A Gift

A wind carrying ash and dust blew against his face. The crack-riddled vault of heaven glowed with light, illuminating Ji Jue's eyes. Rising from the abyss, the colossal serpent of bone danced wildly, coiling tight. Its near-infinite length surged endlessly out of the chasm, wreathing itself around the Sower's arm. Seen through the vault of the Border Realm, as though across a glass dome webbed with cracks, everything was magnified—including the Sower's immense form. The giant serpent writhed, clamping relentlessly onto that arm as it struggled in furious rage. Magnificent shockwaves rippled outward without pause from fingertips, wrist, and forearm, obliterating everything in their path. Yet amidst those earth-shattering ripples, a burning silhouette emerged atop the giant serpent's skull. Compared to all else, it seemed like a mere speck of dust. "Hello there." Strolling among the iron scales, Ji Jue held his head high and waved toward the Sower across the Border Realm and the turbulence: "We meet again!" A book once said that every meeting in life is a reunion after a long parting. When Ji Jue first read that, he had dismissed it as sentimental artsy nonsense. But at this moment, he inexplicably understood the truth in it. Perhaps this was precisely what it meant. Clearly so unfamiliar, yet fated to be known; from the very first glance, one could sense the long entanglement stretching across all the time to come. And the instant he saw that pair of eyes again, he could no longer hold back a smile, feeling a joy and delight welling from the depths of his heart, utterly impatient to step forward and offer a greeting: "Have you been doing well?" Boom! The blazing light of the Blade of Natural Enemy erupted, bursting through the Sower's back in a torrential blowout. Fierce light raged, searing away the pallor, as boundless blood gushed from the wound. Impaled, gravely wounded! Apparently not so well. As though answering his inquiry, it made him burst into loud laughter, exultant—Wonderful! I've waited for you for so long, and you finally answered me! Seeing that you're doing poorly puts my mind at ease. Never mind. Even if you're not doing well, don't worry, don't be afraid. Because with my help, you're about to do much worse! This serpent is my gift to you. I searched all over the sacrificial temple for it! Go on, take it, don't be polite—take it back and nourish yourself! "—!!!!" The giant serpent hissed. Though devoid of flesh and blood, it emitted a shrill screech like grinding steel. Innumerable bone joints rubbed together, thrusting out razor-sharp barbs like countless fine blades and needles, stabbing deep into the gigantic hand as its coils writhed. Pale phantom light poured forth like blood, only to be swallowed whole and absorbed by the great serpent's form. The serpent's jaws locked ever tighter, clamping down with crushing force. Even as fissures spread continuously across its body, it refused to let go! Its venomous malice and lingering hatred burned unendingly! Boom! Another fissure appeared along the serpent's body, nearly snapping it in two at the waist. After the passage of such vast eons, it was no longer the Serpent of the Present World that had once spanned across the world, whose blood made the four seas salty. Its life had vanished without a trace, its terrifying might long dissipated. Aside from this skeletal frame preserved as a war trophy, all that lingered was an inextinguishable malice. Anchored upon these remains, animated by the structure of the Nether Sea Worm, catalyzed through countless sacrifices and offerings, it was driven solely by this burning hatred. Like a revenant returning from the dead, crawling forth once more from its grave. No matter how savage and frenzied it was, compared to an entity like the Sower, it was still limited. No matter how it gnawed, it was like a snake attempting to swallow an elephant—an utterly hopeless struggle. Yet that ferocious malice and resentment trembled without ceasing. The serpent's lingering ferocity erupted afresh in madness, endlessly devouring the phantom blood flowing from the Sower's arm, not even sparing the blood spilling outside the Border Realm. Like a bottomless pit, overestimating its strength, it sought to devour everything once again. All in vain. Far from shaking the foe's foundation as the Sword of Natural Enemy had, it was instead corroded and infected by that bizarre, pale blood. Steeped in that blood, it rapidly mutated. Having already endured the battering of hatred, the Nether Sea Worm's spiritus structure now faced such horrifying contamination, collapsing and disintegrating at a visible speed. Yet eerie flesh sprouted swiftly beneath the metallic luster, trailing wisps of pallor, gradually even merging back into the Sower's body. It was on the verge of being absorbed in reverse. The great serpent swelled, swelled, and swelled again! Until finally, even the entire Border Realm could no longer contain it, almost squeezing past the rift and bursting outside the Border Realm... "Yes, that's it, just like that..." Ji Jue bent down and stroked the scales on the serpent's cranium, as if offering praise: "Eat more, there's plenty. Take another couple bites. Keep it up." Boom! The final shackles and control snapped completely. Frenzied, the serpent twisted its scarlet eyes. Amid boundless venomous malice, a trace of human-like savagery gradually surfaced as it glared at Ji Jue. Unbearably ravenous. Ji Jue looked back at it, gazing upon this comrade-in-arms and partner who had accompanied him for less than a single minute, offering his gratitude and thanks. "It's fine. I believe in you," he said. "So please believe in me too!" Such was so-called hot blood and bonds—arising without cause, yet utterly genuine. Did you feel it, friend? Good, because you weren't supposed to. As long