As soon as Tang Yue's blood dripped on the sword, a few drops sunk into the blade and disappeared within the metallic sheen.
A few seconds later, the sword began trembling.
"Yasss! It's reacting to my blood!" The snake grinned smugly.
She squeezed out some more blood onto the sword, upon which it started shaking even more, and the entire sword sort of heated up.
"Fuck." Tang Yue dropped it like a hot potato.
Even with her heat resistance, it was too hot for her to touch it and her hand was even charred by it, a light branding mark appearing on her hand.
But surprisingly, the sword didn't fall down. Instead, it hovered right in front of her.
Ding. Congratulations. You have been recognized as the master by the soul weapon.
"Hmm…" Tang Yue silently hissed. "That was easy enough."
The snake reached forward and grabbed the sword. The long-shimmering sword thrummed alive in her hands.
She could feel a powerful surge as she held the sword for the first time.
She even felt a faint but steady connection with the sword, as if it was an extension of herself.
"I wonder if this connection will grow stronger, the more I use it?"
She slashed the air in front of her with it and tried it out.
Tang Yue then took a look at the sword and at the branding mark on her palm. A small idea surfaced in her brain.
"Dismiss." The snake murmured and the next instant, the sword immediately disappeared right in front of her eyes.
"Summon." The snake again murmured, her emerald eyes filled with excitement.
And bingo! Just like she had expected, the sword quickly appeared in her hand!
She can summon it and dismiss it at her will, making the sword literally a part of her.
Tang Yue snickered contently.
She felt like she had already half-mastered this powerful weapon on her hands, conveniently forgetting that she didn't even possess any low-tier sword art yet.
As she continued slashing it left and right, enjoying the feel of the sword, the loud horrific sounds of the approaching footsteps broke her bubble.
"Oh no, now is not the time." The snake bitterly smiled.
She quickly summoned out Little Plum as well and gripped her new sword as if her life depended on it.
"Attack everything in sight." She instructed the blob of fire.
A few seconds later, a dozen undead spiders crawled towards her, scurrying along with their sharp metallic legs.
Green toxic fluid leaked from their body as the spiders waddled towards her with a blood-thirsty rage.
"Is this the first layer of hell?" Tang Yue mumbled, as she took a step forward and slashed the two spiders at the front.
These were still low-grade beasts, so she wasn't too afraid of them and fought them confidently.
The legs of the two spiders tore off cleanly and the decomposed putrid blood of the undead beast spilled on the sword, covering it completely.
Tang Yue was about to slash the next two spiders coming at her viciously, when she noticed that the blood on the sword disappeared, just like her own blood had disappeared.
She could even feel the happiness and excitement of the sword as it drank the blood.
"Heh. You also like to fight huh?"
Tang Yue chuckled. She felt her own feelings resonating with the feelings of the sword and her blood boiled in excitement.
She stepped forward with vigor and fire in her eyes and slashed skillfully at the next two spiders coming her away.
She might not have any proficiency in any sort of sword technique yet, but still, just from her experience in this labyrinth, her sword moves had smoothened out a lot.
She was no longer clumsy or hesitant and quickly executed the beasts with decent precision.
Little Plum did its part as well and quickly burnt away the torn apart corpses of the spiders, targeting as many as it could.
Both of them couldn't care less about the green toxic liquid that was being sprayed everywhere and completely ignored it.
They continued slashing away dozens and dozens of the spiders and were able to tactfully deal with the increasing numbers.
Since the tunnel was narrow, it also helped Tang Yue to control the horde and not get completely overwhelmed.
As the snake swiftly cleared the small groups of undead coming steadily at her, she was slowly progressing deeper and deeper into the tunnel.
But the deeper she was, the number of spiders crawling towards her also kept increasing.
However, Tang Yue didn't seem to care.
In rhythm with her sword, she was slaughtering everything with a frantic haze, not worrying in the least about anything.
It was almost as if she had forgotten herself.
Since Little Plum was also bound to her through a soul link, it could sense this weird behavior.
It immediately sensed a profound danger in this pattern and quickly approached Tang Yue.
The small ball of fire then suddenly flared up right in her face.
"Arghh…" Tang Yue grit her teeth and stepped back in shock.
"What the hell, you meanie!" She shouted at Little Plum.
She then noticed the dozens of corpses littered around her and gulped.
She didn't even remember killing so many of them.
"Ah~" A sudden realization dawned on her and the snake's emerald eyes gazed suspiciously at the sword in her hand.
This thing was dangerous!
"Was it controlling my mind?" She hissed eying the sword carefully.
But one thing was clear to her. She had definitely not completely mastered it yet!
"I need to be more careful with this." Tang Yue clutched the sword and resumed dealing with the spiders again.
She consciously made sure to not fall into such a trance again.
This time she focused on her own breathing and the beasts in front of her, as she calmly and steadily cleared the undead spiders.
"Thanks, Little Plum." She nodded at the blob.
And Little Plum buzzed brightly responding to her gratitude.
Now that the small irregularity was taken care of, the duo resumed their journey and headed inside.
After a while, Tang Yue slightly paused.
She noticed a few half-destroyed undead corpses lying in front of her and hissed silently.
"Was someone here before me?"