I'm not just human!

Chapter 309 The Rhine Blade is finally in hand! The secret of the Old Ones?

Chapter 309 The Rhine Blade is finally in hand! The secret of the Old Ones? (Part 2)

boom!

In the quiet and deep darkness, a holy silver fireball emerged from Xia Fa's palm.

Although his spiritual intuition did not trigger a premonition of danger, Xia Fa still took precautions against the possibility that the location of the light was a trap.

Therefore, they chose to directly condense a silver fireball to provide illumination.

This is the effect of his increasingly proficient use of the various abilities of his most basic and fundamental overlord-level secret contract, [Silver Throne], after signing four overlord-level secret contracts. Simply put, silver mercury vapor mixed into this fireball and was ignited together.

The silver light, like holy light capable of purifying all evil, instantly dispelled the surrounding darkness.

Suddenly, a bright light shone from the belly of this Outer God-level monster.

Whoosh—!

A group of unidentified supernatural creatures, resembling birds but with spears stuck in their backs and six wings, flew over Xiafa's head with a whooshing sound, creating a strong gust of wind that almost extinguished the silver fireball.

Xia Fa raised his hand to protect his head from the strange birds, then looked back at the source of the light.

It was fine if he hadn't looked, but after seeing it clearly, Xia Fa was utterly astonished.

In the center of that "spider web," which looked like it had been magnified countless times and was made of bones, was a heart the size of a water tank.

The heart was bright red, but it was covered with all sorts of cold weapons: longswords, rapiers, lances, halberds, bronze axes—countless.

No, to be precise, these cold weapons seemed to have "grown" from that heart the size of a water vat.

In the very center of the heart is a round gem that emits a faint glow.

Just now, that light must have come from this round gemstone.

Those bones were actually dried-out blood vessels, all connected to the heart.

Both the heart and blood vessels had long since lost their vitality after tens of thousands of years, but Xia Fa could still recognize that those blood vessels and the heart did not originate from the same entity.

This heart—it seems more like the one from the Outer God who was brutally killed in the primordial ocean, carrying an intense aura of killing and metal.

These blood vessels, however, have a strong putrid and bloody stench, which is likely the origin of this monster.

"What's going on? Grafting?"

Xia Fa had to admit that the [Rhine Calamity] had really played some tricks while it was alive, actually transplanting the heart of an Outer God into the body of another Outer God-level unknown being, namely this monster.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this that so many supernatural creatures covered in weapons have been cultivated.

After the last treasure forging, Xia Fa had truly felt that the weapons growing from these supernatural creatures were all top-tier treasure forging materials of the same rank or level. Moreover, they naturally had the effect of increasing the success rate of treasure forging and the quality of the finished treasure.

If these "weapons" were taken outside, they would probably be fought over by treasure craftsmen and treasure masters.

Furthermore, considering the current situation where [Rhine Calamity] deliberately performs this transplant surgery solely to cultivate supernatural beings capable of growing weapons—

"Could it be that these three primeval zones were specifically created by the [Rhine Cataclysm] to provide them with materials for crafting secret treasures?"

They would capture oceans, forests, and deserts from the real world, then kill several Outer Gods, and graft the organs of one of these Outer Gods onto the corpses of the others, providing nourishment for the creatures in these regions.

Xia Fa once again exclaimed sincerely, "[Rhine Calamity] really knows how to play. No wonder it is an Old One with the same status as the true gods."

If [Rhine Calamity] weren't an Old One who seemed to be naturally opposed to humans, demi-humans, and the nine Great Gods, He might have become a very popular deity.

Thinking this, Xia Fa's gaze fell on the heart covered with weapons, especially the round gem in the center of the heart.

This round gemstone is jet black, yet it emits a light, and after 30,000 years, it seems to still possess a spiritual quality.

He's obviously not simple.

"Since we're already here—"

Xia Fa glanced at the heart and blood vessels. They had long since dried out, leaving only the outer shell. Although they wouldn't break at the slightest touch, since they were the heart and blood vessels of an Outer God, they were no longer of any use.

