"Huuu…"
The long sigh still hung faintly in the cave air as Lin Feng focused his Repair Technique on the blade in his hand. The response was as brief and frustrating as ever:
"Integrity: 50%"
"Cannot be repaired."
Yet, this time, the sparse answer made Lin Feng's eyes widen sharply. "50%?!" he gasped aloud, shock rippling through him.
When he'd first acquired the Blood Demon Blade, its integrity had been a mere 20% (or 80% damaged). He'd quickly discovered that consuming the blood of living creatures could repair it. However, no matter how much blood it had devoured over time, its integrity had never dipped below 30%. He'd concluded that while blood was a repair material, it could only restore up to 10% of the blade's integrity. Furthermore, every time he unleashed an attack by channeling the blade's blood energy, its integrity would drop again, requiring more blood to fix it.
Lin Feng was absolutely certain that before venturing into the Blue Moon Sect ruins, the blade's integrity had been 30%. When had it jumped to 50%? He had no clear recollection…
The most plausible moment, he realized, was when he'd used the blade to deliver the killing blow to Feng Liefeng within the forbidden area at the back of the Blue Moon Sect mountain.
"Could it be…" Lin Feng murmured, a chilling hypothesis forming, "that consuming the blood of a Void Refining cultivator caused such a dramatic change? Was the previous stagnation at 30% simply because the blood consumed wasn't… advanced enough?" Alongside the surprise, an involuntary chill crept down his spine. If this speculation was correct… did it mean the blade could be repaired further by consuming the blood of even more powerful cultivators? Beyond Void Refining? Soul Formation cultivators? Great Ascension cultivators?! If the blood of such supreme beings was the Blood Demon Blade's 'repair material'… what kind of monstrous artifact was this?!
He stared dumbfounded at the blade in his palm. It seemed to pulse with a deeper, darker luster than before. Lost in these turbulent thoughts for a long moment, he finally shook himself. Taking a steadying breath, he cautiously extended a wisp of his spiritual sense into the Blood Demon Blade.
"Huh?" No backlash or strange sensation occurred. His spiritual sense flowed smoothly, probing the blade's interior. The surprise came from the distinct realization that his connection to the blade was significantly deeper and tighter than it had ever been before!
His mind's eye was suddenly flooded with the intricate layout of overlapping artifact formations. Countless minute spirit patterns etched onto them were startlingly clear. This was a world apart from the past, where he could barely perceive a dozen formations at most.
What truly made an artifact an 'artifact' wasn't just its extraordinary materials, but the various artifact formations imprinted within during its forging. These formations acted like engines; the more numerous, advanced, and complex they were, the greater the artifact's power output. Higher-grade materials could naturally accommodate more complex formations, resulting in more potent artifacts.
Artifact formations, while a branch of array studies, formed their own distinct discipline. Their complexity and profundity rivaled conventional arrays but were exclusively applied to artifacts. Most conventional Array Masters didn't specialize in artifact formations; that domain belonged to Artificers.
Typically, an artifact's specific capabilities stemmed not only from its inherent material properties but also from the effects imbued by its formations. Two artifacts forged from identical materials could possess vastly different powers based solely on their internal formations.
Higher-grade artifacts inevitably contained more numerous, advanced, and intricate formations. For an Artificer, the greatest challenge in repairing an artifact wasn't identifying its materials, but deciphering and mending its damaged formations. Damage to the formations was far more difficult to repair than mere physical breaks in the material.
The process of 'tempering' an artifact involved using one's spiritual sense and soul power to perceive these internal formations. By infusing a wisp of one's soul intent into a formation, the cultivator could gain insight into its function. Thus, even with an unfamiliar artifact, fully tempering it allowed the user to comprehend all its special effects and powers without external guidance.
Lin Feng had possessed the Blood Demon Blade for nearly two years. His persistent wariness and deep-seated unease towards it stemmed precisely from his inability to fully temper it and thus understand its true nature. Humans instinctively fear the unknown, especially something as palpably sinister as this blade. He had consistently attempted to temper it over those two years, yet progress had been agonizingly slow. Now, however, his connection had inexplicably deepened dramatically. If one quantified the tempering process as a 'compatibility percentage', his compatibility with the Blood Demon Blade had just leapt from less than 5% to nearly 50%.
