Chapter 208: The Radiance of the Divine Artifact (2)

Hao’s heart was bleeding and weeping in halves, murmuring to himself about what to do with the situation.

“If he were a man, I’d suggest you castrate him,” Hun Yuanzi also felt sorrow rising within him. “Unfortunately, she’s a woman, so you’d better castrate yourself.”

“Why?” Yang Hao was already deeply distressed.

“So you’ll learn a lesson and never provoke women again,” Hun Yuanzi gritted his teeth bitterly. He had completely forgotten that it was he himself who had drugged Amanda and encouraged Yang Hao to seduce her.

“Open the furnace!!!” After flipping through books for a long time without any results, Amanda shouted loudly, deciding to open the furnace to see what would happen.

The term “open the furnace” was naturally something she had learned from the book. Opening the furnace didn’t actually mean opening the entire sword-forging furnace, but rather opening a small door at the bottom side. Through this door, the already boiling molten iron would flow through a pipe into a massive swimming pool that had been prepared in advance.

That swimming pool belonged to Amanda.

The people around had waited for a long time, eager to see what the daughter of the ruling family was up to. After enduring thick smoke and intense heat for so long, the moment finally arrived.

A deafening hiss filled the air. Instantly, the entire swimming pool of water vaporized, and white steam enveloped the area so densely that you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face.

The cooled molten iron also emitted a crackling explosion at just the right moment, indeed appearing quite impressive and filling the crowd with hope amidst the fog.

Thousands of years ago forging techniques, combined with the power of the Primordial Flame, and Yang Hao’s four legendary flying swords, naturally could not produce something too shoddy. Even if it didn’t reach the level of a divine artifact, it should at least be better than before.

As the white mist dissipated, all was quiet. People’s gazes were magnetically drawn to something lying still in the swimming pool.

The object was grayish-black, irregular in shape, rough on the surface with not a glimmer of reflection, lying at the bottom of the pool without the slightest trace of spiritual aura.

Then came a cold wind, which not only lowered the temperature but also carried whispers among the crowd.

“What is it…?”

“Some kind of thing?”

“Trash,” someone finally said definitively.

“Trash, definitely trash,” more people echoed. Eventually, everyone nodded in agreement, unanimously deciding that Amanda had spent hundreds of millions, mobilized seven master craftsmen, followed ancient secret recipes, and destroyed four flying swords, only to end up with an ordinary piece of scrap iron.

Yang Hao wanted to burst into tears. If not for his reputation as a leader, he would have embraced the scrap and committed suicide. Those four fine flying swords had helped him kill, rob, and survive in the wild, earning great merit. But now, they had suffered a tragic end, leaving not even an image behind.

Amanda seemed unprepared for such an outcome. She stuck out her tongue, pretending not to hear the criticisms, and waved her hand for her subordinates to lift the scrap and throw it back into the furnace for another attempt.

This time, many onlookers sneered and walked away. If one round of firing only produced scrap, how would firing it multiple times change anything?

This was naturally also Yang Hao’s thought. He watched helplessly as the flying swords melted into molten iron, which then turned into waste, and now that waste was being turned into a red-hot soup under the temperature of the Primordial Flame.

That was the Primordial Flame, a treasure even the Senate couldn’t obtain. How could it only be used for destruction?

“You’re all wrong,” Hun Yuanzi seemed to calm down and spoke out sternly. “Little girl, you don’t understand anything and dare to mess around.”

“How can I not understand?” Amanda naturally refused to admit it. She waved the book in her hand. “In the past, Gan Jiang and Mo Ye forged swords exactly like this.”

“You should read the book carefully. How did Mo Ye finally succeed in forging the sword?” Hun Yuanzi surprisingly remembered the legend clearly. “Gan Jiang forged the sword for nine days and nights, but the dark iron still wouldn’t melt. Finally, Mo Ye threw herself into the fire, using her own body as a catalyst to forge the sword.”

“Eh?” Yang Hao was startled. He had never heard this legend before.

Amanda’s face turned pale. Obviously, what Hun Yuanzi said was exactly written in the book. Her hands were trembling slightly. She clearly understood that today’s sword forging method was completely correct, but where was the problem? Could it really only be resolved by the final method?

Yang Hao angrily said, “What nonsense about throwing oneself into the fire? In this world, who would be such a woman? Who would give up her life just to forge a sword. I think this legend is fake from the beginning, the whole story is just a lie.”

But while he refused to believe, someone else did. Before Yang Hao had even finished speaking, Amanda, standing beside him, suddenly leaped, actually jumping into the mouth of the furnace.

She had jumped into the furnace.

This sudden change was unexpected for anyone. Yang Hao was even less prepared. He acted quickly, the moment Amanda moved, he reached out to pull her back, but he only managed to touch a strand of her long hair before the woman had already fallen into the furnace.

