Heavenly Thunder Sword Super Evolution—Crimson Firmament Sword!

"You're not afraid of it?" Mu Xue'er didn't believe him. And besides, she thought men were all the same. Even if Liu Xiu was this handsome, he still couldn't escape the instinct to lie. That was pretty bad! But seeing as Liu Xiu was so handsome... ptui. Seeing as Liu Xiu had just consoled her, she decided to give him a proper talking-to. "Right. I'm not afraid of it..." "Oh..." I don't believe you! Mu Xue'er didn't believe him. Same as before: she thought the handsome Liu Xiu was lying, and that he had been beguiled by the demonic sword on top of it! "Name a price!" "Not for sale!" "Hm?" "I... I'll give it to you. But... you have to promise me that if you feel unwell, you'll bring it back to me!" Mu Xue'er, who had gotten up from the ground, wiped the tear tracks and the snot with a handkerchief. Her cheeks faintly red, she lowered her head and spoke. Hearing this, Liu Xiu frowned at the rather excessive Mu Xue'er. He was only coveting the magic treasure, yet she was actually lusting after his body. That was pretty acceptable. After all, he didn't lose out either way! "Huh? What are you pulling a gun for?" Mu Xue'er looked oddly at Liu Xiu, who had drawn his pistol at some point she hadn't noticed. Liu Xiu said with a smile, "Giving it to you, of course!" "..." You're sure this isn't killing me to seize the treasure? Mu Xue'er instinctively took half a step back, then took half a step forward again, leaving aside the matter of Liu Xiu's looks. Just from Liu Xiu's earlier counseling, and from his not holding her sneak attack against her, she felt he was not the sort of demonic cultivator who killed people to seize treasures. True, Liu Xiu had slapped her! But that had been to talk sense into her too! Thinking this, she reached out with faintly reddened cheeks, took the pistol Liu Xiu handed over, lowered her head to smooth her hair, and said softly, "Thank you..." "Don't mention it!" Liu Xiu's brows knit for an instant as he looked at Mu Xue'er, who had actually taken the pistol. Feeling that she had no sense of manners, he turned to look at the half-person-tall wooden box still standing on the ground not far away. "You're sure you didn't leave anything out? I mean the part about the injuries the demonic sword causes..." Liu Xiu asked, and once he confirmed it was the same as he had thought, his expression grew stranger still. Mu Xue'er didn't know what Liu Xiu was thinking. Worry showed in her eyes as she said, "You have to be careful. This is a demonic sword that harms people..." "Ever read storybooks? If you have, that's enough. Have you read the kind where a protagonist with a terminal illness gets a demonic sword, the illness is cured, and his cultivation surges besides? Right. I'm that protagonist!" Liu Xiu said, his expression odd. At the same time, the narration cheat's voice suddenly sounded. Heh heh heh. Looking at this harmful demonic sword, you feel you are the fated protagonist. A demonic sword that injures ordinary people the moment they touch it is, for someone like you whose elixir toxin is about to enter the bone, a rare and excellent medicine. With the aid of the celestial-iron golden qi this demonic sword carries of itself, you can transform yang and refine yin, condense the elixir toxin into floating dregs, and borrow the qi of the water mansion to send it down the turbid path. Drawn by day and purged by month, the turbid poison of metals and minerals will vanish of itself. Once you borrow the demonic sword's might to cultivate the three immortal aspects, you will surely dominate the cultivation world! What the narration cheat said was very complicated. Translated, it meant Liu Xiu could use the gamma rays in the radiation the demonic sword carried to induce radiolysis of the water molecules in his blood and generate reactive oxygen species. Next, the free lead and mercury ions in his body would be oxidized into insoluble precipitates, filtered by the kidneys, and expelled day by day with the urine. Simply put, for Liu Xiu, who was currently suffering heavy metal poisoning, the radiation in the demonic sword was no longer radiation. It was equivalent to radiation-toxicology therapy. Two negatives made a positive! In other words, not only was Liu Xiu unafraid of the demonic sword's radiation, he could also use that radiation to pop immortal-aspect pills as hard as he liked. Of course, this had a premise. The premise was that the amount of radiation the demonic sword carried was about as great as he had estimated. "Oh, oh..." I don't believe you! Mu Xue'er still didn't believe him, and still felt Liu Xiu had simply been beguiled by the demonic sword. Then and there she decided that once she went back she would look through the inheritance her master had left and seek a way to deal with it. "All right. Hurry up and take your Second Senior Brother's corpse back. This demonic sword is mine now..." After hearing the narration cheat's voice sound again, Liu Xiu began driving her off. In the end Mu Xue'er left with Second Senior Brother's corpse, looking back time and again, and before she left she left a contact address and a way to reach her. And before leaving she told Liu Xiu over and over that if he felt unwell, he must bring the demonic sword and come find her. Liu Xiu also said that if she ran into trouble, she should come find him! "Could I really be the protagonist..." Watching Mu Xue'er leave, Liu Xiu came up to the wooden box standing on the ground with an odd look on his face and began to examine it. The box's material was ordinary, elm throughout. He looked at the button beneath the box, which was probably the catch, lifted a foot, and gave it a light kick. A sharp whoosh of air sounded. A sword roughly three chi and three cun long—a blood-red bronze longsword like a ruby from end to end—shot out through the