Chapter 92: The Azure-Falling Longsword

Curious, Ji Jiuxuan walked over. The phantom, however, remained calm. With a sweep of its sleeve, the thing buried within was revealed.

The Crimson Flame Mystic Stone!

This was excellent material for forging swords. She had never imagined such a treasure would be here.

Ji Jiuxuan grew excited. Once she reached the foundation-building stage, she would need to seek another weapon and refine her own life-bound magic artifact. This Crimson Flame Mystic Stone was an excellent choice.

She lifted her shovel with renewed strength and was about to help dig it out when the phantom stopped her.

“Stand aside and wait. I’ll do it.”

Watching the phantom, his spiritual power rippling outward, the entire Crimson Flame Mystic Stone was exposed before her eyes. Such a massive piece—forget one sword, it could likely make ten.

Even a tiny fragment of Crimson Flame Mystic Stone could fetch an outrageous price. How much would this one be worth? Just looking at it filled her with delight.

“System, did you know there was something good here?”

Judging from the system’s past behavior, could this mission also hold some kind of benefit?

“More or less.” The real treasure had not appeared yet.

Just as Ji Jiuxuan was preparing to put the Crimson Flame Mystic Stone into her storage, a fluctuation of formation power rose from deep underground.

Seeing this, the phantom cast another hand seal onto the protective formation around the perimeter, strengthening it once more.

Only then did Ji Jiuxuan finally breathe easier.

On closer inspection, it was indeed another ancient formation, and an extremely intricate one at that.

The Crimson Flame Mystic Stone was the formation’s core. What exactly lay beneath?

In such circumstances, it was impossible to recklessly remove the stone. Digging could continue only after the formation was broken.

She crouched down, placing her hand upon the formation and sensing the undulations within it.

She had entered the path of scripture, and she did know something of formations, but she had never studied them formally. In practice, she was completely clueless.

Much less with an ancient formation. She even worried that one wrong move might make it collapse outright; the danger was impossible to predict.

“System, do you have any way to break this formation?”

“I’ll send you up first. Leave this to me.”

Before the system could answer, the phantom had already come to her side, crouched down, and looked at her with a gentle voice.

“Then be careful.”

It was strange, but she held an unaccountable trust in the phantom, as though whatever he said she would agree to without hesitation.

“Very well.”

As soon as he spoke, Ji Jiuxuan was lifted into his arms and carried swiftly upward.

“Wait here.”

After saying this, he still could not help strengthening the protective formation around her.

Only after Ji Jiuxuan obediently nodded did the phantom return to the enormous pit.

Standing at a distance, she could not see the situation in the pit at all. Thinking of the formation she had sensed earlier, she could not help growing worried.

“System, there shouldn’t be any danger down there, should there?” Since the system had issued the quest, it ought to know best.

“For him, no.” The system’s tone was subtle, but Ji Jiuxuan was too preoccupied with worry to notice.

Spiritual energy surged continuously into the pit. Multicolored lights flickered all around, and the turbulence of the formation’s power even affected the space above.

Ji Jiuxuan, protected within the barrier, could not sense any of it. Looking at the grass on the ground shredded by the aura of the formation, her heart grew uneasy once more.

“Don’t worry. It’s completely fine. With that one’s strength, this little thing is nothing.”

Ji Jiuxuan’s growing anxiety was too much for the system to bear.

“You know his origins, don’t you?”

The phantom had lost his memories and did not even know his true identity.

The system seemed to know quite a lot.

“I know a little. You’ll understand in the future.”

Though that would depend on when that one regained his memories, and when he was willing to let her know.

“Then tell me what you do know?”

She remembered asking about Wen Ying before, and the system had refused to say. She had not expected much this time either.

“That remains the same. It cannot be spoken. You’ll have to rely on yourself.”

Fine. Knowing the system’s nature, Ji Jiuxuan did not press further.

The moon hung high, the stars were dense, and the world within the pit brightened and darkened several times in succession. By now, the formation had been shining for quite a long while.

In the deep pit, the phantom hovered above the entire formation, looking at the long box trapped within the imprisoning array. A sorrow he could not suppress surged upward in his heart.

“Was this related to her?”

Now and then, the image of a woman would appear in his mind, and each time it did, it made him deeply pained.

For some reason, whenever he thought of that woman, her figure would overlap with Ji Jiuxuan’s.

This strange condition left him, memoryless as he was, unable to understand why.

Looking toward the opening above, the phantom vanished from where he stood and the next instant appeared beside Ji Jiuxuan.

“Suixia!”

The moment she saw the phantom, all her worries vanished without a trace, leaving only joy.

“I’ll take you down to retrieve the treasure.”

Leaning down to look at the little girl, who had gone from tense to relaxed, the phantom could not help but smile. His voice was bright and easy, and the emotions affected by the formation had vanished at this moment, leaving only gentleness.

“All right!”

Ji Jiuxuan happily prepared to summon a small flying boat, only to be lifted up at once by the phantom.

Although Suixia had no physical body, the spiritual energy condensed around him gave his form little difference from that of a living person.

Curled in the phantom’s arms, Ji Jiuxuan grew curious what treasure lay beneath the earth to warrant such an enormous display.

In an instant, she found the surroundings had changed completely. Beneath the black earth lay a space of more than a hundred square meters, covered by a giant formation from which golden light spilled out.

At the center of the formation sat a transparent coffin, and within it a long red box. The formation patterns upon the box were intricate to the extreme.

The moment the long box appeared, the system became unusually agitated.

“Contract with it.”

Sensing even the system’s voice trembling, Ji Jiuxuan was puzzled.

“Is there some heaven-defying treasure inside?”

From the system’s behavior, she had always thought there was probably nothing in the world that could cause it such a strong emotional fluctuation. She had not expected to witness it today.

“Can you tell me what it is?”

She tried to open it and take a look. The instant her hand touched the box, the formation began to rotate. It did not attack her, but neither could it be opened.

“Once you contract with it, you’ll know.”

So mysterious?

She looked up toward the phantom. He was standing off to one side, and in this darkness he seemed to glow.

Sensing her gaze, the phantom said gently, “You can only use a blood contract for this.”

A blood contract differed from a soul contract in certain respects, and the bond it formed between the two sides was stronger.

The system and the phantom were both worthy of trust, and since she did not know what was inside the long box, she simply cut her finger. The moment her blood dripped onto the formation on the box, light blazed brilliantly.

She instinctively covered her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw a long sword standing in midair. Its blade shimmered with sharpness, and its understated hilt of blue-green carried a quiet luxury.

The entire sword gave off an impression of freshness, swiftness, and lethal grace.

“It is called the Bluefall Sword. Do you like it?” The system’s voice was filled with anticipation.

“I like it.”

Her hand moved on its own. Sensing her presence, the Bluefall Sword flew straight toward her. With a soft whoosh, it entered her body and disappeared without a trace.

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