Chapter 602: The Lord of Boundless Slaughter, Honored by All Heavens' Sword Dao

She saw the cracks on the mirror surface of the Yuan Heavy Mirror constantly spreading, and the bluish glow had dimmed considerably.

Chi Jiuyu pressed her fingers together like a sword, traced a pale golden rune on the mirror surface, and struck it toward the collapsing Yuan Heavy Mirror.

The rune spun as it approached the mirror surface, and the instant it touched, it sank straight in, slowing the spread of the cracks at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Seeing this, Chi Jiuyu swiftly traced two more runes and sent them out.

Only when the top-to-bottom crack ran through the entire mirror surface did the spread of the cracks barely come to a halt.

"Hoo~"

Chi Jiuyu let out a soft breath and raised a hand to wipe at the sweat that wasn't actually on her forehead.

She'd almost had to make another trip.

Even though her Grand Void Sword Escape had reached the teleportation level, finding an ownerless Yuan-tier weapon in this Soldier Realm Great Universe was still no easy feat.

If it delayed her mission progress, that would be even worse — this time she was planning to take all the Ascension Points!

Thinking this, she looked at the Yuan Heavy Mirror in her hand.

Beneath her Grand Void False-Breakthrough Golden Pupils, she easily saw through its outer structure and spotted the mirror spirit curled deep within the Yuan Heavy Mirror, on its last breath like a ball of light.

Its spirituality was somewhat damaged, but it still belonged to the 'Yuan-tier weapon' level.

Chi Jiuyu nodded in satisfaction:

"Not bad, not bad! Looks like my talisman Dao training is still pretty effective!"

The rune she had just traced was called the 【Universal Magical Artifact Maintenance Rune】, one of the base runes of the high-tier talisman 'Zao Sheng Fu', derived by twelve high-tier talisman masters who had disassembled the 'Zao Sheng Fu'.

It could repair a certain degree of wear on magical artifacts, and was applicable to the vast majority of them.

As for the purpose of doing this…

There was no choice.

These days, fewer and fewer people practiced the 'Talisman Dao'. Of the once great four professions of 'Pill, Artifact, Array, Talisman', the 'Talisman' was nearly being struck from the roster!

If this kept up, this lifeless Talisman Dao wouldn't even dream of progress — in the end, it'd probably be left with just a few old fogies coasting on their past glory.

This was something those high-tier talisman masters absolutely did not wish to see!

After all, the more prosperous an industry, the more assistance the high-tier practitioners within it could receive.

Take the neighboring alchemy industry, for example.

Three years ago, the 'Three-Element Alchemy Theory' proposed by alchemy prodigy Lin Xuanxuan of Salvation Valley had inspired the alchemist Qing Li, who was stuck at the Tongxuan realm, and helped him grasp a sliver of an opportunity to break through to Dongzhen!

At the time, anyone following alchemy knew about this.

Similar examples were many, spanning every trade and industry.

The juniors might not have much accumulated, but sometimes a flash of brilliant inspiration was enough to let higher-realm practitioners draw enlightenment from it.

Especially those exceptionally talented juniors!

Precisely for this reason, the high-tier talisman masters had also been trying to design runes that even beginner talisman practitioners could easily master, to earn cultivation resources.

Ideally, it could bypass the traditional entry method of the Talisman Dao.

Shifting from the entry method of beginners learning low-tier complete talismans, to a form of entry through learning single universal runes.

Unfortunately, this attempt to disassemble high-tier talismans into various universal base runes had not achieved the expected results.

Although they were named 'Universal Base Runes', they were still derived from high-tier talismans after all.

For practitioners with outstanding Talisman Dao talent, or with a certain foundation in the Talisman Dao, it was still fine.

But if you swapped in an ordinary practitioner to learn it…

The difficulty of learning the Universal Base Runes was right up there with 'Arrays' — the cultivation profession with the highest entry difficulty!

And it didn't even earn as much as Arrays!

Array cultivators could casually install a set of arrays, craft a set of portable array bases, and their income was several times that of these talisman practitioners!

So as for the current situation…

One could only say the idea was good, but the specifics of how to do it still needed further optimization.

Of course, for Chi Jiuyu, the current Universal Base Runes were already very convenient…

Back to the main point.

