The Modern Martial Immortal

Chapter 116: Artifact Spirit

Flying sword!? Why is there a flying sword!? This sudden development startled more than just Yaoguang, who had utilized Psychic Descent to deliver the final blow to Leng Tianfeng. Even Xie Yushu, who was watching the battle, and several daemons froze in surprise.

In the next moment, it seemed as if their camouflage had been shattered; several presences simultaneously appeared within Yaoguang’s perception. Furthermore, every single one of these presences was less than three hundred meters away from them.

Over such a short distance, while both sides had been engaged in a fierce battle that stirred up waves of destructive energy, the two had failed to detect these presences in the slightest.

”I sense Jiang Bairen’s qi... It’s a Concealment Talisman! They used talismans!” Xie Yushu immediately assessed the situation.

However, whether they used talismans or not was irrelevant. What mattered was...

”How bold!” Yaoguang shouted.

Jin exploded from beneath Yaoguang’s feet, and he shot forward like a cannonball fired from its chamber, kicking up sand and stones as he charged toward the direction of the qi he detected. Along the way, weeds, thorns, and even trees were smashed aside by his direct impact, leaving wood chips flying in the air.

Putting aside how vital the memories in Leng Tianfeng’s mind were for understanding the current situation, his tier alone was significant. He was a suspected psyche cultivator who had cultivated the primordial psyche. If Yaoguang could kill him, how much experience would his Daemon Hunter branch gain?!

It might not move the Martial Dao into a new realm immediately, but it would certainly push the progress forward by a massive leap. Since monetary value was providing less and less experience to the Merchant branch, this windfall of experience was crucial. And now, someone had stolen his kill!?!

”Crimson Star Empire! You guys are digging your own grave!” Yaoguang roared.

With a bang, Yaoguang smashed through a large tree, and his vision suddenly widened. He clearly saw three fully armed figures operating a pentagonal treasured furnace that was as tall as a man and covered in various array patterns. They had fully activated the furnace. The flying sword that had previously shot Leng Tianfeng had already returned to the furnace.

Inside the furnace, several transparent figures, or rather, remnant souls, were wailing and incessantly pulling at a phantom within the flying sword. This phantom was extremely fierce; even though it was now only a remnant soul, it refused to vanish entirely, instead tearing at and crushing the souls that tried to restrain it.

The appearance of the remnant soul was faintly visible... It was precisely Leng Tianfeng.

But there were too many remnant souls in the furnace—hundreds, if not thousands. Even though Leng Tianfeng’s soul fought with extreme ferocity, shredding one soul after another, they continued to lunge forward to drag him down, pulling him deeper into the vessel.

As the three armored figures continuously fed spirit stones into the area surrounding the furnace, the entire furnace vibrated slightly. It began to emit streaks of flame, appearing as though it intended to refine Leng Tianfeng and those remnant souls into a single entity.

Yaoguang could not discern what these Crimson Star people were doing, but he felt a soul-shaking qi emanating from that treasure furnace. It seemed that if the Crimson Star people truly mastered the power of this furnace, he would face nothing but death even if he were at his peak, let alone now when he was at his wits’ end, sustained only by Psychic Descent.

Therefore, he had to stop them!

”He is at the end of his rope! Stop him!” one of the men controlling the furnace roared. It was Jiang Banzi’s voice.

Upon receiving the order, Lei Ting and another armored figure stepped forward simultaneously.

As the armored figure moved to intercept Yaoguang, several points on his suit flashed with light; the sources of this radiance were individual spirit stones. With the infusion of energy from the spirit stones, the armored figure raised a hand, and a streak of light shot out once more. It surpassed the speed of sound almost the instant it was released, and just as it was about to hit Yaoguang, it performed a nimble, tactical maneuver...

It was a flying sword! The configuration of this armor clearly included two flying swords!

In response, Yaoguang slashed with the Thunderclap Sword. Sword force was invoked. A gravitational pull as heavy as a mountain descended. The flying sword, which had been moving at extreme speed and constantly shifting directions, suddenly became as visible as a bullet fired into water; its trajectory grew clear.

In the next instant, his left hand shot out with precision and power, seizing the flying sword in his grip.

The armored gauntlet collided with the flying sword, producing the screech of grinding metal. He could feel the connection between this sword and the suit of armor before him.

Is that psychic will!? No...it appears to be psychic will that has been transformed into psychic consciousness! Yaoguang thought.

This psychic consciousness was amplified by the array patterns built into the armor, allowing the wearer to command the flying sword to kill with supersonic speed within a thousand-meter range. With the sword’s sharpness and that speed, facing any enemy, even a martial paragon, would usually be as easy as slicing through vegetables.

Unfortunately, he had encountered Yaoguang. After the battle with Leng Tianfeng, Yaoguang’s Great Earth Furnace, Life Force Field, and Stars’ Child were all pushed to their absolute limits. It was no exaggeration to say that the area within a dozen meters of his body had become a terrifying gravity field capable of crushing a normal person’s internal organs.

This was especially true when he used his Life Force Field to leverage that gravity and direct it at a single target. Even a heavenly being would have to exert every ounce of strength to resist it, let alone a flying sword that relied on an array art for its speed.

It was only because Leng Tianfeng and Yaoguang had exhausted each other that this sword had been able to use its nimbleness to strike suddenly and execute Leng Tianfeng. In a direct confrontation, a flying sword launched solely by the armor’s array art would not have been able to get within a meter of Leng Tianfeng’s body.

