My Enemy Became My Cultivation Companion

The turbulent River of Time is blasted open, water rushing through without merging back, countless fragments of time scattered chaotically, countless memories lost from the minds of people.

The one who arrives,

True Heavenly Person, Xu Qi.

.........

The dark tides surge violently, as the sword rain is engulfed like a mud ox entering the sea, inch by inch of light swallowed, Chen Yi feels the light on him growing thinner.

Chen Yi stands firm, and although the golden glow in his eyes hasn’t completely faded, it is not as blazing and splendid as before.

He clearly feels the immense power within him, once unceasingly flowing and at his command, exhausting and dissipating at an alarming speed. It’s not depletion, more like... the source is forcibly severed.

The Resentment Demon Master seems to also sense the prey’s weakening, and though the large gray-white eyes remain indifferent, the attacks become increasingly fierce.

Darkness no longer merely floods the sky but transforms into countless twisted thunderbolts, madly gnawing at the remnants of the fire.

"What is happening?!"

Chen Yi’s heart trembles violently, attempting to once again invoke that immense power, but only feeling emptiness as if the previous sensation of commanding heaven and earth, words become law, was just an illusion dream.

His connection with the vast brightness becomes extremely weak, like a thread about to snap.

The light around him flickers like a candle in the wind, unstable.

In his palm, Yin Tingxue feels the light shielding her rapidly weaken, almost able to sense the suffocating darkness and resentment beyond the thin light wall, she raises her head, watching Chen Yi’s tense profile, her heart in her throat.

Donggong Ruoshu is even more frightened, shrinking into the corner of the temple door, her face regaining some color quickly turning pale again.

The shadow presses down slowly like a mountain.

Within the rolling darkness, countless scenes from the World of Ignorance become increasingly clear, wailing, tearing, screeching, forming a demonic sound that directly attacks the Divine Soul, attempting to dismantle Chen Yi’s final resolve.

The light compresses to cover only the space around the temple entrance and continues to dwindle.

Chen Yi lets out a muffled grunt, feeling as though carrying a mountain, his bones emitting a light creaking under the weight.

He grits his teeth.

Since external help is gone, he can only revert to what he knows best, his eyes’ golden glow suddenly condenses, no longer trying to draw external light, but instead pouring all remaining power, along with his own vast Martial Intent, entirely into Hou Kang Sword.

One sword strikes.

The overwhelming gray tides part vehemently with a dull thunderous roar,

The dark tides are briefly halted by this concentrated force, the ground beneath Chen Yi’s feet cracks inch by inch, yet the darkness is so vast, the golden glow of the sword’s edge quickly dims and dissipates visibly.

Chen Yi takes a deep breath.

The immense power from Ming Venerable within him is virtually spent, an unprecedented sense of weakness surges over him.

In a flash of thought, he activates the final vestiges of the "wish fulfillment" power.

A barely discernible stream of light flashes from his heart, like sparks igniting a prairie, instantly rekindling his nearly dry meridians and Dantian,

The energy flows like dragons and snakes, strength saturates the Circulation,

The meridians once fragmented and broken by going fire into the devil heal at visible speed, nearly restored.

Back to Third Rank, Chen Yi feels no ecstasy, compared to the previous immense power of Ming Venerable, even though the Sword Creation of Heaven and Earth is merely a speck in the vast sea.

At that moment, he clearly feels he has entered the First Grade realm, even within the Martial Arts List, enough to contend for top position.

"Go!"

Chen Yi calls out hoarsely with undeniable resolve.

He grasps with his left hand, firmly capturing Yin Tingxue and the terrified Donggong Ruoshu with his energy.

The next moment, he grips Hou Kang Sword, pouring all remaining light and newly surging Third Rank True Qi into the sword’s edge, forming an intensely condensed dazzling sword aura.

The sword aura pierces through the air.

As if a hot knife through ice, the depths of the frozen World of Ignorance for countless years are forcibly torn open with a narrow, elongated rift!

Beyond the rift, no longer pure darkness, faint sounds and scents not belonging to this world convey weak but palpable signs of life, in the distance, bright as daylight.

