Chapter 22: Fusing the Divine Artifact

Divine Artifacts are not without any weaknesses.

The Murong Clan’s Shifting Stars is claimed to be able to shift and reflect any force, but it cannot shift a pure Physical Body offensive.

Murong Qing held onto the Divine Artifact Incarnation of Shifting Stars until the very end, intending to use it to save his life.

But he never expected that what would truly take his life wasn’t Jiang Kaitai’s powerful Blood Fiend Force, but rather the Grappling Techniques used by low-level Jianghu People that he had always looked down upon!

“Chen Yuan! You are seeking death!”

Murong Qing’s face was distorted: “The Murong Clan will not let you go. Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, my Murong Clan will tear you into ten thousand pieces!”

At this moment, Murong Qing’s heart was filled with incomparable regret.

He finally realized that both he and Jiang Kaitai had been played by Chen Yuan!

By letting him and Jiang Kaitai fight until both were wounded, Chen Yuan was reaping the benefits.

Then Murong Qing suddenly thought of something and burst out laughing: “Chen Yuan, no matter how much you plot, it’s useless! You cannot take this seven killing stele!

Jiang Kaitai has already completely exhausted the power of the Blood Sacrifice. What else can you use to seize the seven killing stele?

After all your calculating, in the end, it’s all for nothing!”

“Noisy!”

Chen Yuan frowned, directly picked up Murong Qing’s dragon-patterned azure gold sword, thrust it into his mouth, and crushed his tongue.

Murong Qing roared, his mouth full of blood, staring at Chen Yuan with venomous eyes.

“Who told you that the seven killing stele can only be fused through Blood Sacrifice?”

Chen Yuan turned his gaze toward the seven killing stele.

There are many ways to master Divine Artifacts and demonic weapons; some rely on strength, some on Bloodline, some on the weapon itself finding you agreeable, and others on Blood Sacrifice, Formations, and various other messy methods.

For instance, the Murong Clan’s Divine Artifact, Shifting Stars, relies on Bloodline Power; any direct descendant Disciple with Murong Clan Bloodline can utilize the Divine Artifact Incarnation of Shifting Stars.

And the strongest of each generation of the Murong Clan can naturally master Shifting Stars to become the Weapon Master; this method of Legacy for Divine Artifacts and demonic weapons is the most stable and enviable.

The small clan that originally obtained the seven killing stele believed its attributes required Blood Sacrifice, and they failed only because they hadn’t sacrificed enough.

Seeing these murals, Jiang Kaitai and Murong Qing also believed that the seven killing stele required Blood Sacrifice to be successfully fused and controlled.

In reality, they were completely wrong!

From the very beginning, the method was wrong.

While a Blood Sacrifice could indeed trigger the power of the seven killing stele, it was only temporary.

Once the power of the Blood Sacrifice dissipated, the killing intent origin would immediately return to the seven killing stele.

The true way to fuse with the seven killing stele is to rely on one’s own willpower to actively accept and fuse with the killing intent origin.

Fragments of the seven killing stele appeared several times later; at first, everyone thought a Blood Sacrifice was necessary.

It wasn’t until the third appearance that someone successfully fused with the seven killing stele, and only then did the Jianghu realize that a Blood Sacrifice wasn’t actually needed.

However, fusing with the seven killing stele is perilous; when the killing intent origin enters the body, those with weak willpower will instantly be overwhelmed and turned into a Puppet who knows only slaughter.

Furthermore, when the Blood Fiend Force carried by the killing intent origin enters the body, those who are weaker will be directly blown apart by the pressure.

Thus, fusing with the seven killing stele requires two rigid conditions.

One is to be battle-hardened and have gone through countless slaughters to be compatible with the killing intent origin.

Of course, this slaughter doesn’t mean massacring the weak, but rather the killing intent accumulated through life-and-death duels and bloody battles against powerful experts.

