Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Han Jin waved his hand and the crystal ball slowly landed. He then bit the top of his lip to spray out a mouthful of blood that landed on the crystal ball.
Sunier yelped in shock and was about to stop Han Jin, but luckily, Yalina remained calm and grabbed Sunier since she knew Han Jin wouldn’t want to be disturbed.
Han Jin didn’t have a choice as his blood was a necessary catalyst to allow him to become the owner of the Soul Devouring Bead. Actually, he wasn’t sure whether he had to bite the top of his lips, but that was how his master had taught him. Though it was natural for a young man to doubt, now was not the time to experiment. What if blood from his fingertips didn’t work?!
The blood on the crystal ball slowly sank inside, and blood red lines as thin as hair could be seen from the outside. The crystal ball turned completely red in no time, and although the light emitted was a lot dimmer, it now had an eerie aura around it, giving the whole room a gloomy vibe.
Han Jin took a sigh of relief, caught the crystal ball with his hand, then grabbed the black sword with his other hand, at which point, a ball of flame appeared out of nowhere and completely covered the sword. The flame Han Jin released appeared to be very strange, as it was pure and emitted no smoke, only burning quietly in midair. Although Yalina and Sunier were only two meters away from Han Jin, they couldn’t feel any heat. However, both had a solemn expression on their face, because they had witnessed this kind of inextinguishable flame before.
As the flame-covered sword slowly rose, Han Jin’s hands quickly formed a series of signs, then released another ball of true flame.
Just because bystanders couldn’t feel the heat of the Three True Flames didn’t mean it was any less powerful. In a short moment, the pitch black sword had been heated into a burning red and had started to make a crackling noise. Han Jin didn’t stop there, and instead released another ball of true flame. It looked as if he planned to directly melt the sword.
As the fourth and fifth balls of flame were released, the sword turned into a beautiful light turquoise color. When Han Jin released the sixth ball of true flame, the sword suddenly made a loud booming sound as a shockwave erupted around the sword. Yalina immediately set up a magic barrier to protect herself as well a Sunier. She knew that Han Jin was trying to brute force his way through the seal and was prepared for any kind of danger.
The table in the room collapsed due to the shockwaves, while the bedsheet was dragged up to the wall, exposing the bare bed frame beneath. Han Jin’s robes were torn to pieces as well, though he stood up straight as if it didn’t affect him at all. The windows, which Winston had hired people to fix just yesterday, were shattered once again. If he were present, he would be regretting that particular unnecessary move at this point.
A swarm of faint grey smoke rose from the sword and formed a blurry humanoid shape. Actually, it was more like a skeleton – one with an absurdly large skull. Two balls of green flames shone where his eyes were supposed to be, and although his teeth were somewhat intact, his ribs were not, missing at least seven or eight pieces; on top of all that, he even clutched a bone staff in his hand. Then, Han Jin and his friends heard a raspy, ancient voice. “Who disturbed my sleep? Who dares to disturb I, the great…”
Han Jin wasn’t bored enough to listen to this monster’s speech, and casually threw the crystal ball at him, then shouted in a low voice, “Retract!”
A normal human would experience a period of jumbled thoughts and be unable to react as fast as he normally would. Now, how that skeleton, entirely made of mist, could form cohesive thoughts was a scientific question worthy of further research, but it seemed that when it came to being suddenly woken up, he wasn’t much better than humans. He only turned to look at Han Jin right before the crystal ball hit his body; maybe because he had been asleep for too long?
Unfortunately, it was too late by then. The skeleton instantly disappeared then immediately reappeared within the crystal ball. Only then did he become enraged, staring to roar and struggle desperately within the crystal ball. The two green dots that looked like his eyes looked as sharp as a needle, and was very eye-catching amid swirling red lights.
“Sacrifice!” Han Jin shouted again in a low voice as his hands formed a series of signs. Countless red lines again appeared in the crystal ball, then wrapped around the skeleton in all directions. The skeleton frantically waved his bone staff, and his jaws opened and closed as if he were enacting some kind of spell, but since he was already trapped inside the crystal ball, he couldn’t even release his spell. Everything he did was in vain.
Han Jin’s mind had immediately noticed that a malicious ghost inhabited the sword when he had picked it up, which had given him the idea of forging a Soul Devouring Bead. Of course, the concept of a ‘malicious ghost’ was only known to him, and he didn’t care what Yalina would call it.
Han Jin had regularly dealt with these kinds of malicious ghosts during his job in his previous life, and he was actually very good at it. To be absolutely safe, he had released at least a thousand charms in total, part of which had gone to forging the Soul Devouring Pearl, while the rest had gone to binding the malicious ghost. If it couldn’t escape within half an hour, it would be trapped forever.
The red lines finally wrapped around the malicious ghost’s body. This was much faster than Julia’s Treefolk Arrow, since vines must grow out of the ground first; here, these red lines seemed to be everywhere and came in from all directions. Although the malicious ghost could dodge one or a dozen, it couldn’t dodge it when hundreds, or even thousands, came at him all at once. Before it could process the situation, it was wrapped tightly.
