Chapter 159: 153 The Golden Dream Wakes

Take two steps...

This sentence contained malice and mockery, leaving Ai Xin bewildered and vaguely uneasy.

Ever since he summoned the Golden Warrior, the warrior had remained in place, not because it could not move, but because it did not need to. The enemy was within reach; with the warrior's height and long arms, it could grab them with a stretch, so why bother taking a step?

Originally, he relied on the protection of his thick armor, standing in an invincible position, never intending to move, yet he was squeezed into a state of unease by the opponent's calm and composed demeanor.

"Playing tricks—"

Despite saying this, he manipulated the Golden Warrior to walk forward.

The moment the first step was taken, he felt something was wrong.

On the second step, the massive body tilted uncontrollably.

The third... there was no third step. Before the third step, the momentum of the tilt became like spilled water that could not be gathered; the Golden Mountain tilted and collapsed, its massive body crashing onto the ground with a boom.

"Wh... what is happening... I can't stand up?!" Falling along with the Golden Warrior, Ai Xin felt dizzy, desperately manipulating the Golden Warrior to get up—

It could move!

The Golden Warrior's limbs obeyed his movements, pushing against the ground to climb up, yet as soon as it straightened its body, it tilted again, as if carrying an abnormally heavy weight on its back that dragged it backward, eventually causing it to fall flat on its back on the ground.

The Golden Warrior, which had seemed like a god descending to earth, was now like a child just learning to walk, struggling on the ground, climbing up, falling again, stumbling, and finally, it could only lie prone on the ground.

"I... how could I..." Ai Xin's mind was in chaos, not knowing what to do, thinking only: Could my Sword Image have collapsed to this extent?

But before, his Sword Technique could be unleashed and released just as before; it was only that it could not be sustained, not that it would flip and tumble and keep falling, right?

Immediately after, he finally reacted and shouted: "This is a new problem! You... you did something to my sword?!"

This person had used flowery words on the mountain to swindle his sword away, not just to take the opportunity to ambush him, but to destroy his sword! This damn bastard!

But could such a thing be done? Could a person destroy a sword with their bare hands? Isn't it true that only a sword can destroy a sword?

No, this person is a wicked Sword Smith who might know some strange and evil methods.

With a thought, the giant hand of the Golden Armor lifted the sword to his eyes. He took one look and gasped. He saw a crack on the sword, splitting deep into the blade, almost breaking the sword in two at the waist.

Most terrifyingly, oil-like liquid was dripping from the crack; although it dripped slowly, it was constantly seeping out, just like blood seeping from broken skin. Although he knew nothing about the structure of a sword, he guessed that letting this liquid seep out was definitely a major problem. He hurriedly flipped the sword over with the opening facing up, wanting to stop this leakage, but the liquid kept gushing out, becoming even more unstoppable as time passed.

"What is this? What did you do to my sword?"

The Sword Smith sighed: "That is why I said you are an extremely poor Sword Guest. A Sword Guest fighting with a sword, yet you didn't even notice the abnormality of the sword. How are you worthy of being a Sword Guest?"

Ai Xin was flushed with shame from the accusation and said: "I... I..."

In fact, if he had held the sword with his hand as usual, even if he were dull, he should have noticed something was wrong long ago. It was only because his right hand, which he usually used to hold the sword, was injured by the explosion, forcing him to use the Golden Armor as a hand, and having a layer in between caused him to lose tactile perception. Facing the enemy, he was in a hurry to fight with the sword and failed to notice it for a moment.

Immediately after, he roared: "Bastard, isn't it you who caused me to be like this? Yet you still come to mock me!" Amidst the roar, countless golden sands swirled up, and a mass of golden light took shape, actually coiling into a Huangjin Long in front of him!

The giant dragon let out a roar and immediately ascended into the sky. Fine golden dust swirled around it like Yuna.

A long howl sounded from the clouds, and the giant Huangjin Long dived down with great momentum—

The Sword Smith slightly raised his head, facing the giant dragon, not dodging at all.

Just as the dragon was about to reach him, for some reason, it tilted sideways in the air and fell down in a strange posture!

Bang!

The dragon's body hit the ground and immediately shattered, turning into gold coins all over the floor. Small gold ingots rolled everywhere, rolling to the feet of the Sword Smith. Looking closely, those gold ingots were not as smooth as before; most had chipped edges and short corners, like inferior, rough imitations. The Sword Smith gave a light kick, kicking a small gold ingot onto the Golden Warrior, making a "clang" sound—it was still the sound of gold clashing.

"How could this be..." Ai Xin was devastated and said, "This sword is broken... what will be the result?"

The Sword Smith said: "Do I still need to explain it to you? You really are an unqualified Sword Guest. You don't even know this bit of common sense; I don't even know what to say to you—you and your sword can rot together!"

The fracture of the sword's surface layer will affect the shape of the Sword Image and Sword Technique. That is damage to the Tuzhi Ceng. If it goes further and the Water-Quality Material layer is damaged, it will affect the quality of all Sword Techniques.

Weight corresponds to quality.

A sword, a Sword Technique, from nothing to something, from virtual to real, is originally realized by the dimension reduction of layer upon layer of materials. For example, when a Sword Technique condenses into gold, the weight of the gold is realized by the Water-Quality Material. The loss of Water-Quality Material will make the quality of the gold unbalanced. Although it looks like the same gold, some are light and some are heavy; both the Golden Warrior and the Huangjin Long fell to the ground because their centers of gravity were unbalanced.

