Yan Zhaoge did not evade the whirlpool that swallowed all things in the least, instead accelerating towards it.
The world before him abruptly darkened as his mental world was again overwhelmed by darkness. The next moment, the world grew bright.
An ancient copper sword appeared before Yan Zhaoge, hovering silently amidst space as it flickered with a faint lustre.
While the copper sword appeared peaceful and auspicious, Yan Zhaoge was able to feel the violence and viciousness concealed within.
That bloodied, baleful qi in the blood pool outside ceaselessly nourished this very sword even now.
Feeling the powerful might of its aura, Yan Zhaoge raised his brows, "…A high-grade Sacred Artifact!"
More accurately, it was a high-grade Sacred Artifact that was still in the process of being sacrificially forged, that was soon to be complete.
Unlike the Dim Radiant Wheel which was still in its embryonic form, this copper sword was only a half-step away from its completion.
Comparing it to mortal weapons, even the quenching and shaping had already been completed, with only the sharpening of the blade remaining.
While it was still incomplete, the strength of its aura and its brutal, baleful characteristic was already eye-catching and shocking.
Yan Zhaoge could virtually be certain that when this sword was completed, it would be superior in quality to high-grade Sacred Artifacts like the King Xuan Spear and the Cloud Circulating Heavenly Light Sword.
"Hmm?" Yan Zhaoge's heart grew solemn as a pair of eyes appeared within his consciousness.
That pair of jet-black eyes was tranquil and silent as it met Yan Zhaoge's gaze.
These eyes were extremely similar to the jet-black eyes he had previously seen in the Earth Devouring Burner.
Still, they were more acute.
The jet-black eyes in the Earth Devouring Burner were more like the consciousness of the incense burner itself rather than the martial concept of its original owner.
The eyes that Yan Zhaoge was currently faced with resembled the eyes of an actual person.
A faint figure gradually manifested amidst the dark space with those eyes as their base.
Yan Zhaoge appraised the other party, a black-haired martial practitioner in a brocade robe.
His eyes were deep and tranquil, his gaze seemingly traversing millennia as it met Yan Zhaoge's eyes.
After this old man's figure had manifested, the ancient copper sword that hovered in mid-air was placed horizontally upon his thigh.
With just a glance at him, Yan Zhaoge knew that this old man was not an actual existence as he was already dead. His figure here, along with its will, had been left behind from his martial intent.
If the other party were still alive, with his cultivation base that was sufficient to forge high-grade Sacred Artifacts, viewing Yan Zhaoge with his remnant martial intent here would be no different from him witnessing Yan Zhaoge's arrival in person.
From the looks of it now, however, the original owner of the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box and the Earth Devouring Burner was evidently likely no longer of this world.
"Sorry for the disturbance, senior," Yan Zhaoge cupped his hands towards the other party.
While that black-haired old man showed no reaction, his gaze that was on Yan Zhaoge seemed to turn much softer.
Yan Zhaoge strode forward, approaching the old man and the ancient sword. Suddenly, a chill arose within his heart.
There seemed to be another pair of eyes staring at him, terrifying to the extreme as it sent a chill permeating throughout his entire body.
This felt just like when he had been at the gate of the underwater palace and about to enter.
Yan Zhaoge composed himself, his gaze falling on the sword resting on the old man's thigh.
This time, Yan Zhaoge could be sufficiently certain that this vicious gaze that was filled with maliciousness and coldness precisely originated from that silent and harmless-looking ancient copper sword.
As Yan Zhaoge's gaze again fell on this ancient copper sword at this moment, the scene before his eyes instantly changed.
A reflection appeared on the surface of the ancient copper sword.
A ferocious beast with the body of a goat and the face of a human, its eyes beneath its armpits as it had the teeth of a tiger and the claws of a human.
The sound of infants wailing even seemed to resound beside Yan Zhaoge's ears.
