After Evan Yang received Mad Elder's reply, he fully entered the Sword Pool. Beneath the water lay many swords—some looked ordinary and could easily be picked up by hand, so Evan ignored them after a brief glance and headed straight for the bubbling area.
He quickly entered the hot water zone, where a surge of heat washed over him—the water below was scalding. Evan searched for the source of this heat and found a sword glowing bright red.
"This is a Fireflame Sword. If someone with fire attribute uses it, its power will be amplified. But so far, no one has been able to wield it—either they get burned, or they can't control it," Mad Elder laughed as Evan approached the bright red sword.
"Mad Elder, can you only take one sword?" Evan asked.
"That's right. Unless you make a special contribution to the sect, you can only come here once. This time, I'm bringing you in early as a favor," Mad Elder replied.
Evan nodded, "I understand."
Evan came up to the sword, looked it over, and shook his head. This sword wasn't very useful to him—unless there was nothing better, he wouldn't consider it. So he kept searching and walked into a frozen area, knowing there must be swords with cold attribute there. Evan conjured a ball of flame in his hand, slowly reaching in to grab an ice block. After prying one open, he saw a sword inside radiating cold energy.
"There's cold energy, but it's not very strong yet," Evan muttered.
"Forward, forward!" Just as Evan was about to give up on this sword and move on, the Sword Spirit in his dagger suddenly became lively.
"Forward? Where?" Evan asked, confused.
"Up ahead. Walk forward eight steps, then crouch down. There's a five-pronged fork there," the Sword Spirit said.
Puzzled, Evan walked over. After eight steps, there was a sword at his feet—but its tip split into several prongs. Looking closely, he saw five sword heads.
Since the Sword Spirit said it was good, Evan tried picking it up. He found it incredibly light, like scrap metal—thin, flimsy, and ugly. No one would ever choose such junk here. "Are you sure this is something good?" Evan asked, baffled.
"Yes, because I sense five Sword Spirits inside it," said the leader of the dagger spirits.
"Five Sword Spirits?" Evan was shocked. He knew that having even one Sword Spirit in a sword was extraordinary—five was unheard of. But why couldn't he sense them himself?
"Research it later—there are people watching here," the Sword Spirit reminded him.
Evan understood what the Sword Spirit meant. Besides Mad Elder, there were several others covertly monitoring the place—probably overseers. Knowing the weapon had five Sword Spirits, Evan realized testing it here would attract too much attention, so he refrained and hurried off to find a place to experiment in private.
Seeing Evan holding such an ugly sword, Mad Elder asked in confusion, "Why'd you pick out this piece of junk?"
"Mad Elder, why is this here? And when did it end up in the pool? Did anyone use it before?" Evan asked curiously.
"That? I don't think anyone ever used it. As for why it's here, I have no idea. Are you seriously going to pick this? You'd better be sure—Blue Robe Sect disciples only get one chance unless they make huge contributions," Mad Elder said, frowning.
Evan laughed, "I told you, whatever I take out is mine."
"I'm just being kind and warning you. Look at it—so ugly and so light. I bet I could snap it in half with a touch. Want to see?" Mad Elder said.
"I don't believe it," Evan replied. He wanted to test the artifact's durability—if it was fragile, what use was it? Mad Elder's strength was perfect for testing.
"Don't believe me? I'll show you. If it breaks, that's not my fault," Mad Elder said.
"If it breaks, I'll accept it," Evan answered.
Mad Elder saw how sure Evan was, so he took a closer look—there really was nothing special about it. "Alright, I'll give it a try," he said.
Mad Elder poured in a surge of powerful energy, trying to shatter it. But no matter how much Immortal Essence he channeled, it was useless—the sword acted like a bottomless pit. This surprised Mad Elder, who looked at Evan with curiosity. "Seems there's something interesting here," he said.
Evan noticed it too and grinned. "Mad Elder, do you still think it's junk?"
"Kid, don't get cocky. I poured in Immortal Essence and nothing happened—do you know what that means? It means if you want to use this sword, you'll have to channel Immortal Essence. But with this reaction, how are you supposed to fight? What, you want to chop people with it? I bet even a fruit knife is sharper!" Mad Elder said, seeing the sword remain completely unchanged, as if it hadn't even been unsealed.
Evan didn't care—if it could ignore Immortal Essence, he could study it slowly. He smiled, "I'm taking it. I'll make it shine, just wait and see."
After everything was ready, Evan took out the strange sword and began to examine it.
"Hm? He knows formations?" The silver-skinned, horned figure muttered, seeing that he could no longer see or hear anything from Evan's cave.
He stayed hidden, quietly waiting for Evan to come out.
Evan only sensed someone tailing him outside, but since there was no hostility, he didn't worry and focused on his research.
He tried inputting Immortal Essence once or twice, and sure enough, it was like a bottomless pit.
"Looks like Immortal Essence is useless. How am I supposed to use it?" Evan muttered.
"Use your five attributes," the Sword Spirit suggested.
"Five attributes?" Evan asked, puzzled.
"Your water, fire, wind, lightning, and earth attributes. Inject them all at once and see what happens," said the Sword Spirit, who understood such things as a high-level spirit.
Half skeptical, Evan infused water, fire, wind, lightning, and earth into the sword at the same time. Instantly, the sword exploded with brilliant light.
"Good, excellent!" the Sword Spirit cheered.
Evan watched as the sword began to change.
After Evan injected all five attributes, the sword started to transform wildly—until it suddenly became a spear.
Sword turned into spear? Evan was stunned. What was once a miniature sword had become a powerful spear.
As the spear stopped changing and Evan stopped infusing attributes, a stream of consciousness flooded his mind.
"Five-Element Spear! It contains five attribute spirits. Anyone with five attributes can activate it." Evan was shocked, slowly absorbing the information.
It turned out to be an ancient Five-Element Spear. Its original master was long gone, so Evan was able to awaken it and make it his own.
Evan had never learned spear arts, only sword techniques, so he tried it out and found it easy to handle. More importantly, he discovered something unique: by channeling any one of the five attributes, the spear could unleash the power of that attribute.
Looking at the spear, Evan finally understood why there were five pronged tips—each represented an attribute. When he infused all five, the spear could unleash all five powers at once.
No ordinary weapon could do this, since attributes would clash. But this one worked because it contained five separate attribute spirits—more accurately, spear spirits.
Evan was delighted. He saw the spearhead manifesting five attributes, and when it touched nearby spears, it was as sharp as a blade, slicing through them.
Even more surprising, the spear tips felt like extensions of Evan's senses. He could control each tip to wield a different attribute, meaning he could use the spear to carve a path ahead.
Evan gripped the spear, infused earth attribute, and the spear tunneled powerfully through the ground.
It was much safer than using earth attribute alone. If there was any danger ahead, the spearhead could sense it first.
When Evan emerged from underground, he was thrilled, gripping the spear. "Good, excellent!"
The more Evan looked at the spear, the more he liked it. But since the Five-Element Spear was too flashy, he decided to rename it the Limitless Spear.
"Limitless Spear!" Evan cheered inwardly.
Whenever he wished, it could revert to a sword. Its durability was unquestionable—even as a sword, it could block powerful artifacts without issue.
He chuckled, "Such a treasure." Evan was grateful to the Sword Spirit for its guidance. "How did you discover it?"
"I sensed it had five attributes, but I wasn't certain until you injected them," the Sword Spirit replied with a laugh.
"So that's how it is. Still, I've really struck it rich—I'll make it famous in the future," Evan said with a smile.
"No matter how famous it gets, it'll never be more famous than me," the Sword Spirit laughed, sounding almost human.