Chapter 139: Spirit-Blood Fusion
Don’t eat recklessly × Eat recklessly √…

There were unexpectedly many people at Elegant Seasons Peak.

In the past, aside from sword cultivators, few others would stay at Elegant Seasons Peak — its barrier protection was the weakest, the wind and snow harsher than on any other peak, and its only advantage was its remoteness.

The moment Lian Mu stepped onto Elegant Seasons Peak, she hadn’t expected that one day it would become warm here too. Ever since the sect had crammed all the disciples onto this peak, they’d added several layers of protective barriers, now as tight as Thousand Spirit Peak.

By the time Lian Mu returned to her quarters, it was already late. Xiao Jin had escorted her to the mountain gate of Elegant Seasons Peak and left, unsurprisingly still wearing that cold expression.

Thinking back, she remembered that the first time they met five years ago, Xiao Jin had worn the same face. So long had passed, and he hadn’t changed it once.

Lian Mu didn’t know why, and she didn’t bother to guess — next time she’d keep her distance.

Just as she finished that thought, she realized that the area around her residence had suddenly become lively — the neighboring bamboo huts, once empty, now had occupants.

Stepping through the soft snow, she returned to her bamboo hut, which was pitch dark inside.

Lian Mu instinctively reached for her luminous stone to light the way, but the moment her fingers touched it, she remembered it no longer glowed — besides, someone strange was living here now.

She fumbled for a spirit lamp and lit it. Though it consumed a spirit stone, one stone could fuel it for the entire night — and tonight she had important work to do.

Green Bean crawled out from her sleeve and sprawled on the table, falling asleep.

It spent six hours a day asleep, and when awake, it was restless — today it had nearly bitten through the jade bracelet that held Feng Tianche’s soul.

Before leaving, Feng Tianche had given her two things — one to restrain Green Bean, and the other…

Lian Mu unfastened the bell at her waist and examined it carefully. She discovered it was a miniature alchemy furnace, identical to the one in Feng Tianche’s study, with a “Feng” character carved at the base.

This alchemy furnace was far superior to the crude one she had bought herself.

She channeled her spiritual energy to enlarge it, and the moment the furnace settled onto the ground, she truly grasped the difference.

As expected of the top alchemy cultivator’s furnace — seventy percent of its material was pure magic crystal, any piece of which could be used as a demonic crystal blade.

Lian Mu’s fingers itched. She had long fantasized about forging a sword entirely of pure magic crystal — this furnace was perfect for secondary fusion.

She ran her hand along the furnace wall, forcibly suppressed the impulse, and set it aside to get to proper work.

This time, she knew she’d be staying for a while, so she planned to finish upgrading Wealth Bringer here in the sect. She’d brought all the flame beast crystal cores she’d obtained in the illusion realm.

The forging platform in her room was too low-grade, so she’d asked Xu Xianxing before returning from White Tiger West and borrowed his high-grade forging platform, carrying it back in her spatial pouch.

Lian Mu drew Wealth Bringer, placed the sword onto the forging platform, and was about to channel spiritual energy to ignite it when a voice suddenly spoke in her ear.

“With your current body, can you withstand the forging platform draining your spiritual energy?”

Lian Mu paused, feeling that the voice sounded familiar. “…Who are you again?”

She turned and saw the tower-shaped luminous stone on her desk swirling with black mist — at once she remembered.

“How long has it been, and you’ve already forgotten me?”

Lian Mu saw no one else in the room and guessed he probably couldn’t come out, so she picked up the luminous stone. “Xuan Che? Just what are you?”

“I am a dead man.”

“…”

Here we go again. She’d met two dead people now.

But she’d never heard anyone refer to themselves like this… people who did were rarely any good.

Lian Mu was about to let go and toss the luminous stone into the forging platform to melt it when the voice came again: “It’s pointless — this shabby platform can’t do a thing to me. Save your energy for refining.”

“How much do you know about what I’m doing?”

“A bit. For example, if you keep forging the old way, you’ll sleep straight through the next seven days. Your body simply can’t take it.”

“I suggest you go find an artifact refiner or try another method.”

“You’re an artifact refiner?”

“I’m not some fragile vase of an artifact refiner. I’ve just lived long and know a thing or two.”

“Binding spiritual energy to the forging platform will only make it drain your spiritual energy. With your damaged dantian, you won’t last long. But your blood contains purer spiritual energy — use your blood instead.”

“…”

If she used her blood, she’d probably be dead before she finished forging.

Besides, she’d never heard of this method.

“What, you don’t believe me?” The luminous stone chuckled. “Believe it or not, I’m going back to sleep.”

The light of the luminous stone dimmed immediately.

Lian Mu stayed still for a long moment, then decided to ask Xu Xianxing.

She contacted Xu Xianxing using the Fish-and-Goose stone, and soon there was noise from the other side — a chaotic brawl of voices arguing:

“You people from Crimson Sky Sect better not get too cocky. Once our people are all here, we’ll stomp you flat.”

Xu Xianxing’s voice was odd, slurred and unsteady, as if he’d been drinking.

“You think I’m afraid of an artifact refiner like you? Why wait for others — fight me now!”

“Wait, the elder said no fighting outside the arena — everyone talk nicely at the banquet.”

“…”

So the moment they left, there was a banquet — and she’d missed out on a free meal.

