The power of Earthsplitter fused with the five elements was absolutely terrifying. At this moment, after Evan Chu had slashed off dozens of the Divine Fire Centipede's antennae, its entire body had shrunk considerably. Another Earthsplitter strike chopped off several more feelers in one go.
Evan was overjoyed—he hadn’t expected dealing with this Divine Fire Centipede to be so easy. Compared to the Fire Unicorn and Azure Spirit Drake, it was way less trouble, almost making him doubt this was real.
Earthsplitter didn’t consume much Chaos Dragon Force either, so Evan just kept spamming Earthsplitter attacks. Every now and then, the Divine Fire Centipede would rear its head and spit out a blast of black poison mist, but Evan dodged all of it easily.
It didn’t take long for Evan to sever every last antenna the Divine Fire Centipede had. By then, his Chaos Dragon Force reserves were down to about a third. With all its feelers gone, the Divine Fire Centipede couldn’t escape anymore.
The funniest part? Its body was now barely over a meter long—totally different from the dozen-plus meters it had been before. Seizing the moment, Evan unleashed one last Earthsplitter, slicing the once-arrogant Divine Fire Centipede clean in two.
"Time to grab this thing’s demon core." Evan dropped down from the air as he spoke.
Just as he was about to cut open the Divine Fire Centipede, Luna—the Sword Spirit—said, "That thing doesn’t have a demon core anymore. Unless you killed it in a single instant at full strength, every time you chopped off its antennae, its realm dropped a notch. Now, it’s only at the Earth Martial Realm. Do you think a beast at that level would still have a demon core? Maybe you’ll get a magic crystal. Want it or not?"
Hearing that, Evan’s face flashed with disappointment. "What good is a magic crystal? I’m not interested. Missing out on its demon core doesn’t matter—getting the Heavenward Spirit Water is more than enough."
With that, he flashed away and shot toward the Black Lotus in the distance. Now that the Divine Fire Centipede was out of the way, getting the Heavenward Spirit Water would be a piece of cake.
Evan stopped about five meters from the Black Lotus and carefully examined the droplets on its leaves. He quickly realized these weren’t ordinary water drops—they were bead-like crystals, shaped almost exactly like water.
"So this is Heavenward Spirit Water? How am I supposed to collect it?" Evan muttered to himself—though really, he was saying it for Luna’s benefit, hoping she’d give him a hint.
"If you want to ask, just ask. Acting all coy isn’t your style. There are plenty of ways to get Heavenward Spirit Water—if you had a jade bottle, that’d work. But right now, you’ve got something even better than a jade bottle," Luna replied.
Evan thought about what he had in his storage ring and said, "Pretty sure I don’t have any containers. Just spit it out already—I hate being kept in suspense."
"Just touch the Heavenward Spirit Water on the Black Lotus leaf with the Sacred Snow Lotus. Something this simple and you still need me to spell it out? Seriously, what should I say about you?" Luna snarked.
Evan suddenly got it. He pulled the Sacred Snow Lotus out of his storage ring and glanced at the Black Lotus. He knew its toxins were insanely strong—he wasn’t afraid, but if any got on him, cleaning it off would be a pain. Better to be careful.
Evan tried to bend the Black Lotus leaf down with the Frostbane Sword so the Heavenward Spirit Water would drip off, but to his surprise, even the Frostbane Sword couldn’t bend it. That leaf was as hard as iron.
Luna couldn’t take it anymore. "Why not just use the Sacred Snow Lotus to touch the Heavenward Spirit Water? Black Lotus is a heaven-and-earth anomaly—even if you hacked at it with the Frostbane Sword, you might not be able to cut the leaf at all."
Evan felt a little dumb—even he couldn’t figure out why he’d missed something so obvious. Was his brain regressing or something? This wasn’t like him at all.
He did as Luna said, gently touching the Heavenward Spirit Water with the Sacred Snow Lotus. The instant the lotus made contact, the divine liquid flowed straight into the lotus’s root cavities.
It didn’t take long for all the Heavenward Spirit Water on the Black Lotus to be absorbed by the Sacred Snow Lotus. Evan set the lotus down on a rock and quietly waited.
Just then, the Black Lotus suddenly gave off a wave of energy. Right before Evan’s eyes, a new lotus flower sprouted at visible speed, and even more bizarre—a Black Lotus Pod instantly formed, and within less than a stick of incense, Black Lotus Seeds appeared.
There are plenty of wonders in this world, but Evan had never seen anything grow so fast. It was like watching a magic trick unfold right in front of him.
"Evan, those Black Lotus Seeds need a full day to mature. You’re seriously lucky—not every Black Lotus will produce seeds. It takes the right timing and terrain, and your Sacred Snow Lotus triggered it. Its pure aura activated the Black Lotus’s latent spirit. You absolutely have to get those seeds, remember what I said," Luna instructed.
Evan didn’t know what the seeds were actually for—Luna said they were good for gathering immortal spiritual qi, but he’d never even heard of such a thing. Could it really be stronger than his Chaos Dragon Force?
Just then, the Sacred Snow Lotus started to react—the surface began to crack, bits slowly flaking off and falling to the ground. But the fragments began to glow.
First came red, then orange, and soon all seven colors appeared. The Sacred Snow Lotus had turned entirely to fragments, each one shining with its own hue. The light grew brighter and then surged into the nearby Frostbane Sword.
After a while, everything went back to normal—the Sacred Snow Lotus fragments on the ground had vanished, like they’d never existed. But the Frostbane Sword began to tremble, and an overwhelming pressure radiated from the blade.
Even Evan, with all his cultivation, was forced to step back—the pressure was suffocating. "Is this the true power of a peerless divine artifact?" he muttered to himself, stunned.
A moment later, the Frostbane Sword flew up on its own, circled in the air, and landed back on the ground. The rusty, pitted look was gone—now the blade gleamed smooth and silver-bright.
"I’m finally free! Hahaha!" The voice of the Demon Lord rang out from the Frostbane Sword, and a cloud of black mist erupted from the blade, morphing into a shadowy figure.
"Demon Lord, congratulations on your freedom. So what’s your plan now?" Evan asked.
"Frostbane, thank you! Now I need to return to the Demonic Realm and rebuild my physical body. For now, though, I’ll have to stick with you—I can’t go back inside the Frostbane Sword. There’s a powerful energy mass in the blade now, and if I tried to enter, it would devour me," said the Demon Lord.
"Energy mass? What’s going on—could it be something formed by the Sacred Snow Lotus and Heavenward Spirit Water?" Evan asked in shock...