Chapter 259: Void —— The Devil’s Temptation

Thinking of the dark dragon’s mysterious and eerie origins, Rod felt an endless longing. Could something that even the Spirit of the Xuanyuan Sword valued so much be an ordinary item? Clearly not. What kind of powerful energy and secrets lay hidden, waiting for him to uncover? What would the outcome be? All these doubts, along with excitement, raced through Rod’s heart and mind like deer, leaving him utterly restless.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he closed his eyes slightly again and released his mental energy, concentrating carefully to make it as thin as a thread before slowly approaching the dark dragon.

Since the dark dragon already recognized him as its master, Rod didn’t have to worry about any backlash or harm from counterattacks. As its master, at most he might fail to penetrate deeply—it was impossible for him to suffer from the dragon’s retaliation. Of course, if it were someone else, the situation would be completely different, which gave Rod an excellent opportunity!

As he carefully guided that sliver of mental energy toward the surface of the dark dragon, Rod became even more focused. His mental energy couldn’t waver; it had to remain consistently concentrated. There were many nuances and requirements involved, far more complex than one might imagine. The slightest mistake could lead to failure.

Sweat began to appear on his forehead. With such intense concentration, his mental energy seemed to deplete even faster. In just a short while, Rod felt a hint of fatigue.

Moving closer step by step, he used his senses to guide that sliver of mental energy into contact with the sword’s blade. Finally, he sensed a coolness as his mental energy touched the blade and slowly penetrated deeper into the dark dragon, hoping to enter its inner world.

A fine sword—to determine whether it was a peerless divine weapon, aside from being sharp, it was more important to feel comfortable wielding it. Of course, another crucial factor was whether it had its own soul, that is, a sword spirit. Without a sword spirit, even the best sword could only be considered a sharp tool, never a divine weapon. Only a sword with its own soul deserved to be called a divine weapon.

These were things many people knew, but few realized that for a blacksmith or advanced craftsman, a peerless divine weapon required not only these qualities but also something else—something many hadn’t considered, noticed, or understood: the world of the sword itself.

As long as there is a sword spirit, such a sword must have its own internal world—a fictional, mysterious realm. The quality of this world directly determines the sword’s grade.
Xuanyuan once told Rod that this Dark Dragon had its own sword spirit, though it was currently asleep and not awakened. Rod never questioned Xuanyuan’s words about the sword spirit. If he said it existed, then it must exist. With a sword spirit, there surely is an internal world of its own.
At this moment, Rod’s goal was this internal world, where all information about the sword was hidden—including the sword spirit, the glorious moments the sword had experienced, or even the appearance of its former owners… In short, it contained extremely profound content. It could be said to be a record of the sword’s historical evolution since its creation.
Feeling a hint of tension and tremor, Rod didn’t encounter any obstacles or barriers as he entered the Dark Dragon’s interior. He entered smoothly. It was a dark space, completely pitch black—nothing could be seen, not even one’s own hand. All he could feel was a faint cool breeze.
It was somewhat similar to his own consciousness space! Perhaps because he had spent some time in his own consciousness space before, Rod wasn’t overly surprised or shocked. Instead, he observed quietly, hoping to find an exit—perhaps it was just a gate.
As his consciousness delved deeper, cold winds blew, carrying a strong smell of blood that made him feel nauseous. Though it was just a consciousness entity, Rod still couldn’t help but feel this way. It was hard to imagine how much blood and bones would be needed to create such an odor. Even Iron Bar Town, now known as a hell on earth, and the outer edges of Collins Forest didn’t have such a stench! Compared to this, their odors were utterly insignificant.

The entire vast, dark expanse seemed boundless with no end in sight. After wandering around for a long time, Rod still found no other exits or landmarks—just endless darkness, nothing at all. What surprised Rod even more was that despite wandering for so long, he hadn’t noticed any sign of a decline in his mental energy. Logically, his mental energy should have been significantly depleted after sustaining such strain for so long, and he should have felt tired, but he didn’t experience anything like that.