In other words, even if it is destroyed on the spot, it will not affect the ecosystem that has already formed in this primeval desert.

As for the weapons on the heart, they have lost all their spirituality. Otherwise, given the power of the weapons growing from the heart of an Outer God, Xia Fa suspected that he would have difficulty even getting close to this place, and would have been shattered by the terrifying killing aura emanating from the weapons if he was not careful.

In other words, the only useful thing is this mysterious and unknown jet-black round gemstone.

"call----"

Xia Fa took a deep breath, brought his palms together into a ball shape, and gathered them slightly in front of him.

Half of his extraordinary power was immediately drained from his body, and a flexible iron claw appeared in his palm. Several control lines formed by the condensation of extraordinary power extended from the iron claw.

Xia Fa first retreated to the outside of the monster's abdominal cavity and returned to the underground cave. Then, he trembled his five fingers and used the thin thread to control the iron claw, which reached for the black round gem.

Click.

With a soft click, he removed the jet-black round gem. The heart, covered in weapons, remained intact, and the surrounding bone-like blood vessels were unchanged.

No dangerous situation occurred.

"call""

Xia Fa let out a long breath. This jet-black round gem was at least from the heart of that Outer God, and it might even have been placed here by the [Rhine Calamity] before his death. Since he was going to take it, he could not be too careful.

Seeing that he had it in his hands, Xia Fa immediately pulled the iron claw back into his arms and then took off the jet-black round gem.

This jet-black, round gemstone was about the size of a lychee. It felt warm and cool to the touch and was quite heavy. However, when held in my hand, it neither absorbed the extraordinary power within Xia Fa's body nor underwent any unusual changes.

Xia Fa observed it carefully for a while, and even tried to inject extraordinary power into it. Apart from feeling that the extraordinary power injected into it was like a mud ox entering the sea without any ripples, he could not sense anything else.

"That's interesting—"

With his current extensive knowledge and understanding of occultism, Xia Fa was surprised that he couldn't figure out what this thing was at first glance, and an interest gleamed in his eyes.

However, now was not the time to delve deeper into the dark, round gem. After playing with it for a while, he prepared to put it into a separate pouch.

Suddenly, a strong resistance came from the black bag, like the repulsive force of like magnets. Xia Fa was shocked. This black round gem—it couldn't be put into the black bag.

He immediately had a guess in his mind.

Either this jet-black round gem is some kind of sealed artifact, and since it comes from the heart of an Outer God, then needless to say, the status of this sealed artifact must be incredibly high.

Either this jet-black round gemstone is extremely special, which is why it can't be put into or taken out of the black bag.

Seeing that he couldn't put it into the black bag, Xia Fa had no choice but to wipe his left waist with one hand and use the secret ability of "Imagination" to conjure up a fleshy bag on his left waist and stuff the black round gem into it.

After adjusting to the coldness in his left waist for a while, Xia Fa regained his composure, looked up again, and gazed at the supernatural creatures crawling along the arms extending from the giant monster's corpse.

It's time for a hunt.

Two hours later.

An old blacksmith shop.

From the circular pillar of light representing the primeval desert, Xia Fa's tall and agile figure flew out with a "whoosh".

After flying out, he pretended to be calm as he walked toward his treasure-forging platform, but inwardly he suddenly felt uneasy.

After all, he first went to the primordial ocean to dig out the treasure chest of the Outer God whose body was covered in weapons, and then went to the underground cave in the primordial desert to take away the black round gem from the Outer God's heart. Perhaps the soul of the [Rhine Calamity] would come to cause him trouble.

After taking a few steps and seeing that the soul of [Rhine Calamity] had not appeared, Xia Fa finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness, it seems the soul of the [Rhine Calamity] either doesn't care or is unaware of this matter.

"Shafa, you're back."

Seeing Xia Fa's figure emerge from the pillar of light in the primeval desert, Chestnut excitedly approached and asked, "How was the harvest?"

Xia Fa smiled slightly: "It's alright."