Lin Feng was momentarily stunned by the sudden, clear perception of the blade's numerous formations. As his spiritual sense swept across them, torrents of information flooded his consciousness. The first sensation was an unexpected wave of familiarity and closeness towards the blade. For an instant, it felt like an extension of his own body, an illusion of shared flesh and blood. Following this came a stream of information detailing the blade's special powers. As he processed this knowledge, shock washed over him anew…
"Blood Devouring… Soul Devouring… Berserk?!"
He finally understood the Blood Demon Blade's powers with crystal clarity – no longer reliant on guesswork, but gained through direct perception of the formations.
Blood Devouring: This he'd guessed long ago, as it was the blade's most overt function.
Soul Devouring: Lin Feng had also suspected this. Numerous enemies slain by the blade at the Core Formation stage and above (even nascent souls) had been unable to escape via soul flight. Mere blood consumption couldn't prevent that; soul devouring explained it.
Berserk: This power, however, was completely unexpected.
The blood and soul energy absorbed by the blade wasn't solely for unleashing devastating attacks; it could also be channeled back into the wielder, drastically boosting their combat power!
The cost of invoking this power, however, was terrifying: the user would descend into a state of bloodthirsty, homicidal madness, potentially losing all reason. Furthermore, it placed an immense physical burden on the body. Exceeding one's limits could cause the body to collapse entirely, resulting in death…
This was a brutally domineering power – wounding the enemy a thousand times while injuring oneself eight hundred. A true, desperate gambit.
"Could the discomfort I felt before…" Lin Feng murmured, frowning deeply as he gazed at the blade, "have been the influence of this 'Berserk' power?"
The explanation seemed plausible. Previously, with such low compatibility, he hadn't been able to consciously grasp this power. Yet, subconsciously, its influence manifested as that lingering sense of bloodlust and unease, fueling his instinctive wariness towards the blade. Now, with compatibility greatly increased – essentially achieving preliminary tempering – that subconscious resistance had faded away.
"Is that really all it was?" Doubt still clouded Lin Feng's eyes. While the previous questions seemed answered, a significant sense of foreboding remained, a nagging feeling that something fundamental was still wrong. Even tempered halfway, comprehending only a portion of its powers, half the blade's secrets remained shrouded in darkness. What lurked within the untempered half?
"Ah… forget it." Lin Feng sighed, rubbing his temples where a headache throbbed. "At least I understand more now. It seems using the Blood Demon Blade normally in combat should be fine, as long as I never activate the 'Berserk' power. That should prevent any further mental influence. As for the other mysteries… I'll just have to unravel them slowly over time."
He reluctantly gave up the fruitless mental struggle. With a final glance at the dark blade, he flipped his hand, storing the Blood Demon Blade away once more.
Shaking off the lingering unease and distracting thoughts, Lin Feng settled into a cross-legged position. Closing his eyes, he focused his mind and spirit, beginning the process of meditation and recuperation.
...
Twenty-four hours later, revitalized and brimming with energy, Lin Feng didn't depart. Instead, he set up a spirit gathering formation right within the cave and commenced secluded cultivation.
Having just advanced to the Nascent Soul stage, consolidating his cultivation base was essential. Furthermore, the profound insights gained from the memories of Gu Lengyue and Feng Liefeng still hadn't been fully digested. The potency of such insights faded over time, so absorbing as much as possible now was crucial. With ample cultivation resources at his disposal, Lin Feng decided to enter full seclusion.
His plan was clear: upon emerging from seclusion, it would be time to leave the Starry Sea, following his father's guidance towards the Mystic Ice Palace…
Days turned into weeks as Lin Feng cultivated peacefully on the nameless island, unaware that far beyond his secluded cave, the events of the Blue Moon Sect ruins had ignited a storm across the cultivation world. Once again, the name Lin Feng reverberated with startling force throughout the Starry Sea Realm…