Chapter 8: Heart-Corroding Sword!

After satisfying his senior sister, Lu Chen went to the Demonic Arts Pavilion again.

This time his goal was very clear; he only sought techniques with sufficient killing power.

Just as before, whenever his fingertip brushed over a technique, a system analysis interface would appear before his eyes.

【Detected demonic technique: Mad Demon Strike!】

【Original effect: Burning essence blood to strengthen the body, transforming into a human-shaped weapon to attack the opponent. Long-term use may cause bodily harm.】

【Reversed effect: Burning essence blood to strengthen the body, transforming into a human-shaped weapon to attack the opponent. Long-term use can permanently strengthen the body.】

"Mad Demon Strike... really fits my impression of the few demonic cultivators."

【Detected demonic technique: Bone Blade Technique!】

【Original effect: Using killing qi as a guide, consuming essence blood to forge bones into blades. When executed, it causes extreme pain, and even after stopping the technique, one must endure a lengthy recovery.】

【Reversed effect: Using killing qi as a guide, consuming essence blood to forge bones into blades. When executed, it causes no pain, and after stopping the technique, the bones will heal themselves.】

"Forging bones into blades? I can't quite accept that..."

As a Blue Star Person, although Lu Chen had practiced demonic cultivation for many years, he still could not agree with many of the demonic cultivators' ideas.

Therefore, choosing among these techniques was extremely difficult for him.

Just as he thought he might not find a suitable demonic technique, he suddenly noticed one of the system interfaces.

【Detected demonic technique: Heart-Corroding Sword!】

【Original effect: To cultivate this technique, one must daily sacrifice essence blood to the sword; the more essence blood sacrificed, the stronger the technique becomes! However, the more sacrifices, the more likely a sword demon will be born, causing backlash.】

【Reversed effect: To cultivate this technique, one must daily sacrifice essence blood to the sword; the more essence blood sacrificed, the stronger the technique becomes! After the number of sacrifices increases, a sword demon will surely be born and acknowledge mastery, and the demonic sword's strength will also increase further.】

Lu Chen read these two lines over and over, confirming he hadn't misread them.

Sword demons and sword spirits are both special wills born from swords.

However, the orthodox path calls them sword spirits, while the demonic path calls them sword demons.

"A sword demon? I recall that at least a fifth-grade demonic artifact is needed to give birth to one."

The only weapon Lu Chen possessed was still a first-grade demonic sword.

"It's you!"

After looking repeatedly, he finally firmly chose the Heart-Corroding Sword.

There was no other reason; it was simply because he could cultivate it the fastest and it gave the best results.

Because of Mei Qianxue's existence, he always felt that things wouldn't be peaceful lately, so choosing some demonic techniques to quickly boost his strength wasn't a bad thing.

After leaving the Demonic Arts Pavilion, this time Mei Qianxue did not pester him as she had last time.

On the contrary, as soon as she saw him come out, she immediately pulled him to go back.

"Junior brother, senior sister I have already felt the existence of that bottleneck; tonight you try harder, I wish senior sister a breakthrough into the Embryonic Dan Realm!"

"Senior sister, this..."

Before Lu Chen could refuse, he was forcibly taken away.

Returning to his residence, Mei Qianxue arranged the room to be very atmospheric.

At a glance, it was clear she was preparing for an all-night dual cultivation session.

Seeing this scene, Lu Chen felt somewhat uneasy in his heart.

But due to her attitude, he could only remain silent.

"Come on, junior brother."

However, to his surprise, this dual cultivation session didn't last long; it hadn't even begun to exert force when Mei Qianxue voluntarily called it off.

"Junior brother, your yang energy is very pure and strong."

"Senior sister is going into seclusion for a few days; as long as I refine this yang energy into cultivation, I will definitely be able to break through to the Embryonic Dan Realm!"

Before he could react, Lu Chen was pulled out of the room by a strong force.

He stood dazed at the doorway; when he turned back, the door had already automatically closed.

"Mei Qianxue is about to break through to the Embryonic Dan Realm... I thought I had narrowed the gap, but instead the gap grew larger."

"Looks like I need to work harder."

"But..."

Lu Chen knew the side effects of the Blood-Corroding Foundation Establishment Pill.

Although the system had reversed the effect that prevented his cultivation from advancing, the other party was unaware of this.

He had just broken through to Foundation Establishment, so his realm hadn't changed much, and it wouldn't be noticed during dual cultivation.

But if she emerged from seclusion and discovered he had broken through, that would be troublesome.