Chestnut said gently, "Come, sit down. Let me massage your shoulders. Thank you for your help."

Upon hearing this, Rusconzo and the others, who had been bored as spectators, immediately looked at Xia Fa with envy.

Coming to the old blacksmith to fight for the incomplete ancient treasure, the Rhine Blade, and yet he brings along such a well-behaved and gentle girlfriend—where can anyone find a reason to believe this?

Xia Fa didn't refuse, after all, Ban Li was already his girlfriend, and if he rashly rejected her, it would be easy to hurt Ban Li's feelings.

He immediately sat back down at his treasure-crafting platform, while Chestnut stood behind him, her gentle, nimble hands massaging his shoulders.

Xia Fa was a little uncomfortable at first, but he quickly closed his eyes and started to enjoy it. To be honest, the pressure his girlfriend used to massage his shoulders was just right, which relaxed his stiff and tense shoulder muscles caused by excessive pressure.

After pressing Chestnut for a while, Xia Fa felt it was about time, so she reached out and pressed Chestnut's soft, white hand on her shoulder, and said gently, "That's enough, thank you, darling."

Hearing such an intimate address, Chestnut's bright and beautiful face flushed red instantly. She turned her head away and looked shyly at the floor: "Um—it's what I should do. You, you continue to forge the treasure, I won't bother you anymore."

After saying that, she shyly ran towards her own treasure crafting platform. Although her treasure crafting platform disappeared because of her failure to advance, it still had seats, probably reserved for the competitors who would become spectators.

Seeing this, Xia Fa smiled and shook his head, never expecting his girlfriend to be so innocent and shy.

Seeing Chestnut sitting in his seat with his fluffy round ears blushing, he knew that if he went over now, Chestnut would probably be even more embarrassed. So he calmed himself down and prepared to start crafting the treasure.

Just then, a clanging sound rang out from a few treasure-forging platforms away.

Xia Fa turned his head and saw that it was Norton Dragon.

The young master of the Starry Sky Dragon Clan was taking out a red-hot metal ingot from the furnace. Ignoring the heat, he held it in one hand and began to hammer it with an iron hammer in the other.

This time, it was clearly not about giving the Crystal Flame Starry Sky Dragon inside his body a "snack," but rather about actually starting to create a secret treasure for the second round of the finals.

Moreover, it is obvious that Norton Dragon is determined to enter the finals. Even though there are still more than 20 hours left, he has already started building his equipment, and his expression is extremely focused.

Xia Fa couldn't help but peek, and saw Norton Dragon using only an iron hammer to hammer various metal ingots of different sizes and types into small parts.

Those small parts were extremely precise and had rather strange shapes. Some looked like beads, some like spearheads, and some were hollow spheres. They all had rather obscure and ancient secret inscriptions or magical circuits, and it was clear at a glance that they were extraordinary.

Norton quickly hammered out a dozen small parts, then reached into his pouch at his waist and took out a large pile of crafting materials for the secret treasures. After sorting them, he put them into the furnace one by one.

The furnace was powered up with extraordinary force, and soon melted into many completely different metal ingots. Norton took these metal ingots again and began to strike them once more.

"He absolutely has to make it to the finals—"

Thor Loki was also looking at the treasure-forging platform next to Shafa, and couldn't help but mutter a word of displeasure: "It seems that the Star Dragon family is preparing to take both spots in the finals."

Xia Fa silently withdrew his gaze, feeling an unprecedented pressure in his heart.

Nidhogg is one of the top 100 treasure masters in the entire universe, and he's almost guaranteed to make it to the finals, no doubt about it.

However, it now seems that the craftsmanship of Norton Dragon's secret treasure is probably also extremely high.

In this situation, with only two spots available for the finals in the second round, wouldn't it mean I'd never get a chance?

Let alone himself, even Thor Loki and Jack Falco probably wouldn't stand a chance; they're nowhere near as good as Nidhogg and Norton Dragon.

"Never mind, I'll just finish crafting the treasure I want to create first. Even if I don't make it to the finals, I can't give up—"

Xia Fa gave himself a pep talk, but now, he was afraid he could only focus on participating.

