Chapter 21: The Untransformed Azure Lotus Dao Seed

The Spiritual Acuity Sword served as a mere vessel; once infused with golden sand essence, it completely transformed its original material.

Under the influence of evolving fortune force, new layers of restriction began to form.

What was originally just a second-rank magical flying sword gained a hint of sentience due to the golden sand, elevating it to a spiritual artifact.

Of course, only a first-rank spiritual artifact.

Nevertheless, its power far surpassed that of even fourth-rank magical artifacts.

After all, only Primordial Infant awakened beings could truly harness the full might of spiritual artifacts.

Within the new Spiritual Acuity Sword, a faint yet fiercely defiant sword spirit emerged, clashing against Qin Shu’s divine sense.

“Still trying to resist!” Qin Shu roared in anger. His divine sense delved into the core of the sword, unleashing a barrage of psychic blows on the sword spirit. Weakening it to its limit, he then imprinted his own spiritual mark, finally subjugating it utterly for his use.

Without its core, the yellow sand disintegrated like scattered grains.

Qin Shu dismantled the Great Array of Five Elements and extended his hand. With a wave of motion, the reborn and transcendent Spiritual Acuity Sword flew into his grasp.

As he gazed upon the now entirely white-golden blade, he realized calling it “Spiritual Acuity Sword” seemed no longer fitting.

Recognizing it as the core of the yellow sand with the ability to control wind and sand, Qin Shu pondered for a moment before naming it, “Flying Sand Sword.”

After withdrawing the Great Array of Five Elements, the power of the Five Elements dissipated, leaving behind dozens of kilometers of barren yellow sand.

Qin Shu waved his Flying Sand Sword, instantly causing the yellow sand to dance along with his movements.

With a burst of true essence, he swung the sword, channeling sword qi into a condensed form. As it attached to the yellow sand, its potency amplified, extending its reach even further.

By commanding the sword with his divine sense, Flying Sand Sword amassed a colossal amount of yellow sand, transforming into an enormous blade reaching towards the heavens. With this single strike, its might surpassed the limits of what could be unleashed by a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator.

This sword provided Qin Shu with a combat enhancement comparable to that of the Qingping Sword Pill.

In terms of power, the Qingping Sword Pill was roughly equivalent to a fourth-order magical artifact.

However, since Qin Shu could fully harness its capabilities, his attack naturally transcended the Foundation Establishment realm.

Having transmuted the life force of the yellow sand into the Flying Sand Sword, Qin Shu’s kill count stood at only one earthworm monster.

He still needed to slay nine more second-rank monsters or opt to directly cultivate the Cyan Lotus.

To him, searching for monsters seemed too troublesome.

Feeling his own power was too weak, Qin Shu thought for a moment, and the Cyan Lotus Dao Seed appeared, sinking into the ground.

Then he set up the Great Array of Five Elements, waiting quietly for the monsters of this Abyss world to arrive.

As the Cyan Lotus Dao Seed absorbed the source essence and sprouted, the surrounding space began to vibrate.

A fierce wind carrying massive amounts of yellow sand struck, accompanied by an enraged roar.

Roar!

The deafening cry shook the heavens as it slammed into the Great Array of Five Elements.

Clang!

The impact resonated, but the array didn’t even tremble, steadily blocking this wave of attacks.

A scorpion-tiger beast emerged, somewhat disoriented—a testament to how powerful the impact had been.

It had the body of a tiger and the exoskeleton of a black scorpion, with a total length of six meters and a scorpion tail also six meters long. Its limbs were incredibly thick, muscles encased in exoskeleton, making for an extremely formidable appearance.

Its claws had lost their ability to retract completely, but they were now longer and more razor-sharp, resembling rows of enormous curved blades.

“Another top-tier second-rank monster,” Qin Shu judged internally. In this world, there should be few social monsters; any that could appear before him would undoubtedly be the most elite among their rank.

Protected by the Great Array of Five Elements, he stood invincible from the start.

And once the Cyan Lotus matured, he would become even stronger.

For now, he claimed the scorpion-tiger beast as his own.

The Qingping Sword Pill emerged, striking while the scorpion-tiger was still dazed. It pierced through its left eye, a surge of sword qi drilling straight into its brain.

Roar!

The tiger roared in agony, its vast life force instantly jolting it awake. Yet, the strength in its body rapidly dissipated.

Moments later, its soul plunged into eternal darkness.

Soon after, its physical form scattered in the wind.

Qin Shu remained within the safety of the Great Array of Five Elements, dispatching each monster that approached with swift precision.

Each encounter required no more than a single strike—the sword pill piercing, piercing, ever-piercing.