as I felt it, that's what counts! At that instant, just as the corrupted, mutated serpent opened its jaws to swallow Ji Jue, he reached out his hand once again. He pressed it onto the vital "seven inches" that had been laid down at the very moment of its creation! Beneath the mutated scales, at the nexus where countless spiritus circuits converged, where all sequences and modules overlapped—the most critical weak point! —Dissociation Art! Snap! The great serpent stiffened, its savagery freezing in place. In the faint gleam within its eyes, was that bewilderment or terror? It was truly hard to tell. It was as though a hand had effortlessly pulled out the single thread at the core of a tangled mess, the vital yarn holding together an entire sweater... And so, with Ji Jue's motion, it shattered. Irreversible disintegration began! With the collapse of the core, the "heart" shattered completely, and immediately afterward, the self-destruction sequence hidden beneath the spiritus circuits triggered. Chain-reaction explosions spread along the "blood vessels" throughout its entire body. Now, the serpent filling the Border Realm shuddered violently, dissolving and bursting apart in explosions. Life, hatred, and spiritus gathered into one place scattered like rain, drifting down in profusion. Yet before they could disperse and fall to the ground, Ji Jue reached out his hand once more. "I have a gift to give you." The demon in the flames laughed heartily, initiating the final sacrifice! In the alchemy wherein corrupted artisans relied upon Stagnant Rot, this was a paramount step: establishing direct communication with a Great Sin through ritual, offering massive sacrifices through resonance and burnt offerings to bring down the true essence of profane folly! Yet at this moment, it was directed neither at any Great Sin nor at the Vortex, but at Ji Jue himself! All wicked deeds proceed from my hand. All evil fruit shall return unto my flesh! Amid total collapse and dissociation, as that broken skeleton plummeted from the vault of heaven, boundless essences of Supreme Good and Great Sin surged toward Ji Jue, plunging entirely into the Hole upon his chest. Immediately following, a blaze that connected heaven and earth erupted. White flames blazed, black fires raged, pale and jet-black intertwining, sinking into the earth and soaring into the sky, swirling around Ji Jue's form. He could feel himself growing, growing, and growing further at a terrifying speed. If only he devoured all of this, he could break through countless thresholds, truly becoming in a flash a worldly sin capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Lu Changsheng of old! Yet even if he became Lu Changsheng, so what? Even if he surpassed Lu Changsheng to become the next Sower, what of it? Apart from creating more suffering and hells, what meaning was there in that? Now, beneath the surging flames, the Non-Offensive matrix faintly lit up and emerged; the fire of Non-Fate gathered in a roar. Transmutation—begin! In the snap of a finger, gathering the sky full of crimson and resentment, he caused everything to undergo extraction, purification, and ascending once more. As though grappling with a furious, rampaging serpent, suppressing its struggles and defiance again and again, he then poured all of it in one breath into the serpent's skull... —Into that slash mark in the void, lingering unvanished for a thousand years! With this boundless hatred and sacrifice, he catalyzed, stirred, and reawakened this surviving mark of Chixiao upon the world! "Former swordcraft master above!" Ignoring the agonizing torment tearing at flesh and soul, letting his palm be sliced to pieces until white bone was exposed, he gripped that rift with all his might, offering up the final blood sacrifice and dedicating everything. "I humbly beg to borrow your sword!" At that moment, as the sword mark chimed, the Mirror of Contained Forms in his bosom seemed to shine with waves of light, shuddering ceaselessly. The concept of Tianyuan within the Nine Forms' transformations flowed from his chest, shifting, restructuring, and reconstructing, pouring together with the circulation of Ji Jue's spiritus into that void rift. The sword mark blazed bright; fierce light burst forth. Like a living thing, it abruptly transformed. Ji Jue seemed to grip something tight. He felt its howling and unyielding pride. Having devoured all sacrifices in an instant, amid the serpent's resentment, the call of a shared origin, the authority of the swordcraft master, and the comprehension of Chixiao's creation, a clear, lofty chime suddenly rose from within. Breaking through the Border Realm, it echoed across heaven and earth. Curling outward. An unexpected transformation manifested at this very moment. In a daze, Ji Jue's soul seemed to drift away alongside that ringing resonance. Endless reverberations broke through raging wind and rain, vault of heaven and crust of earth, ascending straight up, up, and ever higher, until it seemed to travel to both past and future. Across ancient ages, two resonant, clanging sounds from a shared origin harmonized for a single instant. Amid endless azure waves and sea wind, upon the serpent's mountain-like, unbroken carcass, crimson still wound like a torrent toward the four seas. And atop the giant serpent's skull, singing a farewell song with bleary, drunken eyes, a middle-aged swordcraft master cradling a jar of wine suddenly lifted his gaze, as if perceiving an apparition and a call from the future. He froze for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter, filled with joy. Without a second thought, he waved his hand. "What's there to begrudge about a mere sword strike?" The swordcraft master flicked his finger against the blood-stained longsword before his knees: "Take it!" The unremarkable longsword chimed, lifted, and