To get into the mine shaft, the first thing Feng Qi had to deal with were the two guards stationed outside.
He closed his eyes.
His consciousness instantly accelerated, spreading outward like a vast web sweeping forward.
This was the flesh-perception technique Old Mist had taught him. It allowed him to estimate the strength of flesh-type lifeforms by sensing the intensity of their qi and blood—extremely accurate.
But it was useless against elemental-type lifeforms.
Right now, in his perception, the two guards were like raging flames burning intensely.
After roughly gauging their strength, Feng Qi knew—this was going to be a tough fight.
Their physical strength wasn't much weaker than his. If they also had some special racial talents, there was a real chance he'd fall here.
This was a serious challenge.
But after all these years of trekking through mountains and dangers, he had faced more life-or-death situations than he could count. Fear? That didn't exist in his heart anymore.
This was just another warm-up.
"Xiao You, don't follow me. You'll die."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he jumped straight into the pit.
"Boss!" Xiao You cried out in alarm.
His falling figure immediately drew the attention of the two guards. Before he even landed, their sharp gazes pierced toward him like arrows.
The next instant, two blurry shadows moved—closing the distance fast. The axes in their hands crackled with lightning as they chopped down.
Just as he touched down, Feng Qi's lips curled into a savage grin.
The Demon Blade in his hand swung upward.
Boom!
Both axes struck the blade at once. Feng Qi's body was forced downward by the impact, his lower legs driven into the ground.
Feeling the growing pressure bearing down from above, Feng Qi slowly lifted his head.
He saw the shocked expressions on the faces of the two warriors—clearly surprised he'd withstood their blow.
One of them shouted something unintelligible and raised his axe again, swinging horizontally to slice him in half.
Just then, black liquid seeped out from the Demon Blade's hilt, quickly wrapping around Feng Qi.
A black battle armor emerged.
Boom!
Feng Qi didn't dodge this strike. It smashed into his waist with a heavy impact, sending him flying out of the pit. He crashed hard into the rocky wall of the mine, embedding half his body into it.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He could feel that several internal organs had been shaken up.
But to him, this level of injury was nothing.
With both hands, he yanked himself free from the rock wall and landed on the ground.
From that brief clash, he could tell—these two warriors had terrifying strength. They were clearly physical cultivators.
Exactly his type of fight.
"Brother Blade, let's do the second unsealing."
Feng Qi called out in his mind.
He had never unlocked the second seal of the Demon Blade.
A year ago, the Demon Blade had told him that his body wasn't ready. Activating the second seal would put a huge strain on his body and severely limit his movements.
But now, he was ready to challenge it and gain a massive boost in power.
The Demon Blade didn't respond.
Instead, the second spirit mark on the hilt began to glow.
Crack!
A sharp sound echoed—the spirit mark shattered into particles of light and scattered in the wind.
The blade in Feng Qi's hand suddenly grew much heavier. Its internal structure shifted. The original 208 nodes increased more than threefold. The veins in Feng Qi's right arm bulged.
The two guards charged again, swinging their axes from both sides. There was no time to think.
Feng Qi roared. His long black hair danced wildly in the air.
Gripping the Demon Blade in his right hand, he swung it like an icebreaker, tearing through the air and sweeping from right to left toward the two incoming figures.
At the same time, black mist from the blade spread over his body.
The black battle armor also changed with the second unsealing.
The joints of the armor now had angular edges—sharp and aggressive.
Boom!
This was Feng Qi's full-powered strike. The Demon Blade whistled with explosive force, its size swelling fivefold in an instant.
The guards' eyes widened in disbelief as their ornate axes shattered on impact. Metal shards flew in every direction, forcing them to close their eyes. In the next second, they felt an unbelievable force crash into them, like being smacked by a primeval beast. Their vision blurred.
When things came back into focus, they realized they'd been blown back over one hundred meters.
After tumbling several times on the ground, they finally stopped.
When they struggled to their feet, their eyes were full of shock.
Because their armor—crafted through an extremely complex process and reserved only for elite warriors even in a place rich in spirit ores—had been shattered.
Now... it was broken by a single strike.
The next moment, both guards suddenly coughed up blood and dropped to their knees, their expressions growing dim.
Seeing this scene, Feng Qi stood in the distance with the Demon Blade, gasping for air, a bright grin spreading across his face.
The biggest difference between blunt weapons and sharp ones was how their damage manifested.
The unsharpened Demon Blade was essentially a blunt weapon. The two guards might've looked fine after taking his full-power strike, but in truth, they'd already suffered massive internal injuries. Their organs were shredded.
