There are many reasons. One of them… is personal. He killed someone I loved."
As he spoke, Feng Qi's mind drifted to Mu Qing, who had died a tragic death in the previous Sacrifice Line.
Then, his thoughts shifted to the Demon Blade's sister—Chao Xuan.
Same goal, same hatred, same blade momentum... Feng Qi stared directly at the Demon Blade, waiting for its answer.
Just then, the Demon Blade's aged voice echoed in his mind:
"Looks like you're carrying quite a few secrets. I don't want to know the answers to those right now. As you said, you possess blade momentum that perfectly matches mine. Even though your body is weak, this level of compatibility might never appear again."
"But to become the blade wielder, aside from exceptional talent for growth, you also need a tenacious will—strong enough to resist being consumed by my power. Among my blade slaves, many were gifted warriors. But in the end, they still lost their consciousness and were devoured by me. That wasn't entirely my doing—part of it was because their minds got swallowed up by power and my demonic nature during the wielding process. That's how they ended up as empty shells."
Looking at the Demon Blade floating in mid-air, surrounded by swirling black mist, Feng Qi grinned.
"I understand. To wield you means accepting the challenge of will. So… let's do it."
As he spoke, Feng Qi stepped forward again.
As if to avoid hurting him, the Demon Blade withdrew its sharp aura even further.
Facing Feng Qi's request, the Demon Blade didn't waste any more words. It twisted, turning into a stream of black mist that surged toward Feng Qi, entering through his chest.
Instantly, the world before Feng Qi changed.
It was as if he'd suddenly fallen into a bottomless abyss. His vision was swallowed by darkness, and the sensation of falling stretched endlessly downward.
Yet inside, Feng Qi remained calm.
He knew exactly what it would cost to become the wielder of the Demon Blade.
Fail, and his consciousness would shatter—he'd become a new blade slave. But if he succeeded, he'd complete the process of blood-and-flesh binding with the Demon Blade.
At that point, the Demon Blade would become a part of his body, an extension of himself—almost like an additional, external organ.
Wielding it wasn't as simple as holding it in his hand. What mattered was achieving a state of perfect symbiosis.
All of the Demon Blade's previous wielders had undergone this fusion process.
The difference was, those the Demon Blade approved of didn't become wielders from the start. They were usually "raised" by the blade over time.
And that process was always long.
The shortest recorded time was 78 years, while the longest took more than a hundred years.
Trying to become the blade wielder right from the beginning was incredibly difficult. After all, the Demon Blade's demonic nature was overwhelming, and its impact on one's consciousness was extreme.
But Feng Qi didn't want to waste time on that early-stage integration. He wanted to jump straight into becoming the wielder.
To him, spending decades—or over a century—just to adapt was a massive waste of time that could've been used cultivating through the Demon Blade.
By the time he was ready to face Jian Ji, who knew what year it would be?
Right now, the Blue-Skinned Tribe still posed a threat.
They could attack at any time. If this Sacrifice Line faced a particularly aggressive campaign, his life could end at any moment.
Every second counted. That was Feng Qi's mindset.
He had full confidence in his ability to wield the Demon Blade.
As the darkness spread and engulfed him, faint screams echoed in Feng Qi's ears.
Over more than a thousand years, the Demon Blade had slain countless lives.
The hatred and resentment of all those who'd died had been absorbed into the blade, intensifying its murderous aura. Now, all of it surged toward Feng Qi's mind like a flood of inner demons trying to consume him.
Kill! Kill! Kill!
Countless images flashed through Feng Qi's mind.
He saw many of the Demon Blade's past wielders, slaughtering with it in hand.
Tormented faces passed before his eyes—painful, anguished, all blurred by blood and shadow.
This was the price of fusion.
To become one with the Demon Blade, to reach a symbiotic state, one had to accept fragments of its memory.
The process was mutual.
The Demon Blade also needed to read part of his memories, to reach a state where their hearts and minds were aligned.
The flashes in his mind came faster and more vividly. Along with them came the pain and sensations of death that each former wielder had experienced.
But none of it shook Feng Qi.
He didn't run. He faced it head-on.
Slaughter and death—he had long since transcended fear of both.
To most people, life happens only once.
But to him, each death was just another starting point. Endless reincarnation had forged his heart into steel.
More importantly, he had already experienced the Demon Blade's memories in a past Sacrifice Line. The pain they brought, he had already endured once. They no longer had the power to impact him a second time.
The negative emotions coiled in his Sea of Consciousness far outweighed the influence of the Demon Blade's killing aura.
To Feng Qi, this kind of test was like a child's game. Not even worth mentioning.
At this moment, the Demon Blade was also reading fragments of Feng Qi's memories.
Through this process, the Demon Blade was completely stunned.
