Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The sun was already beginning to break through Steelmind’s aura, very soon, the sun itself would kill him before the sword did.

The Sword God feared killing him, so he left Steelmind to die on his

own.

Steelmind wished to focus on the sword, but the pain and anger he felt in his heart toward the Sword God and the others could not be so easily forgotten in this moment. Even forcing himself to think of the sword instead of the Slayers was an obstacle.

‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’

The spirit’s words kept pounding on his head as if they were his own heartbeat.

Only after he destroyed the sword would it stop. Or after he destroyed the spirit.

Steelmind looked down at his hands that were now decrepit. They still held on to the sword as if it were his only lifeline. He could not let go of the one thing that was killing him.

“You want me… to kill myself?” he asked, unsure if he was speaking to the sword in his hand or the Sword God before him.

The Sword God stirred, preparing for another attack.

Inside the sword, the spirit raged even more, its words louder.

‘KILL! KILL! KILL!’

Steelmind lifted his fist, raising the sword, prompting everyone to prepare for an attack. However, he then turned it around, the tip of the sword placed against his chest.

He tried to breathe in his final breath, only to realize he couldn’t do that out here in space. He laughed at the absurd situation, his cackle growing loud for a moment before vanishing.

The energy that should have carried his words through the void of space was no longer within him. He was moments away from dying.

Steelmind looked down from his laughter, putting what he could into his words again, as he spoke to the few that lived around him.

“I will kill you all,” he said. “I will come back as a ghost, as a specter, as a spirit if I must, but I will kill you all.”

The Sword God said nothing, just waiting for Steelmind to finish what he had started.

The energy vanished from his words, now inaudible. “If not me, someone else will come. I’m sure of it. Someone will take over my vengeance, and kill all of you gods.”

He then looked down at his chest, where he had the sword pointed. Everyone thought he was going to kill himself, but what he really wanted was to kill the spirit within the sword.

Without the spirit, the sword would be useless.

And his own soul was so weak that the only way to make any use of it was through direct connection.

“I’m sorry, little spirit,” Steelmind said. “I must kill you now. And… you must kill me as well.”

Steelmind gathered all of his power for this one last strike. Even as he did, the sun began burning through his body, destroying it with its violent energy.

Before it could fully kill him, Steelmind acted and drove the sword through his chest. Blood covered the sword, and the connection between his soul and the sword’s spirit formed.

Steelmind attacked the spirit, and his soul entered the sword.

The sun destroyed what was left of Steelmind’s physical self, leaving behind not even a corpse, while the only thing that remained was the sword.

The last thing Steelmind remembered vividly was that he had thrown his soul toward the spirit, attempting to kill it while dying in the process. However, things didn’t go exactly as planned.

He somehow survived within the sword, but his mind was muddled beyond anything. He still carried the hatred with him, the hatred to kill the gods that were with him.

That hatred empowered the spirit instead of killing it. It began merging with him. Before he knew it, he had forgotten who he was.

The Sword God approached and took hold of the sword. Immediately, he forced his Intent into the sword, pushing against the spirit, keeping it from affecting him. He was not so stupid as to grab something so easily that had destroyed a god by itself.

“Our numbers have dwindled thanks to you,” the Sword God said to the sword, and the sword listened. “But I suppose that only makes you that much more capable. You are now a part of our group too. You’ll make a fine Slayer.”

The suppression kept the new spirit at bay, keeping it from even thinking about itself. For a long time, the spirit remained dormant, with little thought or understanding of what had happened to it.

It wasn’t long before the suppression began to lessen as the Sword God began refining the sword.

Each time Qi passed through the new spirit, it took it in happily. Each time it did, it grew slightly more, going from a jumbled mess to a

whole.

His identity was gone long ago, his memories vanishing along with it. But then, he was only a spirit. What was there to remember?

‘Who am I? What am I? What is my purpose?’

As the spirit grew inside the sword, it asked itself those questions. Each time it fed on the Sword God’s Qi, it grew wiser, more thoughtful. The corruption grew along with it.

‘I am a sword. My purpose is to kill!

It continued growing.

‘Who do I kill? I killed a god.’

‘I killed the Artifact God. Why?’

‘I hate them, that’s why. I hate the Gods!

‘Why do I hate them?’

There was no answer. There was no need for an answer. He hated

them, and they deserved to die.

Then one day, the Sword God fed it his blood, creating a connection.

The spirit remembered this person. It remembered what he had

called it.

‘A slayer,’ the spirit thought. ‘I am a slayer. A slayer of gods.

It had a vague understanding of something that pre-existed it, something that also killed gods. It could become like that thing. It was now a sword that was meant to kill the gods, all gods, because they

deserved to die.

The Sword God finished refining the sword, and the Sword Spirit gained true consciousness, along with a new name for itself.

Godslayer