Chapter 1404: The Baton
Before Bai Kou could stop him, Jiangnan had already vanished from where he stood!
As Jiangnan the Schemer, how could he not leave a spatial imprint on the Black Stone Altar when collecting the Oracle Tears?
"Boom!"
The Black Stone Altar, three hundred meters in diameter, suddenly appeared on the flat-topped snowy mountain!
The skeletal remains of the Oracle God at the center of the altar were perfectly intact!
The moment it was swapped over, the space behind the Oracle God once again shattered like a spiderweb!
As long as the inscriptions on the remains were not erased, the Oracle God would not stop refining the Oracle Tears!
The Black Stone Altar was swapped out, but Jiangnan himself fell into the dimensional gap!
Bai Kou watched the crack on the Blue Ice Wall with extreme anxiety in her eyes!
It was rapidly closing!
She paced around in a panic!
(งᵒ̌﹏ᵒ̌)ง "Jiangnan, you madman!"
Bai Kou would never have imagined that Jiangnan would swap the Oracle God out in this way!
His earlier words about making sure the Oracle God would see the future as he wished felt like a sharp arrow!
Stabbing fiercely into Bai Kou's heart!
She couldn't quite understand why this seemingly cynical troublemaker would go to such lengths on this matter?
Watching the crack on the Blue Ice Wall close, Bai Kou's heart sank to the bottom.
(❆˃̣̣̥᷄～˂̣̣̥᷅) "Damn it!"
(•́.̫•̀) "Hey! You shouldn't curse like that! By the way, what spiritual ruin is this?"
Hearing the voice from behind, Bai Kou was startled and spun around.
She saw Jiangnan standing there like a bloody gourd, half of his lower leg severed.
He was holding a shriveled ginseng and eating it in large bites, activating his Little Whip's blood-drinking ability!
His lower leg regenerated at an astonishing speed, restoring itself in the blink of an eye.
Bai Kou's mouth fell open, her eyes wide as she stared at Jiangnan, unable to speak for a long moment.
(❅ʘ̆⌂ʘ̥̆) "You really don't value your life, do you!"
Jiangnan let out a burp.
(*¯ㅿ¯*;) "Hmph~ I wouldn't do anything I wasn't sure about!"
As long as the Blue Ice Wall hadn't fully closed, the space on both sides was connected, and returning was just a matter of teleporting with a mark!
Of course, he had his own imprint on Bai Kou too.
Seeing Jiangnan return safely and the Oracle God's remains still there, Bai Kou finally let out a long sigh of relief.
"This is the Hanshan Spirit Ruin. It and the Oracle Spirit Ruin are a rare pair of twin spirit ruins, right next to each other, separated only by a Blue Ice Wall!"
"A thousand years ago, this place served as the base for the Ancient Holy Star, raising many space-type spirit beasts to be used as power sources."
Jiangnan's eyes lit up.
(͡°﹃͡°)✧ "Indeed, this is a space-type spirit ruin; otherwise, why would the spatial energy be so dense?"
"So that means there are space spirit beasts here?"
Jiangnan almost drooled.
Bai Kou shook her head: "Not sure. By that time, the God-Slaying War had ended, and the Holy Star retreated. They nearly slaughtered all the spirit beasts in Hanshan Spirit Ruin."
"Using their spirit beads as power sources, we discovered the Star Gate here back then."
"But we didn't have the key, so we ended up replicating two Star Rings."
Jiangnan swallowed, his small face flushing with excitement.
(งᵒ̌.̫ᵒ̌)ง "There's a Star Gate here too?"
Holy crap! There was one in the Void Sea that he took; is there one here too?
Jiangnan could hardly contain his urge to explore.
Before Jiangnan could act, Bai Kou grabbed his arm.
"What?"
Bai Kou's expression was serious.
(❅⁰̷̴◠⁰̷̴) "Do you want the blade?"
Jiangnan was startled, then his eyes filled with joy, his gaze falling on the crystal longsword in the Oracle God's arms.
It would be a lie to say he didn't want it, but that was the Oracle God's blade, accompanying him through countless battles.
It carried the Oracle God's honor.
Under normal circumstances, Jiangnan would have snatched it up long ago.
But this was not just a simple blade; the burden it carried was very, very heavy.
(๑◔～◔ิ๑) "Can... can I take it?"
Seeing Jiangnan's expression of wanting it but being too shy to take it, Bai Kou broke into a smile.
(ᵔ◡ᵔ❅) "If you want it, then take it. The Godslayer Blade is meant to slay gods. Sheathing it only renders its existence meaningless."
"Baring its edge and chilling the skies with its blade light is its true destiny."
"But you need to think clearly: this is not just a blade. If you take it, you must live up to its name!"
Jiangnan was silent, his eyes fixed on the Godslayer Blade, struggling inwardly for a long time.
In the end, he stepped forward, cupping his hands, and tried to take it.
But he couldn't lift it; the Oracle God's skeletal hands clutched the blade tightly.
Bai Kou stood by quietly watching this scene, her mind filled with thoughts.
Jiangnan took a deep breath, his expression solemn.
"I can't guarantee anything now; the future is unpredictable."
"But the nine star marks on the scabbard won't be the limit. New star marks will be personally engraved by me, Jiangnan."
"Let this blade be stained with the blood of gods, never failing its name."
In this moment, Jiangnan's eyes held a wild, unruly edge.
Forced into a feigned death by the Holy Star, Jiangnan was also boiling with anger inside.
The moment the words fell, Jiangnan lifted it gently, and the Godslayer Blade, sheath and all, landed in his hands.
The Oracle God's remains... let go.
