Chapter 257 Immortal Sword
Kzarka stared at Cao Mao in disbelief. Not only did this human resist his domain fire, but he also absorbed his power to get stronger.
Now, the orc treated Cao Mao as a proper opponent. He decided to take it seriously.
He sent his fire dragon Qi to Cao Mao's dantian and sent a detonation order!
Cao Mao could feel that one of the dragon fire Qi strands forcefully entered his abdomen and got into his dantian. It tried to control his fire Qi to explode.
Yet, Cao Mao grinned.
Ding
[Kzarka has attempted to detonate your fire element Qi.]
[You are immune to basic element Qi detonation.]
The detonation didn't occur. Instead, the dragon fire Qi was digested and become one with Cao Mao.
"You're immune to Qi detonation, too!? How is this possible!?"
Kzarka was astonished. He gritted his teeth and circulated his Qi, increasing his physical power.
Since ranged attacks didn't work on Cao Mao, Kzarka charged and sent his right punch, aiming to crush Cao Mao with the overwhelming physical advantage of a nascent soul warrior.
"Crap!"
Cao Mao flew away from Kzarka, dodging the first punch at the same time.
The orc pursued. Despite being huge physique, his agility was no less than Cao Mao. Two seconds later, Kzarka caught up.
The orc's left straight punch chased after Cao Mao.
Cao Mao lowered the altitude and dodged the punch by a hairbreadth again. Yet, he circled around Kzarka from below to touch the latter's ankle, so he could insert his fire Qi into the orc's body.
But the thing he had managed to touch was Kzarka's dangling penis.
Cao Mao had goosebumps as he hated touching someone else's penises. Still, he implanted his skill anyway.
Transmuted Bomb!
"HOW DARE YOU!!!"
Kzarka roared as his dragon fire Qi pushed out the fire element Qi of Cao Mao, and the strand of Qi had been ejected out of Kzarka's body!
For the first time, Cao Mao faced someone immune to Killer Queen's abilities.
Cao Mao didn't give up. During the split second when Kzarka was preoccupied with his fire element Qi, he sneaked behind the orc's back and took out the weapon that Kunwu had sent him as a quest reward for restoring Jia Shan's dantian.
It was a 1-meter-long Jian, aka an ancient double-edged blue sword. The blade size and its handle were similar to a gladius. However, the entire sword was made by an otherworldly material – the Soul Stones.
…
Item Name: First-Grade Soul Sword
Item Grade: Immortal Rank
Description: First-Grade Soul Stone Jian is an ordinary weapon that can be found anywhere in any immortal plane since it was made with a hundred 1st-grade soul stones. Although it is considered a common weapon in the immortal worlds, it is still a brokenly powerful weapon for mortals under the 8th-stage because of its soul energy.
This immortal-grade Jian doesn't have an ego, and it is unrepairable. Therefore, you should treat it as a consumable weapon instead of primary weaponry.
Effects: Turn all physical and elemental attacks into spiritual attacks. The spirtual attacks can carry over the abilities of the converted attacks.
…
Cao Mao still didn't understand what a spiritual attack was, but he made a gamble. He took the sword out from his system inventory and swung it, aiming at Kzarka's nape as if he wanted to kill a titan.
As if Kzarka had eyes on the back of his head, he leaned forward, dodging the slash.
The orc rotated his shoulder and threw a left backhand fist toward Cao Mao.
As the first and the arm of Kzarka were large and fast, Cao Mao couldn't react on time.
The fist, larger than Cao Mao's entire body, sent him flying.
Then, Cao Mao was smacked into the internal domain barrier, which prevented him from leaving.
Kzarka rushed at Cao Mao again and raised his right arm.
Cao Mao groaned as his left shoulder and ribcages were broken. Fortunately, the broken bones slowly mended themselves as his bloodline and physique were at work.
Still, the self-heal abilities were not fast enough. Kzarka had already gotten close, but his broken bones hadn't been healed yet.
'Dual Flame!'
Believing in the system's hint, Cao Mao used his fire element Qi to create Yang Flame. He also inserted a portion of his yang flame into the new sword as a medium to convert it into a spiritual attack.
