The sword embryo’s throbbing felt like an endlessly beating heart.
The complex pattern of blood traces was rapidly shifting over Ai Hui’s entire body like a swarm of poisonous ants. Large quantities of blood poison were transforming Ai Hui’s body from within, and a faintly sweet scent wafted from his body.
A violent, murderous power was steadily produced by his blood-transformed body.
Blood traces from all over his body began to compress, aggregating towards the space between his eyebrows. They became sleeker and more elegant, with increasing activity. As they surrounded a blank space between his brows, they took on the shape of diminutive flames.
The blood traces seeped towards his brow, appearing as a thin, crimson layer on Ai Hui’s skin. The sweet scent became thicker.
As if covered by a thick bloody paste, the sword embryo’s activity slowed.
An unceasing torrent of blood poison flowed more furiously from within the tree roots.
As soon as the new blood traces appeared on Ai Hui’s body, they quickly rushed towards the space between his brows. It was as though a powerful magnet resided there, attracting them.
At that moment, the inactive bandages on his arms noiselessly coiled its way around Ai Hui’s body. As if controlled by invisible hands, the Blood Bandages worked in synchrony, with one end wrapping down from his forehead and the other starting from his feet. Layer by layer, he was tightly wound, and in the blink of an eye, Ai Hui’s entire body was bundled up tightly like a dumpling. Interestingly enough, the Blood Bandages deliberately avoided wrapping the tree roots.
A single blood trace appeared on Ai Hui’s palm, penetrating through his skin and surfacing on the outside of the bandage.
As if it had a life of its own, the blood trace moved along the bandage towards his forehead.
It seemed like nothing had changed.
The blood trace became duller upon moving past Ai Hui’s elbow.
Extremely fine veins appeared along the bandage, absorbing blood from the blood traces as they moved along; their bright red color gradually faded until they turned gray.
The sword embryo that had almost been overcome by the immense pressure from the blood traces sprang back to life upon sensing that victory was now possible. It momentarily paused all activity when the blood traces surfaced on the bandages before restarting its throbbing pulse one second later, speeding up to an even higher level of activity than before. The cold, frigid sensation of metal pervaded the air atop Ai Hui’s brows.
At the same time, an attractive force was present.
Droplets of colorless light were extracted from the blood traces, amassing into a glinting needle mid-air before penetrating back into Ai Hui’s body. A soft sword cry rang out from the point of entry.
The blood traces had lost all luster as well as color.
While moving along the Blood Bandage, the blood trace’s color began to dull, and by the time it reached his shoulders, nothing was left of the bright red that once illuminated it.
The ashen remnant then became a thin wisp of smoke, dispersing in the air and vanishing from the bandage.
Ai Hui’s mummified body was heavily emitting gray smoke.
In contrast to the blood poison’s sweet scent, the gray smoke had a raw, fishy odor. Upon contact with it, the tree’s blood-red leaves rapidly turned to ash.
The thick shroud of smoke engulfing Ai Hui looked like a gray cocoon from afar.
Looking up, the mastiff grew suspicious. The transformation occurring had proceeded well beyond its understanding, but it seemed to sense something monstrous lurking within the cocoon of gray smoke. A primal fear rose from within it.
It retreated a few steps, scanning around for further signs of change. Ascertaining that all else was fine, the mastiff lazily relaxed on the ground once more.
A while later, Ai Hui drowsily regained consciousness.
He had been awoken by an unusual sound. It was rather unfamiliar yet strangely familiar as well. Listening intently, he finally recognized the sound of a sword being unsheathed, only he had never before heard of a sword being unsheathed for such an inordinate amount of time.
Was he dreaming?
He often had such dreams back in the swordsman school. He would dream of tall, exquisite palaces that reached into the clouds, of swordsmen who could fly on swords, or of majestic mountains that cast their shadows onto heavenly sword formations, as well as all manner of interesting spiritual beasts...
He would dream of mystical swordplay manuals, the flying swords of legends—even dreaming of those figures who once dominated the entire world.
It had been a while since he had such bizarre dreams. The naive and curious minds of the young would inevitably be eroded by reality and time.
The mental state of humans were associated with time and even more closely with experiences. Ai Hui had never experienced a childhood filled with imagination; instead, he had lived an unimaginable life.
Ai Hui’s first reaction to the unceasing sounds was to think that he was dreaming.
He soon realized that he wasn’t in a dream, however.
The sword embryo’s throbbing was more forceful than he had ever experienced. It emitted a ceaseless cry, and he could feel the muscles in his body resonating along with it.
The darkness before his eyes perhaps played a role, but Ai Hui noticed that he was acutely sensitive to bodily sensations. He could feel a stream of energy swimming around his body like a large school of fish, and strands of it seemed to resonate with the sword embryo, trembling slightly with each pulse.
Ai Hui was startled by this sensation. What is that?
Never before had he experienced such energy strands. He could sense the power contained within them, but it was completely different from anything he had ever encountered.
Well, Ai Hui quietly mocked himself, he hadn’t exactly experienced other kinds of power either.
But he was certain that this torrential energy was vastly different from the elemental energy he had been developing. Could it be a new kind of elemental energy?
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