The two runic pythons suddenly moved as if they had come alive.
Their tiny heads lifted from Aksai’s wrists before their bodies began slithering across his skin.
They moved along his arms, crossing over his muscles and weaving between the countless runic patterns.
Aksai could feel a peculiar sensation.
It was akin to having countless tiny streams of energy crawling beneath his skin.
The runic pythons occasionally stopped before biting into certain sections of the Blood Rune.
Hummm...
Every time they did so, the surrounding runes lit up.
Nuri was taking control.
She was directly manipulating the Blood Rune.
[Spirit Pulse imitation commencing.]
[Matching recorded information from Kalina’s Spirit Mark.]
[Adjusting Spirit Pulse frequency.]
[Adjusting bloodline resonance.]
[Adjusting Weapon Intent compatibility.]
Aksai’s expression became solemn.
The runic pythons continued moving, their bodies gradually changing color.
The crimson gradually became deeper.
A faint golden radiance appeared between the individual runes.
The Blood Rune seemed to have become a living network wrapped around Aksai’s arms.
Nuri delivered the final notification.
[Spirit Pulse synchronization complete.]
[Kalina’s Natal Sword, Bright Scarlet Blaze, can now be wielded.]
Aksai himself didn’t know how groundbreaking it was to control someone else’s Natal Artifact with up to 80 percent efficiency, especially without using any forbidden techniques.
No Lord-level cultivator would dare believe it. Even if they somehow did, they would do everything in their power to obtain his secret.
If any Nascent Soul King from the Shinayin Empire were to see what Aksai was doing at this point, they would either kill him and be done with it or lock him in their dungeons for experiments.
Being able to use someone else’s Natal Artifact with such efficiency and ease would be frightening news for almost all the cultivators in the Shinayin Empire and beyond. The repercussions of allowing someone who could accomplish such a feat to grow were bound to be disastrous.
Aksai didn’t know the importance of claiming ownership of Kalina’s Natal Sword. Even if he did, he wouldn’t care.
He took a deep breath. His hand slowly moved toward his storage ring.
With a thought—
Whoosh!
A sword appeared in his grasp.
The moment Kalina’s Natal Sword emerged, the surrounding air seemed to become heavier.
Aksai’s pupils contracted. Even though the sword had lost its original owner, its presence remained extraordinary. He could almost feel the time and resources the late-stage Lord had spent nurturing it.
The Natal Sword named Bright Scarlet Blaze seemed to recognize something.
Or rather—
The Blood Runes recognized it first.
Hummm...
The two runic pythons on Aksai’s arms suddenly became active. They raised their heads toward the sword and lunged.
Their runic bodies stretched from Aksai’s wrists toward the Natal Sword. Crimson-gold threads connected his arms to the weapon, and the sword trembled.
Vmmm!
A sharp Sword Intent that had been accumulated over many decades erupted.
Aksai’s clothes fluttered violently.
For a brief moment, the sword resisted. It seemed to possess a well-developed intelligence of its own, recognizing that there was something wrong with its new wielder.
Aksai’s eyes narrowed, and his fingers tightened around the hilt.
The Blood Runes responded immediately.
Nuri altered the Spirit Pulse flowing through Aksai’s arms once again, fine-tuning it to the weapon’s requirements. Thankfully, it worked, and the sword’s resistance gradually disappeared.
The sharp Sword Intent settled. Although Aksai couldn’t replenish Bright Scarlet Blaze with Kalina’s Sword Intent, he had no problem using the Sword Intent she had accumulated over the years.
"Time to see why these imperial bastards place so much importance on cultivating Intent," Aksai thought to himself before tightening his grip on the weapon.
He had planned to dig deeper into the study of Weapon Intent after returning to the island and finding an appropriate time to initiate a short but intense period of closed-door cultivation.
Unfortunately, the four imperial cultivators hadn’t given him the chance. As such, he had to familiarize himself with Kalina’s Natal Sword in a short time and achieve at least a basic level of proficiency with it before using it in a life-and-death battle.
In the next moment, a strange resonance spread between Aksai, the Blood Runes, and the Natal Sword.
Taking a deep breath, he raised the weapon and swung it once.
SHING!
A thin sword arc flashed through the fog, cutting through several distant Demon Vines.
The severed vines fell to the ground before regenerating. However, the Weapon Intent that had lodged itself in the cuts like termites was eroding the vines from within, preventing them from regenerating as quickly as usual.
And this was when Aksai was merely borrowing Kalina’s accumulated Weapon Intent without any mastery over how to use it effectively.
As the owner of the formation, Aksai could distinctly feel how much damage Kalina’s weapon had caused to the surroundings with that casual strike. It was more than twice his initial estimate.
As a result, he stared at the Natal Sword in his hand with amazement.
He could feel the weapon’s power flowing through the Blood Rune.
It wasn’t perfect.
The sword’s efficiency had been reduced.
The connection wasn’t genuine.
But it was enough.
"My first true sword cultivator... I wonder if I can turn him into a puppet after his death."
He looked toward the distant figure still fighting inside the fog.
***
At this point, the true sword cultivator, the late-stage Core Formation cultivator Lord Varesh, was still trapped within the deepest layer of the Devil’s Den.
However, this entrapment had turned into a sort of self-imposed entrapment by this point. Varesh was actually going easy on the formation.
His black flying sword continued to slaughter Demon Vines.
SHING!
SHING!
SHING!
Varesh suddenly sensed something, and his movements paused for a fraction of a second. He turned toward the distant fog, his eyes furrowed as if he had come across something very peculiar and puzzling.
He couldn’t see Aksai, but he could feel it.
A strange Sword Intent had appeared inside the formation. It was as if Varesh could hear a sword cry that told him a thousand words without saying anything.
’Hmmm? An ownerless Sword Intent? Who is this fake sword cultivator?’
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