Hum! The flying sword gripped tightly in Yaoguang’s hand vibrated violently, seemingly desperate to break free and fly away. However, it was held fast by the gravitational field derived from his Great Earth Furnace, unable to move an inch.

As he strode forward, the distance between the two sides closed rapidly. This scene caused the essence, qi, and psyche of the figure inside the armor to climb to their peak.

”Hold him back!”

Essence and qi were continuously converted into mental energy, which then turned into psychic consciousness and flowed into the array art. Supported by the energy of the armor’s spirit stones, he commanded the flying sword, attempting to pull it back.

The one who received the order was Lei Ting, the master of the Stellar Sanctum. He nodded with a solemn expression. ”Leave him to me...”

Holding a battle sword nearly as tall as a person, he stood firmly in a defensive stance, blocking Yaoguang’s path while staring at him coldly. ”Last time didn’t count as a decisive victory. This time, we—”

Hum! Hum! Before Lei Ting could finish his sentence, an unimaginably powerful weight suddenly pressed down upon him as Su Yaoguang pointed his longsword forward.

Instantly, the weight of his exoskeleton armor, which originally weighed only about a hundred kilograms, seemed to skyrocket to several tons. Even with the physique of a martial paragon, Lei Ting could not help but sink lower under such terrifying pressure, nearly falling on his knees.

”This...” Horror filled Lei Ting’s eyes. How is this possible!?

But before his shock could fully register, a flash of thunderous light streaked across his peripheral vision, striking toward him at an incredible speed. Seeing this bolt of light, Lei Ting let out a low roar, his blood and qi surging violently like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

However, the load he carried was far too heavy. With several tons of weight pressing down on him, even if he still possessed the will to fight, it was a pipe dream to think he could slash out as swiftly as he had done before.

He gripped his sword with both hands, straining with every fiber of his being to intercept Yaoguang’s thunderclap-like sword light. But when their speeds were compared, he was as slow as a snail!

”Faster! Faster! Faster!” Lei Ting bellowed, his blood and qi soaring as he poured it incessantly into his blade, forcing the speed of his strike to reach the level of a martial master’s full-strength attack.

To be able to deliver a strike of such power while burdened by several tons, with even his internal organs under extreme stress, there was no denying that Lei Ting was formidable even when compared to other unified martial paragons. Yet, against Yaoguang’s Thunderclap Sword, which moved too fast for the average eye to track, such a counterattack was utterly futile.

”No!” Amidst the terrified and incredulous roar of the Stellar Sanctum Master’s final outburst, he could only watch helplessly as the sword light he should have been able to block pierced through his skull. Burdened by gravity, he could only wait for death with open eyes.

Only a few months ago, he could still face this terrifying opponent head-on, falling only slightly short. But a few months later, he couldn’t even withstand a single strike?! In such a short time, how could the gap have widened to an extent that he could not see the other side even if he tried?!

With this profound sense of despair, Lei Ting’s consciousness gradually fell into darkness. It wasn’t just Lei Ting who met a desperate end; Jiang Bairen, standing behind him in high-tier armor, also felt an uncontrollable fear welling up in his eyes. Su Yaoguang is stronger than we anticipated! He is so powerful that he is beginning to exceed our control!

”Is it ready yet!?” he roared. Two launch ports suddenly appeared on his armor, and two small rockets streaked out instantly.

”Almost... It’s nearly done...” Jiang Banzi, who was presiding over the furnace, shouted in a low voice. ”Quick... Activate the secret technique! Refine qi into psyche! Use psychic will to trigger the array art and give your all to refine him into an artifact spirit...”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhenwu and Zuo Wendao both turned bright red. Their blood and qi burned fiercely within them, transforming into psychic will through a specialized method to bolster their psychic consciousness and strengthen their control over the furnace.

However, they had clearly underestimated the capabilities of Leng Tianfeng, the Soul Manipulator. Soul manipulation was his expertise! His profession specialized in the control of souls. Jiang Banzi and the others wanted to use the Five-Emperor Soul-Refining Furnace to fuse him with the remnant souls of other martial paragons and turn him into the furnace’s artifact spirit, but the result was...

”You are seeking your own deaths!” Under a wave of suppressed fury, Leng Tianfeng’s primordial psyche suddenly seeped out, injecting itself into every corner of the furnace.

In the next moment, Jiang Banzi suddenly let out a terrified cry. ”What’s happening... No! The Five-Emperor Soul-Refining Furnace is spinning out of control!”

”It’s that fiend! He is usurping our control over the treasure... Ah! He is trying to become the master of the furnace!” Zuo Wendao was also filled with terror.

”We Lunar Fiends are formless and signless! We are without state or permanence! Any object can become our vessel! This vessel has reached the treasured artifact level! It is truly powerful, far stronger than the body of a heavenly being!” Leng Tianfeng’s primordial psyche laughed loudly, as if he had completely merged with the Five-Emperor Soul-Refining Furnace. ”Hahaha! I thank you for giving me such a powerful vessel. To express my gratitude...”

An azure torrent instantly swept out from the furnace, immediately seizing the psychic souls of Jiang Banzi, Zuo Wendao, and Jiang Zhenwu...

”I shall send you all to your deaths!”