“Xu Xianxing.”

The moment she spoke, the other side went silent.

“Why aren’t you talking?”

“This late, and you suddenly remember me?” Xu Xianxing said.

“I need you for something — go somewhere private.”

She heard footsteps, then a door closing. Xu Xianxing lowered his voice, asking quietly, “What is it?”

Lian Mu told him what Xuan Che had said but claimed she’d found the method in the library pavilion.

“Using blood as the medium… you accessed the upper levels of the library pavilion?” Xu Xianxing said. “That method does exist — it was proposed by a Tang family artifact refiner, but no one has tried it.”

“They say using blood as the medium deepens the bond between sword and wielder. But the wielder is a sword cultivator and the refiner is an artifact refiner — the refiner’s blood is useless unless it’s someone who can do both… so it only suits people like you.”

“Are there any side effects?” Lian Mu asked.

“Uses up a bit more blood-replenishing pills. Besides, no artifact refiners use it — you have to cultivate both sword and artifact, plus have a fire spiritual root, and you must achieve spirit-blood fusion. Ignoring how complex it is, it’s actually one of the least damaging forging methods…”

He trailed off, and steady breathing came from the Fish-and-Goose stone.

Lian Mu could guess even with her toes — he’d drunk himself to sleep again.

She cut the connection, leaned against the forging platform, and thought for a while.

Since Xu Xianxing said it was fine, maybe she could try it…

But what exactly was spirit-blood fusion?

She closely inspected the high-grade forging platform before her and found it slightly different from her own. Besides the surface for injecting spiritual energy and the lower inlet for spirit stones, this high-grade platform had a groove running around its edge. This groove connected two layers: the upper layer held fine cracks, and the lower layer was a magic crystal plate.

Lian Mu cut her finger and dripped blood into the groove. It quickly filled the tiny cracks on the platform’s surface, the rest slid down hidden channels into the magic crystal plate, where it instantly ignited.

Just like in the illusion realm, when blood had poured from her eye sockets and turned to fire upon hitting the ground.

She’d used only a little blood, without channeling any spiritual energy, yet Wealth Bringer within the forging platform had already begun to melt.

Lian Mu tapped the luminous stone. “Why do you think I’m suited for this method?”

The luminous stone stayed silent. Lian Mu knocked on it again, and finally a voice came out from inside: “So noisy.”

“Didn’t you refuse to believe me just now? Now you come asking.”

“Just tell me. Next time I go in, I’ll bring you something to eat.”

She still remembered that the last time she left that pitch-dark place, he’d asked her to bring food.

“The spiritual energy in your body disperses too fast. Some of it has already merged into your blood, so when you overdraw, you bleed.”

“Instead of asking me why, you’d better think about what you’ve eaten. I felt it the moment you struck with that sword in the illusion realm. For that wreck of a body to have survived this long, you must have some skill, but you ate the wrong thing — the spiritual energy got absorbed elsewhere.”

“Spirit-blood fusion has always been innate. For you to have forced it through reckless eating… there’s not a second case like you in the world.”

Lian Mu: “?”

Lian Mu thought back — she didn’t remember eating anything strange… If anything, could it be the demonic beast inner core?

She wanted to ask more, but the luminous stone went dark again. No matter how she knocked, Xuan Che wouldn’t speak.

Lian Mu had no choice but to drop it for now and focus on refining. As for the demonic beast inner core, she’d better ask Feng Tianche tomorrow.

Wealth Bringer had completely melted. Lian Mu timed it precisely and dropped in the flame beast crystal core.

The blood fire on the demonic crystal plate instantly surged up, then showed signs of going out.

Lian Mu dripped in a bit more blood. The forging platform gradually stabilized, and the flame beast crystal core slowly began to merge.

The guardian beast’s core was grade one, while Wealth Bringer’s grade was lower. The difference made merging hard. Fortunately, Wealth Bringer contained spirit materials from another sword, which itself was a hybrid-grade product. So the flame beast core fused in a little — but only a little.

The remaining core simply wouldn’t merge. Lian Mu shaped Wealth Bringer directly, then cut off the blood channel. The core re-condensed, a bit smaller than before.

She stored the leftover core in her spatial pouch for future use.

Once the blood channel was severed, the fire on the demonic crystal plate died out, and Wealth Bringer regained its original shape.

Lian Mu drew the sword and tested it in her hand. She could clearly feel the improvement, like breaking through a membrane into a new level — it should now be grade six.

This method was indeed much better than before. In the past, she would be left weak after refining; today she felt fine, aside from a bit of lost blood.

The new sword body worked well too, though its new color… from indigo, it had turned a vivid green. If she dropped it in the grass, it would take forever to find.

A blood line ran down the middle of the green blade. Lian Mu tried resonating with it — for a brief moment, she felt deeply connected with Wealth Bringer.

Brimming with excitement, Lian Mu carried the sword outside, ready to try sword riding. But as soon as she stepped on it, Wealth Bringer refused to move.

It seemed no matter how much it improved, it still couldn’t resonate with her completely — there was always some barrier.

She gave up on sword riding for now, stuck the blade into the ground beside the forging platform, and got ready to refine pills.

Yet just as she turned around, out of her sight, a rank-testing colored stone on the forging platform suddenly lit up. Counting from the left… it was the fourth one.