Chapter Forty-Four: The Blood-Drinking Iron Spear

The elder at the Celestial Tome Pavilion was at the Loose Immortal stage, but Chen Yi could not ascertain his exact level. Nevertheless, Chen Yi was certain that the elder possessed at least the strength of a fourth-level Loose Immortal. After all, the Celestial Tome Pavilion held immense importance for the Five Elements Sect. It was inconceivable that the sect would assign only a first-level Loose Immortal to guard such a critical place. Chen Yi surmised that the Treasure Vault also had an elder of at least fourth-level Loose Immortal strength guarding it.

While the Treasure Vault might not rival the Celestial Tome Pavilion in importance, it still played an irreplaceable role in the Five Elements Sect. It housed countless magical treasures: mundane artifacts, magical implements, spiritual devices, and even immortal artifacts. The majority of the sect’s treasures were stored here, and most disciples received their implements from the Vault. From this, Chen Yi deduced that there must be a Loose Immortal elder protecting the Treasure Vault as well.

Indeed, as soon as Chen Yi stepped into the Treasure Vault, his powerful soul immediately sensed a formidable divine sense sweeping down from the pinnacle of the Vault, scrutinizing his entire being inside and out. Only when that sense brushed against the identity jade token at his waist did it slowly withdraw, as if confirming his identity through the token.

With his extraordinary soul strength, Chen Yi discerned that the divine sense guarding the Treasure Vault was nearly equal to that in the Celestial Tome Pavilion. He concluded that the Loose Immortal elder here must be on par with the one in the Pavilion. Clearly, both places were equally vital to the Five Elements Sect, serving as the very foundation and heritage of the sect.

Upon entering, Chen Yi noticed that the layout of the Treasure Vault was nearly identical to that of the Celestial Tome Pavilion, except that books were replaced by magical treasures. The first floor was filled with lower-grade magical implements of every kind—offensive, defensive, supportive—everything that a cultivator in the world of cultivation might ordinarily use could be found here.

Each artifact was encased within a shimmering barrier, much like the defensive screens protecting the books in the Celestial Tome Pavilion. Chen Yi, well-versed in the sect’s important locations, knew about these protections. According to what he’d learned from other disciples, these barriers were similar in strength and function to those in the Pavilion. Each screen displayed floating text, with the description varying for each treasure.

Chen Yi approached the nearest artifact, a long spear reminiscent of the crimson-tasseled spears from his previous life. The shaft was blood-red, the spearhead gleamed with a chilling brilliance, razor-sharp, and a crimson tassel surrounded the tip. Except for the cold glint of the spearhead, the entire weapon was suffused with an eerie redness, as though freshly drawn from a pool of blood. After examining the weapon, Chen Yi turned his attention to the words shimmering on the screen.

Bloodthirst Spear: Lower-grade magical implement. The blood-red shaft is forged from a century-old Bloodthirst Spiritwood, soaked for three months in the mixed blood of a hundred Foundation Establishment-stage beasts. The spearhead is crafted from a piece of celestial meteoric iron, the size of a thumb’s nail, blended with a hundred jin of refined iron through painstaking tempering. The crimson tassel is woven from Spiritwood branches and the silk of Foundation Establishment spirit silkworms, all steeped together with the shaft in the blood of a hundred Foundation Establishment beasts, then fused into one through a full year’s labor over the earthfire by a master forgemaster.

Reading this, Chen Yi was deeply shaken. He recalled mention of Bloodthirst Spiritwood in an obscure miscellany; according to the text, this wood was exceedingly rare, with less than a hundred known specimens in the entire cultivation world. And a hundred trees was by no means a large number.

The world of cultivation was vast beyond even the knowledge of Loose Immortals, replete with countless spiritual treasures, and yet among all these, Bloodthirst Spiritwood numbered less than a hundred. Its rarity was due to its harsh growth requirements—the only condition for its survival was blood, and the greater the spiritual energy within the blood, the faster and finer the Spiritwood’s growth. A century-old Bloodthirst Spiritwood would have consumed the blood of at least a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators in its growth, a testament to its preciousness and the difficulty of its cultivation.

That such a treasure was used merely to forge the shaft of a lower-grade magical spear seemed an utter waste, bordering on madness.

Nor was the rest of the spear inferior. The spearhead, especially, was made from a sizable piece of celestial meteoric iron—a material that fell from beyond the heavens, famed for its hardness. In artifact forging, even a sprinkling of celestial meteoric iron dust could render a weapon extraordinarily tough and greatly enhance its power compared to its peers. Yet here, an entire chunk the size of a thumb had been used. The tip of this spear must be indestructible. The crimson tassel was also remarkable, woven from spirit silkworm silk and Spiritwood branches.

Chen Yi’s heart was filled with awe and confusion. Why would anyone use such rare and precious materials to craft a mere lower-grade magical implement? Those components could have produced a spiritual device of the highest quality.

What Chen Yi did not know was that the forgemaster who created the Bloodthirst Spear was the renowned Master Ouyang, a celebrated artisan in the cultivation world. When Master Ouyang was still weak, this spear was his personal weapon. He was a man of remarkable fortune, experiencing many fateful encounters in his early years. It was through such adventures that he acquired both the Bloodthirst Spiritwood and the celestial meteoric iron.

Upon obtaining these treasures, Master Ouyang forged the Bloodthirst Spear. When his strength grew, he deposited the spear in the Treasure Vault. What’s more, the Bloodthirst Spear held a tremendous secret within.