Chapter 56 – Sentient Katana
*CLICK*
The black katana emitted a dark aura. It slowly floated and rotated its edge to the ceiling as if someone was wielding it.
Xu Miao sensed the cold Qi, which had been emitted by the weapon. He turned around and brandished his magic dadao.
Upon seeing the ghost sword floating in mid-air, Xu Miao's jaw dropped.
"Wow. A real ghost?"
The ghost katana pointed its sharp edge at Xu Miao and flew toward him.
Xu Miao swung his saber.
*SHANK*
The katana was deflected back. Yet, its dark aura expanded.
*Piki*
A crack appeared on the magic dadao where it contacted the black katana.
'The hell?'
As the wielder of the saber, Xu Miao could sense the residual Qi within the magic saber. It was considered a low-grade artifact in this world, but it held the strength of a 3rd stage cultivator. Just one hit from the katana, this thing was almost broken.
Moreover, Xu Miao could tell from the flow of the dadao's Qi. Its energy was being drained by the ghost katana.
'So, it can drain other magic weapon's energy? How about this?'
Xu Miao activated his body strengthening skill and another stolen skill, Wind Slash +10.
Wind Slash was a basic ranged attack technique that everybody could learn. By swinging an aura-coated weapon and making an arc, anyone could create a wind cutter energy, which could cut through their enemies a few meters away.
The sword energy hit the floating katana.
*CLANK*
As if the katana had sentience, it deflected the energy with ease.
But Xu Miao already used the momentum and rushed closer to the ghost sword.
He seized its handle!
'You're mine! Energy Drain!'
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Similar to when Xu Miao absorbed Wei Yuan's Qi, he obtained Demonic Qi from the katana.
The ghost sword attempted to free itself from Xu Miao's grasp. It wiggled, trying to chop his arm.
*CLANK*
Xu Miao swung his magic dadao at the sharp edge of the katana, pushing it away from him.
*SCREECH!!*
The katana screamed in anger. It looked down on the magic dadao and began consuming its energy. As the katana lost its demonic Qi because of Xu Miao, it stole the saber's residual Qi to make up for the loss.
*CRACK*
The dadao shattered and disintegrated, but the katana kept losing its energy. Every second, Xu Miao stole 450 – 500 strands of demon Qi from it, but the sword could only get 2,500 strands of Yang Qi in return.
*SCREECH!!*
As if Xu Miao was riding a wild horse, the katana kept moving and shaking, trying to harm or kill the wielder. It slowly got out of his grip because of its overwhelming strength.
Xu Miao sacrificed 5,000 Yang Qi to cast another special skill.
Shadow Restraint +5!
Under the illuminated light of small fireballs around Xu Miao, his shadow turned into a blob monster, covering the katana's shadow.
Suddenly, the ghost sword's movement became rigid and slow. The Shadow Restraint +5 skill showed its effect.
The skill itself was useful in many situations, but it has a serious drawback. Every second that the target was restrained, Xu Miao had to pay several thousands of Yang Qi to upkeep the skill, depending on the target's strength.
If the target was weak, Xu Miao might not even need to use this skill. But against a strong foe, such as this unknown ghost sword, he rapidly lost his Qi to restrain the sword's movement.
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As Xu Miao struggled to keep it at bay, he was also making a loss. At this rate, his Yang Qi would be depleted soon.
"Hey, you stupid sword! Can you understand my words!?"
Trying his luck, Xu Miao attempted to negotiate with the ghost katana.
*SCREECH!!*
As if it roared back or cussed him, the katana screamed again. However, its struggling power got weaker.
"Now, listen! I have no grudge against you or whatever you're trying to protect! I'll stop using my technique now. Can you stop trying to kill me!?"
*SCREECH!!*
It screamed again, and It didn't stop moving.
"I guess that my words can't get through you. Fine! Let's destroy each other! I can keep draining your power indefinitely while keeping you trapped like this. Do you think you can escape from me!?"
Xu Miao bluffed while he was pretending to be angered.
The ghost sword resisted harder for a moment, but it also trembled in fear. After a few seconds of struggling, it stopped moving and released a low humming voice, telling Xu Miao to stop.
The young master immediately stopped his techniques to save his energy.
The tug-of-war lasted only 10 seconds, but damages had been done to both sides. The ghost katana looked weak while Xu Miao lost a lot of Yang Qi in the process.
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[Stored Qi]
Yang Qi: 45,660
Yin Qi: 54,210
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More than half of Xu Miao's Yang Qi was gone in an instant. Even though his Yin Qi increased, the exchange wasn't worth it.
Xu Miao released the sword, but he took out another magic weapon, a short knife, just in case the ghost sword still wanted to kill him.
"Can we talk now?"
*VIIING*
The katana moved around for a moment. Then, it floated closer to Xu Miao.
When the young master let his guard down, it rotated its edge and grazed his skin. It drank a drop of his blood.
"Ow! You ingrate! I spared you and you ambushed me!?"