air, and Liu Xiu reached out and caught it. "Truly a fine sword..." Looking at the thoroughly demonic sword, Liu Xiu sighed once. His left hand drew from his pocket the Heavenly Thunder Sword, which was trembling. In his mind sounded the words the narration cheat had spoken not long before. Those words had made his expression odd earlier, and had also made him feel he was the fated protagonist. "Heh heh heh. The heavenly mandate is yours. Looking at the sword case radiating celestial-star golden qi, you think of Daoist Wang's inheritance. All at once you discover the hidden message left on the method of the three immortal aspects, and you understand what the Heavenly Thunder Sword's change is..." "...So the white monstrous worm you cut down that day was a Metal-Devouring Gu that Daoist Wang's Master had specially left for Daoist Wang back then. It was a gu that could make weapons fuse. Although you killed the Metal-Devouring Gu, the Heavenly Thunder Sword, stained with the Metal-Devouring Gu's blood, gained one use of the power to devour a weapon... dominate the cultivation world!" "Tsk. Could I really be the protagonist!" Liu Xiu let go of the Heavenly Thunder Sword with his left hand. The layer of white frost coating it carried the blade out with a whoosh, and it drove straight into the body of the demonic sword in his right hand and lodged there. There were no particularly impressive effects. There was only the Heavenly Thunder Sword turning into a pool of liquid, and the demonic sword beginning to change shape. The whole process took no more than a few seconds. The demonic sword in Liu Xiu's hand was utterly transformed. The blade took cold silver for its bone, with dark red for its ground. Thread after thread of blood color wound over the sword's surface like the meridians of a roaming dragon. The sword carried a soul-devouring ferocity of its own, and the guard was cast with interlaced silver-and-red patterns like crimson flame and flowing cloud. At the center of the interlaced pattern was a spot of deep crimson, like the finishing touch that paints a dragon's eye, so the sword's original overbearing demonic might did not lessen, but grew. And because the hilt had become dark-red silver wire twisted together, with blood-red agate at the end, the whole sword looked cold and grim with killing intent. Yet because the ground color carried a touch of the weight of kingly authority, it brought forth the majesty of the imperial path. Especially after Liu Xiu saw the two characters for Crimson Firmament written on the blade in great seal script, he felt even more overbearing as he looked all around. He meant nothing else by it. He just felt that his Emperor Gaozu had come! "Crimson Firmament Sword..." Liu Xiu muttered, but a strange look showed in his eyes as he regarded the sword in his hand. Its form was that of a bronze sword, and yet it looked a bit like that sword from a certain anime! What, did Emperor Gaozu watch anime too? And why did this sword look a little demonic? Could it be he had lost at dogfighting and was in a bad mood because of it? Ahem. Losing was impossible. As everyone knew, Emperor Gaozu had not a single defeat at dogfighting or cockfighting in his whole life. When Liu Xiu finished muttering, he stole a glance at the night sky, clear again, and began to inspect the radiation-bearing Crimson Firmament Sword in his hand. It was very like the Crimson Firmament Sword in that anime, but it seemed that the radiation had added some demonic intent. A demonic-path Crimson Firmament Sword. Liu Xiu roused his spiritual power and circulated the Shangqing Jade Pivot Palm-Thunder Secret Instruction, driving the thunder seed he had cultivated to about halfway, his Gui-water yin thunder! Then he swung the sword! Shua— The longsword split the air. From the blade burst a bolt of thunder like sludge. Only it was no longer black. It was thunder of black and red interwoven. Bang— The black-and-red interwoven thunder sword-qi struck the trunk of a great tree. The tree was not cut through at the waist, but a sword scar appeared, full of scorch marks and carrying a smell of rust. "Radiation Thunder Slash?" No. This was the Celestial-Star Thunder Domineering Slash! Liu Xiu muttered to himself, briefly astonished that the Crimson Firmament Sword actually came with sword-qi attacks, then carefully sensed the might of the radiation the Crimson Firmament Sword brought. A moment later, watching the Crimson Firmament Sword shrink and grow with his thoughts, he said inwardly that it was just right. The Crimson Firmament Sword's radiation was not far from what he had imagined. It sat right at the level he had guessed! Beneficial to him, and harmless! The main reason he said it was beneficial and harmless was the lead in his skin—the elixir toxin in the Ice-Skin Jade-Bones Pill. That is, the metal element that stood for lead had shut most of the radiation out from him. Everything was just as he had thought at the start. This sword and he were two negatives making a positive. No. Not merely two negatives making a positive! This sword could also use its radiation to help him speed up refining pills and popping pills, so he could cultivate the three immortal aspects faster! But the power of that slash just now seemed a bit great. Did the Crimson Firmament Sword also come with an attack boost? Liu Xiu guessed silently, and went on experimenting against this great tree. By the time he finally brought the great tree down, Liu Xiu had tested it out. The Crimson Firmament Sword did indeed carry an attack boost. What was more, it was not only the Crimson Firmament Sword that carried an attack-boost effect. This heavy-metal body of his also came with a thunder-arts attack boost! The reason? The resistance was lower. It conducted better! He had to say, it was pretty reasonable! Now this was the metals-and-minerals elixir path!