With a flick of his wrist, he produced a book of mysticism titled "A Record of Invitations to the Mysterious World," and turned to page 652.

With a "rip," he tore the page out.

On this page is a blueprint for a secret treasure called "Phantom Iron Crystal".

The market price of such treasures is very unstable, depending entirely on their quality. Good quality Illusionary Iron Crystal can sell for millions of gold pounds, while inferior quality Illusionary Iron Crystal may not even fetch tens of gold pounds.

Xia Fa decided to build this and take a gamble.

Some blueprints for crafting secret treasures are secrets that craftsmen and masters would never reveal, while others are common knowledge and can be found by anyone who wants to.

For example, the blueprints for crafting the most commonly used secret treasure, "Out of the Black Bag," can be bought in any extraordinary shop for as low as a few gold pounds, since they can be mass-produced using a printer.

As for the Illusionary Iron Crystal, it's similar, which is why it's recorded in this book of mysticism.

Xia Fa stumbled upon this while flipping through a book yesterday after he finished crafting that half-finished treasure.

It is said that a Dominator-quality Illusionary Iron Crystal, simply by holding it in one's hand, can cast illusions on enemies of the Dominator rank, can create group illusions within the area of ​​a giant city, and can even create illusions that are invisible to beings of the Dominator rank.

Although he knew he was unlikely to be able to create a Phantom Iron Crystal of this caliber, Xia Fa still wanted to give it a try.

Of course, if you were to create a fungal-grade phantom iron crystal, that would be terrible. Its only effect would be to cast illusions on insects when held in your hand, and the insects couldn't exceed one centimeter in size.

Without much thought, Xia Fa immediately activated the circular light shield of his treasure-forging platform to prevent others from obtaining information about his treasure-forging activities.

Then, he took out the secret crafting materials needed to forge the Illusionary Iron Crystal and began to forge it step by step according to the steps on the blueprint.

Smelting — Inscribing secret runes with extraordinary power — Hammering out the approximate shape —

Return to the furnace — inscribe the second layer of secret text again — continue hammering to shape —

Remelting — Carving the circuit — Performing three strikes —

As Xia Fa continued building, he gradually entered a state of complete absorption in the world around him, and time flew by unnoticed.

"Everyone, there are only five minutes left! You can now place your crafted treasures into your respective miniature ritual teleportation arrays."

The lively and excited voice of the soul of [Rhine Calamity] suddenly rang out, instantly waking Shafa from his immersive state.

Only five minutes left —

He felt inexplicably nervous, but fortunately, the forging of the Illusionary Iron Crystal was almost complete.

Only the final step remains: to completely set the shape by tapping.

Xia Fa took a deep breath to calm his tense mind. For this final blow, he chose to imagine Nidhogg's hammer in his mind again, using the two secret abilities of "Miracle" and "Imagination" to imitate and reproduce it.

This time, however, he abandoned even the technique of striking with a hammer, taking only a bit of its essence, the essence of the moment when the treasure was shaped.

when--!

With a single strike of the hammer, a dazzling array of seven colors shone forth from the anvil!

A translucent gemstone shaped like a dodecahedron appeared on the anvil, its interior shimmering with a mesmerizing and dazzling light, as if a single glance would plunge one into a hallucination.

However, Xia Fa only glanced at the Illusionary Iron Crystal before letting out a deep sigh.

Success, indeed, he succeeded in creating it. Given that he had never signed any "Treasure Apprentice" or "Treasure Craftsman" contracts, the fact that he could create a Phantom Iron Crystal of this quality is already a testament to his exceptional talent and astonishing talent.

But unfortunately, his opponents were Nidhogg and Norton Dragon, and even Jack Falco.

The Illusionary Iron Crystal in front of us is only of demigod quality, worth at most about 500,000 gold pounds.

"There's nothing I can do. I've done my best."

Xia Fa comforted himself with this thought as he placed the freshly forged Illusion Iron Crystal onto the miniature ritual teleportation array that appeared on the treasure forging platform.

