In a valley of the Ice Finger Mountain Range.
Four handleless sword blades danced in the air, each of a different color—blue, red, purple, silver—like four agile dragons, moving fast and slow as they traced afterimages along their distinct paths, yet highly unified, forming a combined stance of offense and defense.
Amid the whistling of the sword lights, Ji Xinghuo stood at the center, deeply concentrated.
However, in less than two minutes, his expression became strained and gradually he found it difficult to continue.
"Can’t hold on anymore."
Ji Xinghuo’s focus waned.
The four beams of sword light immediately returned like swallows to their nest, falling from the sky and revealing blades of various colors, which quickly shrank and combined into a bracelet.
He caught the Spirit Sword Bracelet and observed it in the palm of his hand.
The power of this spiritual weapon was stronger than he had anticipated, and its functions were more abundant.
The only drawback was that it consumed too much spiritual energy.
Spiritual energy is transformed from Star Power, and with his current Star Power of over 3200 points, if he activated all four sword blades at once, he could maintain them for a maximum of two minutes. This was only for controlling the blades; if he were to engage in intense combat and activate the abilities attached to the swords, the time would be even shorter.
Nevertheless, the Spirit Sword Bracelet was absolutely worth it!
He had spent the entire day exploring how to use it and had already mastered it.
The material used to forge the Spirit Sword Bracelet was a super-strong alloy he was unfamiliar with. It was very hard and tough, yet surprisingly light, and featured the properties of memory metal, possessing extremely high conductivity for spiritual energy, which surged in performance when activated with spiritual energy.
When the four blades were shrunk, they were only four centimeters long, and loading them with spiritual energy could enlarge and extend them to reveal their true form, reaching up to half a meter in length.
The blade, thin as a cicada’s wing, was extremely sharp.
Yet it was incredibly sturdy, which made Ji Xinghuo feel it was unbelievable.
Each sword blade came with two abilities attached.
Ji Xinghuo had simply named them according to their characteristics: Ice Sword, Fire Sword, Electric Sword, and Light Sword.
The Ice Sword came with the abilities "Ice Tide" and "Cold Ice Sword," capable of creating low temperatures to freeze targets nearby and producing three to eight cold ice sword blades, increasing the number of ice swords.
The Fire Sword came with "Flame Burst" and "High Temperature Beam," unleashing a wave of flame shock and emitting a laser-like beam from both ends, with extreme lethality.
The Electric Sword came with "Lightning Arc" and "Thunderclap," releasing lightning arcs from the sword and attacking the enemy’s hearing with a thunderous boom, catching them off guard.
The Light Sword came with "Refraction" and "Flash Burst," which could conceal the blade and suddenly emit a strong flash to cause blindness.
The quality of these abilities was not high, almost of an elite alien species.
But when combined together and driven by spiritual energy, they could unleash very formidable power.
Ji Xinghuo could hardly believe that this was merely a Superpower Three Stars rather than an Apocalypse weapon.
But on careful comparison, the difference was clear.
The Apocalypse One Star’s Purple Lightning Sword was not only sharper and faster but also ran on electricity and had a fully automated support control system.
Whereas the Spirit Sword Bracelet required his control, severely depleting his focus and Star Power, and its lethality was limited to within the range of the spiritual energy.
The gap between them was indeed significant.
If he could solve the control and consumption issues, the Spirit Sword Bracelet might not be much worse than the Purple Lightning Sword.
But that was too difficult!
In terms of control, after initiating Overclocking Thought, Ji Xinghuo could manage to operate all four sword blades simultaneously while also focusing on close combat. However, Overclocking Thought also consumed a lot of Star Power. When activated, his Star Power decreased even faster, and he could maintain it for only one minute.
He finally understood why that legendary Ice Master hadn’t used the Spirit Sword Bracelet right from the start.
The legendary First Dan Ice Master’s Star Power might be similar to his own.
If he activated the Spirit Sword Bracelet at the start of every battle, without immediately killing the enemy, he would then find himself in a very passive situation.
"I can’t use it recklessly either."
"I have to reach 10,000 points in Star Power to just about manage using all four Spirit Swords simultaneously."
"In future battles, I’ll activate only one sword blade as needed."
Ji Xinghuo’s thoughts moved, and the Spirit Sword Bracelet separated into four segments, reassembling itself on his left wrist, where he then wore it.
He walked into a cave behind him where it was dry and warm, with a stove burning, and Qing Hong lay sleeping next to it. It had just eaten a roasted prey and was very satisfied, sleeping soundly. Although it had undergone gene recombination, Qing Hong still retained some snake-like habits, desiring to hibernate in the cold environment.
"Tomorrow is your turn," Ji Xinghuo said, and Qing Hong opened its eyes, looking a bit dazed.
The next day, dawn broke.
Ji Xinghuo left the cave; it was a clear and bright day, and although still very cold, the sky was a vast expanse of blue.
"A good time to hunt."
He packed up his things and took to the sky, but not too high, skimming the mountainous terrain towards the Ice Lake where the Thousand-legged Ice Worm resided.
It wasn’t long before he arrived. The hole he had made yesterday had already frozen over, and except for some dark red stains on the ice, there were no signs of the previous day’s battle.
In his electromagnetic induction, the Thousand-legged Ice Worm was still hibernating in its burrow.
Ji Xinghuo landed gently on the ice, estimating the position and distance. The burrow of the Thousand-legged Ice Worm was in the mountain next to the lake, about five hundred meters away in a straight line. The hidden underwater passage was the only entrance; if he were to dive in, he would certainly alert it.
In previous days, he had also killed one or two Thousand-legged Ice Worms in the Ice Finger Mountain Range.
Even though they were just at the Elite Level, the alien species within them showed that this type of worm-like monster was highly sensitive to touch and hearing.