Chapter 1 A Strange Encounter in the Spiritual World

The image of the Godslayer Sword in the spiritual world was always a dark, sharp mountain peak, even in the "First Born's" spiritual world. The dark peak and the Mountain of Thorns stood together in the dark sea, along with a pillar of light reaching the sky in the distance. These three peculiar "souls" completed a historic meeting in the spiritual world, making for an extremely bizarre scene.

The Godslayer Sword's opening remarks were the same as always, but what it said next immediately caught Hao Ren's attention: "Rambling? What rambling?"

"The sounds, can't you hear them?" the Godslayer Sword said loudly, as if trying to drown out other voices, "They're everywhere, the whole world is full of them—there are thousands of voices roaring, each one inhuman. These clamoring fellows are about to drown this place out!"

Hao Ren's heart skipped a beat. He realized that the source of corruption was probably what the Godslayer Sword was talking about—something that could not be observed through ordinary means, but was being picked up because it shared the same origin as the sword: "Where are those sounds coming from? What are they saying?!"

"No source, no content, they are just blind roars and clamoring," the Godslayer Sword sounded puzzled. "Ah, it sounds a bit...similar to my 'echo'?"

"That must be because you come from the same origin!" Hao Ren shouted. "What you're hearing should be left behind by your creator!"

Immediately, he told the Godslayer Sword about the corruption suffered by Yggdrasil, and all the guesses he had made about it. After hearing all this, the Godslayer Sword fell into a long silence.

In fact, this sword was not "smart." Or, more directly, as a "simple weapon" with a clear purpose and no reusability in its design, the Godslayer Sword never had many complex thoughts. It was born, controlled, used, used to kill, sealed. It used its special "echo chamber" attribute to carry out its own thinking activities, and had never thought about such complicated things in ten thousand years. But that didn't mean it couldn't help. It didn't know what corruption was, but it knew what it was.

"If I'm not mistaken, the 'corruption' this big guy is experiencing is no different from the corruption experienced by other ordinary races. It's all some kind of 'whisper.' Demon hunters have heard it, and those who killed gods back then heard it too. It's all the same."

Yggdrasil's Dark Heart immediately flew into a rage: "Nonsense! I was created by the Mother herself! I carry glory, how could I fall like those rebellious sons!"

"'God-slaying rebels' were also created by the Creation Goddess, and you have indeed shown signs of corruption," the Godslayer Sword said bluntly. "I just say what I see. What's happening to you is essentially the same as what happened to them. Whether you accept that is another matter. But in the end, you are different from those god-slayers, because they went crazy after hearing the whispers, but you don't seem to be crazy yet, which is quite strange… It looks like you resisted the spiritual erosion and somehow transformed it, trapping it in your body. Of course, there's another possibility: the corruption factor in your body is specially made. Its purpose is not to pollute your soul, but to pollute your body."

"The key question is, can this corruption be cleared?" Hao Ren asked quickly.

This time, the Godslayer Sword thought even longer. To be honest, it had never even considered this question. It was created to stab people—sometimes gods too, but treating the wounds after stabbing was not its specialty. But even so, being from the same origin was being from the same origin. The Godslayer Sword had seen enough supernatural and surreal powers during the Godslayer War. After pondering for a while, it came up with an idea: "Try poking him with this sword..."

Hao Ren thought about it: "...Are you kidding me?"

"I'm super serious," the Godslayer Sword replied matter-of-factly. "Don't you guys have an old saying, 'fight poison with poison'? And if not 'fight poison with poison,' you can call it a vaccine—the corruption that this Yggdrasil is suffering from and the root of my power are essentially the same thing, but my power has been gnawed on...er, blessed by the goddess, so it's turned from a source of pollution into an antidote. There's no need to doubt the goddess's power, right? And I didn't say stab him straight through. Just cut a small opening so that my power can seep in. After all, the pollution he's suffering from is already too serious, and it's already spread to his limbs in the real world, so it can't be treated just in the spiritual world."

Hao Ren thought about it and realized that it made sense.

But Yggdrasil was quite conflicted: "Um, are you really discussing a treatment plan?"

Hao Ren replied very seriously, "It is a treatment plan."

"This is the first time I've heard of a treatment plan that involves stabbing someone in the head..."

