Flash!
The second Long Chen touched the Empyrean Dragon Sword, his vision was engulfed in a sea of gold. It felt like he'd go blind in an instant if he kept staring at it.
But just as soon as that sea of gold appeared, it started condensing until it formed tens of thousands of needles that hovered in the sky.
"This…"
Before Long Chen could marvel at the sight, the needles rushed toward his body. He hurried to dodge, but his body wasn't listening to his command.
'I refuse to accept that I'll die so pathetically!' Long Chen roared inwardly. He furiously struggled against the suppression he was feeling, rousing all his mana and even emitting a fierce Sword Aura that tried to break his shackles.
But it was all for naught. The chains holding him in place were made of a material he couldn't begin to fathom. So with no other choice, he faced the coming catastrophe head-on.
"Come!"
As if responding to his provocation, the needles moved with the speed of wind. The first two needles appeared in front of his eyes within a second and pierced through them directly.
"ARGH!" Long Chen groaned in pain. Blood leaked from his eyes. It was obvious that he had been blinded in one strike.
But as if that wasn't enough for him, Long Chen continued to roar. "Do you think taking my sight is enough to stop me?! Come! If you don't kill me now, you'll be the one to die in the future!"
He didn't know who was attacking him, nor did he care. He engraved the humiliation he was feeling right now in his heart as he endured the pain in his eyes. He wasn't a coward by any means. Either he'd die here, or he'd come back when he had enough power and kill whoever did this to him.
The needles raged to life. Two at a time, they flashed in front of his face and stabbed deep into his eyes. As time passed, there was no longer any delay between when a pair of needles stabbed him and when the next pair arrived to do the same.
"AHHHHHHH!"
Long Chen's piercing roars of pain were enough to shake the world. It was as if the Heavens had acknowledged his pain, causing the world to mourn with him.
But even as natural phenomena continued to accompany his torture, it didn't pause for a second. Tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, the needles didn't stop until there weren't any remaining in the air.
"Ack…haa…" Long Chen struggled to breathe. He couldn't even move his head anymore. When he spread his awareness, he understood why.
As tens of thousands of needles pierced his eyes, they slowly conglomerated and merged. Now, what was left in his head was no longer small enough to be considered a needle.
Two massive stakes extended a foot from the front of his head, piercing through his eyes and cleanly exiting out the back. From how it looked, even Long Chen's brain and skull had been pierced through.
But that was wrong. After all, he was still conscious and thinking even after the process ended.
Clang! Clang!
The sound of metal falling to the ground filled his ears. The ethereal chains that held him down had released him from their shackles.
'This…even if it's done now, what's the use?' Long Chen muttered annoyedly. It wasn't a short process for tens of thousands of needles to pierce his eyes, so he had already somewhat adapted to the pain.
And even if he was blind, he could use his awareness to see the area around him. For now, at least, it wasn't that big of a problem.
But for a cultivator, losing their eyes wasn't something they could easily come back from. For most, it was a crippling injury that would destroy their ambitions for strength.
But was Long Chen the type to give up? He was already thinking of dozens of ways to heal his eyes. If it wasn't for the adrenaline desperately pumping through his blood at the moment, perhaps he wouldn't have been sane enough to even do so.
'Fuck it.'
Long Chen cursed inwardly. He reached up and grabbed the stakes in his eyes.
It was his final act of defiance before accepting his new circumstances.
"AAAAAARGH!"
The stakes didn't move at the pace he wished for them to. Even though they had no sentience of their own, they seemed to move in a way that would cause him to experience the most possible pain.
Inch by inch, the stakes were slowly pulled out. The ethereal golden light that formed them was now colored in red blood and bits of mush left over from Long Chen's eyes.
"FUCK! JUST COME OUT ALREADY!"
Long Chen roared one final time. He yanked them with all his strength, once again exerting mana to strengthen himself. And finally, with a gruesome popping sound, the stakes left his head.
"Haa…haa…agh!"
It seemed the next thing that was supposed to happen was blood dripping to the ground from Long Chen's empty eye sockets, but that situation never got to see the light of day.
'Hm? No blood?' Long Chen shakily raised his arm and touched his eyelid, pushing it up slightly. And completely unexpected to him, there was something filling his eye socket.
'My eyes were destroyed. I can see the mush they turned into through my awareness. If so, what is this?'
He suddenly noticed that his eyelids were closed. Slowly but surely, they fluttered open on his command.
Whoosh!
The world entered Long Chen's eyes, but it was a completely different world than what he had ever seen before.
Elemental essences and ambient mana flowed through the air in front of him, denoted in the different colors that represented them. When he looked at the cave wall to his side, his vision suddenly expanded, piercing through it and seeing the scene that was behind.
'This is…!'
It wasn't just that much. He could feel his Sword Aura far more clearly than he ever had before. And more importantly, he could clearly understand the fundamental workings of many mysteries he couldn't solve in the past.
Long Chen opened his status in that instant. He didn't believe that this was some coincidence. And as he expected, there was a new section he had never seen before.
Trait(s): [Draconic Eyes]
A trait. Something that only beasts usually possessed, with a rare few humans inheriting them as well. Even when humans usually had special eyes, they were categorized as constitutions rather than traits.
Long Chen's blood raged as he read the name of his new trait. The suffering and humiliation he had just gone through, unexpectedly it was an opportunity rather than a misfortune.
Bzzz!
He felt something trembling on the ground below. As he looked down, the two golden stakes he pulled from his eyes merged together. The light that covered their physical form disappeared at the same time.
A large greatsword appeared before his eyes. Its length was greater than 2 meters, it's girth just as massive. Its handle had an ornate design that was to be expected of an Ancient Sect like the one that birthed it.
'Empyrean Dragon Sword.'
It was a sword that started from nothing. It was purchased as a normal B-rank artifact in the Armament Pavilion of the Empyrean Dragon Sect. Yet, over time, it slowly began to reveal its glory in the hands of its master.
Long Tiandi, the Founding Ancestor of the Long Clan.
It was rumored within the Long Clan that their Founding Ancestor had king ascended to the Heavenly World, the Land of Gods. What he left behind for his descendants was his prized sword and most trusted companion.
And now, that sword had finally found the place where it belonged once more.
Long Chen grabbed the hilt of the sword tightly. His scarlet red eyes shone brightly, the vertical slits decorating them contracting in glee.
'Accompany me from now on.' He spoke to the sword in his hand. 'Together, we shall reign above all. Even the rumored Heavenly World will not be a match for us.'
Bzzzt!
The sword let out an excited whir, crackling with golden Sword Aura. Seeing its excited reaction, Long Chen smiled.
'Now then, it's time for me to leave this realm.'