“Stop wandering. This is illusion. If you keep going, you’ll be trapped here forever! Stay where you are, calm your mind, and consider everything that happens as an illusion—ignore it. Here, you are immortal. As long as you don’t kill yourself, nothing can harm you, except for that Sword Spirit. It’s not yet awake, so there’s no need to fear!” When Rod felt lost and helpless, the voice of the Xuanyuan Sword Spirit rang in his mind like heavenly music.

Although it hadn’t entered that space with Rod, it could understand everything inside through Rod’s mental senses. At that moment, it couldn’t help but speak to Rod.

Meanwhile, it was secretly shocked—there really existed illusions. It remembered that back on Earth, there were only three divine weapons capable of creating illusions, and each of them was awe-inspiring. To encounter something of this level here! Or had the crafting skills in this world reached such a high level? But why hadn’t it noticed?

Filled with endless doubts, it focused all its attention on the mental energy that had taken Rod deep into the Dark Dragon’s inner world, observing what was happening there.

After hearing the words of the Xuanyuan Sword Spirit, Rod realized he had almost fallen for the trap. Filled with fear, he quickly closed his eyes and stood still, silently reciting the chapter on cultivating the mind from “Self-Cultivation” in an attempt to calm his thoughts and rid himself of all external distractions.

It took a long time before he felt that everything around him was empty, his heart serene, and his mind clear of any distractions. Only then did he slowly open his eyes.

A strong light made him instinctively close them again. He found himself in a vast desert under the scorching sun. The yellow sand around him emitted waves of heat, turning the entire land into a steaming oven.

In the distance, shouts of battle could be heard. Looking around, it was astonishing that there were battles taking place in such a desert—two armies, dense with soldiers, perhaps hundreds of thousands in total, fighting fiercely, with cries of pain, flashes of swords and blades, and lives lost! Clearly, one army outnumbered the other by far, and the situation quickly tilted in their favor.

Suddenly, Rod’s pupils constricted sharply. The weapon in the hand of the commander of one of the armies wasn’t his own Dark Dragon? The man was over six feet tall, with a stern gaze and a robust build twice that of ordinary people. Wielding the Dark Dragon and riding a green-colored exotic beast, he led his army into fierce battles!

Surrounded by a gas that was neither completely black nor purple, he left corpses and blood in his wake. Under his leadership, the troops who had been heavily suppressed managed to turn the tide and start fighting back!

The intensity and brutality of the battle were beyond human imagination. Rod felt his scalp tingle, his eyes glazed over, filled with shock—battle tactics even more insane than those of magical beasts.

“Hmph… Pi Ni, I look down upon heaven without shame and upon earth without regret. None of my six thousand brothers and I have failed the empire. Now you lead an army of a hundred thousand to attack us from the flank! With another three hundred thousand pursuers behind, you really think you can afford this! It seems my teacher was right… excessive merit threatens the ruler! Hahaha… Fine then… Let it be that Pi Ni was blind. Since things have come to this, I have nothing left to say. From now on, Pi Ni is no longer part of the Tianyun Empire. Today, I and my six thousand brothers will fight to the death! I want to see what level the soldiers of the Tianyun Empire have reached after unifying the Yonghe Continent!” From afar, Rod heard the middle-aged man, along with the few soldiers he still had, charging at the enemy commander’s side and shouting loudly with a hint of desolation. That sorrowful aura made Rod’s heart ache!

The enemy commander had no words in response to the middle-aged man’s words. With a sigh, his army pressed forward again. The battle resumed, lasting a full day and night. It wasn’t until the other three hundred thousand troops arrived that the middle-aged man, after fighting alone for a long time and his body covered in blood, finally died of exhaustion.

In this battle, the six thousand soldiers of the middle-aged man fought against an army of a hundred thousand for a day, killing over eighty thousand enemies, nearly bringing the hundred-thousand-strong army to its knees! This repeatedly shocked Rod’s mind. As for the middle-aged man himself, his body was covered in blood, and his corpses piled up into small hills, like an angel of hell, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of people!

If it weren’t for remembering Xuanyuan’s warning, Rod might have been drawn into such a scene and involuntarily joined the battle! Even so, he still couldn’t help but be attracted and nearly lost control. Pulling his thoughts back, Rod sighed secretly—almost falling for it again. And as he stepped out of this illusion, another one appeared before him.