The second is strength, requiring at least the cultivation of the sixth stage of martial arts, the Ningzhen Realm.

Turning True Qi from illusory to solid, transforming it into True Essence, and possessing greater power is necessary to withstand the impact when the Blood Fiend Force enters the body.

It might seem like Chen Yuan doesn’t meet the first requirement, but in the game, he had truly experienced countless bloody battles.

He had even once slaughtered his way through an entire guild alone.

After the Transmigration, Chen Yuan originally thought these virtual combat experiences would be useless.

But in fact, when he fought others, Chen Yuan found his state of mind to be extremely calm, and any Martial Skill in his hands could exert extremely powerful lethality.

Killing held no psychological burden for him; every time he swung his blade, the scene of blooming blood felt incredibly familiar, as if he had experienced countless life-and-death battles.

Since his pre-Transmigration combat experience remained, he naturally counted as having gone through countless bloody battles and could withstand the killing intent origin.

As for the Blood Fiend entering his body, that was also easy to solve.

Murong Qing was the most important link for Chen Yuan to fuse with the seven killing stele.

The Murong Clan’s Divine Artifact Incarnation of Shifting Stars could shift any force.

Divine Artifacts and demonic weapons also have differences in strength; although Shifting Stars was far less powerful than the seven killing stele, both were at the Divine Artifact level, so it could naturally shift the power of the seven killing stele.

Chen Yuan had kept Murong Qing alive because Shifting Stars required Murong Clan Bloodline Power to be activated.

Seizing the seven killing stele could do without someone from the Yiqi Guanhri Alliance, but it couldn’t do without someone from the Murong Clan.

This was also why Chen Yuan had gone through so much trouble to have Wenrou pass the news to the Murong Clan.

Chen Yuan dragged Murong Qing to the front of the seven killing stele, then took a step forward and reached out his hand toward the stele.

The seven killing stele before him seemed solid, but it was actually just a fragment, with its surroundings manifested from extremely dense killing intent origin.

In an instant, the killing intent origin fused with Chen Yuan’s spirit.

Chen Yuan’s vision instantly turned blood-red, and boundless illusions emerged in his mind.

Boundless killing intent surged forth, and there was only one voice in Chen Yuan’s mind: Kill!

The disloyal may be killed! The unfilial may be killed!

The unkind may be killed! The unjust may be killed!

Those without propriety, wisdom, or trust—execute them on behalf of Heaven, kill, kill, kill!

Kill all the filth in the world, slaughter all the ugliness on earth, meet violence with violence, and stop killing with killing!

Amidst the invasion of the boundless killing intent origin, Chen Yuan’s eyes were bloodshot, but he held onto a sliver of clarity.

The killing intent origin gradually fused with Chen Yuan’s own consciousness, and that sliver of clarity grew.

At that moment, an extremely powerful Blood Fiend Force surged in; Chen Yuan used his meager remaining clarity to suddenly tear open Murong Qing’s artery.

Holding Shifting Stars, Chen Yuan placed it over the spurting blood while channeling his Internal Energy, and a brilliant golden light immediately emerged from the ancient jade.

In the next moment, the Blood Fiend Force surging from the seven killing stele was instantly absorbed by Shifting Stars.

As the blood continued to pour over it, the golden light on Shifting Stars grew more and more intense.

Murong Qing felt the blood draining from his body, and his form grew colder and colder as he twisted his body, roaring and whimpering.

Once the golden light on Shifting Stars reached its limit, Chen Yuan violently threw the ancient jade away; the instantly rampaging Blood Fiend Force pierced through the ground, creating a pit several Zhang wide and of unknown depth.

With a downward stomp, Chen Yuan directly snapped Murong Qing’s neck.

He was no longer useful; he could die now.

The strongest wave of Blood Fiend Force had been shifted away by Shifting Stars; the remaining Blood Fiend Force surging into Chen Yuan’s body was something he could fully digest.