slashed down casually. Immediately after, a crimson beam of light shot straight into the firmament, filling heaven and earth. Vast and majestic like a great dragon, boundless and surging fiercely, it poured incessantly into that sword mark, vanishing into it. In the quiet, the sea wind blew vast and wide; no further anomaly remained. Up front, the director who had been urging the giants to pull the ropes and haul the giant serpent toward the sacrificial temple returned. Glancing at that sword mark, he frowned in puzzlement: "Your Highness, who were you speaking to?" "Yeah, who indeed?" Steeped in drunkenness, the swordcraft master smiled pleasantly: "Probably someone who came after." "Can a fellow who loves going against the grain as much as you do even have any successors?" His companion sneered with a cold huff: "Who knows, your descendants might spawn a tyrant, an enemy of the people that everyone unites to execute, leaving endless disaster in his wake!" "Haha, maybe so." The swordcraft master was utterly unconcerned. Propping himself on his knees, bathed in sunlight, tapping his sword idly to play a tune, the corners of his lips slowly curled: "Still, just imagine: a thousand or ten thousand years from now, when everything has passed, when your body and mine have turned to ash and dust, our names and past reduced to nothingness... Yet after all that, there could still be someone who, like you and me, rises with sword in hand... Isn't that a wonderful thing?" His companion fell silent. After a long while, he sighed softly: "Couldn't be better." "Right?" The swordcraft master laughed toward the heavens, hoisted the wine jar, tilted his head back, drank half of it down, and splashed the other half into the sea: "This cup—let it be a toast to the one who comes after!" The remaining wine flowed with the blood into the four seas. Ever after, the four seas were salty; yet amid the churning waves, did there still linger a trace of this day's wine? At that instant several thousand years later, a phantom aroma of wine seemed to hover at his nose. The one who came after reached out, plunging his hand into the slash mark. At last, he gripped that fierce light that had waited for him for an unknown age, and drew it forth with ferocious resolve! The instant the Sower looked back in astonishment, it saw it once more. Rising from rekindled dead ashes was a scarlet that spanned heaven and earth... The clouds and sky turned entirely red, as though the twenty-four heavens opened one after another, and the Gate of Heaven appeared. The azure sea churned; beneath the surface on the seabed, dragons and serpents rose across the land in an instant! Between heaven and earth, it seemed in that moment to welcome the true sovereign, the true master, the true judge... Above the tower's shadow, towering watchtowers of square and circle manifested. After Great Sin, Supreme Good ruled! Looking down upon that sword light connecting heaven and earth in the sin fiend's hand... The true, authentic Sword of Tianyuan! Tianlu was stunned. Pang Pei and Ellis froze. And not just them—at this moment, countless people cried out in unison: "—Chixiao?!" That was not the sword of the late dynasty's rotting emperor, nor was it the counterfeit bearing the same name circulating among the Thousand Islands. It was the authentic sword of dominion that had once revived creation in the hands of the Second Monarch, opened a new heaven, and laid down eternal myriad phenomena! Now, the shadow of Chixiao had answered the call! Held high in the hands of that burning shadow! The sword chimed sonorous and bright, echoing between heaven and earth, awing heaven, earth, and all phenomena, turning into the axis of the world... From this day forth, probably no one would ever doubt whether Lu Changsheng held the Imperial Seal of the Realm! The manifestation of this shadow of Chixiao was the finest proof of Heaven's Mandate and the imperial lineage! Yet Ji Jue did not care. The moment this authority over heaven and earth fell into his grasp, only one thought, one idea, one question remained in his mind. Looking at the giant hand of the Sower thrust into the Border Realm before him... —Back then, was it this hand that had delivered the Flame Tide Calamity into the material world? Or perhaps it was the other hand. It was possible he had used both hands. None of it mattered... We meet for the first time, and I brought no gift; nor can I repay the slight favor from back then. So why not leave this hand behind right here as interest for now! At that instant, the sin fiend laughed wildly, and toward that spasming arm trying to pull away— —He slashed! Heaven and earth moved together; all things shuddered, singing aloud, rejoicing. Sweeping along the shifting phenomena, drawing everything in the world into its fold, gathering all significance, bidding farewell to the past, establishing the present, forging the future. That fiery blaze converged into a single line, flashing and gone... Immediately following, a violent roar like never before erupted within the Border Realm. With the dissipation of that line of Chixiao's shadow, pale blood burst forth, blanketing the sky like a torrential rain. The Sower's arm was severed clean at the elbow! Unable to hold back any longer, it roared in rage! A grievous blow! It was not merely a wound; even the faintest sensation from the lost arm was gone, completely severed into two distinct entities. As if it had always been so. Lost once, lost forever. Such was Heaven's Mandate upon me—to give and to take! Amid the roaring, the last thing that carried back was distant laughter. The burning fiend fell from the vault of heaven toward the abyss, waving to it one last time with boundless enthusiasm. Full of malice and ferocity, he bade it farewell. Goodbye, friend. Goodbye! One day, we shall meet again!