Pfft.
The guards coughed up more blood—this time mixed with fragments of organs. As Feng Qi dragged the Demon Blade past them, their faces went pale, and their bodies collapsed with a heavy thud.
Xiao You flew to his side, fanning him vigorously with her little fan.
A mist of spiritual energy quickly surrounded him, nourishing his body.
"Boss, open up."
Feng Qi didn't hesitate and opened his mouth.
Xiao You floated closer and stuffed a condensed spiritual-energy water orb into his mouth.
The moment he swallowed, a cool sensation spread through his body, easing the tearing pain caused by his earlier overexertion.
At that moment, the Demon Blade trembled. From the mouths and noses of the two dead guards, a bloody mist rose and was steadily absorbed by the Demon Blade.
The two streams of pure qi and blood were refined and redirected into Feng Qi's body.
He immediately felt a fire igniting within, tempering his flesh and making him stronger.
Regaining his focus, Feng Qi hoisted the Demon Blade once more.
Its weight had surged again. Every step he took felt heavier.
The hard stone floor of the mine caved like soft mud under his feet, sinking with every step.
At this rate, once the Demon Blade's third seal was unlocked, he probably wouldn't even be able to walk properly.
Just then, the Demon Blade's ancient voice echoed in his mind:
"Don't worry. I'll teach you a body technique to fix this."
Hearing that there was a solution, Feng Qi relaxed and headed toward the mine tunnel with Xiao You.
The mine shaft sloped down in a long, twisting path.
Along the walls on either side, every 20 meters, glowing round spirit stones were embedded, lighting the way forward.
The deeper they went, the stronger the stench in the air became.
Feng Qi could clearly sense sharp spiritual-energy particles floating around—mixed with energy radiation.
That's when he heard the sound of wheels grinding against stone.
Looking into the darkness, he saw a cart about three meters wide slowly approaching from deep within the tunnel.
The cart was piled with all kinds of colored ores, and several nearly naked slaves, tied to ropes at the front, were struggling to pull it forward. Sweat streamed down their faces.
From their emaciated bodies, it was obvious the slaves down here were treated terribly.
When they saw Feng Qi, they froze.
Feng Qi ignored them, dragging the Demon Blade as he walked past.
The slaves glanced back at him once, then silently kept pulling the cart toward the surface.
The tunnel was wide, and before long he reached a fork in the road. The path ahead split into three: left, center, and right, each leading to different underground mining zones.
After asking the Demon Blade, Feng Qi chose the middle path.
Along the way, he passed several more mining carts. The slaves pulling them all looked shocked to see him but didn't react further, and Feng Qi didn't bother acknowledging them.
He didn't know how far he'd walked before he arrived at the first underground mining zone.
His view suddenly opened up—before him was a dig site over a thousand square meters wide. In the center stood a tall red-skinned warrior over three meters tall, clad in ornate armor.
The warrior's cold gaze swept over the exhausted slaves digging for ore, occasionally letting out intimidating roars.
The slaves had long since been broken by exploitation. Even though they vastly outnumbered the guards, none dared resist.
Perhaps due to prolonged exposure to radiation and the harsh conditions underground, the slaves looked skeletal and dispirited.
The guard, on the other hand, likely rotated out often and showed no signs of deterioration.
"Xiao You, go fight him one-on-one."
"Okay!" Xiao You rolled up her sleeves and was about to charge in.
Feng Qi reached out and grabbed her head, pulling her behind him.
"Stay put and watch your boss in action."
"Got it! Boss, go get 'em!" Xiao You cheered enthusiastically.
By now, the guard had also noticed Feng Qi's presence. His expression shifted.
Anyone who made it this deep clearly had already taken down the two gate guards.
This warrior wasn't stupid. He immediately grabbed the whistle hanging around his neck and blew it hard.
A sharp, ear-piercing sound echoed through the cave, bouncing through the tunnels toward the deeper sections.
Feng Qi took a deep breath.
If he wanted to go deeper, this next fight would be another tough one.
He slowly lowered the Demon Blade. Black liquid flowed over his body, forming the blade armor once more.
The guard had started retreating, clearly intending to wait for backup.
Feng Qi crouched low and suddenly exploded forward. The solid rock beneath his feet cracked like shattered ice as he lunged like a beast.
As he raised the Demon Blade, the guard decisively lifted his battle axe.
Boom!
The tunnel shook. Chunks of rock rained down from above. Slaves nearby, still digging for ore, panicked and scrambled for cover, glancing back in fear toward the source of the explosion.