"Breaking through is no good; not breaking through is also no good."

He felt the situation had become very thorny.

But rather than staying stagnant, he preferred to become stronger and turn the tables.

At that moment, he suddenly thought of something.

"The Killing Qi Hall!"

Killing qi, as an auxiliary cultivation resource for the vast majority of demonic techniques, is extremely important for him at present.

However, obtaining killing qi, aside from possibly gaining some from performing certain tasks, the only remaining option is to go to the sect's Killing Qi Hall.

Previously, he had not yet reached the Foundation Establishment stage and thus lacked the qualifications to enter the Killing Qi Hall.

But now things are different.

Saying he would go, he went; he immediately sprinted toward the Killing Qi Hall.

The Killing Qi Hall is located at the edge of the sect; since he couldn't yet fly on a sword, by the time he arrived, it was already very late.

"To dispel the hidden realm technique, present your disciple token."

Upon reaching the main gate of Killing Qi Hall, a gatekeeper disciple spoke to him.

Lu Chen felt the person looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't recall where he had seen them.

After producing the token, he quickly entered Killing Qi Hall.

Passing through the isolation formation, a large amount of Killing Qi instantly rushed toward him.

Inside the hall were countless rooms, where many disciples were cultivating their own techniques.

"Not bad, it's Killing Qi Hall!"

Lu Chen had previously obtained some Killing Qi bottles while carrying out missions.

After using Killing Qi to aid his cultivation, his technique improved very quickly.

However, Killing Qi varies in quality; the Killing Qi he had obtained before pales in comparison to the powerful Killing Qi now in Killing Qi Hall.

"If I could keep cultivating in there, with the aid of this Killing Qi, using the cultivation speed of the Myriad Killing Magic Canon, breaking through another minor realm would be just a matter of time!"

"It's a pity, but my current realm is insufficient, and Killing Qi Hall has too many restrictions."

Because Killing Qi resources are limited, as an early Foundation Establishment cultivator, he can only cultivate in Killing Qi Hall for half a day each week.

Time was pressing, so without further thought he found an empty ordinary room, sat cross-legged, took out the Heart-Eroding Sword technique he had just obtained, and entered a cultivation state.

With the aid of Killing Qi, the cultivation of the Heart-Eroding Sword went very smoothly.

After just completing one small heavenly circuit, he had already entered the entry level of the Heart-Eroding Sword.

"So fast! Is this the speed with Killing Qi's aid?!"

"I already knew that cultivating with or without Killing Qi's aid is worlds apart, but I didn't expect it to be this surprising."

"No wonder the sect has a dedicated burial ground for nurturing Killing Qi."

Lu Chen muttered a few words, then took out his only sword and began attempting his first blood sacrifice.

He circulated his spiritual power, forcing out a drop of essence blood from between his brows.

"Hiss... I suddenly felt much weaker."

As the essence blood left his body, a sensation of weakness, like being drained, transmitted.

"According to the system, consuming essence blood isn't considered a negative effect, so it can't be reversed—this is really troublesome."

"Come on!"

He held the sword in one hand and drew the essence blood with the other.

The next moment, the blood sword made contact, and the originally silver-white sword instantly turned blood-red.

Before he could react, the demonic sword in his hand, like parched land meeting sweet dew, instantly absorbed all the essence blood.

"Hum!"

At the same time, a sword hum rang out.

"I never imagined I would one day cultivate this demonic technique."

After making a joking remark, he attempted to wield the demonic sword.

"Whoosh!"

As he swung a few swords, he felt the demonic sword in his hand become slightly more agile, and its power also increased a bit compared to before.

Although the increase is not large, the cumulative improvement over time is absolutely astonishing.

"Although it consumes a lot of essence blood, the improvement in strength is still very obvious."

"If in the future we could find a demonic technique that actively condenses essence blood, combining them would be even better."

Lu Chen felt he had truly picked up a treasure.

"Since cultivating the Heart-Eroding Sword is this fast in Killing Qi Hall, the Myriad Killing Magic Canon must be even faster!"

Saying that, he temporarily put away the demonic sword, then took out the Myriad Killing Magic Canon and began cultivating.

What surprised him was that, as soon as he began circulating his cultivation method, the surrounding Killing Qi converged toward him with a terrifying force.

He had thought that even if the technique given by the Empress was strong, breaking through again from early Foundation Establishment would still take several months or even years.

But what he didn't expect was that, after only a short quarter of an hour of circulation, his cultivation level had already shown a noticeable increase.

"At this rate, I'll probably break through in less than two days!"