Douluo Dalu: 9 Treasure Sword - Chapter 238

Opening his eyes, Bai found himself in a different place. A full gray space where the only things that existed were 7 swords, a black one, a red-blood one, an orange one, a gray one, a red one, a blue one, and at the center of all an old chipped sword. Even with only 7, the aura that they exuded was enormous, in a completely new level comparing with the one before. Bai could recognize the red one as the Asura Sword.

“It has been a long time since anyone reached here” Bai turned to the voice, clenching his sword tightly, preparing to fight.

“There is no need for any more fight, boy. You can lower your sword” The 7 swords glowed over with their own characteristic intent, their aura even increasing. Over each sword, a phantasm appeared. It would be best explained as a manifestation of a sword soul appeared, the form of them being the latter owners of them, all of them wearing an armor following the color of the sword. With the exemption of the Asura Sword where only dark-red aura exuded from it.

Over the black sword, the man had a calm but deadly face. Over the gray sword, a young man who had a cool but kind face. Over the red sword was a red-haired woman, her eyes reflecting killing intent and madness. Over the orange sword, a man with big muscled stood, his face showed passion and dėsɨrė to fight. Over the blue sword, another woman stood with a calm, relaxed and apathetic face. Finally, over the old sword, a very old man full of wrinkles with his hair being full white due to the age with a long beard, he had a light smile in his face and had a grandfatherly look in his eyes.

They simply stood there looking at the distance, ignoring Bai. All of them with the exemption of the old man who was directly looking at Bai and was the one that had talked before.

“What’s this place?” Bai asked without lowering his guard.

“This place is us.” All the other sword souls answered at the same time “Us are this place. We are the God Sword.”

“Ignore them, boy” The old man said to Bai “Souls are not different of people, they tend to become a little crazy after spending an infinity of time alone in the same place.” The old man swung his hands and the sword souls retracted inside their swords “Answering your question, we are at the core of the God Sword.”

“Counting the new fragment” The old man looked at the Asura Sword “And you, we are the 8 that form the core sword.”

“You don’t need to count me, I will take control of all you and leave this place.” Bai interjected.

“Ho, ho, ho” He laughed like Santa Claus “Young boys always so full of energy and eagerness” He cleaned a tear of his eyes “We are the ones that affect the most to the will of the God Sword. This place” He opened his arms signaling all the space “It is like a Hall of Fame where the strongest swordmaster souls rest. And you are part of this.”

“I was very surprised of you coming here” the old man murmured “To reach the core, you will need to pass the countless wills reunited. Having exist for almost an eternity, the great strength of them is real. It was far easier to reach here before. With more than a million years without anyone coming, I starting doubting anyone reaching this place again.”

“Cut the crap” Bai said glancing at the old man, pointing him with his sword “I will beat all of you if necessary, I will take this sword!”

“You are too impatient. You have eternity in front of you, you should treasure these little moments and enjoy them” advised the old man “Like I said before, there no need for more fight, you can see from the others than none fighting spirit are left from them. There is only one trial left and then you will be a complete part of us.”

“What is the trial?” Bai asked a little pissed off about the calm old man.

“It is simple, you need to accept all of us, accept our feeling and existence. Exactly the same that you did before, but this time without our resistance” The old man answered “However, before that let me explain mine and the God Sword’s story.”

Bai tried to rebound but the old man ignored him and continued talking “Unlike all of you” He said signaling the other sword souls and Bai “I was not a spirit master. I was a simple and weak man with a simple hoe spirit an 0 spirit energy, unable to ever cultivate.”

“I was a simple farmer, calmly living my life with my wife and my little baby daughter. However, all changed when a big war started. It did not matter your side or your strength. If you wanted to keep your life you must fight. I was forced to enlist in an army, fighting for my life and keeping my family away from it.” The old man explained.

“They gave me a simple sword and without preparation or teaching me anything, they threw to the battlefield. To die like cannon fodder, in battles full of spirit master,” He said with a little angry voice “I do not know exactly how I survived, but by pure luck I accomplished. After that day, the battle did not stop. I spent all my time practicing, swinging my sword, if it was only to increase a little my possibility of leaving alive the next battle and someday met my family again.”

“After bȧrėly surviving many battles, my talent bloomed. It was not luck anymore, instead, it was my technique. I continued being a weak person, but with the sword in my hand, I killed even spirit masters. An intent was being created from it.”

“After that, I was promoted. No longer a normal soldier, I was even able to see my family again” He said with a longing face “I returned to my village only to see it raced over, becoming a barren land without any trace of, without even any reminder of my family” He had a pained face.