The soul sword shone in blue light as it automatically converted Yang Flame into Soul Flame. The blue flame expanded from the soul sword as if it tried to devour the dragon fire element Qi.
In an instant, the blue flame engulfed Kzarka.
"URAAAHHH!!"
Kzarka ignored the blue flame and sent a straight punch toward Cao Mao's chest.
"HONK!"
As Cao Mao didn't have the strength to dodge, he unleashed the debuff honk and aligned the sword, pointing it at the incoming fist.
SWUA!
The sword penetrated into Kzarka's right fist, but the fist also crushed Cao Mao's ribcages. Yet, the punch failed to turn the latter into mincemeat as its strength had been decreased because of the Goose Tongue ability.
Kzarka frowned. He felt the sharp pain coming from his right fist. Also, the blue flame gave him a weird tingling feeling all over his body as it had been burning his nascent soul inside his body.
The nascent soul couldn't sense pain, but it still sent an emergency signal that the flame was dangerous!
Sensing the danger, Kzarka pulled his fist from Cao Mao, planning to stomp him to death.
"MOUNTAIN GOOSE SLASH!!"
SWUA!
Cao Mao hadn't been fighting alone. Jia Shan's ultimate skill broke Kzarka's domain barrier and cut off the latter's left leg.
As soon as the domain barrier had been broken, the horseman avatar of Ma Ping appeared behind Kzarka and pierced the latter's left chest with his lance!
"BUL'TAR!!"
Cao Mao mimicked a famous warcry, mustering his strength to move. Unknowingly, he transformed into the Primordial Orc form in the process, which instantly healed all his injuries.
Moreover, a pair of fire dragon wings extended from his back. They absorbed every strand of dragon fire Qi in the surroundings and glowed in red light.
White Album, who had been on standby inside Cao Mao's body, had finished preparing enough life essence.
The familiar's arm extended from Cao Mao's shoulders and pointed forward. White Album converted the prepared life essence into water element Qi and created a blue fireball of Yin Flame.
Cao Mao improvised. He created another Yang Flame and sent it toward the Yin Flame, merging them as one. Yin Flame and Yang Flame circled around each other as if they were yin and yang fishes. From red and blue color, they turned into black and white flame.
White Album and Cao Mao were in sync. They controlled their energies and completed the Dual Flame.
However, they didn't send the flame toward Kzarka. They sent it to the soul sword.
The soul sword automatically consumed the dual flame as fuel. Then, it shone in a brighter blue light.
The sword suddenly lengthened and increased its size. From a 1-meter long double-edged sword, it became a 2-meter broadsword.
Without hesitation, Cao Mao held the sword with his right hand and used one of his sword techniques.
Atomic Slash!
Kzarka, who had just been ambushed by two nascent soul cultivators, was still in shock. He forgot to react after his heart had been destroyed.
SWUA!!
SWUA!!
SWUA!!
The 5-meter-tall orc was sliced 100 times. Even his head was split in half as if it was a cut watermelon.
Kzarka's nascent soul was ejected from his body. However, it was also cut into 100 pieces by the previous slashes.
The orc's nascent soul couldn't utter a word. Before he could gather enough strength to repair himself, the Dual Flame ability that had been imparted into the sword activated.
The soul sword could convert any attack into spiritual attacks. Also, all effects and abilities that the fueled Qi had also carried over.
Kzarka's nascent soul fragments had now been implanted by Cao Mao's Dual-Flame, which couldn't be ejected from his nascent soul. Also, it carried KQ's abilities.
Cao Mao grinned as his left hand folded. His left thumb pressed the switch.
Bomb Transmutation!
The only thought that Kzarka had before his soul was erased into nothingness was, "Impossible!"
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Kzarka's soul was destroyed!
As Kzarka's soul was gone, his body stopped producing dragon fire curse. The sliced pieces of meat also fell to earth.
Yet, Cao Mao hadn't finished. He flew after one of the falling sliced pieces of meat, which was the belly portion. He plunged the soul sword into the chunk of meat and dissected it in mid-air.