But the malicious ghost was truly resilient; despite the fact that it looked like a mummy at this point, it was still trying its best to break free. It attempted to bite the onslaught of red lines with his intact teeth, but the red lines couldn’t be broken, and instead went straight into his open jaw.
The green light in the malicious ghost’s eyes started to dim, and after a few more moments, completely disappeared. Instead, two dots of a faint red light appeared in their place. At the same time, the malicious ghost’s struggle abruptly stopped; it simply floated inside the crystal, perfectly still.
Han Jin recovered the crystal ball, looked at it for a moment, and smiled in satisfaction. He then took out another charm from his space ring and flung it out. Five specters immediately appeared in the air.
Han Jin weighted the crystal ball then shouted again, “Retract!”
The crystal ball flew out of his palm and started to spin, then went through the five specters at an extreme speed. Every time it passed through a specter, it would disappear before reappearing inside the crystal ball.
Han Jin waved his hand, and the crystal ball obediently returned back to his hand. The malicious ghost inside, as if it had finally realized what he was supposed to do, suddenly dove toward the five specters and swallowed all of them. However, the malicious ghost didn’t really have a stomach, so aside from Han Jin and the malicious ghost itself, no knew where those specters went.
“You… was that dark magic?” Yalina said with difficulty.
“Dark magic? I don’t know.” Han Jin shook his head, and added after looking at Yalina’s suspicious expression, “I honestly did not know this would be considered dark magic, but… does it really matter?”
“Of course it matters! Dark magic is evil!” Yalina shouted.
“If the dark magicians were the ones in power and oppressed normal magicians like you, would you think that your own magic is evil?” Han Jin smiled. “Magic is just a sword for me. Whether it is evil or not depends entirely on its user.”
“Absurd logic!” Yalina bit her lips.
“Maybe.” Han Jin stroked the crystal ball, then smiled. “The only thing I know is that if I had this earlier, we wouldn’t have had any trouble facing Manteco and Eva.”
“Raphael…” Sunier finally spoke after some consideration.
“Hm?” Han Jin looked at Sunier.
“In the future… please actively avoid using this kind of magic in front of other people,” Sunier said in stutters.
Some would say that if you loved a man for his virtue, you must also love him for his vices. For anyone that had fallen in love before, this was something they would learn instantly. The first time Sunier had sensed the dark scent around Han Jin, she had nearly killed him. Now, when Han Jin casted a spell filled with dark magic, not only did she accept, she also tried to convince herself he must have a reason for doing so! The only reason she opened her mouth, was because she didn’t want Han Jin to be shunned by society, and not because she wanted him to stop using dark magic.
Nothing is absolute in this world, especially for someone in love. The so called ‘bottom line’ could be amazingly flexible sometimes, though unfortunately, this would often be the root of tragedies.
“I’ll be careful.” Han Jin nodded then looked at the flaming sword floating in midair and whispered, “Your turn!” before releasing another ball of Three True Flame.
Manteco’s sword was extremely well made and could be used as a rare material, while the malicious ghost hidden inside could be used to forge Soul Devouring Bead. It truly killed two birds with one stone, which was why Han Jin had rushed to forging.
There hadn’t been much commotion when Han Jin had been forging the Soul Devouring Bead, but that wasn’t the case at all now that he was forging the flying sword. With every charm released, there would be a booming noise, followed by a rain of embers which splattered everywhere. Both Yalina and Sunier looked shocked, and although they believed Han Jin wouldn’t hurt them, those flames still left a very scary impression on them. They trusted Han Jin, of course, but that didn’t stop them from fearing him as well.
After a long while, sweat appeared on Han Jin’s forehead. Forging two Daoist weapons had drained too much of his vital energy – enough to the point of exhaustion.
Seeing that Han Jin had finally stopped, Yalina immediately approached. “Is it done?”
“No. Far from it.” Han Jin shook his head. He had no intention of wasting such a precious material. This time, he had chosen the technique of Ninefold Forging, which, as its name entailed, involved nine separate steps of forging. The first merely set the flying sword’s shape, and even if the processes could be done one after another, he did not have enough vital energy to complete all nine process at once. He could only finish the process one after another at different times, and although the forging process was far more complicated, the end result would still be a joke compared to the flying sword he had within him right now.
“Oh.” Yalina appeared disappointed, then shifted her attention to the crystal. She looked as if she wanted to inspect it in detail but couldn’t bring herself to ask Han Jin. Her upbringing had taught her to never accept evil, and her disdain for dark magic far outweighed her desire for unknown knowledge.
It also had something to do with trust. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she and Sunier both liked Han Jin as a person. However, one was so in love she had shifted her principle, while the other still had her own bottom line. Maybe it was because of how long they had known Han Jin. After all, Sunier had fought alongside him for two years now, while Yalina had only met Han Jin a few months ago.
