Spare Me, Great Lord!

When the two flying daggers came to Nogiwa Takenobu, he was still struggling to survive like a trapped beast.

Was he afraid of death? Of course he was.

But when that moment truly arrived, a sense of courage and uprightness welled up in his heart. Despite their notorious reputation for their unforgivably wicked and crazy nature, the Collection of Gods were unyieldingly serious towards items of significance.

As a matter of fact, CoG Practitioners were full of conflicting passions. Violence and beauty, arrogance and courtesy, stubbornness and unpredictability, loyal yet susceptible to betrayal, courageous yet timid, easy to tame yet too wild to rule.

All those were elucidated in detail in the book, The Chrysanthemum And The Sword. They were a contradictory race. Many people think favorably of Japan for its “beauty”, such as sakura, tatami and Japanese black iron teapot, as though everything can be associated with elegance. But at the same time, their undisguised display of evil often draws distaste as well.

Every coin has two sides and one should not rush to any conclusions too hastily. However, the kind spirits in the Collection of Gods had been gradually worn off during factional conflicts.

It was not because good men were weaker, though, but their unwillingness to do harm to others. It was precisely their innocence and the simplistic belief in human’s good nature that gave their lives away.

The deterioration of Nogiwa Takenobu’s power was extremely fast. He would have been able to maintain his Class B status for a lifetime had he not exhausted all his Spirit Qi earlier. Yet, too many mistakes had been committed in this battle. The two incredibly shameless fighters from the Heavenly Network and their unorthodox fighting techniques had totally caught him off guard…

Nor had he expected a seemingly useless Class C boy had so many cards up his sleeve, and that he could put all of them to creative use. In the boy’s hands, even a simple illumination mirror became a powerful weapon.

Nogiwa Takenobu struggled to support himself against the wall with his tanto in his grip. Corpsedog and Concealed Arrow slit open countless wounds over his entire body and his face was as as pale as paper due to the severe loss of blood.

Corpsedog took away his happiness and Concealed Arrow deprived him of anger, and all that was left within him was an unprecedented peace of mind. He glanced over his devastated body, suddenly wondering how he had come to this step.

Nogiwa Takenobu murmured to himself, “Why?”

At the other end of the cavern, Lu Shu sneered. “Didn’t I already tell you? Calamity will surely befall you within three days unless you copy Namo Avalokiteshvara ten times!”

Nogiwa Takenobu paused for a long moment but found it impossible to rebut!

“From Nogiwa Takenobu’s distress, +1000!”

All the fight seemed to go out of Nogiwa Takenobu. Instantly, Corpsedog and Concealed Arrow punctured his heart, putting one of the three Class B CoG experts to eternal sleep.

Lu Shu called his flying daggers back to his celestial map and then tossed Nogiwa Takenobu’s tanto to the divine water to be consumed.

By then, the shape of the katana had completely disappeared, together with its intense purple color. All of a sudden, the purple snake emerged from the blade again, bouncing to and fro crazily in an attempt to escape.

However, how was it possible given that its main body was already dead?

Just when Lu Shu expected the little serpent to vanish like the wisp of black smoke in gargoyles, the purple scales on the body of the snake suddenly turned golden instead of being corroded!

What’s going on?! Lu Shu was stunned. He was pretty sure that the divine water had no consciousness, but how could the little snake turn golden unharmed?

It took a total of one hour for every inch of the snake’s body to fully transform into golden color.

Moreover, the snake had gradually given up its struggle during the process, and glazed over.

Then, through the connection between himself and the divine water, Lu Shu sensed the snake’s thirst for blood. Upon second thoughts, he pricked his index finger with Concealed Arrow and squeezed a drop of blood into the divine water.

Immediately the golden snake came alive. It swam over and swallowed Lu Shu’s blood at once.

Then, Lu Shu could feel the strengthening of bond between him and the divine water, and the establishment of a new connection with the snake.

In fact, the golden snake actually became the weapon spirit of the water!

Such an unexpected gain! Lu Shu had always been jealous of Li Yixiao for his ability to conjure up a powerful black dragon from his spear as an extra hand.

Judging from the fight earlier, Nogiwa Takenobu’s purple snake actually held back both of his flying daggers. Undeniably, it was a strong weapon when combined with Class B powers.

And now, he, Lu Shu, had his own weapon spirit too!

In the meantime, Lu Shu controlled the snake to come out of the divine water. Knowing that the abilities of weapon spirits were aligned with those of their owners, Lu Shu was curious about the might it could unleash under him.

To his surprise, the golden snake refused to come out no matter what! No, it was stuck inside!

Lu Shu’s face darkened at once. It had never been a smooth sail for his journey on magical weapons. Recently, the acquisition of divine water was a bliss, could there be something wrong with it too?!

With great difficulty he had managed to capture a weapon spirit, which ended up not even able to come out of his divine water just when Lu Shu was daydreaming about his bright future?!

None of his magical weapons were reliable, were they?!

Huh?!

Still sulking, Lu Shu threw the tanto into the divine water. At the moment, he had yet to fully understand its origin and function. Coupled with the fact that the water was one of his most precious assets in addition to Corpsedog and Concealed Arrow, he had to continue feeding it no matter what.

The gourd was totally useless at the moment. Ill-intentioned, Lu Shu scanned his gourd and flying sword in his Seal of Lands, wondering whether it would be a good idea to feed it to divine water too…

Forget it, Lu Shu shook his head. Apparently the sword would do his work one day. Besides, he had not figured out their origin. If it was really that piece of legendary treasure, wouldn’t the flying sword stab him if he threw it to the divine water?!

Lu Shu thought with a guilty conscience…

Then, he was stunned by what he saw. The golden snake was drawn to the tanto, and immediately bit a piece off its blade.

Then, it took another bite at once, showing no sign of indigestion at all.

The rate of weapon consumption was way faster than before. Within a minute, the snake had eaten up the entire tanto!

Eh, the main function of divine water itself was to swallow other weapons. However, in actual combats, its efficiency was much compromised as it had to first drain the Spirit Qi imbued in the weapons.

But now, his golden snake could finish up the job well, and fast…