Hearing these cries and viewing the appearance of this ferocious beast, Yan Zhaoge exhaled slowly, "So it was this…the legendary mystical beast, the Taotie!"
This ferocious beast was, shockingly, an unparalleled demonic beast, the Taotie, which was on par with the Kunpeng and the phoenix.
It possessed the power to swallow the heavens and devour the heavens, being extremely greedy.
Connecting this with the outside world beneath the underwater palace that resembled the belly of a massive beast as well as that massive blood pool, Yan Zhaoge completely understood it now.
That black-haired old man had created the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box and the Earth Devouring in order to forge a high-grade Sacred Artifact sword.
A core material for his forging of the sword was extracting the demonic essence and soul of a dead Taotie which had been extremely powerful and sealing it inside the sword.
Everything within the actual world outside was actually the dead body of that deceased Taotie.
The blood pool that the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box was in was precisely the Taotie's heart.
Its original owner's secret art unceasingly extracted the Taotie's essence as a sacrifice for the forging of this sword.
Yan Zhaoge smacked, "It's really not a waste at all. The remnant soul of this Taotie should still have its spirituality. It would probably be feeling stifled and despondent to the extreme, the anger rising to its head to the point of exploding."
After its death, it demonic soul had been sealed within the sword as it was only able to watch helplessly on as its former body was used to forge a sword, with its own soul being refined.
Anyone else too would probably be going mad with fury, their heads nearly exploding.
Sadly for it, these were precisely the emotions that that old man wanted it to feel, ceaselessly accumulating as this caused the might of the resulting sword to be even higher.
This was truly not having it good even after death.
While the old man looked quiet and peaceful, benevolent and friendly, his methods were truly ruthless and cruel beyond the norm.
"Well, the one forging the sword still ended up dying somewhere else in the end," Yan Zhaoge shook his head, "It is hard to tell who the victor is and who the loser."
While the old man had died, the mechanism set up by him still continued to serve its function as the ancient copper sword was already very nearly complete now.
Predecessors had planted a tree which now shielded future descendants. Yan Zhaoge smiled as he retreated from his mental world.
With Yan Zhaoge having acknowledged the remnant will of the old man, the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box had instantly become much more stable as Yan Zhaoge interacted with it again now.
It was only a matter of time before he refined it now.
The Northern Ocean Clone held the Earth Devouring Burner with one hand whilst pressing the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box with the other, communicating with and trying to refine them.
This process did not hinder the ancient copper sword in the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box from being forged.
Meanwhile, Yan Zhaoge himself sat atop the Heaven Swallowing Sword Box.
The streams of light in the blood pool began spreading onto Yan Zhaoge himself.
The light harassed Yan Zhaoge's body, various kinds of spiritual force all surging into it.
Blazing hot, icy cold, sharp and piercing, slow and sluggish…there were feelings of all kinds.
Such haphazard spiritual forces simultaneously flowing into the body of a martial practitioner would be sufficient to cause distortions with his meridians, causing them to be gradually ripped apart.
Even many Martial Saints whose cultivation bases surpassed Yan Zhaoge would not dare to take such a risk.
Yet, this was no problem at all for Yan Zhaoge who bore the Peerless Heavenly Scripture which formlessly contained all things.
On the contrary, Yan Zhaoge was unceasingly refining these various haphazard, chaotic spiritual forces, his true essence being accumulated even as his projection of the variations of these forms of spiritual qi improved as a result.
Such was advantageous as compared to the pure, powerful essence of numerous true dragons.
Even as Yan Zhaoge circulated the Peerless Heavenly Scripture, he was also analysing the Yin Yang Heavenly Scripture.
The power of extreme yang and minor yin within his body was unceasingly refined into the power of extreme Yin and the power of minor Yang.
Accompanied by the ceaseless birth of the four phenomena of yin and yang, Yan Zhaoge clearly felt his spirit shaking as a result.
His martial true-intent began manifesting into numerous runes, being inscribed on his very soul.