But, is this the common sense of a Sword Guest?

It is not; this is the common sense of a Sword Smith.

Different trades are like separated mountains; Sword Guests do not need to know how a sword is composed or how it is born. They only need to hold the sword to fight, develop their own Sword Image, Sword Technique, and Sword Law, grasp the Sword Heart, and climb to higher levels. Even Ping Jiangqiu, who is a Sword Hero, used raising pigs and eating meat to describe the relationship between Sword Casting and Sword Guests.

As for what to do if the inner layer material is lost... such a thing is not very likely to happen.

Sword blade fractures are common, but usually, if the outer layer breaks, the inner layer will not be affected. Even if the sword body is snapped in two, all materials break together, breaking into two identical halves, and none of the materials in each section will fall off. Finding a Sword Smith to re-cast it can save it.

Because what casts every layer of material together is the Sword Casting Art, which is a technique far deeper than the Rune Formula, and it is extremely sturdy; it cannot be easily terminated like a Rune Formula.

But the Termination Spring can.

This natural treasure finally revealed a powerful effect that surpassed human strength, not only terminating the Rune Formula that connected the surface materials but also terminating the Sword Casting Art of the inner Water-Quality Material layer. This caused the Treasure Sword to leak, becoming a rare and spectacular sight.

This is a miracle, a miracle where the precise intelligence of the Sword Manual's Knock Sword and the subtle operation of the Termination Spring were mixed together; it is very difficult to replicate.

Ai Xin did not recognize this disaster, which would have been fine, but he made more mistakes. For instance, he was too detached from his sword, so he noticed it too late. And for instance, a Sword Guest with a normal brain would never hand their sword to a Sword Smith whose background they did not know.

And the biggest mistake was that his Sword Technique development was too monotonous, mostly forming gold into various shapes and using the weight of the gold as Momentum to suppress or ram people. It looked like there were many tricks, but in essence, they were the same, with little room for maneuver. He claimed that he used to comprehend a Sword Technique whenever he felt happy, but in reality, he was just thinking of one thing after another without any planning, and in the end, it did not form a system. At this moment, once the Water-Quality Material layer was broken, it immediately lost balance. If he had developed Sword Techniques involving energy and Spirit, he would have been less affected at this time.

It can only be said that being uneducated is just like this.

Still the same saying, why tell the truth in front of an enemy?

The Sword Smith kept repeating that the opponent was not a qualified Sword Guest; this was a strategy to attack the heart and shake the opponent's confidence. After all, he was not a Sword Guest, yet he had to fight a Sword Guest, so he needed to exhaust every bit of advantage.

Ai Xin was furious and shouted: "I don't believe it! You are playing tricks, I don't accept this!"

In his anger, the Golden Warrior lay on the ground, weakly waving its small Treasure Sword, and golden light kept emerging from the blade and the broken part of the sword body, making a sizzling sound—

"Rise for me, rise, rise! Golden Mountain! Golden River! Golden World!"

Following his roar, and as the Broken Sword was raised toward the sky, golden light swirled from all directions, and the gold of the ingots kept condensing and then kept collapsing.

One Golden Mountain after another rose from the ground, then broke and collapsed; one Golden River after another flowed and overflowed, then quickly dried up. At one moment, this world was plated with a layer of gold, and then it disappeared in a flash, as if it were a golden dream made by the Golden Giant lying on the ground, dizzy and awake for a moment, confused and intoxicated, finally returning to nothingness.

In this chaotic and hazy world, only one place was real.

The Sword Smith was draped in white-gold light, holding a raging flame in his hand, stepping with firm footsteps, approaching the Golden Giant step by step.

Golden Mountains collapsed, golden water splashed, and countless pieces of broken gold flew toward him, blocking his footsteps, but he did not need to take action himself. Once the gold touched the flames around his body, it immediately made a "sizzle" sound like water droplets falling into hot oil and disappeared completely.

At this very moment, what was condensed by the Treasure Sword was no longer worthy of being called gold. It was merely fake gold; how could it withstand the tempering of fire?

Ai Xin lay on the ground, vaguely seeing the enemy approach, but he could not get up; that recent surging outburst had truly exhausted too much of his strength. At this moment, his wounds began to ache again, and the breath he had been holding to find his sword was now nearly spent, leaving him unable to support his golden body.

The Golden Warrior did not rise, but he still struggled to lift his arm; his large hand reached upward, as if to clench into a fist and strike the enemy's head fiercely, yet the palm hung in mid-air, unable to fall or tighten, held high against the sky just like that.

At this moment, Ai Xin looked up and saw the sun.

The Sunlight was so bright, so bright that his vision was filled with golden stars.

It seemed as if everything was gold.

Gold in the sky...

Is it raining gold from the sky?

Wait, what was that again...

A very, very old Sword Art...

A Sword Art he had already forgotten...

"Sword Art... Golden Rain!"

In the air, rain stars began Drifting.

Finely crushed gold drifted with the wind; compared to a violent tornado, this golden rain was truly gentle, merely floating between heaven and earth with the wind, like golden fireflies dancing.

Bits of gold passed through the flames; the flames were raging, yet those tiny specks of gold remained unscathed, passing through the tongues of fire—

Ssh!

The Sword Smith felt a pain in his skin, already pierced by a golden Fragment, and blood flowed out.

How could this be?

The defense of the flames had been breached?!

Is this real gold?!

True gold fears no fire!