Chi Jiuyu used her Grand Void False-Breakthrough Golden Pupils to carefully observe the structure of the Yuan Heavy Mirror for a while, then combined it with its dying mirror spirit…

A strange expression couldn't help but surface on her face:

"'Heavy Water Wondrous Flower Yuan Scripture'…"

This was a cultivation method recorded within the Yuan Heavy Mirror, one that led directly to the Nascent Soul realm.

Or rather, the Yuan Heavy Mirror was the vessel of this cultivation method — Its very birth was because of this 'Heavy Water Wondrous Flower Yuan Scripture'.

"Emm…"

Chi Jiuyu scratched her head.

In that instant, she seemed to have grasped something, but she was still missing the most crucial piece of the puzzle before she could think it all the way through.

Cultivation method, divine weapon, using the weapon to control the person…

There had to be a connection between these three!

And it was right as Chi Jiuyu was thinking hard.

Boom!

Rumble rumble rumble!

The sea domain churned, and the Yuan Heavy Water sea domain around the water bubble violently roiled.

Water spouts connected heaven and earth one after another; the sky and earth were dim, and a black and a white streak of flowing light flickered within the water spouts, constantly colliding.

Unbeknownst to them, outside the Mysterious Sea Star, a streak of escape light quietly descended.

……

……

Within the dim and unfathomably deep cosmic void, a streak of escape-light trailing a seven-coloured tail of flame came from a distant star domain.

It cut across the starry sky and came to a halt outside the Profound Sea Star.

As the seven-coloured escape-light drew in, what was revealed was a man in a vermilion-gold dharma robe, gripping a long straight sword in a reverse hold, his expression calm and indifferent.

The ink-dyed black sword-body did not reflect a single glimmer of light, more unfathomable than the dim cosmic void itself, as though one only had to look at it once for the mind to sink into a bottomless abyss.

At his waist hung a token, seemingly carved from ink-jade, upon which were inscribed two archaic, vigorous, dark-gold characters—

Imperial Apex!

The seventh disciple of Dao Sovereign Imperial Apex.

He had already gathered seventy-nine 'Other-Selves', his cultivation had reached the peak of Soul Transformation, his fame resounded through many great universes, and cultivators of several great universes jointly honoured him as 'Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction'.

His most glorious feat was that he had once exchanged several blows with a Return-to-Void cultivator and remained undefeated.

In this Weapon-World Great Universe, he too was a household name.

"One-Yuan Heavy Water, Wondrous Flower Origin Scripture…"

Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction lowered his gaze and looked toward Profound Sea Star.

His eyes lingered only briefly on his registered disciple before drifting elsewhere.

It was merely the gathering of 'Other-Selves'; there was nothing worth looking at.

By comparison, the 'Heavy Water Wondrous Flower Origin Scripture' that Third Senior Brother had cast down one hundred and twenty-four years ago should by now have nurtured forth an Origin Weapon.

It was time to retrieve it and toss it into a life-bearing planet for sacrificial refinement.

Thinking of this, Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction could not help but sigh inwardly at how doted Third Senior Brother was upon his own little daughter.

Before she was even born, he had already schemed out several Origin Weapons for her; such treatment, across the entire Weapon-World Great Universe, was enjoyed by only a very few.

His thoughts flashed like lightning, and his gaze had already swept across the entirety of Profound Sea Star.

Yet, to Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction's slight astonishment, in a single glance he had utterly failed to discover any trace of the Origin Heavy Water Mirror.

"Could it be that the commotion from gathering 'Other-Selves' triggered the Origin Weapon's self-concealment…"

Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction furrowed his brow slightly, a faint, ghostly light kindling in his eyes as he swept across Profound Sea Star once more.

Imperial Apex's World-Viewing Divine Pupils!

It was merely an Origin Weapon; even in a state of 'self-concealment', it absolutely could not possibly escape his divine ability!

Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction was supremely confident!

Roughly three minutes later, Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction, who had carefully observed Profound Sea Star several more times, had completely darkened his face.

Nothing!

Still nothing!

Who on earth was so brazen as to dare steal the Origin… nurtured by their Imperial Apex Mountain…

"So you are that Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction who fought a Return-to-Void to a draw at Soul Transformation?"

The voice that suddenly came from behind made Sword Sovereign of Nether Extinction's heart jolt, and he instinctively swung his sword in a backhand slash!

Clang!

A light ring!

In an instant, dense, bone-deep stings of pain shot through him, and a violent, incomparably refined killing sword-intent came crushing down.