The flames grew fiercer, and the cold wind brought the chill of early winter.

Without hesitation, Yang Hao climbed over the railing and jumped into the furnace after her.

The story of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye sacrificing themselves to forge a sword is one of the most famous legends in history. However, by this era, no one knew of it anymore. The ancient text in Amanda’s possession would have been useless in anyone else’s hands, because no one else would have been willing to pay such a great price just to forge a sword, much less give up their life for it.

But for Amanda, this was not just about forging a sword. It was about her feelings for Yang Hao, her love, and her anger toward Ling Ziyang.

In other words, if Ling Ziyang could get pregnant for Yang Hao, then Amanda could give her life to forge a sword.

So she jumped into the furnace.

The Primordial Flame, as if receiving some kind of revelation, suddenly expanded several times over, releasing an ancient fire, a flame with all elemental attributes, a force capable of burning everything into oblivion, unleashing all its heat.

Amanda was like a falling leaf, drifting toward the furnace’s base, resolute. Yang Hao chased after her, feeling the rising temperature inside the furnace and despair beginning to fill his heart.

Amanda had jumped into the furnace before Yang Hao, and she had done so with the resolve to die, so she fell quickly. Yang Hao, at his current speed, had no chance of pulling her back. The temperature of the Primordial Flame inside the furnace was so intense it nearly burned everything to a crisp. Although he hadn’t yet reached the bottom, his skin already felt scorched.

Yang Hao watched Amanda fall halfway, her protective suit already catching fire. His anxiety was beyond words. With a sharp cry, a grayish phantom suddenly detached from his physical body, descending even faster.

Yang Hao had no other choice. If those flying swords were still in his possession, he could have flown fast enough to stop Amanda, but now, to save her, he had no choice but to use his infant soul.

The speed of the infant soul was indeed faster than his physical body, but in that fleeting moment, Amanda was already nearly at the bottom of the furnace. Yang Hao’s infant soul caught up behind her. He reached out, grabbed her hair, and with a hard pull, flung her burning body toward his physical form still suspended midair.

His physical body was under Hun Yuanzi’s control, who would catch Amanda.

But the momentum of the pull sent Yang Hao’s infant soul tumbling further toward the furnace’s bottom.

And then, the Primordial Flame erupted one final time. The blazing energy, as if from hell itself, completely engulfed Yang Hao’s infant soul.

A pain, a pain so intense it seemed capable of burning away his very spirit, pierced into Yang Hao’s infant soul. Every ancient text records that the Primordial Flame can burn away anything it desires, including spiritual forms.

In this endless agony, Yang Hao’s infant soul could barely endure. It seemed certain that it would be consumed by the Primordial Flame. Although this flame was also a source of immense, radiant power, it was merciless in devouring life.

Just as Yang Hao gradually lost consciousness and thought he was surely doomed, suddenly a very strange sensation arose. It felt like a gentle touch, as if some part of his body was quietly growing. Something seemed to be growing inside him, and his spirit, his soul, and his heart were slowly expanding.

Something that originally did not belong to Yang Hao was slowly piercing into his infant soul from the outside, merging with it, forming a complete entity.

Yang Hao could feel the power of this thing, which had grown to an astonishing level. Even if he added up the power of all his previous flying swords, it would only amount to about a tenth of this thing’s strength. Moreover, this object had a very peculiar attribute—it was somewhat like fire, yet within the fire was a coolness, sometimes even making people unaware of its presence.

Yang Hao’s infant soul was carried upward by this thing.

From the perspective of the onlookers, the scene was terrifying. Although Amanda had been rescued, Yang Hao’s infant soul rose into the sky, engulfed in flames, seemingly in great pain. Even more shocking and terrifying was a crescent-shaped flying blade, made of an unknown material, slowly passing through Yang Hao’s infant soul. Where the blade and the infant soul met, there was a sense of perfect harmony, as if they were originally one, merely two different forms.

This process was brief, lasting only a few seconds, after which everything vanished. The several master craftsmen watching closely thought they must have been seeing things. How could anyone possibly return from the Primordial Flame? Especially after rescuing Amanda first.

But Yang Hao indeed returned. When his infant soul returned to his physical body, he even gained a new sensation.

Behind Yang Hao’s physical body, the Star Cloud Flower seemed to bloom another petal. Since the beginning from the Divine Realm, this map of the Star Cloud Flower had always been attached to Yang Hao’s body. According to the great gods, once the Star Cloud Flower fully blooms, it will lead to the power of the strongest being left by the Creator in the universe.

But it requires three baptisms of light and three of darkness to fully bloom.

It was only after being baptized by the Black Dragon’s breath and the Great Light Spell that Yang Hao had acquired the Star Cloud Flower. Now, this strange red flower had bloomed another petal.