Chapter 464 Swallowing the Sword of Thorns
A blood moon hangs high in the sky over the Dali Plain.

The eerie moonlight illuminated the plain. A strong wind was racing across the wilderness, making a shrill whistle. The wild grass was swaying wildly in the wind, as if countless limbs were twisting and struggling. The black shadows of the dead trees were baring their fangs and claws, and the broken branches were scattered on the ground, creating a scene of desolation and chaos.

The gray warhorse was galloping at high speed on the plain. A few frightened wild beasts not far away retreated to avoid it. Occasionally, a bird flew low over the sky, making a sharp cry, and then disappeared into the vast night.

Yu Jianyue was drunk on horseback, her long hair simply tied into a braid swaying behind her slender back. Her white goose neck, which was usually hidden by her long hair, was faintly visible behind her loose collar.

A layer of mixed source power from the famous spear slowly flowed, covering the shirt and black tights on the legs, and finally reaching the soles of the boots and toes, like a defensive armor that rose up on its own.

The ten famous guns in the world of Eternal Darkness are all the painstaking works of alchemy masters throughout history. One of their cores is the pure soul of the king level, which erases impurities such as thoughts, personal imprints, emotional tendencies, etc., and catalyzes a new-born gun spirit.

In its heyday, the famous spear can display a killing power close to that of a king himself. Of course, as a weapon, in theory, it can only exert its full power when wielded by a king.

On the gray warhorse, Jiang He devoted his mental energy to running his divine thinking, combining the dozen or so body-refining techniques at hand, with his ten thousand years of martial arts experience, and the epic “Sword Sutra of All Stars”, to compile a set of body-refining methods that belonged to him alone.

Strictly speaking, when practicing the new “Astral Body Technique” by oneself, its effect and grade are comparable to those of epic skills. However, because it is tailor-made, when it is given to others, it can usually only be regarded as the top-notch product among the Immortal Level, without any essential transformation.

“Si Ning’s words are an exception.” Jiang He thought to himself. Since the main body came from the other party’s major sword manual, this guy has a huge natural advantage in terms of compatibility. After all, he currently only has this one epic skill, so there are almost no specific choices.

The gray warhorse stopped at the back of a hill.

Jiang He clapped his hands, and the shining element was shaped through solidification technology, giving birth to a square giant pool.

He lay down directly, activated the power of gluttony, and transformed the two million source finances in the wooden box into liquid extraordinary factors.

In an instant, the steaming mist surged around the giant pool like a ferocious evil spirit. The pool seemed to be burning with a raging fire, making crackling sounds, and the liquid source gold was as thick as magma.

Jiang He lay down in it, and his whole body was instantly wrapped in the boiling source liquid. The “Astral Body Technique” began to work, and his immortal self-control absorbed the extraordinary factors. Countless sharp pains like needles emerged, and every inch of his skin was suffering from the erosion of the source liquid.

The body was repeatedly pulled and tempered, making a loud “crunching” sound as if it was breaking and then reorganizing. The source fluid continued to baptize the bones, and the original color gradually faded, replaced by a jade-like luster.

The overall hardness of the body was rapidly increasing, releasing vigorous vitality. Along with unbearable pain, Jiang He heard a prompt sound.

[Hint: Your body’s strength has been raised to the Unbreakable Level (75%). Due to the insufficient level of self-control and life level, it has reached the current limit.]
Jiang He stood up, and the huge pool shattered into powder. The thick layer of blood scabs on the surface of his body cracked and fell off, revealing his shiny and smooth body. A faint fragrance with a hint of blood filled the air.

“Source gold, star fragments from the eternal dark world.”

The astral technique worked successfully, verifying his guess about the nature of source gold.

The strength of his body has reached the level of being indestructible. If he uses this as a basis to activate the God Moves with Heaven and undergo a secondary strengthening, Jiang He believes that he can definitely compete with the savage chief, or even be slightly better than him. From being unable to fight back originally to now wrestling with each other, this is a qualitative breakthrough.

This also means that it is difficult for a normal peak gold player to kill himself, and the difficulty of seriously injuring him is greatly increased.

“Duke Merrick.”

“I can’t really call myself a mentor, but I can barely call myself a noble.”

Jiang He looked at the Sword of Thorns in his hand, and an epic special effect caught his attention.

[Special Effect ①: Phase Coexistence – In the same world, when the command is issued, the Sword of Thorns will return instantly]
“I thought you were very generous.” Jiang He thought to himself. No wonder Duke Merrick was willing to mortgage his main weapon, the sword. The other party had no intention of abiding by the blood contract from the beginning. If he was not still looking forward to the second barbarian transaction, the sword would probably have returned.

Jiang He activated the final time ring, cleansed the thorn seeds in his body, and then immediately fed the Sword of Thorns to the Changhen Dragon Spear. As for Lao Ning, who had always been looking forward to holding an epic sword, he could only say that it was irrelevant. It was impossible to give up such a core upgrade resource.

