Chapter 1088: Claiming the Sword
Contrary to everyone's expectations, the ancient sword was easily pulled out of the altar by Xiong Shan, who swayed unsteadily for a moment before steadying him, following which he looked down at the golden sword in his hand with a slightly demented smile on his face.
With both the ancient sword and the golden flame gone from the altar, the golden array instantly dimmed, and all of the fiery sword qi in the surrounding area faded away as well.
Right at this moment, Fox 3, Wyrm 3, and Lei Yuce's trio were all revealed.
The white light barrier around Fox 3 and Wyrm 3 was nowhere to be seen, clearly having already been destroyed, and the two of them were currently enshrouded under a dark red wheel.
Their clothes were in tatters and stained with blood, giving them a very sorry and disheveled appearance.
In contrast, Lei Yuce's trio appeared to be faring much better. The golden array around them was still intact, but less than half of the golden sword projection inside still remained.
Lei Yuce and Wen Zhong were both looking deathly pale, clearly having severely overexerted themselves.
Their faces paled even further at the sight of the golden flame in Han Li's hand and the ancient sword that had been pulled out by Xiong Shan, but before they had a chance to say anything, a faint crack suddenly rang out from within the golden altar, as if something had just shattered.
A sense of foreboding immediately welled up in Han Li's heart upon hearing this sound.
All of a sudden, a chorus of elated cheers rang out from within the altar, followed by an eruption of blinding, black light, and the entire cave began to quiver and rumble violently.
The golden altar also began to tremble violently, and several more black rifts appeared around it in rapid succession.
"Fellow Daoist Han, Fellow Daoist Xiong, place those things back on the altar! Hurry!" Lei Yuce yelled with a horrified expression, and a hesitant look appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing this.
Meanwhile, Xiong Shan was holding the ancient sword tightly to himself, and he completely ignored Lei Yuce as he flipped a hand over to produce a crimson pill, which he promptly devoured.
After a brief moment of internal conflict, Han Li made up his mind, gritting his teeth as he prepared to return the golden flame to its original spot, but right at this moment, an earth-shattering boom rang out as the golden altar exploded into countless pieces.
Standing at the top of the altar, Xiong Shan was instantly sent flying by the explosion, and he just so happened to be flung directly toward Han Li.
He was in such terrible condition that he didn't even seem to be capable of flight, so he was unable to control his own body as the shockwaves sent him flying through the air, but his right hand remained firmly clutched onto the golden sword as if it were even more important than his own life.
Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of azure light upon seeing this, catching Xiong Shan to prevent him from crashing into the cave wall behind him.
"Thank you, Brother Han," Xiong Shan said, but there wasn't any gratitude in his expression.
Instead, he was looking at Han Li with a very wary expression, as if he were afraid that Han Li would try to take his sword from him.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he couldn't help but feel as if Xiong Shan's sanity were currently a little compromised. However, he didn't say anything as he turned his gaze to where the altar once stood.
A door of black light had appeared from the wreckage of the altar, and large bursts of black light were surging out from within.
The devilish man's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he made a grabbing motion with his right hand to summon a huge, black hammer.
With a swing of his arm, the hammer was sent flying toward the streak of golden swordlight as a ball of black light.
This hammer was far more powerful than the average devilish treasure. During his travels in the devilish realm, he had stumbled upon a mountain formed by Profound Infernal Iron by chance, and he had gone to great lengths to transport the mountain into an underground fire vein.
Using the power of the underground fire vein, he refined the mountain over the course of a hundred thousand years, at which point he had finally eradicated all of the impurities in the mountain to convert it into a chunk of pure Profound Infernal Divine Iron.
After that, he gathered hundreds of types of premium metal-attribute ore, which he infused into the Profound Infernal Divine Iron, then forged it using a devilish secret technique for tens of thousands of years to produce this Profound Infernal Divine Hammer.
The hammer didn't look very remarkable, but it was so incredibly heavy that even the average High Zenith cultivator wouldn't be able to lift it.
The devilish man possessed incredible strength, allowing him to hurl the hammer through the air like a flying juggernaut.
The streak of swordlight collided with the black hammer, and the latter was instantly sliced into two with an extremely smooth cross-section.
After slicing through the hammer, the golden swordlight continued to descend upon the devilish man's whose expression changed drastically as he opened his mouth to release a black bead.
The black bead immediately exploded upon flying out of his mouth, forming a ball of black light that was over a hundred feet in size around him.
The streak of golden swordlight crashed down onto the ball of black light like a bolt of lightning, and once again, the ball of black light was torn apart with ease.
The two halves of the ball of black light were instantly eradicated by the sword intent erupting out of the golden swordlight, but the devilish man was nowhere to be seen.
The streak of golden swordlight then faded away to reveal Xiong Shan, and he was still holding firmly onto the ancient sword in his hand.
His complexion hadn't improved much, but there was a look of excitement and elation on his face as he stared at the ancient sword in his hand with a fervent expression.
It was as if the sword had become the center of his universe, something that he would gladly lady down his own life for.
The devilish man reappeared over ten thousand feet away amid a flash of black light, and his complexion was a little pale as he looked down at the destroyed black hammer in his hand with a lamenting look in his eyes.
The Profound Infernal Divine Hammer was no longer usable, but thankfully, its materials hadn't been destroyed, so he could forge it again, but he had no idea how long that was going to take.
"That's the Primordial Ancient Sword!" the devilish man exclaimed in a wary voice upon catching sight of the ancient sword in Xiong Shan's hand.
After destroying the Profound Infernal Divine Hammer so easily, Xiong Shan's appraisal of the ancient sword had been elevated even further, and his eyes were glowing with excitement as he roared, "We are the ones who freed you, yet you've immediately turned to bite the hand that fed you! You're going to pay for your ingratitude!"
The Primordial Ancient Sword released a burst of bright swordlight that encompassed his entire body once again as he spoke.
Immediately thereafter, both Xiong Shan and the Primordial Ancient Sword vanished in unison amid a flash of golden light, transforming into a streak of golden swordlight that was over a thousand feet in length that hurtled directly toward the devilish man with unstoppable might.