The memory scenes flashed rapidly. At first, the Demon Blade was calm, but soon, that shifted to shock—and then fear.
It was only now that it truly understood the secrets behind this mysterious man.
But those secrets didn't make the Demon Blade feel lucky. What it saw behind those memories of time reversal were countless painful struggles, and a calm acceptance in the face of despair that moved even the Demon Blade.
"Aaaahhh!"
A painful scream suddenly rang out in Feng Qi's mind.
During the fusion process, the Demon Blade began to feel the impact of Feng Qi's negative emotions.
Without undergoing the trial of heart refinement, the Demon Blade was completely overwhelmed.
At this moment, it even felt that its own heart of darkness and slaughter was paradise in comparison—the real abyss was the oppressive storm of negative emotions sealed within this mysterious young man.
The Demon Blade's consciousness wavered.
Just when it felt like it might shatter apart, the negative emotions began to fade. In their place came waves of positive power.
Hope, companions, shared goals, unwavering perseverance, dreams of the future… countless images conveyed Feng Qi's steadfast beliefs—his reason to keep walking down this thorn-covered path.
These positive forces came together, forming an endless drive to move forward.
Wei Wei, Mu Qing, Lin Ran, the Mist Lord, Tian Shu, Mu Yan… countless figures bathed in white light appeared, running beside Feng Qi, helping him climb through impossible odds.
Those convictions, which replaced despair, stabilized the Demon Blade's crumbling mind.
When the scenes in his mind finally faded, the Demon Blade fell completely silent.
All contempt it once held for Feng Qi vanished without a trace.
Through those memory fragments, the Demon Blade had finally come to understand what kind of warrior Feng Qi truly was.
Calling him "great" was no exaggeration.
Even with over a thousand years of experience in blood and killing, the Demon Blade knew that aside from raw power, it was nowhere near Feng Qi in terms of mental resilience.
Looking at Feng Qi, still calmly standing within the inner world of slaughter, the Demon Blade couldn't help but feel a deep respect.
At the same time, the memories of the Demon Blade that had appeared in Feng Qi's mind also faded away.
He opened his eyes, and within the darkness, a pitch-black Demon Blade slowly appeared, hovering in front of him.
"Come, from now on, you will wield me—and with me, ascend to godhood!"
Hearing the Demon Blade's aged voice ring through his mind, Feng Qi smiled faintly and reached out his right hand to grasp the hilt.
In an instant, the darkness before his eyes faded like a receding tide.
A breeze brushed across his cheeks. When he looked up, he saw the Mist Lord standing beside him with a serious expression, along with the personnel involved in the space transmission project.
Looking forward, he saw himself holding the Demon Blade flat and steady.
"I did it," Feng Qi said.
"I knew you could," the Mist Lord replied with a grin, raising his thumb in approval.
Just then, the Demon Blade's voice exploded in Feng Qi's mind:
"Kid, the fusion of our consciousness is complete, but the physical symbiosis hasn't started yet. Get ready—this part's going to hurt!"
As the words fell, the Demon Blade in Feng Qi's hand began to melt, turning into countless inky-black tendrils that surged up his right arm.
Soon, his whole body was wrapped in the liquefied Demon Blade.
A wave of searing pain tore through his body.
Feng Qi, of course, understood what this meant. During the flesh-and-blood fusion process, the Demon Blade would become an extension of his body—something he could wield as easily as his own limbs.
This step was also a crucial part of becoming the blade wielder.
Once the bodily transformation was complete, his physical capabilities would increase dramatically. The Demon Blade would become an organ even more important than his heart.
And as the Demon Blade grew stronger in the future, his physical stats would rise alongside it.
For example, when the Demon Blade absorbed blood energy or spiritual minerals, his body would be enhanced as well—including all future cultivation and godhood ascension challenges.
That was the miraculous effect of symbiosis.
As the pain began to subside, Feng Qi could clearly sense the Demon Blade's presence.
The black liquid also began to transform, forming a powerful, pitch-black battle armor that fused with his body.
The armor covered him from head to toe, leaving only his eyes visible.
The aura around Feng Qi surged higher and higher. With each breath, razor-sharp killing intent spread outward. The Mist Lord and the nearby workers immediately began retreating.
The Body of the Blade Demon was complete.
Feng Qi didn't even need to draw the blade—he radiated a terrifyingly sharp blade aura just by standing still.
And now, the final step of the fusion began.
The black liquid covering the battle armor started gathering at the center of Feng Qi's right palm, constantly shifting its weapon shape.
During this process, the Demon Blade would use the memory fragments it absorbed to condense the most suitable blade form for him.
As time passed, the transformation of the black liquid slowed.
The blade was beginning to take shape…