*VIIING*
The sword released a sharp noise, which stunned Xu Miao, stopping him from harming the katana.
[Ahem, can you hear my voice now, you ape demon?]
"???"
A young girl's voice echoed in Xu Miao's head. It sounded rough and haughty.
"Oh, is that you, swordy?"
Xu Miao adapted fast. Since the only one who interacted with him at the moment was the sentient katana, his words might get through it, or her.
[My name is NOT Swordy! I'm the great sacred treasure of the Oni Tribe! You hornless mongrel should be worshiping me!]
"Okay… What should I be calling you, great sacred treasure?"
Xu Miao took a humble stance despite his advantage. The first rule of negotiation was to throw his ego away during the first encounter, so he could understand the character of whom he was talking to.
[My subjects used to call me Killer Queen!]
"…"
Xu Miao almost retorted that she didn't deserve that great name. At least, she should be able to make an edgy posture and activate a remote bomb skill to earn the name.
"Okay, I mean, your majesty. Why did you attack me out of nowhere? I'm just a lowly scavenger."
[Bullshit! I saw you did something to my subjects! You stripped them and stuffed one of them into a mysterious space. What the hell are you!? Are you siding with those hornless demons!?]
"Umm, there might be a misunderstanding here. I'm no demon. I'm a human. Also, I'm not your enemy. I got lost and stumbled here."
[A hoo-man? Wait, you're not a hornless demon? What kind of demon are you?]
"Didn't you drink my blood!? Wasn't it red?"
[Huh?]
Killer Queen looked baffled. She orbited around Xu Miao as if she was examining him up close.
[The heck!? Aren't you a demon? You're using one of their body strengthening techniques, aren't you? By the way, what's a hoo-man anyway? Why do you look like a hornless demon if you aren't one?]
"…"
This might take a while to explain or teach her human common sense.
…
A human and a flying sword were chatting for hours. Both exchanged their information regarding the outside world and the events in the mine.
Xu Miao taught Killer Queen about the world history that he had learned from Qi Hong. In exchange, she told him about the battles that took place here many years ago.
Roughly, three hundred years ago, all demon races and monster beasts migrated to this alternate realm after suffering severe losses during the war against human cultivators.
Killer Queen was forged after the migration had been completed. The Oni Clan had bestowed the newly-created heavenly-graded magic katana to their high priestess, so it could be her symbol of power.
The priestess gave the sword the current name, hoping that it would raise the morale of her followers.
Killer Queen slowly gained her conscience after she was being nourished by the demonic Qi of the high priestess for decades. With the strength of the priestess and Killer Queen, the Oni Tribe secured many natural resources, including this ore mine.
Unfortunately, their riches became the main reason for the oni tribe's downfall. Envious of their riches, hornless tribes, goblins, trolls, orcs, and various demon races formed a coalition and attacked the oni tribe.
The Oni Clan was annihilated and was forced to migrate back to the human world. However, some of the stragglers failed to follow after their leaders.
The high priestess volunteered to stay behind and protected the others. Yet, she failed to repel the invading forces. In the end, her troops were overwhelmed and were forced to retreat to the ore mine.
The rest of the story didn't need to be explained.
"So your master got stuck here and died."
[Pathetic, right? If only my master practiced sword techniques a bit more, she could have annihilated those mongrels before she ran out of Qi.]
"Was she weak?"
[She was an absolute TRASH!! Had she had half of your combat sense, she wouldn't have run away and trapped herself in this shit hole!]
Xu Miao guessed that KQ had a lot of pent up stress as she kept complaining about her dead master non-stop.
[Bleh, I talked for too long. My blade is getting dry. Say, hoo-man, do you have essence crystals? Can this queen borrow one or two crystals from you?]
"What's essence crystals?"
[Meh, you're a country bumpkin! It's the essence crystal! C.R.Y.S.T.A.L., do you want me to spell it?]
"What does it look like?"
[Ugh! It's something that you can get from this mine! You refine those stones with your black Qi until you filter out all the impurity. Then, BOOM, you have a crystal!]
"Does those [Stones] these things?"
Xu Miao took out a raw demonic ore from his inventory.
[Yes! That's the stone! Come on, refine it into a crystal!]
Xu Miao was about to complain that he wasn't a blacksmith or an alchemist. But when Xu Miao recalled that he was talking to a sentient weapon, he had an inspiration.
"Err, your majesty. Can you teach me how to refine a crystal? I'm sorry. I'm so stupid that I forgot what my master had taught me."
[WTF!? You HOO-MAN is so stupid! How could you forget something so simple!? Go and gather 20 of these rocks!]
Xu Miao grinned. He brought out 20 demonic ores and laid them in front of him.
"What's next?"
[Where the fuck are they from!? Oh, well. Not that I care. First, you inject hot Qi into those stones and melt the useless rubbish...]
The talking sword didn't realize that she was being tricked by Xu Miao. She continued to teach him the refining process as she enjoyed having a company after being alone for centuries.