Jiangnan swallowed.
(☍﹏⁰。) Although he didn't believe in ghosts or gods, this was really eerie, wasn't it?
Bai Kou looked at Jiangnan, a hint of hope in her eyes.
This Godslayer Blade was like a baton.
Crossing a thousand years, it was handed to Jiangnan.
It wasn't just a blade; it was a mission.
If it were someone else, no matter how strong, Bai Kou would never have given the Oracle God's blade to him.
But Jiangnan was different; in him, Bai Kou saw the boldness of an Era Lord.
Due to his height, Jiangnan couldn't admire the blade enough; he had to store it in his Alternate Dimension first.
He had a satisfied expression—this haul was way too big, wasn't it?
(ૢ⁼̴̤̆ꇴ⁼̴̤̆ૢ)~ෆ
Bai Kou was serious.
(❆･᷅～･᷄) "Keep your word. If you can't do it, return the blade to me."
Jiangnan pouted.
(︶√︶*) "Hmph~ once a treasure is in my hands, it never goes back! Just wait and see! The front and back of the scabbard won't be enough for me to engrave!"
For some reason, Bai Kou felt a bit gratified. If the Oracle God could see this, he would surely be pleased too, wouldn't he?
The two first placed the Oracle God's remains on the flat-topped snowy mountain.
The Oracle Spirit Ruin was almost drained; in Hanshan Spirit Ruin, the Oracle God's remains would still continuously condense Oracle Tears.
Until the day it "sees" the future as it wishes.
Then Jiangnan and Bai Kou began to explore Hanshan Spirit Ruin.
Jiangnan was still thinking that if he could encounter some flashy space-type spirit beast, he could directly complete his Starlight technique!
If he couldn't, Xiao Lanhai's Gold technique was still empty!
But after exploring a while, Jiangnan's heart went cold.
In Hanshan Spirit Ruin, besides Jiangnan and Bai Kou, there was not a single living thing left!
Everywhere were scattered the corpses of space-type spirit beasts, and judging by their enormous size, their ranks were definitely not weak.
Moreover, the frozen corpses were still fairly fresh, having died at most half a year ago.
What surprised Jiangnan even more was that throughout the entire Hanshan Spirit Ruin, he didn't find a spatial gate exit.
The entire spirit ruin was in a sealed state.
Bai Kou frowned.
(❆･᷅～･᷄) "Who did this? It must have happened recently."
Jiangnan grinned: "Space-type spirit beasts have teleportation, making them extremely hard to kill, not to mention their tricky spatial skills."
"Yet these spirit beasts were almost all killed in one blow, and there are traces of extreme cold freezing."
"Able to achieve this level, slaughtering an entire space-type spirit ruin, only a Bose Body could do it."
"The Holy Star has been busy behind the scenes, haven't they?"
Jiangnan even discovered a giant penguin over a hundred meters in size.
At least Dao Heaven rank, but dead as well.
The two explored all the way until they found a complete Star Palace in front of a Blue Ice Wall.
It was extremely huge, made entirely of Blue Ice.
Bai Kou's expression was dazed: "This is it, the Star Gate should be inside."
Jiangnan rushed in impatiently, but the vast Blue Ice Star Palace was empty.
On the ground lay the corpse of a Space-Rending White Bear, broken into several pieces, also of Dao Heaven rank.
Jiangnan's mouth twitched: "I think I know where my Diamond skill came from!"
This Space-Rending White Bear wasn't killed by Igor and his crew, was it?
The spirit bead was given to Ruiya, and then I tricked her into giving it to me?
And now, Jiangnan himself had come to this spirit ruin...
What a freaking coincidence!
Sure enough, on the Blue Ice Wall there was only a huge circular groove, about three hundred meters in diameter.
Originally, it held the Star Gate, but that Star Gate was clearly taken by Igor.
Slaughtering all the space-type spirit beasts here was to provide a power source for the Star Gate, wasn't it?
Instantly, a sense of crisis enveloped Jiangnan.
Igor even used something like a Star Gate? What was he going to do with it?
What was he bringing over? Where was it being used?
This Star Gate couldn't have been used on the moon, could it?
Could the moon's mass loss be related to this Star Gate?
Jiangnan was getting anxious; he didn't know how Jian Ge's Moon Capture Plan was going outside.
According to timeline inference, the lunar satellite should have been completed, but he was inside the spirit ruin and couldn't receive messages.
He could only go out and check later.
Since things had come to this, being anxious wouldn't help; they had to take it step by step.
Bai Kou was also worried seeing the corpses everywhere; the Holy Star's actions were far faster than she had anticipated.
"There's no spatial gate! How are we going to get out? Can you open one?"
Jiangnan's face darkened: (̿▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿̿)̄ "You overestimate me. I'm only Diamond rank~"
"You should know some inscriptions, right?"
Bai Kou nodded: "I know a few, but I've forgotten a lot. My head is still a bit frozen."
Jiangnan giggled.
(˶‾᷄.̫‾᷅˵) "We came all the way to a space-type spirit ruin; we can't just leave empty-handed, can we?"
"A thief never returns empty... well, we might as well take something. Spirit ruins always have cores!"
"Especially the core of a space-type spirit ruin—that's good stuff!"
"Let's find the core first and see if we can open a door out!"
Bai Kou was surprised: "The spirit ruin core? Hanshan Spirit Ruin is so huge; how are we supposed to find it?"
Jiangnan patted his chest and smiled confidently: "I have experience. Follow me!"
The core of a space-type spirit ruin is the easiest to find; those snow-capped mountains floating in the air all have fragments buried inside.