Chapter 373: Carved Piece

Yuanfu, Duanta top floor.

Snap!

Xu Xiaoshou only applied a gentle force, and the ling zhen of the purple magic box was crushed, causing the box to open.

This was completely different from what he had expected—no radiant Buddha light or surging demonic qi.

Inside the box lay an ordinary bronze fragment.

“What on earth is this?”

Full of anticipation, Xu Xiaoshou was left with a baffled expression upon seeing this worthless item.

He picked up the fragment and examined it closely.

The fragment felt extremely heavy in his hand, like a piece of rusted old iron, yet wiping it didn't remove any grime.

It had carvings on it, but just a small portion, like the fragment itself, making it impossible to discern any meaning.

Xu Xiaoshou figured that even if he had the complete carving in front of him, he still wouldn't understand it.

Besides its texture, the fragment retained some bronze color, and the original color of the carvings was probably the same.

This could be seen from the few relatively clean spots.

Overall, it was just a bronze fragment contaminated by something unknown, covered in stubborn dark stains that wouldn't wipe off.

“Is this the thing that triggered the danger warning?”

Xu Xiaoshou frowned, finding it hard to believe.

He casually tossed it onto the table and checked the purple magic box again, but found no hidden compartments or secret layers.

In essence, the magic box was just a simple magic box, not some transformable mechanism.

Judging by its material, it was merely an expensive piece of rock, not even comparable to most of the lingkuang in his ring.

“So, the magic box itself is ordinary, and the mystery lies in this fragment?”

Xu Xiaoshou set down the purple box and picked up the fragment again, sweeping it with his ling nian.

This casual sweep immediately caused trouble.

The moment his ling nian touched the fragment, he felt a fierce killing intent rush at him.

Xu Xiaoshou's hairs stood on end in an instant.

He had never encountered such dense and terrifying killing intent before!

Not even from the masked man or Hong Gou...

Among all the powerful figures he had met, none had killing intent as dreadful as what was hidden deep in this fragment.

In a flash, his eyes turned blood red, and he was transported to a scene of mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.

Bleached bones, maddened demons, blood flowing everywhere, bodies floating in the gore...

In this hellish landscape, a slender, long black sword hovered.

The black sword was incredibly elegant, its bronze-colored carvings profoundly mysterious, yet it spun endlessly in the void.

With every rotation, bursts of blood-black demonic sha qi erupted from it.

This killing intent, visible to the naked eye, drove all things into madness, turning them against each other in slaughter.

The world was stripped of all life.

“Ah—”

Xu Xiaoshou clutched his head in agony, feeling that the demonic sha qi had instantly tainted his entire mind.

If the pain of sword nian wandering through his body was a ten, then this soul-level torment was hundreds or thousands of times worse.

A surge of violent primal desires shattered the clarity of his ling tai, and even realizing something was wrong, he couldn't suppress his urge to destroy.

“Roar!”

He let out a furious roar, his muscles glowing with golden light as they suddenly bulged.

At that moment, the demonic thoughts in his soul world seemed to find an outlet, all rushing toward some unknown place.

Xu Xiaoshou's expression relaxed, his breath returning, and he finally suppressed the impulse to transform into the “mad giant.”

“Huff!”

His vision blurred for a second, and he was back in the Duanta tower room.

Ink, brushes, paper, the magic box, the fragment, and on one side, Arjie with a hand on his shoulder.

“Mama?”

Arjie tilted its head, its eyes flickering with red light, darkening slightly.

The black demonic patterns on Xu Xiaoshou's body were all absorbed into its palm, vanishing completely.

“Arjie?”

“You can absorb this demonic qi?”

Xu Xiaoshou was drenched in sweat, his face pale with fear.

He flung the fragment away as if it were scalding hot, shuddering.

“Qi deviation?”

Normally, Xu Xiaoshou didn't need to cultivate, so qi deviation was almost impossible for him.

Yet, this mere fragment had made it a reality right then.

Xu Xiaoshou could hardly believe it.

His soul force and mental strength were already terrifyingly powerful, further amplified by “perception.”

Even at that level, he couldn't hold out for a moment and was directly demonized!

“Terrifying!”

“What exactly is this thing?”

“That sword...”

The elegant demonic sword hovering in the world, turning all into lifeless bones...

Xu Xiaoshou was completely clueless, but vaguely, it felt familiar.

“What's going on?”

Just then, his chest ring buzzed, and “Zang Ku” shot out.

Xu Xiaoshou grabbed it, puzzled, but seeing the constantly trembling black sword sheath, enlightenment dawned in his eyes.

“The black sword sheath, as mentioned before, is the sheath for the ‘You Si Jian’?”

“Then, this fragment—could it be related to the ‘You Si Jian’?”

“Or maybe, it's a piece that broke off from that sword?”

Xu Xiaoshou was surprised. If this was a fragment of the You Si Jian, how had the Zhang family obtained it?

After all, the Bai Ku hadn't even opened yet!

“How strange...”

Though full of questions, Xu Xiaoshou realized the fragment was no ordinary item.

Indeed, anything stored on the top floor of the Zang Jing Ge wouldn't be subpar!

“Maybe this thing will play a big role in the Bai Ku?”

Xu Xiaoshou didn't know, but for now, he had to put it away. However, there was no way he'd let his ling nian near it again.

“Wait, no!”

Thinking about the demonization, Xu Xiaoshou suddenly felt excited.

To enter the “mad giant” state, he usually needed to face a life-or-death crisis.

But this fragment could thrust him into that frenzied realm in an instant, and Arjie could suppress the demonizing force.

Xu Xiaoshou turned to look at Arjie, suddenly realizing it was a real treasure.

Such terrifying demonic qi was absorbed just like that, and it showed no signs of being affected.

Could its origins be even more frightening than the “You Si Jian”?

Xu Xiaoshou was startled by his own thought.

“That can't be possible!”

But thinking about the “Sha Jiao”...

“Maybe the Sha Jiao in Tianxuan Gate wasn't originally meant to imprison Arjie, but because of Arjie, it became the Sha Jiao?”

Xu Xiaoshou fell silent.

Sometimes, overthinking led him to grasp the terror of life.

That sensation of being orchestrated by fate returned.

He looked up, his gaze piercing through the ceiling of the top floor, toward the chaotic sky of Yuanfu.

The aura of life was overwhelmingly vast, but that chaotic gray fog twisted menacingly, dancing...

What form it would take next was forever unknown.

Xu Xiaoshou's thoughts wandered, filled with uncertainty.

“What lies ahead, waiting for me?”