Chapter 891: Side Story 4: 128

After spitting out that mouthful of venom, the Chishe clearly felt exhausted and retreated back into Liu Junyan's sleeve.

He felt a bit regretful.

He had many skills; if used during his cultivation peak, his explosive power would be far stronger than now, but no matter how many skills he had at his disposal, spraying venom was his last‑ditch lifesaving move, not to be used lightly unless absolutely necessary, as it inflicted too much damage on his body.

Moreover, with the Earth Vein Dragon God and the Earth Deity Maiden present, even if the sky fell they'd block it—what's he panicking about!

He really acted impulsively.

However, the Chishe's series of performances looked especially reassuring in the eyes of Liu Junyan and Xiao Jiu.

The stronger the Chishe's abilities, the more relieved they felt.

Since even the venom‑spraying trick has been used, the test is essentially over.

Liu Junyan and Xiao Jiu jumped together into the Heavenly Pit.

The barrier was shattered, corpses exploded, the whole space temporarily offered no obstruction, and their bodies fell unimpeded.

After falling another four or five meters like that, Xiao Jiu noticed white bones appearing intermittently on the pit walls.

At first it was only occasional three or five pieces; the deeper they went, the more there were, until eventually a jumble of jagged bones appeared, with faint green ghost fire flickering in the cracks.

A chilling Yin Cold Qi surged up from below, a cold that seemed to pierce the marrow; Xiao Jiu was all too familiar with it, she instantly frowned and shouted, "Āyàn, stop!"

As her words fell, both circulated their qi, turned their bodies, and flew toward the pit wall; the moment their toes touched the wall, the white bones shattered into powder that rose like dust, and Xiao Jiu swept a few clumps of Nirvana fire across them.

Those bone powders ignited instantly upon contact with the Nirvana fire, then vanished in an instant.

The pit wall crumbled at a step, soil mixed with bones falling down into the depths of the Heavenly Pit.

By this point, everyone more or less harbored suspicions.

The so‑called Heavenly Pit might not have originally existed; it likely formed because too many corpses were buried in this soil, and over time, with various crustal movements—or perhaps other causes—the ground sank, gradually creating this large pit.

But this is merely speculation; only by reaching the deepest point can they find out for sure.

Yet the Yin Cold Qi rising from below made them dare not act rashly.

It was obvious that this Yin Cold Qi from below did not belong to the realm of the living.

But since it does not belong to the living realm, Xiao Jiu could at least exert some control over it.

Xiao Jiu removed the Mòyù Bānzhǐ, formed a seal and chanted a spell, then let go, and the Mòyù Bānzhǐ fell downward.

As the Mòyù Bānzhǐ descended, it kept enlarging, and upon colliding with the rising Yin Cold Qi below, it emitted a clear, ringing sound.

That sound trembled onward downward, growing fainter and fainter until it could hardly be heard.

Xiao Jiu and Liu Junyan exchanged a glance and said, "Is it really that deep down there?"

No wonder the Chishe, when it earlier used its Pupil of the Chishe to peer downward with the Hidden‑Seeing Technique, saw only the upper‑layer corpses.

Strangely, after waiting for the Mòyù Bānzhǐ to return to Xiao Jiu's right thumb, there was still not the slightest movement from below.

"Let's go down and see."

Saying this, Xiao Jiu had already transformed into her phoenix form and dove straight downward.

Wherever the Mòyù Bānzhǐ passed, the Yin Cold Qi had completely vanished.

Xiao Jiu flew all the way down.

Not long after, Liu Junyan caught up.

The two descended another fifteen or sixteen meters, when a sharp cold light suddenly appeared ahead, and Xiao Jiu instantly sensed a strong killing aura.

The instant they saw that cold light, it stirred, and a piercing sword qi shot up from below……

Liu Junyan reacted especially quickly, shoving Xiao Jiu aside with one hand and, with a backhand, unleashed a stream of true qi to meet the sword qi and slash it apart.

The sword qi collided with true dragon qi, instantly shattering into fragments.

Even though that sword qi had already broken, its shattered shards still flew in all directions; Xiao Jiu blocked them with true qi before finally destroying them completely.

Just as they had dispelled that sword qi, another sword qi condensed from the cold light below and came slashing again.

Liu Junyan and Xiao Jiu worked in perfect sync; after shattering the second sword qi, a third arrived as expected—this cycle repeated, the cold light below acting like a perpetual motion machine, endlessly releasing powerful sword qi that kept them at bay.

Had Xiao Jiu and Liu Junyan's cultivation been even slightly weaker, they might have been overwhelmed at this moment.

After several such exchanges, Xiao Jiu and Liu Junyan both retreated a bit upward.

Once they kept a certain distance, they could still see the cold light, but no more sword qi came shooting up.

Xiao Jiu steadied her mind and asked, "What is that? Such a strong killing intent."

Liu Junyan stared at the cold light below for a while before saying, "It should also be a sword; its killing aura is too heavy, originally it was sealed down here, but for some unknown reason the seal has clearly been broken, and the formation of this Heavenly Pit is inseparable from that sword."

A sword……sealed tens of meters underground?

Whose sword is this?

Following this line of thought, the answer is not hard to deduce.

Not far from here, less than three hundred meters away, stands a Baiqi Temple.

And the weapon the War God Bai Qi originally used was a sword.

Opinions diverge on the name and origin of that sword.

But from their experience just now clashing with the sword qi, it seems some of those accounts may be true.

"It should be the Azure Abyss Sword."

Liu Junyan's answer coincided exactly with Xiao Jiu's thought.

Legend says this Azure Abyss Sword was given to Bai Qi by an immortal elder they chanced upon, with eight characters engraved on the blade: "Do not kill the surrendered, and all under heaven will be invincible."

It is said the Azure Abyss Sword is made of bronze, about four feet long; Bai Qi wielding it was unstoppable, never defeated, and the number of souls slain by it is countless.

Until one battle, when Bai Qi used the Azure Abyss Sword to behead a group of surrendered troops, blood soaked the blade, which then cracked, and the fissures eventually formed those eight characters: "Do not kill the surrendered, and all under heaven will be invincible."

Thereafter, the Azure Abyss Sword hummed incessantly, as if those surrendered troops, dead with grievances, were wailing day and night.

Whether legend or unofficial history, in short, none of it can be taken as fact.

But Xiao Jiu also believes that a hole does not whistle without wind.

That legendary Azure Void Sword, after slaying a large batch of surrendered troops, never appeared again in the world.

Did it ever truly exist? Does the sword really bear those eight characters on its blade? After the sword cracked and the Resentful Qi surged heaven‑high, who suppressed it? Where was it suppressed?

All kinds of questions have no definite answer.

If that icy, glinting bronze long sword below is indeed the Azure Void Sword, Xiao Jiu cannot imagine how heavy its killing intent and Resentful Qi would be…