“I discovered that it was caused by the enemy army that started attacking our villages. With my head full of fury and revenge, I threw myself to the battlefield, madly killing every enemy that I found” He closed his eyes.

“At that time, the people started recognizing me, a weak normal human that killed spirit masters, even killing a spirit king enemy commander. With my bloody sword at hand, full of hate and resentment, I gained some nicknames. Sword Demon, Blood Revenge… And my favorite and the important one of all this God Killer. Only with a sword, I was able to face that godly figures that were spirit masters.”

“That was the start of all. My name resounded from all the world, creating faith towards me. The problem was that it did not matter how much faith came to me, I was a weak normal human, I could not absorb. Instead, the one that started absorbing it was my sword. My sword became sharper and more robust, gaining strange abilities that even boosted me physically. After every battle, my sword became stronger and with it myself.”

“Finally, it reached the point that I was able to kill the enemy general who was a god, that how titled douluos were called before. Since that day I was known as the Sword God, people like if they did not remember that I was weak, they called me as another spirit master” He made a sad face “After so many battles, I discovered that it did not matter. My thrill for revenge had completely disappeared, I did not have anything important to fight for, nothing to thrive to become stronger. I let go of my sword. Without its power I simply turned to dust, dying and disappearing from old age.”

“However, my name and legend perdured. The faith of all the swords, faith enough to be able to create a True God continued accumulating over my sword, making it impossible to any swordmaster to cultivate it. With only my will left behind, my strong but yet weak sword it was impossible to ascend and become a True God. My sword continued absorbing the faith of every swordmaster. Every sword soul had different feelings and characteristics, but all of them search to become stronger. Motivated by this great dėsɨrė, after many years, it finally created the actual God Sword with its fragments system.” The old man finished telling his story.

The old man signaled the other swords “All of you, everyone strong enough to reach this place, are sons of Heaven. Great spirit masters with a great talent. How can such strong people accept someone like me? I am weak” The old man paused a moment, smiling lightly “I am the reason that passing this trial is impossible. To pass this trial, you should accept me, weakness itself.” He made a weak laugh blaming himself

Bai withdrew his sword and with a calm and collect face walked towards the old chipped sword. Lifting his hand to take it.

“Are you ready to be part of us forever?” The old man looked at Bai with a sad smile.

“No” Bai said calmly “I already said I would make your power mine. I am one that keeps his promises.”

Bai gripped the old sword handle, a gray light flowing over his body.

“There’s no rejection!” The old man said shockingly “H-how could it be?”

“It might have been different for the previous Bai, but I had experimented a full lifetime of weakness. I never like it, but like everyone, I had long since accepted it.” Bai sneered “Just as Paul accepted his weakness, I would accept yours. You can rest”

Bai took the old sword from the ground, lifting it. A gray pillar of light was liberated from it, it was pure divinity. The other 6 swords reacted, pillars of light shooting from them and cracking the space “Thanks” It could be heard from them before they dispersed.

The old man had smile in his face and his eyes full of tears “After all these years, we are finally free. Truly thank you. You will be a great Sword God” The old man started dispersing in light particles “Make a name of yourself, but never forget the most important” he said before disappearing swallowed in the pillar.

All the energy focused over the sword at Bai’s hand. Flowing from it towards Bai. Receiving such a great quantity of faith and divinity, Bai’s body started transforming. He had obtained a god tablet and was advancing towards godhood!

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Inside the Star Duo Forest, where the Steel Dump had stood before, there was a gray cocoon seemingly made from steel.

From inside the cocoon, a gray blade surged. It sliced over the cocoon, revealing the man that was holding it.

A very otherworldly handsome young man appeared. He seemed to have 22 years old with long gray hair. His body was slender but full of compacted muscles. He had mȧturė and sharp facial features. The most remarkable being his gray eyes that seemed to contain universes in them that attracted the view of anyone. They were so strong and sharp that in combination with his aura, a single look was enough to cut in half a person.

At his hand, the sword that had cut the cocoon stood. It was a simple and slender sword. However, it had a great and majestic aura around it and was extremely sharp, cutting the air even still. Over its handle, there were some different colored patterns, resembling a little pagoda.

Of course, he was Bai.

“Ahhh!” Bai shouted, energy exploding around him. 10 spirit rings appeared under him, 9 of them were red wrapped with a gray aura, all of them crowned by the 10th pure gray ring that exuded a strong primal energy.

Bai lifted his sword, a gray pillar of energy shot cutting over the sky.