Without any hesitation, Chen Yi united with the sword, enveloping Yin Tingxue and Donggong Ruoshu, transforming into a meteor-like fleeting shadow, fiercely plunging into the space rift.

At the instant their figures vanished into the rift, the gray tides, temporarily cleaved open, closed even faster. The Resentment Demon Master’s roar echoed through the shattered space, countless shadows rushing toward the rapidly sealing space fissure.

However, it was ultimately slower by a moment.

Sss!

The rift completely closed, sealing the endless darkness and roars behind.

Only the ravaging gray tides remained, along with the Resentment Demon Master’s void-shattering roars.

Chen Yi raised his head, the sky-reaching beam of light blending with the daylight-bright heaven and earth entered his view.

Together with it, the Purity Saintess holding the Bright Hall, resembling the Treasure Tower Heavenly King depicted in a Buddha Country panorama, also entered his view.

Chen Yi collected his gaze, couldn’t help but curse aloud,

"Damn it, I said why did my cheat disappear..."

.........

Sword Town.

Heavy snow fluttered down like rain, like a waterfall, sweeping across the scene. Dyeing the continuous buildings and distant peaks in a pristine white.

The cold wind howled, lifting snowflakes, yet unable to disperse the heat waves and clanging sounds rising from the simple shed in the valley.

Inside the shed, the furnace was blazing, crimson tongues of fire licked the air, instantly evaporating the drifting snowflakes into white vapor.

Li Kang, the renowned female swordsmith, was wholly engrossed in her task. Her hands steady as a rock, tightly gripping a heavy iron hammer, rhythmically pounding the red-hot sword embryo on the anvil.

Each hammer strike was accompanied by golden sparks flying in all directions, like reverse shooting meteors, suspended mid-air.

The flying sparks seemed never to extinguish or fall, as if preserved like insects in amber, slowly flickering.

Upon closer examination, within each tiny spark was a myriad of overlapping illusions - remnants of countless moments across Li Kang’s sixty years of spring and autumn spent hammering iron, a condensation of thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of sword forging sessions.

They weren’t static but were undergoing ongoing hammering and forging on an extremely minute scale, seemingly compressing the long River of Time to bloom in this instant.

This place was no longer a commonplace blacksmith’s shop.

Li Kang, using her armor cultivation and Supreme Casting Heart as a guide, had managed to divert a strand of the River of Time here, channeling it into each hammer strike.

What she was forging was not mere ordinary iron, but memories soaked in the maiden’s past lifetimes.

Under the hammer, the sword embryo wasn’t simply being reshaped, but under the relentless wash and strike of countless overlapping times, subtle transformations occurred, accelerating the impurity removal process a thousandfold, reaching perfection.

Sweat seeped from her forehead, dried instantly from the surrounding heat before dripping, her movements seemingly merged with the furnace, the anvil, and slowly forming weapon in her hands.

The sound of wind and snow, the howling sound, all seemed isolated outside by this monotonous but powerful hammering sound, here was only sword forging, only tempered enhancement.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

During this unending hammering sound, a faint, suppressed gasp with a hint of shock echoed from nearby behind.

Without a pause in her hammering, Li Kang seemed not to have heard, continuing until crafting a certain detail on the sword embryo to completion; during the gap of sending the sword embryo back into the furnace, she spoke without turning her head:

"What’s wrong?"

She continued to gaze at the jumping flames within the furnace, her hand slowing. In this secluded Sword Town, what caused Sword Armor to be so startled was surely not a trivial matter.

The one-armed woman abruptly stood up, her gaze slightly gathering, seemingly about to transform into Rainbow Light and rise instantly.

Up to today, everything had gone beyond her expectations, entirely outside of her previous divination.

In a fleeting thought, she realized she couldn’t afford any delay, her hand rising, intending to communicate with the heavens and earth,

And within that fleeting thought,

Beside her ear, a deeply familiar, warm voice sounded,

"Master, leave it to me."

That voice seemed to permeate through the River of Time, arriving here.