Chapter 39

Seeing these sword spirits rush over, Lu Xiaodeng was greatly alarmed and shouted, "You've gone too far, actually wanting to gang up on me! Don't come any closer, or I'll call for help, and bring my senior sister here to see what you'll do then."

Thinking of finding cultivators to save you, don't even dream about it. Qi Qi smiled at her and stretched out his left hand, drawing a spirit diagram in the air, and immediately the surroundings turned dark, and the Tian Dan Peak beneath their feet disappeared as well. Not only he and the other sword souls, but even Lu Xiaodeng was pulled into the darkness.

As if suddenly awakened from a memory loss, Lu Xiaodeng paused and said, "The Spirit Realm..."

Qi Qi smiled satisfactorily and said, "It seems you really are a high-level spirit artifact, not all spirit artifacts have seen the Spirit Realm."

"Don't be so smug, I just forgot about it," Lu Xiaodeng said sheepishly. She really didn't know how to use the Spirit Realm. She had only been a human-form spirit artifact for two years, usually helping the cauldron master refine elixirs, and had only participated in one battle. That battle had led to her current form.

The Spirit Realm, although innate to spirit artifacts, was rarely used. Now, being able to recognize it was purely due to her nature. Besides, this spell was useless to cultivators and was only used among spirit artifacts.

Its effect was to place the spirit artifacts or divine souls in a special space where anything done inside would not be detected by cultivators, similar to how high-level demons could draw a person's divine consciousness into their own. The only difference was that the divine consciousness could not enter the Spirit Realm, while the demon's consciousness could be invaded by a cultivator's divine consciousness. Since spirit artifacts were essentially lifeless objects, their Spirit Realm contained no spiritual energy. Even if a cultivator could use some strange method to force their way in, they would be like a dish served on a platter.

Spirit artifacts were not at all concerned about consuming a cultivator's divine consciousness, as long as it wasn't their own master's. Such acts were generally not done by spirit artifacts.

Lu Xiaodeng was a bit annoyed that Qi Qi had used the Spirit Realm. If she had known, she would have stayed back. But thinking about how this guy lived right next to her and could use the Spirit Realm at any time, she realized she had nowhere to run.

So she rubbed her hands together and said embarrassedly, "I'm sorry, but I won't be responsible for who I eat."

Saying this, she reached out and grabbed the sword soul that was rushing at her, dragged it to her mouth, and bit it hard, then threw it away and grabbed another one. These were the sword souls of Yun Jian Sect disciples. If she really ate them all, the sect's strength would greatly diminish. As a medicine child of the Yun Jian Sect, she couldn't do such a thing, so she just took a bite.

"Did she come in with her physical body? Should we eat her flesh directly?" Bai Wu thought that using the Spirit Realm would bring in Lu Xiaodeng's divine soul, but didn't expect her to come in with her flesh and blood.

Qi Qi said meaningfully, "Her entire body is a spirit artifact, including her flesh and blood. I've tasted her blood, and it can be directly absorbed as power, so rich it makes one sigh. Eating her might make us grow flesh and blood."

Bai Wu was silent for a moment and said calmly, "If we don't consume her but ask her how to obtain a physical body, perhaps..."

"Don't be naive, she either doesn't know or won't say," Qi Qi coldly interrupted him.

Bai Wu, not giving up, looked at Lu Xiaodeng, who was being attacked by the sword souls, and said, "You're called Lu Xiaodeng, right? If you can answer one question, we'll let you go."

Lu Xiaodeng was busy catching the sword souls, wishing she had a net to catch them like butterflies. They were too fast. She didn't have time to pay attention to Bai Wu's question.

"How did you get your physical body? If you tell us, we won't harm you anymore, and we'll treat you as one of us in the future," Bai Wu continued, knowing she was too busy.

Lu Xiaodeng decided to answer, not wanting to cause a misunderstanding. She shouted, "I don't know. When the cauldron master was killed, the attack was too strong. Many people used powerful spells, and the sky and earth were darkened. I don't know what went wrong, but I ended up like this."

"..." Bai Wu looked at her expressionlessly. As Qi Qi had said, spirit artifacts that underwent transformations often couldn't explain why. This was a common occurrence, and they never got a clear answer.

"Hehehe, I told you it was a waste of time. Just eat her. Maybe we can find the reason in her memories," Qi Qi, who had expected this, laughed mockingly.

Bai Wu glared at him and decided to act without further ado.

The human-form sword souls didn't move, only letting the weaker ones attack. They wanted to see Lu Xiaodeng's strength and also to wear down the power protecting her. They were curious about the level of such a spirit artifact.

Spirit artifacts and divine souls had different terms for cultivation levels compared to cultivators. Cultivators used their own cultivation levels to describe the strength of demons, like the Wind Gold Horned Snake being at the late Golden Core stage. For spirit artifacts and divine souls, those without a human form were called Chaos Souls, and those with a human form were called Spirit Entry.