After cutting through the thick layer of fat and meat, Cao Mao pulled out a fist-sized orb from the belly.
It was Kzarka's crystalized dantian!
[Mine!]
KQ flew toward Cao Mao and pointed her blade toward the crystal, planning to destroy it and eat all its energy.
Cao Mao laughed, "Nope! Mine! Vampiric Touch!"
The remnant of Kzarka's power entered Cao Mao's body, and the crystal instantly evaporated as it ran out of energy.
[NUUUUUUUUUU!!!]
KQ screamed, heartbroken. She wailed in a high-pitched noise.
Ding
[You have collected 220 million strands of Dragon Fire Element Qi.]
[You have collected a dragon fire element crystal.]
[You have collected a dragon fire curse crystal.]
[You have collected 50 billion liters of Demonic Essence.]
As Cao Mao had guessed, a nascent soul's dantian core was brim with energy and useful element crystals. Although he didn't know what the difference between dragon fire element and dragon fire curse was, he was glad regardless.
It would have been a waste to give this precious core to the glutton katana, who only knew how to eat and sleep.
RUMBLE
Cao Mao's dantian shook. As he had just advanced to the late-stage essence gathering realm, his essence sea was still unstable. Now, the new element crystal and the cursed crystal suddenly moved into his dantian by themselves and merged with his fire element crystal.
Furthermore, excess demonic essence had been converted into life essence water. They flooded into his dantian, which had already reached the maximum capacity.
Then, something changed.
His fire element crystal, the dragon fire element crystal, and curse crystal became one. It began generating gravity and collecting life essence around itself.
Slowly but surely, the merged crystal formed a new essence pond. It continued to grow larger and became an essence river.
It was a matter of time before the second essence sea could be established!
Ding
[You have completed the side-quest: Let's Get Famous.]
[100,000 essence cores have been transferred to your system inventory.]
[Your courage and feats will be remembered! Your orc children will learn about today's event in the future.]
[Kzarka has a life brand. The Blood Orc Tribe will know about your existence.]
[Several Dao Gods have witnessed your abilities. They will tell their vessels when they can send their apostles to your world during the next Holy Land Tournament event.]
Cao Mao had no time to soothe the greedy katana as the system continued to spam notification messages.
Unfortunately, the quest rewards should have been called a punishment. As several dao gods had been observing the fight and made a bet against him, they might have been offended in the process.
Still, it came with a piece of good news.
Ding
[You have won the bet.]
[You have bet your soul, your dantian, and all assets in your spatial rings and system inventory.]
[Your value is one 1st-grade soul stone!]
[Your winning is nine 1st-grade soul stones!]
[Live-Streaming Betting House has transferred nine 1st-grade soul stones to your system inventory.]
[The soul stones are not allowed in the mortal world. The soul stones have been exchanged into nine million essence cores.]
Cao Mao clenched his fist. Not only he had established a new primary element crystal and a potential new essence sea, but he had also obtained plenty of cultivation resources and funds for city development.
Provoking villains left and right like a protagonist was a risky move, but the risk was worth it when he managed to get the rewards.
[My precious…*Sob*]
KQ began throwing tantrums. She orbited around Cao Mao and lightly stabbed him.
"OW! OW! Give it a rest! Let me get a bit stronger first, and you can have my energy!"
[My precious dragon fire curse… *Sniff*]
"…"
While Cao Mao was celebrating his success and KQ was poking the former with her blade, Jia Shan and Ma Ping gathered in front of the troublemaker.
The two elders wanted to scold Cao Mao for coming out to fight where he didn't belong, but they were also amazed by his endurance and defense against the fire curse.
Had Cao Mao never jumped out to help them, Zhao Bao might have been killed.
"Are you okay?" Ma Ping scanned Cao Mao's condition with his eyes. His eyes focused on Cao Mao's orc appearance and his glowing tattoos.
Jia Shan glanced at the soul sword. He grinned from ear to ear, "Nice sword you have there. Mind if I see it?"
Cao Mao had a bitter smile on his face. It seemed that he might be interrogated again.
He looked up, gazing at the dark tribulation cloud and several Heaven Eyes, which had been watching them for a while now.