[Tip: Your exclusive weapon, the Longhen Dragon Spear, gains a special effect – Phase Coexistence]
Jiang He threw the dragon spear out, and a silver light streaked across the sky until it disappeared from sight. Then he snapped his fingers, and countless silver lights gathered in his palm, and in the blink of an eye the dragon spear returned.

“It’s quite convenient.”

In addition, this upgrade changed the measurement unit of the Dragon Spear in the item introduction. After being promoted to epic, “Jun” is obviously no longer suitable for measuring the weight of the Dragon Spear.

[Effect ①: As heavy as a light frigate, but easy to lift]
Jiang He was powerless to complain about the new introduction, but the weight had indeed increased. In a sense, an entire huge light frigate was condensed into a spear that could be swung at will, especially in the case of “making light of a heavy weight”. Not to mention the many special effects, just swinging it in hand could release a violent impact.

Bang bang bang!
Suddenly, dense gunfire sounded in the distance.

The flying dragon spear seemed to break the tranquility of a battlefield somewhere. The sound of the gun with a special quality came from the Empire’s standard source of power spear – the Dawn model. It could be mass-produced below the Ultimate level, but each spear had a special number to prevent it from leaking out.

Yu Jianyue opened her eyes with difficulty from the horse’s back, and rolled sideways to the ground. She shook her head a few times. The quality of the Supreme Dragon Blood Wine was relatively excellent, and the residual fragrance was still lingering in her mouth.

“It’s not a headache at all.”

“Who fired the shot?”

Yu Jianyue dusted herself off, and just as she looked up, she saw a naked man standing not far away. She couldn’t help but move her eyes downwards, her pupils shrank slightly, and she looked at her forearms a few more times, and said helplessly:

“Brother, I know you are strong, but if you don’t have any quirks, how about you put on some clothes? I am an unmarried lady from a noble family, please show some respect.”

Jiang He’s eyes were pure white. A dozen miles ahead and to the side, an imperial regular regiment was launching an attack on the werewolves’ simple fortifications. As of now, small-scale wars of this intensity should be quite common in the plains south of the Immortal Forest.

Up to now, his military achievements are still zero. The barbarians belong to the neutral camp, and killing the spoils of the winner of the war is obviously difficult to get encouragement from the Imperial Military.

[Tip: The side quest has been opened]
[Mission Name: The Source of War]
[Mission brief: A branch tribe of the Dark Moon Wolf Clan discovered a middle-aged corpse during exploration. Because it had not decayed for a hundred years, it attracted the attention of the werewolf alchemist Gragon. After verification and search, it was determined that the corpse was the previous owner of the famous spear Dali – the Blood Prince of the Severis clan. This news was spread by spies, and the Cangwu Army 0555th Regiment, which was closest to the branch tribe, received an order from the military headquarters to immediately launch a full-scale general attack]
[Mission content: Seize the skeleton of Prince Severis and destroy it (due to the influence of the famous spearman Dali during his lifetime, the extraordinary content of this skeleton is too heavy to be stored in the portable space or moved in the shared space)]
[Task Reward: 4 Skill Points]
[Task time limit: 14 natural days]
[Task Penalty: None]
[Note: This will be the source of war]
[Prompt: Do you accept?]
Jiang He accepted the side quest without hesitation. The pure white in his eyes faded away. On the hillside to the side of his sight, a military skirt suddenly appeared. The round thighs under the skirt were faintly visible, extending out the slender and beautiful calf curves. Even though she was wearing pantyhose and not directly exposed, the curves were still revealed.

Faced with the other party’s indifferent attitude, Yu Jianyue adopted a high-pressure strategy. She squatted down and observed patiently, trying to awaken someone’s conscience.

Jiang He frowned slightly and reached out to cover the scarlet robe. “Spring doesn’t mean you turn into a primitive animal.”

“Hahaha.” Yu Jianyue smiled but didn’t smile. “I don’t have a quirk of wearing nothing but clothes. When it comes to dressing, I have a lot of experience. It’s not a bad idea to be your mentor in this area.”

Jiang He glanced at the guy’s bright red hair and said without caring, “There’s a fight going on over there, let’s go take a look.”

Yu Jianyue stood up after hearing this and said teasingly, “Are you going to play without any underwear? You are really too shy.”

The gray warhorse rushed over, and the two men mounted the horses. Jiang He directly locked onto the golden strongman of the werewolf branch tribe.

……

Siming City.

The general mobilization order of the Cangwu Army was notified to the First Division of Si County. The two fleets have been warmed up, and the Fish Division has received a request for tactical reinforcements. Not only Siming City, but the six surrounding beacon cities have all entered a state of war.