The middle stage of Chaos Souls was equivalent to the Golden Core stage of cultivators, but since they didn't have a human form, spirit artifacts and divine souls never divided them into middle or late stages. Most of the time, they were disdainfully called "waste without Spirit Entry."

Bai Wu was already at the late Spirit Entry stage, making him one of the stronger sword souls. Qi Qi was even higher, at the early Formless stage. If he hadn't always killed his sword masters, his strength would be even higher.

Lu Xiaodeng not only had a human form but had even grown flesh, so she was definitely at the Spirit Entry stage. Qi Qi and the others wanted to know if her strength was at the higher Spirit Condensation or even the Earth Fetus stage.

After all, Qi Qi had seen Spirit Condensation stage spirit artifacts, and none of them had a physical body, suggesting they might be at the Earth Fetus stage or higher. If they could cultivate a physical body at that level, everyone's desire to advance would be even stronger.

"Back off, I'm part of the Yun Jian Sect and don't want to eat you all. Your sword masters will lose a lot of strength without their sword souls. Don't come and harm me, okay!" Lu Xiaodeng grabbed a green sword soul, bit it, and threw it away, talking while eating. She immediately reached for another one, acting completely different from what she said.

She found it easy to eat the sword souls, and whenever they touched her body, they were blocked by a layer of black light, unable to harm her at all. Over twenty sword souls had been bitten by her, and seeing they couldn't get back the parts she had eaten, they all flew around pitifully, afraid to attack. Even going back like this would be hard to explain to their sword masters, as each bite represented years of effort.

The more sword souls Lu Xiaodeng ate, the more she felt her body filled with power. The long-lost feeling kept surging up, and she had to use a lot of self-control to stop herself from swallowing the sword souls whole.

"Qi Qi, this doesn't show her cultivation level. Try a spirit spell," Bai Wu said after watching for a long time. The Chaos Soul stage sword souls couldn't attack Lu Xiaodeng, making it impossible to gauge her cultivation level.

Qi Qi glanced at him, "I just came out, and my sword master is a low-level cultivator. Shouldn't you do this?"

"You're too lazy!" Bai Wu's patience was almost gone, and he gritted his teeth in anger.

"Hurry up, we need to know," Qi Qi lazily urged. The other sword souls were also waiting for Bai Wu to take the lead.

There was a reason they were reluctant to use spirit spells. Normally, when they were in the hands of cultivators, the spells they cast were very powerful, with each of them capable of casting at least five different spells. But this was all using the cultivator's spiritual energy as a catalyst, and they didn't use their own power. Cultivators had plenty of spiritual energy, making the spells cast by the sword souls more powerful.

If the sword souls had to cast spells without the cultivator's spiritual energy, they would consume their own divine souls. Unlike a cultivator's spiritual energy, which could be slowly restored, the divine soul would be depleted with each use.

Thinking of the effort needed to replenish the divine soul, no one was willing to use spirit spells unless absolutely necessary. Especially those with low-level and poor sword masters, who were extremely stingy and would never use a spirit spell.

Cultivators needed spirit fruits to use a large number of spells, but for spirit artifacts, using spirit spells was a matter of life and death!

Among all the sword masters of the Yun Jian Sect, the wealthiest was Lian Jing, and casting spirit spells was definitely Bai Wu's responsibility. Reluctantly, he flew forward a bit, and a white six-petaled spirit diagram appeared in his palm. The sword souls attacking Lu Xiaodeng immediately sensed the power and fled in an instant.

Lu Xiaodeng looked up at him, somewhat surprised, and muttered, "A spirit spell, is it necessary to go all out against me?"

As he spoke, Bai Wu waved his hand, and the six-petaled spirit diagram flew out, rushing toward her.

To catch it or not!

Lu Xiaodeng stared at the six-petaled spirit diagram, and the thought flashed through her mind just as it reached her, exploding with a loud bang. The blinding white light instantly illuminated the surroundings, and even the sword souls in the air trembled from the power of the spell.

Qi Qi raised an eyebrow and said, "Bai Wu, your Six Lotus is much more powerful than before. When can we have a match?"

"Are you crazy? Divine souls aren't toys. Your sword master is only at the Foundation Establishment stage, while mine is at the middle Spirit Transformation stage and is the sect leader. Do you have a chance to fight?" Bai Wu glared at him, suggesting he first get his sword master to a higher level.

After being scolded, Qi Qi was silent for a moment and then asked, "Who do you think has the most potential among the peak masters?"

"..." Bai Wu was waiting for the Six Lotus's power to dissipate, and the white light would last for a few moments. Hearing his question, he glared at him fiercely, "Are you so kind that you want to consume other sword souls and take over a peak master? They won't dare use a sword soul like you, so forget it."

"Che!" Qi Qi gritted his teeth and huffed in dissatisfaction.

At the same time, the light from the Six Lotus began to fade, and the sword souls immediately focused on the attack point, waiting to see the result.