Chapter 1685 - Yellowspring Fish
Formless glacier and Galactic Godsin.
"We refer to this sword as the Godsin," said Sovereign Starfeather.
"It’s formidable on the surface, pure and flawless, yet innately ferocious and vicious. Invisible when it takes lives, its profundity is understated. It’s a fierce weapon indeed," Tianming said.
In truth, the Grand-Orient Sword and this sword were two extremes, the former being righteous and imposing with an emperor’s majesty and wrath, while the latter was dedicated to slaughter, growing more ferocious with each kill. Without a doubt, the Grand-Orient Sword was more suitable for Tianming, but the problem was that it was useless in the wondersky realm. Until he could get his hands on the grade-nine Grand-Orient Sword, Tianming needed a substitute and the Godsin was fiercer than the Venuslight.
"Godsin." Tianming quietly mouthed the words. The sword matched its name.
"In fact, the name was given by those on the Violetglory Star. On the Skywolf Star, it goes by another name—the Formless Minor, which is probably based on the formless glacier," the sovereign said.
"Is there a Formless Major?" Tianming asked.
"Who knows?" Sovereign Starfeather laughed.
"Don't you want to try it? Well, hurry up then. What’s with all the talking?" Mu Ziyan teased.
"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will be victorious in every battle," Tianming said. Vague knowledge would only lead to danger.
"Geez! Are you really going to try it out? Are you trying to weasel your way out of finding out what it's really like?" Mu Ziyan asked in surprise.
"If I’m only going to listen, why would I have come all this way?" Tianming retorted.
"Alright then! But I must remind you of one thing. When your caelum enters the world within the sword, you’ll face its artifact soul. You’re planning on conquering the sword when you’re merely at the second general soul level. It’ll feel humiliated and is likely to invade your vita via your caelum. I won’t be responsible if your soul is scattered," Mu Ziyan said.
"It'll be fine. I'll go in and say hello. Who knows? It might be lonely after being neglected for so many years. If we get along, it might grow fond of me. In any case, I’ll still have both of you if it tries to hurt me, don’t I? You wouldn't sit back and watch me get bullied, would you?" Tianming smiled, looking very relaxed.
"You’re shameless." Despite reprimanding him, Mu Ziyan acquiesced to his words.
"Tianming, the Godsin’s artifact soul was refined from the soul of a cosmic wildbeast known as a yellowspring fish. It resembles an electric eel, but has countless segments like a centipede," Sovereign Starfeather explained.
"Got it."
Cosmic wildbeasts were terrifying creatures related to the spectral progenitor. As non-lifebound beasts, they didn’t possess the trinity of souls, only a vita, which was the reason they lacked wisdom. These vitae were often refined into artifact souls. Upon learning that, Tianming was somewhat nervous. My vita should be safe. After all, I have the Soul Tower. Sovereign Starfeather and Mu Ziyan were also there to protect him.
Before he began, Mu Ziyan and Sovereign Starfeather held his shoulders and the power of two fourth imperial souls flooded his being. Two layers of purple mist enveloped Tianming. The outer layer was composed of the sovereign’s power, which was condensed into countless feathers, while Mu Ziyan's power formed plates of armor. Additionally, Tianming had the Soul Tower.
"I'm going to start!" Everything was ready and he had three layers of protection, so Tianming wasn’t afraid at all. In truth, he was feeling confident in the power from his Omnisentient Threads. With that, he approached the sword and grabbed its hilt. It was icy cold to the touch. From its temperature alone, he could tell that no one had dared to challenge it for a long time. Tianming felt as if he was holding a sword made of ice. His caelum immediately slipped into the sword. At the same time, his vita entered a state of deep sleep and his consciousness transferred to his caelum. This state was similar to entering the wondersky realm.
Silvery tinkling sounded around him. When Tianming studied his surroundings, he saw an icy world with countless mirror fragments made of ice crystals floating in the air. There were hundreds of millions of them in all sizes; even the ground beneath his feet was a huge, broken ice mirror.
Ice mirrors flew everywhere, colliding with each other and shattering, creating sharp noises. Tianming couldn’t see an end to this world. It was extremely confusing because he could see himself in every mirror fragment. But aside from that, the world was devoid of other sounds as if nothing else existed. Such a world wasn’t frightening, but strange. However, Tianming was aware that the sword was refined from Galactic Godsin, which merged perfectly with the yellowspring fish.