After all, every monster that entered the array was immediately disoriented upon impact. If Qin Shu didn’t seize this brief window to strike, what else could he possibly wait for?

Yet, one thing caught him off guard:

The nourishment for the Cyan Lotus Dao Seed seemed insufficient.

It quickly dawned on him—he had yet to reach Core Formation, and the Abyss World he’d been teleported to was relatively low-grade. Naturally, the elemental essence here wasn’t enough to fully facilitate the transformation of the Cyan Lotus Dao Seed.

At this moment, Qin Shu had more than fulfilled his quota of monster-killing tasks in the Abyss World. Over fifty second-rank monsters, each one among the strongest of their kind, had fallen to him from all directions.

He could now communicate with the God Soul Continent at any time and teleport out of the Abyss.

Turning his gaze back to the Cyan Lotus, he noted that although it continued to absorb essence, its growth had ceased.

The flower bud was formed, but the lotus remained unopened.

With a resounding clang, the Great Array of Five Elements trembled.

A formidable new threat approached from outside.

Qin Shu focused his vision on an immensely huge creature battering the Five Elements Formation repeatedly.

This monstrous beast stood six meters tall, its entire body covered in spiny exoskeleton plates reminiscent of armored dinosaurs. However, unlike such creatures, long, thick spikes protruded from its back.

Its limbs were short and powerful, akin to an elephant’s legs, while its head resembled that of a vicious dragon, complete with a massive rhino-like horn at the tip of its snout.

It used this enormous horn to ram the formation, turning occasionally to lash its tail like a whip against the barrier created by the Five Elements Formation.

“Armored Rhinoceros-Bull,” Qin Shu muttered. “I suppose this is the final boss.” He stayed within the array, unwilling to engage directly. With a thought, the swirling Qingping Sword Pill beside him embedded itself into the hilt of the Flying Sand Sword.

Then the Flying Sand Sword flew out from within the array.

The second form of the Cyan Lotus Sword Art: Myriad Lotus Blooms.

The Flying Sand Sword gathered the surrounding yellow sand, and in an instant, balls of sand formed into lotus shapes in mid-air.

Sharp sword qi combined with the sand, doubling its power.

Moreover, Qin Shu was still inside the Great Array of Five Elements. The five elements’ energy transformed into earth element power, nearly maximizing the effectiveness of both the Qingping Sword Pill and the Flying Sand Sword.

As the sword lotuses bloomed, their sword qi took shape through the sand. A river of yellow sand swords formed, causing the surrounding void to become unstable.

No wonder—the very essence of the world was almost completely drained. It would be stranger if the void remained stable.

“Roar!”

The armored rhinoceros-bull threw its head back and roared at the sky, unflinching even before the river of yellow sand swords as it charged towards the Great Array of Five Elements.

Qin Shu guided the sword with his divine will, controlling the sword river without hesitation as he directed it towards the armored rhinoceros-bull.

In a flash, the river of yellow sand swords collided with the armored rhinoceros-bull. Sword qi raged as sand filled the air.

After a cloud of dust settled, the armored rhinoceros-bull lay covered in yellow sand, motionless.

Moments later, pieces of sand began falling away, revealing black-red gravel beneath.

The sand, charged with sword qi, eroded the armored rhinoceros-bull’s carapace incessantly. Like water wearing away stone, even the toughest armor couldn’t withstand such a relentless assault.

Once the carapace was breached, the sword-infused grit pierced deep into the creature’s flesh. The sand devoured blood and flesh alike, transmuting the armored rhinoceros-bull into an exact replica of itself—mere sand. Then, from within, it burst through the carapace, extinguishing the beast’s life force entirely.

Qin Shu extended his hand, recalling both the Qingping Sword Pill and Flying Sand Sword with a single gesture.

As the sword qi dissipated, the yellow sand on the armored rhinoceros-bull, no longer sustained by the energy, crumbled instantly.

Boom!

Dust billowed as the black-red hue faded from the sand. Even the carapace, shattered by the encroaching grit, began to disintegrate.

The world quaked as green lotuses sprouted from the ground, drilling into Qin Shu’s forehead one after another, taking root in his sea of consciousness.

This time, the Dao Seed of the Cyan Lotus failed to transform.

The earth beneath Qin Shu’s feet fragmented; yet another Abyssal World met its end at his hands.

Before the entire world collapsed, he communicated with the God Soul Continent, teleporting back just in time.

Only one question remained: Where exactly in the God Soul Continent would he materialize this time?

The coordinates from his previous arrival were no more. Having spent nine days in this Abyssal World, there was little doubt that the Kui Mountain Range had already fallen.