Chapter 4-1
Three days past after Zheng exchanged Tiger’s Soul. The other team members also exchanged their enhancements and stats. Extra points and rewards were spent on quite a few useful items such as the Charms of the Three Pure Ones, Freezing Pills, sniper rounds, enchanted arrows, special bullets for the the RPG, and others. This was probably the most enjoyable exchange they had made since entering the realm… The feeling of being rich was great.
Zheng on the other hand weren’t feeling so great. He could no longer use this crimson weapon after upgrading it to A tier.
When the beam landed on him and the sword, Zheng felt that he saw a white tiger lunged at him. Once the beam disappeared, a white mist cloaked the surface of the blade. The mist attempted to gather as though it was alive. However, every time it was about to form the shape of the white tiger, it dispersed. This was obviously not the complete form of Tiger’s Soul but a tier A unfinished product.
“Even an unfinished product… should still be better than the initial version.” Zheng murmured.
He grabbed the hilt. An aura of killing intent exploded from him. The people nearest to him, Kampa and Gando felt a pain on their chest and were sent flying before they could see what happened.
Zheng’s eyes were entirely red. He kicked the two people in the chest. Judging by that speed and power, he had entered Explosion. Kampa and Gando’s chests sunk in and blood was gushing out through their mouths as they lay there. It seemed that they were on the verge of dying.
“Aouh!” Zheng howled. The mist cloaked Tiger’s Soul slashed toward Heng.
Heng had exchanged the Lightning Elven Bloodline so his reaction was also quick. His eyes defocused at once and he rolled to the side before the sword hit him. Yet, a blast wave struck his back even after he rolled a few meters away. His back, spine, and through the chest disappeared.
Zheng didn’t hit Heng with the slash. However, no one remained standing within ten meters at the direction he attacked. A ferocious blast wave knocked everyone down. Heng suffered the most. Half his heart was crushed. Everyone else was wounded. YinKong was the most agile and only spit out a few mouthful of blood.
Zheng hadn’t finished yet. He leaped at ChengXiao who was standing in front of Lan. Tiger’s Soul slashed toward his head with the intent of slashing both of them to halves. A slim sliced mark appeared on ChengXiao’s head just from the aura itself.
“God! Full heal to everyone! Deduct the points from Zheng!” It was HongLu’s voice.
Several beams shot down and shrouded everyone. The beam also caught Zheng while he was still in mid air. He was roaring even when he floated inside the beam.
As the intensity of the beam increased, Tiger’s Soul was pushed off Zheng’s hand. He finally stopped struggling. His eyes returned to normal. He looked around nervously. The floor was stained with blood but everyone was in the beams. They suffered heavy injuries but no one died to him. God’s healing was all powerful. Even if the person was in his last breath, God could heal him to full.
Zheng said with remorse after the healing completed. “Sorry. Everyone… I was completely controlled by the adverse aura. A storm of hatred filled my heart when I wielded Tiger’s Soul. At the time, I wanted to kill everyone beside me. Fuck. This sword is overly evil. I don’t know what was happening with those attacks. They were powerful but every strike felt like dragging my soul out of my body. The world through my eyes were red as blood. Only the sword in my hand was pale white. A tiger’s head in the sword stared at me.”
This struck fears to everyone on the platform. Although they came from a modernized society and experienced horror movies and life and death battles, ghosts and the like that sought to consume human souls were still terrifying.
“Wait. Wait. There are writings on the sword.” TengYi suddenly said.
The others turned to him in surprise. TengYi carefully walked over to the sword then studied the blade. He read. “Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate… Don’t look at me like this. There are seven hate characters on the blade. Then it’s… Seven hatreds born with the world. First hate the passing away of youth. Second hate the non-rewindable time. Third hate the inconstant affairs of life. Fourth hate the unpredictable human minds. Fifth hate the lost of reasons to live. Sixth hate the lack of peace after death. Seventh hate for the heartless world. I exchange my loyalty and righteousness for seven hatreds. Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate.”
The team circled around Tiger’s Soul. Strange characters appeared on the blade that used to be crimson red. TengYi said these characters were the Oracle Bone Script that was the earliest form of hand writing in China. People nowadays could rarely recognize this script. He learned it from his master, who was also a tomb raider.
Although they knew what the characters meant, no one figured out how that would be useful to Tiger’s Soul. The sword performed beyond a tier A magical weapon after the upgrade. The power of those few attacks was partially due to Zheng’s own strength but they still surpassed tier A weapons by a lot. It wasn’t unreasonable to rank it as a S tier weapon. Excalibur in comparison wasn’t at the same level as Tiger’s Soul. Though it had a hidden ability and Tiger’s Soul had the flaw of losing control. The presence the sword gave off was still astonishing.
“Unfortunately, even the best weapon is useless if you can’t use it…” This was Zheng’s last sigh.
He researched how to use the sword for three whole days. However, the frenzy overtook him every time he wielded the sword. And the other members had to yell for a heal from afar to save him. Xuan stayed in his room doing strange things. HongLu also said he couldn’t find a way to tame the sword. Zheng had tried everything he could think of. No matter how powerful the sword was, it was worse than the non-upgraded version at this point.
“This is the last try. If I still can’t use it, I will just exchange another weapon.” Zheng took a deep breath and nodded to the team members standing near the edge of the platform.
Aside from researching how to use Tiger’s Soul, he spent his time refining his Qi during these three days. He refined and condensed his Qi little by little in the fourth stage. The gas like Qi became a liquid and even solid. However, as he tried to refine it further, the solidified Qi suddenly turned back to a gas again. This new Qi was more unrestrained, as if it was alive. The Qi flowed lively in his body.
Zheng didn’t know how to use the new Qi. It no longer possessed the attributes of Qi, such as enhancing his physical abilities or gathering to form a destructive force. However, this Qi had the peculiar attribute of fusion. It would absorb both Qi and Blood Energy if they came into contact with it. The energy that it absorbed did not add to the little puff and seemed to just disappeared.
This was the reason Zheng turned to Tiger’s Soul again after he learned of the attribute of the new Qi. The biggest change that happened to the sword was the white mist. He thought that if he cleared the mist, he could wield the sword again. Now then, he wanted to see if the new Qi could absorb the mist.
Zheng shrouded his hand with the new Qi then reached for Tiger’s Soul. A icy consciousness passed through his hand and into his mind. The Qi did not absorb the mist and instead blocked off the controlling property. Zheng’s mind connected with the newly born consciousness that belonged to Tiger’s Soul.
It was the creator of Tiger’s Soul, who killed his loyal mount, the White Tiger, and spawned the endless hatred.