Simultaneously, the phantom of the seven killing stele continued to shrink, gradually merging into Chen Yuan’s body.

Finally, it turned into a small stone and was directly imprinted on Chen Yuan’s chest, looking like a tattoo.

At the same time, a large amount of information flooded into Chen Yuan’s mind.

Of course, this time it wasn’t an invasion of killing intent, but rather some usages brought by the fragment of the seven killing stele.

The reason the seven killing stele was the supreme Divine Artifact of the first version was that most Divine Artifact and demonic weapon fragments required at least a half or a third to reach usable standards.

But the seven killing stele was different; one-seventh was enough.

Furthermore, with every fragment collected, its power would increase by another degree.

Chen Yuan sat cross-legged on the ground and let out a long breath.

His Internal Energy was almost completely exhausted, and a sharp burning sensation came from his Meridians.

That was the side effect after the medicinal power of the fire dragon pill was depleted.

However, this bit of damage was trivial compared to the gains this time.

After fusing with the fragment of the seven killing stele, Chen Yuan could slightly burn his vital energy and blood to draw Blood Fiend Force into his body.

If his vital energy and blood were burned intensely, he could even summon the killing intent origin, making the power even more terrifying.

With every fragment of the seven killing stele collected, this power would increase and undergo more variations.

If the entire seven killing stele was collected, the complete killing intent origin could even transform into the Blood Slaughter Divine Body, which would be like a true God of Slaughter descending.

Moreover, each fragment of the seven killing stele carried a powerful Cultivation Technique derived from the killing intent origin.

The Cultivation Technique carried by this fragment of the seven killing stele was called the “Blood Slaughter Calamity Hand.”

It condenses blood fiends and brings down killing calamities; its palm force is fierce and overbearing, capable of suppressing and obliterating True Qi of most attributes.

However, the prerequisite for using this Cultivation Technique is to activate the killing intent origin, and it consumes an extreme amount of Blood Fiend Force.

Chen Yuan estimated that with his current strength, using a single palm strike was already his limit.

But the power of this Cultivation Technique was astonishing, enough to be ranked as Heaven-Grade!

One fragment of the seven killing stele contained one Heaven-Grade Cultivation Technique; seven fragments meant seven such techniques.

There was a reason the seven killing stele was ranked as the supreme divine weapon of the first version; these seven Heaven-Grade Cultivation Techniques alone were worth as much as some Divine Artifacts and demonic weapons themselves.

The only drawback was that the techniques carried by the seven killing stele were all evolved from the killing intent origin.

They could only be used by someone who possessed the seven killing stele, so they couldn’t be taught to others.

Chen Yuan barely recovered some Internal Energy and immediately prepared to leave.

Delay would bring trouble; who knew if the Murong Clan or the Yiqi Guanhri Alliance would suddenly send people? He had to leave Lianshan City immediately.

Before leaving, Chen Yuan only took the fragments of his yanling blade.

Although the yanling blade was just a standard-issue weapon, the hilt bore a mark carved by the ‘Chen Yuan’ from before the Transmigration, so it couldn’t be left here.

As for the bodies of Murong Qing and Jiang Kaitai in the secret land, Chen Yuan didn’t need to destroy the evidence.

While the bodies could be destroyed, this secret land relic from the end of the ancient era could not; so as soon as the Murong Clan arrived, they would surely discover that the seven killing stele had once appeared.

And since everyone who knew Chen Yuan participated in the struggle for the seven killing stele was dead, no one knew of his existence.

Perhaps Wenrou could guess something, but she wouldn’t speak recklessly.

The Heavenly Wind Listening to Rain Tower had existed for over a thousand years and had always followed the rules; they wouldn’t break them because of Chen Yuan.

Of course, even if Wenrou didn’t follow the rules, Chen Yuan wasn’t afraid.

The Murong Clan’s sphere of influence was only half of Youzhou; once out of Youzhou, the world was vast, and the Murong Clan’s attempt to find him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.