"It must’ve seen me!" Taking a deep breath, he vigilantly looked around.
"Come out. I know you're lonely. Forget about playing tricks. Come right at me and let me see what you can do." Upon hearing the sword’s name, anyone who entered this world would show respect, even if they were sovereigns, but not Tianming. Although he didn’t possess a fourth imperial soul, the Soul Tower had never failed him.
"Remember what you used to be? Yellowspring fish? I wonder how that tastes? Is it more delicious steamed or braised? Or perhaps barbecued!" The more he said, the bolder he grew. "Come out and let this granddaddy take a look." No one but him had ever taunted and jeered the moment they set foot in this place.
Billions of ice mirrors floated around him, his image reflected in each and every fragment. Staring into the mirrors, Tianming arranged his hair. "Damn, I’ve gotten more handsome again! If looking good was against the law, I’d be sentenced to at least a billion years in prison."
The ice mirrors in front of him suddenly turned a dim yellow and Tianming’s reflection gradually grew sallow. The shadow of an extremely long fish swept across the mirror and a deep, hollow voice sounded from the void signifying that the wildbeast that had once relied on its physical body to travel the cosmos was awakening. Even the huge mirror beneath his feet slowly turned yellow. Another shadow of a gigantic fish floated past, resembling a long island. The voice sounded once more.
"What's your name, Brother? You’ve been lonely for too long, haven’t you? You’re hungry, aren’t you? It’s alright. Join me. I have a little bird who can be your best friend." Tianming said. In his lifebound space, Ying Huo suddenly sneezed. As if affected by Tianming's words, the yellowspring fish’s voice grew louder, its dim yellow shadow darting under Tianming's feet once more. As the broken mirror vibrated, the ice mirrors in the sky formed a violent storm. The world was changing! At that moment, the giant shadow emerged from the mirror, so large it covered the sky.
"Fuck!" Stumbling back in fright, Tianming looked up and saw a gigantic fish that was at least millions of meters long, half of its body still inside the mirror. As Sovereign Starfeather had said, it looked like an electric eel with a segmented body, with sharp fins on each segment so it somewhat resembled a centipede. A sea centipede! This was the yellowspring fish. Even if its body had long turned to dust, its soul was still what it had once been.
Thick, yellow smoke filled the air. Like an endless yellow river, the scales on the fish rippled, its huge eyes staring at Tianming, turning from hazy to clear, then finally blood-red. The wildbeasts that roamed the starry sky were terrifying, but were still inferior to the weakest one-star lifebound beasts in terms of intelligence due to the limitations of their souls.
The yellowspring fish was no longer polite as it slammed its body into Tianming. It even had the ability to rush out of the sword and kill Tianming’s vita via the connection to his caelum. In that instant, the world seemed to have shattered. In front of the giant beast, Tianming was as tiny as a speck of dust. The scene was no different from slashing an ant with a large knife. Tianming finally realized the reason others thought he would fail to conquer the Godsin. Sovereign Starfeather and Mu Ziyan weren’t concerned about whether he could control it, but whether he would be injured because of it. "With the Soul Tower, my vita will be fine, but conquering this beast won’t be easy...."
The yellowspring fish collided with his caelum, drilling inside. It almost looked like Tianming's body was swallowing the gigantic beast, but the truth was, the beast wanted to parasitize his caelum and destroy his vita. The impact of the collision slammed Tianming’s caelum out of the sword and back to the top of his head. Upon escaping the sword, the beast followed his caelum and penetrated his skull, heading straight to his sea of consciousness.
"That’s bad!" Sovereign Starfeather and Mu Ziyan both nervously shouted. It was merely a dim yellow light to them, but to Tianming, it was a giant beast hundreds of meters long, tearing at the defense formed by two fourth imperial souls so it could kill him. Undoubtedly, Tianming's desire to subdue it was an unforgivable insult to this mindless beast and had roused its uncontrollable rage. The Violetglory Star cultivators’ belief that Tianming could conquer the Godsin with just his talent and propensity for creating miracles was just an assumption.