Chapter Thirty-Two: Corrosion and the Sword's Spine

“Hss!~”
Overcome by sharp pain, Lin gasped inwardly, his brows knitting tightly.
“Something’s wrong! With my strength combined with the sharpness of this alloy war blade, even wielding it in my left hand, it’s impossible to sever my own bone…”

His constitution was strong, but so was his power.
Without activating the Demonization ability, using his own strength plus the keen alloy blade, fully exerted, cutting through his own wrist shouldn’t be difficult.

Lin pulled the blade free, wincing as he eased his hand to pry open the wound. Beneath the blurred flesh stained with blood, on the jagged bone stumps, there extended strands of black threads, identical to those stretching from the sword’s hilt up his arm. These threads continuously wrapped around Lin’s bones, extending upward.

“It’s already fully inside my body…”

He cursed silently but dared not hesitate. He raised the alloy war blade again, this time aiming at his shoulder.

Yet halfway through the swing, the blade abruptly halted.

A flicker of confusion flashed in his eyes.

Suddenly, a chorus of beguiling whispers, charged with a contradictory blend of holiness and evil, echoed sharply in his ears.

His rational mind shattered instantly under the assault of these murmurs.

The whispers grew louder and more insistent, and his grip on the alloy blade slackened slowly.

At that moment, a sharp “clink” erupted in his ears like thunder crashing nearby, piercing through the fog clouding his vision with a flash of clarity.

“Not good!”

He bit down hard on his own tongue; a spray of blood shot out, and with it, his will cleared significantly.

Without further delay, he activated Gluttony and launched the Devour ability on the sword hilt in his hand!

Thousands of units of Gluttony energy were consumed in an instant.

Since the sword hilt had been removed from the box, the cost of Devour had slightly decreased, saving one hundred units of Gluttony energy.

With Devour activated—

A rush!

The sword hilt entangled in his hand vanished along with the dense, contradictory, and beguiling whispers echoing around him.

In the next moment, an immeasurable surge of source energy flooded into his body, seeping into his skin, bones, and organs…

His physical fitness began to rise once more.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Fan, who had just broken through the Second Realm, sensed a sensation of overwhelming fullness at his limit, yet his body still harbored large unabsorbed reserves of source energy…

Lin felt a thunderous explosion in his mind.

Savage fury, anger, sorrow, and joy intertwined…

Just as the whispers dissipated, a piercing buzzing filled his ears.

Phantom black lines appeared before his eyes, deepening until they nearly dominated all he could see.

Simultaneously, the ringing in his ears worsened, and the little girl’s calls grew more distant and faint…

If the earlier whispers came from the sword hilt’s unique power, then what he was experiencing now was the result of an abrupt, massive surge of source energy!

His expression changed drastically, a mixture of laughter and tears.

Relying on a resolute will, he transformed most of the overflowing source energy into Calmness Power, a cool, refreshing sensation flooding his mind.

Seizing the chance while he still had control, he decisively stuffed every calming-type potion he had into his mouth.

Not bothering to open the bottles, he crushed them with his teeth and swallowed.

The icy liquid spread through his throat, flowing into every limb and joint.

With the combined effect of the numerous potions and the Calmness Power, the dense black lines before his eyes and the buzzing in his ears persisted but improved significantly.

After struggling for a long while, the little girl’s distant call grew nearer and clearer.

Lin suddenly opened his eyes wide.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

He gasped for breath, as if a nearly suffocating man had suddenly embraced air once more.

After some time, his breathing gradually steadied.

Though the ear ringing hadn’t vanished entirely and the black lines still lingered,

“This time the ‘corrosion’ I suffered was too severe. Even Calmness Power and all these potions can’t completely dispel it…”

“If I hadn’t reached the overflowing state of the Second Realm, with most of the source energy not directly assimilated by my body, I might have truly lost control!”

He felt both relieved and regretful.

He had been too inexperienced, too confident, and had severely underestimated the effects of certain extraordinary artifacts.

“No wonder this thing was sealed inside that silver box. If it were an ordinary source energy user, the sword hilt’s corrosion would have utterly consumed them by now—either warped beyond recognition or driven insane…”

He bit his tongue, suppressing the turbulent negative emotions within, and forced a grim smile as he gently wiped the tear-streaked face of the little girl.

“It’s okay, Guoguo.”

Aside from his nearly severed arm, he was otherwise unharmed.

Having swallowed Long Wentian, he had gained healing abilities. Even if his arm wasn’t completely severed yet, if it did break, it could grow back—though it would consume time and source energy.

He pressed his right arm’s wound, tore off some clothes, and wrapped it roughly.

Then he rubbed his temples, reviewing the new information flooding his mind.

The Black Dragon sword hilt had granted him two abilities.

One was Sword Bone.

All his bones had been replaced by Sword Bones, black metallic threads similar to those extending from the sword’s hilt, possessing sharpness, indestructibility, and corrosive power.

He could manipulate the Sword Bones to change shape, even pierce through his skin, detach from his body, and form weapons.

The second was Dragon Might, a form of mental intimidation.

Lin absorbed the information in his mind, then raised his finger with a raised brow.

With a thought, he controlled his bones to extend from the palm.

A sharp black spike pierced through the skin and extended outward with a “shing.”

“Hss~”

Lin raised an eyebrow slightly. “Pain isn’t immune…”

But it was not unbearable pain.

For Lin, it was entirely tolerable.

Dragon Might was one thing, but Sword Bone had tremendous plasticity and development potential, greatly enriching Lin’s methods of combat.

Even during this first activation of the power, many brilliant ideas had already sprung up in his mind.

“Now is not the time to test these abilities…” he shook his head, dispersing the Sword Bone, and decisively returned to the car with Guoguo.

With only one arm left, and the prior side effects mixing negative emotions in his mind, his concentration was poor, making driving inconvenient.

But given what had just happened and the intense source energy fluctuations, discovering such strong source energy in the city risked attracting awakened source energy users’ attention, so he dared not linger!

…

As Lin devoured the sword hilt, far away on a highway in Green Cloud City,

Inside a speeding black car, a young man dressed in black, holding a blood-red sword tassel, suddenly furrowed his brow.

The sword tassel in his hand, which had just risen without wind and pointed in a certain direction, suddenly drooped.

“The aura’s gone?!”

Next to him in the driver’s seat sat a woman in a red dress, yawning indifferently upon hearing his words.

“Could someone have returned that ‘sealed object’ back into the box?”

The youth shook his head, eyes fixed on the distant horizon outside the window.

“Impossible, that box is a one-time item. Once opened, the sealing power dissipates…”

“Then…” The woman pursed her lips, “Could someone be controlling that thing?”

The youth shook his head again:

“The sword hilt’s corrosion power is incredibly extreme. Without knowing how to use it, no one below the Fourth Realm can withstand it without the sword tassel. Only some powerful Fifth Realm experts or those with special blessings can forcibly suppress it without the tassel…”

The woman raised an eyebrow: “If it’s just a Fourth Realm, that’s manageable. But if it’s a Fifth Realm expert… I’m not volunteering to die first!”

The youth nodded: “Don’t worry, if it’s truly a Fifth Realm, that person wouldn’t have been able to stealthily hide it until now before opening the box!”

“If my guess is right, that person must be using some special ability to temporarily suppress its power… Soon enough, the aura will leak out again!”

His eyes gleamed with determination as he gripped the sword tassel tightly:

“I will definitely retrieve it!”