Blood Shadow has successively delivered 50 million Black Judgment bombs. This alchemical weapon, positioned as a portable grenade, has been widely recognized by non-commissioned officers and lieutenants after being verified on the battlefield.

Currently, the second order has been signed. After negotiation between the two parties, the total number was confirmed to be 300 million, and a new Ultimate Edition Black Crystal was launched, positioned as a portable mortar.

After the war mobilization, military supplies were delivered in large quantities from all over the country, and each family received defensive orders to guard the beacon line.

In the city garden, Xueying looked at the upgraded black ring. The number of copies of the Immortal Technique in his hand had reached one thousand. For the second order, the Imperial Military bought it at the price of six copies of the epic technique.

[Name: Chaos Explosion Engineer]
[Category: Production]
[Quality: Perfect]
[Effect ①: Absorb shock waves and heat radiation to create chaos bombs]
[Effect 500: Chaos Bomb Black Judgment is of the highest quality, with an extreme effect range of 90 meters, causing % additional damage to flesh and blood creatures and spirits]
[Effect ③: When used multiple times, each bomb causes an additional 200 points of true damage]
[Effect ④: When the cumulative number of chaos bombs reaches a certain level, the item will be upgraded (40 million/300 million)]
[Note: I am the explosion!]
In the garden, everything was going on as usual for the troupe, and the war seemed to be far away from Siming City.

Under the flattery of a group of noble ladies, the old lady was all smiles, but when she saw someone not far away and Si Ning with a cold face on the other side, her smile slowly faded.

Si Ning silently practiced the epic sword manual. The copy of the martial arts manual that Lao Jiang obtained actually did not contain the ancestral experience and cultivation tips passed down from generation to generation, but only pure martial arts manual.

In fact, the latter is the relatively key foundation of the aristocratic family.

However, for some noble families and poor families, such high-level skills are still a dream come true.

So now she is engaged in another kind of smuggling business.

The agency fee for introducing the business – a small amount of secondary copies of the Immortal Technique – was sold to the nobles and the poor, thereby earning source gold and commissions from military merits. The fictitious commissions were then used to secretly mortgage logistical supplies and weapons, and then loans were made to the nobles and the poor who attempted to advance in rank, thus making huge profits in similar cycles.

The massive amount of source gold can double the speed of cultivation through overeating.

Before this, Si Ning had accumulated some foundation in the ordinary gold stage, and now, she is almost at the point of starting the Golden Heart transformation task.

For super geniuses, shaping the Golden Heart involves the fundamental vitality and symbol of life – the heart, which usually takes three to five years, but the transformation mission will greatly reduce the time required, but it will increase the danger accordingly.

“How far can we roll up our combat power?”

“Lao Jiang is in charge of the rolls, and I’m in charge of cashing out. We are truly an ally made in heaven.”

Si Ning rested for a while. She now roughly understood the identity of that person. It was estimated that it took less than half a year for Sin Gluttony to grow from an ordinary person to his current level. The speed was even much faster than that of normal players. Moreover, this guy was still increasing his combat power.

“The Great Sin is so strong, shouldn’t I pay attention to it too?”

Si Ning fell into deep thought. In the boundless void, Gluttony, Pride and Lust had already been born, but there was no sign of the other four yet, and it was unknown whether there would be replacements.

But she does have some ideas about greed, the endless desire for resources in human nature.

Si Ning took out an invitation letter with an extremely hesitant look. She had obtained this thing not long after she survived the island and obtained the player qualification. In mythology, Mammon, the symbol of greed, is best at converting money into actual effects. Theoretically, his combat power fluctuates greatly, and having money or not is completely two different states.

——Invitation to a Special World: Paradise Lost

“If I tell Lao Jiang, I hope this guy won’t kill me.”

“But without the fighting power of my allies, I may not be able to win on my own.”

“But he may not be able to accept that his combat power will fluctuate due to the amount of resources…”

Si Ning was filled with thoughts. According to the introduction in the invitation letter, the deadly sins would eventually meet, which meant that the vacancies would not exist forever. The seven deadly sins were unique. Once a deadly sin was completely born, even the substitutes on the corresponding path would lose their qualifications and power.

The opera remains the same.

In the rockery of the garden, the man in black exuded a foul odor. His once strong body had become thin. The poison in his body was overloaded, causing his eyes to turn blood red. He stared at the young man in his sight.

“Jiang! Wu! Disaster!”

“I don’t believe that I can’t kill you!!”

A new truckload of raw materials arrived, and the various materials interacted with each other, creating terrifying but controllable heat, followed by a peculiar fragrance.

Blood Shadow shook deliberately for a while, and then continued to make bombs. The killer lurking in the dark was obviously a little out of his mind. Countless failures had made him obsessed, and he was determined to poison him at all costs. Judging from the little information, the other party must be good at using poison, so he has a strong self-esteem and path dependence.

(End of this chapter)