A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

Had Aksai left Varesh’s body untouched for a few more seconds, the fail-safe method would have been activated.

It wouldn’t have restored Varesh to his original condition completely, but it would have allowed him to recover from a mortal injury to a certain extent, saving his life.

However, Aksai had inflicted another mortal injury on the corpse.

The increased damage interfered with the fail-safe method’s activation.

And before it could get another chance—

Aksai had already severed Varesh’s connection with the outside world by storing his corpse inside the Enchanted Everwood Farm.

The Dao methods available only to Nascent Soul realm cultivators were bound to lose their effect once their carriers were sent into isolated dimensions that had somewhat incomplete elemental laws.

As such, the fail-safe method became useless.

Aksai knew none of this.

He simply considered himself cautious. Perhaps excessively cautious. But he had survived this long precisely because he didn’t leave things to chance.

Even if he had known that his paranoia had just saved him from a Nascent Soul King’s revival restriction, he probably wouldn’t have changed his behavior in the slightest.

After all—

Why take unnecessary risks?

Aksai turned away from Varesh’s corpse. He walked several steps before suddenly stopping.

Something caught his attention.

Not far from where Varesh had fallen, a severed finger lay quietly on the ground.

More precisely—

Varesh’s right index finger.

The finger that had been severed along with his Sword Bone.

Aksai narrowed his eyes.

He could sense a peculiar energy coming from it.

Curiosity replaced his exhaustion for a moment.

Aksai slowly bent down.

His skeletal-looking fingers picked up the severed digit.

He held it between his fingers and carefully circulated his Spirit Sense through it.

The moment his senses touched the finger—

Aksai’s expression changed slightly.

This energy...

It was unlike anything he had encountered before. Aksai couldn’t really put it into words, but it felt as if this energy were a fusion of two or perhaps three distinct energies.

Aksai instinctively felt that it was Sword Essence.

Could Sword Essence be a fusion of Spirit, Qi, and Aether?

Are there any other factors involved in this fusion that result in the birth of Sword Essence?

Aksai couldn’t be sure about this matter.

However, he felt as if he had suddenly grasped the reason why Varesh was so much stronger than him despite Aksai stacking so many trump cards and having the home-ground advantage.

This fusion, which was likely Sword Essence, seemed to have been specially created for true sword cultivators. And it seemed to resonate faintly with the Dao of sword cultivation.

Could one’s Spirit, Qi, and Aether be combined in a specific way to suit their Dao paths?

Aksai’s eyes narrowed further as some vague ideas had already started to form in his mind.

He carefully examined the severed finger in his hand.

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he almost failed to notice the familiar voice suddenly sounding inside his mind.

"My liege, you need to save this Sword Bone for later use."

Yelia’s voice carried an unusual amount of excitement.

"With the right conditions, you can probably transplant this Sword Bone into your own body and make rapid progress on the path of sword cultivation."

Aksai’s eyebrows rose slightly.

Yelia was rarely this excited.

In fact, she had remained completely silent throughout his previous battles.

She hadn’t disturbed him while he was fighting Kalina. She had also refrained from interrupting him while he was dealing with Varesh.

Yet now, she had broken her silence because of this single Sword Bone.

That alone was enough to demonstrate its importance.

Aksai simply nodded.

He didn’t bother asking Yelia for an explanation.

Whatever she knew about the Sword Bone could wait.

Right now, he had more pressing matters to deal with.

Thinking this, Aksai carefully picked up the severed finger and retrieved a small wooden box from his storage ring.

It was a special container designed to preserve precious Spirit resources with limited shelf lives.

Aksai carefully placed the Sword Bone, still trapped inside the severed finger, into the wooden box before closing the lid.

He then slapped several talismans onto its surface.

One after another, the talismans activated and strengthened the sealing effect of the wooden box.

Aksai wasn’t taking any chances.

Whatever secrets this Sword Bone contained, he wanted to preserve its essence in the best possible condition.

Only after making sure that the Sword Bone was properly sealed did he send the wooden box into the Enchanted Everwood Farm.

Yelia would handle the rest.

Once he confirmed that there were no immediate dangers, Aksai finally decided to deactivate his Poison Metamorphosis form.

However, he wasn’t reckless enough to do so immediately.

First, he summoned a 3rd Order Spirit plant.

His skeletal fingers wrapped around the plant, and his druidic powers activated.

A massive amount of life essence was extracted from the Spirit plant and absorbed into his body.

The life essence replenished his depleted vitality and supplemented his Spirit Core.

Aksai then summoned several other resources and began healing his punctured heart.

Green, brown, and blood-colored vines emerged from his body, wrapping around his damaged heart and slowly repairing the injury.

Only after his condition had stabilized sufficiently did Aksai finally release the Poison Metamorphosis form.

His body began changing.

The toxic muscles and tissues that had replaced much of his normal flesh slowly returned to their original state. His exposed organs disappeared beneath layers of newly formed flesh, and his skeletal appearance gradually faded.

Within a few minutes, Aksai had safely returned to his usual form.

He took a deep breath.

Although his body was still far from being in perfect condition, the most dangerous injuries had been dealt with.

Aksai then turned his attention toward his two surviving subordinates.

Jina and Naisha.

The two women were in terrible condition.

Varesh’s final attack had destroyed the Devil’s Den formation while they were still inside their respective Array Eyes, resulting in two female Lords’ current conditions.