Then they witnessed something that made their hearts tremble with fear.
The battle axe in the guard's hand shattered instantly, and the pitch-black Demon Blade crashed down like a hammer smashing a tomato. The warrior they once saw as invincible had his life erased in the most brutal way.
Boom!
The Demon Blade struck the ground. The mine shook even harder, as if about to collapse. The spot where the blade landed sank into a small crater.
The blade quivered slightly, and the scattered blood droplets lifted into the air, gathering toward the Demon Blade.
In moments, the blade was wrapped in blood, which it quickly absorbed, refined, and sent into Feng Qi's body.
The exhaustion from unleashing that full-force slash faded fast.
In the tunnel ahead, more guards wielding battle axes began to appear, forming up quickly after receiving the signal.
This was undoubtedly a serious challenge for Feng Qi.
Even he didn't know for sure if he could make it through.
But hesitation wasn't in his nature. On this Demon Blade path, there was nothing he needed to overthink. It was all about walking the line between life and death—tempering strength through survival.
Merged with the Demon Blade, he was also a blade.
And a blade could only grow sharper by cutting through greater challenges.
He raised the blade, his muscles tensing, veins bulging like awakened dragons, starting at his right arm and coiling across his entire body.
Roar!
With a wild shout, Feng Qi's pupils turned pitch black.
The Demon Blade in his hand slashed forward suddenly, releasing a sweeping black light like a wall of wind, sending several of the oncoming enemies flying backward.
…
1338 meters underground, in one of the mining sectors.
A frail boy, around eight years old, clutched a wooden bowl and greedily slurped at the food inside.
The rations given to them were watery slop with a horrible taste—barely enough to meet basic needs. But the boy didn't care. He ate with a vicious expression.
Before he could take more than a few mouthfuls, a foot slammed into him and sent him flying. His bowl was snatched away mid-air.
His head slammed against the cave wall. Blood streamed down his face.
Looking up, he saw a large laborer gulping down the contents of the wooden bowl in one go.
The boy curled up in the corner, not fighting back.
His eyes, however, glinted with a sharp light. The hatred in his heart surged, but he knew the power gap between them.
He was used to this kind of treatment.
This dark, sunless underworld had long devolved into a savage society where the strong preyed on the weak. Ever since his father was executed by the guards for being too weak to continue mining due to energy radiation, he had lost his last shred of support and sank to the bottom of the hierarchy.
He didn't dare to resist—resistance meant choosing death.
But he was still young. As long as he stayed alive, revenge was only a matter of time.
When the bowl was tossed back to him, the boy clutched it and licked the bottom hungrily, hoping for even a few crumbs.
That's when the sound of a thunderous impact outside caught his attention.
He cautiously turned his head. From the tunnel leading upward came heavy, crashing thuds—like a wild beast ramming its way forward. The entire mine seemed to shake with each step.
As he was still trying to figure out what was happening, he witnessed an unbelievable sight.
A figure walked into the mining sector, holding one of the towering guards by the throat, effortlessly lifting him off the ground.
Crack!
The crisp snap of a neck echoed like a hammer striking the hearts of every miner present. Fear flashed in their eyes.
Feng Qi, cloaked in black mist, looked like a demon straight out of hell.
As the Demon Blade absorbed the guard's qi and blood, Feng Qi casually tossed aside the withered corpse.
His gaze shifted toward the small boy huddled in the distance.
Compared to what he'd imagined, the boy looked nothing like someone with potential—skin and bones, malnourished, with nothing seemingly special about him.
But he trusted the Demon Blade's judgment.
He stepped in front of the boy, letting the pitch-black blade armor fade from his body.
"Hey, kid, wanna come with me?"
"Yo, kid! Wanna go with my boss?" Xiao You chimed in, hands on her hips and pointing at the boy.
"You... what can you give me?" the boy asked.
Feng Qi was stunned. In the boy's eyes, he saw a burning desire.
"Can you help me get revenge?" the boy asked again.
"No," Feng Qi answered plainly, "but I can give you the power to take revenge. If you want revenge, earn it yourself."
The boy nodded hard, then stood up.
He suddenly hurled his wooden bowl at the man who had stolen his food earlier, the bowl smacking him right in the head. Not satisfied, he followed up with a punch to the face.
With Feng Qi's presence looming, the large miner didn't dare fight back.
After letting off steam, the boy stood before Feng Qi and looked up at him with clear determination.
"I'll go with you."
Before Feng Qi could say anything, Xiao You raised both arms and started cheering excitedly.