"Don't worry, it won't kill you even if I don't stab you well," Hao Ren suddenly had great confidence in the Godslayer Sword, or rather, he was full of confidence in the blessing left by Raven 12345 on the Godslayer Sword. Anyway, if even Raven 12345's blessing didn't work, then Yggdrasil would really be hopeless. Where could he find more advanced divine power? "I'll try to be as gentle as possible when I poke you."

Yggdrasil felt that something was wrong: "The way you describe it… what if you really kill me?"

Hao Ren slapped his thigh: "Then your wish would come true! Shouldn't I congratulate you?"

Yggdrasil: "..."

In any case, after some discussion, Yggdrasil—including the Dark Heart and the Voice of Light—agreed to this magical surgical plan (in fact, they had no choice but to agree, since Hao Ren had given them half a ton of anesthesia outside, and it was still working). After confirming that no details were missing, Hao Ren took the initiative to cut off this mind dive.

A brief trance and dizziness struck. Hao Ren's eyes flickered with light and shadow. When the surrounding scenery calmed down, the first thing he saw was Lily sticking her tongue out and licking his face...

Then the husky girl was zapped away by Vivian's lightning.

Hao Ren was startled on the spot: "What the heck was that for?!"

"Bat, what are you doing?!" Lily rolled over and jumped up, yelling even louder than Hao Ren. "I saw the landlord wasn't waking up after so long, so I went up to lick him. Was I wrong?"

"Do you think a normal person would go up and lick someone at a time like this?!" Vivian put her hands on her hips and glared at Lily, then turned to Hao Ren with a look of concern. "You're awake? Was it smooth? You've been connected for a full two hours!"

"You guys definitely won't believe what I saw in there."

Hao Ren felt that his mind was a bit messed up. A huge amount of information was pouring out wave after wave. After shaking his head to clear his mind for a long time, he took a breath and told everyone exactly what he had experienced in the spiritual world.

What happened inside Yggdrasil was completely unexpected.

"Fortunately, we didn't forcibly destroy the 'Dark Heart,'" Galarjol looked in shock at the black, diseased brain core. "It's actually Yggdrasil's true original consciousness..."

"If everything goes well, we can solve the problem by stabbing it with this sword."

As Hao Ren spoke, he took out the Godslayer Sword from his personal space. In the real world, the sword was still a strange, black fragment, its surface shimmering with light, looking serene and mysterious, and carrying an unusual elegance.

It was just that what this sword said was not elegant at all: "Try to be steady when you poke me down, don't let your hand shake. This sword is super sharp. Although that Yggdrasil has super strong recovery power, I'm thinking that if you cut its head in half with one sword, it probably won't survive."

Hao Ren held up the Godslayer Sword and gestured in front of the "Dark Heart," wondering where he should poke it to look more professional. Nangong Wuyue, who was beside him, couldn't help but sweat: "Seriously, I can't believe this will cure him… Landlord, this surgery looks like a way to make money and kill people..."

"You have to believe in my skills," Hao Ren was actually a little nervous at this time, so nervous that his head was sweating, but he was still stubborn. "You have to believe in the professional quality of this sword even more: it has more experience stabbing people than human civilization has existed."

Nangong Wuyue coiled her tail and muttered, "But it killed someone last time..."

Hao Ren struggled for a long time, and finally realized that when he stabbed someone with a sword, no matter what posture he made, he couldn't look like a professional surgeon. So he simply hardened his heart and asked the Data Terminal to confirm a relatively "safe" location on the brain core, and stabbed down with the sword.

After that, he held the sword in the stabbing position and waited for three seconds.

Lily came over and poked Hao Ren's arm: "Seems like it didn't work? Why don't you try another pose..."

Before the husky girl could finish her words, a strange noise suddenly rang out in the cave!

It was an ear-piercing howl like the wails of thousands of souls, mixed with the cracking sound of falling rocks. The walls of the large cave trembled, and the tendrils entangled on the walls of the cave seemed to wake up from a long dream, and began to shake and convulse.

However, these movements quickly subsided. The tendrils gradually became stiff, and the red light in the brain core cavity turned from bright to dim. The runes in the cave seemed to be extinguished and fell into silence. Finally, the cave was completely silent.

Even the pulsations of the brain core nerve nodes, which never stopped, gradually stopped.

Hao Ren's cold sweat flowed down his face.

"Crap...did I kill it?!"