Not long after it was placed there, suddenly, the circular light shield that enveloped his treasure-making platform disappeared.

The circular light shields of the other treasure crafting platforms also disappeared one after another, leaving only five contenders standing in front of their respective treasure crafting platforms.

Nidhogg crossed his arms, his face expressionless, seemingly without a doubt that he had advanced to the finals.

Norton Long sat leisurely in his seat, his eyes filled with an air of unwavering confidence, as if he were certain he would make it to the finals.

Thor Loki, on the other hand, was sighing and looking pale, as if he had been struck by something.

"Norton Dragon is indeed extraordinary. He's only a craftsman of secret artifacts, yet he's already approaching the level of a master craftsman! This Sacred Crystal Flame Shuttle he forged this time—if it were available outside, it would probably fetch at least 3.5 million gold pounds."

"Yes, Nidhogg even created a quasi-god-level artifact. Although it's incomplete, it's still worth at least five million gold pounds."

"It looks like this Rhine Horse-Slaying Blade is going to be taken by the Starry Sky Dragon family."

"Yes, it doesn't matter who wins the finals, since the uncle and nephew both belong to the Starry Sky Dragon family anyway."

"Sigh, I'm just not as skilled as them, there's nothing I can do about it."

As the finalists were about to be announced, Amphion and other spectators couldn't help but start discussing it.

Of course, the only people who actually participated in the discussion were Amphion himself, Thorloki, and that very old man from the Gilgamesh family.

As for Ai Luotong, she sat quietly in her seat, as if it were none of her business.

Chestnut, however, was looking in Xia Fa's direction, nervously clutching the hem of her clothes, with her other hand on her chest, waiting for the announcement of the advancement results.

After listening carefully, Xia Fazai finally understood why Thor Loki and Jack Falco looked so dejected.

A treasure worth 3.5 million gold pounds versus a treasure worth 5 million gold pounds—how can you even compare them!

My own Illusionary Iron Crystal, worth at most 500,000 gold pounds, is probably not even worth a hair on the surface.

However, since the results were about to be announced and the Illusionary Iron Crystals had already been submitted, Xia Fa could only wait quietly.

In the center of the old blacksmith's plaza, the soul of [Rhine Calamity] rested its six left hands on its chin, while its six right hands supported its left, a thoughtful expression on its face.

His gaze fell upon an empty space, a completely empty space, yet from that place, faint fluctuations of different secret treasures emanated.

Clearly, it was judging the treasures submitted by the five contenders, but for some reason, it placed these treasures in a subspace that only it could see, preventing the contestants from seeing them.

"Hmm—the first person to advance to the finals—"

The spirit of [Rhine Calamity] suddenly spoke, and a simple sentence made everyone present tense.

"Without a doubt, it must be Nidhogg. This 'Ten Thousand Trees' is exquisitely crafted, truly ingenious. If you weren't merely a Mystic Emperor who had signed twenty-five secret contracts and hadn't yet reached the rank of Divine Being, this treasure might very well be a Mystic Treasure."

Upon hearing that he had advanced and received such high praise from the soul of [Rhine Calamity], even the dignified and aloof Nidhogg couldn't help but let a smug smile creep onto his lips.

After all, this is praise from an Old One, almost on par with praise from the nine Great Gods!

"As for the second person to advance—it is Xia Fa."

It really is Xiafa!

Upon hearing this, Xia Fa sighed inwardly, but immediately realized something was amiss.

Wait, why is it Xiafa?

Was it me?

I actually made it to the finals?!

Originally, he wanted to say, "As expected of Norton Dragon," but because the soul of [Rhine Calamity] mentioned the word "Shafa," he was in a daze and thus uttered such a strange remark.

After this brief moment of astonishment, Xia Fa felt a mixture of elation and confusion rising within him.

I made it to the finals!

But why is that?

His own 500,000-value treasure, the Illusionary Iron Crystal, actually defeated Norton Dragon's 3.5 million-value treasure, the Sacred Crystal Flame Shuttle.

Why is that?

>